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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/5677-0.txt b/5677-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5254c40 --- /dev/null +++ b/5677-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,12695 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Jimmie Higgins, by Upton Sinclair + +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: Jimmie Higgins + +Author: Upton Sinclair + + +Release Date: May, 2004 [EBook #5677] +This file was first posted on August 7, 2002 +Last Updated: March 10, 2018 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JIMMIE HIGGINS *** + + + + +Produced by Charles Aldarondo + + + + + + +JIMMIE HIGGINS + +By Upton Sinclair + +London + + + +CONTENTS + + +I. JIMMIE HIGGINS MEETS THE CANDIDATE + +II. JIMMIE HIGGINS HEARS A SPEECH + +III. JIMMIE HIGGINS DEBATES THE ISSUE + +IV. JIMMIE HIGGINS STRIKES IT RICH + +V. JIMMIE HIGGINS HELPS THE KAISER + +VI. JIMMIE HIGGINS GOES TO JAIL + +VII. JIMMIE HIGGINS DALLIES WITH CUPID + +VIII. JIMMIE HIGGINS PUTS HIS FOOT IN IT + +IX. JIMMIE HIGGINS RETURNS TO NATURE + +X. JIMMIE HIGGINS MEETS THE OWNER + +XI. JIMMIE HIGGINS FACES THE WAR + +XII. JIMMIE HIGGINS MEETS A PATRIOT + +XIII. JIMMIE HIGGINS DODGES TROUBLE + +XIV. JIMMIE HIGGINS TAKES THE ROAD + +XV. JIMMIE HIGGINS TURNS BOLSHEVIK + +XVI. JIMMIE HIGGINS MEETS THE TEMPTER + +XVII. JIMMIE HIGGINS WRESTLES WITH THE TEMPTER + +XVIII. JIMMIE HIGGINS TAKES THE PLUNGE + +XIX. JIMMIE HIGGINS PUTS ON KHAKI + +XX. JIMMIE HIGGINS TAKES A SWIM + +XXI. JIMMIE HIGGINS ENTERS SOCIETY + +XXII. JIMMIE HIGGINS WORKS FOR HIS UNCLE + +XXIII. JIMMIE HIGGINS MEETS THE HUN + +XXIV. JIMMIE HIGGINS SEES THE OTHER SIDE + +XXV. JIMMIE HIGGINS ENTERS INTO DANGER + +XXVI. JIMMIE HIGGINS DISCOVERS HIS SOUL + +XXVII. JIMMIE HIGGINS VOTES FOR DEMOCRACY + + + + + + +JIMMIE HIGGINS + + + +CHAPTER I + +JIMMIE HIGGINS MEETS THE CANDIDATE + + +I + + +“Jimmie,” said Lizzie, “couldn't we go see the pictures?” + +And Jimmie set down the saucer of hot coffee which he was in the act +of adjusting to his mouth, and stared at his wife. He did not say +anything; in three years and a half as a married man he had learned +that one does not always say everything that comes into one's mind. +But he meditated on the abysses that lie between the masculine and +feminine intellects. That it should be possible for anyone to wish +to see a movie idol leaping into second-story windows, or being +pulled from beneath flying express trains, on this day of destiny, +this greatest crisis in history! + +“You know, Lizzie,” he said, patiently, “I've got to help at the +Opera-house.” + +“But you've got all morning!” + +“I know; but it'll take all day.” + +And Lizzie fell silent; for she too had learned much in three years +and a half of married life. She had learned that working men's wives +seldom get all they would like in this world; also that to have a +propagandist for a husband is not the worst fate that may befall. +After all, he might have been giving his time and money to drink, or +to other women; he might have been dying of a cough, like the man +next door. If one could not have a bit of pleasure on a Sunday +afternoon--well, one might sigh, but not too loud. + +Jimmie began telling all the things that had to be done that Sunday +morning and afternoon. They seemed to Lizzie exactly like the things +that were done on other occasions before meetings. To be sure, this +was bigger--it was in the Opera-house, and all the stores had cards +in the windows, with a picture of the Candidate who was to be the +orator of the occasion. But it was hard for Lizzie to understand the +difference between this Candidate and other candidates--none of whom +ever got elected! Lizzie would truly rather have stayed at home, for +she did not understand English very well when it was shouted from a +platform, and with a lot of long words; but she knew that Jimmie was +trying to educate her, and being a woman, she was educated to this +extent--she knew the way to hold on to her man. + +Jimmie had just discovered a new solution of the problem of getting +the babies to meetings; and Lizzie knew that he was tremendously +proud of this discovery. So long as there had been only one baby, +Jimmie had carried it. When there had come a second, Lizzie had +helped. But now there were three, the total weight of them something +over sixty pounds; and the street-car line was some distance away, +and also it hurt Jimmie in his class-consciousness to pay twenty +cents to a predatory corporation. They had tried the plan of paying +something to a neighbour to stay with the babies; but the first they +tried was a young girl who got tired and went away, leaving the +little ones to howl their heads off; and the second was a Polish +lady whom they found in a drunken stupor on their return. + +But Jimmie was determined to go to meetings, and determined that +Lizzie should go along. It was one of the curses of the system, he +said, that it deprived working-class women of all chance for +self-improvement. So he had paid a visit to the “Industrial Store”, +a junk-shop maintained by the Salvation Army, and for fifteen cents +he had obtained a marvellous broad baby-carriage for twins, all +finished in shiny black enamel. One side of it was busted, but +Jimmie had fixed that with some wire, and by careful packing had +shown that it was possible to stow the youngsters in it--Jimmie and +Pete side by side, and the new baby at the foot. + +The one trouble was that Jimmie Junior couldn't keep his feet still. +He could never keep any part of him still, the little +jack-in-the-box. Here he was now, tearing about the kitchen, +pursuing the ever-receding tail of the newest addition to the +family, a half-starved cur who had followed Jimmie in from the +street, and had been fed into a semblance of reality. From this +treasure a bare, round tail hung out behind in tantalizing fashion; +Jimmie Junior, always imagining he could catch it, was toddling +round and round and round the kitchen-table, clutching out in front +of him, laughing so that after a while he sat down from sheer +exhaustion. + +And Jimmie Senior watched enraptured. Say, but he was a buster! Did +you ever see a twenty-seven months' old kid that could get over the +ground like that? Or make a louder noise? This last because Jimmie +Junior had tried to take a short cut through the kitchen range and +failed. Lizzie swooped down, clasping him to her broad bosom, and +pouring out words of comfort in Bohemian. As Jimmie Senior did not +understand any of these words, he took advantage of the confusion to +get his coat and cap and hustle off to the Opera-house, full of +fresh determination. For, you see, whenever a Socialist looks at his +son, or even thinks of his son, he is hotter for his job of +propagandist. Let the world be changed soon, so that the little +fellows may be spared those sufferings and humiliations which have +fallen to the lot of their parents! + + + + +II + + + +“Comrade Higgins, have you got a hammer?” It was Comrade Schneider +who spoke, and he did not take the trouble to come down from the +ladder, where he was holding up a streamer of bunting, but waited +comfortably for the hammer to be fetched to him. And scarcely had +the fetcher started to climb before there came the voice of a woman +from across the stage: “Comrade Higgins, has the Ypsel banner come?” + And from the rear part of the hall came the rotund voice of fat +Comrade Rapinsky: “Comrade Higgins, will you bring up an extra table +for the literature?” And from the second tier box Comrade Mary Allen +spoke: “While you're downstairs, Comrade Higgins, would you mind +telephoning and making sure the Reception Committee knows about the +change in the train-time?” + +So it went; and Jimmie ran about the big hall with his face red and +perspiring; for this was midsummer, and no breeze came through the +windows of the Leesville Opera-house, and when you got high up on +the walls to tie the streamers of red bunting, you felt as if you +were being baked. But the streamers had to be tied, and likewise the +big red flag over the stage, and the banner of the Karl Marx Verein, +and the banner of the Ypsels, or Young People's Socialist League of +Leesville, and the banner of the Machinists' Union, Local 4717, and +of the Carpenters' Union, District 529, and of the Workers' +Co-operative Society. And because Comrade Higgins never questioned +anybody's right to give him orders, and always did everything with a +cheerful grin, people had got into the habit of regarding him as the +proper person for tedious and disagreeable tasks. + +He had all the more on his hands at present, because the members of +this usually efficient local were half-distracted, like a nest of +ants that have been dug out with a shovel. The most faithful ones +showed a tendency to forget what they were doing, and to gather in +knots to talk about the news which had come over the cables and had +been published in that morning's paper. Jimmie Higgins would have +liked to hear what the rest had to say; but somebody had to keep at +work, for the local was in the hole nearly three hundred dollars for +to-night's affair, and it must succeed, even though half the +civilized world had gone suddenly insane. So Jimmie continued to +climb step-ladders and tie bunting. + +When it came to lunch-time, and the members of the Decorations +Committee were going out, it suddenly occurred to one of them that +the drayman who was to bring the literature might arrive while there +was nobody to receive it. So Comrade Higgins was allowed to wait +during the lunch hour. There was a plausible excuse--he was on the +Literature Committee; indeed, he was on every committee where hard +work was involved--the committee to distribute leaflets announcing +the meeting, the committee to interview the labour unions and urge +them to sell tickets, the committee to take up a collection at the +meeting. He was not on those committees which involved honour and +edification, such as, for example, the committee to meet the +Candidate at the depot and escort him to the Opera-house. But then +it would never have occurred to Jimmie that he had any place on such +a committee; for he was just an ignorant fellow, a machinist, +undersized and undernourished, with bad teeth and roughened hands, +and no gifts or graces of any sort to recommend him; while on the +Reception Committee were a lawyer and a prosperous doctor and the +secretary of the Carpet-weavers' Union, all people who wore good +clothes and had education, and knew how to talk to a Candidate. + +So Jimmie waited; and when the drayman came, he opened up the +packages of books and pamphlets and laid them out in neat piles on +the literature tables, and hung several of the more attractive ones +on the walls behind the tables; so, of course, Comrade Mabel Smith, +who was chairman of the Literature Committee, was greatly pleased +when she came back from lunch. And then came the members of the +German Liederkranz, to rehearse the programme they were to give; and +Comrade Higgins would have liked first rate to sit and listen, but +somebody discovered the need of glue, and he chased out to find a +drug-store that was open on Sunday. + +Later on there was a lull, and Jimmie realized that he was hungry. +He examined the contents of his pockets and found that he had +seventeen cents. It was a long way to his home, so he would step +round the corner and have a cup of coffee and a couple of “sinkers” + at “Tom's”. He first conscientiously asked if anybody needed +anything, and Comrade Mabel Smith told him to hurry back to help her +put out the leaflets on the seats, and Comrade Meissner would need +help in arranging the chairs on the stage. + + + + +III + + + +When you went from the Leesville Opera-house and turned West in Main +Street, you passed Heinz's Cafe, which was a “swell” eating-place, +and not for Jimmie; and then the “Bijou Nickelodeon”, with a +mechanical piano in the entrance; and the “Bon Marche Shoe Store”, +which was always having a fire-sale or a removal sale or a +bankruptcy clearing-out; and then Lipsky's “Picture Palace”, with a +brown and yellow cowboy galloping away with a red and yellow maiden +in his arms; then Harrod's “Fancy Grocery” on the corner. And in +each of these places there was a show-card in the window, with a +picture of the Candidate, and the announcement that on Sunday +evening, at eight o'clock, he would speak at the Leesville +Opera-house on “War, the Reason and the Remedy”. Jimmie Higgins +looked at the cards, and a dignified yet joyful pride stirred in his +bosom; for all of them were there because he, Jimmie, had +interviewed the proprietors and obtained their more or less +reluctant consent. + +Jimmie knew that on this Sunday, in cities all over Germany, +Austria, Belgium, France and England, the workers were gathering by +millions and tens of millions, to protest against the red horror of +war being let loose over their heads. And in America too--a call +would go from the new world to the old, that the workers should rise +and carry out their pledge to prevent this crime against mankind. +He, Jimmie Higgins, had no voice that anybody would heed; but he had +helped to bring the people of his city to hear a man who had a +voice, and who would show the meaning of this world-crisis to the +working-people. + +It was the party's Candidate for President. At this time only +congressional elections were pending, but this man had been +Candidate for President so often that every one thought of him in +that role. You might say that each of his campaigns lasted four +years; he travelled from one end of the land to the other, and +counted by the millions those who heard his burning, bitter message. +It had chanced that the day which the War-lords and Money-lords of +Europe had chosen to drive their slaves to slaughter was the day on +which the Candidate had been scheduled to speak in the Leesville +Opera-house. No wonder the Socialists of the little inland city were +stirred! + +Jimmie Higgins turned into “Tom's Buffeteria”, and greeted the +proprietor, and seated himself on a stool in front of the counter, +and called for coffee, and helped himself to “sinkers”--which might +have been called “life-preservers”, they were blown so full of air. +He filled his mouth, at the same time looking up to make sure that +Tom had not removed the card announcing the meeting; for Tom was a +Catholic, and one of the reasons that Jimmie went to his place was +to involve him and his patrons in arguments over exploitation, +unearned increment and surplus value. + +But before a discussion could be started, it chanced that Jimmie +glanced about. In the back part of the room were four little tables, +covered with oil-cloth, where “short orders” were served; and at one +of those tables a man was seated. Jimmie took a glance at him, and +started so that he almost spilled his coffee. Impossible; and +yet--surely--who could mistake that face? The face of a medieval +churchman, lean, ascetic, but with a modern touch of kindliness, and +a bald dome on top like a moon rising over the prairie. Jimmie +started, then stared at the picture of the Candidate which crowned +the shelf of pies. He turned to the man again; and the man glanced +up, and his eyes met Jimmie's, with their expression of amazement +and awe. The whole story was there, not to be misread--especially by +a Candidate who travels about the country making speeches, and being +recognized every hour or so from his pictures which have preceded +him. A smile came to his face, and Jimmie set down the coffee-cup +from one trembling hand and the “sinker” from the other, and rose +from his stool. + + + + +IV + + + +Jimmie would not have had the courage to advance, save for the other +man's smile--a smile that was weary, but candid and welcoming. +“Howdy do, Comrade?” said the man. He held out his hand, and the +moment of this clasp was the nearest to heaven that Jimmie Higgins +had ever known. + +When he was able to find his voice, it was only to exclaim, “You +wasn't due till five-forty-two!” + +As if the Candidate had not known that! He explained that he had +missed his sleep the night before, and had come on ahead so as to +snatch a bit during the day. “I see,” said Jimmie; and then, “I +knowed you by your picture.” + +“Yes?” said the other, patiently. + +And Jimmie groped round in his addled head for something really +worth while. “You'll want to see the Committee?” + +“No,” said the other, “I want to finish this first.” And he took a +sip from a glass of milk, and a bite out of a sandwich, and chewed. + +So utterly rattled was Jimmie he sat there like a num-skull, unable +to find a word, while the man finished his repast. When it was over, +Jimmie said again--he could do no better--“You want to see the +Committee?” + +“No,” was the reply, “I want to sit here--and perhaps talk to you, +Comrade--Comrade--?” + +“Higgins,” said Jimmie. + +“Comrade Higgins--that is, if you have time.” + +“Oh, sure!” exclaimed Jimmie. “I got all the time there is. But the +Committee--” + +“Never mind the Committee, Comrade. Do you know how many Committees +I have met on this trip?” + +Jimmie did not know; nor did he have the courage to ask. + +“Probably you never thought how it is to be a Candidate,” continued +the other. “You go from place to place, and make the same speech +every night, and it seems as if you slept in the same hotel every +night, and almost as if you met the same Committee. But you have to +remember that your speech is new to each audience, and you have to +make it as if you had never made it before; also you have to +remember that the Committee is made up of devoted comrades who are +giving everything for the cause, so you don't tell them that they +are just like every other committee, or that you are tired to death, +or maybe have a headache--” + +Jimmie sat, gazing in awe-stricken silence. Not being a man of +reading, he had never heard of “the head that wears a crown”. This +was his first glimpse into the soul of greatness. + +The Candidate went on: “And then, too, Comrade, there's the news +from Europe. I want a little time. I can't bring myself to face it!” + +His voice had grown sombre, and to Jimmie, gazing at him, it seemed +that all the sorrows of the world were in his tired grey eyes. +“Perhaps I'd better go,” said Jimmie. + +“No no,” replied the other, with quick self-recovery. He looked and +saw that Jimmie had forgotten his meal. “Bring your things over +here,” he said; and the other fetched his cup and saucer and plate, +and gulped the rest of his “sinkers” under the Candidate's eyes. + +“I oughtn't to talk,” said the latter. “You see how hoarse I am. But +you talk. Tell me about the local, and how things are going here.” + +So Jimmie summoned his courage. It was the one thing he could really +talk about, the thing of which his mind and soul were full. +Leesville was a typical small manufacturing city, with a glass +bottle works, a brewery, a carpet-factory, and the big Empire +Machine Shops, at which Jimmie himself spent sixty-three hours of +his life each week. The workers were asleep, of course; but still +you couldn't complain, the movement was growing. The local boasted +of a hundred and twenty members, though of course, only about thirty +of them could be counted on for real work. That was the case +everywhere, the Candidate put in--it was always a few who made the +sacrifice and kept things alive. + +Then Jimmie went on to tell about to-night's meeting, the +preparations they had made, the troubles they had had. The police +had suddenly decided to enforce the law against delivering circulars +from house to house; though they allowed Isaac's “Emporium” to use +this method of announcement. The Leesville Herald and Evening +Courier were enthusiastic for the police action; if you couldn't +give out circulars, obviously you would have to advertise in these +papers. The Candidate smiled--he knew about American police +officials, and also about American journalism. + +Jimmie had been laid off for a couple of days at the shop, and he +told how he had put this time to good use, getting announcements of +the meeting into the stores. There was an old Scotchman in a real +estate office just across the way. “Git oot!” he said. “So I thought +I'd better git oot!” said Jimmie. And then, taking his life into his +hands, he had gone into the First National Bank. There was a +gentleman walking across the floor, and Jimmie went up to him and +held out one of the placards with the picture of the Candidate. +“Would you be so good as to put this in your window?” he inquired; +and the other looked at it coldly. Then he smiled--he was a good +sort, apparently. “I don't think my customers would patronize your +business,” he said; but Jimmie went at him to take some tickets and +learn about Socialism--and would you believe it, he had actually +shelled out a dollar! “I found out afterwards that it was Ashton +Charmers, the president of the bank!” said Jimmie. “I'd a' been +scared, if I'd a' known.” + +He had not meant to talk about himself; he was just trying to +entertain a tired Candidate, to keep him from brooding over a world +going to war. But the Candidate, listening, found tears trying to +steal into his eyes. He watched the figure before him--a bowed, +undernourished little man, with one shoulder lower than the other, a +straggly brown moustache stained with coffee, and stumpy black +teeth, and gnarled hands into which the dirt and grease were ground +so deeply that washing them would obviously be a waste of time. His +clothes were worn and shapeless, his celluloid collar was cracked +and his necktie was almost a rag. You would never have looked at +such a man twice on the street--and yet the Candidate saw in him one +of those obscure heroes who are making a movement which is to +transform the world. + + + + +V + + + +“Comrade Higgins,” said the Candidate, after a bit, “let's you and +me run away.” + +Jimmie looked startled. “How?” + +“I mean from the Committee, and from the meeting, and from +everything.” And then, seeing the dismay in the other's face: “I +mean, let's take a walk in the country.” + +“Oh!” said Jimmie. + +“I see it through the windows of the railroad-cars, but I don't set +foot on it for months at a time. And I was brought up in the +country. Were you?” + +“I was brought up everywhere,” said the little machinist. + +They got up, and paid each their ten cents to the proprietor of the +“Buffeteria.” Jimmie could not resist the temptation to introduce +his hero, and show a pious Catholic that a Socialist Candidate had +neither hoofs nor horns. The Candidate was used to being introduced +for that purpose and had certain spontaneous and cordial words which +he had said not less than ten thousand times before; with the result +that the pious Catholic gave his promise to come to the meeting that +night. + +They went out; and because some member of the Committee might be +passing on Main Street, Jimmie took his hero by an alley into a back +street; and they walked past the glass-factory, which to the +outsider was a long board fence, and across the Atlantic Western +railroad tracks, and past the carpet-factory, a huge four-story box +made of bricks; after which the rows of wooden shacks began to thin +out, and there were vacant lots and ash-heaps, and at last the +beginning of farms. + +The Candidate's legs were long, and Jimmie's, alas, were short, so +he had almost to run. The sun blazed down on them, and sweat, +starting from the Candidate's bald head stole under the band of his +straw hat and down to his wilting collar; so he took off his coat +and hung it over his arm, and went on, faster than ever. Jimmie +raced beside him, afraid to speak, for he divined that the Candidate +was brooding over the world-calamity, the millions of young men +marching out to slaughter. On the placards which Jimmie had been +distributing in Leesville, there were two lines about the Candidate, +written by America's favourite poet: + + As warm heart as ever beat + Betwixt here and judgement seat. + +So they went on for perhaps an hour, by which time they were really +in the country. They came to a bridge which crossed the river Lee, +and there the Candidate suddenly stopped, and stood looking at the +water sliding below him, and at the vista through which it wound, an +avenue of green trees with stretches of pasture and cattle grazing. +“That looks fine,” he said. “Let's go down.” So they climbed a +fence, and made their way along the river for a distance, until a +turn of the stream took them out of sight of the road. + +There they sat on a shelving bank, and mopped the perspiration from +their foreheads and necks, and gazed into the rippling current. You +couldn't exactly say it was crystal clear, for when there is a town +every ten miles or so along a stream, with factories pouring various +kinds of chemicals into it, the job becomes too much for the +restoring forces of Mother Nature. But it would take a dirty stream +indeed not to look inviting in midsummer after a four-mile walk. So +presently the Candidate turned to Jimmie, with a mischievous look +upon his face. “Comrade Higgins, were you ever in a swimmin' hole?” + +“Sure I was!” said Jimmie. + +“Where?” + +“Everywhere. I was on the road off an' on ten years--till I got +married.” + +“Well,” said the Candidate, still smiling, “what do you say?” + +“I say sure!” replied Jimmie. + +He was almost beside himself with awe, at this unbelieveable strange +fortune, this real comradeship with the hero of his dreams. To +Jimmie this man had been a disembodied intelligence, a dispenser of +proletarian inspiration, a supernatural being who went about the +country standing upon platforms and swaying the souls of multitudes. +It had never occurred to Jimmie that he might have a bare body, and +might enjoy splashing about in cool water like a boy playing +“hookey” from school. The saying is that familiarity breeds +contempt, but for Jimmie it bred rapture. + + + + +VI + + + +They walked home again, more slowly. The Candidate asked Jimmie +about his life, and Jimmie told the story of a Socialist--not one of +the leaders, the “intellectuals”, but of the “rank and file”. +Jimmie's father was a working man out of a job, who had left his +family before Jimmie had joined it; Jimmie's mother had died three +years later, so he did not remember her, nor could he recall a word +of the foreign language he had spoken at home, nor did he even know +what the language was. He had been taken in charge by the city, and +farmed out to a negro woman who had eight miserable starvelings +under her care, feeding them on gruel and water, and not even giving +them a blanket in winter. You might not think that possible-- + +“I know America,” put in the Candidate. + +Jimmie went on. At nine he had been boarded with a woodsaw man, who +worked him sixteen hours a day and beat him in addition; so Jimmie +had skipped out, and for ten years had lived the life of a street +waif in the cities and a hobo on the road. He had learned a bit +about machinery, helping in a garage, and then, in a rush-time, he +had got a job in the Empire Machine Shops. He had stayed in +Leesville, because he had got married; he had met his wife in a +brothel, and she had wanted to quit the life, and they had taken a +chance together. + +“I don't tell that to everybody,” said Jimmie. “You know--they +mightn't understand. But I don't mind you knowin'.” + +“Thank you,” replied the Candidate, and put his hand on Jimmie's +shoulder. “Tell me how you became a Socialist.” + +There was nothing special about that, was the answer. There had been +a fellow in the shop who was always “chewing the rag”; Jimmie had +laughed at him--for his life had made him suspicious of everybody, +and if there was any sort of politician, it was just another scheme +of somebody to wear a white collar and live off the workers. But the +fellow had kept pegging away; and once Jimmie had been laid off for +a couple of months, and the family had near starved, and that had +given him time to think, and also the inclination. The fellow had +come along with some papers, and Jimmie had read them, and it dawned +upon him that here was a movement of his fellow-workers to put an +end to their torments. + +“How long ago was that?” asked the Candidate, and Jimmie answered +three years. “And you haven't lost your enthusiasm?” This with an +intensity that surprised Jimmie. No, he answered, he was not that +kind. Whatever happened, he would keep pegging away at the task of +freeing labour. He would not see the New Day, perhaps, but his +children would see it; and a fellow would work like the devil to +save his children. + +So they came to the city; and the Candidate pressed Jimmie's arm. +“Comrade,” he said, “I want to tell you how much good this little +trip has done me. I owe you a debt of gratitude.” + +“Me?” exclaimed Jimmie. + +“You have given me fresh hope and courage, and at a time when I felt +beaten. I got into town this morning, and I'd had no sleep, and I +tried to get some in the hotel and couldn't, because of the horror +that's happening. I wrote a dozen telegrams and sent them off, and +then I was afraid to go back to the hotel-room, because I knew I'd +only lie awake all afternoon. But now--I remember that our movement +is rooted in the hearts of the people!” + +Jimmie was trembling. But all he could say was: “I wish I could do +it every Sunday.” + +“So do I,” said the Candidate. + + + + +VII + + + +They walked down Main Street, and some way ahead they saw a crowd +gathered, filling the pavement beyond the kerb. “What is that?” + asked the Candidate, and Jimmie answered that it was the office of +the Herald. There must be some news. + +The other hastened his steps; and Jimmie, striding alongside, fell +silent again, knowing that the gigantic burden and woe of the world +was falling upon his hero's shoulders once more. They came to the +edge of the crowd, and saw a bulletin in front of the newspaper +office. But it was too far away for them to read. “What is it?” they +asked. + +“It says the Germans are going to march into Belgium. And they've +shot a lot of Socialists in Germany.” + +“WHAT?” And the Candidate's hand clutched Jimmie's arm. + +“That's what it says.” + +“My God!” exclaimed the man. And he began pushing his way into the +crowd, with Jimmie in his wake. They got to the bulletin, and stood +reading the typewritten words--a bare announcement that more than a +hundred leading German Socialists had been executed for efforts to +prevent mobilization. They continued staring, until people pushing +behind them caused them to draw back. Outside the throng they stood, +the Candidate gazing into space, and Jimmie gazing at the Candidate, +both of them dumb. It was a fact that they could not have been more +shocked if the news had referred to the members of Local Leesville +of the Socialist Party of America. + +The pain in the Candidate's face was so evident that Jimmie groped +about in his head for something comforting to say. “At least they +done what they could,” he whispered. + +The other suddenly burst forth: “They are heroes! They have made the +name Socialist sacred for ever!” He rushed on, as if he were making +a speech-so strong becomes a life-time habit. “They have written +their names at the very top of humanity's roll of honour! It doesn't +make any difference what happens after this, Comrade--the movement +had vindicated itself! All the future will be changed because of +this event!” + +He began to walk down the street, talking more to himself than to +Jimmie. He was borne away on the wings of his vision; and his +companion was so thrilled that he honestly did not know where he +was. Afterwards, when he looked back upon this scene, it remained +the most wonderful event of his life; he told the story, sooner or +later, to every Socialist he met. + +Presently the Candidate stopped. “Comrade,” he said, “I must go to +the hotel. I want to write some telegrams. You explain to the +Committee--I'd rather not see anyone till time for the meeting. I'll +find the way myself.” + + + + + + +CHAPTER II + +JIMMIE HIGGINS HEARS A SPEECH + +I + + + + + +In the Opera-house were gathered Comrade Mabel Smith and Comrade +Meissner and Comrade Goldstein, the secretary of the Ypsels, and the +three members of the Reception Committee--Comrade Norwood, the +rising young lawyer, Comrade Dr. Service, and Comrade Schultze of +the Carpet-weavers' Union. To them rushed the breathless Jimmie. +“Have you heard the news?” + +“What is it?”. + +“A hundred Socialist leaders shot in Germany!” + +“Herr Gott!” cried Comrade Schultze, in horror; and everyone turned +instinctively, for they knew how this came home to him--he had a +brother who was a Socialist editor in Leipzig, and who was liable +for the mobilization. + +“Where did you see it?” cried Schultze; and Jimmie told what he +knew. And then the clamour broke forth! Others were called from the +back part of the hall, and came running, and there were questions +and cries of dismay. Here, too, it was as if the crime had been +committed against Local Leesville--so completely did they feel +themselves one with the victims. In a town where there was a +brewery, needless to say there were German workers a-plenty; but +even had this not been so, the feeling would have been the same, for +the Socialists of the world were one, the soul of the movement was +its internationalism. The Candidate discovering that Jimmie was a +Socialist had asked and received no further introduction, but had +been instantly his friend; and so it would have been with a comrade +from Germany, Japan, or the heart of Africa--he might not have +known another word of English, the word “Socialist” would have +sufficed. + +It was a long time before they thought of any other matter; but +finally someone referred to the trouble which had fallen upon the +local--the Candidate had not showed up. And Jimmie exclaimed, “Why, +he's here!” And instantly all turned upon him. Where? When? How? + +“He came this morning.” + +“And why didn't you let us know?” It was Comrade Dr. Service of the +Reception Committee who spoke, and with a decided sharpness in his +tone. + +“He didn't want anybody to know,” said Jimmie. + +“Did he want us to go to the train and think he had failed us?” + +Sure enough, it was after train-time! Jimmie had entirely forgotten +both the train and the committee, and now he had not the grace to +hide his offence. All he could do was to tell his story--how he had +spent the afternoon walking in the country with the Candidate, and +how they had gone swimming, and how they had got the news from the +bulletin board, and how the Candidate had acted and what he had +said. Poor Jimmie never doubted but that his own thrill was shared +by all the others; and at the next regular meeting of the local, +when Comrade Dr. Service sat down on some proposition which Jimmie +had ventured to make, the little machinist had not the faintest idea +what he had done to deserve the snub. He was lacking in worldly +sense, he did not understand that a prosperous physician, who comes +into the movement out of pure humanitarianism, contributing his +prestige and his wealth to the certain detriment of his social and +business interests, is entitled to a certain deference from the +Jimmie Higginses, and even from a Candidate. + + + + +II + + + +You might have thought that Jimmie would be tired; but this was a +day on which the flesh had no claims. First he helped Comrade Mabel +in depositing upon every seat a leaflet containing a letter from the +local candidate for Congress; then he rushed away to catch a +street-car, and spent his last nickel to get to his home and keep +his engagement with Lizzie. He would not make with her the mistake +he had made with the Committee, you bet! + +He found that Lizzie had faithfully carried out her part of the +bargain. The three babies were done up in bright-coloured calico +dresses; she had spent the morning in washing and ironing these +garments--also her own dress, which was half-red and half-green, and +of generous, almost crinoline proportions. Lizzie herself was built +on that scale, with broad hips and bosom, big brown eyes and heavy +dark hair. She was a fine strong woman when she had shed her +bedraggled house gown, and Jimmie was proud of his capability as a +chooser of wives. It was no small feat to find a good woman, and to +recognize her, where Jimmie had found Lizzie. She was five years +older than he, a Bohemian, having been brought to America when she +was a baby. Her former name--you could hardly call it her “maiden” + name, considering the circumstances--was Elizabeth Huszar, which +she pronounced so that for a long time Jimmie had understood it to +be Eleeza Betooser. + +Jimmie snatched a bite of bread and drank a cup of metallic tasting +tea, and packed the family into the baby-carriage, and trudged the +mile and half to the centre of the city. When they arrived, Lizzie +took the biggest child, and Jimmie the other two, and so they +trudged into the Opera-house. On this hot night it was like holding +three stoves in your arms, and if the babies woke up and began to +cry, the parents would have the painful choice of missing something, +or else facing the disgusted looks of everyone about them. In +Belgium, at the “People's House”, the Socialists maintained a +creche, but the American movement had not yet discovered that +useful institution. + +Already the hall was half-full, and a stream of people pouring in. +Jimmie got himself and family seated, and then turned his eager eyes +proudly to survey the scene. The would-be-congressman's circulars +which he had placed in the seats were now being read by the sitters; +the banners he had so laboriously hung were resplendent on the +walls; there was a pitcher of ice water on the speaker's table, and +a bouquet of flowers and a gavel for the chairman; the seats in the +rear of the platform for the Liederkranz were neatly ranged, most of +them already occupied by solid German figures topped by rosy German +faces: to each detail of which achievements Jimmie had lent a hand. +He had a pride of possession in this great buzzing throng, and in +the debt they owed to him. They had no idea of it, of course; the +fools, they thought that a meeting like this just grew out of +nothing! They paid their ten cents--twenty-five cents for reserved +seats--and imagined that covered everything, with perhaps even a +rake-off for somebody! They would grumble, wondering why the +Socialists persisted in charging admission for their meetings--why +they could not let people in free as the Democrats and Republicans +did. They would go to Democratic and Republican meetings, and enjoy +the brass band and the fireworks, pyrotechnical and +oratorical--never dreaming it was all a snare paid for by their +exploiters! + +Well, they would learn about it to-night! Jimmie thought of the +Candidate, and how he would impress this man and that. For Jimmie +knew scores who had got tickets, and he peered about after this one +and that, and gave them a happy nod from behind his barricade of +babies. Then, craning his neck to look behind him, suddenly Jimmie +gave a start. Coming down the aisle was Ashton Chalmers, president +of the First National Bank of Leesville; and with him-could it be +possible?--old man Granitch, owner of the huge Empire Machine Shops +where Jimmie worked! The little machinist found himself shaking with +excitement as these two tall forms strode past him down the aisle. +He gave Lizzie a nudge with his elbow and whispered into her ear; +and all around was a buzz of whispers--for, of course, everybody +knew these two mighty men, the heads of the “invisible government” + of Leesville. They had come to find out what their subjects were +thinking! Well, they would get it straight! + + + + +III + + + +The big hall was full, and the aisles began to jam, and then the +police closed the doors--something which Jimmie took as part of the +universal capitalist conspiracy. The audience began to chafe; until +at last the chairman walked out upon the stage, followed by several +important persons who took front seats. The singers stood up, and +the leader waved his wand, and forth came the Marseillaise: a French +revolutionary hymn, sung in English by a German organization--there +was Internationalism for you! With full realization of the solemnity +of this world-crisis, they sang as if they hoped to be heard in +Europe. + +And then rose the Chairman--Comrade Dr. Service. He was a fine, big +figure of a man, with grey moustache and beard trimmed to a point; +his swelling chest was covered by clean white linen and +tight-fitting broad-cloth, and he made a most imposing chairman, +reflecting credit on the movement. He cleared his throat, and told +them that they had come that evening to listen to one of America's +greatest orators, and that therefore he, the Chairman, would not +make a speech; after which he proceeded to make a speech. He told +them what a grave hour this was, and how the orator would tell them +its meaning, after which he proceeded to tell most of the things +which the orator would tell. This was a weakness of Comrade Dr. +Service--but one hesitated to point it out to him, because of his +black broad-cloth suit and his imposing appearance, and the money he +had put up to pay for the hall. + +At last, however, he called on the Liederkranz again, and a quartet +sang a German song and then an encore. And then came Comrade +Gerrity, the hustling young insurance-agent who was organizer for +the local, and whose task it was to make a “collection speech.” He +had humorous ways of extracting money--“Here I am again!” he began, +and everybody smiled, knowing his bag of tricks. While he was +telling his newest funny story, Jimmie was unloading the littlest +infant into Lizzie's spare arm, and laying the other on the seat +with its head against her knee, and getting himself out into the +aisle, hat in hand and ready for business; and as soon as the +organizer ceased and the Liederkranz resumed, Jimmie set to work +gathering the coin. His territory was the reserved-seat section up +in front, where sat the two mighty magnates. Jimmie's knees went +weak, but he did his duty, and was tickled to see each of the pair +drop a coin into the hat, to be used in overthrowing their power in +Leesville! + + + + +IV + + + +The hats were taken to the box-office and emptied, and the +collection-takers and the Liederkranz singers resumed their seats. +An expectant hush fell--and then at last there strode out on the +stage the Candidate. What a storm broke out! Men cheered and clapped +and shouted. He took his seat modestly; but as the noise continued, +he was justified in assuming that it was meant for him, and he rose +and bowed; as it still continued, he bowed again, and then again. It +had been the expectation of Comrade Dr. Service to come forward and +say that, of course, it was not necessary for anyone to introduce +the speaker of the evening; but the audience, as if it had read the +worthy doctor's intention, kept on applauding, until the Candidate +himself advanced, and raised his hand, and began his speech. + +He did not stop for any oratorical preliminaries. This, he said--and +his voice trembled with emotion--was the solemnest hour that men had +ever faced on earth. That day on the bulletin-board of their local +newspaper he had read tidings which had moved him as he had never +been moved in his life, which had almost deprived him of the power +to walk upon a stage and address an audience. Perhaps they had not +heard the news; he told it to them, and there sprang from the +audience a cry of indignation. + +Yes, they might well protest, said the speaker; nowhere on all the +bloody pages of history could you find a crime more revolting than +this! The masters of Europe had gone mad in their lust for power; +they had called down the vengeance of mankind upon their crowned and +coronetted heads. Here to-night he would tell them--and the +speaker's hoarse and raucous voice mounted to a shout of rage--he +would tell them that in signing the death-warrant of those heroic +martyrs, they had sealed the doom of their own order, they had torn +out the foundation-stones from the structure of capitalist society! +The speaker's voice seemed to lift the audience from its seats, and +the last words of the sentence were drowned in a tumult of applause. + +Silence fell again, and the man went on. He had peculiar mannerisms +on the platform. His lanky form was never still for an instant. He +hurried from one end of the stage to the other; he would crouch and +bend as if he were going to spring upon the audience, a long, skinny +finger would be shaken before their faces, or pointed as if to drive +his words into their hearts. His speech was a torrent of epigram, +sarcasm, invective. He was bitter; if you knew nothing about the man +or his cause, you would find this repellent and shocking. You had to +know what his life had been--an unceasing conflict with oppression; +he had got his Socialist education in jail, where he had been sent +for trying to organize the wage-slaves of a gigantic corporation. +His rage was the rage of a tender-hearted poet, a lover of children +and of Nature, driven mad by the sight of torment wantonly +inflicted. And if ever he had seemed to you an extremist, too angry +to be excused, here to-night he had his vindication, here to-night +you saw him as a prophet. For now the master-class had torn the mask +from its face, and revealed to the whole world what were its moral +standards! At last men saw their rulers face to face! + +They have plunged mankind into a pit of lunacy. “They call it war,” + cried the speaker; “but I call it murder.” And he went on to picture +to them what was happening in Europe at that hour--he brought the +awful nightmare before their eyes, he showed them homes blown to +pieces, cities given to the flames, the bodies of men pierced by +bullets or torn to fragments by shells. He pictured a bayonet +plunged into the abdomen of a man; he made you see the ghastly deed, +and feel its shuddering wickedness. Men and women and children sat +spellbound; and for once no man could say aloud or feel in his heart +that the pictures of a Socialist agitator were overdrawn--no, not +even Ashton Chalmers, president of the First National Bank of +Leesville, or old Abel Granitch, proprietor of the Empire Machine +Shops! + + + + +V + + + +And what was the cause of this blackest of calamities? The speaker +went on to show that the determining motive was not racial jealousy, +but commercial greed. The fountain-head of the war was +world-capitalism, clamouring for markets, seeking to get rid of its +surplus products, to keep busy its hordes of wage-slaves at home. He +analysed the various factors; and now, with the shadow of the +European storm over their heads--now at last men and women would +listen, they would realize that the matter concerned them. He warned +them--let them not think that they were safe from the hoofs of this +war-monster, just because they were three thousand miles away! +Capitalism was a world phenomenon, and all the forces of parasitism +and exploitation which had swept Europe into this tragedy were +active here in America. The money-masters, the profit-seekers, would +leap to take advantage of the collapse over the seas; there would be +jealousies, disputes--let the audience understand, once for all, +that if world-capitalism did not make this a world-war, it would be +only because the workers of America took warning, and made their +preparations to frustrate the conspiracy. + +This was what he had come for, this was the heart of his message. +Many of those who listened were refugees from the old world, having +fled its oppressions and enslavements. He pleaded with them now, as +a man whose heart was torn by more suffering than he could bear--let +there be one part of the fair garden of earth into which the demons +of destruction might not break their way! Let them take warning in +time, let them organize and establish their own machinery of +information and propaganda--so that when the crisis came, when the +money-masters of America sounded the war-drums, there might be--not +the destruction and desolation which these masters willed, but the +joy and freedom of the Co-operative Commonwealth! + +“How many years we Socialists have warned you!” he cried. “But you +have doubted us, you have believed what your exploiters have told +you! And now, in this hour of crisis, you look at Europe and +discover who are the real friends of humanity, of civilization. What +voice comes over the seas, protesting against war? The Socialist +voice, and the Socialist voice alone! And to-night, once more, you +hear it in this hall! You men and women of America, and you exiles +from all corners of the world, make this pledge with me--make it +now, before it is too late, and stand by it when the hour of crisis +comes! Swear it by the blood of our martyred heroes, those +slaughtered German Socialists--swear that, come what will, and when +and how it will, that no power on earth or in hell beneath the earth +shall draw you into this fratricidal war! Make this resolution, send +this message to all the nations of the earth--that the men of all +nations and all races are your brothers, and that never will you +consent to shed their blood. If the money-masters and the exploiters +want war, let them have it, but let it be among themselves! Let them +take the bombs and shells they have made and go out against one +another! Let them blow their own class to pieces--but let them not +seek to lure the working-people into their quarrels!” + +Again and again, in answer to such exhortations, the audience broke +out into shouts of applause. Men raised their hands in solemn +pledge; and the Socialists among them went home from the meeting +with a new gravity in their faces, a new consecration in their +hearts. They had made a vow, and they would keep it--yes, even +though it meant sharing the fate of their heroic German comrades! + +--And then in the morning they opened their papers, looking eagerly +for more details about the fate of the heroic German comrades, and +they found none. Day after day, morning and afternoon, they looked +for more details, and found none. On the contrary, to their +unutterable bewilderment, they learned that the leaders of the +German Social-Democracy had voted for the war-budgets, and that the +rank and file of the movement were hammering out the goose-step on +the roads of Belgium and France! They could not bring themselves to +believe it; even yet they have not brought themselves to realize +that the story which thrilled them so on that fatal Sunday afternoon +was only a cunning lie sent out by the German war-lords, in the hope +of causing the Socialists of Belgium and France and England to +revolt, and so give the victory to Germany! + + + + + + +CHAPTER III + +JIMMIE HIGGINS DEBATES THE ISSUE + +I + + + + + +The grey flood of frightfulness rolled over Belgium; and every +morning, and again in the afternoon, the front page of the Leesville +newspaper was like the explosion of a bomb. Twenty-five thousand +Germans killed in one assault on Liege; a quarter of a million +Russians massacred or drowned in the swamps of the Masurian Lakes; +so it went, until the minds of men reeled. They saw empires and +civilizations crumbling before their eyes, all those certainties +upon which their lives had been built vanishing as a mist at +sunrise. + +Hitherto, Jimmie Higgins had always refused to take a daily paper. +No capitalist lies for him; he would save his pennies for the +Socialist weeklies! But now he had to have the news, and tired as he +was after the day's work, he would sit on his front porch with his +ragged feet against a post, spelling out the despatches. Then he +would stroll down to the cigar-stand of Comrade Stankewitz, a +wizened-up little Roumanian Jew who had lived in Europe, and had a +map, and would show Jimmie which was Russia, and why Germany marched +across Belgium, and why England had to interfere. It was good to +have a friend who was a man of travel and a linguist--especially +when the fighting became centred about places such as Przemysl and +Przasnyaz! + +Then every Friday night would be the meeting of the local. Jimmie +would be the first to arrive, eager to hear every word the better +informed comrades had to say, and thus to complete the education +which Society had so cruelly neglected. + +Before the war was many weeks old, Jimmie's head was in a state of +utter bewilderment; never would he have thought it possible for men +to hold so many conflicting opinions, and to hold them with such +passionate intensity! It seemed as if the world-conflict were being +fought out in miniature in Leesville. + +At the third meeting after the war began, the prosperous Dr. Service +arose, and in his impressive oratorical voice moved that the local +should send a telegram to the National Executive Committee of the +party, requesting it to protest against the invasion of Belgium; +also a telegram to the President of the United States, requesting +him to take the same action. And then what pandemonium broke loose! +Comrade Schneider, the brewery-worker, demanded to know whether +Local Leesville had ever requested the National Executive Committee +to protest against the invasion of Ireland. Had the Socialist party +ever requested the President of the United States to protect Egypt +and India from oppression? + +Comrade Dr. Service, who had remained on his feet, began a +passionate denunciation of the outrages perpetrated by the German +army in Belgium; at which Comrade Schneider's florid face turned +purple. He demanded whether all men did not know that France had +first invaded Belgium, and that the Belgians had welcomed the +French? Weren't all the Belgian forts turned toward Germany? Of +course! answered the doctor. But what of that? Was it a crime for a +man to know who was going to attack him? + +The purple-faced brewer, without heeding this question, demanded: +Did not all the world know that the French had begun the war with an +aeroplane bombardment of the German cities? The Comrade Doctor, his +face also purpling, replied that all the world knew this for a tale +sent out by the German propaganda machine. HOW did all the world +know it? roared Schneider. By a cable-censorship controlled by +British gold? + +Jimmie was much exicted by this dispute. The only trouble was that +he found himself in agreement with both sides, and with an impulse +to applaud both sides. And also he applauded the next speaker, young +Emil Forster, a pale, slender, and fair-haired youth, a designer in +the carpet-factory. Emil was one who seldom raised his voice in the +meetings, but when he did, he was heard with attention, for he was a +student and a thinker; he played the flute, and his father, also a +member of the local, played the clarinet, so the pair were +invaluable on “social evenings”. In his gentle, dispassionate voice +he explained how it was not easy for people in America to understand +the dilemma of the German Socialists in the present crisis. We must +remember that the Germans were fighting, not merely England and +France, but Russia; and Russia was a huge, half-civilized land, +under perhaps the most cruel government in the world. How would +Americans feel if up in Canada there were three hundred millions of +people, ignorant, enslaved, and being drilled in huge armies? + +All right, retorted Dr. Service. But then why did not the Germans +fight Russia, and let France and Belgium alone? + +Because, answered Emil, the French would not permit that. We in +America thought of France as a republic, but we must remember that +it was a capitalist republic, a nation ruled by bankers; and these +bankers had formed an alliance with Russia, the sole possible aim of +which was the destruction of Germany. France had loaned something +like four billions of dollars to Russia. + +And then Schneider leaped up. Yes, and it was that money which had +provided the cannon and shells that were now being used in laying +waste East Prussia, the land of Schneider's birth! + + + + +II + + + +The temper of both sides was rising higher and higher, and the +neutrals made efforts to calm the dispute. Comrade Stankewitz, +Jimmie's cigar-store friend, cried out in his shrill eager voice: Vy +did we vant to git mixed up vit them European fights? Didn't we know +vat bankers and capitalists vere? Vat difference did it make to any +vorking man vether he vas robbed from Paris or Berlin? “Sure, I +know,” said Stankewitz, “I vorked in both them cities, and I vas +every bit so hungry under Rothschild as I vas under the Kaiser.” + +Then Comrade Gerrity, organizer of the local, took his turn. +Whatever they did, said Gerrity, they must keep their neutrality in +this war; the one hope of the world just now was in the Socialist +movement--that it would preserve the international spirit, and point +a war-torn world back to peace. Especially just now in Local +Leesville they must keep their heads, for they were beginning the +most important move in their history, the establishment of a weekly +paper. Nothing must get in the way of that! + +Yes, said Comrade Service, but they would have to determine the +policy of the paper, would they not? Were they going to protest +against injustice at home, and pay no attention to the most flagrant +act of international injustice in the history of the world? Was a +working man's paper to say nothing against the enslavement of the +working men of Europe by the Kaiser and his militarist crew? He, Dr. +Service, would wash his hands of such a paper. + +And then the members of the local gazed at one another in dismay. +Every man and woman of them knew that the prosperous doctor had +headed the list of subscribers for the soon-to-be-born Leesville +Worker with the sum of five hundred dollars. The thought of losing +this munificent contribution brought consternation even to the +Germans! + +But there was one member of the local whom no menace ever daunted. +He rose up now--lean, sallow almost to greenness, with black hair +falling into his eyes, and a cough that racked him at every other +sentence. Bill Murray was his name; “Wild Bill”, the papers called +him. The red card he carried had been initialled by the secretaires +of some thirty locals all over the country. He had lost a couple of +toes under a tractor-plough in Kansas, and half a hand in a +tin-plate mill in Alleghany County; he had been clubbed insensible +in a strike in Chicago, and tarred and feathered in a free speech +fight in San Diego. And now he told the members of Local Leesville +what he thought of those tea-party revolutionists who pandered to +the respectability of a church-ridden community. “Wild Bill” had +watched the discussions over “Section Six”, the provision in the +constitution of the party against sabotage and violence; the very +same persons who had been enthusiastic for that bit of middle-class +fakery were now trying to line up the local for the defence of the +British sea-power! What the hell difference did it make to any +working man whether or not the Kaiser got a railroad to Bagdad? Of +course, if a man had been to school in Britain, and had a British +wife, and felt himself a British gentleman--you could feel the +shudder that went through the gathering, for everyone knew that this +was Dr. Service--all right, let that man take the first ship across +the ocean and enlist; but let him not try to turn an American +Socialist local into a recruiting-agency for British landlords and +aristocrats. + +This brought to his feet Comrade Norwood, the young lawyer who had +helped to put through “Section Six” in the National Convention of +the party. If there were people so keen against this Section, why +couldn't they get out of the party and form an organization of their +own? + +“Because,” answered Murray, “we prefer sabotage to striking!” + +“In other words,” continued Norwood, “you stay in the local, and by +a campaign of sneering and personalities you drive your opponents +out!” + +“This is the first meeting for some months that we have had the +pleasure of seeing Comrade Norwood,” said “Wild Bill”, with venomous +placidity. “Perhaps he knew that we were to be asked to raise a +regiment for Kitchener!” + +And then again Comrade Stankewitz was on his feet, with distress in +his thin, eager face. “Comrades, all this vill not get us anyvere! +There is but vun question ve have to answer, are ve +internationalists, or are ve not?” + +“It seems to me,” continued Norwood, “the question is, are we +anti-nationalists?” + +“All right!” shrilled the little Jew. “I vill leave it so--I am an +anti-nationalist! Such must all Socialists be!” + +“But I don't understand it so,” declared the young lawyer. “It is +easy for some who belong to a race which has not had a country for +two thousand years--” + +“And who's dealing in personalities now?” sneered “Wild Bill”. + + + + +III + + + +So matters went in Local Leesville. The upshot of the debate was +that Comrade Dr. Service declared that he washed his hands of the +Socialist Party from that time on. And the Comrade Doctor buttoned +his handsome black coat over his stately chest and stalked out of +the room. The greater part of the remainder of that meeting was +devoted to a discussion of him and his personality and his influence +in the local. He was no Socialist at all, declared Schneider, he was +an English aristocrat, or the next thing to it--his wife had two +brothers in the British Expeditionary Force, and a nephew already +enlisted in the Territorials, and a visiting cousin on the point of +setting out for Canada, as the quickest way of getting into the +mix-up. But in spite of all these damaging circumstances, the local +was not disposed to give up its most generous supporter, and Comrade +Gerrity, the organizer, and Comrade Goldstein of the Ypsels, were +constituted a committee to go and plead with him and try to bring +him back into the fold. + +As for Jimmie Higgins, his problem was not so complicated. He had no +relatives anywhere that he knew of; and if he had any “country”, the +country had failed to make him aware of the fact. The first thing +the “country” had done for him was to put him into the hands of a +negro woman who fed him gruel and water and gave him no blanket in +winter. To Jimmie this country was an aggregation of owners and +bosses, who made you sweat hard for your wages, and sent the police +to club you if you made any kick. A soldier Jimmie thought of as a +fellow who came to help the police when they got hard pushed. This +soldier walked with his chest out and his nose in the air, and +Jimmie referred to him as a “tin willie”, and summed him up as a +traitor to the working-class. + +And so it was easy for our little machinist to agree with the +Roumanian Jewish cigar-seller in calling himself an +“anti-nationalist”. It was easy for him to laugh and applaud when “Wild +Bill” demanded what the hell difference it made to any working man +whether or not the Kaiser got a railroad to Bagdad. He did not +thrill in the least over the story of the British Army falling back +step by step across France, and holding ten times their number of +invaders. The papers called this “heroism”; but to Jimmie it was a +lot of poor fools who had had a flag waved in their eyes, and had +sold themselves for a shilling to the landlords of their country. In +one of the Socialist papers that Jimmie read, there appeared every +week a series of comic pictures in which the working man was figured +as a guileless fool by the name of “Henry Dubb”. Poor Henry always +believed what he was told, and at the end of each adventure he got a +thump on the top of his nut which caused stars to sprout over the +page. And of the many adventures of Henry Dubb, the most absurd were +when he got himself into a uniform. Jimmie would cut these pictures +out and pass them round in the shop, and among his neighbours in the +row of tenement-shacks where he lived. + +Nor did it make much difference in Jimmie's feelings when he read of +German atrocities. To begin with, he did not believe in them; they +were just a part of the poison-gas of war. When men were willing to +stab one another with bayonets, and to blow one another to pieces +with bombs, they would be willing to lie about one another, you +might be sure; the governments would lie deliberately, as one of the +ways of making the soldiers fight harder. What? argued Jimmie: tell +him that Germans were a lot of savages? When he lived in a city with +hundreds of them, and met them all the time at the local? + +Here, for instance, was the Forster family; where would you find a +kinder lot of people? They were much above Jimmie in social +standing--they owned their own house and had whole shelves full of +books, and a pile of music as high as yourself; but recently Jimmie +had stopped on a Socialist errand, and they had invited him in to +supper, and there was a thin, worn, sweet-faced little woman, and +four growing daughters--nice, gentle, quiet girls--and two sons +younger than Emil; they had a pot-roast of beef, and a big dish of +steaming potatoes, and another of sauerkraut, and some queer pudding +that Jimmie had never heard of; and then they had music--they were +fairly dippy on music, that family, they would play all night if you +would listen, old Hermann Forster with his stout, black-bearded +face turned up as if he were seeing Heaven. And you wanted Jimmie to +believe that a man like that would carry a baby on a bayonet, or +rape a girl and then cut off her hands! + +Or there was Comrade Meissner, a neighbour of Jimmie's, a friendly +little chatter-box of a man who was foreman-in-charge of a dozen +women from as many different races of the earth, packing bottles in +the glass-works. The tears would come into Meissner's pale blue eyes +when he told how he was made to drive these women, sick, or in the +family way, or whatever it might be. And remember, it was an +American superintendent and an American owner who gave Meissner his +orders--not a German! The little man could not quit his job, because +he had a brood of children and a wife with something the matter with +her--nobody could tell what it was, but she took all kinds of patent +medicines, which kept the family poor. Sometimes Lizzie Higgins +would go over to see her, and the two would sit and exchange ideas +about ailments and the prices of food; and meantime Meissner would +come over to where Jimmie was minding the Jimmie babies, and the two +would puff their cobs and discuss the disputes between the +“politicians” and the “direct actionists” in the local. And you +wanted Jimmie to believe that men like Meissner were standing old +Belgian women against the walls of churches and shooting them full +of bullets! + + + + +IV + + + +But as the weeks passed, the evidence of atrocities began to pile +in, and so Jimmie Higgins was driven to a second line of defence. +Well, maybe so, but then all the armies were alike. Somebody told +Jimmie the saying of a famous general, that war was hell; and Jimmie +took to this--it was exactly what he wanted to believe! War was a +return to savagery, and the worse it became, the better Jimmie's +argument went. He was not interested in men's efforts to improve +war, by agreeing that they would kill in this way but not in that +way, they would kill this kind of people but not that kind. + +These ideas Jimmie got from his fellow members in the local, and +from the Socialist papers which came each week and from the many +speakers he heard. These speakers were men and women of burning +sincerity and with a definite and entirely logical point of view. +Whether they talked about war, crime, prostitution, political +corruption, or any other social evil, what they wanted was to tear +down the old ramshackle structure, and to put in its place something +new and intelligent. You might possibly bring them to admit slight +differences between capitalist governments but when it came to a +practical issue, to an action you found that to these people all +governments were alike--and never so much alike as in war-time! + +Nor was there ever such need for Socialist protest! Very quickly it +became apparent that it was not going to be an easy matter for +America to keep out of this world-vortex. Because American working +men did not get a living wage, and could not buy what they produced, +there was a surplus product which had to be sold abroad; so the +business of American manufacturers depended upon foreign +markets--and here suddenly were all the principal trading nations of the +world plunging in to buy all the American products they could, and to +keep their enemies from buying any at all. + +A woman speaker came to Leesville a shrewd little body with a sharp +tongue, who had these disputes figured out, and gave them in +dialogue, as in a play. Kaiser Bill says, “I want cotton” John Bull +says, “You shan't have it.” Uncle Sam says, “But he has a right to +have it. Get out of the way, John Bull.” But John Bull says, “I will +hold up your ships and take them into my ports.” Uncle Sam says, +“No, no! Don't do that!” But John Bull does it. And then the Kaiser +says, “What sort of a fellow are you to let John Bull steal your +ships? Are you a coward, or are you secretly a friend of this old +villain?” Uncle Sam says, “John Bull, give me my German mail and my +German newspapers, at least. But John Bull answers, “You've got a +lot of German spies in your country--that's why I can't let you have +your mail. You can't have German papers because the Kaiser fills +them full of lies about me.” And the Kaiser says, “If John Bull +won't let me have my cotton and my meat and all the rest of it, why +don't you stop sending anything to him?” He waits a while, and then +he says, “If you won't stop sending things to that old villain, I'll +sink the ships, that's all.” And Uncle Sam cries, “But that's +against the law!” “Whose law?” says the Kaiser. “What sort of a law +is it that works only one way?” “But there are Americans on those +ships!” cries Uncle Sam. “Well, keep them off the ships!” answers +the Kaiser. “Keep them off till John Bull obeys the law.” + +Put in this way the situation was easy for any Jimmie Higgins to +understand; and month by month, as the debate continued, Jimmie's +own point of view became clearer. He was not interested in sending +cotton to England, and still less in sending meat. He thought he was +lucky if he had a bit of meat twice a week himself, and it was plain +enough to him that if the fellows who owned the meat were not +allowed to ship it abroad, they might sell it in America at a price +that a working man could pay. Nor was that just greediness on +Jimmie's part; he was perfectly willing to go without meat where an +ideal was involved--look at the time and money and energy he gave to +Socialism! The point was that by sending goods to Europe, you helped +to keep up the fighting; whereas, if you quit, the fools must come +to their senses. So the Jimmie Higginses worked out their +campaign-slogan: “Starve the War and Feed America!” + + + + +V + + + +In the third month of the war, disturbing rumours began to run about +Leesville. Old Abel Granitch had taken on a contract with the +Belgian government, and the Empire Machine Shops were going to make +shells. Nothing appeared about this in the local papers, but +everybody claimed to have first-hand knowledge, and although no two +people told the same story, there must be some basis of truth in +them all. And then, one day, to Jimmie's consternation, he heard +from Lizzie that the agent of the landlord had called and served +notice that they had three days to vacate the premises. Old man +Granitch had bought the land, and the Shops were to build out that +way. Jimmie could hardly credit his ears, for he was six city blocks +from the nearest part of the Shops; but it was true, so everyone +declared; all that land had been bought up, and half a thousand +families, children and old people, and sick people, men on their +death-beds and women in child-birth--all had three days in which to +move themselves to new quarters. + +Let anyone imagine the confusion, the babel of tongues, the women on +their porches calling to one another, asking and giving advice! The +denunciations and the scoldings and the threats to resort to law! +The raids upon landlords, and how the prices went up! Jimmie hurried +off to Comrade Meissner, who had bought a house and was paying +instalments on it; Meissner, being a Socialist, did not try to +fleece him, but was glad to have help in making his payments. There +were no partitions in the garret which Jimmie rented, but they would +hang curtains and make do somehow, and Lizzie would use Mrs. +Meissner's stove until they could get something fixed upstairs. And +then to the corner grocery, to borrow a hand-cart and get started at +moving the furniture; for to-morrow everybody would be moving, and +you would not be able to get anything on wheels for love or money. +Until after midnight Jimmie and Meissner worked at transporting +babies and bedding and saucepans and chairs and chicken-coops piled +on the hand-cart. + +And next morning at the shop, more excitement! It was four years now +that Jimmie had been in the employ of old man Granitch, and in all +that time he had done but one thing; standing in a vast room amid a +confusion of whirling belts and wheels, a roar and screech and +grumble and whirl that completely annulled one of the five senses. +There came in front of him, mechanically propelled, a tray full of +small oblong blocks of steel, which he fed, one with each hand, into +two places in a machine; the machine took these blocks, and rounded +off one end, and ground the rest a little smaller, and put a thread +on it, and it dropped into a tray on the other side, a bolt. Because +Jimmie had to watch the machine, and keep the oil-cups full, his was +classed as semi-skilled labour, and was paid nineteen and a half +cents an hour. Some time ago an expert had studied the process, and +figured that with labour at that price it was one-eighth of a cent +per hour cheaper to have the work done by hand than to instal a +machine to do it; and so for four years Jimmie had his job, standing +on one spot from seven to twelve, and again from twelve-thirty to +six, and carrying home every Saturday night the sum of twelve +dollars and twenty-nine cents. You might have thought that the huge +machine-works would have made it twelve-thirty for good measure; +but if so, you do not understand large scale production. + +And now, all of an instant and without warning, Jimmie's precisely +ordered and habitual world came to an end. He was at his post when +the whistle blew, but the machinery did not move. And presently came +the Irish foreman with the curt announcement that the machinery +would never move again, at least not on that spot; it was to be +cleared out of the way, and new machinery set up, and they were to +fall to forthwith with wrenches and hammers and crow-bars to make a +new world! + +So for a week they did; and meantime, every night as he went home, +Jimmie saw people's homes being wrecked--roofs falling in clouds of +dust, and gangs of men loading the debris into huge motor-trucks. +Before long they had got acetylene torches, and were working all +night-gangs of labourers who lived in tents on vacant lots outside +the city and kept their canvas cots warm with double shifts of +sleepers. Jimmie Higgins realized the dreadful truth, that in spite +of all the agitation of Socialists, the war had actually come to +Leesville! + + + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +JIMMIE HIGGINS STRIKES IT RICH + +I + + + + + +It was some time before Jimmie understood the nature of the new +machinery he was helping to set up. It was nobody's business to +explain, for he was only a pair of hands and a strong back; he was +not supposed to be a brain--while as for a soul or a conscience, +nobody was supposed to be that. Russian agents had come to Leesville +with seventeen millions of the money which the Paris bankers had put +up; and so overnight whole blocks of homes were swept out of +existence, and a huge new steel structure was rising, and on the +spot where for four years Jimmie had made certain motions of the +hands, they were preparing to manufacture new machinery for the +quantity production of shell-casings. + +When Jimmie had definitely learned what was in process, he was +brought face to face with a grave moral problem. Could he, as an +international Socialist, spend his time making shells to kill his +German comrades? Could he spend his time making the machinery to +make the shells? Would he take the bribe of old man Granitch, a +working man's share of the hideous loot--an increase of four cents +an hour, with the prospect of another four when the works got +started? Jimmie had to meet this issue, just when it happened that +one of his babies was sick, and he was cudgelling his head to think +how he could ever squeeze out of his scanty wage the money to pay +the doctor! + +The answer was easy to Comrade Schneider, the stout and sturdy +brewer, who stood up in the local and spoke with bitter scorn of +those Socialists who stayed on in the pay of that old hell-devil, +Granitch. Schneider wanted a strike in the Empire Machine Shops, and +he wanted it that very night! But then rose Comrade Mabel Smith, +whose brother was a bookkeeper for the concern. It was all very well +for Schneider to talk, but suppose someone were to demand that the +brewery-workers should strike and refuse to make beer for +munition-workers? That was a mere quibble, argued Schneider; but the +other denied this, declaring that it was an illustration of what the +worker was up against, with no control of his own destiny, no voice +as to what use should be made of his product. A man might say that +he would have nothing to do with munition-work, and go out into the +fields as a farmer--to raise grain, to be shipped to the armies! The +solidarity of capitalist society was such that nowhere could a man +find work that would not in some way be helping to kill his +fellow-workers in other lands. + +Jimmie Higgins talked solemnly to Lizzie of moving to +Hubbardtown--tempted thereto by the signs he saw in an agency which +had been set up in a vacant store on Main Street. The Hubbard Engine +Company was trying to steal old man Granitch's workers, and was +offering thirty-two cents an hour for semi-skilled labour! Jimmie +made inquiry and learned that the company was extending its plant +for gas-engines; for what purpose was not told, but men suspected +that the engines were to go into motor-boats and be used for the +sinking of submarines. So Jimmie decided that Comrade Mabel Smith +was right; he might as well stay where he was. He would take as much +money as he could get and use his new-found prosperity to make +trouble for the war-profiteers. It was the first time in his life +that Jimmie had ever been free from money-fear. He could now get a +job anywhere at good wages, and so he did not care a hang what the +boss might say. He would talk to his fellow-workers, and explain the +war to them; a war of the capitalists at present, but destined +perhaps to turn into another kind of war, which the capitalists +would not find to their taste! + + + + +II + + + +It was wonderful, incredible, the thing which had befallen +Leesville. Full of hatred for the system as Jimmie Higgins was, he +could not but be thrilled by what he saw. Thousands of men pouring +into the once commonplace little city--men of a score of races and +creeds, men old and young, white and black--even a few yellow ones! +It was a boom like San Francisco in '49; the money which the Paris +bankers had paid to the Russian government, and which the Russian +government had paid to old man Granitch, spread out in a golden +flood over the city. The speculators raised the price of land, the +house-owners raised rents, the hotels doubled their prices, and even +so, had to put people to bed on pool tables! Even Tom Callahan of +the “Buffeteria”' had to hire two assistants, and build an +extension, and move his kitchen into the back yard. + +At night the hordes of strangers roamed the streets, and Lipsky's +“Picture Palace” was packed to the doors, and the “Bon Marche Shoe +Stores” had a new bankruptcy sale every week, and the swinging doors +of the saloons were never still for hours on end. Of course, where +so many men were gathered, there came women--swarms of women--of as +many races as the men. Leesville had some two score churches, and +had kept hitherto a careful pretence of decency; but now all +barriers went down, the police-force of the city was overwhelmed by +the new population--or was it by the golden flood from Paris by way +of Russia? Anyway, you saw sights on Main Street which confirmed +your distrust of war. + +Never had there been such an opportunity for Socialist propaganda! +All these hordes of men, collected from the ends of the earth, torn +loose from home ties, from religion, from old habits of every sort, +thrown together promiscuously, living in any old way, ready for any +old thing that might come along! In former days these men had taken +what was handed out to them by their newspaper editors and preachers +and politicians; they had engaged in commonplace and respectable +activities, had lived tame and unadventurous lives. But now they +were making munitions; and you might say what you pleased, but there +was a certain psychological condition incidental to the making of +munitions. An employer could look pious and talk about law and +order, so long as he was setting his men to hoeing weeds or +shingling roofs or grading track; but what could he say to his men +when he was making shells to be used in blowing men to pieces? + +So came the Socialist and the Anarchist and the Syndicalist and the +Industrial Unionist. Look at these masters, look at this +civilization they have produced! In the world's oldest centres of +culture ten or twenty millions of wage-slaves have been hurled +together--and then the Socialist or Anarchist or Syndicalist or +Industrial Unionist would describe in detail the bloody and bestial +operations which these ten or twenty millions of men were +performing. And each day's papers would bring fresh details for them +to cite--famine and pestilence, fire and slaughter, poison gas, +incendiary bombs, torpedoed passenger-ships. Look at these pious +hypocrites, the masters, with their refinement, their culture, their +religion! These are the people you are asked to follow, it is for +such as these that you have been chained to the machines all these +weary, toil-crowded years! + + + + +III + + + +On every street corner, in every meeting-room, in every spot where +the workers gathered at the noon hour, you would hear such +arguments; and you would find men listening to them--men who perhaps +had never listened to such arguments before. They would nod, and +their faces would become grim--yes, the people up on top must be a +rotten lot! Here in America, supposed to be a land of liberty and +all that--here they were just the same, they were crowding to the +trough to drink the blood that was poured out in Europe. Of course, +they covered their greed with a camouflage of sympathy for the +Allies; but did anybody believe that old man Granitch loved the +Russian government? Certainly nobody in Leesville did; they knew +that he was “getting his”, and their hearts hardened with a grim +resolve to “get theirs”. + +At first they thought they were succeeding. Wages went up, almost +for the asking; never did the unskilled man have so much money in +his pocket, while the man who could pretend to any skill at all +found himself in the plutocratic class. But quickly men discovered +the worm in this luscious war-fruit; prices were going up almost as +fast as wages--in some places even faster. The sums you had to pay +to the landlord surpassed belief; a single working man would be +asked two or three dollars a week for twelve hours' use of a +mattress and blanket, which in the old days he might have got for +fifty cents. Food was scarce and of poor quality; before long you +found yourself being asked to pay six cents for a hunk of pie or a +cup of coffee--and then seven cents, and then ten. If you kicked, +the proprietor would tell you a long tale about what he had to pay +for rent and labour and supplies; and you could not deny that he was +probably right. About the only thing that did not go up was a +postage-stamp; and the Socialist would point to this and explain +that the Post Office was run by Uncle Sam, instead of by Abel +Granitch! + +Every rise in price was a fresh stick of fuel for the Socialist +machine, and gave new power to their propaganda of “Starve the War +and Feed America!” The Socialist saw millions of tons of goods being +loaded into steamships and sent to Europe to be destroyed in war; he +saw the workers of Europe becoming enslaved by a bonded debt to a +class of parasites in America, he saw America being drawn closer and +closer to the abyss of the strife. The Socialist loved no part of +this process. He clamoured for an embargo--not merely on munitions, +but on food and everything, until the war-lords of Europe came to +their senses. He urged the workers to strike, and thus force the +politicians to declare the embargo. + +Especially, of course, he urged this if he were a German or an +Austrian, a Hungarian or a Bohemian. The latter were subject races, +but they could not in these early days see beyond the fact that +their fathers and brothers and cousins were being killed by the +shells that were made in the Empire Machine Shops. With them stood +also the Jews, who hated the Russian government so bitterly that +nothing else mattered; also the Irish, whose first idea in life was +to pay back John Bull for his sins of several centuries, and whose +second idea was to take part in any sort of shivaree that was going. +It was quite bewildering to Jimmie Higgins; he had wrestled with +Catholics of several nations and got nothing but hard words for his +pains, but now all of a sudden Tom Callahan of the “Buffeteria” and +Pat Grogan of the grocery on the corner made the discovery that +maybe he was not such a fool after all! + + + + +IV + + + +As a result of this ferment among the workers, the local had doubled +its membership, and was holding soap-box meetings on a corner off +Main Street on two evenings every week. The plans for the weekly +paper, however, still hung fire. Comrade Dr. Service had lost his +two brothers-in-law, one in the battle of Mons, and the other in the +first frightful gas-attack at Ypres, where whole regiments of men +were caught unprepared and died in awful torments. Also two of his +wife's cousins had paid the price--one was blind, and the other a +prisoner at Ruhleben, the worst fate of all. So Dr. Service made one +last indignant speech in the local, and took his five hundred +dollars to start a chapter of the Red Cross! + +But now the Germans and the war-haters in the local were asking +themselves, was Socialism to languish in the city of the Empire +Machine Shops, just because one rich man with an English wife had +proved a renegade? Such a question answered itself! The work of +collecting subscription lists was taken up more vigorously than +ever; and already more than half the lost five hundred had been made +up, when one evening John Meissner came home with a most amazing +story. + +It was his custom to stop at Sandkuh's for one glass of beer on his +way home in the evening; and when anybody in the saloon got to +arguing about the war, he would take his chance to put in a little +propaganda. This time he had made a regular speech, declaring that +the workers would soon put an end to the munition-business; and a +fellow had got to talking with him, asking him all sorts of +questions about himself, and about the local. How many members did +it have? How many of them felt as Meissner did? What were they doing +about it? Pretty soon the man had drawn Meissner to a table in the +back part of the place, asking about the proposed paper, and what +its policy was to be; also about the unions in the city, and their +policy, and the personalities of the leaders. + +The man had said he was a Socialist, but Meissner did not believe +him. Meissner thought he must be some kind of union organizer. There +had been talk of various unions making an effort to break into the +domain of old man Granitch; and, of course, there was always the I. +W. W. trying to break in everywhere with its programme of the “one +big union”. + +Meissner went on to tell how this mysterious stranger had stated to +him that it would be possible to get plenty of money to back the +proposition of a strike in the Empire Shops. The new plant was just +ready to start up, and fresh swarms of men were coming in; what was +wanted was some live fellows to get in with them and agitate for an +eight hour day and a minimum wage scale of sixty cents an hour. Men +who were willing to do that could get good money, and plenty of it; +if the Leesville Worker would advocate such a policy, there was no +reason why it should not start up the very next week, and publish a +big edition and flood the town. The one essential was that +arrangements should be made secretly. Meissner must trust no one +save dyed-in-the-wool “reds”, who would be willing to hustle, and +not say where the pay came from. As earnest of his intentions, the +stranger pulled out a roll of bills, and casually drew off half a +dozen and slipped them into Meissner's hands. They were for ten +dollars each--more money than a petty boss at the glass-works had +ever got into his hands at one time in all his life! + +Meissner exhibited the roll, and Jimmie stared with wide-open eyes. +Here indeed was a new development of the war--ten dollar bills for +Socialist propaganda to be picked up in the back rooms of saloons! +What was this fellow's name? And where did he hang out? Meissner +offered to take Jimmie to meet him, and so the two bolted their +suppers and set out at top speed. + + + + +V + + + +Jerry Coleman had mentioned several saloons where he was known, and +in one of these they found him, a smooth-faced, smooth-spoken young +fellow whom Jimmie would have taken for a detective or +“spotter”--having had dealings with such in his days “on the road”. +The man wore good clothes, and his finger-nails were cared for, +something which, as we know, is seldom permitted to working-men. But +he did not put on airs, and he bade them call him by his first name. +He talked to Jimmie a while, enough to make sure of his man, and +then he peeled off some more bills, and told Jimmie to find more +fellows who could be trusted. It wouldn't do for any one person to +have too much money, for that would excite suspicion; but if they +would go to work and spend that much for dodgers to be distributed +among the munition-workers, and for street-meetings, and for the +proposed radical paper--well, there was plenty more money in the +place where this had come from. + +Where was that place? Jimmie asked; and Jerry Coleman looked wise +and winked. Then, after further consideration, he decided it might +be well to tell them, provided they would pledge themselves not to +mention it to others without his permission. This pledge they gave, +and Jerry stated that he was a national organizer for the American +Federation of Labour, which had resolved to unionize these +munition-plants, and to establish the eight hour day. But it was of +the utmost importance that the bosses should not get wind of the +matter; it must not be revealed to anyone save those whom Coleman +saw fit to trust. He was trusting Jimmie and Meissner, and they +might know that the great labour organization was behind them, and +would see them through regardless of expense. Of course, it would be +expected that they would use the money honestly. + +“Gee!” exclaimed Jimmie. “What do you take us for? A bunch of +crooks?” + +No, said the other, he was not such a poor judge of character. And +Jimmie remarked grimly that anybody who was looking for easy money +did not go into the business of Socialist agitation. If there was +anything a Socialist could boast of, it was that their workers and +elected officials never touched any graft. Mr. Coleman--that is, +Jerry--would be handed a receipt for every dollar they spent. + +It chanced that that same night there was a meeting of the +Propaganda Committee of the local, which consisted of half a dozen +of the most active members. Jimmie and Meissner hurried to this +place, with their new-found wealth burning a hole in their pockets. +They informed the committee that they had been collecting money for +the propaganda fund, and produced before the eyes of the astounded +comrades the sum of one hundred dollars. + +It happened that the chairman of the committee had just received +from the National Office of the party in Chicago a sample of a new +leaflet entitled “Feed America First”; this leaflet could be had in +quantities for a very low price, a dollar or two per thousand; as a +result of Jimmie's contribution, a telegram was sent for ten +thousand of the leaflets to be shipped by express. And then there +was a proposition from the state office for Comrade Seaman, author +of a book against war, to speak every night for two weeks in +Leesville. The local had voted to turn down his proposition for lack +of funds; but now, with the new contributions, the propaganda +committee felt equal to the fifty dollars involved. And then there +was the idea of Comrade Gerrity, the organizer, who was conducting +street meetings every Wednesday and Saturday nights; if he could +have an assistant, at fifteen a week, the soap-boxing could go on +every night. John Meissner here put in--he was sure that +contributions could be got for that purpose, provided the decision +was made without delay. So the decision was made. + + + + +VI + + + +The meeting was adjourned, and then Meissner and Jimmie went into +conference with Gerrity, the organizer, and Schneider, the brewer, +and Comrade Mary Allen, all three of whom happened to be on the +committee entrusted with the affairs of the Worker. Jimmie explained +that they had met a union organizer--they could not tell about him, +but the committee would have a chance to meet him--who would put up +the balance of the money needed, provided that the paper would be +willing to call at once for a strike of the Empire employees. Could +that promise be made? And Comrade Mary Allen laughed, indicating her +scorn for anybody who could cherish a doubt on that question! +Comrade Mary was a Quaker; she loved all mankind with religious +fervour--and it is astonishing how bitter people can become in the +cause of universal love. Her sharp, pale face flushed, and her thin +lips set, as she answered that the Worker would most surely fight +the war-profiteers, so long as she was on the managing committee! + +It was finally decided that Comrade Mary should call on Jerry +Coleman in the morning, and satisfy herself that he really meant +business; if so, she would get the full committee together on the +following evening. The committee had authority to go ahead, as soon +as the necessary fund was made up, so if Coleman was all right, +there was no reason why the first issue of the paper should not +appear next week. Comrade Jack Smith, a reporter on the Herald, the +capitalist paper of Leesville, was to resign and become editor of +the Worker, and he already had his editorials written--had been +showing them about in the local for the past month! + +Jimmie and Meissner set out for home, happy in the feeling that they +had accomplished more for Socialism on that one night than in all +the rest of their lives. But then, as they walked, there came +suddenly a clamour of bells on the night air; a fire! They knew the +signals, and counted the strokes, and made the discovery that it was +in the neighbourhood of their own home! An engine went by on the +gallop, with sparks streaming out behind, and they broke into a run. +Before they had gone a couple of blocks, they saw a glare in the +sky, and their hearts were in their throats; poor Meissner panted +that he had neglected to pay his last month's insurance! + +But as they ran, in the ever-growing throng of people, they realized +that the fire was too near for their own home; also, it was a bigger +blaze than could have been made by any number of shacks. And +presently there were shouts in the crowd, “It's the Empire! The Old +Shops!” There came a hook and ladder truck, rushing by with +shrieking siren, and then the fire-chief in his automobile with a +fiercely clanging bell; they turned the corner, and far down the +street before them was the building in which for four years Jimmie +had tended the bolt-making machine. They saw that one whole end of +it was a towering, leaping, sweeping pillar of flames! + + + + + + +CHAPTER V + +JIMMIE HIGGINS HELPS THE KAISER + +I + + + + + +Jimmie Higgins regarded with the utmost resentment the determination +of the war to come to Leesville, in spite of all his labours to keep +it out. Take the most preposterous thing you could imagine--the most +idiotic thing on the face of the earth--take German spies! When +Jimmie heard people talking about German spies, he laughed in their +faces, he told them they were a bunch of fools, they belonged in the +nursery; for Jimmie classed German spies with goblins, witches and +sea-serpents. And here suddenly the bewildered little man found +himself in the midst of a German spy mania, the like of which he +could never have dreamed! + +Everybody seemed to take it for granted that the Empire Machine +Shops had been burned by German agents; they just knew it, and by +the time the fire was out they had a hundred various stories to +support their conviction. The fire had leaped from place to place in +a series of explosions; the watchman, who had passed through the +building only two minutes before, had rushed back and seen blazing +gasolene, and had almost lost his life in the sweep of the flames. +And next morning the Leesville Herald was out with letters half a +foot high, telling these tales and insisting that the plant had been +full of German agents, disguised as working men. + +Before the day was by the police had arrested a dozen perfectly +harmless German and Austrian labourers; at least that was the way it +seemed to Jimmie, because of the fact that two of the men were +members of the Socialist local. Somebody told Mrs. Meissner that all +the Germans in Leesville were to be arrested, and the poor woman was +trembling with terror. She wanted her husband to run away, but +Jimmie persuaded them that this would be the worst possible course; +so Meissner stayed in the house, and Jimmie kept his mouth shut for +three whole days--an extraordinary feat for him, and a trial more +severe than being in gaol. + +He had lost his job--for ever, he thought. But in this again he +misjudged the forces which had taken his life in their grip--the +power of the gold which had come to Leesville by way of Russia. The +day after the fire he received word to report for work again; old +man Granitch was so anxious to keep his workers out of the clutches +of the Hubbard Engine Company that he put them all, skilled and +unskilled, at the job of clearing away the debris of the fire! And +five days later came the first carloads of new material, brought on +motor-trucks, and the rebuilding of the Empire Shops began. Would +you believe it--some of the machinery which had not been damaged too +much in the fire was fixed up, and at the end of a couple of weeks +was starting up again, covered by a temporary canvas shelter, and +with the walls of the new building rising round it! + +That was the kind of thing which made America the marvel of the +world. It had made old man Granitch young again, people said; he +worked twenty hours a day in his shirt-sleeves, and the increase in +his profanity was appalling. Even Lacey Granitch, his dashing son, +quitted the bright lights of Broadway and came home to help the old +man keep his contracts. The enthusiasm for these contracts became as +it were the religion of Leesville; it spread even to the ranks of +labour, so that Jimmie found himself like a man in a surf, +struggling to keep his feet against an undertow. + + + + +II + + + +The plans for the Worker were delayed, for the reason that when +Comrade Mary Allen, the Quaker, went to look for Jerry Coleman the +day after the fire, that dispenser of ten dollar bills had +mysteriously disappeared. It was a week before he showed up again; +and meantime fresh events had taken place, both in the local and +outside. To begin with the latter, as presumably the more important, +an English passenger liner, the pride of the Atlantic fleet, loaded +to the last cabin with American millionaires, was torpedoed without +warning by a German submarine. More than a thousand men, women and +children went down, and the deed sent a shudder of horror through +the civilized world. At the meeting of Local Leesville, which +happened to take place the evening afterward, it proved a difficult +matter to get business started. + +The members stood about and argued. What could you say about a +government that ordered a crime like that? What could you say about +a naval officer who would carry out such an order? Thus Comrade +Norwood, the young lawyer; and Schneider, the brewer, answered that +the German government had done everything that any reasonable man +could ask. It had published a notice in the New York papers, to the +effect that the vessel was subject to attack, and that anyone who +travelled on her would do so at his peril. If women and children +would ride on munition-ships-- + +“Munition-ships?” cried Norwood; and then Schneider pointed to a +news-dispatch, to the effect that the Lusitania had had on board a +shipment of cartridge-cases. + +“A fine lot of munitions!” jeered the lawyer. + +Well, was the reply, what were cartridge-cases for, if not to kill +Germans? The Germans had been attacked by the whole world, and they +had to defend themselves. When you looked at Comrade Schneider, you +saw a man who felt himself attacked by the whole world; his face was +red up to the roots of his hair, and he was ready to defend himself +with any weapon he could get hold of. + +Comrade Koeln, a big glass-blower, broke into the discussion. The +German government was authority for the statement that the Lusitania +had been armed with guns. And when Norwood hooted at this, every +German in the room was up in arms. What did he have to disprove it? +The word of the British government! Was not “perfidious Albion” a +byword! + +“The thing that beats me,” declared the young lawyer, “is the way +you Germans stand up for the Kaiser now, when before the war you +couldn't find enough bad things to say about him.” + +“What beats me,” countered Schneider, “is how you Americans stand up +for King George. Every newspaper in Wall Street howling for America +to go into the war--just because some millionaires got killed!” + +“You don't seem to realize that the greater number of the men who +lost their lives on that ship were working men!” + +“Ho! Ho!” hooted Comrade Stankewitz. “Vall Street loves so the +vorking men!” + +Comrade Mary Allen, who loved all men, took up the argument. If +those working men had been killed in a mine disaster, caused by +criminal carelessness and greed for profits; if they had died of +some industrial disease which might easily have been prevented; if +they had been burned in a factory without fire-escapes--nobody in +Wall Street would have wanted to go to war. And, of course, every +Socialist considered this was true; every Socialist saw quite +clearly that the enormity of the Lusitania sinking lay in the fact +that it had reached and injured the privileged people, the people +who counted, who got their names in the papers and were not supposed +to be inconvenienced, even by war. So it was possible for Jimmie +Higgins, even though shocked by what the Germans had done, to be +irritated by the fuss which the Wall Street newspapers made. + +Young Emil Forster spoke, and they listened to him, as they always +did. It was a quarrel, he said--and as usual in quarrels, both sides +had their rights and wrongs. You had to balance a few English and +American babies against the millions of German babies which the +British government intended to starve. It was British sea-power +maintaining itself--and of course controlling most of the channels +of publicity. It appealed to what it called “law”--that is to say, +the customs it had found convenient in the past. British cruisers +were able to visit and search vessels, and to take off their crews; +but submarines could not do that, so what the British clamour about +“law” amounted to was an attempt to keep Germany from using her only +weapon. After all, ask yourself honestly if it was any worse to +drown people quickly than to starve them slowly. + +And then came “Wild Bill”. This wrangling over German and British +gave him a pain in the guts. Couldn't they see, the big stiffs, that +they were playing the masters' game? Quarrelling among themselves, +when they ought to be waking up the workers, getting ready for the +real fight. And wizened-up little Stankewitz broke in again--that +vas vy he hated var, it divided the vorkers. There was nothing you +could say for var. But “Wild Bill” smiled his crooked smile. There +were several things you could say. War gave the workers guns, and +taught them to use them; how would it be if some day they turned +these guns about and fought their own battles? + + + + +III + + + +Comrade Gerrity now took the chair and made an effort to get things +started. The minutes of the last meeting were read, new members were +voted on, and then Comrade Mary Allen rose to report for the Worker +committee. The fund had been completed, the first number of the +paper was to appear next week, and it was now up to every member of +the local to get up on his toes and hustle as never in his life +before. Comrade Mary, with her thin, eager face of a religious +zealot, made everyone share her fervour. + +All save Lawyer Norwood. Since the retirement of Dr. Service he was +the chief pro-ally trouble-maker, and he now made a little speech. +He had been agreeably surprised to learn that the money had been +raised so quickly; but then certain uncomfortable doubts having +occurred to him, he had made inquiries and found there was some +mystery about the matter. It was stated that the new paper was to +demand a general strike in the Empire; and of course everybody knew +there were powerful and sinister forces now interested in promoting +strikes in munition factories. + +“Wild Bill” was on his feet in an instant. Had the comrade any +objection to munition workers demanding the eight hour day? + +“No,” said Norwood, “of course not; but if we are going into a fight +with other people, we surely ought to know who they are and what +their purpose is. I have been informed--there seems to be a little +hesitation in talking about it--that a lot of money has been put up +by one man, and nobody knows who that man is.” + +“He's an organizer for the A. F. of L.!” The voice was Jimmie's. In +his excitement the solemn pledge of secrecy was entirely forgotten! + +“Indeed!” said Norwood. “What is his name?” + +Nobody answered. + +“Has he shown his credentials?” Again silence. + +“Of course, I don't need to tell men as familiar with union affairs +as the comrades here that every bona-fide organizer for a union +carries credentials. If he does not produce them, it is at least +occasion for writing to the organization and finding out about him. +Has anybody done that?” + +Again there was silence. + +“I don't want to make charges,” said Norwood-- + +“Oh, no!” put in “Wild Bill”. “You only want to make insinuations!” + +“What I want to do is merely to make sure that the local knows what +it is doing. It is no secret anywhere in Leesville that money is +being spent to cause trouble in the Empire. No doubt this money has +passed through a great many hands since it left the Kaiser's, but we +may be sure that his hands are guiding it to its final end.” + +And then what an uproar! “Shame! Shame!” cried some; and others +cried, “Bring your proofs!” The “wild” members shouted, “Put him +out!” They had long wanted to get rid of Norwood, and this looked to +be their chance. + +But the young lawyer stood his ground and gave them shot for shot. +They wanted proofs, did they? Suppose they had learned of a +capitalist conspiracy to wreck the unions in the city; and suppose +that the Leesville Herald had been clamouring for “proofs”--what +would they have thought? + +“In other words,” shouted Schneider, “you know it's true, yust +because it's Yermany!” + +“I know it's true,” said Norwood, “because it would help Germany to +win the war. One doesn't have to have any other evidence--if a +certain thing will help Germany to win the war, one knows that thing +is being done. All you Germans know that, and what's more, you're +proud of it; it's your efficiency that you boast.” + +Again there was a cry of “Shame! Shame!” But the cry came from +Comrade Mary, the Quaker lady, and it was evident that she had +expected a chorus, and was disconcerted at being alone. + +Young Norwood, who knew his Germans, laughed scornfully. “Just now +your government is selling bonds in America, supposed to be for the +benefit of the families of the dead and wounded. Some of those bonds +have been taken in this city, as I happen to know. Does anybody +really believe the money will reach the families of the dead and +wounded?” + +This time the Germans answered. “I belief it!” roared Comrade Koeln. +“And I! And I!” shouted others. + +“That money is staying right here in Leesville!” proclaimed the +lawyer. “It is preparing a strike in the Empire!” + +A dozen men wanted the floor at once. Schneider, the brewer, got it, +for the reason that he could outbellow anyone else. “What does the +comrade want?” he demanded. “Is he not for the eight hour day?” + +“Has he got any of the old man Granitch's money?” shrilled “Wild +Bill”. “Or maybe he doesn't know that Granitch is spending money to +get smart young lawyers to help keep his munition slaves at work?” + + + + +IV + + + +Norwood, having thrown the fat into the fire, sat down for a while +and let it blaze. When the Germans taunted him with being afraid to +say what he really meant--that the local should oppose the demand +for the eight hour day--he merely laughed at them. He had wanted to +make them show themselves up, and he had done it. Not merely were +they willing to do the work of the Kaiser--they were willing to take +the Kaiser's pay for doing it! + +“Take his pay?” cried “Wild Bill”. “I'd take the devil's pay to +carry on Socialist propaganda!” + +Old Hermann Forster rose and spoke, in his gentle sentimental voice. +If it were true that the Kaiser was paying money for such ends, he +would surely find he had bought very little. There were Socialists +in Germany, one must remember-- + +And then came a shrill laugh. Those tame German Socialists! It was +Comrade Claudel, a Belgian jeweller, who spoke. Would any rabbit be +afraid of such revolutionists as them? Eating out of the Kaiser's +hand--having their papers distributed in the trenches for government +propaganda! Talk to a Belgian about German Socialists! + +So you saw the European national lines splitting Local Leesville in +two: on the one side, the Germans and the Austrians, the Russian +Jews, the Irish and the religious pacifists; on the other side, two +English glass-blowers, a French waiter, and several Americans who, +because of college-education or other snobbish weakness, were +suspected of tenderness for John Bull. Between these extreme +factions stood the bulk of the membership, listening bewildered, +trying to grope their way through the labyrinth. + +It was no easy job for these plain fellows, the Jimmie Higginses. +When they tried to think the matter out, they were almost brought to +despair. There were so many sides to the question--the last fellow +you met always had a better argument than anyone you had heard +before! You sympathized with Belgium and France, of course; but +could you help hating the British ruling classes? They were your +hereditary enemies--your school-book enemies, so to speak. And they +were the ones you knew most about; since every American jack-ass +that got rich quick and wanted to set himself up above his fellows +would proceed to get English clothes and English servants and +English bad manners. To the average plain American, the word English +stood for privilege, for ruling class culture, the things +established, the things against which he was in rebellion; Germany +was the I. W. W. among the nations--the fellow who had never got a +chance and was now hitting out for it. Moreover, the Germans were +efficient; they took the trouble to put their case before you, they +cared what you thought about them; whereas the Englishman, damn him, +turned up his snobbish nose, not caring a whoop what you or anybody +might think. + +Moreover, in this controversy the force of inertia was on the German +side, and inertia is a powerful force in any organization. What the +Germans wanted of American Socialists was simply that they should go +on doing what they had been doing all their lives. And the Socialist +machine had been set up for the purpose of going on, regardless of +all the powers on earth, in the heavens above the earth, or in hell +beneath. Ask Jimmie Higgins to stop demanding higher wages and the +eight hour day! Wouldn't anybody in his senses know what Jimmie +would answer to that proposition? Go chase yourself! + + + + +V + + + +But, on the other hand, it must be admitted that Jimmie was +staggered by the idea that he might be getting into the pay of the +Kaiser. It was true that the traditions of the Socialist movement +were German traditions, but they were German anti-Government +traditions: Jimmie regarded the Kaiser as the devil incarnate, and +the bare idea of doing anything the Kaiser wanted done was enough to +make him stop short. He could see also what a bad thing it would be +for the movement to have any person believe that it was taking the +Kaiser's money. Suppose, for example, that a report of this +evening's discussion should reach the Herald! And with the public +inflamed to madness over the Lusitania affair! + +After the discussion had proceeded for an hour or so, Norwood made a +motion to the effect that the Worker committee should be instructed +to investigate thoroughly the sources of all funds contributed, and +to reject any that did not come from Socialists, or those in +sympathy with Socialism. The common sense of the meeting asserted +itself, and even the Germans voted for this motion. Sure, let them +go ahead and investigate! The Socialist movement was clean, it had +always been clean, it had nothing to conceal from anyone. + +But then came another controversy. Claudel moved that Norwood should +be made a member of the committee; and this, of course, was bitterly +opposed by the radicals. It was an insult to the integrity of the +committee. Then, too, suggested Baggs, an Englishman, perhaps +Norwood might really find out something! The Jimmie Higginses voted +down the motion--not because they feared any disclosures, but +because they felt that a quiet, sensible fellow like Gerrity, their +organizer, might be trusted to protect the good faith of the +movement, and without antagonizing anybody or making a fuss. + +The investigation took place, and the result of it was that the +money which Jerry Coleman had contributed for the Worker was quietly +returned to him. But the difference was at once made up by the +Germans in the local, who regarded the whole thing as a put-up job, +an effort to block the agitation for a strike. These comrades took +no stock whatever in the talk about “German gold”; but on the other +hand they were keenly on the alert for the influence of Russian +gold, which they knew was being openly distributed by old Abel +Granitch. And so they put their hands down into their pockets and +dug out their scanty wages, so that the demand for social justice +might be kept alive in Leesville. + +The upshot of the whole episode was that the local rejected the +Kaiser's pay, but went on doing what the Kaiser wanted without pay. +This could hardly be considered a satisfactory solution, but it was +the best that Jimmie Higgins was able to work out at this time. + + + + +VI + + + +The first issue of the Worker appeared, with Jack Smith's editorial +spread over the front page, calling upon the workers of the Empire +to take this occasion to organize and demand their rights. “Eight +hours for work, eight hours for sleep, eight hours for play!” + proclaimed Comrade Jack; and the Herald and the Courier, stung to a +frenzy by the appearance of a poacher on their journalistic +preserves, answered with broadsides about “German propaganda”. The +Herald got the story of what had happened in the local; also it +printed a picture of “Wild Bill”, and an interview with that terror +of the West, who declared that he was for war on the capitalist +class with the aid of any and every ally that came along--even to +the extent of emery powder in ball-bearings and copper nails driven +into fruit trees. + +The Herald charged that the attitude of the Socialists toward +“tainted wealth” was all a sham. What had happened was simply that +the German members of the local were getting German money, and +making it “Socialist money” by the simple device of passing it +through their consecrated hands. As this had been hinted by Norwood +in the local, the German comrades now charged that Norwood had +betrayed the movement to the capitalist press. And so came another +bitter controversy in the local. The young lawyer laughed at the +charge. Did they really believe they could take German money in +Leesville, and not have the fact become known? + +“Then you think we are taking German money?” roared Schneider; and +he clamoured furiously for an answer. The other would not answer +directly, but he told them a little parable. He saw a tree, sending +down its roots into the ground, spreading everywhere, each tiny +rootlet constructed for the purpose of absorbing water. And on the +top of the ground was a man with a supply of water, which he poured +out; he poured and poured without stint, and the water seeped down +toward the rootlets, and every rootlet was reaching for water, +pushing toward the places where water was likely to be. “And now,” + said Norwood, “you ask me, do I believe that tree has been getting +any of that water?” + +And here, of course, was the basis of a bitter quarrel. The +hot-heads would not listen to subtle distinctions; they declared +that Norwood was accusing the movement of corruption, he was making +out his anti-war opponents to be villains! He was providing the +capitalist press with ammunition. For shame! for shame! “He's a +stool-pigeon!” shrieked “Wild Bill”. “Put him out, the Judas!” + +The average member of the local, the perfectly sincere fellow like +Jimmie Higgins, who was wearing himself out, half-starving himself +in the effort to bring enlightenment to his class, listened to these +controversies with bewildered distress. He saw them as echoes of the +terrible national hatreds which were rending Europe, and he resented +having these old world disputes thrust into American industrial +life. Why could he not go on with his duty of leading the American +workers into the co-operative commonwealth? + +Because, answered the Germans, old man Granitch wanted to keep the +American workers as munition-slaves; and to this idea the +overwhelming percentage of the membership agreed. They were not +pacifists, non-resistants; they were perfectly willing to fight the +battles of the working-class; what they objected to was having to +fight the battles of the master-class. They wanted to go on, as they +had always gone, opposing the master-class and paying no heed to +talk about German agents. Jimmie Higgins believed--and in this +belief he was perfectly correct--that even had there been no German +agents, the capitalist papers of Leesville would have invented them, +as a means of discrediting the agitators in this crisis. Jimmie +Higgins had lived all his life in a country in which his masters +starved and oppressed him, and when he tried to help himself, met +him with every weapon of treachery and slander. So Jimmie had made +up his mind that one capitalist country was the same as another +capitalist country, and that he would not be frightened into +submission by tales about goblins and witches and sea-serpents and +German spies. + + + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +JIMMIE HIGGINS GOES TO JAIL + +I + + + + + +Every evening now the party held its “soap-box” meetings on a corner +just off Main Street. Jimmie, having volunteered as one of the +assistants, would bolt his supper in the evening and hurry off to +the spot. He was not one of the speakers, of course--he would have +been terrified at the idea of making a speech; but he was one of +those whose labours made the speaking possible, and who reaped the +harvest for the movement. + +The apparatus of the meeting was kept in the shop of a friendly +carpenter near-by. The carpenter had made a “soap-box” that was a +wonder--a platform mounted upon four slender legs, detachable, so +that one man could carry the whole business and set it up. Thus the +speaker was lifted a couple of feet above the heads of the crowd, +and provided with a hand-rail upon which he might lean, and even +pound, if he did not pound too hard. A kerosene torch burned some +distance from his head, illuminating his features, and it was +Jimmie's business to see that this torch was properly cleaned and +filled, and to hold it erect on a pole part of the time. The rest of +the time he peddled literature among the crowd--copies of the +Leesville Worker, and five and ten cent pamphlets supplied by the +National Office. + +He would come home at night, worn out from these labours after his +daily toil; he would fall asleep at Lizzie's side, and have to be +routed out by her when the alarm-clock went off next morning. She +would get him a cup of hot coffee, and after he had drunk this, he +would be himself again, and would chatter about the adventures of +the night before. There was always something happening, a fellow +starting a controversy, a drunken man, or perhaps a couple of thugs +in the pay of old man Granitch, trying to break up the meeting. + +Lizzie would do her best to show that sympathy with her husband's +activities which is expected from a dutiful wife. But all the time +there was a grief in her soul--the eternal grief of the feminine +temperament, which is cautious and conservative, in conflict with +the masculine, which is adventurous and destructive. Here was +Jimmie, earning twice what he had ever earned before, having a +chance to feed his children properly and to put by a little margin +for the first time in his harassed life; but instead of making the +most of the opportunity, he was going out on the streets every +night, doing everything in his power to destroy the golden occasion +which Fate had brought to him! Like the fellow who climbs a tree to +saw off a limb, and sits on the limb and saws between himself and +the tree! + +In spite of her best efforts, Lizzie's broad, kindly face would +sometimes become hard with disappointment, and a big tear would roll +down each of her sturdy cheeks. Jimmie would be sorry for her, and +would patiently try to explain his actions. Should a man think only +of his own wife and children, and forget entirely all the other +wives and children of the working-class? That was why the workers +had been slaves all through the ages, because each thought of +himself, and never of his fellows. No, you must think of your class! +You must act as a class--on the alert to seize every advantage, to +teach solidarity and stimulate class-consciousness! Jimmie would use +these long words, which he had heard at meetings; but then, seeing +that Lizzie did not understand them, he would go back and say it +over again in words of one syllable. They had old man Granitch in a +hole just now, and they must teach him a lesson, and at the same +time teach the workers their power. Lizzie would sigh, and shake her +head; for to her, old man Granitch was not a human being, but a +natural phenomenon, like winter, or hunger. He, or some other like +him, had been the master of her fathers for generations untold, and +to try to break or even to limit his power was like commanding the +tide or the sun. + + + + +II + + + +Events moved quickly to their culmination, justifying the worst of +Lizzie's fears. The shops were seething with discontent, and +agitators seemed fairly to spring out of the ground; some of them +paid by Jerry Coleman, no doubt, others taking their pay in the form +of gratification of those grudges with which the profit-system had +filled their hearts. Noon-meetings would start up, quite +spontaneously, without any prearrangement; and presently Jimmie +learned that men were going about taking the names of all who would +agree to strike. + +The matter was brought to a head by the Empire managers, who, of +course, were kept informed by their spies. They discharged more than +a score of the trouble-makers; and when this news spread at +noon-time, the whole place burst into a flame of wrath. “Strike! +strike!” was the cry. Jimmie was one of many who started a +procession through the yards, shouting, singing, hurling menaces at +the bosses, challenging all who proposed to return to work. Less +than one-tenth of the working force made any attempt to do so, and +for that afternoon the plant of the Empire Machine Shops, which was +supposed to be turning out shell-casings for the Russian government, +was turning out labour-union, Socialist, and I. W. W. oratory. + +Jimmie Higgins was beside himself with excitement. He danced about +and waved his cap, he shouted himself hoarse, he almost yielded to +the impulse to jump upon a pile of lumber and make a speech himself. +Presently came Comrades Gerrity and Mary Allen, who had got wind of +the trouble, and had loaded a whole edition of the Worker into a +Ford; so Jimmie turned newsboy, selling these papers, hundreds of +them, until his pockets were bursting with the weight of pennies and +nickels. And then he was pressed into service running errands for +those who were arranging to organize the workers; he carried bundles +of membership-cards and application-blanks, following a man with a +bull voice and a megaphone, who shouted in several languages the +location of union headquarters, and the halls where various foreign +language meetings would be held that evening. Evidently someone had +foreseen the breaking of this trouble, and had been at pains to plan +ahead. + +Late in the afternoon Jimmie was witness of an exciting incident. In +one of the shops a number of the men had persisted in returning to +work, and an immense throng of strikers had gathered to wait for +them. They were afraid to come out, but stayed in the building after +the quitting-whistle, while those outside jeered and hooted and the +bosses telephoned frantically for aid. The greater part of the +Leesville police-force was on hand, and in addition, the company had +its own guards and private detectives. But they were needed all over +the place. You saw them at the various entrances, menacing, but not +quite so sure of themselves as usual; their hands had a tendency to +slip back to the bulge on their right hips. + +Jimmie and another fellow had got themselves an empty box and were +standing on it, leaning against the wall of the building and +shouting “Ya! Ya!” at every “scab” head that showed itself. They saw +an automobile come in at the gate, its horn honking savagely, +causing the crowd to leap to one side or the other. The automobile +was packed with men, sitting on one another's knees, or hanging to +the running-boards outside. There came a second car, loaded in the +same fashion. They were guards, sent all the way from Hubbardtown; +for of course the Hubbard Engine Company would help out its rivals +in an emergency such as this. That was the solidarity of capitalism, +concerning which the Socialists never wearied of preaching. + +The men leaped from the cars, and spread themselves fanwise in front +of the door. They had nightsticks in their hands, and grim +resolution in their faces; they cried, “Stand back! Stand back!” The +crowd hooted, but gave slightly, and a few minutes later the doors +of the building opened, and the first of the timid workers emerged. +There was a howl, and then from somewhere in the throng a stone was +thrown. “Arrest that man!” shouted a voice, and Jimmie's attention +was attracted to the owner of this voice--a young man who had +arrived in the first automobile, and was now standing up in the +seat, from which position he could dominate the throng. “Arrest that +man!” he shouted again, pointing his finger; and three of the guards +leaped into the crowd at the spot indicated. The man who had thrown +the missile started to run, but he could not go fast in the crowd, +and in a moment, as it seemed, the guards had him by the collar. He +tried to jerk away, and they struck him over the head, and laid +about them to keep the rest of the throng at bay. “Take him inside!” + the young man in the car kept shouting. And one of the guards +twisted his hand in the collar of the wretched stone-thrower, until +he grew purple in the face, and so half-dragged and half-ran him +into the building. + + + + +III + + + +The young man in the car turned toward the crowd which was blocking +the way to the exit. “Get those men out of the way!” he yelled to +the guards. “Drive them along--God damn them, they've got no +business in here.” And so on, with a string of dynamic profanity, +which stung both guards and policemen into action, and made them ply +their clubs upon the crowd. + +“Do you know who that is?” asked Jimmie's companion on the box. +“That's Lacey Granitch.” + +Jimmie started, experiencing a thrill to the soles of his ragged +shoes. Lacey Granitch! In the four years that the little machinist +had worked for the Empire, he had never caught a glimpse of the +young lord of Leesville--something which may easily be believed, +for the young lord considered Leesville “a hole of a town”, and +honoured it with his presence only once or twice a year. But his +spirit brooded over it; he was to Leesville a mythological figure, +either of wonder and awe, or of horror, according to the temperament +of the contemplator. One day “Wild Bill” had arisen in the local, +and held aloft a page from the “magazine supplement” of one of the +metropolitan “yellows”. There was an account of how Lacey Granitch +had broken the hearts of seven chorus-girls by running away with an +eighth. He fairly “ate 'em alive”, according to the account; in +order to give an idea of the atmosphere in which the young hero +abode, the whirl of delight which was his life, the artist of the +Sunday supplement had woven round the border of the page a maze of +feminine ankles and calves in a delirium of lingerie; while at the +top was a supper-table with champagne-corks popping, and a lady clad +in inadequate veils dancing amid the dishes. + +This had happened while the local was in the midst of an acrimonious +controversy over “Section Six”. Should the Socialist party bar from +its membership those who advocated sabotage, violence and crime? +Young Norwood was pleading for orderly methods of social +reconstruction; and here stood “Wild Bill”, ripping to shreds the +reputation of the young plutocrat of the Empire Shops. “That's what +you geezers are sweating for! That's why you've got to be good, and +not throw monkey-wrenches in the machinery--so the seven +broken-hearted chorus-girls can drown their sorrows in champagne!” + +And now here was the hero of all these romantic escapades, forsaking +the white lights of Broadway, and coming home to help the old man +keep his contracts. He stood in the seat of the automobile, glancing +this way and that, swiftly, like a hunter on the alert for dangerous +game. His dark eyes roamed here and there, his proud face was pale +with anger, his tall, perfectly groomed figure was eloquent of +mastership, of command. He was imperious as a young Caesar, terrible +in his vengeance; and poor Jimmie, watching him, was torn between +two contradictory emotions. He hated him--hated him with a deadly +and abiding hatred. But also he admired him, marvelled at him, +cringed before him. Lacey was a wanton, a cursing tyrant, a brutal +snob; but also he was the master, the conqueror, the proud, free, +rich young aristocrat, for whom all the rest of humanity existed. +And Jimmie Higgins was a poor little worm of a proletarian, with +nothing but his labour-power to sell, trying by sheer force of his +will to lift himself out of his slave-psychology! + +There is an old adage that “a cat may look at a king”. But this can +only have been meant to apply to house-cats, cats of the palace, +accustomed to the etiquette of courts; it cannot have been meant for +proletarian cats of the gutter, the Jimmie Higgins variety of red +revolutionary yowlers. Jimmie and his companion stood on their +perch, shouting “Ya! Ya!” and suddenly the crowd melted away in +front of them, exposing them to the angry finger of the young +master. “Get along now! Beat it! Quick!” And Jimmie, poor little +ragged, stunted Jimmie, with bad teeth and toil-deformed hands, +wilted before this blast of aristocratic wrath, and made haste to +hide himself in the throng. But it was with blazing soul that he +went; every instant he imagined himself turning back, defying the +angry finger, shouting down the imperious voice, even smashing it +back into the throat from which it came! + + + + +IV + + + +Jimmie did not even stop for supper. The greater part of the night +he worked at helping to organize the strikers, and all next day he +spent arranging Socialist meetings. He worked like a man possessed, +lifted above the limitations of the flesh. For everywhere that day +he carried with him the image of the proud, free, rich young +aristocrat, with his dark eyes roaming swiftly, his tall, perfectly +groomed figure eloquent of mastership, his voice ringing with +challenge. Jimmie was for the time utterly possessed by hatred; and +he saw about him thousands of others sharing the mood and shouting +it aloud. Every speaker who could be found was turned loose to talk +till he was hoarse, and in the evening there was to be half a dozen +street meetings. That was always the way when there were strikes; +then the working man had time to listen--and also the desire! + +So came the final crisis, when the little machinist had to show the +stuff he was made of. He was holding aloft the torch at the regular +meeting-place on the corner of Main and Third Streets, and Comrade +Gerrity was explaining the strike and the ballot as two edges of the +sword of labour, when four policemen came suddenly round the corner +and pushed their way through the crowd. “You'll have to stop this!” + declared one. + +“Stop?” cried Gerrity. “What do you mean?” + +“There's to be no more street-speaking during the strike.” + +“Who says so?” + +“Orders from the chief.” + +“But we've got a permit.” + +“All permits revoked. Cut it out.” + +“But this is an outrage!” + +“We don't want any argument, young man--” + +“But we're within our rights here.” + +“Forget it, young feller!” + +Gerrity turned swiftly to the throng. + +“Fellow-citizens,” he cried, “we are here in the exercise of our +rights as American citizens! We are conducting a peaceable and +orderly political meeting, and we know our rights and propose to +maintain them. We--” + +“Come down off that box, young feller!” commanded the officer; and +the crowd hooted and booed. + +“Fellow-citizens!” began Gerrity again; but that was as far as he +got, for the policeman seized him by the arm and pulled; and Gerrity +knew the ways of American policemen too well to resist. He came +down--but still talking. “Fellow-citizens--” + +“Are you goin' to shut up?” demanded the other, and as Gerrity still +went on orating, he announced: “You are under arrest.” + +There were half a dozen Socialists with the party, and this was a +challenge to the self-respect of everyone of them. In an instant +Comrade Mabel Smith had leaped on to the stand. “Fellow workers!” + she cried. “Is this America, or is it Russia?” + +“That'll do, lady,” said the policeman, as considerately as he +dared; for Comrade Mabel wore a big picture-hat and many other signs +of youth and beauty. + +“I have a right to speak here, and I mean to speak,” she declared. + +“We don't want to have to arrest you, lady--” + +“You either have to arrest me, or else allow me to speak.” + +“I'm sorry, lady, but it's orders. You are arrested.” + +Then came the turn of Comrade Stankewitz. “Vorking men, it is for +the rights of the vorkers ve are here.” And so they jerked him off. + +And then “Wild Bill”. This hundred per cent, middle-of-the-road +proletarian had been hanging on the outskirts of the meeting, having +been forbidden by the local to take part in the speaking, because of +the intemperate nature of his utterances; but now, of course, all +rules went down, and Bill leaped on to the shaking platform. “Are we +slaves?” he yelled. “Are we dogs?” And it would seem that the police +thought so, for they yanked him off the platform, and one of them +seized him by the wrist and twisted so that his oration ended in a +shriek of pain. + +Then came Johnny Edge, a shy youth with an armful of literature, +which he hung on to in spite of police violence; and then--then +there was one more! + +Poor Jimmie! He did not in the least want to get arrested, and he +was terrified at the idea of making even so short a speech as was +here the order of the night. But, of course, his honour was at +stake, there was no way out. He handed his torch to a bystander, and +mounted the scaffold. “Is this a free country?” he cried. “Do we +have free speech?” And Jimmie's first effort at oratory ended in a +jerk at his coat-tail, which all but upset the frail platform upon +which he stood. + +There were four policemen, with six prisoners, and a throng about +them howling with indignation, perhaps ready to become violent--who +could say? The guardians of order had been prepared however. One of +them stepped to the corner and blew his whistle, and a minute later +came the shriek of a siren, and round the corner came swinging the +city's big patrol-wagon, the “Black Maria”. The crowd gave way, and +one by one the prisoners were thrust in. One of them, “Wild Bill”, +feeling himself for a moment released from the grip of his captors, +raised his voice, shouting through the wire grating of the wagon: “I +denounce this outrage! I am a free American--” And suddenly Jimmie, +who was next in the wagon, felt himself flung to one side, and a +policeman leaped by him, and planted his fist with terrific violence +full in the orator's mouth. “Wild Bill” went down like a bullock +under the slaughter-man's axe, and the patrol-wagon started up, the +cry of its siren drowning the protests of the crowd. + +Poor Bill! He lay across the seat, and Jimmie, who had to sit next +to him, caught him in his arms and held him. He was quivering, with +awful motions like a spasm. He made no sound, and Jimmie was +terrified, thinking that he was dying. Before long Jimmie felt a hot +wetness stealing over his hands, first slimy, then turning sticky. +He had to sit there, almost fainting with horror; he dared not say +anything, for maybe the policeman would strike him also. He sat, +clutching in his arms the shaking body, and whispering under his +breath, “Poor Bill! Poor Bill!” + + + + +V + + + +They came to the station-house, and Bill was carried out and laid on +a bench, and the others were stood up before the desk and had their +pedigrees taken. Gerrity demanded indignantly to be allowed to +telephone, and this demand was granted. He routed Lawyer Norwood +from a party, and set him to finding bail; and meantime the +prisoners were led to cells. + +They had been there only a couple of minutes when there came +floating through the row of steel cages the voice of a woman +singing. It was Comrade Mabel Smith in that clear sweet voice they +had so often listened to on “social evenings” in the local. She was +singing the Internationale: + + Arise, ye prisoners of starvation. + Arise, ye wretched of the earth! + +The sound thrilled them to the very bones, and they joined in the +chorus with a shout. Then, of course, came the jailer: “Shut up.” + And then again: “Shut up!” And then a third time: “Will ye shut up?” + And then came a bucket of water, hurled through the cell bars. It +hit Jimmie squarely in the mouth, and in the words of the poet, “the +subsequent proceedings interested him no more!” + +About midnight came Lawyer Norwood and Dr. Service. Both of these +men had protested against the street-speaking at this time; but of +course, when it came to comrades in trouble, they could not resist +the appeal to their sympathies. Such is the difficulty of entirely +respectable and decorous “parlour” Socialists, in their dealings +with the wayward children of the movement, the “impossibilists” and +“direct actionists” and other sowers of proletarian wild oats. Dr. +Service produced a wad of bills and bailed out all the prisoners, +and delivered himself of impressive indignation to the +police-sergeant, while waiting for an ambulance to carry “Wild Bill” + to the hospital. Jimmie Higgins, who had always hitherto shouted +with the “wild” ones, realized suddenly how pleasant it is to have a +friend who wears black broadcloth, and carries himself like the +drum-major of a band, and is reputed to be worth a couple of hundred +thousand dollars. + +Jimmie went home; and there was Lizzie, pacing the floor and +wringing her hands in anxiety--for there had been no way to get word +to her what had happened. She flung herself into his arms, and then +recoiled in fright when, she discovered that he was wet. He told her +the story; and would you believe it--Lizzie, being a woman, and only +in the A-B-C stage of revolutionary education, actually did not know +that it was a glorious and heroic adventure to be arrested! She +thought it a disgrace, and tried to persuade him to keep the +dreadful secret from the neighbourhood! And when she found that he +was not through yet, but had to go to court in the morning and be +tried, she wept copiously, and woke up Jimmie Junior, and started +him to bawling. She was only to be pacified when Jimmie Senior +agreed to take off his wet clothes at once, and drink a cup or two +of boiling hot tea, and let himself be covered up with blankets, so +that he might not die of pneumonia before he could get to court. + +Next morning there was a crowded court-room and a stern and solemn +judge frowning over his spectacles, and Lawyer Norwood making an +impassioned defence of the fundamental American right of free +speech. It was so very thrilling that Jimmie could hardly be kept +from applauding his own lawyer! And then Comrade Dr. Service arose, +and in his most impressive voice gave the professional information +that “Wild Bill's” nose had been broken, and three of his front +teeth knocked out, and that he was in the hospital and unable to +come to court; and all the other prisoners were called upon to +testify what “Wild Bill” had done to bring this fate upon him. The +policeman who had struck the blow testified that the prisoner had +resisted arrest; a second policeman testified, “I seen the prisoner +hit him first, your Honour,”--which caused Comrade Mabel Smith to +cry out, “Oh, the ungrammatical prevaricator!” The upshot of the +trial was that each of the defendants was fined ten dollars. Comrade +Gerrity led off with an indignant refusal to pay the fine; the rest +of them followed suit--even Comrade Mabel! This caused evident +distress of mind to the judge, for Comrade Mabel with her indignant +pink cheeks and her big picture-hat looked more than ever the lady, +and it is a fact known even to judges that American jails have not +been constructed for ladies. The matter was settled by Lawyer +Norwood paying her fine, in spite of her protests, and her demand to +be sent to jail. + + + + +VI + + + +The five men were led away, over the “Bridge of Sighs”, as it was +called, to the city jail, where they had their pedigrees taken +again, and their pictures and their finger-prints--which for the +first time impressed upon their minds the fact that they were +dangerous criminals. Their clothes were taken away, and shirts and +trousers given them, whose faded blue colour seemed to have been +impregnated with the misery of scores of previous wearers. They were +led through steel-barred doors, and along dark, steel-barred +passages to one of the “tanks”. A “tank”, you discovered, was one +floor of this four-storied packing box; on each side of it were a +row of a dozen barred cells, each with four bunks, so that the total +maximum population which might be crowded into the central space of +the “tank” was ninety-six; however, this only happened on Monday +mornings, when the “drunks” had all been brought in, and before the +courts had had time to sort them out. + +After you had lain down on your bunk for a few minutes, or had +leaned against the wall of the “tank”, you felt an annoying stinging +sensation somewhere on you. You began to rub and scratch; before +long you would be rubbing and scratching in a dozen different +places, and then you would observe your neighbour watching you with +a grin. “Seam-squirrels?” he would say; and he would bid you take +off your coat, and engage in the popular hunting game of the +institution. Jimmie remembered having heard a speaker refer to the +city jail as the “Leesville Louseranch”; he had thought that a good +joke at the time, but now it seemed otherwise to him. + +It was splendid to stand up in court and to take your stand as a +martyr; but now Jimmie discovered, as many an unfortunate has +discovered before him, that being a martyr is not the sport it is +cracked up to be. There were no heroics now, no singing. If you even +so much as hummed, they took you out and shut you up in a dark hole +called the “cooler”! Nor could you read, for there was no light in +your cell, and perpetual twilight in the central gathering place of +the “tank”. Apparently the only things the authorities of Leesville +wished you to do were to hunt “seam-squirrels”, to smoke cigarettes, +to “shoot craps”, and to make the acquaintance of a variety of +interesting young criminals, so that when you were ready to resume +your outside life you might decide whether you wanted to be a +hold-up man, a safe-cracker, a forger, or a second-story operator. + +Jimmie Higgins, of course, brought a different psychology from that +of the average jail-inmate. Jimmie could do his kind of work just as +well in jail as anywhere else; and barring the torment of vermin, +the diet of bread and thin coffee and ill-smelling greasy soup, and +the worry about his helpless family outside, he really had a happy +time-making the acquaintance of tramps and pickpockets, and +explaining to them the revolutionary philosophy. A man who went in +to remedy social injustice all by himself could never get very far. +It was only when he realized himself as a member of a class, and +stood as a class and acted as a class, that he could accomplish a +permanent result. Some of the workers had discovered this, and had +set out to educate their fellows. They brought the wondrous message, +even to those in jail; holding out to them the vision of a world +made over in justice and kindness, the co-operative commonwealth of +labour, in which every man should get what he produced, and no man +could exploit his fellows. + + + + +VII + + + +Three days passed, and then one afternoon Jimmie was summoned to see +a visitor. He could guess who the visitor was, and he went with his +heart in his throat, and looked through the dark mesh of wire, and +saw Lizzie standing--stout, motherly Lizzie, now very pale, and +breathing hard, and with tears running in little streamlets down her +cheeks. Poor Lizzie, with her three babies at home, and her plain, +ordinary, non-revolutionary psychology, which made going to jail a +humiliation instead of a test of manhood, a badge of distinction! +Jimmie felt a clutch in his own throat, and an impulse to tear down +the beastly wire mesh and clasp the dear motherly soul in his arms. +But all he could do was to screw his face into a dubious smile. +Sure, he was having the time of his life in this jail! He wouldn't +have missed it for anything! He had made a Socialist out of +“Dead-eye Mike”, and had got Pete Curley, a fancy “con” man, to +promise to read “War, What For?” + +There was only one thing which had been troubling him, and that was, +how his family was getting on. They had had practically nothing in +the house, he knew, and poor Meissner could not feed four extra +mouths. But Lizzie, also screwing her face into a smile, assured him +that everything was all right at home, there was no need to worry. +In the first place, Comrade Dr. Service had sent her a piece of +paper with his name written on it; it appeared that this was called +a cheque, and the groceryman had exchanged it for a five dollar +bill. And in the next place there was a domestic secret which Lizzie +had to confide--she had put by some money, without letting Jimmie +know it. + +“But how?” cried Jimmie, in wonder--for he had thought he knew all +about his household and its expenses. + +So Lizzie explained the trick she had played. Jimmie had committed +an extravagance, treating her to a new dress out of his increased +earnings: a gorgeous contrivance of several colours, looking like +silk, even if it wasn't. Lizzie had stated that the cost was fifteen +dollars, and he, the dupe, had believed it! The truth was she had +bought the dress in a second-hand shop for three dollars, and had +put twelve dollars away for the time of the strike! + +And Jimmie went back to his “tank”, shaking his head and +philosophizing: “Gee! Can you beat these women?” + + + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +JIMMIE HIGGINS DALLIES WITH CUPID + +I + + + + + +The strike was over when Jimmie came out of jail; it had been +settled by the double-barrelled device of raising the wages of the +men and putting their leaders behind bars. Jimmie presented himself +at his old place of working, and the boss told him to go to hell; so +Jimmie went to Hubbardtown, and stood in the long line of men +waiting at the gate of the engine company. Jimmie knew about +black-lists, so when his time came to be questioned, he said his +name was Joe Aronsky, and he had last worked in a machine-shop in +Pittsburg; he had come to Hubbardtown because he had heard of high +pay and good treatment. While he was answering these questions, he +noticed a man sitting in the corner of the room studying his face, +and he saw the boss turn and glance in that direction. The man shook +his head, and the boss said: “Nothin' doin'.” So Jimmie understood +that the Hubbard Engine Company was taking measures to keep its +shops clear of the agitators from Leesville. + +He spent a couple of days trying other places in his home town, but +all in vain--they had him spotted. At the brewery they were slower +than elsewhere--they took him on for two hours. Then they found out +his record, and “fired” him; and Jimmie “kidded” the boss, saying +that they were too late--he had already given a Socialist leaflet to +every man in the room! + +On Jefferson Street, an out of the way part of the town, was a +bicycle-shop kept by an old German named Kumme. One of the comrades +told Jimmie that he wanted a helper, and Jimmie went there and got a +job at two dollars a day. That was poor pay at present prices, but +Jimmie liked the place, because his boss was a near-Socialist, a +pacifist--for all countries except Germany. He got round it by +saying that every nation had a right to defend itself; and Germany +was the nation which had been attacked in this war. A good part of +the energies of the old man went into proving this to his customers; +if there were any customers who did not like it, they could go +elsewhere. + +Those who came were largely Germans, and so Jimmie was kept fully +supplied with arguments against the munitions industry, which they +called a trade in murder, and in favour of the programme of “Feed +America First”. Among those who frequented the place was Jerry +Coleman, who was still on the job, and as well supplied with +ten-dollar bills as ever. He had now revealed himself as an +organizer for a new propaganda society, called “Labour's National +Peace Council”. Inasmuch as Labour and Peace were the phrases upon +which Jimmie lived, he saw no reason why he should not back this +organization. Coleman assured Jimmie he hated the Kaiser, but that +the German “people” must be defended. So Jimmie became, without +having the least idea of it, one of the agencies whereby the Kaiser +was subsidizing social discontent in America. + +But Jimmie was more careful now in his agitations. He had brought +such distress into his home by his jail sentence, that he had been +forced to make promises to Lizzie. Her anxiety for her children +could no longer be kept to herself; and this caused a certain amount +of friction between them, and sent Jimmie out grumbling at his lot +in life. What was the use of trying to educate a woman, who could +see no farther than her own kitchen-stove? When you wanted to be a +world-saviour, to walk tip-toe on the misty mountain-tops of +heroism, she dragged you down and chained you to the commonplace, +taking all the zest and fervour out of your soul! The memories of +“seam-squirrels” and of thin coffee and ill-smelling and greasy soup +had slipped somewhat into the background of Jimmie's mind, and he +lived again the sublime hour when he had confronted the court and +stood for the fundamental rights of an American citizen. He wanted +to have that act of daring appreciated at its true value. Poor, +blind, home-keeping Lizzie, who could not fulfil these deeper needs +of her husband's soul! + +Jimmie had been, so far in his married life, as well domesticated as +could be expected of a proletarian propagandist. He had yearned to +own a home of his own, and meantime had manifested his repressed +wish by getting a big packing-box and some broken shingles, and +building a model play-house for Jimmie Junior in the back yard. He +had even found time on his tired and crowded Sundays to start a +garden in midsummer, the season when the local was least active. But +now, of course, the war had come to obsess his mind, driving him to +terror for the future of humanity, tempting him to martyrdoms and +domestic irritations. + + + + +II + + + +It was at this critical period in Jimmie's life that there appeared +in Leesville a vivid young person by the name of Evelyn Baskerville. +Evelyn was no tired kitchen slave--with her fluffy brown hair, her +pert little dimples, her trim figure, her jaunty hat with a turkey +feather stuck on one side of her head. Evelyn was a stenographer and +proclaimed herself an advanced feminist; at her first visit she set +the local upside down. It happened to be “social evening”, when all +the men smoked, and this “free” young thing took a cigarette from +her escort and puffed it all over the place. This, of course, would +not have made a stir in great centres of culture such as London and +Greenwich Village; but in Leesville it was the first time that the +equality of women had been interpreted to mean that the women should +adopt the vices of the men. + +Then Evelyn had produced from her handbag some leaflets on Birth +Control, and proposed that the local should undertake their +distribution. This was a new subject in Leesville, and while the +members supposed it was all right, they found it embarrassing to +have the matter explained too fully in open meeting. Evelyn wanted a +“birth strike”, as the surest means of ending the war; she wanted +the Worker to take up this programme, and did not conceal her +contempt for reactionaries in the movement who still wanted to +pretend that babies were brought by storks. The delicate subject was +finally “tabled”, and when the meeting adjourned and the members +walked home, everyone was talking about Miss Baskerville--the men +mostly talking with the men, and the women with the women. + +Pretty soon it became evident that the vivid and dashing young +person was setting her cap for Comrade Gerrity, the organizer. As +Gerrity was an eligible young bachelor, that was all right. But +then, a little later, it began to be suspected that she had designs +upon Comrade Claudel, the Belgian jeweller. Doubtless she had a +right to make her choice between them; but some of the women were of +the opinion that she took too long to choose; and finally one or two +malicious ones began to say that she had no intention of +choosing--she wanted both. + +And then fell a thunderbolt into Jimmie's life. It was just after +his arrest when fame still clung to him; and after the meeting +Comrade Baskerville came up and engaged him in conversation. How did +it feel to be a jailbird? When he told her that it felt fine, she +bade him not be too proud--she had served thirty days for picketing +in a shirt-waist strike! As she looked at him, her pretty brown eyes +sparkled with mischief, and her wicked little dimples lost no +curtain-calls. Poor, humble Jimmie was stirred to his shoe-tips, for +he had never before received the attentions of such a fascinating +creature--unless perchance it had been to sell her a newspaper, or +to beg the price of a sandwich in his tramp days. Here was one of +the wonderful things about the Socialist movement, that it broke +down the barriers of class, and gave you exciting glimpses of higher +worlds of culture and charm! + +Comrade Baskerville continued to flash her dimples and her wit at +Jimmie, despite the fact that Comrade Gerrity and Comrade Claudel +and several other moths were hovering about the candle-flame, and +all the women in the local watching out of the corners of their +eyes. Finally, to Jimmie's unutterable consternation, the vivid +young goddess of Liberty inquired, “Wouldn't you like to walk home +with me, Comrade Higgins?” He stammered, “Yes”; and they went out, +the young goddess plying him with questions about conditions in the +jail, and displaying most convincing erudition on the subject of the +economic aspects of criminology--at the same time seeming entirely +oblivious to the hoverings of the other moths, and the disgust of +the unemancipated ladies of Local Leesville. + + + + +III + + + +They walked down the street together, and first Comrade Baskerville +shivered with horror at the “seam-squirrels”, and then exclaimed +with delight over the conversion of “Dead-eye Mike” to Socialism, +and then made merry over the singing of the Internationale in the +police-station. Had she discovered a “character” in this seemingly +insignificant little machinist? At any rate, she plied him with +questions about his past life and his ideas. When he told her of his +starved and neglected childhood, she murmured sympathetically, and +it seemed to the fascinated Jimmie that here was a woman who +understood instinctively all the cravings of his soul. She laid her +hand on his arm, and it was as if an angel were touching +him--strange little thrills ran like currents of electricity all +over him. + +Yes, Comrade Baskerville could appreciate his sufferings, because +she had suffered too. She had had a stepmother, and had run away +from home at an early age and fought her own way. That was why she +stood so firmly for woman's emancipation--she knew the slavery of +her sex through bitter experience. There were many men who believed +in sex-equality as a matter of words, but had no real conception of +it in action; as for the women--well, you might see right here in +the local the most narrow, bourgeois ideas dominating their minds. +Jimmie did not know what ideas Comrade Baskerville meant, but he +knew that her voice was musical and full of quick changes that made +him shiver. + +He was supposed to be taking her home; but he had no idea where she +lived, and apparently she had no idea either, for they just wandered +on and on, talking about all the wonderful new ideas that were +stirring the minds of men and women. Did Comrade Higgins believe in +trial marriages? Comrade Higgins had never heard of this wild idea +before, but he listened, and bravely concealed his dismay. What +about the children? The eager feminist answered there need not be +any children. Unwanted children were a crime! She proposed to get +the working-class women together and instruct them in the technique +of these delicate matters; and meantime, lacking the women, she was +willing to explain it to any inwardly embarrassed and quaking man +who would lend his ear. + +Suddenly she stopped and cried, “Where are we?” And there came a +peal of merry laughter, as she discovered they had gone far astray. +They turned and set off in the right direction, and meantime the +lecture on advanced feminism continued. Poor Jimmie was in a +panic--tumbled this way and that. He had considered himself a +radical, because he believed in expropriating the expropriators; but +these plans for overthrowing the conventions and disbanding the +home--these left him aghast. And trilled into his ear by a vivid and +amazing young thing with a soft hand upon his arm and a faint +intoxicating perfume all about her! Why was she telling these things +to him? What did she mean? What? WHAT? + + + + +IV + + + +They came to the house where she lived. It was late at night, and +the street was deserted. It was up to Jimmie to say good night, but +somehow he did not know how to say it. Comrade Evelyn gave him her +hand, and for some reason did not take it away again. Of course it +would not have been polite for Jimmie to have pushed it away. So he +held it, and looked at the shadowy form before him, and felt his +knees shaking. “Comrade Higgins,” said the brave, girlish voice, “we +shall be friends, shall we not?” And of course, Jimmie answered that +they would--always! And the girlish voice replied, “I am GLAD!” And +then suddenly it whispered, “Good night!” and the shadowy form +turned and flitted into the house. + +Jimmie walked away with the strangest tumult in his soul. It was +something which the poets had been occupied for centuries in trying +to portray, but Jimmie Higgins had no acquaintance with the poets, +and so it was a brand new thing to him, he was left to experience +the shock of it and to resolve the problems of it all alone. To be +rolled and tossed about like a man in a blanket at a college +ragging! To be a prey to bewilderment and fear, hope and longing, +despair and rebellion, delicious excitement, angry self-contempt +and tormenting doubt! Truly did that poet divine who first conceived +the symbol of the mischievous little god, who steals upon an +unsuspecting man and shoots him through the heart with a sharp and +tormenting arrow! + +The worst of it was, Jimmie couldn't tell Lizzie about it. The first +time in four years that he had had a trouble he could not tell +Lizzie! He even felt ashamed, as he came home and crawled into +bed--as if he had done some dreadful wrong to Lizzie; and yet, he +would have been puzzled to tell just what the wrong was, or how he +could have avoided it. It was not he who had made the young feminist +so delicious and sweet and frank and amazing. It was not he who had +made the little god, and brewed the poison for the arrow's tip. No, +it was some power greater than himself that had prepared this +situation, some power cruel and implacable, which plots against +domestic tranquillity; perhaps it was some hireling of capitalism, +which will not permit a propagandist of social justice to do his +work in peace of soul. + +Jimmie tried to hide what was going on; and of course--poor, naive +soul--he had never learned to hide anything in his life, and now was +too late to begin. The next time the local met, the women were +saying that they were disappointed in Comrade Higgins; they had +thought he was really devoted to the cause, but they saw now he was +like all the rest of the men--his head had been turned by one smile +on a pretty face. Instead of attending to his work, he was following +that Baskerville creature about, gazing at her yearningly, like a +moon-calf, making a ninny of himself before the whole room. And he +with a wife and three babies at home, waiting for him and thinking +he was hustling for the cause. When the meeting adjourned, and the +Baskerville creature accepted the invitation of Comrade Gerrity to +escort her home, the dismay of Comrade Higgins was so evident as to +be ludicrous to the whole room. + + + + +V + + + +In the interest of common decency it was necessary for the women of +the local to take action on this matter. At least, a couple of them +thought so, and quite independently and without pre-arrangement they +called on Lizzie next day and told her that she should come more +frequently to meetings, and keep herself acquainted with the new +ideas of advanced feminism. And so when Jimmie came home that night, +he found his wife dissolved in tears and there was a most harrowing +scene. + +For poor Elizabeth Huszar, pronounced Eleeza Betooser, had had no +chance whatever to familiarize herself with the new ideas of +advanced feminism. Her notions of “free unions” had been derived +from a quite different world, whose ideas were not new, but on the +contrary very, very old, and were “advanced” only on the road to +perdition. She judged Jimmie's behaviour according to thoroughly old +standards, and she was broken-hearted, overwhelmed with grief and +shame. He was like all the rest of men--and when she had fondly +thought he was different! He despised her and spit upon her--a woman +he had picked up in a brothel. + +Poor Jimmie was stunned. He was conscious of no disrespect for +Lizzie, it had not occurred to him to think that she might take the +matter that way. But so she had taken it, beyond doubt, and with +intensity that frightened him. He would not have believed that so +many tears could stream from one woman's eyes--nor that his good, +broad-faced, honest wife could be so abject in her misery. “Oh, I +knowed it, I knowed it all along--it would be that way! I hadn't +never ought to married you--you know I told you so?” + +“But, Lizzie!” pleaded the husband. “You're mistaken. That hadn't +nothin' to do with it.” + +She turned upon him wildly, her fingers stuck out as if she would +claw him. “You mean to tell me if you hadn't 'a married a woman off +the street, you'd 'a gone chasin' a fluffy-haired girl? If you'd 'a +had a decent wife, that you knowed had some rights--” + +“Lizzie!” he protested in consternation. “Listen here--” + +But she was not to be stopped. “Everybody said I was a fool; but I +went an' done it, 'cause you swore you'd never hold it up to me! An' +I went an' had them children”--Lizzie swept her arm at the +children, as if to wipe them off the earth, to which they had come +by a cruel mistake. + +Jimmie Junior, who was old enough to know that something serious was +happening, and whose instinct was all against being wiped off the +earth, began to howl wildly; and that set off the little ones--soon +they were all three of them going at the top of their lungs. +“Boo-hoo-hoo!” + +It was truly a terrible climax to a romance. Jimmie, almost +distracted, seized the hand of his injured spouse. “It's all +nonsense!” he cried. “What they been tellin' you! I ain't done a +thing, Lizzie! I only walked home with her one night.” + +But Lizzie answered that one night was plenty enough--she knew that +from intimate and hateful experience. “And I know them fluffy-headed +kind that frizzes their hair. What does she want to walk home at +night with married men fer? And talkin' about the things she does--” + +“She don't mean no harm, Lizzie--she's tryin' to help workin' women. +It's what's called birth control--she wants to teach women--” + +“If she wants to TEACH women, why don't she TALK to the women! +What's she all the time talkin' to MEN fer? You think you can tell +me tales like that--me, that's been what I have?” And Lizzie went +off into another fit, worse than ever. + + + + +VI + + + +Jimmie found that it was with romance as with martyrdom--there was +a lot of trouble about it which the romancers did not mention. He +really felt quite dreadful, for he had a deep regard for this mother +of his little ones, and he would not have made her suffer for +anything. And she was right, too, he had to admit--her shots went +deep home. “How'd you feel, if you was to find out I'd been walkin' +home with some man?” When it was put to him that way, he realized +that he would have felt very badly indeed. + +A flood of old emotions came back to him. He went in memory with his +group of roystering friends to the house of evil where he had first +met Elizabeth Huszar, pronounced Eleeza Betooser. She had taken him +to her room, and instead of making herself agreeable in the usual +way, had burst into tears. She had been ill-treated, and was +wretchedly lonely and unhappy. Jimmie asked why she did not quit the +life, and she answered that she had tried more than once, but she +could not earn a living wage; and anyhow, because she was big and +handsome, the bosses would never let her alone, and what was the +difference, if you couldn't keep away from the men? + +They sat on the bed and talked, and Jimmie told her a little about +his life, and she told about hers--a pitiful and moving story. She +had been brought to America as an infant; her father had been killed +in an accident, and her mother had supported several children by +scrub-work. Lizzie had grown up in a slum on the far east side of +New York, and she could not remember a time when she had not been +sexually preyed upon; lewd little boys had taught her tricks, and +men would buy her with candy or food. And yet there had been +something in her struggling for decency; of her own volition she had +tried to go to school, in spite of her rags; and then, when she was +thirteen she had answered an advertisement for work as a nursemaid. +That story had made an especial impression upon Jimmie--it was truly +a most pitiful episode. + +Her place of employment had been a “swell” apartment, with a +hall-boy and an elevator--the most wonderful place that Lizzie had +ever beheld; it was like living in Heaven, and she had tried so hard +to do what she was told, and be worthy of her beautiful mistress and +the lovely baby. But she had been there only two days when the +mistress had discovered vermin on the baby, and had come to Lizzie +and insisted on examining her head. And of course she had found +something. “Them's only nits!” Lizzie had said; she had never heard +of anybody who did not have “nits” in their hair. But the beautiful +lady had called her a vile creature, and ordered her to pack up her +things and get out of the house at once. And so Lizzie had had to +wait until she became an inmate of a brothel before anybody took the +trouble to teach her how to get the “nits” out of her hair, and how +to bathe, and to clean her finger-nails and otherwise be physically +decent. + +Jimmie recalled all that, and he fell on his knees before his wife, +and caught her two hands by main force, and swore to her that he had +not done any wrong; he went on to tell her exactly what wrong he had +done, which was the best way to convince her that he had not done +any worse. He vowed again and again that he would never, never dally +with Cupid again--he would see Comrade Baskerville at once and tell +her it was “all off”. + +And so Lizzie looked up through her tears. “No,” she said, “you +don't need to see her at all!” + +“What shall I do, then?'” + +“Just let her alone--don't tell her nothin'. She'll know it's off +all right.” + + + + +VII + + + +But when you have a dead romance, you cannot leave it to rot on the +highway; you are driven irresistibly to bury it decently. In spite +of his solemn promises, Jimmie found himself thinking all the time +about Comrade Baskerville, and how he would act when he met her next +time--all the noble and dignified speeches he would make to her. He +must manage to be alone with her; for of course he could not say +such things with the jealous old hags of the local staring at him. +The best thing, he decided, would be to tell her the frank and +honest truth; to tell her about Lizzie, and how good and worthy she +had been, and how deeply he realized his duty to her. And then tears +would come into Comrade Baskerville's lovely eyes, and she would +tell him that she honoured his high sense of marital responsibility. +They must renounce; but of course they would be dear and true +friends--always, always. Jimmie was holding her hands, in his fancy, +as he said these affecting words: Always! Always! He knew that he +would have to let go of the hands, but he was reluctant to do so, +and he had not quite got to the point of doing it when, walking down +Jefferson Street on his way home from work--behold, in front of him +a trim, eager little figure, tripping gaily, with a jaunty hat with +a turkey-feather stuck on one side! Jimmie knew the figure a block +away, and as he saw it coming nearer, his heart leaped up and hit +him in the bottom part of his neck, and all his beautiful speeches +flew helter-skelter out of his head. + +She saw him, and the vivid, welcoming smile came upon her face. She +came up to him, and their hands clasped. “Why!” she cried. “What a +pleasant meeting!” + +Jimmie gulped twice, and then began, “Comrade Baskerville--” And +then he gulped again, and began, “Comrade Baskerville--” + +She stopped him. “I'm not Comrade Baskerville,” she declared. + +He could not get the meaning of these unexpected words. + +“What?” he said. + +“Haven't you heard the news?” she said, and beamed on him. “I'm +Comrade Mrs. Gerrity.” + +He stared at her, utterly bewildered. “I've been that for +twenty-four whole hours! Congratulate me!” + +Little by little the meaning of the words began to dawn in Jimmie's +stupid head. “Comrade Mrs. Gerrity!” he echoed. “But--but--I thought +you didn't believe in marriage.” + +There came the most bewitching smile, a smile decorated with two +rows of pearly white teeth. “Don't you understand, Comrade Higgins? +No woman believes in marriage--until she meets the right man.” + +This was much too subtle. Jimmie was still gaping open-mouthed. +“But then, I thought--I thought--” he stopped again; for in truth, +he had not known quite what he thought, and anyway, it seemed futile +to try to formulate it now. + +But, of course, she knew, without his telling her; she knew the +meaning of his look of dismay, and of his stammering words. Being a +kind little creature, she laid her hand on his arm. “Comrade +Higgins,” she said, “don't think I'm too mean!” + +“Mean?” he cried. “Why, no! What? How--” + +“Try to imagine you were a girl, Comrade Higgins. You can't propose +to a man, can you?” + +“Why, no--that is--” + +“That is, not if you want him to accept! You have to make him do it. +And maybe he's shy, and don't do it, and you have to put the idea in +his head for him. Or maybe he's not sure he wants you, and you have +to make him realize how very desirable you are! Maybe you have to +scare him, making him think you're going to run off with somebody +else! Don't you see how it is with a girl?” + +Jimmie was still bady dazed, but he saw enough to enable him to +stammer, “Yes.” And Comrade Baskerville--that is, Comrade Mrs. +Gerrity--gave him her hand again. + +“Comrade Higgins,” she said, “you're a dear, sweet fellow, and you +won't be too angry with me, will you? We'll be friends, won't we, +Comrade Higgins?” + +And Jimmie clasped the soft, warm hand, and gazed into the shining +brown eyes, and he made a part of the wonderful speech which he had +been planning as he walked. He said: “Always! Always!” + + + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +JIMMIE HIGGINS PUTS HIS FOOT IN IT + +I + + + + + +The world struggle continued with constantly increasing ferocity. +All summer long the Germans hammered at the French and British +lines; while the British hammered at the gates of Constantinople, +and the Italians at the gates of Trieste. The Germans sent their +giant airships to drop loads of bombs on London and their submarines +to sink passenger-steamers and hospital-ships. Each fresh outrage +against international law became the occasion of more letters of +protest from the United States, and of more controversies in the +newspapers, and in Congress, and in Kumme's bicycle-shop on +Jefferson Street, Leesville. + +In this last place, to be sure, the discussions were rather +one-sided. Practically all who came there regarded the munitions +industry as an accursed thing, and made no secret of their glee at +the misfortunes which befell it; at shipyards which caught fire and +burned up, at railroad bridges and ships at sea destroyed by +mysterious explosions. Kumme, a wizened-up, grizzle-haired old +fellow with a stubby nose and a bullet-head, would fall to cursing +in a mingling of English and German when anyone so much as mentioned +the fleets of ships that went across the water, loaded with shells +to kill German soldiers; he would point a skinny finger at whoever +would listen to him, declaring that the Germans in this country were +not slaves, and would protect their Fatherland from the perfidious +British and their Wall Street hirelings. Kumme took a newspaper +printed in German, and a couple of weeklies published in English for +the promotion of the German cause; he would mark passages in these +papers and read them aloud--everything that the mind of man could +recall or invent that was discreditable to Britain, to France and +Italy, to Wall Street, and to the nation which allowed Wall Street +to bamboozle and exploit it. There were many Americans who had +“muck-raked” their own country in the interests of social reform, +and had praised the social system of Germany. These arguments the +German propagandists now found useful, and Jimmie would take them to +the Socialist local and pass them about. From the meeting of the +local he and Meissner would go to the saloon where they had +rendezvous with Jerry Coleman, who would distribute more ten-dollar +bills to be used in the printing of anti-war literature. + +Old Kumme had a nephew by the name of Heinrich, who paid him a visit +now and then. He was a tall, fine-looking fellow, who spoke much +better English than his uncle, and wore better clothes. Finally he +came to stay, and Kumme announced that he was to help in the shop. +They didn't need any help that Jimmie could see, and certainly not +from a fellow like Heinrich, who couldn't tell a spoke from a +handle-bar; but it was none of Jimmie's business, so Heinrich put on +working clothes, and spent a couple of weeks sitting behind the +counter conversing in low tones with men who came to see him. After +a while he took to going out again, and finally announced that he +had secured a job in the Empire. + + + + +II + + + +And then to the hangers-on in the shop there was another +addition--an Irish working man named Reilly. The Irishman was a +peculiar problem in the war--the thorn of the Allied conscience, the +weak spot in their armour, the broken link in their chain of +arguments; and so every German was happy when an Irishman entered +the room. This fellow Reilly came to have a punctured tyre mended, +and stopped to tell what he thought about the world-situation. Old +man Kumme slapped him over the back, and shook him by the hand, and +told him he was the right sort, and to come again. So Reilly took to +hanging about; he would pull from his pocket a paper called +Hibernia, and Kummc would produce from under the counter a paper +called Germania, and the two would denounce “perfidious Albion” by +the hour. Jimmie, bending over the straightening of a sprocket, +would look up and grin, and exclaim, “You bet!” + +It was winter-time, and darkness came early, and Jimmie was doing +his work by electric light in the back of the shop, when Reilly came +and mysteriously drew him into a corner. Did he really mean what he +said about hatred of war, and willingness to fight against it? The +Empire Shops were now turning out thousands of shell-casings every +day, to be used in the murder of men. It was useless to try to start +a strike, there were so many spies at work, and they fired every man +who opened his mouth; if an outsider tried it they would send him to +jail--for, of course, old Granitch had the city government in his +vest-pocket. + +All this was an old story to Jimmie; but now the Irishman went on to +a new proposition. There was a way to stop the work of the Empire, a +way that had been tried in other places, and had worked. Reilly knew +where to get some T.N.T.--an explosive many times more powerful than +dynamite. They could make bombs out of the steel tubing of bicycles, +and Jimmie, knowing the Empire Shops as he did, could find a way to +get in and arrange matters. There was big money in it--the fellows +who did that job might live on Easy Street the rest of their lives. + +Jimmie was stunned. He had been perfectly sincere in classifying +German spies with sea-serpents; and here was a sea-serpent right +before his eyes, raising his head through the floor of Kumme's +bicycle-shop! + +Jimmie answered that he had never had anything to do with that sort +of thing. That wasn't the way to stop war; that was only making more +war. The other began to argue with him, showing that it wouldn't +hurt anybody; the explosion would take place at night, and all that +would be damaged would be Abel Granitch's purse. But Jimmie was +obdurate; fortunately one thing that had been incessantly pounded +into his head at the local was that the movement could not use +conspiracy, it must work by open propaganda, winning the minds and +consciences of men. + +First the Irishman became angry, and called him a coward and a +molly-coddle. Then he became suspicious, and wanted to know if +Jimmie would sell him out to the Empire. Jimmie laughed at this; he +had no love for Abel Granitch--the damned old skunk might do his own +spying. Jimmie would simply have nothing to do with the matter, one +way or the other. And so the project was dropped; but the little +machinist was moved to keep his eyes open after that, and he made +note of how many Germans, all strangers, were making the shop a +meeting-place; also the quick intimacy which had developed between +the Irishman and Heinrich, Kumme's nephew, who held himself so +straight and had no back to his head. + +Matters came to a climax with startling suddenness--the explosion +of a bomb, though not the kind which Jimmie was expecting. It was an +evening in February, just as he was about to close up, when he saw +the door of the shop open, and four men walk in. They came with a +peculiar, business-like air, two of them to the puzzled Jimmie, and +the other two to Kumme. One turned back the lapel of his coat, +showing a large gold star, and announcing, “I am an agent of the +government, and you are under arrest.” And at the same time the +other seized Jimmie's arms and slipped a pair of handcuffs over his +wrists. He passed his hands over his prisoner, a ceremony known as +“frisking”; and at the same time the other men had seized Kumme. +Jimmie saw two more men enter at the rear door of the shop, but they +had nothing to do, for both Jimmie and Kumme had been too much +startled to make any move to escape. + +They were led out to an automobile, shoved in and whirled away. No +questions were answered, so after a bit they stopped asking +questions and sat still, reflecting upon all the sins they had ever +committed in their lives, and upon the chances of these sins being +known to the police. + + + + +III + + + +Jimmie thought he was going to jail, of course; but instead they +took him to the Post Office building, to an upstairs room. Kumme was +taken to another room, and Jimmie did not see him again; all that +Jimmie had time to know or to think about was a stern-faced young +man who sat at a desk and put him on a griddle. “It is my duty to +inform you that everything you state may be used against you,” said +this young man; and then, without giving Jimmie a chance to grasp +the meaning of these words he began firing questions at him. All +through the ordeal the two detectives stood by his side, and in a +corner of the room, at another desk, a stenographer was busily +recording what he said. Jimmie knew there were such things as +stenographers--for had he not come near falling in love with one +only a short time before? + +“Your name?” said the stern-faced young man; and then, “Where do you +live?” And then, “Tell me all you know about this bomb-conspiracy.” + +“But I don't know nothin'!” cried Jimmie. + +“You are in the hands of the Federal government,” replied the young +man, “and your only chance will be to make a clean breast. If you +will help us, you may get off.” + +“But I don't know nothin'!” cried Jimmie, again. + +“You have heard talk about dynamiting the Empire Shops?” + +“Y--yes, sir.” + +“Who?” + +“A man--” Jimmie got that far, and then he recollected the promise +he had given. “I--I can't tell!” he said. + +“Why not?” + +“It wouldn't be right.” + +“Do you believe in dynamiting buildings?” + +“No, sir!” Jimmie put into this reply a note of tense sincerity, and +so the other began to argue with him. Atrocious crimes had been +committed all over the country, and the government wished to put a +stop to them; surely it was the duty of a decent citizen to give +what help he could. Jimmie listened until a sweat of anxiety stood +out on his forehead; but he could not bring himself to “peach” on +fellow working men. No, not if he were sent to jail for ten or +twenty years, as the stern-faced young man told him might happen. + +“You told Reilly you wouldn't have anything to do with bombs?” asked +the young man; and Jimmie answered “Sure, I did!” And his poor head +was so addled that he didn't even realize that in his reply he had +told what he had been vowing he would never tell! + +The questioner seemed to know all about everything, so it was easy +for him to lead Jimmie to tell how he had heard Kumme cursing the +Empire Shops, and the country, and the President; how he had seen +Kumme whispering to Reilly, and to Germans whose names he had not +learned, and how he had seen Heinrich, Kumme's nephew, cutting up +lengths of steel tubing. Then the questioner asked about Jerry +Coleman. How much money had Jimmie got, and just what had he done +with it? Jimmie refused to name other people; but when the young man +made the insinuation that Jimmie might have kept some of the money +for himself, the little machinist exclaimed with passionate +intensity--not one dollar had he kept, nor his friend Meissner +either; they had given statements to Jerry Coleman, and this though +many a time they had been hard up for their rent. The police could +ask Comrade Gerrity and Comrade Mary Allen, and the other members of +the local. + +So the questioner led Jimmie on to talk about the Germans in the +movement. Schneider, the brewer, for example--he was one of those +who cursed the Allies most vehemently, and he had been in this +bomb-conspiracy. Jimmie was indignant; Comrade Schneider was as good +a Socialist as you could find, and Socialists had nothing to do with +bombs! But young Emil Forster--he had been making explosives in his +spare hours, had he not? At which Jimmie became still more outraged. +He knew young Emil well; the boy was a carpet-designer and musician, +and if anybody had told such tales about him, they were lying, that +was all. The questioner went on for an hour or so, tormenting poor +Jimmie with such doubts and fears; until finally he dropped a little +of his sternness of manner, and told Jimmie that he had merely been +trying him out, to see what he knew about various men whose +pro-German feelings had brought them under suspicion. No, the +government had no evidence of crime against Schneider or Forster, or +any of the bona-fide Socialists. They were just plain fools, letting +themselves be used as tools of German plotters, who were spending +money like water to make trouble in munition factories all over the +country. + + + + +IV + + + +The questioner, who explained himself as a “special agent” of the +Department of Justice, went on to read Jimmie a lecture. A sincere +man like himself ought to be ashamed to let himself be taken in by +German conspirators, who were trying to break up American industry, +to lead American labour by the nose. + +“But they want to stop the making of munitions!” cried Jimmie. + +“But's that's only so that Germany can make more munitions!” + +“But I'm opposed to their being made in Germany, too!” + +“What can you do to stop it in Germany?” + +“I'm an international Socialist. When I oppose war in my own +country, I help the Socialists to oppose it in other countries. I +ain't a-going to stop--not so long as I've got any breath left in +me!” And here was Comrade Jimmie, delivering a sermon on pacifism to +the “special agent” of the government, who held his fate in his +hands! But no one was going to defend war to Jimmie Higgins and not +be answered--even though Jimmie might go to jail for the rest of his +life! + +The young man laughed--more genially than Jimmie would have thought +possible at the start of this grilling. “Higgins,” he said, “you're +a good-natured idiot. You can thank your lucky stars that one of the +men you trusted happened to be a government detective. If we didn't +know the truth about you, you might have had a hard time clearing +yourself.” + +Jimmie's jaw had fallen. “A government detective! Who is the +government detective?” + +“Reilly,” said the young man. + +“Reilly? But it was him that tempted me!” + +“Well, congratulate yourself that you resisted temptation!” + +“But maybe he tempted Heinrich, too!” + +“No, Heinrich didn't have to be tempted. It was on account of +Heinrich that we began the investigation. He has been making +explosives and planting them all over the country. His name isn't +Heinrich, and he isn't a nephew of Kumme; his name is von Holtz, and +he's a Prussian officer, a personal friend of the Kaiser.” + +Jimmie was speechless. For the love of Mike! He had been sitting in +the back part of old Kumme's bicycle-shop, filling his pipe from +the tobacco-pouch of a personal friend of the Kaiser. He had called +this personal friend of the Kaiser a fool and a jackass, informing +him that a real mechanic could put a ball-bearing together while he, +the personal friend of the Kaiser, was spitting on his hands. Could +you beat it? + +Mr. Harrod, the “special agent”, informed Jimmie that he would have +to testify as to what he knew; and Jimmie was so indignant at the +way he had been taken in that he was willing to do so. He would have +to give bond to appear, added the other; did he know anyone who +would vouch for him? Jimmie racked his harassed brain. Comrade Dr. +Service might consent, if he were quite sure that Jimmie had not +really meant to help the Germans. Mr. Harrod kindly consented to +give this assurance, and called up Dr. Service, whom he seemed to +know, and told him the circumstances. Dr. Service finally said that +he would put up a couple of thousand dollars to guarantee Jimmie's +appearance before the grand jury and at the trial. Mr. Harrod added +that if Dr. Service would promise to come in the morning and attend +to the matter, the government would take his word and let the +witness go for the night. The doctor promised, and Jimmie was told +that he was free till ten o'clock next morning. He went out like a +skylark escaping from a cage! + + + + +V + + + +He had been warned not to talk to anyone, so he told Lizzie that he +had been kept late to make repairs on a motor-cycle. And next +morning he got up at the usual hour, to avoid exciting suspicion, +and went and stared at the shop, which was locked up, with a +policeman on guard. He bought a copy of the Leesville Herald, and +read the thrilling story of the German plot which had been unearthed +in Leesville. There were half a dozen conspirators under arrest, and +more than a dozen bombs had been found, all destined to be set off +in the Empire Shops. Franz Heinrich von Holtz, who had blown up a +bridge in Canada and put an infernal machine on board a big Atlantic +liner, had been nailed at last! + +Half an hour before time, Jimmie was waiting at the Post Office +building, and when Comrade Dr. Service arrived, they went in and +signed the bond. Coming out again, the grim and forbidding doctor +ordered Jimmie into his car, and oh, what a dressing-down he did +give him! He had Jimmie where he wanted him--right over his +knees--and before he let him up he surely did make him burn! The +little machinist had been so cock-sure of himself; going ahead to +end the war, by stopping the shipping of munitions, and paying no +heed to warnings from men older and wiser than himself! And now see +what he had got himself in for--arrested with a gang of fire-bugs +and desperadoes, under the control and in the pay of a personal +friend of the Kaiser! + +Poor Jimmie couldn't put up much of a defence: he was cowed, for +once. He could only say that he had had no evil intention--he had +merely been agitating against the trade in munitions--a wicked +thing-- + +“Wicked?” broke in the Comrade Doctor. “The thing upon which the +freedom of mankind depends!” + +“W--what?” exclaimed Jimmie; for these words sounded to him like +sheer lunacy. + +The other explained. “A nation that means to destroy its neighbours +sets to work and puts all its energies into making guns and shells. +The free peoples of the world won't follow suit--you can't persuade +them to do it, because they don't believe in war, they can't realize +that their neighbours intend to make war. So, when they are attacked +their only chance for life is to go out into the open market and buy +the means of defence. And you propose to deprive them of that +right--to betray them, to throw them under the hoofs of the +war-monster! You, who call yourself a believer in justice, make +yourself a tool of such a conspiracy! You take German money--” + +“I never took no German money!” cried Jimmie, wildly. + +“Didn't Kumme pay you money?” + +“But I worked in his shop--I done my ten hours a day right +straight!” + +“And this fellow Jerry Coleman? Hasn't he given you money?” + +“But that was for propaganda--he was agent for Labour's National +Peace Council--” + +And the Comrade Doctor fairly snorted. “How could you be such an +ass? Don't you read the news? But no--of course, you don't--you +only read German dope!” And the Comrade Doctor drew out his +pocket-book, which was bursting with clippings, and selected one +from a New York paper, telling how the government was proceeding +against the officials of an organization called “Labour's National +Peace Council” for conspiring to cause strikes and violence. The +founder of the organization was a person known as “the Wolf of Wall +Street”; the funds had been furnished by a Prussian army officer, an +attache of the German legation, who had used his official immunity +to incite conspiracy and wholesale destruction of property in a +friendly country. What had Jimmie to say to that? + +And poor Jimmie for once had nothing to say. He sat, completely +crushed. Not merely the money which he had got from Kumme on +Saturday night, but also the ten-dollar bills which Jerry Coleman +had been slipping into his hand--they, too, had come from the +Kaiser! Was the whole radical movement to be taken over by the +Kaiser, and Jimmie Higgins put out of his job? + + + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +JIMMIE HIGGINS RETURNS TO NATURE + +I + + + + + +Kumme's bicycle-shop went out of business, and its contents were +sold at auction. Jimmie Higgins watched the process wistfully, +reflecting how, if he had not wasted his substance on Socialist +tracts, if he had saved a bit of his wages like any normal human +being, he might have bought this little business and got a start in +life. But alas, such hopes were not for Jimmie! He must remain in +the condition which the President of his country described as +“industrial serfdom”; he must continue to work for some other man's +profit, to be at the mercy of some other man's whim. + +He found himself a job in the railroad shops; but in a couple of +weeks came an organizer, trying to start a union in the place. +Jimmie, of course, joined; how could he refuse? And so the next time +he went to get his pay he found a green slip in his envelope +informing him that the Atlantic Western Railroad Company would no +longer require his services. No explanation was given, and none +sought--for Jimmie was old in the ways of American wage-slavery, +euphemistically referred to as “industrial serfdom”. + +He got another start as helper to a truckman. It was the hardest +work he had yet done--all the harder because the boss was a dull +fellow who would not talk about politics or the war. So Jimmie was +discontented; perhaps the spring-time was getting into his blood; at +any rate, he hunted through his Sunday paper, and came on an +advertisement of a farmer who wanted a “hand”. It was six miles out +in the country, and Jimmie, remembering his walk with the Candidate, +treated himself to a Sunday afternoon excursion. He knew nothing +about farm-work, and said so; but the munition-factories had drained +so much labour from the land that the farmer was glad to get +anybody. He had a “tenant-house” on his place, and on Monday morning +Jimmie hired his former boss--and truckman--to move his few sticks +of furniture; he bade farewell to his little friend Meissner, and +next day was learning to milk cows and steer a plough. + +So Jimmie came back to the bosom of his ancient Mother. But alas, he +came, not to find joy and health, not as a free man, to win his own +way and make a new life for himself; he came as a soil-slave, to +drudge from dawn to dark for a hire that barely kept him going. The +farmer was the owner of Jimmie's time, and Jimmie disliked him +heartily, because he was surly-tempered and stingy, abusing his +horses and nagging at his hired man. Jimmie's education in +farm-economics was not thorough enough to enable him to realize that +John Cutter was as much of a slave as himself--bound by a mortgage +to Ashton Chalmers, President of the First National Bank of +Leesville. John drudged from dawn to dark, just as Jimmie did, and +in addition had all the worry and fear; his wife was a sallow and +hollow-chested drudge, who took as many bottles of patent-medicine +as poor Mrs. Meissner. + +But Jimmie kept fairly cheerful because he was learning new things, +and because he saw how good it was for the babies, who were getting +fresh air and better food than they had ever had in their little +lives before. All summer long he ploughed and harrowed and hoed, he +tended horses and cows and pigs and chickens, and drove to town with +farm produce to be sold. He would be too tired at night even to read +his Socialist papers; for six months he let the world go its way +unhindered--its way of desperate strife and colossal anguish. It was +the time when the German hordes hurled themselves against the +fortifications of Verdun. For five horrible months they came on, +wave upon endless wave; the people of France set their teeth and +swore, “They shall not pass!” and the rest of civilization waited, +holding its breath. + + + + +II + + + +The only chance Jimmie had to talk about these matters was of a +Saturday night when he strolled up to the store at a near-by +cross-roads. The men he met here were of a new type to him--as +different from factory people as if they came from another planet. +Jimmie had been taught to laugh at them as “hayseeds”; +intellectually he regarded them as relics of a vanished age so, of +course, he could not listen to their talk very long without “butting +in”. He began with the declaration that the Allies were as bad as +the Germans. He got away with that, because they had all been taught +to hate the “Britishers” in their school-books, and they didn't know +very much about Frenchmen and “Eye-talians”. But when Jimmie went on +to say that the American government was as bad as the German +government--that all governments were run by capitalists, and all +went to war for foreign markets and such plunder--then what a +hornet's nest he brought about his ears! “You mean to say American +armies would do what them Proosians done in Belgium?” And when +Jimmie answered “Yes,” an indignant citizen rose from his seat on a +cracker-box, and tapped him on the shoulder and said: “Look here, +young feller, you better run along home. You'll git yerself a coat +of tar and feathers if you talk too much round these parts.” + +So Jimmie shut up for a while; and when he went out with his armful +of purchases, an aged, white-whiskered patriarch who had been +listening got up and followed him out. “I'm going your way,” he +said. “Git in with me.” Jimmie climbed into the buggy; and while the +bony old mare ambled along through the summer night the driver asked +questions about Jimmie's life. Where had he been brought up? How had +it been possible for a man to live all his life in America, and know +so little about his native land? + +Peter Drew was this old farmer's name, and he had been in the first +battle of Bull Run, and had fought with the Army of Northern +Virginia all the way to Richmond. So he knew how American armies +behave; he could tell Jimmie about a million free men who had rushed +to arms to save their nation's integrity, and had made a clean job +of it, and then gone quietly back to their work at farm and forge. +Jimmie had heard Comrade Mary Allen, the Quaker, make the statement +that “Force never settled anything”. He repeated this now, and the +other replied that an American ought to be the last person in the +world to make such a statement, for his country had provided the +best illustration in history of the importance of a good job of +spanking. It was force that had settled the slavery question--and +settled it so that now you might travel in the South and have a hard +time to find a man that would want to unsettle it. + +But Jimmie knew nothing about all that; he knew nothing about +anything in America. The old man said it frightened him to realize +that the country had let a man grow up in it with so little +understanding of its soul. All that precious tradition, utterly dead +so far as Jimmie was concerned! All those heroes who had died to +make free the land in which he lived, and to keep it free--and he +did not know their names, he did not even know the names of the +great battles they had fought! The old man's voice trembled and he +laid his hand on Jimmie's knee. + +The little Socialist tried to explain that he had dreams of his own. +He was fighting for international freedom--his patriotism was +higher and wider than any one country. And that was all right, said +the other, but why kick down the ladder by which you had +climbed--and especially when you had perhaps not entirely finished +climbing? Why not know the better side of your own country, and +appeal to it? Peter Drew went on to tell of a speech he had heard +Abraham Lincoln make, and to quote things Lincoln had said; could +Jimmie doubt that Lincoln would have opposed the rule of the country +by Wall Street? And when a country had been shaped and guided by +such men as Lincoln, why trample its face and besmirch its good +name--just because there were in it some evil men contending against +its ideals of freedom and democracy? + +This old soldier lived about a mile from Jimmie, and asked his new +friend to come and see him. So the next afternoon, which was Sunday, +Lizzie put on a newly starched dress, and Jimmie packed the two +smallest infants in the double perambulator, and took Jimmie +Junior's chubby hand and they trudged down the road to the farmhouse +which the old man's father had built. Mrs. Drew was a sweet-faced, +rather tired looking old lady, but her pale eyes seemed to smile +with hospitality, and she brought out a basket of ripe peaches, and +sat and chatted sympathetically with Lizzie about the care of +babies, while Jimmie and the old man sat under the shade of an elm +tree by the kitchen-door and discussed American history. Jimmie +listened to stories of battle and imprisonment, of monster heroisms +and self-immolations. Up to this time he had been looking at war +from the outside, as it were; but now he got a glimpse of the soul +of it, he began to understand how a man might be willing to leave +his home and his loved ones, and march out to fight and suffer and +die to save his country in which he believed. + +And here was another new idea: this old fellow had been a soldier, +had fought through four years of incessant battles, and yet he had +not lost his goodness. He was kind, gentle, generous; he gave +dignity to the phrases at which Jimmie had been taught to mock. It +was impossible not to respect such a man; and so little by little +Jimmie was made to reflect that there might be such a thing as the +soul of America, about which Peter Drew was all the time talking. +Perhaps there was really more to the country than Wall Street +speculators and grafting politicians, policemen with clubs and +militiamen with bayonets to stick into the bodies of working-men who +tried to improve their lot in life! + + + + +III + + + +In the course of the summer Jimmie had to take several days off and +go into Leesville to attend the trial of the German plotters. He had +to take the witness-stand and tell all he knew about Kumme and +Heinrich and the other men who had frequented the bicycle-shop. It +was a very serious experience, and before it was over Jimmie was +heartily glad that he had rejected the invitation to help blow up +the Empire Machine Shops. The trial ended with a sentence of six +months for Jimmie's old employer, and of two years each for Heinrich +and his pals. The law allowed no more--to the intense disgust of the +Leesville Herald. The Herald was in favour of a life-sentence for +anyone who interfered with the industry upon which the prosperity of +the city depended. + +Among those who came to the trial was Comrade Smith, editor of the +Worker, and Jimmie sat with him in Tom's “Buffeteria”, and heard an +account of the latest developments in the Empire Shops. The movement +of discontent had been entirely crushed; the great establishment was +going at full blast, both day and night. They were taking on +hundreds of new hands, mostly women and girls, speeding them faster +and faster, turning out tens of thousands of shell-casings every +day. And still they were not satisfied; new buildings were going up, +the concern was spreading like a huge blot over the landscape. There +was talk of an explosive factory near-by, so that shells might be +filled as fast as they were made. + +The “boom” conditions continued in Leesville; speculators were +reaping harvests, it seemed as if the masters of the city were all +on a spree. Comrade Smith advised Jimmie to stay where he was, for +it was getting to be harder and harder for the workers in Leesville +to get anything to eat. But out on the heights along the river +front, the part of the city called “Nob Hill”, new palaces were +rising. And it was that way all over the Eastern part of the +country, said the young editor; the rich no longer knew what to do +with their millions. + +On the day the trial ended, Jimmie stayed in town to attend a +meeting of the local and pay his back dues. So he met all his old +friends, and heard “Wild Bill” get up and deliver one of his +tirades. Bill had in his hand a newspaper clipping telling of the +amazing madness that had struck Wall Street. Munition stocks were +soaring to prices beyond belief; “war-babies”, men called them, with +unthinkably cynical wit. On the “Great White Way”, to which they +rushed to celebrate these new Arabian Nights, there was such an orgy +of dissipation as the world had never seen. “And is this what we +have to slave for!” yelled “Wild Bill”--looking wilder than ever +since the police had broken his nose and knocked out his three front +teeth. “This is why we are chained to our jobs--shut up in jail if +we so much as open our mouths! Piling up millions for old man +Granitch, so that young Lacey can marry chorus-girls and divorce +them--or steal away another man's wife, as they say he's doing just +now!” + +Then young Emil Forster spoke, explaining to Jimmie the inner +significance of terrific world-events. Russia was in the midst of a +gigantic offensive, which was meant to overwhelm Austria; England at +the same time was hurling in her new armies on the Somme; for these +two giant movements they wanted shells--millions and millions of +shells from America, which alone could make enough of them. The +railroads were clogged with them, they were piled mountain-high at +the terminals and ports; whole fleets of steamers were loading up +with them, and proceeding to England and France, and to Russia by +way of Archangel. And, of course, the German submarines were out to +stop them; the whole world was like a powder-magazine over the +issue. The President, by his series of notes, had forced Germany to +agree not to sink passenger-vessels; but this promise was not easy +to keep--accidents kept happening, and the temper of the peoples was +rising, America was being drawn nearer every hour to the vortex of +this dreadful strife. Such was the picture which Jimmie carried back +to the farm; you could hardly wonder if he missed that peace and joy +which men are supposed to imbibe at the bosom of their Mother +Nature! + + + + + + +CHAPTER X + +JIMMIE HIGGINS MEETS THE OWNER + +I + + + + + +It was late at night when Jimmie left the Socialist local, and took +the trolley out into the country. He had to walk nearly two miles +from where he got off, and a thunder-storm had come up; he got out +and started to trudge through the darkness and the floods of rain. +Several times he slipped off the road into the ditch, and once he +fell prone, and got up and washed the mud from his eyes and nose +with the stream of fresh water pouring about his head. While he was +thus occupied he heard the sound of a horn, and saw a glare of light +rushing up. He jumped into the ditch again, and a big automobile +went by at a fast pace, spattering showers of mud all over him. He +plodded on, swearing to himself. Some of them munition-millionaires, +no doubt--tearing over the country at night honking their +horns like they owned the roads, and covering poor walking +people with their splashings! + +And so on, until Jimmie came round a turn of the road and saw the +white glare of light again, this time standing still. It seemed to +be pointing up into the trees; and when he got nearer he made out +the reason--it had run off the road into the ditch, and then up the +other slope, and there rolled over on to its side. + +“Hello!” said a voice, as Jimmie came slopping up. + +“Hello!” he answered. + +“How far is it to the nearest house?” + +“Maybe half a mile.” + +“Who lives there?” + +“I do.” + +“Have you got a horse and buggy?” + +“There's one at the big house, just a piece beyond.” + +“Do you suppose we could get enough men to turn this car over?” + +“I dunno; there ain't many about here.” + +“Damn!” muttered the man to himself. Then, after a moment, “Well, +there's no use staying here.” This to his companion, whom Jimmie +made out to be a woman. She was standing still, with the cold rain +pouring over her. The man put his arm about her, and said to Jimmie, +“Lead the way, please.” So Jimmie set out, slopping through the mud +as before. + +Nothing more was said until they reached the “tenant-house” where +the Jimmies lived. But meantime the little Socialist's mind was +busy; it seemed to him that the man's voice was familiar, and he was +trying to recall where and how he had heard it before. They came to +the house, which was dark, and the couple stood on the porch while +Jimmie went in and groped for a match and lighted the single smoky +oil-lamp on which the household depended. Carrying it in his hand, +he went to the door and invited the couple in. They came; and so +Jimmie got a glimpse of the face of the man, and almost dropped the +lamp right there where he stood. It was Lacey Granitch! + + + + +II + + + +The young lord of Leesville was too much occupied with his own +affairs to notice the look on the face of the yokel before him; or +perhaps he was so used to being recognized, and to being stared at +by yokels. He looked about the room and saw a stove. “Can you get us +a fire, so this lady can get dry?” + +“Y--yes,” said Jimmie. “I--I suppose so.” But he made no move; he +stood rooted to the spot. + +“Lacey,” put in the woman, “don't stop for that. Get the car +started, or get another.” And Jimmie looked at her; she was rather +small, and very beautiful--quite the most beautiful human creature +that Jimmie had ever looked at. One could see that she was +expensively dressed, even though everything she had on was soaked +with rain. + +“Nonsense!” exclaimed Lacey. “You can't travel till you get +dry--you'd be ill.” And he turned upon Jimmie. “Get a fire, won't +you?” he exclaimed. “A big fire. I'll make it worth while to you for +whatever you do. Only don't stand there gaping all night,” he added +impatiently. + +Jimmie leaped to obey; partly because he had been in the habit of +leaping to obey all his life--but also partly because he was sorry +for the beautiful wet lady, and because, if he stood and stared any +longer, Lacey Granitch might recognize him. The moment when Jimmie +had been singled out in the herd of strikers and cursed by the young +master of the Empire Machine Shops was one of the most vivid +memories of Jimmie's rebellious life, and it did not occur to him +that the incident might not have equally impressed the other +participant. + +In a few minutes the stove was hot; and urged by her escort, the +lady took off her driving-coat and hat, and hung them over a chair. +Everything underneath was wet, and the man urged her to take off her +skirt and blouse. “What does he matter?” he argued, referring to +Jimmie; but the lady would not do it. She stood by the stove, +shivering slightly, and pleading with her escort to make haste, to +find some way to get the car running again. They might be followed-- + +“Oh, nonsense, Helen!” cried Lacey. “You are tormenting yourself +with nightmares. Be sensible and get dry.” He piled the wood into +the stove, and ordered Jimmie to get another armful; and Jimmie +obeyed with his hands and feet--but meantime his rebellious little +brain was taking in every detail of the situation, putting this and +that together. + +The talking had waked up Lizzie, so Jimmie rushed into the next room +and whispered, “Lacey Granitch is here!” If he had told her that the +Angel Gabriel was there, or Jehovah with all his thunders and his +retinue of seraphim, poor Lizzie could not have been more stunned. +Jimmie ordered her to get up, and get on her dress and shoes, and +get a cup of coffee for the lady; the dazed woman obeyed--though +she would rather have crawled under the bed than face the celestial +personages who had taken possession of her home. + + + + +III + + + +Lacey ordered Jimmie to accompany him, to find some help to get the +car into travelling condition. They went out together, and on the +porch, before they braved the rain again, young Granitch stopped and +spoke: “See here, my man; I want you to help me get a gang together, +and I want you to keep quiet, please--say nothing about who was in +the car. If any other people come along and ask questions, keep your +mouth shut, and I'll make it worth while to you--well worth while. +Do you understand?” + +Every instinct in Jimmie Higgins was ready to answer, “Yes, sir.” + That was what he had always answered to such commands--he, and his +father, and his father's fathers before him. But something else +within him resisted this instinct--the new revolutionary psychology +which he had so painfully acquired, and which made continual war +upon his old-time docilities. It seemed that this was the moment, if +ever in his life, to show the stuff he was made of. He clenched his +hands, and everything in him turned to iron. “WHO IS THAT LADY?” he +demanded. + +Lacey Granitch was so taken aback that he started visibly. “What do +you mean?” + +“I mean--is she your wife? Or is she some other man's wife?” + +“Why you damned--” And the young lord of Leesville stopped, +speechless. Jimmie fell back a couple of steps, as a matter of +precaution, but he did not weaken in his rigid resolve. + +“I know you, Mr. Granitch,” he said; “and I know what you're doing. +You might as well know you ain't foolin' nobody.” + +“What the hell is it to you?” cried the other; but then he stopped +again, and Jimmie heard him breathing hard. Evidently he made an +effort to keep his self-control; when he spoke again, his voice was +quieter. “Listen, my good fellow,” he said. “You have a chance to +make a good deal of money to-night--” + +“I don't want your money!” broke in Jimmie. “I wouldn't touch your +filthy money, that you get by murdering men!” + +“My God!” said Lacey Granitch; and then, weakly: “What have you got +against me?” + +“What have I got? I was workin' in the Empire, an' I went on strike +for my rights, an' you cursed me like I was a dog, an' you sent the +police an' had me arrested, an' they smashed Wild Bill's nose, an' +sent me up for ten days when I hadn't done nothin'--” + +“Oh! So that's it, is it?” + +“Yes, that's it; but I wouldn't mind that so much--if it wasn't for +them shells you're makin' to kill men over in Europe. And you +spendin' the money drinkin' champagne with chorus-girls, an' runnin' +off with other men's wives!” + +“You--” and Lacey uttered a foul oath, and leaped at Jimmie; but +Jimmie had expected that, he was looking out for himself. There was +no railing to the little porch on which he stood, and he leaped off +to the ground and away. Because he knew the lay of the land, he +could run faster in the darkness than his pursuer. + +He sped down the path and out into the road--and there was the +headlight of an automobile, almost upon him. The vehicle came to an +instant stop, and a startled voice cried, “Hey, there!” + +“Hey, there!” answered Jimmie, and stopped in the light; for he did +not believe that his enemy would dare pursue him there. + +The voice from the car spoke again. “There's an automobile off the +road a ways back here. Do you know anything about who the people are +that were driving it?” + +“Sure I do!” answered Jimmie promptly. + +“Where are they?” + +“They're up in that house--Lacey Granitch an' a lady named Helen--” + +And instantly the door of the car was flung open. A man leaped out, +and another man, and another; they kept coming--Jimmie would not +have believed that an automobile could have held so many people. Not +one of them said a word, but all started on the run for Jimmie's +house as if they were charging in a battle. + + + + +IV + + + +Jimmie followed behind. He heard sounds of a scuffle on the lawn, +and screams from inside. At first the little farm-hand could not +make up his mind what to do, but finally he ran to the house; and +there in the front room he saw the beautiful lady, with her wet hair +streaming down her back, and the tears streaming down her face, sunk +on her knees, before the man who had hailed Jimmie from the +automobile. She had caught his coat with her two hands, and clung to +it with such desperation that when he tried to draw away he dragged +her along the floor. “Paul!” she was screaming. “What are you going +to do?” + +“Be quiet! Be quiet!” commanded the man. He was young, tall and +superhumanly handsome; his face had the white light of a passionate +resolve, his lips were set like those of a man who is marching to +his death in battle. “Answer me!” cried the woman again and again; +until finally he said: “I shan't kill him; but I mean to teach him +his lesson.” + +“Paul, Paul, have mercy!” sobbed the woman; she went on pleading +hysterically, in the most dreadful distress that Jimmie had ever +seen or heard. “It wasn't his fault, Paul, it was mine! I did it +all! Oh, for Christ's sake! You are driving me mad!” She moaned, she +implored, she sobbed till she choked herself; and when the man tried +to tear her hands loose she fought with him, he could not get free +of her. + +“You're not going to move me, Helen,” he declared. “You might as +well get that clear.” + +“But I tell you it was my fault, Paul! I ran away with him!” + +“All right,” answered the man, grimly. “I'll fix him so no other +man's wife will ever run away with him.” + +Her clamour continued more wildly than ever, until two other men +came into the room. “Joe,” said Paul, to one of them, “take her down +to the car and keep her there. Don't let her call for help--if +anybody comes along, keep her quiet, keep your hand tight over her +mouth.” + +“Paul, you're a fiend!” shrieked the woman. “I'll kill you for +this!” + +“You're welcome to,” answered the man. “I shouldn't care--but I'm +going to do this job before I die.” And he tore the woman's hands +away from him, and by his stern anger he gave the other two men the +necessary resolution. They carried her, half-fainting, out of the +room. + +All this time Jimmie Higgins had been standing like one turned to +stone; and Lizzie had shrunk into a far corner of the room, all but +paralysed with terror. Now the man turned to them. “My good people,” + he said, “we want to borrow your room for a half-hour or so. We'll +pay you well for it--enough to buy the whole house if you want to.” + +“W--w--what are you goin' to do?” stammered Jimmie. + +“We're going to teach a little fundamental morality to a young man +whose education has been neglected,” replied the other. That somehow +did not tell Jimmie very much, but he forebore to speak again, for +never in all his life had he seen a man who conveyed to him the +impression of such resistless force as this man. He was truly a +superhuman creature, terrifying, panoplied in lightnings of wrath. + +The door of the house opened again, and Lacey Granitch came in, with +a man on each side holding him by the arms and a pair of handcuffs +on his wrists. Of all the dreadful spectacles that Jimmie had seen +that dreadful night, the worst was the face of the young master of +the Empire Machine Shops. It was green--absolutely and literally +green. His knees trembled so that he seemed about to sink to the +floor, and his dark eyes were those of an animal in a trap. + +There came another man behind him carrying two black cases in his +hands. He opened one, and took out some instrument with wires +attached, and hung part of it to a hook on the wall; he pressed a +switch, and a soft white radiance flooded the room. The man who was +in command, the one whom the lady had called “Paul”, now turned to +Jimmie and his wife. “You may take your lamp,” he said. “Go into the +other room and stay there till we call you, please.” + +“W--w--what are you goin' to do?” Jimmie found courage to stammer +again. But the other merely bade him to go into the other room and +stay, and it would be all right, and he would be well paid for his +time and trouble. There was no use trying to interfere; no use +trying to get away, for the house would be watched. + + + + +V + + + +Jimmie Junior had been wakened by the uproar, and was whimpering; so +Lizzie hurried to quiet him, and Jimmie set the little smoky lamp on +the dresser, and went and sat on the bed beside her, holding her +hand in his. Both their hands were shaking in a way that was +amazing. + +Every sound from the other room was plainly audible. Lacey was +pleading, and “Paul” commanded him to hold his tongue. There was a +scuffle, and then terrified moans, which died away. There began to +steal into the Higgins's bedroom a most ghastly odour; they could +not imagine what it was. And then they began to hear wild clamour +from Lacey Granitch, as if he were suffering in hell. It was awful +beyond words; the perspiration came out in beads on the faces of the +listeners, and Jimmie was just about making up his mind that it was +his duty to rush in and protest, or perhaps to climb out of the +window and make an effort to steal away and summon help, when the +door opened and the man called “Paul” came in, closing the door +behind him. + +“It's all right,” said he. “People always make a fuss when they're +given an anaesthetic, so don't let it frighten you.” And he stood +there waiting, rigid, grim, while the sounds went on. Finally they +died away and silence fell--a long, long silence. He opened the +door and went back into the other room, and the two Jimmies were +left holding each other's shaking hands. + +Now and then they heard a man speak in a low voice, or someone move +across the room; and always that ghastly, overpowering odour kept +creeping in, making them think they would die of suffocation, and +their three babies also. The suspense and horror had become almost +unbearable--when finally they began to hear Lacey Granitch again, +moaning, sobbing--most harrowing sounds. “My God! My God!” whispered +Lizzie, “What are they doing?” And when Jimmie did not answer, she +whispered again. “We ought to stop them! We ought to get help!” + +But then once more the door opened, and “Paul” came in. “It's all +right now,” he said. “He's coming out.” Neither of the Jimmies had +the least idea what “coming out” meant, but they were reassured to +know that the masterful person at least was satisfied. They waited; +they heard Lacey vomiting, as it seemed--and then they heard him +cursing, in between his feeble gasps. He called the men the same +foul name that he had called Jimmie; and that somehow made the whole +affair seem better--it brought one down to earth again! + +“Paul” went out and stayed for a while, and when he came back, he +said, “We're going now; and understand, there's nothing for you to +worry about. We shall leave the patient here, and as soon as we get +to a telephone, we'll notify the hospital to send an ambulance. So +all you have to do is to wait, and keep quiet and don't worry. And +here's something for the use of your house--” The man put out his +hand with a roll of bills, which Jimmie mechanically took--“and if +anybody asks you about what happened to-night, just say you didn't +see anything and don't know anything whatever about it. I'm sorry to +have troubled you, but it couldn't be helped. And now, good night.” + +And so the masterful young man went out, and they heard him and his +companions tramping down the porch-steps. They listened, until they +heard the automobile start up and disappear in the darkness. Then +from the next room they heard a moan. + +Trembling with terror, Jimmie got up and stole to the door, and +opened it a tiny crack. The room was in utter darkness. “Get me some +water!” the voice of Lacey groaned; and Jimmie tiptoed back and got +the little smoky lamp, and came to the door again. He peered in, and +saw that Lacey was lying on the floor with a sheet over +him--everything but his head, which was resting on a pillow. His +face was yellow and twisted with pain. “Water! Water!” he sobbed; +and Jimmie rushed to get a glass and fill it from the pail. When he +brought it, Lacey first tried to drink, and then began to vomit; +then he lay, sobbing softly to himself. He saw Jimmie staring at +him, and his eyes filled with sudden hate and he whispered, “This is +what you got me in for, you damned little skunk!” + + + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +JIMMIE HIGGINS FACES THE WAR + +I + + + + + +The ambulance arrived, and the two attendants who came with it +brought in a stretcher and carried young Granitch away. Jimmie +opened the windows to get rid of the odour of ether, and meantime he +and Lizzie sat for hours discussing every aspect of the dreadful +scene they had witnessed, and speculating as to its meaning. When +Jimmie investigated the roll of bills which had been slipped into +his hand, he found that there were ten of them, new, crisp, and +bright yellow, each having the figure twenty printed upon it. It was +more money than these two humble little people had ever had or +expected to have in all their lives. It was literally blood-money +they felt, but it would be hard to see who would be benefited if +they rejected it. Certainly the deed which had been done that night +could not be undone--not for all the money that old Granitch had +heaped up in his vaults. + +Jimmie kept quiet, as he had been bidden, and apparently no one told +about his part in the affair--no reporters came out to his country +home to ask for interviews. But when he went to the cross-roads +store a couple of nights later he found that the storm was all +over--nobody was talking or thinking about anything else. The news, +in fact, had gone by telegraph all over the world, and wherever +people read it they shuddered with horror, and the Socialists had a +choice illustration of the effect of excessive wealth upon morals. + +There were half a dozen versions of the story, Jimmie found; some +declared that the outraged husband had caught young Granitch in his +home and had fetched a surgeon there; others that he had taken him +to a hospital; others that the operation had been performed in a +road-house near by. But none mentioned the tenant-house on the farm +of John Cutter, and Jimmie wrapped himself in his pride of superior +knowledge, and let the loungers in the country store chatter on. He +would go back each night for new gossip; and first he heard that old +man Granitch was meaning to have all the conspirators arrested and +sent to jail; but then it was said that young Lacey had left the +hospital and vanished, no one knew where. And they never knew; never +again did he appear to curse the strikers at the Empire, nor to +break the hearts of chorus-girls on the Great White Way! His grim +old father's hair turned grey in a few weeks; and while he went on +to fill his contracts with the Russian government, all men knew that +his heart was eaten out with grief and rage and shame. + +Jimmie and his wife held numerous confabulations over those +twenty-dollar bills. What should they do with their fortune? The +Worker, always in need of funds, was just now issuing bonds in small +denominations, and Jimmie could not imagine any better financial +investment than a working-class paper; but Lizzie, alas, could not +be made to see it. And then his eye was caught by an advertisement +of an oil-company, published in a Socialist paper, which lifted it +above suspicion. But again Lizzie blocked the way. She begged her +visionary husband to turn the money over to her; she argued that +half of it belonged to her anyhow--had she not done her part to earn +it? “What part?” Jimmie asked; and she answered that she had kept +quiet--and what more had he done? + +Eleeza Betooser wanted that treasure to insure safety for the +children through whatever troubles might come to their propagandist +father. And finally the propagandist father gave way, and the woman +proceeded to secure the money in the ancient way of her sex. She +took the ten crisp bills and sewed them in a layer of cloth, and +wound the cloth about the ankle of her right leg, and sewed it +there, and put a stocking over it to hide it. And that apparatus +would stay there--day or night, winter or summer, it would never +part from its owner. She would be a walking bank, a bank that she +knew was safe from panic or crisis; the feeling of the two hundred +dollars about her ankle would be communicated to every part of +Lizzie--warming her heart, delighting her brain, and stimulating her +liver and digestion. + + + + +II + + + +And soon the chances of life caused Jimmie to be glad of the innate +conservatism of the feminine nature. The giant British offensive was +drowned in mud and blood on the Somme, and the Russian offensive +went to pieces before Lemberg; and meantime John Cutter stowed his +barrels of apples in the cellar, and got the last of his corn-crop +husked, and drove his load of pumpkins to market; and then one +Saturday night, after the cows had come in, wet and steaming with +November rain, he informed his hired man that he would not need his +services after that month, he would no longer be able to afford +“help”. + +Jimmie stared at him in consternation--for he had thought that he +had a permanent job, having learned the work and having heard no +serious complaints. + +“But,” explained Cutter, “the work's all done. Do you expect me to +pay you to sit round? I'll be glad to take you on next spring, of +course.” + +“And what'll I do in the meantime?” Jimmie glared, and all his +hatred of the villainous profit-system welled up in his heart. So +much food he had helped to raise and store away--and not a pound of +it his! “Say,” he remarked, “I know what you want! Some kind of a +trained bear, that'll work all summer, and go to sleep in winter an' +not eat nothin'!” + +The little Socialist was all the crosser, because he knew that his +boss had just made a lucky stroke--they were running a spur on the +railroad out to the vast explosives plant they were constructing in +the country, and Cutter had got the price of his mortgage for a +narrow strip of land that was nothing but wood-lot. Jimmie had seen +the deal made, and had put in a useful word as to the value of that +“timber”, but now he had no share in the deal. He must be content +with an offer of the tenant-house for five dollars a month through +the winter, and a job with the rail-road company, grading track. + +There came rain and snow and blizzards, but the rail-road +construction stopped for nothing. It went on in three shifts, day +and night; for half the world was clamouring for the means to blow +itself up, and the other half must work like the devil to furnish +the means. At least that was the way the matter presented itself to +Jimmie Higgins, who took it as a personal affront the way this +diabolical war kept pursuing him. He had fled into the country from +it, bringing his little family to a tenant-house on an obscure, +worn-out farm, several miles from the nearest town; but here all of +a sudden came a gang of Dagoes with picks and shovels. They lifted +up and set to one side the chicken-house where Lizzie kept her +eleven hens and one rooster, and the pig-sty where one little hog +gobbled up their table-scraps; and two days later came a huge +machine, driven by steam, creeping on a track, picking up rails and +ties from a car behind it, swinging them round and laying them in +front of it, and then rolling ahead over the bed it had made. So the +railroad just literally walked out into the country, and before long +whole train-loads of cement and sand and corrugated iron walls and +roofing came rattling and banging past the Higgins's back-door. Day +and night this continued; and a little way beyond they knew that a +two-mile square of scrubby waste was being laid out with roads and +tracks and little squat buildings, set far apart from each other. In +a few months the frightened family would lie awake at night and +listen to trains rattling past, coming out from the explosives +plant, piled to the tops with loads of trinitrotoluol, and such +unpronounceable instruments of murder and destruction. And this was +the fate which capitalism had handed out to an ardent +anti-militarist, a propagandist of international fraternity! + + + + +III + + + +Jimmie Higgins went into the Socialist local now and then, to pay +his dues and to refresh his soul on pacifist speeches. Just before +Christmas the President of the United States wrote a letter to all +the warring nations pleading with them to end the strife; intimating +that all the belligerents were on a par as to badness, and stating +explicitly that America had nothing to do with their struggle. This, +of course, brought intense satisfaction to the members of Local +Leesville of the Socialist party; it was what they had been +proclaiming for two years and four months! They had never expected +to have a capitalist President in agreement with them, but when the +opportunity came, they made the most of it; clamouring that the +capitalist President should go farther--should back up his words by +actions. If the warring nations would not make peace, let America at +least clear her skirts by declaring an embargo, refusing to furnish +them with the means of self-destruction! + +But for some reason incomprehensible to Jimmie Higgins, the +capitalist President would not take this further step; and time +moved on, and at the end of January fell a thunder-bolt, in the +shape of a declaration from the German government that beginning +next day it rescinded its agreement to visit and search steamers, +and declared war to the death against all vessels sailing in barred +zones. Jimmie went to a meeting of the local a few days after that, +and found the gathering seething with excitement. The President had +appeared before Congress that day and made a speech calling for war; +and the Germans and Austrians in the local were wild with +indignation, shaking their fists and clamouring against the +unthinkable outrage of an attack upon the Fatherland. There was a +new edition of the Worker just out, filled with bitter protests, and +the Germans and the pacifists wanted to pledge the local to a +movement for a general strike of labour throughout the country. +Street-meetings had been resumed--for, of course, since the strike +in the Empire had been settled, the police had had no pretext to +prevent them. The extremists now wanted anti-war speakers on every +corner, and anti-war leaflets shoved under every doorstep; they were +willing to put up the money and to pledge their time for these +activities. + +Lawyer Norwood rose and revealed the split that was now full-grown +in the party. For the United States to lie down before that insolent +declaration of the German government would be to imperil everything +which a lover of liberty held dear. It would mean that Britain would +be starved out of the war, and British sea-power shattered--that +British sea-power upon which free government had based itself +throughout the world. Norwood was unable to get any further for the +tempest of jeering and ridicule that overwhelmed him. “Freedom in +Ireland!” shrieked Comrade Mary Allen. “And in India! And in Egypt!” + bellowed Comrade Koeln, the glass-blower, whose mighty lungs had +been twenty years preparing for this emergency. + +It was hard to stop the laughter--it seemed so funny that a man who +called himself a Socialist should be defending British battleships! +But Comrade Gerrity, the chairman, pounded with his gavel, and +insisted that the meeting should give fair play, that every speaker +should be heard in his turn. So Norwood went on. He understood that +no government in this world was perfect, but some were better than +others, and it was a fact of history, whether or not they chose to +admit it, that such freedom as had already been secured in the +world--in Britain and Canada and Australia and New Zealand and the +United States--had rested under the protection of British +battleships. If those battleships went down, it would mean that +every one of those free communities would begin building up a +military force many times as strong as they had now. If the United +States did not maintain the established customs of sea-commerce in +the present crisis, it would mean one thing and one only--that +America would spend the next thirty years devoting her energies to +preparing for a life-and-death struggle with German Imperialism. If +we were not to fight later, we must fight now-- + +“All right, you fight!” shouted Comrade Schneider, the brewer, his +purple face more purple than ever before in the history of Local +Leesville. + +“I'm going to fight all right,” answered the young lawyer. “This is +my last speech here or anywhere else--I'm leaving for an officers' +training-camp to-morrow. I have come here to do my duty, to warn you +comrades--even though I know it will be in vain. The time for debate +has passed--the country is going into war--” + +“I'm not going into war!” roared Schneider. + +“Be careful,” answered the other. “You may find yourself in before +you know it.” + +And the big brewer laughed to shake the plaster off the walls. “I'd +like to see them send me! To fight for the British sea-power! Ho! +Ho! Ho!” + + + + +IV + + + +It was a stormy speech young Norwood made, but he persisted to the +end, so that, as he said, his conscience might be clear, he might +know that he had done what he could to protect the movement from its +greatest blunder. He warned them that the temper of the country was +rising; you could see it rising hour by hour, and things which had +been tolerated in the past would be tolerated no longer. Democracy +would protect its life--it would show that in a crisis it was as +strong as militarism-- + +“Yes, and turn itself into militarism to do it!” cried Comrade Mary +Allen. The Quaker lady was almost beside herself; she, more even +than the Germans, saw in what was transpiring the violation of her +most sacred convictions. + +America, her own country, was giving itself to war, making ready to +turn its resources to the wholesale mutilation of men! Comrade +Mary's thin face was white; her lips were tight with resolve, but +her feelings betrayed themselves by the quivering of her nostrils. +And oh, what a speech she made! Such torrents of furious hatred in +the cause of universal love! Comrade Mary quoted a Socialist writer +who had said that just as gladiatorial combats had continued until +Christian monks were willing to throw themselves into the arena, so +war would continue until Socialists were willing to throw themselves +beneath the hoofs of the cavalry. And in this Quaker spinster you +saw one Socialist who was ready to go out that very night and throw +herself beneath the hoofs of cavalry, infantry, or artillery, or +even of a police automobile. + +And that was the sentiment of the meeting as a whole. If America +entered the European strife, it would be because the Socialist +organization had exhausted its means of protest in vain. They would +call meetings, they would distribute literature, they would voice +their convictions on the streets and in the shops and wherever the +people might be reached. They would have no part in this wicked +strife, either now or later; they would continue in the future, as +in the past, to denounce and to expose the capitalist politicians +and the capitalist newspapers who caused war and thrived upon war. +And in proportion to the intensity of their feelings would be their +bitterness and contempt for the few renegades who in this hour of +crisis, this test of manhood and integrity, were deserting the +movement and going to enrol themselves in officers' training-camps! + +And so when Jimmie went home that night he carried with him an +armful of revolutionary literature, which during the noon-hour he +proceeded to distribute among the workers on the construction-job, +which was now inside the preserves of the explosives company. So +naturally in the course of the afternoon he was summoned before the +boss and discharged; they escorted him to the limits of the +property, and told him that if he ever returned he would be shot on +sight. And then at night he went up to the cross-roads store and +tried to give out his literature there, and got into a controversy +with some of the cracker-box loungers, one of whom jumped up and +shook his fist in Jimmie's face, shouting, “Get out of here, you +dirty little louse! If you don't stop talking your treason round +here, we'll come down some night and ride you out of the country on +a rail!” + + + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +JIMMIE HIGGINS MEETS A PATRIOT + +I + + + + + +The country, it seemed, was hell-bent for war; and Jimmie Higgins +was hell-bent for martyrdom. If the great madness were to take +possession of America, it would not be without his having done what +he could to prevent it. He would stand in the path of the war +chariot, he would throw himself beneath the hoofs of the cavalry; +and block the road with his dead body. To which vivid programme +there was only one obstacle--or, to be precise, four obstacles, one +large and three small, the large one being Eleeza Betooser. + +Poor Lizzie of course had no real comprehension of the world-forces +against which her husband was contending; to Lizzie, life consisted +of three babies, whom it was her duty to feed and protect, and a +husband, who was her instrument for carrying out this duty. The +world outside of these was to her a vague and shadowy place, full of +vague and shadowy terrors. Somewhere up in the sky was a Holy Virgin +who would help when properly appealed to, but Lizzie was handicapped +in appealing to this Virgin by the fact that her husband despised +the Holy One, and would cast insulting doubts upon her virtue. + +Now the shadowy terrors of this vast outside world were moving to +ends of their own, and her poor, puny husband persisted in putting +himself in their way. He had got turned out of his job, for the +fourth or fifth time since Lizzie had known him, and he was in +imminent danger of getting into jail, or into a coat of tar and +feathers. As the controversy grew hotter and the peril greater, +Lizzie came to a condition which might have been diagnosed as +chronic impending hysteria. Her eyes were red from secret weeping, +and at the slightest provocation she would burst into floods of +tears and throw herself into her husband's arms. This would start +off Jimmie Junior and the little ones, who always took their cue +from him. And Jimmie Senior would stand perplexed and helpless. Here +was a new aspect of the heroic life, not dealt with in the books. He +wondered--had there ever in history been such a thing as a married +martyr? If so, what had this martyr done with his family? + +Jimmie would try to explain this to his distressed spouse. It was a +question of saving a hundred million people from the horrors of war; +what did one man matter, in comparison with that? But alas, the +argument did not carry at all, the simple truth being that the one +man mattered more to Lizzie than all the other ninety-nine million, +nine hundred and ninety-nine thousand, nine hundred and ninety-nine. +And besides, what could the one man do? One poor, obscure, helpless +working-man out of a job-- + +“But it's the organization!” he cried. “It's all of us +together--it's the party! We promised to stand together, so we got +to do it! If I drop out, I'm a coward, a traitor! We must make the +workers understand--” + +“But you can't!” cried Lizzie. + +“But we're doin' it! Come see!” + +“And what can they do?” + +Which of course started Jimmy off on a propaganda speech. What could +the workers do? Say rather, what could they not do! How could any +war be fought without the workers? If only they would stand +together, if they would rise against their capitalist oppressors-- + +“But they won't!” sobbed the woman. “They got no use for you at all! +You go an' get fired--or you get your face beat in, like poor Bill +Murray--” + +“But is that any worse than goin' to war?” + +“You ain't got to go to war!” + +“Who says I ain't? I got to go, if the country goes. They'll drag me +off and make me! If I refuse they'll shoot me! Ain't they doin' that +in England and France an' Roosia an' all them countries?” + +“But will they do it here?” cried Lizzie, aghast. + +“Sure they will! That's exactly what they're gettin' ready for--what +we're fightin' to stop them from! You don't know what's goin' on in +this country--listen here!” + +And Jimmie hauled out the last issue of the Worker, which quoted +speeches made in Congress, calling for conscription, declaring that +such a measure was an essential war-step. “Don't you see what +they're up to? An' if we're goin' to stop them, we gotta act now, +before it's too late. Hadn't I just as good go to jail here in +Leesville as be shipped over to Europe to be shot--or maybe drowned +by a submarine on the way?” + +And thus a new terror was introduced into Lizzie's life--robbing +her of sleep for many a night thereafter, planting in her +mother-heart for the first time the idea that she might be concerned +in the world-war. “What'd become of the babies?” she wailed; and +Jimmie answered: Whose business was it to bother about working-class +babies, under the hellish capitalist system? + + + + +II + + + +So Jimmie had his way for a bit--he went into Leesville and helped +distribute literature, and held the torch at street-meetings, where +some people hooted at them and others defended them, and the police +had to interfere to prevent a riot. It was at this time that a +militant majority was trying to drive through the Senate a +declaration of war against Germany, and a handful of pacifists +blocked the way in the closing hours of the session, thus causing a +delay of several weeks. How you regarded this action depended upon +your point of view. The President denounced them as “wilful men”, +and the Wall Street newspapers apparently wanted them lynched; +whereas Jimmie and his fellows in the local hailed them as heroes +and friends of mankind. The Socialists argued that the President had +been re-elected, only four months before, by pacifist votes, and +upon a pacifist platform; and now he was sweeping the country into +war, and denouncing those who stood upon his former convictions! + +On top of this came another event which set Jimmie almost beside +himself with excitement. For three days all news from Petrograd was +cut off; and then came a report, electrifying the world--the Tsar +had been overthrown, the Russian people were free! Jimmie could +hardly believe his eyes; he went in to the meeting of the local +three nights later, to find his comrades celebrating as if the world +was theirs. Here was the thing they had been preaching, day in and +day out, all these weary years, amid ridicule, hatred and +persecution; here was the Social Revolution, knocking at the gates +of the world! It would spread to Austria and Germany, to Italy, +France, England--and so to Leesville! Everywhere the people would +come into their own, and war and tyranny would vanish like a hateful +nightmare! + +Speaker after speaker got up to proclaim this glorious future; they +sang the Marseillaise and the Internationale, and the Russians who +were present clasped one another in their arms, with tears running +down their cheeks. It was voted that they must hold a mass-meeting +immediately, to explain this epoch-making event to the people of the +city; also they must stand more firmly than ever by their programme +of opposition to war. Now, with Social Revolution knocking at the +gates of the world, what was the use of America's going in for +militarism? + +So Jimmie set to work with redoubled fervour, giving all his time to +agitation. He had apparently no chance of getting a job, and for the +moment he gave up trying. The keeper of the cross-roads store, being +down on him because of his ideas, refused him any more credit; and +so poor Lizzie was driven to do what she had vowed never to do--take +off the stocking from her right leg, and unsew the bandage from her +ankle, and extract one of the ten precious twenty-dollar bills. +Their bright yellow was considerably faded now, their beautiful +crispness gone entirely; but the store-keeper made no kick on that +account--he returned the change, and incidentally took occasion to +give her a friendly warning concerning her husband's reckless talk. +There was trouble coming to him, and his wife had better shut him up +before it was too late. So poor Lizzie ceased being a pacifist, and +went home to have more hysterics on her husband's bosom. + + + + +III + + + +Being unable to hold him back, she sent word by the mail-carrier to +old Peter Drew to come up and help; the old farmer hitched up his +bony mare and drove to see them, and for a couple of hours talked +America while Jimmie talked Russia. Was America to lie down before +the Kaiser? Jimmie would answer that they were going to bring down +the Kaiser in the same way they had brought down the Tsar. The +workers of Russia having shown the way, never more would the workers +of any nation bow to the yoke of slavery. Yes, even in the so-called +republics, such as France, which was ruled by bankers, and America, +which was ruled by Wall Street--even here, the workers would read +the lesson of revolt! + +“But in America the people can get anything they want!” cried the +bewildered old man. “They only have to vote--” + +“VOTE?” snarled Jimmie. “An' have their votes thrown out by some +rotten political gang, like they got here in Leesville? Don't talk +to me about votin'--they told me I'd moved into a new district an' +lost my vote--lost it because I lost my job! So it's old man +Granitch has the say whether I can vote or not! You'll find the same +thing true of two-thirds of the men in the Empire Shops--half the +unskilled men in the country got no votes, because they got no home, +no nothin'.” + +“But,” argued the old soldier, “how will you run your new +working-class government, if not by votes?” + +“Sure, we'll run it by votes,” Jimmie answered--“but first we'll +turn out the capitalists; they won't have the money to buy political +machines; they won't own the newspapers an' print lies about us. +Look at this Leesville Herald right now--just plain downright lies +they print--we can't get any truth at all to the people.” + +And so it went. It was of no use for the old man to plead for the +“country”; to Jimmie the “country” had let itself be lost, +suppressed, taken over by the capitalists, the “plutes”. Jimmie's +sense of loyalty was not to his country, but to his class, which had +been exploited, hounded, driven from pillar to post. In past times +the government had allowed itself to be used by corporations; so now +it was in vain that the President made appeals for justice and +democracy, using the beautiful language of idealism. Jimmie did not +believe that he meant it; or anyhow, Wall Street would see that +nothing came of his promises. The “plutes” would take his words and +twist them into whatever sense they wished; and meantime they went +on pouring abuse on Jimmie Higgins--throwing the same old mud into +his eyes, blinding him with the same old hatred. So there was no way +for an old soldier and patriot to break through the armour of +Jimmie's prejudice. + +IV + +Next day was to be the great mass-meeting in celebration of the +Russian revolution; and would you believe it, Lizzie was hoping to +persuade Jimmie to stay away; she had brought Mr. Drew to help +persuade him! Poor Lizzie had visions of everybody in the hall being +carted off to jail, of Jimmie getting up and shouting something, +causing the police to fall on him and beat in his skull with their +clubs. It was in vain he declared that he was going to do nothing +more romantic than sell literature and act as usher. She clasped him +in her arms, weeping copiously, and when he was still obdurate, she +declared that she would go with him. She would try to persuade Mrs. +Drew to take care of the babies for one night. + +Old Peter Drew answered that he would be interested to attend the +meeting himself. How would it do for him to come for Lizzie and the +little ones, and leave the latter at his home, and then drive with +Lizzie to the meeting? They could meet Jimmie at the Opera-house, +where he would be spending the day decorating. Then after the +meeting they could all drive back together. “Fine!” said Jimmie, who +had visions of the old soldier becoming infected with revolutionary +fever. + +But alas, it did not work out that way. To Jimmie's consternation +the old man turned up at the Opera-house in a faded blue uniform +with brass buttons all over it! Everybody stared, of course; and +they stared all the harder because they saw this military personage +in company with Comrade Higgins. The old boy gazed about at the +swarms of people, many of them with red buttons, the women with red +ribbons or sashes; he gazed at the decorations--the huge flag and +the long red streamers, the banner of the Karl Marx Verein, and the +banner of the Ypsels, or Young Peoples' Socialist League of +Leesville, and the banner of the Machinists' Union, Local 4717, and +of the Carpenters' Union, District 529, and of the Workers' +Co-operative Society. He turned to Jimmie and said, “Where's the +American flag?” + +The Liederkranz sang the Marseillaise, and after the audience had +cheered and waved red handkerchiefs and shouted itself hoarse, +Comrade Gerrity, the chairman, made a little speech. For many years +all Socialists had been accustomed to employ a metaphor by which to +describe conditions in their country, and now they would no longer +be able to use it, for Russia was free, and America would follow her +example when she had the sense. He introduced Comrade Pavel +Michaelovitch, who had come all the way from New York to tell them +the meaning of the greatest event of history. Comrade Pavel, a +slender, frail, scholarly-looking man with a black beard and +black-rimmed spectacles, said a few words in Russian, and then he +talked for an hour in broken English, explaining how the Russians +had won their way to freedom, and now would use it to set free the +rest of the proletariat. And then came Comrade Schultze, of the +Carpet Weavers' Union, assuring them that there was no need to go to +war with Germany, because the German workers had been shown the way +to freedom, and would follow very soon; Schultze knew, because his +brother was editor of a Socialist paper in Leipzig, and he had +inside information as to what was going on in the Fatherland. + +Then Comrade Smith, the editor of the Worker, was introduced, and +the trouble began. The young editor wasted no time in preliminaries; +he was an international revolutionist, and no capitalist government +was going to draft him for its bloody knaveries. Never would he be +led out to murder his fellow-workers, whether in Germany, Austria, +Bulgaria or Turkey; the masters of Wall Street would find that when +they set out to drive American free men to the slaughter-pen, they +had made the mistake of their greedy lives. “Understand me,” + declared Comrade Smith--though there seemed so far to have been +nothing in which anyone could possibly have misunderstood +him--“understand me, I am no pacifist, I am not opposed to war--it +is merely that I purpose to choose the war in which I fight. If they +try to put a gun into my hands, I shall not refuse to take it--not +much, for I and my fellow wage-slaves have long wished for guns! But +I shall use my own judgement as to where I aim that gun--whether at +enemies in front of me, or at enemies behind me--whether at my +brothers, the working-men of Germany, or at my oppressors, the +exploiters of Wall Street, their newspaper lackeys and military +martinets!” + +The sentences of this speech came like the blows of a hammer, and +they struck forth a clamour of applause from the audience. But +suddenly the cheering crowd became aware that something out of the +ordinary was happening. An aged, white-whiskered man clad in a faded +blue uniform had risen from his seat in the middle of the hall and +was shouting and waving his arms. People near him were trying to +pull him down into his seat, but he would not be squelched, he went +on shouting; and the audience in part fell silent out of curiosity. +“Shame! Shame!” they heard him cry. “Shame upon you!” And he pointed +a trembling finger at the orator, declaring, “You are talking +treason, young man!” + +“Sit down!” shrieked the crowd. “Shut up!” + +But the old man turned upon them. “Are there no Americans at all in +this audience? Will you listen to this shameless traitor without one +word?” + +People caught him by the coat-tails, men shook their fists at him; +at the other side of the hall “Wild Bill” leaped upon a chair, +shrieking: “Cut his throat, the old geezer!” + +Two policemen came running down the aisle, and the “old geezer” + appealed to them: “What are you here for, if not to protect the flag +and the honour of America?” But the policemen insisted that he stop +interrupting the meeting, and so the old man turned and stalked out +from the hall. But he did not go until he had turned once more and +shaken his fist at the crowd, yelling in his cracked voice, +“Traitors! Traitors!” + + + + +V + + + +Poor Jimmie remained in his seat, overwhelmed. That he, the most +devoted of workers for Socialism, should have been the cause of such +a disgraceful scene--bringing to this revolutionary meeting a man in +the uniform of a killer of the working-class! He could not stay and +face the comrades; before the speaking had finished, he gave Lizzie +a nudge, and the two got up and stole out, dodging everyone they +knew. + +Outside they stood in perplexity. They thought, of course, that the +old man would have driven away without them; they pictured the long +walk from the trolley-line in the darkness and mud--and with Lizzie +dressed in her only Sunday-go-to-meeting! But when they went to the +place where Mr. Drew had left his buggy, to their surprise they +found him patiently waiting for them. Seeing them hesitate, he said, +“Come! Get in!” They were much embarrassed, but obeyed, and the old +mare started her amble towards home. + +They rode for a long time in silence. Finally Jimmie could not stand +it, and began, “I'm so sorry, Mr. Drew. You don't understand--” But +the old man cut him off. “There's no use you and me tryin' to talk, +young man.” So they rode the rest of the way without a sound--except +that once Jimmie imagined he heard Lizzie sobbing to herself. + +Jimmie really felt terribly about it, for he had for this old +soldier a deep respect, even an affection. Mr. Drew had made his +impression not so much by his arguments, which Jimmie considered +sixty years out of date, as by his personality. Here was one patriot +who was straight! What a pity that he could not understand the +revolutionary point of view! What a pity that he had to be made +angry! It was one more of the horrors of war, which tore friends +apart, and set them to disputing and hating one another. + +At least, that was the way it seemed to Jimmie that night, while he +was still full of the speeches he had heard. But at other times +doubts assailed him--for, of course, a man cannot defy and combat a +whole community without sometimes being led to wonder whether the +community may not have some right on its side. Jimmie would hear of +things the Germans had done in the war; they were such dirty +fighters, they went out of their way to do such utterly revolting +and useless, almost insane things! They made it so needlessly hard +for anyone who tried to defend them to think of them even as human +beings. Jimmie would argue that he did not mean to help the Germans; +he would resent bitterly the charges of the Leesville newspapers +that he was a German agent and a traitor; but he could not get away +from the uncomfortable fact that the things he was doing DID have a +tendency to further German interests, at least for a time. + +When that was pointed out to him by some patriot in a controversy, +his answer would be that he was appealing to the German Socialists +to revolt against their military leaders; but then the patriot would +begin to find fault with the German Socialists, declaring that they +were much better Germans than Socialists, and citing utterances and +actions to prove it. One German Socialist had stood up in the +Reichstag and declared that the Germans had two ways of +fighting--their armies overcame their enemies in the field, while +their Socialists undermined the morale of the workers in enemy +countries. When that passage was read to Jimmie, he answered that it +was a lie; no such speech had ever been made by a Socialist. He had +no way of proving it was a lie, of course; he just knew it! But +then, when he went away and thought it over, he began to wonder; +suppose it were true! Suppose the German workers had been so drilled +and schooled in childhood that even those who called themselves +revolutionists were patriots at heart! Jimmie would begin to piece +this and that together--things he had heard or read. Certainly these +German Socialists were not displaying any great boldness in fighting +their government! + +The answer was that they could not oppose their government, because +they would be put in jail. But that was a pretty poor answer; it was +their business to go to jail--if not, what right had they to expect +Jimmie Higgins to go here in America? Jimmie presented this problem +to Comrade Meissner, who answered that if Jimmie would go first, +then doubtless the German comrades would follow. But Jimmie could +not see why he should be first; and when they tried to clear up the +reason, it developed that down in his heart Jimmie had begun to +believe that Germany was more to blame for the war than America. And +not merely would Comrade Meissner not admit that, but he became +excited and vehement, trying to convince Jimmie that the other +capitalist governments of the world were the cause of the +war--Germany was only defending herself against them! So there they +were, involved in a controversy, just like any two non-revolutionary +people! Repeating over the same arguments which had gone on in the +local between Norwood, the lawyer, and Schneider, the brewer; only +this time Jimmie was taking the side of Norwood! Jimmie found +himself face to face with the disconcerting fact that his devoted +friend Meissner was a German--and therefore in some subtle way +different from him, unable to see things as he did! + + + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +JIMMIE HIGGINS DODGES TROUBLE + +I + + + + + +War or no war, the soil had to be ploughed and seed sown; so John +Cutter came to his tenant and proposed that he should resume his job +as farm-hand. Only he must agree to shut up about the war, for while +Cutter himself was not a rabid patriot, he would take no chances of +having his tenant-house burned down some night. So there was another +discussion in the Higgins family. Lizzie remembered how, during the +previous summer, Jimmie had worked from dawn till dark, and been too +tired even to read Socialist papers, to say nothing of carrying on +propaganda; which seemed to the distracted wife of a propagandist +the most desirable condition possible! Poor Eleeza Betooser--twice +again she had been compelled to take down the stocking from her +right leg, and unsew the bandage round her ankle, and extract +another of those precious yellow twenty-dollar bills; there were +only seven of them left now, and each of them was more valuable to +Lizzie than her eye-teeth. + +Jimmie finally agreed that he would gag himself, so far as concerned +this country-side. What was the use of trying to teach anything to +these barnyard fools? They wanted war, let them go to war, and be +blown to bits, or poisoned in the trenches! If Jimmie had +propaganding to do, he would do it in the city, where the +working-men had brains, and knew who their enemies were. So once +more Jimmie harnessed up John Cutter's horses to the plough, and +went out into John Cutter's field to raise another crop of corn for +a man whom he hated. All day he guided the plough or the harrow, and +at night he fed and cared for the horses and the cows, and then he +came home and ate his supper, listening to the rattling of the long +freight-train that went through his backyard, carrying materials for +the making of TNT. + +For the great explosives plant was now working day and night, +keeping the war in Jimmie's thoughts all the time, whether he would +or not. In the midnight hours the trains of finished materials went +out, making Jimmie's windows rattle with their rumble and clatter, +and bearing his fancies away to the battle-line across the seas, +where men were soon to be blown to pieces with the contents of these +cars. One night something went wrong on the track, and the train +stopped in his backyard, and in the morning he saw the cars, painted +black, with the word “danger” in flaming red letters. On top of the +cars walked a man with a club in his hand and a bulge on his hip, +keeping guard. + +It appeared that someone had torn up a rail in the night, evidently +for the purpose of wrecking the train; so there came a detective to +Jimmie, while he was working in the field, to cross-question him. +They had Jimmie's record, and suspected him of knowing more than he +would tell. “Aw, go to hell!” exclaimed the irate Socialist. “D'you +suppose, if I'd wanted to smash anything, I'd done it on the place +where I work?” And then, when he went home to dinner, he found that +they had been after Lizzie, and had frightened her out of her wits. +They had threatened to turn them out of their home; Jimmie saw +himself hounded here and there by this accursed war--until it +finished by seizing him and dragging him to the trenches! + + + + +II + + + +The new Congress had met, and declared a state of war with Germany, +and the whole country was rushing into arms. Men were enlisting by +hundreds of thousands; but that was not enough for the +militarists--they wanted a conscription-law, so that every man might +be compelled to go. If they were so sure of themselves and their +wonderful war, why weren't they satisfied to let those fight it who +wanted to? So argued the rebellious Jimmie and his anti-militarist +associates. But no! the militarists knew perfectly well that the +bulk of the people did not want to fight, so they proposed to make +them fight. Every energy of the Socialist movement was now +concentrated on the blocking of this conscription scheme. + +Local Leesville hired the Opera-house again, organizing a +mass-meeting of protest, and the capitalist papers of the city began +clamouring against this meeting. Was the patriotism and loyalty of +Leesville to be affronted by another gathering of sedition and +treason? The Herald told all over again the story of the gallant old +Civil War veteran who had risen in his seat and shouted his protest +against the incitements of “Jack” Smith, the notorious “red” editor. +The Herald printed a second time the picture of the gallant old +veteran in his faded blue uniform, and the list of battles in which +he had fought, from the first Bull Run to the last siege of +Richmond. Some farmer passing by handed a copy of this paper to +Lizzie, adding that if there was any more treason-talk in this +locality there was going to be a lynching bee. So Jimmie found his +wife in tears again. She was absolutely determined that he should +not go to that meeting. For three days she wept and argued with him, +and for a part of three nights. + +It would have been comical if it had not been so tragic. Jimmie +would use the old argument, that if he did not succeed in stopping +the war, he would be dragged into the trenches and killed. So, of +course, Lizzie would become a pacifist at once. What right had the +war to take Jimmie from her? The little Jimmies had a right to their +father! All children had a right to their fathers! But then, after +Lizzie had expressed these tearful convictions, Jimmie would say, +“All right, then, he must go to that meeting, he must do what he +could to prevent the war.” And poor Lizzie would find herself +suddenly confronting the terrors of the police with their clubs and +the patriots with their buckets of tar and bags of feathers! No, +Jimmie must not carry on any propaganda, Jimmie must not go to the +meeting! Poor Jimmie would try to pin her down; which way did she +want him killed, by the Germans, or by the police and the mobs? But +Lizzie did not want him killed either way! She wanted him to go on +living! + +Jimmie would try to arrange a compromise for the present. He would +go to the meeting, but he would promise not to say a word. But that +did not console Lizzie--she knew that if anything happened, her man +would get into it. No, if he were determined to go, she would go, +too,--even if they had to load the three babies into the +perambulator, and push them two or three miles to the trolley! If +Jimmie tried to make a speech, she would hang on to his coat-tails, +she would clasp her hands over his mouth, she would throw herself +between him and the clubs of the policemen! + +So matters stood, when on the afternoon before the meeting there +came a heavy rain, and the road to the trolley was rendered +impossible for a triple-loaded baby-carriage. So there were more +hysterics in the family; Jimmie took his wife's hand in his and +solemnly swore to her that she might trust him to go to this +meeting, he would not do anything that could by any possibility get +him into trouble. He would not try to make a speech, he would not +get up and shout--no matter what happened, he would not say a word! +He would merely sell pamphlets, and show people to their seats, as +he had done at a hundred meetings before. To make sure of his +immunity, he would even leave off the red badge which he was +accustomed to display on Socialist occasions! By these pledges +repeated over and over, he finally succeeded in pacifying his +weeping spouse, and gently removed her clutch on his coat-tails, and +departed, waving his hand to her and the kids. + +The last thing he saw through the rain was Jimmie Junior, +flourishing a red handkerchief which Lizzie at the last moment had +extracted from her husband's pocket. The last sound he heard was +Jimmie Junior's voice, shouting: + +“You be good now! You shut up!” Jimmie went off, thinking about this +little tike; he was five years old, and growing so that you could +notice the difference overnight. He had big black eyes like his +mother, and a grin full of all the mischief in the world. The things +he knew and the questions he asked! Jimmie and Lizzie never got +tired of talking about them; Jimmie recalled them one by one, as he +trudged through the mud--and, as always, he set his lips and +clenched his hands, and took up anew the task of making the world a +fit place for a working-man's child to grow up in! + + + + +III + + + +The principal orator of the evening was a young college professor +who had been turned out of his job for taking the side of the +working-class in his public utterances, and who was therefore a hero +to Jimmie Higgins. This young man had the facts of the war at his +finger-tips; he made you see it as a gigantic conspiracy of +capitalists the world over to complete their grip on the raw +materials of wealth, and on the bodies and souls of the workers. He +bitterly denounced those who had forced the country into the war; he +denounced the Wall Street speculators and financiers who had made +their billions already, and would be making their tens of billions. +He denounced the plan to force men to fight who did not wish to +fight, and his every sentence was followed by a burst of applause +from the throng which packed the Opera-house. If you judged by this +meeting, you would conclude that America was on the verge of a +revolution against the war. + +The young professor sat down, wiping the perspiration from his pale +forehead; and then the Liederkranz sang again--only it was not +called the Liederkranz now, it had become known as the “Workers' +Singing Society”, out of deference to local prejudice. Then arose +Comrade Smith, editor of the Worker, and announced that after the +collection the orator would answer questions; then Comrade Smith +launched into a speech of his own, to the effect that something +definite ought to be done by the workers of Leesville to make clear +their opposition to being dragged into war. For his part he wished +to say that he would not yield one inch to the war-clamour--he was +on record as refusing to be drafted in any capitalist war, and he +was ready to join with others to agree that they would not be +drafted. The time was short--if anything were to be done, they must +act at once-- + +And then suddenly came an interruption--this time not from an old +soldier, but from a sergeant of police, who had been standing at one +side of the stage, and who now stepped forward, announcing, “This +meeting is closed.” + +“What?” shouted the orator. + +“This meeting is closed,” repeated the other. “And you, young man, +are under arrest.” + +There was a howl from the audience, and suddenly from the pit in +front of the stage, whence ordinarily the orchestra dispensed sweet +music, there leaped a line of blue-uniformed men, distributing +themselves between the public and the speaker. At the same time down +the centre aisle came a dozen soldiers marching, with guns in their +hands and bayonets fixed. + +“This is an outrage!” shouted Comrade Smith. + +“Not another word!” commanded the police official; and two policemen +who had followed him grabbed the orator by each arm and started to +lead him off the stage. + +Comrade Gerrity leaped to the front of the platform. “I denounce +this proceeding!” he shouted. “We are holding an orderly meeting +here--” + +A policeman laid hold of him. “You are under arrest.” + +Then came Comrade Mabel Smith, sister of the editor of the Worker. +“For shame! For shame!” she cried. And then, to a policeman, “No, I +will not be silent! I protest in the name of free speech! I +declare--” And when the policeman seized her by the arm, she +continued to shout at the top of her lungs, driving the crowd to +frenzy. + +There were disturbances all over the audience. Mrs. Gerrity, wife of +the organizer, sprang up in her seat and began to protest. It +happened that Jimmie Higgins was in the aisle not far from her, and +his heart leaped with strange, half-forgotten emotions as he saw +this trim little figure, with the jaunty hat and the turkey feather +stuck on one side. Comrade Evelyn Baskerville, of Greenwich Village, +she of the fluffy brown hair and the pert little dimples and the +bold terrifying ideas, she who had so ploughed up the soul of Jimmie +Higgins and almost broken up the Higgins' home--here she was, +employing a new variety of coquetry, by which she compelled three +soldiers with rifles and bayonets to devote their exclusive +attention to her! + +And then Comrade Mary Allen, the Quaker lady, who believed in moral +force applied through the ear-drums. She stood in the aisle with her +armful of pamphlets and her red sash over her shoulder, proclaiming, +“In the name of liberty and fair play I protest against this +outrage! I will not see my country dragged into war without +asserting my right of protest! I stand here, in what is supposed to +be a Christian city; I speak in the name of the Prince of Peace--” + and so on, quite a little speech, while several embarrassed young +men in khaki were trying to find out how to hold their rifles and a +shouting Quakeress at the same time. + +And then Comrade Schneider, the brewer. He had been up on the stage +with the singers, and now got somehow to the front. “Haf we got no +rights in America left?” he shouted. “Do we in this audience--” + +“Shut up, you Hun!” roared someone on the front of the crowd, and +three policemen at once leaped for Comrade Schneider, and grabbed +him by the collar, twisting so hard that the German's face, always +purple when he was excited, took on a dark and deadly hue. + +Poor Jimmie Higgins! He stood there with his armful of “War, What +For?”--trembling with excitement, itching in every nerve and sinew +to leap into this conflict, to make his voice heard above the +uproar, to play his part as a man--or even as a Comrade Mabel Smith, +or a Comrade Mary Alien, or a Comrade Mrs. Gerrity, nee Baskerville. +But he was helpless, speechless--bound hand and foot by those solemn +pledges he had given to Eleeza Betooser, the mother of babies. + +He looked about, and near him in the aisle he saw another man, also +bound hand and foot--bound by the memory of the smash in the face +which had broken his nose and knocked out three of his front teeth! +“Wild Bill” saw a policeman watching him now, eager for another +pretext to leap on him and pound him; so he was silent, like Jimmie. +The two of them had to stand there and see the fundamental +constitutional rights of American citizens set at naught, to see +liberty trampled in the dust beneath the boots of a brutal soldiery, +to see justice strangled and raped in the innermost shrine of her +temple. At least, that was what you had seen if you read the +Leesville Worker; if on the other hand you read the Herald--which +nine out of ten people did--then you learned that the forces of +decency and order had at last prevailed in Leesville, the propaganda +of the Hun was stifled for ever, the mouthers of sedition had felt +the heavy hand of public indignation. + + + + +IV + + + +Outside, a crowd gathered to jeer while the prisoners were loaded +into the patrol-wagon; but the police drove them away, keeping +everybody moving, and breaking up several attempts at +street-oratory. Jimmie found himself with half a dozen other +comrades, wandering aimlessly down Main Street, talking over and +over what had happened, each explaining why and how he had not +shared the crown of martyrdom. Some had shouted as loud as the rest, +but had been missed by the police; some had thought it wiser to run +away and live to shout another day; some wanted to start that very +night to print a leaflet and call another mass-meeting. They +adjourned to Tom's “Buffeteria” to talk things over; they took +possession of a couple of tables, and got their due quotas of coffee +and sandwiches, or pie and milk, and had just got fairly started on +the question of raising bail without the help of Comrade Dr. +Service--when suddenly something happened which drove all thoughts +of the meeting out of their minds. + +It was like a gigantic blow, striking the whole world at once; a +cosmic convulsion, quite indescribable. The air became suddenly a +living thing, which leaped against your face; the windows of the +little eating-place flew inward in a shower of glass, and the walls +and tables shook as if with palsy. The sound of it all was a vast, +all-pervasive sound, at once far off and near, tailing away in the +clatter and crash of innumerable panes of glass falling from +innumerable windows. Then came silence, a sinister, frightful +silence, it seemed; men stared at one another, crying, “My God! +What's that?” The answer seemed to dawn upon everyone at once: “The +powder-plant!” + +Yes, that must be it, beyond doubt. For months they had been talking +about it and thinking about it, speculating as to the probabilities +and the consequences. And now it had happened. Suddenly one of the +company gave a cry, and they turned and stared at his white face, +and realized the terror that clutched his heart. Comrade Higgins, +whose home was so near the place of peril! + +“Gee, fellers, I gotta go!” he gasped; and several of the comrades +jumped up and ran with him into the street. If there was a single +pane of glass left intact in Leesville, you would not have thought +it as you trod those pavements. + +If Jimmie had been trained in efficiency, and accustomed to spending +money more freely, he might perhaps have found out something by the +telephone or by inquiry at the newspaper offices; but the one thing +he thought of was to take the trolley and get to his home. The +comrades ran with him, speculating with eager excitement, trying to +reassure him--it could be nothing worse than some glass and some +dishes smashed. Some had thought of going all the way with him, but +they remembered they would be too late for the last trolley back, +and they had their jobs in the morning. So they put him on the car +and bade him good-bye. + + + + +V + + + +The trolley was packed with people going out to see what had +happened, so Jimmie had plenty of company and conversation on the +way. But when he came to his stop, he got off and walked alone, for +the others were going to the explosives plant, and they rode a mile +or so farther on the car. + +Never would Jimmie forget that journey--that walk of nightmares. The +road was pitch-dark, and before he had gone more than half the +distance, he stumbled over something, and fell head-foremost. He got +up, and groped, and discovered that it was a tree, lying prone +across the road. He searched his mind, and remembered a great dead +tree that stood at that spot. Could the explosion have knocked it +down? + +He went on, feeling his way more cautiously, yet goaded to greater +speed by his fears. A little way further was a farm-house, and he +went into the yard and shouted, but got no reply. The yard was +covered with shingles, apparently blown from the roof. He went on, +more frightened than ever. + +He came to a turn in the road which he knew was less than half a +mile from his home; and here there were several horses and wagons +tied, but no one to answer his calls. The road passed through a +wood; but apparently there was no road any more--the trees had been +picked up bodily and thrown across it. Jimmie had to grope this way +and that, and he ran a piece of broken branch into his cheek, and by +that time was almost ready to cry with fright. He knew that his home +was two miles from the explosives plant, and he could not conceive +how an explosion could have done such damage at such a distance. + +He saw a lantern ahead, bobbing this way and that, and he shouted +louder than ever, and finally succeeded in persuading the bearer of +the lantern to wait for him. It proved to be a farmer who lived some +way back; he knew no more than Jimmie did, and they made their way +together. Beyond the woods, the road was littered with loose dirt, +bushes, bits of fence and rubbish, burned black. “It must have been +near here,” declared the man, and added words which caused Jimmie's +heart almost to stand still. “It must have been on the railroad +track!” + +They came to a little rise, from which in day-time the line of the +railroad was visible. They saw lanterns, many of them, moving here +and there like a swarm of fire-flies. “Come this way,” Jimmie begged +of the farmer, and ran towards his home. The road was buried under +masses of earth, as if thousands of steam-shovels had emptied their +contents on it. When they came to where the fence of Jimmie's house +ought to have been, they found no fence, but a slide of loose earth +that had never been there before. Where the apple-tree had been +there was nothing; where the lawn had been there was a pitch down a +hill, and where the house had been was a huge valley, seeming in the +darkness a bottomless abyss! + + + + +VI + + + +Jimmie was distracted. He grabbed the lantern from the other man, +and ran this way and that, looking for some of the familiar +landmarks of his home--the chicken-house, the pig-sty, the back +fence with the broken elm tree in the corner, the railroad beyond. +He could not believe that he had come to the place at all--he could +not credit the reality of such nightmare sights as his eyes reported +to him. He rushed about, stumbling over mountains of upheaved brown +dirt, sliding down into craters that were filled with a strange, +penetrating odour which caused his eyes to smart; and then +clambering out again and running after men with lanterns, shouting +questions at them and not waiting for an answer. It seemed to him +that if he ran just a little farther he must surely find the house +and the other things he was looking for; but he found nothing but +more craters and more mountains of dirt; and little by little the +horrible truth became clear to him, that all the way down the +railroad track, as far as he could see or run, this gigantic trough +extended, a valley of raw dirt with mountains on each side, crowned +here and there with wheels and axles and iron trucks of blown-up +freight-cars, and filled in the bottom with the deadly fumes of +trinitrotoluol! + +Jimmie cried out to the men and women with lanterns, asking had they +seen his wife and babies. But no one had seen them--no one had +notified them of the impending explosion! Jimmie was sobbing, +calling out distractedly; he ran out to the road, and after much +searching found a charred tree-stump which gave him his precise +bearings, so that he knew where the house should have been, and +could assure himself that it was precisely where that frightful +slope started down into the abyss. He slid around on this slope, +calling aloud, as if he expected the spirits of his loved ones might +have remained there, defying all the power of suddenly expanding +gases. He ran back across the road and called, as if they might have +fled that way. + +At last he ran into Mr. Drew; old Mr. Drew, who a couple of weeks +before had taken Eleeza Betooser and her three little ones driving +in his buggy! That memory was the nearest Jimmie could get to them, +and so he clutched the old soldier's arm, and held on to it, weeping +like a little child. + +The old man tried to draw him away, to get him to his home. But +Jimmie must stay on the spot, he was held by a spell of horror. He +wandered about, dragging Mr. Drew with him, pleading with people to +no purpose; now and then he would break out with curses against +war-makers, and especially those who made explosives and transported +them in freight-trains through other men's back-yards. For once +people heard him without threats of lynching. + +So on through this night of anguish. Jimmie lost old man Drew in the +darkness, and was all alone when the dawn came, and he could see the +sweep of desolation about him, and the awe-stricken faces of the +spectators. Soon afterwards came the climax. He saw a crowd +gathered, and as he came up, this crowd parted for him. Nobody +seemed to want to speak, but they all watched, as if curious to see +what he would do. One of the men bore a burden, wrapped in a +horse-blanket; Jimmie gazed, and after a moment's hesitation the man +threw back part of the blanket and there before Jimmie's eyes was a +most horrible sight--a human leg, a large white leg, the lower half +covered with a black stocking tied at the top with a bit of tape. It +was such a leg as you see in the windows of stores where they sell +pretty things for ladies; only this leg was soft, mangled at the +top, smeared with blood, and partly charred black. One glance was +enough for Jimmie, and he put his hands over his eyes and turned and +ran--out to the road and away, away--anywhere from this place of +nightmares! + + + + +VII + + + +Jimmie's whole world was wiped out, ended. He had no place to go, no +care what became of him. He stumbled on till he came to the +trolley-track, and got on the first car which came along. It was +pure chance that it happened to be going back to Leesville, for +Jimmie had no longer any interest in that city. When the car came to +the barn, he got out and wandered aimlessly, until he happened to +pass a saloon where he had been accustomed to meet Jerry Coleman, +distributor of ten-dollar bills. Jimmie went in and ordered a drink +of whisky; he did not tell the saloon-keeper what had happened, but +took the drink to a table and sat down by himself. When he had +finished, he ordered another, because it helped him not to think; he +sat there at the table, drinking steadily for an hour or more. And +so upon his confused mind there dawned a strange, a ghastly idea, +climax of all that night of horror. Which leg of Lizzie was it the +man had been carrying wrapped in a horse-blanket? The right leg or +the left? If it was the left leg, why, nothing; but if it was the +right, why then, under the stocking was sewed a bandage, and in that +bandage was wrapped a package containing seven faded yellow +twenty-dollar bills! + +And what would they do about it? Would they bury the leg without +investigation? Or would the man who had found it happen to undress +it? And what was Jimmie to do? A hundred and forty dollars was not +to be sneezed at by a working-man--it was more money than he had +ever had in his life before, or might ever have again. But could he +go to the man and say, “Did you find any money on my wife's leg?” + Could he say, “Please give me my wife's leg, so that I can undress +it and unsew the bandage and get the money that I was paid for +keeping quiet about the surgical operation on Lacey Granitch, that +was done in my house before it was blown to pieces by the +explosion.” + +Jimmie thought it all over while he took a couple more drinks, and +finally settled it to himself: “Aw, hell! What do I want with money? +I ain't a-goin' to live no more!” + + + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +JIMMIE HIGGINS TAKES THE ROAD + +I + + + + + +Jimmie Higgins was wandering down the street, when he ran into “Wild +Bill”, who was, of course, greatly surprised to see his friend in a +drunken condition. When he heard the reason, he revealed an +unexpected side of his nature. If you judged “Wild Bill” by his +oratory, you thought him a creature poisoned through and through, a +soul turned rancid with envy, hatred and malice and all +uncharitableness. But now the tears came into his eyes, and he put +his arm over Jimmie's shoulder. “Say, old pal, that's bum luck! By +God, I'm sorry!” And Jimmie, who wanted nothing so much as somebody +to be sorry with, clasped Bill in his arms, and burst into tears, +and told over and over again how he had gone to what had been his +home, and found only a huge crater blown out by the explosion, and +how he had gone about calling his wife and babies, until at last +they had brought him one leg of his wife. + +“Wild Bill” listened, until he knew the story through and then he +said, “See here, old pal, let's you and me quit this town.” + +“Quit?” said Jimmie, stupidly. + +“Every time I open the front of my face now, the police jump in it. +Leesville's a hell of a town, I say. Let's get out.” + +“Where'll we go?” + +“Anywhere--what's the diff? It's coming summer. Let's slam the +gates.” + +Jimmie was willing--why not? They went back to the lodging-house +where Bill lived, and he tied up his worldly goods in a +gunny-sack--the greater part of the load consisting of a diary in +which he had recorded his adventures as leader of an unemployed army +which had started to march from California to Washington, D.C., some +four years previously. They took the trolley, and getting off in the +country, walked along the banks of the river, Jimmie still sobbing, +and Bill in the grip of one of his fearful coughing spells. They sat +down beside the stream not so far from where Jimmie had gone in +swimming with the Candidate; he gave a touching account of this +adventure, but fell asleep in the middle of it, and Bill wandered +off and begged some food at a farm-house, using his cough as a +convenient lever for moving the heart of the housewife. When night +came, they sought the railroad and got on board a southward-moving +freight; so Jimmie Higgins went back to the tramps life, at which he +had spent a considerable part of his youth. + +But there was a difference now; he was no longer a blind and +helpless victim of a false economic system, but a revolutionist, +fully class-conscious, trained in a grim school. The country was +going to war, and Jimmie was going to war on the country. The two +agitators got off the train at a mining-village, and got a job as +“surface men”, and proceeded to preach their gospel of revolt to the +workers in a lousy company boarding-house. When they were found out, +they “jumped” another freight, and repeated the performance in +another part of the district. + +The companies were too vigilant for there to be any chance of a +strike; but “Wild Bill” whispered to the young workers that he knew +a trick worth two of that--he would teach them the art of “striking +on the job”! This idea, of course, had great charm for embittered +men; enabling them to pay back the boss, while at the same time +continuing on his pay-roll. Bill had read whole books in which the +theory and practice of “sabotage” were worked out, and he could tell +any sort of workman tricks to make his employer sweat under the +collar. If you worked in a machine-shop, you dropped emery-powder +into the bearings; if you worked on a farm, you drove copper nails +into the fruit-trees, which caused them to die; if you packed +apples, you stuck your thumb-nail into one, which made sure that the +whole box would be rotten when it arrived; if you worked in a +saw-mill, you drove a spike into a log; if you worked in a +restaurant, you served double portions to ruin the boss, and spit in +each portion to make sure the customer did not derive any benefit. +All these things you did in a fervour of exaltation, a mood of +frenzied martyrdom, because of the blaze of hate which had been +fanned in your soul by a social system based upon oppression and +knavery. + + + + +II + + + +To Jimmie, living the obscure and comparatively peaceful life of a +Socialist propagandist, the question of “sabotage, violence and +crime” had been a more or less academic one, about which the +comrades debated acrimoniously, and against which they voted by a +large majority. But now Jimmie was out among the “wobblies”, the +“blanket-stiffs”--the unskilled workers who had literally nothing +but their muscle-power to sell; here he was in the front-line +trenches of the class war. These men wandered about from one job to +another, at the mercy of the seasons and the fluctuations of +industry. They were deprived of votes, and therefore of their status +as citizens; they were deprived of a chance to organize, and +therefore of their status as human beings. They were lodged in +filthy bunk-houses, fed upon rotten food, and beaten or jailed at +the least word of revolt. So they fought their oppressors with any +and every weapon they could lay hands on. + +In the turpentine-country, in a forest, Jimmie and his pal came to a +“jungle”, a place where the “wobblies” congregated, living off the +country. Here around the camp-fires Jimmie met the guerillas of the +class-struggle, and learned the songs of revolt which they +sang--some of them parodies on Christian hymns which would have +caused the orthodox and respectable to faint with horror. Here they +rested up, and exchanged data on the progress of their fight, and +argued over tactics, and cussed the Socialists and the other +“politicians” and “labour-fakirs”, and sang the praises of the “one +big union”, and the “mass strike”, and “direct action” against the +masters of industry. They told stories of their sufferings and their +exploits, and Jimmie sat and listened. Sometimes his eyes were wide +with consternation, for he had never met men so desperate as these. + +For example, “Strawberry” Curran--named for his red hair and +innumerable freckles--an Irish boy with the face of a choir-singer, +and eyes that must have been taken straight out of the blue vault of +Heaven. This lad told about a “free speech fight” in a far Western +city, and how the chief of police had led the clubbing, and how they +had got back at him. “We bumped him off all right,” said +“Strawberry”; it was a favourite phrase of his--whenever anybody +got in his way, he “bumped him off”. And then “Flathead Joe”, who +came from the Indian country, was moved to emulation, and told how +he had put dynamite under the supports of a mine-breaker, and the +whole works had slid down a slope into a canyon a mile below. And +then a lame fellow, “Chuck” Peterson, told about the imprisonment of +two strike-leaders in the hop-country of California, and of the +epidemic of fires and destruction that had plagued that region for +several years since. + +All such things these men talked about quite casually, as soldiers +would talk about the events of the last campaign. This class-war had +been going on for ages, and had its own ethics and its own +traditions; those who took part in it had their heroisms and +sublimities, precisely like any other soldiers. They would have been +glad to come into the open and fight, but the other side had all the +guns. Every time the “wobblies” succeeded in organizing the workers +and calling a big strike, all the agencies of capitalist repression +were called in--they were beaten by capitalist policemen, shot by +capitalist sheriffs, starved and frozen in capitalist jails, and so +their strike was crushed and their forces scattered. After many such +experiences, it was inevitable that the hot-headed ones should take +to secret vengeance, should become conspirators against capitalist +society. And society, forgetting all the provocations it had given, +called the “wobblies” criminals, and let it go at that. But they +were a strange kind of criminal, serving a far-off dream. They had +their humours and their humanities, their literature and music and +art. Among them were men of education, graduates of universities +both in America and abroad; you might hear one of the group about +these camp-fires telling about slave-revolts in ancient Egypt and +Greece; or quoting Strindberg and Stirner, or reciting a scene from +Synge, or narrating how he had astounded the family of some lonely +farm-house by playing Rachmaninoff's “Prelude” on a badly +out-of-tune piano. + +Also you met among them men who had kept their gentleness, their +sweetness of soul, men of marvellous patience, whose dream of human +brotherhood no persecution, no outrage had been able to turn sour. +They clung to their vision of a world redeemed, made over by the +outcast and lowly; a vision that was brought to the world by a +certain Jewish Carpenter, and has haunted mankind for nineteen +hundred years. The difference was that these men knew precisely how +they meant to do it; they had a definite philosophy, a definite +programme, which they carried as a gospel to the wage-slaves of the +world. And they knew that this glad message would never die--not all +the jails and clubs and machine-guns in the country could kill it, +not obloquy and ridicule, not hunger and cold and disease. No! for +the workers were hearing and understanding, they were learning the +all-precious lesson of Solidarity. They were forming the “one big +union”, preparing the time when they would take over industry and +administer it through their own workers' councils, instead of +through the medium of parliaments and legislatures. That was the +great idea upon which the Industrial Workers of the World was based; +it was this they meant by “direct action”, not the sinister thing +which the capitalist newspapers made out of the phrase. + + + + +III + + + +The country was going into its own war, which it considered of +importance, and it called upon Jimmie Higgins and the rest of his +associates to register for military service. In the month of June +ten million men came forward in obedience to this call--but Jimmie, +needless to say, was not among them. Jimmie and his crowd thought it +was the greatest joke of the age. If the country wanted them, let it +come and get them. And sure enough, the country came--a sheriff, and +some thirty farmers and turpentine-workers sworn in as deputies and +armed with shot-guns and rifles. Should their sons go overseas to be +killed in battle, while these desperadoes continued to camp out on +the country, living on hogs and chickens which honest men had worked +to raise? They had wanted to break up this “jungle” for some time; +now they could do it in the name of patriotism. They surrounded the +camp, and shot one man who tried to slip out in the darkness, and +searched the rest for weapons, and then loaded them into half a +dozen automobiles and took them to the nearest lock-up. + +So here was Jimmie, confronting a village draft-board. How old was +he? The truth was that Jimmie did not know definitely, but his guess +was about twenty-six. The draft-limit being thirty, he swore that +he was thirty-two. And what were they going to do about it? They +didn't know where he had been born, and they couldn't make him +tell--because he didn't know it himself! His face was lined with +many cares, and he had a few grey hairs from that night of horror +when his loved ones had been wiped out of existence. + +These farmers knew how to tell the age of a horse, but not how to +tell the age of a man! + +“We'll draft ye anyhow!” vowed the chairman of the board, who was +the local justice of the peace, an old fellow with a beard like a +billy-goat. + +“All right,” said Jimmie, “but you'll get nothin' out o' me.” + +“What d'ye mean?” + +“I mean I wouldn't fight; I'm a conscientious objector to war.” + +“They'll shoot ye!” + +“Shoot away!” + +“They'll send you to jail for life.” + +“What the hell do I care?” + +It was difficult to know what to do with a person like that. If they +did put him in jail, they would only be feeding him at the expense +of the community, and that would not help to beat the Germans. They +could see from the flash in his eyes that he would not be an easy +man to break. Local interest asserted itself, and the old fellow +with the wagging beard demanded: “If we let ye go, will ye get out +o' this county?” + +“What the hell do I care about your old county?” replied Jimmie. + +So they turned him loose, and “Wild Bill” also, because it was +evident at a glance that he was not long for this world and its +wars. The two of them broke into an empty freight-car, and went +thundering over the rails all night; and lying in the darkness, +Jimmie was awakened by a terrified cry from his companion, and put +out his hand and laid it in a mess that was hot and wet. + +“Oh, my God!” gasped Bill. “I'm done for!” + +“What is it?” + +“Haemorrhage.” + +The terrified Jimmie did not even know what that was. There was +nothing he could do but sit there, holding his friend's trembling +hand and listening to his moans. When the train stopped, Jimmie +sprang out and rushed to one of the brakemen, who came with his +lantern, and saw “Wild Bill” lying in a pool of blood, already so +far gone that he could not lift his head. “Jesus!” exclaimed the +brakeman. “He's a goner, all right.” + +The “goner” was trying to say something, and Jimmie leaned his ear +down to him. “Good-bye, old pal,” whispered Bill. That was all, but +it caused Jimmie to burst out sobbing. + +The engine whistled. “What the hell you stiffs doin' on this train?” + demanded the brakeman--but not so harshly as the words would +indicate. He lifted the dying man--no very serious burden--and laid +him on the platform of the station. “Sorry,” he said, “but we're +behind schedule.” He waved his lantern, and the creaking cars began +to move, and the train drew away, leaving Jimmie sitting by the +corpse of his pal. The world seemed a lonely place that long night. + +In the morning the station-agent came, and notified the nearest +authorities, and in the course of the day came a wagon to fetch the +body. What was the use of Jimmie's waiting? One “Potter's field” was +the same as another, and there would be nothing inspiring about the +funeral. The man who drove the wagon looked at Jimmie suspiciously +and asked his age; they were scarce of labour in that country, he +said-the rule was “Work or fight”. Jimmie foresaw another session +with a draft-board, so he leaped on to another freight train, taking +with him as a legacy “Wild Bill's” diary of the unemployed army. + + + + +IV + + + +It was harvest-time, and Jimmie went West to the wheat country. It +was hard work, but the pay made your eyes bulge. Jimmie realized +that war was not such a bad thing--for the ones that stayed at +home! If you didn't like one farmer's way of speaking to you, or the +kind of biscuits his wife offered you, you could move on to the +next, and he would take you in at four bits more per day. It was the +nearest approach to a working-man's paradise that Jimmie had ever +encountered. There was really only one drawback--the pestiferous +draft-boards that never stopped snooping round. They were for ever +hauling you up and threatening and questioning you--putting you +through the same scene over and over. Why couldn't the fools give +you a card, showing that you had been through the mill, and let that +settle it? But no, they wouldn't give you a card--they preferred to +go on jacking you up because you had no card. It was all a trick, +thought Jimmie, to wear him out and force him into their army by +hook or by crook. But here was one time when they would not get away +with it! + +However, Jimmie Higgins was not nearly so dangerous a character, now +that “Wild Bill” was gone out of his life. It was really not his +nature to cherish hate, or to set out deliberately to revenge +himself. Jimmie was a Socialist in the true sense of the word--he +felt himself a part of society, and that peace and plenty and +kindness which he desired for himself he desired for all mankind. He +was not dreaming of a time when he could turn the capitalists out of +power and treat them as they were now treating him; he meant the +world to be just as good a place for the capitalists as for the +workers--all would share alike, and Jimmie was ready to wipe out the +old scores and start fair any day. His propaganda regained its +former idealistic hue, and it was only when somebody tried to drag +him into the slaughter-pen that he developed teeth and claws. + +So he became fairly happy again--happier than he had thought he +could ever be. It was in vain he told himself that he had nothing to +live for; he had the greatest thing in the world to live for, the +vision of a just and sane and happy world. So long as anybody could +be found to listen while he talked about it and explained how it +might be achieved, life was worth while, life was real. It was only +now and then that his bitter heartache returned to plague him--when +he awakened in the night with his arms clasped about the memory of +the soft, warm, kindly body of Eleesa Betooser; or when he came to a +farmhouse where there were children, whose prattle reminded him of +the little fellow who had been his prime reason for wanting a just +and sane and happy world. Jimmie found that he could not bear to +work in one farmhouse where there were children; and when he told +the farmer's wife the reason, he and the woman declared a temporary +truce to the class-war, and celebrated it with half a large apple-pie. + + + + +V + + + +The Socialists held a National Convention at St. Louis, and drew up +their declaration concerning the war. They called it the most +unjustifiable war in history, “a crime against the people of the +United States”; they called on the workers of the country to oppose +it, and pledged themselves “to the support of all mass movements in +opposition to conscription”. This was, of course, a serious step to +take at such a time; the comrades realized it, and there were solemn +gatherings to discuss the referendum, and not a little disagreement +as to the wisdom of the declaration. In the town of Hopeland, near +which Jimmie was working, there was a local, and he had got himself +transferred from Leesville, and paid up his back dues, and had his +precious red card stamped up-to-date. And now he would go in and +listen to debates, just as exciting and just as bewildering as those +he had heard at the outbreak of the war. + +There were some who pointed out the precise meaning of those words, +“all mass-movements in opposition to conscription.” The leading +dry-goods merchant of the town, he was a Socialist, declared that +the words meant insurrection and mob violence, and the resolution +would be adjudged a call to treason. At which there leaped to his +feet a Russian Jewish tailor, Rabin by name; his first name was +Scholem, which means Peace, and he cried in great excitement: “Vot +business have ve Socialists vit such vords? Ve might leaf dem to de +enemy, vot?” + +You might have thought you were in Leesville, listening to Comrade +Stankewitz. The only difference was that there were not many Germans +in this town, and those few confined their discussions to Ireland +and India. + +Jimmie would hear the arguments, back and forth and back again, and +his mind would be in greater confusion than ever. He hated war as +much as ever; but, on the other hand, he was learning to hate the +Germans, too. The American government, going to war, had been forced +to assert itself, and the stores and billboards were covered with +proclamations and picture-posters, and the newspapers were full of +recitals of the crimes which Germany had committed against humanity. +Jimmie might refuse to read this “Wall Street dope”, as he called +it, but the working-men with whom he was associating read it, and +would fire it at him whenever they got into a controversy. Also the +daily events in the news dispatches--the sinking of hospital-ships +filled with wounded, the shelling of life-boats, the dragging away +into slavery in coal-mines of Belgian children thirteen and fourteen +years old! How could any man fail to hate and to fear a government +which committed such atrocities? How could he remain untroubled at +the thought that he might be assisting such a government to victory? + +Jimmie was honest, he was trying to face the facts as he saw them; +and when he stopped to think, when he remembered the things he had +done in company with “Wild Bill” and “Strawberry” Curran and +“Flathead Joe” and “Chuck” Peterson, he could not deny that he had +been, however unintentionally, helping the Kaiser to win the war. In +his arguments with others, Jimmie dared not tell all he knew about +such matters; so, when he argued with himself, his conscience was +troubled, and doubt gnawed at his soul. Suppose it were true, as +Comrade Dr. Service had tried to prove to him, that a victory for +the Kaiser would mean that America would have to spend the next +twenty or thirty years getting ready for the next war? Might it not +then be better to forego revolutionary agitation for a while, until +the Kaiser had been put out of business? + +There were not a few Socialists who argued this way--men who had +been active in the movement and had possessed Jimmie's regard before +the war. Now they denounced the St. Louis resolution--the “majority +report” as it was called. When this report was carried in referendum +by a vote of something like eight to one, these comrades withdrew +from the party, and some of them bitterly attacked their former +friends. Such utterances were taken up by the capitalist press; and +this made Jimmie Higgins indignant. A fine lot of Socialists, to +quit the ship in the hour of peril! Renegades, Jimmie called them, +and compared them with Judas Iscariot and Benedict Arnold and +such-like celebrities of past ages. They, being exactly the same +sort of folk as Jimmie, answered by calling Jimmie a pro-German and +a traitor; which did not make it easier to persuade Jimmie to listen +to their arguments. So both sides became blinded with anger, +forgetting about the facts in the case, and thinking only of +punishing a hated antagonist. + + + + +VI + + + +All over the country now men were sending their sons to the +training-camps, and putting their money into “liberty-bonds”. So +they were in no mood to listen to argument--they would fly into a +rage at the least hint that the cause in which they were making +sacrifices was not a perfectly just and righteous cause. There was +an organization called the “People's Council for Peace and +Democracy”, which attempted to hold a national convention; the +gathering was broken up by mobs, and the delegates went wandering +over the country, trying in vain to get together. The mayor of +Chicago gave them permission to meet in that city, but the governor +of the state sent troops to prevent it! You see, the people of the +country had learned all about the organization for which Jerry +Coleman had been working--“Labour's National Peace Council”; and +here was another organization, bearing practically the same name, +and carrying on an agitation which seemed the same to the average +man. The distinction between hired treason and super-idealism was +far too subtle for the people to draw in a time of such peril. + +It was becoming more and more the fashion to arrest Socialists and +to suppress their papers; the government authorities in many places +declared the “majority report” unmailable, and indicted state and +national secretaries for having sent it out in the ordinary routine +of their business. Jimmie received a letter from Comrade Meissner in +Leesville, telling him that Comrade “Jack” Smith had been given two +years in the penitentiary for his speech in the Opera-house, and the +other would-be speakers had been fined five hundred dollars each. +Several issues of the Worker had been barred from the mails, and now +the police had raided the offices and forced the suspension of the +publication. All over the country that sort of thing was happening, +so now if you argued with Jimmie in favour of the war, his answer +was that America was more Prussian than Prussia, and what was the +use of fighting for Democracy abroad, if you had to sacrifice every +particle of Democracy at home in order to win the fight? + +Jimmie really believed this--he believed it with most desperate and +passionate intensity. He looked forward to a war won for the benefit +of oppression at home; he foresaw the system of militarism and +suppession riveted for ever on the people of America. Jimmie would +admit that the President himself might be sincere in the fine words +he used about democracy; but the great Wall Street interests which +had run the country for so many decades--they had their secret +purposes, for which the war-frenzy served as a convenient cloak. +They were going to make universal military service the rule in +America; they were going to see to it that every school-child +learned the military lessons of obedience and subordination. Also +they were going to put the radical papers out of business and put a +stop to all radical propaganda. Those Socialists who had been +trapped into supporting the President's war-programme would wake up +some morning with a fearful dark-brown taste in their mouths! + +No, said Jimmie Higgins, the way to fight war was to resist the +subterfuges, however cunning and plausible, by which men sought to +persuade you to support war. The way to fight war was the way of the +Russians. The propaganda of proletarian revolt, the glorious example +which the Russian workers had set, would do more to break down the +power of the Kaiser than all the guns and shells in the world. But +the militarists did not want it broken that way--Jimmie suspected +that many of them would rather have the war won by the Kaiser than +have it won by the Socialists. The governments refused to give +passports to Socialists who wanted to meet in some neutral country +and work out the basis of a settlement upon which all the peoples of +the world might get together; and Jimmie took the banning of this +Socialist conference as the supreme crime of the world-capitalism, +it was evidence that world-capitalism knew its true enemy, and meant +to use the war as an excuse to hold that enemy down. + + + + +VII + + + +Day by day Jimmie was coming to place more of his hopes in Russia. +His little friend Rabin, the tailor, took a Russian paper published +in New York, the Novy Mir, and would translate its news and +editorials. Local Hopeland, thus inspired, voted a message of +fraternal sympathy to the Russian workers. In Petrograd and Moscow +there was going on, it appeared, a struggle between the pro-ally +Socialists and the Internationalists, the true, out-and-out, +middle-of-the-road, thick-and-thin proletarians. The former were +called Mensheviki, the latter were called Bolsheviki, and, of +course, Jimmie was all for the latter. Did he not know the +“stool-pigeon Socialists” at home, who were letting themselves be +used by capitalism? + +The big issues were two--first, the land, which the peasants wanted +to take from the landlords; and second, the foreign debt. The +Russian Tsar had borrowed four billion dollars from France and a +billion or two from England, to be used in enslaving the Russian +workers and driving several millions of them to death on the +battlefield. Now should the Russian workers consider themselves +bound by this debt? When anybody asked Jimmie Higgins that question, +he responded with a thunderous “No”, and he regarded as hirelings or +dupes of Wall Street all those Socialists who supported Kerensky in +Russia. + +When the American government, wishing to appeal to the Russian +people for loyalty in the war, sent over a commission to them, and +placed at its head one of the most notorious corporation lawyers in +America, a man whose life, the Jimmies said, had been sold to +service in the anti-liberal cause, Jimmie Higgins's shrill voice +became a yell of ridicule and rage. Of course, Jimmie's organization +saw to it that the Bolsheviki were informed in advance as to the +character of this commission--something which was unnecessary, as it +happened, because immediately after the overthrow of the Tsar there +had begun a pilgrimage of Russian Socialists from New York and San +Francisco, men who had seen the seamy side of American capitalism in +the slums of the great cities, and who lost no time in providing the +Russian radicals with full information concerning Wall Street! + +It chanced that in San Francisco a well-known labour leader had been +charged with planting a bomb to break up a “preparedness” parade. He +had been convicted upon that which was proven to be perjured +testimony, and the labour unions of the country had been conducting +a campaign to save his life--which campaign the capitalist +newspapers had been carefully overlooking, according to their +invariable custom. But now the returned exiles in Petrograd took up +the matter, and organized a parade to the American embassy, with a +demand for the freeing of this “Muni”. The report, of course, came +back to America--to the immense bewilderment of the American people, +who had never heard of this “Muni” before. To Jimmie Higgins it +seemed just the funniest joke on earth that a big labour-struggle +should be on in San Francisco, and Americans should get their first +news about it from Petrograd! Look! he would cry--how much real +democracy there is in America, how much care for the working +classes! + +So all that summer and autumn, while Jimmie Higgins slaved in the +fields, getting in his country's wheat-crop, and then his country's +corn crop, there was a song of joy and awakening excitement in his +soul. Far over the seas men of his own kind were getting the reins +of power into their hands, for the first time in the history of the +world. It could not be long before here in America the workers would +learn this wonderful lesson, would thrill to the idea that freedom +and plenty might really be their portion. + + + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +JIMMIE HIGGINS TURNS BOLSHEVIK + +I + + + + + +Winter was coming, and the farm-workers moved to the cities; but +this year they did not go as down-and-out-o'-works--they went, each +man a little kink. Jimmie wandered into the city of Ironton, and got +himself a job in a big automobile shop at eight dollars a day, and +set to work agitating for ten dollars. It was not that he had any +need of the extra two dollars, of course, but merely because his +first principle in life was to make trouble for the profit-system. +The capitalist papers of this middle-Western metropolis were +furiously denouncing working-men who struck “against their country” + in war-time; Jimmie, on the other hand, denounced those who used +“country” as camouflage for “boss” and made the war a pretext to +deprive labour of its most precious right. + +There was a Socialist local in Ironton, still active and determined +in spite of the fact that its office had been raided by the police, +and most of the party's papers and magazines barred from the mails. +You could always get leaflets printed, however; and if you could no +longer denounce the war directly, you could jeer at England's +exhibition of “democracy” in Ireland, you could point to the profits +of the profiteers, and demand conscription of wealth along with +conscription of manhood. Some American Socialists became almost as +subtle as that German rebel of pre-war days, who, desiring to +lampoon the Kaiser, wrote an account of the life of the Roman +Emperor Agricola, reciting his vanities and insane extravagances. + +Late in the autumn came an event which should have troubed Jimmie +Higgins more deeply than it did. Along the Izonzo river the Italian +armies were facing the Austrians, their hereditary enemies; they +were at the end of a long, exhaustive, and for the most part +unsuccessful campaign, and the Italian Socialists at home were +carrying on precisely such a warfare against their own government as +Jimmie Higgins was carrying on in America. They were helped by the +Catholic intriguers, who hated the Italian government because it had +destroyed the temporal power of the Pope; they were helped by the +subtle and persistent efforts of Austrian agents in their country, +who spread rumours among Italian troops of the friendly intentions +of the Austrians, and of the imminence of a truce. These agents went +so far as to fake copies of the leading Italian newspapers, with +accounts of starvation and riots in the home cities, and the +shooting down of women and children. These papers were given out in +the Italian trenches, before a certain mountain-sector where the +Austrian troops had been fraternizing with the Italians; and then, +during the night, the Austrian troops were withdrawn, and picked +German “shock-troops” substituted, which attacked at dawn and drove +through the Italian lines, sweeping back the army along a +hundred-mile front, capturing some quarter of a million prisoners +and a couple of thousand cannon--practically all the Italians had. + +That Jimmie Higgins did not pay more attention to this terrifying +incident was in part because he read it in the capitalist papers and +did not believe it; but mainly because his whole attention just now +was centred on Russia, where the proletariat was about to make its +bid for power. Now you would see how wars were to be ended and peace +restored to a distracted world! + +The moderate Socialist government of Kerensky was pleading with the +capitalist masters of the Allied nations for a statement of their +peace terms, so that the workers of Russia might know what they were +fighting for. The Russian workers wanted a declaration in favour of +no annexations, no indemnities, and disarmament; on such terms they +would help fight the war, in spite of all the starvation and +suffering in distracted Russia. But the Allied statesmen would not +make any such declaration, and the Russian workers, backed by all +the Socialists of the world, declared that the reason was that these +Allied statesmen were waging an imperialist war--they did not intend +to stop fighting until they had taken vast territories from the +German powers, and exacted a ransom that would cripple Germany for a +generation. The Russian workers refused point-blank to fight for +such aims, and so in November came the second revolution, the +uprising of the Bolsheviki. + +Almost their first action when they took possession of the palaces +and government archives was to publish to the world the secret +treaties which the rulers of England, France and Italy had made with +Russia. These treaties formed a complete justification for the +attitude of the Russian revolutionists--they showed that the Allied +imperialists had planned most shameless plundering; England was to +have the German colonies and Mesopotamia, France was to have German +territory to the Rhine, and Italy was to have the Adriatic coast, +and to divide Palestine and Syria with England and France. + +And here was the most significant fact to Jimmie Higgins--these +enormously important revelations, the most important since the +beginning of the war, were practically suppressed by the capitalist +newspapers of America! First these papers printed a brief item--the +Bolsheviki had given out what they claimed were secret treaties, but +the genuineness of these documents was gravely doubted. Then they +published evasive and lying denials from the British, French and +Italian diplomats; and then they shut up! Not another word did you +read about those secret treaties; except for one or two American +newspapers with traditions of honour, the full text of those +treaties was given in the Socialist press alone! “And now,” cried +Jimmie Higgins to the working men in his shop, “what do you think of +those wonderful allies of ours? What do you think of those Wall +Street newspapers of ours?” Could any working-man who had such facts +put before him fail to realize that Jimmie Higgins had a case, and a +most important work in the world to do, in spite of all his unreason +and his narrowness? + + + + +II + + + +Jimmie was now in the seventh heaven, walking as if on air. A +proletarian government at last, the first in history! A government +of working-men like himself, running their own affairs, without the +help of politicians or bankers! Coming out before the world and +telling the truth about matters of state, in language that common +men could understand! Disbanding the armies, and sending the workers +home! Turning the masters out of the factories, and putting +shop-committees in control! Taking away the advertising from the +crooked capitalist papers, and so putting them out of business! Our +little friend would rush to the corner every morning to get the +paper and see what had happened next; he would go down the street so +excited that he forgot his breakfast. + +Jimmie had made a new acquaintance in Ironton; the little tailor, +Rabin, whose name was Scholem, which means Peace, had given him a +letter to his brother, whose name was Deror, which means Freedom. +Each afternoon when the automobile factory let out, Jimmie would get +an evening paper and take it to Deror's tailor-shop and the two +would spell out the news. By God, look at this! Did you ever hear +the like? The man in charge of the Bolshevik foreign office was a +Marxian Jew who had helped edit the Novy Mir, the revolutionary +paper which Scholem had read to Jimmie! He had been a waiter in the +Waldorf-Astoria hotel, and now he was giving out the secret +treaties, and issuing propaganda manifestoes to the international +proletariat. + +The American capitalist press was full of lies about the new +revolution, of course; but Jimmie could read pretty well between the +lines of the capitalist press, and the few Socialist papers that +were still in business, and which he read at the headquarters of the +local, gave him the rest of what he wanted. To Jimmie, of course, +everything the Bolsheviki did was right; if it wasn't right it was a +lie. The little machinist knew that the Bolsheviki had repudiated +the four-billion-dollar debt which the government of the Tsar had +contracted with the bankers of France, and Jimmie knew perfectly +well what was the lying power of four billion dollars. + +The American papers were shocked because the Russian Socialists were +deserting the cause of democracy, and giving Germany a chance to win +the war. The American papers called them German agents, but Jimmie +did not take any stock in such talk as this. Jimmie was familiar +with the “frame-up” as it is operated against the workers in +America. He saw that the first thing the Bolshevik leaders did was +to make an appeal to the revolutionary workers of Germany. The +Russian proletariat had shown the way--now let the German +proletariat follow! Literature was printed and shipped wholesale +into Germany, leaflets were dropped by aviators among the German +troops; and when Jimmie and Deror read that the German generals had +protested to the Russians against such practices, they laughed aloud +with delight. Well might the war-lords squeal; they knew what was +coming to them! And when in January Jimmie and Deror read of the +revolting of a brigade of German troops, and a strike of several +hundred thousand working men throughout Germany, they thought the +end was at hand. The little tailor got up in local Ironton and made +a motion that it take to itself the name “Bolshevik”--which motion +was carried with a whoop. And these American Bolsheviki went on to +consult with the labour-unions, suggesting that they should form +“shop-committees”, and prepare for the taking over of industry +a la Russe! + + + + +III + + + +But something went suddenly wrong with the newly built revolutionary +steam-roller. The German military chiefs seized their strike-leaders +at home and threw them into jail, or shipped them off to the front +trenches to be slaughtered. By terrorism, shrewdly mixed with +cajolery, they broke the strike, and sent the grumbling slaves back +to their treadmill. And then the German armies began to march into +Russia! + +It was the crisis to which Jimmie Higgins had been looking forward +ever since the war began. Tolstoi had taught that if one nation +refused to fight, it would be impossible for another nation to +invade it; and while Jimmie Higgins was no mystic or religious +non-resistant, he agreed in this with the great Russian. No workers +in an enemy army could possibly be brought to fire upon their +peace-proclaiming brothers! + +And here at last was the test of the theory; here were German +Socialists ordered to march against Russian Socialists--ordered to +fire upon the red flag! Would they do what their masters, the +war-lords, commanded? Or would they listen to the clamorous appeals +of the international proletariat, and turn their guns against their +own officers? + +All the world saw what happened; it saw the glorious revolutionary +machine, in which Jimmie Higgins had put all his trust, run into a +ditch and land its passengers in the mud. The German armies marched, +and the Socialists in the German armies did exactly what the +non-Socialists did--they fired upon the red flag, as they would have +fired upon the flag of the Tsar. They obeyed the orders of their +officers, like true and loyal Germans; they drove back the +Bolsheviki in confusion, taking their guns and supplies, and +destroying their cities; they led off the Russian women and children +into slavery, precisely as if they were Belgian or French women and +children, destined by the German Gott as the legitimate prey of +Kultur. They sacked Riga and Reval, they overran all the Eastern +portions of Russia--Courland, Livonia, Esthonia; they moved into the +rich grain country of Southern Russia, the Ukraine; they landed from +their ships and took Finland, wiping out the liberties of that +splendid people. They were at the gates of Petrograd, and the +Bolshevik government was forced to flee to Moscow. Of all which +military feats the German Socialist papers spoke with stern pride! + + + + +IV + + + +Poor Jimmie Higgins! It was like the blow of a mighty fist in the +face; he was literally stunned--it was weeks before he could grasp +the full meaning of what was happening, the debacle of all his +hopes. And it was the same with Ironton's Bolshevik local; all the +“pep” was gone out of its proceedings. To be sure, some noisy ones +went on shouting for revolution the very next day--men, who had been +talking formulas for twenty or thirty years, and had no more notion +of a fact than they had of a pseudopodium. But the sensible men of +the group knew that their “St. Louis resolution” was being shot to +death over there in the trenches before Petrograd. + +It was interesting especially to see Rabin. The common belief of +Americans was that a Jew could not be induced to fight; they told a +story about one who cried out to his son, asking why he was letting +another boy pummel him, and the son whispered in reply, “Keep still, +I got a nickel under my foot!” All through the war the Jewish +Socialists in America had been, next to the Germans, the most ardent +pacifists; but now here was a social revolution managed by Jews, +here was a Russian government which gave the Jews their rights for +the first time in history! So the little Jewish tailor stood up +before these American Bolsheviki, and with tears running down his +cheeks declared: “Comrades, I am already tru vit speeches; I am +going into dis var! I vill put myself vit de Polish Socialists, vit +de Bohemian Socialists--I fight de Kaiser to de death! So vill fight +every Jewish Socialist in de vorld!” And this was no mere +braggadocio--Comrade Rabin actually proceeded to shut up his +tailor-shop, and went away to join the “red brigade”, which was +being organized by the Jewish revolutionists of New York! + +If the German war-lords had set out deliberately to ham-string the +American Socialists, to make it impossible for them to go on +demanding peace, they could not have acted differently. They dragged +the helpless Bolsheviki into a peace-conference at Brest-Litovsk, +and forced them to cede away all the territories that Germany had +taken, and on top of that to pay an enormous indemnity. They planned +to compel the new Russian government to become a vassal to the +Central Powers, working to help them enslave the rest of the world. +The German armies went through the conquered territories, stripping +them bare, robbing the peasants of every particle of food, beating +them, shooting them, burning their homes if they resisted. They gave +to the world such a demonstration of what a German peace would mean, +that everywhere free men set their teeth and gripped their hands, +and swore to root this infamous thing from out civilization. Even +Jimmie Higgins! + + + + +V + + + +Yes, even Jimmie! He made up his mind that he would work as hard as +ever he could, and produce as many automobile-trucks as he could. +But alas, a man cannot be hounded and oppressed all his life, cannot +have hatred and rebellion ground into the deeps of his soul, and +then forget it over-night because of certain intellectual ideas, +certain new items that he reads in his paper. What happened to +Jimmie was that his mind was literally torn in half; he found +himself, every twenty-four hours of his life, of two absolutely +contradictory and diametrically opposite points of view. He would +vow destruction to the hated German armies; and then he would turn +about and vow destruction to the men at home who were managing the +job of destroying the German armies! + +For these men were Jimmie's life-long enemies, and were no more able +to forget their prejudices over-night than was Jimmie. For example, +the lying capitalist paper which Jimmie had to read every morning! +When Jimmie had read a patriotic editorial in the Ironton Daily Sun, +it had become utterly impossible for him to help win the war that +day! Or the politicians, seeking to use the war-cry of democracy +abroad to crush all traces of democracy at home; to “get” the +radicals whom they hated and feared, and by means of taxes on +necessities and a bonded debt to put the costs of the war on to the +poor! Or the capitalists, making fervid speeches about patriotism, +but refusing to give up the whip-hand over their wage-slaves! + +Jimmie Higgins was working in a factory, making automobile-trucks +for the armies in France; and the owners of the factory would not +let the men have a union, and so there was a strike. The bosses made +an agreement to take everybody back and permit a union, and then +proceeded treacherously to violate the agreement, getting rid of the +most active organizers on this or that transparent pretext. Jimmie +Higgins, trying to help with the skill of his hands to make the +world safe for democracy, was turned out of his job and left to +wander in the streets, because a big profit-seeking corporation did +not believe in democracy, and refused to permit its workers any +voice in determining the conditions of their labour! The Government +was trying to deal with emergencies such as this, to put an end to +the epidemic of strikes which was hindering the war-work everywhere; +but the government had not yet got its machinery going, and meantime +Jimmie's little feeble sprout of patriotism got a severe chill. + +Jimmie got drunk and wasted a part of his money on a woman of the +street. Then, being ashamed of himself, and still plagued by the +memory of his dead wife and babies, he straightened up and resolved +to start life anew. He found himself thinking about Leesville; it +was the only place in the world where he had ever been really happy, +and now since Deror Rabin had gone East, it was the only place where +he had friends. How were the Meissners getting on? How was Comrade +Mrs. Gerrity, nee Baskerville? What was Local Leesville thinking +about Russia and about the war? Jimmie took a sudden resolve to go +and find out. He priced a ticket, and found that he had enough money +and to spare. He would take the journey--and take it in state, as a +citizen and a war-worker, not as a tramp in a box-car! + + + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +JIMMIE HIGGINS MEETS THE TEMPTER + +I + + + + + +When Jimmie Higgins stepped off the train at Leesville, it was a +blustery morning in early March, with snow still on the ground and +flurries of it in the air. In front of the station was a public +square, with a number of people gathered, and Jimmie strolled over +to see what was going on. What he saw was a score of young men, some +in khaki uniforms, some in ordinary trousers and sweaters, being +drilled. Jimmie, being in the mood of a gentleman of leisure, +stopped to watch the show. + +It was the thing he had been talking and thinking about for nearly +three years: this monstrous perversion of the human soul called +Militarism, this force which seized hold of men and made them into +automatons, moving machines which obeyed orders in a mass, and went +out and did deeds of which none of them taken separately would have +been capable, even in their dreams. Here was a bunch of average nice +Leesville boys, employees of the shops near-by, “soda-jerkers” and +“counter-jumpers”, clerks who had deftly fitted shoes on to the feet +of pretty ladies. Now they were submitting themselves to this +deforming discipline, undergoing this devilish transmogrification. + +Jimmie's eye ran down the line: there was a street-car conductor he +knew, there was a machinist from the Empire, also there was a son of +Ashton Chalmers, president of the First National Bank of Leesville. +And suddenly Jimmie gave a start. Impossible! It could not be! +But--it was! Young Emil Forster! Emil a Socialist, Emil a German, +Emil a student and thinker, who had penetrated the hypocritical +disguises of this capitalist war, and had fearlessly proclaimed the +truth every Friday night at the local--here he was with a suit of +khaki on his rather frail figure, a rifle in his hand and a look of +grim resolve on his face, going through the evolutions of +squad-drill: left, right, left, right, left, right--column left, +march--one, two, three, four--left, right, left, right--squad right +about, march--left, right, left, right--squad left oblique +march--and so on. If you are to form any picture of the scene you +must imagine the swift tramp of many feet in unison--thump, thump, +thump, thump, thump, thump; you must imagine the marchers, with +their solemnly set faces, and the orders thundered out by a +red-faced young man of desperate aspect, the word MARCH coming each +time with a punch that hit you over the heart. This red-faced young +man was the very incarnation of the military despot as Jimmie had +pictured him; watching with hawk-like eye, scolding, pounding, +driving, with no slightest regard for the feelings of the slaves he +commanded, or for any of the decencies of civilized intercourse. + +“Hold those half-steps, Casey! Keep your eye on the end man--you'll +have him splitting his legs if you don't wait for him. Column left, +march--one, two, three, four--now you're all right--off with +you--that's better! Put a little pep into your feet, Chalmers, for +God's sake--if you go marching into Berlin like that they'll think +it's the hospital squad! By the right flank, column fours, +march--watch your distance there, end man! How many times do you want +me to tell you that?”--and so on and on--tramp, tramp, tramp, +tramp--while a small boy standing beside Jimmie, evidently a truant +from school, chanted over and over: “Left--left--the soldier got +drunk and he packed up his trunk and he left--left! And do you not +think he was right--right?” + + + + +II + + + +Now if you have ever stood about and watched outdoor exercise or +games, on a day in March with snow on the ground and a keen wind +blowing, you know how it is--you have to stamp your feet to keep +warm; and if in your neighbourhood there are twenty left feet +smiting the ground in unison, and then twenty right feet smiting the +ground in unison, it is absolutely inevitable that your stamping +should keep time to the smiting; also the rhythm of your stamping +will be communicated upwards into your body--your thoughts will +keep time with the marching squad--tramp, tramp, tramp, +tramp--left, right, left, right! The psychologists tell us that one +who goes through the actions appropriate to an emotion will begin to +feel that emotion; and so it was with Jimmie Higgins. By a process +so subtle that he never suspected it Jimmie was being made into a +militarist! Jimmie's hands were clenched, Jimmie's jaw was set, +Jimmie's feet were tramping, tramping on the road to Berlin, to +teach the Prussian war-lords what it meant to defy the free men of a +great republic! + +But then something would happen to blast these budding excitements +in Jimmie's soul. The red-faced fellow would break into the rhythm +of the march. “For the love of Mike, Pete Casey, can't you remember +those half-steps? Squad, halt! Now look here, what's the matter with +you? Step out and let me show you once more.” And poor Casey, a +meek-faced little man with sloping shoulders, who had been running +the elevator in the Chalmers Building up to a week ago, would +patiently practise marching without moving, so that the rest of the +line could wheel round him as a pivot. The petty tyrant who scolded +at him was determined to have his own way; and Jimmie, who had had +to do with many such tyrants in his long years of industrial +servitude, was glad when this particular one got mixed up in his +orders, and ran his squad into the fountain in the middle of the +drill-ground, and some of them marched over the parapet, sliding +down into the ice-covered basin below. The spectators roared, and so +did the marchers, and the red-faced man young had to join in, and to +come down off his high horse. + +The conflict of impulses went on in Jimmie's soul. These marching +men were the “fools” at whom he had been mocking for something over +two years. They did not look like “fools” he had to admit; on the +contrary, they looked, quite capable of deciding what they wanted to +do. And they had decided; they had quit their jobs several weeks in +advance of the time when they would be called for the draft, and had +set to work to learn the rudiments of the military art, in the hope +of thus getting more quickly to France. Among them were bankers and +merchants and real estate dealers, side by side with soda-jerkers +and counter-jumpers and elevator-men--and all taking their orders +from an ex-blacksmith's helper, who had run away to fight in the +Philippines. + +Jimmie got this last bit of information from a fellow who stood +watching; so he realized that here was the thing he had been reading +about in the papers--the new army of the people, that was going +forth to make the world safe for democracy! Jimmy had read such +words, and thought them just camouflage, a trap for the “fools”. But +here, a sight of wonder before his eyes, a son of Ashton Chalmers, +president of the First National Bank of Leesville, being ordered +about and hauled over the coals by an ex-blacksmith's helper, who +happened to know how to shout with the accents of a pile-driver: +“Shoulder HUMPS! Order HUMPS! Present HUMPS!” + +The squad spread itself out for exercise--grasping their heavy +rifles and swinging them this way and that with desperate violence. +“Swing over head and return, ready, exercise--one, two, three, four, +five, six, seven, eight--eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, +one.” It was no joke making those swings in such quick time; the +poor little elevator-man Casey was left hopelessly behind, he could +only make half the swing, and then couldn't get back to place on the +count; he would look about, grinning sheepishly, and then fall into +time and try again. Everybody's face was set, everybody's breath was +coming harder and harder, everybody's complexion was becoming +apoplectic. + +“Swing to the right!” shouted the blacksmith-tyrant. “Ready, +exercise--one, two”--and so on. And then he would yell: “No, +Chalmers, don't punch out with your arms--swing up your gun! Swing +it up from the bottom! That's the way! Poke 'em! Poke 'em! Put the +punch into 'em!” And over Jimmie stole a cold horror. There was +nothing on the end of those guns but a little black hole, but Jimmie +knew what was supposed to be there--what would some day be there; +the exercise meant that these affable young Leesville store-clerks +were getting ready to drive a sharp, gleaming blade into the bowels +of human beings! “Poke 'em! Poke 'em!” shouted the ex-blacksmith, +and with desperate force they swung the heavy rifles, throwing their +bodies to one side and leaping out with one foot. Horrible! +Horrible! + + + + +III + + + +Man is a gregarious animal, and it is a fundamental law of his being +that when a group of his fellows are doing a certain thing, and +doing it with energy and fervour, anyone who does not do it, who +does not share the mood of energy and fervour shall be the object of +ridicule and anger, shall feel within his own heart confusion and +distress. This is true, even if the group is doing nothing more +worthwhile than making itself drunk. How much more shall it be when +it is engaged in making the world safe for democracy! + +The only way the man can save himself is by holding before his mind +the belief that he is right, and that some day this will be +recognized; in other words, by appealing to some other group of men, +who in some future time will applaud him. If he is sure of this +future applause, he can manage to stand the jeers for the moment. +But how when he begins to doubt--when his mind is haunted by the +possibility that the men of the future may agree with those of the +present, who are learning to march in unison, and to poke bayonets +into the bodies of Huns! + +One of the things which brought this destructive doubt to Jimmie's +soul was the sight of Emil Forster, learning to march and to poke. +Emil had been one of his heroes, Emil knew a hundred times as much +as he--and Emil was going to the war! The squad marched away to the +City hall across the square, and deposited its rifles in a room in +the basement, and then Emil came out, and Jimmie went up to him. The +young carpet-designer of course was delighted to meet his old +friend, and asked him to go to lunch. As they walked along the +street together Jimmie asked what it meant, and Emil answered: “It +means that I have made up my mind.” + +“You're going to fight the German people?” + +“Strange as you'll think it, I'm going to fight them for their own +good. Bebel wrote in his memoirs that the way to get democratic +progress in autocratic countries is through military defeat; and it +seems up to America to provide this defeat for Germany.” + +“But--you were preaching just the opposite!” + +“I know; it makes me feel foolish sometimes. But things have +changed, and there's no sense in shutting your eyes to facts.” + +Jimmie waited. + +“Russia, more especially,” continued Emil, answering the unspoken +question. “What's the use of getting Socialism, if you're just +throwing yourself down for a military machine to run over you? +You're playing the fool, that's all--and you have to see it. What +hope is there for Russia now?” + +“There's the German Socialists.” + +“Well, they just didn't have the power, that's all. What's more, we +have to face the fact that a lot of them aren't really +revolutionists--they're politicians, and haven't dared to stand out +against the crowd. Anyhow, whatever the reason is, they didn't save +their own country, and they didn't save Russia. They certainly can't +expect us to give them a third chance--it costs too much.” + +“But then,” argued Jimmie, “ain't we doin' just what we blame them +for doin'--turnin' patriots, supportin' a capitalist government?” + +“When you're supporting a government,” replied Emil, “it make's a +lot of difference what use its making of your support. We all know +the faults of our government, but we know too that the people can +change it when enough of them get ready, and that makes a real +difference. I've come to realize that if we give the Kaiser a +beating, the German people will kick him out, and then we can talk +sense to them.” + + + + +IV + + + +They walked along for a bit in silence, Jimmie trying to assimilate +these ideas. They were new--not in the sense that he had not heard +them before, but in the sense that he had not heard them from a +German. “How does your father feel?” he asked at last. + +“He hasn't changed,” replied the other. “And that makes it pretty +hard--it's all we can do to keep from quarrelling. He's old, and new +ideas don't come to him easily. Yet you'd think he'd be the first to +see it--his father was one of the old revolutionists, he was put in +jail in Dresden. I don't suppose you know much about the history of +Germany.” + +“No,” said Jimmie. + +“Well, in those days the German people tried to get free, and they +were put down by the troops, and the real revolutionists were driven +into exile. Some of them came over here--like my grandfather. But, +you see, their children have forgotten about their wrongs--they look +back on Germany now, and think of it sentimentally, as it's pictured +in the stories and songs--a sort of Christmas-tree Germany. They +don't know about the Germany that's grown up--the Germany of iron +and coal kings, that combines all the cruelty of feudalism with +modern efficiency and science--the Beast with the Brains of an +Engineer!” + +They walked on, Emil lost in thought. “You know,” he broke out, +suddenly, “this war has been a revelation to me--the most horrible +you could imagine. It's as if you loved a woman, and saw her go +insane before your eyes, or turn into some sort of degenerate. For I +believed in the Christmas-tree Germany; I loved it, and I argued for +it, I just couldn't bring myself to believe what I read in the +papers. Now I look back, and it seems like a trap that the German +war-lords had set for my mind--reaching way over here into America, +and making me think what they wanted me to! Perhaps I've gone to the +other extreme--I find I distrust everything that's German. Father +accused me of it last night; he was singing an old German song that +says that when you hear men singing you may lie down in peace, for +bad men have no songs. And I reminded him that the nation which +taught that idea had marched into Belgium singing!” + +“Gee!” exclaimed Jimmie. He could imagine how old Hermann Forster +had taken that remark! + +The young carpet-designer smiled, rather sadly. “He says it's +because I've put on khaki. But the truth is, I'd been full of these +thoughts, and all at once they came to a head. I was drafted, and I +had to make up my mind one way or the other. I decided I'd +fight--and then, when I'd decided, I wanted to get into it right +away.” Emil paused, and looked at his friend and asked, “What about +you?” + +Jimmie, of course, was a draft-evader, one of the hated “slackers”. +Ordinarily, he would have told Emil, and the two of them would have +grinned. But now Emil was in khaki, Emil was a patriot; perhaps it +would not be wise to trust him entirely! “They haven't got me yet,” + said Jimmie; and then, “I ain't so sure as I used to be, but I ain't +ready to be a soldier--I dunno's I could stand bein' bossed like +that fellow does it.” + +Emil laughed. “Don't you suppose I want to learn?” + +“But does he need to call you names?” + +“That's part of the game--nobody minds that. He's putting the pep +into us--and we want it in.” + +Jimmie found that such a new point of view that he didn't know what +to reply. + +“You see,” the other went on, “if you really want to fight, you go +in for it; it's quite remarkable how your feelings change. You +imagine yourself in the presence of the enemy, and you know your +success depends on discipline; if there's a leader, and especially +if you feel that he knows his business, you're glad to have him to +teach you, to make the whole machine do what you want it to. I know +it sounds funny from me, but I've learnt to love discipline.” And +Emil laughed, a nervous laugh. “This army means business, let me +tell you; and it's got right down to it. They've been fighting three +and a half years over in Europe, and they send their best men over +to show us, and we dig in and learn--I tell you, we work as if the +devil was after us!” + + + + +V + + + +It sounded so strange to hear things like this from the lips of Emil +Forster! Jimmie could hardly make them real to himself--the world +was slipping from under his feet. The Socialist movement was being +seduced--won over by the militarists! He didn't quite dare to say +this; but he hinted, cautiously, “Ain't you afraid maybe we'll get +used to fightin'--to discipline and all that? Maybe they'll trick +us--the plutes.” + +“I know,” said the other. “I've thought of that, and I've no doubt +they'll try it--they want universal training for that very purpose. +We have to fight them, that's all; we have to fight right now--to +make clear why we're going into this war. We have to hold it before +the people--that this is a war to bring democracy to the whole +world. If we can fix that in people's minds, the imperialists won't +have a look in.” + +“If you could do it, of course--” began Jimmie, hesitatingly. + +“But we ARE doing it!” cried Emil. “We're doing it day by day. Look +at this strike here in Leesville.” + +“What strike?” + +“Didn't you know there'd been another walk-out in the Empire Shops?” + +“No, I didn't.” + +“The men went out, and the government sent an arbitration +commission, and forced both sides to accept an award. They broke old +Granitch down--made him recognize the union and grant the basic +eight-hour day.” + +“My God!” exclaimed Jimmie. It was the thing for which he had stood +up in the Empire yards and been cursed by young Lacey Granitch; it +was the thing for which he had been sent to jail and devoured by +lice! And now the government had helped the men to win their demand! +It was the first time--literally the first in Jimmie's whole +life--that he had been led to think of the government as something +else than an enemy and a slave-driver. + +“How did Granitch take it?” he asked. + +“Oh, awful! He threatened to quit, and let the government run his +plant; but when he found the government was perfectly willing, he +dropped his bluff. And look here--here's something else.” Emil +reached into an inside pocket of his overcoat and pulled out a +newspaper clipping. “Ashton Chalmers went to a banquet at some +bankers' convention the other day and made a speech to them. Read +this.” + +Jimmie, walking along, read some words that Emil had underlined in +pencil: “Whether we will or no, we have to recognize that the old +order is dead. We face a new era, when labour is coming into its +own. If we do not want to be left behind as derelicts, we shall have +to get busy and do our part to bring in this new era, which +otherwise will come with bloodshed and destruction.” + +“For the love of Mike!” said Jimmie. + +“It's just about knocked Leesville out,” said Emil. “You ought to +have seen the papers that reported the speech! It was as if God in +his Heaven had gone crazy, and the clergymen in the churches had to +tell the news!” + +To the little machinist there flashed a sudden idea. He caught his +friend by the arm. “Emil!” he exclaimed. “Do you remember that time +when Ashton Chalmers and old Granitch came to our meeting at the +Opera-house?” + +“Sure thing!” said Emil. + +“Maybe that done it!” + +“Nothing more likely.” + +“And it was me that sold him the tickets!” + +Jimmie was thrilled to the bottom of his shoes. Such is the reward +that comes now and then to the soul of a propagandist; he struggles +on amid ridicule and despair--and then suddenly, like a gleam of +light, comes evidence that somewhere, somehow, he has reached +another mind, he has made a real impression. Ashton Chalmers had +listened to the Socialist orator, and he had gone away and read and +investigated; he had realized the force of this great world movement +for economic justice, he had broken the bonds and barriers of his +class, and told the truth about what he saw coming. When Jimmie read +the wonderful words which the bank president had spoken, he was +nearer to an impulse to fight Germany than at any previous moment of +his life! + + + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +JIMMIE HIGGINS WRESTLES WITH THE TEMPTER + +I + + + + + +Of course, not all the Socialists of Leesville had got the “military +bug” like Emil Forster. Late in the afternoon, Jimmie ran into +Comrade Schneider, on his way home from work at the brewery, and he +was the same old Schneider--the same florid Teuton countenance, the +same solid Teuton voice, the same indignant Teuton point of view. +All Jimmie had to do was to mention the name of Emil, and Schneider +was off. A hell of a Socialist he was! Couldn't even wait for the +drill-sergeant to come after him, but had to run and hunt for him, +had to go and put himself out in the public square, where the +town-loafers could watch him playing the monkey! + +No, said Schneider, with abundant profanity, he had not moved one +inch from his position; they could send him to jail any time they +got ready, they could stand him up before a firing-squad, but they'd +never get any militarism into him. Pressed for an answer, the big +brewer admitted that he had registered; but he wasn't going to be +drafted, not on his life! Jimmie suggested that this might be +because he had a wife and six children; but the other was too much +absorbed in his tirade to notice Jimmie's grin. He blustered on, in +a tone so loud that several times people on the street overheard, +and gave him a black look. Jimmie, being less in the mood of +martyrdom, parted from him and went to see the Meissners. + +The little bottle-packer was living in the same place, having rented +the upper part of his house to a Polish family to help meet his +constantly-rising expenses. He welcomed Jimmie with open +arms--patted him on the back with delight, and opened a bottle of +beer to treat him. He asked a hundred questions about Jimmie's +adventures, and told in turn about events in Leesville. The local as +a whole had stood firm against the war, and was still carrying on +propaganda, in the face of ferocious opposition. The working-classes +were pumped so full of “patriotic dope”, you could hardly get them +to listen; as for the radicals, they were marked men--their mail was +intercepted, their meetings were attended by almost as many +detectives as spectators. A number had been drafted--which Meissner +considered deliberate conspiracy on the part of the draft-boards. + +Who had been taken? Jimmie asked. The other answered: Comrade +Claudel, the jeweller--he wanted to go, of course; and Comrade +Koeln, the glass-blower--he was a German, but had been naturalized, +so they had taken him, in spite of his protests; and Comrade +Stankewitz-- + +“Stankewitz!” cried Jimmie, in dismay. + +“Sure, he's gone.” + +“Was he willing?” + +“They didn't ask if he was willing. They just told him to report.” + +Somehow that seemed to bring the war nearer to Jimmie's +consciousness than anything that had happened so far. The little +Roumanian Jew had given him the greater part of his education on +this world-conflict; it was over the counter of the cigar-store that +Jimmie had got the first geography lessons of his life. He had +learned that Russia was the yellow country, and Germany the green, +and Belgium the pale blue, and France the light pink; he had seen +how the railroads from the green to the pink ran through the pale +blue, and how the big fortresses in the pale blue all faced towards +the green--something which Meissner and Schneider and the rest of +the green people considered a mortal affront, a confession of guilt +on the part of the pale blue people. Comrade Stankewitz's +wizened-up, eager little face rose before Jimmie; he heard the +shrill voice, trying to compose the disputes in the local. +“Comrades, all this vill not get us anyvere! There is but vun +question we have to answer, are we internationalists, or are we +not?” + +“My God!” cried Jimmie. “Ain't that awful?” + +He had got to the point where he was willing to admit that perhaps +the Kaiser had got to be licked, and maybe it was all right for a +fellow that felt like Emil Forster to go and lick him. But to lay +hold of a man who hated war with all his heart and soul, to drag him +away from the little business he had painfully built up, and compel +him to put on a uniform and obey other men's orders--well, when you +saw a thing like that, you knew about the atrocities of war! + + + + +II + + + +Comrade Meissner went on. Worse than that---they had taken Comrade +Gerrity. And Jimmie stared. “But he's married!” + +“I know,” explained Meissner, “but that ain't what counts. What you +got to have is a dependent wife. An' the Gerritys didn't know +that--Comrade Evelyn held on to her job as stenographer, and +somebody must have told on them, for the board jacked him up and +cancelled his exemption. Of course, it was only because he was +organizer of the local; they want to put us out of business any way +they can.” + +“What did Gerrity do?” + +“He refused to serve, and they sent a squad of men after him and +dragged him away. They took him to Camp Sheridan, and tried to put +him in uniform, and he refused--he wouldn't work, he wouldn't have +anything to do with war. So they tried him and sentenced him to +twenty-five years in jail; they put him in solitary confinement, and +he gets nothin' but bread and water--they keep him chained up by his +wrists a part of the time--” + +“Oh! OH!” cried Jimmie. + +“Comrade Evelyn's most crazy about it. She broke down and cried in +the local, and she went around to the churches--they have women's +sewing-circles, you know, and things for the Red Cross, and her and +Comrade Mary Allen gets up and makes speeches an' drives the women +crazy. They arrested 'em once, but they turned 'em loose--they +didn't want it to get in the papers.” + +Comrade Meissner could not have foreseen how this particular news +would affect Jimmie; Meissner knew nothing about the strange +adventure which had befallen his friend, the amatory convulsion +which had shaken his soul. Before Jimmie's mind now rose the lovely +face with the pert little dimples and the halo of fluffy brown hair; +the thought of Comrade Evelyn Baskerville in distress was simply not +to be endured. “Where is she?” he cried. He had a vision of himself +rushing forthwith to take up the agitation; to raid the church +sewing-circles and brave the wrath of the she-patriots; to go to +jail with Comrade Evelyn; or perhaps--who could say?--to put about +her, gently and reverently, a pair of fraternal and comforting arms. + +Jimmie had the temperament of the dreamer, the idealist, to whom it +is enough to want a thing to see that thing forthwith come into +being. His imagination, stimulated by the image of the charming +stenographer, rushed forth on the wildest of flights. He realized +for the first time that he was a free man; while, as for Comrade +Evelyn, suppose the worst were to happen, suppose Comrade Gerrity +were to perish of the diet of bread and water, or to be dragged into +the trenches and killed--then the sorrowing widow would be in need +of someone to uphold her, to put fraternal and comforting arms about +her-- + +“Where is she?” Jimmie asked again; and Comrade Meissner dissipated +his dream by replying that she had gone off to work for an +organization in New York which was agitating for humane treatment +for “conscientious objectors”. Meissner hunted up the pamphlet +published by this organization, telling most hideous stories of the +abusing of such victims of the military frenzy; they had been +beaten, tortured and starved, subjected to ridicule and humiliation, +in many cases dragged before courts-martial and sentenced to +imprisonment for twenty or thirty years. Jimmie sat up a part of the +night reading these stories--with the result that once more the +feeble sprout of patriotism was squashed flat in his soul! + + + + +III + + + +Jimmie went to the next meeting of the local. It was a slender +affair now, for some of the members were in jail, and some in the +training camps, and some afraid to come for fear of their jobs, and +some discouraged by incessant persecution. But the old war-horses +were there--Comrade Schneider, and gentle old Hermann Forster, and +Comrade Mabel Smith, with an account of her brother's mistreatment +in the county jail, and Comrade Mary Allen, the Quaker lady. This +last was still taking it as a personal affront that America should +be going into the bloody mess, in spite of all her denunciations and +protests; she was even paler and thinner than when Jimmie had seen +her last--her hands trembled and her thin lips quivered as she +spoke, you could see that she was burning up with excitement over +the monstrous wickedness of the world's events. She read to the +local a harrowing story of a boy who had registered as a +conscientious objector in New York, and had been taken out to a +training-camp and subjected to such indignities that he had shot +himself. Comrade Mary had no children of her own, so she had adopted +these conscientious objectors, and as she read of their experiences, +her soul was convulsed with a mingling of grief and rage. + +Jimmie went back to the Empire Shops and applied for a job. They +needed thousands of men, so the Herald declared--but they did not +need a single one like Jimmie! The man to whom he applied recognized +him at once, and said, “Nothin' doin'.” For the sake of being nasty, +Jimmie went to the headquarters of the newly-formed union, and asked +them to force old Abel Granitch to give him work, according to the +terms of the agreement with the government. But the union secretary, +after thinking the matter over, decided that the provision against +black-listing applied only to men who had been out on the last +strike, not to the strikers of a couple of years before. “There was +no use going out of one's way to look for trouble,” said this +secretary. Jimmie went away jeering at the union, and damning the +war as heartily as ever. + +He was in no hurry to get work, having still some money in his +pocket, and being able to live cheaply with the Meissners. He went +again to watch young Forster drilling, and went home with him and +heard an argument with old Hermann. You could see how this family +had been split wide open; the old man ordered his traitorous son out +several times, but the mother had flung herself into the breach, +pleading that the boy was going away in a few days, and perhaps +would never return. The evening that Jimmie was there, the paper +printed a speech of the President, outlining his purposes in the +war, the terms of justice for all peoples, a league of nations and +universal disarmament. Emil read this triumphantly, finding in it a +justification of his support of the war. Wasn't it a great part of +what the Socialists wanted? + +Hermann answered grudgingly that the words were all right, but how +about the deeds? Also, how about the other Allies--did the President +imagime he could boss them? No--to the imperialists of England and +France and Italy those fine words were just bait for gudgeons; they +would serve to keep the workers quiet till the war was won, and then +the militarists would kick out the American President and pick the +bones of the carcass of Germany. If they really meant to abide by +the President's terms, why didn't they come out squarely and say so? +Why didn't they repudiate the secret treaties? Why didn't England +begin her career in democracy by setting free Ireland and India? + +So it went; and Jimmie listened to both speakers, and agreed with +both alternately, experiencing more and more that distressing +condition of mental chaos, in which he found himself of two +absolutely contradictory and diametrically opposite points of view. + + + + +IV + + + +All winter long the papers had been full of talk about a mighty +German offensive that was coming in the spring. The German people +were being told all about it, and how it was to end the war with a +glorious triumph. In America nobody was sure about the matter; the +fact that the attack was boldly announced seemed good reason for +looking elsewhere. Perhaps the enemy was preparing to overwhelm +Italy, and wished to keep France and England from sending troops to +the weakened Italian line! + +But now suddenly, in the third week of March, the Germans made a +mighty rush at the British line in front of Cambrai; army upon army +they came, and overwhelmed the defenders, and poured through the +breach. The British forces fell back--every hour it seemed that +their retreat must be turned into a rout. Day by day, as the +dispatches came in, Jimmie watched the map in front of the Herald +office, and saw a huge gap opening in the British line, a spear-head +pointing straight into the heart of France. Three days, four days, +five days, this ghastly splitting apart went on, and the whole world +held its breath. Even Jimmie Higgins was shaken by the news--he had +got enough into the war by this time to realize what a German +triumph would mean. It took a strong pacifist stomach indeed to +contemplate such an issue of events without flinching. + +Comrade Mary Allen had such a stomach; to her religious fervour it +made no difference whatever which set of robbers ruled the world. +Comrade Schneider had it also; he knew that Germany was the +birth-place and cradle of Socialism, and believed that the best fate +that could befall the world was for the Germans to conquer it, and +let the German Socialists make it into a co-operative commonwealth +by and by. Comrade Schneider was now openly gloating over this new +proof of German supermanity, the invincibility of German discipline. +But most of the other members of the local were awed--realizing in +spite of themselves the seriousness of the plight which confronted +civilization. + +Jimmie would inspect the bulletin board, and go over to watch the +drilling, and then to Tom's “Buffeteria” with Emil Forster. He had +always had an intense admiration for Emil, and now the young +designer, distressed by the strife at home, was glad of someone to +pour out his soul to. He would help Jimmie to realize the meaning of +the British defeat, the enormous losses of guns and supplies, the +burden it would put upon America. For America would have to make up +these losses, America would have to drive the Germans out of every +foot of this newly-conquered territory. + +Jimmie would listen and study the matter out on the map; and so +gradually he learned to be interested in a new science, that of +military strategy. When once you have fallen under the spell of that +game, your soul is lost. You think of men, no longer as human +creatures, suffering, starving, bleeding, dying in agony; you think +of them as chess-pawns; you dispose of them as a gambler of his +chips, a merchant of his wares; you classify them into brigades and +divisions and corps, moving them here and there, counting off your +losses against the losses of the enemy, putting in your reserves at +critical moments, paying this price for that objective, wiping out +thousands and tens of thousands of men with a sweep of your hand, a +mark of your pencil, a pressure on an electric button! Once you have +learnt to take that view of life, you are no longer a human heart, +to be appealed to by pacifists and humanitarians; you are a machine, +grinding out destruction, you are a ripe apple, ready to fall into +the lap of the god of war, you are an autumn leaf, ready to be +seized by the gales of patriotism and blown to destruction and +death. + + + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +JIMMIE HIGGINS TAKES THE PLUNGE + +I + + + + + +Jimmie went home one evening to the Meissners, and there got a piece +of news that delighted him. Comrade Stankewitz had come back from +Camp Sheridan! The man to whom he had sold his tobacco-store having +failed to pay up, Stankewitz had got a three days' furlough to +settle his business affairs. “Say, he looks fine!” exclaimed +Meissner; and so after supper Jimmie hurried off to the little store +on the corner. + +Never had Jimmie been so startled by the change in a man; he would +literally not have known his Roumanian Jewish friend. The wrinkles +which had made him look old had filled out; his shoulders were +straight--he seemed to have been lifted a couple of inches; he was +brown, his cheeks full of colour--he was just a new man! Jimmie and +he had been wont to skylark a bit in the old days, as young male +creatures do, putting up their fists, giving one another a punch or +two, making as if they were going to batter in one another's noses. +They would grip hands and squeeze, to see which could hold out +longest. But now, when they tried it, there was “nothing to +it”--Jimmie got one squeeze and hollered quits. + +“Vat you tink?” cried Stankewitz. “I veigh tventy pounds more +already--tventy pounds! They vork you like hell in that army, but +they treat you good. You don't never have such good grub before, not +anyvere you vork.” + +“You like it?” demanded Jimmy, in amazement. + +“Sure I like it, you bet your money! I learn lots of things vat I +didn't know before. I get myself straight on this var, don't you +ferget it.” + +“You believe in the war?” + +“Sure I believe in it, you bet your money!” Comrade Stankewitz, as +he spoke, pounded with an excited fist on the counter. “Ve got to +vin this var, see? Ve got to beat them Yunkers! I vould have made up +my mind to that, even if I don't go in the army--I vould have make +it up ven I see vat they do vit Russia.” + +“But the revolution--” + +“The revolution kin vait--maybe vun year, maybe two years already. +It don't do us no good to have a revolution if the Yunkers walk over +it! No, sir--I vant them Germans put out of Roumania und out of +Russia und out of Poland--und, I tell you, in this American army you +got plenty Roumanian Socialists, plenty Polish Socialists, und the +Kaiser vill be sorry ven he meets them in France, you bet your +money!” + +So Jimmie got another dose of patriotism, a heavy dose this time; +for Stankewitz was all on fire with his new conviction, as full of +the propaganda impulse as he had been when he called himself an +“anti-nationalist”. He could not permit you to differ with +him--became irritated at the bare mention of those formula-ridden +members of the local who were still against the war. They were +fools--or else they were Germans; and Comrade Stankewitz was as +ready to right the Germans in Leesville as in France. He got so +excited arguing that he almost forgot the cigars and the show-cases +which he had to get rid of in two days. To Jimmie it was an amazing +thing to see this transformation--not merely the new uniform and the +new muscles of his Roumanian Jewish friend, but his sense of +certainty about the war, his loyalty to the President for the bold +deed he had done in pledging the good faith of America to securing +the freedom and the peaceful future of the harrassed and tormented +subject-races of Eastern Europe. + + + + +II + + + +Jimmie got a sheet of letter paper, and borrowed a scratchy pen and +a little bottle of ink from Mrs. Meissner, and wrote a painfully +mis-spelled letter to Comrade Evelyn Gerrity, nee Baskerville, to +assure her of his sympathy and undying friendship. He did not tell +her that he was beginning to wobble on the war; in fact, when he +thought of Jack Gerrity, chained up to the bars of a cell window, he +unwobbled--he wanted the social revolution right away. But then as +he went to drop the letter into the post office, so that it might go +more quickly, he bought a paper and read the story of what was +happening in France. And again the war-fervour tempted him. + +By desperate, frenzied fighting the British had succeeded in holding +up for a few days the colossal German drive. But help was +needed--instant help, if civilization was to be saved. The cry came +across the seas--America must send assistance--guns, shells, food, +and above all else men. Jimmie's blood was stirred; he had an +impulse to answer the call, to rush to the rescue of those desperate +men, crouching in shell-holes and fighting day and night for a week +without rest. If only Jimmie could have gone right to them! If only +it had not been necessary for him to go to a training-camp and +submit himself to a military martinet! If only it had not been for +war-profiteers, and crooked politicians, and lying, predatory +newspapers, and all the other enemies of democracy at home! + +Jimmie dropped his letter in the slot, and turned to leave the post +office, when his eye was caught by a sign on the wall-a large sign, +in bold, black letters: “YOUR COUNTRY NEEDS YOU!” Jimmie thought it +was more “Liberty Bond” business; they had been after him several +times, trying to separate him from his earnings, but needless to say +they hadn't succeeded. However, he stopped out of curiosity, and +read that men were needed to go to France--skilled men of all sorts. +There was a long list of the trades, everything you could think +of--carpenters, plumbers, electricians, lumbermen, stevedores, +railwaymen, laundrymen, cooks, warehousemen--so on for several +columns. Jimmie came to “machinists”, and gave a guilty start; then +he came to “motor-cycle drivers” and “motor-cycle repairers”--and +suddenly he clenched his hands. A wild idea flashed over him, +causing such excitement that he could hardly read on. Why should he +not go to France--he, Jimmy Higgins! He was a man without a tie in +the world--as free as the winds that blow across the ocean! And he +was looking for a job--why not take one of these? + +It was a way he might share all the adventures, see the marvellous +sights of which he had been reading and hearing and without the long +delay in a training-camp, without waiting to be bossed about by a +military martinet! Jimmie looked to see what pay was offered; +fifty-one dollars a month and an “allowance” for board and expenses. +At the bottom of the sign he read the words: “Why not work for your +Uncle Sam?” Jimmie as it happened was in a fairly friendly mood +towards his Uncle Sam at that moment; so he thought, why not give +him a chance as a boss? After all, wasn't that what every Socialist +was aiming at--to be an employe of the community, a servant of the +public, rather than of some private profiteer? + + + + +III + + + +Jimmie went to the window to inquire, and the clerk told him that +the “war-labour recruiting office” was at the corner of Main and +Jefferson. He came to the corner designated, and there in a vacant +store was a big recruiting sign, “War Labour Wanted”, and a soldier +in khaki walking up and down. A week ago Jimmie could not have been +bribed to enter a place presided over by a soldier; but he had +learned from Emil and Stankewitz that a soldier might be a human +being, so he went up and said, “Hello.” + +“Hello, yourself,” said the soldier, looking him over with an +appraising eye. + +“If I was to hire here, when would I start for France?” + +“To-night,” said the soldier. + +“You kiddin' me?” + +“They ain't payin' me to kid people,” said the other; and then, +“What's your hurry?” + +“Well, I don't want to be stalled in a trainin'-camp.” + +“You won't be stalled if you know your business. What are you?” + +“I'm a machinist; I've repaired bicycles, an' I know a bit about +motor-cycles.” + +“Walk in,” said the soldier, and led the way, and presented Jimmie +to a sergeant at the desk. “Here's a machinist,” he said, “and he's +in a hurry to get to work. Runnin' away from his wife, maybe.” + +“There's a bunch of men starting for the training-camp to-night,” + said the sergeant. + +“Trainin'-camp?” echoed Jimmie. “I want to go to France.” + +The other smiled. “You wouldn't expect us to send you till we'd +tried you out, would you?” + +“No, I suppose not,” replied Jimmie, dubiously. He was on his guard +against tricks. Suppose they were to enlist him as a worker, and +then make him fight! + +The other went on. “If you're competent, you'll get to France all +right. We need men over there in a hurry, and we won't waste your +time.” + +“Well, now,” said Jimmie, “I dunno's you'll want me at all when you +hear about me. I'm a Socialist.” + +“Thought you were a machinist,” countered the sergeant. + +“I'm a Socialist, too. I was in the strike at the Empire a couple of +years ago, and they blacklisted me. I can't get no work in the big +places here.” + +“Well,” said the sergeant, “it's a good town for you to quit, I +should say.” + +“You want a man like that?” persisted Jimmie. + +“What we want is men that know machinery, and'll dig in and work +like hell to beat the Kaiser. If you're that sort we don't ask your +religion. We've got a bunch that start to-night.” + +“Holy smoke!” said Jimmie. He had thought he would have time to ask +questions and to think matters over, time to see his friends and say +good-bye. But the sergeant was so efficient and business-like; he +took it so completely for granted that any man who was worth his +salt must be anxious to help wallop the Hun! Jimmie, who had come in +full of hurry, was now ashamed to back water, to hem and haw, to +say, “I dunno; I ain't so sure.” And so the trap snapped on him--the +monster of Militarism grabbed him! + + + + +IV + + + +“Sit down,” said the sergeant, and the anxious little Socialist took +the chair beside the desk, + +“What's your name?” + +“James Higgins.” + +“Your address?” + +“I'm just stayin' with a friend.” + +“The friend's address?” and so on: where had Jimmie worked last, +what work had he done, what references had he to offer. Jimmie could +not help grinning as he realized how his record must sound to a +military martinet. He had been discharged and blacklisted at the +motor-truck factory in Ironton, his last job; he had been discharged +and black-listed at the Empire Shops; he had been arrested and sent +to jail for “soap-boxing” on the streets of Leesville; he had been +arrested in the bomb-conspiracy of Kumme and Heinrich von Holst. The +sergeant entered each of these items without comment, but when he +come to the last, he stared up at the applicant. + +“I didn't have nothin' to do with it,” declared Jimmie. + +“You got to prove that to me,” said the sergeant. + +“I proved it once,” replied Jimmie. + +“Who to?” + +“Mr. Harrod, the agent of the Department of Justice here.” + +The other took up the telephone and called the post office building. +Jimmie listened to one-half of the conversation--would Mr. Harrod +look up the record of James Higgins, who was applying for enlistment +in the Mechanical Department of the Motor Corps? There was some +delay--Mr. Harrod was talking--while Jimmie sat, decidedly nervous; +but it was all right apparently--the sergeant hung up the receiver, +and remarked reassuringly, “He says you're just a dub. He told me to +congratulate you on having got some sense.” + +Jimmie made the most of this more than dubious statement, and +proceeded to answer questions as to his competence. Was there +anybody at the Empire who could certify as to this? The sergeant was +about to call up the Empire Shops, but reconsidered; if Jimmie had +actually worked in a machine-shop and in a bicycle-shop, they would +surely be able to find something for him in the army. In an hour of +such desperate need they took most everyone. “How tall are you?” + demanded the sergeant, and added, “Weight don't matter so much, +because we'll feed you.” + +The office of the medical examiner was upstairs in the same +building, and Jimmie was escorted upstairs, and invited to remove +his coat and shirt, and have his chest measured, and his heart and +lungs listened to, and his teeth counted, and his nose peered into, +and a score of such-like stunts. He had things wrong with him, of +course, but not too many for army purposes, it appeared. The doctor +jotted down the figures on a sheet and signed it, after which Jimmie +and the soldier went back to the recruiting-office. + +And now suddenly the little Socialist found himself with an +enlistment paper before him, and a wet pen in his hand. He had never +once been asked: “Is your mind made up? Do you really mean to take +this irrevocable step?” No, the sergeant had taken it for granted +that Jimmie meant business. He had done all this inquiring and +writing down of information, this weighing and measuring and what +not, and now he sat with a stern, compelling eye fixed on his +victim, as much as to say: “Do you mean to tell me that I've done +all that for nothing?” If Jimmie had actually refused to sign his +name, what a blast of scorn would have withered him! + +So Jimmie did not even stop to read all the paper; he signed. “And +now,” said the sergeant, “the train leaves at nine-seventeen this +evening. I'll be there to give you your ticket. Don't fail to be on +hand. You understand, you're under military discipline now.” There +was a new tone in these last words, and Jimmie quaked inwardly, and +went out with a sort of hollow feeling in the pit of his stomach. + + + + +V + + + +He rushed away to tell Comrade Stankewitz, who hugged him with +delight and shouted that they would meet in France! Then he went to +tell Emil Forster, who was equally glad. He found himself with an +impulse to hunt up Comrade Schneider and tell him. Jimmie discovered +in himself a sudden and curious antagonism to Schneider; he wanted +to have matters out with him, to say to him: “Wake up, you +mutt--forget that fool dream of yours that the Kaiser's goin' to win +the war!” + +There were others Jimmie thought of, upon whom he would not call. +Comrade Mary Allen, for example--he would let her get the news after +he was out of the reach of her sharp tongue! Also he thought of +Comrade Evelyn; he might never see her again; if he did see her, she +might refuse to speak to him! But Jimmie repressed the pang of +dismay which this realization brought him. He was going to war, and +the longings and delights of love must be put to one side! + +He went to the Meissners for supper, and broke the news to them. He +had expected protests and arguments, and was surprised by the lack +of them. Had the little bottle-packer been impressed by the +experiences of Comrade Stankewitz? Or could it be that he was afraid +to voice his full mind to Jimmie--just as Jimmie had been afraid in +the case of Emil Forster? + +Jimmie had some commissions to entrust to the Meissners; he would +leave with them the diary of “Wild Bill”, which he had hung on to, +but which seemed hardly the sort of literature to take on a +transport. + +“Sure,” assented Meissner. “Besides, the subs might get it.” + +And Jimmie gave a sudden start. By heck! It was the first time the +idea had occurred to him. He would have to pass through the barred +zone! He might be in some fighting after all! He might never get to +France! “Say!” he exclaimed. “That ocean must be cold this time of +year!” + +For a moment he wavered. Surely it would have been more sensible to +wait till later in the season, when the consequences of a plunge +overboard would be less distressing! But Jimmie remembered the +armies, locked in their grip of death; never would despatch-riders +need their motor-cycles more urgently than now! Also Jimmie +remembered the sergeant at the recruiting-office. “You understand, +you're under military discipline now!” He set his jaw in a grim +resolve. The “subs” be damned, he would go and do his part! Already +he felt the thrill of his responsibility in this mighty hour of +history; he was a military man, with a stern duty to do, with the +destinies of nations depending upon his behaviour! + + + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +JIMMIE HIGGINS PUTS ON KHAKI + +I + + + + + +There were seven fellows who boarded the train that evening, under +the temporary charge of a blacksmith from the near by country. At +seven o'clock next morning they presented their papers at the +entrance-gate of the training-camp, and under the escort of a +soldier were marched down the main street, hanging on to their +bundles and suit-cases, and staring about them at the sights. + +It was a city inhabited by some forty thousand men, on a site which +a year ago had been waste scrub-land. Long rows of wooden buildings +stretched in every direction--barracks, dining-rooms, study-rooms, +offices, store-houses--with great stretches of exercise and +training-grounds between. Just to see this city, with its swarming +population of young men, all in uniform, erect, eager, well-set-up +and vivid with health, every man of them busy, and every man +seemingly absorbed in his job--that alone was a worth-while +experience. It was a new kind of city--a city without a loafer, +without a drunkard, without a parasite. The seven working-men from +Leesville felt suddenly slouchy and disgraced, with their +ill-fitting civilian clothes and their miscellaneous bundles and +suitcases. + +The first thing they did with the new arrivals was to make them +clean, to fumigate and vaccinate them. In a Socialist local one +meets all sorts of eccentrics, the lunatic-fringe of the movement, +and so it happened that Jimmie had listened to a tirade against the +diabolical practice of inoculation, which caused more deadly +diseases than it was supposed to prevent. But the medical officers +of this camp did not stop to ask Jimmie's conclusions on that vital +subject; they just told him to roll up the sleeve of his left arm, +and proceeded to wipe his skin clean and scratch it with a needle. + +And then came the tailor, to do him up in khaki. This also was +something the little machinist had not bargained for; he had taken +it as a matter of course that he would be allowed to work for Uncle +Sam in any old clothes, just as he had done for Abel Granitch. But +no--he must have an outfit, complete even to a tooth-brush, which +they would show him how to use. Having been done up neat and tight +in khaki, with a motor-wheel on his sleeve to show his branch of the +service, he stood and looked at himself in the glass, experiencing a +demoralizing and unworthy excitement. He was every bit as handsome +as Comrade Stankewitz! When he walked down the street would the +girls giggle, and turn to look at him, as they did at the sedate and +proper Comrade Emil? So the meshes of Militarism were being woven +about the soul of Jimmie Higgins. + + + + +II + + + +Jimmie was in quarantine, not allowed to go out of camp on account +of his typhoid and other vaccinations, There was enough about the +place to have interested him; but, alas, he became suddenly very +sick, and was terrified to realize that the opponent of inoculation +must have been right. His health had been undermined for ever, he +would suffer from a dozen obscure diseases! He went to the hospital, +miserable in body and still more miserable in mind; but in a couple +of days he began to feel better, and listened to the nurses, who +told him cheerfully that everybody felt that way for a bit. Then he +got up, and had several free days in which to complete his +recovery--days which he spent in wandering about the camp, watching +the fascinating sights. + +It was like a circus with hundreds of rings. The drilling and +marching he had seen in the Leesville square were here going on +wholesale. Hundreds of groups were being put through squad-drill and +the manual, while other groups were having special kinds of +exercises--climbing up walls, digging trenches, making roads, +shooting at targets. It rained every other day, and the ground was a +morass, but no one paid the least attention to that; the men came in +plastered with mud, and steaming like lard-vats. They seemed to +enjoy it; nothing ever interfered with their bantering and jokes. + +Jimmie watched them with alternating moods of curiosity and horror; +for the things that were done here brought the war, with its +infinite and multiform wickedness, before his very eyes. Here was a +group of men being taught to advance under fire; crawling on their +bellies on the ground, jumping from one hummock to another, flinging +themselves down and pretending to fire. A man in front, supposed to +have a machine-gun, was shouting when he had “got” them. Now they +unslung their little trenching-tools, and began to burrow themselves +like wood-chucks into the ground. “Dig, you sons o' guns, dig!” the +officer would shout. “Keep your head down, Smith! Make the dirt fly! +Put the jazz into it! That's the stuff!” + +Jimmie had never watched football practice, so he had no conception +of the efforts to which men could be goaded by “coaching”. It was +abhorrent--yet also it was fascinating, the spell of it got hold of +him. He saw what these men were doing; they were learning to act in +masses, to act with paralyzing and terrific force. Whatever it was +they did, they did with the smash of a battering-ram. You saw the +fire in their eyes, the grim, set look on their faces; you knew that +they were not going to war with any hesitations or divided minds. + +You would move over a rise in the ground, and come upon a bunch of +them at bayonet-practice. You didn't require imagination to get the +hang of this; they had dummies made of leather, and they rushed at +these figures, hacking, stabbing--and here was the most amazing part +of it, shouting with rage. Actually the officers taught them to +yell, to snarl, to work up their feelings to a fury! It was +blood-curdling--Jimmie turned away from it sick. It was just what he +had been arguing for three years and a half--you had to make +yourself into a wild beast in order to go to war! + +Also Jimmie watched the target-ranges, from which came all day a +rattle of shots, like the whirr of many typewriters. Companies of +men came marching, and spread themselves out along the firing-steps, +and under the direction of instructors proceeded to contribute their +quota to the noise. Over by the targets were others who kept score +and telephoned the results; so all day long, winter or summer, rain +or shine, men were learning to kill their fellows, mechanically, as +if it were a matter of factory routine. At other ranges were moving +targets, where sharp-shooters were acquiring skill; you noticed that +their targets were never birds and deer, as at the +shooting-galleries which Jimmie had seen at the beaches and at Socialist +picnics. No, they were the heads or bodies of men, and each body +painted a greenish grey, matching the uniforms of the enemy. + + + + +III + + + +So day by day Jimmie lived with the idea of killing, confronting the +grim and ferocious face of war. He had thought that repairing +motor-cycles would be pretty much the same anywhere you did it; but +he found that it was one thing to repair motor-cycles to be ridden +by errand-boys and working-men out for a holiday with their +sweethearts, and another and entirely different thing to repair them +for fighting-men and dispatch-couriers. Jimmie was driven more +insistently than ever to make up his mind about this war. It was +every day less easy for him to hold two contradictory sets of +opinions. + +All the men he now met were of one opinion, and by no possibility to +be persuaded to consider any other. Jimmie found that he could get +them to agree that after this war for democracy there would be vast +changes in this world, the people would never more let themselves be +hoodwinked and exploited as they had; he found that he could +interest them in the idea of having the government run the great +industries, producing food and clothing for the people as it was now +producing them for the troops. But when he tried to give this +programme the name of Socialism, then the trouble began. Weren't +Socialists the lunatics who wanted to have America “lay down” like +Russia? The premise from which all discussion started with these men +was that America was going to win the war; if you tried to hint that +this matter could so much as be hesitated over, you met, first sharp +mockery, and then angry looks, and advice to go and take a pill and +get the Hun poison out of your system. + +Nor was there any use trying to talk about the dangers of +militarism. These men knew all about the dangers of militarism--for +the Kaiser. The man who is at the buttend of a gun, and knows how to +aim it so as to pick off a cat at six hundred yards--that man will +let the cat do the worrying. So, at any rate, the matter seemed to +these husky young recruits, who were learning to march in the mud +and sleep in the rain and chew up carpet-tacks and grind Huns into +leber-wurst. They were putting through the job--with a fierce and +terrifying gaiety; they exulted in their toughness, they called +themselves “grizzlies” and “mountain cats” and what not; they sang +wild songs about their irritability, their motto was “Treat 'em +rough!” It was a scary atmosphere for a dreamer and utopian; Jimmie +Higgins shrank into himself, afraid even to reach about for some +fellow-Socialist with whom he might exchange opinions about the +events of the outside world. + + + + +IV + + + +In the evening there were picture-shows, concerts, lectures-nearly +all dealing with the war, of course. They were held in big halls +built by the Y.M.C.A., an organization for which Jimmie had a hearty +contempt. He regarded it as a device of the exploiting classes to +teach submission to their white-collar slaves. But nobody could live +in a training-camp without being aware of the “Y”. Jimmie was +invited to a lecture, and out of boredom he went. + +It was Sergeant Ebenezer Collins, imported from Flanders to tell the +“doughboys” about the wiles of the Hun. Sergeant Collins spoke a +weird language which Jimmie had never heard before, and not all of +which he could understand; it served, however, to convince him that +the sergeant was genuine--for nobody could possibly have faked such +a form of utterance! “When yer gow inter Wipers naow,” said the +orator, “yer see owld, grye-headed lydies an' bybies like little +wite gowsts, an' yer sye ter them, 'Gow-a-wye, the 'Un may be 'ere +ter-dye,' but they wown't gow, they got now 'omes ter gow ter!” + +But in spite of the difficulties of a foreign language, you realized +that this Cockney sergeant was a man. For one thing he had a sense +of humour; he had kept it in the midst of terror and death--kept it +standing all night in trenches full of icy-cold water, with icy-cold +water pouring down his collar. Also the sergeant had a sense of +honour--there were things he could not do to a 'Un, even though the +'Un might do them to him. Jimmie had listened to excited debates in +Local Leesville, as to whether the Allies were really any better +than the Germans; whether, for example, the Allies would have sunk +passenger-liners with women and babies on board, if it had been +necessary in order to win the war. Sergeant Collins did not debate +this question, he just revealed himself as a fighting man. “It's +because we plye gymes, an' they down't,” he remarked. “If yer plye +gymes, yer now 'ow to plye fair.” + +For three years and eight months Jimmie had been hearing stories +about atrocities, and for three years and eight months he had been +refusing to believe them. But now the Cockney sergeant told about a +pal who had been wounded in a night attack by the 'Uns, and the +sergeant had tried to carry him back and had had to leave him; +towards dawn they made a counter-attack, and retook the village, and +there they found the sergeant's pal, still alive, in spite of the +fact that he was spiked to a barn-door with bayonets through his +hands and feet. When that story was told, you heard a low murmur run +through the room and saw a couple of thousand young men clenching +their hands and setting their jaws, getting ready for their big job +in France. + +“Just now,” said the sergeant, “the Germans were making the most +desperate attack of the war. The British were at bay, with their +backs against the wall. It was upon the men in the training-camps of +America that the decision rested; there was no one but them to save +the day, to save the rest of the world from falling under the hoofs +of the Hun monster. Would they do their part?” Jimmie Higgins heard +the answer from those two thousand young throats, and the pacifist +in him shrunk deeper out of sight. + +But the pacifist was never entirely silent. War was wrong! War was +wrong! It was a wicked and brutal way for human beings to settle +their disagreements. If human beings were not yet intelligent enough +to listen to reason--well, even so, that didn't make war right! A +man had to have principles, and to stand by them--how else could he +make the world come his way? Yes, war was wrong! But, meantime, war +was here; and calling it wrong did not put a stop to it! What the +devil was a fellow to do? + + + + +V + + + +As soon as Jimmie was able to work, they took him to the part of the +camp where a motor-cycle division was training. Here was a big +repair-shop, with plenty of damaged machines upon which he might +display his skill. He did not know the particular engine they used +here, but he soon learned the secrets of it, and satisfied the +officers in charge that he knew how to take one apart and put it +together again, to replace and mend tyres, to clean ball-bearings +and true crooked rims. “You're all right,” they said. “And you're +needed like the devil over there. You won't have to wait long.” + +There was a platform where the trains came into the camp, and every +few hours now there came a long train to be loaded with men. Jimmie +got his notice, and packed his kit and answered roll call and took +his place; at sundown of the next day he was detrained at a +“mobilization-camp”--another huge city, described in the cautious +military fashion as “Somewhere in New Jersey”, though everybody +within a hundred miles knew its exact location. Here was a port, +created for the purposes of war, with docks and wharves where the +fleets of transports were loaded with supplies and troops. The +vessels sailed in fleets, carrying thirty or forty thousand men at +once. From the port of New York alone there was going out a fleet +like this every week--the answer of America to the new drive of the +Hun. + +One met here, not merely the fighting-men, but the forces of all the +complicated service behind the lines: gangs of lumbermen from the +far North-west, who were to fell the forests of France and make them +into railroad-ties and timber for trenches; railway-men, miners, and +construction-gangs, engineers and signalmen, bridge-builders and +road-makers, telephone-linemen and operators, the drivers of forty +thousand motor-cars and of five thousand locomotives; bakers and +cooks, menders of shoes and of clothing, farmers to till the soil of +France, and doctors and nurses to tend its sick and wounded. There +was nothing which the skill and knowledge of a nation of a hundred +million people had to offer that was not gathered into this vast +encampment. All the youngest and keenest were here, eager to do +their part, laughing at danger, tingling with excitement, on tip-toe +with curiosity and delight. Jimmie Higgins, watching them, found his +doubts melting like an April snow-storm. How could any man see this +activity and not be caught up in it? How could he be with these +laughing boys and not share their mood? + +Jimmie himself had not had a merry childhood, he did not know the +youth of his own country--the breezy, slangy, rather shocking, +utterly irrepressible youth of this democratic world. If there was +anything they did not know--well, they did not know it; if there was +anything they could not do--their motto was: “Show me!” Jimmie, not +having been to school, found himself having a hard time with their +weird slang. When one of these fellows hailed you, “Hey, pimp!” it +did not necessarily mean that he did not like you: when he greeted +you, “Hey, sweetness!” it did not mean that he felt for you any +over-powering affection. If he referred to his officer as +“hard-boiled”, he did not have in mind that this officer had been +exposed to the action of water at 212 degrees Fahrenheit; he merely +meant that the officer was a snob. When he remarked, “Good night!” + in broad daylight, he meant you to understand that he disagreed with +you. + +He disagreed frequently and explosively with Jimmie Higgins, trying +to point out a difference between the German rulers and the German +people! Such subtleties had no interest for these all-knowing boys. +When Jimmie persisted, they called him a “nut”, a “poor cheese”; +they told him that he was “cuckoo”, that his “trolley was twisted”; +they made whirling motions with their hands to indicate that he had +“wheels in his head”, they made flapping motions over him to signify +that there were “bats in his belfry”. So Jimmie subsided, and let +them talk their own talk--imploring one another to “have a heart”, +or to “get wise”, or to “make it snappy”, or to “cut out the rough +stuff”. And he would sit and listen while they sang with zest a song +telling about what they were going to do when they got to France: + + Bring the good old bugle, boys, we'll sing another song, + Sing it with a spirit that will move the world along, + Sing it as we love to sing it, just two million strong-- + While we are canning the Kaiser. + + CHORUS: + + Oh, Bill! Oh, Bill! We're on the job to-day! + Oh, Bill! Oh, Bill! We'll seal you so you'll stay! + We'll put you up in ginger in the good old Yankee way-- + While we are canning the Kaiser. + + Hear the song we're singing on the shining roads of France; + Hear the Tommies cheering, and see the Poilus prance; + Africanders and Kanucks and Scots without their pants-- + While we are canning the Kaiser. (Chorus) + + Bring the guns from Bethlehem, by way of old New York; + Bring the beans from Boston, and don't leave out the pork; + Bring a load of soda-pop and pull the grape-juice cork-- + While we are canning the Kaiser. (Chorus) + + Come you men from Dixieland, you lumberjacks of Maine; + Come you Texas cowboys, and you farmers of the plain; + Florida to Oregon, we boast the Yankee strain-- + While we are canning the Kaiser. (Chorus) + + Now we've started on the job we mean to put it through; + Ship the kings and kaisers all, and make the world anew; + Clear the way for common folk, for men like me and you-- + While we are canning the Kaiser. + + CHORUS: + + Oh, Bill! Oh, Bill! We're on the job to-day! + Oh, Bill! Oh, Bill! We'll seal you so you'll stay! + We'll put you up in ginger in the good old Yankee way-- + While we are canning the Kaiser. + + + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +JIMMIE HIGGINS TAKES A SWIM + +I + + + + + +You did not stop very long in the mobilization-camp, for the arrival +of your train was timed with the arrival of the ship on which you +were to sail. You had a meal, sometimes you slept a night, then you +marched to the docks. Nor was there much of the traditional “sweet +sorrow” about the departure of these great fleets; the weeping +mothers and sisters had not been notified to be present, and the +ladies of the canteen-service had given coffee and sandwiches, +cigarettes and chocolate, to so many tens of thousands that they had +forgotten about tears. It was like the emigration of a nation; the +part of America that was now on the other side was so large that +nobody would need to feel homesick. + +Jimmie's embarking was done at night; on the long, covered piers, +lighted by arc-lights, the soldiers set down their kits and stood +about, munching food, singing songs, and keeping one another's wits +sharpened for battle. They filtered on board, and then without a +light or a sound the vessel stole down the long stretches of the +harbour, and out to sea. One never knew at what hour the enemy +submarines might attempt a raid on the American side, so the +entrance to the harbour was mined and blockaded, a narrow passage +being opened when the ships passed through. + +When morning came the convoy was out at sea, amid glorious green +rollers, and Jimmie Higgins was lying in his narrow berth, cursing +the fates that had lured him, the monster of Militarism into whose +clutches he had been snared. The army medical service had a serum to +prevent small-pox and another to prevent typhoid, but they had +nothing for sea-sickness as yet; so for the first four days of the +trip Jimmie wished that a submarine would come and end his misery +once for all. + +At last, however, he came on deck, an utterly humbled Socialist +agitator, asking only a corner to lie in the sunshine--preferably +where he could not see the Atlantic surges, the very thought of +which turned him inside out. But gradually he found his feet again, +and ate with permanence, and looked out over the water and saw the +other vessels of the convoy, weirdly painted with many-coloured +splotches, steaming in the shape of a gigantic V, with two cruisers +in front, and another on each side, and another bringing up the +rear. Day and night the look-outs kept watch, and the wigwag men and +the heliograph men were busy, and the wireless buzzed its warnings +of the movements of the underwater foe. The U-boats had not yet got +a transport, but they had made several tries, and everyone knew that +they would continue trying. Twice a day the clanging of bells +sounded from one end of the vessel to the other, and the crews +rushed to the boat-drill; each passenger had his number, and unless +he was ill in his berth he had to take his specified place, with his +life-preserver strapped about his waist. + +The passengers played cards, and read and sang and skylarked about +the decks. Up on the top deck, to which Jimmie was not invited, were +officers, also a number of women and girls belonging to the hospital +and ambulance units. “Janes” was the term by which the soldier-boys +described these latter; you could see they were a good sort of +“Janes”, serious and keen for their job, looking business-like and +impressive in their uniforms with many pockets. Among them were +suffragists, answering the taunt of the other sex, showing that in +war as well as in peace the world needed them; it had to find a +place for them on board the most badly crowded transport. + +Never having been on an ocean-liner before, Jimmie did not know that +it was crowded; it did not trouble him that there was hardly room +for a walk on the decks. He watched the sea and the great white +gulls and the piebald ships; he watched the crew at work, and got +acquainted with his fellow-passengers. Before long he found a driver +of an ambulance who was a Socialist; also an I.W.W. from the Oregon +lumber-camps. Even the “wobblies”, it appeared, had come to hate the +Kaiser; a bunch of them were in France, and more would have come, if +the government had not kept them cross by putting their leaders into +jail. An army officer with some sense had gone into the +spruce-country of the far North-west, and had appealed to the +patriotism of the men, giving them decent hours and wages, and +recognizing their unions; as a result, even the dreaded I.W.W. +organization had turned tame, and all the lumberjacks had pitched in +to help in “canning the Kaiser!” + + + + +II + + + +The fleet was nearing the submarine-zone and it was time for the +convoying destroyers to arrive. Everybody was peering out ahead, and +at last a cry ran along the decks: “There they are!” Jimmie made out +a speck of smoke upon the horizon, and saw it turn into a group of +swiftly-flying vessels. He marvelled at the skill whereby they had +been able to find the transports on this vast and trackless sea; he +marvelled at the slender vessels with their four low, rakish stacks. +These sea-terriers were thin skins of steel, covering engines of +enormous power; they tore through the water, literally with the +speed of an express train, leaving a boiling white wake behind. +Seeing them rock and swing from side to side in the waves, hurled +this way and that, you marvelled that human beings could live in +them and not be jerked to pieces. Jimmie never tired of observing +them, nor did they tire of racing in and out between the vessels of +the convoy, weaving patterns of foam, the men on their decks +watching, watching for the secret foe. + +Everyone on board the transports, of course, was on the alert. +Jimmie in his secret heart was scared stiff, but he did not reveal +it to these mocking soldier-boys, who made merry over German U-boats +as they did over sauerkraut and pretzels and Limburger and +“wienies”, otherwise known as “hot dogs”. Actually, Jimmie found, +they were hoping to encounter a submarine; not to be hit, of course, +but to have the torpedo pass within a foot or two, so that they +might have something thrilling to write to the folks at home. + +There came storms, and blinding sheets of rain across the water, and +mists that hid everything from view; but still the little +sea-terriers dashed here and there, winding their foam wakes about +the fleet, by night as well as by day. How they managed to avoid +collisions in the dark was a mystery beyond imagining; Jimmie lay +awake, picturing one of them plunging like a sharp spear into the +rows of bunks in the steerage where he had been stowed. But when +morning dawned, his berth was unspeared, and the watch-dogs of the +sea were still weaving their patterns. + +It was a day of high wind, with clouds and fitful bursts of sunshine +in which the waves shone white and sparkling. Jimmie was standing by +the fail with his “wobbly” friend, watching the white-caps, when his +companion called his attention to a sparkle that seemed to persist, +hitting one in the eye. They pointed it out to others, and as the +orders were strict to report anything out of the way, someone +shouted to the nearest look-out. A cry went over the ship, and there +was hasty wigwagging of the signalman, and three of the destroyers +leaped away like hounds on the chase. + +There were some on board who had glasses, and they cried out that it +was a black object, and finally reported it a raft with people on +it. Later, when Jimmie reached port, he heard an explanation of the +sparkle which had caught his eye--a woman on the raft had a little +pocket-mirror, and had used this to flash the sun's rays upon the +vessel, until at last she had attracted attention. + +Those who had glasses were mostly on the upper deck, so Jimmie did +not see anything of the rescue; the transports, of course, did not +swerve or delay, for their orders forbade all altruisms. Even the +little destroyers would not approach the raft until they had scoured +the sea for miles about, and then they did not stop entirely, but +slid by and tossed ropes to the people on the raft, dragging them +aboard one by one. A seaman standing near Jimmie explained this +procedure; it appeared that the submarines were accustomed to lurk +near rafts and life-boats, preying upon those vessels which came to +their rescue. Distressed castaways were bait--“live bait”, explained +the seaman; the U-boats would lurk about for days, sometimes for a +week, watching the people in the life-boats struggle against the +waves, watching them die of exposure, and starvation and thirst, +watching them signal frantically, waving rags tied on to oars, +shouting and praying for help. One by one the castaways would +perish, and when the last of them was gone, the U-boat would steal +away. “Dead bait's no good,” explained the seaman. + + + + +III + + + +This mariner, Toms by name, came from Cornwall; for the transport +was British, and so also the convoying warships--Jimmie's fate had +been entrusted to “perfidious Albion”! Seven times this Toms had +been torpedoed and seven times rescued, and he had most amazing +tales to tell to landlubbers, and a new light to throw on a subject +which our Socialist landlubber had been debating for several +years--the torpedoing of passenger-vessels with women and children +on board. Somehow Jimmie found it a different proposition when he +heard of particular women and children, how they looked and what +they said, and what happened when they took to open boats in +midwinter, and the boats filled up with water, and the children +turned blue and then white, and were rescued with noses and ears and +hands and feet frozen off. + +Jimmie was a working-man, and understood the language of +working-men, their standards and ways of looking at life. And here +was a working-man; not a conscious Socialist, to be sure, but a +union man, sharing the Socialist distrust of capitalists and rulers. +What this weather-bitten toiler of the sea told to Jimmie, Jimmie +was prepared to understand and believe; so he learned, what he had +refused to learn from prostitute newspapers, that there was a code +of sea-manners and sea-morals, a law of marine decency, which for +centuries had been unbroken save by pirates and savages. The men who +went down to the sea in ships were a class of their own, with +instincts born of the peculiar cruelties of the element they +defied--instincts which broke across all barriers of nations and +races, and even across the hatreds of war. + +But now these sea-laws had been defied, and the Hun who had defied +them had placed himself outside the pale of the human race. In the +souls of seamen there had been generated against him a hatred of +peculiar and unique ferocity; they hunted him as men hunt vipers and +rattlesnakes. The union to which this Toms belonged had pledged +itself, not merely for the war, but for years afterwards, that its +members would not sail in German ships, nor in any ship in which a +German sailed, nor in any ship which sailed to a German port, nor +which carried German goods. It had refused to carry Socialist +delegates desiring to attend international conferences with German +Socialists; it had refused to carry for any purpose labour leaders +whom it considered too mercifully disposed towards Germany. + +When Jimmie learned this, you can imagine the arguments, continuing +far into the night! Quite a crowd gathered about, and they gave it +to the little Socialist hot and heavy. The upshot of it was that +somebody reported him, and the officer in command of his +“motor-unit” read him a stern lecture. He was not here to settle +peace-terms, but to do his work and hold his tongue. Jimmie, awed by +the fangs and claws of the monster of Militarism, answered, “Yes, +sir,” and went away and sulked by himself the whole day, wishing +that the submarines might get this transport, with everybody on +board except two Socialists and one “wobbly”. + + + + +IV + + + +It was the morning of the day they were due in port. Everybody wore +life-preservers, and stood at his station; when suddenly came a +yell, and a chorus of shouts from the side of the ship, and Jimmie +rushed to the rail, and saw a white wake coming like a swift fish +directly at the vessel. “Torpedo!” was the cry, and men stood rooted +to the spot. Far back, where the white streak started, you could see +a periscope, moving slowly; there was a volley of cracking sounds, +and the water all about it leaped high, and the little sea-terriers +rushed towards it, firing, and getting ready their deadly +depth-bombs. But of all that Jimmie got only a glimpse; there came a +roar like the opening of hell in front of him; he was thrown to the +deck, half-stunned, and a huge fragment of the rail of the vessel +whirled past his head, smashing into a stateroom behind him. + +The ship was in an uproar; people rushing here and there, the +members of the crew leaping to get away the boats. Jimmie sat up and +stared about him, and the first thing he saw was his friend the +“wobbly”, lying in a pool of blood, with a great gash in his head. + +Suddenly somebody began to sing: “Oh, say, can you see by the dawn's +early light--” Jimmie had always hated that song, because jingoes +and patrioteers used it as an excuse to bully and humiliate radicals +who did not jump to their feet with sufficient alacrity. But now it +was wonderful to see the effect of the song; everybody joined and +the soldier-boys and working-men and nurses and lady +ambulance-drivers, no matter how badly scared, recalled that they +were part of an army on the way to war. Some helped the crews to get +the boats into the water; others bound up the wounds of the injured, +and carried them across the rapidly-slanting decks. + +The great ship was going down. It was horrible to realize--this +mighty structure, this home for two weeks of several thousand +people, this moving hotel with its sleeping-berths, its +dining-saloons, its kitchens with lunch ready to be eaten, its +mighty engines and its cargo of every kind of necessity and comfort +for an army--all was about to plunge to the bottom of the sea! +Jimmie Higgins had read about the torpedoing of scores of +ocean-liners, but in all that reading he had learned less about the +matter than he learned in a few minutes while he clung half-dazed to +a stay rope, and watched the life-boats swing out over the sides and +disappear. + + + + +V + + + +“Women first!” was the cry; but the women would not go until the +wounded had been taken, and this occasioned delay. Jimmie helped to +get his friend the “wobbly”, and passed him on to be lowered with a +rope. By that time the deck had got such a slant that it was hard to +walk on it; the bow was settling, and the stern rearing up in the +air. Never could you have realized the size of an ocean-liner, until +you saw it rear itself up like a monstrous mountain, preparatory to +plunging beneath the waves! “Jump for it!” shouted voices. “They'll +pick you up from the other vessels. Jump and swim.” + +So Jimmie rushed to the rail. He saw a life-boat below, trying to +push away, and being beaten against the vessel by the heavy waves. +He heard a horrible scream, and saw a man slip between the boat and +the side of the liner. People on every side of him were jumping--so +many that he could not find a clear spot in the water. But at last +he saw one, and climbed upon the rail and took the plunge. + +He struck the icy water and sank, and a wave rolled over him. He +came up quickly, owing to his life-preserver, and gasped for breath, +and was choked by another rushing wave and then pounded on the head +by an oar in the hands of a struggling sailor. He managed to get out +of the way, and struck out to get clear of the vessel. He knew how +to do this, thanks to many “swimmin'-holes”--including the one he +had visited with the Candidate. But he had never before swam in such +deadly cold as this; it was colder than he had dreamed when he had +talked about it with Comrade Meissner! Its icy hand seemed to smite +him, to smite the life out of him; he struggled desperately, as one +struggles against suffocation. + +The waves beat him here and there; and then suddenly he was seized +as if by the falls of Niagara, drawn along and drawn under--down, +down. He thought it was the end, and when again he bobbed up to the +surface, his breath was all but gone. The great bulk of the vessel +was no longer in sight, and Jimmie was struggling in a whirlpool, +along with upset boats and oars and deck-chairs and miscellaneous +wreckage, and scores of people clinging to such objects, or swimming +frantically to reach them. + +Jimmie was just about ready to roll over and let his face go under, +when suddenly there loomed above him on the top of a wave a boat +rowed swiftly by sailors. One in the boat flung a rope to him, and +he tried to catch it, but missed; the boat plunged towards him, and +an arm reached out, and caught him by the collar. It was a strong +and comforting arm, and Jimmie abandoned himself to it, and +remembered nothing more for a long time. + + + + +VI + + + +When Jimmie opened his eyes again he was in a most extraordinary +position. At first he could not make it out, he was only aware of +endless bruises and blows, as if someone were shaking him about in a +gigantic pepper-cruet. As Nature protested desperately against such +treatment, Jimmie fought his way back to consciousness, and caught +hold of something, in his neighbourhood, which presently turned out +to be a brass railing; he struggled to ward off the blows of his +tormentors, which turned out to be the aforesaid railing, plus a +wall, plus two other men, one on each side of him, the three of them +being lashed to the brass railing with ropes. The wall and railing +and Jimmie and the other men were behaving in an incredible +fashion--swinging down, as if they were plunging into a bottomless +abyss, then swinging up, as if they were going to part altogether +from this mundane sphere; the total enormous swing, from bottom to +top, being mathematically calculated to occupy a period of five and +one-half seconds of time. + +Jimmie discovered before long that there were a whole row of men, +lashed fast and subjected to this perplexing form of torture. They +made you think of a row of carcasses in a butcher-shop--only, who +could picture a butcher-shop whose floor careened to an angle of +forty-five degrees in one direction, and then, in a space of +precisely five and a half seconds, careened to an angle of +forty-five degrees in the opposite direction? + +And they kept bringing more carcasses and hanging them in this +insane butcher-shop! Two sailors in uniforms would come staggering, +carrying a man between them, clinging to the railing, to Jimmie, to +the other men, to anything else they could grab. They would make a +desperate rush while the swing was right, and get to a new place on +the railing, where they would tie the new man with a bit of rope +about his waist, and leave him there to be mauled and pounded. One +side of the room was lined solid with carcasses, and then the other +side, and still they came. This was apparently a dining-saloon, +there being a table down the middle, and two rows of chairs; they +lashed people into these chairs, they brought others and lashed them +to the bottom of the chairs--any old place at all! There were some +who thought they could hold on for themselves; but after the sailors +were gone they discovered that it took more skill to hold on than +they realized, and they would come hurtling across the floor, +winding up with a crash on top of someone else. + +It was not the first time in Jimmie's life that he had had to +scramble for himself in some uncomfortable situation; he got his +wits together quickly. He was shivering as if with ague, and he +managed to get out of his wet coat. There being a couple of ladies +strapped into chairs in front of him, he did not like to go further; +but presently came sailors with armfuls of blankets, and made him +perform the complicated feat of getting out of his dripping icy +uniform and getting the blanket wrapped around his middle, so that +the rope would not saw him into halves. Then came a steward with a +pot of hot coffee; being marvellously expert at holding this at all +angles of the ship, he poured it into cups with little funnels for +drinking, and thus got some down Jimmie's throat. + +The little machinist felt better after that, and was able to devote +attention to the man on his right, who had hit his nose so many +times that it was bleeding in a stream, and had been tilted at so +many angles that the blood had run into his eyes and made him blind. +The man on the other side of him apparently could make no effort at +all to keep his face from being pounded, or his feet from being +thrown into the pit of Jimmie's stomach; after Jimmie made a number +of protests, an officer came along, and put his ear to the man's +chest and pronounced him dead. They brought another rope, and lashed +him tighter, so that he would behave himself. + +For several hours Jimmie clung to that railing. The destroyer would +soon be in port, they kept telling him; meantime they brought him +hot soup to keep up his strength. Some people fainted, but there was +nothing that could be done for them. The first boat-loads of the +rescued had filled up the berths of both officers and crew; the rest +must hang on to the railings as best they could. They should be +thankful it was decent weather, said one of the sailors; the vessel +didn't roll any faster in bad weather, but it rolled much farther in +the same time--a distinction which struck Jimmie as over-subtle. + +The poor fellow's arms were numb with exhaustion, he had lost hope +that anything in the world ever could be still, when the +announcement was made that the harbour was in sight, and everybody's +troubles would soon be over. And sure enough, the rolling gradually +became less. The little vessel still quivered from stem to stern +with the movement of her enormous engines, but Jimmie didn't mind +that--he was used to machinery; he got himself untied from the +railing, and lay down on the floor, right there where he was, and +fell asleep. Nor did he open his eyes when they came with a +stretcher, and carried him on to a pier and slid him into a +motor-truck and whisked him off to a hospital. + + + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +JIMMIE HIGGINS ENTERS SOCIETY + +I + + + + + +When Jimmie took an interest in life again he was lying in a bed: a +bed that actually was still, that did not rise with a leaping motion +to the ceiling, and then sink like a swift elevator into the +basement. Better yet was the fact that this bed had clean sheets, +and a lovely angel in spotless white hovering about it. You who read +of Jimmie Higgins's adventures have perhaps been blessed with some +of the good things of life, and may need to have it explained to you +that never before had Jimmie known what it was to sleep between +sheets--to say nothing of clean sheets; never had he known what it +was to sleep in a night-gown; never had he had hot broth fetched to +him by a snow-white angel with a bright smile and an aureole of +golden-brown hair. This marvellous creature waited on his slightest +nod, and when she was not busy running errands for him, she sat by +his bedside and chatted, asking him all sorts of questions about +himself and his life. She thought he was a soldier, and he, +shameless wretch, discovered what she thought, and delayed to tell +her that he was a common repairer of motor-cycles! + +This was a war-hospital, and there were terrible sights to be seen +here, terrible sounds to be heard; but Jimmie for a long time missed +them almost entirely--he was so comfortable! He lay like a nice dozy +cat; he ate good things and drank good things, and then he fell +asleep, and then he opened his eyes in the sunshine of a golden +brown aureole. It was only gradually that he realized that somewhere +in the ward a man was choking and gasping all night, because the +inside of his lungs had been partly eaten out with poisonous acids. + +Jimmie inquired and was told that more than a hundred people on the +transport had lost their lives, including several women; the nurse +brought a paper with a list of the casualties, among which he read +the name of Mike Angoni--his friend the “wobbly” from the far West! +Also the name of Peter Toms--the seaman from Cornwall, caught at the +eighth attempt! Jimmie read that the submarine which had sunk the +transport had been shattered by a depth-charge, and the sea all +strewn with the wreckage of it; and strange and terrible as it might +seem, Jimmie, the pacifist, the Socialist, experienced a thrill of +satisfaction! Not once did he stop to reflect that on board this +under-water craft might have been some German comrade, some poor, +enslaved, unhappy internationalist like himself! Jimmie wanted the +sneaking, treacherous terrors of the sea exterminated, regardless of +everything! + +The nurse with the halo of golden-brown hair got interested in her +American patient, and would sit and talk with him every chance she +got. She learned about Eleeza Betooser and the babies who had been +blown to pieces in the explosion. Also she learned about Jimmie's +being a Socialist, and asked him questions about it. Wasn't he just +a little hard on the leisure classes? Might it not be that some of +the capitalists would be as glad as he to know about a better social +system? The young lady pronounced the word “capitalists” with the +accent on the “it”, which puzzled Jimmie for a time; also she +assured him that “wage schedules” would never go back to what they +were before the war, and Jimmie had to ask what a “schedule” might +be. He did not have to ask what she meant by a “tart”, because there +it was on his tray--a delicious little strawberry pie. + + + + +II + + + +This meant that the destroyer had come to an English port; the nurse +was a Britisher. If Jimmie had had tact, he would have remembered +that Britishers have an outfit of earls and dukes and lords and +things, to which they are sentimentally attached. But tact is not +the leading virtue of Socialists; in fact, Jimmie made a boast of +scorning it--if people asked his opinion, he “gave it to 'em +straight”. So now he caused this white angel to understand that he +regarded the effete aristocracies of the old world with abysmal +contempt; he meant to put them out of business right off the bat. In +vain the white angel pleaded that some of them might be useful +people, or at any rate well-meaning: Jimmie pronounced them a bunch +of parasites and grafters; the thing to do was to make a clean sweep +of them. + +“You won't cut off their heads?” pleaded the nurse. “Surely they +ought to have a chance to reform!” + +“Oh, sure!” answered Jimmie. “All I mean is, everybody's got to go +to work--the dooks an' aristercrats like the rest.” + +The nurse went off, carrying Jimmie's chamber to be emptied; and +while she was gone, the man in the next bed, a gun-pointer from an +American destroyer with his head bandaged up so that he looked like +a Hindu swami, turned his tired eyes upon Jimmie and drawled: “Say, +you guy, you better can that line o' talk!” + +“Whaddyer mean?” demanded Jimmie, scenting controversy with some +militarist. + +“I mean that there young lady belongs to the nobility herself.” + +“Go on!” said Jimmie. + +“Straight!” said the other. “Her father's the earl of Skye-terrier, +or some such damn place.” + +“Aw, cut it out!” growled the little machinist--for you never knew +in dealing with these soldier-boys whether you were being “kidded” + or not. + +“Did you ask her name?” + +“She told me it was Miss Clendenning.” + +“Well, you ask her if she ain't the Honourable Beatrice Clendenning, +and see what she says.” + +But Jimmie could not get up the nerve to ask. When the young lady +came back, carrying his chamber washed clean, her pet patient was +lying still, but so red in the face that she suspected that he had +been trying to get out of bed without permission. + + + + +III + + + +Nor was that the end of wonders. Next day there ran a murmur of +excitement through the ward, and everything was cleaned up fresh, +though there was really nothing that needed cleaning. Flowers were +brought in, and each nurse had a flower pinned on her waist. When +Jimmie asked what was “up”, the Honourable Beatrice looked at him +with a quizzical smile. “We're going to have some distinguished +visitors,” she said. “But you won't be interested--a class-conscious +proletarian like you.” + +And she would not tell him; but when she went out, the fellow in the +next bed told. “It's the king and queen that's comin',” said the +gun-pointer. + +“Aw, ferget it!” said Jimmie--quite sure he was being “kidded” this +time. + +“Comin' to see the submarine victims,” said the gun-pointer. “You +cut out your Socialist rough stuff for to-day.” + +Jimmie asked the nurse when she came back; and sure enough it was +true--the king and queen were to visit the hospital, and pay their +respects to the victims of the U-boat. But that wouldn't interest +Jimmie Higgins. Would he not rather be carried away and put in a +private room somewhere, so that his revolutionary eyes would not be +offended? Or would he stay, and make a soap-boxer of His Majesty? + +“Sure, he won't have no time to talk to a feller like me!” said +Jimmie. + +“Don't you be too sure,” replied the other. “He's got nothing to do +but talk, you know!” + +Jimmie didn't venture any farther, because he knew that the +Honourable Beatrice was laughing at him, and he had never been +laughed at by a woman before, and didn't know quite how to take it. +He could not have been expected to understand that the Honourable +Beatrice was a suffragette, and laughed at all men on general +principles. Jimmie lay quietly in his bed and concealed the unworthy +excitement in his soul. Wasn't that the devil now? Him, a little +runt of a working man from nowhere in particular, that had been +brought up on a charity-farm, and spent a good part of his life as a +tramp--him to be meeting the king of England! Jimmie had a way of +disposing of kings that was complete and final; he called them +“kinks” and when he had called them that he had settled them, wiped +them clean out. “None o' them kinks for me!” he had said to the +Honourable Beatrice. + +But now a “kink” was coming to the hospital! And what was Jimmie +going to do? How the devil did you talk to 'em? Did you have to say, +“Your Majesty”? Jimmie gripped his hands under the bed-covers. “I'll +be damned if I do!” He summoned his revolutionary fervour, he called +up the spirits of his “wobbly” friends, “Wild Bill” and “Strawberry” + Curran and “Flathead Joe” and “Chuck” Peterson. What would they do +under these circumstances? What would the Candidate do? Somehow, +Jimmie's revolutionary education had been neglected--nothing had +ever been said in any Socialist local as to how a comrade should +behave when a “kink” came to visit him! + +Jimmy was naturally a kindly human being; he was ready to respond to +the kindness of other human beings. But was it in accord with +revolutionary ethics to be polite to a “kink”? Was it not his duty +to do something to show his contempt for “kinks”? Maybe his Royal +Nibs never had anybody to “stand up to him” in all his life before. +Well, let him have it to-day! + + + + +IV + + + +A nurse rushed into the ward in great excitement, and whispered, +“They're coming!” And after that the nurses all stood round, +twisting their hands together nervously, and the patients lay with +their eyes glued on the door where the apparition was to appear. + +At last there came in sight a man dressed in uniform, who Jimmie +would never have dreamed could be a king--except that he had seen +his picture in the illustrated papers. He was a medium-sized, rather +stoop-shouldered little gentleman, decidedly commonplace-looking, +with a closely-trimmed brown beard turning grey, and rosy cheeks +such as all Englishmen have. He was escorted by the head of the +hospital staff; and behind him came a lady, a severe-looking lady +dressed in black, with a couple more doctors escorting her, and +behind them several officers in uniform. + +The king and queen stopped at the head of the room, and looked down +the rows of beds. Each of them wore a friendly smile, and nodded, +and said: “How do you do?” And, of course, everybody smiled back, +and the nurses curtsied and said, “How do you do, Your Majesties?” + +And then His Majesty said: “I hope everybody is doing well?” And the +doctor called the head nurse in charge of the ward, who came up +smiling and bowing and answered that everybody was doing +beautifully, thank you; at which both His Majesty and Her Majesty +declared that they were so pleased. The queen looked about, and +seeing a man with many bandages, went to him and sat by his bedside +and began to ask him questions; the king moved down the centre of +the room, until suddenly his eye happened on the Honourable +Beatrice. + +She had not moved; she stood at her place like the other nurses. But +Jimmie, watching, saw a smile come upon the king's face, and he +moved towards her saying: “Oh! how do you do?” The young lady went +to meet him, quite as if she were used to meeting kings every day. + +“How are your patients doing?” inquired His Majesty. + +“Beautifully,” said she; and His Majesty said that he was +pleased--just as if he had not said the same words only a minute +before. He looked at the patients with benevolent but tired-looking +eyes; and the Honourable Beatrice, by those subtle methods known to +women, brought it about that he looked especially at her favourite. +She knew that he would wish to talk to some of the patients, and by +ever so slight a movement she brought it about that it was towards +Jimmie Higgins he advanced. + +“What is your name?” he asked, and then, “Well, Higgins, how are you +feeling?” + +“Sure, I'm all right,” said Jimmie sturdily; “I wanner get up, only +she won't let me.” + +“Well,” said His Majesty, “the time was when the king was the +tyrant, but now it's the nurse.” He smiled at the Honourable lady. +“Are you an American soldier?” + +“Naw,” replied Jimmie, “I'm only a machinist.” + +“This is a war of machines,” replied His Majesty, graciously. + +“I'm a Socialist!” exclaimed Jimmie, right off the bat. + +“Indeed!” said His Majesty. + +“You bet!” was the reply. + +“But you're not one of those Socialists who oppose their country, I +see.” + +“I done it for a long time,” said Jimmie. “I didn't see we had no +business in this here war. But I been changin'--a bit.” + +“I'm glad to hear that,” remarked His Majesty. “Doubtless your +recent experience has helped you to change.” + +“Sure,” replied Jimmie. “But I'm still a Socialist, don't you make +no mistake about that, Mr. King.” + +“I won't,” said His Majesty; and he looked at the Honourable +Beatrice, and between them there flashed one of those subtle +messages which highly sophisticated people know how to give and to +catch--entirely over the heads of Socialist machinists from +Leesville, U.S.A. To the Honourable Beatrice the message conveyed. +“How perfectly delicious!” To His Majesty it conveyed, “I knew you'd +enjoy it!” + +Jimmie's mind was, of course, occupied entirely with the idea of +propaganda. He must make the most of this strange opportunity! +“Things is goin' to be changed after this here war!” said he. “Fer +the workin' people, I mean.” + +“They'll be changed for all of us,” said His Majesty. “The dullest +of us know that.” + +“The workin' people got to get what they earn!” persisted Jimmie. +“Why, Mr. King--back home where I come from a feller could work +twelve hours a day all his life, an' not have enough saved up to +bury himself with. An' they say it was worse here in England.” + +“We have had terrible poverty,” admitted His Majesty. “We shall have +to find some way of getting rid of it.” + +“There ain't no way but Socialism,” cried Jimmie. “Look into it, an' +you'll see! We gotter get rid o' the profit-system. The feller that +does the work has gotter get what he produces.” + +“Well,” said His Majesty, “you'll agree with me this far at +least--we must beat the Germans first.” And then he turned to the +Honourable Beatrice. “We shall learn much from our American +visitors,” he said, and flashed her another of those subtle +messages, which indicated that perhaps it was not a good thing for +patients in hospitals to become excited over Socialist propaganda! +So the Honourable Beatrice turned to the man in the other bed, and +His Majesty turned also; he ascertained that the man's name was +Deakin, and that he came from Cape Cod. His Majesty remarked how +badly England needed good Yankee gun-pointers, and how grateful he +was to those who came to help the British Navy. Jimmie listened, +just a tiny bit jealous--not for himself, of course, but because he +knew that Socialism was so much more important than gun-pointing! + + + + +V + + + +At the foot of the bed there stood a military officer. He had been +there for some time, but Jimmie did not notice him till the king +rose and moved away. The officer was just the sort of hand-made +aristocrat that Jimmie imagined all officers to be; smooth-shaven, +except for a little toy moustache, with serene, impassive features, +a dapper and immaculate uniform, and a queer little fancy stick in +his hand, to show that he never did anything resembling work. He was +eyeing the machinist with what the machinist suspected to be a +superior air. “Well, my good man,” said he, “you had a talk with the +king!” + +That seemed obvious enough. “Sure!” said Jimmie. + +“Generally,” continued the officer, “when one talks with the king, +one addresses him as 'Your Majesty'--not as 'Mr. King'.” + +Jimmie was tired now, and not looking for controversy; so he did not +bridle as he might otherwise have done. “Nobody told me,” said he. + +“Also,” continued the other, “one is not supposed to volunteer +opinions. One waits for the king to ask a question, and then one +answers.” + +Jimmie's eyes were closed, and he only half-opened them as he +answered. “They been tellin' me this here is a war for Democracy!” + said he. + + + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +JIMMIE HIGGINS WORKS FOR HIS UNCLE + +I + + + + + +They gave Jimmie Higgins a couple of days to lie about in the +grounds of the hospital, and make the acquaintance and hear the +experiences of men who had lost arms and legs in battle, or had been +burned by flame-throwers, or ruined for life by poison-gases. +Strange as it might seem, Jimmie found among these men not a few +with whom he could talk, whose point of view was close to his own. +These Britishers had been through the mill; they knew. None of the +glory stuff for them! Leave that for the newspaper scribblers, the +bloody rascals who stayed at home and beat on tomtoms, driving other +men to march in and die. You went and got yourself battered up, +ruined for life--and then what would they do for you? It was a hard +world to a man who was crippled and helpless. Yes, said Jimmie; the +same hard world that it was to a Socialist, a dreamer of justice. + +But there was the old dilemma, from which he had never been able to +find escape, whether in Leesville, U.S.A., or on the high seas, or +here in old England. What were you going to do about the Huns? To +hold out your hand to them was like putting it into a tiger's cage. +No, by God, you had to fight them, you had to lick them, cost what +it might! And the speaker would go on and tell of things he had +seen: a Prussian officer who had shot a British surgeon in the back, +after this surgeon had bound up his wounds; a commandant of a +prison-camp who had withdrawn all medical aid in a typhus epidemic, +and allowed his charges to perish like rats. + +So, hell though it was, you had to go through with it; if you were a +man, you had to set your teeth and grip your hands and take your +share of the horror, whatever it might be. And Jimmie, being +something of a little man in his way, would set his teeth and grip +his hands and take in imagination, the share of the particular human +wreck who happened to be talking to him. So Jimmie Higgins was +battered back and forth, like a tennis-ball, between the two forces +of Militarism and Revolution. + +Just now was another crisis--the Huns had begun a furious drive in +Flanders, the third battle of Ypres, and the British were falling +back, not in rout, but in retreat which might become rout at any +hour. The bulletins came in several times a day, and people in the +streets would stop and read them, their faces full of fear. When the +wind was right you could hear the guns across the Channel; Jimmie +would lie at night and listen to the dull, incessant thunder--a +terrific, man-made storm, in which showers of steel were raining +down upon the heads of soldiers hiding in shell-holes and +hastily-dug trenches. The war seemed very near indeed when the wind +was right! + + + + +II + + + +Still, a fellow has to live. Jimmie was in a foreign land for the +first time in his life, and when they turned him loose, he and a +couple of other American chaps went wandering about the streets, +staring at the sights of this town, which had been a small harbour +before the war, but now was a vast centre of the world's commerce, +one of the routes by which large sections of Britain were moved +across the Channel every day. + +You saw in the streets no men out of uniform, except a few old ones; +you saw nobody at all idle, except the young children. The women +were driving the trucks, and operating the street-cars, which were +called “trams”, and the elevators, which were called “lifts”. +Everybody's face was sober and drawn, but they lightened up when +they saw the Americans, who had come so far to help them in their +trouble. In the cake-shops, and the queer little “pubs” where +rosy-cheeked girls sold very thin beer, they could not be polite +enough to the visitors from overseas; even the haughtiest-looking +“bobby” would stop to tell you the way about the streets. “First to +the roight, third to the left,” he would say, very fast; and when +you looked bewildered, he would say it again, as fast as ever. + +But they needed motor-cycles so badly in the new American armies +that they didn't give Jimmie much time to be a hero; he got his +orders and a new outfit, and bade farewell to the Honourable +Beatrice, promising to write to her now and then, and not to be too +hard on the aristocracy. He crossed the Channel, alive with boats +like the Hudson River with its ferries, and came to another and +still bigger port, which the Americans had taken and made over new +for the war. Long vistas of docks had been built since the fighting +began; Jimmie saw huge cranes that dipped down into the hold of a +ship, and pulled out whole locomotives, or maybe half a dozen +automobile trucks in one swoop. + +Behind these docks was a tangle of railroad yards and tracks, and +miles upon miles of sheds, piled to the top with stores of every +sort you could imagine. A whole encampment-city covered the +surrounding hills, crowned by an old, creaking, moss-grown +windmill--the Middle Ages looking in dismay upon these modern times. + +Nobody took the trouble to invite Jimmie to inspect these marvels, +but he got glimpses here and there, and men with whom he chatted +told him more. One man had been directing the unloading of canned +tomatoes; for six months he had seen nothing but crates upon crates +and car-loads upon car-loads of canned tomatoes, coming into one end +of a shed and going out at the other. Somewhere in the higher +regions dwelt a marvellous tomato-brain, which knew exactly how many +cans a division of dough-boys in a training-camp would consume each +day, how many would be needed by patients in hospitals, by lumbermen +in French forests, by revellers in Y.M.C.A. huts. Every now and then +a ship brought another supply, and the man who told Jimmie about it +bossed a gang of negroes who piled the crates on trucks. + +And then Jimmie met a Frenchman, who had been a waiter in a Chicago +hotel, and now was bossing a gang of wire-haired Korean labourers. +Jimmie had thought he knew all the races of the earth in the shops +and mills and mines of America; but here he heard of new kinds of +men--Annamese and Siamese, Pathans and Sikhs, Madagascans and +Abyssinians and Algerians. All the British empire was here, and all +the French colonies. There were Portuguese and Brazilians and West +Indians, bushmen from Australia and Zulus from South Africa; and +these not having proven enough, America was now pouring out the +partly melted contents of her pot--Hawaiians and Porto Ricans, +Filipinos and “spiggoties”, Eskimos from Alaska, Chinamen from San +Francisco, Sioux from Dakota, and plain black plantation niggers +from Louisiana and Alabama! Jimmie saw a gang of these latter +mending a track which had been blown out of place by a bomb from an +aeroplane; their black skins shining with sweat, their white teeth +shining with good-nature as they swung their heavy crow-bars, a long +row of them moving like a machine chanting to keep in unison, +“Altogether--heave!” the officer would call, and the line would +swing into motion-- + + “Get a MULE! + An' a JACK! + No SLOW! + No SLACK! + Put the HUMP! + In yo' BACK--” + + + + +III + + + +For nearly four years Jimmie had been reading about France, and now +he was here, and could see the sights with his own eyes. People with +wooden shoes, for example! It was worth coming across the seas to +see women and kids going clatter, clatter along the cobbled streets. +And the funny little railroad-coaches, with rows of doors like +rabbit-pens. It was a satisfaction to notice that the train had a +real man-sized engine, with U.S.A. painted thereon. Jimmie owned a +share in that engine, and experienced Socialistic thrills as he rode +behind it. + +He had got separated from his “unit”, thanks to the submarine and +the sojourn in the hospital. They had given him a pass, with orders +to proceed to a certain town, travelling on a certain train. Now +Jimmie sat looking out of the window, as happy as a boy out of +school. A beautiful country, the fresh green glory of spring +everywhereupon it; broad, straight military highways lined with +poplars, and stone houses with queer steep roofs, and old men and +women and children toiling in the fields. + +Jimmie chattered with the men in the compartment, soldiers and +workers, each a cog in the big machine, each bound upon some +important errand. Each had news to tell--tales of the fighting, or +of the progress of preparation. For more than a year now America had +been getting ready, and here, in the most desperate crisis of the +war, what was she going to do? Everybody was on tip-toe with +excitement, with impatience to get into the scrap, to make good in +the work upon which his soul was set. Every man knew that the +“dough-boys” would show themselves the masters of “Fritz”; they knew +it as religious people know there is a God in Heaven--only, unlike +most religious people, they were anxious to get to this heaven and +meet this God at the earliest possible moment. Next to Jimmie sat a +Wisconsin farmer-boy, German in features, in name, even in accent; +yet he was ready to fight the soldiers of the Kaiser--and quite sure +he could lick them! Had he not lived since childhood in a free +country, and been to an American public-school? + +Everybody had funny stories to tell about the adventures of soldiers +in a foreign land. The French were all right, of course, especially +the girls; but the shop-keepers were frugal, and you had better +count your change, and bite the coins they offered you. As for the +language--holy smoke! Why did civilized people want to talk a lingo +that made you grunt like a pig--or like a penful of pigs of all +sizes? Across the way sat a Chicago street-car conductor with a +little lesson book, and now and then he would read something out +loud. AN, IN, ON, UN, and many different sizes of pigs! When you +wanted bread, you asked for a pain, and when you wanted a dish of +eggs, you asked for a cat-roof omelette. How was this for a +tongue-twister--say five hundred and fifty-five francs in French! + +Fortunately you didn't have to say that many--not on the pay of a +dough-boy, put in a plumber from up-state in New York. For his part, +he did not bother to grunt--he would make drinking motions or +eating motions, and they would bring him things till they found what +he wanted. One time he had met a girl that he thought was all right, +and he wanted to treat her to a feed, so he drew a picture of a +chicken, thinking he would get it roasted. She had chattered away to +the waiter, and he had come back with two soft-boiled eggs. That was +the French notion of taking a girl out to dinner! + + + + +IV + + + +They loaded Jimmie into a motor-lorry and whirled him away. You knew +you were going to the war then, by heck; there were two almost solid +processions of wagons and trucks, loaded with French soldiers and +materials going, and damaged French soldiers returning. It was like +Broadway at the most crowded hour; only here everything went by in a +whirl of dust--you got quick glimpses of drivers with tense faces +and blood-shot eyes. Now and then there would be a blockade, and men +would swear and fume in mixed languages; staff-cars in an extra +hurry would go off the road and bump along across country, while +gangs of negro labourers, French colonials, seized the opportunity +to fill up the ruts worn in the highway. + +They put Jimmie off at a village where his motor-unit was located, +in a long shed made of corrugated iron, the sort of shed which the +army threw up overnight. Here were a score of men working at +repairs, and Jimmie stopped for no formalities, but took off his +coat and pitched in. There was plenty of work he could see; the +machines came, sometimes whole truck-loads of them, damaged in every +way he had ever seen before, and in new ways not dreamed of in +Kumme's bicycle-shop--tyres torn to shreds by fragments of shrapnel, +frames twisted out of shape by explosions, and nasty splotches of +blood completing the story. + +It was one of the many places where American units had been taken to +plug the damaged French lines. There was a reserve battalion near +by, and outside this village a group of men were at work, putting up +tents for a hospital. Some thirty miles ahead was the front, and you +heard the guns off and on, a low sullen roar, punctuated with +hammer-strokes f big fellows. Millions of dollars every hour were +being blown to nothingness in that fearful inferno; a gigantic +meat-mill that was grinding up the bodies of men and had never +ceased day or night for nearly four years. You could be a violent +pacifist in sound of those guns, or you could be a violent +militarist, but you could not be indifferent to the war, you could +not be of two minds about it. + +And yet--Jimmie Higgins was of two minds! He wanted to beat back the +Huns, who had made all this fearful mess; but also he wanted to beat +the profiteers who were making messes at home. It happened that +Jimmie had reached the army at a trying moment, when there were no +American big guns, and when promises of machine-guns and aeroplanes +had failed. There was wild excitement in the home papers, and not a +little grumbling in the army. It was graft and politics, men said; +and Jimmie caught eagerly at this idea. He pointed out how the +profiteers at home were entrenching themselves, making ready to +exploit the soldiers returning without jobs. That was a line of talk +the men were ready for, and the little machinist rejoiced to see the +grim look that came upon their faces. They would attend to it, never +fear; and Jimmie would go on to tell them exactly how to attend to +it! + + + + +V + + + +But that was only now and then, when the wind was the other way, and +you did not hear the guns. For the most part Jimmie's thoughts were +drawn irresistibly to the front; about him were thousands of other +men, all their thoughts at the front, their hands clenched, their +teeth set, their beings centred upon the job of holding the Beast at +bay. Jimmie saw the grey ambulances come in, and the wounded lifted +out on stretchers, their heads bandaged, their bodies covered with +sheets, their faces a ghastly waxen colour. He saw the poilus, fresh +from the trenches, after God alone knew what siege of terror. They +came staggering, bent double under a burden of equipment. The first +time Jimmie saw them was a day of ceaseless rain, when the dust +ground up by the big lorries was turned into ankle-deep mud; the +Frenchmen were plastered with it from head to foot; you saw under +their steel helmets only a mud-spattered beard, and the end of a +nose, and a pair of deep-sunken eyes. They stopped to rest not far +from the place where Jimmie worked; they sank down in the wet, they +fell asleep in pools of water, where not even beasts could have +slept. You did not have to know any French to understand what these +men had been through. Good God! Was that what was going on up there? + +Jimmie thanked his stars he was no nearer. But that coward's comfort +did not last him long, for Jimmie was not a coward, he was not used +to letting other men struggle and suffer for him. His conscience +began to gnaw at him. If that was what it cost to beat down the +Beast, to make the world safe for democracy, why should he be +escaping? Why should he be warm and dry and well-fed, while +working-men of France lay out in the trenches in the rain? + +Jimmie went back and worked overtime without extra pay--something +that old man Granitch had never got out of him, you bet, nor old man +Kumme either. For three whole days he stayed a militarist, +forgetting his life-long training in rebellion. But then he got into +an argument with a red-headed Orangeman in his unit, who expressed +the opinion that every Socialist was a traitor at heart, and that +after the war the army should be used to make an end of them all. +Jimmie in his rage went farther than he really meant, and again got +a “calling down” from his superior officer; so for several days his +proletarian feelings blazed, he wanted the revolution right away, +Huns or no Huns. + + + + +VI + + + +But most of the time now the spirit of the herd mastered Jimmie; he +wanted what all the men about him wanted--to hold back the Beast +from these fair French fields and quaint old villages, and these +American hospitals and rest-camps and Y.M.C.A. huts--to say nothing +of motor-cycle repair-sheds with Jimmie Higgins in them! And the +trouble was that the Beast was not being held back; he was coming +nearer and nearer--one bull rush after another! Jimmie's village was +near the valley of the Marne, and that was the road to Paris; the +Beast wanted to get to Paris, he really expected to get to Paris! + +The sound of guns grew louder and louder, and rumour flew wild-eyed +and wild-tongued about the country. The traffic in the roads grew +denser, but moving more slowly now, for the Germans were shelling +the road ahead, and blockades were frequent; one huge missile had +fallen into a French artillery-train only a couple of miles away. +“They'll be moving us back, if this keeps up,” said Jimmie's +sergeant; and Jimmie wondered: suppose they didn't move them! +Suppose they forgot all about it? Was there any person whose +particular duty it was to remember to see that motor-cycle units got +moved in the precise nick of time? And what if the Germans were to +break through and sweep over all calculations? This was a little +more than Jimmie Higgins had bargained for when he entered the +recruiting-office in Leesville, U.S.A.! + +They gave out gas-masks to everyone in Jimmie's unit, and put an +alarm bell in the shed, and made everybody practise putting on the +masks in a hurry. Jimmie was so scared that he thought seriously of +running away; but--such is the perversity of human nature--what he +did was to run in the opposite direction! His officer in command +came into the shed and demanded, “Can any of you men ride?” And +imagine any fellow who worked at repairing motor-cycles admitting +that he couldn't ride! “I can!” said Jimmie. “I can!” said every +other workman in the place. + +“What is it!” asked Jimmie--always of the forward and pushing sort. + +“The French ask for half a dozen men in a rush. They've had several +motor-cycle units wiped out or captured.” + +“Gee!” said Jimmie. “I'll go!” + +“And me!” said another. “And me!” “And me!” + +“All right,” said the officer, and told them off: “You and you and +you. And you, Cullen, take command. Report to French headquarters at +Chatty Terry. You know where it is!” + +“Sure, Mike!” said Cullen. “I been there.” Jimmie hadn't been to +“Chatty Terry”, but he knew it was somewhere across the Marne. The +officer gave him a map, showing the villages through which he would +go. Jimmie and his companions named these villages, using sensible +language, without concession to the fool notions of the natives. +Wipers, Reems, Verdoon, Devil Wood, Arm-in-tears, Saint Meal--all +these Jimmie had heard about; also a place where the Americans had +won their first glorious victory a week ago, and which they called, +sometimes Cantinny, sometimes Tincanny. And now Jimmie was going to +“Chatty Terry”, in charge of a red-headed Orangeman who a few days +ago had expressed the opinion that all Socialists were traitors and +should be shot! + +The officer gave them passes, one for each man, in case they got +separated, and they started towards the place where the new machines +were lined up. On the way Jimmie had a moment of utter panic. What +was this he was getting himself in for, idiot that he was? Going up +there where the shells were falling, wiping out motor-cycle units! +And shells that were full of poison gases, most of them! Of all the +fool things he had done in his life this was the crown and climax! +His knees began to shake, he turned sick inside. But then he glanced +about, and caught Pat Cullen's menacing blue eye; Jimmie returned +the glare, and the spirit of battle flamed up in him, he laid hold +of the handles of a motor-cycle and strode towards the door. Was any +Irish mick going to catch him in a funk, and “bawl him out” before +this crowd, and put the Socialist movement to shame? Not much! + + + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +JIMMIE HIGGINS MEETS THE HUN + +I + + + + + +The six motor-cyclists leaped on to their machines and went chugging +down the road. Of course they raced one another; all motor-cyclists +always race--and here was the best of all possible excuses, the +French army in dire need of them, several of its precious +cycle-units wiped out or captured! They tore along, dodging in and +out between trucks and automobiles, ambulances and artillery +caissons, horse-wagons and mule-wagons, achieving again and again +those hair's-breadth escapes which are the joy in life of every +normal motor-cyclist. Now and then, when things were too slow, they +would try a crawl in the ditches, or push their machines over the +ploughed fields. So it happened that Jimmie found himself competing +with his red-headed Irish enemy; there was a narrow opening between +two stalled vehicles, and Jimmie made it by the width of his hand, +and vaulted on to his machine and darted away, free and +exulting--his own boss! He shoved in the juice and made time, you +bet; no “mick” was going to catch up and shout orders at him! + +There were long trains of refugees streaming back from the +battle-fields; pitiful peasant-people with horse-carts and dog-carts +and even wheelbarrows, toothless old men and women trudging +alongside, children and babies stuck in amidst bedding and furniture +and saucepans and bird-cages. This was war, as the common people saw +it; but Jimmie could not stop now to think about it--Jimmie was on +his way to the front! There were big observation balloons up over +his head, looking like huge grey elephants with broad ears; there +were aeroplanes whirring about, performing incredible acrobatic +feats, and spraying each other with showers of steel; but Jimmie had +no time for a single glance at these marvels--Jimmie was on his way +to the front! + +He swept around a curve, and there directly in front of him was a +hole in the middle of the road, as big as if a steam-shovel had been +working for a week. Jimmie clapped on the brakes, and swerved +sideways, missing a tree and plunging into a cabbage patch. He got +off and said, “Gee!” once or twice; and suddenly it was as if he +were whacked on the side of the ear with a twelve-inch board--the +whole world about him turned into a vast roar of sound, and a +mountain of grey smoke leaped into being in front of him. Jimmie +stared, and saw out of a little clump of bushes a long black object +thrust itself out, like the snout of a gigantic tapir from some +prehistoric age. It was a ten-inch gun, coming back from its recoil; +and Jimmie, smelling its fumes, struggled back to the road with his +machine, before the monster should speak again and stifle him +entirely. + +There was a frame-house in the distance, and in front of it a +barnyard, and sheds with thatched roofs. There came a scream, +exactly like the siren of Hook and Ladder Company Number One that +used to go tearing about the streets in Leesville, U.S.A; a light +flashed in one of the sheds, and everything disappeared in a burst +of smoke, which spread itself in the air like a huge duster made +from turkey feathers. There came another shriek, a little nearer, +and the ground rose in a huge black mushroom, which boiled and +writhed like the clouds of an advancing thunderstorm. Boom! Boom! +Two vast, all-pervading roars came to Jimmie's ears; and his knees +began to quake. By heck! He was under fire! He looked ahead; there +must be Germans just up there! Was a fellow supposed to ride on +without knowing? + +There was a big battle on, that much was certain; but the uproar was +so distributed that one could hardly tell whether it was in front or +behind. However, the transport was steadily advancing--horse-wagons, +mule-wagons, motor-wagons, all plodding patiently, paying no heed to +the shell-bursts. And then Jimmie took a look behind, and saw that +infernal red-headed Orangeman! He imagined a raucous voice, +shouting: “C'mon here! Whatcher waitin' fer?” Jimmie bounced on to +his machine and turned her loose! + +He came to a place where something had hit a load of ammunition, and +there were pieces of a wagon and a driver scattered about; it was a +horrible mess, but Jimmie passed it without much emotion--his whole +soul was centred on beating Pat Cullen into “Chatty Terry”! He came +to the outskirts of a village, and there was a peasant's cottage +with the roof blown off, and a smell fresh out of the infernal +regions, and a terrified old woman standing by the road side with +two terrified children clinging to her skirts. Jimmy stopped his +machine and shouted: “Chatty Terry?” When the old woman did not +answer quickly, he shouted again: “Chatty Terry? Chatty Terry? Don't +you understand French? Chatty Terry?” The old woman apparently did +not understand French. + +He rode up the street of the village, and came to a military +policeman directing traffic at a crossing. This fellow understood +English, and said: “Chatty Terry? Eet ees taken!” And when Jimmie +stood dismayed, wondering what he was to do now, the policeman told +him that headquarters had been shifted to this village--it was in +the chateau; he did not say “chatty”, so Jimmie did not understand +his kind of English. But Jimmie rode as directed, and came to a +place with iron gates in front, and a big garden, and a sentry in +front, and a bustle of coming and going, so he knew that he had +reached his destination, and had beaten his Irish enemy! + + + + +II + + + +Jimmie's pass was in duplicate French and English, so the sentry +could read it, and signed him to pass in. At the door of the chateau +he showed the paper again, and a French officer in the hall-way +espied him, and exclaimed, “A cyclist? Mon Dieu!” He half-ran Jimmie +into another room, where another officer sat at a big table with a +chart spread out on it, and innumerable filing cabinets on the +walls. “Un courier Americain!” he exclaimed. + +“Only one?” asked the officer, in English. + +“Five more's comin',” said Jimmie quickly. He hated Pat Cullen like +the devil, but he wouldn't have any French officer think that Pat +would lie down on his job. “The road's cut up, an' there's lots o' +traffic. I come as fast--” + +“See!” interrupted the officer--not quite as polite as Frenchmen are +supposed to be. “This packet contains maps, which we make from +aeroplane-photographs--you comprehend? It is for the artillerist--” + +The officer paused for a moment; there came a deafening crash +outside, and the window of the room collapsed and something grazed +Jimmie's face. + +“Voila!” remarked the officer. “The enemy draws nearer. Our wires +are cut; we send couriers, but they perhaps do not arrive; it needs +that we send many--what you say?--duplicates. You comprehend?” + +“Sure!” said Jimmie. + +“It is most urgent; the battle depends upon it--the war, it may be. +You comprehend?” + +“Sure!” said Jimmie again. + +“You are brave, mon garcon?” + +Jimmie did not reply so promptly to that; but the officer was too +tactful to wait. Instead, he asked, “You know French?” And when +Jimmie shook his head: “It needs that you learn. Say this: Botteree +Normb Cott. Try it, if it pleases you: Botteree Normb Cott.” + +Jimmie, stammering like a schoolboy, tried; the officer made him +repeat the sounds, assuring him gravely that he need have no doubts +whatever; if he would make those precise sounds, any Frenchman would +know what he was looking for. He was to take the main road east from +the village and ride till he came to a fork; then he was to bear to +the right, and when he came to the edge of a dense wood, he was to +take the path to the left, and then say to everybody he met: +“Botteree Normb Cott!” + +“Is it that you have a weapon?” inquired the officer; and when +Jimmie answered no, he pressed a button, and spoke quick words to an +orderly, who came running with an automatic revolver and a belt, +which Jimmie proceeded to strap upon him with thrills, half of +delighted pride and half of anguished terror. “You will say to the +men of the botteree that the Americans come soon to the rescue. You +will find them, my brave American?” The officer spoke as if to a son +whom he dearly loved; and Jimmie, who had never received an order in +that tone of voice, reciprocated the affection, and clenched his +hands suddenly and answered, “I'll do my best, sir.” He turned to +leave the room, when whom should he see coming in--Mike Cullen! +Jimmie gave him a wink and a grin, and hustled outside and leaped +upon his machine. + + + + +III + + + +And now here was the little machinist from Leesville, U.S.A., flying +down the battered street of this French village with something like +a mid-western cyclone going on in his head. They say that a drowning +man remembers everything that ever happened in his life; perhaps +that was not true of Jimmie, but certainly he remembered every +pacifist argument he had ever heard in his life. For the love of +Mike, what was this he had let himself in for? Bound for the spot +where the whole German army was trying to break through--upon an +errand the most dangerous of any in the war! How in the name of Karl +Marx and the whole revolutionary hierarchy had he managed to get +himself into such a pickle? He, Jimmie Higgins, Bolshevik and +wobbly! + +And he was going through with it! He was going to throw his life +away--just because he had started--because he had pledged +himself--because he was carrying maps which might enable a +“botteree” to win the war! Did he really care that much about this +infernal capitalist war? So cried out the proletarian demons in the +soul of Jimmie Higgins; and meantime the engine hammered and +chugged, and a miraculous power in the depths of his +subconsciousness moved the handle-bars so that he dodged shell-holes +and grazed automobiles. + +The air was full of the scream of shells and the clatter of their +bursting, an infernal din out of which he could hardly pick +individual sounds. The road ahead was less crowded; the vehicles had +left it, spreading out to one side or the other. How much farther +ahead was that fork? And suppose the Germans had got there, and had +captured “Botteree Normb Cott”--was he going to present them with a +brand new motor-cycle in addition? There were other “botterees” + which he passed; why couldn't he give them the maps? Jimmie rode on, +raging inwardly. If he had been a dispatch rider he would have known +all about this, but he was only a repair man, and they had had no +business to put such a job off on him! + +There were woods about him now, the trees smashed up by shells, and +Jimmie considered it the part of prudence to get off his machine and +steal forward and peer out to see if there were Germans in the +opening beyond. And suddenly his knees gave way, because of the +fright he was in, with all this deadly racket. He became violently +sick at his stomach, and began to act as he had acted on the first +three days of his ocean passage from New York. At the same time all +the other functions of his body began to operate. A group of +Frenchmen passing by burst into hilarious laughter; it was +ridiculous and humiliating, but Jimmie was powerless to help it--he +wasn't cut out for a soldier, he hadn't agreed to be a soldier, they +had had no business sending him up here where vast craters of +shell-holes were opening in the ground, and whole trees were being +lifted out of the earth, and the air was full of a stink which might +require a gas-mask or might not--how was poor Jimmie to tell? + + + + +IV + + + +He mastered the awful trembling of his knees and the grotesque +efforts of his body to get rid of everything inside him, and got on +his machine again and stole ahead. He could only go a few rods at a +time, because the road was so cut up. Should he leave the machine +and run for it? Or should he go back and tell them their infernal +maps were all wrong, there was no fork in the road? No--for there at +last was the fork, and after Jimmie had ridden and run a hundred +yards farther, there was a wheat-field, and a line of woods, and at +the edge of it four guns belching flame and smoke and racket. Jimmie +stood his machine in a ditch and went tearing across the fields, +wild with relief, because he had found his “Botteree Normb Cott”, +and could hand over his precious packet and get out of this mess as +fast as two wheels would take him. + +But to his dismay he found that it wasn't the French battery, it was +an American battery; the French battery was farther ahead, and a +little to the right; the officer gave directions, taking it entirely +for granted that Jimmie would go on to his goal. + +But then came another officer. “What have you got there?” And when +Jimmie answered maps, he demanded them; he seemed as greedy for maps +as a child for his gifts on Christmas morning. He ripped open the +packet--what is called “cutting red tape” in the army--and spread +out the papers and began to call out figures to another officer who +sat on a camp stool at a little folding table, with many sheets of +figures in front of him. This officer went on noting down the +information--and the men at the guns went on shoving in shells and +stepping back while the screaming messengers were hurled upon their +way. In the rear were other men, wheeling up ammunition, unloading +one of the big camions which Jimmie had been dodging on the roads. +It was a regular factory, set up there in the middle of the fields, +dispatching destruction to the unseen foe. + +“We're having the hell of a time,” remarked the officer, as he +folded up the maps again and handed them to Jimmie. “Our wires have +been cut three times in the last half-hour, and we have to shoot +blind.” + +“Where are the Germans?” asked Jimmie. + +“Somewhere up ahead there.” + +“Have you seen them?” + +“Good Lord, no! We hope to move before they're that near!” + +Jimmie felt a bit reassured by the quiet, business-like demeanour of +all the men in this death-factory. If they could stand the racket, +no doubt he could; only, they were all together, while he had to go +off by himself. Jimmie wished he had enlisted in the artillery! + +He shoved the maps into the inside pocket of his jacket, and chased +back to his machine and set out. He took a side-path as directed, +and then a wood-road--and then he got lost. That was all there was +to it--he was hopelessly lost! The path didn't behave at all as the +one he was looking for. It went through a long stretch of woods with +shattered trees lying this way and that; then it crossed a field of +grain, and then it plunged down into a ravine, and climbed to the +other side, and up a ridge and down again. “Hell!” said Jimmie to +himself. And if you could imagine all the noises in all the +boiler-factories in America, you would have something less than the +racket in that wood through which Jimmie was wandering, saying +“Hell!” to himself. + + + + +V + + + +He got to the top of the ridge, puffing and panting and dripping +perspiration; and there suddenly he jumped from his machine and ran +with it behind a tree-trunk and stood anxiously peering out. There +were men ahead; and what sort of men? Jimmie tried to remember the +pictures of Germans he had seen, and did they look like this? The +air was full of smoke, which made it hard to decide; but gradually +Jimmie made out one group, dragging a machine-gun on wheels; they +placed it behind a ridge of ground, and began to shoot in the +direction of Germany. So Jimmie advanced, but with hesitation, not +wanting to interfere with the aiming of the gun, which was making a +noise like a riveting machine, only faster and louder. It had a big +round cylinder for a barrel, and the men were feeding it with long +strips of cartridges out of a box, and were so intent on the process +that they paid no attention whatever to Jimmie. He stood and stared, +spellbound. For these creatures seemed not men, but hairy monsters +out of caves-ragged, plastered with mud, grimed and smoke-blackened, +with their faces drawn, their teeth shining like the teeth of angry +dogs. Jimmie forgot all about the enemy, he saw only this roaring, +flame-vomiting machine and the men who were a part of it. + +Suddenly one of the men leaped up, a little hairier and a little +blacker than the rest, and shouted, “Ah derry-air! Ah derry-air!” + And the gun stopped roaring and vomiting flame, and the men laid +hold and began to tug and strain to draw it back. The leader +continued exhorting them; until suddenly an amazing thing +happened--right in the midst of his shouting, the whole of his mouth +and lower jaw disappeared. You did not see what became of it--it +just vanished into nothingness, and there in the place of it was a +red cavern, running blood. The man stood with his startled eyes +shining white in his black and hairy face, and gurgling noises +coming out--as if he thought he was still shouting, or could if he +tried harder. + +The others paid not the least attention to this episode; they +continued tugging at the gun. And would you believe it, the man with +no mouth and jaw fell to helping again! The wheels struck a rise in +the ground, and he waved his hands in impotent excitement, and then +rushed at Jimmie, exposing to the horrified little machinist the +full ghastliness of that red cavern running blood. + +Jimmie tried his magic formula: “Botteree Normb Cott.” But the man +waved his hands frantically and grabbed Jimmie by the arm--the very +incarnation of that Monster of Militarism which the little machinist +had been dodging for four years! He pushed Jimmie towards the gun, +and the other men shouted: “Asseestay!” So of course there was +nothing for Jimmie to do but lay hold and tug with the rest. + +Presently they got the wheels to moving, and rolled the thing up the +ridge. A wagon came bumping through the woods, and the men at the +gun gave a gasp which was meant to be a cheer, and one of them laid +hold of Jimmie again, crying: “Portay! Portay!” He dragged out a +heavy box and loaded it into Jimmie's arms and carried another +himself, and so in a few moments the machine-gun was drumming, and +Jimmie went on carrying boxes. The men who were driving the wagon +leaped upon the horses and drove away; and still Jimmie carried +boxes, blindly, desperately. Was it because he was afraid of the +little French demon who was shouting at him? No, not exactly, +because when he went back with a box he saw the little demon +suddenly double up like a jack-knife and fall forward. He did not +make a sound, he did not even kick; he lay with his face in the dirt +and leaves--and Jimmie ran back for another box. + + + + +VI + + + +He did it because he understood that the Germans were coming. He had +not seen them; but when the gun fell silent he heard whining sounds +in the air, as if from a litter of elephantine puppies. Sometimes +the twigs of trees fell on him, the dirt in front of him flew up +into his face; and always, of course, everywhere about him was that +roar of bursting shells which he had come to accept as a natural +part of life. And suddenly another man went down, and another--there +were only two left, and one of them signalled to Jimmie what to do, +and Jimmie did not say a word, he just went to work and learned to +run a machine-gun by the method favoured by modern educators--by +doing. + +Presently the man who was aiming the gun clapped his hand to his +forehead and fell backwards. Jimmie was at his side, and the gun was +shooting--so what more natural than for Jimmie to move into position +and look along the sights? It was a fact that he had never aimed any +sort of gun in his life before; but he was apt with machinery--and +disposed to meddle into things, as we know. + +Jimmie looked along the sights; and suddenly it seemed as if the +line of distant woods leaped into life, the bushes vomiting grey +figures which ran forward, and fell down, and then leaped up and ran +and fell down again. “Eel vienn!” hissed the man at Jimmie's side. +So Jimmie moved the gun here and there, pointing it wherever he saw +the grey figures. + +Did he kill any Germans? He was never entirely sure in his own mind; +always the idea pursued him that may be he had been making a fool of +himself, shooting bullets into the ground or up into the air--and +the poilus at his side thinking he must know all about it, because +he was one of those wonderful Americans who had come across the seas +to save la belle France! The Germans kept falling, but that proved +nothing, for that was the method of their advance, anyway, and +Jimmie had no time to count and see how many fell and how many got +up again. All he knew was that they kept coming--more and more of +them, and nearer and nearer, and the Frenchmen muttered curses, and +the gun hammered and roared, until the barrel grew so hot that it +burned. And then suddenly it stopped dead! + +“Sockray!” cried the two Frenchmen, and began frantically working to +take the gun to pieces; but before they had worked a minute one of +them clapped his hand to his side and fell back with a cry, and a +second later Jimmie felt a frightful blow on his left arm, and when +he tried to lift it and see what was wrong, half of it hung loose, +and blood ran out of his sleeve! + + + + +VII + + + +That was too much for the remaining Frenchman. He caught Jimmie by +the other arm, exclaiming “Vennay! Vennay!” Apparently that meant to +run away; Jimmie didn't want to run away, but the Frenchman +chattered so fast, and tugged so hard, and Jimmie was half-dazed +anyhow with pain, so he let himself be dragged back. And presently +they came to a dead soldier lying with a gun by his side, and the +Frenchman grabbed the gun and unstrapped the cartridge belt, and +then threw himself down behind a big rock. Jimmie remembered the +automatic which he had strapped at his waist; he held it out to the +Frenchman, shaking his head and saying, “No savvy! No work!”--as if +he thought the Frenchman would understand bad English better than +good English! But the Frenchman understood the head-shaking, and +showed Jimmie how to move the little catch which released the +trigger for firing. With hasty fingers he tore off the sleeve of +Jimmie's shirt, and bound up his arm tightly with a bandage from his +kit; then he raised up over the rock and cursed the sockray Bosh and +began to fire. Jimmie got up the nerve to peer out, and there were +the grey figures, much nearer now, and he knew they were Germans +because they were like the pictures he had seen. They were running +at him, firing as they came, and Jimmie fired his revolver, shutting +his eyes because he was scared of it. But then, finding that it +behaved all right, he fired again, and this time he did not close +his eyes, because he saw a big German running straight towards him, +the fury of battle in his face. It was plain what this German meant +to do--to leap on Jimmie with his sharp bayonet; and somehow Jimmie +never once thought of his pacifist arguments--he fired, and saw the +German fall, and was murderously glad at the sight. + +There were shots from behind him; apparently there had been a lot of +Frenchmen hidden in these woods, and the enemy was not finding it +easy to advance. Jimmie's companion jumped up and ran again, and +Jimmie followed, and a hundred yards or so back they came to a +shell-hole with half a dozen poilus in it. Jimmy tumbled in, and the +men chattered at him, and gave him more cartridges, so that when the +Germans appeared again he did his part. A bullet took a lump of hair +off his temple, and shrapnel exploding near by almost split his +ear-drums; but still he went on shooting. His heart was really in +the job now, he was going to stop these Bosh or bust. With five +Frenchmen, two of them wounded, he held the shell-hole for an hour; +one of them ran back and staggered up with a supply of ammunition, +and loaded up a rifle for Jimmie, and laid it so that he could +manage it with one hand. So Jimmie went on shooting, half-dead, +half-blind, half-choked with powder smoke. + +The sockray Bosh made another charge, and this was the end, every +man in the shell-hole knew. There were literally swarms of the grey +figures, their bullets came like a shower of hail. Jimmie decided to +wait till the enemy was near enough for him to aim the revolver with +effect. He crouched, watching a Frenchman with the life-blood oozing +out of a hole in his chest; then he raised up and emptied his +automatic, and still there were Germans rushing on. + +Jimmie was so very tired now, he really did not care very much what +happened; he knelt in the hole, looking up, and suddenly he saw the +huge figure of a German looming above him, his rifle poised. Jimmie +closed his eyes and waited for the blow, and suddenly the German +came down with a crash on top of him. + +Jimmie thought for sure he must be dead; he lay wondering, was this +immortality? But it did not seem like either heaven or hell as he +had imagined them, and gradually he realized that the German was +writhing and moaning. Jimmie wriggled from under, and looked up, +just in time to see another German loom over the shell-hole and +pitch forward and hit on his face. + +It was evident that somebody farther back was attending to these +Germans; so Jimmie lay still, with a feeble flicker of hope in his +heart. The rattle of shots went on, a battle that lasted ten or +fifteen minutes, but Jimmie was too tired to peer out and see how +matters were going. Presently he heard someone running up behind +him, and he looked around and up, and saw two men jump into the +shell-hole. He took one glance, and his heart leaped. The doughboys! + + + + +VIII + + + +Yes, sir, there were two doughboys in the shell-hole! Jimmie had +seen so many tens of thousands of them that he had no doubt. +Compared with the war-battered poilus, they were like soldiers out +of a fashion-plate: smooth-shaven, with long chins and thin lips, +and a thousand other details which made you realize that home was +home, and better than any other place in the world. And oh, the +beautiful business-like precision of these fashion-plate soldiers! +They never said a word, they never even glanced about; they just +threw themselves down at the edge of the shell-hole, and leaned +their rifles over and set to work. You didn't need to see--you could +tell from the look on these men's faces that they were hitting +something! + +Presently came two more, leaping in. Without so much as as a nod of +greeting, they settled down and went to shooting; and when they had +used up most of their cartridges, one of them got up and shouted to +the rear, and there came a man running with a fresh supply in a big +pouch. + +Later on came three more with rifles. Apparently there were not so +many Germans now, for these new-comers found time for words. “They +told us to hold a line back there,” said one. “But hell!” + +“There's more Huns up ahead,” said another. “Let's get 'em.” + +“Just as well now as later,” said a third. + +“You stay behind and get that finger tied up,” said the first +speaker; but the other told him to go and get his own fingers tied +up. + +Then one of them looked about and spied Jimmie. “Why, here's a +Yank!” he cried. “What you doin' here?” + +Jimmie answered: “I'm a motor-cycle man, and they sent me with maps +for a battery, but I think it's been captured long ago.” + +“You're wounded,” said the other. + +“It ain't much,” said Jimmie, apologetically. “It was a long time +ago, anyhow.” + +“Well, you go back,” said the doughboy. “We're here now--it'll be +all right.” He said it, not boastingly, but as a simple matter of +fact. He was a mere boy, a rosy-cheeked kid with a little ugly +pug-nose covered with freckles, and a wide, grinning mouth. But to +Jimmie he seemed just the loveliest boy that had ever come out of +the U.S.A. “Can you walk?” he asked. + +“Sure!” said Jimmie. + +“And these Frenchies?” The doughboy looked at the others. “You savvy +their lingo?” When Jimmie shook his head, he turned to the +battle-worn hairy ones. “You fellows go back,” he said. “We don't +need you now.” When they stared uncomprehending, he asked: “Polly +voo Francy?” + +“We, we!” cried they in one voice. + +“Well, then,” said the doughboy, “go back! Go home! Toot sweet! Have +sleep! Rest! We lick 'em Heinies!” As the poilus did not show much +grasp of this kind of “Francy”, the doughboy boosted them to their +feet, pointed to the rear, patted them on the back, and grinned with +his wide mouth. “Good boy! Go home! American! American!”--as if that +was enough to make clear that the work of France in this war was +done! The poilus looked over the top of the shell-hole, and saw a +swarm of those new fashion-plate soldiers, darting forward through +the woods, throwing themselves down and shooting at the sockray +Bosh. They looked at the rosy-cheeked boy with the grateful faces of +dogs, and shouldered their packs and rifles and set out for the +rear, helping Jimmie, who suddenly found himself very weak, and with +a splitting headache. + + + + +IX + + + +These doughboys had a song that Jimmie had heard all the time: “The +Yanks are coming!” And now the song needed to be rewritten: “The +Yanks are here!” All these woods through which Jimmie had blundered +with his motor-cycle were now swarming with nice, new, clean-shaven, +freshly-tailored soldier-boys, turned loose to get their first +chance at the Hun. Four years they had been reading about him and +hating him, a year and a half they had been getting ready to hit +him--and now at last they were turned loose and told to go to it! +Back on the roads was an endless procession of motor-trucks, with +doughboys, and also marines, or “leather-necks”, as they were +called. They had started at four o'clock that morning, and ridden +all day packed in like sardines; and here, a mile or two back in the +woods, the trucks had come to a halt, and the sardines had jumped +out and gone into this war! + +Jimmie did not realize till long afterwards what a world-drama he +had been witnessing. For four months the Beast had been driving at +Paris; irresistibly, incessantly, eating his way like a forest fire, +spreading ever wider and more fearful desolation--this Beast with +the Brains of an Engineer! The world had shuddered and held its +breath, knowing that if he got to Paris it would mean the end of the +war, and of all things that free men value. And now here he made his +last supreme rush, and the French lines wavered and cracked and gave +way; and so in this desperate crisis they had brought up the +truck-loads of doughboys for their first real test against the +Beast. + +The orders had been to hold at all hazards; but that had not been +enough for the doughboys, they and the leather-necks had seized the +offensive and sent the Germans reeling back. The very pride of the +Prussian army had been worsted by these new troops from overseas, at +whom they had mocked, whose very existence they had scouted. + +It was a blow from which “Fritz” never recovered; he never gained +another foot, and it was the beginning of a retreat that did not +stop until it reached the Rhine. And the Yanks had done it--the +Yanks, with the help of Jimmie Higgins! For Jimmie had got there +first; Jimmie had held the fort while the Yanks were coming! Yes, +truly; if he hadn't stuck by that machine-gun and helped to work it, +if he hadn't hid in that shell-hole, emptying the contents of a +rifle and an automatic pistol into the charging Huns, if he hadn't +held them up that precious hour--why, they might have swept over +this position, and the Yanks might not have had a chance to deploy, +and the victory of “Chatty Terry” might not have gone resounding +down the ages! The whole course of the world's history might have +been different, if one little Socialist machinist from Leesville, +U.S.A., had not chanced to be wandering through “Bellow Wood” in +search of a fabulous and never-discovered “Botteree Normb Cott!” + + + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + +JIMMIE HIGGINS SEES THE OTHER SIDE + +I + + + + + +But these exultations and glory-thoughts were reserved for a later +stage of Jimmie Higgins's life. At present he was weak, and his head +was splitting, and his left arm burning like fire. And on top of +this came a happening so strange that it drove the whole battle from +his thoughts. He was walking on a path with his French companions, +when one of them noticed a man in a French uniform lying on the +ground a little way to one side. He was not a soldier, but a +hospital-orderly or stretcher-bearer, as you could tell by the white +bandage with a red cross on his arm. He had been shot through the +shoulder, and someone had plugged up the wound and left him; so now +the French soldiers helped him to his feet and started to lead him +back. Jimmie watched them, and when he saw the man's face, the +conviction stole over him that he had seen that face before. He had +seen it, or one incredibly like it--and under circumstances of +intense emotion. The old emotion stirred in the depths of his +subconsciousness, and suddenly it burst to the surface, an explosion +of excitement. It could not be! The idea was absurd! But--it must +be! It was! The wounded French stretcher-bearer was Lacey Granitch! + +The young heir of the Empire Machine Shops might never have known +the little Socialist machinist; but recognition was so evident on +Jimmie's face, that Lacey was set groping in his own mind. Now and +then as the party walked along he stole an uneasy glance at his +fellow-countryman; and presently when they struck a road, and sat +down to rest and wait for a vehicle of some sort, Lacey put himself +beside Jimmie and began: “You're the fellow that was in the house +that night, aren't you?” + +Jimmie nodded; and the young lord of Leesville looked at him +uneasily, looked away, and then looked back. “I've got something I +want to ask you,” he said. + +“What's that?” + +“Don't give me away.” + +“How do you mean?” + +“Don't tell who I am: There's no reason why anybody should know. I'm +trying to get away from it.” + +“I see,” said Jimmie. “I won't tell.” + +“You promise?” + +“Sure.” + +Then was a silence. Then suddenly, with no reason that Jimmie could +see, the other exclaimed: “You'll tell!” + +“But I won't!” protested Jimmie. “What makes you say so?” + +“You hate me!” + +Jimmie hesitated, as if investigating his own mind. “No,” he said, +“I don't hate you--not any more.” + +“God!” exclaimed the other. “You don't need to--I've paid all I +owe!” + +Jimmie studied his face. Yes, you could see that was true. Not +merely was Lacey haggard, his features drawn with the pain he was +enduring; there were lines in his face that had not been put there +by a few days of battle, nor even by a couple of years of war. He +looked twenty years older than the insolent young aristocrat whom +Jimmie had seen hurling defiance at the Empire strikers. + +His eyes were searching Jimmie's anxiously, pleadingly. “I had to +get away,” he said. “I couldn't face it--everybody staring at me, +grinning at me behind my back! I tried to enlist in the American +army, but they wouldn't have me--not to do any sort of work. So I +came to France, where they need men badly--they let me carry a +stretcher. I've been through it all now--more than a year. I've been +wounded twice before, but I can't seem to get killed, no matter +where I go. It's the fellows that want to live that get killed--damn +it!” + +The speaker paused, as if seeing visions of the men whom he had seen +die when they wanted to live. When he went on, it was in a voice of +humble entreaty. “I've tried to pay for my blunders. All I ask now +is to be let alone, and not have everybody gossiping about me. +That's fair, isn't it!” + +Jimmie answered: “I give you my word--I won't tell a soul about it.” + +“Thank you,” said Lacey; and then, after a moment's pause, “My name +is Peterson. Herbert Peterson.” + + + + +II + + + +A truck came along and gave them a lift to the nearest +dressing-station: a couple of tents with big red crosses on them, +and a couple more being put up, and motor-cars bringing nurses and +supplies, and others with loads of wounded, French and American. +Jimmie was so weak now that he hardly cared about anything; he took +his place in a row of wounded men, waiting patiently, trying not to +make a fuss, because this was war, and the Hun had to be licked, and +everybody was doing his best. He lay down on the ground, and shut +his eyes; and gradually there came to him a familiar odour. At first +he thought it was the product of his imagination--because he had +just met Lacey Granitch, and had been reminded of the night when he +and Lizzie had crouched in the room of the lonely farm-house and +listened to the sounds and smelled the odour through the door. And +presently Jimmie heard the very same sounds from the tent--moans and +shrieks, babbling as of insane men. How strange that both times when +he smelt this odour and heard these cries he should be with the +young master of the Empire Shops! + +Jimmie's turn came, and they led him into the tent, making short +work of him--merely ascertaining that no artery was cut and that he +would not bleed to death, and then tagging him for the brigade +hospital. They loaded him into a truck with a score of other +“sitting cases”, including Lacey Granitch, and treated him to a long +ride which he did not at all enjoy. At the hospital, which was a big +group of tents, now swarming with activity, Jimmie waited his turn +again--so many wounds all at once, and so few to tend them! + +At last he was led into the operating-place; the first sight that +greeted his eyes being a couple of orderlies carrying out a tub +filled with sawed-off arms and legs and miscellaneous fragments of +men. There was a surgeon with a white costume smeared with blood, +and a white mask over his face, and several nurses with white masks +also. Nobody greeted him, or stopped for preliminaries--they laid +him on the operating-table, and covered all but his shattered arm +with a rubber sheet, and slit off his bandages, and then a nurse put +someting over his face and said, “Breathe deeply, please.” + +It was that ghastly odour again, but overpowering now. Jimmie +breathed, and everything began to rock and swim, his head began to +roar, worse than when he had fought the machine-gun. He could not +stand any more of it; he cried and struggled to get loose, but they +had strapped his feet, and someone held his other arm, so his +frantic efforts were of no avail. + +He began to fall; head over heels he went tumbling, into vast +bottomless abysses-down, down, down. He heard a strange voice +saying: “Their collars are too tight.” The words rang in his ears, +they assumed monstrous and overwhelming significance, they became a +whole universe by themselves--“Their collars are too tight!” All the +rest of creation ceased, the lamp of being went out; there remained +only a voice, pronouncing amid whirling infinities: “Their collars +are too tight!” + + + + +III + + + +Somewhere in the vast spaces of chaos was a snore. Then ages +afterwards, out of the void there arose a mysterious forgotten +effort to get something out of a choking throat. After several such +unaccountable manifestations, the feeble flame of consciousness that +called itself Jimmie Higgins flickered up, and he realized that it +was he who was trying desperately not to be choked. Also he realized +that he was become one horrible pain; somebody had driven a nail +through his arm, and fastened him tight to the ground by it; also +they had blown up his stomach, so that it was threatening to burst, +and when he choked, it was an agony. He gasped for help, but no one +paid any attention to him; he was all alone in the dungeon-house of +pain, buried and forgotten for ever. + +Gradually he emerged from the misty regions of anaesthesia, and +realized that he was on a stretcher, and being carried. He moaned +for water, but no one would give it to him. He pleaded that there +was something dreadful wrong with him, he was going to burst inside; +but they told him that was only ether gas, and not to worry, he +would soon be all right. They laid him on a cot in a room, one of a +long row, and left him to wrestle with demons all alone. This was +war, and a man who had only a shattered arm might count himself +among the lucky. + +So through a night and a day Jimmie lay and made the best of a bad +situation. There were two nurses in this tent, and Jimmie, having +nothing to do but watch them, conceived a bitter rage at them both. +One was lean and angular and sallow; she went about her duties +grimly, with no nonsense, and Jimmie did not realize that she was +ready to drop with exhaustion. The other was pretty, with fluffy +yellow hair, and was flirting shamelessly with a young doctor. +Perhaps Jimmy should have reflected that men were being killed +rapidly these days, and it was necessary that some should concern +themselves with supplying the future generations; but Jimmie was in +no mood to probe the philosophy of flirtation--he remembered the +Honourable Beatrice Clendenning, and wished he was back in Merrie +England. Also he remembered his pacifist principles, and wished he +had kept out of this hellish war! + +But his pain became somewhat less, and they loaded him into an +ambulance and took him farther back, to a big base hospital. Here, +before long, he was able to sit up, and to be wheeled out into the +sunshine, and to discover the unguessed raptures of +convalescence--the amazing continuous appetite, the amazing +continuous supply of good things to eat and drink; the bliss of +looking at trees and flowers, and listening to the singing of birds, +and telling other people how you rode out on a motor-cycle to look +for “Botteree Normb Cott”--what the hell was that, anyhow?--and ran +into the whole Hun army, and held it up for a couple of hours, and +won the battle of Chatty Terry all alone! + + + + +IV + + + +One of the first persons Jimmie saw was Lacey Granitch, and Lacey +took him off to a corner of the park and said, “You haven't told +anyone?” + +“No, Mr. Granitch,” said Jimmie. + +“My name is Peterson,” said Lacey. + +“Yes, Mr. Peterson,” said Jimmie. + +It was a strange acquaintance between these two, chosen from the +opposite poles of social life, and brought together in the democracy +of pain. Jimmie had the young lord of Leesville down, and might have +walked on his face; but strange as it might seem, Jimmie took +towards him an attitude of timid humility. Jimmie felt that he had +betrayed him to a cruel and hideous vengeance; moreover, in spite of +all his revolutionary fervours, Jimmie could not forget that he was +talking to one of the masters of the world. You might hate with all +your soul the prestige and power that went with the Granitch +millions, but you couldn't be indifferent to it, you could never +feel natural in the presence of it. + +As for Lacey, he was no longer the proud, free, rich young +aristocrat; he had suffered, and learned respect for his fellowmen, +regardless of money. He heard how this little Socialist machinist, +whom once he had cursed in a herd of strikers, had ridden into the +jaws of death and helped to nail the Beast through the snout. So he +wanted to know about him, and these two sat conversing for hours, +each of them discovering a new world. + +Just now all Europe and America were engaged in furious argument on +the subject of the Bolsheviki. Had they betrayed democracy to the +Hun, or were they, as they claimed, leading the way for mankind to a +newer and broader kind of democracy? Lacey, of course, believed the +former--everyone in the American army believed it, and in fact +everybody in France, except a few dyed-in-the-wool reds. When Lacey +found that Jimmie was one of these reds, he questioned him, and they +had it hot and heavy for days. How could men have done what Lenin +and Trotzky had done, unless they were paid German agents? So Jimmie +had to set forth the theory of internationalism; the Bolsheviki were +making propaganda in Germany, they were doing more to break the +power of the Kaiser than even the Allied armies. How did Jimmie know +that? He didn't know the details, of course, but he knew the soul of +internationalism; he could tell what Lenin and Trotzky were doing, +because he knew what he would be doing, were he in their place! + +They talked on and on, and the young lord of Leesville, who would +some day fall heir to an enormous fortune, and had been trained to +think of it as his by every right, human and divine, heard a little +runt of a machinist from the shops explain how he was going to seize +that mass of property--he and the rest of his fellows combined into +one big union--and how they were going to run it, not for Lacey's +benefit, but for the benefit of all society. Jimmie forgot all +respect for persons when he got on this theme; this was his dream, +this was the proletariat expropriating the expropriators, and he +told about it with shining eyes. In time past the young lord of +Leesville would have answered him with insolent serenity, perhaps +with a threat of machine-guns; but now he said hesitatingly that it +was a large programme, and he feared it couldn't be made to work. + + + + +V + + + +He was moved to question Jimmie about his past life, so as to +understand how such fanaticism had come to be. So Jimmie told about +starvation and neglect, about overwork and unemployment, about +strikes and jails and manifold oppressions. The other listened, +nodding his head. “Yes, of course, that was enough to drive any man +to extremes.” And then, thinking further, “I wonder”, said he, +“which of us two got the worse deal from life.” + +Jimmie was without means of understanding that remark, Lacey had had +everything, hadn't he? To which Lacey answered, “I had too much, and +you had too little; and which is worse for a man?” + +By way of making clear what was in his mind, he told Jimmie a little +about his own life. He pictured a big household, with a father beset +by business cares, and turning over the managing of his home to +employees. “My mother was a fool,” said Lacey. “I suppose it sounds +bad for a man to say that, but I've known it all my life. Maybe the +old man was too busy to look up a woman with sense--or maybe he +didn't believe there were any. Anyhow, my mother's idea was to be +seen spending more money than any other woman in town; that was her +'position', and her children were part of the show--we must wear +more clothes and bully more servants than anybody else's children. +I've thought it all out--I've had lots of opportunity for thinking +of late. I can't remember when I didn't hit my nurse in the face if +she tried to take away a toy from me. I never had to ask for +anything twice--if I did, I went into a tantrum and got it. I +learned to smoke and to drink wine, and then came the women--the +women finished me, as you know.” + +He paused; and Jimmie nodded sympathetically, remembering the story +of the eight chorus-girls about whom “Wild Bill” had read out in the +local. + +“It's hell for a boy to have a lot of money,” said Lacey, “and to be +preyed on by women. You have your human emotions, of course--you're +absolutely compelled to believe in some women; and they're all +perfectly cold-blooded--at least the kinds that a rich boy meets. I +don't mean only adventuresses--I mean the society-girls, the ones +you're supposed to marry. Their damned old harpies of mothers are +pushing behind them, of course--laying out everything they own for +clothes, and not knowing how they can pay the bills for last season. +They set out to catch you, they're mad with the determination, they +don't care about reputation, they'll do any damned thing. You take +them out in your car, and then they want to get out and pick +flowers, and they draw you into the woods, and presently you've got +hold of their hands, and then you're hugging and kissing them, and +then you go the limit. But then you've got to marry them; and when +they find you won't, they have hysterics, and say they're going to +shoot their heads off; only they don't shoot their heads off, they +kiss you some more, and borrow your diamond scarf-pin and forget to +return it.” + +The young lord of Leesville fell silent. Sombre memories possessed +him, and Jimmie, darting a swift glance at him, saw the look of +weary age on his face. “I've never talked with anybody about what +happened at the end,” said he, “and I never mean to; but I'll say +this much--the time I loved a married woman was the only honest love +I ever had, because she was the only woman who wasn't looking to +marry me!” + +That was, of course, too subtle for a man like Jimmie Higgins. But +this much the little Socialist got--that the heir of the Granitch +fortune had been in truth a miserably unhappy mortal. And this was +an extraordinary revelation to Jimmie, who had taken it for granted +that the rich were the lucky ones of earth. He had hated them on the +supposition that they were without care; they were the Lotus-eaters, +of whom the poet wrote that they + + “live and lie reclined + On the hills like Gods together, careless of mankind, + For they lie beside their nectar, and the bolts are hurl'd + Far below them in the valleys, and the clouds are lightly curl'd + Round their golden houses, girdled with the gleaming world: + + Where they smile in secret, looking over wasted lands, + Blight of famine, plague and earthquake, roaring deeps and fiery + sands, + Clanging fights and flaming towns, and sinking ships and pray- + ing hands. + But they smile, they find a music centred in a doleful song + Steaming up, a lamentation and an ancient tale of wrong. + Like a tale of little meaning tho' the words are strong; + Chanted from an ill-used race of men that cleave the soil, + Sow the seed, and reap the harvest with enduring toil, + Storing yearly little dues of wheat, and wine and oil. + +But now Jimmie had crossed the social chasm, he had seen the other +side of the problem of riches and poverty. After that revelation, he +would be more merciful in his judgements of his fellow-mortals; he +would understand that the system in which we are trapped makes true +happiness impossible--for those who have too much as well as for +those who have too little. + + + + + + +CHAPTER XXV + +JIMMIE HIGGINS ENTERS INTO DANGER + +I + + + + + +While Jimmie wandered through the streets of this French town, +letting his broken arm get strong again, the death-grapple of the +war continued. In mid-July the Germans made a last desperate lunge +at the Marne; they were stopped dead in a couple of days by the +French and Americans combined; and then the Allied +commander-in-chief struck back, smashing in the side of the German +salient, and driving the enemy, still fighting furiously, but moving +back from the soil of France. All France caught its breath with +excitement, with relief mingled with dread. So many times they had +hoped, through these four weary, hideous years, and so many times +their hopes had been dashed! But this time there was no mistake--it +was really the turning of the tide. The enemy resisted at every +step, but he went on moving out of the salient, and the Allies went +on lunging--now here, now there, see--sawing back and forth, and +keeping their opponents bewildered. + +Jimmie read about it in the army paper, the Stars and Stripes; and +now, for the first time in four years, Jimmie's mind was one mind on +the war. Jimmie was on the field of every battle, his teeth set, his +hands clenched, his whole soul helping at the job. He had got over +the disorders of anaesthesia, and was forgetting the shock of his +wound; he had realized that wounds, and even death, were something a +man could bear--not cheerfully, of course, not lightly, but you +could bear them, if only you knew that the Beast was being put out +of business. + +In the old days the word German had meant to Jimmie fellows like +Meissner and Forster and Schneider; but now it meant a huge grey +form looming over the edge of a shell-hole, its face distorted with +hate, its bayonet poised to plunge. Perhaps the most vivid +impression of Jimmie's whole life was the relief he had felt when he +realized that some doughboy had shot a bullet into that looming +figure. Let there be more doughboys, more and more, until the last +figure had been shot! Jimmie knew, of course, that the policy he had +been advocating in America had not tended to that end; if Jimmie in +Leesville had had his way, there would have been no doughboys to +rescue Jimmy at Chatty Terry! Jimmie was quite clear on that point +now, and for the time being the pacifist was dead in him. + +He listened to the talk of the men in this hospital. They had all +been through the mill, they had got their wounds, light or severe, +but it had not broken their spirit--not a bit of it; there was +hardly one among them who was not hoping to get cured and to get +back into the game before it was over. That was how they took it--a +game, the most sensational, the most thrilling that a man would ever +play. These boys had been brought up on football, the principal +training and only real interest in life of some hundreds of +thousands of young Americans every year. They had brought the spirit +and the method of football with them into the army, and communicated +it to those less fortunate millions who had been neither to college +nor to high school: the team-work, the speed, the incessant, +gruelling drill, the utter, unquestioning loyalty, the persistent +searching of eager young minds for new combinations, new tricks; and +above all the complete indifference to the possibility of a broken +collar-bone or a damaged heart-valve, provided only that the game +should be won! + +This army was attacking a foe who relied on machine-guns to break +formations and give time to withdraw stores and big guns to safety; +so the life of young America for the moment had become a study of +the arts of rushing machine-guns. Jimmie listened to the +conversation of the new men, and saw the technique being worked out +before his eyes. Tanks were all right, aeroplanes were all right, +when you had them; but mostly you did not have them, in time, so the +doughboy was learning to take machine-guns with the bayonet. You had +a little squad, trained like a football team, with its own system of +signals, its formations worked out by young heads put together at +night. It was a costly game--you would be lucky if a third of the +players came out alive; but if you could get one man to the +machine-gun with a bayonet, you had won the game--because he would +take the gun and turn it about on the retreating Germans, and could +kill enough of them in a minute to make up for the losses of his +squad. + + + + +II + + + +Lacey Granitch's shoulder healed, and he went back to his job. He +told Jimmie what it had meant to him to meet a Socialist; if he +could believe what Jimmie believed, he wouldn't mind living, even +with his shame. Jimmie gave him the names of books to read, and +Lacey promised to read them; of course, Jimmie was proud and +happy--seeing a vision of the Empire Machine Shops turned over to the +control of the workers, the capitalist system committing hari-kari +in one American industry. + +Jimmie got a letter from one of the working-men in the repair +station where he had last worked, telling him that the Americans had +taken over this sector, and now there was a big shop established, +and when was he coming back? But Jimmie was not so eager to come +back; working on motor-cycles did not seem a thrilling prospect to +one who had held up the whole Hun army and won the battle of Chatty +Terry. Having proven his mettle as a fighting man, Jimmie wondered +if there mightn't be some way for him to get into the real army, and +do a real man's work. + +He wrote a letter to the officer in command of his motor-unit, +telling what had happened to him, and couldn't it be arranged? In +reply the officer said that he would have an investigation made, and +if Jimmie's story could be verified, he would have honourable +mention, and promotion of some sort. And sure enough, a month later, +when Jimmie was ready to leave the hospital, came official notice +that he was promoted to be a sergeant of motor-transport, and +ordered to report to headquarters in a certain harbour on the +English Channel for assignment. Sergeant Jimmie Higgins! + +Jimmie reported, of course, and was put in charge of a dozen +cyclists and repair men, newly arrived on a transport. These men +looked up to Jimmie as a veteran and hero, and Jimmie, who had never +enjoyed authority in his life before--except you count Jimmie Junior +and the two kids--may have had his head turned just a little bit. +But there was real work to be done, and no time for strutting. There +was excitement in the air, wild rumour and speculation; this little +unit of Jimmie's, composed of specially fit men, was going somewhere +on a special errand--an expedition, evidently by sea. Nobody was +told where--that wasn't the way in the army; but presently there +were issued sheepskin-lined coats and heavy wool-lined boots--in the +middle of August! So they knew that they were bound for the Far +North, and for some time. Could it be a surprise attack in the +Baltic? Either that, said the wiseheads, or else Archangel. Jimmie +had never heard of this latter place, and had to ask about it. It +appeared that the Allies had landed enormous masses of stores at +this port in far Northern Russia; and now that the Russians had +dropped out of the war, the Germans were threatening to take +possession. + +Jimmie was thrilled to the soles of his new wool-lined boots. He was +going to Russia, going to see the revolution! Jimmie had but a vague +idea of world-conditions now, for during the past three or four +months he had been reading only official papers, which confined +their attention to the job, and carefully omitted mention of +difficulties and complications. The people with whom he talked +insisted that it was necessary for the Allies to do something to +counter the Brest-Litovsk treaty; if the Germans were allowed to +take possession of helpless Russia and use it for their purposes, +they might hold out for another hundred years. The Russian people +themselves must realize this, and welcome Allied help! Jimmie wasn't +sure on this latter point, but he remembered the Rabin brothers and +their enthusiasm for the Allied cause, so he put his doubts to +sleep, and helped get his motor-unit stowed on board a transport. + + + + +III + + + +There came a passage across the North Sea and up the coast of +Norway; a region of fogs and restless winds, and incessant deadly +peril of submarine and mine. There were three transports in the +expedition, and a couple of warships convoying them, and half a +dozen destroyers weaving their foam patterns in and out. Every day +the air grew colder, and the period of daylight shorter; they were +entering the Land of the Midnight Sun, but at the time of year when +midnight noons were approaching. The men had plenty of time for +reading and talk; so Jimmie discussed the war from the Socialist +point of view, defending the Russian revolutionists; and so, as +usual, he made somebody angry, and got himself and his seditious +opinions reported. + +Lieutenant Gannet was the name of Jimmie's superior officer. He had +been a clerk in a cotton-mill before the war, and had never had the +exercise of authority. Now he had to learn suddenly to give orders, +and his idea of doing it was to be extremely sharp and imperative. +He was a deeply conscientious young man, keen on the war, and +willing to face any hardship or peril in fulfilment of his duty; but +Jimmie could not have been expected to appreciate that--all Jimmie +knew was that his superior had a way of glaring from behind his +spectacles as if he was sure that someone was lying to him. + +Lieutenant Gannet didn't ask what Jimmie had said; he told Jimmie +what he had said, and informed him that that kind of talk wasn't +going on in the army while he was in hearing. Jimmie's business was +to keep some motor-cycles in repair, and some cyclists on their job; +about other matters let him hold his tongue, and not try to run the +affairs of the nation. Jimmie ventured the remark that he had said +nothing but what President Wilson was saying all along. To which the +lieutenant replied that he was not interested in Sergeant Higgins's +opinions of President Wilson's opinions--Sergeant Higgins was to +keep his opinions to himself, or he would get into serious trouble, +So Jimmie went away, seething with indignation, as much of a rebel +as he had ever been in Local Leesville. + +What were the rights of a soldier, anyway? Was he privileged to +discuss political issues, and to agree with the utterances of the +President of his country? Might he believe, as the President +believed, in a just peace and the right of all peoples to freedom +and self-determination, even though many of the officers of the army +hated and despised such ideas? Jimmie didn't know, and there was +nobody to tell him; but Jimmie knew that he hadn't meant to give up +his rights as a citizen when he enlisted to fight for democracy, and +if these rights were taken away from him, it would not be without a +struggle. + + + + +IV + + + +The transports came into the region of icebergs, and low-hanging +mists, and rocky cliffs covered with snow, and flocks of seagulls +flying over them. For days and nights on end they steamed in those +Arctic waters, and came at last into the White Sea, and the harbour +of Archangel. + +The Allies had been here since the beginning of the war, building +docks and sheds and railway yards; but they had never been able to +build enough, and the transport department of the corrupt Russian +government having gone to pieces, here were mountains of supplies of +every sort you could think of for an army, piled high on the shores. +At least, that was what Jimmie had been told; he had read in the +newspapers that the statement was made officially in answer to +questions in the British Parliament. Jimmie had understood that he +was here to save those mountains of supplies from the Germans, and +he was surprised when he looked about the harbour and saw no +mountains of any sort. + +Back in the interior were vast trackless forests of fir-trees, and +moss-covered swamps in which in summertime a man would sink up to +his neck. Now, in September, they were already frozen solid, and you +travelled over them with a sledge and a team of reindeer, bundled up +in furs and looking, except for the whiskers, like the pictures of +Santa Claus you had seen when you were a kid. But most of the +traffic of the army was upon the rivers which cut the forests and +swamps, and the single railroad, which was being put back into +commission. + +This country had, of course, no roads on which motor-cycles could be +used, even in summer. Jimmie found that his job would be confined to +the city and the encampments near about. A few streets would be kept +clear of snow, and the little band of messengers would scoot about +them, now and then taking a slide into a snow-bank and smashing +things up. That would have been all right, and Jimmie would have +bossed the job and been happy as he knew how to be--had only his +mind been at peace. + +For the first few days, of course, he had no time to think, he was +as busy as an ant, getting himself and his men ashore, and setting +up their benches and tools in an iron shed, with a roaring stove at +each end, and heaps of firewood which the peasants brought on +heavy flat sledges dragged by reindeer. Jimmie and his unit worked, +not merely during the hours of daylight, but most of the hours of +darkness, not stopping for Sundays. There were five thousand men to +be got ashore with their supplies--and in a desperate rush, as if +the Germans were expected at any hour. It was some while before +Jimmie found time to go about the city, to meet the “Tommies”, who +had been here a month before him, and to hear what they had done, +and what they were expecting to do. + +Jimmie had understood that this expedition was to fight the Germans; +but now he became suspicious; apparently it was to fight the +Bolsheviki! The social revolution had accomplished itself in +Archangel, and a council of working-men and peasants had been in +full control, when the British troops and sailors had made a +surprise attack and seized the port, driving the revolutionists in +confusion before them. Now they were sending an expedition up the +railroad, and another on steamers up the North Dwina river, pursuing +Russian Socialists and driving them back into frozen swamps! And +here were American troops, being hurried ashore, and outfitted and +made ready to join in what seemed to Jimmie to be warfare upon +organized working-men! + +Jimmie was almost beside himself with bewilderment. It was all so +new and strange to him--and he had nobody to advise him. At home, if +there were a Socialist problem to settle, he would take it to +Meissner or Stankewitz, or Comrade Gerrity the organizer, or Comrade +Mabel Smith, the chairman of the Literature Committee. But now, in +all this expedition Jimmie did not know a single man who had any +idea of radicalism; they looked upon the Bolsheviki as mad dogs, as +traitors, criminals, lunatics, any word that seemed worst to you. +The Bolsheviki had deserted the cause of the Allies, they had gone +into league with Germany to betray Democracy; so now the Americans +had come to teach them the lesson of law and order. The Americans +looked upon themselves as an advance guard of a vast expedition +which was to march to Petrograd and Moscow, and wipe the idea of +Bolshevism off the map. And Jimmie Higgins was to help! Jimmie +Higgins, bound and gagged, lashed to the chariot of Militarism, was +to take part in destroying the first proletarian government in +history! + +The more Jimmie thought of it, the more indignant he became; he took +it as a personal outrage--a scurvy trick that had been played upon +him. He had swallowed their propaganda, he had filled himself up +with their patriotism, he had dropped everything to come and fight +for Democracy. He had gone into battle, had risked his life, had +suffered wounds and agony for them. And now they had broken their +bargain with him, they had brought him here and ordered him to fight +working-men--just as if he had been a militiaman at home! Democracy +indeed! Here they were marching in, glorying in their purpose to +conquer the Russian Revolutionists! + +And Jimmie Higgins, under martial law, must obey and hold his +tongue! Jimmie thought of all his friends at home who had denounced +the military machine; he thought of Comrade Mary Allen, of Comrade +Mabel Smith, and Comrade Evelyn Baskerville and Comrade Gerrity; he +had rejected their advice, and now, if they could see what he was +doing, how they would spurn him! Jimmie writhed at the very thought; +nor was he consoled when one of the men in his company gave him an +“inside” story of what was happening here--that in order to persuade +the British to submit their armies to the control of a French +general, and thus to save the situation in France, the Americans had +been forced to submit their own armies also; and now they found +themselves ordered to march in and fight a revolutionary government +which had repudiated its debt to France, and so had given offence to +a naturally frugal people. + + + + +V + + + +Jimmie met a man whom he might almost have taken for Deror Rabin, so +much did he resemble the little Jewish tailor. A big, +black-whiskered peasant brought a load of wood for the fires; and +there was a Jew helping him--a chap with a sharp face and keen +black eyes, his cheeks sunken as if he had not had enough to eat for +years, and his chest racked by a cough. He had wrapped his feet and +his hands in rags, because he had neither boots nor gloves; but he +seemed cheerful, and presently, as he dumped down a load, he nodded +and said, “Hello!” + +“Hello yourself!” replied Jimmie. + +“I speak English,” said the fellow. + +It didn't surprise Jimmie that anybody should speak English; he was +only surprised when they didn't. So he smiled and said, “Sure!” + +“I been in America,” went on the other. “I vork by sveat-shop in +Grand Street.” + +You could see that he preferred gossiping to carrying wood; he stood +about and questioned, “Vere you vork in America?” When the peasant +grumbled at him in Russian, he went back at his job; but as he went +away, he said, “I talk vit you some time about America.” To which, +of course, Jimmie answered with a friendly assent. + +A couple of hours later, when he went out from his work, he found +the little Jew waiting for him in the darkness. “I git lonesome some +time for America,” he said; and walked down the street with Jimmie, +beating his thin arms to keep warm. + +“Why did you come back?” Jimmie inquired. + +“I read about revolution. I tink maybe I git rich.” + +“Huh!” said Jimmie, and grinned. “What did you get?” + +“You belong to union in America?” countered the other. + +“You bet I do!” said Jimmie. + +“Vat sort of union?” + +“Machinists.” + +“You been on strike, maybe?” + +“You bet I have!” + +“You got licked, maybe?” + +“You bet!” + +“You don't never scab, hey?” + +“Not much!” + +“You vat you call class-conscious?” + +“You bet! I'm a Socialist!” + +The other turned upon him, his voice trembling with sudden +excitement. “You got a red card?” + +“You bet!” said Jimmie. “Right inside my coat.” + +“My God!” cried the other. “A comrade!” He stretched out his hands, +which were bundled up with old gunny-sacking, to Jimmie. “Tovarish!” + cried he. And standing there in the freezing darkness, these two +felt their hearts leap into a hot glow. Here, under the Arctic +Circle, in this wilderness of ice and desolation, even here the +spirit of international fraternity was working its miracles! + +But then, shaking with excitement, the little Jew pawed at Jimmie +with his bundled hands. “If you are Socialist, vy you fight de +Russian vorkers?” + +“I'm not fighting them!” + +“You vear de uniform.” + +“I'm only a motor-cycle man.” + +“But you help! You kill de Russian people! You destroy de Soviets! +Vy?” + +“I didn't know about it,” pleaded Jimmie. “I wanted to fight the +Kaiser, and they brought me here without telling me.” + +“Ah! So it iss vit militarism, vit capitalism! Ve are slaves! But we +vill be free! And you vill help, you vill not kill de Russian +vorkers!” + +“I will not!” cried Jimmie, quickly. + +And the little stranger put his arm through Jimmie's “You come vit +me, quick! I show you someting, tovarish!” + + + + +VI + + + +They threaded the dark streets till they came to a row of +working-men's hovels, made of logs, the cracks stuffed with mud and +straw--places in which an American farmer would not have thought it +proper to keep his cattle. “So live de vorkers,” said the stranger, +and he knocked on the door of one of the hovels. It was unbarred by +a woman with several children about her skirts, and the men entered +a cabin lighted by a feeble, smoky lamp. There was a huge oven at +one side, with a kettle in which cabbage was cooking. The man said +nothing to the woman, but signed Jimmie to a seat before the oven, +and fixed his sharp black eyes on his face. + +“You show me de red card?” he said, suddenly. + +Jimmie took off his sheepskin-lined overcoat, and unbuttoned his +sweater underneath, and from an inside pocket of his jacket took out +the precious card with the due-stamps initialled by the secretaries +of Local Leesville and Local Hopeland and Local Ironton. The +stranger studied it, then nodded. “Good! I trust you.” As he handed +back the card he remarked, “My name is Kalenkin. I am Bolshevik.” + +Jimmie's heart bounded--though he had guessed as much, of course. +“We called our local in Ironton Bolshevik,” said he. + +“Dey drive us out from here,” continued the Jew, “but I stay behind +for propaganda. I look for comrades among de Americans, de British. +I say, 'Do not fight de vorkers, fight de masters, de capitalists.' +You understand?” + +“Sure!” said Jimmie. + +“If de masters find me, dey kill me. But I trust you.” + +“I'll not tell!” said Jimmie quickly. + +“You help me,” went on the other. “You go to de American soldiers, +you say, 'De Russian people have been slaves so many years; now dey +get free, and you come to kill dem and made dem slaves again!' Vy +iss it? Vat vill dey say, tovarish?” + +Jimmie answered: “They say they want to lick the Kaiser.” + +“But we help to lick de Kaiser! Ve fight him!” + +“They say you've made peace with him!” + +“Ve fight vit propaganda--de vay de Kaiser fear most of all. Ve +spend millions of roubles, we print papers, leaflets--you know, +comrade, vat Socialists do. Ve send dem into Germany, we drop dem by +aeroplanes, we have printing-presses in--vat you call it, de Suisse, +de Nederland--everyvere. De Germans read, dey tink, dey say. Vy do +we fight for de Kaiser, vy do we not be free like de Russians? I +know it, tovarish, I have talked vit many German soldiers. It goes +like a fire in Germany. Maybe it take time--a year--two years--but +some day people see de Bolsheviki vere right, dey know de vorkers, +de heart of de vorkers--dey have de life, de fire dat cannot be put +out in de heart!” + +“Sure,” said Jimmie. “But you can't tell things like that to the +doughboys.” + +“My God!” said Kalenkin. “Don't I know! I vas in America! Dey tink +dey are de people vat de good God made! Dey know everyting--you +cannot teach dem. Dey are democracy; dey have no classes; +vage-slaves--dat iss just foreign--vat you call it--scum, hey? Dey +vill shoot us--I have seen how dey beat de vorkers ven dey strike on +Grand Street.” + +“I've been through it all,” said Jimmie. “What can we do?” + +“Propaganda!” cried Kalenkin. “For de first time we have plenty +money for propaganda--all de money in Russia for propaganda! +Ever'vere in de vorld we reach de vorkers--everyvere we cry to dem: +Rise! Rise and break your chains! You tink dey vill not hear us, +tovarish! De capitalists know dey vill hear us, dey tremble, so dey +send armies to beat us. Dey tink de armies vill obey--always--is it +not so?” + +“They think the Russian people will rise against you.” + +At which the little man laughed, a wild hilarious laugh. “Ve have +got our own government! For de first time in Russia, de first time +in de vorld, de vorkers rule; and dey tink we rise against +ourselves! Dey put up--vat you call it--puppets, vat dey call +Socialists, dey make a government here in Archangel, vat dey call +Russian! Dey fool demselves, but dey don't fool de Russians!” + +“They think this government will spread,” said Jimmie. + +“It vill spread just so far as de armies go--just so far. But in +Russia, all de people come together--all are Bolsheviki, ven dey see +de foreign armies coming. And vy, tovarish? Because dey know vat it +means ven capitalists come to make new governments for Russia. It +means bonds--de French, de British debt! You know?” + +“Sure, I know,” said Jimmie. + +“It is billions, fifteen billions of roubles to France alone. De +Bolsheviki have said, 'Ve do not pay dem so quick.' And for vy? Vat +did dey do vit dat money! Dey loaned it to de Tsar, and for vat? To +make slaves out of de Russian people, to put dem in armies and make +dem fight de Japanese, to make police-force and send hundert +thousand Russian Socialists to Siberia! Is it not so? And Russian +Socialists pay such debts? Not so quick! Ve say, 'Ve had nothing to +do vit such money! You loaned it to de Tsar, now you collect it from +de Tsar! But dey say, 'You must pay!' And dey send armies, to take +de land of Russia, to take de oil and de coal and de gold. So, +tovarish! Dey vill put down de Soviets! But if so, dey must take +ever' town, ever' village in Russia--and all de time we make +propaganda vit de soldiers, we make it vit Frenchmen and Englishmen +and Americans, just like we make it vit Germans!” + + + + +VII + + + +The little man had made a long speech, and was exhausted; the +coughing seized him, and he pressed his hands to his chest, and his +white face flushed red in the firelight. The woman brought him water +to drink, and stood by him with a hand on his shoulder; her broad +peasant's face, deeply lined with care, quivered at every spasm of +the man's. Jimmie quivered, too, sitting there watching, and facing +in his own soul a mighty destiny. He knew the situation now, he knew +his own duty. It was perfectly plain, perfectly simple--his whole +life had been one long training for it. Something cried out in him, +in the words of another proletarian martyr, “Let this cup pass from +Me!” But he stilled the voice of his weakness, and after a while he +said: “Tell me what to do, comrade.” + +Kalenkin asked, “You have made propaganda in America?” + +“Sure,” said Jimmie. “I went to jail once for makin' a speech on the +street.” + +And the other went to a corner of the cabin, and dug under half a +dozen cabbages, and brought out a packet. It contained leaflets, a +couple of hundred perhaps, and the Jew handed one to Jimmie, +explaining, “Dey ask me, 'How shall we make de Americans +understand?' I say, 'Dey must know how ve make propaganda vit de +Germans.' I say, 'Print de proclamations vat we give to de German +troops, and make English translation, so de Americans and de +Englishmen can read.' You tink dat help?” + +Jimmie took the leaflet and moved the lamp a bit nearer and read: + +“Proclamation of the Army Committee of the Russian Twelfth Army +(Bolshevik), posted throughout the city of Riga during its +evacuation by the Russians: + +“German Soldiers! + +“The Russian soldiers of the Twelfth Army draw your attention to the +fact that you are carrying on a war for autocracy against +Revolution, freedom and justice. The victory of Wilhelm will be +death to democracy and freedom. We withdraw from Riga, but we know +that the forces of the Revolution will ultimately prove themselves +more powerful than the force of cannons. We know that in the long +run your conscience will overcome everything, and that the German +soldiers, with the Russian Revolutionary Army, will march to the +victory of freedom. You are at present stronger than we are, but +yours is only the victory of brute force. The moral force is on our +side. History will tell that the German proletarians went against +their revolutionary brothers, and that they forgot international +working-class solidarity. This crime you can expiate only by one +means. You must understand your own and at the same time the +universal interests, and strain all your immense power against +imperialism, and go hand-in-hand with us--toward life and liberty!” + +Jimmie looked up. + +“Vat you tink of it?” cried Kalenkin, eagerly. + +“Fine!” cried Jimmie. “The very thing they need! Nobody can object +to that. It's a fact, it's what the Bolsheviki are doing.” + +The other smiled grimly. “Tovarish, if dey find you vit dat paper, +dey shoot you like a dog! Dey shoot us all!” + +“But why?” + +“Because it is Bolshevik.” + +Jimmie wanted to say. “But it's true!” However, he realized how +naive that would sound. So he waited, while Kalenkin went on: + +“You show it only to men you can trust. You hide de copies, you take +vun and make it dirty, so you say, 'I find it in de street.' See, +iss it so de Bolsheviki fight de Kaiser? If it iss so, vy do we need +to fight dem? So you give dese; and some day I come vit someting +new.” + +Jimmie agreed that that was the way to set about it. He folded up a +score of the leaflets and stowed them in an inside pocket of his +jacket, and put on his heavy overcoat and gloves, which he wished he +could give to the sick, half-starved and half-frozen Bolshevik. He +patted him reassuringly on the back, and said: “You trust me, +comrade; I'll hand them out, and they'll bring results, too, I'll +bet.” + +“You don't tell about me!” exclaimed Kalenkin with fierce intensity. + +To which Jimmie answered. “Not if they boil me alive.” + + + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI + +JIMMIE HIGGINS DISCOVERS HIS SOUL + +I + + + + + +Jimmie went to supper in the mess-hall; but the piles of steaming +hot food choked him--he was thinking of the half-starved little Jew. +The thirty pieces of silver in the pocket of his army jacket burned +each a separate hole. Like the Judas of old, he wanted to hang +himself, and he took a quick method of doing it. + +Next to him at the table sat a motor-cyclist who had been a union +plumber before the war, and had agreed with Jimmie that working-men +were going to get their jobs back or would make the politicians +sweat for it. On the way out from the meal, Jimmie edged this fellow +off and remarked, “Say, I've got somethin' interestin'.” + +Now interesting things were rare here under the Arctic Circle. +“What's that?” asked the plumber. + +“I was walkin' on the street,” said Jimmie, “an' I seen a printed +paper in the gutter. It's a copy of the proclamation the Bolsheviki +have made to the German soldiers, an' that they're givin' out in the +German trenches.” + +“By heck!” said the plumber. “What's in it?” + +“Why, it calls on them to rise against the Kaiser--to do what the +Russians have done.” + +“Can you read German?” asked the other. + +“Naw,” said Jimmie. “This is in English.” + +“But what's it doin' in English?” + +“I'm sure I dunno.” + +“What's it doin' in Archangel?” + +“Dunno that either.” + +“Holy Christ!” cried the plumber. “I bet them fellers are trying +their stunts on us!” + +“I hadn't thought of that,” said Jimmie, subtly. “Maybe it's so.” + +“They won't get very far with the Yanks, I bet,” predicted the +other. + +“No, I suppose not. But, anyhow, it's interesting, what they say.” + +“Lemme see it,” said the plumber. + +“But say,” said Jimmie, “don't you tell nobody. I don't want to get +into trouble.” + +“Mum's the word, old man.” And the plumber took the dirty scrap of +paper and read. “By God!” said he. “That's kind o' funny.” + +“How do you mean?” + +“Why, that don't sound like them fellers were backing the Kaiser, +does it?” And the plumber scratched his head. “Say, that sounds all +right to me!” + +“Me too!” said Jimmie. “Didn't know they had that much sense.” + +“It's just what the German people ought to have, by God,” said the +plumber. “Seems to me we ought to hire fellows to give out things +like that.” + +“I think so, too,” said Jimmie, enraptured. + +The plumber reflected again. “I suppose,” said he, “the trouble is +they wouldn't give it to the Germans only; they'd want to give it to +both sides.” + +“Exactly!” said Jimmie, enraptured still more. + +“And, of course, that wouldn't do,” said the plumber; “that would +interfere with discipline.” So Jimmie's hopes were dashed. + +But the upshot of the interview was that the plumber said he would +like to keep the paper and show it to a couple of other fellows. He +promised again that he wouldn't mention Jimmie, so Jimmie said all +right, and went his way, feeling one seed was lodged in good soil. + + + + +II + + + +The “Y” had come to Archangel along with the rest of the expedition, +and had set up a hut, in which the men played checkers and read, and +bought chocolate and cigarettes at prices which they considered too +high. Jimmie strolled in, and there was a doughboy with whom he had +had some chat on the transport. This doughboy had been a printer at +home, and he had agreed with Jimmie that maybe a whole lot of +politicians and newspaper editors didn't really understand President +Wilson's radical thought, and so far as they did understand it, +hated and feared it. This printer was reading one of the popular +magazines, full of the intellectual pap which a syndicate of big +bankers considered safe for the common people. He looked bored, so +Jimmie strolled up and lured him away, and repeated his play-acting +as with the plumber--and with the same result. + +Then he strolled in to see one of the picture-shows which had been +brought along to beguile the long Arctic nights for the expedition. +The picture showed a million-dollar-a-year girl doll-baby in her +habitual role, a poor little child-waif dressed in the newest +fashion and with a row of ringlets just out of a band-box, sharing +those terrible fates which the poor take as an everyday affair, and +being rewarded at the end by the love of a rich and noble and +devoted youth who solves the social problem by setting her up in a +palace. This also had met with the approval of a syndicate of +bankers before it reached the common people; and in the very midst +of it, while the child-waif with the ringlets was being shown in a +“close-up” with large drops of water running down her cheeks, the +doughboy in the seat next to Jimmie remarked, “Aw, hell! Why do they +keep on giving us this bunk?” + +So Jimmie suggested that they “cut it”, and they went out, and +Jimmie played his little game a third time, and again was asked to +leave the leaflet he had picked out of the gutter. + +So on for two days until Jimmie had got rid of the last of the +manifestoes which Kalenkin had entrusted to him. And on the evening +of the last day, as the subtle propagandist was about to turn into +his bunk for the night, there suddenly appeared a sergeant with a +file of half a dozen men and announced, “Higgins, you are under +arrest.” + +Jimmie stared at him. “What for?” + +“Orders--that's all I know.” + +“Well, wait--” began Jimmie; but the other said there was no wait +about it, and he took Jimmie by the arm, and one of the other men +took him by the other arm, and marched him away. A third man slung +Jimmie's kit-bag on to his shoulder, while the rest began to search +the place, ripping open the mattress and looking for loose boards in +the floor. + + + + +III + + + +It didn't take Jimmie very long to figure out the situation. By that +time he had come into the presence of Lieutenant Gannet, he had made +up his mind what had happened, and what he would do about it. + +The lieutenant sat at a table, erect and stiff, with a terrible +frown behind his glasses. He had his sword on the table and also his +automatic--as if he intended to execute Jimmie, and had only to +decide which method to use. + +“Higgins,” he thundered, “where did you get that leaflet?” + +“I found it in the gutter.” + +“You lie!” said the lieutenant. + +“No, sir,” said Jimmie. + +“How many did you find.” + +Jimmie had imagined this emergency, and decided to play safe. +“Three, sir,” said he; and added, “I think.” + +“You lie!” thundered the lieutenant again. + +“No, sir,” said Jimmie, meekly. + +“Whom did you give them to?” + +Jimmie hadn't thought of that question. It stumped him. “I--I'd +rather not say,” said he. + +“I command you to say,” said the lieutenant. + +“I'm sorry, sir, but I couldn't.” + +“You'll have to say before you get through,” said the other. “You +might as well understand that now. You say you found three?” + +“It might have been four,” said Jimmie, playing still safer. “I +didn't pay any particular attention to them.” + +“You sympathize with these doctrines,” said the lieutenant. “Do you +deny it?” + +“Why, no sir--not exactly. I sympathize with part of them.” + +“And you found these leaflets in the gutter, and you didn't take the +trouble to count whether there were three or four?” + +“No, sir.” + +“There couldn't have been five?” + +“I don't know, sir--I don't think so.” + +“Certainly not six?” + +“No, sir,” said Jimmie, feeling quite safe now. “I'm sure there +weren't six.” + +So the lieutenant opened a drawer in the table before him, and took +out a bunch of the leaflets, folded, wrinkled and dirt-stained, and +spread them before Jimmie's eyes, one, two, three, four, five, six, +seven. “You lie!” said the lieutenant. + +“I was mistaken, sir,” said Jimmie. + +“Have you searched this man?” the officer demanded of the other +soldiers. + +“Not yet, sir.” + +“Do it now.” + +They made certain that Jimmie had no weapons, and then they made him +strip to the skin. They searched everything, even prying loose the +soles of his boots; and, of course, one of the first things they +found was the red card in the inside jacket-pocket. “Aha!” cried the +lieutenant. + +“That's a card of the Socialist party,” said Jimmie. + +“Don't you know that back home men who carry that card are being +sent to jail for twenty years?” + +“It ain't fer carryin' the card,” said Jimmie, sturdily. + +There was a pause, while Jimmie got his clothes on again. “Now, +Higgins,” said the lieutenant, “you have been caught red-handed in +treason against your country and its flag. The penalty is death. +There is just one way you can escape--by making a clean breast of +everything. Do you understand?” + +“Yes, sir.” + +“Then tell me who gave you those leaflets?” + +“I'm sorry, sir, I found them in the gutter.” + +“You intend to stick to that silly tale?” + +“It's the truth, sir.” + +“You will protect your fellow-conspirators with your life?” + +“I have told you all I know, sir.” + +“All right,” said the lieutenant. He took a pair of handcuffs from +the drawer and saw them put on Jimmie. He picked up his sword and +his automatic--and Jimmie, who did not understand military +procedure, stared with fright. But the lieutenant was merely +intending to strap the weapons on to his belt; then he got into his +overcoat and his big fur gloves and his fur hat that covered +everything but his eyes and nose, and ordered Jimmie brought along. +Outside an automobile was waiting, and the officer and the prisoner +and two guards rode to the military jail. + + + + +IV + + + +There was terror in the soul of the prisoner, but he did not let +anyone see it. And in the same way Lieutenant Gannet did not let +anyone see the perplexity that was in his soul. He was a military +officer, he had his stern military duty to do, and he was doing it; +but he had never put anybody in handcuffs before, and had never +taken anybody to jail before, and he was almost as much upset about +it as the prisoner. + +The lieutenant had seen the terrible spectacle of Russia collapsing, +falling into ruin and humiliation, because of what seemed to him a +propaganda of treason which had been carried on in her armies; he +realized that these “mad dogs” of Bolsheviki were deliberately +conspiring to poison the other armies, to bring the rest of the +world into their condition. It seemed to him monstrous that such +efforts should be under way in the American army. How far had the +thing gone? The lieutenant did not know, and he was terrified, as +men always are in the presence of the unknown. It was his plain +duty, to which he had sworn himself, to stamp his heel upon the head +of this snake; but still he was deeply troubled. This Sergeant +Higgins had been promoted for valour in France, and had been, in +spite of his reckless tongue, a pretty decent subordinate. And +behold, here he was, an active conspirator, a propagandist of +sedition, a defiant and insolent traitor! + +They came to the jail, which had been constructed by the Tsar for +the purpose of holding down the people of the region. It loomed, a +gigantic stone bulk in the darkness; and Jimmie, who had preached in +Local Leesville that America was worse than Russia, now learned that +he had been mistaken--Russia was exactly the same. + +They entered through a stone gateway, and a steel door opened before +them and clanged behind them. At a desk sat a sergeant, and except +that he was British, and that his uniform was brown instead of blue, +it might have been Leesville, U.S.A. They took down Jimmie's name +and address, and then Lieutenant Gannet asked: “Has Perkins come +yet?” + +“Not yet, sir,” was the reply; but at that moment the front door was +opened, and there entered a big man, bundled in an overcoat which +made him even bigger. From the first moment, Jimmie watched this man +as a fascinated rabbit watches a snake. The little Socialist had had +so much to do with policemen and detectives in his hunted life that +he knew in a flash what he was “up against”. + +This Perkins before the war had been an “operative” for a private +detective agency--what the workers contemptuously referred to as a +“sleuth”. The government, having found itself in sudden need of much +“sleuthing”, had been forced to take what help it could get, without +too close scrutiny. So now Perkins was a sergeant in the secret +service; and just as the carpenters were hammering nails as at home, +and the surgeons were cutting flesh as at home, so Perkins was +“sleuthing” as at home. + +“Well, sergeant?” said the lieutenant. “What have you got?” + +“I think I've got the story, sir.” + +You could see the relief in Gannet's face; and Jimmie's heart went +down into his boots. + +“There's just one or two details I want to make sure about,” + continued Perkins. “I suppose you won't mind if I question this +prisoner?” + +“Oh, not at all,” said the other. He was relieved to be able to turn +this difficult matter over to a man of decision, a professional man, +who was used to such cases and knew how to handle them. + +“I'll report to you at once,” said Perkins. + +“I'll wait,” said the lieutenant. + +And Perkins took Jimmie's trembling arm in a grip like a vice, and +marched him down a long stone corridor and down a flight of steps. +On the way he picked up two other men, also in khaki, who followed +him; the four passed through a series of underground passages, and +entered a stone cell with a solid steel door, which they clanged +behind them--a sound that was like the knell of doom to poor +Jimmie's terrified soul. And instantly Sergeant Perkins seized him +by the shoulder and whirled him about, and glared into his eyes. +“Now, you little son-of-a-bitch!” said he. + +Having been a detective in an American city, this man was familiar +with the “third degree”, whereby prisoners are led to tell what they +know, and many things which they don't know, but which they know the +police want them to tell. Of the other two men, one Private Connor, +had had this inquisition applied to him on more than one occasion. +He was a burglar with a prison-record; but his last arrest had been +in a middle Western town for taking part in a bar-room fight, and +the judge didn't happen to know his record, and accepted his tearful +plea, agreeing to suspend sentence provided the prisoner would +enlist to fight for his country. + +The other man was named Grady, and had left a wife and three +children in a tenement in “Hell's Kitchen”, New York, to come to +fight the Kaiser. He was a kind-hearted and decent Irishman, who had +earned a hard living carrying bricks and mortar up a ladder ten +hours a day; but he was absolutely convinced that there existed, +somewhere under his feet, a hell of brimstone and sulphur in which +he would roast for ever if he disobeyed the orders of those who were +set in authority over him. Grady knew that there were certain wicked +men, hating and slandering religion, and luring millions of souls +into hell; they were called Socialists, or Anarchists, and must +obviously be emissaries of Satan, so it was God's work to root them +out and destroy them. Thus the Gradys have reasoned for a thousand +years; and thus in black dungeons underground they have turned the +thumb-screws and pulled the levers of the rack. They do it still in +many of the large cities of America, where superstition runs the +police-force, in combination with liquor interests and public +service corporations. + + + + +VI + + + +“Now, you little son-of-a-bitch,” said Perkins, “listen to me. I +been lookin' into this business of yours, and I got the names of +most of them Bolsheviks you been dealing with. But I want to know +them all, and I'm going to know--see?” + +In spite of all his terror, Jimmie's heart leaped with exultation. +Perkins was lying! He hadn't found out a thing! He was just trying +to bluff his prisoner, and to make his superior officer think he was +a real “sleuth”. He was doing what the police everywhere do--trying +to obtain by brutality what they cannot obtain by skill and +intelligence. + +“Now, you're goin' to tell,” continued the man. “You may think you +can hold out, but you'll find it's no go. I'll tear you limb from +limb if you make me--I'll do just whatever I have to do to make you +come through. You get me?” + +Jimmie nodded his head in a sort of spasm, but his effort to make a +sound resulted only in a gulp in his throat. + +“You'll only make yourself a lot of pain if you delay, so you'd +better be sensible. Now--who are they?” + +“They ain't anybody. They--” + +“So that's it? Well, we'll see.” And the sergeant swung Jimmie +about, so as to be at his back. “Hold him,” he said to the two men, +and they grasped the prisoner's shoulders; the sergeant grasped his +two wrists, which were handcuffed together, and began to force them +up Jimmie's back. + +“Ow!” cried Jimmie. “Stop! Stop!” + +“Will you tell?” said the sergeant. + +“Stop!” cried Jimmie, wildly; and as the other pushed harder, he +began to scream. “You'll break my arm! The one that was wounded.” + +“Wounded?” said the sergeant. + +“It was broken by a bullet!” + +“The hell you say!” said the sergeant. + +“It's true--ask anybody! The battle of Chatty Terry in France!” + +For just a moment the pressure on Jimmie's arms weakened; but then +the sergeant remembered that military men who have a career to make +do not go to their superior officers with sentimentalities. “If you +were wounded in battle,” said the sergeant, “what you turnin' +traitor for? Give me the names I want!” And he began to push again. + +It was the most horrible agony that Jimmie had ever dreamed of. His +voice rose to a shriek: “Wait! Wait! Listen!” The torturer would +relax the pressure and say: “The names?” And when Jimmie did not +give the names, he would press harder yet. Jimmie writhed +convulsively, but the other two men held him as in a vice. He +pleaded, he sobbed and moaned; but the walls of this dungeon had +been made so that the owners of property outside would not be +troubled by knowing what was being done in their interest. + +We go into museums and look at devilish instruments which men once +employed for the torment of their fellows, and we shudder and +congratulate ourselves that we live in more humane days; quite +overlooking the fact that it does not need elaborate instruments to +inflict pain on the human body. Any man can do it to another, if he +has him helpless. The thing that is needed is the motive--that is +to say, some form of privilege established by law, and protecting +itself against rebellion. + +“Tell me the names!” said the sergeant. He had Jimmie's two hands +forced up the back of his neck, and was lying over on Jimmie, +pushing, pushing. Jimmie was blinded with the pain, his whole being +convulsed. It was too horrible, it could not be! Anything, anything +to stop it! A voice shrieked in his soul: “Tell! Tell!” But then he +thought of the little Jew, pitiful, trusting--no, no, he would not +tell! He would never tell! But then what was he to do'? Endure this +horror? He could not endure it--it was monstrous! + +He would writhe and scream, babble and plead and sob. Perhaps there +have been men who have endured torture with dignity, but Jimmie was +not one of these. Jimmie was abject, Jimmie was frantic; he did +anything, everything he could think of--save one thing, the thing +that Perkins kept telling him to do. + +This went on until the sergeant was out of breath; that being one +disadvantage of the primitive hand-processes of torture to which +American police-officials have been reduced by political +sentimentalism. The torturer lost his temper, and began to shake and +twist at Jimmie's arms, so that Connor had to warn him--he didn't +want to break anything, of course. + +So Perkins said, “Put his head down.” They bent Jimmie over till his +head was on the ground, and Grady tied Jimmie's legs to keep them +quiet, and Connor held his neck fast, and Perkins put his foot on +the handcuffs and pressed down. By this means he could continue the +torture while standing erect and breathing freely, a great relief to +him. “Now, damn you!” said he. “I can stay here all night. Come +through!” + + + + +VII + + + +Jimmie thought that each moment of pain was the worst. He had never +had any idea that pain could endure so long, could burn with such a +white and searing flame. He ground his teeth together, he chewed his +tongue through, he gound his face upon the stones. Anything for a +respite--even a new kind of pain, that he might forget the screaming +ache in his shoulders and elbows and wrists. But there was no +respite; his spirit was whirled and beaten about in bottomless +abysses, and from their depths he heard the voice of Perkins, as +from a far-off mountain-top: “Come through! Come through--or you'll +stay like this all night!” + +But Jimmie did not stay like that; for Perkins got tired of standing +on one foot, and he knew that the Lieutenant was pacing about +upstairs, wondering why it took so long to ask a few questions. +Jimmie heard the voice from the far-off mountain-top: “This won't +do; we'll have to string him up for a bit.” And he took from his +pocket a strong cord, and tied one end about Jimmie's two thumbs, +and ran the other end over an iron ring in the wall of the +dungeon--put there by some agent of the Tsar for use in the cause of +democracy. The other two men lifted Jimmie till his feet were off +the ground, and then made fast the cord, and Jimmie hung with his +full weight from his thumbs, still handcuffed behind his back. + +So now he was no trouble to the three jailers--except that he was an +ugly-looking object, with his face purple and convulsed, and his +bloody tongue being chewed up. They turned him about, with his face +against the stones, and then they had nothing but the sounds of him, +which had become feebler, but were none the less disagreeable, a +babbling and gabbling, continuous and yet unrhythmic, as if made by +a whole menagerie of tormented animals. + +Still the minutes passed, and Perkins's irritation grew. He wouldn't +have minded for himself, for his nerves were strong, he had handled +a good many of the I.W.W. in the old days back home; but he had +promised to get the information, and so his reputation was at stake. +He would prod Jimmie and say: “Will you tell?” And when Jimmie still +refused, finally he said: “We'll have to try the water-cure. Connor, +get me a couple of pitchers of water and a good-sized funnel.” + +“Yes, sir,” said the ex-burglar, and went out; and meantime Perkins +addressed his victim again. “Listen, you little hell-pup,” said he. +“I'm going to do something new, something that'll break you sure. I +been with the army in the Philippines, and seen it worked there +many's the time, and I never yet seen anybody that could stand it. +We're going to fill you up with water; and we'll leave you to soak +for a couple of hours, and then we'll put in some more, and we'll +keep that up day and night till you come through. Now, you better +think it over and speak quick, before we get the water in, because +it ain't so easy to get out.” + +Jimmie lay with his face against the wall, and the agony of his +tortured thumbs was like knives twisted into him; he listened to +these threats and heard again the cry in his soul for respite at any +hazard. + +Jimmie was fighting a battle, the sternest ever fought by man--the +battle of conscience against the weakness of the flesh. To tell or +not to tell? The poor tormented body shrieked, Tell! But conscience, +in a feeble voice, gasped over and over and over, No! No! No! It had +to keep on insisting, because the battle was never over, never won. +Each moment was a new agony, and therefore a fresh temptation; each +argument had to be repeated without end. Why should he not tell? +Because Kalenkin had trusted him, and Kalenkin was a comrade. But +maybe Kalenkin was gone now, maybe he had died of one of his +coughing spells, maybe he had heard of Jimmie's arrest and made his +escape. Maybe they would not torture Kalenkin as they had Jimmie, +because he was not a soldier; they might just put him in jail and +keep him there, and others would do the work. Maybe-- + +And so on. But the feeble voice whispered in the soul of Jimmie +Higgins: You are the revolution. You are social justice, struggling +for life in this world. You are humanity, setting its face to the +light, striving to reach a new goal, to put behind it an old horror. +You are Jesus on the Cross; and if you fail, the world goes back, +perhaps for ever. You must hold out! You must bear this! And this! +And this! You must bear everything--for ever--as long as needs be! +You must not “come through!” + + + + +VIII + + + +Connor came back with his pitchers of water and his funnel! They +took Jimmie down--oh, the blessed relief to his thumbs!--and laid +him on the ground, with his racked and swollen hands still +handcuffed under him; and Grady sat on his feet, and Connor sat on +his chest, and Perkins forced the funnel down his throat and poured +in the water. + +Jimmie had to swallow, of course; he had to gulp desperately, to +keep from being choked; and pretty soon the water filled him up, and +then began the most fearful agony he had yet endured. It was like +the pain of the ether-gas, only infinitely worse. He was blown out +like a balloon; his insides were about to burst; his whole body was +one sore boil--and Connor, sitting on his stomach, sat a little +harder now and then, to make sure the water got jostled into place. +Jimmie could not scream, but his face turned purple and the cords +stood out on his forehead and neck; he began to strangle, and this +was worst of all; every convulsion of his body stabbed him with ten +thousand knives. + +Jimmie had talked with a number of the “wobblies” who had had this +“water-cure”, a regular device of police-authorities in small towns +and villages. It is simple and cheap and cleanly; it leaves no blood +and no bruises to be exhibited in court; it muzzles the victim, so +that his screams cannot be heard through jail-windows--therefore a +simple denial covers it completely. “Wild Bill” had had this +treatment, “Strawberry” Curran had had it several times. But oh, +thought Jimmie, it could not be like this--no human being had ever +endured anything like this! Poor Jimmie was not learned in history, +and did not realize that men have endured everything that other men +can inflict. They will continue to endure it, so long as privilege +is written in the law, and allowed to use the law in its unholy +cause. + +So the battle of the ages went on in the soul of Jimmie Higgins. He +was a little runt of a Socialist machinist, with bad teeth and +gnarled hands, and he could do nothing sublime or inspiring, nothing +even dignified; in fact, it would be hard for anyone to do anything +dignified, when he lies on the floor with a gallon or two of water +in him, and one man sitting on his legs and another on his stomach, +and another jamming a funnel into his mouth. All Jimmie could do was +to fight the fearful fight in the deeps of him, and not lose it. +“Lift your knee if you are ready to tell,” Perkins would say; and +Grady would rise up, so that Jimmie could lift his knee if he wanted +to; but Jimmie's knee did not lift. + +Far down in the deeps of Jimmie Higgins' tormented soul, something +strange was happening. Lying there bound and helpless, despairing, +writhing with agony, half-insane with the terror of it, Jimmie +called for help--and help came to him; the help which penetrates +all dungeon walls, and cheats all jailors and torturers; that power +which breaks all bars of steel and bars of fear-- + +“Thou has great allies; Thy friends are exultations, agonies, And +love, and man's unconquerable mind!” + +In the soul of Jimmie Higgins was heard that voice which speaks +above the menaces and commands of tyranny: which says: I am Man, and +I prevail. I conquer the flesh, I trample upon the body and rise +above it. I defy its imprisonments, its prudences and fears. I am +Truth, and will be heard in the world. I am Justice, and will be +done in the world. I am Freedom, and I break all laws, I defy all +repressions, I exult, I proclaim deliverance!--and because, in +every age and in every clime, this holy Power has dwelt in the soul +of man, because this mystic Voice has spoken there, humanity has +moved out of darkness and savagery into at least the dream of a +decent and happy world. + +So Jimmie lay, converting his pain into ecstasy, a dizzy and +perilous rapture, close to the border-line of madness; and Sergeant +Perkins arose and looked down on him and shook his head. “By God!” + said he. “What's in that little hell-pup?” He gave Jimmie a kick in +the ribs; and Jimmie's soul took a leap, and went whirling through +eternities of anguish. + +“By Jesus, I'll make you talk!” cried Perkins, and he began to kick +with his heavy boots--until Connor stopped him, knowing that this +was not ethical--it would leave marks. + +So finally the sergeant said abruptly, “Wait here.” And he went +upstairs to where Gannet was pacing about. + +“Lieutenant,” he said, “that fellow's a stubborn case.” + +“What does he say?” + +“I can't get a word out of him. He's a Socialist and a crank, you +know, and you'd be surprised how ugly some of them fellows can be. +As soon as I get the story complete I'll report to you, but meantime +there's no use your waiting here.” + +So the officer went away, and Perkins went back to the dungeon and +gave orders that every two hours someone should come and fill Jimmie +up with water, and give him another chance to say “Yes”. And Jimmie +lay and moaned and wept, all by himself, quivering now and then with +the perilous ecstasy, which does not last, but has to be renewed by +continuous efforts of the will, as a tired horse has to be driven +with spur and whip. Never, never could this battle be truly won! +Never could the body be wholly forgotten, its clamorous demands +wholly stilled! God comes, but doubt follows closely. What is the +use of this fearful sacrifice? What good will it accomplish, who +will know about it, who will care? Thus Satan in the soul, and thus +the eternal duel between the new thing that man dreams, and the old +thing that he has made into law. + + + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII + +JIMMIE HIGGINS VOTES FOR DEMOCRACY + +I + + + + + +Another day had come--though Jimmie did not know it in his dungeon. +All he knew was that Sergeant Perkins returned, and stood looking at +him, picking his teeth with a quill. This little Bolshevik had stood +the water-cure longer than any man whom Perkins had ever known, and +he wondered vaguely what sort of damned fool he was, what he thought +he was accomplishing, anyhow. + +But it was necessary to keep after him, for Perkins knew that his +career was at stake. He was supposed to have found out something, +and he hadn't! So he ordered Jimmie tied up by the thumbs, the poor +thumbs that were swollen to three times their normal size, and +nearly black in colour. But now Jimmie's good Mother Nature +interfered to stop the proceedings; the pain was so exquisite that +Jimmie fainted, and when the sergeant saw that he was being cheated, +he cut his victim down and left him lying on the damp stones. + +So for three days Jimmie's life consisted of alternating swoons and +agony--the regular routine of the “third degree” in more obstinate +cases; and always, in his conscious moments, Jimmie called upon the +God in himself, and the God responded with his hosts, and trumpets +of triumph echoed in Jimmie's soul and he did not “come through”. + +So on the fourth day the three torturers entered the cell, and +lifted him to his feet, and carried him up the stone stairs, and +wrapped him in a blanket and put him in an automobile. + +“Listen now,” said Perkins, who sat by his side, “they're going to +try you by court-martial. Hear me?” + +Jimmie made no response. + +“And I'll explain this for your health--if you tell any lies about +what we done to you, I'll take you back to that dungeon and tear you +limb from limb. You get me?” Still Jimmie did not answer--the sullen +little devil, thought Perkins. But in Jimmie's soul there was a +faint flicker of hope. Might he not make appeal to the higher +authorities, and be saved from further torture? Jimmie had believed +in his country, and in his country's purpose to defend democracy; he +had read the wonderful speeches of President Wilson, and could not +bring himself to think that the President would permit any man to be +tortured in prison. But alas, it was a long way from the White House +to Archangel--and still longer if you measured it through the +ramifications of the army machine, a route more thoroughly +criss-crossed with red tape than any sector of the Hindenburg line +with barbed wire. + +Jimmie was taken into a room where seven officers sat at a big +table, looking very stern and solemn. Perkins supported him under +the arm-pits, thus making it look as if he were walking. He was +placed in a chair, and took a glance about him--but without seeing +much hope in the faces which confronted him. + +The president of the court-martial was Major Gaddis, who had been a +professor of economics in a great university before the war: that is +to say, he had been selected by a syndicate of bankers as a man who +believed in a ruling class, and could never by any possibility be +brought to believe in anything else. He was a man of strict honour, +a very gracious and cultivated gentleman if you happened to belong +in his social circle; but he was convinced that the duty of the +lower classes was to obey, and that the existence of civilized +society depended upon their being made to obey. + +Next to him sat Colonel Nye, as different a type as could be +imagined. Nye had been a soldier of fortune in Mexico and Central +America, and had found prosperity as a captain of one of those +condottieri bands which were organized by the big corporations of +America before the war, for the purpose of crushing strikes. He had +commanded a private army of five thousand men, horse, foot and +artillery, known to the public as the Smithers Detective Agency. +During a great coal-strike he had been placed by a state government +in virtual charge of the militia, and had occupied himself in +turning loose machine-guns on tent-colonies filled with women and +children. He had been tried by a militia court-martial for murder +and acquitted--thus making it impossible for any civilian grand-jury +ever to indict him and have him hanged. And now he had been +automatically taken from the state militia into the national army, +where he made a most efficient officer, with a reputation as a +strict disciplinarian. + +First-Lieutenant Olsen had been a dry goods clerk, who had gone into +an officers' training-camp. As he hoped to rise in the world, he +looked to his superiors always before he expressed an opinion. The +same was true of Captain Gushing, who was a good-natured young +bank-cashier with a pretty wife who spent his salary a couple of +months before he got it. The fifth officer, Lieutenant Gannet, did +most of the talking, because he was Jimmie's immediate superior, and +had conducted the investigations into the case. He had discussed the +matter with Major Prentice, the Judge-Advocate of the court, also +with Captain Ardner, the young military lawyer who went through the +form of defending Jimmie; the three had agreed that the case was a +most serious one. The propaganda of Bolshevism in this Archangel +expedition must certainly be nipped in the bud. The charge against +Jimmie was insubordination and incitement to mutiny, and the penalty +was death. + + + + +II + + + +Jimmie sat in his chair, only partly aware of what was going on, +because of the agony in his swollen thumbs and his twisted arms. His +flicker of hope had died, and he had lost interest in the +proceedings--all his energy was needed to endure his pain. He would +not tell them where he had got the leaflets, and when they badgered +him, he just grunted with pain. He would not talk with Captain +Ardner, who tried in vain to persuade him that he was acting in +his--the prisoner's--interest. Only twice did Jimmie flare up; the +first time when Major Gaddis voiced his indignation that any citizen +of the great American democracy should ally himself with these +Bolshevik vermin, who were carrying on a reign of terror throughout +Russia, burning, slaying, torturing-- + +“Who talks about torturing?” shrieked Jimmie, half-starting from +his chair. “Ain't you been torturing me--regular tearin' me to +pieces?” + +The court was shocked. “Torturing?” said Captain Gushing. + +“Torturin' me for days--a week, maybe, I dunno, in that there +dungeon!” + +Major Gaddis turned to Sergeant Perkins, who stood behind Jimmie's +chair, barely able to withhold his hands from the prisoner. “How +about that, Sergeant?” + +“It is utterly false, sir.” + +“Look at these thumbs!” cried Jimmie. “They strung me up by them!” + +“The prisoner was violent,” said Perkins. “He nearly killed Private +Connor, one of the guards, so we had to use severe measures.” + +“It's a lie!” shrieked Jimmie. But they shut him up, and the +dignified military machine ground on. Anybody could see that +discipline would go to pieces if the word of a jailer did not +prevail over that of a prisoner, the word of a loyal and tried +subordinate over that of a traitor and conspirator, an avowed +sympathizer with the enemy. + +Presently the presiding officer inquired if the prisoner was aware +that he had incurred the death-penalty. Getting no reply, he went on +to inform the prisoner that the court would be apt to inflict this +extreme penalty, unless he would reconsider and name his accomplices +among the Bolsheviki, so that the army could protect itself against +the propaganda of these murderers. So Jimmie flared up again--but +not so violently, rather with a touch of fierce irony. “Murderers, +you say? Ain't you gettin' ready to murder me?” + +“We are enforcing the law,” said the court. + +“You make what you call law, an' they make what they call law. You +kill people that disobey, an' so do they. What's the difference?” + +“They are killing all the educated and law-abiding people in +Russia,” declared Major Gaddis, severely. + +“All the rich people, you mean,” said Jimmie. “They make the rich +obey their laws; they give them a chance, the same as everybody +else, then if they don't obey they kill them--just as many as they +have to kill to make them obey. An' don't you do the same with the +poor people? Ain't I seen you do it, every time there was a strike? +Ask Colonel Nye there! Didn't he say: 'To hell with habeas +corpus--we'll give them post-mortems?'” + +Colonel Nye flushed; he did not know that his fame had followed him +all the way from Colorado to the Arctic Circle. The court made haste +to protect him: “We are not conducting a Socialist debate here. It +is evident that the prisoner is impenitent and defiant, and that +there is no reason for leniency.” So the court proceeded to find +Jimmie Higgins guilty as charged, and to sentence him to twenty +years' military confinement--really quite a mild sentence, +considering the circumstances. In New York City at this very time +they were trying five Russian Jews, all of them mere children, one a +girl, for exactly the same offence as Jimmie had +committed--distributing a plea that American troops should cease to +kill Russian Socialists; these children received twenty years, and +one of them died soon after his arrest--his fellows swore as a +result of torture inflicted by Federal secret service agents. + + + + +III + + + +So Jimmie was taken back to prison. Major Gaddis, who was really a +just man, and made law and order his religion, gave the strictest +orders that the prisoner should not again be hung up by the thumbs. +It was, of course, desirable to find out who had printed the +Bolshevik leaflets, but in the effort to make the prisoner tell he +should receive only the punishments formally approved by the army +authorities. + +So Jimmie went back to the underground dungeon, and for eight hours +every day a chain was fastened about his wrists, and the other end +run up into the iron ring, so that his feet barely touched the +floor; and there Jimmie hung, and tried out his conscience--this +being the test then being undergone by many men at the disciplinary +barracks at Fort Leavenworth. Jimmie's conscience really was nothing +like as strong as it ought to have been. Jimmie had moods of +shameless self-pity, moods of desperate and agonizing doubt. He did +not mean to let his dungeon-keepers know this, but they listened +behind the door through a slot which the Tsar had had contrived for +this purpose; it could be closed while the prisoner was screaming +under torture, and then opened by the jailer without the prisoner's +knowledge. + +So Perkins heard Jimmie sobbing and wailing, talking to himself and +to other people--to someone called “Strawberry”, and to someone else +called “Wild Bill”, asking them if they had ever suffered anything +like this, and was it really worth while, would it help the +revolution? Perkins thought he had got some important information +here, and took it to Lieutenant Gannet, with the result that inquiry +was made through all the American Forces for men known as +“Strawberry” and “Wild Bill”. But these men could not be found; as +it happened, “Wild Bill” had taken refuge in a place to which not +even the army intelligence service can penetrate, and “Strawberry” + Curran was just then being tried with a bunch of other “wobblies” in +California and subjected to much the same kind of treatment as +Jimmie was receiving in Archangel. + +It was a big advantage that Sergeant Perkins had in his struggle +with Jimmie, that the pitiful weakness of Jimmy's soul was exposed +to him, while the soul of Perkins was hidden from Jimmie. For the +truth was that Perkins was suffering from rage, mingled with not a +little fear. What the hell was this idea that could keep a little +runt of a working-man stronger than all in authority? And how was +this idea to be kept from spreading and wrecking the comfortable, +well-ordered world in which Perkins expected soon to receive an army +commission? The very day after the court-martial, which was supposed +to be a profound military secret, the army authorities were +astounded to discover, posted in several conspicuous places, a +placard in English, reading: + +“American soldiers, do you know that an army sergeant is being +tortured and has been sentenced to twenty years in a dungeon for +having tried to tell you how the Bolsheviki are making propaganda +against the German Kaiser? + +“Do you know the true reason your armies are here? Are you willing +to die to compel the Russian people to accept your ideas of +government? Are you willing to have your comrades tortured to keep +the facts from you?” + +And of course the doughboys who read this placard wanted to know if +it told the truth. And quickly word spread that it did. Men who +still had copies of the leaflet which Jimmie had distributed now +found eager readers for it, and soon all the men knew its contents, +and were debating the question of the use of American armies to put +down social revolution in a foreign country. These same questions +were being asked in the halls of Congress back home. Senators were +questioning the right of sending troops into a country against which +war had never been declared, and other Senators were demanding that +they be immediately withdrawn. And this news also reached the men, +and increased the danger. Archangel was not a pleasant place to +stay, especially with winter coming on fast; men were disposed to +grumble--and now they had a pretext! + + + + +IV + + + +The authorities who were handling this army laboured under one +grievous handicap, probably never before faced by any army in +history. The Commander-in-Chief of the army, who determined its +policies and tried to set its moral tone, kept coming now and then +before Congress and making speeches full of incendiary and reckless +utterances, calculated to set dangerous thoughts to buzzing in the +heads of soldiers, to break down discipline and undermine morale. +The President wrote a letter to a political convention in which he +declared that the workers of America were living in “economic +serfdom”; he declared again and again that every people had a right +to determine their own destinies and form of government without +outside interference. This while the army was trying to put down +those Russians who were in revolt against “economic serfdom” in +their own country! + +An army, you see, is a machine built to fight; a man who goes into +it and takes part in its work, very quickly acquires its tone, which +is one of abysmal contempt for all politicians, particularly of the +talking and letter-writing variety, the “idealists” and “dreamers” + and “theorists”, who do not understand that the business of men is +to fight battles and win them. All the officers of the old army, the +West-Pointers, had been bred in the tradition of class-rule, they +had in their very bones the idea that they were a special breed, +that obedience to them was a law of God; while of the new officers, +the overwhelming majority came from the well-to-do, and were not +favourable to speech-making and letter-writing about the rights of +man. They were without enthusiasm for the idea of having a pacifist +secretary of war set over them by the “idealist” commander-in-chief. +They did not hesitate to vent their indignation; and when this +pacifist secretary gave orders about conscientious objectors which +were based upon sentimentalism and theory, the army machine took the +liberty of interpreting these orders and trimming the nonsense out +of them. And the farther away you got from the office of the +pacifist secretary, the more thorough the trimming inevitably +became; thus producing the phenomenon which poor Jimmie Higgins +found so bewildering--that policies laid down by sincere +humanitarians and liberals in Washington were carried out in +Archangel by an ex-detective trained in a school of corruption and +cruelty. + +Jimmie Higgins couldn't understand that here in Archangel were +Americans taking their orders from British and French officers, who +wasted no breath on pacifism and sentiment, who had no fool ideas +about wars for democracy. Was one obscure little runt of a Socialist +machinist to be allowed to block their world-plans? Setting himself +up as an authority, presuming to accept literally the passages of +his President, in defiance of their authority in Archangel! Allying +himself with traitorous and criminal scoundrels, trying to poison +the minds of American soldiers and light the flame of mutiny among +them! Just as once Jimmie Higgins had found himself in a strategic +position where he had held up the whole Hun army and won the battle +of Chateau-Thierry, so now he found himself in a position of equal +strategic importance--on the line of communication of the Allied +armies attacking Russia, and threatening to cut the line and force +the armies into retreat! + + + + +V + + + +It became more essential than ever to discover these Bolshevik +sympathizers and stamp out their propaganda. As hanging Jimmie up by +the wrists had not brought forth the desired information, Jimmie was +put in solitary confinement on a diet of bread and water, this being +another test of sincerity of conscience. For the conscience a diet +of white flour and water may be all right, but Jimmie soon found +that it is very bad indeed for the intestinal tract and the +blood-stream--being, in truth, far worse than a diet of water alone. +The man who lives on white flour and water for a few days suffers +either from complete stopping of the bowels, or else from dysentery; +his blood becomes clogged with starch poisons, his nerves +degenerate, he falls a quick victim to tuberculosis, or pernicious +anasmia, or some other disease which will prevent his ever being a +sound man again. + +Also, Jimmie received the water-treatment, as included in the Fort +Leavenworth regiment. It was necessary that all prisoners should be +bathed; which was interpreted by some guards to mean that they +should have a stream of icy water turned on them, and be forced to +stand under it. Because Jimmie's arms were too badly injured for him +to scrub himself, Connor seized a rough brush and salt, and rubbed +off strips of his skin. When Jimmy wriggled away, they followed him +with the hose; when he screamed, they turned it into his mouth and +nose; when he fell down, they let the cold water run over him for +ten or fifteen minutes. + +Jimmie had had a good deal of harsh treatment in the course of his +outcast life, but never so closely concentrated in point of time. +His spirit remained unbroken, but his body gave way, and then his +mind began to give also. He fell a victim to delusions; the +nightmares which haunted his sleep lay siege to his waking hours +also, and he thought he was being tortured at times when he was just +hanging by his chains. Until at last Perkins, listening through the +door, heard strange cries and grunts, beast-like noises, barkings, +and growlings. He called Connor and Grady, and the three of them +stood listening. + +“By God!” said Grady. “He's dippy.” + +“He's nutty,” said Connor. + +“He's batty,” said Perkins. + +But the idea occurred to all of them--perhaps he was shamming! What +was easier than for one of those emissaries of Satan to pretend to +have a devil inside him? So they waited a bit longer, until Connor, +coming to chain Jimmie up, found him gnawing off the ends of his +fingers. That was really serious, so they sent for the +prison-surgeon, who had to make but a brief inspection to convince +himself that Jimmie Higgins was a raving madman. Jimmie fancied +himself some kind of fur-bearing animal, and he was in a trap, and +was trying to gnaw off his foot so as to escape. He snapped his +teeth at everyone who came near him; he had to be knocked senseless +before a straight-jacket could be got on him. + + + + +VI + + + +And so it was that Jimmie Higgins at last made his escape from his +tormentors. Jimmie doesn't know anything about the Russian Jew, +Kalenkin, any more; he could not tell the secret if he wanted to, so +they have given up testing his conscience, and they treat him +kindly, and have succeeded in persuading him that he is out of the +trap. Therefore he is a good beast--he crawls about on all fours, +and eats his food out of a tin platter without using his gnawed-off +fingers. He still has torturing pains in the arm-joints, but he does +not mind them so much, because, being a beast, he suffers only the +pain of the moment; he does not know that he is going to suffer +to-morrow, nor worry about it. He is no longer one of those who +“look before and after and pine for what is not”. He is a “good +doggie”, and when you pat him on the head he rubs against you and +whines affectionately. + +Poor, mad Jimmie Higgins will never again trouble his country; but +Jimmie's friends and partisans, who know the story of his +experiences, cannot be thus lightly dismissed by Society. In the +industrial troubles which are threatening the great democracy of the +West, there will appear men and women animated by a fierce and +blazing bitterness; and the great democracy of the West will marvel +at their state of mind, unable to conceive what can have caused it. +These rebellious ones will be heard quoting to the great democracy +the words of its greatest democrat, spoken in solemn warning during +the slaughter and destruction of the Civil War: “If God will that it +continue until all the wealth piled by the bondman's two hundred and +fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop +of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the +sword, as it was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be +said, 'The judgements of the Lord are true and righteous +altogether.'” + +THE END + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Jimmie Higgins, by Upton Sinclair + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JIMMIE HIGGINS *** + +***** This file should be named 5677-0.txt or 5677-0.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/5/6/7/5677/ + +Produced by Charles Aldarondo + +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: Jimmie Higgins + +Author: Upton Sinclair + + +Release Date: May, 2004 [EBook #5677] +This file was first posted on August 7, 2002 +Last Updated: March 10, 2018 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JIMMIE HIGGINS *** + + + + +Text file produced by Charles Aldarondo + +HTML file produced by David Widger + + + +</pre> + + <div style="height: 8em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h1> + JIMMIE HIGGINS + </h1> + <h2> + By Upton Sinclair + </h2> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <h3> + London + </h3> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <p> + <b>CONTENTS</b> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0001"> <b>JIMMIE HIGGINS</b> </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0001"> CHAPTER I. JIMMIE HIGGINS MEETS THE CANDIDATE + </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0002"> CHAPTER II. JIMMIE HIGGINS HEARS A SPEECH </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0003"> CHAPTER III. JIMMIE HIGGINS DEBATES THE ISSUE + </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0004"> CHAPTER IV. JIMMIE HIGGINS STRIKES IT RICH </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0005"> CHAPTER V. JIMMIE HIGGINS HELPS THE KAISER </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0006"> CHAPTER VI. JIMMIE HIGGINS GOES TO JAIL </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0007"> CHAPTER VII. JIMMIE HIGGINS DALLIES WITH CUPID + </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0008"> CHAPTER VIII. JIMMIE HIGGINS PUTS HIS FOOT IN IT + </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0009"> CHAPTER IX. JIMMIE HIGGINS RETURNS TO NATURE </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0010"> CHAPTER X. JIMMIE HIGGINS MEETS THE OWNER </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0011"> CHAPTER XI. JIMMIE HIGGINS FACES THE WAR </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0012"> CHAPTER XII. JIMMIE HIGGINS MEETS A PATRIOT </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0013"> CHAPTER XIII. JIMMIE HIGGINS DODGES TROUBLE </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0014"> CHAPTER XIV. JIMMIE HIGGINS TAKES THE ROAD </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0015"> CHAPTER XV. JIMMIE HIGGINS TURNS BOLSHEVIK </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0016"> CHAPTER XVI. JIMMIE HIGGINS MEETS THE TEMPTER + </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0017"> CHAPTER XVII. JIMMIE HIGGINS WRESTLES WITH THE + TEMPTER </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0018"> CHAPTER XVIII. JIMMIE HIGGINS TAKES THE PLUNGE + </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0019"> CHAPTER XIX. JIMMIE HIGGINS PUTS ON KHAKI. I. + </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0020"> CHAPTER XX. JIMMIE HIGGINS TAKES A SWIM </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0021"> CHAPTER XXI. JIMMIE HIGGINS ENTERS SOCIETY </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0022"> CHAPTER XXII. JIMMIE HIGGINS WORKS FOR HIS UNCLE + </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0023"> CHAPTER XXIII. JIMMIE HIGGINS MEETS THE HUN </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0024"> CHAPTER XXIV. JIMMIE HIGGINS SEES THE OTHER SIDE + </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0025"> CHAPTER XXV. JIMMIE HIGGINS ENTERS INTO DANGER + </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0026"> CHAPTER XXVI. JIMMIE HIGGINS DISCOVERS HIS SOUL + </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0027"> CHAPTER XXVII. JIMMIE HIGGINS VOTES FOR DEMOCRACY + </a> + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0001" id="link2H_4_0001"> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h1> + JIMMIE HIGGINS + </h1> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0001" id="link2HCH0001"> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER I. JIMMIE HIGGINS MEETS THE CANDIDATE + </h2> + <h3> + I. + </h3> + <p> + “Jimmie,” said Lizzie, “couldn't we go see the pictures?” + </p> + <p> + And Jimmie set down the saucer of hot coffee which he was in the act of + adjusting to his mouth, and stared at his wife. He did not say anything; + in three years and a half as a married man he had learned that one does + not always say everything that comes into one's mind. But he meditated on + the abysses that lie between the masculine and feminine intellects. That + it should be possible for anyone to wish to see a movie idol leaping into + second-story windows, or being pulled from beneath flying express trains, + on this day of destiny, this greatest crisis in history! + </p> + <p> + “You know, Lizzie,” he said, patiently, “I've got to help at the + Opera-house.” + </p> + <p> + “But you've got all morning!” + </p> + <p> + “I know; but it'll take all day.” + </p> + <p> + And Lizzie fell silent; for she too had learned much in three years and a + half of married life. She had learned that working men's wives seldom get + all they would like in this world; also that to have a propagandist for a + husband is not the worst fate that may befall. After all, he might have + been giving his time and money to drink, or to other women; he might have + been dying of a cough, like the man next door. If one could not have a bit + of pleasure on a Sunday afternoon—well, one might sigh, but not too + loud. + </p> + <p> + Jimmie began telling all the things that had to be done that Sunday + morning and afternoon. They seemed to Lizzie exactly like the things that + were done on other occasions before meetings. To be sure, this was bigger—it + was in the Opera-house, and all the stores had cards in the windows, with + a picture of the Candidate who was to be the orator of the occasion. But + it was hard for Lizzie to understand the difference between this Candidate + and other candidates—none of whom ever got elected! Lizzie would + truly rather have stayed at home, for she did not understand English very + well when it was shouted from a platform, and with a lot of long words; + but she knew that Jimmie was trying to educate her, and being a woman, she + was educated to this extent—she knew the way to hold on to her man. + </p> + <p> + Jimmie had just discovered a new solution of the problem of getting the + babies to meetings; and Lizzie knew that he was tremendously proud of this + discovery. So long as there had been only one baby, Jimmie had carried it. + When there had come a second, Lizzie had helped. But now there were three, + the total weight of them something over sixty pounds; and the street-car + line was some distance away, and also it hurt Jimmie in his + class-consciousness to pay twenty cents to a predatory corporation. They + had tried the plan of paying something to a neighbour to stay with the + babies; but the first they tried was a young girl who got tired and went + away, leaving the little ones to howl their heads off; and the second was + a Polish lady whom they found in a drunken stupor on their return. + </p> + <p> + But Jimmie was determined to go to meetings, and determined that Lizzie + should go along. It was one of the curses of the system, he said, that it + deprived working-class women of all chance for self-improvement. So he had + paid a visit to the “Industrial Store”, a junk-shop maintained by the + Salvation Army, and for fifteen cents he had obtained a marvellous broad + baby-carriage for twins, all finished in shiny black enamel. One side of + it was busted, but Jimmie had fixed that with some wire, and by careful + packing had shown that it was possible to stow the youngsters in it—Jimmie + and Pete side by side, and the new baby at the foot. + </p> + <p> + The one trouble was that Jimmie Junior couldn't keep his feet still. He + could never keep any part of him still, the little jack-in-the-box. Here + he was now, tearing about the kitchen, pursuing the ever-receding tail of + the newest addition to the family, a half-starved cur who had followed + Jimmie in from the street, and had been fed into a semblance of reality. + From this treasure a bare, round tail hung out behind in tantalizing + fashion; Jimmie Junior, always imagining he could catch it, was toddling + round and round and round the kitchen-table, clutching out in front of + him, laughing so that after a while he sat down from sheer exhaustion. + </p> + <p> + And Jimmie Senior watched enraptured. Say, but he was a buster! Did you + ever see a twenty-seven months' old kid that could get over the ground + like that? Or make a louder noise? This last because Jimmie Junior had + tried to take a short cut through the kitchen range and failed. Lizzie + swooped down, clasping him to her broad bosom, and pouring out words of + comfort in Bohemian. As Jimmie Senior did not understand any of these + words, he took advantage of the confusion to get his coat and cap and + hustle off to the Opera-house, full of fresh determination. For, you see, + whenever a Socialist looks at his son, or even thinks of his son, he is + hotter for his job of propagandist. Let the world be changed soon, so that + the little fellows may be spared those sufferings and humiliations which + have fallen to the lot of their parents! + </p> + <h3> + II. + </h3> + <p> + “Comrade Higgins, have you got a hammer?” It was Comrade Schneider who + spoke, and he did not take the trouble to come down from the ladder, where + he was holding up a streamer of bunting, but waited comfortably for the + hammer to be fetched to him. And scarcely had the fetcher started to climb + before there came the voice of a woman from across the stage: “Comrade + Higgins, has the Ypsel banner come?” And from the rear part of the hall + came the rotund voice of fat Comrade Rapinsky: “Comrade Higgins, will you + bring up an extra table for the literature?” And from the second tier box + Comrade Mary Allen spoke: “While you're downstairs, Comrade Higgins, would + you mind telephoning and making sure the Reception Committee knows about + the change in the train-time?” + </p> + <p> + So it went; and Jimmie ran about the big hall with his face red and + perspiring; for this was midsummer, and no breeze came through the windows + of the Leesville Opera-house, and when you got high up on the walls to tie + the streamers of red bunting, you felt as if you were being baked. But the + streamers had to be tied, and likewise the big red flag over the stage, + and the banner of the Karl Marx Verein, and the banner of the Ypsels, or + Young People's Socialist League of Leesville, and the banner of the + Machinists' Union, Local 4717, and of the Carpenters' Union, District 529, + and of the Workers' Co-operative Society. And because Comrade Higgins + never questioned anybody's right to give him orders, and always did + everything with a cheerful grin, people had got into the habit of + regarding him as the proper person for tedious and disagreeable tasks. + </p> + <p> + He had all the more on his hands at present, because the members of this + usually efficient local were half-distracted, like a nest of ants that + have been dug out with a shovel. The most faithful ones showed a tendency + to forget what they were doing, and to gather in knots to talk about the + news which had come over the cables and had been published in that + morning's paper. Jimmie Higgins would have liked to hear what the rest had + to say; but somebody had to keep at work, for the local was in the hole + nearly three hundred dollars for to-night's affair, and it must succeed, + even though half the civilized world had gone suddenly insane. So Jimmie + continued to climb step-ladders and tie bunting. + </p> + <p> + When it came to lunch-time, and the members of the Decorations Committee + were going out, it suddenly occurred to one of them that the drayman who + was to bring the literature might arrive while there was nobody to receive + it. So Comrade Higgins was allowed to wait during the lunch hour. There + was a plausible excuse—he was on the Literature Committee; indeed, + he was on every committee where hard work was involved—the committee + to distribute leaflets announcing the meeting, the committee to interview + the labour unions and urge them to sell tickets, the committee to take up + a collection at the meeting. He was not on those committees which involved + honour and edification, such as, for example, the committee to meet the + Candidate at the depot and escort him to the Opera-house. But then it + would never have occurred to Jimmie that he had any place on such a + committee; for he was just an ignorant fellow, a machinist, undersized and + undernourished, with bad teeth and roughened hands, and no gifts or graces + of any sort to recommend him; while on the Reception Committee were a + lawyer and a prosperous doctor and the secretary of the Carpet-weavers' + Union, all people who wore good clothes and had education, and knew how to + talk to a Candidate. + </p> + <p> + So Jimmie waited; and when the drayman came, he opened up the packages of + books and pamphlets and laid them out in neat piles on the literature + tables, and hung several of the more attractive ones on the walls behind + the tables; so, of course, Comrade Mabel Smith, who was chairman of the + Literature Committee, was greatly pleased when she came back from lunch. + And then came the members of the German Liederkranz, to rehearse the + programme they were to give; and Comrade Higgins would have liked first + rate to sit and listen, but somebody discovered the need of glue, and he + chased out to find a drug-store that was open on Sunday. + </p> + <p> + Later on there was a lull, and Jimmie realized that he was hungry. He + examined the contents of his pockets and found that he had seventeen + cents. It was a long way to his home, so he would step round the corner + and have a cup of coffee and a couple of “sinkers” at “Tom's”. He first + conscientiously asked if anybody needed anything, and Comrade Mabel Smith + told him to hurry back to help her put out the leaflets on the seats, and + Comrade Meissner would need help in arranging the chairs on the stage. + </p> + <h3> + III. + </h3> + <p> + When you went from the Leesville Opera-house and turned West in Main + Street, you passed Heinz's Cafe, which was a “swell” eating-place, and not + for Jimmie; and then the “Bijou Nickelodeon”, with a mechanical piano in + the entrance; and the “Bon Marche Shoe Store”, which was always having a + fire-sale or a removal sale or a bankruptcy clearing-out; and then + Lipsky's “Picture Palace”, with a brown and yellow cowboy galloping away + with a red and yellow maiden in his arms; then Harrod's “Fancy Grocery” on + the corner. And in each of these places there was a show-card in the + window, with a picture of the Candidate, and the announcement that on + Sunday evening, at eight o'clock, he would speak at the Leesville + Opera-house on “War, the Reason and the Remedy”. Jimmie Higgins looked at + the cards, and a dignified yet joyful pride stirred in his bosom; for all + of them were there because he, Jimmie, had interviewed the proprietors and + obtained their more or less reluctant consent. + </p> + <p> + Jimmie knew that on this Sunday, in cities all over Germany, Austria, + Belgium, France and England, the workers were gathering by millions and + tens of millions, to protest against the red horror of war being let loose + over their heads. And in America too—a call would go from the new + world to the old, that the workers should rise and carry out their pledge + to prevent this crime against mankind. He, Jimmie Higgins, had no voice + that anybody would heed; but he had helped to bring the people of his city + to hear a man who had a voice, and who would show the meaning of this + world-crisis to the working-people. + </p> + <p> + It was the party's Candidate for President. At this time only + congressional elections were pending, but this man had been Candidate for + President so often that every one thought of him in that role. You might + say that each of his campaigns lasted four years; he travelled from one + end of the land to the other, and counted by the millions those who heard + his burning, bitter message. It had chanced that the day which the + War-lords and Money-lords of Europe had chosen to drive their slaves to + slaughter was the day on which the Candidate had been scheduled to speak + in the Leesville Opera-house. No wonder the Socialists of the little + inland city were stirred! + </p> + <p> + Jimmie Higgins turned into “Tom's Buffeteria”, and greeted the proprietor, + and seated himself on a stool in front of the counter, and called for + coffee, and helped himself to “sinkers”—which might have been called + “life-preservers”, they were blown so full of air. He filled his mouth, at + the same time looking up to make sure that Tom had not removed the card + announcing the meeting; for Tom was a Catholic, and one of the reasons + that Jimmie went to his place was to involve him and his patrons in + arguments over exploitation, unearned increment and surplus value. + </p> + <p> + But before a discussion could be started, it chanced that Jimmie glanced + about. In the back part of the room were four little tables, covered with + oil-cloth, where “short orders” were served; and at one of those tables a + man was seated. Jimmie took a glance at him, and started so that he almost + spilled his coffee. Impossible; and yet—surely—who could + mistake that face? The face of a medieval churchman, lean, ascetic, but + with a modern touch of kindliness, and a bald dome on top like a moon + rising over the prairie. Jimmie started, then stared at the picture of the + Candidate which crowned the shelf of pies. He turned to the man again; and + the man glanced up, and his eyes met Jimmie's, with their expression of + amazement and awe. The whole story was there, not to be misread—especially + by a Candidate who travels about the country making speeches, and being + recognized every hour or so from his pictures which have preceded him. A + smile came to his face, and Jimmie set down the coffee-cup from one + trembling hand and the “sinker” from the other, and rose from his stool. + </p> + <h3> + IV. + </h3> + <p> + Jimmie would not have had the courage to advance, save for the other man's + smile—a smile that was weary, but candid and welcoming. “Howdy do, + Comrade?” said the man. He held out his hand, and the moment of this clasp + was the nearest to heaven that Jimmie Higgins had ever known. + </p> + <p> + When he was able to find his voice, it was only to exclaim, “You wasn't + due till five-forty-two!” + </p> + <p> + As if the Candidate had not known that! He explained that he had missed + his sleep the night before, and had come on ahead so as to snatch a bit + during the day. “I see,” said Jimmie; and then, “I knowed you by your + picture.” + </p> + <p> + “Yes?” said the other, patiently. + </p> + <p> + And Jimmie groped round in his addled head for something really worth + while. “You'll want to see the Committee?” + </p> + <p> + “No,” said the other, “I want to finish this first.” And he took a sip + from a glass of milk, and a bite out of a sandwich, and chewed. + </p> + <p> + So utterly rattled was Jimmie he sat there like a num-skull, unable to + find a word, while the man finished his repast. When it was over, Jimmie + said again—he could do no better—“You want to see the + Committee?” + </p> + <p> + “No,” was the reply, “I want to sit here—and perhaps talk to you, + Comrade—Comrade—?” + </p> + <p> + “Higgins,” said Jimmie. + </p> + <p> + “Comrade Higgins—that is, if you have time.” + </p> + <p> + “Oh, sure!” exclaimed Jimmie. “I got all the time there is. But the + Committee—” + </p> + <p> + “Never mind the Committee, Comrade. Do you know how many Committees I have + met on this trip?” + </p> + <p> + Jimmie did not know; nor did he have the courage to ask. + </p> + <p> + “Probably you never thought how it is to be a Candidate,” continued the + other. “You go from place to place, and make the same speech every night, + and it seems as if you slept in the same hotel every night, and almost as + if you met the same Committee. But you have to remember that your speech + is new to each audience, and you have to make it as if you had never made + it before; also you have to remember that the Committee is made up of + devoted comrades who are giving everything for the cause, so you don't + tell them that they are just like every other committee, or that you are + tired to death, or maybe have a headache—” + </p> + <p> + Jimmie sat, gazing in awe-stricken silence. Not being a man of reading, he + had never heard of “the head that wears a crown”. This was his first + glimpse into the soul of greatness. + </p> + <p> + The Candidate went on: “And then, too, Comrade, there's the news from + Europe. I want a little time. I can't bring myself to face it!” + </p> + <p> + His voice had grown sombre, and to Jimmie, gazing at him, it seemed that + all the sorrows of the world were in his tired grey eyes. “Perhaps I'd + better go,” said Jimmie. + </p> + <p> + “No no,” replied the other, with quick self-recovery. He looked and saw + that Jimmie had forgotten his meal. “Bring your things over here,” he + said; and the other fetched his cup and saucer and plate, and gulped the + rest of his “sinkers” under the Candidate's eyes. + </p> + <p> + “I oughtn't to talk,” said the latter. “You see how hoarse I am. But you + talk. Tell me about the local, and how things are going here.” + </p> + <p> + So Jimmie summoned his courage. It was the one thing he could really talk + about, the thing of which his mind and soul were full. Leesville was a + typical small manufacturing city, with a glass bottle works, a brewery, a + carpet-factory, and the big Empire Machine Shops, at which Jimmie himself + spent sixty-three hours of his life each week. The workers were asleep, of + course; but still you couldn't complain, the movement was growing. The + local boasted of a hundred and twenty members, though of course, only + about thirty of them could be counted on for real work. That was the case + everywhere, the Candidate put in—it was always a few who made the + sacrifice and kept things alive. + </p> + <p> + Then Jimmie went on to tell about to-night's meeting, the preparations + they had made, the troubles they had had. The police had suddenly decided + to enforce the law against delivering circulars from house to house; + though they allowed Isaac's “Emporium” to use this method of announcement. + The Leesville Herald and Evening Courier were enthusiastic for the police + action; if you couldn't give out circulars, obviously you would have to + advertise in these papers. The Candidate smiled—he knew about + American police officials, and also about American journalism. + </p> + <p> + Jimmie had been laid off for a couple of days at the shop, and he told how + he had put this time to good use, getting announcements of the meeting + into the stores. There was an old Scotchman in a real estate office just + across the way. “Git oot!” he said. “So I thought I'd better git oot!” + said Jimmie. And then, taking his life into his hands, he had gone into + the First National Bank. There was a gentleman walking across the floor, + and Jimmie went up to him and held out one of the placards with the + picture of the Candidate. “Would you be so good as to put this in your + window?” he inquired; and the other looked at it coldly. Then he smiled—he + was a good sort, apparently. “I don't think my customers would patronize + your business,” he said; but Jimmie went at him to take some tickets and + learn about Socialism—and would you believe it, he had actually + shelled out a dollar! “I found out afterwards that it was Ashton Charmers, + the president of the bank!” said Jimmie. “I'd a' been scared, if I'd a' + known.” + </p> + <p> + He had not meant to talk about himself; he was just trying to entertain a + tired Candidate, to keep him from brooding over a world going to war. But + the Candidate, listening, found tears trying to steal into his eyes. He + watched the figure before him—a bowed, undernourished little man, + with one shoulder lower than the other, a straggly brown moustache stained + with coffee, and stumpy black teeth, and gnarled hands into which the dirt + and grease were ground so deeply that washing them would obviously be a + waste of time. His clothes were worn and shapeless, his celluloid collar + was cracked and his necktie was almost a rag. You would never have looked + at such a man twice on the street—and yet the Candidate saw in him + one of those obscure heroes who are making a movement which is to + transform the world. + </p> + <h3> + V. + </h3> + <p> + “Comrade Higgins,” said the Candidate, after a bit, “let's you and me run + away.” + </p> + <p> + Jimmie looked startled. “How?” + </p> + <p> + “I mean from the Committee, and from the meeting, and from everything.” + And then, seeing the dismay in the other's face: “I mean, let's take a + walk in the country.” + </p> + <p> + “Oh!” said Jimmie. + </p> + <p> + “I see it through the windows of the railroad-cars, but I don't set foot + on it for months at a time. And I was brought up in the country. Were + you?” + </p> + <p> + “I was brought up everywhere,” said the little machinist. + </p> + <p> + They got up, and paid each their ten cents to the proprietor of the + “Buffeteria.” Jimmie could not resist the temptation to introduce his + hero, and show a pious Catholic that a Socialist Candidate had neither + hoofs nor horns. The Candidate was used to being introduced for that + purpose and had certain spontaneous and cordial words which he had said + not less than ten thousand times before; with the result that the pious + Catholic gave his promise to come to the meeting that night. + </p> + <p> + They went out; and because some member of the Committee might be passing + on Main Street, Jimmie took his hero by an alley into a back street; and + they walked past the glass-factory, which to the outsider was a long board + fence, and across the Atlantic Western railroad tracks, and past the + carpet-factory, a huge four-story box made of bricks; after which the rows + of wooden shacks began to thin out, and there were vacant lots and + ash-heaps, and at last the beginning of farms. + </p> + <p> + The Candidate's legs were long, and Jimmie's, alas, were short, so he had + almost to run. The sun blazed down on them, and sweat, starting from the + Candidate's bald head stole under the band of his straw hat and down to + his wilting collar; so he took off his coat and hung it over his arm, and + went on, faster than ever. Jimmie raced beside him, afraid to speak, for + he divined that the Candidate was brooding over the world-calamity, the + millions of young men marching out to slaughter. On the placards which + Jimmie had been distributing in Leesville, there were two lines about the + Candidate, written by America's favourite poet: + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + As warm heart as ever beat + Betwixt here and judgement seat. +</pre> + <p> + So they went on for perhaps an hour, by which time they were really in the + country. They came to a bridge which crossed the river Lee, and there the + Candidate suddenly stopped, and stood looking at the water sliding below + him, and at the vista through which it wound, an avenue of green trees + with stretches of pasture and cattle grazing. “That looks fine,” he said. + “Let's go down.” So they climbed a fence, and made their way along the + river for a distance, until a turn of the stream took them out of sight of + the road. + </p> + <p> + There they sat on a shelving bank, and mopped the perspiration from their + foreheads and necks, and gazed into the rippling current. You couldn't + exactly say it was crystal clear, for when there is a town every ten miles + or so along a stream, with factories pouring various kinds of chemicals + into it, the job becomes too much for the restoring forces of Mother + Nature. But it would take a dirty stream indeed not to look inviting in + midsummer after a four-mile walk. So presently the Candidate turned to + Jimmie, with a mischievous look upon his face. “Comrade Higgins, were you + ever in a swimmin' hole?” + </p> + <p> + “Sure I was!” said Jimmie. + </p> + <p> + “Where?” + </p> + <p> + “Everywhere. I was on the road off an' on ten years—till I got + married.” + </p> + <p> + “Well,” said the Candidate, still smiling, “what do you say?” + </p> + <p> + “I say sure!” replied Jimmie. + </p> + <p> + He was almost beside himself with awe, at this unbelieveable strange + fortune, this real comradeship with the hero of his dreams. To Jimmie this + man had been a disembodied intelligence, a dispenser of proletarian + inspiration, a supernatural being who went about the country standing upon + platforms and swaying the souls of multitudes. It had never occurred to + Jimmie that he might have a bare body, and might enjoy splashing about in + cool water like a boy playing “hookey” from school. The saying is that + familiarity breeds contempt, but for Jimmie it bred rapture. + </p> + <h3> + VI. + </h3> + <p> + They walked home again, more slowly. The Candidate asked Jimmie about his + life, and Jimmie told the story of a Socialist—not one of the + leaders, the “intellectuals”, but of the “rank and file”. Jimmie's father + was a working man out of a job, who had left his family before Jimmie had + joined it; Jimmie's mother had died three years later, so he did not + remember her, nor could he recall a word of the foreign language he had + spoken at home, nor did he even know what the language was. He had been + taken in charge by the city, and farmed out to a negro woman who had eight + miserable starvelings under her care, feeding them on gruel and water, and + not even giving them a blanket in winter. You might not think that + possible— + </p> + <p> + “I know America,” put in the Candidate. + </p> + <p> + Jimmie went on. At nine he had been boarded with a woodsaw man, who worked + him sixteen hours a day and beat him in addition; so Jimmie had skipped + out, and for ten years had lived the life of a street waif in the cities + and a hobo on the road. He had learned a bit about machinery, helping in a + garage, and then, in a rush-time, he had got a job in the Empire Machine + Shops. He had stayed in Leesville, because he had got married; he had met + his wife in a brothel, and she had wanted to quit the life, and they had + taken a chance together. + </p> + <p> + “I don't tell that to everybody,” said Jimmie. “You know—they + mightn't understand. But I don't mind you knowin'.” + </p> + <p> + “Thank you,” replied the Candidate, and put his hand on Jimmie's shoulder. + “Tell me how you became a Socialist.” + </p> + <p> + There was nothing special about that, was the answer. There had been a + fellow in the shop who was always “chewing the rag”; Jimmie had laughed at + him—for his life had made him suspicious of everybody, and if there + was any sort of politician, it was just another scheme of somebody to wear + a white collar and live off the workers. But the fellow had kept pegging + away; and once Jimmie had been laid off for a couple of months, and the + family had near starved, and that had given him time to think, and also + the inclination. The fellow had come along with some papers, and Jimmie + had read them, and it dawned upon him that here was a movement of his + fellow-workers to put an end to their torments. + </p> + <p> + “How long ago was that?” asked the Candidate, and Jimmie answered three + years. “And you haven't lost your enthusiasm?” This with an intensity that + surprised Jimmie. No, he answered, he was not that kind. Whatever + happened, he would keep pegging away at the task of freeing labour. He + would not see the New Day, perhaps, but his children would see it; and a + fellow would work like the devil to save his children. + </p> + <p> + So they came to the city; and the Candidate pressed Jimmie's arm. + “Comrade,” he said, “I want to tell you how much good this little trip has + done me. I owe you a debt of gratitude.” + </p> + <p> + “Me?” exclaimed Jimmie. + </p> + <p> + “You have given me fresh hope and courage, and at a time when I felt + beaten. I got into town this morning, and I'd had no sleep, and I tried to + get some in the hotel and couldn't, because of the horror that's + happening. I wrote a dozen telegrams and sent them off, and then I was + afraid to go back to the hotel-room, because I knew I'd only lie awake all + afternoon. But now—I remember that our movement is rooted in the + hearts of the people!” + </p> + <p> + Jimmie was trembling. But all he could say was: “I wish I could do it + every Sunday.” + </p> + <p> + “So do I,” said the Candidate. + </p> + <h3> + VII. + </h3> + <p> + They walked down Main Street, and some way ahead they saw a crowd + gathered, filling the pavement beyond the kerb. “What is that?” asked the + Candidate, and Jimmie answered that it was the office of the Herald. There + must be some news. + </p> + <p> + The other hastened his steps; and Jimmie, striding alongside, fell silent + again, knowing that the gigantic burden and woe of the world was falling + upon his hero's shoulders once more. They came to the edge of the crowd, + and saw a bulletin in front of the newspaper office. But it was too far + away for them to read. “What is it?” they asked. + </p> + <p> + “It says the Germans are going to march into Belgium. And they've shot a + lot of Socialists in Germany.” + </p> + <p> + “WHAT?” And the Candidate's hand clutched Jimmie's arm. + </p> + <p> + “That's what it says.” + </p> + <p> + “My God!” exclaimed the man. And he began pushing his way into the crowd, + with Jimmie in his wake. They got to the bulletin, and stood reading the + typewritten words—a bare announcement that more than a hundred + leading German Socialists had been executed for efforts to prevent + mobilization. They continued staring, until people pushing behind them + caused them to draw back. Outside the throng they stood, the Candidate + gazing into space, and Jimmie gazing at the Candidate, both of them dumb. + It was a fact that they could not have been more shocked if the news had + referred to the members of Local Leesville of the Socialist Party of + America. + </p> + <p> + The pain in the Candidate's face was so evident that Jimmie groped about + in his head for something comforting to say. “At least they done what they + could,” he whispered. + </p> + <p> + The other suddenly burst forth: “They are heroes! They have made the name + Socialist sacred for ever!” He rushed on, as if he were making a speech-so + strong becomes a life-time habit. “They have written their names at the + very top of humanity's roll of honour! It doesn't make any difference what + happens after this, Comrade—the movement had vindicated itself! All + the future will be changed because of this event!” + </p> + <p> + He began to walk down the street, talking more to himself than to Jimmie. + He was borne away on the wings of his vision; and his companion was so + thrilled that he honestly did not know where he was. Afterwards, when he + looked back upon this scene, it remained the most wonderful event of his + life; he told the story, sooner or later, to every Socialist he met. + </p> + <p> + Presently the Candidate stopped. “Comrade,” he said, “I must go to the + hotel. I want to write some telegrams. You explain to the Committee—I'd + rather not see anyone till time for the meeting. I'll find the way + myself.” + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0002" id="link2HCH0002"> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER II. JIMMIE HIGGINS HEARS A SPEECH + </h2> + <h3> + I. + </h3> + <p> + In the Opera-house were gathered Comrade Mabel Smith and Comrade Meissner + and Comrade Goldstein, the secretary of the Ypsels, and the three members + of the Reception Committee—Comrade Norwood, the rising young lawyer, + Comrade Dr. Service, and Comrade Schultze of the Carpet-weavers' Union. To + them rushed the breathless Jimmie. “Have you heard the news?” + </p> + <p> + “What is it?”. + </p> + <p> + “A hundred Socialist leaders shot in Germany!” + </p> + <p> + “Herr Gott!” cried Comrade Schultze, in horror; and everyone turned + instinctively, for they knew how this came home to him—he had a + brother who was a Socialist editor in Leipzig, and who was liable for the + mobilization. + </p> + <p> + “Where did you see it?” cried Schultze; and Jimmie told what he knew. And + then the clamour broke forth! Others were called from the back part of the + hall, and came running, and there were questions and cries of dismay. + Here, too, it was as if the crime had been committed against Local + Leesville—so completely did they feel themselves one with the + victims. In a town where there was a brewery, needless to say there were + German workers a-plenty; but even had this not been so, the feeling would + have been the same, for the Socialists of the world were one, the soul of + the movement was its internationalism. The Candidate discovering that + Jimmie was a Socialist had asked and received no further introduction, but + had been instantly his friend; and so it would have been with a comrade + from Germany, Japan, or the heart of Africa—he might not have known + another word of English, the word “Socialist” would have sufficed. + </p> + <p> + It was a long time before they thought of any other matter; but finally + someone referred to the trouble which had fallen upon the local—the + Candidate had not showed up. And Jimmie exclaimed, “Why, he's here!” And + instantly all turned upon him. Where? When? How? + </p> + <p> + “He came this morning.” + </p> + <p> + “And why didn't you let us know?” It was Comrade Dr. Service of the + Reception Committee who spoke, and with a decided sharpness in his tone. + </p> + <p> + “He didn't want anybody to know,” said Jimmie. + </p> + <p> + “Did he want us to go to the train and think he had failed us?” + </p> + <p> + Sure enough, it was after train-time! Jimmie had entirely forgotten both + the train and the committee, and now he had not the grace to hide his + offence. All he could do was to tell his story—how he had spent the + afternoon walking in the country with the Candidate, and how they had gone + swimming, and how they had got the news from the bulletin board, and how + the Candidate had acted and what he had said. Poor Jimmie never doubted + but that his own thrill was shared by all the others; and at the next + regular meeting of the local, when Comrade Dr. Service sat down on some + proposition which Jimmie had ventured to make, the little machinist had + not the faintest idea what he had done to deserve the snub. He was lacking + in worldly sense, he did not understand that a prosperous physician, who + comes into the movement out of pure humanitarianism, contributing his + prestige and his wealth to the certain detriment of his social and + business interests, is entitled to a certain deference from the Jimmie + Higginses, and even from a Candidate. + </p> + <h3> + II. + </h3> + <p> + You might have thought that Jimmie would be tired; but this was a day on + which the flesh had no claims. First he helped Comrade Mabel in depositing + upon every seat a leaflet containing a letter from the local candidate for + Congress; then he rushed away to catch a street-car, and spent his last + nickel to get to his home and keep his engagement with Lizzie. He would + not make with her the mistake he had made with the Committee, you bet! + </p> + <p> + He found that Lizzie had faithfully carried out her part of the bargain. + The three babies were done up in bright-coloured calico dresses; she had + spent the morning in washing and ironing these garments—also her own + dress, which was half-red and half-green, and of generous, almost + crinoline proportions. Lizzie herself was built on that scale, with broad + hips and bosom, big brown eyes and heavy dark hair. She was a fine strong + woman when she had shed her bedraggled house gown, and Jimmie was proud of + his capability as a chooser of wives. It was no small feat to find a good + woman, and to recognize her, where Jimmie had found Lizzie. She was five + years older than he, a Bohemian, having been brought to America when she + was a baby. Her former name—you could hardly call it her “maiden” + name, considering the circumstances—was Elizabeth Huszar, which she + pronounced so that for a long time Jimmie had understood it to be Eleeza + Betooser. + </p> + <p> + Jimmie snatched a bite of bread and drank a cup of metallic tasting tea, + and packed the family into the baby-carriage, and trudged the mile and + half to the centre of the city. When they arrived, Lizzie took the biggest + child, and Jimmie the other two, and so they trudged into the Opera-house. + On this hot night it was like holding three stoves in your arms, and if + the babies woke up and began to cry, the parents would have the painful + choice of missing something, or else facing the disgusted looks of + everyone about them. In Belgium, at the “People's House”, the Socialists + maintained a creche, but the American movement had not yet discovered that + useful institution. + </p> + <p> + Already the hall was half-full, and a stream of people pouring in. Jimmie + got himself and family seated, and then turned his eager eyes proudly to + survey the scene. The would-be-congressman's circulars which he had placed + in the seats were now being read by the sitters; the banners he had so + laboriously hung were resplendent on the walls; there was a pitcher of ice + water on the speaker's table, and a bouquet of flowers and a gavel for the + chairman; the seats in the rear of the platform for the Liederkranz were + neatly ranged, most of them already occupied by solid German figures + topped by rosy German faces: to each detail of which achievements Jimmie + had lent a hand. He had a pride of possession in this great buzzing + throng, and in the debt they owed to him. They had no idea of it, of + course; the fools, they thought that a meeting like this just grew out of + nothing! They paid their ten cents—twenty-five cents for reserved + seats—and imagined that covered everything, with perhaps even a + rake-off for somebody! They would grumble, wondering why the Socialists + persisted in charging admission for their meetings—why they could + not let people in free as the Democrats and Republicans did. They would go + to Democratic and Republican meetings, and enjoy the brass band and the + fireworks, pyrotechnical and oratorical—never dreaming it was all a + snare paid for by their exploiters! + </p> + <p> + Well, they would learn about it to-night! Jimmie thought of the Candidate, + and how he would impress this man and that. For Jimmie knew scores who had + got tickets, and he peered about after this one and that, and gave them a + happy nod from behind his barricade of babies. Then, craning his neck to + look behind him, suddenly Jimmie gave a start. Coming down the aisle was + Ashton Chalmers, president of the First National Bank of Leesville; and + with him-could it be possible?—old man Granitch, owner of the huge + Empire Machine Shops where Jimmie worked! The little machinist found + himself shaking with excitement as these two tall forms strode past him + down the aisle. He gave Lizzie a nudge with his elbow and whispered into + her ear; and all around was a buzz of whispers—for, of course, + everybody knew these two mighty men, the heads of the “invisible + government” of Leesville. They had come to find out what their subjects + were thinking! Well, they would get it straight! + </p> + <h3> + III. + </h3> + <p> + The big hall was full, and the aisles began to jam, and then the police + closed the doors—something which Jimmie took as part of the + universal capitalist conspiracy. The audience began to chafe; until at + last the chairman walked out upon the stage, followed by several important + persons who took front seats. The singers stood up, and the leader waved + his wand, and forth came the Marseillaise: a French revolutionary hymn, + sung in English by a German organization—there was Internationalism + for you! With full realization of the solemnity of this world-crisis, they + sang as if they hoped to be heard in Europe. + </p> + <p> + And then rose the Chairman—Comrade Dr. Service. He was a fine, big + figure of a man, with grey moustache and beard trimmed to a point; his + swelling chest was covered by clean white linen and tight-fitting + broad-cloth, and he made a most imposing chairman, reflecting credit on + the movement. He cleared his throat, and told them that they had come that + evening to listen to one of America's greatest orators, and that therefore + he, the Chairman, would not make a speech; after which he proceeded to + make a speech. He told them what a grave hour this was, and how the orator + would tell them its meaning, after which he proceeded to tell most of the + things which the orator would tell. This was a weakness of Comrade Dr. + Service—but one hesitated to point it out to him, because of his + black broad-cloth suit and his imposing appearance, and the money he had + put up to pay for the hall. + </p> + <p> + At last, however, he called on the Liederkranz again, and a quartet sang a + German song and then an encore. And then came Comrade Gerrity, the + hustling young insurance-agent who was organizer for the local, and whose + task it was to make a “collection speech.” He had humorous ways of + extracting money—“Here I am again!” he began, and everybody smiled, + knowing his bag of tricks. While he was telling his newest funny story, + Jimmie was unloading the littlest infant into Lizzie's spare arm, and + laying the other on the seat with its head against her knee, and getting + himself out into the aisle, hat in hand and ready for business; and as + soon as the organizer ceased and the Liederkranz resumed, Jimmie set to + work gathering the coin. His territory was the reserved-seat section up in + front, where sat the two mighty magnates. Jimmie's knees went weak, but he + did his duty, and was tickled to see each of the pair drop a coin into the + hat, to be used in overthrowing their power in Leesville! + </p> + <h3> + IV. + </h3> + <p> + The hats were taken to the box-office and emptied, and the + collection-takers and the Liederkranz singers resumed their seats. An + expectant hush fell—and then at last there strode out on the stage + the Candidate. What a storm broke out! Men cheered and clapped and + shouted. He took his seat modestly; but as the noise continued, he was + justified in assuming that it was meant for him, and he rose and bowed; as + it still continued, he bowed again, and then again. It had been the + expectation of Comrade Dr. Service to come forward and say that, of + course, it was not necessary for anyone to introduce the speaker of the + evening; but the audience, as if it had read the worthy doctor's + intention, kept on applauding, until the Candidate himself advanced, and + raised his hand, and began his speech. + </p> + <p> + He did not stop for any oratorical preliminaries. This, he said—and + his voice trembled with emotion—was the solemnest hour that men had + ever faced on earth. That day on the bulletin-board of their local + newspaper he had read tidings which had moved him as he had never been + moved in his life, which had almost deprived him of the power to walk upon + a stage and address an audience. Perhaps they had not heard the news; he + told it to them, and there sprang from the audience a cry of indignation. + </p> + <p> + Yes, they might well protest, said the speaker; nowhere on all the bloody + pages of history could you find a crime more revolting than this! The + masters of Europe had gone mad in their lust for power; they had called + down the vengeance of mankind upon their crowned and coronetted heads. + Here to-night he would tell them—and the speaker's hoarse and + raucous voice mounted to a shout of rage—he would tell them that in + signing the death-warrant of those heroic martyrs, they had sealed the + doom of their own order, they had torn out the foundation-stones from the + structure of capitalist society! The speaker's voice seemed to lift the + audience from its seats, and the last words of the sentence were drowned + in a tumult of applause. + </p> + <p> + Silence fell again, and the man went on. He had peculiar mannerisms on the + platform. His lanky form was never still for an instant. He hurried from + one end of the stage to the other; he would crouch and bend as if he were + going to spring upon the audience, a long, skinny finger would be shaken + before their faces, or pointed as if to drive his words into their hearts. + His speech was a torrent of epigram, sarcasm, invective. He was bitter; if + you knew nothing about the man or his cause, you would find this repellent + and shocking. You had to know what his life had been—an unceasing + conflict with oppression; he had got his Socialist education in jail, + where he had been sent for trying to organize the wage-slaves of a + gigantic corporation. His rage was the rage of a tender-hearted poet, a + lover of children and of Nature, driven mad by the sight of torment + wantonly inflicted. And if ever he had seemed to you an extremist, too + angry to be excused, here to-night he had his vindication, here to-night + you saw him as a prophet. For now the master-class had torn the mask from + its face, and revealed to the whole world what were its moral standards! + At last men saw their rulers face to face! + </p> + <p> + They have plunged mankind into a pit of lunacy. “They call it war,” cried + the speaker; “but I call it murder.” And he went on to picture to them + what was happening in Europe at that hour—he brought the awful + nightmare before their eyes, he showed them homes blown to pieces, cities + given to the flames, the bodies of men pierced by bullets or torn to + fragments by shells. He pictured a bayonet plunged into the abdomen of a + man; he made you see the ghastly deed, and feel its shuddering wickedness. + Men and women and children sat spellbound; and for once no man could say + aloud or feel in his heart that the pictures of a Socialist agitator were + overdrawn—no, not even Ashton Chalmers, president of the First + National Bank of Leesville, or old Abel Granitch, proprietor of the Empire + Machine Shops! + </p> + <h3> + V. + </h3> + <p> + And what was the cause of this blackest of calamities? The speaker went on + to show that the determining motive was not racial jealousy, but + commercial greed. The fountain-head of the war was world-capitalism, + clamouring for markets, seeking to get rid of its surplus products, to + keep busy its hordes of wage-slaves at home. He analysed the various + factors; and now, with the shadow of the European storm over their heads—now + at last men and women would listen, they would realize that the matter + concerned them. He warned them—let them not think that they were + safe from the hoofs of this war-monster, just because they were three + thousand miles away! Capitalism was a world phenomenon, and all the forces + of parasitism and exploitation which had swept Europe into this tragedy + were active here in America. The money-masters, the profit-seekers, would + leap to take advantage of the collapse over the seas; there would be + jealousies, disputes—let the audience understand, once for all, that + if world-capitalism did not make this a world-war, it would be only + because the workers of America took warning, and made their preparations + to frustrate the conspiracy. + </p> + <p> + This was what he had come for, this was the heart of his message. Many of + those who listened were refugees from the old world, having fled its + oppressions and enslavements. He pleaded with them now, as a man whose + heart was torn by more suffering than he could bear—let there be one + part of the fair garden of earth into which the demons of destruction + might not break their way! Let them take warning in time, let them + organize and establish their own machinery of information and propaganda—so + that when the crisis came, when the money-masters of America sounded the + war-drums, there might be—not the destruction and desolation which + these masters willed, but the joy and freedom of the Co-operative + Commonwealth! + </p> + <p> + “How many years we Socialists have warned you!” he cried. “But you have + doubted us, you have believed what your exploiters have told you! And now, + in this hour of crisis, you look at Europe and discover who are the real + friends of humanity, of civilization. What voice comes over the seas, + protesting against war? The Socialist voice, and the Socialist voice + alone! And to-night, once more, you hear it in this hall! You men and + women of America, and you exiles from all corners of the world, make this + pledge with me—make it now, before it is too late, and stand by it + when the hour of crisis comes! Swear it by the blood of our martyred + heroes, those slaughtered German Socialists—swear that, come what + will, and when and how it will, that no power on earth or in hell beneath + the earth shall draw you into this fratricidal war! Make this resolution, + send this message to all the nations of the earth—that the men of + all nations and all races are your brothers, and that never will you + consent to shed their blood. If the money-masters and the exploiters want + war, let them have it, but let it be among themselves! Let them take the + bombs and shells they have made and go out against one another! Let them + blow their own class to pieces—but let them not seek to lure the + working-people into their quarrels!” + </p> + <p> + Again and again, in answer to such exhortations, the audience broke out + into shouts of applause. Men raised their hands in solemn pledge; and the + Socialists among them went home from the meeting with a new gravity in + their faces, a new consecration in their hearts. They had made a vow, and + they would keep it—yes, even though it meant sharing the fate of + their heroic German comrades! + </p> + <p> + —And then in the morning they opened their papers, looking eagerly + for more details about the fate of the heroic German comrades, and they + found none. Day after day, morning and afternoon, they looked for more + details, and found none. On the contrary, to their unutterable + bewilderment, they learned that the leaders of the German Social-Democracy + had voted for the war-budgets, and that the rank and file of the movement + were hammering out the goose-step on the roads of Belgium and France! They + could not bring themselves to believe it; even yet they have not brought + themselves to realize that the story which thrilled them so on that fatal + Sunday afternoon was only a cunning lie sent out by the German war-lords, + in the hope of causing the Socialists of Belgium and France and England to + revolt, and so give the victory to Germany! + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0003" id="link2HCH0003"> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER III. JIMMIE HIGGINS DEBATES THE ISSUE + </h2> + <h3> + I. + </h3> + <p> + The grey flood of frightfulness rolled over Belgium; and every morning, + and again in the afternoon, the front page of the Leesville newspaper was + like the explosion of a bomb. Twenty-five thousand Germans killed in one + assault on Liege; a quarter of a million Russians massacred or drowned in + the swamps of the Masurian Lakes; so it went, until the minds of men + reeled. They saw empires and civilizations crumbling before their eyes, + all those certainties upon which their lives had been built vanishing as a + mist at sunrise. + </p> + <p> + Hitherto, Jimmie Higgins had always refused to take a daily paper. No + capitalist lies for him; he would save his pennies for the Socialist + weeklies! But now he had to have the news, and tired as he was after the + day's work, he would sit on his front porch with his ragged feet against a + post, spelling out the despatches. Then he would stroll down to the + cigar-stand of Comrade Stankewitz, a wizened-up little Roumanian Jew who + had lived in Europe, and had a map, and would show Jimmie which was + Russia, and why Germany marched across Belgium, and why England had to + interfere. It was good to have a friend who was a man of travel and a + linguist—especially when the fighting became centred about places + such as Przemysl and Przasnyaz! + </p> + <p> + Then every Friday night would be the meeting of the local. Jimmie would be + the first to arrive, eager to hear every word the better informed comrades + had to say, and thus to complete the education which Society had so + cruelly neglected. + </p> + <p> + Before the war was many weeks old, Jimmie's head was in a state of utter + bewilderment; never would he have thought it possible for men to hold so + many conflicting opinions, and to hold them with such passionate + intensity! It seemed as if the world-conflict were being fought out in + miniature in Leesville. + </p> + <p> + At the third meeting after the war began, the prosperous Dr. Service + arose, and in his impressive oratorical voice moved that the local should + send a telegram to the National Executive Committee of the party, + requesting it to protest against the invasion of Belgium; also a telegram + to the President of the United States, requesting him to take the same + action. And then what pandemonium broke loose! Comrade Schneider, the + brewery-worker, demanded to know whether Local Leesville had ever + requested the National Executive Committee to protest against the invasion + of Ireland. Had the Socialist party ever requested the President of the + United States to protect Egypt and India from oppression? + </p> + <p> + Comrade Dr. Service, who had remained on his feet, began a passionate + denunciation of the outrages perpetrated by the German army in Belgium; at + which Comrade Schneider's florid face turned purple. He demanded whether + all men did not know that France had first invaded Belgium, and that the + Belgians had welcomed the French? Weren't all the Belgian forts turned + toward Germany? Of course! answered the doctor. But what of that? Was it a + crime for a man to know who was going to attack him? + </p> + <p> + The purple-faced brewer, without heeding this question, demanded: Did not + all the world know that the French had begun the war with an aeroplane + bombardment of the German cities? The Comrade Doctor, his face also + purpling, replied that all the world knew this for a tale sent out by the + German propaganda machine. HOW did all the world know it? roared + Schneider. By a cable-censorship controlled by British gold? + </p> + <p> + Jimmie was much exicted by this dispute. The only trouble was that he + found himself in agreement with both sides, and with an impulse to applaud + both sides. And also he applauded the next speaker, young Emil Forster, a + pale, slender, and fair-haired youth, a designer in the carpet-factory. + Emil was one who seldom raised his voice in the meetings, but when he did, + he was heard with attention, for he was a student and a thinker; he played + the flute, and his father, also a member of the local, played the + clarinet, so the pair were invaluable on “social evenings”. In his gentle, + dispassionate voice he explained how it was not easy for people in America + to understand the dilemma of the German Socialists in the present crisis. + We must remember that the Germans were fighting, not merely England and + France, but Russia; and Russia was a huge, half-civilized land, under + perhaps the most cruel government in the world. How would Americans feel + if up in Canada there were three hundred millions of people, ignorant, + enslaved, and being drilled in huge armies? + </p> + <p> + All right, retorted Dr. Service. But then why did not the Germans fight + Russia, and let France and Belgium alone? + </p> + <p> + Because, answered Emil, the French would not permit that. We in America + thought of France as a republic, but we must remember that it was a + capitalist republic, a nation ruled by bankers; and these bankers had + formed an alliance with Russia, the sole possible aim of which was the + destruction of Germany. France had loaned something like four billions of + dollars to Russia. + </p> + <p> + And then Schneider leaped up. Yes, and it was that money which had + provided the cannon and shells that were now being used in laying waste + East Prussia, the land of Schneider's birth! + </p> + <h3> + II. + </h3> + <p> + The temper of both sides was rising higher and higher, and the neutrals + made efforts to calm the dispute. Comrade Stankewitz, Jimmie's cigar-store + friend, cried out in his shrill eager voice: Vy did we vant to git mixed + up vit them European fights? Didn't we know vat bankers and capitalists + vere? Vat difference did it make to any vorking man vether he vas robbed + from Paris or Berlin? “Sure, I know,” said Stankewitz, “I vorked in both + them cities, and I vas every bit so hungry under Rothschild as I vas under + the Kaiser.” + </p> + <p> + Then Comrade Gerrity, organizer of the local, took his turn. Whatever they + did, said Gerrity, they must keep their neutrality in this war; the one + hope of the world just now was in the Socialist movement—that it + would preserve the international spirit, and point a war-torn world back + to peace. Especially just now in Local Leesville they must keep their + heads, for they were beginning the most important move in their history, + the establishment of a weekly paper. Nothing must get in the way of that! + </p> + <p> + Yes, said Comrade Service, but they would have to determine the policy of + the paper, would they not? Were they going to protest against injustice at + home, and pay no attention to the most flagrant act of international + injustice in the history of the world? Was a working man's paper to say + nothing against the enslavement of the working men of Europe by the Kaiser + and his militarist crew? He, Dr. Service, would wash his hands of such a + paper. + </p> + <p> + And then the members of the local gazed at one another in dismay. Every + man and woman of them knew that the prosperous doctor had headed the list + of subscribers for the soon-to-be-born Leesville Worker with the sum of + five hundred dollars. The thought of losing this munificent contribution + brought consternation even to the Germans! + </p> + <p> + But there was one member of the local whom no menace ever daunted. He rose + up now—lean, sallow almost to greenness, with black hair falling + into his eyes, and a cough that racked him at every other sentence. Bill + Murray was his name; “Wild Bill”, the papers called him. The red card he + carried had been initialled by the secretaires of some thirty locals all + over the country. He had lost a couple of toes under a tractor-plough in + Kansas, and half a hand in a tin-plate mill in Alleghany County; he had + been clubbed insensible in a strike in Chicago, and tarred and feathered + in a free speech fight in San Diego. And now he told the members of Local + Leesville what he thought of those tea-party revolutionists who pandered + to the respectability of a church-ridden community. “Wild Bill” had + watched the discussions over “Section Six”, the provision in the + constitution of the party against sabotage and violence; the very same + persons who had been enthusiastic for that bit of middle-class fakery were + now trying to line up the local for the defence of the British sea-power! + What the hell difference did it make to any working man whether or not the + Kaiser got a railroad to Bagdad? Of course, if a man had been to school in + Britain, and had a British wife, and felt himself a British gentleman—you + could feel the shudder that went through the gathering, for everyone knew + that this was Dr. Service—all right, let that man take the first + ship across the ocean and enlist; but let him not try to turn an American + Socialist local into a recruiting-agency for British landlords and + aristocrats. + </p> + <p> + This brought to his feet Comrade Norwood, the young lawyer who had helped + to put through “Section Six” in the National Convention of the party. If + there were people so keen against this Section, why couldn't they get out + of the party and form an organization of their own? + </p> + <p> + “Because,” answered Murray, “we prefer sabotage to striking!” + </p> + <p> + “In other words,” continued Norwood, “you stay in the local, and by a + campaign of sneering and personalities you drive your opponents out!” + </p> + <p> + “This is the first meeting for some months that we have had the pleasure + of seeing Comrade Norwood,” said “Wild Bill”, with venomous placidity. + “Perhaps he knew that we were to be asked to raise a regiment for + Kitchener!” + </p> + <p> + And then again Comrade Stankewitz was on his feet, with distress in his + thin, eager face. “Comrades, all this vill not get us anyvere! There is + but vun question ve have to answer, are ve internationalists, or are ve + not?” + </p> + <p> + “It seems to me,” continued Norwood, “the question is, are we + anti-nationalists?” + </p> + <p> + “All right!” shrilled the little Jew. “I vill leave it so—I am an + anti-nationalist! Such must all Socialists be!” + </p> + <p> + “But I don't understand it so,” declared the young lawyer. “It is easy for + some who belong to a race which has not had a country for two thousand + years—” + </p> + <p> + “And who's dealing in personalities now?” sneered “Wild Bill”. + </p> + <h3> + III. + </h3> + <p> + So matters went in Local Leesville. The upshot of the debate was that + Comrade Dr. Service declared that he washed his hands of the Socialist + Party from that time on. And the Comrade Doctor buttoned his handsome + black coat over his stately chest and stalked out of the room. The greater + part of the remainder of that meeting was devoted to a discussion of him + and his personality and his influence in the local. He was no Socialist at + all, declared Schneider, he was an English aristocrat, or the next thing + to it—his wife had two brothers in the British Expeditionary Force, + and a nephew already enlisted in the Territorials, and a visiting cousin + on the point of setting out for Canada, as the quickest way of getting + into the mix-up. But in spite of all these damaging circumstances, the + local was not disposed to give up its most generous supporter, and Comrade + Gerrity, the organizer, and Comrade Goldstein of the Ypsels, were + constituted a committee to go and plead with him and try to bring him back + into the fold. + </p> + <p> + As for Jimmie Higgins, his problem was not so complicated. He had no + relatives anywhere that he knew of; and if he had any “country”, the + country had failed to make him aware of the fact. The first thing the + “country” had done for him was to put him into the hands of a negro woman + who fed him gruel and water and gave him no blanket in winter. To Jimmie + this country was an aggregation of owners and bosses, who made you sweat + hard for your wages, and sent the police to club you if you made any kick. + A soldier Jimmie thought of as a fellow who came to help the police when + they got hard pushed. This soldier walked with his chest out and his nose + in the air, and Jimmie referred to him as a “tin willie”, and summed him + up as a traitor to the working-class. + </p> + <p> + And so it was easy for our little machinist to agree with the Roumanian + Jewish cigar-seller in calling himself an “anti-nationalist”. It was easy + for him to laugh and applaud when “Wild Bill” demanded what the hell + difference it made to any working man whether or not the Kaiser got a + railroad to Bagdad. He did not thrill in the least over the story of the + British Army falling back step by step across France, and holding ten + times their number of invaders. The papers called this “heroism”; but to + Jimmie it was a lot of poor fools who had had a flag waved in their eyes, + and had sold themselves for a shilling to the landlords of their country. + In one of the Socialist papers that Jimmie read, there appeared every week + a series of comic pictures in which the working man was figured as a + guileless fool by the name of “Henry Dubb”. Poor Henry always believed + what he was told, and at the end of each adventure he got a thump on the + top of his nut which caused stars to sprout over the page. And of the many + adventures of Henry Dubb, the most absurd were when he got himself into a + uniform. Jimmie would cut these pictures out and pass them round in the + shop, and among his neighbours in the row of tenement-shacks where he + lived. + </p> + <p> + Nor did it make much difference in Jimmie's feelings when he read of + German atrocities. To begin with, he did not believe in them; they were + just a part of the poison-gas of war. When men were willing to stab one + another with bayonets, and to blow one another to pieces with bombs, they + would be willing to lie about one another, you might be sure; the + governments would lie deliberately, as one of the ways of making the + soldiers fight harder. What? argued Jimmie: tell him that Germans were a + lot of savages? When he lived in a city with hundreds of them, and met + them all the time at the local? + </p> + <p> + Here, for instance, was the Forster family; where would you find a kinder + lot of people? They were much above Jimmie in social standing—they + owned their own house and had whole shelves full of books, and a pile of + music as high as yourself; but recently Jimmie had stopped on a Socialist + errand, and they had invited him in to supper, and there was a thin, worn, + sweet-faced little woman, and four growing daughters—nice, gentle, + quiet girls—and two sons younger than Emil; they had a pot-roast of + beef, and a big dish of steaming potatoes, and another of sauerkraut, and + some queer pudding that Jimmie had never heard of; and then they had music—they + were fairly dippy on music, that family, they would play all night if you + would listen, old Hermann Forster with his stout, black-bearded face + turned up as if he were seeing Heaven. And you wanted Jimmie to believe + that a man like that would carry a baby on a bayonet, or rape a girl and + then cut off her hands! + </p> + <p> + Or there was Comrade Meissner, a neighbour of Jimmie's, a friendly little + chatter-box of a man who was foreman-in-charge of a dozen women from as + many different races of the earth, packing bottles in the glass-works. The + tears would come into Meissner's pale blue eyes when he told how he was + made to drive these women, sick, or in the family way, or whatever it + might be. And remember, it was an American superintendent and an American + owner who gave Meissner his orders—not a German! The little man + could not quit his job, because he had a brood of children and a wife with + something the matter with her—nobody could tell what it was, but she + took all kinds of patent medicines, which kept the family poor. Sometimes + Lizzie Higgins would go over to see her, and the two would sit and + exchange ideas about ailments and the prices of food; and meantime + Meissner would come over to where Jimmie was minding the Jimmie babies, + and the two would puff their cobs and discuss the disputes between the + “politicians” and the “direct actionists” in the local. And you wanted + Jimmie to believe that men like Meissner were standing old Belgian women + against the walls of churches and shooting them full of bullets! + </p> + <h3> + IV. + </h3> + <p> + But as the weeks passed, the evidence of atrocities began to pile in, and + so Jimmie Higgins was driven to a second line of defence. Well, maybe so, + but then all the armies were alike. Somebody told Jimmie the saying of a + famous general, that war was hell; and Jimmie took to this—it was + exactly what he wanted to believe! War was a return to savagery, and the + worse it became, the better Jimmie's argument went. He was not interested + in men's efforts to improve war, by agreeing that they would kill in this + way but not in that way, they would kill this kind of people but not that + kind. + </p> + <p> + These ideas Jimmie got from his fellow members in the local, and from the + Socialist papers which came each week and from the many speakers he heard. + These speakers were men and women of burning sincerity and with a definite + and entirely logical point of view. Whether they talked about war, crime, + prostitution, political corruption, or any other social evil, what they + wanted was to tear down the old ramshackle structure, and to put in its + place something new and intelligent. You might possibly bring them to + admit slight differences between capitalist governments but when it came + to a practical issue, to an action you found that to these people all + governments were alike—and never so much alike as in war-time! + </p> + <p> + Nor was there ever such need for Socialist protest! Very quickly it became + apparent that it was not going to be an easy matter for America to keep + out of this world-vortex. Because American working men did not get a + living wage, and could not buy what they produced, there was a surplus + product which had to be sold abroad; so the business of American + manufacturers depended upon foreign markets—and here suddenly were + all the principal trading nations of the world plunging in to buy all the + American products they could, and to keep their enemies from buying any at + all. + </p> + <p> + A woman speaker came to Leesville a shrewd little body with a sharp + tongue, who had these disputes figured out, and gave them in dialogue, as + in a play. Kaiser Bill says, “I want cotton” John Bull says, “You shan't + have it.” Uncle Sam says, “But he has a right to have it. Get out of the + way, John Bull.” But John Bull says, “I will hold up your ships and take + them into my ports.” Uncle Sam says, “No, no! Don't do that!” But John + Bull does it. And then the Kaiser says, “What sort of a fellow are you to + let John Bull steal your ships? Are you a coward, or are you secretly a + friend of this old villain?” Uncle Sam says, “John Bull, give me my German + mail and my German newspapers, at least. But John Bull answers, “You've + got a lot of German spies in your country—that's why I can't let you + have your mail. You can't have German papers because the Kaiser fills them + full of lies about me.” And the Kaiser says, “If John Bull won't let me + have my cotton and my meat and all the rest of it, why don't you stop + sending anything to him?” He waits a while, and then he says, “If you + won't stop sending things to that old villain, I'll sink the ships, that's + all.” And Uncle Sam cries, “But that's against the law!” “Whose law?” says + the Kaiser. “What sort of a law is it that works only one way?” “But there + are Americans on those ships!” cries Uncle Sam. “Well, keep them off the + ships!” answers the Kaiser. “Keep them off till John Bull obeys the law.” + </p> + <p> + Put in this way the situation was easy for any Jimmie Higgins to + understand; and month by month, as the debate continued, Jimmie's own + point of view became clearer. He was not interested in sending cotton to + England, and still less in sending meat. He thought he was lucky if he had + a bit of meat twice a week himself, and it was plain enough to him that if + the fellows who owned the meat were not allowed to ship it abroad, they + might sell it in America at a price that a working man could pay. Nor was + that just greediness on Jimmie's part; he was perfectly willing to go + without meat where an ideal was involved—look at the time and money + and energy he gave to Socialism! The point was that by sending goods to + Europe, you helped to keep up the fighting; whereas, if you quit, the + fools must come to their senses. So the Jimmie Higginses worked out their + campaign-slogan: “Starve the War and Feed America!” + </p> + <h3> + V. + </h3> + <p> + In the third month of the war, disturbing rumours began to run about + Leesville. Old Abel Granitch had taken on a contract with the Belgian + government, and the Empire Machine Shops were going to make shells. + Nothing appeared about this in the local papers, but everybody claimed to + have first-hand knowledge, and although no two people told the same story, + there must be some basis of truth in them all. And then, one day, to + Jimmie's consternation, he heard from Lizzie that the agent of the + landlord had called and served notice that they had three days to vacate + the premises. Old man Granitch had bought the land, and the Shops were to + build out that way. Jimmie could hardly credit his ears, for he was six + city blocks from the nearest part of the Shops; but it was true, so + everyone declared; all that land had been bought up, and half a thousand + families, children and old people, and sick people, men on their + death-beds and women in child-birth—all had three days in which to + move themselves to new quarters. + </p> + <p> + Let anyone imagine the confusion, the babel of tongues, the women on their + porches calling to one another, asking and giving advice! The + denunciations and the scoldings and the threats to resort to law! The + raids upon landlords, and how the prices went up! Jimmie hurried off to + Comrade Meissner, who had bought a house and was paying instalments on it; + Meissner, being a Socialist, did not try to fleece him, but was glad to + have help in making his payments. There were no partitions in the garret + which Jimmie rented, but they would hang curtains and make do somehow, and + Lizzie would use Mrs. Meissner's stove until they could get something + fixed upstairs. And then to the corner grocery, to borrow a hand-cart and + get started at moving the furniture; for to-morrow everybody would be + moving, and you would not be able to get anything on wheels for love or + money. Until after midnight Jimmie and Meissner worked at transporting + babies and bedding and saucepans and chairs and chicken-coops piled on the + hand-cart. + </p> + <p> + And next morning at the shop, more excitement! It was four years now that + Jimmie had been in the employ of old man Granitch, and in all that time he + had done but one thing; standing in a vast room amid a confusion of + whirling belts and wheels, a roar and screech and grumble and whirl that + completely annulled one of the five senses. There came in front of him, + mechanically propelled, a tray full of small oblong blocks of steel, which + he fed, one with each hand, into two places in a machine; the machine took + these blocks, and rounded off one end, and ground the rest a little + smaller, and put a thread on it, and it dropped into a tray on the other + side, a bolt. Because Jimmie had to watch the machine, and keep the + oil-cups full, his was classed as semi-skilled labour, and was paid + nineteen and a half cents an hour. Some time ago an expert had studied the + process, and figured that with labour at that price it was one-eighth of a + cent per hour cheaper to have the work done by hand than to instal a + machine to do it; and so for four years Jimmie had his job, standing on + one spot from seven to twelve, and again from twelve-thirty to six, and + carrying home every Saturday night the sum of twelve dollars and + twenty-nine cents. You might have thought that the huge machine-works + would have made it twelve-thirty for good measure; but if so, you do not + understand large scale production. + </p> + <p> + And now, all of an instant and without warning, Jimmie's precisely ordered + and habitual world came to an end. He was at his post when the whistle + blew, but the machinery did not move. And presently came the Irish foreman + with the curt announcement that the machinery would never move again, at + least not on that spot; it was to be cleared out of the way, and new + machinery set up, and they were to fall to forthwith with wrenches and + hammers and crow-bars to make a new world! + </p> + <p> + So for a week they did; and meantime, every night as he went home, Jimmie + saw people's homes being wrecked—roofs falling in clouds of dust, + and gangs of men loading the debris into huge motor-trucks. Before long + they had got acetylene torches, and were working all night-gangs of + labourers who lived in tents on vacant lots outside the city and kept + their canvas cots warm with double shifts of sleepers. Jimmie Higgins + realized the dreadful truth, that in spite of all the agitation of + Socialists, the war had actually come to Leesville! + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0004" id="link2HCH0004"> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER IV. JIMMIE HIGGINS STRIKES IT RICH + </h2> + <h3> + I. + </h3> + <p> + It was some time before Jimmie understood the nature of the new machinery + he was helping to set up. It was nobody's business to explain, for he was + only a pair of hands and a strong back; he was not supposed to be a brain—while + as for a soul or a conscience, nobody was supposed to be that. Russian + agents had come to Leesville with seventeen millions of the money which + the Paris bankers had put up; and so overnight whole blocks of homes were + swept out of existence, and a huge new steel structure was rising, and on + the spot where for four years Jimmie had made certain motions of the + hands, they were preparing to manufacture new machinery for the quantity + production of shell-casings. + </p> + <p> + When Jimmie had definitely learned what was in process, he was brought + face to face with a grave moral problem. Could he, as an international + Socialist, spend his time making shells to kill his German comrades? Could + he spend his time making the machinery to make the shells? Would he take + the bribe of old man Granitch, a working man's share of the hideous loot—an + increase of four cents an hour, with the prospect of another four when the + works got started? Jimmie had to meet this issue, just when it happened + that one of his babies was sick, and he was cudgelling his head to think + how he could ever squeeze out of his scanty wage the money to pay the + doctor! + </p> + <p> + The answer was easy to Comrade Schneider, the stout and sturdy brewer, who + stood up in the local and spoke with bitter scorn of those Socialists who + stayed on in the pay of that old hell-devil, Granitch. Schneider wanted a + strike in the Empire Machine Shops, and he wanted it that very night! But + then rose Comrade Mabel Smith, whose brother was a bookkeeper for the + concern. It was all very well for Schneider to talk, but suppose someone + were to demand that the brewery-workers should strike and refuse to make + beer for munition-workers? That was a mere quibble, argued Schneider; but + the other denied this, declaring that it was an illustration of what the + worker was up against, with no control of his own destiny, no voice as to + what use should be made of his product. A man might say that he would have + nothing to do with munition-work, and go out into the fields as a farmer—to + raise grain, to be shipped to the armies! The solidarity of capitalist + society was such that nowhere could a man find work that would not in some + way be helping to kill his fellow-workers in other lands. + </p> + <p> + Jimmie Higgins talked solemnly to Lizzie of moving to Hubbardtown—tempted + thereto by the signs he saw in an agency which had been set up in a vacant + store on Main Street. The Hubbard Engine Company was trying to steal old + man Granitch's workers, and was offering thirty-two cents an hour for + semi-skilled labour! Jimmie made inquiry and learned that the company was + extending its plant for gas-engines; for what purpose was not told, but + men suspected that the engines were to go into motor-boats and be used for + the sinking of submarines. So Jimmie decided that Comrade Mabel Smith was + right; he might as well stay where he was. He would take as much money as + he could get and use his new-found prosperity to make trouble for the + war-profiteers. It was the first time in his life that Jimmie had ever + been free from money-fear. He could now get a job anywhere at good wages, + and so he did not care a hang what the boss might say. He would talk to + his fellow-workers, and explain the war to them; a war of the capitalists + at present, but destined perhaps to turn into another kind of war, which + the capitalists would not find to their taste! + </p> + <h3> + II. + </h3> + <p> + It was wonderful, incredible, the thing which had befallen Leesville. Full + of hatred for the system as Jimmie Higgins was, he could not but be + thrilled by what he saw. Thousands of men pouring into the once + commonplace little city—men of a score of races and creeds, men old + and young, white and black—even a few yellow ones! It was a boom + like San Francisco in '49; the money which the Paris bankers had paid to + the Russian government, and which the Russian government had paid to old + man Granitch, spread out in a golden flood over the city. The speculators + raised the price of land, the house-owners raised rents, the hotels + doubled their prices, and even so, had to put people to bed on pool + tables! Even Tom Callahan of the “Buffeteria”' had to hire two assistants, + and build an extension, and move his kitchen into the back yard. + </p> + <p> + At night the hordes of strangers roamed the streets, and Lipsky's “Picture + Palace” was packed to the doors, and the “Bon Marche Shoe Stores” had a + new bankruptcy sale every week, and the swinging doors of the saloons were + never still for hours on end. Of course, where so many men were gathered, + there came women—swarms of women—of as many races as the men. + Leesville had some two score churches, and had kept hitherto a careful + pretence of decency; but now all barriers went down, the police-force of + the city was overwhelmed by the new population—or was it by the + golden flood from Paris by way of Russia? Anyway, you saw sights on Main + Street which confirmed your distrust of war. + </p> + <p> + Never had there been such an opportunity for Socialist propaganda! All + these hordes of men, collected from the ends of the earth, torn loose from + home ties, from religion, from old habits of every sort, thrown together + promiscuously, living in any old way, ready for any old thing that might + come along! In former days these men had taken what was handed out to them + by their newspaper editors and preachers and politicians; they had engaged + in commonplace and respectable activities, had lived tame and + unadventurous lives. But now they were making munitions; and you might say + what you pleased, but there was a certain psychological condition + incidental to the making of munitions. An employer could look pious and + talk about law and order, so long as he was setting his men to hoeing + weeds or shingling roofs or grading track; but what could he say to his + men when he was making shells to be used in blowing men to pieces? + </p> + <p> + So came the Socialist and the Anarchist and the Syndicalist and the + Industrial Unionist. Look at these masters, look at this civilization they + have produced! In the world's oldest centres of culture ten or twenty + millions of wage-slaves have been hurled together—and then the + Socialist or Anarchist or Syndicalist or Industrial Unionist would + describe in detail the bloody and bestial operations which these ten or + twenty millions of men were performing. And each day's papers would bring + fresh details for them to cite—famine and pestilence, fire and + slaughter, poison gas, incendiary bombs, torpedoed passenger-ships. Look + at these pious hypocrites, the masters, with their refinement, their + culture, their religion! These are the people you are asked to follow, it + is for such as these that you have been chained to the machines all these + weary, toil-crowded years! + </p> + <h3> + III. + </h3> + <p> + On every street corner, in every meeting-room, in every spot where the + workers gathered at the noon hour, you would hear such arguments; and you + would find men listening to them—men who perhaps had never listened + to such arguments before. They would nod, and their faces would become + grim—yes, the people up on top must be a rotten lot! Here in + America, supposed to be a land of liberty and all that—here they + were just the same, they were crowding to the trough to drink the blood + that was poured out in Europe. Of course, they covered their greed with a + camouflage of sympathy for the Allies; but did anybody believe that old + man Granitch loved the Russian government? Certainly nobody in Leesville + did; they knew that he was “getting his”, and their hearts hardened with a + grim resolve to “get theirs”. + </p> + <p> + At first they thought they were succeeding. Wages went up, almost for the + asking; never did the unskilled man have so much money in his pocket, + while the man who could pretend to any skill at all found himself in the + plutocratic class. But quickly men discovered the worm in this luscious + war-fruit; prices were going up almost as fast as wages—in some + places even faster. The sums you had to pay to the landlord surpassed + belief; a single working man would be asked two or three dollars a week + for twelve hours' use of a mattress and blanket, which in the old days he + might have got for fifty cents. Food was scarce and of poor quality; + before long you found yourself being asked to pay six cents for a hunk of + pie or a cup of coffee—and then seven cents, and then ten. If you + kicked, the proprietor would tell you a long tale about what he had to pay + for rent and labour and supplies; and you could not deny that he was + probably right. About the only thing that did not go up was a + postage-stamp; and the Socialist would point to this and explain that the + Post Office was run by Uncle Sam, instead of by Abel Granitch! + </p> + <p> + Every rise in price was a fresh stick of fuel for the Socialist machine, + and gave new power to their propaganda of “Starve the War and Feed + America!” The Socialist saw millions of tons of goods being loaded into + steamships and sent to Europe to be destroyed in war; he saw the workers + of Europe becoming enslaved by a bonded debt to a class of parasites in + America, he saw America being drawn closer and closer to the abyss of the + strife. The Socialist loved no part of this process. He clamoured for an + embargo—not merely on munitions, but on food and everything, until + the war-lords of Europe came to their senses. He urged the workers to + strike, and thus force the politicians to declare the embargo. + </p> + <p> + Especially, of course, he urged this if he were a German or an Austrian, a + Hungarian or a Bohemian. The latter were subject races, but they could not + in these early days see beyond the fact that their fathers and brothers + and cousins were being killed by the shells that were made in the Empire + Machine Shops. With them stood also the Jews, who hated the Russian + government so bitterly that nothing else mattered; also the Irish, whose + first idea in life was to pay back John Bull for his sins of several + centuries, and whose second idea was to take part in any sort of shivaree + that was going. It was quite bewildering to Jimmie Higgins; he had + wrestled with Catholics of several nations and got nothing but hard words + for his pains, but now all of a sudden Tom Callahan of the “Buffeteria” + and Pat Grogan of the grocery on the corner made the discovery that maybe + he was not such a fool after all! + </p> + <h3> + IV. + </h3> + <p> + As a result of this ferment among the workers, the local had doubled its + membership, and was holding soap-box meetings on a corner off Main Street + on two evenings every week. The plans for the weekly paper, however, still + hung fire. Comrade Dr. Service had lost his two brothers-in-law, one in + the battle of Mons, and the other in the first frightful gas-attack at + Ypres, where whole regiments of men were caught unprepared and died in + awful torments. Also two of his wife's cousins had paid the price—one + was blind, and the other a prisoner at Ruhleben, the worst fate of all. So + Dr. Service made one last indignant speech in the local, and took his five + hundred dollars to start a chapter of the Red Cross! + </p> + <p> + But now the Germans and the war-haters in the local were asking + themselves, was Socialism to languish in the city of the Empire Machine + Shops, just because one rich man with an English wife had proved a + renegade? Such a question answered itself! The work of collecting + subscription lists was taken up more vigorously than ever; and already + more than half the lost five hundred had been made up, when one evening + John Meissner came home with a most amazing story. + </p> + <p> + It was his custom to stop at Sandkuh's for one glass of beer on his way + home in the evening; and when anybody in the saloon got to arguing about + the war, he would take his chance to put in a little propaganda. This time + he had made a regular speech, declaring that the workers would soon put an + end to the munition-business; and a fellow had got to talking with him, + asking him all sorts of questions about himself, and about the local. How + many members did it have? How many of them felt as Meissner did? What were + they doing about it? Pretty soon the man had drawn Meissner to a table in + the back part of the place, asking about the proposed paper, and what its + policy was to be; also about the unions in the city, and their policy, and + the personalities of the leaders. + </p> + <p> + The man had said he was a Socialist, but Meissner did not believe him. + Meissner thought he must be some kind of union organizer. There had been + talk of various unions making an effort to break into the domain of old + man Granitch; and, of course, there was always the I. W. W. trying to + break in everywhere with its programme of the “one big union”. + </p> + <p> + Meissner went on to tell how this mysterious stranger had stated to him + that it would be possible to get plenty of money to back the proposition + of a strike in the Empire Shops. The new plant was just ready to start up, + and fresh swarms of men were coming in; what was wanted was some live + fellows to get in with them and agitate for an eight hour day and a + minimum wage scale of sixty cents an hour. Men who were willing to do that + could get good money, and plenty of it; if the Leesville Worker would + advocate such a policy, there was no reason why it should not start up the + very next week, and publish a big edition and flood the town. The one + essential was that arrangements should be made secretly. Meissner must + trust no one save dyed-in-the-wool “reds”, who would be willing to hustle, + and not say where the pay came from. As earnest of his intentions, the + stranger pulled out a roll of bills, and casually drew off half a dozen + and slipped them into Meissner's hands. They were for ten dollars each—more + money than a petty boss at the glass-works had ever got into his hands at + one time in all his life! + </p> + <p> + Meissner exhibited the roll, and Jimmie stared with wide-open eyes. Here + indeed was a new development of the war—ten dollar bills for + Socialist propaganda to be picked up in the back rooms of saloons! What + was this fellow's name? And where did he hang out? Meissner offered to + take Jimmie to meet him, and so the two bolted their suppers and set out + at top speed. + </p> + <h3> + V. + </h3> + <p> + Jerry Coleman had mentioned several saloons where he was known, and in one + of these they found him, a smooth-faced, smooth-spoken young fellow whom + Jimmie would have taken for a detective or “spotter”—having had + dealings with such in his days “on the road”. The man wore good clothes, + and his finger-nails were cared for, something which, as we know, is + seldom permitted to working-men. But he did not put on airs, and he bade + them call him by his first name. He talked to Jimmie a while, enough to + make sure of his man, and then he peeled off some more bills, and told + Jimmie to find more fellows who could be trusted. It wouldn't do for any + one person to have too much money, for that would excite suspicion; but if + they would go to work and spend that much for dodgers to be distributed + among the munition-workers, and for street-meetings, and for the proposed + radical paper—well, there was plenty more money in the place where + this had come from. + </p> + <p> + Where was that place? Jimmie asked; and Jerry Coleman looked wise and + winked. Then, after further consideration, he decided it might be well to + tell them, provided they would pledge themselves not to mention it to + others without his permission. This pledge they gave, and Jerry stated + that he was a national organizer for the American Federation of Labour, + which had resolved to unionize these munition-plants, and to establish the + eight hour day. But it was of the utmost importance that the bosses should + not get wind of the matter; it must not be revealed to anyone save those + whom Coleman saw fit to trust. He was trusting Jimmie and Meissner, and + they might know that the great labour organization was behind them, and + would see them through regardless of expense. Of course, it would be + expected that they would use the money honestly. + </p> + <p> + “Gee!” exclaimed Jimmie. “What do you take us for? A bunch of crooks?” + </p> + <p> + No, said the other, he was not such a poor judge of character. And Jimmie + remarked grimly that anybody who was looking for easy money did not go + into the business of Socialist agitation. If there was anything a + Socialist could boast of, it was that their workers and elected officials + never touched any graft. Mr. Coleman—that is, Jerry—would be + handed a receipt for every dollar they spent. + </p> + <p> + It chanced that that same night there was a meeting of the Propaganda + Committee of the local, which consisted of half a dozen of the most active + members. Jimmie and Meissner hurried to this place, with their new-found + wealth burning a hole in their pockets. They informed the committee that + they had been collecting money for the propaganda fund, and produced + before the eyes of the astounded comrades the sum of one hundred dollars. + </p> + <p> + It happened that the chairman of the committee had just received from the + National Office of the party in Chicago a sample of a new leaflet entitled + “Feed America First”; this leaflet could be had in quantities for a very + low price, a dollar or two per thousand; as a result of Jimmie's + contribution, a telegram was sent for ten thousand of the leaflets to be + shipped by express. And then there was a proposition from the state office + for Comrade Seaman, author of a book against war, to speak every night for + two weeks in Leesville. The local had voted to turn down his proposition + for lack of funds; but now, with the new contributions, the propaganda + committee felt equal to the fifty dollars involved. And then there was the + idea of Comrade Gerrity, the organizer, who was conducting street meetings + every Wednesday and Saturday nights; if he could have an assistant, at + fifteen a week, the soap-boxing could go on every night. John Meissner + here put in—he was sure that contributions could be got for that + purpose, provided the decision was made without delay. So the decision was + made. + </p> + <h3> + VI. + </h3> + <p> + The meeting was adjourned, and then Meissner and Jimmie went into + conference with Gerrity, the organizer, and Schneider, the brewer, and + Comrade Mary Allen, all three of whom happened to be on the committee + entrusted with the affairs of the Worker. Jimmie explained that they had + met a union organizer—they could not tell about him, but the + committee would have a chance to meet him—who would put up the + balance of the money needed, provided that the paper would be willing to + call at once for a strike of the Empire employees. Could that promise be + made? And Comrade Mary Allen laughed, indicating her scorn for anybody who + could cherish a doubt on that question! Comrade Mary was a Quaker; she + loved all mankind with religious fervour—and it is astonishing how + bitter people can become in the cause of universal love. Her sharp, pale + face flushed, and her thin lips set, as she answered that the Worker would + most surely fight the war-profiteers, so long as she was on the managing + committee! + </p> + <p> + It was finally decided that Comrade Mary should call on Jerry Coleman in + the morning, and satisfy herself that he really meant business; if so, she + would get the full committee together on the following evening. The + committee had authority to go ahead, as soon as the necessary fund was + made up, so if Coleman was all right, there was no reason why the first + issue of the paper should not appear next week. Comrade Jack Smith, a + reporter on the Herald, the capitalist paper of Leesville, was to resign + and become editor of the Worker, and he already had his editorials written—had + been showing them about in the local for the past month! + </p> + <p> + Jimmie and Meissner set out for home, happy in the feeling that they had + accomplished more for Socialism on that one night than in all the rest of + their lives. But then, as they walked, there came suddenly a clamour of + bells on the night air; a fire! They knew the signals, and counted the + strokes, and made the discovery that it was in the neighbourhood of their + own home! An engine went by on the gallop, with sparks streaming out + behind, and they broke into a run. Before they had gone a couple of + blocks, they saw a glare in the sky, and their hearts were in their + throats; poor Meissner panted that he had neglected to pay his last + month's insurance! + </p> + <p> + But as they ran, in the ever-growing throng of people, they realized that + the fire was too near for their own home; also, it was a bigger blaze than + could have been made by any number of shacks. And presently there were + shouts in the crowd, “It's the Empire! The Old Shops!” There came a hook + and ladder truck, rushing by with shrieking siren, and then the fire-chief + in his automobile with a fiercely clanging bell; they turned the corner, + and far down the street before them was the building in which for four + years Jimmie had tended the bolt-making machine. They saw that one whole + end of it was a towering, leaping, sweeping pillar of flames! + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0005" id="link2HCH0005"> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER V. JIMMIE HIGGINS HELPS THE KAISER + </h2> + <h3> + I. + </h3> + <p> + Jimmie Higgins regarded with the utmost resentment the determination of + the war to come to Leesville, in spite of all his labours to keep it out. + Take the most preposterous thing you could imagine—the most idiotic + thing on the face of the earth—take German spies! When Jimmie heard + people talking about German spies, he laughed in their faces, he told them + they were a bunch of fools, they belonged in the nursery; for Jimmie + classed German spies with goblins, witches and sea-serpents. And here + suddenly the bewildered little man found himself in the midst of a German + spy mania, the like of which he could never have dreamed! + </p> + <p> + Everybody seemed to take it for granted that the Empire Machine Shops had + been burned by German agents; they just knew it, and by the time the fire + was out they had a hundred various stories to support their conviction. + The fire had leaped from place to place in a series of explosions; the + watchman, who had passed through the building only two minutes before, had + rushed back and seen blazing gasolene, and had almost lost his life in the + sweep of the flames. And next morning the Leesville Herald was out with + letters half a foot high, telling these tales and insisting that the plant + had been full of German agents, disguised as working men. + </p> + <p> + Before the day was by the police had arrested a dozen perfectly harmless + German and Austrian labourers; at least that was the way it seemed to + Jimmie, because of the fact that two of the men were members of the + Socialist local. Somebody told Mrs. Meissner that all the Germans in + Leesville were to be arrested, and the poor woman was trembling with + terror. She wanted her husband to run away, but Jimmie persuaded them that + this would be the worst possible course; so Meissner stayed in the house, + and Jimmie kept his mouth shut for three whole days—an extraordinary + feat for him, and a trial more severe than being in gaol. + </p> + <p> + He had lost his job—for ever, he thought. But in this again he + misjudged the forces which had taken his life in their grip—the + power of the gold which had come to Leesville by way of Russia. The day + after the fire he received word to report for work again; old man Granitch + was so anxious to keep his workers out of the clutches of the Hubbard + Engine Company that he put them all, skilled and unskilled, at the job of + clearing away the debris of the fire! And five days later came the first + carloads of new material, brought on motor-trucks, and the rebuilding of + the Empire Shops began. Would you believe it—some of the machinery + which had not been damaged too much in the fire was fixed up, and at the + end of a couple of weeks was starting up again, covered by a temporary + canvas shelter, and with the walls of the new building rising round it! + </p> + <p> + That was the kind of thing which made America the marvel of the world. It + had made old man Granitch young again, people said; he worked twenty hours + a day in his shirt-sleeves, and the increase in his profanity was + appalling. Even Lacey Granitch, his dashing son, quitted the bright lights + of Broadway and came home to help the old man keep his contracts. The + enthusiasm for these contracts became as it were the religion of + Leesville; it spread even to the ranks of labour, so that Jimmie found + himself like a man in a surf, struggling to keep his feet against an + undertow. + </p> + <h3> + II. + </h3> + <p> + The plans for the Worker were delayed, for the reason that when Comrade + Mary Allen, the Quaker, went to look for Jerry Coleman the day after the + fire, that dispenser of ten dollar bills had mysteriously disappeared. It + was a week before he showed up again; and meantime fresh events had taken + place, both in the local and outside. To begin with the latter, as + presumably the more important, an English passenger liner, the pride of + the Atlantic fleet, loaded to the last cabin with American millionaires, + was torpedoed without warning by a German submarine. More than a thousand + men, women and children went down, and the deed sent a shudder of horror + through the civilized world. At the meeting of Local Leesville, which + happened to take place the evening afterward, it proved a difficult matter + to get business started. + </p> + <p> + The members stood about and argued. What could you say about a government + that ordered a crime like that? What could you say about a naval officer + who would carry out such an order? Thus Comrade Norwood, the young lawyer; + and Schneider, the brewer, answered that the German government had done + everything that any reasonable man could ask. It had published a notice in + the New York papers, to the effect that the vessel was subject to attack, + and that anyone who travelled on her would do so at his peril. If women + and children would ride on munition-ships— + </p> + <p> + “Munition-ships?” cried Norwood; and then Schneider pointed to a + news-dispatch, to the effect that the Lusitania had had on board a + shipment of cartridge-cases. + </p> + <p> + “A fine lot of munitions!” jeered the lawyer. + </p> + <p> + Well, was the reply, what were cartridge-cases for, if not to kill + Germans? The Germans had been attacked by the whole world, and they had to + defend themselves. When you looked at Comrade Schneider, you saw a man who + felt himself attacked by the whole world; his face was red up to the roots + of his hair, and he was ready to defend himself with any weapon he could + get hold of. + </p> + <p> + Comrade Koeln, a big glass-blower, broke into the discussion. The German + government was authority for the statement that the Lusitania had been + armed with guns. And when Norwood hooted at this, every German in the room + was up in arms. What did he have to disprove it? The word of the British + government! Was not “perfidious Albion” a byword! + </p> + <p> + “The thing that beats me,” declared the young lawyer, “is the way you + Germans stand up for the Kaiser now, when before the war you couldn't find + enough bad things to say about him.” + </p> + <p> + “What beats me,” countered Schneider, “is how you Americans stand up for + King George. Every newspaper in Wall Street howling for America to go into + the war—just because some millionaires got killed!” + </p> + <p> + “You don't seem to realize that the greater number of the men who lost + their lives on that ship were working men!” + </p> + <p> + “Ho! Ho!” hooted Comrade Stankewitz. “Vall Street loves so the vorking + men!” + </p> + <p> + Comrade Mary Allen, who loved all men, took up the argument. If those + working men had been killed in a mine disaster, caused by criminal + carelessness and greed for profits; if they had died of some industrial + disease which might easily have been prevented; if they had been burned in + a factory without fire-escapes—nobody in Wall Street would have + wanted to go to war. And, of course, every Socialist considered this was + true; every Socialist saw quite clearly that the enormity of the Lusitania + sinking lay in the fact that it had reached and injured the privileged + people, the people who counted, who got their names in the papers and were + not supposed to be inconvenienced, even by war. So it was possible for + Jimmie Higgins, even though shocked by what the Germans had done, to be + irritated by the fuss which the Wall Street newspapers made. + </p> + <p> + Young Emil Forster spoke, and they listened to him, as they always did. It + was a quarrel, he said—and as usual in quarrels, both sides had + their rights and wrongs. You had to balance a few English and American + babies against the millions of German babies which the British government + intended to starve. It was British sea-power maintaining itself—and + of course controlling most of the channels of publicity. It appealed to + what it called “law”—that is to say, the customs it had found + convenient in the past. British cruisers were able to visit and search + vessels, and to take off their crews; but submarines could not do that, so + what the British clamour about “law” amounted to was an attempt to keep + Germany from using her only weapon. After all, ask yourself honestly if it + was any worse to drown people quickly than to starve them slowly. + </p> + <p> + And then came “Wild Bill”. This wrangling over German and British gave him + a pain in the guts. Couldn't they see, the big stiffs, that they were + playing the masters' game? Quarrelling among themselves, when they ought + to be waking up the workers, getting ready for the real fight. And + wizened-up little Stankewitz broke in again—that vas vy he hated + var, it divided the vorkers. There was nothing you could say for var. But + “Wild Bill” smiled his crooked smile. There were several things you could + say. War gave the workers guns, and taught them to use them; how would it + be if some day they turned these guns about and fought their own battles? + </p> + <h3> + III. + </h3> + <p> + Comrade Gerrity now took the chair and made an effort to get things + started. The minutes of the last meeting were read, new members were voted + on, and then Comrade Mary Allen rose to report for the Worker committee. + The fund had been completed, the first number of the paper was to appear + next week, and it was now up to every member of the local to get up on his + toes and hustle as never in his life before. Comrade Mary, with her thin, + eager face of a religious zealot, made everyone share her fervour. + </p> + <p> + All save Lawyer Norwood. Since the retirement of Dr. Service he was the + chief pro-ally trouble-maker, and he now made a little speech. He had been + agreeably surprised to learn that the money had been raised so quickly; + but then certain uncomfortable doubts having occurred to him, he had made + inquiries and found there was some mystery about the matter. It was stated + that the new paper was to demand a general strike in the Empire; and of + course everybody knew there were powerful and sinister forces now + interested in promoting strikes in munition factories. + </p> + <p> + “Wild Bill” was on his feet in an instant. Had the comrade any objection + to munition workers demanding the eight hour day? + </p> + <p> + “No,” said Norwood, “of course not; but if we are going into a fight with + other people, we surely ought to know who they are and what their purpose + is. I have been informed—there seems to be a little hesitation in + talking about it—that a lot of money has been put up by one man, and + nobody knows who that man is.” + </p> + <p> + “He's an organizer for the A. F. of L.!” The voice was Jimmie's. In his + excitement the solemn pledge of secrecy was entirely forgotten! + </p> + <p> + “Indeed!” said Norwood. “What is his name?” + </p> + <p> + Nobody answered. + </p> + <p> + “Has he shown his credentials?” Again silence. + </p> + <p> + “Of course, I don't need to tell men as familiar with union affairs as the + comrades here that every bona-fide organizer for a union carries + credentials. If he does not produce them, it is at least occasion for + writing to the organization and finding out about him. Has anybody done + that?” + </p> + <p> + Again there was silence. + </p> + <p> + “I don't want to make charges,” said Norwood— + </p> + <p> + “Oh, no!” put in “Wild Bill”. “You only want to make insinuations!” + </p> + <p> + “What I want to do is merely to make sure that the local knows what it is + doing. It is no secret anywhere in Leesville that money is being spent to + cause trouble in the Empire. No doubt this money has passed through a + great many hands since it left the Kaiser's, but we may be sure that his + hands are guiding it to its final end.” + </p> + <p> + And then what an uproar! “Shame! Shame!” cried some; and others cried, + “Bring your proofs!” The “wild” members shouted, “Put him out!” They had + long wanted to get rid of Norwood, and this looked to be their chance. + </p> + <p> + But the young lawyer stood his ground and gave them shot for shot. They + wanted proofs, did they? Suppose they had learned of a capitalist + conspiracy to wreck the unions in the city; and suppose that the Leesville + Herald had been clamouring for “proofs”—what would they have + thought? + </p> + <p> + “In other words,” shouted Schneider, “you know it's true, yust because + it's Yermany!” + </p> + <p> + “I know it's true,” said Norwood, “because it would help Germany to win + the war. One doesn't have to have any other evidence—if a certain + thing will help Germany to win the war, one knows that thing is being + done. All you Germans know that, and what's more, you're proud of it; it's + your efficiency that you boast.” + </p> + <p> + Again there was a cry of “Shame! Shame!” But the cry came from Comrade + Mary, the Quaker lady, and it was evident that she had expected a chorus, + and was disconcerted at being alone. + </p> + <p> + Young Norwood, who knew his Germans, laughed scornfully. “Just now your + government is selling bonds in America, supposed to be for the benefit of + the families of the dead and wounded. Some of those bonds have been taken + in this city, as I happen to know. Does anybody really believe the money + will reach the families of the dead and wounded?” + </p> + <p> + This time the Germans answered. “I belief it!” roared Comrade Koeln. “And + I! And I!” shouted others. + </p> + <p> + “That money is staying right here in Leesville!” proclaimed the lawyer. + “It is preparing a strike in the Empire!” + </p> + <p> + A dozen men wanted the floor at once. Schneider, the brewer, got it, for + the reason that he could outbellow anyone else. “What does the comrade + want?” he demanded. “Is he not for the eight hour day?” + </p> + <p> + “Has he got any of the old man Granitch's money?” shrilled “Wild Bill”. + “Or maybe he doesn't know that Granitch is spending money to get smart + young lawyers to help keep his munition slaves at work?” + </p> + <h3> + IV. + </h3> + <p> + Norwood, having thrown the fat into the fire, sat down for a while and let + it blaze. When the Germans taunted him with being afraid to say what he + really meant—that the local should oppose the demand for the eight + hour day—he merely laughed at them. He had wanted to make them show + themselves up, and he had done it. Not merely were they willing to do the + work of the Kaiser—they were willing to take the Kaiser's pay for + doing it! + </p> + <p> + “Take his pay?” cried “Wild Bill”. “I'd take the devil's pay to carry on + Socialist propaganda!” + </p> + <p> + Old Hermann Forster rose and spoke, in his gentle sentimental voice. If it + were true that the Kaiser was paying money for such ends, he would surely + find he had bought very little. There were Socialists in Germany, one must + remember— + </p> + <p> + And then came a shrill laugh. Those tame German Socialists! It was Comrade + Claudel, a Belgian jeweller, who spoke. Would any rabbit be afraid of such + revolutionists as them? Eating out of the Kaiser's hand—having their + papers distributed in the trenches for government propaganda! Talk to a + Belgian about German Socialists! + </p> + <p> + So you saw the European national lines splitting Local Leesville in two: + on the one side, the Germans and the Austrians, the Russian Jews, the + Irish and the religious pacifists; on the other side, two English + glass-blowers, a French waiter, and several Americans who, because of + college-education or other snobbish weakness, were suspected of tenderness + for John Bull. Between these extreme factions stood the bulk of the + membership, listening bewildered, trying to grope their way through the + labyrinth. + </p> + <p> + It was no easy job for these plain fellows, the Jimmie Higginses. When + they tried to think the matter out, they were almost brought to despair. + There were so many sides to the question—the last fellow you met + always had a better argument than anyone you had heard before! You + sympathized with Belgium and France, of course; but could you help hating + the British ruling classes? They were your hereditary enemies—your + school-book enemies, so to speak. And they were the ones you knew most + about; since every American jack-ass that got rich quick and wanted to set + himself up above his fellows would proceed to get English clothes and + English servants and English bad manners. To the average plain American, + the word English stood for privilege, for ruling class culture, the things + established, the things against which he was in rebellion; Germany was the + I. W. W. among the nations—the fellow who had never got a chance and + was now hitting out for it. Moreover, the Germans were efficient; they + took the trouble to put their case before you, they cared what you thought + about them; whereas the Englishman, damn him, turned up his snobbish nose, + not caring a whoop what you or anybody might think. + </p> + <p> + Moreover, in this controversy the force of inertia was on the German side, + and inertia is a powerful force in any organization. What the Germans + wanted of American Socialists was simply that they should go on doing what + they had been doing all their lives. And the Socialist machine had been + set up for the purpose of going on, regardless of all the powers on earth, + in the heavens above the earth, or in hell beneath. Ask Jimmie Higgins to + stop demanding higher wages and the eight hour day! Wouldn't anybody in + his senses know what Jimmie would answer to that proposition? Go chase + yourself! + </p> + <h3> + V. + </h3> + <p> + But, on the other hand, it must be admitted that Jimmie was staggered by + the idea that he might be getting into the pay of the Kaiser. It was true + that the traditions of the Socialist movement were German traditions, but + they were German anti-Government traditions: Jimmie regarded the Kaiser as + the devil incarnate, and the bare idea of doing anything the Kaiser wanted + done was enough to make him stop short. He could see also what a bad thing + it would be for the movement to have any person believe that it was taking + the Kaiser's money. Suppose, for example, that a report of this evening's + discussion should reach the Herald! And with the public inflamed to + madness over the Lusitania affair! + </p> + <p> + After the discussion had proceeded for an hour or so, Norwood made a + motion to the effect that the Worker committee should be instructed to + investigate thoroughly the sources of all funds contributed, and to reject + any that did not come from Socialists, or those in sympathy with + Socialism. The common sense of the meeting asserted itself, and even the + Germans voted for this motion. Sure, let them go ahead and investigate! + The Socialist movement was clean, it had always been clean, it had nothing + to conceal from anyone. + </p> + <p> + But then came another controversy. Claudel moved that Norwood should be + made a member of the committee; and this, of course, was bitterly opposed + by the radicals. It was an insult to the integrity of the committee. Then, + too, suggested Baggs, an Englishman, perhaps Norwood might really find out + something! The Jimmie Higginses voted down the motion—not because + they feared any disclosures, but because they felt that a quiet, sensible + fellow like Gerrity, their organizer, might be trusted to protect the good + faith of the movement, and without antagonizing anybody or making a fuss. + </p> + <p> + The investigation took place, and the result of it was that the money + which Jerry Coleman had contributed for the Worker was quietly returned to + him. But the difference was at once made up by the Germans in the local, + who regarded the whole thing as a put-up job, an effort to block the + agitation for a strike. These comrades took no stock whatever in the talk + about “German gold”; but on the other hand they were keenly on the alert + for the influence of Russian gold, which they knew was being openly + distributed by old Abel Granitch. And so they put their hands down into + their pockets and dug out their scanty wages, so that the demand for + social justice might be kept alive in Leesville. + </p> + <p> + The upshot of the whole episode was that the local rejected the Kaiser's + pay, but went on doing what the Kaiser wanted without pay. This could + hardly be considered a satisfactory solution, but it was the best that + Jimmie Higgins was able to work out at this time. + </p> + <h3> + VI. + </h3> + <p> + The first issue of the Worker appeared, with Jack Smith's editorial spread + over the front page, calling upon the workers of the Empire to take this + occasion to organize and demand their rights. “Eight hours for work, eight + hours for sleep, eight hours for play!” proclaimed Comrade Jack; and the + Herald and the Courier, stung to a frenzy by the appearance of a poacher + on their journalistic preserves, answered with broadsides about “German + propaganda”. The Herald got the story of what had happened in the local; + also it printed a picture of “Wild Bill”, and an interview with that + terror of the West, who declared that he was for war on the capitalist + class with the aid of any and every ally that came along—even to the + extent of emery powder in ball-bearings and copper nails driven into fruit + trees. + </p> + <p> + The Herald charged that the attitude of the Socialists toward “tainted + wealth” was all a sham. What had happened was simply that the German + members of the local were getting German money, and making it “Socialist + money” by the simple device of passing it through their consecrated hands. + As this had been hinted by Norwood in the local, the German comrades now + charged that Norwood had betrayed the movement to the capitalist press. + And so came another bitter controversy in the local. The young lawyer + laughed at the charge. Did they really believe they could take German + money in Leesville, and not have the fact become known? + </p> + <p> + “Then you think we are taking German money?” roared Schneider; and he + clamoured furiously for an answer. The other would not answer directly, + but he told them a little parable. He saw a tree, sending down its roots + into the ground, spreading everywhere, each tiny rootlet constructed for + the purpose of absorbing water. And on the top of the ground was a man + with a supply of water, which he poured out; he poured and poured without + stint, and the water seeped down toward the rootlets, and every rootlet + was reaching for water, pushing toward the places where water was likely + to be. “And now,” said Norwood, “you ask me, do I believe that tree has + been getting any of that water?” + </p> + <p> + And here, of course, was the basis of a bitter quarrel. The hot-heads + would not listen to subtle distinctions; they declared that Norwood was + accusing the movement of corruption, he was making out his anti-war + opponents to be villains! He was providing the capitalist press with + ammunition. For shame! for shame! “He's a stool-pigeon!” shrieked “Wild + Bill”. “Put him out, the Judas!” + </p> + <p> + The average member of the local, the perfectly sincere fellow like Jimmie + Higgins, who was wearing himself out, half-starving himself in the effort + to bring enlightenment to his class, listened to these controversies with + bewildered distress. He saw them as echoes of the terrible national + hatreds which were rending Europe, and he resented having these old world + disputes thrust into American industrial life. Why could he not go on with + his duty of leading the American workers into the co-operative + commonwealth? + </p> + <p> + Because, answered the Germans, old man Granitch wanted to keep the + American workers as munition-slaves; and to this idea the overwhelming + percentage of the membership agreed. They were not pacifists, + non-resistants; they were perfectly willing to fight the battles of the + working-class; what they objected to was having to fight the battles of + the master-class. They wanted to go on, as they had always gone, opposing + the master-class and paying no heed to talk about German agents. Jimmie + Higgins believed—and in this belief he was perfectly correct—that + even had there been no German agents, the capitalist papers of Leesville + would have invented them, as a means of discrediting the agitators in this + crisis. Jimmie Higgins had lived all his life in a country in which his + masters starved and oppressed him, and when he tried to help himself, met + him with every weapon of treachery and slander. So Jimmie had made up his + mind that one capitalist country was the same as another capitalist + country, and that he would not be frightened into submission by tales + about goblins and witches and sea-serpents and German spies. + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0006" id="link2HCH0006"> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER VI. JIMMIE HIGGINS GOES TO JAIL + </h2> + <h3> + I. + </h3> + <p> + Every evening now the party held its “soap-box” meetings on a corner just + off Main Street. Jimmie, having volunteered as one of the assistants, + would bolt his supper in the evening and hurry off to the spot. He was not + one of the speakers, of course—he would have been terrified at the + idea of making a speech; but he was one of those whose labours made the + speaking possible, and who reaped the harvest for the movement. + </p> + <p> + The apparatus of the meeting was kept in the shop of a friendly carpenter + near-by. The carpenter had made a “soap-box” that was a wonder—a + platform mounted upon four slender legs, detachable, so that one man could + carry the whole business and set it up. Thus the speaker was lifted a + couple of feet above the heads of the crowd, and provided with a hand-rail + upon which he might lean, and even pound, if he did not pound too hard. A + kerosene torch burned some distance from his head, illuminating his + features, and it was Jimmie's business to see that this torch was properly + cleaned and filled, and to hold it erect on a pole part of the time. The + rest of the time he peddled literature among the crowd—copies of the + Leesville Worker, and five and ten cent pamphlets supplied by the National + Office. + </p> + <p> + He would come home at night, worn out from these labours after his daily + toil; he would fall asleep at Lizzie's side, and have to be routed out by + her when the alarm-clock went off next morning. She would get him a cup of + hot coffee, and after he had drunk this, he would be himself again, and + would chatter about the adventures of the night before. There was always + something happening, a fellow starting a controversy, a drunken man, or + perhaps a couple of thugs in the pay of old man Granitch, trying to break + up the meeting. + </p> + <p> + Lizzie would do her best to show that sympathy with her husband's + activities which is expected from a dutiful wife. But all the time there + was a grief in her soul—the eternal grief of the feminine + temperament, which is cautious and conservative, in conflict with the + masculine, which is adventurous and destructive. Here was Jimmie, earning + twice what he had ever earned before, having a chance to feed his children + properly and to put by a little margin for the first time in his harassed + life; but instead of making the most of the opportunity, he was going out + on the streets every night, doing everything in his power to destroy the + golden occasion which Fate had brought to him! Like the fellow who climbs + a tree to saw off a limb, and sits on the limb and saws between himself + and the tree! + </p> + <p> + In spite of her best efforts, Lizzie's broad, kindly face would sometimes + become hard with disappointment, and a big tear would roll down each of + her sturdy cheeks. Jimmie would be sorry for her, and would patiently try + to explain his actions. Should a man think only of his own wife and + children, and forget entirely all the other wives and children of the + working-class? That was why the workers had been slaves all through the + ages, because each thought of himself, and never of his fellows. No, you + must think of your class! You must act as a class—on the alert to + seize every advantage, to teach solidarity and stimulate + class-consciousness! Jimmie would use these long words, which he had heard + at meetings; but then, seeing that Lizzie did not understand them, he + would go back and say it over again in words of one syllable. They had old + man Granitch in a hole just now, and they must teach him a lesson, and at + the same time teach the workers their power. Lizzie would sigh, and shake + her head; for to her, old man Granitch was not a human being, but a + natural phenomenon, like winter, or hunger. He, or some other like him, + had been the master of her fathers for generations untold, and to try to + break or even to limit his power was like commanding the tide or the sun. + </p> + <h3> + II. + </h3> + <p> + Events moved quickly to their culmination, justifying the worst of + Lizzie's fears. The shops were seething with discontent, and agitators + seemed fairly to spring out of the ground; some of them paid by Jerry + Coleman, no doubt, others taking their pay in the form of gratification of + those grudges with which the profit-system had filled their hearts. + Noon-meetings would start up, quite spontaneously, without any + prearrangement; and presently Jimmie learned that men were going about + taking the names of all who would agree to strike. + </p> + <p> + The matter was brought to a head by the Empire managers, who, of course, + were kept informed by their spies. They discharged more than a score of + the trouble-makers; and when this news spread at noon-time, the whole + place burst into a flame of wrath. “Strike! strike!” was the cry. Jimmie + was one of many who started a procession through the yards, shouting, + singing, hurling menaces at the bosses, challenging all who proposed to + return to work. Less than one-tenth of the working force made any attempt + to do so, and for that afternoon the plant of the Empire Machine Shops, + which was supposed to be turning out shell-casings for the Russian + government, was turning out labour-union, Socialist, and I. W. W. oratory. + </p> + <p> + Jimmie Higgins was beside himself with excitement. He danced about and + waved his cap, he shouted himself hoarse, he almost yielded to the impulse + to jump upon a pile of lumber and make a speech himself. Presently came + Comrades Gerrity and Mary Allen, who had got wind of the trouble, and had + loaded a whole edition of the Worker into a Ford; so Jimmie turned + newsboy, selling these papers, hundreds of them, until his pockets were + bursting with the weight of pennies and nickels. And then he was pressed + into service running errands for those who were arranging to organize the + workers; he carried bundles of membership-cards and application-blanks, + following a man with a bull voice and a megaphone, who shouted in several + languages the location of union headquarters, and the halls where various + foreign language meetings would be held that evening. Evidently someone + had foreseen the breaking of this trouble, and had been at pains to plan + ahead. + </p> + <p> + Late in the afternoon Jimmie was witness of an exciting incident. In one + of the shops a number of the men had persisted in returning to work, and + an immense throng of strikers had gathered to wait for them. They were + afraid to come out, but stayed in the building after the quitting-whistle, + while those outside jeered and hooted and the bosses telephoned + frantically for aid. The greater part of the Leesville police-force was on + hand, and in addition, the company had its own guards and private + detectives. But they were needed all over the place. You saw them at the + various entrances, menacing, but not quite so sure of themselves as usual; + their hands had a tendency to slip back to the bulge on their right hips. + </p> + <p> + Jimmie and another fellow had got themselves an empty box and were + standing on it, leaning against the wall of the building and shouting “Ya! + Ya!” at every “scab” head that showed itself. They saw an automobile come + in at the gate, its horn honking savagely, causing the crowd to leap to + one side or the other. The automobile was packed with men, sitting on one + another's knees, or hanging to the running-boards outside. There came a + second car, loaded in the same fashion. They were guards, sent all the way + from Hubbardtown; for of course the Hubbard Engine Company would help out + its rivals in an emergency such as this. That was the solidarity of + capitalism, concerning which the Socialists never wearied of preaching. + </p> + <p> + The men leaped from the cars, and spread themselves fanwise in front of + the door. They had nightsticks in their hands, and grim resolution in + their faces; they cried, “Stand back! Stand back!” The crowd hooted, but + gave slightly, and a few minutes later the doors of the building opened, + and the first of the timid workers emerged. There was a howl, and then + from somewhere in the throng a stone was thrown. “Arrest that man!” + shouted a voice, and Jimmie's attention was attracted to the owner of this + voice—a young man who had arrived in the first automobile, and was + now standing up in the seat, from which position he could dominate the + throng. “Arrest that man!” he shouted again, pointing his finger; and + three of the guards leaped into the crowd at the spot indicated. The man + who had thrown the missile started to run, but he could not go fast in the + crowd, and in a moment, as it seemed, the guards had him by the collar. He + tried to jerk away, and they struck him over the head, and laid about them + to keep the rest of the throng at bay. “Take him inside!” the young man in + the car kept shouting. And one of the guards twisted his hand in the + collar of the wretched stone-thrower, until he grew purple in the face, + and so half-dragged and half-ran him into the building. + </p> + <h3> + III. + </h3> + <p> + The young man in the car turned toward the crowd which was blocking the + way to the exit. “Get those men out of the way!” he yelled to the guards. + “Drive them along—God damn them, they've got no business in here.” + And so on, with a string of dynamic profanity, which stung both guards and + policemen into action, and made them ply their clubs upon the crowd. + </p> + <p> + “Do you know who that is?” asked Jimmie's companion on the box. “That's + Lacey Granitch.” + </p> + <p> + Jimmie started, experiencing a thrill to the soles of his ragged shoes. + Lacey Granitch! In the four years that the little machinist had worked for + the Empire, he had never caught a glimpse of the young lord of Leesville—something + which may easily be believed, for the young lord considered Leesville “a + hole of a town”, and honoured it with his presence only once or twice a + year. But his spirit brooded over it; he was to Leesville a mythological + figure, either of wonder and awe, or of horror, according to the + temperament of the contemplator. One day “Wild Bill” had arisen in the + local, and held aloft a page from the “magazine supplement” of one of the + metropolitan “yellows”. There was an account of how Lacey Granitch had + broken the hearts of seven chorus-girls by running away with an eighth. He + fairly “ate 'em alive”, according to the account; in order to give an idea + of the atmosphere in which the young hero abode, the whirl of delight + which was his life, the artist of the Sunday supplement had woven round + the border of the page a maze of feminine ankles and calves in a delirium + of lingerie; while at the top was a supper-table with champagne-corks + popping, and a lady clad in inadequate veils dancing amid the dishes. + </p> + <p> + This had happened while the local was in the midst of an acrimonious + controversy over “Section Six”. Should the Socialist party bar from its + membership those who advocated sabotage, violence and crime? Young Norwood + was pleading for orderly methods of social reconstruction; and here stood + “Wild Bill”, ripping to shreds the reputation of the young plutocrat of + the Empire Shops. “That's what you geezers are sweating for! That's why + you've got to be good, and not throw monkey-wrenches in the machinery—so + the seven broken-hearted chorus-girls can drown their sorrows in + champagne!” + </p> + <p> + And now here was the hero of all these romantic escapades, forsaking the + white lights of Broadway, and coming home to help the old man keep his + contracts. He stood in the seat of the automobile, glancing this way and + that, swiftly, like a hunter on the alert for dangerous game. His dark + eyes roamed here and there, his proud face was pale with anger, his tall, + perfectly groomed figure was eloquent of mastership, of command. He was + imperious as a young Caesar, terrible in his vengeance; and poor Jimmie, + watching him, was torn between two contradictory emotions. He hated him—hated + him with a deadly and abiding hatred. But also he admired him, marvelled + at him, cringed before him. Lacey was a wanton, a cursing tyrant, a brutal + snob; but also he was the master, the conqueror, the proud, free, rich + young aristocrat, for whom all the rest of humanity existed. And Jimmie + Higgins was a poor little worm of a proletarian, with nothing but his + labour-power to sell, trying by sheer force of his will to lift himself + out of his slave-psychology! + </p> + <p> + There is an old adage that “a cat may look at a king”. But this can only + have been meant to apply to house-cats, cats of the palace, accustomed to + the etiquette of courts; it cannot have been meant for proletarian cats of + the gutter, the Jimmie Higgins variety of red revolutionary yowlers. + Jimmie and his companion stood on their perch, shouting “Ya! Ya!” and + suddenly the crowd melted away in front of them, exposing them to the + angry finger of the young master. “Get along now! Beat it! Quick!” And + Jimmie, poor little ragged, stunted Jimmie, with bad teeth and + toil-deformed hands, wilted before this blast of aristocratic wrath, and + made haste to hide himself in the throng. But it was with blazing soul + that he went; every instant he imagined himself turning back, defying the + angry finger, shouting down the imperious voice, even smashing it back + into the throat from which it came! + </p> + <h3> + IV. + </h3> + <p> + Jimmie did not even stop for supper. The greater part of the night he + worked at helping to organize the strikers, and all next day he spent + arranging Socialist meetings. He worked like a man possessed, lifted above + the limitations of the flesh. For everywhere that day he carried with him + the image of the proud, free, rich young aristocrat, with his dark eyes + roaming swiftly, his tall, perfectly groomed figure eloquent of + mastership, his voice ringing with challenge. Jimmie was for the time + utterly possessed by hatred; and he saw about him thousands of others + sharing the mood and shouting it aloud. Every speaker who could be found + was turned loose to talk till he was hoarse, and in the evening there was + to be half a dozen street meetings. That was always the way when there + were strikes; then the working man had time to listen—and also the + desire! + </p> + <p> + So came the final crisis, when the little machinist had to show the stuff + he was made of. He was holding aloft the torch at the regular + meeting-place on the corner of Main and Third Streets, and Comrade Gerrity + was explaining the strike and the ballot as two edges of the sword of + labour, when four policemen came suddenly round the corner and pushed + their way through the crowd. “You'll have to stop this!” declared one. + </p> + <p> + “Stop?” cried Gerrity. “What do you mean?” + </p> + <p> + “There's to be no more street-speaking during the strike.” + </p> + <p> + “Who says so?” + </p> + <p> + “Orders from the chief.” + </p> + <p> + “But we've got a permit.” + </p> + <p> + “All permits revoked. Cut it out.” + </p> + <p> + “But this is an outrage!” + </p> + <p> + “We don't want any argument, young man—” + </p> + <p> + “But we're within our rights here.” + </p> + <p> + “Forget it, young feller!” + </p> + <p> + Gerrity turned swiftly to the throng. + </p> + <p> + “Fellow-citizens,” he cried, “we are here in the exercise of our rights as + American citizens! We are conducting a peaceable and orderly political + meeting, and we know our rights and propose to maintain them. We—” + </p> + <p> + “Come down off that box, young feller!” commanded the officer; and the + crowd hooted and booed. + </p> + <p> + “Fellow-citizens!” began Gerrity again; but that was as far as he got, for + the policeman seized him by the arm and pulled; and Gerrity knew the ways + of American policemen too well to resist. He came down—but still + talking. “Fellow-citizens—” + </p> + <p> + “Are you goin' to shut up?” demanded the other, and as Gerrity still went + on orating, he announced: “You are under arrest.” + </p> + <p> + There were half a dozen Socialists with the party, and this was a + challenge to the self-respect of everyone of them. In an instant Comrade + Mabel Smith had leaped on to the stand. “Fellow workers!” she cried. “Is + this America, or is it Russia?” + </p> + <p> + “That'll do, lady,” said the policeman, as considerately as he dared; for + Comrade Mabel wore a big picture-hat and many other signs of youth and + beauty. + </p> + <p> + “I have a right to speak here, and I mean to speak,” she declared. + </p> + <p> + “We don't want to have to arrest you, lady—” + </p> + <p> + “You either have to arrest me, or else allow me to speak.” + </p> + <p> + “I'm sorry, lady, but it's orders. You are arrested.” + </p> + <p> + Then came the turn of Comrade Stankewitz. “Vorking men, it is for the + rights of the vorkers ve are here.” And so they jerked him off. + </p> + <p> + And then “Wild Bill”. This hundred per cent, middle-of-the-road + proletarian had been hanging on the outskirts of the meeting, having been + forbidden by the local to take part in the speaking, because of the + intemperate nature of his utterances; but now, of course, all rules went + down, and Bill leaped on to the shaking platform. “Are we slaves?” he + yelled. “Are we dogs?” And it would seem that the police thought so, for + they yanked him off the platform, and one of them seized him by the wrist + and twisted so that his oration ended in a shriek of pain. + </p> + <p> + Then came Johnny Edge, a shy youth with an armful of literature, which he + hung on to in spite of police violence; and then—then there was one + more! + </p> + <p> + Poor Jimmie! He did not in the least want to get arrested, and he was + terrified at the idea of making even so short a speech as was here the + order of the night. But, of course, his honour was at stake, there was no + way out. He handed his torch to a bystander, and mounted the scaffold. “Is + this a free country?” he cried. “Do we have free speech?” And Jimmie's + first effort at oratory ended in a jerk at his coat-tail, which all but + upset the frail platform upon which he stood. + </p> + <p> + There were four policemen, with six prisoners, and a throng about them + howling with indignation, perhaps ready to become violent—who could + say? The guardians of order had been prepared however. One of them stepped + to the corner and blew his whistle, and a minute later came the shriek of + a siren, and round the corner came swinging the city's big patrol-wagon, + the “Black Maria”. The crowd gave way, and one by one the prisoners were + thrust in. One of them, “Wild Bill”, feeling himself for a moment released + from the grip of his captors, raised his voice, shouting through the wire + grating of the wagon: “I denounce this outrage! I am a free American—” + And suddenly Jimmie, who was next in the wagon, felt himself flung to one + side, and a policeman leaped by him, and planted his fist with terrific + violence full in the orator's mouth. “Wild Bill” went down like a bullock + under the slaughter-man's axe, and the patrol-wagon started up, the cry of + its siren drowning the protests of the crowd. + </p> + <p> + Poor Bill! He lay across the seat, and Jimmie, who had to sit next to him, + caught him in his arms and held him. He was quivering, with awful motions + like a spasm. He made no sound, and Jimmie was terrified, thinking that he + was dying. Before long Jimmie felt a hot wetness stealing over his hands, + first slimy, then turning sticky. He had to sit there, almost fainting + with horror; he dared not say anything, for maybe the policeman would + strike him also. He sat, clutching in his arms the shaking body, and + whispering under his breath, “Poor Bill! Poor Bill!” + </p> + <h3> + V. + </h3> + <p> + They came to the station-house, and Bill was carried out and laid on a + bench, and the others were stood up before the desk and had their + pedigrees taken. Gerrity demanded indignantly to be allowed to telephone, + and this demand was granted. He routed Lawyer Norwood from a party, and + set him to finding bail; and meantime the prisoners were led to cells. + </p> + <p> + They had been there only a couple of minutes when there came floating + through the row of steel cages the voice of a woman singing. It was + Comrade Mabel Smith in that clear sweet voice they had so often listened + to on “social evenings” in the local. She was singing the Internationale: + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + Arise, ye prisoners of starvation. + Arise, ye wretched of the earth! +</pre> + <p> + The sound thrilled them to the very bones, and they joined in the chorus + with a shout. Then, of course, came the jailer: “Shut up.” And then again: + “Shut up!” And then a third time: “Will ye shut up?” And then came a + bucket of water, hurled through the cell bars. It hit Jimmie squarely in + the mouth, and in the words of the poet, “the subsequent proceedings + interested him no more!” + </p> + <p> + About midnight came Lawyer Norwood and Dr. Service. Both of these men had + protested against the street-speaking at this time; but of course, when it + came to comrades in trouble, they could not resist the appeal to their + sympathies. Such is the difficulty of entirely respectable and decorous + “parlour” Socialists, in their dealings with the wayward children of the + movement, the “impossibilists” and “direct actionists” and other sowers of + proletarian wild oats. Dr. Service produced a wad of bills and bailed out + all the prisoners, and delivered himself of impressive indignation to the + police-sergeant, while waiting for an ambulance to carry “Wild Bill” to + the hospital. Jimmie Higgins, who had always hitherto shouted with the + “wild” ones, realized suddenly how pleasant it is to have a friend who + wears black broadcloth, and carries himself like the drum-major of a band, + and is reputed to be worth a couple of hundred thousand dollars. + </p> + <p> + Jimmie went home; and there was Lizzie, pacing the floor and wringing her + hands in anxiety—for there had been no way to get word to her what + had happened. She flung herself into his arms, and then recoiled in fright + when, she discovered that he was wet. He told her the story; and would you + believe it—Lizzie, being a woman, and only in the A-B-C stage of + revolutionary education, actually did not know that it was a glorious and + heroic adventure to be arrested! She thought it a disgrace, and tried to + persuade him to keep the dreadful secret from the neighbourhood! And when + she found that he was not through yet, but had to go to court in the + morning and be tried, she wept copiously, and woke up Jimmie Junior, and + started him to bawling. She was only to be pacified when Jimmie Senior + agreed to take off his wet clothes at once, and drink a cup or two of + boiling hot tea, and let himself be covered up with blankets, so that he + might not die of pneumonia before he could get to court. + </p> + <p> + Next morning there was a crowded court-room and a stern and solemn judge + frowning over his spectacles, and Lawyer Norwood making an impassioned + defence of the fundamental American right of free speech. It was so very + thrilling that Jimmie could hardly be kept from applauding his own lawyer! + And then Comrade Dr. Service arose, and in his most impressive voice gave + the professional information that “Wild Bill's” nose had been broken, and + three of his front teeth knocked out, and that he was in the hospital and + unable to come to court; and all the other prisoners were called upon to + testify what “Wild Bill” had done to bring this fate upon him. The + policeman who had struck the blow testified that the prisoner had resisted + arrest; a second policeman testified, “I seen the prisoner hit him first, + your Honour,”—which caused Comrade Mabel Smith to cry out, “Oh, the + ungrammatical prevaricator!” The upshot of the trial was that each of the + defendants was fined ten dollars. Comrade Gerrity led off with an + indignant refusal to pay the fine; the rest of them followed suit—even + Comrade Mabel! This caused evident distress of mind to the judge, for + Comrade Mabel with her indignant pink cheeks and her big picture-hat + looked more than ever the lady, and it is a fact known even to judges that + American jails have not been constructed for ladies. The matter was + settled by Lawyer Norwood paying her fine, in spite of her protests, and + her demand to be sent to jail. + </p> + <h3> + VI. + </h3> + <p> + The five men were led away, over the “Bridge of Sighs”, as it was called, + to the city jail, where they had their pedigrees taken again, and their + pictures and their finger-prints—which for the first time impressed + upon their minds the fact that they were dangerous criminals. Their + clothes were taken away, and shirts and trousers given them, whose faded + blue colour seemed to have been impregnated with the misery of scores of + previous wearers. They were led through steel-barred doors, and along + dark, steel-barred passages to one of the “tanks”. A “tank”, you + discovered, was one floor of this four-storied packing box; on each side + of it were a row of a dozen barred cells, each with four bunks, so that + the total maximum population which might be crowded into the central space + of the “tank” was ninety-six; however, this only happened on Monday + mornings, when the “drunks” had all been brought in, and before the courts + had had time to sort them out. + </p> + <p> + After you had lain down on your bunk for a few minutes, or had leaned + against the wall of the “tank”, you felt an annoying stinging sensation + somewhere on you. You began to rub and scratch; before long you would be + rubbing and scratching in a dozen different places, and then you would + observe your neighbour watching you with a grin. “Seam-squirrels?” he + would say; and he would bid you take off your coat, and engage in the + popular hunting game of the institution. Jimmie remembered having heard a + speaker refer to the city jail as the “Leesville Louseranch”; he had + thought that a good joke at the time, but now it seemed otherwise to him. + </p> + <p> + It was splendid to stand up in court and to take your stand as a martyr; + but now Jimmie discovered, as many an unfortunate has discovered before + him, that being a martyr is not the sport it is cracked up to be. There + were no heroics now, no singing. If you even so much as hummed, they took + you out and shut you up in a dark hole called the “cooler”! Nor could you + read, for there was no light in your cell, and perpetual twilight in the + central gathering place of the “tank”. Apparently the only things the + authorities of Leesville wished you to do were to hunt “seam-squirrels”, + to smoke cigarettes, to “shoot craps”, and to make the acquaintance of a + variety of interesting young criminals, so that when you were ready to + resume your outside life you might decide whether you wanted to be a + hold-up man, a safe-cracker, a forger, or a second-story operator. + </p> + <p> + Jimmie Higgins, of course, brought a different psychology from that of the + average jail-inmate. Jimmie could do his kind of work just as well in jail + as anywhere else; and barring the torment of vermin, the diet of bread and + thin coffee and ill-smelling greasy soup, and the worry about his helpless + family outside, he really had a happy time-making the acquaintance of + tramps and pickpockets, and explaining to them the revolutionary + philosophy. A man who went in to remedy social injustice all by himself + could never get very far. It was only when he realized himself as a member + of a class, and stood as a class and acted as a class, that he could + accomplish a permanent result. Some of the workers had discovered this, + and had set out to educate their fellows. They brought the wondrous + message, even to those in jail; holding out to them the vision of a world + made over in justice and kindness, the co-operative commonwealth of + labour, in which every man should get what he produced, and no man could + exploit his fellows. + </p> + <h3> + VII. + </h3> + <p> + Three days passed, and then one afternoon Jimmie was summoned to see a + visitor. He could guess who the visitor was, and he went with his heart in + his throat, and looked through the dark mesh of wire, and saw Lizzie + standing—stout, motherly Lizzie, now very pale, and breathing hard, + and with tears running in little streamlets down her cheeks. Poor Lizzie, + with her three babies at home, and her plain, ordinary, non-revolutionary + psychology, which made going to jail a humiliation instead of a test of + manhood, a badge of distinction! Jimmie felt a clutch in his own throat, + and an impulse to tear down the beastly wire mesh and clasp the dear + motherly soul in his arms. But all he could do was to screw his face into + a dubious smile. Sure, he was having the time of his life in this jail! He + wouldn't have missed it for anything! He had made a Socialist out of + “Dead-eye Mike”, and had got Pete Curley, a fancy “con” man, to promise to + read “War, What For?” + </p> + <p> + There was only one thing which had been troubling him, and that was, how + his family was getting on. They had had practically nothing in the house, + he knew, and poor Meissner could not feed four extra mouths. But Lizzie, + also screwing her face into a smile, assured him that everything was all + right at home, there was no need to worry. In the first place, Comrade Dr. + Service had sent her a piece of paper with his name written on it; it + appeared that this was called a cheque, and the groceryman had exchanged + it for a five dollar bill. And in the next place there was a domestic + secret which Lizzie had to confide—she had put by some money, + without letting Jimmie know it. + </p> + <p> + “But how?” cried Jimmie, in wonder—for he had thought he knew all + about his household and its expenses. + </p> + <p> + So Lizzie explained the trick she had played. Jimmie had committed an + extravagance, treating her to a new dress out of his increased earnings: a + gorgeous contrivance of several colours, looking like silk, even if it + wasn't. Lizzie had stated that the cost was fifteen dollars, and he, the + dupe, had believed it! The truth was she had bought the dress in a + second-hand shop for three dollars, and had put twelve dollars away for + the time of the strike! + </p> + <p> + And Jimmie went back to his “tank”, shaking his head and philosophizing: + “Gee! Can you beat these women?” + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0007" id="link2HCH0007"> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER VII. JIMMIE HIGGINS DALLIES WITH CUPID + </h2> + <h3> + I. + </h3> + <p> + The strike was over when Jimmie came out of jail; it had been settled by + the double-barrelled device of raising the wages of the men and putting + their leaders behind bars. Jimmie presented himself at his old place of + working, and the boss told him to go to hell; so Jimmie went to + Hubbardtown, and stood in the long line of men waiting at the gate of the + engine company. Jimmie knew about black-lists, so when his time came to be + questioned, he said his name was Joe Aronsky, and he had last worked in a + machine-shop in Pittsburg; he had come to Hubbardtown because he had heard + of high pay and good treatment. While he was answering these questions, he + noticed a man sitting in the corner of the room studying his face, and he + saw the boss turn and glance in that direction. The man shook his head, + and the boss said: “Nothin' doin'.” So Jimmie understood that the Hubbard + Engine Company was taking measures to keep its shops clear of the + agitators from Leesville. + </p> + <p> + He spent a couple of days trying other places in his home town, but all in + vain—they had him spotted. At the brewery they were slower than + elsewhere—they took him on for two hours. Then they found out his + record, and “fired” him; and Jimmie “kidded” the boss, saying that they + were too late—he had already given a Socialist leaflet to every man + in the room! + </p> + <p> + On Jefferson Street, an out of the way part of the town, was a + bicycle-shop kept by an old German named Kumme. One of the comrades told + Jimmie that he wanted a helper, and Jimmie went there and got a job at two + dollars a day. That was poor pay at present prices, but Jimmie liked the + place, because his boss was a near-Socialist, a pacifist—for all + countries except Germany. He got round it by saying that every nation had + a right to defend itself; and Germany was the nation which had been + attacked in this war. A good part of the energies of the old man went into + proving this to his customers; if there were any customers who did not + like it, they could go elsewhere. + </p> + <p> + Those who came were largely Germans, and so Jimmie was kept fully supplied + with arguments against the munitions industry, which they called a trade + in murder, and in favour of the programme of “Feed America First”. Among + those who frequented the place was Jerry Coleman, who was still on the + job, and as well supplied with ten-dollar bills as ever. He had now + revealed himself as an organizer for a new propaganda society, called + “Labour's National Peace Council”. Inasmuch as Labour and Peace were the + phrases upon which Jimmie lived, he saw no reason why he should not back + this organization. Coleman assured Jimmie he hated the Kaiser, but that + the German “people” must be defended. So Jimmie became, without having the + least idea of it, one of the agencies whereby the Kaiser was subsidizing + social discontent in America. + </p> + <p> + But Jimmie was more careful now in his agitations. He had brought such + distress into his home by his jail sentence, that he had been forced to + make promises to Lizzie. Her anxiety for her children could no longer be + kept to herself; and this caused a certain amount of friction between + them, and sent Jimmie out grumbling at his lot in life. What was the use + of trying to educate a woman, who could see no farther than her own + kitchen-stove? When you wanted to be a world-saviour, to walk tip-toe on + the misty mountain-tops of heroism, she dragged you down and chained you + to the commonplace, taking all the zest and fervour out of your soul! The + memories of “seam-squirrels” and of thin coffee and ill-smelling and + greasy soup had slipped somewhat into the background of Jimmie's mind, and + he lived again the sublime hour when he had confronted the court and stood + for the fundamental rights of an American citizen. He wanted to have that + act of daring appreciated at its true value. Poor, blind, home-keeping + Lizzie, who could not fulfil these deeper needs of her husband's soul! + </p> + <p> + Jimmie had been, so far in his married life, as well domesticated as could + be expected of a proletarian propagandist. He had yearned to own a home of + his own, and meantime had manifested his repressed wish by getting a big + packing-box and some broken shingles, and building a model play-house for + Jimmie Junior in the back yard. He had even found time on his tired and + crowded Sundays to start a garden in midsummer, the season when the local + was least active. But now, of course, the war had come to obsess his mind, + driving him to terror for the future of humanity, tempting him to + martyrdoms and domestic irritations. + </p> + <h3> + II. + </h3> + <p> + It was at this critical period in Jimmie's life that there appeared in + Leesville a vivid young person by the name of Evelyn Baskerville. Evelyn + was no tired kitchen slave—with her fluffy brown hair, her pert + little dimples, her trim figure, her jaunty hat with a turkey feather + stuck on one side of her head. Evelyn was a stenographer and proclaimed + herself an advanced feminist; at her first visit she set the local upside + down. It happened to be “social evening”, when all the men smoked, and + this “free” young thing took a cigarette from her escort and puffed it all + over the place. This, of course, would not have made a stir in great + centres of culture such as London and Greenwich Village; but in Leesville + it was the first time that the equality of women had been interpreted to + mean that the women should adopt the vices of the men. + </p> + <p> + Then Evelyn had produced from her handbag some leaflets on Birth Control, + and proposed that the local should undertake their distribution. This was + a new subject in Leesville, and while the members supposed it was all + right, they found it embarrassing to have the matter explained too fully + in open meeting. Evelyn wanted a “birth strike”, as the surest means of + ending the war; she wanted the Worker to take up this programme, and did + not conceal her contempt for reactionaries in the movement who still + wanted to pretend that babies were brought by storks. The delicate subject + was finally “tabled”, and when the meeting adjourned and the members + walked home, everyone was talking about Miss Baskerville—the men + mostly talking with the men, and the women with the women. + </p> + <p> + Pretty soon it became evident that the vivid and dashing young person was + setting her cap for Comrade Gerrity, the organizer. As Gerrity was an + eligible young bachelor, that was all right. But then, a little later, it + began to be suspected that she had designs upon Comrade Claudel, the + Belgian jeweller. Doubtless she had a right to make her choice between + them; but some of the women were of the opinion that she took too long to + choose; and finally one or two malicious ones began to say that she had no + intention of choosing—she wanted both. + </p> + <p> + And then fell a thunderbolt into Jimmie's life. It was just after his + arrest when fame still clung to him; and after the meeting Comrade + Baskerville came up and engaged him in conversation. How did it feel to be + a jailbird? When he told her that it felt fine, she bade him not be too + proud—she had served thirty days for picketing in a shirt-waist + strike! As she looked at him, her pretty brown eyes sparkled with + mischief, and her wicked little dimples lost no curtain-calls. Poor, + humble Jimmie was stirred to his shoe-tips, for he had never before + received the attentions of such a fascinating creature—unless + perchance it had been to sell her a newspaper, or to beg the price of a + sandwich in his tramp days. Here was one of the wonderful things about the + Socialist movement, that it broke down the barriers of class, and gave you + exciting glimpses of higher worlds of culture and charm! + </p> + <p> + Comrade Baskerville continued to flash her dimples and her wit at Jimmie, + despite the fact that Comrade Gerrity and Comrade Claudel and several + other moths were hovering about the candle-flame, and all the women in the + local watching out of the corners of their eyes. Finally, to Jimmie's + unutterable consternation, the vivid young goddess of Liberty inquired, + “Wouldn't you like to walk home with me, Comrade Higgins?” He stammered, + “Yes”; and they went out, the young goddess plying him with questions + about conditions in the jail, and displaying most convincing erudition on + the subject of the economic aspects of criminology—at the same time + seeming entirely oblivious to the hoverings of the other moths, and the + disgust of the unemancipated ladies of Local Leesville. + </p> + <h3> + III. + </h3> + <p> + They walked down the street together, and first Comrade Baskerville + shivered with horror at the “seam-squirrels”, and then exclaimed with + delight over the conversion of “Dead-eye Mike” to Socialism, and then made + merry over the singing of the Internationale in the police-station. Had + she discovered a “character” in this seemingly insignificant little + machinist? At any rate, she plied him with questions about his past life + and his ideas. When he told her of his starved and neglected childhood, + she murmured sympathetically, and it seemed to the fascinated Jimmie that + here was a woman who understood instinctively all the cravings of his + soul. She laid her hand on his arm, and it was as if an angel were + touching him—strange little thrills ran like currents of electricity + all over him. + </p> + <p> + Yes, Comrade Baskerville could appreciate his sufferings, because she had + suffered too. She had had a stepmother, and had run away from home at an + early age and fought her own way. That was why she stood so firmly for + woman's emancipation—she knew the slavery of her sex through bitter + experience. There were many men who believed in sex-equality as a matter + of words, but had no real conception of it in action; as for the women—well, + you might see right here in the local the most narrow, bourgeois ideas + dominating their minds. Jimmie did not know what ideas Comrade Baskerville + meant, but he knew that her voice was musical and full of quick changes + that made him shiver. + </p> + <p> + He was supposed to be taking her home; but he had no idea where she lived, + and apparently she had no idea either, for they just wandered on and on, + talking about all the wonderful new ideas that were stirring the minds of + men and women. Did Comrade Higgins believe in trial marriages? Comrade + Higgins had never heard of this wild idea before, but he listened, and + bravely concealed his dismay. What about the children? The eager feminist + answered there need not be any children. Unwanted children were a crime! + She proposed to get the working-class women together and instruct them in + the technique of these delicate matters; and meantime, lacking the women, + she was willing to explain it to any inwardly embarrassed and quaking man + who would lend his ear. + </p> + <p> + Suddenly she stopped and cried, “Where are we?” And there came a peal of + merry laughter, as she discovered they had gone far astray. They turned + and set off in the right direction, and meantime the lecture on advanced + feminism continued. Poor Jimmie was in a panic—tumbled this way and + that. He had considered himself a radical, because he believed in + expropriating the expropriators; but these plans for overthrowing the + conventions and disbanding the home—these left him aghast. And + trilled into his ear by a vivid and amazing young thing with a soft hand + upon his arm and a faint intoxicating perfume all about her! Why was she + telling these things to him? What did she mean? What? WHAT? + </p> + <h3> + IV. + </h3> + <p> + They came to the house where she lived. It was late at night, and the + street was deserted. It was up to Jimmie to say good night, but somehow he + did not know how to say it. Comrade Evelyn gave him her hand, and for some + reason did not take it away again. Of course it would not have been polite + for Jimmie to have pushed it away. So he held it, and looked at the + shadowy form before him, and felt his knees shaking. “Comrade Higgins,” + said the brave, girlish voice, “we shall be friends, shall we not?” And of + course, Jimmie answered that they would—always! And the girlish + voice replied, “I am GLAD!” And then suddenly it whispered, “Good night!” + and the shadowy form turned and flitted into the house. + </p> + <p> + Jimmie walked away with the strangest tumult in his soul. It was something + which the poets had been occupied for centuries in trying to portray, but + Jimmie Higgins had no acquaintance with the poets, and so it was a brand + new thing to him, he was left to experience the shock of it and to resolve + the problems of it all alone. To be rolled and tossed about like a man in + a blanket at a college ragging! To be a prey to bewilderment and fear, + hope and longing, despair and rebellion, delicious excitement, angry + self-contempt and tormenting doubt! Truly did that poet divine who first + conceived the symbol of the mischievous little god, who steals upon an + unsuspecting man and shoots him through the heart with a sharp and + tormenting arrow! + </p> + <p> + The worst of it was, Jimmie couldn't tell Lizzie about it. The first time + in four years that he had had a trouble he could not tell Lizzie! He even + felt ashamed, as he came home and crawled into bed—as if he had done + some dreadful wrong to Lizzie; and yet, he would have been puzzled to tell + just what the wrong was, or how he could have avoided it. It was not he + who had made the young feminist so delicious and sweet and frank and + amazing. It was not he who had made the little god, and brewed the poison + for the arrow's tip. No, it was some power greater than himself that had + prepared this situation, some power cruel and implacable, which plots + against domestic tranquillity; perhaps it was some hireling of capitalism, + which will not permit a propagandist of social justice to do his work in + peace of soul. + </p> + <p> + Jimmie tried to hide what was going on; and of course—poor, naive + soul—he had never learned to hide anything in his life, and now was + too late to begin. The next time the local met, the women were saying that + they were disappointed in Comrade Higgins; they had thought he was really + devoted to the cause, but they saw now he was like all the rest of the men—his + head had been turned by one smile on a pretty face. Instead of attending + to his work, he was following that Baskerville creature about, gazing at + her yearningly, like a moon-calf, making a ninny of himself before the + whole room. And he with a wife and three babies at home, waiting for him + and thinking he was hustling for the cause. When the meeting adjourned, + and the Baskerville creature accepted the invitation of Comrade Gerrity to + escort her home, the dismay of Comrade Higgins was so evident as to be + ludicrous to the whole room. + </p> + <h3> + V. + </h3> + <p> + In the interest of common decency it was necessary for the women of the + local to take action on this matter. At least, a couple of them thought + so, and quite independently and without pre-arrangement they called on + Lizzie next day and told her that she should come more frequently to + meetings, and keep herself acquainted with the new ideas of advanced + feminism. And so when Jimmie came home that night, he found his wife + dissolved in tears and there was a most harrowing scene. + </p> + <p> + For poor Elizabeth Huszar, pronounced Eleeza Betooser, had had no chance + whatever to familiarize herself with the new ideas of advanced feminism. + Her notions of “free unions” had been derived from a quite different + world, whose ideas were not new, but on the contrary very, very old, and + were “advanced” only on the road to perdition. She judged Jimmie's + behaviour according to thoroughly old standards, and she was + broken-hearted, overwhelmed with grief and shame. He was like all the rest + of men—and when she had fondly thought he was different! He despised + her and spit upon her—a woman he had picked up in a brothel. + </p> + <p> + Poor Jimmie was stunned. He was conscious of no disrespect for Lizzie, it + had not occurred to him to think that she might take the matter that way. + But so she had taken it, beyond doubt, and with intensity that frightened + him. He would not have believed that so many tears could stream from one + woman's eyes—nor that his good, broad-faced, honest wife could be so + abject in her misery. “Oh, I knowed it, I knowed it all along—it + would be that way! I hadn't never ought to married you—you know I + told you so?” + </p> + <p> + “But, Lizzie!” pleaded the husband. “You're mistaken. That hadn't nothin' + to do with it.” + </p> + <p> + She turned upon him wildly, her fingers stuck out as if she would claw + him. “You mean to tell me if you hadn't 'a married a woman off the street, + you'd 'a gone chasin' a fluffy-haired girl? If you'd 'a had a decent wife, + that you knowed had some rights—” + </p> + <p> + “Lizzie!” he protested in consternation. “Listen here—” + </p> + <p> + But she was not to be stopped. “Everybody said I was a fool; but I went + an' done it, 'cause you swore you'd never hold it up to me! An' I went an' + had them children”—Lizzie swept her arm at the children, as if to + wipe them off the earth, to which they had come by a cruel mistake. + </p> + <p> + Jimmie Junior, who was old enough to know that something serious was + happening, and whose instinct was all against being wiped off the earth, + began to howl wildly; and that set off the little ones—soon they + were all three of them going at the top of their lungs. “Boo-hoo-hoo!” + </p> + <p> + It was truly a terrible climax to a romance. Jimmie, almost distracted, + seized the hand of his injured spouse. “It's all nonsense!” he cried. + “What they been tellin' you! I ain't done a thing, Lizzie! I only walked + home with her one night.” + </p> + <p> + But Lizzie answered that one night was plenty enough—she knew that + from intimate and hateful experience. “And I know them fluffy-headed kind + that frizzes their hair. What does she want to walk home at night with + married men fer? And talkin' about the things she does—” + </p> + <p> + “She don't mean no harm, Lizzie—she's tryin' to help workin' women. + It's what's called birth control—she wants to teach women—” + </p> + <p> + “If she wants to TEACH women, why don't she TALK to the women! What's she + all the time talkin' to MEN fer? You think you can tell me tales like that—me, + that's been what I have?” And Lizzie went off into another fit, worse than + ever. + </p> + <h3> + VI. + </h3> + <p> + Jimmie found that it was with romance as with martyrdom—there was a + lot of trouble about it which the romancers did not mention. He really + felt quite dreadful, for he had a deep regard for this mother of his + little ones, and he would not have made her suffer for anything. And she + was right, too, he had to admit—her shots went deep home. “How'd you + feel, if you was to find out I'd been walkin' home with some man?” When it + was put to him that way, he realized that he would have felt very badly + indeed. + </p> + <p> + A flood of old emotions came back to him. He went in memory with his group + of roystering friends to the house of evil where he had first met + Elizabeth Huszar, pronounced Eleeza Betooser. She had taken him to her + room, and instead of making herself agreeable in the usual way, had burst + into tears. She had been ill-treated, and was wretchedly lonely and + unhappy. Jimmie asked why she did not quit the life, and she answered that + she had tried more than once, but she could not earn a living wage; and + anyhow, because she was big and handsome, the bosses would never let her + alone, and what was the difference, if you couldn't keep away from the + men? + </p> + <p> + They sat on the bed and talked, and Jimmie told her a little about his + life, and she told about hers—a pitiful and moving story. She had + been brought to America as an infant; her father had been killed in an + accident, and her mother had supported several children by scrub-work. + Lizzie had grown up in a slum on the far east side of New York, and she + could not remember a time when she had not been sexually preyed upon; lewd + little boys had taught her tricks, and men would buy her with candy or + food. And yet there had been something in her struggling for decency; of + her own volition she had tried to go to school, in spite of her rags; and + then, when she was thirteen she had answered an advertisement for work as + a nursemaid. That story had made an especial impression upon Jimmie—it + was truly a most pitiful episode. + </p> + <p> + Her place of employment had been a “swell” apartment, with a hall-boy and + an elevator—the most wonderful place that Lizzie had ever beheld; it + was like living in Heaven, and she had tried so hard to do what she was + told, and be worthy of her beautiful mistress and the lovely baby. But she + had been there only two days when the mistress had discovered vermin on + the baby, and had come to Lizzie and insisted on examining her head. And + of course she had found something. “Them's only nits!” Lizzie had said; + she had never heard of anybody who did not have “nits” in their hair. But + the beautiful lady had called her a vile creature, and ordered her to pack + up her things and get out of the house at once. And so Lizzie had had to + wait until she became an inmate of a brothel before anybody took the + trouble to teach her how to get the “nits” out of her hair, and how to + bathe, and to clean her finger-nails and otherwise be physically decent. + </p> + <p> + Jimmie recalled all that, and he fell on his knees before his wife, and + caught her two hands by main force, and swore to her that he had not done + any wrong; he went on to tell her exactly what wrong he had done, which + was the best way to convince her that he had not done any worse. He vowed + again and again that he would never, never dally with Cupid again—he + would see Comrade Baskerville at once and tell her it was “all off”. + </p> + <p> + And so Lizzie looked up through her tears. “No,” she said, “you don't need + to see her at all!” + </p> + <p> + “What shall I do, then?'” + </p> + <p> + “Just let her alone—don't tell her nothin'. She'll know it's off all + right.” + </p> + <h3> + VII. + </h3> + <p> + But when you have a dead romance, you cannot leave it to rot on the + highway; you are driven irresistibly to bury it decently. In spite of his + solemn promises, Jimmie found himself thinking all the time about Comrade + Baskerville, and how he would act when he met her next time—all the + noble and dignified speeches he would make to her. He must manage to be + alone with her; for of course he could not say such things with the + jealous old hags of the local staring at him. The best thing, he decided, + would be to tell her the frank and honest truth; to tell her about Lizzie, + and how good and worthy she had been, and how deeply he realized his duty + to her. And then tears would come into Comrade Baskerville's lovely eyes, + and she would tell him that she honoured his high sense of marital + responsibility. They must renounce; but of course they would be dear and + true friends—always, always. Jimmie was holding her hands, in his + fancy, as he said these affecting words: Always! Always! He knew that he + would have to let go of the hands, but he was reluctant to do so, and he + had not quite got to the point of doing it when, walking down Jefferson + Street on his way home from work—behold, in front of him a trim, + eager little figure, tripping gaily, with a jaunty hat with a + turkey-feather stuck on one side! Jimmie knew the figure a block away, and + as he saw it coming nearer, his heart leaped up and hit him in the bottom + part of his neck, and all his beautiful speeches flew helter-skelter out + of his head. + </p> + <p> + She saw him, and the vivid, welcoming smile came upon her face. She came + up to him, and their hands clasped. “Why!” she cried. “What a pleasant + meeting!” + </p> + <p> + Jimmie gulped twice, and then began, “Comrade Baskerville—” And then + he gulped again, and began, “Comrade Baskerville—” + </p> + <p> + She stopped him. “I'm not Comrade Baskerville,” she declared. + </p> + <p> + He could not get the meaning of these unexpected words. + </p> + <p> + “What?” he said. + </p> + <p> + “Haven't you heard the news?” she said, and beamed on him. “I'm Comrade + Mrs. Gerrity.” + </p> + <p> + He stared at her, utterly bewildered. “I've been that for twenty-four + whole hours! Congratulate me!” + </p> + <p> + Little by little the meaning of the words began to dawn in Jimmie's stupid + head. “Comrade Mrs. Gerrity!” he echoed. “But—but—I thought + you didn't believe in marriage.” + </p> + <p> + There came the most bewitching smile, a smile decorated with two rows of + pearly white teeth. “Don't you understand, Comrade Higgins? No woman + believes in marriage—until she meets the right man.” + </p> + <p> + This was much too subtle. Jimmie was still gaping open-mouthed. “But then, + I thought—I thought—” he stopped again; for in truth, he had + not known quite what he thought, and anyway, it seemed futile to try to + formulate it now. + </p> + <p> + But, of course, she knew, without his telling her; she knew the meaning of + his look of dismay, and of his stammering words. Being a kind little + creature, she laid her hand on his arm. “Comrade Higgins,” she said, + “don't think I'm too mean!” + </p> + <p> + “Mean?” he cried. “Why, no! What? How—” + </p> + <p> + “Try to imagine you were a girl, Comrade Higgins. You can't propose to a + man, can you?” + </p> + <p> + “Why, no—that is—” + </p> + <p> + “That is, not if you want him to accept! You have to make him do it. And + maybe he's shy, and don't do it, and you have to put the idea in his head + for him. Or maybe he's not sure he wants you, and you have to make him + realize how very desirable you are! Maybe you have to scare him, making + him think you're going to run off with somebody else! Don't you see how it + is with a girl?” + </p> + <p> + Jimmie was still bady dazed, but he saw enough to enable him to stammer, + “Yes.” And Comrade Baskerville—that is, Comrade Mrs. Gerrity—gave + him her hand again. + </p> + <p> + “Comrade Higgins,” she said, “you're a dear, sweet fellow, and you won't + be too angry with me, will you? We'll be friends, won't we, Comrade + Higgins?” + </p> + <p> + And Jimmie clasped the soft, warm hand, and gazed into the shining brown + eyes, and he made a part of the wonderful speech which he had been + planning as he walked. He said: “Always! Always!” + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0008" id="link2HCH0008"> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER VIII. JIMMIE HIGGINS PUTS HIS FOOT IN IT + </h2> + <h3> + I. + </h3> + <p> + The world struggle continued with constantly increasing ferocity. All + summer long the Germans hammered at the French and British lines; while + the British hammered at the gates of Constantinople, and the Italians at + the gates of Trieste. The Germans sent their giant airships to drop loads + of bombs on London and their submarines to sink passenger-steamers and + hospital-ships. Each fresh outrage against international law became the + occasion of more letters of protest from the United States, and of more + controversies in the newspapers, and in Congress, and in Kumme's + bicycle-shop on Jefferson Street, Leesville. + </p> + <p> + In this last place, to be sure, the discussions were rather one-sided. + Practically all who came there regarded the munitions industry as an + accursed thing, and made no secret of their glee at the misfortunes which + befell it; at shipyards which caught fire and burned up, at railroad + bridges and ships at sea destroyed by mysterious explosions. Kumme, a + wizened-up, grizzle-haired old fellow with a stubby nose and a + bullet-head, would fall to cursing in a mingling of English and German + when anyone so much as mentioned the fleets of ships that went across the + water, loaded with shells to kill German soldiers; he would point a skinny + finger at whoever would listen to him, declaring that the Germans in this + country were not slaves, and would protect their Fatherland from the + perfidious British and their Wall Street hirelings. Kumme took a newspaper + printed in German, and a couple of weeklies published in English for the + promotion of the German cause; he would mark passages in these papers and + read them aloud—everything that the mind of man could recall or + invent that was discreditable to Britain, to France and Italy, to Wall + Street, and to the nation which allowed Wall Street to bamboozle and + exploit it. There were many Americans who had “muck-raked” their own + country in the interests of social reform, and had praised the social + system of Germany. These arguments the German propagandists now found + useful, and Jimmie would take them to the Socialist local and pass them + about. From the meeting of the local he and Meissner would go to the + saloon where they had rendezvous with Jerry Coleman, who would distribute + more ten-dollar bills to be used in the printing of anti-war literature. + </p> + <p> + Old Kumme had a nephew by the name of Heinrich, who paid him a visit now + and then. He was a tall, fine-looking fellow, who spoke much better + English than his uncle, and wore better clothes. Finally he came to stay, + and Kumme announced that he was to help in the shop. They didn't need any + help that Jimmie could see, and certainly not from a fellow like Heinrich, + who couldn't tell a spoke from a handle-bar; but it was none of Jimmie's + business, so Heinrich put on working clothes, and spent a couple of weeks + sitting behind the counter conversing in low tones with men who came to + see him. After a while he took to going out again, and finally announced + that he had secured a job in the Empire. + </p> + <h3> + II. + </h3> + <p> + And then to the hangers-on in the shop there was another addition—an + Irish working man named Reilly. The Irishman was a peculiar problem in the + war—the thorn of the Allied conscience, the weak spot in their + armour, the broken link in their chain of arguments; and so every German + was happy when an Irishman entered the room. This fellow Reilly came to + have a punctured tyre mended, and stopped to tell what he thought about + the world-situation. Old man Kumme slapped him over the back, and shook + him by the hand, and told him he was the right sort, and to come again. So + Reilly took to hanging about; he would pull from his pocket a paper called + Hibernia, and Kummc would produce from under the counter a paper called + Germania, and the two would denounce “perfidious Albion” by the hour. + Jimmie, bending over the straightening of a sprocket, would look up and + grin, and exclaim, “You bet!” + </p> + <p> + It was winter-time, and darkness came early, and Jimmie was doing his work + by electric light in the back of the shop, when Reilly came and + mysteriously drew him into a corner. Did he really mean what he said about + hatred of war, and willingness to fight against it? The Empire Shops were + now turning out thousands of shell-casings every day, to be used in the + murder of men. It was useless to try to start a strike, there were so many + spies at work, and they fired every man who opened his mouth; if an + outsider tried it they would send him to jail—for, of course, old + Granitch had the city government in his vest-pocket. + </p> + <p> + All this was an old story to Jimmie; but now the Irishman went on to a new + proposition. There was a way to stop the work of the Empire, a way that + had been tried in other places, and had worked. Reilly knew where to get + some T.N.T.—an explosive many times more powerful than dynamite. + They could make bombs out of the steel tubing of bicycles, and Jimmie, + knowing the Empire Shops as he did, could find a way to get in and arrange + matters. There was big money in it—the fellows who did that job + might live on Easy Street the rest of their lives. + </p> + <p> + Jimmie was stunned. He had been perfectly sincere in classifying German + spies with sea-serpents; and here was a sea-serpent right before his eyes, + raising his head through the floor of Kumme's bicycle-shop! + </p> + <p> + Jimmie answered that he had never had anything to do with that sort of + thing. That wasn't the way to stop war; that was only making more war. The + other began to argue with him, showing that it wouldn't hurt anybody; the + explosion would take place at night, and all that would be damaged would + be Abel Granitch's purse. But Jimmie was obdurate; fortunately one thing + that had been incessantly pounded into his head at the local was that the + movement could not use conspiracy, it must work by open propaganda, + winning the minds and consciences of men. + </p> + <p> + First the Irishman became angry, and called him a coward and a + molly-coddle. Then he became suspicious, and wanted to know if Jimmie + would sell him out to the Empire. Jimmie laughed at this; he had no love + for Abel Granitch—the damned old skunk might do his own spying. + Jimmie would simply have nothing to do with the matter, one way or the + other. And so the project was dropped; but the little machinist was moved + to keep his eyes open after that, and he made note of how many Germans, + all strangers, were making the shop a meeting-place; also the quick + intimacy which had developed between the Irishman and Heinrich, Kumme's + nephew, who held himself so straight and had no back to his head. + </p> + <p> + Matters came to a climax with startling suddenness—the explosion of + a bomb, though not the kind which Jimmie was expecting. It was an evening + in February, just as he was about to close up, when he saw the door of the + shop open, and four men walk in. They came with a peculiar, business-like + air, two of them to the puzzled Jimmie, and the other two to Kumme. One + turned back the lapel of his coat, showing a large gold star, and + announcing, “I am an agent of the government, and you are under arrest.” + And at the same time the other seized Jimmie's arms and slipped a pair of + handcuffs over his wrists. He passed his hands over his prisoner, a + ceremony known as “frisking”; and at the same time the other men had + seized Kumme. Jimmie saw two more men enter at the rear door of the shop, + but they had nothing to do, for both Jimmie and Kumme had been too much + startled to make any move to escape. + </p> + <p> + They were led out to an automobile, shoved in and whirled away. No + questions were answered, so after a bit they stopped asking questions and + sat still, reflecting upon all the sins they had ever committed in their + lives, and upon the chances of these sins being known to the police. + </p> + <h3> + III. + </h3> + <p> + Jimmie thought he was going to jail, of course; but instead they took him + to the Post Office building, to an upstairs room. Kumme was taken to + another room, and Jimmie did not see him again; all that Jimmie had time + to know or to think about was a stern-faced young man who sat at a desk + and put him on a griddle. “It is my duty to inform you that everything you + state may be used against you,” said this young man; and then, without + giving Jimmie a chance to grasp the meaning of these words he began firing + questions at him. All through the ordeal the two detectives stood by his + side, and in a corner of the room, at another desk, a stenographer was + busily recording what he said. Jimmie knew there were such things as + stenographers—for had he not come near falling in love with one only + a short time before? + </p> + <p> + “Your name?” said the stern-faced young man; and then, “Where do you + live?” And then, “Tell me all you know about this bomb-conspiracy.” + </p> + <p> + “But I don't know nothin'!” cried Jimmie. + </p> + <p> + “You are in the hands of the Federal government,” replied the young man, + “and your only chance will be to make a clean breast. If you will help us, + you may get off.” + </p> + <p> + “But I don't know nothin'!” cried Jimmie, again. + </p> + <p> + “You have heard talk about dynamiting the Empire Shops?” + </p> + <p> + “Y—yes, sir.” + </p> + <p> + “Who?” + </p> + <p> + “A man—” Jimmie got that far, and then he recollected the promise he + had given. “I—I can't tell!” he said. + </p> + <p> + “Why not?” + </p> + <p> + “It wouldn't be right.” + </p> + <p> + “Do you believe in dynamiting buildings?” + </p> + <p> + “No, sir!” Jimmie put into this reply a note of tense sincerity, and so + the other began to argue with him. Atrocious crimes had been committed all + over the country, and the government wished to put a stop to them; surely + it was the duty of a decent citizen to give what help he could. Jimmie + listened until a sweat of anxiety stood out on his forehead; but he could + not bring himself to “peach” on fellow working men. No, not if he were + sent to jail for ten or twenty years, as the stern-faced young man told + him might happen. + </p> + <p> + “You told Reilly you wouldn't have anything to do with bombs?” asked the + young man; and Jimmie answered “Sure, I did!” And his poor head was so + addled that he didn't even realize that in his reply he had told what he + had been vowing he would never tell! + </p> + <p> + The questioner seemed to know all about everything, so it was easy for him + to lead Jimmie to tell how he had heard Kumme cursing the Empire Shops, + and the country, and the President; how he had seen Kumme whispering to + Reilly, and to Germans whose names he had not learned, and how he had seen + Heinrich, Kumme's nephew, cutting up lengths of steel tubing. Then the + questioner asked about Jerry Coleman. How much money had Jimmie got, and + just what had he done with it? Jimmie refused to name other people; but + when the young man made the insinuation that Jimmie might have kept some + of the money for himself, the little machinist exclaimed with passionate + intensity—not one dollar had he kept, nor his friend Meissner + either; they had given statements to Jerry Coleman, and this though many a + time they had been hard up for their rent. The police could ask Comrade + Gerrity and Comrade Mary Allen, and the other members of the local. + </p> + <p> + So the questioner led Jimmie on to talk about the Germans in the movement. + Schneider, the brewer, for example—he was one of those who cursed + the Allies most vehemently, and he had been in this bomb-conspiracy. + Jimmie was indignant; Comrade Schneider was as good a Socialist as you + could find, and Socialists had nothing to do with bombs! But young Emil + Forster—he had been making explosives in his spare hours, had he + not? At which Jimmie became still more outraged. He knew young Emil well; + the boy was a carpet-designer and musician, and if anybody had told such + tales about him, they were lying, that was all. The questioner went on for + an hour or so, tormenting poor Jimmie with such doubts and fears; until + finally he dropped a little of his sternness of manner, and told Jimmie + that he had merely been trying him out, to see what he knew about various + men whose pro-German feelings had brought them under suspicion. No, the + government had no evidence of crime against Schneider or Forster, or any + of the bona-fide Socialists. They were just plain fools, letting + themselves be used as tools of German plotters, who were spending money + like water to make trouble in munition factories all over the country. + </p> + <h3> + IV. + </h3> + <p> + The questioner, who explained himself as a “special agent” of the + Department of Justice, went on to read Jimmie a lecture. A sincere man + like himself ought to be ashamed to let himself be taken in by German + conspirators, who were trying to break up American industry, to lead + American labour by the nose. + </p> + <p> + “But they want to stop the making of munitions!” cried Jimmie. + </p> + <p> + “But's that's only so that Germany can make more munitions!” + </p> + <p> + “But I'm opposed to their being made in Germany, too!” + </p> + <p> + “What can you do to stop it in Germany?” + </p> + <p> + “I'm an international Socialist. When I oppose war in my own country, I + help the Socialists to oppose it in other countries. I ain't a-going to + stop—not so long as I've got any breath left in me!” And here was + Comrade Jimmie, delivering a sermon on pacifism to the “special agent” of + the government, who held his fate in his hands! But no one was going to + defend war to Jimmie Higgins and not be answered—even though Jimmie + might go to jail for the rest of his life! + </p> + <p> + The young man laughed—more genially than Jimmie would have thought + possible at the start of this grilling. “Higgins,” he said, “you're a + good-natured idiot. You can thank your lucky stars that one of the men you + trusted happened to be a government detective. If we didn't know the truth + about you, you might have had a hard time clearing yourself.” + </p> + <p> + Jimmie's jaw had fallen. “A government detective! Who is the government + detective?” + </p> + <p> + “Reilly,” said the young man. + </p> + <p> + “Reilly? But it was him that tempted me!” + </p> + <p> + “Well, congratulate yourself that you resisted temptation!” + </p> + <p> + “But maybe he tempted Heinrich, too!” + </p> + <p> + “No, Heinrich didn't have to be tempted. It was on account of Heinrich + that we began the investigation. He has been making explosives and + planting them all over the country. His name isn't Heinrich, and he isn't + a nephew of Kumme; his name is von Holtz, and he's a Prussian officer, a + personal friend of the Kaiser.” + </p> + <p> + Jimmie was speechless. For the love of Mike! He had been sitting in the + back part of old Kumme's bicycle-shop, filling his pipe from the + tobacco-pouch of a personal friend of the Kaiser. He had called this + personal friend of the Kaiser a fool and a jackass, informing him that a + real mechanic could put a ball-bearing together while he, the personal + friend of the Kaiser, was spitting on his hands. Could you beat it? + </p> + <p> + Mr. Harrod, the “special agent”, informed Jimmie that he would have to + testify as to what he knew; and Jimmie was so indignant at the way he had + been taken in that he was willing to do so. He would have to give bond to + appear, added the other; did he know anyone who would vouch for him? + Jimmie racked his harassed brain. Comrade Dr. Service might consent, if he + were quite sure that Jimmie had not really meant to help the Germans. Mr. + Harrod kindly consented to give this assurance, and called up Dr. Service, + whom he seemed to know, and told him the circumstances. Dr. Service + finally said that he would put up a couple of thousand dollars to + guarantee Jimmie's appearance before the grand jury and at the trial. Mr. + Harrod added that if Dr. Service would promise to come in the morning and + attend to the matter, the government would take his word and let the + witness go for the night. The doctor promised, and Jimmie was told that he + was free till ten o'clock next morning. He went out like a skylark + escaping from a cage! + </p> + <h3> + V. + </h3> + <p> + He had been warned not to talk to anyone, so he told Lizzie that he had + been kept late to make repairs on a motor-cycle. And next morning he got + up at the usual hour, to avoid exciting suspicion, and went and stared at + the shop, which was locked up, with a policeman on guard. He bought a copy + of the Leesville Herald, and read the thrilling story of the German plot + which had been unearthed in Leesville. There were half a dozen + conspirators under arrest, and more than a dozen bombs had been found, all + destined to be set off in the Empire Shops. Franz Heinrich von Holtz, who + had blown up a bridge in Canada and put an infernal machine on board a big + Atlantic liner, had been nailed at last! + </p> + <p> + Half an hour before time, Jimmie was waiting at the Post Office building, + and when Comrade Dr. Service arrived, they went in and signed the bond. + Coming out again, the grim and forbidding doctor ordered Jimmie into his + car, and oh, what a dressing-down he did give him! He had Jimmie where he + wanted him—right over his knees—and before he let him up he + surely did make him burn! The little machinist had been so cock-sure of + himself; going ahead to end the war, by stopping the shipping of + munitions, and paying no heed to warnings from men older and wiser than + himself! And now see what he had got himself in for—arrested with a + gang of fire-bugs and desperadoes, under the control and in the pay of a + personal friend of the Kaiser! + </p> + <p> + Poor Jimmie couldn't put up much of a defence: he was cowed, for once. He + could only say that he had had no evil intention—he had merely been + agitating against the trade in munitions—a wicked thing— + </p> + <p> + “Wicked?” broke in the Comrade Doctor. “The thing upon which the freedom + of mankind depends!” + </p> + <p> + “W—what?” exclaimed Jimmie; for these words sounded to him like + sheer lunacy. + </p> + <p> + The other explained. “A nation that means to destroy its neighbours sets + to work and puts all its energies into making guns and shells. The free + peoples of the world won't follow suit—you can't persuade them to do + it, because they don't believe in war, they can't realize that their + neighbours intend to make war. So, when they are attacked their only + chance for life is to go out into the open market and buy the means of + defence. And you propose to deprive them of that right—to betray + them, to throw them under the hoofs of the war-monster! You, who call + yourself a believer in justice, make yourself a tool of such a conspiracy! + You take German money—” + </p> + <p> + “I never took no German money!” cried Jimmie, wildly. + </p> + <p> + “Didn't Kumme pay you money?” + </p> + <p> + “But I worked in his shop—I done my ten hours a day right straight!” + </p> + <p> + “And this fellow Jerry Coleman? Hasn't he given you money?” + </p> + <p> + “But that was for propaganda—he was agent for Labour's National + Peace Council—” + </p> + <p> + And the Comrade Doctor fairly snorted. “How could you be such an ass? + Don't you read the news? But no—of course, you don't—you only + read German dope!” And the Comrade Doctor drew out his pocket-book, which + was bursting with clippings, and selected one from a New York paper, + telling how the government was proceeding against the officials of an + organization called “Labour's National Peace Council” for conspiring to + cause strikes and violence. The founder of the organization was a person + known as “the Wolf of Wall Street”; the funds had been furnished by a + Prussian army officer, an attache of the German legation, who had used his + official immunity to incite conspiracy and wholesale destruction of + property in a friendly country. What had Jimmie to say to that? + </p> + <p> + And poor Jimmie for once had nothing to say. He sat, completely crushed. + Not merely the money which he had got from Kumme on Saturday night, but + also the ten-dollar bills which Jerry Coleman had been slipping into his + hand—they, too, had come from the Kaiser! Was the whole radical + movement to be taken over by the Kaiser, and Jimmie Higgins put out of his + job? + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0009" id="link2HCH0009"> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER IX. JIMMIE HIGGINS RETURNS TO NATURE + </h2> + <h3> + I. + </h3> + <p> + Kumme's bicycle-shop went out of business, and its contents were sold at + auction. Jimmie Higgins watched the process wistfully, reflecting how, if + he had not wasted his substance on Socialist tracts, if he had saved a bit + of his wages like any normal human being, he might have bought this little + business and got a start in life. But alas, such hopes were not for + Jimmie! He must remain in the condition which the President of his country + described as “industrial serfdom”; he must continue to work for some other + man's profit, to be at the mercy of some other man's whim. + </p> + <p> + He found himself a job in the railroad shops; but in a couple of weeks + came an organizer, trying to start a union in the place. Jimmie, of + course, joined; how could he refuse? And so the next time he went to get + his pay he found a green slip in his envelope informing him that the + Atlantic Western Railroad Company would no longer require his services. No + explanation was given, and none sought—for Jimmie was old in the + ways of American wage-slavery, euphemistically referred to as “industrial + serfdom”. + </p> + <p> + He got another start as helper to a truckman. It was the hardest work he + had yet done—all the harder because the boss was a dull fellow who + would not talk about politics or the war. So Jimmie was discontented; + perhaps the spring-time was getting into his blood; at any rate, he hunted + through his Sunday paper, and came on an advertisement of a farmer who + wanted a “hand”. It was six miles out in the country, and Jimmie, + remembering his walk with the Candidate, treated himself to a Sunday + afternoon excursion. He knew nothing about farm-work, and said so; but the + munition-factories had drained so much labour from the land that the + farmer was glad to get anybody. He had a “tenant-house” on his place, and + on Monday morning Jimmie hired his former boss—and truckman—to + move his few sticks of furniture; he bade farewell to his little friend + Meissner, and next day was learning to milk cows and steer a plough. + </p> + <p> + So Jimmie came back to the bosom of his ancient Mother. But alas, he came, + not to find joy and health, not as a free man, to win his own way and make + a new life for himself; he came as a soil-slave, to drudge from dawn to + dark for a hire that barely kept him going. The farmer was the owner of + Jimmie's time, and Jimmie disliked him heartily, because he was + surly-tempered and stingy, abusing his horses and nagging at his hired + man. Jimmie's education in farm-economics was not thorough enough to + enable him to realize that John Cutter was as much of a slave as himself—bound + by a mortgage to Ashton Chalmers, President of the First National Bank of + Leesville. John drudged from dawn to dark, just as Jimmie did, and in + addition had all the worry and fear; his wife was a sallow and + hollow-chested drudge, who took as many bottles of patent-medicine as poor + Mrs. Meissner. + </p> + <p> + But Jimmie kept fairly cheerful because he was learning new things, and + because he saw how good it was for the babies, who were getting fresh air + and better food than they had ever had in their little lives before. All + summer long he ploughed and harrowed and hoed, he tended horses and cows + and pigs and chickens, and drove to town with farm produce to be sold. He + would be too tired at night even to read his Socialist papers; for six + months he let the world go its way unhindered—its way of desperate + strife and colossal anguish. It was the time when the German hordes hurled + themselves against the fortifications of Verdun. For five horrible months + they came on, wave upon endless wave; the people of France set their teeth + and swore, “They shall not pass!” and the rest of civilization waited, + holding its breath. + </p> + <h3> + II. + </h3> + <p> + The only chance Jimmie had to talk about these matters was of a Saturday + night when he strolled up to the store at a near-by cross-roads. The men + he met here were of a new type to him—as different from factory + people as if they came from another planet. Jimmie had been taught to + laugh at them as “hayseeds”; intellectually he regarded them as relics of + a vanished age so, of course, he could not listen to their talk very long + without “butting in”. He began with the declaration that the Allies were + as bad as the Germans. He got away with that, because they had all been + taught to hate the “Britishers” in their school-books, and they didn't + know very much about Frenchmen and “Eye-talians”. But when Jimmie went on + to say that the American government was as bad as the German government—that + all governments were run by capitalists, and all went to war for foreign + markets and such plunder—then what a hornet's nest he brought about + his ears! “You mean to say American armies would do what them Proosians + done in Belgium?” And when Jimmie answered “Yes,” an indignant citizen + rose from his seat on a cracker-box, and tapped him on the shoulder and + said: “Look here, young feller, you better run along home. You'll git + yerself a coat of tar and feathers if you talk too much round these + parts.” + </p> + <p> + So Jimmie shut up for a while; and when he went out with his armful of + purchases, an aged, white-whiskered patriarch who had been listening got + up and followed him out. “I'm going your way,” he said. “Git in with me.” + Jimmie climbed into the buggy; and while the bony old mare ambled along + through the summer night the driver asked questions about Jimmie's life. + Where had he been brought up? How had it been possible for a man to live + all his life in America, and know so little about his native land? + </p> + <p> + Peter Drew was this old farmer's name, and he had been in the first battle + of Bull Run, and had fought with the Army of Northern Virginia all the way + to Richmond. So he knew how American armies behave; he could tell Jimmie + about a million free men who had rushed to arms to save their nation's + integrity, and had made a clean job of it, and then gone quietly back to + their work at farm and forge. Jimmie had heard Comrade Mary Allen, the + Quaker, make the statement that “Force never settled anything”. He + repeated this now, and the other replied that an American ought to be the + last person in the world to make such a statement, for his country had + provided the best illustration in history of the importance of a good job + of spanking. It was force that had settled the slavery question—and + settled it so that now you might travel in the South and have a hard time + to find a man that would want to unsettle it. + </p> + <p> + But Jimmie knew nothing about all that; he knew nothing about anything in + America. The old man said it frightened him to realize that the country + had let a man grow up in it with so little understanding of its soul. All + that precious tradition, utterly dead so far as Jimmie was concerned! All + those heroes who had died to make free the land in which he lived, and to + keep it free—and he did not know their names, he did not even know + the names of the great battles they had fought! The old man's voice + trembled and he laid his hand on Jimmie's knee. + </p> + <p> + The little Socialist tried to explain that he had dreams of his own. He + was fighting for international freedom—his patriotism was higher and + wider than any one country. And that was all right, said the other, but + why kick down the ladder by which you had climbed—and especially + when you had perhaps not entirely finished climbing? Why not know the + better side of your own country, and appeal to it? Peter Drew went on to + tell of a speech he had heard Abraham Lincoln make, and to quote things + Lincoln had said; could Jimmie doubt that Lincoln would have opposed the + rule of the country by Wall Street? And when a country had been shaped and + guided by such men as Lincoln, why trample its face and besmirch its good + name—just because there were in it some evil men contending against + its ideals of freedom and democracy? + </p> + <p> + This old soldier lived about a mile from Jimmie, and asked his new friend + to come and see him. So the next afternoon, which was Sunday, Lizzie put + on a newly starched dress, and Jimmie packed the two smallest infants in + the double perambulator, and took Jimmie Junior's chubby hand and they + trudged down the road to the farmhouse which the old man's father had + built. Mrs. Drew was a sweet-faced, rather tired looking old lady, but her + pale eyes seemed to smile with hospitality, and she brought out a basket + of ripe peaches, and sat and chatted sympathetically with Lizzie about the + care of babies, while Jimmie and the old man sat under the shade of an elm + tree by the kitchen-door and discussed American history. Jimmie listened + to stories of battle and imprisonment, of monster heroisms and + self-immolations. Up to this time he had been looking at war from the + outside, as it were; but now he got a glimpse of the soul of it, he began + to understand how a man might be willing to leave his home and his loved + ones, and march out to fight and suffer and die to save his country in + which he believed. + </p> + <p> + And here was another new idea: this old fellow had been a soldier, had + fought through four years of incessant battles, and yet he had not lost + his goodness. He was kind, gentle, generous; he gave dignity to the + phrases at which Jimmie had been taught to mock. It was impossible not to + respect such a man; and so little by little Jimmie was made to reflect + that there might be such a thing as the soul of America, about which Peter + Drew was all the time talking. Perhaps there was really more to the + country than Wall Street speculators and grafting politicians, policemen + with clubs and militiamen with bayonets to stick into the bodies of + working-men who tried to improve their lot in life! + </p> + <h3> + III. + </h3> + <p> + In the course of the summer Jimmie had to take several days off and go + into Leesville to attend the trial of the German plotters. He had to take + the witness-stand and tell all he knew about Kumme and Heinrich and the + other men who had frequented the bicycle-shop. It was a very serious + experience, and before it was over Jimmie was heartily glad that he had + rejected the invitation to help blow up the Empire Machine Shops. The + trial ended with a sentence of six months for Jimmie's old employer, and + of two years each for Heinrich and his pals. The law allowed no more—to + the intense disgust of the Leesville Herald. The Herald was in favour of a + life-sentence for anyone who interfered with the industry upon which the + prosperity of the city depended. + </p> + <p> + Among those who came to the trial was Comrade Smith, editor of the Worker, + and Jimmie sat with him in Tom's “Buffeteria”, and heard an account of the + latest developments in the Empire Shops. The movement of discontent had + been entirely crushed; the great establishment was going at full blast, + both day and night. They were taking on hundreds of new hands, mostly + women and girls, speeding them faster and faster, turning out tens of + thousands of shell-casings every day. And still they were not satisfied; + new buildings were going up, the concern was spreading like a huge blot + over the landscape. There was talk of an explosive factory near-by, so + that shells might be filled as fast as they were made. + </p> + <p> + The “boom” conditions continued in Leesville; speculators were reaping + harvests, it seemed as if the masters of the city were all on a spree. + Comrade Smith advised Jimmie to stay where he was, for it was getting to + be harder and harder for the workers in Leesville to get anything to eat. + But out on the heights along the river front, the part of the city called + “Nob Hill”, new palaces were rising. And it was that way all over the + Eastern part of the country, said the young editor; the rich no longer + knew what to do with their millions. + </p> + <p> + On the day the trial ended, Jimmie stayed in town to attend a meeting of + the local and pay his back dues. So he met all his old friends, and heard + “Wild Bill” get up and deliver one of his tirades. Bill had in his hand a + newspaper clipping telling of the amazing madness that had struck Wall + Street. Munition stocks were soaring to prices beyond belief; + “war-babies”, men called them, with unthinkably cynical wit. On the “Great + White Way”, to which they rushed to celebrate these new Arabian Nights, + there was such an orgy of dissipation as the world had never seen. “And is + this what we have to slave for!” yelled “Wild Bill”—looking wilder + than ever since the police had broken his nose and knocked out his three + front teeth. “This is why we are chained to our jobs—shut up in jail + if we so much as open our mouths! Piling up millions for old man Granitch, + so that young Lacey can marry chorus-girls and divorce them—or steal + away another man's wife, as they say he's doing just now!” + </p> + <p> + Then young Emil Forster spoke, explaining to Jimmie the inner significance + of terrific world-events. Russia was in the midst of a gigantic offensive, + which was meant to overwhelm Austria; England at the same time was hurling + in her new armies on the Somme; for these two giant movements they wanted + shells—millions and millions of shells from America, which alone + could make enough of them. The railroads were clogged with them, they were + piled mountain-high at the terminals and ports; whole fleets of steamers + were loading up with them, and proceeding to England and France, and to + Russia by way of Archangel. And, of course, the German submarines were out + to stop them; the whole world was like a powder-magazine over the issue. + The President, by his series of notes, had forced Germany to agree not to + sink passenger-vessels; but this promise was not easy to keep—accidents + kept happening, and the temper of the peoples was rising, America was + being drawn nearer every hour to the vortex of this dreadful strife. Such + was the picture which Jimmie carried back to the farm; you could hardly + wonder if he missed that peace and joy which men are supposed to imbibe at + the bosom of their Mother Nature! + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0010" id="link2HCH0010"> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER X. JIMMIE HIGGINS MEETS THE OWNER + </h2> + <h3> + I. + </h3> + <p> + It was late at night when Jimmie left the Socialist local, and took the + trolley out into the country. He had to walk nearly two miles from where + he got off, and a thunder-storm had come up; he got out and started to + trudge through the darkness and the floods of rain. Several times he + slipped off the road into the ditch, and once he fell prone, and got up + and washed the mud from his eyes and nose with the stream of fresh water + pouring about his head. While he was thus occupied he heard the sound of a + horn, and saw a glare of light rushing up. He jumped into the ditch again, + and a big automobile went by at a fast pace, spattering showers of mud all + over him. He plodded on, swearing to himself. Some of them + munition-millionaires, no doubt—tearing over the country at night + honking their horns like they owned the roads, and covering poor walking + people with their splashings! + </p> + <p> + And so on, until Jimmie came round a turn of the road and saw the white + glare of light again, this time standing still. It seemed to be pointing + up into the trees; and when he got nearer he made out the reason—it + had run off the road into the ditch, and then up the other slope, and + there rolled over on to its side. + </p> + <p> + “Hello!” said a voice, as Jimmie came slopping up. + </p> + <p> + “Hello!” he answered. + </p> + <p> + “How far is it to the nearest house?” + </p> + <p> + “Maybe half a mile.” + </p> + <p> + “Who lives there?” + </p> + <p> + “I do.” + </p> + <p> + “Have you got a horse and buggy?” + </p> + <p> + “There's one at the big house, just a piece beyond.” + </p> + <p> + “Do you suppose we could get enough men to turn this car over?” + </p> + <p> + “I dunno; there ain't many about here.” + </p> + <p> + “Damn!” muttered the man to himself. Then, after a moment, “Well, there's + no use staying here.” This to his companion, whom Jimmie made out to be a + woman. She was standing still, with the cold rain pouring over her. The + man put his arm about her, and said to Jimmie, “Lead the way, please.” So + Jimmie set out, slopping through the mud as before. + </p> + <p> + Nothing more was said until they reached the “tenant-house” where the + Jimmies lived. But meantime the little Socialist's mind was busy; it + seemed to him that the man's voice was familiar, and he was trying to + recall where and how he had heard it before. They came to the house, which + was dark, and the couple stood on the porch while Jimmie went in and + groped for a match and lighted the single smoky oil-lamp on which the + household depended. Carrying it in his hand, he went to the door and + invited the couple in. They came; and so Jimmie got a glimpse of the face + of the man, and almost dropped the lamp right there where he stood. It was + Lacey Granitch! + </p> + <h3> + II. + </h3> + <p> + The young lord of Leesville was too much occupied with his own affairs to + notice the look on the face of the yokel before him; or perhaps he was so + used to being recognized, and to being stared at by yokels. He looked + about the room and saw a stove. “Can you get us a fire, so this lady can + get dry?” + </p> + <p> + “Y—yes,” said Jimmie. “I—I suppose so.” But he made no move; + he stood rooted to the spot. + </p> + <p> + “Lacey,” put in the woman, “don't stop for that. Get the car started, or + get another.” And Jimmie looked at her; she was rather small, and very + beautiful—quite the most beautiful human creature that Jimmie had + ever looked at. One could see that she was expensively dressed, even + though everything she had on was soaked with rain. + </p> + <p> + “Nonsense!” exclaimed Lacey. “You can't travel till you get dry—you'd + be ill.” And he turned upon Jimmie. “Get a fire, won't you?” he exclaimed. + “A big fire. I'll make it worth while to you for whatever you do. Only + don't stand there gaping all night,” he added impatiently. + </p> + <p> + Jimmie leaped to obey; partly because he had been in the habit of leaping + to obey all his life—but also partly because he was sorry for the + beautiful wet lady, and because, if he stood and stared any longer, Lacey + Granitch might recognize him. The moment when Jimmie had been singled out + in the herd of strikers and cursed by the young master of the Empire + Machine Shops was one of the most vivid memories of Jimmie's rebellious + life, and it did not occur to him that the incident might not have equally + impressed the other participant. + </p> + <p> + In a few minutes the stove was hot; and urged by her escort, the lady took + off her driving-coat and hat, and hung them over a chair. Everything + underneath was wet, and the man urged her to take off her skirt and + blouse. “What does he matter?” he argued, referring to Jimmie; but the + lady would not do it. She stood by the stove, shivering slightly, and + pleading with her escort to make haste, to find some way to get the car + running again. They might be followed— + </p> + <p> + “Oh, nonsense, Helen!” cried Lacey. “You are tormenting yourself with + nightmares. Be sensible and get dry.” He piled the wood into the stove, + and ordered Jimmie to get another armful; and Jimmie obeyed with his hands + and feet—but meantime his rebellious little brain was taking in + every detail of the situation, putting this and that together. + </p> + <p> + The talking had waked up Lizzie, so Jimmie rushed into the next room and + whispered, “Lacey Granitch is here!” If he had told her that the Angel + Gabriel was there, or Jehovah with all his thunders and his retinue of + seraphim, poor Lizzie could not have been more stunned. Jimmie ordered her + to get up, and get on her dress and shoes, and get a cup of coffee for the + lady; the dazed woman obeyed—though she would rather have crawled + under the bed than face the celestial personages who had taken possession + of her home. + </p> + <h3> + III. + </h3> + <p> + Lacey ordered Jimmie to accompany him, to find some help to get the car + into travelling condition. They went out together, and on the porch, + before they braved the rain again, young Granitch stopped and spoke: “See + here, my man; I want you to help me get a gang together, and I want you to + keep quiet, please—say nothing about who was in the car. If any + other people come along and ask questions, keep your mouth shut, and I'll + make it worth while to you—well worth while. Do you understand?” + </p> + <p> + Every instinct in Jimmie Higgins was ready to answer, “Yes, sir.” That was + what he had always answered to such commands—he, and his father, and + his father's fathers before him. But something else within him resisted + this instinct—the new revolutionary psychology which he had so + painfully acquired, and which made continual war upon his old-time + docilities. It seemed that this was the moment, if ever in his life, to + show the stuff he was made of. He clenched his hands, and everything in + him turned to iron. “WHO IS THAT LADY?” he demanded. + </p> + <p> + Lacey Granitch was so taken aback that he started visibly. “What do you + mean?” + </p> + <p> + “I mean—is she your wife? Or is she some other man's wife?” + </p> + <p> + “Why you damned—” And the young lord of Leesville stopped, + speechless. Jimmie fell back a couple of steps, as a matter of precaution, + but he did not weaken in his rigid resolve. + </p> + <p> + “I know you, Mr. Granitch,” he said; “and I know what you're doing. You + might as well know you ain't foolin' nobody.” + </p> + <p> + “What the hell is it to you?” cried the other; but then he stopped again, + and Jimmie heard him breathing hard. Evidently he made an effort to keep + his self-control; when he spoke again, his voice was quieter. “Listen, my + good fellow,” he said. “You have a chance to make a good deal of money + to-night—” + </p> + <p> + “I don't want your money!” broke in Jimmie. “I wouldn't touch your filthy + money, that you get by murdering men!” + </p> + <p> + “My God!” said Lacey Granitch; and then, weakly: “What have you got + against me?” + </p> + <p> + “What have I got? I was workin' in the Empire, an' I went on strike for my + rights, an' you cursed me like I was a dog, an' you sent the police an' + had me arrested, an' they smashed Wild Bill's nose, an' sent me up for ten + days when I hadn't done nothin'—” + </p> + <p> + “Oh! So that's it, is it?” + </p> + <p> + “Yes, that's it; but I wouldn't mind that so much—if it wasn't for + them shells you're makin' to kill men over in Europe. And you spendin' the + money drinkin' champagne with chorus-girls, an' runnin' off with other + men's wives!” + </p> + <p> + “You—” and Lacey uttered a foul oath, and leaped at Jimmie; but + Jimmie had expected that, he was looking out for himself. There was no + railing to the little porch on which he stood, and he leaped off to the + ground and away. Because he knew the lay of the land, he could run faster + in the darkness than his pursuer. + </p> + <p> + He sped down the path and out into the road—and there was the + headlight of an automobile, almost upon him. The vehicle came to an + instant stop, and a startled voice cried, “Hey, there!” + </p> + <p> + “Hey, there!” answered Jimmie, and stopped in the light; for he did not + believe that his enemy would dare pursue him there. + </p> + <p> + The voice from the car spoke again. “There's an automobile off the road a + ways back here. Do you know anything about who the people are that were + driving it?” + </p> + <p> + “Sure I do!” answered Jimmie promptly. + </p> + <p> + “Where are they?” + </p> + <p> + “They're up in that house—Lacey Granitch an' a lady named Helen—” + </p> + <p> + And instantly the door of the car was flung open. A man leaped out, and + another man, and another; they kept coming—Jimmie would not have + believed that an automobile could have held so many people. Not one of + them said a word, but all started on the run for Jimmie's house as if they + were charging in a battle. + </p> + <h3> + IV. + </h3> + <p> + Jimmie followed behind. He heard sounds of a scuffle on the lawn, and + screams from inside. At first the little farm-hand could not make up his + mind what to do, but finally he ran to the house; and there in the front + room he saw the beautiful lady, with her wet hair streaming down her back, + and the tears streaming down her face, sunk on her knees, before the man + who had hailed Jimmie from the automobile. She had caught his coat with + her two hands, and clung to it with such desperation that when he tried to + draw away he dragged her along the floor. “Paul!” she was screaming. “What + are you going to do?” + </p> + <p> + “Be quiet! Be quiet!” commanded the man. He was young, tall and + superhumanly handsome; his face had the white light of a passionate + resolve, his lips were set like those of a man who is marching to his + death in battle. “Answer me!” cried the woman again and again; until + finally he said: “I shan't kill him; but I mean to teach him his lesson.” + </p> + <p> + “Paul, Paul, have mercy!” sobbed the woman; she went on pleading + hysterically, in the most dreadful distress that Jimmie had ever seen or + heard. “It wasn't his fault, Paul, it was mine! I did it all! Oh, for + Christ's sake! You are driving me mad!” She moaned, she implored, she + sobbed till she choked herself; and when the man tried to tear her hands + loose she fought with him, he could not get free of her. + </p> + <p> + “You're not going to move me, Helen,” he declared. “You might as well get + that clear.” + </p> + <p> + “But I tell you it was my fault, Paul! I ran away with him!” + </p> + <p> + “All right,” answered the man, grimly. “I'll fix him so no other man's + wife will ever run away with him.” + </p> + <p> + Her clamour continued more wildly than ever, until two other men came into + the room. “Joe,” said Paul, to one of them, “take her down to the car and + keep her there. Don't let her call for help—if anybody comes along, + keep her quiet, keep your hand tight over her mouth.” + </p> + <p> + “Paul, you're a fiend!” shrieked the woman. “I'll kill you for this!” + </p> + <p> + “You're welcome to,” answered the man. “I shouldn't care—but I'm + going to do this job before I die.” And he tore the woman's hands away + from him, and by his stern anger he gave the other two men the necessary + resolution. They carried her, half-fainting, out of the room. + </p> + <p> + All this time Jimmie Higgins had been standing like one turned to stone; + and Lizzie had shrunk into a far corner of the room, all but paralysed + with terror. Now the man turned to them. “My good people,” he said, “we + want to borrow your room for a half-hour or so. We'll pay you well for it—enough + to buy the whole house if you want to.” + </p> + <p> + “W—w—what are you goin' to do?” stammered Jimmie. + </p> + <p> + “We're going to teach a little fundamental morality to a young man whose + education has been neglected,” replied the other. That somehow did not + tell Jimmie very much, but he forebore to speak again, for never in all + his life had he seen a man who conveyed to him the impression of such + resistless force as this man. He was truly a superhuman creature, + terrifying, panoplied in lightnings of wrath. + </p> + <p> + The door of the house opened again, and Lacey Granitch came in, with a man + on each side holding him by the arms and a pair of handcuffs on his + wrists. Of all the dreadful spectacles that Jimmie had seen that dreadful + night, the worst was the face of the young master of the Empire Machine + Shops. It was green—absolutely and literally green. His knees + trembled so that he seemed about to sink to the floor, and his dark eyes + were those of an animal in a trap. + </p> + <p> + There came another man behind him carrying two black cases in his hands. + He opened one, and took out some instrument with wires attached, and hung + part of it to a hook on the wall; he pressed a switch, and a soft white + radiance flooded the room. The man who was in command, the one whom the + lady had called “Paul”, now turned to Jimmie and his wife. “You may take + your lamp,” he said. “Go into the other room and stay there till we call + you, please.” + </p> + <p> + “W—w—what are you goin' to do?” Jimmie found courage to + stammer again. But the other merely bade him to go into the other room and + stay, and it would be all right, and he would be well paid for his time + and trouble. There was no use trying to interfere; no use trying to get + away, for the house would be watched. + </p> + <h3> + V. + </h3> + <p> + Jimmie Junior had been wakened by the uproar, and was whimpering; so + Lizzie hurried to quiet him, and Jimmie set the little smoky lamp on the + dresser, and went and sat on the bed beside her, holding her hand in his. + Both their hands were shaking in a way that was amazing. + </p> + <p> + Every sound from the other room was plainly audible. Lacey was pleading, + and “Paul” commanded him to hold his tongue. There was a scuffle, and then + terrified moans, which died away. There began to steal into the Higgins's + bedroom a most ghastly odour; they could not imagine what it was. And then + they began to hear wild clamour from Lacey Granitch, as if he were + suffering in hell. It was awful beyond words; the perspiration came out in + beads on the faces of the listeners, and Jimmie was just about making up + his mind that it was his duty to rush in and protest, or perhaps to climb + out of the window and make an effort to steal away and summon help, when + the door opened and the man called “Paul” came in, closing the door behind + him. + </p> + <p> + “It's all right,” said he. “People always make a fuss when they're given + an anaesthetic, so don't let it frighten you.” And he stood there waiting, + rigid, grim, while the sounds went on. Finally they died away and silence + fell—a long, long silence. He opened the door and went back into the + other room, and the two Jimmies were left holding each other's shaking + hands. + </p> + <p> + Now and then they heard a man speak in a low voice, or someone move across + the room; and always that ghastly, overpowering odour kept creeping in, + making them think they would die of suffocation, and their three babies + also. The suspense and horror had become almost unbearable—when + finally they began to hear Lacey Granitch again, moaning, sobbing—most + harrowing sounds. “My God! My God!” whispered Lizzie, “What are they + doing?” And when Jimmie did not answer, she whispered again. “We ought to + stop them! We ought to get help!” + </p> + <p> + But then once more the door opened, and “Paul” came in. “It's all right + now,” he said. “He's coming out.” Neither of the Jimmies had the least + idea what “coming out” meant, but they were reassured to know that the + masterful person at least was satisfied. They waited; they heard Lacey + vomiting, as it seemed—and then they heard him cursing, in between + his feeble gasps. He called the men the same foul name that he had called + Jimmie; and that somehow made the whole affair seem better—it + brought one down to earth again! + </p> + <p> + “Paul” went out and stayed for a while, and when he came back, he said, + “We're going now; and understand, there's nothing for you to worry about. + We shall leave the patient here, and as soon as we get to a telephone, + we'll notify the hospital to send an ambulance. So all you have to do is + to wait, and keep quiet and don't worry. And here's something for the use + of your house—” The man put out his hand with a roll of bills, which + Jimmie mechanically took—“and if anybody asks you about what + happened to-night, just say you didn't see anything and don't know + anything whatever about it. I'm sorry to have troubled you, but it + couldn't be helped. And now, good night.” + </p> + <p> + And so the masterful young man went out, and they heard him and his + companions tramping down the porch-steps. They listened, until they heard + the automobile start up and disappear in the darkness. Then from the next + room they heard a moan. + </p> + <p> + Trembling with terror, Jimmie got up and stole to the door, and opened it + a tiny crack. The room was in utter darkness. “Get me some water!” the + voice of Lacey groaned; and Jimmie tiptoed back and got the little smoky + lamp, and came to the door again. He peered in, and saw that Lacey was + lying on the floor with a sheet over him—everything but his head, + which was resting on a pillow. His face was yellow and twisted with pain. + “Water! Water!” he sobbed; and Jimmie rushed to get a glass and fill it + from the pail. When he brought it, Lacey first tried to drink, and then + began to vomit; then he lay, sobbing softly to himself. He saw Jimmie + staring at him, and his eyes filled with sudden hate and he whispered, + “This is what you got me in for, you damned little skunk!” + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0011" id="link2HCH0011"> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER XI. JIMMIE HIGGINS FACES THE WAR + </h2> + <h3> + I. + </h3> + <p> + The ambulance arrived, and the two attendants who came with it brought in + a stretcher and carried young Granitch away. Jimmie opened the windows to + get rid of the odour of ether, and meantime he and Lizzie sat for hours + discussing every aspect of the dreadful scene they had witnessed, and + speculating as to its meaning. When Jimmie investigated the roll of bills + which had been slipped into his hand, he found that there were ten of + them, new, crisp, and bright yellow, each having the figure twenty printed + upon it. It was more money than these two humble little people had ever + had or expected to have in all their lives. It was literally blood-money + they felt, but it would be hard to see who would be benefited if they + rejected it. Certainly the deed which had been done that night could not + be undone—not for all the money that old Granitch had heaped up in + his vaults. + </p> + <p> + Jimmie kept quiet, as he had been bidden, and apparently no one told about + his part in the affair—no reporters came out to his country home to + ask for interviews. But when he went to the cross-roads store a couple of + nights later he found that the storm was all over—nobody was talking + or thinking about anything else. The news, in fact, had gone by telegraph + all over the world, and wherever people read it they shuddered with + horror, and the Socialists had a choice illustration of the effect of + excessive wealth upon morals. + </p> + <p> + There were half a dozen versions of the story, Jimmie found; some declared + that the outraged husband had caught young Granitch in his home and had + fetched a surgeon there; others that he had taken him to a hospital; + others that the operation had been performed in a road-house near by. But + none mentioned the tenant-house on the farm of John Cutter, and Jimmie + wrapped himself in his pride of superior knowledge, and let the loungers + in the country store chatter on. He would go back each night for new + gossip; and first he heard that old man Granitch was meaning to have all + the conspirators arrested and sent to jail; but then it was said that + young Lacey had left the hospital and vanished, no one knew where. And + they never knew; never again did he appear to curse the strikers at the + Empire, nor to break the hearts of chorus-girls on the Great White Way! + His grim old father's hair turned grey in a few weeks; and while he went + on to fill his contracts with the Russian government, all men knew that + his heart was eaten out with grief and rage and shame. + </p> + <p> + Jimmie and his wife held numerous confabulations over those twenty-dollar + bills. What should they do with their fortune? The Worker, always in need + of funds, was just now issuing bonds in small denominations, and Jimmie + could not imagine any better financial investment than a working-class + paper; but Lizzie, alas, could not be made to see it. And then his eye was + caught by an advertisement of an oil-company, published in a Socialist + paper, which lifted it above suspicion. But again Lizzie blocked the way. + She begged her visionary husband to turn the money over to her; she argued + that half of it belonged to her anyhow—had she not done her part to + earn it? “What part?” Jimmie asked; and she answered that she had kept + quiet—and what more had he done? + </p> + <p> + Eleeza Betooser wanted that treasure to insure safety for the children + through whatever troubles might come to their propagandist father. And + finally the propagandist father gave way, and the woman proceeded to + secure the money in the ancient way of her sex. She took the ten crisp + bills and sewed them in a layer of cloth, and wound the cloth about the + ankle of her right leg, and sewed it there, and put a stocking over it to + hide it. And that apparatus would stay there—day or night, winter or + summer, it would never part from its owner. She would be a walking bank, a + bank that she knew was safe from panic or crisis; the feeling of the two + hundred dollars about her ankle would be communicated to every part of + Lizzie—warming her heart, delighting her brain, and stimulating her + liver and digestion. + </p> + <h3> + II. + </h3> + <p> + And soon the chances of life caused Jimmie to be glad of the innate + conservatism of the feminine nature. The giant British offensive was + drowned in mud and blood on the Somme, and the Russian offensive went to + pieces before Lemberg; and meantime John Cutter stowed his barrels of + apples in the cellar, and got the last of his corn-crop husked, and drove + his load of pumpkins to market; and then one Saturday night, after the + cows had come in, wet and steaming with November rain, he informed his + hired man that he would not need his services after that month, he would + no longer be able to afford “help”. + </p> + <p> + Jimmie stared at him in consternation—for he had thought that he had + a permanent job, having learned the work and having heard no serious + complaints. + </p> + <p> + “But,” explained Cutter, “the work's all done. Do you expect me to pay you + to sit round? I'll be glad to take you on next spring, of course.” + </p> + <p> + “And what'll I do in the meantime?” Jimmie glared, and all his hatred of + the villainous profit-system welled up in his heart. So much food he had + helped to raise and store away—and not a pound of it his! “Say,” he + remarked, “I know what you want! Some kind of a trained bear, that'll work + all summer, and go to sleep in winter an' not eat nothin'!” + </p> + <p> + The little Socialist was all the crosser, because he knew that his boss + had just made a lucky stroke—they were running a spur on the + railroad out to the vast explosives plant they were constructing in the + country, and Cutter had got the price of his mortgage for a narrow strip + of land that was nothing but wood-lot. Jimmie had seen the deal made, and + had put in a useful word as to the value of that “timber”, but now he had + no share in the deal. He must be content with an offer of the tenant-house + for five dollars a month through the winter, and a job with the rail-road + company, grading track. + </p> + <p> + There came rain and snow and blizzards, but the rail-road construction + stopped for nothing. It went on in three shifts, day and night; for half + the world was clamouring for the means to blow itself up, and the other + half must work like the devil to furnish the means. At least that was the + way the matter presented itself to Jimmie Higgins, who took it as a + personal affront the way this diabolical war kept pursuing him. He had + fled into the country from it, bringing his little family to a + tenant-house on an obscure, worn-out farm, several miles from the nearest + town; but here all of a sudden came a gang of Dagoes with picks and + shovels. They lifted up and set to one side the chicken-house where Lizzie + kept her eleven hens and one rooster, and the pig-sty where one little hog + gobbled up their table-scraps; and two days later came a huge machine, + driven by steam, creeping on a track, picking up rails and ties from a car + behind it, swinging them round and laying them in front of it, and then + rolling ahead over the bed it had made. So the railroad just literally + walked out into the country, and before long whole train-loads of cement + and sand and corrugated iron walls and roofing came rattling and banging + past the Higgins's back-door. Day and night this continued; and a little + way beyond they knew that a two-mile square of scrubby waste was being + laid out with roads and tracks and little squat buildings, set far apart + from each other. In a few months the frightened family would lie awake at + night and listen to trains rattling past, coming out from the explosives + plant, piled to the tops with loads of trinitrotoluol, and such + unpronounceable instruments of murder and destruction. And this was the + fate which capitalism had handed out to an ardent anti-militarist, a + propagandist of international fraternity! + </p> + <h3> + III. + </h3> + <p> + Jimmie Higgins went into the Socialist local now and then, to pay his dues + and to refresh his soul on pacifist speeches. Just before Christmas the + President of the United States wrote a letter to all the warring nations + pleading with them to end the strife; intimating that all the belligerents + were on a par as to badness, and stating explicitly that America had + nothing to do with their struggle. This, of course, brought intense + satisfaction to the members of Local Leesville of the Socialist party; it + was what they had been proclaiming for two years and four months! They had + never expected to have a capitalist President in agreement with them, but + when the opportunity came, they made the most of it; clamouring that the + capitalist President should go farther—should back up his words by + actions. If the warring nations would not make peace, let America at least + clear her skirts by declaring an embargo, refusing to furnish them with + the means of self-destruction! + </p> + <p> + But for some reason incomprehensible to Jimmie Higgins, the capitalist + President would not take this further step; and time moved on, and at the + end of January fell a thunder-bolt, in the shape of a declaration from the + German government that beginning next day it rescinded its agreement to + visit and search steamers, and declared war to the death against all + vessels sailing in barred zones. Jimmie went to a meeting of the local a + few days after that, and found the gathering seething with excitement. The + President had appeared before Congress that day and made a speech calling + for war; and the Germans and Austrians in the local were wild with + indignation, shaking their fists and clamouring against the unthinkable + outrage of an attack upon the Fatherland. There was a new edition of the + Worker just out, filled with bitter protests, and the Germans and the + pacifists wanted to pledge the local to a movement for a general strike of + labour throughout the country. Street-meetings had been resumed—for, + of course, since the strike in the Empire had been settled, the police had + had no pretext to prevent them. The extremists now wanted anti-war + speakers on every corner, and anti-war leaflets shoved under every + doorstep; they were willing to put up the money and to pledge their time + for these activities. + </p> + <p> + Lawyer Norwood rose and revealed the split that was now full-grown in the + party. For the United States to lie down before that insolent declaration + of the German government would be to imperil everything which a lover of + liberty held dear. It would mean that Britain would be starved out of the + war, and British sea-power shattered—that British sea-power upon + which free government had based itself throughout the world. Norwood was + unable to get any further for the tempest of jeering and ridicule that + overwhelmed him. “Freedom in Ireland!” shrieked Comrade Mary Allen. “And + in India! And in Egypt!” bellowed Comrade Koeln, the glass-blower, whose + mighty lungs had been twenty years preparing for this emergency. + </p> + <p> + It was hard to stop the laughter—it seemed so funny that a man who + called himself a Socialist should be defending British battleships! But + Comrade Gerrity, the chairman, pounded with his gavel, and insisted that + the meeting should give fair play, that every speaker should be heard in + his turn. So Norwood went on. He understood that no government in this + world was perfect, but some were better than others, and it was a fact of + history, whether or not they chose to admit it, that such freedom as had + already been secured in the world—in Britain and Canada and + Australia and New Zealand and the United States—had rested under the + protection of British battleships. If those battleships went down, it + would mean that every one of those free communities would begin building + up a military force many times as strong as they had now. If the United + States did not maintain the established customs of sea-commerce in the + present crisis, it would mean one thing and one only—that America + would spend the next thirty years devoting her energies to preparing for a + life-and-death struggle with German Imperialism. If we were not to fight + later, we must fight now— + </p> + <p> + “All right, you fight!” shouted Comrade Schneider, the brewer, his purple + face more purple than ever before in the history of Local Leesville. + </p> + <p> + “I'm going to fight all right,” answered the young lawyer. “This is my + last speech here or anywhere else—I'm leaving for an officers' + training-camp to-morrow. I have come here to do my duty, to warn you + comrades—even though I know it will be in vain. The time for debate + has passed—the country is going into war—” + </p> + <p> + “I'm not going into war!” roared Schneider. + </p> + <p> + “Be careful,” answered the other. “You may find yourself in before you + know it.” + </p> + <p> + And the big brewer laughed to shake the plaster off the walls. “I'd like + to see them send me! To fight for the British sea-power! Ho! Ho! Ho!” + </p> + <h3> + IV. + </h3> + <p> + It was a stormy speech young Norwood made, but he persisted to the end, so + that, as he said, his conscience might be clear, he might know that he had + done what he could to protect the movement from its greatest blunder. He + warned them that the temper of the country was rising; you could see it + rising hour by hour, and things which had been tolerated in the past would + be tolerated no longer. Democracy would protect its life—it would + show that in a crisis it was as strong as militarism— + </p> + <p> + “Yes, and turn itself into militarism to do it!” cried Comrade Mary Allen. + The Quaker lady was almost beside herself; she, more even than the + Germans, saw in what was transpiring the violation of her most sacred + convictions. + </p> + <p> + America, her own country, was giving itself to war, making ready to turn + its resources to the wholesale mutilation of men! Comrade Mary's thin face + was white; her lips were tight with resolve, but her feelings betrayed + themselves by the quivering of her nostrils. And oh, what a speech she + made! Such torrents of furious hatred in the cause of universal love! + Comrade Mary quoted a Socialist writer who had said that just as + gladiatorial combats had continued until Christian monks were willing to + throw themselves into the arena, so war would continue until Socialists + were willing to throw themselves beneath the hoofs of the cavalry. And in + this Quaker spinster you saw one Socialist who was ready to go out that + very night and throw herself beneath the hoofs of cavalry, infantry, or + artillery, or even of a police automobile. + </p> + <p> + And that was the sentiment of the meeting as a whole. If America entered + the European strife, it would be because the Socialist organization had + exhausted its means of protest in vain. They would call meetings, they + would distribute literature, they would voice their convictions on the + streets and in the shops and wherever the people might be reached. They + would have no part in this wicked strife, either now or later; they would + continue in the future, as in the past, to denounce and to expose the + capitalist politicians and the capitalist newspapers who caused war and + thrived upon war. And in proportion to the intensity of their feelings + would be their bitterness and contempt for the few renegades who in this + hour of crisis, this test of manhood and integrity, were deserting the + movement and going to enrol themselves in officers' training-camps! + </p> + <p> + And so when Jimmie went home that night he carried with him an armful of + revolutionary literature, which during the noon-hour he proceeded to + distribute among the workers on the construction-job, which was now inside + the preserves of the explosives company. So naturally in the course of the + afternoon he was summoned before the boss and discharged; they escorted + him to the limits of the property, and told him that if he ever returned + he would be shot on sight. And then at night he went up to the cross-roads + store and tried to give out his literature there, and got into a + controversy with some of the cracker-box loungers, one of whom jumped up + and shook his fist in Jimmie's face, shouting, “Get out of here, you dirty + little louse! If you don't stop talking your treason round here, we'll + come down some night and ride you out of the country on a rail!” + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0012" id="link2HCH0012"> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER XII. JIMMIE HIGGINS MEETS A PATRIOT + </h2> + <h3> + I. + </h3> + <p> + The country, it seemed, was hell-bent for war; and Jimmie Higgins was + hell-bent for martyrdom. If the great madness were to take possession of + America, it would not be without his having done what he could to prevent + it. He would stand in the path of the war chariot, he would throw himself + beneath the hoofs of the cavalry; and block the road with his dead body. + To which vivid programme there was only one obstacle—or, to be + precise, four obstacles, one large and three small, the large one being + Eleeza Betooser. + </p> + <p> + Poor Lizzie of course had no real comprehension of the world-forces + against which her husband was contending; to Lizzie, life consisted of + three babies, whom it was her duty to feed and protect, and a husband, who + was her instrument for carrying out this duty. The world outside of these + was to her a vague and shadowy place, full of vague and shadowy terrors. + Somewhere up in the sky was a Holy Virgin who would help when properly + appealed to, but Lizzie was handicapped in appealing to this Virgin by the + fact that her husband despised the Holy One, and would cast insulting + doubts upon her virtue. + </p> + <p> + Now the shadowy terrors of this vast outside world were moving to ends of + their own, and her poor, puny husband persisted in putting himself in + their way. He had got turned out of his job, for the fourth or fifth time + since Lizzie had known him, and he was in imminent danger of getting into + jail, or into a coat of tar and feathers. As the controversy grew hotter + and the peril greater, Lizzie came to a condition which might have been + diagnosed as chronic impending hysteria. Her eyes were red from secret + weeping, and at the slightest provocation she would burst into floods of + tears and throw herself into her husband's arms. This would start off + Jimmie Junior and the little ones, who always took their cue from him. And + Jimmie Senior would stand perplexed and helpless. Here was a new aspect of + the heroic life, not dealt with in the books. He wondered—had there + ever in history been such a thing as a married martyr? If so, what had + this martyr done with his family? + </p> + <p> + Jimmie would try to explain this to his distressed spouse. It was a + question of saving a hundred million people from the horrors of war; what + did one man matter, in comparison with that? But alas, the argument did + not carry at all, the simple truth being that the one man mattered more to + Lizzie than all the other ninety-nine million, nine hundred and + ninety-nine thousand, nine hundred and ninety-nine. And besides, what + could the one man do? One poor, obscure, helpless working-man out of a job— + </p> + <p> + “But it's the organization!” he cried. “It's all of us together—it's + the party! We promised to stand together, so we got to do it! If I drop + out, I'm a coward, a traitor! We must make the workers understand—” + </p> + <p> + “But you can't!” cried Lizzie. + </p> + <p> + “But we're doin' it! Come see!” + </p> + <p> + “And what can they do?” + </p> + <p> + Which of course started Jimmy off on a propaganda speech. What could the + workers do? Say rather, what could they not do! How could any war be + fought without the workers? If only they would stand together, if they + would rise against their capitalist oppressors— + </p> + <p> + “But they won't!” sobbed the woman. “They got no use for you at all! You + go an' get fired—or you get your face beat in, like poor Bill Murray—” + </p> + <p> + “But is that any worse than goin' to war?” + </p> + <p> + “You ain't got to go to war!” + </p> + <p> + “Who says I ain't? I got to go, if the country goes. They'll drag me off + and make me! If I refuse they'll shoot me! Ain't they doin' that in + England and France an' Roosia an' all them countries?” + </p> + <p> + “But will they do it here?” cried Lizzie, aghast. + </p> + <p> + “Sure they will! That's exactly what they're gettin' ready for—what + we're fightin' to stop them from! You don't know what's goin' on in this + country—listen here!” + </p> + <p> + And Jimmie hauled out the last issue of the Worker, which quoted speeches + made in Congress, calling for conscription, declaring that such a measure + was an essential war-step. “Don't you see what they're up to? An' if we're + goin' to stop them, we gotta act now, before it's too late. Hadn't I just + as good go to jail here in Leesville as be shipped over to Europe to be + shot—or maybe drowned by a submarine on the way?” + </p> + <p> + And thus a new terror was introduced into Lizzie's life—robbing her + of sleep for many a night thereafter, planting in her mother-heart for the + first time the idea that she might be concerned in the world-war. “What'd + become of the babies?” she wailed; and Jimmie answered: Whose business was + it to bother about working-class babies, under the hellish capitalist + system? + </p> + <h3> + II. + </h3> + <p> + So Jimmie had his way for a bit—he went into Leesville and helped + distribute literature, and held the torch at street-meetings, where some + people hooted at them and others defended them, and the police had to + interfere to prevent a riot. It was at this time that a militant majority + was trying to drive through the Senate a declaration of war against + Germany, and a handful of pacifists blocked the way in the closing hours + of the session, thus causing a delay of several weeks. How you regarded + this action depended upon your point of view. The President denounced them + as “wilful men”, and the Wall Street newspapers apparently wanted them + lynched; whereas Jimmie and his fellows in the local hailed them as heroes + and friends of mankind. The Socialists argued that the President had been + re-elected, only four months before, by pacifist votes, and upon a + pacifist platform; and now he was sweeping the country into war, and + denouncing those who stood upon his former convictions! + </p> + <p> + On top of this came another event which set Jimmie almost beside himself + with excitement. For three days all news from Petrograd was cut off; and + then came a report, electrifying the world—the Tsar had been + overthrown, the Russian people were free! Jimmie could hardly believe his + eyes; he went in to the meeting of the local three nights later, to find + his comrades celebrating as if the world was theirs. Here was the thing + they had been preaching, day in and day out, all these weary years, amid + ridicule, hatred and persecution; here was the Social Revolution, knocking + at the gates of the world! It would spread to Austria and Germany, to + Italy, France, England—and so to Leesville! Everywhere the people + would come into their own, and war and tyranny would vanish like a hateful + nightmare! + </p> + <p> + Speaker after speaker got up to proclaim this glorious future; they sang + the Marseillaise and the Internationale, and the Russians who were present + clasped one another in their arms, with tears running down their cheeks. + It was voted that they must hold a mass-meeting immediately, to explain + this epoch-making event to the people of the city; also they must stand + more firmly than ever by their programme of opposition to war. Now, with + Social Revolution knocking at the gates of the world, what was the use of + America's going in for militarism? + </p> + <p> + So Jimmie set to work with redoubled fervour, giving all his time to + agitation. He had apparently no chance of getting a job, and for the + moment he gave up trying. The keeper of the cross-roads store, being down + on him because of his ideas, refused him any more credit; and so poor + Lizzie was driven to do what she had vowed never to do—take off the + stocking from her right leg, and unsew the bandage from her ankle, and + extract one of the ten precious twenty-dollar bills. Their bright yellow + was considerably faded now, their beautiful crispness gone entirely; but + the store-keeper made no kick on that account—he returned the + change, and incidentally took occasion to give her a friendly warning + concerning her husband's reckless talk. There was trouble coming to him, + and his wife had better shut him up before it was too late. So poor Lizzie + ceased being a pacifist, and went home to have more hysterics on her + husband's bosom. + </p> + <h3> + III. + </h3> + <p> + Being unable to hold him back, she sent word by the mail-carrier to old + Peter Drew to come up and help; the old farmer hitched up his bony mare + and drove to see them, and for a couple of hours talked America while + Jimmie talked Russia. Was America to lie down before the Kaiser? Jimmie + would answer that they were going to bring down the Kaiser in the same way + they had brought down the Tsar. The workers of Russia having shown the + way, never more would the workers of any nation bow to the yoke of + slavery. Yes, even in the so-called republics, such as France, which was + ruled by bankers, and America, which was ruled by Wall Street—even + here, the workers would read the lesson of revolt! + </p> + <p> + “But in America the people can get anything they want!” cried the + bewildered old man. “They only have to vote—” + </p> + <p> + “VOTE?” snarled Jimmie. “An' have their votes thrown out by some rotten + political gang, like they got here in Leesville? Don't talk to me about + votin'—they told me I'd moved into a new district an' lost my vote—lost + it because I lost my job! So it's old man Granitch has the say whether I + can vote or not! You'll find the same thing true of two-thirds of the men + in the Empire Shops—half the unskilled men in the country got no + votes, because they got no home, no nothin'.” + </p> + <p> + “But,” argued the old soldier, “how will you run your new working-class + government, if not by votes?” + </p> + <p> + “Sure, we'll run it by votes,” Jimmie answered—“but first we'll turn + out the capitalists; they won't have the money to buy political machines; + they won't own the newspapers an' print lies about us. Look at this + Leesville Herald right now—just plain downright lies they print—we + can't get any truth at all to the people.” + </p> + <p> + And so it went. It was of no use for the old man to plead for the + “country”; to Jimmie the “country” had let itself be lost, suppressed, + taken over by the capitalists, the “plutes”. Jimmie's sense of loyalty was + not to his country, but to his class, which had been exploited, hounded, + driven from pillar to post. In past times the government had allowed + itself to be used by corporations; so now it was in vain that the + President made appeals for justice and democracy, using the beautiful + language of idealism. Jimmie did not believe that he meant it; or anyhow, + Wall Street would see that nothing came of his promises. The “plutes” + would take his words and twist them into whatever sense they wished; and + meantime they went on pouring abuse on Jimmie Higgins—throwing the + same old mud into his eyes, blinding him with the same old hatred. So + there was no way for an old soldier and patriot to break through the + armour of Jimmie's prejudice. + </p> + <p> + IV. Next day was to be the great mass-meeting in celebration of the + Russian revolution; and would you believe it, Lizzie was hoping to + persuade Jimmie to stay away; she had brought Mr. Drew to help persuade + him! Poor Lizzie had visions of everybody in the hall being carted off to + jail, of Jimmie getting up and shouting something, causing the police to + fall on him and beat in his skull with their clubs. It was in vain he + declared that he was going to do nothing more romantic than sell + literature and act as usher. She clasped him in her arms, weeping + copiously, and when he was still obdurate, she declared that she would go + with him. She would try to persuade Mrs. Drew to take care of the babies + for one night. + </p> + <p> + Old Peter Drew answered that he would be interested to attend the meeting + himself. How would it do for him to come for Lizzie and the little ones, + and leave the latter at his home, and then drive with Lizzie to the + meeting? They could meet Jimmie at the Opera-house, where he would be + spending the day decorating. Then after the meeting they could all drive + back together. “Fine!” said Jimmie, who had visions of the old soldier + becoming infected with revolutionary fever. + </p> + <p> + But alas, it did not work out that way. To Jimmie's consternation the old + man turned up at the Opera-house in a faded blue uniform with brass + buttons all over it! Everybody stared, of course; and they stared all the + harder because they saw this military personage in company with Comrade + Higgins. The old boy gazed about at the swarms of people, many of them + with red buttons, the women with red ribbons or sashes; he gazed at the + decorations—the huge flag and the long red streamers, the banner of + the Karl Marx Verein, and the banner of the Ypsels, or Young Peoples' + Socialist League of Leesville, and the banner of the Machinists' Union, + Local 4717, and of the Carpenters' Union, District 529, and of the + Workers' Co-operative Society. He turned to Jimmie and said, “Where's the + American flag?” + </p> + <p> + The Liederkranz sang the Marseillaise, and after the audience had cheered + and waved red handkerchiefs and shouted itself hoarse, Comrade Gerrity, + the chairman, made a little speech. For many years all Socialists had been + accustomed to employ a metaphor by which to describe conditions in their + country, and now they would no longer be able to use it, for Russia was + free, and America would follow her example when she had the sense. He + introduced Comrade Pavel Michaelovitch, who had come all the way from New + York to tell them the meaning of the greatest event of history. Comrade + Pavel, a slender, frail, scholarly-looking man with a black beard and + black-rimmed spectacles, said a few words in Russian, and then he talked + for an hour in broken English, explaining how the Russians had won their + way to freedom, and now would use it to set free the rest of the + proletariat. And then came Comrade Schultze, of the Carpet Weavers' Union, + assuring them that there was no need to go to war with Germany, because + the German workers had been shown the way to freedom, and would follow + very soon; Schultze knew, because his brother was editor of a Socialist + paper in Leipzig, and he had inside information as to what was going on in + the Fatherland. + </p> + <p> + Then Comrade Smith, the editor of the Worker, was introduced, and the + trouble began. The young editor wasted no time in preliminaries; he was an + international revolutionist, and no capitalist government was going to + draft him for its bloody knaveries. Never would he be led out to murder + his fellow-workers, whether in Germany, Austria, Bulgaria or Turkey; the + masters of Wall Street would find that when they set out to drive American + free men to the slaughter-pen, they had made the mistake of their greedy + lives. “Understand me,” declared Comrade Smith—though there seemed + so far to have been nothing in which anyone could possibly have + misunderstood him—“understand me, I am no pacifist, I am not opposed + to war—it is merely that I purpose to choose the war in which I + fight. If they try to put a gun into my hands, I shall not refuse to take + it—not much, for I and my fellow wage-slaves have long wished for + guns! But I shall use my own judgement as to where I aim that gun—whether + at enemies in front of me, or at enemies behind me—whether at my + brothers, the working-men of Germany, or at my oppressors, the exploiters + of Wall Street, their newspaper lackeys and military martinets!” + </p> + <p> + The sentences of this speech came like the blows of a hammer, and they + struck forth a clamour of applause from the audience. But suddenly the + cheering crowd became aware that something out of the ordinary was + happening. An aged, white-whiskered man clad in a faded blue uniform had + risen from his seat in the middle of the hall and was shouting and waving + his arms. People near him were trying to pull him down into his seat, but + he would not be squelched, he went on shouting; and the audience in part + fell silent out of curiosity. “Shame! Shame!” they heard him cry. “Shame + upon you!” And he pointed a trembling finger at the orator, declaring, + “You are talking treason, young man!” + </p> + <p> + “Sit down!” shrieked the crowd. “Shut up!” + </p> + <p> + But the old man turned upon them. “Are there no Americans at all in this + audience? Will you listen to this shameless traitor without one word?” + </p> + <p> + People caught him by the coat-tails, men shook their fists at him; at the + other side of the hall “Wild Bill” leaped upon a chair, shrieking: “Cut + his throat, the old geezer!” + </p> + <p> + Two policemen came running down the aisle, and the “old geezer” appealed + to them: “What are you here for, if not to protect the flag and the honour + of America?” But the policemen insisted that he stop interrupting the + meeting, and so the old man turned and stalked out from the hall. But he + did not go until he had turned once more and shaken his fist at the crowd, + yelling in his cracked voice, “Traitors! Traitors!” + </p> + <h3> + V. + </h3> + <p> + Poor Jimmie remained in his seat, overwhelmed. That he, the most devoted + of workers for Socialism, should have been the cause of such a disgraceful + scene—bringing to this revolutionary meeting a man in the uniform of + a killer of the working-class! He could not stay and face the comrades; + before the speaking had finished, he gave Lizzie a nudge, and the two got + up and stole out, dodging everyone they knew. + </p> + <p> + Outside they stood in perplexity. They thought, of course, that the old + man would have driven away without them; they pictured the long walk from + the trolley-line in the darkness and mud—and with Lizzie dressed in + her only Sunday-go-to-meeting! But when they went to the place where Mr. + Drew had left his buggy, to their surprise they found him patiently + waiting for them. Seeing them hesitate, he said, “Come! Get in!” They were + much embarrassed, but obeyed, and the old mare started her amble towards + home. + </p> + <p> + They rode for a long time in silence. Finally Jimmie could not stand it, + and began, “I'm so sorry, Mr. Drew. You don't understand—” But the + old man cut him off. “There's no use you and me tryin' to talk, young + man.” So they rode the rest of the way without a sound—except that + once Jimmie imagined he heard Lizzie sobbing to herself. + </p> + <p> + Jimmie really felt terribly about it, for he had for this old soldier a + deep respect, even an affection. Mr. Drew had made his impression not so + much by his arguments, which Jimmie considered sixty years out of date, as + by his personality. Here was one patriot who was straight! What a pity + that he could not understand the revolutionary point of view! What a pity + that he had to be made angry! It was one more of the horrors of war, which + tore friends apart, and set them to disputing and hating one another. + </p> + <p> + At least, that was the way it seemed to Jimmie that night, while he was + still full of the speeches he had heard. But at other times doubts + assailed him—for, of course, a man cannot defy and combat a whole + community without sometimes being led to wonder whether the community may + not have some right on its side. Jimmie would hear of things the Germans + had done in the war; they were such dirty fighters, they went out of their + way to do such utterly revolting and useless, almost insane things! They + made it so needlessly hard for anyone who tried to defend them to think of + them even as human beings. Jimmie would argue that he did not mean to help + the Germans; he would resent bitterly the charges of the Leesville + newspapers that he was a German agent and a traitor; but he could not get + away from the uncomfortable fact that the things he was doing DID have a + tendency to further German interests, at least for a time. + </p> + <p> + When that was pointed out to him by some patriot in a controversy, his + answer would be that he was appealing to the German Socialists to revolt + against their military leaders; but then the patriot would begin to find + fault with the German Socialists, declaring that they were much better + Germans than Socialists, and citing utterances and actions to prove it. + One German Socialist had stood up in the Reichstag and declared that the + Germans had two ways of fighting—their armies overcame their enemies + in the field, while their Socialists undermined the morale of the workers + in enemy countries. When that passage was read to Jimmie, he answered that + it was a lie; no such speech had ever been made by a Socialist. He had no + way of proving it was a lie, of course; he just knew it! But then, when he + went away and thought it over, he began to wonder; suppose it were true! + Suppose the German workers had been so drilled and schooled in childhood + that even those who called themselves revolutionists were patriots at + heart! Jimmie would begin to piece this and that together—things he + had heard or read. Certainly these German Socialists were not displaying + any great boldness in fighting their government! + </p> + <p> + The answer was that they could not oppose their government, because they + would be put in jail. But that was a pretty poor answer; it was their + business to go to jail—if not, what right had they to expect Jimmie + Higgins to go here in America? Jimmie presented this problem to Comrade + Meissner, who answered that if Jimmie would go first, then doubtless the + German comrades would follow. But Jimmie could not see why he should be + first; and when they tried to clear up the reason, it developed that down + in his heart Jimmie had begun to believe that Germany was more to blame + for the war than America. And not merely would Comrade Meissner not admit + that, but he became excited and vehement, trying to convince Jimmie that + the other capitalist governments of the world were the cause of the war—Germany + was only defending herself against them! So there they were, involved in a + controversy, just like any two non-revolutionary people! Repeating over + the same arguments which had gone on in the local between Norwood, the + lawyer, and Schneider, the brewer; only this time Jimmie was taking the + side of Norwood! Jimmie found himself face to face with the disconcerting + fact that his devoted friend Meissner was a German—and therefore in + some subtle way different from him, unable to see things as he did! + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0013" id="link2HCH0013"> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER XIII. JIMMIE HIGGINS DODGES TROUBLE + </h2> + <h3> + I. + </h3> + <p> + War or no war, the soil had to be ploughed and seed sown; so John Cutter + came to his tenant and proposed that he should resume his job as + farm-hand. Only he must agree to shut up about the war, for while Cutter + himself was not a rabid patriot, he would take no chances of having his + tenant-house burned down some night. So there was another discussion in + the Higgins family. Lizzie remembered how, during the previous summer, + Jimmie had worked from dawn till dark, and been too tired even to read + Socialist papers, to say nothing of carrying on propaganda; which seemed + to the distracted wife of a propagandist the most desirable condition + possible! Poor Eleeza Betooser—twice again she had been compelled to + take down the stocking from her right leg, and unsew the bandage round her + ankle, and extract another of those precious yellow twenty-dollar bills; + there were only seven of them left now, and each of them was more valuable + to Lizzie than her eye-teeth. + </p> + <p> + Jimmie finally agreed that he would gag himself, so far as concerned this + country-side. What was the use of trying to teach anything to these + barnyard fools? They wanted war, let them go to war, and be blown to bits, + or poisoned in the trenches! If Jimmie had propaganding to do, he would do + it in the city, where the working-men had brains, and knew who their + enemies were. So once more Jimmie harnessed up John Cutter's horses to the + plough, and went out into John Cutter's field to raise another crop of + corn for a man whom he hated. All day he guided the plough or the harrow, + and at night he fed and cared for the horses and the cows, and then he + came home and ate his supper, listening to the rattling of the long + freight-train that went through his backyard, carrying materials for the + making of TNT. + </p> + <p> + For the great explosives plant was now working day and night, keeping the + war in Jimmie's thoughts all the time, whether he would or not. In the + midnight hours the trains of finished materials went out, making Jimmie's + windows rattle with their rumble and clatter, and bearing his fancies away + to the battle-line across the seas, where men were soon to be blown to + pieces with the contents of these cars. One night something went wrong on + the track, and the train stopped in his backyard, and in the morning he + saw the cars, painted black, with the word “danger” in flaming red + letters. On top of the cars walked a man with a club in his hand and a + bulge on his hip, keeping guard. + </p> + <p> + It appeared that someone had torn up a rail in the night, evidently for + the purpose of wrecking the train; so there came a detective to Jimmie, + while he was working in the field, to cross-question him. They had + Jimmie's record, and suspected him of knowing more than he would tell. + “Aw, go to hell!” exclaimed the irate Socialist. “D'you suppose, if I'd + wanted to smash anything, I'd done it on the place where I work?” And + then, when he went home to dinner, he found that they had been after + Lizzie, and had frightened her out of her wits. They had threatened to + turn them out of their home; Jimmie saw himself hounded here and there by + this accursed war—until it finished by seizing him and dragging him + to the trenches! + </p> + <h3> + II. + </h3> + <p> + The new Congress had met, and declared a state of war with Germany, and + the whole country was rushing into arms. Men were enlisting by hundreds of + thousands; but that was not enough for the militarists—they wanted a + conscription-law, so that every man might be compelled to go. If they were + so sure of themselves and their wonderful war, why weren't they satisfied + to let those fight it who wanted to? So argued the rebellious Jimmie and + his anti-militarist associates. But no! the militarists knew perfectly + well that the bulk of the people did not want to fight, so they proposed + to make them fight. Every energy of the Socialist movement was now + concentrated on the blocking of this conscription scheme. + </p> + <p> + Local Leesville hired the Opera-house again, organizing a mass-meeting of + protest, and the capitalist papers of the city began clamouring against + this meeting. Was the patriotism and loyalty of Leesville to be affronted + by another gathering of sedition and treason? The Herald told all over + again the story of the gallant old Civil War veteran who had risen in his + seat and shouted his protest against the incitements of “Jack” Smith, the + notorious “red” editor. The Herald printed a second time the picture of + the gallant old veteran in his faded blue uniform, and the list of battles + in which he had fought, from the first Bull Run to the last siege of + Richmond. Some farmer passing by handed a copy of this paper to Lizzie, + adding that if there was any more treason-talk in this locality there was + going to be a lynching bee. So Jimmie found his wife in tears again. She + was absolutely determined that he should not go to that meeting. For three + days she wept and argued with him, and for a part of three nights. + </p> + <p> + It would have been comical if it had not been so tragic. Jimmie would use + the old argument, that if he did not succeed in stopping the war, he would + be dragged into the trenches and killed. So, of course, Lizzie would + become a pacifist at once. What right had the war to take Jimmie from her? + The little Jimmies had a right to their father! All children had a right + to their fathers! But then, after Lizzie had expressed these tearful + convictions, Jimmie would say, “All right, then, he must go to that + meeting, he must do what he could to prevent the war.” And poor Lizzie + would find herself suddenly confronting the terrors of the police with + their clubs and the patriots with their buckets of tar and bags of + feathers! No, Jimmie must not carry on any propaganda, Jimmie must not go + to the meeting! Poor Jimmie would try to pin her down; which way did she + want him killed, by the Germans, or by the police and the mobs? But Lizzie + did not want him killed either way! She wanted him to go on living! + </p> + <p> + Jimmie would try to arrange a compromise for the present. He would go to + the meeting, but he would promise not to say a word. But that did not + console Lizzie—she knew that if anything happened, her man would get + into it. No, if he were determined to go, she would go, too,—even if + they had to load the three babies into the perambulator, and push them two + or three miles to the trolley! If Jimmie tried to make a speech, she would + hang on to his coat-tails, she would clasp her hands over his mouth, she + would throw herself between him and the clubs of the policemen! + </p> + <p> + So matters stood, when on the afternoon before the meeting there came a + heavy rain, and the road to the trolley was rendered impossible for a + triple-loaded baby-carriage. So there were more hysterics in the family; + Jimmie took his wife's hand in his and solemnly swore to her that she + might trust him to go to this meeting, he would not do anything that could + by any possibility get him into trouble. He would not try to make a + speech, he would not get up and shout—no matter what happened, he + would not say a word! He would merely sell pamphlets, and show people to + their seats, as he had done at a hundred meetings before. To make sure of + his immunity, he would even leave off the red badge which he was + accustomed to display on Socialist occasions! By these pledges repeated + over and over, he finally succeeded in pacifying his weeping spouse, and + gently removed her clutch on his coat-tails, and departed, waving his hand + to her and the kids. + </p> + <p> + The last thing he saw through the rain was Jimmie Junior, flourishing a + red handkerchief which Lizzie at the last moment had extracted from her + husband's pocket. The last sound he heard was Jimmie Junior's voice, + shouting: + </p> + <p> + “You be good now! You shut up!” Jimmie went off, thinking about this + little tike; he was five years old, and growing so that you could notice + the difference overnight. He had big black eyes like his mother, and a + grin full of all the mischief in the world. The things he knew and the + questions he asked! Jimmie and Lizzie never got tired of talking about + them; Jimmie recalled them one by one, as he trudged through the mud—and, + as always, he set his lips and clenched his hands, and took up anew the + task of making the world a fit place for a working-man's child to grow up + in! + </p> + <h3> + III. + </h3> + <p> + The principal orator of the evening was a young college professor who had + been turned out of his job for taking the side of the working-class in his + public utterances, and who was therefore a hero to Jimmie Higgins. This + young man had the facts of the war at his finger-tips; he made you see it + as a gigantic conspiracy of capitalists the world over to complete their + grip on the raw materials of wealth, and on the bodies and souls of the + workers. He bitterly denounced those who had forced the country into the + war; he denounced the Wall Street speculators and financiers who had made + their billions already, and would be making their tens of billions. He + denounced the plan to force men to fight who did not wish to fight, and + his every sentence was followed by a burst of applause from the throng + which packed the Opera-house. If you judged by this meeting, you would + conclude that America was on the verge of a revolution against the war. + </p> + <p> + The young professor sat down, wiping the perspiration from his pale + forehead; and then the Liederkranz sang again—only it was not called + the Liederkranz now, it had become known as the “Workers' Singing + Society”, out of deference to local prejudice. Then arose Comrade Smith, + editor of the Worker, and announced that after the collection the orator + would answer questions; then Comrade Smith launched into a speech of his + own, to the effect that something definite ought to be done by the workers + of Leesville to make clear their opposition to being dragged into war. For + his part he wished to say that he would not yield one inch to the + war-clamour—he was on record as refusing to be drafted in any + capitalist war, and he was ready to join with others to agree that they + would not be drafted. The time was short—if anything were to be + done, they must act at once— + </p> + <p> + And then suddenly came an interruption—this time not from an old + soldier, but from a sergeant of police, who had been standing at one side + of the stage, and who now stepped forward, announcing, “This meeting is + closed.” + </p> + <p> + “What?” shouted the orator. + </p> + <p> + “This meeting is closed,” repeated the other. “And you, young man, are + under arrest.” + </p> + <p> + There was a howl from the audience, and suddenly from the pit in front of + the stage, whence ordinarily the orchestra dispensed sweet music, there + leaped a line of blue-uniformed men, distributing themselves between the + public and the speaker. At the same time down the centre aisle came a + dozen soldiers marching, with guns in their hands and bayonets fixed. + </p> + <p> + “This is an outrage!” shouted Comrade Smith. + </p> + <p> + “Not another word!” commanded the police official; and two policemen who + had followed him grabbed the orator by each arm and started to lead him + off the stage. + </p> + <p> + Comrade Gerrity leaped to the front of the platform. “I denounce this + proceeding!” he shouted. “We are holding an orderly meeting here—” + </p> + <p> + A policeman laid hold of him. “You are under arrest.” + </p> + <p> + Then came Comrade Mabel Smith, sister of the editor of the Worker. “For + shame! For shame!” she cried. And then, to a policeman, “No, I will not be + silent! I protest in the name of free speech! I declare—” And when + the policeman seized her by the arm, she continued to shout at the top of + her lungs, driving the crowd to frenzy. + </p> + <p> + There were disturbances all over the audience. Mrs. Gerrity, wife of the + organizer, sprang up in her seat and began to protest. It happened that + Jimmie Higgins was in the aisle not far from her, and his heart leaped + with strange, half-forgotten emotions as he saw this trim little figure, + with the jaunty hat and the turkey feather stuck on one side. Comrade + Evelyn Baskerville, of Greenwich Village, she of the fluffy brown hair and + the pert little dimples and the bold terrifying ideas, she who had so + ploughed up the soul of Jimmie Higgins and almost broken up the Higgins' + home—here she was, employing a new variety of coquetry, by which she + compelled three soldiers with rifles and bayonets to devote their + exclusive attention to her! + </p> + <p> + And then Comrade Mary Allen, the Quaker lady, who believed in moral force + applied through the ear-drums. She stood in the aisle with her armful of + pamphlets and her red sash over her shoulder, proclaiming, “In the name of + liberty and fair play I protest against this outrage! I will not see my + country dragged into war without asserting my right of protest! I stand + here, in what is supposed to be a Christian city; I speak in the name of + the Prince of Peace—” and so on, quite a little speech, while + several embarrassed young men in khaki were trying to find out how to hold + their rifles and a shouting Quakeress at the same time. + </p> + <p> + And then Comrade Schneider, the brewer. He had been up on the stage with + the singers, and now got somehow to the front. “Haf we got no rights in + America left?” he shouted. “Do we in this audience—” + </p> + <p> + “Shut up, you Hun!” roared someone on the front of the crowd, and three + policemen at once leaped for Comrade Schneider, and grabbed him by the + collar, twisting so hard that the German's face, always purple when he was + excited, took on a dark and deadly hue. + </p> + <p> + Poor Jimmie Higgins! He stood there with his armful of “War, What For?”—trembling + with excitement, itching in every nerve and sinew to leap into this + conflict, to make his voice heard above the uproar, to play his part as a + man—or even as a Comrade Mabel Smith, or a Comrade Mary Alien, or a + Comrade Mrs. Gerrity, nee Baskerville. But he was helpless, speechless—bound + hand and foot by those solemn pledges he had given to Eleeza Betooser, the + mother of babies. + </p> + <p> + He looked about, and near him in the aisle he saw another man, also bound + hand and foot—bound by the memory of the smash in the face which had + broken his nose and knocked out three of his front teeth! “Wild Bill” saw + a policeman watching him now, eager for another pretext to leap on him and + pound him; so he was silent, like Jimmie. The two of them had to stand + there and see the fundamental constitutional rights of American citizens + set at naught, to see liberty trampled in the dust beneath the boots of a + brutal soldiery, to see justice strangled and raped in the innermost + shrine of her temple. At least, that was what you had seen if you read the + Leesville Worker; if on the other hand you read the Herald—which + nine out of ten people did—then you learned that the forces of + decency and order had at last prevailed in Leesville, the propaganda of + the Hun was stifled for ever, the mouthers of sedition had felt the heavy + hand of public indignation. + </p> + <h3> + IV. + </h3> + <p> + Outside, a crowd gathered to jeer while the prisoners were loaded into the + patrol-wagon; but the police drove them away, keeping everybody moving, + and breaking up several attempts at street-oratory. Jimmie found himself + with half a dozen other comrades, wandering aimlessly down Main Street, + talking over and over what had happened, each explaining why and how he + had not shared the crown of martyrdom. Some had shouted as loud as the + rest, but had been missed by the police; some had thought it wiser to run + away and live to shout another day; some wanted to start that very night + to print a leaflet and call another mass-meeting. They adjourned to Tom's + “Buffeteria” to talk things over; they took possession of a couple of + tables, and got their due quotas of coffee and sandwiches, or pie and + milk, and had just got fairly started on the question of raising bail + without the help of Comrade Dr. Service—when suddenly something + happened which drove all thoughts of the meeting out of their minds. + </p> + <p> + It was like a gigantic blow, striking the whole world at once; a cosmic + convulsion, quite indescribable. The air became suddenly a living thing, + which leaped against your face; the windows of the little eating-place + flew inward in a shower of glass, and the walls and tables shook as if + with palsy. The sound of it all was a vast, all-pervasive sound, at once + far off and near, tailing away in the clatter and crash of innumerable + panes of glass falling from innumerable windows. Then came silence, a + sinister, frightful silence, it seemed; men stared at one another, crying, + “My God! What's that?” The answer seemed to dawn upon everyone at once: + “The powder-plant!” + </p> + <p> + Yes, that must be it, beyond doubt. For months they had been talking about + it and thinking about it, speculating as to the probabilities and the + consequences. And now it had happened. Suddenly one of the company gave a + cry, and they turned and stared at his white face, and realized the terror + that clutched his heart. Comrade Higgins, whose home was so near the place + of peril! + </p> + <p> + “Gee, fellers, I gotta go!” he gasped; and several of the comrades jumped + up and ran with him into the street. If there was a single pane of glass + left intact in Leesville, you would not have thought it as you trod those + pavements. + </p> + <p> + If Jimmie had been trained in efficiency, and accustomed to spending money + more freely, he might perhaps have found out something by the telephone or + by inquiry at the newspaper offices; but the one thing he thought of was + to take the trolley and get to his home. The comrades ran with him, + speculating with eager excitement, trying to reassure him—it could + be nothing worse than some glass and some dishes smashed. Some had thought + of going all the way with him, but they remembered they would be too late + for the last trolley back, and they had their jobs in the morning. So they + put him on the car and bade him good-bye. + </p> + <h3> + V. + </h3> + <p> + The trolley was packed with people going out to see what had happened, so + Jimmie had plenty of company and conversation on the way. But when he came + to his stop, he got off and walked alone, for the others were going to the + explosives plant, and they rode a mile or so farther on the car. + </p> + <p> + Never would Jimmie forget that journey—that walk of nightmares. The + road was pitch-dark, and before he had gone more than half the distance, + he stumbled over something, and fell head-foremost. He got up, and groped, + and discovered that it was a tree, lying prone across the road. He + searched his mind, and remembered a great dead tree that stood at that + spot. Could the explosion have knocked it down? + </p> + <p> + He went on, feeling his way more cautiously, yet goaded to greater speed + by his fears. A little way further was a farm-house, and he went into the + yard and shouted, but got no reply. The yard was covered with shingles, + apparently blown from the roof. He went on, more frightened than ever. + </p> + <p> + He came to a turn in the road which he knew was less than half a mile from + his home; and here there were several horses and wagons tied, but no one + to answer his calls. The road passed through a wood; but apparently there + was no road any more—the trees had been picked up bodily and thrown + across it. Jimmie had to grope this way and that, and he ran a piece of + broken branch into his cheek, and by that time was almost ready to cry + with fright. He knew that his home was two miles from the explosives + plant, and he could not conceive how an explosion could have done such + damage at such a distance. + </p> + <p> + He saw a lantern ahead, bobbing this way and that, and he shouted louder + than ever, and finally succeeded in persuading the bearer of the lantern + to wait for him. It proved to be a farmer who lived some way back; he knew + no more than Jimmie did, and they made their way together. Beyond the + woods, the road was littered with loose dirt, bushes, bits of fence and + rubbish, burned black. “It must have been near here,” declared the man, + and added words which caused Jimmie's heart almost to stand still. “It + must have been on the railroad track!” + </p> + <p> + They came to a little rise, from which in day-time the line of the + railroad was visible. They saw lanterns, many of them, moving here and + there like a swarm of fire-flies. “Come this way,” Jimmie begged of the + farmer, and ran towards his home. The road was buried under masses of + earth, as if thousands of steam-shovels had emptied their contents on it. + When they came to where the fence of Jimmie's house ought to have been, + they found no fence, but a slide of loose earth that had never been there + before. Where the apple-tree had been there was nothing; where the lawn + had been there was a pitch down a hill, and where the house had been was a + huge valley, seeming in the darkness a bottomless abyss! + </p> + <h3> + VI. + </h3> + <p> + Jimmie was distracted. He grabbed the lantern from the other man, and ran + this way and that, looking for some of the familiar landmarks of his home—the + chicken-house, the pig-sty, the back fence with the broken elm tree in the + corner, the railroad beyond. He could not believe that he had come to the + place at all—he could not credit the reality of such nightmare + sights as his eyes reported to him. He rushed about, stumbling over + mountains of upheaved brown dirt, sliding down into craters that were + filled with a strange, penetrating odour which caused his eyes to smart; + and then clambering out again and running after men with lanterns, + shouting questions at them and not waiting for an answer. It seemed to him + that if he ran just a little farther he must surely find the house and the + other things he was looking for; but he found nothing but more craters and + more mountains of dirt; and little by little the horrible truth became + clear to him, that all the way down the railroad track, as far as he could + see or run, this gigantic trough extended, a valley of raw dirt with + mountains on each side, crowned here and there with wheels and axles and + iron trucks of blown-up freight-cars, and filled in the bottom with the + deadly fumes of trinitrotoluol! + </p> + <p> + Jimmie cried out to the men and women with lanterns, asking had they seen + his wife and babies. But no one had seen them—no one had notified + them of the impending explosion! Jimmie was sobbing, calling out + distractedly; he ran out to the road, and after much searching found a + charred tree-stump which gave him his precise bearings, so that he knew + where the house should have been, and could assure himself that it was + precisely where that frightful slope started down into the abyss. He slid + around on this slope, calling aloud, as if he expected the spirits of his + loved ones might have remained there, defying all the power of suddenly + expanding gases. He ran back across the road and called, as if they might + have fled that way. + </p> + <p> + At last he ran into Mr. Drew; old Mr. Drew, who a couple of weeks before + had taken Eleeza Betooser and her three little ones driving in his buggy! + That memory was the nearest Jimmie could get to them, and so he clutched + the old soldier's arm, and held on to it, weeping like a little child. + </p> + <p> + The old man tried to draw him away, to get him to his home. But Jimmie + must stay on the spot, he was held by a spell of horror. He wandered + about, dragging Mr. Drew with him, pleading with people to no purpose; now + and then he would break out with curses against war-makers, and especially + those who made explosives and transported them in freight-trains through + other men's back-yards. For once people heard him without threats of + lynching. + </p> + <p> + So on through this night of anguish. Jimmie lost old man Drew in the + darkness, and was all alone when the dawn came, and he could see the sweep + of desolation about him, and the awe-stricken faces of the spectators. + Soon afterwards came the climax. He saw a crowd gathered, and as he came + up, this crowd parted for him. Nobody seemed to want to speak, but they + all watched, as if curious to see what he would do. One of the men bore a + burden, wrapped in a horse-blanket; Jimmie gazed, and after a moment's + hesitation the man threw back part of the blanket and there before + Jimmie's eyes was a most horrible sight—a human leg, a large white + leg, the lower half covered with a black stocking tied at the top with a + bit of tape. It was such a leg as you see in the windows of stores where + they sell pretty things for ladies; only this leg was soft, mangled at the + top, smeared with blood, and partly charred black. One glance was enough + for Jimmie, and he put his hands over his eyes and turned and ran—out + to the road and away, away—anywhere from this place of nightmares! + </p> + <h3> + VII. + </h3> + <p> + Jimmie's whole world was wiped out, ended. He had no place to go, no care + what became of him. He stumbled on till he came to the trolley-track, and + got on the first car which came along. It was pure chance that it happened + to be going back to Leesville, for Jimmie had no longer any interest in + that city. When the car came to the barn, he got out and wandered + aimlessly, until he happened to pass a saloon where he had been accustomed + to meet Jerry Coleman, distributor of ten-dollar bills. Jimmie went in and + ordered a drink of whisky; he did not tell the saloon-keeper what had + happened, but took the drink to a table and sat down by himself. When he + had finished, he ordered another, because it helped him not to think; he + sat there at the table, drinking steadily for an hour or more. And so upon + his confused mind there dawned a strange, a ghastly idea, climax of all + that night of horror. Which leg of Lizzie was it the man had been carrying + wrapped in a horse-blanket? The right leg or the left? If it was the left + leg, why, nothing; but if it was the right, why then, under the stocking + was sewed a bandage, and in that bandage was wrapped a package containing + seven faded yellow twenty-dollar bills! + </p> + <p> + And what would they do about it? Would they bury the leg without + investigation? Or would the man who had found it happen to undress it? And + what was Jimmie to do? A hundred and forty dollars was not to be sneezed + at by a working-man—it was more money than he had ever had in his + life before, or might ever have again. But could he go to the man and say, + “Did you find any money on my wife's leg?” Could he say, “Please give me + my wife's leg, so that I can undress it and unsew the bandage and get the + money that I was paid for keeping quiet about the surgical operation on + Lacey Granitch, that was done in my house before it was blown to pieces by + the explosion.” + </p> + <p> + Jimmie thought it all over while he took a couple more drinks, and finally + settled it to himself: “Aw, hell! What do I want with money? I ain't + a-goin' to live no more!” + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0014" id="link2HCH0014"> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER XIV. JIMMIE HIGGINS TAKES THE ROAD + </h2> + <h3> + I. + </h3> + <p> + Jimmie Higgins was wandering down the street, when he ran into “Wild + Bill”, who was, of course, greatly surprised to see his friend in a + drunken condition. When he heard the reason, he revealed an unexpected + side of his nature. If you judged “Wild Bill” by his oratory, you thought + him a creature poisoned through and through, a soul turned rancid with + envy, hatred and malice and all uncharitableness. But now the tears came + into his eyes, and he put his arm over Jimmie's shoulder. “Say, old pal, + that's bum luck! By God, I'm sorry!” And Jimmie, who wanted nothing so + much as somebody to be sorry with, clasped Bill in his arms, and burst + into tears, and told over and over again how he had gone to what had been + his home, and found only a huge crater blown out by the explosion, and how + he had gone about calling his wife and babies, until at last they had + brought him one leg of his wife. + </p> + <p> + “Wild Bill” listened, until he knew the story through and then he said, + “See here, old pal, let's you and me quit this town.” + </p> + <p> + “Quit?” said Jimmie, stupidly. + </p> + <p> + “Every time I open the front of my face now, the police jump in it. + Leesville's a hell of a town, I say. Let's get out.” + </p> + <p> + “Where'll we go?” + </p> + <p> + “Anywhere—what's the diff? It's coming summer. Let's slam the + gates.” + </p> + <p> + Jimmie was willing—why not? They went back to the lodging-house + where Bill lived, and he tied up his worldly goods in a gunny-sack—the + greater part of the load consisting of a diary in which he had recorded + his adventures as leader of an unemployed army which had started to march + from California to Washington, D.C., some four years previously. They took + the trolley, and getting off in the country, walked along the banks of the + river, Jimmie still sobbing, and Bill in the grip of one of his fearful + coughing spells. They sat down beside the stream not so far from where + Jimmie had gone in swimming with the Candidate; he gave a touching account + of this adventure, but fell asleep in the middle of it, and Bill wandered + off and begged some food at a farm-house, using his cough as a convenient + lever for moving the heart of the housewife. When night came, they sought + the railroad and got on board a southward-moving freight; so Jimmie + Higgins went back to the tramps life, at which he had spent a considerable + part of his youth. + </p> + <p> + But there was a difference now; he was no longer a blind and helpless + victim of a false economic system, but a revolutionist, fully + class-conscious, trained in a grim school. The country was going to war, + and Jimmie was going to war on the country. The two agitators got off the + train at a mining-village, and got a job as “surface men”, and proceeded + to preach their gospel of revolt to the workers in a lousy company + boarding-house. When they were found out, they “jumped” another freight, + and repeated the performance in another part of the district. + </p> + <p> + The companies were too vigilant for there to be any chance of a strike; + but “Wild Bill” whispered to the young workers that he knew a trick worth + two of that—he would teach them the art of “striking on the job”! + This idea, of course, had great charm for embittered men; enabling them to + pay back the boss, while at the same time continuing on his pay-roll. Bill + had read whole books in which the theory and practice of “sabotage” were + worked out, and he could tell any sort of workman tricks to make his + employer sweat under the collar. If you worked in a machine-shop, you + dropped emery-powder into the bearings; if you worked on a farm, you drove + copper nails into the fruit-trees, which caused them to die; if you packed + apples, you stuck your thumb-nail into one, which made sure that the whole + box would be rotten when it arrived; if you worked in a saw-mill, you + drove a spike into a log; if you worked in a restaurant, you served double + portions to ruin the boss, and spit in each portion to make sure the + customer did not derive any benefit. All these things you did in a fervour + of exaltation, a mood of frenzied martyrdom, because of the blaze of hate + which had been fanned in your soul by a social system based upon + oppression and knavery. + </p> + <h3> + II. + </h3> + <p> + To Jimmie, living the obscure and comparatively peaceful life of a + Socialist propagandist, the question of “sabotage, violence and crime” had + been a more or less academic one, about which the comrades debated + acrimoniously, and against which they voted by a large majority. But now + Jimmie was out among the “wobblies”, the “blanket-stiffs”—the + unskilled workers who had literally nothing but their muscle-power to + sell; here he was in the front-line trenches of the class war. These men + wandered about from one job to another, at the mercy of the seasons and + the fluctuations of industry. They were deprived of votes, and therefore + of their status as citizens; they were deprived of a chance to organize, + and therefore of their status as human beings. They were lodged in filthy + bunk-houses, fed upon rotten food, and beaten or jailed at the least word + of revolt. So they fought their oppressors with any and every weapon they + could lay hands on. + </p> + <p> + In the turpentine-country, in a forest, Jimmie and his pal came to a + “jungle”, a place where the “wobblies” congregated, living off the + country. Here around the camp-fires Jimmie met the guerillas of the + class-struggle, and learned the songs of revolt which they sang—some + of them parodies on Christian hymns which would have caused the orthodox + and respectable to faint with horror. Here they rested up, and exchanged + data on the progress of their fight, and argued over tactics, and cussed + the Socialists and the other “politicians” and “labour-fakirs”, and sang + the praises of the “one big union”, and the “mass strike”, and “direct + action” against the masters of industry. They told stories of their + sufferings and their exploits, and Jimmie sat and listened. Sometimes his + eyes were wide with consternation, for he had never met men so desperate + as these. + </p> + <p> + For example, “Strawberry” Curran—named for his red hair and + innumerable freckles—an Irish boy with the face of a choir-singer, + and eyes that must have been taken straight out of the blue vault of + Heaven. This lad told about a “free speech fight” in a far Western city, + and how the chief of police had led the clubbing, and how they had got + back at him. “We bumped him off all right,” said “Strawberry”; it was a + favourite phrase of his—whenever anybody got in his way, he “bumped + him off”. And then “Flathead Joe”, who came from the Indian country, was + moved to emulation, and told how he had put dynamite under the supports of + a mine-breaker, and the whole works had slid down a slope into a canyon a + mile below. And then a lame fellow, “Chuck” Peterson, told about the + imprisonment of two strike-leaders in the hop-country of California, and + of the epidemic of fires and destruction that had plagued that region for + several years since. + </p> + <p> + All such things these men talked about quite casually, as soldiers would + talk about the events of the last campaign. This class-war had been going + on for ages, and had its own ethics and its own traditions; those who took + part in it had their heroisms and sublimities, precisely like any other + soldiers. They would have been glad to come into the open and fight, but + the other side had all the guns. Every time the “wobblies” succeeded in + organizing the workers and calling a big strike, all the agencies of + capitalist repression were called in—they were beaten by capitalist + policemen, shot by capitalist sheriffs, starved and frozen in capitalist + jails, and so their strike was crushed and their forces scattered. After + many such experiences, it was inevitable that the hot-headed ones should + take to secret vengeance, should become conspirators against capitalist + society. And society, forgetting all the provocations it had given, called + the “wobblies” criminals, and let it go at that. But they were a strange + kind of criminal, serving a far-off dream. They had their humours and + their humanities, their literature and music and art. Among them were men + of education, graduates of universities both in America and abroad; you + might hear one of the group about these camp-fires telling about + slave-revolts in ancient Egypt and Greece; or quoting Strindberg and + Stirner, or reciting a scene from Synge, or narrating how he had astounded + the family of some lonely farm-house by playing Rachmaninoff's “Prelude” + on a badly out-of-tune piano. + </p> + <p> + Also you met among them men who had kept their gentleness, their sweetness + of soul, men of marvellous patience, whose dream of human brotherhood no + persecution, no outrage had been able to turn sour. They clung to their + vision of a world redeemed, made over by the outcast and lowly; a vision + that was brought to the world by a certain Jewish Carpenter, and has + haunted mankind for nineteen hundred years. The difference was that these + men knew precisely how they meant to do it; they had a definite + philosophy, a definite programme, which they carried as a gospel to the + wage-slaves of the world. And they knew that this glad message would never + die—not all the jails and clubs and machine-guns in the country + could kill it, not obloquy and ridicule, not hunger and cold and disease. + No! for the workers were hearing and understanding, they were learning the + all-precious lesson of Solidarity. They were forming the “one big union”, + preparing the time when they would take over industry and administer it + through their own workers' councils, instead of through the medium of + parliaments and legislatures. That was the great idea upon which the + Industrial Workers of the World was based; it was this they meant by + “direct action”, not the sinister thing which the capitalist newspapers + made out of the phrase. + </p> + <h3> + III. + </h3> + <p> + The country was going into its own war, which it considered of importance, + and it called upon Jimmie Higgins and the rest of his associates to + register for military service. In the month of June ten million men came + forward in obedience to this call—but Jimmie, needless to say, was + not among them. Jimmie and his crowd thought it was the greatest joke of + the age. If the country wanted them, let it come and get them. And sure + enough, the country came—a sheriff, and some thirty farmers and + turpentine-workers sworn in as deputies and armed with shot-guns and + rifles. Should their sons go overseas to be killed in battle, while these + desperadoes continued to camp out on the country, living on hogs and + chickens which honest men had worked to raise? They had wanted to break up + this “jungle” for some time; now they could do it in the name of + patriotism. They surrounded the camp, and shot one man who tried to slip + out in the darkness, and searched the rest for weapons, and then loaded + them into half a dozen automobiles and took them to the nearest lock-up. + </p> + <p> + So here was Jimmie, confronting a village draft-board. How old was he? The + truth was that Jimmie did not know definitely, but his guess was about + twenty-six. The draft-limit being thirty, he swore that he was thirty-two. + And what were they going to do about it? They didn't know where he had + been born, and they couldn't make him tell—because he didn't know it + himself! His face was lined with many cares, and he had a few grey hairs + from that night of horror when his loved ones had been wiped out of + existence. + </p> + <p> + These farmers knew how to tell the age of a horse, but not how to tell the + age of a man! + </p> + <p> + “We'll draft ye anyhow!” vowed the chairman of the board, who was the + local justice of the peace, an old fellow with a beard like a billy-goat. + </p> + <p> + “All right,” said Jimmie, “but you'll get nothin' out o' me.” + </p> + <p> + “What d'ye mean?” + </p> + <p> + “I mean I wouldn't fight; I'm a conscientious objector to war.” + </p> + <p> + “They'll shoot ye!” + </p> + <p> + “Shoot away!” + </p> + <p> + “They'll send you to jail for life.” + </p> + <p> + “What the hell do I care?” + </p> + <p> + It was difficult to know what to do with a person like that. If they did + put him in jail, they would only be feeding him at the expense of the + community, and that would not help to beat the Germans. They could see + from the flash in his eyes that he would not be an easy man to break. + Local interest asserted itself, and the old fellow with the wagging beard + demanded: “If we let ye go, will ye get out o' this county?” + </p> + <p> + “What the hell do I care about your old county?” replied Jimmie. + </p> + <p> + So they turned him loose, and “Wild Bill” also, because it was evident at + a glance that he was not long for this world and its wars. The two of them + broke into an empty freight-car, and went thundering over the rails all + night; and lying in the darkness, Jimmie was awakened by a terrified cry + from his companion, and put out his hand and laid it in a mess that was + hot and wet. + </p> + <p> + “Oh, my God!” gasped Bill. “I'm done for!” + </p> + <p> + “What is it?” + </p> + <p> + “Haemorrhage.” + </p> + <p> + The terrified Jimmie did not even know what that was. There was nothing he + could do but sit there, holding his friend's trembling hand and listening + to his moans. When the train stopped, Jimmie sprang out and rushed to one + of the brakemen, who came with his lantern, and saw “Wild Bill” lying in a + pool of blood, already so far gone that he could not lift his head. + “Jesus!” exclaimed the brakeman. “He's a goner, all right.” + </p> + <p> + The “goner” was trying to say something, and Jimmie leaned his ear down to + him. “Good-bye, old pal,” whispered Bill. That was all, but it caused + Jimmie to burst out sobbing. + </p> + <p> + The engine whistled. “What the hell you stiffs doin' on this train?” + demanded the brakeman—but not so harshly as the words would + indicate. He lifted the dying man—no very serious burden—and + laid him on the platform of the station. “Sorry,” he said, “but we're + behind schedule.” He waved his lantern, and the creaking cars began to + move, and the train drew away, leaving Jimmie sitting by the corpse of his + pal. The world seemed a lonely place that long night. + </p> + <p> + In the morning the station-agent came, and notified the nearest + authorities, and in the course of the day came a wagon to fetch the body. + What was the use of Jimmie's waiting? One “Potter's field” was the same as + another, and there would be nothing inspiring about the funeral. The man + who drove the wagon looked at Jimmie suspiciously and asked his age; they + were scarce of labour in that country, he said-the rule was “Work or + fight”. Jimmie foresaw another session with a draft-board, so he leaped on + to another freight train, taking with him as a legacy “Wild Bill's” diary + of the unemployed army. + </p> + <h3> + IV. + </h3> + <p> + It was harvest-time, and Jimmie went West to the wheat country. It was + hard work, but the pay made your eyes bulge. Jimmie realized that war was + not such a bad thing—for the ones that stayed at home! If you didn't + like one farmer's way of speaking to you, or the kind of biscuits his wife + offered you, you could move on to the next, and he would take you in at + four bits more per day. It was the nearest approach to a working-man's + paradise that Jimmie had ever encountered. There was really only one + drawback—the pestiferous draft-boards that never stopped snooping + round. They were for ever hauling you up and threatening and questioning + you—putting you through the same scene over and over. Why couldn't + the fools give you a card, showing that you had been through the mill, and + let that settle it? But no, they wouldn't give you a card—they + preferred to go on jacking you up because you had no card. It was all a + trick, thought Jimmie, to wear him out and force him into their army by + hook or by crook. But here was one time when they would not get away with + it! + </p> + <p> + However, Jimmie Higgins was not nearly so dangerous a character, now that + “Wild Bill” was gone out of his life. It was really not his nature to + cherish hate, or to set out deliberately to revenge himself. Jimmie was a + Socialist in the true sense of the word—he felt himself a part of + society, and that peace and plenty and kindness which he desired for + himself he desired for all mankind. He was not dreaming of a time when he + could turn the capitalists out of power and treat them as they were now + treating him; he meant the world to be just as good a place for the + capitalists as for the workers—all would share alike, and Jimmie was + ready to wipe out the old scores and start fair any day. His propaganda + regained its former idealistic hue, and it was only when somebody tried to + drag him into the slaughter-pen that he developed teeth and claws. + </p> + <p> + So he became fairly happy again—happier than he had thought he could + ever be. It was in vain he told himself that he had nothing to live for; + he had the greatest thing in the world to live for, the vision of a just + and sane and happy world. So long as anybody could be found to listen + while he talked about it and explained how it might be achieved, life was + worth while, life was real. It was only now and then that his bitter + heartache returned to plague him—when he awakened in the night with + his arms clasped about the memory of the soft, warm, kindly body of Eleesa + Betooser; or when he came to a farmhouse where there were children, whose + prattle reminded him of the little fellow who had been his prime reason + for wanting a just and sane and happy world. Jimmie found that he could + not bear to work in one farmhouse where there were children; and when he + told the farmer's wife the reason, he and the woman declared a temporary + truce to the class-war, and celebrated it with half a large apple-pie. + </p> + <h3> + V. + </h3> + <p> + The Socialists held a National Convention at St. Louis, and drew up their + declaration concerning the war. They called it the most unjustifiable war + in history, “a crime against the people of the United States”; they called + on the workers of the country to oppose it, and pledged themselves “to the + support of all mass movements in opposition to conscription”. This was, of + course, a serious step to take at such a time; the comrades realized it, + and there were solemn gatherings to discuss the referendum, and not a + little disagreement as to the wisdom of the declaration. In the town of + Hopeland, near which Jimmie was working, there was a local, and he had got + himself transferred from Leesville, and paid up his back dues, and had his + precious red card stamped up-to-date. And now he would go in and listen to + debates, just as exciting and just as bewildering as those he had heard at + the outbreak of the war. + </p> + <p> + There were some who pointed out the precise meaning of those words, “all + mass-movements in opposition to conscription.” The leading dry-goods + merchant of the town, he was a Socialist, declared that the words meant + insurrection and mob violence, and the resolution would be adjudged a call + to treason. At which there leaped to his feet a Russian Jewish tailor, + Rabin by name; his first name was Scholem, which means Peace, and he cried + in great excitement: “Vot business have ve Socialists vit such vords? Ve + might leaf dem to de enemy, vot?” + </p> + <p> + You might have thought you were in Leesville, listening to Comrade + Stankewitz. The only difference was that there were not many Germans in + this town, and those few confined their discussions to Ireland and India. + </p> + <p> + Jimmie would hear the arguments, back and forth and back again, and his + mind would be in greater confusion than ever. He hated war as much as + ever; but, on the other hand, he was learning to hate the Germans, too. + The American government, going to war, had been forced to assert itself, + and the stores and billboards were covered with proclamations and + picture-posters, and the newspapers were full of recitals of the crimes + which Germany had committed against humanity. Jimmie might refuse to read + this “Wall Street dope”, as he called it, but the working-men with whom he + was associating read it, and would fire it at him whenever they got into a + controversy. Also the daily events in the news dispatches—the + sinking of hospital-ships filled with wounded, the shelling of life-boats, + the dragging away into slavery in coal-mines of Belgian children thirteen + and fourteen years old! How could any man fail to hate and to fear a + government which committed such atrocities? How could he remain untroubled + at the thought that he might be assisting such a government to victory? + </p> + <p> + Jimmie was honest, he was trying to face the facts as he saw them; and + when he stopped to think, when he remembered the things he had done in + company with “Wild Bill” and “Strawberry” Curran and “Flathead Joe” and + “Chuck” Peterson, he could not deny that he had been, however + unintentionally, helping the Kaiser to win the war. In his arguments with + others, Jimmie dared not tell all he knew about such matters; so, when he + argued with himself, his conscience was troubled, and doubt gnawed at his + soul. Suppose it were true, as Comrade Dr. Service had tried to prove to + him, that a victory for the Kaiser would mean that America would have to + spend the next twenty or thirty years getting ready for the next war? + Might it not then be better to forego revolutionary agitation for a while, + until the Kaiser had been put out of business? + </p> + <p> + There were not a few Socialists who argued this way—men who had been + active in the movement and had possessed Jimmie's regard before the war. + Now they denounced the St. Louis resolution—the “majority report” as + it was called. When this report was carried in referendum by a vote of + something like eight to one, these comrades withdrew from the party, and + some of them bitterly attacked their former friends. Such utterances were + taken up by the capitalist press; and this made Jimmie Higgins indignant. + A fine lot of Socialists, to quit the ship in the hour of peril! + Renegades, Jimmie called them, and compared them with Judas Iscariot and + Benedict Arnold and such-like celebrities of past ages. They, being + exactly the same sort of folk as Jimmie, answered by calling Jimmie a + pro-German and a traitor; which did not make it easier to persuade Jimmie + to listen to their arguments. So both sides became blinded with anger, + forgetting about the facts in the case, and thinking only of punishing a + hated antagonist. + </p> + <h3> + VI. + </h3> + <p> + All over the country now men were sending their sons to the + training-camps, and putting their money into “liberty-bonds”. So they were + in no mood to listen to argument—they would fly into a rage at the + least hint that the cause in which they were making sacrifices was not a + perfectly just and righteous cause. There was an organization called the + “People's Council for Peace and Democracy”, which attempted to hold a + national convention; the gathering was broken up by mobs, and the + delegates went wandering over the country, trying in vain to get together. + The mayor of Chicago gave them permission to meet in that city, but the + governor of the state sent troops to prevent it! You see, the people of + the country had learned all about the organization for which Jerry Coleman + had been working—“Labour's National Peace Council”; and here was + another organization, bearing practically the same name, and carrying on + an agitation which seemed the same to the average man. The distinction + between hired treason and super-idealism was far too subtle for the people + to draw in a time of such peril. + </p> + <p> + It was becoming more and more the fashion to arrest Socialists and to + suppress their papers; the government authorities in many places declared + the “majority report” unmailable, and indicted state and national + secretaries for having sent it out in the ordinary routine of their + business. Jimmie received a letter from Comrade Meissner in Leesville, + telling him that Comrade “Jack” Smith had been given two years in the + penitentiary for his speech in the Opera-house, and the other would-be + speakers had been fined five hundred dollars each. Several issues of the + Worker had been barred from the mails, and now the police had raided the + offices and forced the suspension of the publication. All over the country + that sort of thing was happening, so now if you argued with Jimmie in + favour of the war, his answer was that America was more Prussian than + Prussia, and what was the use of fighting for Democracy abroad, if you had + to sacrifice every particle of Democracy at home in order to win the + fight? + </p> + <p> + Jimmie really believed this—he believed it with most desperate and + passionate intensity. He looked forward to a war won for the benefit of + oppression at home; he foresaw the system of militarism and suppession + riveted for ever on the people of America. Jimmie would admit that the + President himself might be sincere in the fine words he used about + democracy; but the great Wall Street interests which had run the country + for so many decades—they had their secret purposes, for which the + war-frenzy served as a convenient cloak. They were going to make universal + military service the rule in America; they were going to see to it that + every school-child learned the military lessons of obedience and + subordination. Also they were going to put the radical papers out of + business and put a stop to all radical propaganda. Those Socialists who + had been trapped into supporting the President's war-programme would wake + up some morning with a fearful dark-brown taste in their mouths! + </p> + <p> + No, said Jimmie Higgins, the way to fight war was to resist the + subterfuges, however cunning and plausible, by which men sought to + persuade you to support war. The way to fight war was the way of the + Russians. The propaganda of proletarian revolt, the glorious example which + the Russian workers had set, would do more to break down the power of the + Kaiser than all the guns and shells in the world. But the militarists did + not want it broken that way—Jimmie suspected that many of them would + rather have the war won by the Kaiser than have it won by the Socialists. + The governments refused to give passports to Socialists who wanted to meet + in some neutral country and work out the basis of a settlement upon which + all the peoples of the world might get together; and Jimmie took the + banning of this Socialist conference as the supreme crime of the + world-capitalism, it was evidence that world-capitalism knew its true + enemy, and meant to use the war as an excuse to hold that enemy down. + </p> + <h3> + VII. + </h3> + <p> + Day by day Jimmie was coming to place more of his hopes in Russia. His + little friend Rabin, the tailor, took a Russian paper published in New + York, the Novy Mir, and would translate its news and editorials. Local + Hopeland, thus inspired, voted a message of fraternal sympathy to the + Russian workers. In Petrograd and Moscow there was going on, it appeared, + a struggle between the pro-ally Socialists and the Internationalists, the + true, out-and-out, middle-of-the-road, thick-and-thin proletarians. The + former were called Mensheviki, the latter were called Bolsheviki, and, of + course, Jimmie was all for the latter. Did he not know the “stool-pigeon + Socialists” at home, who were letting themselves be used by capitalism? + </p> + <p> + The big issues were two—first, the land, which the peasants wanted + to take from the landlords; and second, the foreign debt. The Russian Tsar + had borrowed four billion dollars from France and a billion or two from + England, to be used in enslaving the Russian workers and driving several + millions of them to death on the battlefield. Now should the Russian + workers consider themselves bound by this debt? When anybody asked Jimmie + Higgins that question, he responded with a thunderous “No”, and he + regarded as hirelings or dupes of Wall Street all those Socialists who + supported Kerensky in Russia. + </p> + <p> + When the American government, wishing to appeal to the Russian people for + loyalty in the war, sent over a commission to them, and placed at its head + one of the most notorious corporation lawyers in America, a man whose + life, the Jimmies said, had been sold to service in the anti-liberal + cause, Jimmie Higgins's shrill voice became a yell of ridicule and rage. + Of course, Jimmie's organization saw to it that the Bolsheviki were + informed in advance as to the character of this commission—something + which was unnecessary, as it happened, because immediately after the + overthrow of the Tsar there had begun a pilgrimage of Russian Socialists + from New York and San Francisco, men who had seen the seamy side of + American capitalism in the slums of the great cities, and who lost no time + in providing the Russian radicals with full information concerning Wall + Street! + </p> + <p> + It chanced that in San Francisco a well-known labour leader had been + charged with planting a bomb to break up a “preparedness” parade. He had + been convicted upon that which was proven to be perjured testimony, and + the labour unions of the country had been conducting a campaign to save + his life—which campaign the capitalist newspapers had been carefully + overlooking, according to their invariable custom. But now the returned + exiles in Petrograd took up the matter, and organized a parade to the + American embassy, with a demand for the freeing of this “Muni”. The + report, of course, came back to America—to the immense bewilderment + of the American people, who had never heard of this “Muni” before. To + Jimmie Higgins it seemed just the funniest joke on earth that a big + labour-struggle should be on in San Francisco, and Americans should get + their first news about it from Petrograd! Look! he would cry—how + much real democracy there is in America, how much care for the working + classes! + </p> + <p> + So all that summer and autumn, while Jimmie Higgins slaved in the fields, + getting in his country's wheat-crop, and then his country's corn crop, + there was a song of joy and awakening excitement in his soul. Far over the + seas men of his own kind were getting the reins of power into their hands, + for the first time in the history of the world. It could not be long + before here in America the workers would learn this wonderful lesson, + would thrill to the idea that freedom and plenty might really be their + portion. + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0015" id="link2HCH0015"> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER XV. JIMMIE HIGGINS TURNS BOLSHEVIK + </h2> + <h3> + I. + </h3> + <p> + Winter was coming, and the farm-workers moved to the cities; but this year + they did not go as down-and-out-o'-works—they went, each man a + little kink. Jimmie wandered into the city of Ironton, and got himself a + job in a big automobile shop at eight dollars a day, and set to work + agitating for ten dollars. It was not that he had any need of the extra + two dollars, of course, but merely because his first principle in life was + to make trouble for the profit-system. The capitalist papers of this + middle-Western metropolis were furiously denouncing working-men who struck + “against their country” in war-time; Jimmie, on the other hand, denounced + those who used “country” as camouflage for “boss” and made the war a + pretext to deprive labour of its most precious right. + </p> + <p> + There was a Socialist local in Ironton, still active and determined in + spite of the fact that its office had been raided by the police, and most + of the party's papers and magazines barred from the mails. You could + always get leaflets printed, however; and if you could no longer denounce + the war directly, you could jeer at England's exhibition of “democracy” in + Ireland, you could point to the profits of the profiteers, and demand + conscription of wealth along with conscription of manhood. Some American + Socialists became almost as subtle as that German rebel of pre-war days, + who, desiring to lampoon the Kaiser, wrote an account of the life of the + Roman Emperor Agricola, reciting his vanities and insane extravagances. + </p> + <p> + Late in the autumn came an event which should have troubed Jimmie Higgins + more deeply than it did. Along the Izonzo river the Italian armies were + facing the Austrians, their hereditary enemies; they were at the end of a + long, exhaustive, and for the most part unsuccessful campaign, and the + Italian Socialists at home were carrying on precisely such a warfare + against their own government as Jimmie Higgins was carrying on in America. + They were helped by the Catholic intriguers, who hated the Italian + government because it had destroyed the temporal power of the Pope; they + were helped by the subtle and persistent efforts of Austrian agents in + their country, who spread rumours among Italian troops of the friendly + intentions of the Austrians, and of the imminence of a truce. These agents + went so far as to fake copies of the leading Italian newspapers, with + accounts of starvation and riots in the home cities, and the shooting down + of women and children. These papers were given out in the Italian + trenches, before a certain mountain-sector where the Austrian troops had + been fraternizing with the Italians; and then, during the night, the + Austrian troops were withdrawn, and picked German “shock-troops” + substituted, which attacked at dawn and drove through the Italian lines, + sweeping back the army along a hundred-mile front, capturing some quarter + of a million prisoners and a couple of thousand cannon—practically + all the Italians had. + </p> + <p> + That Jimmie Higgins did not pay more attention to this terrifying incident + was in part because he read it in the capitalist papers and did not + believe it; but mainly because his whole attention just now was centred on + Russia, where the proletariat was about to make its bid for power. Now you + would see how wars were to be ended and peace restored to a distracted + world! + </p> + <p> + The moderate Socialist government of Kerensky was pleading with the + capitalist masters of the Allied nations for a statement of their peace + terms, so that the workers of Russia might know what they were fighting + for. The Russian workers wanted a declaration in favour of no annexations, + no indemnities, and disarmament; on such terms they would help fight the + war, in spite of all the starvation and suffering in distracted Russia. + But the Allied statesmen would not make any such declaration, and the + Russian workers, backed by all the Socialists of the world, declared that + the reason was that these Allied statesmen were waging an imperialist war—they + did not intend to stop fighting until they had taken vast territories from + the German powers, and exacted a ransom that would cripple Germany for a + generation. The Russian workers refused point-blank to fight for such + aims, and so in November came the second revolution, the uprising of the + Bolsheviki. + </p> + <p> + Almost their first action when they took possession of the palaces and + government archives was to publish to the world the secret treaties which + the rulers of England, France and Italy had made with Russia. These + treaties formed a complete justification for the attitude of the Russian + revolutionists—they showed that the Allied imperialists had planned + most shameless plundering; England was to have the German colonies and + Mesopotamia, France was to have German territory to the Rhine, and Italy + was to have the Adriatic coast, and to divide Palestine and Syria with + England and France. + </p> + <p> + And here was the most significant fact to Jimmie Higgins—these + enormously important revelations, the most important since the beginning + of the war, were practically suppressed by the capitalist newspapers of + America! First these papers printed a brief item—the Bolsheviki had + given out what they claimed were secret treaties, but the genuineness of + these documents was gravely doubted. Then they published evasive and lying + denials from the British, French and Italian diplomats; and then they shut + up! Not another word did you read about those secret treaties; except for + one or two American newspapers with traditions of honour, the full text of + those treaties was given in the Socialist press alone! “And now,” cried + Jimmie Higgins to the working men in his shop, “what do you think of those + wonderful allies of ours? What do you think of those Wall Street + newspapers of ours?” Could any working-man who had such facts put before + him fail to realize that Jimmie Higgins had a case, and a most important + work in the world to do, in spite of all his unreason and his narrowness? + </p> + <h3> + II. + </h3> + <p> + Jimmie was now in the seventh heaven, walking as if on air. A proletarian + government at last, the first in history! A government of working-men like + himself, running their own affairs, without the help of politicians or + bankers! Coming out before the world and telling the truth about matters + of state, in language that common men could understand! Disbanding the + armies, and sending the workers home! Turning the masters out of the + factories, and putting shop-committees in control! Taking away the + advertising from the crooked capitalist papers, and so putting them out of + business! Our little friend would rush to the corner every morning to get + the paper and see what had happened next; he would go down the street so + excited that he forgot his breakfast. + </p> + <p> + Jimmie had made a new acquaintance in Ironton; the little tailor, Rabin, + whose name was Scholem, which means Peace, had given him a letter to his + brother, whose name was Deror, which means Freedom. Each afternoon when + the automobile factory let out, Jimmie would get an evening paper and take + it to Deror's tailor-shop and the two would spell out the news. By God, + look at this! Did you ever hear the like? The man in charge of the + Bolshevik foreign office was a Marxian Jew who had helped edit the Novy + Mir, the revolutionary paper which Scholem had read to Jimmie! He had been + a waiter in the Waldorf-Astoria hotel, and now he was giving out the + secret treaties, and issuing propaganda manifestoes to the international + proletariat. + </p> + <p> + The American capitalist press was full of lies about the new revolution, + of course; but Jimmie could read pretty well between the lines of the + capitalist press, and the few Socialist papers that were still in + business, and which he read at the headquarters of the local, gave him the + rest of what he wanted. To Jimmie, of course, everything the Bolsheviki + did was right; if it wasn't right it was a lie. The little machinist knew + that the Bolsheviki had repudiated the four-billion-dollar debt which the + government of the Tsar had contracted with the bankers of France, and + Jimmie knew perfectly well what was the lying power of four billion + dollars. + </p> + <p> + The American papers were shocked because the Russian Socialists were + deserting the cause of democracy, and giving Germany a chance to win the + war. The American papers called them German agents, but Jimmie did not + take any stock in such talk as this. Jimmie was familiar with the + “frame-up” as it is operated against the workers in America. He saw that + the first thing the Bolshevik leaders did was to make an appeal to the + revolutionary workers of Germany. The Russian proletariat had shown the + way—now let the German proletariat follow! Literature was printed + and shipped wholesale into Germany, leaflets were dropped by aviators + among the German troops; and when Jimmie and Deror read that the German + generals had protested to the Russians against such practices, they + laughed aloud with delight. Well might the war-lords squeal; they knew + what was coming to them! And when in January Jimmie and Deror read of the + revolting of a brigade of German troops, and a strike of several hundred + thousand working men throughout Germany, they thought the end was at hand. + The little tailor got up in local Ironton and made a motion that it take + to itself the name “Bolshevik”—which motion was carried with a + whoop. And these American Bolsheviki went on to consult with the + labour-unions, suggesting that they should form “shop-committees”, and + prepare for the taking over of industry a la Russe! + </p> + <h3> + III. + </h3> + <p> + But something went suddenly wrong with the newly built revolutionary + steam-roller. The German military chiefs seized their strike-leaders at + home and threw them into jail, or shipped them off to the front trenches + to be slaughtered. By terrorism, shrewdly mixed with cajolery, they broke + the strike, and sent the grumbling slaves back to their treadmill. And + then the German armies began to march into Russia! + </p> + <p> + It was the crisis to which Jimmie Higgins had been looking forward ever + since the war began. Tolstoi had taught that if one nation refused to + fight, it would be impossible for another nation to invade it; and while + Jimmie Higgins was no mystic or religious non-resistant, he agreed in this + with the great Russian. No workers in an enemy army could possibly be + brought to fire upon their peace-proclaiming brothers! + </p> + <p> + And here at last was the test of the theory; here were German Socialists + ordered to march against Russian Socialists—ordered to fire upon the + red flag! Would they do what their masters, the war-lords, commanded? Or + would they listen to the clamorous appeals of the international + proletariat, and turn their guns against their own officers? + </p> + <p> + All the world saw what happened; it saw the glorious revolutionary + machine, in which Jimmie Higgins had put all his trust, run into a ditch + and land its passengers in the mud. The German armies marched, and the + Socialists in the German armies did exactly what the non-Socialists did—they + fired upon the red flag, as they would have fired upon the flag of the + Tsar. They obeyed the orders of their officers, like true and loyal + Germans; they drove back the Bolsheviki in confusion, taking their guns + and supplies, and destroying their cities; they led off the Russian women + and children into slavery, precisely as if they were Belgian or French + women and children, destined by the German Gott as the legitimate prey of + Kultur. They sacked Riga and Reval, they overran all the Eastern portions + of Russia—Courland, Livonia, Esthonia; they moved into the rich + grain country of Southern Russia, the Ukraine; they landed from their + ships and took Finland, wiping out the liberties of that splendid people. + They were at the gates of Petrograd, and the Bolshevik government was + forced to flee to Moscow. Of all which military feats the German Socialist + papers spoke with stern pride! + </p> + <h3> + IV. + </h3> + <p> + Poor Jimmie Higgins! It was like the blow of a mighty fist in the face; he + was literally stunned—it was weeks before he could grasp the full + meaning of what was happening, the debacle of all his hopes. And it was + the same with Ironton's Bolshevik local; all the “pep” was gone out of its + proceedings. To be sure, some noisy ones went on shouting for revolution + the very next day—men, who had been talking formulas for twenty or + thirty years, and had no more notion of a fact than they had of a + pseudopodium. But the sensible men of the group knew that their “St. Louis + resolution” was being shot to death over there in the trenches before + Petrograd. + </p> + <p> + It was interesting especially to see Rabin. The common belief of Americans + was that a Jew could not be induced to fight; they told a story about one + who cried out to his son, asking why he was letting another boy pummel + him, and the son whispered in reply, “Keep still, I got a nickel under my + foot!” All through the war the Jewish Socialists in America had been, next + to the Germans, the most ardent pacifists; but now here was a social + revolution managed by Jews, here was a Russian government which gave the + Jews their rights for the first time in history! So the little Jewish + tailor stood up before these American Bolsheviki, and with tears running + down his cheeks declared: “Comrades, I am already tru vit speeches; I am + going into dis var! I vill put myself vit de Polish Socialists, vit de + Bohemian Socialists—I fight de Kaiser to de death! So vill fight + every Jewish Socialist in de vorld!” And this was no mere braggadocio—Comrade + Rabin actually proceeded to shut up his tailor-shop, and went away to join + the “red brigade”, which was being organized by the Jewish revolutionists + of New York! + </p> + <p> + If the German war-lords had set out deliberately to ham-string the + American Socialists, to make it impossible for them to go on demanding + peace, they could not have acted differently. They dragged the helpless + Bolsheviki into a peace-conference at Brest-Litovsk, and forced them to + cede away all the territories that Germany had taken, and on top of that + to pay an enormous indemnity. They planned to compel the new Russian + government to become a vassal to the Central Powers, working to help them + enslave the rest of the world. The German armies went through the + conquered territories, stripping them bare, robbing the peasants of every + particle of food, beating them, shooting them, burning their homes if they + resisted. They gave to the world such a demonstration of what a German + peace would mean, that everywhere free men set their teeth and gripped + their hands, and swore to root this infamous thing from out civilization. + Even Jimmie Higgins! + </p> + <h3> + V. + </h3> + <p> + Yes, even Jimmie! He made up his mind that he would work as hard as ever + he could, and produce as many automobile-trucks as he could. But alas, a + man cannot be hounded and oppressed all his life, cannot have hatred and + rebellion ground into the deeps of his soul, and then forget it over-night + because of certain intellectual ideas, certain new items that he reads in + his paper. What happened to Jimmie was that his mind was literally torn in + half; he found himself, every twenty-four hours of his life, of two + absolutely contradictory and diametrically opposite points of view. He + would vow destruction to the hated German armies; and then he would turn + about and vow destruction to the men at home who were managing the job of + destroying the German armies! + </p> + <p> + For these men were Jimmie's life-long enemies, and were no more able to + forget their prejudices over-night than was Jimmie. For example, the lying + capitalist paper which Jimmie had to read every morning! When Jimmie had + read a patriotic editorial in the Ironton Daily Sun, it had become utterly + impossible for him to help win the war that day! Or the politicians, + seeking to use the war-cry of democracy abroad to crush all traces of + democracy at home; to “get” the radicals whom they hated and feared, and + by means of taxes on necessities and a bonded debt to put the costs of the + war on to the poor! Or the capitalists, making fervid speeches about + patriotism, but refusing to give up the whip-hand over their wage-slaves! + </p> + <p> + Jimmie Higgins was working in a factory, making automobile-trucks for the + armies in France; and the owners of the factory would not let the men have + a union, and so there was a strike. The bosses made an agreement to take + everybody back and permit a union, and then proceeded treacherously to + violate the agreement, getting rid of the most active organizers on this + or that transparent pretext. Jimmie Higgins, trying to help with the skill + of his hands to make the world safe for democracy, was turned out of his + job and left to wander in the streets, because a big profit-seeking + corporation did not believe in democracy, and refused to permit its + workers any voice in determining the conditions of their labour! The + Government was trying to deal with emergencies such as this, to put an end + to the epidemic of strikes which was hindering the war-work everywhere; + but the government had not yet got its machinery going, and meantime + Jimmie's little feeble sprout of patriotism got a severe chill. + </p> + <p> + Jimmie got drunk and wasted a part of his money on a woman of the street. + Then, being ashamed of himself, and still plagued by the memory of his + dead wife and babies, he straightened up and resolved to start life anew. + He found himself thinking about Leesville; it was the only place in the + world where he had ever been really happy, and now since Deror Rabin had + gone East, it was the only place where he had friends. How were the + Meissners getting on? How was Comrade Mrs. Gerrity, nee Baskerville? What + was Local Leesville thinking about Russia and about the war? Jimmie took a + sudden resolve to go and find out. He priced a ticket, and found that he + had enough money and to spare. He would take the journey—and take it + in state, as a citizen and a war-worker, not as a tramp in a box-car! + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0016" id="link2HCH0016"> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER XVI. JIMMIE HIGGINS MEETS THE TEMPTER + </h2> + <h3> + I. + </h3> + <p> + When Jimmie Higgins stepped off the train at Leesville, it was a blustery + morning in early March, with snow still on the ground and flurries of it + in the air. In front of the station was a public square, with a number of + people gathered, and Jimmie strolled over to see what was going on. What + he saw was a score of young men, some in khaki uniforms, some in ordinary + trousers and sweaters, being drilled. Jimmie, being in the mood of a + gentleman of leisure, stopped to watch the show. + </p> + <p> + It was the thing he had been talking and thinking about for nearly three + years: this monstrous perversion of the human soul called Militarism, this + force which seized hold of men and made them into automatons, moving + machines which obeyed orders in a mass, and went out and did deeds of + which none of them taken separately would have been capable, even in their + dreams. Here was a bunch of average nice Leesville boys, employees of the + shops near-by, “soda-jerkers” and “counter-jumpers”, clerks who had deftly + fitted shoes on to the feet of pretty ladies. Now they were submitting + themselves to this deforming discipline, undergoing this devilish + transmogrification. + </p> + <p> + Jimmie's eye ran down the line: there was a street-car conductor he knew, + there was a machinist from the Empire, also there was a son of Ashton + Chalmers, president of the First National Bank of Leesville. And suddenly + Jimmie gave a start. Impossible! It could not be! But—it was! Young + Emil Forster! Emil a Socialist, Emil a German, Emil a student and thinker, + who had penetrated the hypocritical disguises of this capitalist war, and + had fearlessly proclaimed the truth every Friday night at the local—here + he was with a suit of khaki on his rather frail figure, a rifle in his + hand and a look of grim resolve on his face, going through the evolutions + of squad-drill: left, right, left, right, left, right—column left, + march—one, two, three, four—left, right, left, right—squad + right about, march—left, right, left, right—squad left oblique + march—and so on. If you are to form any picture of the scene you + must imagine the swift tramp of many feet in unison—thump, thump, + thump, thump, thump, thump; you must imagine the marchers, with their + solemnly set faces, and the orders thundered out by a red-faced young man + of desperate aspect, the word MARCH coming each time with a punch that hit + you over the heart. This red-faced young man was the very incarnation of + the military despot as Jimmie had pictured him; watching with hawk-like + eye, scolding, pounding, driving, with no slightest regard for the + feelings of the slaves he commanded, or for any of the decencies of + civilized intercourse. + </p> + <p> + “Hold those half-steps, Casey! Keep your eye on the end man—you'll + have him splitting his legs if you don't wait for him. Column left, march—one, + two, three, four—now you're all right—off with you—that's + better! Put a little pep into your feet, Chalmers, for God's sake—if + you go marching into Berlin like that they'll think it's the hospital + squad! By the right flank, column fours, march—watch your distance + there, end man! How many times do you want me to tell you that?”—and + so on and on—tramp, tramp, tramp, tramp—while a small boy + standing beside Jimmie, evidently a truant from school, chanted over and + over: “Left—left—the soldier got drunk and he packed up his + trunk and he left—left! And do you not think he was right—right?” + </p> + <h3> + II. + </h3> + <p> + Now if you have ever stood about and watched outdoor exercise or games, on + a day in March with snow on the ground and a keen wind blowing, you know + how it is—you have to stamp your feet to keep warm; and if in your + neighbourhood there are twenty left feet smiting the ground in unison, and + then twenty right feet smiting the ground in unison, it is absolutely + inevitable that your stamping should keep time to the smiting; also the + rhythm of your stamping will be communicated upwards into your body—your + thoughts will keep time with the marching squad—tramp, tramp, tramp, + tramp—left, right, left, right! The psychologists tell us that one + who goes through the actions appropriate to an emotion will begin to feel + that emotion; and so it was with Jimmie Higgins. By a process so subtle + that he never suspected it Jimmie was being made into a militarist! + Jimmie's hands were clenched, Jimmie's jaw was set, Jimmie's feet were + tramping, tramping on the road to Berlin, to teach the Prussian war-lords + what it meant to defy the free men of a great republic! + </p> + <p> + But then something would happen to blast these budding excitements in + Jimmie's soul. The red-faced fellow would break into the rhythm of the + march. “For the love of Mike, Pete Casey, can't you remember those + half-steps? Squad, halt! Now look here, what's the matter with you? Step + out and let me show you once more.” And poor Casey, a meek-faced little + man with sloping shoulders, who had been running the elevator in the + Chalmers Building up to a week ago, would patiently practise marching + without moving, so that the rest of the line could wheel round him as a + pivot. The petty tyrant who scolded at him was determined to have his own + way; and Jimmie, who had had to do with many such tyrants in his long + years of industrial servitude, was glad when this particular one got mixed + up in his orders, and ran his squad into the fountain in the middle of the + drill-ground, and some of them marched over the parapet, sliding down into + the ice-covered basin below. The spectators roared, and so did the + marchers, and the red-faced man young had to join in, and to come down off + his high horse. + </p> + <p> + The conflict of impulses went on in Jimmie's soul. These marching men were + the “fools” at whom he had been mocking for something over two years. They + did not look like “fools” he had to admit; on the contrary, they looked, + quite capable of deciding what they wanted to do. And they had decided; + they had quit their jobs several weeks in advance of the time when they + would be called for the draft, and had set to work to learn the rudiments + of the military art, in the hope of thus getting more quickly to France. + Among them were bankers and merchants and real estate dealers, side by + side with soda-jerkers and counter-jumpers and elevator-men—and all + taking their orders from an ex-blacksmith's helper, who had run away to + fight in the Philippines. + </p> + <p> + Jimmie got this last bit of information from a fellow who stood watching; + so he realized that here was the thing he had been reading about in the + papers—the new army of the people, that was going forth to make the + world safe for democracy! Jimmy had read such words, and thought them just + camouflage, a trap for the “fools”. But here, a sight of wonder before his + eyes, a son of Ashton Chalmers, president of the First National Bank of + Leesville, being ordered about and hauled over the coals by an + ex-blacksmith's helper, who happened to know how to shout with the accents + of a pile-driver: “Shoulder HUMPS! Order HUMPS! Present HUMPS!” + </p> + <p> + The squad spread itself out for exercise—grasping their heavy rifles + and swinging them this way and that with desperate violence. “Swing over + head and return, ready, exercise—one, two, three, four, five, six, + seven, eight—eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one.” It was + no joke making those swings in such quick time; the poor little + elevator-man Casey was left hopelessly behind, he could only make half the + swing, and then couldn't get back to place on the count; he would look + about, grinning sheepishly, and then fall into time and try again. + Everybody's face was set, everybody's breath was coming harder and harder, + everybody's complexion was becoming apoplectic. + </p> + <p> + “Swing to the right!” shouted the blacksmith-tyrant. “Ready, exercise—one, + two”—and so on. And then he would yell: “No, Chalmers, don't punch + out with your arms—swing up your gun! Swing it up from the bottom! + That's the way! Poke 'em! Poke 'em! Put the punch into 'em!” And over + Jimmie stole a cold horror. There was nothing on the end of those guns but + a little black hole, but Jimmie knew what was supposed to be there—what + would some day be there; the exercise meant that these affable young + Leesville store-clerks were getting ready to drive a sharp, gleaming blade + into the bowels of human beings! “Poke 'em! Poke 'em!” shouted the + ex-blacksmith, and with desperate force they swung the heavy rifles, + throwing their bodies to one side and leaping out with one foot. Horrible! + Horrible! + </p> + <h3> + III. + </h3> + <p> + Man is a gregarious animal, and it is a fundamental law of his being that + when a group of his fellows are doing a certain thing, and doing it with + energy and fervour, anyone who does not do it, who does not share the mood + of energy and fervour shall be the object of ridicule and anger, shall + feel within his own heart confusion and distress. This is true, even if + the group is doing nothing more worthwhile than making itself drunk. How + much more shall it be when it is engaged in making the world safe for + democracy! + </p> + <p> + The only way the man can save himself is by holding before his mind the + belief that he is right, and that some day this will be recognized; in + other words, by appealing to some other group of men, who in some future + time will applaud him. If he is sure of this future applause, he can + manage to stand the jeers for the moment. But how when he begins to doubt—when + his mind is haunted by the possibility that the men of the future may + agree with those of the present, who are learning to march in unison, and + to poke bayonets into the bodies of Huns! + </p> + <p> + One of the things which brought this destructive doubt to Jimmie's soul + was the sight of Emil Forster, learning to march and to poke. Emil had + been one of his heroes, Emil knew a hundred times as much as he—and + Emil was going to the war! The squad marched away to the City hall across + the square, and deposited its rifles in a room in the basement, and then + Emil came out, and Jimmie went up to him. The young carpet-designer of + course was delighted to meet his old friend, and asked him to go to lunch. + As they walked along the street together Jimmie asked what it meant, and + Emil answered: “It means that I have made up my mind.” + </p> + <p> + “You're going to fight the German people?” + </p> + <p> + “Strange as you'll think it, I'm going to fight them for their own good. + Bebel wrote in his memoirs that the way to get democratic progress in + autocratic countries is through military defeat; and it seems up to + America to provide this defeat for Germany.” + </p> + <p> + “But—you were preaching just the opposite!” + </p> + <p> + “I know; it makes me feel foolish sometimes. But things have changed, and + there's no sense in shutting your eyes to facts.” + </p> + <p> + Jimmie waited. + </p> + <p> + “Russia, more especially,” continued Emil, answering the unspoken + question. “What's the use of getting Socialism, if you're just throwing + yourself down for a military machine to run over you? You're playing the + fool, that's all—and you have to see it. What hope is there for + Russia now?” + </p> + <p> + “There's the German Socialists.” + </p> + <p> + “Well, they just didn't have the power, that's all. What's more, we have + to face the fact that a lot of them aren't really revolutionists—they're + politicians, and haven't dared to stand out against the crowd. Anyhow, + whatever the reason is, they didn't save their own country, and they + didn't save Russia. They certainly can't expect us to give them a third + chance—it costs too much.” + </p> + <p> + “But then,” argued Jimmie, “ain't we doin' just what we blame them for + doin'—turnin' patriots, supportin' a capitalist government?” + </p> + <p> + “When you're supporting a government,” replied Emil, “it make's a lot of + difference what use its making of your support. We all know the faults of + our government, but we know too that the people can change it when enough + of them get ready, and that makes a real difference. I've come to realize + that if we give the Kaiser a beating, the German people will kick him out, + and then we can talk sense to them.” + </p> + <h3> + IV. + </h3> + <p> + They walked along for a bit in silence, Jimmie trying to assimilate these + ideas. They were new—not in the sense that he had not heard them + before, but in the sense that he had not heard them from a German. “How + does your father feel?” he asked at last. + </p> + <p> + “He hasn't changed,” replied the other. “And that makes it pretty hard—it's + all we can do to keep from quarrelling. He's old, and new ideas don't come + to him easily. Yet you'd think he'd be the first to see it—his + father was one of the old revolutionists, he was put in jail in Dresden. I + don't suppose you know much about the history of Germany.” + </p> + <p> + “No,” said Jimmie. + </p> + <p> + “Well, in those days the German people tried to get free, and they were + put down by the troops, and the real revolutionists were driven into + exile. Some of them came over here—like my grandfather. But, you + see, their children have forgotten about their wrongs—they look back + on Germany now, and think of it sentimentally, as it's pictured in the + stories and songs—a sort of Christmas-tree Germany. They don't know + about the Germany that's grown up—the Germany of iron and coal + kings, that combines all the cruelty of feudalism with modern efficiency + and science—the Beast with the Brains of an Engineer!” + </p> + <p> + They walked on, Emil lost in thought. “You know,” he broke out, suddenly, + “this war has been a revelation to me—the most horrible you could + imagine. It's as if you loved a woman, and saw her go insane before your + eyes, or turn into some sort of degenerate. For I believed in the + Christmas-tree Germany; I loved it, and I argued for it, I just couldn't + bring myself to believe what I read in the papers. Now I look back, and it + seems like a trap that the German war-lords had set for my mind—reaching + way over here into America, and making me think what they wanted me to! + Perhaps I've gone to the other extreme—I find I distrust everything + that's German. Father accused me of it last night; he was singing an old + German song that says that when you hear men singing you may lie down in + peace, for bad men have no songs. And I reminded him that the nation which + taught that idea had marched into Belgium singing!” + </p> + <p> + “Gee!” exclaimed Jimmie. He could imagine how old Hermann Forster had + taken that remark! + </p> + <p> + The young carpet-designer smiled, rather sadly. “He says it's because I've + put on khaki. But the truth is, I'd been full of these thoughts, and all + at once they came to a head. I was drafted, and I had to make up my mind + one way or the other. I decided I'd fight—and then, when I'd + decided, I wanted to get into it right away.” Emil paused, and looked at + his friend and asked, “What about you?” + </p> + <p> + Jimmie, of course, was a draft-evader, one of the hated “slackers”. + Ordinarily, he would have told Emil, and the two of them would have + grinned. But now Emil was in khaki, Emil was a patriot; perhaps it would + not be wise to trust him entirely! “They haven't got me yet,” said Jimmie; + and then, “I ain't so sure as I used to be, but I ain't ready to be a + soldier—I dunno's I could stand bein' bossed like that fellow does + it.” + </p> + <p> + Emil laughed. “Don't you suppose I want to learn?” + </p> + <p> + “But does he need to call you names?” + </p> + <p> + “That's part of the game—nobody minds that. He's putting the pep + into us—and we want it in.” + </p> + <p> + Jimmie found that such a new point of view that he didn't know what to + reply. + </p> + <p> + “You see,” the other went on, “if you really want to fight, you go in for + it; it's quite remarkable how your feelings change. You imagine yourself + in the presence of the enemy, and you know your success depends on + discipline; if there's a leader, and especially if you feel that he knows + his business, you're glad to have him to teach you, to make the whole + machine do what you want it to. I know it sounds funny from me, but I've + learnt to love discipline.” And Emil laughed, a nervous laugh. “This army + means business, let me tell you; and it's got right down to it. They've + been fighting three and a half years over in Europe, and they send their + best men over to show us, and we dig in and learn—I tell you, we + work as if the devil was after us!” + </p> + <h3> + V. + </h3> + <p> + It sounded so strange to hear things like this from the lips of Emil + Forster! Jimmie could hardly make them real to himself—the world was + slipping from under his feet. The Socialist movement was being seduced—won + over by the militarists! He didn't quite dare to say this; but he hinted, + cautiously, “Ain't you afraid maybe we'll get used to fightin'—to + discipline and all that? Maybe they'll trick us—the plutes.” + </p> + <p> + “I know,” said the other. “I've thought of that, and I've no doubt they'll + try it—they want universal training for that very purpose. We have + to fight them, that's all; we have to fight right now—to make clear + why we're going into this war. We have to hold it before the people—that + this is a war to bring democracy to the whole world. If we can fix that in + people's minds, the imperialists won't have a look in.” + </p> + <p> + “If you could do it, of course—” began Jimmie, hesitatingly. + </p> + <p> + “But we ARE doing it!” cried Emil. “We're doing it day by day. Look at + this strike here in Leesville.” + </p> + <p> + “What strike?” + </p> + <p> + “Didn't you know there'd been another walk-out in the Empire Shops?” + </p> + <p> + “No, I didn't.” + </p> + <p> + “The men went out, and the government sent an arbitration commission, and + forced both sides to accept an award. They broke old Granitch down—made + him recognize the union and grant the basic eight-hour day.” + </p> + <p> + “My God!” exclaimed Jimmie. It was the thing for which he had stood up in + the Empire yards and been cursed by young Lacey Granitch; it was the thing + for which he had been sent to jail and devoured by lice! And now the + government had helped the men to win their demand! It was the first time—literally + the first in Jimmie's whole life—that he had been led to think of + the government as something else than an enemy and a slave-driver. + </p> + <p> + “How did Granitch take it?” he asked. + </p> + <p> + “Oh, awful! He threatened to quit, and let the government run his plant; + but when he found the government was perfectly willing, he dropped his + bluff. And look here—here's something else.” Emil reached into an + inside pocket of his overcoat and pulled out a newspaper clipping. “Ashton + Chalmers went to a banquet at some bankers' convention the other day and + made a speech to them. Read this.” + </p> + <p> + Jimmie, walking along, read some words that Emil had underlined in pencil: + “Whether we will or no, we have to recognize that the old order is dead. + We face a new era, when labour is coming into its own. If we do not want + to be left behind as derelicts, we shall have to get busy and do our part + to bring in this new era, which otherwise will come with bloodshed and + destruction.” + </p> + <p> + “For the love of Mike!” said Jimmie. + </p> + <p> + “It's just about knocked Leesville out,” said Emil. “You ought to have + seen the papers that reported the speech! It was as if God in his Heaven + had gone crazy, and the clergymen in the churches had to tell the news!” + </p> + <p> + To the little machinist there flashed a sudden idea. He caught his friend + by the arm. “Emil!” he exclaimed. “Do you remember that time when Ashton + Chalmers and old Granitch came to our meeting at the Opera-house?” + </p> + <p> + “Sure thing!” said Emil. + </p> + <p> + “Maybe that done it!” + </p> + <p> + “Nothing more likely.” + </p> + <p> + “And it was me that sold him the tickets!” + </p> + <p> + Jimmie was thrilled to the bottom of his shoes. Such is the reward that + comes now and then to the soul of a propagandist; he struggles on amid + ridicule and despair—and then suddenly, like a gleam of light, comes + evidence that somewhere, somehow, he has reached another mind, he has made + a real impression. Ashton Chalmers had listened to the Socialist orator, + and he had gone away and read and investigated; he had realized the force + of this great world movement for economic justice, he had broken the bonds + and barriers of his class, and told the truth about what he saw coming. + When Jimmie read the wonderful words which the bank president had spoken, + he was nearer to an impulse to fight Germany than at any previous moment + of his life! + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0017" id="link2HCH0017"> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER XVII. JIMMIE HIGGINS WRESTLES WITH THE TEMPTER + </h2> + <h3> + I. + </h3> + <p> + Of course, not all the Socialists of Leesville had got the “military bug” + like Emil Forster. Late in the afternoon, Jimmie ran into Comrade + Schneider, on his way home from work at the brewery, and he was the same + old Schneider—the same florid Teuton countenance, the same solid + Teuton voice, the same indignant Teuton point of view. All Jimmie had to + do was to mention the name of Emil, and Schneider was off. A hell of a + Socialist he was! Couldn't even wait for the drill-sergeant to come after + him, but had to run and hunt for him, had to go and put himself out in the + public square, where the town-loafers could watch him playing the monkey! + </p> + <p> + No, said Schneider, with abundant profanity, he had not moved one inch + from his position; they could send him to jail any time they got ready, + they could stand him up before a firing-squad, but they'd never get any + militarism into him. Pressed for an answer, the big brewer admitted that + he had registered; but he wasn't going to be drafted, not on his life! + Jimmie suggested that this might be because he had a wife and six + children; but the other was too much absorbed in his tirade to notice + Jimmie's grin. He blustered on, in a tone so loud that several times + people on the street overheard, and gave him a black look. Jimmie, being + less in the mood of martyrdom, parted from him and went to see the + Meissners. + </p> + <p> + The little bottle-packer was living in the same place, having rented the + upper part of his house to a Polish family to help meet his + constantly-rising expenses. He welcomed Jimmie with open arms—patted + him on the back with delight, and opened a bottle of beer to treat him. He + asked a hundred questions about Jimmie's adventures, and told in turn + about events in Leesville. The local as a whole had stood firm against the + war, and was still carrying on propaganda, in the face of ferocious + opposition. The working-classes were pumped so full of “patriotic dope”, + you could hardly get them to listen; as for the radicals, they were marked + men—their mail was intercepted, their meetings were attended by + almost as many detectives as spectators. A number had been drafted—which + Meissner considered deliberate conspiracy on the part of the draft-boards. + </p> + <p> + Who had been taken? Jimmie asked. The other answered: Comrade Claudel, the + jeweller—he wanted to go, of course; and Comrade Koeln, the + glass-blower—he was a German, but had been naturalized, so they had + taken him, in spite of his protests; and Comrade Stankewitz— + </p> + <p> + “Stankewitz!” cried Jimmie, in dismay. + </p> + <p> + “Sure, he's gone.” + </p> + <p> + “Was he willing?” + </p> + <p> + “They didn't ask if he was willing. They just told him to report.” + </p> + <p> + Somehow that seemed to bring the war nearer to Jimmie's consciousness than + anything that had happened so far. The little Roumanian Jew had given him + the greater part of his education on this world-conflict; it was over the + counter of the cigar-store that Jimmie had got the first geography lessons + of his life. He had learned that Russia was the yellow country, and + Germany the green, and Belgium the pale blue, and France the light pink; + he had seen how the railroads from the green to the pink ran through the + pale blue, and how the big fortresses in the pale blue all faced towards + the green—something which Meissner and Schneider and the rest of the + green people considered a mortal affront, a confession of guilt on the + part of the pale blue people. Comrade Stankewitz's wizened-up, eager + little face rose before Jimmie; he heard the shrill voice, trying to + compose the disputes in the local. “Comrades, all this vill not get us + anyvere! There is but vun question we have to answer, are we + internationalists, or are we not?” + </p> + <p> + “My God!” cried Jimmie. “Ain't that awful?” + </p> + <p> + He had got to the point where he was willing to admit that perhaps the + Kaiser had got to be licked, and maybe it was all right for a fellow that + felt like Emil Forster to go and lick him. But to lay hold of a man who + hated war with all his heart and soul, to drag him away from the little + business he had painfully built up, and compel him to put on a uniform and + obey other men's orders—well, when you saw a thing like that, you + knew about the atrocities of war! + </p> + <h3> + II. + </h3> + <p> + Comrade Meissner went on. Worse than that—-they had taken Comrade + Gerrity. And Jimmie stared. “But he's married!” + </p> + <p> + “I know,” explained Meissner, “but that ain't what counts. What you got to + have is a dependent wife. An' the Gerritys didn't know that—Comrade + Evelyn held on to her job as stenographer, and somebody must have told on + them, for the board jacked him up and cancelled his exemption. Of course, + it was only because he was organizer of the local; they want to put us out + of business any way they can.” + </p> + <p> + “What did Gerrity do?” + </p> + <p> + “He refused to serve, and they sent a squad of men after him and dragged + him away. They took him to Camp Sheridan, and tried to put him in uniform, + and he refused—he wouldn't work, he wouldn't have anything to do + with war. So they tried him and sentenced him to twenty-five years in + jail; they put him in solitary confinement, and he gets nothin' but bread + and water—they keep him chained up by his wrists a part of the time—” + </p> + <p> + “Oh! OH!” cried Jimmie. + </p> + <p> + “Comrade Evelyn's most crazy about it. She broke down and cried in the + local, and she went around to the churches—they have women's + sewing-circles, you know, and things for the Red Cross, and her and + Comrade Mary Allen gets up and makes speeches an' drives the women crazy. + They arrested 'em once, but they turned 'em loose—they didn't want + it to get in the papers.” + </p> + <p> + Comrade Meissner could not have foreseen how this particular news would + affect Jimmie; Meissner knew nothing about the strange adventure which had + befallen his friend, the amatory convulsion which had shaken his soul. + Before Jimmie's mind now rose the lovely face with the pert little dimples + and the halo of fluffy brown hair; the thought of Comrade Evelyn + Baskerville in distress was simply not to be endured. “Where is she?” he + cried. He had a vision of himself rushing forthwith to take up the + agitation; to raid the church sewing-circles and brave the wrath of the + she-patriots; to go to jail with Comrade Evelyn; or perhaps—who + could say?—to put about her, gently and reverently, a pair of + fraternal and comforting arms. + </p> + <p> + Jimmie had the temperament of the dreamer, the idealist, to whom it is + enough to want a thing to see that thing forthwith come into being. His + imagination, stimulated by the image of the charming stenographer, rushed + forth on the wildest of flights. He realized for the first time that he + was a free man; while, as for Comrade Evelyn, suppose the worst were to + happen, suppose Comrade Gerrity were to perish of the diet of bread and + water, or to be dragged into the trenches and killed—then the + sorrowing widow would be in need of someone to uphold her, to put + fraternal and comforting arms about her— + </p> + <p> + “Where is she?” Jimmie asked again; and Comrade Meissner dissipated his + dream by replying that she had gone off to work for an organization in New + York which was agitating for humane treatment for “conscientious + objectors”. Meissner hunted up the pamphlet published by this + organization, telling most hideous stories of the abusing of such victims + of the military frenzy; they had been beaten, tortured and starved, + subjected to ridicule and humiliation, in many cases dragged before + courts-martial and sentenced to imprisonment for twenty or thirty years. + Jimmie sat up a part of the night reading these stories—with the + result that once more the feeble sprout of patriotism was squashed flat in + his soul! + </p> + <h3> + III. + </h3> + <p> + Jimmie went to the next meeting of the local. It was a slender affair now, + for some of the members were in jail, and some in the training camps, and + some afraid to come for fear of their jobs, and some discouraged by + incessant persecution. But the old war-horses were there—Comrade + Schneider, and gentle old Hermann Forster, and Comrade Mabel Smith, with + an account of her brother's mistreatment in the county jail, and Comrade + Mary Allen, the Quaker lady. This last was still taking it as a personal + affront that America should be going into the bloody mess, in spite of all + her denunciations and protests; she was even paler and thinner than when + Jimmie had seen her last—her hands trembled and her thin lips + quivered as she spoke, you could see that she was burning up with + excitement over the monstrous wickedness of the world's events. She read + to the local a harrowing story of a boy who had registered as a + conscientious objector in New York, and had been taken out to a + training-camp and subjected to such indignities that he had shot himself. + Comrade Mary had no children of her own, so she had adopted these + conscientious objectors, and as she read of their experiences, her soul + was convulsed with a mingling of grief and rage. + </p> + <p> + Jimmie went back to the Empire Shops and applied for a job. They needed + thousands of men, so the Herald declared—but they did not need a + single one like Jimmie! The man to whom he applied recognized him at once, + and said, “Nothin' doin'.” For the sake of being nasty, Jimmie went to the + headquarters of the newly-formed union, and asked them to force old Abel + Granitch to give him work, according to the terms of the agreement with + the government. But the union secretary, after thinking the matter over, + decided that the provision against black-listing applied only to men who + had been out on the last strike, not to the strikers of a couple of years + before. “There was no use going out of one's way to look for trouble,” + said this secretary. Jimmie went away jeering at the union, and damning + the war as heartily as ever. + </p> + <p> + He was in no hurry to get work, having still some money in his pocket, and + being able to live cheaply with the Meissners. He went again to watch + young Forster drilling, and went home with him and heard an argument with + old Hermann. You could see how this family had been split wide open; the + old man ordered his traitorous son out several times, but the mother had + flung herself into the breach, pleading that the boy was going away in a + few days, and perhaps would never return. The evening that Jimmie was + there, the paper printed a speech of the President, outlining his purposes + in the war, the terms of justice for all peoples, a league of nations and + universal disarmament. Emil read this triumphantly, finding in it a + justification of his support of the war. Wasn't it a great part of what + the Socialists wanted? + </p> + <p> + Hermann answered grudgingly that the words were all right, but how about + the deeds? Also, how about the other Allies—did the President + imagime he could boss them? No—to the imperialists of England and + France and Italy those fine words were just bait for gudgeons; they would + serve to keep the workers quiet till the war was won, and then the + militarists would kick out the American President and pick the bones of + the carcass of Germany. If they really meant to abide by the President's + terms, why didn't they come out squarely and say so? Why didn't they + repudiate the secret treaties? Why didn't England begin her career in + democracy by setting free Ireland and India? + </p> + <p> + So it went; and Jimmie listened to both speakers, and agreed with both + alternately, experiencing more and more that distressing condition of + mental chaos, in which he found himself of two absolutely contradictory + and diametrically opposite points of view. + </p> + <h3> + IV. + </h3> + <p> + All winter long the papers had been full of talk about a mighty German + offensive that was coming in the spring. The German people were being told + all about it, and how it was to end the war with a glorious triumph. In + America nobody was sure about the matter; the fact that the attack was + boldly announced seemed good reason for looking elsewhere. Perhaps the + enemy was preparing to overwhelm Italy, and wished to keep France and + England from sending troops to the weakened Italian line! + </p> + <p> + But now suddenly, in the third week of March, the Germans made a mighty + rush at the British line in front of Cambrai; army upon army they came, + and overwhelmed the defenders, and poured through the breach. The British + forces fell back—every hour it seemed that their retreat must be + turned into a rout. Day by day, as the dispatches came in, Jimmie watched + the map in front of the Herald office, and saw a huge gap opening in the + British line, a spear-head pointing straight into the heart of France. + Three days, four days, five days, this ghastly splitting apart went on, + and the whole world held its breath. Even Jimmie Higgins was shaken by the + news—he had got enough into the war by this time to realize what a + German triumph would mean. It took a strong pacifist stomach indeed to + contemplate such an issue of events without flinching. + </p> + <p> + Comrade Mary Allen had such a stomach; to her religious fervour it made no + difference whatever which set of robbers ruled the world. Comrade + Schneider had it also; he knew that Germany was the birth-place and cradle + of Socialism, and believed that the best fate that could befall the world + was for the Germans to conquer it, and let the German Socialists make it + into a co-operative commonwealth by and by. Comrade Schneider was now + openly gloating over this new proof of German supermanity, the + invincibility of German discipline. But most of the other members of the + local were awed—realizing in spite of themselves the seriousness of + the plight which confronted civilization. + </p> + <p> + Jimmie would inspect the bulletin board, and go over to watch the + drilling, and then to Tom's “Buffeteria” with Emil Forster. He had always + had an intense admiration for Emil, and now the young designer, distressed + by the strife at home, was glad of someone to pour out his soul to. He + would help Jimmie to realize the meaning of the British defeat, the + enormous losses of guns and supplies, the burden it would put upon + America. For America would have to make up these losses, America would + have to drive the Germans out of every foot of this newly-conquered + territory. + </p> + <p> + Jimmie would listen and study the matter out on the map; and so gradually + he learned to be interested in a new science, that of military strategy. + When once you have fallen under the spell of that game, your soul is lost. + You think of men, no longer as human creatures, suffering, starving, + bleeding, dying in agony; you think of them as chess-pawns; you dispose of + them as a gambler of his chips, a merchant of his wares; you classify them + into brigades and divisions and corps, moving them here and there, + counting off your losses against the losses of the enemy, putting in your + reserves at critical moments, paying this price for that objective, wiping + out thousands and tens of thousands of men with a sweep of your hand, a + mark of your pencil, a pressure on an electric button! Once you have + learnt to take that view of life, you are no longer a human heart, to be + appealed to by pacifists and humanitarians; you are a machine, grinding + out destruction, you are a ripe apple, ready to fall into the lap of the + god of war, you are an autumn leaf, ready to be seized by the gales of + patriotism and blown to destruction and death. + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0018" id="link2HCH0018"> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER XVIII. JIMMIE HIGGINS TAKES THE PLUNGE + </h2> + <h3> + I. + </h3> + <p> + Jimmie went home one evening to the Meissners, and there got a piece of + news that delighted him. Comrade Stankewitz had come back from Camp + Sheridan! The man to whom he had sold his tobacco-store having failed to + pay up, Stankewitz had got a three days' furlough to settle his business + affairs. “Say, he looks fine!” exclaimed Meissner; and so after supper + Jimmie hurried off to the little store on the corner. + </p> + <p> + Never had Jimmie been so startled by the change in a man; he would + literally not have known his Roumanian Jewish friend. The wrinkles which + had made him look old had filled out; his shoulders were straight—he + seemed to have been lifted a couple of inches; he was brown, his cheeks + full of colour—he was just a new man! Jimmie and he had been wont to + skylark a bit in the old days, as young male creatures do, putting up + their fists, giving one another a punch or two, making as if they were + going to batter in one another's noses. They would grip hands and squeeze, + to see which could hold out longest. But now, when they tried it, there + was “nothing to it”—Jimmie got one squeeze and hollered quits. + </p> + <p> + “Vat you tink?” cried Stankewitz. “I veigh tventy pounds more already—tventy + pounds! They vork you like hell in that army, but they treat you good. You + don't never have such good grub before, not anyvere you vork.” + </p> + <p> + “You like it?” demanded Jimmy, in amazement. + </p> + <p> + “Sure I like it, you bet your money! I learn lots of things vat I didn't + know before. I get myself straight on this var, don't you ferget it.” + </p> + <p> + “You believe in the war?” + </p> + <p> + “Sure I believe in it, you bet your money!” Comrade Stankewitz, as he + spoke, pounded with an excited fist on the counter. “Ve got to vin this + var, see? Ve got to beat them Yunkers! I vould have made up my mind to + that, even if I don't go in the army—I vould have make it up ven I + see vat they do vit Russia.” + </p> + <p> + “But the revolution—” + </p> + <p> + “The revolution kin vait—maybe vun year, maybe two years already. It + don't do us no good to have a revolution if the Yunkers walk over it! No, + sir—I vant them Germans put out of Roumania und out of Russia und + out of Poland—und, I tell you, in this American army you got plenty + Roumanian Socialists, plenty Polish Socialists, und the Kaiser vill be + sorry ven he meets them in France, you bet your money!” + </p> + <p> + So Jimmie got another dose of patriotism, a heavy dose this time; for + Stankewitz was all on fire with his new conviction, as full of the + propaganda impulse as he had been when he called himself an + “anti-nationalist”. He could not permit you to differ with him—became + irritated at the bare mention of those formula-ridden members of the local + who were still against the war. They were fools—or else they were + Germans; and Comrade Stankewitz was as ready to right the Germans in + Leesville as in France. He got so excited arguing that he almost forgot + the cigars and the show-cases which he had to get rid of in two days. To + Jimmie it was an amazing thing to see this transformation—not merely + the new uniform and the new muscles of his Roumanian Jewish friend, but + his sense of certainty about the war, his loyalty to the President for the + bold deed he had done in pledging the good faith of America to securing + the freedom and the peaceful future of the harrassed and tormented + subject-races of Eastern Europe. + </p> + <h3> + II. + </h3> + <p> + Jimmie got a sheet of letter paper, and borrowed a scratchy pen and a + little bottle of ink from Mrs. Meissner, and wrote a painfully mis-spelled + letter to Comrade Evelyn Gerrity, nee Baskerville, to assure her of his + sympathy and undying friendship. He did not tell her that he was beginning + to wobble on the war; in fact, when he thought of Jack Gerrity, chained up + to the bars of a cell window, he unwobbled—he wanted the social + revolution right away. But then as he went to drop the letter into the + post office, so that it might go more quickly, he bought a paper and read + the story of what was happening in France. And again the war-fervour + tempted him. + </p> + <p> + By desperate, frenzied fighting the British had succeeded in holding up + for a few days the colossal German drive. But help was needed—instant + help, if civilization was to be saved. The cry came across the seas—America + must send assistance—guns, shells, food, and above all else men. + Jimmie's blood was stirred; he had an impulse to answer the call, to rush + to the rescue of those desperate men, crouching in shell-holes and + fighting day and night for a week without rest. If only Jimmie could have + gone right to them! If only it had not been necessary for him to go to a + training-camp and submit himself to a military martinet! If only it had + not been for war-profiteers, and crooked politicians, and lying, predatory + newspapers, and all the other enemies of democracy at home! + </p> + <p> + Jimmie dropped his letter in the slot, and turned to leave the post + office, when his eye was caught by a sign on the wall-a large sign, in + bold, black letters: “YOUR COUNTRY NEEDS YOU!” Jimmie thought it was more + “Liberty Bond” business; they had been after him several times, trying to + separate him from his earnings, but needless to say they hadn't succeeded. + However, he stopped out of curiosity, and read that men were needed to go + to France—skilled men of all sorts. There was a long list of the + trades, everything you could think of—carpenters, plumbers, + electricians, lumbermen, stevedores, railwaymen, laundrymen, cooks, + warehousemen—so on for several columns. Jimmie came to “machinists”, + and gave a guilty start; then he came to “motor-cycle drivers” and + “motor-cycle repairers”—and suddenly he clenched his hands. A wild + idea flashed over him, causing such excitement that he could hardly read + on. Why should he not go to France—he, Jimmy Higgins! He was a man + without a tie in the world—as free as the winds that blow across the + ocean! And he was looking for a job—why not take one of these? + </p> + <p> + It was a way he might share all the adventures, see the marvellous sights + of which he had been reading and hearing and without the long delay in a + training-camp, without waiting to be bossed about by a military martinet! + Jimmie looked to see what pay was offered; fifty-one dollars a month and + an “allowance” for board and expenses. At the bottom of the sign he read + the words: “Why not work for your Uncle Sam?” Jimmie as it happened was in + a fairly friendly mood towards his Uncle Sam at that moment; so he + thought, why not give him a chance as a boss? After all, wasn't that what + every Socialist was aiming at—to be an employe of the community, a + servant of the public, rather than of some private profiteer? + </p> + <h3> + III. + </h3> + <p> + Jimmie went to the window to inquire, and the clerk told him that the + “war-labour recruiting office” was at the corner of Main and Jefferson. He + came to the corner designated, and there in a vacant store was a big + recruiting sign, “War Labour Wanted”, and a soldier in khaki walking up + and down. A week ago Jimmie could not have been bribed to enter a place + presided over by a soldier; but he had learned from Emil and Stankewitz + that a soldier might be a human being, so he went up and said, “Hello.” + </p> + <p> + “Hello, yourself,” said the soldier, looking him over with an appraising + eye. + </p> + <p> + “If I was to hire here, when would I start for France?” + </p> + <p> + “To-night,” said the soldier. + </p> + <p> + “You kiddin' me?” + </p> + <p> + “They ain't payin' me to kid people,” said the other; and then, “What's + your hurry?” + </p> + <p> + “Well, I don't want to be stalled in a trainin'-camp.” + </p> + <p> + “You won't be stalled if you know your business. What are you?” + </p> + <p> + “I'm a machinist; I've repaired bicycles, an' I know a bit about + motor-cycles.” + </p> + <p> + “Walk in,” said the soldier, and led the way, and presented Jimmie to a + sergeant at the desk. “Here's a machinist,” he said, “and he's in a hurry + to get to work. Runnin' away from his wife, maybe.” + </p> + <p> + “There's a bunch of men starting for the training-camp to-night,” said the + sergeant. + </p> + <p> + “Trainin'-camp?” echoed Jimmie. “I want to go to France.” + </p> + <p> + The other smiled. “You wouldn't expect us to send you till we'd tried you + out, would you?” + </p> + <p> + “No, I suppose not,” replied Jimmie, dubiously. He was on his guard + against tricks. Suppose they were to enlist him as a worker, and then make + him fight! + </p> + <p> + The other went on. “If you're competent, you'll get to France all right. + We need men over there in a hurry, and we won't waste your time.” + </p> + <p> + “Well, now,” said Jimmie, “I dunno's you'll want me at all when you hear + about me. I'm a Socialist.” + </p> + <p> + “Thought you were a machinist,” countered the sergeant. + </p> + <p> + “I'm a Socialist, too. I was in the strike at the Empire a couple of years + ago, and they blacklisted me. I can't get no work in the big places here.” + </p> + <p> + “Well,” said the sergeant, “it's a good town for you to quit, I should + say.” + </p> + <p> + “You want a man like that?” persisted Jimmie. + </p> + <p> + “What we want is men that know machinery, and'll dig in and work like hell + to beat the Kaiser. If you're that sort we don't ask your religion. We've + got a bunch that start to-night.” + </p> + <p> + “Holy smoke!” said Jimmie. He had thought he would have time to ask + questions and to think matters over, time to see his friends and say + good-bye. But the sergeant was so efficient and business-like; he took it + so completely for granted that any man who was worth his salt must be + anxious to help wallop the Hun! Jimmie, who had come in full of hurry, was + now ashamed to back water, to hem and haw, to say, “I dunno; I ain't so + sure.” And so the trap snapped on him—the monster of Militarism + grabbed him! + </p> + <h3> + IV. + </h3> + <p> + “Sit down,” said the sergeant, and the anxious little Socialist took the + chair beside the desk, + </p> + <p> + “What's your name?” + </p> + <p> + “James Higgins.” + </p> + <p> + “Your address?” + </p> + <p> + “I'm just stayin' with a friend.” + </p> + <p> + “The friend's address?” and so on: where had Jimmie worked last, what work + had he done, what references had he to offer. Jimmie could not help + grinning as he realized how his record must sound to a military martinet. + He had been discharged and blacklisted at the motor-truck factory in + Ironton, his last job; he had been discharged and black-listed at the + Empire Shops; he had been arrested and sent to jail for “soap-boxing” on + the streets of Leesville; he had been arrested in the bomb-conspiracy of + Kumme and Heinrich von Holst. The sergeant entered each of these items + without comment, but when he come to the last, he stared up at the + applicant. + </p> + <p> + “I didn't have nothin' to do with it,” declared Jimmie. + </p> + <p> + “You got to prove that to me,” said the sergeant. + </p> + <p> + “I proved it once,” replied Jimmie. + </p> + <p> + “Who to?” + </p> + <p> + “Mr. Harrod, the agent of the Department of Justice here.” + </p> + <p> + The other took up the telephone and called the post office building. + Jimmie listened to one-half of the conversation—would Mr. Harrod + look up the record of James Higgins, who was applying for enlistment in + the Mechanical Department of the Motor Corps? There was some delay—Mr. + Harrod was talking—while Jimmie sat, decidedly nervous; but it was + all right apparently—the sergeant hung up the receiver, and remarked + reassuringly, “He says you're just a dub. He told me to congratulate you + on having got some sense.” + </p> + <p> + Jimmie made the most of this more than dubious statement, and proceeded to + answer questions as to his competence. Was there anybody at the Empire who + could certify as to this? The sergeant was about to call up the Empire + Shops, but reconsidered; if Jimmie had actually worked in a machine-shop + and in a bicycle-shop, they would surely be able to find something for him + in the army. In an hour of such desperate need they took most everyone. + “How tall are you?” demanded the sergeant, and added, “Weight don't matter + so much, because we'll feed you.” + </p> + <p> + The office of the medical examiner was upstairs in the same building, and + Jimmie was escorted upstairs, and invited to remove his coat and shirt, + and have his chest measured, and his heart and lungs listened to, and his + teeth counted, and his nose peered into, and a score of such-like stunts. + He had things wrong with him, of course, but not too many for army + purposes, it appeared. The doctor jotted down the figures on a sheet and + signed it, after which Jimmie and the soldier went back to the + recruiting-office. + </p> + <p> + And now suddenly the little Socialist found himself with an enlistment + paper before him, and a wet pen in his hand. He had never once been asked: + “Is your mind made up? Do you really mean to take this irrevocable step?” + No, the sergeant had taken it for granted that Jimmie meant business. He + had done all this inquiring and writing down of information, this weighing + and measuring and what not, and now he sat with a stern, compelling eye + fixed on his victim, as much as to say: “Do you mean to tell me that I've + done all that for nothing?” If Jimmie had actually refused to sign his + name, what a blast of scorn would have withered him! + </p> + <p> + So Jimmie did not even stop to read all the paper; he signed. “And now,” + said the sergeant, “the train leaves at nine-seventeen this evening. I'll + be there to give you your ticket. Don't fail to be on hand. You + understand, you're under military discipline now.” There was a new tone in + these last words, and Jimmie quaked inwardly, and went out with a sort of + hollow feeling in the pit of his stomach. + </p> + <h3> + V. + </h3> + <p> + He rushed away to tell Comrade Stankewitz, who hugged him with delight and + shouted that they would meet in France! Then he went to tell Emil Forster, + who was equally glad. He found himself with an impulse to hunt up Comrade + Schneider and tell him. Jimmie discovered in himself a sudden and curious + antagonism to Schneider; he wanted to have matters out with him, to say to + him: “Wake up, you mutt—forget that fool dream of yours that the + Kaiser's goin' to win the war!” + </p> + <p> + There were others Jimmie thought of, upon whom he would not call. Comrade + Mary Allen, for example—he would let her get the news after he was + out of the reach of her sharp tongue! Also he thought of Comrade Evelyn; + he might never see her again; if he did see her, she might refuse to speak + to him! But Jimmie repressed the pang of dismay which this realization + brought him. He was going to war, and the longings and delights of love + must be put to one side! + </p> + <p> + He went to the Meissners for supper, and broke the news to them. He had + expected protests and arguments, and was surprised by the lack of them. + Had the little bottle-packer been impressed by the experiences of Comrade + Stankewitz? Or could it be that he was afraid to voice his full mind to + Jimmie—just as Jimmie had been afraid in the case of Emil Forster? + </p> + <p> + Jimmie had some commissions to entrust to the Meissners; he would leave + with them the diary of “Wild Bill”, which he had hung on to, but which + seemed hardly the sort of literature to take on a transport. + </p> + <p> + “Sure,” assented Meissner. “Besides, the subs might get it.” + </p> + <p> + And Jimmie gave a sudden start. By heck! It was the first time the idea + had occurred to him. He would have to pass through the barred zone! He + might be in some fighting after all! He might never get to France! “Say!” + he exclaimed. “That ocean must be cold this time of year!” + </p> + <p> + For a moment he wavered. Surely it would have been more sensible to wait + till later in the season, when the consequences of a plunge overboard + would be less distressing! But Jimmie remembered the armies, locked in + their grip of death; never would despatch-riders need their motor-cycles + more urgently than now! Also Jimmie remembered the sergeant at the + recruiting-office. “You understand, you're under military discipline now!” + He set his jaw in a grim resolve. The “subs” be damned, he would go and do + his part! Already he felt the thrill of his responsibility in this mighty + hour of history; he was a military man, with a stern duty to do, with the + destinies of nations depending upon his behaviour! + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0019" id="link2HCH0019"> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER XIX. JIMMIE HIGGINS PUTS ON KHAKI. I. + </h2> + <p> + There were seven fellows who boarded the train that evening, under the + temporary charge of a blacksmith from the near by country. At seven + o'clock next morning they presented their papers at the entrance-gate of + the training-camp, and under the escort of a soldier were marched down the + main street, hanging on to their bundles and suit-cases, and staring about + them at the sights. + </p> + <p> + It was a city inhabited by some forty thousand men, on a site which a year + ago had been waste scrub-land. Long rows of wooden buildings stretched in + every direction—barracks, dining-rooms, study-rooms, offices, + store-houses—with great stretches of exercise and training-grounds + between. Just to see this city, with its swarming population of young men, + all in uniform, erect, eager, well-set-up and vivid with health, every man + of them busy, and every man seemingly absorbed in his job—that alone + was a worth-while experience. It was a new kind of city—a city + without a loafer, without a drunkard, without a parasite. The seven + working-men from Leesville felt suddenly slouchy and disgraced, with their + ill-fitting civilian clothes and their miscellaneous bundles and + suitcases. + </p> + <p> + The first thing they did with the new arrivals was to make them clean, to + fumigate and vaccinate them. In a Socialist local one meets all sorts of + eccentrics, the lunatic-fringe of the movement, and so it happened that + Jimmie had listened to a tirade against the diabolical practice of + inoculation, which caused more deadly diseases than it was supposed to + prevent. But the medical officers of this camp did not stop to ask + Jimmie's conclusions on that vital subject; they just told him to roll up + the sleeve of his left arm, and proceeded to wipe his skin clean and + scratch it with a needle. + </p> + <p> + And then came the tailor, to do him up in khaki. This also was something + the little machinist had not bargained for; he had taken it as a matter of + course that he would be allowed to work for Uncle Sam in any old clothes, + just as he had done for Abel Granitch. But no—he must have an + outfit, complete even to a tooth-brush, which they would show him how to + use. Having been done up neat and tight in khaki, with a motor-wheel on + his sleeve to show his branch of the service, he stood and looked at + himself in the glass, experiencing a demoralizing and unworthy excitement. + He was every bit as handsome as Comrade Stankewitz! When he walked down + the street would the girls giggle, and turn to look at him, as they did at + the sedate and proper Comrade Emil? So the meshes of Militarism were being + woven about the soul of Jimmie Higgins. + </p> + <h3> + II. + </h3> + <p> + Jimmie was in quarantine, not allowed to go out of camp on account of his + typhoid and other vaccinations, There was enough about the place to have + interested him; but, alas, he became suddenly very sick, and was terrified + to realize that the opponent of inoculation must have been right. His + health had been undermined for ever, he would suffer from a dozen obscure + diseases! He went to the hospital, miserable in body and still more + miserable in mind; but in a couple of days he began to feel better, and + listened to the nurses, who told him cheerfully that everybody felt that + way for a bit. Then he got up, and had several free days in which to + complete his recovery—days which he spent in wandering about the + camp, watching the fascinating sights. + </p> + <p> + It was like a circus with hundreds of rings. The drilling and marching he + had seen in the Leesville square were here going on wholesale. Hundreds of + groups were being put through squad-drill and the manual, while other + groups were having special kinds of exercises—climbing up walls, + digging trenches, making roads, shooting at targets. It rained every other + day, and the ground was a morass, but no one paid the least attention to + that; the men came in plastered with mud, and steaming like lard-vats. + They seemed to enjoy it; nothing ever interfered with their bantering and + jokes. + </p> + <p> + Jimmie watched them with alternating moods of curiosity and horror; for + the things that were done here brought the war, with its infinite and + multiform wickedness, before his very eyes. Here was a group of men being + taught to advance under fire; crawling on their bellies on the ground, + jumping from one hummock to another, flinging themselves down and + pretending to fire. A man in front, supposed to have a machine-gun, was + shouting when he had “got” them. Now they unslung their little + trenching-tools, and began to burrow themselves like wood-chucks into the + ground. “Dig, you sons o' guns, dig!” the officer would shout. “Keep your + head down, Smith! Make the dirt fly! Put the jazz into it! That's the + stuff!” + </p> + <p> + Jimmie had never watched football practice, so he had no conception of the + efforts to which men could be goaded by “coaching”. It was abhorrent—yet + also it was fascinating, the spell of it got hold of him. He saw what + these men were doing; they were learning to act in masses, to act with + paralyzing and terrific force. Whatever it was they did, they did with the + smash of a battering-ram. You saw the fire in their eyes, the grim, set + look on their faces; you knew that they were not going to war with any + hesitations or divided minds. + </p> + <p> + You would move over a rise in the ground, and come upon a bunch of them at + bayonet-practice. You didn't require imagination to get the hang of this; + they had dummies made of leather, and they rushed at these figures, + hacking, stabbing—and here was the most amazing part of it, shouting + with rage. Actually the officers taught them to yell, to snarl, to work up + their feelings to a fury! It was blood-curdling—Jimmie turned away + from it sick. It was just what he had been arguing for three years and a + half—you had to make yourself into a wild beast in order to go to + war! + </p> + <p> + Also Jimmie watched the target-ranges, from which came all day a rattle of + shots, like the whirr of many typewriters. Companies of men came marching, + and spread themselves out along the firing-steps, and under the direction + of instructors proceeded to contribute their quota to the noise. Over by + the targets were others who kept score and telephoned the results; so all + day long, winter or summer, rain or shine, men were learning to kill their + fellows, mechanically, as if it were a matter of factory routine. At other + ranges were moving targets, where sharp-shooters were acquiring skill; you + noticed that their targets were never birds and deer, as at the + shooting-galleries which Jimmie had seen at the beaches and at Socialist + picnics. No, they were the heads or bodies of men, and each body painted a + greenish grey, matching the uniforms of the enemy. + </p> + <h3> + III. + </h3> + <p> + So day by day Jimmie lived with the idea of killing, confronting the grim + and ferocious face of war. He had thought that repairing motor-cycles + would be pretty much the same anywhere you did it; but he found that it + was one thing to repair motor-cycles to be ridden by errand-boys and + working-men out for a holiday with their sweethearts, and another and + entirely different thing to repair them for fighting-men and + dispatch-couriers. Jimmie was driven more insistently than ever to make up + his mind about this war. It was every day less easy for him to hold two + contradictory sets of opinions. + </p> + <p> + All the men he now met were of one opinion, and by no possibility to be + persuaded to consider any other. Jimmie found that he could get them to + agree that after this war for democracy there would be vast changes in + this world, the people would never more let themselves be hoodwinked and + exploited as they had; he found that he could interest them in the idea of + having the government run the great industries, producing food and + clothing for the people as it was now producing them for the troops. But + when he tried to give this programme the name of Socialism, then the + trouble began. Weren't Socialists the lunatics who wanted to have America + “lay down” like Russia? The premise from which all discussion started with + these men was that America was going to win the war; if you tried to hint + that this matter could so much as be hesitated over, you met, first sharp + mockery, and then angry looks, and advice to go and take a pill and get + the Hun poison out of your system. + </p> + <p> + Nor was there any use trying to talk about the dangers of militarism. + These men knew all about the dangers of militarism—for the Kaiser. + The man who is at the buttend of a gun, and knows how to aim it so as to + pick off a cat at six hundred yards—that man will let the cat do the + worrying. So, at any rate, the matter seemed to these husky young + recruits, who were learning to march in the mud and sleep in the rain and + chew up carpet-tacks and grind Huns into leber-wurst. They were putting + through the job—with a fierce and terrifying gaiety; they exulted in + their toughness, they called themselves “grizzlies” and “mountain cats” + and what not; they sang wild songs about their irritability, their motto + was “Treat 'em rough!” It was a scary atmosphere for a dreamer and + utopian; Jimmie Higgins shrank into himself, afraid even to reach about + for some fellow-Socialist with whom he might exchange opinions about the + events of the outside world. + </p> + <h3> + IV. + </h3> + <p> + In the evening there were picture-shows, concerts, lectures-nearly all + dealing with the war, of course. They were held in big halls built by the + Y.M.C.A., an organization for which Jimmie had a hearty contempt. He + regarded it as a device of the exploiting classes to teach submission to + their white-collar slaves. But nobody could live in a training-camp + without being aware of the “Y”. Jimmie was invited to a lecture, and out + of boredom he went. + </p> + <p> + It was Sergeant Ebenezer Collins, imported from Flanders to tell the + “doughboys” about the wiles of the Hun. Sergeant Collins spoke a weird + language which Jimmie had never heard before, and not all of which he + could understand; it served, however, to convince him that the sergeant + was genuine—for nobody could possibly have faked such a form of + utterance! “When yer gow inter Wipers naow,” said the orator, “yer see + owld, grye-headed lydies an' bybies like little wite gowsts, an' yer sye + ter them, 'Gow-a-wye, the 'Un may be 'ere ter-dye,' but they wown't gow, + they got now 'omes ter gow ter!” + </p> + <p> + But in spite of the difficulties of a foreign language, you realized that + this Cockney sergeant was a man. For one thing he had a sense of humour; + he had kept it in the midst of terror and death—kept it standing all + night in trenches full of icy-cold water, with icy-cold water pouring down + his collar. Also the sergeant had a sense of honour—there were + things he could not do to a 'Un, even though the 'Un might do them to him. + Jimmie had listened to excited debates in Local Leesville, as to whether + the Allies were really any better than the Germans; whether, for example, + the Allies would have sunk passenger-liners with women and babies on + board, if it had been necessary in order to win the war. Sergeant Collins + did not debate this question, he just revealed himself as a fighting man. + “It's because we plye gymes, an' they down't,” he remarked. “If yer plye + gymes, yer now 'ow to plye fair.” + </p> + <p> + For three years and eight months Jimmie had been hearing stories about + atrocities, and for three years and eight months he had been refusing to + believe them. But now the Cockney sergeant told about a pal who had been + wounded in a night attack by the 'Uns, and the sergeant had tried to carry + him back and had had to leave him; towards dawn they made a + counter-attack, and retook the village, and there they found the + sergeant's pal, still alive, in spite of the fact that he was spiked to a + barn-door with bayonets through his hands and feet. When that story was + told, you heard a low murmur run through the room and saw a couple of + thousand young men clenching their hands and setting their jaws, getting + ready for their big job in France. + </p> + <p> + “Just now,” said the sergeant, “the Germans were making the most desperate + attack of the war. The British were at bay, with their backs against the + wall. It was upon the men in the training-camps of America that the + decision rested; there was no one but them to save the day, to save the + rest of the world from falling under the hoofs of the Hun monster. Would + they do their part?” Jimmie Higgins heard the answer from those two + thousand young throats, and the pacifist in him shrunk deeper out of + sight. + </p> + <p> + But the pacifist was never entirely silent. War was wrong! War was wrong! + It was a wicked and brutal way for human beings to settle their + disagreements. If human beings were not yet intelligent enough to listen + to reason—well, even so, that didn't make war right! A man had to + have principles, and to stand by them—how else could he make the + world come his way? Yes, war was wrong! But, meantime, war was here; and + calling it wrong did not put a stop to it! What the devil was a fellow to + do? + </p> + <h3> + V. + </h3> + <p> + As soon as Jimmie was able to work, they took him to the part of the camp + where a motor-cycle division was training. Here was a big repair-shop, + with plenty of damaged machines upon which he might display his skill. He + did not know the particular engine they used here, but he soon learned the + secrets of it, and satisfied the officers in charge that he knew how to + take one apart and put it together again, to replace and mend tyres, to + clean ball-bearings and true crooked rims. “You're all right,” they said. + “And you're needed like the devil over there. You won't have to wait + long.” + </p> + <p> + There was a platform where the trains came into the camp, and every few + hours now there came a long train to be loaded with men. Jimmie got his + notice, and packed his kit and answered roll call and took his place; at + sundown of the next day he was detrained at a “mobilization-camp”—another + huge city, described in the cautious military fashion as “Somewhere in New + Jersey”, though everybody within a hundred miles knew its exact location. + Here was a port, created for the purposes of war, with docks and wharves + where the fleets of transports were loaded with supplies and troops. The + vessels sailed in fleets, carrying thirty or forty thousand men at once. + From the port of New York alone there was going out a fleet like this + every week—the answer of America to the new drive of the Hun. + </p> + <p> + One met here, not merely the fighting-men, but the forces of all the + complicated service behind the lines: gangs of lumbermen from the far + North-west, who were to fell the forests of France and make them into + railroad-ties and timber for trenches; railway-men, miners, and + construction-gangs, engineers and signalmen, bridge-builders and + road-makers, telephone-linemen and operators, the drivers of forty + thousand motor-cars and of five thousand locomotives; bakers and cooks, + menders of shoes and of clothing, farmers to till the soil of France, and + doctors and nurses to tend its sick and wounded. There was nothing which + the skill and knowledge of a nation of a hundred million people had to + offer that was not gathered into this vast encampment. All the youngest + and keenest were here, eager to do their part, laughing at danger, + tingling with excitement, on tip-toe with curiosity and delight. Jimmie + Higgins, watching them, found his doubts melting like an April snow-storm. + How could any man see this activity and not be caught up in it? How could + he be with these laughing boys and not share their mood? + </p> + <p> + Jimmie himself had not had a merry childhood, he did not know the youth of + his own country—the breezy, slangy, rather shocking, utterly + irrepressible youth of this democratic world. If there was anything they + did not know—well, they did not know it; if there was anything they + could not do—their motto was: “Show me!” Jimmie, not having been to + school, found himself having a hard time with their weird slang. When one + of these fellows hailed you, “Hey, pimp!” it did not necessarily mean that + he did not like you: when he greeted you, “Hey, sweetness!” it did not + mean that he felt for you any over-powering affection. If he referred to + his officer as “hard-boiled”, he did not have in mind that this officer + had been exposed to the action of water at 212 degrees Fahrenheit; he + merely meant that the officer was a snob. When he remarked, “Good night!” + in broad daylight, he meant you to understand that he disagreed with you. + </p> + <p> + He disagreed frequently and explosively with Jimmie Higgins, trying to + point out a difference between the German rulers and the German people! + Such subtleties had no interest for these all-knowing boys. When Jimmie + persisted, they called him a “nut”, a “poor cheese”; they told him that he + was “cuckoo”, that his “trolley was twisted”; they made whirling motions + with their hands to indicate that he had “wheels in his head”, they made + flapping motions over him to signify that there were “bats in his belfry”. + So Jimmie subsided, and let them talk their own talk—imploring one + another to “have a heart”, or to “get wise”, or to “make it snappy”, or to + “cut out the rough stuff”. And he would sit and listen while they sang + with zest a song telling about what they were going to do when they got to + France: + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + Bring the good old bugle, boys, we'll sing another song, + Sing it with a spirit that will move the world along, + Sing it as we love to sing it, just two million strong— + While we are canning the Kaiser. + + CHORUS: + + Oh, Bill! Oh, Bill! We're on the job to-day! + Oh, Bill! Oh, Bill! We'll seal you so you'll stay! + We'll put you up in ginger in the good old Yankee way— + While we are canning the Kaiser. + + Hear the song we're singing on the shining roads of France; + Hear the Tommies cheering, and see the Poilus prance; + Africanders and Kanucks and Scots without their pants— + While we are canning the Kaiser. (Chorus) + + Bring the guns from Bethlehem, by way of old New York; + Bring the beans from Boston, and don't leave out the pork; + Bring a load of soda-pop and pull the grape-juice cork— + While we are canning the Kaiser. (Chorus) + + Come you men from Dixieland, you lumberjacks of Maine; + Come you Texas cowboys, and you farmers of the plain; + Florida to Oregon, we boast the Yankee strain— + While we are canning the Kaiser. (Chorus) + + Now we've started on the job we mean to put it through; + Ship the kings and kaisers all, and make the world anew; + Clear the way for common folk, for men like me and you— + While we are canning the Kaiser. + + CHORUS: + + Oh, Bill! Oh, Bill! We're on the job to-day! + Oh, Bill! Oh, Bill! We'll seal you so you'll stay! + We'll put you up in ginger in the good old Yankee way— + While we are canning the Kaiser. +</pre> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0020" id="link2HCH0020"> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER XX. JIMMIE HIGGINS TAKES A SWIM + </h2> + <h3> + I. + </h3> + <p> + You did not stop very long in the mobilization-camp, for the arrival of + your train was timed with the arrival of the ship on which you were to + sail. You had a meal, sometimes you slept a night, then you marched to the + docks. Nor was there much of the traditional “sweet sorrow” about the + departure of these great fleets; the weeping mothers and sisters had not + been notified to be present, and the ladies of the canteen-service had + given coffee and sandwiches, cigarettes and chocolate, to so many tens of + thousands that they had forgotten about tears. It was like the emigration + of a nation; the part of America that was now on the other side was so + large that nobody would need to feel homesick. + </p> + <p> + Jimmie's embarking was done at night; on the long, covered piers, lighted + by arc-lights, the soldiers set down their kits and stood about, munching + food, singing songs, and keeping one another's wits sharpened for battle. + They filtered on board, and then without a light or a sound the vessel + stole down the long stretches of the harbour, and out to sea. One never + knew at what hour the enemy submarines might attempt a raid on the + American side, so the entrance to the harbour was mined and blockaded, a + narrow passage being opened when the ships passed through. + </p> + <p> + When morning came the convoy was out at sea, amid glorious green rollers, + and Jimmie Higgins was lying in his narrow berth, cursing the fates that + had lured him, the monster of Militarism into whose clutches he had been + snared. The army medical service had a serum to prevent small-pox and + another to prevent typhoid, but they had nothing for sea-sickness as yet; + so for the first four days of the trip Jimmie wished that a submarine + would come and end his misery once for all. + </p> + <p> + At last, however, he came on deck, an utterly humbled Socialist agitator, + asking only a corner to lie in the sunshine—preferably where he + could not see the Atlantic surges, the very thought of which turned him + inside out. But gradually he found his feet again, and ate with + permanence, and looked out over the water and saw the other vessels of the + convoy, weirdly painted with many-coloured splotches, steaming in the + shape of a gigantic V, with two cruisers in front, and another on each + side, and another bringing up the rear. Day and night the look-outs kept + watch, and the wigwag men and the heliograph men were busy, and the + wireless buzzed its warnings of the movements of the underwater foe. The + U-boats had not yet got a transport, but they had made several tries, and + everyone knew that they would continue trying. Twice a day the clanging of + bells sounded from one end of the vessel to the other, and the crews + rushed to the boat-drill; each passenger had his number, and unless he was + ill in his berth he had to take his specified place, with his + life-preserver strapped about his waist. + </p> + <p> + The passengers played cards, and read and sang and skylarked about the + decks. Up on the top deck, to which Jimmie was not invited, were officers, + also a number of women and girls belonging to the hospital and ambulance + units. “Janes” was the term by which the soldier-boys described these + latter; you could see they were a good sort of “Janes”, serious and keen + for their job, looking business-like and impressive in their uniforms with + many pockets. Among them were suffragists, answering the taunt of the + other sex, showing that in war as well as in peace the world needed them; + it had to find a place for them on board the most badly crowded transport. + </p> + <p> + Never having been on an ocean-liner before, Jimmie did not know that it + was crowded; it did not trouble him that there was hardly room for a walk + on the decks. He watched the sea and the great white gulls and the piebald + ships; he watched the crew at work, and got acquainted with his + fellow-passengers. Before long he found a driver of an ambulance who was a + Socialist; also an I.W.W. from the Oregon lumber-camps. Even the + “wobblies”, it appeared, had come to hate the Kaiser; a bunch of them were + in France, and more would have come, if the government had not kept them + cross by putting their leaders into jail. An army officer with some sense + had gone into the spruce-country of the far North-west, and had appealed + to the patriotism of the men, giving them decent hours and wages, and + recognizing their unions; as a result, even the dreaded I.W.W. + organization had turned tame, and all the lumberjacks had pitched in to + help in “canning the Kaiser!” + </p> + <h3> + II. + </h3> + <p> + The fleet was nearing the submarine-zone and it was time for the convoying + destroyers to arrive. Everybody was peering out ahead, and at last a cry + ran along the decks: “There they are!” Jimmie made out a speck of smoke + upon the horizon, and saw it turn into a group of swiftly-flying vessels. + He marvelled at the skill whereby they had been able to find the + transports on this vast and trackless sea; he marvelled at the slender + vessels with their four low, rakish stacks. These sea-terriers were thin + skins of steel, covering engines of enormous power; they tore through the + water, literally with the speed of an express train, leaving a boiling + white wake behind. Seeing them rock and swing from side to side in the + waves, hurled this way and that, you marvelled that human beings could + live in them and not be jerked to pieces. Jimmie never tired of observing + them, nor did they tire of racing in and out between the vessels of the + convoy, weaving patterns of foam, the men on their decks watching, + watching for the secret foe. + </p> + <p> + Everyone on board the transports, of course, was on the alert. Jimmie in + his secret heart was scared stiff, but he did not reveal it to these + mocking soldier-boys, who made merry over German U-boats as they did over + sauerkraut and pretzels and Limburger and “wienies”, otherwise known as + “hot dogs”. Actually, Jimmie found, they were hoping to encounter a + submarine; not to be hit, of course, but to have the torpedo pass within a + foot or two, so that they might have something thrilling to write to the + folks at home. + </p> + <p> + There came storms, and blinding sheets of rain across the water, and mists + that hid everything from view; but still the little sea-terriers dashed + here and there, winding their foam wakes about the fleet, by night as well + as by day. How they managed to avoid collisions in the dark was a mystery + beyond imagining; Jimmie lay awake, picturing one of them plunging like a + sharp spear into the rows of bunks in the steerage where he had been + stowed. But when morning dawned, his berth was unspeared, and the + watch-dogs of the sea were still weaving their patterns. + </p> + <p> + It was a day of high wind, with clouds and fitful bursts of sunshine in + which the waves shone white and sparkling. Jimmie was standing by the fail + with his “wobbly” friend, watching the white-caps, when his companion + called his attention to a sparkle that seemed to persist, hitting one in + the eye. They pointed it out to others, and as the orders were strict to + report anything out of the way, someone shouted to the nearest look-out. A + cry went over the ship, and there was hasty wigwagging of the signalman, + and three of the destroyers leaped away like hounds on the chase. + </p> + <p> + There were some on board who had glasses, and they cried out that it was a + black object, and finally reported it a raft with people on it. Later, + when Jimmie reached port, he heard an explanation of the sparkle which had + caught his eye—a woman on the raft had a little pocket-mirror, and + had used this to flash the sun's rays upon the vessel, until at last she + had attracted attention. + </p> + <p> + Those who had glasses were mostly on the upper deck, so Jimmie did not see + anything of the rescue; the transports, of course, did not swerve or + delay, for their orders forbade all altruisms. Even the little destroyers + would not approach the raft until they had scoured the sea for miles + about, and then they did not stop entirely, but slid by and tossed ropes + to the people on the raft, dragging them aboard one by one. A seaman + standing near Jimmie explained this procedure; it appeared that the + submarines were accustomed to lurk near rafts and life-boats, preying upon + those vessels which came to their rescue. Distressed castaways were bait—“live + bait”, explained the seaman; the U-boats would lurk about for days, + sometimes for a week, watching the people in the life-boats struggle + against the waves, watching them die of exposure, and starvation and + thirst, watching them signal frantically, waving rags tied on to oars, + shouting and praying for help. One by one the castaways would perish, and + when the last of them was gone, the U-boat would steal away. “Dead bait's + no good,” explained the seaman. + </p> + <h3> + III. + </h3> + <p> + This mariner, Toms by name, came from Cornwall; for the transport was + British, and so also the convoying warships—Jimmie's fate had been + entrusted to “perfidious Albion”! Seven times this Toms had been torpedoed + and seven times rescued, and he had most amazing tales to tell to + landlubbers, and a new light to throw on a subject which our Socialist + landlubber had been debating for several years—the torpedoing of + passenger-vessels with women and children on board. Somehow Jimmie found + it a different proposition when he heard of particular women and children, + how they looked and what they said, and what happened when they took to + open boats in midwinter, and the boats filled up with water, and the + children turned blue and then white, and were rescued with noses and ears + and hands and feet frozen off. + </p> + <p> + Jimmie was a working-man, and understood the language of working-men, + their standards and ways of looking at life. And here was a working-man; + not a conscious Socialist, to be sure, but a union man, sharing the + Socialist distrust of capitalists and rulers. What this weather-bitten + toiler of the sea told to Jimmie, Jimmie was prepared to understand and + believe; so he learned, what he had refused to learn from prostitute + newspapers, that there was a code of sea-manners and sea-morals, a law of + marine decency, which for centuries had been unbroken save by pirates and + savages. The men who went down to the sea in ships were a class of their + own, with instincts born of the peculiar cruelties of the element they + defied—instincts which broke across all barriers of nations and + races, and even across the hatreds of war. + </p> + <p> + But now these sea-laws had been defied, and the Hun who had defied them + had placed himself outside the pale of the human race. In the souls of + seamen there had been generated against him a hatred of peculiar and + unique ferocity; they hunted him as men hunt vipers and rattlesnakes. The + union to which this Toms belonged had pledged itself, not merely for the + war, but for years afterwards, that its members would not sail in German + ships, nor in any ship in which a German sailed, nor in any ship which + sailed to a German port, nor which carried German goods. It had refused to + carry Socialist delegates desiring to attend international conferences + with German Socialists; it had refused to carry for any purpose labour + leaders whom it considered too mercifully disposed towards Germany. + </p> + <p> + When Jimmie learned this, you can imagine the arguments, continuing far + into the night! Quite a crowd gathered about, and they gave it to the + little Socialist hot and heavy. The upshot of it was that somebody + reported him, and the officer in command of his “motor-unit” read him a + stern lecture. He was not here to settle peace-terms, but to do his work + and hold his tongue. Jimmie, awed by the fangs and claws of the monster of + Militarism, answered, “Yes, sir,” and went away and sulked by himself the + whole day, wishing that the submarines might get this transport, with + everybody on board except two Socialists and one “wobbly”. + </p> + <h3> + IV. + </h3> + <p> + It was the morning of the day they were due in port. Everybody wore + life-preservers, and stood at his station; when suddenly came a yell, and + a chorus of shouts from the side of the ship, and Jimmie rushed to the + rail, and saw a white wake coming like a swift fish directly at the + vessel. “Torpedo!” was the cry, and men stood rooted to the spot. Far + back, where the white streak started, you could see a periscope, moving + slowly; there was a volley of cracking sounds, and the water all about it + leaped high, and the little sea-terriers rushed towards it, firing, and + getting ready their deadly depth-bombs. But of all that Jimmie got only a + glimpse; there came a roar like the opening of hell in front of him; he + was thrown to the deck, half-stunned, and a huge fragment of the rail of + the vessel whirled past his head, smashing into a stateroom behind him. + </p> + <p> + The ship was in an uproar; people rushing here and there, the members of + the crew leaping to get away the boats. Jimmie sat up and stared about + him, and the first thing he saw was his friend the “wobbly”, lying in a + pool of blood, with a great gash in his head. + </p> + <p> + Suddenly somebody began to sing: “Oh, say, can you see by the dawn's early + light—” Jimmie had always hated that song, because jingoes and + patrioteers used it as an excuse to bully and humiliate radicals who did + not jump to their feet with sufficient alacrity. But now it was wonderful + to see the effect of the song; everybody joined and the soldier-boys and + working-men and nurses and lady ambulance-drivers, no matter how badly + scared, recalled that they were part of an army on the way to war. Some + helped the crews to get the boats into the water; others bound up the + wounds of the injured, and carried them across the rapidly-slanting decks. + </p> + <p> + The great ship was going down. It was horrible to realize—this + mighty structure, this home for two weeks of several thousand people, this + moving hotel with its sleeping-berths, its dining-saloons, its kitchens + with lunch ready to be eaten, its mighty engines and its cargo of every + kind of necessity and comfort for an army—all was about to plunge to + the bottom of the sea! Jimmie Higgins had read about the torpedoing of + scores of ocean-liners, but in all that reading he had learned less about + the matter than he learned in a few minutes while he clung half-dazed to a + stay rope, and watched the life-boats swing out over the sides and + disappear. + </p> + <h3> + V. + </h3> + <p> + “Women first!” was the cry; but the women would not go until the wounded + had been taken, and this occasioned delay. Jimmie helped to get his friend + the “wobbly”, and passed him on to be lowered with a rope. By that time + the deck had got such a slant that it was hard to walk on it; the bow was + settling, and the stern rearing up in the air. Never could you have + realized the size of an ocean-liner, until you saw it rear itself up like + a monstrous mountain, preparatory to plunging beneath the waves! “Jump for + it!” shouted voices. “They'll pick you up from the other vessels. Jump and + swim.” + </p> + <p> + So Jimmie rushed to the rail. He saw a life-boat below, trying to push + away, and being beaten against the vessel by the heavy waves. He heard a + horrible scream, and saw a man slip between the boat and the side of the + liner. People on every side of him were jumping—so many that he + could not find a clear spot in the water. But at last he saw one, and + climbed upon the rail and took the plunge. + </p> + <p> + He struck the icy water and sank, and a wave rolled over him. He came up + quickly, owing to his life-preserver, and gasped for breath, and was + choked by another rushing wave and then pounded on the head by an oar in + the hands of a struggling sailor. He managed to get out of the way, and + struck out to get clear of the vessel. He knew how to do this, thanks to + many “swimmin'-holes”—including the one he had visited with the + Candidate. But he had never before swam in such deadly cold as this; it + was colder than he had dreamed when he had talked about it with Comrade + Meissner! Its icy hand seemed to smite him, to smite the life out of him; + he struggled desperately, as one struggles against suffocation. + </p> + <p> + The waves beat him here and there; and then suddenly he was seized as if + by the falls of Niagara, drawn along and drawn under—down, down. He + thought it was the end, and when again he bobbed up to the surface, his + breath was all but gone. The great bulk of the vessel was no longer in + sight, and Jimmie was struggling in a whirlpool, along with upset boats + and oars and deck-chairs and miscellaneous wreckage, and scores of people + clinging to such objects, or swimming frantically to reach them. + </p> + <p> + Jimmie was just about ready to roll over and let his face go under, when + suddenly there loomed above him on the top of a wave a boat rowed swiftly + by sailors. One in the boat flung a rope to him, and he tried to catch it, + but missed; the boat plunged towards him, and an arm reached out, and + caught him by the collar. It was a strong and comforting arm, and Jimmie + abandoned himself to it, and remembered nothing more for a long time. + </p> + <h3> + VI. + </h3> + <p> + When Jimmie opened his eyes again he was in a most extraordinary position. + At first he could not make it out, he was only aware of endless bruises + and blows, as if someone were shaking him about in a gigantic + pepper-cruet. As Nature protested desperately against such treatment, + Jimmie fought his way back to consciousness, and caught hold of something, + in his neighbourhood, which presently turned out to be a brass railing; he + struggled to ward off the blows of his tormentors, which turned out to be + the aforesaid railing, plus a wall, plus two other men, one on each side + of him, the three of them being lashed to the brass railing with ropes. + The wall and railing and Jimmie and the other men were behaving in an + incredible fashion—swinging down, as if they were plunging into a + bottomless abyss, then swinging up, as if they were going to part + altogether from this mundane sphere; the total enormous swing, from bottom + to top, being mathematically calculated to occupy a period of five and + one-half seconds of time. + </p> + <p> + Jimmie discovered before long that there were a whole row of men, lashed + fast and subjected to this perplexing form of torture. They made you think + of a row of carcasses in a butcher-shop—only, who could picture a + butcher-shop whose floor careened to an angle of forty-five degrees in one + direction, and then, in a space of precisely five and a half seconds, + careened to an angle of forty-five degrees in the opposite direction? + </p> + <p> + And they kept bringing more carcasses and hanging them in this insane + butcher-shop! Two sailors in uniforms would come staggering, carrying a + man between them, clinging to the railing, to Jimmie, to the other men, to + anything else they could grab. They would make a desperate rush while the + swing was right, and get to a new place on the railing, where they would + tie the new man with a bit of rope about his waist, and leave him there to + be mauled and pounded. One side of the room was lined solid with + carcasses, and then the other side, and still they came. This was + apparently a dining-saloon, there being a table down the middle, and two + rows of chairs; they lashed people into these chairs, they brought others + and lashed them to the bottom of the chairs—any old place at all! + There were some who thought they could hold on for themselves; but after + the sailors were gone they discovered that it took more skill to hold on + than they realized, and they would come hurtling across the floor, winding + up with a crash on top of someone else. + </p> + <p> + It was not the first time in Jimmie's life that he had had to scramble for + himself in some uncomfortable situation; he got his wits together quickly. + He was shivering as if with ague, and he managed to get out of his wet + coat. There being a couple of ladies strapped into chairs in front of him, + he did not like to go further; but presently came sailors with armfuls of + blankets, and made him perform the complicated feat of getting out of his + dripping icy uniform and getting the blanket wrapped around his middle, so + that the rope would not saw him into halves. Then came a steward with a + pot of hot coffee; being marvellously expert at holding this at all angles + of the ship, he poured it into cups with little funnels for drinking, and + thus got some down Jimmie's throat. + </p> + <p> + The little machinist felt better after that, and was able to devote + attention to the man on his right, who had hit his nose so many times that + it was bleeding in a stream, and had been tilted at so many angles that + the blood had run into his eyes and made him blind. The man on the other + side of him apparently could make no effort at all to keep his face from + being pounded, or his feet from being thrown into the pit of Jimmie's + stomach; after Jimmie made a number of protests, an officer came along, + and put his ear to the man's chest and pronounced him dead. They brought + another rope, and lashed him tighter, so that he would behave himself. + </p> + <p> + For several hours Jimmie clung to that railing. The destroyer would soon + be in port, they kept telling him; meantime they brought him hot soup to + keep up his strength. Some people fainted, but there was nothing that + could be done for them. The first boat-loads of the rescued had filled up + the berths of both officers and crew; the rest must hang on to the + railings as best they could. They should be thankful it was decent + weather, said one of the sailors; the vessel didn't roll any faster in bad + weather, but it rolled much farther in the same time—a distinction + which struck Jimmie as over-subtle. + </p> + <p> + The poor fellow's arms were numb with exhaustion, he had lost hope that + anything in the world ever could be still, when the announcement was made + that the harbour was in sight, and everybody's troubles would soon be + over. And sure enough, the rolling gradually became less. The little + vessel still quivered from stem to stern with the movement of her enormous + engines, but Jimmie didn't mind that—he was used to machinery; he + got himself untied from the railing, and lay down on the floor, right + there where he was, and fell asleep. Nor did he open his eyes when they + came with a stretcher, and carried him on to a pier and slid him into a + motor-truck and whisked him off to a hospital. + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0021" id="link2HCH0021"> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER XXI. JIMMIE HIGGINS ENTERS SOCIETY + </h2> + <h3> + I. + </h3> + <p> + When Jimmie took an interest in life again he was lying in a bed: a bed + that actually was still, that did not rise with a leaping motion to the + ceiling, and then sink like a swift elevator into the basement. Better yet + was the fact that this bed had clean sheets, and a lovely angel in + spotless white hovering about it. You who read of Jimmie Higgins's + adventures have perhaps been blessed with some of the good things of life, + and may need to have it explained to you that never before had Jimmie + known what it was to sleep between sheets—to say nothing of clean + sheets; never had he known what it was to sleep in a night-gown; never had + he had hot broth fetched to him by a snow-white angel with a bright smile + and an aureole of golden-brown hair. This marvellous creature waited on + his slightest nod, and when she was not busy running errands for him, she + sat by his bedside and chatted, asking him all sorts of questions about + himself and his life. She thought he was a soldier, and he, shameless + wretch, discovered what she thought, and delayed to tell her that he was a + common repairer of motor-cycles! + </p> + <p> + This was a war-hospital, and there were terrible sights to be seen here, + terrible sounds to be heard; but Jimmie for a long time missed them almost + entirely—he was so comfortable! He lay like a nice dozy cat; he ate + good things and drank good things, and then he fell asleep, and then he + opened his eyes in the sunshine of a golden brown aureole. It was only + gradually that he realized that somewhere in the ward a man was choking + and gasping all night, because the inside of his lungs had been partly + eaten out with poisonous acids. + </p> + <p> + Jimmie inquired and was told that more than a hundred people on the + transport had lost their lives, including several women; the nurse brought + a paper with a list of the casualties, among which he read the name of + Mike Angoni—his friend the “wobbly” from the far West! Also the name + of Peter Toms—the seaman from Cornwall, caught at the eighth + attempt! Jimmie read that the submarine which had sunk the transport had + been shattered by a depth-charge, and the sea all strewn with the wreckage + of it; and strange and terrible as it might seem, Jimmie, the pacifist, + the Socialist, experienced a thrill of satisfaction! Not once did he stop + to reflect that on board this under-water craft might have been some + German comrade, some poor, enslaved, unhappy internationalist like + himself! Jimmie wanted the sneaking, treacherous terrors of the sea + exterminated, regardless of everything! + </p> + <p> + The nurse with the halo of golden-brown hair got interested in her + American patient, and would sit and talk with him every chance she got. + She learned about Eleeza Betooser and the babies who had been blown to + pieces in the explosion. Also she learned about Jimmie's being a + Socialist, and asked him questions about it. Wasn't he just a little hard + on the leisure classes? Might it not be that some of the capitalists would + be as glad as he to know about a better social system? The young lady + pronounced the word “capitalists” with the accent on the “it”, which + puzzled Jimmie for a time; also she assured him that “wage schedules” + would never go back to what they were before the war, and Jimmie had to + ask what a “schedule” might be. He did not have to ask what she meant by a + “tart”, because there it was on his tray—a delicious little + strawberry pie. + </p> + <h3> + II. + </h3> + <p> + This meant that the destroyer had come to an English port; the nurse was a + Britisher. If Jimmie had had tact, he would have remembered that + Britishers have an outfit of earls and dukes and lords and things, to + which they are sentimentally attached. But tact is not the leading virtue + of Socialists; in fact, Jimmie made a boast of scorning it—if people + asked his opinion, he “gave it to 'em straight”. So now he caused this + white angel to understand that he regarded the effete aristocracies of the + old world with abysmal contempt; he meant to put them out of business + right off the bat. In vain the white angel pleaded that some of them might + be useful people, or at any rate well-meaning: Jimmie pronounced them a + bunch of parasites and grafters; the thing to do was to make a clean sweep + of them. + </p> + <p> + “You won't cut off their heads?” pleaded the nurse. “Surely they ought to + have a chance to reform!” + </p> + <p> + “Oh, sure!” answered Jimmie. “All I mean is, everybody's got to go to work—the + dooks an' aristercrats like the rest.” + </p> + <p> + The nurse went off, carrying Jimmie's chamber to be emptied; and while she + was gone, the man in the next bed, a gun-pointer from an American + destroyer with his head bandaged up so that he looked like a Hindu swami, + turned his tired eyes upon Jimmie and drawled: “Say, you guy, you better + can that line o' talk!” + </p> + <p> + “Whaddyer mean?” demanded Jimmie, scenting controversy with some + militarist. + </p> + <p> + “I mean that there young lady belongs to the nobility herself.” + </p> + <p> + “Go on!” said Jimmie. + </p> + <p> + “Straight!” said the other. “Her father's the earl of Skye-terrier, or + some such damn place.” + </p> + <p> + “Aw, cut it out!” growled the little machinist—for you never knew in + dealing with these soldier-boys whether you were being “kidded” or not. + </p> + <p> + “Did you ask her name?” + </p> + <p> + “She told me it was Miss Clendenning.” + </p> + <p> + “Well, you ask her if she ain't the Honourable Beatrice Clendenning, and + see what she says.” + </p> + <p> + But Jimmie could not get up the nerve to ask. When the young lady came + back, carrying his chamber washed clean, her pet patient was lying still, + but so red in the face that she suspected that he had been trying to get + out of bed without permission. + </p> + <h3> + III. + </h3> + <p> + Nor was that the end of wonders. Next day there ran a murmur of excitement + through the ward, and everything was cleaned up fresh, though there was + really nothing that needed cleaning. Flowers were brought in, and each + nurse had a flower pinned on her waist. When Jimmie asked what was “up”, + the Honourable Beatrice looked at him with a quizzical smile. “We're going + to have some distinguished visitors,” she said. “But you won't be + interested—a class-conscious proletarian like you.” + </p> + <p> + And she would not tell him; but when she went out, the fellow in the next + bed told. “It's the king and queen that's comin',” said the gun-pointer. + </p> + <p> + “Aw, ferget it!” said Jimmie—quite sure he was being “kidded” this + time. + </p> + <p> + “Comin' to see the submarine victims,” said the gun-pointer. “You cut out + your Socialist rough stuff for to-day.” + </p> + <p> + Jimmie asked the nurse when she came back; and sure enough it was true—the + king and queen were to visit the hospital, and pay their respects to the + victims of the U-boat. But that wouldn't interest Jimmie Higgins. Would he + not rather be carried away and put in a private room somewhere, so that + his revolutionary eyes would not be offended? Or would he stay, and make a + soap-boxer of His Majesty? + </p> + <p> + “Sure, he won't have no time to talk to a feller like me!” said Jimmie. + </p> + <p> + “Don't you be too sure,” replied the other. “He's got nothing to do but + talk, you know!” + </p> + <p> + Jimmie didn't venture any farther, because he knew that the Honourable + Beatrice was laughing at him, and he had never been laughed at by a woman + before, and didn't know quite how to take it. He could not have been + expected to understand that the Honourable Beatrice was a suffragette, and + laughed at all men on general principles. Jimmie lay quietly in his bed + and concealed the unworthy excitement in his soul. Wasn't that the devil + now? Him, a little runt of a working man from nowhere in particular, that + had been brought up on a charity-farm, and spent a good part of his life + as a tramp—him to be meeting the king of England! Jimmie had a way + of disposing of kings that was complete and final; he called them “kinks” + and when he had called them that he had settled them, wiped them clean + out. “None o' them kinks for me!” he had said to the Honourable Beatrice. + </p> + <p> + But now a “kink” was coming to the hospital! And what was Jimmie going to + do? How the devil did you talk to 'em? Did you have to say, “Your + Majesty”? Jimmie gripped his hands under the bed-covers. “I'll be damned + if I do!” He summoned his revolutionary fervour, he called up the spirits + of his “wobbly” friends, “Wild Bill” and “Strawberry” Curran and “Flathead + Joe” and “Chuck” Peterson. What would they do under these circumstances? + What would the Candidate do? Somehow, Jimmie's revolutionary education had + been neglected—nothing had ever been said in any Socialist local as + to how a comrade should behave when a “kink” came to visit him! + </p> + <p> + Jimmy was naturally a kindly human being; he was ready to respond to the + kindness of other human beings. But was it in accord with revolutionary + ethics to be polite to a “kink”? Was it not his duty to do something to + show his contempt for “kinks”? Maybe his Royal Nibs never had anybody to + “stand up to him” in all his life before. Well, let him have it to-day! + </p> + <h3> + IV. + </h3> + <p> + A nurse rushed into the ward in great excitement, and whispered, “They're + coming!” And after that the nurses all stood round, twisting their hands + together nervously, and the patients lay with their eyes glued on the door + where the apparition was to appear. + </p> + <p> + At last there came in sight a man dressed in uniform, who Jimmie would + never have dreamed could be a king—except that he had seen his + picture in the illustrated papers. He was a medium-sized, rather + stoop-shouldered little gentleman, decidedly commonplace-looking, with a + closely-trimmed brown beard turning grey, and rosy cheeks such as all + Englishmen have. He was escorted by the head of the hospital staff; and + behind him came a lady, a severe-looking lady dressed in black, with a + couple more doctors escorting her, and behind them several officers in + uniform. + </p> + <p> + The king and queen stopped at the head of the room, and looked down the + rows of beds. Each of them wore a friendly smile, and nodded, and said: + “How do you do?” And, of course, everybody smiled back, and the nurses + curtsied and said, “How do you do, Your Majesties?” + </p> + <p> + And then His Majesty said: “I hope everybody is doing well?” And the + doctor called the head nurse in charge of the ward, who came up smiling + and bowing and answered that everybody was doing beautifully, thank you; + at which both His Majesty and Her Majesty declared that they were so + pleased. The queen looked about, and seeing a man with many bandages, went + to him and sat by his bedside and began to ask him questions; the king + moved down the centre of the room, until suddenly his eye happened on the + Honourable Beatrice. + </p> + <p> + She had not moved; she stood at her place like the other nurses. But + Jimmie, watching, saw a smile come upon the king's face, and he moved + towards her saying: “Oh! how do you do?” The young lady went to meet him, + quite as if she were used to meeting kings every day. + </p> + <p> + “How are your patients doing?” inquired His Majesty. + </p> + <p> + “Beautifully,” said she; and His Majesty said that he was pleased—just + as if he had not said the same words only a minute before. He looked at + the patients with benevolent but tired-looking eyes; and the Honourable + Beatrice, by those subtle methods known to women, brought it about that he + looked especially at her favourite. She knew that he would wish to talk to + some of the patients, and by ever so slight a movement she brought it + about that it was towards Jimmie Higgins he advanced. + </p> + <p> + “What is your name?” he asked, and then, “Well, Higgins, how are you + feeling?” + </p> + <p> + “Sure, I'm all right,” said Jimmie sturdily; “I wanner get up, only she + won't let me.” + </p> + <p> + “Well,” said His Majesty, “the time was when the king was the tyrant, but + now it's the nurse.” He smiled at the Honourable lady. “Are you an + American soldier?” + </p> + <p> + “Naw,” replied Jimmie, “I'm only a machinist.” + </p> + <p> + “This is a war of machines,” replied His Majesty, graciously. + </p> + <p> + “I'm a Socialist!” exclaimed Jimmie, right off the bat. + </p> + <p> + “Indeed!” said His Majesty. + </p> + <p> + “You bet!” was the reply. + </p> + <p> + “But you're not one of those Socialists who oppose their country, I see.” + </p> + <p> + “I done it for a long time,” said Jimmie. “I didn't see we had no business + in this here war. But I been changin'—a bit.” + </p> + <p> + “I'm glad to hear that,” remarked His Majesty. “Doubtless your recent + experience has helped you to change.” + </p> + <p> + “Sure,” replied Jimmie. “But I'm still a Socialist, don't you make no + mistake about that, Mr. King.” + </p> + <p> + “I won't,” said His Majesty; and he looked at the Honourable Beatrice, and + between them there flashed one of those subtle messages which highly + sophisticated people know how to give and to catch—entirely over the + heads of Socialist machinists from Leesville, U.S.A. To the Honourable + Beatrice the message conveyed. “How perfectly delicious!” To His Majesty + it conveyed, “I knew you'd enjoy it!” + </p> + <p> + Jimmie's mind was, of course, occupied entirely with the idea of + propaganda. He must make the most of this strange opportunity! “Things is + goin' to be changed after this here war!” said he. “Fer the workin' + people, I mean.” + </p> + <p> + “They'll be changed for all of us,” said His Majesty. “The dullest of us + know that.” + </p> + <p> + “The workin' people got to get what they earn!” persisted Jimmie. “Why, + Mr. King—back home where I come from a feller could work twelve + hours a day all his life, an' not have enough saved up to bury himself + with. An' they say it was worse here in England.” + </p> + <p> + “We have had terrible poverty,” admitted His Majesty. “We shall have to + find some way of getting rid of it.” + </p> + <p> + “There ain't no way but Socialism,” cried Jimmie. “Look into it, an' + you'll see! We gotter get rid o' the profit-system. The feller that does + the work has gotter get what he produces.” + </p> + <p> + “Well,” said His Majesty, “you'll agree with me this far at least—we + must beat the Germans first.” And then he turned to the Honourable + Beatrice. “We shall learn much from our American visitors,” he said, and + flashed her another of those subtle messages, which indicated that perhaps + it was not a good thing for patients in hospitals to become excited over + Socialist propaganda! So the Honourable Beatrice turned to the man in the + other bed, and His Majesty turned also; he ascertained that the man's name + was Deakin, and that he came from Cape Cod. His Majesty remarked how badly + England needed good Yankee gun-pointers, and how grateful he was to those + who came to help the British Navy. Jimmie listened, just a tiny bit + jealous—not for himself, of course, but because he knew that + Socialism was so much more important than gun-pointing! + </p> + <h3> + V. + </h3> + <p> + At the foot of the bed there stood a military officer. He had been there + for some time, but Jimmie did not notice him till the king rose and moved + away. The officer was just the sort of hand-made aristocrat that Jimmie + imagined all officers to be; smooth-shaven, except for a little toy + moustache, with serene, impassive features, a dapper and immaculate + uniform, and a queer little fancy stick in his hand, to show that he never + did anything resembling work. He was eyeing the machinist with what the + machinist suspected to be a superior air. “Well, my good man,” said he, + “you had a talk with the king!” + </p> + <p> + That seemed obvious enough. “Sure!” said Jimmie. + </p> + <p> + “Generally,” continued the officer, “when one talks with the king, one + addresses him as 'Your Majesty'—not as 'Mr. King'.” + </p> + <p> + Jimmie was tired now, and not looking for controversy; so he did not + bridle as he might otherwise have done. “Nobody told me,” said he. + </p> + <p> + “Also,” continued the other, “one is not supposed to volunteer opinions. + One waits for the king to ask a question, and then one answers.” + </p> + <p> + Jimmie's eyes were closed, and he only half-opened them as he answered. + “They been tellin' me this here is a war for Democracy!” said he. + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0022" id="link2HCH0022"> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER XXII. JIMMIE HIGGINS WORKS FOR HIS UNCLE + </h2> + <h3> + I. + </h3> + <p> + They gave Jimmie Higgins a couple of days to lie about in the grounds of + the hospital, and make the acquaintance and hear the experiences of men + who had lost arms and legs in battle, or had been burned by + flame-throwers, or ruined for life by poison-gases. Strange as it might + seem, Jimmie found among these men not a few with whom he could talk, + whose point of view was close to his own. These Britishers had been + through the mill; they knew. None of the glory stuff for them! Leave that + for the newspaper scribblers, the bloody rascals who stayed at home and + beat on tomtoms, driving other men to march in and die. You went and got + yourself battered up, ruined for life—and then what would they do + for you? It was a hard world to a man who was crippled and helpless. Yes, + said Jimmie; the same hard world that it was to a Socialist, a dreamer of + justice. + </p> + <p> + But there was the old dilemma, from which he had never been able to find + escape, whether in Leesville, U.S.A., or on the high seas, or here in old + England. What were you going to do about the Huns? To hold out your hand + to them was like putting it into a tiger's cage. No, by God, you had to + fight them, you had to lick them, cost what it might! And the speaker + would go on and tell of things he had seen: a Prussian officer who had + shot a British surgeon in the back, after this surgeon had bound up his + wounds; a commandant of a prison-camp who had withdrawn all medical aid in + a typhus epidemic, and allowed his charges to perish like rats. + </p> + <p> + So, hell though it was, you had to go through with it; if you were a man, + you had to set your teeth and grip your hands and take your share of the + horror, whatever it might be. And Jimmie, being something of a little man + in his way, would set his teeth and grip his hands and take in + imagination, the share of the particular human wreck who happened to be + talking to him. So Jimmie Higgins was battered back and forth, like a + tennis-ball, between the two forces of Militarism and Revolution. + </p> + <p> + Just now was another crisis—the Huns had begun a furious drive in + Flanders, the third battle of Ypres, and the British were falling back, + not in rout, but in retreat which might become rout at any hour. The + bulletins came in several times a day, and people in the streets would + stop and read them, their faces full of fear. When the wind was right you + could hear the guns across the Channel; Jimmie would lie at night and + listen to the dull, incessant thunder—a terrific, man-made storm, in + which showers of steel were raining down upon the heads of soldiers hiding + in shell-holes and hastily-dug trenches. The war seemed very near indeed + when the wind was right! + </p> + <h3> + II. + </h3> + <p> + Still, a fellow has to live. Jimmie was in a foreign land for the first + time in his life, and when they turned him loose, he and a couple of other + American chaps went wandering about the streets, staring at the sights of + this town, which had been a small harbour before the war, but now was a + vast centre of the world's commerce, one of the routes by which large + sections of Britain were moved across the Channel every day. + </p> + <p> + You saw in the streets no men out of uniform, except a few old ones; you + saw nobody at all idle, except the young children. The women were driving + the trucks, and operating the street-cars, which were called “trams”, and + the elevators, which were called “lifts”. Everybody's face was sober and + drawn, but they lightened up when they saw the Americans, who had come so + far to help them in their trouble. In the cake-shops, and the queer little + “pubs” where rosy-cheeked girls sold very thin beer, they could not be + polite enough to the visitors from overseas; even the haughtiest-looking + “bobby” would stop to tell you the way about the streets. “First to the + roight, third to the left,” he would say, very fast; and when you looked + bewildered, he would say it again, as fast as ever. + </p> + <p> + But they needed motor-cycles so badly in the new American armies that they + didn't give Jimmie much time to be a hero; he got his orders and a new + outfit, and bade farewell to the Honourable Beatrice, promising to write + to her now and then, and not to be too hard on the aristocracy. He crossed + the Channel, alive with boats like the Hudson River with its ferries, and + came to another and still bigger port, which the Americans had taken and + made over new for the war. Long vistas of docks had been built since the + fighting began; Jimmie saw huge cranes that dipped down into the hold of a + ship, and pulled out whole locomotives, or maybe half a dozen automobile + trucks in one swoop. + </p> + <p> + Behind these docks was a tangle of railroad yards and tracks, and miles + upon miles of sheds, piled to the top with stores of every sort you could + imagine. A whole encampment-city covered the surrounding hills, crowned by + an old, creaking, moss-grown windmill—the Middle Ages looking in + dismay upon these modern times. + </p> + <p> + Nobody took the trouble to invite Jimmie to inspect these marvels, but he + got glimpses here and there, and men with whom he chatted told him more. + One man had been directing the unloading of canned tomatoes; for six + months he had seen nothing but crates upon crates and car-loads upon + car-loads of canned tomatoes, coming into one end of a shed and going out + at the other. Somewhere in the higher regions dwelt a marvellous + tomato-brain, which knew exactly how many cans a division of dough-boys in + a training-camp would consume each day, how many would be needed by + patients in hospitals, by lumbermen in French forests, by revellers in + Y.M.C.A. huts. Every now and then a ship brought another supply, and the + man who told Jimmie about it bossed a gang of negroes who piled the crates + on trucks. + </p> + <p> + And then Jimmie met a Frenchman, who had been a waiter in a Chicago hotel, + and now was bossing a gang of wire-haired Korean labourers. Jimmie had + thought he knew all the races of the earth in the shops and mills and + mines of America; but here he heard of new kinds of men—Annamese and + Siamese, Pathans and Sikhs, Madagascans and Abyssinians and Algerians. All + the British empire was here, and all the French colonies. There were + Portuguese and Brazilians and West Indians, bushmen from Australia and + Zulus from South Africa; and these not having proven enough, America was + now pouring out the partly melted contents of her pot—Hawaiians and + Porto Ricans, Filipinos and “spiggoties”, Eskimos from Alaska, Chinamen + from San Francisco, Sioux from Dakota, and plain black plantation niggers + from Louisiana and Alabama! Jimmie saw a gang of these latter mending a + track which had been blown out of place by a bomb from an aeroplane; their + black skins shining with sweat, their white teeth shining with good-nature + as they swung their heavy crow-bars, a long row of them moving like a + machine chanting to keep in unison, “Altogether—heave!” the officer + would call, and the line would swing into motion— + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + “Get a MULE! + An' a JACK! + No SLOW! + No SLACK! + Put the HUMP! + In yo' BACK—” + </pre> + <h3> + III. + </h3> + <p> + For nearly four years Jimmie had been reading about France, and now he was + here, and could see the sights with his own eyes. People with wooden + shoes, for example! It was worth coming across the seas to see women and + kids going clatter, clatter along the cobbled streets. And the funny + little railroad-coaches, with rows of doors like rabbit-pens. It was a + satisfaction to notice that the train had a real man-sized engine, with + U.S.A. painted thereon. Jimmie owned a share in that engine, and + experienced Socialistic thrills as he rode behind it. + </p> + <p> + He had got separated from his “unit”, thanks to the submarine and the + sojourn in the hospital. They had given him a pass, with orders to proceed + to a certain town, travelling on a certain train. Now Jimmie sat looking + out of the window, as happy as a boy out of school. A beautiful country, + the fresh green glory of spring everywhereupon it; broad, straight + military highways lined with poplars, and stone houses with queer steep + roofs, and old men and women and children toiling in the fields. + </p> + <p> + Jimmie chattered with the men in the compartment, soldiers and workers, + each a cog in the big machine, each bound upon some important errand. Each + had news to tell—tales of the fighting, or of the progress of + preparation. For more than a year now America had been getting ready, and + here, in the most desperate crisis of the war, what was she going to do? + Everybody was on tip-toe with excitement, with impatience to get into the + scrap, to make good in the work upon which his soul was set. Every man + knew that the “dough-boys” would show themselves the masters of “Fritz”; + they knew it as religious people know there is a God in Heaven—only, + unlike most religious people, they were anxious to get to this heaven and + meet this God at the earliest possible moment. Next to Jimmie sat a + Wisconsin farmer-boy, German in features, in name, even in accent; yet he + was ready to fight the soldiers of the Kaiser—and quite sure he + could lick them! Had he not lived since childhood in a free country, and + been to an American public-school? + </p> + <p> + Everybody had funny stories to tell about the adventures of soldiers in a + foreign land. The French were all right, of course, especially the girls; + but the shop-keepers were frugal, and you had better count your change, + and bite the coins they offered you. As for the language—holy smoke! + Why did civilized people want to talk a lingo that made you grunt like a + pig—or like a penful of pigs of all sizes? Across the way sat a + Chicago street-car conductor with a little lesson book, and now and then + he would read something out loud. AN, IN, ON, UN, and many different sizes + of pigs! When you wanted bread, you asked for a pain, and when you wanted + a dish of eggs, you asked for a cat-roof omelette. How was this for a + tongue-twister—say five hundred and fifty-five francs in French! + </p> + <p> + Fortunately you didn't have to say that many—not on the pay of a + dough-boy, put in a plumber from up-state in New York. For his part, he + did not bother to grunt—he would make drinking motions or eating + motions, and they would bring him things till they found what he wanted. + One time he had met a girl that he thought was all right, and he wanted to + treat her to a feed, so he drew a picture of a chicken, thinking he would + get it roasted. She had chattered away to the waiter, and he had come back + with two soft-boiled eggs. That was the French notion of taking a girl out + to dinner! + </p> + <h3> + IV. + </h3> + <p> + They loaded Jimmie into a motor-lorry and whirled him away. You knew you + were going to the war then, by heck; there were two almost solid + processions of wagons and trucks, loaded with French soldiers and + materials going, and damaged French soldiers returning. It was like + Broadway at the most crowded hour; only here everything went by in a whirl + of dust—you got quick glimpses of drivers with tense faces and + blood-shot eyes. Now and then there would be a blockade, and men would + swear and fume in mixed languages; staff-cars in an extra hurry would go + off the road and bump along across country, while gangs of negro + labourers, French colonials, seized the opportunity to fill up the ruts + worn in the highway. + </p> + <p> + They put Jimmie off at a village where his motor-unit was located, in a + long shed made of corrugated iron, the sort of shed which the army threw + up overnight. Here were a score of men working at repairs, and Jimmie + stopped for no formalities, but took off his coat and pitched in. There + was plenty of work he could see; the machines came, sometimes whole + truck-loads of them, damaged in every way he had ever seen before, and in + new ways not dreamed of in Kumme's bicycle-shop—tyres torn to shreds + by fragments of shrapnel, frames twisted out of shape by explosions, and + nasty splotches of blood completing the story. + </p> + <p> + It was one of the many places where American units had been taken to plug + the damaged French lines. There was a reserve battalion near by, and + outside this village a group of men were at work, putting up tents for a + hospital. Some thirty miles ahead was the front, and you heard the guns + off and on, a low sullen roar, punctuated with hammer-strokes f big + fellows. Millions of dollars every hour were being blown to nothingness in + that fearful inferno; a gigantic meat-mill that was grinding up the bodies + of men and had never ceased day or night for nearly four years. You could + be a violent pacifist in sound of those guns, or you could be a violent + militarist, but you could not be indifferent to the war, you could not be + of two minds about it. + </p> + <p> + And yet—Jimmie Higgins was of two minds! He wanted to beat back the + Huns, who had made all this fearful mess; but also he wanted to beat the + profiteers who were making messes at home. It happened that Jimmie had + reached the army at a trying moment, when there were no American big guns, + and when promises of machine-guns and aeroplanes had failed. There was + wild excitement in the home papers, and not a little grumbling in the + army. It was graft and politics, men said; and Jimmie caught eagerly at + this idea. He pointed out how the profiteers at home were entrenching + themselves, making ready to exploit the soldiers returning without jobs. + That was a line of talk the men were ready for, and the little machinist + rejoiced to see the grim look that came upon their faces. They would + attend to it, never fear; and Jimmie would go on to tell them exactly how + to attend to it! + </p> + <h3> + V. + </h3> + <p> + But that was only now and then, when the wind was the other way, and you + did not hear the guns. For the most part Jimmie's thoughts were drawn + irresistibly to the front; about him were thousands of other men, all + their thoughts at the front, their hands clenched, their teeth set, their + beings centred upon the job of holding the Beast at bay. Jimmie saw the + grey ambulances come in, and the wounded lifted out on stretchers, their + heads bandaged, their bodies covered with sheets, their faces a ghastly + waxen colour. He saw the poilus, fresh from the trenches, after God alone + knew what siege of terror. They came staggering, bent double under a + burden of equipment. The first time Jimmie saw them was a day of ceaseless + rain, when the dust ground up by the big lorries was turned into + ankle-deep mud; the Frenchmen were plastered with it from head to foot; + you saw under their steel helmets only a mud-spattered beard, and the end + of a nose, and a pair of deep-sunken eyes. They stopped to rest not far + from the place where Jimmie worked; they sank down in the wet, they fell + asleep in pools of water, where not even beasts could have slept. You did + not have to know any French to understand what these men had been through. + Good God! Was that what was going on up there? + </p> + <p> + Jimmie thanked his stars he was no nearer. But that coward's comfort did + not last him long, for Jimmie was not a coward, he was not used to letting + other men struggle and suffer for him. His conscience began to gnaw at + him. If that was what it cost to beat down the Beast, to make the world + safe for democracy, why should he be escaping? Why should he be warm and + dry and well-fed, while working-men of France lay out in the trenches in + the rain? + </p> + <p> + Jimmie went back and worked overtime without extra pay—something + that old man Granitch had never got out of him, you bet, nor old man Kumme + either. For three whole days he stayed a militarist, forgetting his + life-long training in rebellion. But then he got into an argument with a + red-headed Orangeman in his unit, who expressed the opinion that every + Socialist was a traitor at heart, and that after the war the army should + be used to make an end of them all. Jimmie in his rage went farther than + he really meant, and again got a “calling down” from his superior officer; + so for several days his proletarian feelings blazed, he wanted the + revolution right away, Huns or no Huns. + </p> + <h3> + VI. + </h3> + <p> + But most of the time now the spirit of the herd mastered Jimmie; he wanted + what all the men about him wanted—to hold back the Beast from these + fair French fields and quaint old villages, and these American hospitals + and rest-camps and Y.M.C.A. huts—to say nothing of motor-cycle + repair-sheds with Jimmie Higgins in them! And the trouble was that the + Beast was not being held back; he was coming nearer and nearer—one + bull rush after another! Jimmie's village was near the valley of the + Marne, and that was the road to Paris; the Beast wanted to get to Paris, + he really expected to get to Paris! + </p> + <p> + The sound of guns grew louder and louder, and rumour flew wild-eyed and + wild-tongued about the country. The traffic in the roads grew denser, but + moving more slowly now, for the Germans were shelling the road ahead, and + blockades were frequent; one huge missile had fallen into a French + artillery-train only a couple of miles away. “They'll be moving us back, + if this keeps up,” said Jimmie's sergeant; and Jimmie wondered: suppose + they didn't move them! Suppose they forgot all about it? Was there any + person whose particular duty it was to remember to see that motor-cycle + units got moved in the precise nick of time? And what if the Germans were + to break through and sweep over all calculations? This was a little more + than Jimmie Higgins had bargained for when he entered the + recruiting-office in Leesville, U.S.A.! + </p> + <p> + They gave out gas-masks to everyone in Jimmie's unit, and put an alarm + bell in the shed, and made everybody practise putting on the masks in a + hurry. Jimmie was so scared that he thought seriously of running away; but—such + is the perversity of human nature—what he did was to run in the + opposite direction! His officer in command came into the shed and + demanded, “Can any of you men ride?” And imagine any fellow who worked at + repairing motor-cycles admitting that he couldn't ride! “I can!” said + Jimmie. “I can!” said every other workman in the place. + </p> + <p> + “What is it!” asked Jimmie—always of the forward and pushing sort. + </p> + <p> + “The French ask for half a dozen men in a rush. They've had several + motor-cycle units wiped out or captured.” + </p> + <p> + “Gee!” said Jimmie. “I'll go!” + </p> + <p> + “And me!” said another. “And me!” “And me!” + </p> + <p> + “All right,” said the officer, and told them off: “You and you and you. + And you, Cullen, take command. Report to French headquarters at Chatty + Terry. You know where it is!” + </p> + <p> + “Sure, Mike!” said Cullen. “I been there.” Jimmie hadn't been to “Chatty + Terry”, but he knew it was somewhere across the Marne. The officer gave + him a map, showing the villages through which he would go. Jimmie and his + companions named these villages, using sensible language, without + concession to the fool notions of the natives. Wipers, Reems, Verdoon, + Devil Wood, Arm-in-tears, Saint Meal—all these Jimmie had heard + about; also a place where the Americans had won their first glorious + victory a week ago, and which they called, sometimes Cantinny, sometimes + Tincanny. And now Jimmie was going to “Chatty Terry”, in charge of a + red-headed Orangeman who a few days ago had expressed the opinion that all + Socialists were traitors and should be shot! + </p> + <p> + The officer gave them passes, one for each man, in case they got + separated, and they started towards the place where the new machines were + lined up. On the way Jimmie had a moment of utter panic. What was this he + was getting himself in for, idiot that he was? Going up there where the + shells were falling, wiping out motor-cycle units! And shells that were + full of poison gases, most of them! Of all the fool things he had done in + his life this was the crown and climax! His knees began to shake, he + turned sick inside. But then he glanced about, and caught Pat Cullen's + menacing blue eye; Jimmie returned the glare, and the spirit of battle + flamed up in him, he laid hold of the handles of a motor-cycle and strode + towards the door. Was any Irish mick going to catch him in a funk, and + “bawl him out” before this crowd, and put the Socialist movement to shame? + Not much! + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0023" id="link2HCH0023"> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER XXIII. JIMMIE HIGGINS MEETS THE HUN + </h2> + <h3> + I. + </h3> + <p> + The six motor-cyclists leaped on to their machines and went chugging down + the road. Of course they raced one another; all motor-cyclists always race—and + here was the best of all possible excuses, the French army in dire need of + them, several of its precious cycle-units wiped out or captured! They tore + along, dodging in and out between trucks and automobiles, ambulances and + artillery caissons, horse-wagons and mule-wagons, achieving again and + again those hair's-breadth escapes which are the joy in life of every + normal motor-cyclist. Now and then, when things were too slow, they would + try a crawl in the ditches, or push their machines over the ploughed + fields. So it happened that Jimmie found himself competing with his + red-headed Irish enemy; there was a narrow opening between two stalled + vehicles, and Jimmie made it by the width of his hand, and vaulted on to + his machine and darted away, free and exulting—his own boss! He + shoved in the juice and made time, you bet; no “mick” was going to catch + up and shout orders at him! + </p> + <p> + There were long trains of refugees streaming back from the battle-fields; + pitiful peasant-people with horse-carts and dog-carts and even + wheelbarrows, toothless old men and women trudging alongside, children and + babies stuck in amidst bedding and furniture and saucepans and bird-cages. + This was war, as the common people saw it; but Jimmie could not stop now + to think about it—Jimmie was on his way to the front! There were big + observation balloons up over his head, looking like huge grey elephants + with broad ears; there were aeroplanes whirring about, performing + incredible acrobatic feats, and spraying each other with showers of steel; + but Jimmie had no time for a single glance at these marvels—Jimmie + was on his way to the front! + </p> + <p> + He swept around a curve, and there directly in front of him was a hole in + the middle of the road, as big as if a steam-shovel had been working for a + week. Jimmie clapped on the brakes, and swerved sideways, missing a tree + and plunging into a cabbage patch. He got off and said, “Gee!” once or + twice; and suddenly it was as if he were whacked on the side of the ear + with a twelve-inch board—the whole world about him turned into a + vast roar of sound, and a mountain of grey smoke leaped into being in + front of him. Jimmie stared, and saw out of a little clump of bushes a + long black object thrust itself out, like the snout of a gigantic tapir + from some prehistoric age. It was a ten-inch gun, coming back from its + recoil; and Jimmie, smelling its fumes, struggled back to the road with + his machine, before the monster should speak again and stifle him + entirely. + </p> + <p> + There was a frame-house in the distance, and in front of it a barnyard, + and sheds with thatched roofs. There came a scream, exactly like the siren + of Hook and Ladder Company Number One that used to go tearing about the + streets in Leesville, U.S.A; a light flashed in one of the sheds, and + everything disappeared in a burst of smoke, which spread itself in the air + like a huge duster made from turkey feathers. There came another shriek, a + little nearer, and the ground rose in a huge black mushroom, which boiled + and writhed like the clouds of an advancing thunderstorm. Boom! Boom! Two + vast, all-pervading roars came to Jimmie's ears; and his knees began to + quake. By heck! He was under fire! He looked ahead; there must be Germans + just up there! Was a fellow supposed to ride on without knowing? + </p> + <p> + There was a big battle on, that much was certain; but the uproar was so + distributed that one could hardly tell whether it was in front or behind. + However, the transport was steadily advancing—horse-wagons, + mule-wagons, motor-wagons, all plodding patiently, paying no heed to the + shell-bursts. And then Jimmie took a look behind, and saw that infernal + red-headed Orangeman! He imagined a raucous voice, shouting: “C'mon here! + Whatcher waitin' fer?” Jimmie bounced on to his machine and turned her + loose! + </p> + <p> + He came to a place where something had hit a load of ammunition, and there + were pieces of a wagon and a driver scattered about; it was a horrible + mess, but Jimmie passed it without much emotion—his whole soul was + centred on beating Pat Cullen into “Chatty Terry”! He came to the + outskirts of a village, and there was a peasant's cottage with the roof + blown off, and a smell fresh out of the infernal regions, and a terrified + old woman standing by the road side with two terrified children clinging + to her skirts. Jimmy stopped his machine and shouted: “Chatty Terry?” When + the old woman did not answer quickly, he shouted again: “Chatty Terry? + Chatty Terry? Don't you understand French? Chatty Terry?” The old woman + apparently did not understand French. + </p> + <p> + He rode up the street of the village, and came to a military policeman + directing traffic at a crossing. This fellow understood English, and said: + “Chatty Terry? Eet ees taken!” And when Jimmie stood dismayed, wondering + what he was to do now, the policeman told him that headquarters had been + shifted to this village—it was in the chateau; he did not say + “chatty”, so Jimmie did not understand his kind of English. But Jimmie + rode as directed, and came to a place with iron gates in front, and a big + garden, and a sentry in front, and a bustle of coming and going, so he + knew that he had reached his destination, and had beaten his Irish enemy! + </p> + <h3> + II. + </h3> + <p> + Jimmie's pass was in duplicate French and English, so the sentry could + read it, and signed him to pass in. At the door of the chateau he showed + the paper again, and a French officer in the hall-way espied him, and + exclaimed, “A cyclist? Mon Dieu!” He half-ran Jimmie into another room, + where another officer sat at a big table with a chart spread out on it, + and innumerable filing cabinets on the walls. “Un courier Americain!” he + exclaimed. + </p> + <p> + “Only one?” asked the officer, in English. + </p> + <p> + “Five more's comin',” said Jimmie quickly. He hated Pat Cullen like the + devil, but he wouldn't have any French officer think that Pat would lie + down on his job. “The road's cut up, an' there's lots o' traffic. I come + as fast—” + </p> + <p> + “See!” interrupted the officer—not quite as polite as Frenchmen are + supposed to be. “This packet contains maps, which we make from + aeroplane-photographs—you comprehend? It is for the artillerist—” + </p> + <p> + The officer paused for a moment; there came a deafening crash outside, and + the window of the room collapsed and something grazed Jimmie's face. + </p> + <p> + “Voila!” remarked the officer. “The enemy draws nearer. Our wires are cut; + we send couriers, but they perhaps do not arrive; it needs that we send + many—what you say?—duplicates. You comprehend?” + </p> + <p> + “Sure!” said Jimmie. + </p> + <p> + “It is most urgent; the battle depends upon it—the war, it may be. + You comprehend?” + </p> + <p> + “Sure!” said Jimmie again. + </p> + <p> + “You are brave, mon garcon?” + </p> + <p> + Jimmie did not reply so promptly to that; but the officer was too tactful + to wait. Instead, he asked, “You know French?” And when Jimmie shook his + head: “It needs that you learn. Say this: Botteree Normb Cott. Try it, if + it pleases you: Botteree Normb Cott.” + </p> + <p> + Jimmie, stammering like a schoolboy, tried; the officer made him repeat + the sounds, assuring him gravely that he need have no doubts whatever; if + he would make those precise sounds, any Frenchman would know what he was + looking for. He was to take the main road east from the village and ride + till he came to a fork; then he was to bear to the right, and when he came + to the edge of a dense wood, he was to take the path to the left, and then + say to everybody he met: “Botteree Normb Cott!” + </p> + <p> + “Is it that you have a weapon?” inquired the officer; and when Jimmie + answered no, he pressed a button, and spoke quick words to an orderly, who + came running with an automatic revolver and a belt, which Jimmie proceeded + to strap upon him with thrills, half of delighted pride and half of + anguished terror. “You will say to the men of the botteree that the + Americans come soon to the rescue. You will find them, my brave American?” + The officer spoke as if to a son whom he dearly loved; and Jimmie, who had + never received an order in that tone of voice, reciprocated the affection, + and clenched his hands suddenly and answered, “I'll do my best, sir.” He + turned to leave the room, when whom should he see coming in—Mike + Cullen! Jimmie gave him a wink and a grin, and hustled outside and leaped + upon his machine. + </p> + <h3> + III. + </h3> + <p> + And now here was the little machinist from Leesville, U.S.A., flying down + the battered street of this French village with something like a + mid-western cyclone going on in his head. They say that a drowning man + remembers everything that ever happened in his life; perhaps that was not + true of Jimmie, but certainly he remembered every pacifist argument he had + ever heard in his life. For the love of Mike, what was this he had let + himself in for? Bound for the spot where the whole German army was trying + to break through—upon an errand the most dangerous of any in the + war! How in the name of Karl Marx and the whole revolutionary hierarchy + had he managed to get himself into such a pickle? He, Jimmie Higgins, + Bolshevik and wobbly! + </p> + <p> + And he was going through with it! He was going to throw his life away—just + because he had started—because he had pledged himself—because + he was carrying maps which might enable a “botteree” to win the war! Did + he really care that much about this infernal capitalist war? So cried out + the proletarian demons in the soul of Jimmie Higgins; and meantime the + engine hammered and chugged, and a miraculous power in the depths of his + subconsciousness moved the handle-bars so that he dodged shell-holes and + grazed automobiles. + </p> + <p> + The air was full of the scream of shells and the clatter of their + bursting, an infernal din out of which he could hardly pick individual + sounds. The road ahead was less crowded; the vehicles had left it, + spreading out to one side or the other. How much farther ahead was that + fork? And suppose the Germans had got there, and had captured “Botteree + Normb Cott”—was he going to present them with a brand new + motor-cycle in addition? There were other “botterees” which he passed; why + couldn't he give them the maps? Jimmie rode on, raging inwardly. If he had + been a dispatch rider he would have known all about this, but he was only + a repair man, and they had had no business to put such a job off on him! + </p> + <p> + There were woods about him now, the trees smashed up by shells, and Jimmie + considered it the part of prudence to get off his machine and steal + forward and peer out to see if there were Germans in the opening beyond. + And suddenly his knees gave way, because of the fright he was in, with all + this deadly racket. He became violently sick at his stomach, and began to + act as he had acted on the first three days of his ocean passage from New + York. At the same time all the other functions of his body began to + operate. A group of Frenchmen passing by burst into hilarious laughter; it + was ridiculous and humiliating, but Jimmie was powerless to help it—he + wasn't cut out for a soldier, he hadn't agreed to be a soldier, they had + had no business sending him up here where vast craters of shell-holes were + opening in the ground, and whole trees were being lifted out of the earth, + and the air was full of a stink which might require a gas-mask or might + not—how was poor Jimmie to tell? + </p> + <h3> + IV. + </h3> + <p> + He mastered the awful trembling of his knees and the grotesque efforts of + his body to get rid of everything inside him, and got on his machine again + and stole ahead. He could only go a few rods at a time, because the road + was so cut up. Should he leave the machine and run for it? Or should he go + back and tell them their infernal maps were all wrong, there was no fork + in the road? No—for there at last was the fork, and after Jimmie had + ridden and run a hundred yards farther, there was a wheat-field, and a + line of woods, and at the edge of it four guns belching flame and smoke + and racket. Jimmie stood his machine in a ditch and went tearing across + the fields, wild with relief, because he had found his “Botteree Normb + Cott”, and could hand over his precious packet and get out of this mess as + fast as two wheels would take him. + </p> + <p> + But to his dismay he found that it wasn't the French battery, it was an + American battery; the French battery was farther ahead, and a little to + the right; the officer gave directions, taking it entirely for granted + that Jimmie would go on to his goal. + </p> + <p> + But then came another officer. “What have you got there?” And when Jimmie + answered maps, he demanded them; he seemed as greedy for maps as a child + for his gifts on Christmas morning. He ripped open the packet—what + is called “cutting red tape” in the army—and spread out the papers + and began to call out figures to another officer who sat on a camp stool + at a little folding table, with many sheets of figures in front of him. + This officer went on noting down the information—and the men at the + guns went on shoving in shells and stepping back while the screaming + messengers were hurled upon their way. In the rear were other men, + wheeling up ammunition, unloading one of the big camions which Jimmie had + been dodging on the roads. It was a regular factory, set up there in the + middle of the fields, dispatching destruction to the unseen foe. + </p> + <p> + “We're having the hell of a time,” remarked the officer, as he folded up + the maps again and handed them to Jimmie. “Our wires have been cut three + times in the last half-hour, and we have to shoot blind.” + </p> + <p> + “Where are the Germans?” asked Jimmie. + </p> + <p> + “Somewhere up ahead there.” + </p> + <p> + “Have you seen them?” + </p> + <p> + “Good Lord, no! We hope to move before they're that near!” + </p> + <p> + Jimmie felt a bit reassured by the quiet, business-like demeanour of all + the men in this death-factory. If they could stand the racket, no doubt he + could; only, they were all together, while he had to go off by himself. + Jimmie wished he had enlisted in the artillery! + </p> + <p> + He shoved the maps into the inside pocket of his jacket, and chased back + to his machine and set out. He took a side-path as directed, and then a + wood-road—and then he got lost. That was all there was to it—he + was hopelessly lost! The path didn't behave at all as the one he was + looking for. It went through a long stretch of woods with shattered trees + lying this way and that; then it crossed a field of grain, and then it + plunged down into a ravine, and climbed to the other side, and up a ridge + and down again. “Hell!” said Jimmie to himself. And if you could imagine + all the noises in all the boiler-factories in America, you would have + something less than the racket in that wood through which Jimmie was + wandering, saying “Hell!” to himself. + </p> + <h3> + V. + </h3> + <p> + He got to the top of the ridge, puffing and panting and dripping + perspiration; and there suddenly he jumped from his machine and ran with + it behind a tree-trunk and stood anxiously peering out. There were men + ahead; and what sort of men? Jimmie tried to remember the pictures of + Germans he had seen, and did they look like this? The air was full of + smoke, which made it hard to decide; but gradually Jimmie made out one + group, dragging a machine-gun on wheels; they placed it behind a ridge of + ground, and began to shoot in the direction of Germany. So Jimmie + advanced, but with hesitation, not wanting to interfere with the aiming of + the gun, which was making a noise like a riveting machine, only faster and + louder. It had a big round cylinder for a barrel, and the men were feeding + it with long strips of cartridges out of a box, and were so intent on the + process that they paid no attention whatever to Jimmie. He stood and + stared, spellbound. For these creatures seemed not men, but hairy monsters + out of caves-ragged, plastered with mud, grimed and smoke-blackened, with + their faces drawn, their teeth shining like the teeth of angry dogs. + Jimmie forgot all about the enemy, he saw only this roaring, + flame-vomiting machine and the men who were a part of it. + </p> + <p> + Suddenly one of the men leaped up, a little hairier and a little blacker + than the rest, and shouted, “Ah derry-air! Ah derry-air!” And the gun + stopped roaring and vomiting flame, and the men laid hold and began to tug + and strain to draw it back. The leader continued exhorting them; until + suddenly an amazing thing happened—right in the midst of his + shouting, the whole of his mouth and lower jaw disappeared. You did not + see what became of it—it just vanished into nothingness, and there + in the place of it was a red cavern, running blood. The man stood with his + startled eyes shining white in his black and hairy face, and gurgling + noises coming out—as if he thought he was still shouting, or could + if he tried harder. + </p> + <p> + The others paid not the least attention to this episode; they continued + tugging at the gun. And would you believe it, the man with no mouth and + jaw fell to helping again! The wheels struck a rise in the ground, and he + waved his hands in impotent excitement, and then rushed at Jimmie, + exposing to the horrified little machinist the full ghastliness of that + red cavern running blood. + </p> + <p> + Jimmie tried his magic formula: “Botteree Normb Cott.” But the man waved + his hands frantically and grabbed Jimmie by the arm—the very + incarnation of that Monster of Militarism which the little machinist had + been dodging for four years! He pushed Jimmie towards the gun, and the + other men shouted: “Asseestay!” So of course there was nothing for Jimmie + to do but lay hold and tug with the rest. + </p> + <p> + Presently they got the wheels to moving, and rolled the thing up the + ridge. A wagon came bumping through the woods, and the men at the gun gave + a gasp which was meant to be a cheer, and one of them laid hold of Jimmie + again, crying: “Portay! Portay!” He dragged out a heavy box and loaded it + into Jimmie's arms and carried another himself, and so in a few moments + the machine-gun was drumming, and Jimmie went on carrying boxes. The men + who were driving the wagon leaped upon the horses and drove away; and + still Jimmie carried boxes, blindly, desperately. Was it because he was + afraid of the little French demon who was shouting at him? No, not + exactly, because when he went back with a box he saw the little demon + suddenly double up like a jack-knife and fall forward. He did not make a + sound, he did not even kick; he lay with his face in the dirt and leaves—and + Jimmie ran back for another box. + </p> + <h3> + VI. + </h3> + <p> + He did it because he understood that the Germans were coming. He had not + seen them; but when the gun fell silent he heard whining sounds in the + air, as if from a litter of elephantine puppies. Sometimes the twigs of + trees fell on him, the dirt in front of him flew up into his face; and + always, of course, everywhere about him was that roar of bursting shells + which he had come to accept as a natural part of life. And suddenly + another man went down, and another—there were only two left, and one + of them signalled to Jimmie what to do, and Jimmie did not say a word, he + just went to work and learned to run a machine-gun by the method favoured + by modern educators—by doing. + </p> + <p> + Presently the man who was aiming the gun clapped his hand to his forehead + and fell backwards. Jimmie was at his side, and the gun was shooting—so + what more natural than for Jimmie to move into position and look along the + sights? It was a fact that he had never aimed any sort of gun in his life + before; but he was apt with machinery—and disposed to meddle into + things, as we know. + </p> + <p> + Jimmie looked along the sights; and suddenly it seemed as if the line of + distant woods leaped into life, the bushes vomiting grey figures which ran + forward, and fell down, and then leaped up and ran and fell down again. + “Eel vienn!” hissed the man at Jimmie's side. So Jimmie moved the gun here + and there, pointing it wherever he saw the grey figures. + </p> + <p> + Did he kill any Germans? He was never entirely sure in his own mind; + always the idea pursued him that may be he had been making a fool of + himself, shooting bullets into the ground or up into the air—and the + poilus at his side thinking he must know all about it, because he was one + of those wonderful Americans who had come across the seas to save la belle + France! The Germans kept falling, but that proved nothing, for that was + the method of their advance, anyway, and Jimmie had no time to count and + see how many fell and how many got up again. All he knew was that they + kept coming—more and more of them, and nearer and nearer, and the + Frenchmen muttered curses, and the gun hammered and roared, until the + barrel grew so hot that it burned. And then suddenly it stopped dead! + </p> + <p> + “Sockray!” cried the two Frenchmen, and began frantically working to take + the gun to pieces; but before they had worked a minute one of them clapped + his hand to his side and fell back with a cry, and a second later Jimmie + felt a frightful blow on his left arm, and when he tried to lift it and + see what was wrong, half of it hung loose, and blood ran out of his + sleeve! + </p> + <h3> + VII. + </h3> + <p> + That was too much for the remaining Frenchman. He caught Jimmie by the + other arm, exclaiming “Vennay! Vennay!” Apparently that meant to run away; + Jimmie didn't want to run away, but the Frenchman chattered so fast, and + tugged so hard, and Jimmie was half-dazed anyhow with pain, so he let + himself be dragged back. And presently they came to a dead soldier lying + with a gun by his side, and the Frenchman grabbed the gun and unstrapped + the cartridge belt, and then threw himself down behind a big rock. Jimmie + remembered the automatic which he had strapped at his waist; he held it + out to the Frenchman, shaking his head and saying, “No savvy! No work!”—as + if he thought the Frenchman would understand bad English better than good + English! But the Frenchman understood the head-shaking, and showed Jimmie + how to move the little catch which released the trigger for firing. With + hasty fingers he tore off the sleeve of Jimmie's shirt, and bound up his + arm tightly with a bandage from his kit; then he raised up over the rock + and cursed the sockray Bosh and began to fire. Jimmie got up the nerve to + peer out, and there were the grey figures, much nearer now, and he knew + they were Germans because they were like the pictures he had seen. They + were running at him, firing as they came, and Jimmie fired his revolver, + shutting his eyes because he was scared of it. But then, finding that it + behaved all right, he fired again, and this time he did not close his + eyes, because he saw a big German running straight towards him, the fury + of battle in his face. It was plain what this German meant to do—to + leap on Jimmie with his sharp bayonet; and somehow Jimmie never once + thought of his pacifist arguments—he fired, and saw the German fall, + and was murderously glad at the sight. + </p> + <p> + There were shots from behind him; apparently there had been a lot of + Frenchmen hidden in these woods, and the enemy was not finding it easy to + advance. Jimmie's companion jumped up and ran again, and Jimmie followed, + and a hundred yards or so back they came to a shell-hole with half a dozen + poilus in it. Jimmy tumbled in, and the men chattered at him, and gave him + more cartridges, so that when the Germans appeared again he did his part. + A bullet took a lump of hair off his temple, and shrapnel exploding near + by almost split his ear-drums; but still he went on shooting. His heart + was really in the job now, he was going to stop these Bosh or bust. With + five Frenchmen, two of them wounded, he held the shell-hole for an hour; + one of them ran back and staggered up with a supply of ammunition, and + loaded up a rifle for Jimmie, and laid it so that he could manage it with + one hand. So Jimmie went on shooting, half-dead, half-blind, half-choked + with powder smoke. + </p> + <p> + The sockray Bosh made another charge, and this was the end, every man in + the shell-hole knew. There were literally swarms of the grey figures, + their bullets came like a shower of hail. Jimmie decided to wait till the + enemy was near enough for him to aim the revolver with effect. He + crouched, watching a Frenchman with the life-blood oozing out of a hole in + his chest; then he raised up and emptied his automatic, and still there + were Germans rushing on. + </p> + <p> + Jimmie was so very tired now, he really did not care very much what + happened; he knelt in the hole, looking up, and suddenly he saw the huge + figure of a German looming above him, his rifle poised. Jimmie closed his + eyes and waited for the blow, and suddenly the German came down with a + crash on top of him. + </p> + <p> + Jimmie thought for sure he must be dead; he lay wondering, was this + immortality? But it did not seem like either heaven or hell as he had + imagined them, and gradually he realized that the German was writhing and + moaning. Jimmie wriggled from under, and looked up, just in time to see + another German loom over the shell-hole and pitch forward and hit on his + face. + </p> + <p> + It was evident that somebody farther back was attending to these Germans; + so Jimmie lay still, with a feeble flicker of hope in his heart. The + rattle of shots went on, a battle that lasted ten or fifteen minutes, but + Jimmie was too tired to peer out and see how matters were going. Presently + he heard someone running up behind him, and he looked around and up, and + saw two men jump into the shell-hole. He took one glance, and his heart + leaped. The doughboys! + </p> + <h3> + VIII. + </h3> + <p> + Yes, sir, there were two doughboys in the shell-hole! Jimmie had seen so + many tens of thousands of them that he had no doubt. Compared with the + war-battered poilus, they were like soldiers out of a fashion-plate: + smooth-shaven, with long chins and thin lips, and a thousand other details + which made you realize that home was home, and better than any other place + in the world. And oh, the beautiful business-like precision of these + fashion-plate soldiers! They never said a word, they never even glanced + about; they just threw themselves down at the edge of the shell-hole, and + leaned their rifles over and set to work. You didn't need to see—you + could tell from the look on these men's faces that they were hitting + something! + </p> + <p> + Presently came two more, leaping in. Without so much as as a nod of + greeting, they settled down and went to shooting; and when they had used + up most of their cartridges, one of them got up and shouted to the rear, + and there came a man running with a fresh supply in a big pouch. + </p> + <p> + Later on came three more with rifles. Apparently there were not so many + Germans now, for these new-comers found time for words. “They told us to + hold a line back there,” said one. “But hell!” + </p> + <p> + “There's more Huns up ahead,” said another. “Let's get 'em.” + </p> + <p> + “Just as well now as later,” said a third. + </p> + <p> + “You stay behind and get that finger tied up,” said the first speaker; but + the other told him to go and get his own fingers tied up. + </p> + <p> + Then one of them looked about and spied Jimmie. “Why, here's a Yank!” he + cried. “What you doin' here?” + </p> + <p> + Jimmie answered: “I'm a motor-cycle man, and they sent me with maps for a + battery, but I think it's been captured long ago.” + </p> + <p> + “You're wounded,” said the other. + </p> + <p> + “It ain't much,” said Jimmie, apologetically. “It was a long time ago, + anyhow.” + </p> + <p> + “Well, you go back,” said the doughboy. “We're here now—it'll be all + right.” He said it, not boastingly, but as a simple matter of fact. He was + a mere boy, a rosy-cheeked kid with a little ugly pug-nose covered with + freckles, and a wide, grinning mouth. But to Jimmie he seemed just the + loveliest boy that had ever come out of the U.S.A. “Can you walk?” he + asked. + </p> + <p> + “Sure!” said Jimmie. + </p> + <p> + “And these Frenchies?” The doughboy looked at the others. “You savvy their + lingo?” When Jimmie shook his head, he turned to the battle-worn hairy + ones. “You fellows go back,” he said. “We don't need you now.” When they + stared uncomprehending, he asked: “Polly voo Francy?” + </p> + <p> + “We, we!” cried they in one voice. + </p> + <p> + “Well, then,” said the doughboy, “go back! Go home! Toot sweet! Have + sleep! Rest! We lick 'em Heinies!” As the poilus did not show much grasp + of this kind of “Francy”, the doughboy boosted them to their feet, pointed + to the rear, patted them on the back, and grinned with his wide mouth. + “Good boy! Go home! American! American!”—as if that was enough to + make clear that the work of France in this war was done! The poilus looked + over the top of the shell-hole, and saw a swarm of those new fashion-plate + soldiers, darting forward through the woods, throwing themselves down and + shooting at the sockray Bosh. They looked at the rosy-cheeked boy with the + grateful faces of dogs, and shouldered their packs and rifles and set out + for the rear, helping Jimmie, who suddenly found himself very weak, and + with a splitting headache. + </p> + <h3> + IX. + </h3> + <p> + These doughboys had a song that Jimmie had heard all the time: “The Yanks + are coming!” And now the song needed to be rewritten: “The Yanks are + here!” All these woods through which Jimmie had blundered with his + motor-cycle were now swarming with nice, new, clean-shaven, + freshly-tailored soldier-boys, turned loose to get their first chance at + the Hun. Four years they had been reading about him and hating him, a year + and a half they had been getting ready to hit him—and now at last + they were turned loose and told to go to it! Back on the roads was an + endless procession of motor-trucks, with doughboys, and also marines, or + “leather-necks”, as they were called. They had started at four o'clock + that morning, and ridden all day packed in like sardines; and here, a mile + or two back in the woods, the trucks had come to a halt, and the sardines + had jumped out and gone into this war! + </p> + <p> + Jimmie did not realize till long afterwards what a world-drama he had been + witnessing. For four months the Beast had been driving at Paris; + irresistibly, incessantly, eating his way like a forest fire, spreading + ever wider and more fearful desolation—this Beast with the Brains of + an Engineer! The world had shuddered and held its breath, knowing that if + he got to Paris it would mean the end of the war, and of all things that + free men value. And now here he made his last supreme rush, and the French + lines wavered and cracked and gave way; and so in this desperate crisis + they had brought up the truck-loads of doughboys for their first real test + against the Beast. + </p> + <p> + The orders had been to hold at all hazards; but that had not been enough + for the doughboys, they and the leather-necks had seized the offensive and + sent the Germans reeling back. The very pride of the Prussian army had + been worsted by these new troops from overseas, at whom they had mocked, + whose very existence they had scouted. + </p> + <p> + It was a blow from which “Fritz” never recovered; he never gained another + foot, and it was the beginning of a retreat that did not stop until it + reached the Rhine. And the Yanks had done it—the Yanks, with the + help of Jimmie Higgins! For Jimmie had got there first; Jimmie had held + the fort while the Yanks were coming! Yes, truly; if he hadn't stuck by + that machine-gun and helped to work it, if he hadn't hid in that + shell-hole, emptying the contents of a rifle and an automatic pistol into + the charging Huns, if he hadn't held them up that precious hour—why, + they might have swept over this position, and the Yanks might not have had + a chance to deploy, and the victory of “Chatty Terry” might not have gone + resounding down the ages! The whole course of the world's history might + have been different, if one little Socialist machinist from Leesville, + U.S.A., had not chanced to be wandering through “Bellow Wood” in search of + a fabulous and never-discovered “Botteree Normb Cott!” + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0024" id="link2HCH0024"> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER XXIV. JIMMIE HIGGINS SEES THE OTHER SIDE + </h2> + <h3> + I. + </h3> + <p> + But these exultations and glory-thoughts were reserved for a later stage + of Jimmie Higgins's life. At present he was weak, and his head was + splitting, and his left arm burning like fire. And on top of this came a + happening so strange that it drove the whole battle from his thoughts. He + was walking on a path with his French companions, when one of them noticed + a man in a French uniform lying on the ground a little way to one side. He + was not a soldier, but a hospital-orderly or stretcher-bearer, as you + could tell by the white bandage with a red cross on his arm. He had been + shot through the shoulder, and someone had plugged up the wound and left + him; so now the French soldiers helped him to his feet and started to lead + him back. Jimmie watched them, and when he saw the man's face, the + conviction stole over him that he had seen that face before. He had seen + it, or one incredibly like it—and under circumstances of intense + emotion. The old emotion stirred in the depths of his subconsciousness, + and suddenly it burst to the surface, an explosion of excitement. It could + not be! The idea was absurd! But—it must be! It was! The wounded + French stretcher-bearer was Lacey Granitch! + </p> + <p> + The young heir of the Empire Machine Shops might never have known the + little Socialist machinist; but recognition was so evident on Jimmie's + face, that Lacey was set groping in his own mind. Now and then as the + party walked along he stole an uneasy glance at his fellow-countryman; and + presently when they struck a road, and sat down to rest and wait for a + vehicle of some sort, Lacey put himself beside Jimmie and began: “You're + the fellow that was in the house that night, aren't you?” + </p> + <p> + Jimmie nodded; and the young lord of Leesville looked at him uneasily, + looked away, and then looked back. “I've got something I want to ask you,” + he said. + </p> + <p> + “What's that?” + </p> + <p> + “Don't give me away.” + </p> + <p> + “How do you mean?” + </p> + <p> + “Don't tell who I am: There's no reason why anybody should know. I'm + trying to get away from it.” + </p> + <p> + “I see,” said Jimmie. “I won't tell.” + </p> + <p> + “You promise?” + </p> + <p> + “Sure.” + </p> + <p> + Then was a silence. Then suddenly, with no reason that Jimmie could see, + the other exclaimed: “You'll tell!” + </p> + <p> + “But I won't!” protested Jimmie. “What makes you say so?” + </p> + <p> + “You hate me!” + </p> + <p> + Jimmie hesitated, as if investigating his own mind. “No,” he said, “I + don't hate you—not any more.” + </p> + <p> + “God!” exclaimed the other. “You don't need to—I've paid all I owe!” + </p> + <p> + Jimmie studied his face. Yes, you could see that was true. Not merely was + Lacey haggard, his features drawn with the pain he was enduring; there + were lines in his face that had not been put there by a few days of + battle, nor even by a couple of years of war. He looked twenty years older + than the insolent young aristocrat whom Jimmie had seen hurling defiance + at the Empire strikers. + </p> + <p> + His eyes were searching Jimmie's anxiously, pleadingly. “I had to get + away,” he said. “I couldn't face it—everybody staring at me, + grinning at me behind my back! I tried to enlist in the American army, but + they wouldn't have me—not to do any sort of work. So I came to + France, where they need men badly—they let me carry a stretcher. + I've been through it all now—more than a year. I've been wounded + twice before, but I can't seem to get killed, no matter where I go. It's + the fellows that want to live that get killed—damn it!” + </p> + <p> + The speaker paused, as if seeing visions of the men whom he had seen die + when they wanted to live. When he went on, it was in a voice of humble + entreaty. “I've tried to pay for my blunders. All I ask now is to be let + alone, and not have everybody gossiping about me. That's fair, isn't it!” + </p> + <p> + Jimmie answered: “I give you my word—I won't tell a soul about it.” + </p> + <p> + “Thank you,” said Lacey; and then, after a moment's pause, “My name is + Peterson. Herbert Peterson.” + </p> + <h3> + II. + </h3> + <p> + A truck came along and gave them a lift to the nearest dressing-station: a + couple of tents with big red crosses on them, and a couple more being put + up, and motor-cars bringing nurses and supplies, and others with loads of + wounded, French and American. Jimmie was so weak now that he hardly cared + about anything; he took his place in a row of wounded men, waiting + patiently, trying not to make a fuss, because this was war, and the Hun + had to be licked, and everybody was doing his best. He lay down on the + ground, and shut his eyes; and gradually there came to him a familiar + odour. At first he thought it was the product of his imagination—because + he had just met Lacey Granitch, and had been reminded of the night when he + and Lizzie had crouched in the room of the lonely farm-house and listened + to the sounds and smelled the odour through the door. And presently Jimmie + heard the very same sounds from the tent—moans and shrieks, babbling + as of insane men. How strange that both times when he smelt this odour and + heard these cries he should be with the young master of the Empire Shops! + </p> + <p> + Jimmie's turn came, and they led him into the tent, making short work of + him—merely ascertaining that no artery was cut and that he would not + bleed to death, and then tagging him for the brigade hospital. They loaded + him into a truck with a score of other “sitting cases”, including Lacey + Granitch, and treated him to a long ride which he did not at all enjoy. At + the hospital, which was a big group of tents, now swarming with activity, + Jimmie waited his turn again—so many wounds all at once, and so few + to tend them! + </p> + <p> + At last he was led into the operating-place; the first sight that greeted + his eyes being a couple of orderlies carrying out a tub filled with + sawed-off arms and legs and miscellaneous fragments of men. There was a + surgeon with a white costume smeared with blood, and a white mask over his + face, and several nurses with white masks also. Nobody greeted him, or + stopped for preliminaries—they laid him on the operating-table, and + covered all but his shattered arm with a rubber sheet, and slit off his + bandages, and then a nurse put someting over his face and said, “Breathe + deeply, please.” + </p> + <p> + It was that ghastly odour again, but overpowering now. Jimmie breathed, + and everything began to rock and swim, his head began to roar, worse than + when he had fought the machine-gun. He could not stand any more of it; he + cried and struggled to get loose, but they had strapped his feet, and + someone held his other arm, so his frantic efforts were of no avail. + </p> + <p> + He began to fall; head over heels he went tumbling, into vast bottomless + abysses-down, down, down. He heard a strange voice saying: “Their collars + are too tight.” The words rang in his ears, they assumed monstrous and + overwhelming significance, they became a whole universe by themselves—“Their + collars are too tight!” All the rest of creation ceased, the lamp of being + went out; there remained only a voice, pronouncing amid whirling + infinities: “Their collars are too tight!” + </p> + <h3> + III. + </h3> + <p> + Somewhere in the vast spaces of chaos was a snore. Then ages afterwards, + out of the void there arose a mysterious forgotten effort to get something + out of a choking throat. After several such unaccountable manifestations, + the feeble flame of consciousness that called itself Jimmie Higgins + flickered up, and he realized that it was he who was trying desperately + not to be choked. Also he realized that he was become one horrible pain; + somebody had driven a nail through his arm, and fastened him tight to the + ground by it; also they had blown up his stomach, so that it was + threatening to burst, and when he choked, it was an agony. He gasped for + help, but no one paid any attention to him; he was all alone in the + dungeon-house of pain, buried and forgotten for ever. + </p> + <p> + Gradually he emerged from the misty regions of anaesthesia, and realized + that he was on a stretcher, and being carried. He moaned for water, but no + one would give it to him. He pleaded that there was something dreadful + wrong with him, he was going to burst inside; but they told him that was + only ether gas, and not to worry, he would soon be all right. They laid + him on a cot in a room, one of a long row, and left him to wrestle with + demons all alone. This was war, and a man who had only a shattered arm + might count himself among the lucky. + </p> + <p> + So through a night and a day Jimmie lay and made the best of a bad + situation. There were two nurses in this tent, and Jimmie, having nothing + to do but watch them, conceived a bitter rage at them both. One was lean + and angular and sallow; she went about her duties grimly, with no + nonsense, and Jimmie did not realize that she was ready to drop with + exhaustion. The other was pretty, with fluffy yellow hair, and was + flirting shamelessly with a young doctor. Perhaps Jimmy should have + reflected that men were being killed rapidly these days, and it was + necessary that some should concern themselves with supplying the future + generations; but Jimmie was in no mood to probe the philosophy of + flirtation—he remembered the Honourable Beatrice Clendenning, and + wished he was back in Merrie England. Also he remembered his pacifist + principles, and wished he had kept out of this hellish war! + </p> + <p> + But his pain became somewhat less, and they loaded him into an ambulance + and took him farther back, to a big base hospital. Here, before long, he + was able to sit up, and to be wheeled out into the sunshine, and to + discover the unguessed raptures of convalescence—the amazing + continuous appetite, the amazing continuous supply of good things to eat + and drink; the bliss of looking at trees and flowers, and listening to the + singing of birds, and telling other people how you rode out on a + motor-cycle to look for “Botteree Normb Cott”—what the hell was + that, anyhow?—and ran into the whole Hun army, and held it up for a + couple of hours, and won the battle of Chatty Terry all alone! + </p> + <h3> + IV. + </h3> + <p> + One of the first persons Jimmie saw was Lacey Granitch, and Lacey took him + off to a corner of the park and said, “You haven't told anyone?” + </p> + <p> + “No, Mr. Granitch,” said Jimmie. + </p> + <p> + “My name is Peterson,” said Lacey. + </p> + <p> + “Yes, Mr. Peterson,” said Jimmie. + </p> + <p> + It was a strange acquaintance between these two, chosen from the opposite + poles of social life, and brought together in the democracy of pain. + Jimmie had the young lord of Leesville down, and might have walked on his + face; but strange as it might seem, Jimmie took towards him an attitude of + timid humility. Jimmie felt that he had betrayed him to a cruel and + hideous vengeance; moreover, in spite of all his revolutionary fervours, + Jimmie could not forget that he was talking to one of the masters of the + world. You might hate with all your soul the prestige and power that went + with the Granitch millions, but you couldn't be indifferent to it, you + could never feel natural in the presence of it. + </p> + <p> + As for Lacey, he was no longer the proud, free, rich young aristocrat; he + had suffered, and learned respect for his fellowmen, regardless of money. + He heard how this little Socialist machinist, whom once he had cursed in a + herd of strikers, had ridden into the jaws of death and helped to nail the + Beast through the snout. So he wanted to know about him, and these two sat + conversing for hours, each of them discovering a new world. + </p> + <p> + Just now all Europe and America were engaged in furious argument on the + subject of the Bolsheviki. Had they betrayed democracy to the Hun, or were + they, as they claimed, leading the way for mankind to a newer and broader + kind of democracy? Lacey, of course, believed the former—everyone in + the American army believed it, and in fact everybody in France, except a + few dyed-in-the-wool reds. When Lacey found that Jimmie was one of these + reds, he questioned him, and they had it hot and heavy for days. How could + men have done what Lenin and Trotzky had done, unless they were paid + German agents? So Jimmie had to set forth the theory of internationalism; + the Bolsheviki were making propaganda in Germany, they were doing more to + break the power of the Kaiser than even the Allied armies. How did Jimmie + know that? He didn't know the details, of course, but he knew the soul of + internationalism; he could tell what Lenin and Trotzky were doing, because + he knew what he would be doing, were he in their place! + </p> + <p> + They talked on and on, and the young lord of Leesville, who would some day + fall heir to an enormous fortune, and had been trained to think of it as + his by every right, human and divine, heard a little runt of a machinist + from the shops explain how he was going to seize that mass of property—he + and the rest of his fellows combined into one big union—and how they + were going to run it, not for Lacey's benefit, but for the benefit of all + society. Jimmie forgot all respect for persons when he got on this theme; + this was his dream, this was the proletariat expropriating the + expropriators, and he told about it with shining eyes. In time past the + young lord of Leesville would have answered him with insolent serenity, + perhaps with a threat of machine-guns; but now he said hesitatingly that + it was a large programme, and he feared it couldn't be made to work. + </p> + <h3> + V. + </h3> + <p> + He was moved to question Jimmie about his past life, so as to understand + how such fanaticism had come to be. So Jimmie told about starvation and + neglect, about overwork and unemployment, about strikes and jails and + manifold oppressions. The other listened, nodding his head. “Yes, of + course, that was enough to drive any man to extremes.” And then, thinking + further, “I wonder”, said he, “which of us two got the worse deal from + life.” + </p> + <p> + Jimmie was without means of understanding that remark, Lacey had had + everything, hadn't he? To which Lacey answered, “I had too much, and you + had too little; and which is worse for a man?” + </p> + <p> + By way of making clear what was in his mind, he told Jimmie a little about + his own life. He pictured a big household, with a father beset by business + cares, and turning over the managing of his home to employees. “My mother + was a fool,” said Lacey. “I suppose it sounds bad for a man to say that, + but I've known it all my life. Maybe the old man was too busy to look up a + woman with sense—or maybe he didn't believe there were any. Anyhow, + my mother's idea was to be seen spending more money than any other woman + in town; that was her 'position', and her children were part of the show—we + must wear more clothes and bully more servants than anybody else's + children. I've thought it all out—I've had lots of opportunity for + thinking of late. I can't remember when I didn't hit my nurse in the face + if she tried to take away a toy from me. I never had to ask for anything + twice—if I did, I went into a tantrum and got it. I learned to smoke + and to drink wine, and then came the women—the women finished me, as + you know.” + </p> + <p> + He paused; and Jimmie nodded sympathetically, remembering the story of the + eight chorus-girls about whom “Wild Bill” had read out in the local. + </p> + <p> + “It's hell for a boy to have a lot of money,” said Lacey, “and to be + preyed on by women. You have your human emotions, of course—you're + absolutely compelled to believe in some women; and they're all perfectly + cold-blooded—at least the kinds that a rich boy meets. I don't mean + only adventuresses—I mean the society-girls, the ones you're + supposed to marry. Their damned old harpies of mothers are pushing behind + them, of course—laying out everything they own for clothes, and not + knowing how they can pay the bills for last season. They set out to catch + you, they're mad with the determination, they don't care about reputation, + they'll do any damned thing. You take them out in your car, and then they + want to get out and pick flowers, and they draw you into the woods, and + presently you've got hold of their hands, and then you're hugging and + kissing them, and then you go the limit. But then you've got to marry + them; and when they find you won't, they have hysterics, and say they're + going to shoot their heads off; only they don't shoot their heads off, + they kiss you some more, and borrow your diamond scarf-pin and forget to + return it.” + </p> + <p> + The young lord of Leesville fell silent. Sombre memories possessed him, + and Jimmie, darting a swift glance at him, saw the look of weary age on + his face. “I've never talked with anybody about what happened at the end,” + said he, “and I never mean to; but I'll say this much—the time I + loved a married woman was the only honest love I ever had, because she was + the only woman who wasn't looking to marry me!” + </p> + <p> + That was, of course, too subtle for a man like Jimmie Higgins. But this + much the little Socialist got—that the heir of the Granitch fortune + had been in truth a miserably unhappy mortal. And this was an + extraordinary revelation to Jimmie, who had taken it for granted that the + rich were the lucky ones of earth. He had hated them on the supposition + that they were without care; they were the Lotus-eaters, of whom the poet + wrote that they + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + “live and lie reclined + On the hills like Gods together, careless of mankind, + For they lie beside their nectar, and the bolts are hurl'd + Far below them in the valleys, and the clouds are lightly curl'd + Round their golden houses, girdled with the gleaming world: + + Where they smile in secret, looking over wasted lands, + Blight of famine, plague and earthquake, roaring deeps and fiery + sands, + Clanging fights and flaming towns, and sinking ships and pray- + ing hands. + But they smile, they find a music centred in a doleful song + Steaming up, a lamentation and an ancient tale of wrong. + Like a tale of little meaning tho' the words are strong; + Chanted from an ill-used race of men that cleave the soil, + Sow the seed, and reap the harvest with enduring toil, + Storing yearly little dues of wheat, and wine and oil. +</pre> + <p> + But now Jimmie had crossed the social chasm, he had seen the other side of + the problem of riches and poverty. After that revelation, he would be more + merciful in his judgements of his fellow-mortals; he would understand that + the system in which we are trapped makes true happiness impossible—for + those who have too much as well as for those who have too little. + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0025" id="link2HCH0025"> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER XXV. JIMMIE HIGGINS ENTERS INTO DANGER + </h2> + <h3> + I. + </h3> + <p> + While Jimmie wandered through the streets of this French town, letting his + broken arm get strong again, the death-grapple of the war continued. In + mid-July the Germans made a last desperate lunge at the Marne; they were + stopped dead in a couple of days by the French and Americans combined; and + then the Allied commander-in-chief struck back, smashing in the side of + the German salient, and driving the enemy, still fighting furiously, but + moving back from the soil of France. All France caught its breath with + excitement, with relief mingled with dread. So many times they had hoped, + through these four weary, hideous years, and so many times their hopes had + been dashed! But this time there was no mistake—it was really the + turning of the tide. The enemy resisted at every step, but he went on + moving out of the salient, and the Allies went on lunging—now here, + now there, see—sawing back and forth, and keeping their opponents + bewildered. + </p> + <p> + Jimmie read about it in the army paper, the Stars and Stripes; and now, + for the first time in four years, Jimmie's mind was one mind on the war. + Jimmie was on the field of every battle, his teeth set, his hands + clenched, his whole soul helping at the job. He had got over the disorders + of anaesthesia, and was forgetting the shock of his wound; he had realized + that wounds, and even death, were something a man could bear—not + cheerfully, of course, not lightly, but you could bear them, if only you + knew that the Beast was being put out of business. + </p> + <p> + In the old days the word German had meant to Jimmie fellows like Meissner + and Forster and Schneider; but now it meant a huge grey form looming over + the edge of a shell-hole, its face distorted with hate, its bayonet poised + to plunge. Perhaps the most vivid impression of Jimmie's whole life was + the relief he had felt when he realized that some doughboy had shot a + bullet into that looming figure. Let there be more doughboys, more and + more, until the last figure had been shot! Jimmie knew, of course, that + the policy he had been advocating in America had not tended to that end; + if Jimmie in Leesville had had his way, there would have been no doughboys + to rescue Jimmy at Chatty Terry! Jimmie was quite clear on that point now, + and for the time being the pacifist was dead in him. + </p> + <p> + He listened to the talk of the men in this hospital. They had all been + through the mill, they had got their wounds, light or severe, but it had + not broken their spirit—not a bit of it; there was hardly one among + them who was not hoping to get cured and to get back into the game before + it was over. That was how they took it—a game, the most sensational, + the most thrilling that a man would ever play. These boys had been brought + up on football, the principal training and only real interest in life of + some hundreds of thousands of young Americans every year. They had brought + the spirit and the method of football with them into the army, and + communicated it to those less fortunate millions who had been neither to + college nor to high school: the team-work, the speed, the incessant, + gruelling drill, the utter, unquestioning loyalty, the persistent + searching of eager young minds for new combinations, new tricks; and above + all the complete indifference to the possibility of a broken collar-bone + or a damaged heart-valve, provided only that the game should be won! + </p> + <p> + This army was attacking a foe who relied on machine-guns to break + formations and give time to withdraw stores and big guns to safety; so the + life of young America for the moment had become a study of the arts of + rushing machine-guns. Jimmie listened to the conversation of the new men, + and saw the technique being worked out before his eyes. Tanks were all + right, aeroplanes were all right, when you had them; but mostly you did + not have them, in time, so the doughboy was learning to take machine-guns + with the bayonet. You had a little squad, trained like a football team, + with its own system of signals, its formations worked out by young heads + put together at night. It was a costly game—you would be lucky if a + third of the players came out alive; but if you could get one man to the + machine-gun with a bayonet, you had won the game—because he would + take the gun and turn it about on the retreating Germans, and could kill + enough of them in a minute to make up for the losses of his squad. + </p> + <h3> + II. + </h3> + <p> + Lacey Granitch's shoulder healed, and he went back to his job. He told + Jimmie what it had meant to him to meet a Socialist; if he could believe + what Jimmie believed, he wouldn't mind living, even with his shame. Jimmie + gave him the names of books to read, and Lacey promised to read them; of + course, Jimmie was proud and happy—seeing a vision of the Empire + Machine Shops turned over to the control of the workers, the capitalist + system committing hari-kari in one American industry. + </p> + <p> + Jimmie got a letter from one of the working-men in the repair station + where he had last worked, telling him that the Americans had taken over + this sector, and now there was a big shop established, and when was he + coming back? But Jimmie was not so eager to come back; working on + motor-cycles did not seem a thrilling prospect to one who had held up the + whole Hun army and won the battle of Chatty Terry. Having proven his + mettle as a fighting man, Jimmie wondered if there mightn't be some way + for him to get into the real army, and do a real man's work. + </p> + <p> + He wrote a letter to the officer in command of his motor-unit, telling + what had happened to him, and couldn't it be arranged? In reply the + officer said that he would have an investigation made, and if Jimmie's + story could be verified, he would have honourable mention, and promotion + of some sort. And sure enough, a month later, when Jimmie was ready to + leave the hospital, came official notice that he was promoted to be a + sergeant of motor-transport, and ordered to report to headquarters in a + certain harbour on the English Channel for assignment. Sergeant Jimmie + Higgins! + </p> + <p> + Jimmie reported, of course, and was put in charge of a dozen cyclists and + repair men, newly arrived on a transport. These men looked up to Jimmie as + a veteran and hero, and Jimmie, who had never enjoyed authority in his + life before—except you count Jimmie Junior and the two kids—may + have had his head turned just a little bit. But there was real work to be + done, and no time for strutting. There was excitement in the air, wild + rumour and speculation; this little unit of Jimmie's, composed of + specially fit men, was going somewhere on a special errand—an + expedition, evidently by sea. Nobody was told where—that wasn't the + way in the army; but presently there were issued sheepskin-lined coats and + heavy wool-lined boots—in the middle of August! So they knew that + they were bound for the Far North, and for some time. Could it be a + surprise attack in the Baltic? Either that, said the wiseheads, or else + Archangel. Jimmie had never heard of this latter place, and had to ask + about it. It appeared that the Allies had landed enormous masses of stores + at this port in far Northern Russia; and now that the Russians had dropped + out of the war, the Germans were threatening to take possession. + </p> + <p> + Jimmie was thrilled to the soles of his new wool-lined boots. He was going + to Russia, going to see the revolution! Jimmie had but a vague idea of + world-conditions now, for during the past three or four months he had been + reading only official papers, which confined their attention to the job, + and carefully omitted mention of difficulties and complications. The + people with whom he talked insisted that it was necessary for the Allies + to do something to counter the Brest-Litovsk treaty; if the Germans were + allowed to take possession of helpless Russia and use it for their + purposes, they might hold out for another hundred years. The Russian + people themselves must realize this, and welcome Allied help! Jimmie + wasn't sure on this latter point, but he remembered the Rabin brothers and + their enthusiasm for the Allied cause, so he put his doubts to sleep, and + helped get his motor-unit stowed on board a transport. + </p> + <h3> + III. + </h3> + <p> + There came a passage across the North Sea and up the coast of Norway; a + region of fogs and restless winds, and incessant deadly peril of submarine + and mine. There were three transports in the expedition, and a couple of + warships convoying them, and half a dozen destroyers weaving their foam + patterns in and out. Every day the air grew colder, and the period of + daylight shorter; they were entering the Land of the Midnight Sun, but at + the time of year when midnight noons were approaching. The men had plenty + of time for reading and talk; so Jimmie discussed the war from the + Socialist point of view, defending the Russian revolutionists; and so, as + usual, he made somebody angry, and got himself and his seditious opinions + reported. + </p> + <p> + Lieutenant Gannet was the name of Jimmie's superior officer. He had been a + clerk in a cotton-mill before the war, and had never had the exercise of + authority. Now he had to learn suddenly to give orders, and his idea of + doing it was to be extremely sharp and imperative. He was a deeply + conscientious young man, keen on the war, and willing to face any hardship + or peril in fulfilment of his duty; but Jimmie could not have been + expected to appreciate that—all Jimmie knew was that his superior + had a way of glaring from behind his spectacles as if he was sure that + someone was lying to him. + </p> + <p> + Lieutenant Gannet didn't ask what Jimmie had said; he told Jimmie what he + had said, and informed him that that kind of talk wasn't going on in the + army while he was in hearing. Jimmie's business was to keep some + motor-cycles in repair, and some cyclists on their job; about other + matters let him hold his tongue, and not try to run the affairs of the + nation. Jimmie ventured the remark that he had said nothing but what + President Wilson was saying all along. To which the lieutenant replied + that he was not interested in Sergeant Higgins's opinions of President + Wilson's opinions—Sergeant Higgins was to keep his opinions to + himself, or he would get into serious trouble, So Jimmie went away, + seething with indignation, as much of a rebel as he had ever been in Local + Leesville. + </p> + <p> + What were the rights of a soldier, anyway? Was he privileged to discuss + political issues, and to agree with the utterances of the President of his + country? Might he believe, as the President believed, in a just peace and + the right of all peoples to freedom and self-determination, even though + many of the officers of the army hated and despised such ideas? Jimmie + didn't know, and there was nobody to tell him; but Jimmie knew that he + hadn't meant to give up his rights as a citizen when he enlisted to fight + for democracy, and if these rights were taken away from him, it would not + be without a struggle. + </p> + <h3> + IV. + </h3> + <p> + The transports came into the region of icebergs, and low-hanging mists, + and rocky cliffs covered with snow, and flocks of seagulls flying over + them. For days and nights on end they steamed in those Arctic waters, and + came at last into the White Sea, and the harbour of Archangel. + </p> + <p> + The Allies had been here since the beginning of the war, building docks + and sheds and railway yards; but they had never been able to build enough, + and the transport department of the corrupt Russian government having gone + to pieces, here were mountains of supplies of every sort you could think + of for an army, piled high on the shores. At least, that was what Jimmie + had been told; he had read in the newspapers that the statement was made + officially in answer to questions in the British Parliament. Jimmie had + understood that he was here to save those mountains of supplies from the + Germans, and he was surprised when he looked about the harbour and saw no + mountains of any sort. + </p> + <p> + Back in the interior were vast trackless forests of fir-trees, and + moss-covered swamps in which in summertime a man would sink up to his + neck. Now, in September, they were already frozen solid, and you travelled + over them with a sledge and a team of reindeer, bundled up in furs and + looking, except for the whiskers, like the pictures of Santa Claus you had + seen when you were a kid. But most of the traffic of the army was upon the + rivers which cut the forests and swamps, and the single railroad, which + was being put back into commission. + </p> + <p> + This country had, of course, no roads on which motor-cycles could be used, + even in summer. Jimmie found that his job would be confined to the city + and the encampments near about. A few streets would be kept clear of snow, + and the little band of messengers would scoot about them, now and then + taking a slide into a snow-bank and smashing things up. That would have + been all right, and Jimmie would have bossed the job and been happy as he + knew how to be—had only his mind been at peace. + </p> + <p> + For the first few days, of course, he had no time to think, he was as busy + as an ant, getting himself and his men ashore, and setting up their + benches and tools in an iron shed, with a roaring stove at each end, and + heaps of firewood which the peasants brought on heavy flat sledges dragged + by reindeer. Jimmie and his unit worked, not merely during the hours of + daylight, but most of the hours of darkness, not stopping for Sundays. + There were five thousand men to be got ashore with their supplies—and + in a desperate rush, as if the Germans were expected at any hour. It was + some while before Jimmie found time to go about the city, to meet the + “Tommies”, who had been here a month before him, and to hear what they had + done, and what they were expecting to do. + </p> + <p> + Jimmie had understood that this expedition was to fight the Germans; but + now he became suspicious; apparently it was to fight the Bolsheviki! The + social revolution had accomplished itself in Archangel, and a council of + working-men and peasants had been in full control, when the British troops + and sailors had made a surprise attack and seized the port, driving the + revolutionists in confusion before them. Now they were sending an + expedition up the railroad, and another on steamers up the North Dwina + river, pursuing Russian Socialists and driving them back into frozen + swamps! And here were American troops, being hurried ashore, and outfitted + and made ready to join in what seemed to Jimmie to be warfare upon + organized working-men! + </p> + <p> + Jimmie was almost beside himself with bewilderment. It was all so new and + strange to him—and he had nobody to advise him. At home, if there + were a Socialist problem to settle, he would take it to Meissner or + Stankewitz, or Comrade Gerrity the organizer, or Comrade Mabel Smith, the + chairman of the Literature Committee. But now, in all this expedition + Jimmie did not know a single man who had any idea of radicalism; they + looked upon the Bolsheviki as mad dogs, as traitors, criminals, lunatics, + any word that seemed worst to you. The Bolsheviki had deserted the cause + of the Allies, they had gone into league with Germany to betray Democracy; + so now the Americans had come to teach them the lesson of law and order. + The Americans looked upon themselves as an advance guard of a vast + expedition which was to march to Petrograd and Moscow, and wipe the idea + of Bolshevism off the map. And Jimmie Higgins was to help! Jimmie Higgins, + bound and gagged, lashed to the chariot of Militarism, was to take part in + destroying the first proletarian government in history! + </p> + <p> + The more Jimmie thought of it, the more indignant he became; he took it as + a personal outrage—a scurvy trick that had been played upon him. He + had swallowed their propaganda, he had filled himself up with their + patriotism, he had dropped everything to come and fight for Democracy. He + had gone into battle, had risked his life, had suffered wounds and agony + for them. And now they had broken their bargain with him, they had brought + him here and ordered him to fight working-men—just as if he had been + a militiaman at home! Democracy indeed! Here they were marching in, + glorying in their purpose to conquer the Russian Revolutionists! + </p> + <p> + And Jimmie Higgins, under martial law, must obey and hold his tongue! + Jimmie thought of all his friends at home who had denounced the military + machine; he thought of Comrade Mary Allen, of Comrade Mabel Smith, and + Comrade Evelyn Baskerville and Comrade Gerrity; he had rejected their + advice, and now, if they could see what he was doing, how they would spurn + him! Jimmie writhed at the very thought; nor was he consoled when one of + the men in his company gave him an “inside” story of what was happening + here—that in order to persuade the British to submit their armies to + the control of a French general, and thus to save the situation in France, + the Americans had been forced to submit their own armies also; and now + they found themselves ordered to march in and fight a revolutionary + government which had repudiated its debt to France, and so had given + offence to a naturally frugal people. + </p> + <h3> + V. + </h3> + <p> + Jimmie met a man whom he might almost have taken for Deror Rabin, so much + did he resemble the little Jewish tailor. A big, black-whiskered peasant + brought a load of wood for the fires; and there was a Jew helping him—a + chap with a sharp face and keen black eyes, his cheeks sunken as if he had + not had enough to eat for years, and his chest racked by a cough. He had + wrapped his feet and his hands in rags, because he had neither boots nor + gloves; but he seemed cheerful, and presently, as he dumped down a load, + he nodded and said, “Hello!” + </p> + <p> + “Hello yourself!” replied Jimmie. + </p> + <p> + “I speak English,” said the fellow. + </p> + <p> + It didn't surprise Jimmie that anybody should speak English; he was only + surprised when they didn't. So he smiled and said, “Sure!” + </p> + <p> + “I been in America,” went on the other. “I vork by sveat-shop in Grand + Street.” + </p> + <p> + You could see that he preferred gossiping to carrying wood; he stood about + and questioned, “Vere you vork in America?” When the peasant grumbled at + him in Russian, he went back at his job; but as he went away, he said, “I + talk vit you some time about America.” To which, of course, Jimmie + answered with a friendly assent. + </p> + <p> + A couple of hours later, when he went out from his work, he found the + little Jew waiting for him in the darkness. “I git lonesome some time for + America,” he said; and walked down the street with Jimmie, beating his + thin arms to keep warm. + </p> + <p> + “Why did you come back?” Jimmie inquired. + </p> + <p> + “I read about revolution. I tink maybe I git rich.” + </p> + <p> + “Huh!” said Jimmie, and grinned. “What did you get?” + </p> + <p> + “You belong to union in America?” countered the other. + </p> + <p> + “You bet I do!” said Jimmie. + </p> + <p> + “Vat sort of union?” + </p> + <p> + “Machinists.” + </p> + <p> + “You been on strike, maybe?” + </p> + <p> + “You bet I have!” + </p> + <p> + “You got licked, maybe?” + </p> + <p> + “You bet!” + </p> + <p> + “You don't never scab, hey?” + </p> + <p> + “Not much!” + </p> + <p> + “You vat you call class-conscious?” + </p> + <p> + “You bet! I'm a Socialist!” + </p> + <p> + The other turned upon him, his voice trembling with sudden excitement. + “You got a red card?” + </p> + <p> + “You bet!” said Jimmie. “Right inside my coat.” + </p> + <p> + “My God!” cried the other. “A comrade!” He stretched out his hands, which + were bundled up with old gunny-sacking, to Jimmie. “Tovarish!” cried he. + And standing there in the freezing darkness, these two felt their hearts + leap into a hot glow. Here, under the Arctic Circle, in this wilderness of + ice and desolation, even here the spirit of international fraternity was + working its miracles! + </p> + <p> + But then, shaking with excitement, the little Jew pawed at Jimmie with his + bundled hands. “If you are Socialist, vy you fight de Russian vorkers?” + </p> + <p> + “I'm not fighting them!” + </p> + <p> + “You vear de uniform.” + </p> + <p> + “I'm only a motor-cycle man.” + </p> + <p> + “But you help! You kill de Russian people! You destroy de Soviets! Vy?” + </p> + <p> + “I didn't know about it,” pleaded Jimmie. “I wanted to fight the Kaiser, + and they brought me here without telling me.” + </p> + <p> + “Ah! So it iss vit militarism, vit capitalism! Ve are slaves! But we vill + be free! And you vill help, you vill not kill de Russian vorkers!” + </p> + <p> + “I will not!” cried Jimmie, quickly. + </p> + <p> + And the little stranger put his arm through Jimmie's “You come vit me, + quick! I show you someting, tovarish!” + </p> + <h3> + VI. + </h3> + <p> + They threaded the dark streets till they came to a row of working-men's + hovels, made of logs, the cracks stuffed with mud and straw—places + in which an American farmer would not have thought it proper to keep his + cattle. “So live de vorkers,” said the stranger, and he knocked on the + door of one of the hovels. It was unbarred by a woman with several + children about her skirts, and the men entered a cabin lighted by a + feeble, smoky lamp. There was a huge oven at one side, with a kettle in + which cabbage was cooking. The man said nothing to the woman, but signed + Jimmie to a seat before the oven, and fixed his sharp black eyes on his + face. + </p> + <p> + “You show me de red card?” he said, suddenly. + </p> + <p> + Jimmie took off his sheepskin-lined overcoat, and unbuttoned his sweater + underneath, and from an inside pocket of his jacket took out the precious + card with the due-stamps initialled by the secretaries of Local Leesville + and Local Hopeland and Local Ironton. The stranger studied it, then + nodded. “Good! I trust you.” As he handed back the card he remarked, “My + name is Kalenkin. I am Bolshevik.” + </p> + <p> + Jimmie's heart bounded—though he had guessed as much, of course. “We + called our local in Ironton Bolshevik,” said he. + </p> + <p> + “Dey drive us out from here,” continued the Jew, “but I stay behind for + propaganda. I look for comrades among de Americans, de British. I say, 'Do + not fight de vorkers, fight de masters, de capitalists.' You understand?” + </p> + <p> + “Sure!” said Jimmie. + </p> + <p> + “If de masters find me, dey kill me. But I trust you.” + </p> + <p> + “I'll not tell!” said Jimmie quickly. + </p> + <p> + “You help me,” went on the other. “You go to de American soldiers, you + say, 'De Russian people have been slaves so many years; now dey get free, + and you come to kill dem and made dem slaves again!' Vy iss it? Vat vill + dey say, tovarish?” + </p> + <p> + Jimmie answered: “They say they want to lick the Kaiser.” + </p> + <p> + “But we help to lick de Kaiser! Ve fight him!” + </p> + <p> + “They say you've made peace with him!” + </p> + <p> + “Ve fight vit propaganda—de vay de Kaiser fear most of all. Ve spend + millions of roubles, we print papers, leaflets—you know, comrade, + vat Socialists do. Ve send dem into Germany, we drop dem by aeroplanes, we + have printing-presses in—vat you call it, de Suisse, de Nederland—everyvere. + De Germans read, dey tink, dey say. Vy do we fight for de Kaiser, vy do we + not be free like de Russians? I know it, tovarish, I have talked vit many + German soldiers. It goes like a fire in Germany. Maybe it take time—a + year—two years—but some day people see de Bolsheviki vere + right, dey know de vorkers, de heart of de vorkers—dey have de life, + de fire dat cannot be put out in de heart!” + </p> + <p> + “Sure,” said Jimmie. “But you can't tell things like that to the + doughboys.” + </p> + <p> + “My God!” said Kalenkin. “Don't I know! I vas in America! Dey tink dey are + de people vat de good God made! Dey know everyting—you cannot teach + dem. Dey are democracy; dey have no classes; vage-slaves—dat iss + just foreign—vat you call it—scum, hey? Dey vill shoot us—I + have seen how dey beat de vorkers ven dey strike on Grand Street.” + </p> + <p> + “I've been through it all,” said Jimmie. “What can we do?” + </p> + <p> + “Propaganda!” cried Kalenkin. “For de first time we have plenty money for + propaganda—all de money in Russia for propaganda! Ever'vere in de + vorld we reach de vorkers—everyvere we cry to dem: Rise! Rise and + break your chains! You tink dey vill not hear us, tovarish! De capitalists + know dey vill hear us, dey tremble, so dey send armies to beat us. Dey + tink de armies vill obey—always—is it not so?” + </p> + <p> + “They think the Russian people will rise against you.” + </p> + <p> + At which the little man laughed, a wild hilarious laugh. “Ve have got our + own government! For de first time in Russia, de first time in de vorld, de + vorkers rule; and dey tink we rise against ourselves! Dey put up—vat + you call it—puppets, vat dey call Socialists, dey make a government + here in Archangel, vat dey call Russian! Dey fool demselves, but dey don't + fool de Russians!” + </p> + <p> + “They think this government will spread,” said Jimmie. + </p> + <p> + “It vill spread just so far as de armies go—just so far. But in + Russia, all de people come together—all are Bolsheviki, ven dey see + de foreign armies coming. And vy, tovarish? Because dey know vat it means + ven capitalists come to make new governments for Russia. It means bonds—de + French, de British debt! You know?” + </p> + <p> + “Sure, I know,” said Jimmie. + </p> + <p> + “It is billions, fifteen billions of roubles to France alone. De + Bolsheviki have said, 'Ve do not pay dem so quick.' And for vy? Vat did + dey do vit dat money! Dey loaned it to de Tsar, and for vat? To make + slaves out of de Russian people, to put dem in armies and make dem fight + de Japanese, to make police-force and send hundert thousand Russian + Socialists to Siberia! Is it not so? And Russian Socialists pay such + debts? Not so quick! Ve say, 'Ve had nothing to do vit such money! You + loaned it to de Tsar, now you collect it from de Tsar! But dey say, 'You + must pay!' And dey send armies, to take de land of Russia, to take de oil + and de coal and de gold. So, tovarish! Dey vill put down de Soviets! But + if so, dey must take ever' town, ever' village in Russia—and all de + time we make propaganda vit de soldiers, we make it vit Frenchmen and + Englishmen and Americans, just like we make it vit Germans!” + </p> + <h3> + VII. + </h3> + <p> + The little man had made a long speech, and was exhausted; the coughing + seized him, and he pressed his hands to his chest, and his white face + flushed red in the firelight. The woman brought him water to drink, and + stood by him with a hand on his shoulder; her broad peasant's face, deeply + lined with care, quivered at every spasm of the man's. Jimmie quivered, + too, sitting there watching, and facing in his own soul a mighty destiny. + He knew the situation now, he knew his own duty. It was perfectly plain, + perfectly simple—his whole life had been one long training for it. + Something cried out in him, in the words of another proletarian martyr, + “Let this cup pass from Me!” But he stilled the voice of his weakness, and + after a while he said: “Tell me what to do, comrade.” + </p> + <p> + Kalenkin asked, “You have made propaganda in America?” + </p> + <p> + “Sure,” said Jimmie. “I went to jail once for makin' a speech on the + street.” + </p> + <p> + And the other went to a corner of the cabin, and dug under half a dozen + cabbages, and brought out a packet. It contained leaflets, a couple of + hundred perhaps, and the Jew handed one to Jimmie, explaining, “Dey ask + me, 'How shall we make de Americans understand?' I say, 'Dey must know how + ve make propaganda vit de Germans.' I say, 'Print de proclamations vat we + give to de German troops, and make English translation, so de Americans + and de Englishmen can read.' You tink dat help?” + </p> + <p> + Jimmie took the leaflet and moved the lamp a bit nearer and read: + </p> + <p> + “Proclamation of the Army Committee of the Russian Twelfth Army + (Bolshevik), posted throughout the city of Riga during its evacuation by + the Russians: + </p> + <p> + “German Soldiers! + </p> + <p> + “The Russian soldiers of the Twelfth Army draw your attention to the fact + that you are carrying on a war for autocracy against Revolution, freedom + and justice. The victory of Wilhelm will be death to democracy and + freedom. We withdraw from Riga, but we know that the forces of the + Revolution will ultimately prove themselves more powerful than the force + of cannons. We know that in the long run your conscience will overcome + everything, and that the German soldiers, with the Russian Revolutionary + Army, will march to the victory of freedom. You are at present stronger + than we are, but yours is only the victory of brute force. The moral force + is on our side. History will tell that the German proletarians went + against their revolutionary brothers, and that they forgot international + working-class solidarity. This crime you can expiate only by one means. + You must understand your own and at the same time the universal interests, + and strain all your immense power against imperialism, and go hand-in-hand + with us—toward life and liberty!” + </p> + <p> + Jimmie looked up. + </p> + <p> + “Vat you tink of it?” cried Kalenkin, eagerly. + </p> + <p> + “Fine!” cried Jimmie. “The very thing they need! Nobody can object to + that. It's a fact, it's what the Bolsheviki are doing.” + </p> + <p> + The other smiled grimly. “Tovarish, if dey find you vit dat paper, dey + shoot you like a dog! Dey shoot us all!” + </p> + <p> + “But why?” + </p> + <p> + “Because it is Bolshevik.” + </p> + <p> + Jimmie wanted to say. “But it's true!” However, he realized how naive that + would sound. So he waited, while Kalenkin went on: + </p> + <p> + “You show it only to men you can trust. You hide de copies, you take vun + and make it dirty, so you say, 'I find it in de street.' See, iss it so de + Bolsheviki fight de Kaiser? If it iss so, vy do we need to fight dem? So + you give dese; and some day I come vit someting new.” + </p> + <p> + Jimmie agreed that that was the way to set about it. He folded up a score + of the leaflets and stowed them in an inside pocket of his jacket, and put + on his heavy overcoat and gloves, which he wished he could give to the + sick, half-starved and half-frozen Bolshevik. He patted him reassuringly + on the back, and said: “You trust me, comrade; I'll hand them out, and + they'll bring results, too, I'll bet.” + </p> + <p> + “You don't tell about me!” exclaimed Kalenkin with fierce intensity. + </p> + <p> + To which Jimmie answered. “Not if they boil me alive.” + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0026" id="link2HCH0026"> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER XXVI. JIMMIE HIGGINS DISCOVERS HIS SOUL + </h2> + <h3> + I. + </h3> + <p> + Jimmie went to supper in the mess-hall; but the piles of steaming hot food + choked him—he was thinking of the half-starved little Jew. The + thirty pieces of silver in the pocket of his army jacket burned each a + separate hole. Like the Judas of old, he wanted to hang himself, and he + took a quick method of doing it. + </p> + <p> + Next to him at the table sat a motor-cyclist who had been a union plumber + before the war, and had agreed with Jimmie that working-men were going to + get their jobs back or would make the politicians sweat for it. On the way + out from the meal, Jimmie edged this fellow off and remarked, “Say, I've + got somethin' interestin'.” + </p> + <p> + Now interesting things were rare here under the Arctic Circle. “What's + that?” asked the plumber. + </p> + <p> + “I was walkin' on the street,” said Jimmie, “an' I seen a printed paper in + the gutter. It's a copy of the proclamation the Bolsheviki have made to + the German soldiers, an' that they're givin' out in the German trenches.” + </p> + <p> + “By heck!” said the plumber. “What's in it?” + </p> + <p> + “Why, it calls on them to rise against the Kaiser—to do what the + Russians have done.” + </p> + <p> + “Can you read German?” asked the other. + </p> + <p> + “Naw,” said Jimmie. “This is in English.” + </p> + <p> + “But what's it doin' in English?” + </p> + <p> + “I'm sure I dunno.” + </p> + <p> + “What's it doin' in Archangel?” + </p> + <p> + “Dunno that either.” + </p> + <p> + “Holy Christ!” cried the plumber. “I bet them fellers are trying their + stunts on us!” + </p> + <p> + “I hadn't thought of that,” said Jimmie, subtly. “Maybe it's so.” + </p> + <p> + “They won't get very far with the Yanks, I bet,” predicted the other. + </p> + <p> + “No, I suppose not. But, anyhow, it's interesting, what they say.” + </p> + <p> + “Lemme see it,” said the plumber. + </p> + <p> + “But say,” said Jimmie, “don't you tell nobody. I don't want to get into + trouble.” + </p> + <p> + “Mum's the word, old man.” And the plumber took the dirty scrap of paper + and read. “By God!” said he. “That's kind o' funny.” + </p> + <p> + “How do you mean?” + </p> + <p> + “Why, that don't sound like them fellers were backing the Kaiser, does + it?” And the plumber scratched his head. “Say, that sounds all right to + me!” + </p> + <p> + “Me too!” said Jimmie. “Didn't know they had that much sense.” + </p> + <p> + “It's just what the German people ought to have, by God,” said the + plumber. “Seems to me we ought to hire fellows to give out things like + that.” + </p> + <p> + “I think so, too,” said Jimmie, enraptured. + </p> + <p> + The plumber reflected again. “I suppose,” said he, “the trouble is they + wouldn't give it to the Germans only; they'd want to give it to both + sides.” + </p> + <p> + “Exactly!” said Jimmie, enraptured still more. + </p> + <p> + “And, of course, that wouldn't do,” said the plumber; “that would + interfere with discipline.” So Jimmie's hopes were dashed. + </p> + <p> + But the upshot of the interview was that the plumber said he would like to + keep the paper and show it to a couple of other fellows. He promised again + that he wouldn't mention Jimmie, so Jimmie said all right, and went his + way, feeling one seed was lodged in good soil. + </p> + <h3> + II. + </h3> + <p> + The “Y” had come to Archangel along with the rest of the expedition, and + had set up a hut, in which the men played checkers and read, and bought + chocolate and cigarettes at prices which they considered too high. Jimmie + strolled in, and there was a doughboy with whom he had had some chat on + the transport. This doughboy had been a printer at home, and he had agreed + with Jimmie that maybe a whole lot of politicians and newspaper editors + didn't really understand President Wilson's radical thought, and so far as + they did understand it, hated and feared it. This printer was reading one + of the popular magazines, full of the intellectual pap which a syndicate + of big bankers considered safe for the common people. He looked bored, so + Jimmie strolled up and lured him away, and repeated his play-acting as + with the plumber—and with the same result. + </p> + <p> + Then he strolled in to see one of the picture-shows which had been brought + along to beguile the long Arctic nights for the expedition. The picture + showed a million-dollar-a-year girl doll-baby in her habitual role, a poor + little child-waif dressed in the newest fashion and with a row of ringlets + just out of a band-box, sharing those terrible fates which the poor take + as an everyday affair, and being rewarded at the end by the love of a rich + and noble and devoted youth who solves the social problem by setting her + up in a palace. This also had met with the approval of a syndicate of + bankers before it reached the common people; and in the very midst of it, + while the child-waif with the ringlets was being shown in a “close-up” + with large drops of water running down her cheeks, the doughboy in the + seat next to Jimmie remarked, “Aw, hell! Why do they keep on giving us + this bunk?” + </p> + <p> + So Jimmie suggested that they “cut it”, and they went out, and Jimmie + played his little game a third time, and again was asked to leave the + leaflet he had picked out of the gutter. + </p> + <p> + So on for two days until Jimmie had got rid of the last of the manifestoes + which Kalenkin had entrusted to him. And on the evening of the last day, + as the subtle propagandist was about to turn into his bunk for the night, + there suddenly appeared a sergeant with a file of half a dozen men and + announced, “Higgins, you are under arrest.” + </p> + <p> + Jimmie stared at him. “What for?” + </p> + <p> + “Orders—that's all I know.” + </p> + <p> + “Well, wait—” began Jimmie; but the other said there was no wait + about it, and he took Jimmie by the arm, and one of the other men took him + by the other arm, and marched him away. A third man slung Jimmie's kit-bag + on to his shoulder, while the rest began to search the place, ripping open + the mattress and looking for loose boards in the floor. + </p> + <h3> + III. + </h3> + <p> + It didn't take Jimmie very long to figure out the situation. By that time + he had come into the presence of Lieutenant Gannet, he had made up his + mind what had happened, and what he would do about it. + </p> + <p> + The lieutenant sat at a table, erect and stiff, with a terrible frown + behind his glasses. He had his sword on the table and also his automatic—as + if he intended to execute Jimmie, and had only to decide which method to + use. + </p> + <p> + “Higgins,” he thundered, “where did you get that leaflet?” + </p> + <p> + “I found it in the gutter.” + </p> + <p> + “You lie!” said the lieutenant. + </p> + <p> + “No, sir,” said Jimmie. + </p> + <p> + “How many did you find.” + </p> + <p> + Jimmie had imagined this emergency, and decided to play safe. “Three, + sir,” said he; and added, “I think.” + </p> + <p> + “You lie!” thundered the lieutenant again. + </p> + <p> + “No, sir,” said Jimmie, meekly. + </p> + <p> + “Whom did you give them to?” + </p> + <p> + Jimmie hadn't thought of that question. It stumped him. “I—I'd + rather not say,” said he. + </p> + <p> + “I command you to say,” said the lieutenant. + </p> + <p> + “I'm sorry, sir, but I couldn't.” + </p> + <p> + “You'll have to say before you get through,” said the other. “You might as + well understand that now. You say you found three?” + </p> + <p> + “It might have been four,” said Jimmie, playing still safer. “I didn't pay + any particular attention to them.” + </p> + <p> + “You sympathize with these doctrines,” said the lieutenant. “Do you deny + it?” + </p> + <p> + “Why, no sir—not exactly. I sympathize with part of them.” + </p> + <p> + “And you found these leaflets in the gutter, and you didn't take the + trouble to count whether there were three or four?” + </p> + <p> + “No, sir.” + </p> + <p> + “There couldn't have been five?” + </p> + <p> + “I don't know, sir—I don't think so.” + </p> + <p> + “Certainly not six?” + </p> + <p> + “No, sir,” said Jimmie, feeling quite safe now. “I'm sure there weren't + six.” + </p> + <p> + So the lieutenant opened a drawer in the table before him, and took out a + bunch of the leaflets, folded, wrinkled and dirt-stained, and spread them + before Jimmie's eyes, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven. “You lie!” + said the lieutenant. + </p> + <p> + “I was mistaken, sir,” said Jimmie. + </p> + <p> + “Have you searched this man?” the officer demanded of the other soldiers. + </p> + <p> + “Not yet, sir.” + </p> + <p> + “Do it now.” + </p> + <p> + They made certain that Jimmie had no weapons, and then they made him strip + to the skin. They searched everything, even prying loose the soles of his + boots; and, of course, one of the first things they found was the red card + in the inside jacket-pocket. “Aha!” cried the lieutenant. + </p> + <p> + “That's a card of the Socialist party,” said Jimmie. + </p> + <p> + “Don't you know that back home men who carry that card are being sent to + jail for twenty years?” + </p> + <p> + “It ain't fer carryin' the card,” said Jimmie, sturdily. + </p> + <p> + There was a pause, while Jimmie got his clothes on again. “Now, Higgins,” + said the lieutenant, “you have been caught red-handed in treason against + your country and its flag. The penalty is death. There is just one way you + can escape—by making a clean breast of everything. Do you + understand?” + </p> + <p> + “Yes, sir.” + </p> + <p> + “Then tell me who gave you those leaflets?” + </p> + <p> + “I'm sorry, sir, I found them in the gutter.” + </p> + <p> + “You intend to stick to that silly tale?” + </p> + <p> + “It's the truth, sir.” + </p> + <p> + “You will protect your fellow-conspirators with your life?” + </p> + <p> + “I have told you all I know, sir.” + </p> + <p> + “All right,” said the lieutenant. He took a pair of handcuffs from the + drawer and saw them put on Jimmie. He picked up his sword and his + automatic—and Jimmie, who did not understand military procedure, + stared with fright. But the lieutenant was merely intending to strap the + weapons on to his belt; then he got into his overcoat and his big fur + gloves and his fur hat that covered everything but his eyes and nose, and + ordered Jimmie brought along. Outside an automobile was waiting, and the + officer and the prisoner and two guards rode to the military jail. + </p> + <h3> + IV. + </h3> + <p> + There was terror in the soul of the prisoner, but he did not let anyone + see it. And in the same way Lieutenant Gannet did not let anyone see the + perplexity that was in his soul. He was a military officer, he had his + stern military duty to do, and he was doing it; but he had never put + anybody in handcuffs before, and had never taken anybody to jail before, + and he was almost as much upset about it as the prisoner. + </p> + <p> + The lieutenant had seen the terrible spectacle of Russia collapsing, + falling into ruin and humiliation, because of what seemed to him a + propaganda of treason which had been carried on in her armies; he realized + that these “mad dogs” of Bolsheviki were deliberately conspiring to poison + the other armies, to bring the rest of the world into their condition. It + seemed to him monstrous that such efforts should be under way in the + American army. How far had the thing gone? The lieutenant did not know, + and he was terrified, as men always are in the presence of the unknown. It + was his plain duty, to which he had sworn himself, to stamp his heel upon + the head of this snake; but still he was deeply troubled. This Sergeant + Higgins had been promoted for valour in France, and had been, in spite of + his reckless tongue, a pretty decent subordinate. And behold, here he was, + an active conspirator, a propagandist of sedition, a defiant and insolent + traitor! + </p> + <p> + They came to the jail, which had been constructed by the Tsar for the + purpose of holding down the people of the region. It loomed, a gigantic + stone bulk in the darkness; and Jimmie, who had preached in Local + Leesville that America was worse than Russia, now learned that he had been + mistaken—Russia was exactly the same. + </p> + <p> + They entered through a stone gateway, and a steel door opened before them + and clanged behind them. At a desk sat a sergeant, and except that he was + British, and that his uniform was brown instead of blue, it might have + been Leesville, U.S.A. They took down Jimmie's name and address, and then + Lieutenant Gannet asked: “Has Perkins come yet?” + </p> + <p> + “Not yet, sir,” was the reply; but at that moment the front door was + opened, and there entered a big man, bundled in an overcoat which made him + even bigger. From the first moment, Jimmie watched this man as a + fascinated rabbit watches a snake. The little Socialist had had so much to + do with policemen and detectives in his hunted life that he knew in a + flash what he was “up against”. + </p> + <p> + This Perkins before the war had been an “operative” for a private + detective agency—what the workers contemptuously referred to as a + “sleuth”. The government, having found itself in sudden need of much + “sleuthing”, had been forced to take what help it could get, without too + close scrutiny. So now Perkins was a sergeant in the secret service; and + just as the carpenters were hammering nails as at home, and the surgeons + were cutting flesh as at home, so Perkins was “sleuthing” as at home. + </p> + <p> + “Well, sergeant?” said the lieutenant. “What have you got?” + </p> + <p> + “I think I've got the story, sir.” + </p> + <p> + You could see the relief in Gannet's face; and Jimmie's heart went down + into his boots. + </p> + <p> + “There's just one or two details I want to make sure about,” continued + Perkins. “I suppose you won't mind if I question this prisoner?” + </p> + <p> + “Oh, not at all,” said the other. He was relieved to be able to turn this + difficult matter over to a man of decision, a professional man, who was + used to such cases and knew how to handle them. + </p> + <p> + “I'll report to you at once,” said Perkins. + </p> + <p> + “I'll wait,” said the lieutenant. + </p> + <p> + And Perkins took Jimmie's trembling arm in a grip like a vice, and marched + him down a long stone corridor and down a flight of steps. On the way he + picked up two other men, also in khaki, who followed him; the four passed + through a series of underground passages, and entered a stone cell with a + solid steel door, which they clanged behind them—a sound that was + like the knell of doom to poor Jimmie's terrified soul. And instantly + Sergeant Perkins seized him by the shoulder and whirled him about, and + glared into his eyes. “Now, you little son-of-a-bitch!” said he. + </p> + <p> + Having been a detective in an American city, this man was familiar with + the “third degree”, whereby prisoners are led to tell what they know, and + many things which they don't know, but which they know the police want + them to tell. Of the other two men, one Private Connor, had had this + inquisition applied to him on more than one occasion. He was a burglar + with a prison-record; but his last arrest had been in a middle Western + town for taking part in a bar-room fight, and the judge didn't happen to + know his record, and accepted his tearful plea, agreeing to suspend + sentence provided the prisoner would enlist to fight for his country. + </p> + <p> + The other man was named Grady, and had left a wife and three children in a + tenement in “Hell's Kitchen”, New York, to come to fight the Kaiser. He + was a kind-hearted and decent Irishman, who had earned a hard living + carrying bricks and mortar up a ladder ten hours a day; but he was + absolutely convinced that there existed, somewhere under his feet, a hell + of brimstone and sulphur in which he would roast for ever if he disobeyed + the orders of those who were set in authority over him. Grady knew that + there were certain wicked men, hating and slandering religion, and luring + millions of souls into hell; they were called Socialists, or Anarchists, + and must obviously be emissaries of Satan, so it was God's work to root + them out and destroy them. Thus the Gradys have reasoned for a thousand + years; and thus in black dungeons underground they have turned the + thumb-screws and pulled the levers of the rack. They do it still in many + of the large cities of America, where superstition runs the police-force, + in combination with liquor interests and public service corporations. + </p> + <h3> + VI. + </h3> + <p> + “Now, you little son-of-a-bitch,” said Perkins, “listen to me. I been + lookin' into this business of yours, and I got the names of most of them + Bolsheviks you been dealing with. But I want to know them all, and I'm + going to know—see?” + </p> + <p> + In spite of all his terror, Jimmie's heart leaped with exultation. Perkins + was lying! He hadn't found out a thing! He was just trying to bluff his + prisoner, and to make his superior officer think he was a real “sleuth”. + He was doing what the police everywhere do—trying to obtain by + brutality what they cannot obtain by skill and intelligence. + </p> + <p> + “Now, you're goin' to tell,” continued the man. “You may think you can + hold out, but you'll find it's no go. I'll tear you limb from limb if you + make me—I'll do just whatever I have to do to make you come through. + You get me?” + </p> + <p> + Jimmie nodded his head in a sort of spasm, but his effort to make a sound + resulted only in a gulp in his throat. + </p> + <p> + “You'll only make yourself a lot of pain if you delay, so you'd better be + sensible. Now—who are they?” + </p> + <p> + “They ain't anybody. They—” + </p> + <p> + “So that's it? Well, we'll see.” And the sergeant swung Jimmie about, so + as to be at his back. “Hold him,” he said to the two men, and they grasped + the prisoner's shoulders; the sergeant grasped his two wrists, which were + handcuffed together, and began to force them up Jimmie's back. + </p> + <p> + “Ow!” cried Jimmie. “Stop! Stop!” + </p> + <p> + “Will you tell?” said the sergeant. + </p> + <p> + “Stop!” cried Jimmie, wildly; and as the other pushed harder, he began to + scream. “You'll break my arm! The one that was wounded.” + </p> + <p> + “Wounded?” said the sergeant. + </p> + <p> + “It was broken by a bullet!” + </p> + <p> + “The hell you say!” said the sergeant. + </p> + <p> + “It's true—ask anybody! The battle of Chatty Terry in France!” + </p> + <p> + For just a moment the pressure on Jimmie's arms weakened; but then the + sergeant remembered that military men who have a career to make do not go + to their superior officers with sentimentalities. “If you were wounded in + battle,” said the sergeant, “what you turnin' traitor for? Give me the + names I want!” And he began to push again. + </p> + <p> + It was the most horrible agony that Jimmie had ever dreamed of. His voice + rose to a shriek: “Wait! Wait! Listen!” The torturer would relax the + pressure and say: “The names?” And when Jimmie did not give the names, he + would press harder yet. Jimmie writhed convulsively, but the other two men + held him as in a vice. He pleaded, he sobbed and moaned; but the walls of + this dungeon had been made so that the owners of property outside would + not be troubled by knowing what was being done in their interest. + </p> + <p> + We go into museums and look at devilish instruments which men once + employed for the torment of their fellows, and we shudder and congratulate + ourselves that we live in more humane days; quite overlooking the fact + that it does not need elaborate instruments to inflict pain on the human + body. Any man can do it to another, if he has him helpless. The thing that + is needed is the motive—that is to say, some form of privilege + established by law, and protecting itself against rebellion. + </p> + <p> + “Tell me the names!” said the sergeant. He had Jimmie's two hands forced + up the back of his neck, and was lying over on Jimmie, pushing, pushing. + Jimmie was blinded with the pain, his whole being convulsed. It was too + horrible, it could not be! Anything, anything to stop it! A voice shrieked + in his soul: “Tell! Tell!” But then he thought of the little Jew, pitiful, + trusting—no, no, he would not tell! He would never tell! But then + what was he to do'? Endure this horror? He could not endure it—it + was monstrous! + </p> + <p> + He would writhe and scream, babble and plead and sob. Perhaps there have + been men who have endured torture with dignity, but Jimmie was not one of + these. Jimmie was abject, Jimmie was frantic; he did anything, everything + he could think of—save one thing, the thing that Perkins kept + telling him to do. + </p> + <p> + This went on until the sergeant was out of breath; that being one + disadvantage of the primitive hand-processes of torture to which American + police-officials have been reduced by political sentimentalism. The + torturer lost his temper, and began to shake and twist at Jimmie's arms, + so that Connor had to warn him—he didn't want to break anything, of + course. + </p> + <p> + So Perkins said, “Put his head down.” They bent Jimmie over till his head + was on the ground, and Grady tied Jimmie's legs to keep them quiet, and + Connor held his neck fast, and Perkins put his foot on the handcuffs and + pressed down. By this means he could continue the torture while standing + erect and breathing freely, a great relief to him. “Now, damn you!” said + he. “I can stay here all night. Come through!” + </p> + <h3> + VII. + </h3> + <p> + Jimmie thought that each moment of pain was the worst. He had never had + any idea that pain could endure so long, could burn with such a white and + searing flame. He ground his teeth together, he chewed his tongue through, + he gound his face upon the stones. Anything for a respite—even a new + kind of pain, that he might forget the screaming ache in his shoulders and + elbows and wrists. But there was no respite; his spirit was whirled and + beaten about in bottomless abysses, and from their depths he heard the + voice of Perkins, as from a far-off mountain-top: “Come through! Come + through—or you'll stay like this all night!” + </p> + <p> + But Jimmie did not stay like that; for Perkins got tired of standing on + one foot, and he knew that the Lieutenant was pacing about upstairs, + wondering why it took so long to ask a few questions. Jimmie heard the + voice from the far-off mountain-top: “This won't do; we'll have to string + him up for a bit.” And he took from his pocket a strong cord, and tied one + end about Jimmie's two thumbs, and ran the other end over an iron ring in + the wall of the dungeon—put there by some agent of the Tsar for use + in the cause of democracy. The other two men lifted Jimmie till his feet + were off the ground, and then made fast the cord, and Jimmie hung with his + full weight from his thumbs, still handcuffed behind his back. + </p> + <p> + So now he was no trouble to the three jailers—except that he was an + ugly-looking object, with his face purple and convulsed, and his bloody + tongue being chewed up. They turned him about, with his face against the + stones, and then they had nothing but the sounds of him, which had become + feebler, but were none the less disagreeable, a babbling and gabbling, + continuous and yet unrhythmic, as if made by a whole menagerie of + tormented animals. + </p> + <p> + Still the minutes passed, and Perkins's irritation grew. He wouldn't have + minded for himself, for his nerves were strong, he had handled a good many + of the I.W.W. in the old days back home; but he had promised to get the + information, and so his reputation was at stake. He would prod Jimmie and + say: “Will you tell?” And when Jimmie still refused, finally he said: + “We'll have to try the water-cure. Connor, get me a couple of pitchers of + water and a good-sized funnel.” + </p> + <p> + “Yes, sir,” said the ex-burglar, and went out; and meantime Perkins + addressed his victim again. “Listen, you little hell-pup,” said he. “I'm + going to do something new, something that'll break you sure. I been with + the army in the Philippines, and seen it worked there many's the time, and + I never yet seen anybody that could stand it. We're going to fill you up + with water; and we'll leave you to soak for a couple of hours, and then + we'll put in some more, and we'll keep that up day and night till you come + through. Now, you better think it over and speak quick, before we get the + water in, because it ain't so easy to get out.” + </p> + <p> + Jimmie lay with his face against the wall, and the agony of his tortured + thumbs was like knives twisted into him; he listened to these threats and + heard again the cry in his soul for respite at any hazard. + </p> + <p> + Jimmie was fighting a battle, the sternest ever fought by man—the + battle of conscience against the weakness of the flesh. To tell or not to + tell? The poor tormented body shrieked, Tell! But conscience, in a feeble + voice, gasped over and over and over, No! No! No! It had to keep on + insisting, because the battle was never over, never won. Each moment was a + new agony, and therefore a fresh temptation; each argument had to be + repeated without end. Why should he not tell? Because Kalenkin had trusted + him, and Kalenkin was a comrade. But maybe Kalenkin was gone now, maybe he + had died of one of his coughing spells, maybe he had heard of Jimmie's + arrest and made his escape. Maybe they would not torture Kalenkin as they + had Jimmie, because he was not a soldier; they might just put him in jail + and keep him there, and others would do the work. Maybe— + </p> + <p> + And so on. But the feeble voice whispered in the soul of Jimmie Higgins: + You are the revolution. You are social justice, struggling for life in + this world. You are humanity, setting its face to the light, striving to + reach a new goal, to put behind it an old horror. You are Jesus on the + Cross; and if you fail, the world goes back, perhaps for ever. You must + hold out! You must bear this! And this! And this! You must bear everything—for + ever—as long as needs be! You must not “come through!” + </p> + <h3> + VIII. + </h3> + <p> + Connor came back with his pitchers of water and his funnel! They took + Jimmie down—oh, the blessed relief to his thumbs!—and laid him + on the ground, with his racked and swollen hands still handcuffed under + him; and Grady sat on his feet, and Connor sat on his chest, and Perkins + forced the funnel down his throat and poured in the water. + </p> + <p> + Jimmie had to swallow, of course; he had to gulp desperately, to keep from + being choked; and pretty soon the water filled him up, and then began the + most fearful agony he had yet endured. It was like the pain of the + ether-gas, only infinitely worse. He was blown out like a balloon; his + insides were about to burst; his whole body was one sore boil—and + Connor, sitting on his stomach, sat a little harder now and then, to make + sure the water got jostled into place. Jimmie could not scream, but his + face turned purple and the cords stood out on his forehead and neck; he + began to strangle, and this was worst of all; every convulsion of his body + stabbed him with ten thousand knives. + </p> + <p> + Jimmie had talked with a number of the “wobblies” who had had this + “water-cure”, a regular device of police-authorities in small towns and + villages. It is simple and cheap and cleanly; it leaves no blood and no + bruises to be exhibited in court; it muzzles the victim, so that his + screams cannot be heard through jail-windows—therefore a simple + denial covers it completely. “Wild Bill” had had this treatment, + “Strawberry” Curran had had it several times. But oh, thought Jimmie, it + could not be like this—no human being had ever endured anything like + this! Poor Jimmie was not learned in history, and did not realize that men + have endured everything that other men can inflict. They will continue to + endure it, so long as privilege is written in the law, and allowed to use + the law in its unholy cause. + </p> + <p> + So the battle of the ages went on in the soul of Jimmie Higgins. He was a + little runt of a Socialist machinist, with bad teeth and gnarled hands, + and he could do nothing sublime or inspiring, nothing even dignified; in + fact, it would be hard for anyone to do anything dignified, when he lies + on the floor with a gallon or two of water in him, and one man sitting on + his legs and another on his stomach, and another jamming a funnel into his + mouth. All Jimmie could do was to fight the fearful fight in the deeps of + him, and not lose it. “Lift your knee if you are ready to tell,” Perkins + would say; and Grady would rise up, so that Jimmie could lift his knee if + he wanted to; but Jimmie's knee did not lift. + </p> + <p> + Far down in the deeps of Jimmie Higgins' tormented soul, something strange + was happening. Lying there bound and helpless, despairing, writhing with + agony, half-insane with the terror of it, Jimmie called for help—and + help came to him; the help which penetrates all dungeon walls, and cheats + all jailors and torturers; that power which breaks all bars of steel and + bars of fear— + </p> + <p> + “Thou has great allies; Thy friends are exultations, agonies, And love, + and man's unconquerable mind!” + </p> + <p> + In the soul of Jimmie Higgins was heard that voice which speaks above the + menaces and commands of tyranny: which says: I am Man, and I prevail. I + conquer the flesh, I trample upon the body and rise above it. I defy its + imprisonments, its prudences and fears. I am Truth, and will be heard in + the world. I am Justice, and will be done in the world. I am Freedom, and + I break all laws, I defy all repressions, I exult, I proclaim deliverance!—and + because, in every age and in every clime, this holy Power has dwelt in the + soul of man, because this mystic Voice has spoken there, humanity has + moved out of darkness and savagery into at least the dream of a decent and + happy world. + </p> + <p> + So Jimmie lay, converting his pain into ecstasy, a dizzy and perilous + rapture, close to the border-line of madness; and Sergeant Perkins arose + and looked down on him and shook his head. “By God!” said he. “What's in + that little hell-pup?” He gave Jimmie a kick in the ribs; and Jimmie's + soul took a leap, and went whirling through eternities of anguish. + </p> + <p> + “By Jesus, I'll make you talk!” cried Perkins, and he began to kick with + his heavy boots—until Connor stopped him, knowing that this was not + ethical—it would leave marks. + </p> + <p> + So finally the sergeant said abruptly, “Wait here.” And he went upstairs + to where Gannet was pacing about. + </p> + <p> + “Lieutenant,” he said, “that fellow's a stubborn case.” + </p> + <p> + “What does he say?” + </p> + <p> + “I can't get a word out of him. He's a Socialist and a crank, you know, + and you'd be surprised how ugly some of them fellows can be. As soon as I + get the story complete I'll report to you, but meantime there's no use + your waiting here.” + </p> + <p> + So the officer went away, and Perkins went back to the dungeon and gave + orders that every two hours someone should come and fill Jimmie up with + water, and give him another chance to say “Yes”. And Jimmie lay and moaned + and wept, all by himself, quivering now and then with the perilous + ecstasy, which does not last, but has to be renewed by continuous efforts + of the will, as a tired horse has to be driven with spur and whip. Never, + never could this battle be truly won! Never could the body be wholly + forgotten, its clamorous demands wholly stilled! God comes, but doubt + follows closely. What is the use of this fearful sacrifice? What good will + it accomplish, who will know about it, who will care? Thus Satan in the + soul, and thus the eternal duel between the new thing that man dreams, and + the old thing that he has made into law. + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0027" id="link2HCH0027"> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER XXVII. JIMMIE HIGGINS VOTES FOR DEMOCRACY + </h2> + <h3> + I. + </h3> + <p> + Another day had come—though Jimmie did not know it in his dungeon. + All he knew was that Sergeant Perkins returned, and stood looking at him, + picking his teeth with a quill. This little Bolshevik had stood the + water-cure longer than any man whom Perkins had ever known, and he + wondered vaguely what sort of damned fool he was, what he thought he was + accomplishing, anyhow. + </p> + <p> + But it was necessary to keep after him, for Perkins knew that his career + was at stake. He was supposed to have found out something, and he hadn't! + So he ordered Jimmie tied up by the thumbs, the poor thumbs that were + swollen to three times their normal size, and nearly black in colour. But + now Jimmie's good Mother Nature interfered to stop the proceedings; the + pain was so exquisite that Jimmie fainted, and when the sergeant saw that + he was being cheated, he cut his victim down and left him lying on the + damp stones. + </p> + <p> + So for three days Jimmie's life consisted of alternating swoons and agony—the + regular routine of the “third degree” in more obstinate cases; and always, + in his conscious moments, Jimmie called upon the God in himself, and the + God responded with his hosts, and trumpets of triumph echoed in Jimmie's + soul and he did not “come through”. + </p> + <p> + So on the fourth day the three torturers entered the cell, and lifted him + to his feet, and carried him up the stone stairs, and wrapped him in a + blanket and put him in an automobile. + </p> + <p> + “Listen now,” said Perkins, who sat by his side, “they're going to try you + by court-martial. Hear me?” + </p> + <p> + Jimmie made no response. + </p> + <p> + “And I'll explain this for your health—if you tell any lies about + what we done to you, I'll take you back to that dungeon and tear you limb + from limb. You get me?” Still Jimmie did not answer—the sullen + little devil, thought Perkins. But in Jimmie's soul there was a faint + flicker of hope. Might he not make appeal to the higher authorities, and + be saved from further torture? Jimmie had believed in his country, and in + his country's purpose to defend democracy; he had read the wonderful + speeches of President Wilson, and could not bring himself to think that + the President would permit any man to be tortured in prison. But alas, it + was a long way from the White House to Archangel—and still longer if + you measured it through the ramifications of the army machine, a route + more thoroughly criss-crossed with red tape than any sector of the + Hindenburg line with barbed wire. + </p> + <p> + Jimmie was taken into a room where seven officers sat at a big table, + looking very stern and solemn. Perkins supported him under the arm-pits, + thus making it look as if he were walking. He was placed in a chair, and + took a glance about him—but without seeing much hope in the faces + which confronted him. + </p> + <p> + The president of the court-martial was Major Gaddis, who had been a + professor of economics in a great university before the war: that is to + say, he had been selected by a syndicate of bankers as a man who believed + in a ruling class, and could never by any possibility be brought to + believe in anything else. He was a man of strict honour, a very gracious + and cultivated gentleman if you happened to belong in his social circle; + but he was convinced that the duty of the lower classes was to obey, and + that the existence of civilized society depended upon their being made to + obey. + </p> + <p> + Next to him sat Colonel Nye, as different a type as could be imagined. Nye + had been a soldier of fortune in Mexico and Central America, and had found + prosperity as a captain of one of those condottieri bands which were + organized by the big corporations of America before the war, for the + purpose of crushing strikes. He had commanded a private army of five + thousand men, horse, foot and artillery, known to the public as the + Smithers Detective Agency. During a great coal-strike he had been placed + by a state government in virtual charge of the militia, and had occupied + himself in turning loose machine-guns on tent-colonies filled with women + and children. He had been tried by a militia court-martial for murder and + acquitted—thus making it impossible for any civilian grand-jury ever + to indict him and have him hanged. And now he had been automatically taken + from the state militia into the national army, where he made a most + efficient officer, with a reputation as a strict disciplinarian. + </p> + <p> + First-Lieutenant Olsen had been a dry goods clerk, who had gone into an + officers' training-camp. As he hoped to rise in the world, he looked to + his superiors always before he expressed an opinion. The same was true of + Captain Gushing, who was a good-natured young bank-cashier with a pretty + wife who spent his salary a couple of months before he got it. The fifth + officer, Lieutenant Gannet, did most of the talking, because he was + Jimmie's immediate superior, and had conducted the investigations into the + case. He had discussed the matter with Major Prentice, the Judge-Advocate + of the court, also with Captain Ardner, the young military lawyer who went + through the form of defending Jimmie; the three had agreed that the case + was a most serious one. The propaganda of Bolshevism in this Archangel + expedition must certainly be nipped in the bud. The charge against Jimmie + was insubordination and incitement to mutiny, and the penalty was death. + </p> + <h3> + II. + </h3> + <p> + Jimmie sat in his chair, only partly aware of what was going on, because + of the agony in his swollen thumbs and his twisted arms. His flicker of + hope had died, and he had lost interest in the proceedings—all his + energy was needed to endure his pain. He would not tell them where he had + got the leaflets, and when they badgered him, he just grunted with pain. + He would not talk with Captain Ardner, who tried in vain to persuade him + that he was acting in his—the prisoner's—interest. Only twice + did Jimmie flare up; the first time when Major Gaddis voiced his + indignation that any citizen of the great American democracy should ally + himself with these Bolshevik vermin, who were carrying on a reign of + terror throughout Russia, burning, slaying, torturing— + </p> + <p> + “Who talks about torturing?” shrieked Jimmie, half-starting from his + chair. “Ain't you been torturing me—regular tearin' me to pieces?” + </p> + <p> + The court was shocked. “Torturing?” said Captain Gushing. + </p> + <p> + “Torturin' me for days—a week, maybe, I dunno, in that there + dungeon!” + </p> + <p> + Major Gaddis turned to Sergeant Perkins, who stood behind Jimmie's chair, + barely able to withhold his hands from the prisoner. “How about that, + Sergeant?” + </p> + <p> + “It is utterly false, sir.” + </p> + <p> + “Look at these thumbs!” cried Jimmie. “They strung me up by them!” + </p> + <p> + “The prisoner was violent,” said Perkins. “He nearly killed Private + Connor, one of the guards, so we had to use severe measures.” + </p> + <p> + “It's a lie!” shrieked Jimmie. But they shut him up, and the dignified + military machine ground on. Anybody could see that discipline would go to + pieces if the word of a jailer did not prevail over that of a prisoner, + the word of a loyal and tried subordinate over that of a traitor and + conspirator, an avowed sympathizer with the enemy. + </p> + <p> + Presently the presiding officer inquired if the prisoner was aware that he + had incurred the death-penalty. Getting no reply, he went on to inform the + prisoner that the court would be apt to inflict this extreme penalty, + unless he would reconsider and name his accomplices among the Bolsheviki, + so that the army could protect itself against the propaganda of these + murderers. So Jimmie flared up again—but not so violently, rather + with a touch of fierce irony. “Murderers, you say? Ain't you gettin' ready + to murder me?” + </p> + <p> + “We are enforcing the law,” said the court. + </p> + <p> + “You make what you call law, an' they make what they call law. You kill + people that disobey, an' so do they. What's the difference?” + </p> + <p> + “They are killing all the educated and law-abiding people in Russia,” + declared Major Gaddis, severely. + </p> + <p> + “All the rich people, you mean,” said Jimmie. “They make the rich obey + their laws; they give them a chance, the same as everybody else, then if + they don't obey they kill them—just as many as they have to kill to + make them obey. An' don't you do the same with the poor people? Ain't I + seen you do it, every time there was a strike? Ask Colonel Nye there! + Didn't he say: 'To hell with habeas corpus—we'll give them + post-mortems?'” + </p> + <p> + Colonel Nye flushed; he did not know that his fame had followed him all + the way from Colorado to the Arctic Circle. The court made haste to + protect him: “We are not conducting a Socialist debate here. It is evident + that the prisoner is impenitent and defiant, and that there is no reason + for leniency.” So the court proceeded to find Jimmie Higgins guilty as + charged, and to sentence him to twenty years' military confinement—really + quite a mild sentence, considering the circumstances. In New York City at + this very time they were trying five Russian Jews, all of them mere + children, one a girl, for exactly the same offence as Jimmie had committed—distributing + a plea that American troops should cease to kill Russian Socialists; these + children received twenty years, and one of them died soon after his arrest—his + fellows swore as a result of torture inflicted by Federal secret service + agents. + </p> + <h3> + III. + </h3> + <p> + So Jimmie was taken back to prison. Major Gaddis, who was really a just + man, and made law and order his religion, gave the strictest orders that + the prisoner should not again be hung up by the thumbs. It was, of course, + desirable to find out who had printed the Bolshevik leaflets, but in the + effort to make the prisoner tell he should receive only the punishments + formally approved by the army authorities. + </p> + <p> + So Jimmie went back to the underground dungeon, and for eight hours every + day a chain was fastened about his wrists, and the other end run up into + the iron ring, so that his feet barely touched the floor; and there Jimmie + hung, and tried out his conscience—this being the test then being + undergone by many men at the disciplinary barracks at Fort Leavenworth. + Jimmie's conscience really was nothing like as strong as it ought to have + been. Jimmie had moods of shameless self-pity, moods of desperate and + agonizing doubt. He did not mean to let his dungeon-keepers know this, but + they listened behind the door through a slot which the Tsar had had + contrived for this purpose; it could be closed while the prisoner was + screaming under torture, and then opened by the jailer without the + prisoner's knowledge. + </p> + <p> + So Perkins heard Jimmie sobbing and wailing, talking to himself and to + other people—to someone called “Strawberry”, and to someone else + called “Wild Bill”, asking them if they had ever suffered anything like + this, and was it really worth while, would it help the revolution? Perkins + thought he had got some important information here, and took it to + Lieutenant Gannet, with the result that inquiry was made through all the + American Forces for men known as “Strawberry” and “Wild Bill”. But these + men could not be found; as it happened, “Wild Bill” had taken refuge in a + place to which not even the army intelligence service can penetrate, and + “Strawberry” Curran was just then being tried with a bunch of other + “wobblies” in California and subjected to much the same kind of treatment + as Jimmie was receiving in Archangel. + </p> + <p> + It was a big advantage that Sergeant Perkins had in his struggle with + Jimmie, that the pitiful weakness of Jimmy's soul was exposed to him, + while the soul of Perkins was hidden from Jimmie. For the truth was that + Perkins was suffering from rage, mingled with not a little fear. What the + hell was this idea that could keep a little runt of a working-man stronger + than all in authority? And how was this idea to be kept from spreading and + wrecking the comfortable, well-ordered world in which Perkins expected + soon to receive an army commission? The very day after the court-martial, + which was supposed to be a profound military secret, the army authorities + were astounded to discover, posted in several conspicuous places, a + placard in English, reading: + </p> + <p> + “American soldiers, do you know that an army sergeant is being tortured + and has been sentenced to twenty years in a dungeon for having tried to + tell you how the Bolsheviki are making propaganda against the German + Kaiser? + </p> + <p> + “Do you know the true reason your armies are here? Are you willing to die + to compel the Russian people to accept your ideas of government? Are you + willing to have your comrades tortured to keep the facts from you?” + </p> + <p> + And of course the doughboys who read this placard wanted to know if it + told the truth. And quickly word spread that it did. Men who still had + copies of the leaflet which Jimmie had distributed now found eager readers + for it, and soon all the men knew its contents, and were debating the + question of the use of American armies to put down social revolution in a + foreign country. These same questions were being asked in the halls of + Congress back home. Senators were questioning the right of sending troops + into a country against which war had never been declared, and other + Senators were demanding that they be immediately withdrawn. And this news + also reached the men, and increased the danger. Archangel was not a + pleasant place to stay, especially with winter coming on fast; men were + disposed to grumble—and now they had a pretext! + </p> + <h3> + IV. + </h3> + <p> + The authorities who were handling this army laboured under one grievous + handicap, probably never before faced by any army in history. The + Commander-in-Chief of the army, who determined its policies and tried to + set its moral tone, kept coming now and then before Congress and making + speeches full of incendiary and reckless utterances, calculated to set + dangerous thoughts to buzzing in the heads of soldiers, to break down + discipline and undermine morale. The President wrote a letter to a + political convention in which he declared that the workers of America were + living in “economic serfdom”; he declared again and again that every + people had a right to determine their own destinies and form of government + without outside interference. This while the army was trying to put down + those Russians who were in revolt against “economic serfdom” in their own + country! + </p> + <p> + An army, you see, is a machine built to fight; a man who goes into it and + takes part in its work, very quickly acquires its tone, which is one of + abysmal contempt for all politicians, particularly of the talking and + letter-writing variety, the “idealists” and “dreamers” and “theorists”, + who do not understand that the business of men is to fight battles and win + them. All the officers of the old army, the West-Pointers, had been bred + in the tradition of class-rule, they had in their very bones the idea that + they were a special breed, that obedience to them was a law of God; while + of the new officers, the overwhelming majority came from the well-to-do, + and were not favourable to speech-making and letter-writing about the + rights of man. They were without enthusiasm for the idea of having a + pacifist secretary of war set over them by the “idealist” + commander-in-chief. They did not hesitate to vent their indignation; and + when this pacifist secretary gave orders about conscientious objectors + which were based upon sentimentalism and theory, the army machine took the + liberty of interpreting these orders and trimming the nonsense out of + them. And the farther away you got from the office of the pacifist + secretary, the more thorough the trimming inevitably became; thus + producing the phenomenon which poor Jimmie Higgins found so bewildering—that + policies laid down by sincere humanitarians and liberals in Washington + were carried out in Archangel by an ex-detective trained in a school of + corruption and cruelty. + </p> + <p> + Jimmie Higgins couldn't understand that here in Archangel were Americans + taking their orders from British and French officers, who wasted no breath + on pacifism and sentiment, who had no fool ideas about wars for democracy. + Was one obscure little runt of a Socialist machinist to be allowed to + block their world-plans? Setting himself up as an authority, presuming to + accept literally the passages of his President, in defiance of their + authority in Archangel! Allying himself with traitorous and criminal + scoundrels, trying to poison the minds of American soldiers and light the + flame of mutiny among them! Just as once Jimmie Higgins had found himself + in a strategic position where he had held up the whole Hun army and won + the battle of Chateau-Thierry, so now he found himself in a position of + equal strategic importance—on the line of communication of the + Allied armies attacking Russia, and threatening to cut the line and force + the armies into retreat! + </p> + <h3> + V. + </h3> + <p> + It became more essential than ever to discover these Bolshevik + sympathizers and stamp out their propaganda. As hanging Jimmie up by the + wrists had not brought forth the desired information, Jimmie was put in + solitary confinement on a diet of bread and water, this being another test + of sincerity of conscience. For the conscience a diet of white flour and + water may be all right, but Jimmie soon found that it is very bad indeed + for the intestinal tract and the blood-stream—being, in truth, far + worse than a diet of water alone. The man who lives on white flour and + water for a few days suffers either from complete stopping of the bowels, + or else from dysentery; his blood becomes clogged with starch poisons, his + nerves degenerate, he falls a quick victim to tuberculosis, or pernicious + anasmia, or some other disease which will prevent his ever being a sound + man again. + </p> + <p> + Also, Jimmie received the water-treatment, as included in the Fort + Leavenworth regiment. It was necessary that all prisoners should be + bathed; which was interpreted by some guards to mean that they should have + a stream of icy water turned on them, and be forced to stand under it. + Because Jimmie's arms were too badly injured for him to scrub himself, + Connor seized a rough brush and salt, and rubbed off strips of his skin. + When Jimmy wriggled away, they followed him with the hose; when he + screamed, they turned it into his mouth and nose; when he fell down, they + let the cold water run over him for ten or fifteen minutes. + </p> + <p> + Jimmie had had a good deal of harsh treatment in the course of his outcast + life, but never so closely concentrated in point of time. His spirit + remained unbroken, but his body gave way, and then his mind began to give + also. He fell a victim to delusions; the nightmares which haunted his + sleep lay siege to his waking hours also, and he thought he was being + tortured at times when he was just hanging by his chains. Until at last + Perkins, listening through the door, heard strange cries and grunts, + beast-like noises, barkings, and growlings. He called Connor and Grady, + and the three of them stood listening. + </p> + <p> + “By God!” said Grady. “He's dippy.” + </p> + <p> + “He's nutty,” said Connor. + </p> + <p> + “He's batty,” said Perkins. + </p> + <p> + But the idea occurred to all of them—perhaps he was shamming! What + was easier than for one of those emissaries of Satan to pretend to have a + devil inside him? So they waited a bit longer, until Connor, coming to + chain Jimmie up, found him gnawing off the ends of his fingers. That was + really serious, so they sent for the prison-surgeon, who had to make but a + brief inspection to convince himself that Jimmie Higgins was a raving + madman. Jimmie fancied himself some kind of fur-bearing animal, and he was + in a trap, and was trying to gnaw off his foot so as to escape. He snapped + his teeth at everyone who came near him; he had to be knocked senseless + before a straight-jacket could be got on him. + </p> + <h3> + VI. + </h3> + <p> + And so it was that Jimmie Higgins at last made his escape from his + tormentors. Jimmie doesn't know anything about the Russian Jew, Kalenkin, + any more; he could not tell the secret if he wanted to, so they have given + up testing his conscience, and they treat him kindly, and have succeeded + in persuading him that he is out of the trap. Therefore he is a good beast—he + crawls about on all fours, and eats his food out of a tin platter without + using his gnawed-off fingers. He still has torturing pains in the + arm-joints, but he does not mind them so much, because, being a beast, he + suffers only the pain of the moment; he does not know that he is going to + suffer to-morrow, nor worry about it. He is no longer one of those who + “look before and after and pine for what is not”. He is a “good doggie”, + and when you pat him on the head he rubs against you and whines + affectionately. + </p> + <p> + Poor, mad Jimmie Higgins will never again trouble his country; but + Jimmie's friends and partisans, who know the story of his experiences, + cannot be thus lightly dismissed by Society. In the industrial troubles + which are threatening the great democracy of the West, there will appear + men and women animated by a fierce and blazing bitterness; and the great + democracy of the West will marvel at their state of mind, unable to + conceive what can have caused it. These rebellious ones will be heard + quoting to the great democracy the words of its greatest democrat, spoken + in solemn warning during the slaughter and destruction of the Civil War: + “If God will that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondman's + two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until + every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn + with the sword, as it was said three thousand years ago, so still it must + be said, 'The judgements of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.'” + </p> + <h3> + THE END + </h3> + <div style="height: 6em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Jimmie Higgins, by Upton Sinclair + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JIMMIE HIGGINS *** + +***** This file should be named 5677-h.htm or 5677-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/5/6/7/5677/ + + +Text file produced by Charles Aldarondo + +HTML file produced by David Widger + + +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: Jimmie Higgins + +Author: Upton Sinclair + + +Release Date: May, 2004 [EBook #5677] +This file was first posted on August 7, 2002 +Last updated: April 29, 2013 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JIMMIE HIGGINS *** + + + + +Produced by Charles Aldarondo + + + + + + +JIMMIE HIGGINS + +By Upton Sinclair + +London + + + +CONTENTS + + +I. JIMMIE HIGGINS MEETS THE CANDIDATE + +II. JIMMIE HIGGINS HEARS A SPEECH + +III. JIMMIE HIGGINS DEBATES THE ISSUE + +IV. JIMMIE HIGGINS STRIKES IT RICH + +V. JIMMIE HIGGINS HELPS THE KAISER + +VI. JIMMIE HIGGINS GOES TO JAIL + +VII. JIMMIE HIGGINS DALLIES WITH CUPID + +VIII. JIMMIE HIGGINS PUTS HIS FOOT IN IT + +IX. JIMMIE HIGGINS RETURNS TO NATURE + +X. JIMMIE HIGGINS MEETS THE OWNER + +XI. JIMMIE HIGGINS FACES THE WAR + +XII. JIMMIE HIGGINS MEETS A PATRIOT + +XIII. JIMMIE HIGGINS DODGES TROUBLE + +XIV. JIMMIE HIGGINS TAKES THE ROAD + +XV. JIMMIE HIGGINS TURNS BOLSHEVIK + +XVI. JIMMIE HIGGINS MEETS THE TEMPTER + +XVII. JIMMIE HIGGINS WRESTLES WITH THE TEMPTER + +XVIII. JIMMIE HIGGINS TAKES THE PLUNGE + +XIX. JIMMIE HIGGINS PUTS ON KHAKI + +XX. JIMMIE HIGGINS TAKES A SWIM + +XXI. JIMMIE HIGGINS ENTERS SOCIETY + +XXII. JIMMIE HIGGINS WORKS FOR HIS UNCLE + +XXIII. JIMMIE HIGGINS MEETS THE HUN + +XXIV. JIMMIE HIGGINS SEES THE OTHER SIDE + +XXV. JIMMIE HIGGINS ENTERS INTO DANGER + +XXVI. JIMMIE HIGGINS DISCOVERS HIS SOUL + +XXVII. JIMMIE HIGGINS VOTES FOR DEMOCRACY + + + + + + +JIMMIE HIGGINS + + + +CHAPTER I + +JIMMIE HIGGINS MEETS THE CANDIDATE + + +I + + +"Jimmie," said Lizzie, "couldn't we go see the pictures?" + +And Jimmie set down the saucer of hot coffee which he was in the act +of adjusting to his mouth, and stared at his wife. He did not say +anything; in three years and a half as a married man he had learned +that one does not always say everything that comes into one's mind. +But he meditated on the abysses that lie between the masculine and +feminine intellects. That it should be possible for anyone to wish +to see a movie idol leaping into second-story windows, or being +pulled from beneath flying express trains, on this day of destiny, +this greatest crisis in history! + +"You know, Lizzie," he said, patiently, "I've got to help at the +Opera-house." + +"But you've got all morning!" + +"I know; but it'll take all day." + +And Lizzie fell silent; for she too had learned much in three years +and a half of married life. She had learned that working men's wives +seldom get all they would like in this world; also that to have a +propagandist for a husband is not the worst fate that may befall. +After all, he might have been giving his time and money to drink, or +to other women; he might have been dying of a cough, like the man +next door. If one could not have a bit of pleasure on a Sunday +afternoon--well, one might sigh, but not too loud. + +Jimmie began telling all the things that had to be done that Sunday +morning and afternoon. They seemed to Lizzie exactly like the things +that were done on other occasions before meetings. To be sure, this +was bigger--it was in the Opera-house, and all the stores had cards +in the windows, with a picture of the Candidate who was to be the +orator of the occasion. But it was hard for Lizzie to understand the +difference between this Candidate and other candidates--none of whom +ever got elected! Lizzie would truly rather have stayed at home, for +she did not understand English very well when it was shouted from a +platform, and with a lot of long words; but she knew that Jimmie was +trying to educate her, and being a woman, she was educated to this +extent--she knew the way to hold on to her man. + +Jimmie had just discovered a new solution of the problem of getting +the babies to meetings; and Lizzie knew that he was tremendously +proud of this discovery. So long as there had been only one baby, +Jimmie had carried it. When there had come a second, Lizzie had +helped. But now there were three, the total weight of them something +over sixty pounds; and the street-car line was some distance away, +and also it hurt Jimmie in his class-consciousness to pay twenty +cents to a predatory corporation. They had tried the plan of paying +something to a neighbour to stay with the babies; but the first they +tried was a young girl who got tired and went away, leaving the +little ones to howl their heads off; and the second was a Polish +lady whom they found in a drunken stupor on their return. + +But Jimmie was determined to go to meetings, and determined that +Lizzie should go along. It was one of the curses of the system, he +said, that it deprived working-class women of all chance for +self-improvement. So he had paid a visit to the "Industrial Store", +a junk-shop maintained by the Salvation Army, and for fifteen cents +he had obtained a marvellous broad baby-carriage for twins, all +finished in shiny black enamel. One side of it was busted, but +Jimmie had fixed that with some wire, and by careful packing had +shown that it was possible to stow the youngsters in it--Jimmie and +Pete side by side, and the new baby at the foot. + +The one trouble was that Jimmie Junior couldn't keep his feet still. +He could never keep any part of him still, the little +jack-in-the-box. Here he was now, tearing about the kitchen, +pursuing the ever-receding tail of the newest addition to the +family, a half-starved cur who had followed Jimmie in from the +street, and had been fed into a semblance of reality. From this +treasure a bare, round tail hung out behind in tantalizing fashion; +Jimmie Junior, always imagining he could catch it, was toddling +round and round and round the kitchen-table, clutching out in front +of him, laughing so that after a while he sat down from sheer +exhaustion. + +And Jimmie Senior watched enraptured. Say, but he was a buster! Did +you ever see a twenty-seven months' old kid that could get over the +ground like that? Or make a louder noise? This last because Jimmie +Junior had tried to take a short cut through the kitchen range and +failed. Lizzie swooped down, clasping him to her broad bosom, and +pouring out words of comfort in Bohemian. As Jimmie Senior did not +understand any of these words, he took advantage of the confusion to +get his coat and cap and hustle off to the Opera-house, full of +fresh determination. For, you see, whenever a Socialist looks at his +son, or even thinks of his son, he is hotter for his job of +propagandist. Let the world be changed soon, so that the little +fellows may be spared those sufferings and humiliations which have +fallen to the lot of their parents! + + + + +II + + + +"Comrade Higgins, have you got a hammer?" It was Comrade Schneider +who spoke, and he did not take the trouble to come down from the +ladder, where he was holding up a streamer of bunting, but waited +comfortably for the hammer to be fetched to him. And scarcely had +the fetcher started to climb before there came the voice of a woman +from across the stage: "Comrade Higgins, has the Ypsel banner come?" +And from the rear part of the hall came the rotund voice of fat +Comrade Rapinsky: "Comrade Higgins, will you bring up an extra table +for the literature?" And from the second tier box Comrade Mary Allen +spoke: "While you're downstairs, Comrade Higgins, would you mind +telephoning and making sure the Reception Committee knows about the +change in the train-time?" + +So it went; and Jimmie ran about the big hall with his face red and +perspiring; for this was midsummer, and no breeze came through the +windows of the Leesville Opera-house, and when you got high up on +the walls to tie the streamers of red bunting, you felt as if you +were being baked. But the streamers had to be tied, and likewise the +big red flag over the stage, and the banner of the Karl Marx Verein, +and the banner of the Ypsels, or Young People's Socialist League of +Leesville, and the banner of the Machinists' Union, Local 4717, and +of the Carpenters' Union, District 529, and of the Workers' +Co-operative Society. And because Comrade Higgins never questioned +anybody's right to give him orders, and always did everything with a +cheerful grin, people had got into the habit of regarding him as the +proper person for tedious and disagreeable tasks. + +He had all the more on his hands at present, because the members of +this usually efficient local were half-distracted, like a nest of +ants that have been dug out with a shovel. The most faithful ones +showed a tendency to forget what they were doing, and to gather in +knots to talk about the news which had come over the cables and had +been published in that morning's paper. Jimmie Higgins would have +liked to hear what the rest had to say; but somebody had to keep at +work, for the local was in the hole nearly three hundred dollars for +to-night's affair, and it must succeed, even though half the +civilized world had gone suddenly insane. So Jimmie continued to +climb step-ladders and tie bunting. + +When it came to lunch-time, and the members of the Decorations +Committee were going out, it suddenly occurred to one of them that +the drayman who was to bring the literature might arrive while there +was nobody to receive it. So Comrade Higgins was allowed to wait +during the lunch hour. There was a plausible excuse--he was on the +Literature Committee; indeed, he was on every committee where hard +work was involved--the committee to distribute leaflets announcing +the meeting, the committee to interview the labour unions and urge +them to sell tickets, the committee to take up a collection at the +meeting. He was not on those committees which involved honour and +edification, such as, for example, the committee to meet the +Candidate at the depot and escort him to the Opera-house. But then +it would never have occurred to Jimmie that he had any place on such +a committee; for he was just an ignorant fellow, a machinist, +undersized and undernourished, with bad teeth and roughened hands, +and no gifts or graces of any sort to recommend him; while on the +Reception Committee were a lawyer and a prosperous doctor and the +secretary of the Carpet-weavers' Union, all people who wore good +clothes and had education, and knew how to talk to a Candidate. + +So Jimmie waited; and when the drayman came, he opened up the +packages of books and pamphlets and laid them out in neat piles on +the literature tables, and hung several of the more attractive ones +on the walls behind the tables; so, of course, Comrade Mabel Smith, +who was chairman of the Literature Committee, was greatly pleased +when she came back from lunch. And then came the members of the +German Liederkranz, to rehearse the programme they were to give; and +Comrade Higgins would have liked first rate to sit and listen, but +somebody discovered the need of glue, and he chased out to find a +drug-store that was open on Sunday. + +Later on there was a lull, and Jimmie realized that he was hungry. +He examined the contents of his pockets and found that he had +seventeen cents. It was a long way to his home, so he would step +round the corner and have a cup of coffee and a couple of "sinkers" +at "Tom's". He first conscientiously asked if anybody needed +anything, and Comrade Mabel Smith told him to hurry back to help her +put out the leaflets on the seats, and Comrade Meissner would need +help in arranging the chairs on the stage. + + + + +III + + + +When you went from the Leesville Opera-house and turned West in Main +Street, you passed Heinz's Cafe, which was a "swell" eating-place, +and not for Jimmie; and then the "Bijou Nickelodeon", with a +mechanical piano in the entrance; and the "Bon Marche Shoe Store", +which was always having a fire-sale or a removal sale or a +bankruptcy clearing-out; and then Lipsky's "Picture Palace", with a +brown and yellow cowboy galloping away with a red and yellow maiden +in his arms; then Harrod's "Fancy Grocery" on the corner. And in +each of these places there was a show-card in the window, with a +picture of the Candidate, and the announcement that on Sunday +evening, at eight o'clock, he would speak at the Leesville +Opera-house on "War, the Reason and the Remedy". Jimmie Higgins +looked at the cards, and a dignified yet joyful pride stirred in his +bosom; for all of them were there because he, Jimmie, had +interviewed the proprietors and obtained their more or less +reluctant consent. + +Jimmie knew that on this Sunday, in cities all over Germany, +Austria, Belgium, France and England, the workers were gathering by +millions and tens of millions, to protest against the red horror of +war being let loose over their heads. And in America too--a call +would go from the new world to the old, that the workers should rise +and carry out their pledge to prevent this crime against mankind. +He, Jimmie Higgins, had no voice that anybody would heed; but he had +helped to bring the people of his city to hear a man who had a +voice, and who would show the meaning of this world-crisis to the +working-people. + +It was the party's Candidate for President. At this time only +congressional elections were pending, but this man had been +Candidate for President so often that every one thought of him in +that role. You might say that each of his campaigns lasted four +years; he travelled from one end of the land to the other, and +counted by the millions those who heard his burning, bitter message. +It had chanced that the day which the War-lords and Money-lords of +Europe had chosen to drive their slaves to slaughter was the day on +which the Candidate had been scheduled to speak in the Leesville +Opera-house. No wonder the Socialists of the little inland city were +stirred! + +Jimmie Higgins turned into "Tom's Buffeteria", and greeted the +proprietor, and seated himself on a stool in front of the counter, +and called for coffee, and helped himself to "sinkers"--which might +have been called "life-preservers", they were blown so full of air. +He filled his mouth, at the same time looking up to make sure that +Tom had not removed the card announcing the meeting; for Tom was a +Catholic, and one of the reasons that Jimmie went to his place was +to involve him and his patrons in arguments over exploitation, +unearned increment and surplus value. + +But before a discussion could be started, it chanced that Jimmie +glanced about. In the back part of the room were four little tables, +covered with oil-cloth, where "short orders" were served; and at one +of those tables a man was seated. Jimmie took a glance at him, and +started so that he almost spilled his coffee. Impossible; and +yet--surely--who could mistake that face? The face of a medieval +churchman, lean, ascetic, but with a modern touch of kindliness, and +a bald dome on top like a moon rising over the prairie. Jimmie +started, then stared at the picture of the Candidate which crowned +the shelf of pies. He turned to the man again; and the man glanced +up, and his eyes met Jimmie's, with their expression of amazement +and awe. The whole story was there, not to be misread--especially by +a Candidate who travels about the country making speeches, and being +recognized every hour or so from his pictures which have preceded +him. A smile came to his face, and Jimmie set down the coffee-cup +from one trembling hand and the "sinker" from the other, and rose +from his stool. + + + + +IV + + + +Jimmie would not have had the courage to advance, save for the other +man's smile--a smile that was weary, but candid and welcoming. +"Howdy do, Comrade?" said the man. He held out his hand, and the +moment of this clasp was the nearest to heaven that Jimmie Higgins +had ever known. + +When he was able to find his voice, it was only to exclaim, "You +wasn't due till five-forty-two!" + +As if the Candidate had not known that! He explained that he had +missed his sleep the night before, and had come on ahead so as to +snatch a bit during the day. "I see," said Jimmie; and then, "I +knowed you by your picture." + +"Yes?" said the other, patiently. + +And Jimmie groped round in his addled head for something really +worth while. "You'll want to see the Committee?" + +"No," said the other, "I want to finish this first." And he took a +sip from a glass of milk, and a bite out of a sandwich, and chewed. + +So utterly rattled was Jimmie he sat there like a num-skull, unable +to find a word, while the man finished his repast. When it was over, +Jimmie said again--he could do no better--"You want to see the +Committee?" + +"No," was the reply, "I want to sit here--and perhaps talk to you, +Comrade--Comrade--?" + +"Higgins," said Jimmie. + +"Comrade Higgins--that is, if you have time." + +"Oh, sure!" exclaimed Jimmie. "I got all the time there is. But the +Committee--" + +"Never mind the Committee, Comrade. Do you know how many Committees +I have met on this trip?" + +Jimmie did not know; nor did he have the courage to ask. + +"Probably you never thought how it is to be a Candidate," continued +the other. "You go from place to place, and make the same speech +every night, and it seems as if you slept in the same hotel every +night, and almost as if you met the same Committee. But you have to +remember that your speech is new to each audience, and you have to +make it as if you had never made it before; also you have to +remember that the Committee is made up of devoted comrades who are +giving everything for the cause, so you don't tell them that they +are just like every other committee, or that you are tired to death, +or maybe have a headache--" + +Jimmie sat, gazing in awe-stricken silence. Not being a man of +reading, he had never heard of "the head that wears a crown". This +was his first glimpse into the soul of greatness. + +The Candidate went on: "And then, too, Comrade, there's the news +from Europe. I want a little time. I can't bring myself to face it!" + +His voice had grown sombre, and to Jimmie, gazing at him, it seemed +that all the sorrows of the world were in his tired grey eyes. +"Perhaps I'd better go," said Jimmie. + +"No no," replied the other, with quick self-recovery. He looked and +saw that Jimmie had forgotten his meal. "Bring your things over +here," he said; and the other fetched his cup and saucer and plate, +and gulped the rest of his "sinkers" under the Candidate's eyes. + +"I oughtn't to talk," said the latter. "You see how hoarse I am. But +you talk. Tell me about the local, and how things are going here." + +So Jimmie summoned his courage. It was the one thing he could really +talk about, the thing of which his mind and soul were full. +Leesville was a typical small manufacturing city, with a glass +bottle works, a brewery, a carpet-factory, and the big Empire +Machine Shops, at which Jimmie himself spent sixty-three hours of +his life each week. The workers were asleep, of course; but still +you couldn't complain, the movement was growing. The local boasted +of a hundred and twenty members, though of course, only about thirty +of them could be counted on for real work. That was the case +everywhere, the Candidate put in--it was always a few who made the +sacrifice and kept things alive. + +Then Jimmie went on to tell about to-night's meeting, the +preparations they had made, the troubles they had had. The police +had suddenly decided to enforce the law against delivering circulars +from house to house; though they allowed Isaac's "Emporium" to use +this method of announcement. The Leesville Herald and Evening +Courier were enthusiastic for the police action; if you couldn't +give out circulars, obviously you would have to advertise in these +papers. The Candidate smiled--he knew about American police +officials, and also about American journalism. + +Jimmie had been laid off for a couple of days at the shop, and he +told how he had put this time to good use, getting announcements of +the meeting into the stores. There was an old Scotchman in a real +estate office just across the way. "Git oot!" he said. "So I thought +I'd better git oot!" said Jimmie. And then, taking his life into his +hands, he had gone into the First National Bank. There was a +gentleman walking across the floor, and Jimmie went up to him and +held out one of the placards with the picture of the Candidate. +"Would you be so good as to put this in your window?" he inquired; +and the other looked at it coldly. Then he smiled--he was a good +sort, apparently. "I don't think my customers would patronize your +business," he said; but Jimmie went at him to take some tickets and +learn about Socialism--and would you believe it, he had actually +shelled out a dollar! "I found out afterwards that it was Ashton +Charmers, the president of the bank!" said Jimmie. "I'd a' been +scared, if I'd a' known." + +He had not meant to talk about himself; he was just trying to +entertain a tired Candidate, to keep him from brooding over a world +going to war. But the Candidate, listening, found tears trying to +steal into his eyes. He watched the figure before him--a bowed, +undernourished little man, with one shoulder lower than the other, a +straggly brown moustache stained with coffee, and stumpy black +teeth, and gnarled hands into which the dirt and grease were ground +so deeply that washing them would obviously be a waste of time. His +clothes were worn and shapeless, his celluloid collar was cracked +and his necktie was almost a rag. You would never have looked at +such a man twice on the street--and yet the Candidate saw in him one +of those obscure heroes who are making a movement which is to +transform the world. + + + + +V + + + +"Comrade Higgins," said the Candidate, after a bit, "let's you and +me run away." + +Jimmie looked startled. "How?" + +"I mean from the Committee, and from the meeting, and from +everything." And then, seeing the dismay in the other's face: "I +mean, let's take a walk in the country." + +"Oh!" said Jimmie. + +"I see it through the windows of the railroad-cars, but I don't set +foot on it for months at a time. And I was brought up in the +country. Were you?" + +"I was brought up everywhere," said the little machinist. + +They got up, and paid each their ten cents to the proprietor of the +"Buffeteria." Jimmie could not resist the temptation to introduce +his hero, and show a pious Catholic that a Socialist Candidate had +neither hoofs nor horns. The Candidate was used to being introduced +for that purpose and had certain spontaneous and cordial words which +he had said not less than ten thousand times before; with the result +that the pious Catholic gave his promise to come to the meeting that +night. + +They went out; and because some member of the Committee might be +passing on Main Street, Jimmie took his hero by an alley into a back +street; and they walked past the glass-factory, which to the +outsider was a long board fence, and across the Atlantic Western +railroad tracks, and past the carpet-factory, a huge four-story box +made of bricks; after which the rows of wooden shacks began to thin +out, and there were vacant lots and ash-heaps, and at last the +beginning of farms. + +The Candidate's legs were long, and Jimmie's, alas, were short, so +he had almost to run. The sun blazed down on them, and sweat, +starting from the Candidate's bald head stole under the band of his +straw hat and down to his wilting collar; so he took off his coat +and hung it over his arm, and went on, faster than ever. Jimmie +raced beside him, afraid to speak, for he divined that the Candidate +was brooding over the world-calamity, the millions of young men +marching out to slaughter. On the placards which Jimmie had been +distributing in Leesville, there were two lines about the Candidate, +written by America's favourite poet: + + As warm heart as ever beat + Betwixt here and judgement seat. + +So they went on for perhaps an hour, by which time they were really +in the country. They came to a bridge which crossed the river Lee, +and there the Candidate suddenly stopped, and stood looking at the +water sliding below him, and at the vista through which it wound, an +avenue of green trees with stretches of pasture and cattle grazing. +"That looks fine," he said. "Let's go down." So they climbed a +fence, and made their way along the river for a distance, until a +turn of the stream took them out of sight of the road. + +There they sat on a shelving bank, and mopped the perspiration from +their foreheads and necks, and gazed into the rippling current. You +couldn't exactly say it was crystal clear, for when there is a town +every ten miles or so along a stream, with factories pouring various +kinds of chemicals into it, the job becomes too much for the +restoring forces of Mother Nature. But it would take a dirty stream +indeed not to look inviting in midsummer after a four-mile walk. So +presently the Candidate turned to Jimmie, with a mischievous look +upon his face. "Comrade Higgins, were you ever in a swimmin' hole?" + +"Sure I was!" said Jimmie. + +"Where?" + +"Everywhere. I was on the road off an' on ten years--till I got +married." + +"Well," said the Candidate, still smiling, "what do you say?" + +"I say sure!" replied Jimmie. + +He was almost beside himself with awe, at this unbelieveable strange +fortune, this real comradeship with the hero of his dreams. To +Jimmie this man had been a disembodied intelligence, a dispenser of +proletarian inspiration, a supernatural being who went about the +country standing upon platforms and swaying the souls of multitudes. +It had never occurred to Jimmie that he might have a bare body, and +might enjoy splashing about in cool water like a boy playing +"hookey" from school. The saying is that familiarity breeds +contempt, but for Jimmie it bred rapture. + + + + +VI + + + +They walked home again, more slowly. The Candidate asked Jimmie +about his life, and Jimmie told the story of a Socialist--not one of +the leaders, the "intellectuals", but of the "rank and file". +Jimmie's father was a working man out of a job, who had left his +family before Jimmie had joined it; Jimmie's mother had died three +years later, so he did not remember her, nor could he recall a word +of the foreign language he had spoken at home, nor did he even know +what the language was. He had been taken in charge by the city, and +farmed out to a negro woman who had eight miserable starvelings +under her care, feeding them on gruel and water, and not even giving +them a blanket in winter. You might not think that possible-- + +"I know America," put in the Candidate. + +Jimmie went on. At nine he had been boarded with a woodsaw man, who +worked him sixteen hours a day and beat him in addition; so Jimmie +had skipped out, and for ten years had lived the life of a street +waif in the cities and a hobo on the road. He had learned a bit +about machinery, helping in a garage, and then, in a rush-time, he +had got a job in the Empire Machine Shops. He had stayed in +Leesville, because he had got married; he had met his wife in a +brothel, and she had wanted to quit the life, and they had taken a +chance together. + +"I don't tell that to everybody," said Jimmie. "You know--they +mightn't understand. But I don't mind you knowin'." + +"Thank you," replied the Candidate, and put his hand on Jimmie's +shoulder. "Tell me how you became a Socialist." + +There was nothing special about that, was the answer. There had been +a fellow in the shop who was always "chewing the rag"; Jimmie had +laughed at him--for his life had made him suspicious of everybody, +and if there was any sort of politician, it was just another scheme +of somebody to wear a white collar and live off the workers. But the +fellow had kept pegging away; and once Jimmie had been laid off for +a couple of months, and the family had near starved, and that had +given him time to think, and also the inclination. The fellow had +come along with some papers, and Jimmie had read them, and it dawned +upon him that here was a movement of his fellow-workers to put an +end to their torments. + +"How long ago was that?" asked the Candidate, and Jimmie answered +three years. "And you haven't lost your enthusiasm?" This with an +intensity that surprised Jimmie. No, he answered, he was not that +kind. Whatever happened, he would keep pegging away at the task of +freeing labour. He would not see the New Day, perhaps, but his +children would see it; and a fellow would work like the devil to +save his children. + +So they came to the city; and the Candidate pressed Jimmie's arm. +"Comrade," he said, "I want to tell you how much good this little +trip has done me. I owe you a debt of gratitude." + +"Me?" exclaimed Jimmie. + +"You have given me fresh hope and courage, and at a time when I felt +beaten. I got into town this morning, and I'd had no sleep, and I +tried to get some in the hotel and couldn't, because of the horror +that's happening. I wrote a dozen telegrams and sent them off, and +then I was afraid to go back to the hotel-room, because I knew I'd +only lie awake all afternoon. But now--I remember that our movement +is rooted in the hearts of the people!" + +Jimmie was trembling. But all he could say was: "I wish I could do +it every Sunday." + +"So do I," said the Candidate. + + + + +VII + + + +They walked down Main Street, and some way ahead they saw a crowd +gathered, filling the pavement beyond the kerb. "What is that?" +asked the Candidate, and Jimmie answered that it was the office of +the Herald. There must be some news. + +The other hastened his steps; and Jimmie, striding alongside, fell +silent again, knowing that the gigantic burden and woe of the world +was falling upon his hero's shoulders once more. They came to the +edge of the crowd, and saw a bulletin in front of the newspaper +office. But it was too far away for them to read. "What is it?" they +asked. + +"It says the Germans are going to march into Belgium. And they've +shot a lot of Socialists in Germany." + +"WHAT?" And the Candidate's hand clutched Jimmie's arm. + +"That's what it says." + +"My God!" exclaimed the man. And he began pushing his way into the +crowd, with Jimmie in his wake. They got to the bulletin, and stood +reading the typewritten words--a bare announcement that more than a +hundred leading German Socialists had been executed for efforts to +prevent mobilization. They continued staring, until people pushing +behind them caused them to draw back. Outside the throng they stood, +the Candidate gazing into space, and Jimmie gazing at the Candidate, +both of them dumb. It was a fact that they could not have been more +shocked if the news had referred to the members of Local Leesville +of the Socialist Party of America. + +The pain in the Candidate's face was so evident that Jimmie groped +about in his head for something comforting to say. "At least they +done what they could," he whispered. + +The other suddenly burst forth: "They are heroes! They have made the +name Socialist sacred for ever!" He rushed on, as if he were making +a speech-so strong becomes a life-time habit. "They have written +their names at the very top of humanity's roll of honour! It doesn't +make any difference what happens after this, Comrade--the movement +had vindicated itself! All the future will be changed because of +this event!" + +He began to walk down the street, talking more to himself than to +Jimmie. He was borne away on the wings of his vision; and his +companion was so thrilled that he honestly did not know where he +was. Afterwards, when he looked back upon this scene, it remained +the most wonderful event of his life; he told the story, sooner or +later, to every Socialist he met. + +Presently the Candidate stopped. "Comrade," he said, "I must go to +the hotel. I want to write some telegrams. You explain to the +Committee--I'd rather not see anyone till time for the meeting. I'll +find the way myself." + + + + + + +CHAPTER II + +JIMMIE HIGGINS HEARS A SPEECH + +I + + + + + +In the Opera-house were gathered Comrade Mabel Smith and Comrade +Meissner and Comrade Goldstein, the secretary of the Ypsels, and the +three members of the Reception Committee--Comrade Norwood, the +rising young lawyer, Comrade Dr. Service, and Comrade Schultze of +the Carpet-weavers' Union. To them rushed the breathless Jimmie. +"Have you heard the news?" + +"What is it?". + +"A hundred Socialist leaders shot in Germany!" + +"Herr Gott!" cried Comrade Schultze, in horror; and everyone turned +instinctively, for they knew how this came home to him--he had a +brother who was a Socialist editor in Leipzig, and who was liable +for the mobilization. + +"Where did you see it?" cried Schultze; and Jimmie told what he +knew. And then the clamour broke forth! Others were called from the +back part of the hall, and came running, and there were questions +and cries of dismay. Here, too, it was as if the crime had been +committed against Local Leesville--so completely did they feel +themselves one with the victims. In a town where there was a +brewery, needless to say there were German workers a-plenty; but +even had this not been so, the feeling would have been the same, for +the Socialists of the world were one, the soul of the movement was +its internationalism. The Candidate discovering that Jimmie was a +Socialist had asked and received no further introduction, but had +been instantly his friend; and so it would have been with a comrade +from Germany, Japan, or the heart of Africa--he might not have +known another word of English, the word "Socialist" would have +sufficed. + +It was a long time before they thought of any other matter; but +finally someone referred to the trouble which had fallen upon the +local--the Candidate had not showed up. And Jimmie exclaimed, "Why, +he's here!" And instantly all turned upon him. Where? When? How? + +"He came this morning." + +"And why didn't you let us know?" It was Comrade Dr. Service of the +Reception Committee who spoke, and with a decided sharpness in his +tone. + +"He didn't want anybody to know," said Jimmie. + +"Did he want us to go to the train and think he had failed us?" + +Sure enough, it was after train-time! Jimmie had entirely forgotten +both the train and the committee, and now he had not the grace to +hide his offence. All he could do was to tell his story--how he had +spent the afternoon walking in the country with the Candidate, and +how they had gone swimming, and how they had got the news from the +bulletin board, and how the Candidate had acted and what he had +said. Poor Jimmie never doubted but that his own thrill was shared +by all the others; and at the next regular meeting of the local, +when Comrade Dr. Service sat down on some proposition which Jimmie +had ventured to make, the little machinist had not the faintest idea +what he had done to deserve the snub. He was lacking in worldly +sense, he did not understand that a prosperous physician, who comes +into the movement out of pure humanitarianism, contributing his +prestige and his wealth to the certain detriment of his social and +business interests, is entitled to a certain deference from the +Jimmie Higginses, and even from a Candidate. + + + + +II + + + +You might have thought that Jimmie would be tired; but this was a +day on which the flesh had no claims. First he helped Comrade Mabel +in depositing upon every seat a leaflet containing a letter from the +local candidate for Congress; then he rushed away to catch a +street-car, and spent his last nickel to get to his home and keep +his engagement with Lizzie. He would not make with her the mistake +he had made with the Committee, you bet! + +He found that Lizzie had faithfully carried out her part of the +bargain. The three babies were done up in bright-coloured calico +dresses; she had spent the morning in washing and ironing these +garments--also her own dress, which was half-red and half-green, and +of generous, almost crinoline proportions. Lizzie herself was built +on that scale, with broad hips and bosom, big brown eyes and heavy +dark hair. She was a fine strong woman when she had shed her +bedraggled house gown, and Jimmie was proud of his capability as a +chooser of wives. It was no small feat to find a good woman, and to +recognize her, where Jimmie had found Lizzie. She was five years +older than he, a Bohemian, having been brought to America when she +was a baby. Her former name--you could hardly call it her "maiden" +name, considering the circumstances--was Elizabeth Huszar, which +she pronounced so that for a long time Jimmie had understood it to +be Eleeza Betooser. + +Jimmie snatched a bite of bread and drank a cup of metallic tasting +tea, and packed the family into the baby-carriage, and trudged the +mile and half to the centre of the city. When they arrived, Lizzie +took the biggest child, and Jimmie the other two, and so they +trudged into the Opera-house. On this hot night it was like holding +three stoves in your arms, and if the babies woke up and began to +cry, the parents would have the painful choice of missing something, +or else facing the disgusted looks of everyone about them. In +Belgium, at the "People's House", the Socialists maintained a +creche, but the American movement had not yet discovered that +useful institution. + +Already the hall was half-full, and a stream of people pouring in. +Jimmie got himself and family seated, and then turned his eager eyes +proudly to survey the scene. The would-be-congressman's circulars +which he had placed in the seats were now being read by the sitters; +the banners he had so laboriously hung were resplendent on the +walls; there was a pitcher of ice water on the speaker's table, and +a bouquet of flowers and a gavel for the chairman; the seats in the +rear of the platform for the Liederkranz were neatly ranged, most of +them already occupied by solid German figures topped by rosy German +faces: to each detail of which achievements Jimmie had lent a hand. +He had a pride of possession in this great buzzing throng, and in +the debt they owed to him. They had no idea of it, of course; the +fools, they thought that a meeting like this just grew out of +nothing! They paid their ten cents--twenty-five cents for reserved +seats--and imagined that covered everything, with perhaps even a +rake-off for somebody! They would grumble, wondering why the +Socialists persisted in charging admission for their meetings--why +they could not let people in free as the Democrats and Republicans +did. They would go to Democratic and Republican meetings, and enjoy +the brass band and the fireworks, pyrotechnical and +oratorical--never dreaming it was all a snare paid for by their +exploiters! + +Well, they would learn about it to-night! Jimmie thought of the +Candidate, and how he would impress this man and that. For Jimmie +knew scores who had got tickets, and he peered about after this one +and that, and gave them a happy nod from behind his barricade of +babies. Then, craning his neck to look behind him, suddenly Jimmie +gave a start. Coming down the aisle was Ashton Chalmers, president +of the First National Bank of Leesville; and with him-could it be +possible?--old man Granitch, owner of the huge Empire Machine Shops +where Jimmie worked! The little machinist found himself shaking with +excitement as these two tall forms strode past him down the aisle. +He gave Lizzie a nudge with his elbow and whispered into her ear; +and all around was a buzz of whispers--for, of course, everybody +knew these two mighty men, the heads of the "invisible government" +of Leesville. They had come to find out what their subjects were +thinking! Well, they would get it straight! + + + + +III + + + +The big hall was full, and the aisles began to jam, and then the +police closed the doors--something which Jimmie took as part of the +universal capitalist conspiracy. The audience began to chafe; until +at last the chairman walked out upon the stage, followed by several +important persons who took front seats. The singers stood up, and +the leader waved his wand, and forth came the Marseillaise: a French +revolutionary hymn, sung in English by a German organization--there +was Internationalism for you! With full realization of the solemnity +of this world-crisis, they sang as if they hoped to be heard in +Europe. + +And then rose the Chairman--Comrade Dr. Service. He was a fine, big +figure of a man, with grey moustache and beard trimmed to a point; +his swelling chest was covered by clean white linen and +tight-fitting broad-cloth, and he made a most imposing chairman, +reflecting credit on the movement. He cleared his throat, and told +them that they had come that evening to listen to one of America's +greatest orators, and that therefore he, the Chairman, would not +make a speech; after which he proceeded to make a speech. He told +them what a grave hour this was, and how the orator would tell them +its meaning, after which he proceeded to tell most of the things +which the orator would tell. This was a weakness of Comrade Dr. +Service--but one hesitated to point it out to him, because of his +black broad-cloth suit and his imposing appearance, and the money he +had put up to pay for the hall. + +At last, however, he called on the Liederkranz again, and a quartet +sang a German song and then an encore. And then came Comrade +Gerrity, the hustling young insurance-agent who was organizer for +the local, and whose task it was to make a "collection speech." He +had humorous ways of extracting money--"Here I am again!" he began, +and everybody smiled, knowing his bag of tricks. While he was +telling his newest funny story, Jimmie was unloading the littlest +infant into Lizzie's spare arm, and laying the other on the seat +with its head against her knee, and getting himself out into the +aisle, hat in hand and ready for business; and as soon as the +organizer ceased and the Liederkranz resumed, Jimmie set to work +gathering the coin. His territory was the reserved-seat section up +in front, where sat the two mighty magnates. Jimmie's knees went +weak, but he did his duty, and was tickled to see each of the pair +drop a coin into the hat, to be used in overthrowing their power in +Leesville! + + + + +IV + + + +The hats were taken to the box-office and emptied, and the +collection-takers and the Liederkranz singers resumed their seats. +An expectant hush fell--and then at last there strode out on the +stage the Candidate. What a storm broke out! Men cheered and clapped +and shouted. He took his seat modestly; but as the noise continued, +he was justified in assuming that it was meant for him, and he rose +and bowed; as it still continued, he bowed again, and then again. It +had been the expectation of Comrade Dr. Service to come forward and +say that, of course, it was not necessary for anyone to introduce +the speaker of the evening; but the audience, as if it had read the +worthy doctor's intention, kept on applauding, until the Candidate +himself advanced, and raised his hand, and began his speech. + +He did not stop for any oratorical preliminaries. This, he said--and +his voice trembled with emotion--was the solemnest hour that men had +ever faced on earth. That day on the bulletin-board of their local +newspaper he had read tidings which had moved him as he had never +been moved in his life, which had almost deprived him of the power +to walk upon a stage and address an audience. Perhaps they had not +heard the news; he told it to them, and there sprang from the +audience a cry of indignation. + +Yes, they might well protest, said the speaker; nowhere on all the +bloody pages of history could you find a crime more revolting than +this! The masters of Europe had gone mad in their lust for power; +they had called down the vengeance of mankind upon their crowned and +coronetted heads. Here to-night he would tell them--and the +speaker's hoarse and raucous voice mounted to a shout of rage--he +would tell them that in signing the death-warrant of those heroic +martyrs, they had sealed the doom of their own order, they had torn +out the foundation-stones from the structure of capitalist society! +The speaker's voice seemed to lift the audience from its seats, and +the last words of the sentence were drowned in a tumult of applause. + +Silence fell again, and the man went on. He had peculiar mannerisms +on the platform. His lanky form was never still for an instant. He +hurried from one end of the stage to the other; he would crouch and +bend as if he were going to spring upon the audience, a long, skinny +finger would be shaken before their faces, or pointed as if to drive +his words into their hearts. His speech was a torrent of epigram, +sarcasm, invective. He was bitter; if you knew nothing about the man +or his cause, you would find this repellent and shocking. You had to +know what his life had been--an unceasing conflict with oppression; +he had got his Socialist education in jail, where he had been sent +for trying to organize the wage-slaves of a gigantic corporation. +His rage was the rage of a tender-hearted poet, a lover of children +and of Nature, driven mad by the sight of torment wantonly +inflicted. And if ever he had seemed to you an extremist, too angry +to be excused, here to-night he had his vindication, here to-night +you saw him as a prophet. For now the master-class had torn the mask +from its face, and revealed to the whole world what were its moral +standards! At last men saw their rulers face to face! + +They have plunged mankind into a pit of lunacy. "They call it war," +cried the speaker; "but I call it murder." And he went on to picture +to them what was happening in Europe at that hour--he brought the +awful nightmare before their eyes, he showed them homes blown to +pieces, cities given to the flames, the bodies of men pierced by +bullets or torn to fragments by shells. He pictured a bayonet +plunged into the abdomen of a man; he made you see the ghastly deed, +and feel its shuddering wickedness. Men and women and children sat +spellbound; and for once no man could say aloud or feel in his heart +that the pictures of a Socialist agitator were overdrawn--no, not +even Ashton Chalmers, president of the First National Bank of +Leesville, or old Abel Granitch, proprietor of the Empire Machine +Shops! + + + + +V + + + +And what was the cause of this blackest of calamities? The speaker +went on to show that the determining motive was not racial jealousy, +but commercial greed. The fountain-head of the war was +world-capitalism, clamouring for markets, seeking to get rid of its +surplus products, to keep busy its hordes of wage-slaves at home. He +analysed the various factors; and now, with the shadow of the +European storm over their heads--now at last men and women would +listen, they would realize that the matter concerned them. He warned +them--let them not think that they were safe from the hoofs of this +war-monster, just because they were three thousand miles away! +Capitalism was a world phenomenon, and all the forces of parasitism +and exploitation which had swept Europe into this tragedy were +active here in America. The money-masters, the profit-seekers, would +leap to take advantage of the collapse over the seas; there would be +jealousies, disputes--let the audience understand, once for all, +that if world-capitalism did not make this a world-war, it would be +only because the workers of America took warning, and made their +preparations to frustrate the conspiracy. + +This was what he had come for, this was the heart of his message. +Many of those who listened were refugees from the old world, having +fled its oppressions and enslavements. He pleaded with them now, as +a man whose heart was torn by more suffering than he could bear--let +there be one part of the fair garden of earth into which the demons +of destruction might not break their way! Let them take warning in +time, let them organize and establish their own machinery of +information and propaganda--so that when the crisis came, when the +money-masters of America sounded the war-drums, there might be--not +the destruction and desolation which these masters willed, but the +joy and freedom of the Co-operative Commonwealth! + +"How many years we Socialists have warned you!" he cried. "But you +have doubted us, you have believed what your exploiters have told +you! And now, in this hour of crisis, you look at Europe and +discover who are the real friends of humanity, of civilization. What +voice comes over the seas, protesting against war? The Socialist +voice, and the Socialist voice alone! And to-night, once more, you +hear it in this hall! You men and women of America, and you exiles +from all corners of the world, make this pledge with me--make it +now, before it is too late, and stand by it when the hour of crisis +comes! Swear it by the blood of our martyred heroes, those +slaughtered German Socialists--swear that, come what will, and when +and how it will, that no power on earth or in hell beneath the earth +shall draw you into this fratricidal war! Make this resolution, send +this message to all the nations of the earth--that the men of all +nations and all races are your brothers, and that never will you +consent to shed their blood. If the money-masters and the exploiters +want war, let them have it, but let it be among themselves! Let them +take the bombs and shells they have made and go out against one +another! Let them blow their own class to pieces--but let them not +seek to lure the working-people into their quarrels!" + +Again and again, in answer to such exhortations, the audience broke +out into shouts of applause. Men raised their hands in solemn +pledge; and the Socialists among them went home from the meeting +with a new gravity in their faces, a new consecration in their +hearts. They had made a vow, and they would keep it--yes, even +though it meant sharing the fate of their heroic German comrades! + +--And then in the morning they opened their papers, looking eagerly +for more details about the fate of the heroic German comrades, and +they found none. Day after day, morning and afternoon, they looked +for more details, and found none. On the contrary, to their +unutterable bewilderment, they learned that the leaders of the +German Social-Democracy had voted for the war-budgets, and that the +rank and file of the movement were hammering out the goose-step on +the roads of Belgium and France! They could not bring themselves to +believe it; even yet they have not brought themselves to realize +that the story which thrilled them so on that fatal Sunday afternoon +was only a cunning lie sent out by the German war-lords, in the hope +of causing the Socialists of Belgium and France and England to +revolt, and so give the victory to Germany! + + + + + + +CHAPTER III + +JIMMIE HIGGINS DEBATES THE ISSUE + +I + + + + + +The grey flood of frightfulness rolled over Belgium; and every +morning, and again in the afternoon, the front page of the Leesville +newspaper was like the explosion of a bomb. Twenty-five thousand +Germans killed in one assault on Liege; a quarter of a million +Russians massacred or drowned in the swamps of the Masurian Lakes; +so it went, until the minds of men reeled. They saw empires and +civilizations crumbling before their eyes, all those certainties +upon which their lives had been built vanishing as a mist at +sunrise. + +Hitherto, Jimmie Higgins had always refused to take a daily paper. +No capitalist lies for him; he would save his pennies for the +Socialist weeklies! But now he had to have the news, and tired as he +was after the day's work, he would sit on his front porch with his +ragged feet against a post, spelling out the despatches. Then he +would stroll down to the cigar-stand of Comrade Stankewitz, a +wizened-up little Roumanian Jew who had lived in Europe, and had a +map, and would show Jimmie which was Russia, and why Germany marched +across Belgium, and why England had to interfere. It was good to +have a friend who was a man of travel and a linguist--especially +when the fighting became centred about places such as Przemysl and +Przasnyaz! + +Then every Friday night would be the meeting of the local. Jimmie +would be the first to arrive, eager to hear every word the better +informed comrades had to say, and thus to complete the education +which Society had so cruelly neglected. + +Before the war was many weeks old, Jimmie's head was in a state of +utter bewilderment; never would he have thought it possible for men +to hold so many conflicting opinions, and to hold them with such +passionate intensity! It seemed as if the world-conflict were being +fought out in miniature in Leesville. + +At the third meeting after the war began, the prosperous Dr. Service +arose, and in his impressive oratorical voice moved that the local +should send a telegram to the National Executive Committee of the +party, requesting it to protest against the invasion of Belgium; +also a telegram to the President of the United States, requesting +him to take the same action. And then what pandemonium broke loose! +Comrade Schneider, the brewery-worker, demanded to know whether +Local Leesville had ever requested the National Executive Committee +to protest against the invasion of Ireland. Had the Socialist party +ever requested the President of the United States to protect Egypt +and India from oppression? + +Comrade Dr. Service, who had remained on his feet, began a +passionate denunciation of the outrages perpetrated by the German +army in Belgium; at which Comrade Schneider's florid face turned +purple. He demanded whether all men did not know that France had +first invaded Belgium, and that the Belgians had welcomed the +French? Weren't all the Belgian forts turned toward Germany? Of +course! answered the doctor. But what of that? Was it a crime for a +man to know who was going to attack him? + +The purple-faced brewer, without heeding this question, demanded: +Did not all the world know that the French had begun the war with an +aeroplane bombardment of the German cities? The Comrade Doctor, his +face also purpling, replied that all the world knew this for a tale +sent out by the German propaganda machine. HOW did all the world +know it? roared Schneider. By a cable-censorship controlled by +British gold? + +Jimmie was much exicted by this dispute. The only trouble was that +he found himself in agreement with both sides, and with an impulse +to applaud both sides. And also he applauded the next speaker, young +Emil Forster, a pale, slender, and fair-haired youth, a designer in +the carpet-factory. Emil was one who seldom raised his voice in the +meetings, but when he did, he was heard with attention, for he was a +student and a thinker; he played the flute, and his father, also a +member of the local, played the clarinet, so the pair were +invaluable on "social evenings". In his gentle, dispassionate voice +he explained how it was not easy for people in America to understand +the dilemma of the German Socialists in the present crisis. We must +remember that the Germans were fighting, not merely England and +France, but Russia; and Russia was a huge, half-civilized land, +under perhaps the most cruel government in the world. How would +Americans feel if up in Canada there were three hundred millions of +people, ignorant, enslaved, and being drilled in huge armies? + +All right, retorted Dr. Service. But then why did not the Germans +fight Russia, and let France and Belgium alone? + +Because, answered Emil, the French would not permit that. We in +America thought of France as a republic, but we must remember that +it was a capitalist republic, a nation ruled by bankers; and these +bankers had formed an alliance with Russia, the sole possible aim of +which was the destruction of Germany. France had loaned something +like four billions of dollars to Russia. + +And then Schneider leaped up. Yes, and it was that money which had +provided the cannon and shells that were now being used in laying +waste East Prussia, the land of Schneider's birth! + + + + +II + + + +The temper of both sides was rising higher and higher, and the +neutrals made efforts to calm the dispute. Comrade Stankewitz, +Jimmie's cigar-store friend, cried out in his shrill eager voice: Vy +did we vant to git mixed up vit them European fights? Didn't we know +vat bankers and capitalists vere? Vat difference did it make to any +vorking man vether he vas robbed from Paris or Berlin? "Sure, I +know," said Stankewitz, "I vorked in both them cities, and I vas +every bit so hungry under Rothschild as I vas under the Kaiser." + +Then Comrade Gerrity, organizer of the local, took his turn. +Whatever they did, said Gerrity, they must keep their neutrality in +this war; the one hope of the world just now was in the Socialist +movement--that it would preserve the international spirit, and point +a war-torn world back to peace. Especially just now in Local +Leesville they must keep their heads, for they were beginning the +most important move in their history, the establishment of a weekly +paper. Nothing must get in the way of that! + +Yes, said Comrade Service, but they would have to determine the +policy of the paper, would they not? Were they going to protest +against injustice at home, and pay no attention to the most flagrant +act of international injustice in the history of the world? Was a +working man's paper to say nothing against the enslavement of the +working men of Europe by the Kaiser and his militarist crew? He, Dr. +Service, would wash his hands of such a paper. + +And then the members of the local gazed at one another in dismay. +Every man and woman of them knew that the prosperous doctor had +headed the list of subscribers for the soon-to-be-born Leesville +Worker with the sum of five hundred dollars. The thought of losing +this munificent contribution brought consternation even to the +Germans! + +But there was one member of the local whom no menace ever daunted. +He rose up now--lean, sallow almost to greenness, with black hair +falling into his eyes, and a cough that racked him at every other +sentence. Bill Murray was his name; "Wild Bill", the papers called +him. The red card he carried had been initialled by the secretaires +of some thirty locals all over the country. He had lost a couple of +toes under a tractor-plough in Kansas, and half a hand in a +tin-plate mill in Alleghany County; he had been clubbed insensible +in a strike in Chicago, and tarred and feathered in a free speech +fight in San Diego. And now he told the members of Local Leesville +what he thought of those tea-party revolutionists who pandered to +the respectability of a church-ridden community. "Wild Bill" had +watched the discussions over "Section Six", the provision in the +constitution of the party against sabotage and violence; the very +same persons who had been enthusiastic for that bit of middle-class +fakery were now trying to line up the local for the defence of the +British sea-power! What the hell difference did it make to any +working man whether or not the Kaiser got a railroad to Bagdad? Of +course, if a man had been to school in Britain, and had a British +wife, and felt himself a British gentleman--you could feel the +shudder that went through the gathering, for everyone knew that this +was Dr. Service--all right, let that man take the first ship across +the ocean and enlist; but let him not try to turn an American +Socialist local into a recruiting-agency for British landlords and +aristocrats. + +This brought to his feet Comrade Norwood, the young lawyer who had +helped to put through "Section Six" in the National Convention of +the party. If there were people so keen against this Section, why +couldn't they get out of the party and form an organization of their +own? + +"Because," answered Murray, "we prefer sabotage to striking!" + +"In other words," continued Norwood, "you stay in the local, and by +a campaign of sneering and personalities you drive your opponents +out!" + +"This is the first meeting for some months that we have had the +pleasure of seeing Comrade Norwood," said "Wild Bill", with venomous +placidity. "Perhaps he knew that we were to be asked to raise a +regiment for Kitchener!" + +And then again Comrade Stankewitz was on his feet, with distress in +his thin, eager face. "Comrades, all this vill not get us anyvere! +There is but vun question ve have to answer, are ve +internationalists, or are ve not?" + +"It seems to me," continued Norwood, "the question is, are we +anti-nationalists?" + +"All right!" shrilled the little Jew. "I vill leave it so--I am an +anti-nationalist! Such must all Socialists be!" + +"But I don't understand it so," declared the young lawyer. "It is +easy for some who belong to a race which has not had a country for +two thousand years--" + +"And who's dealing in personalities now?" sneered "Wild Bill". + + + + +III + + + +So matters went in Local Leesville. The upshot of the debate was +that Comrade Dr. Service declared that he washed his hands of the +Socialist Party from that time on. And the Comrade Doctor buttoned +his handsome black coat over his stately chest and stalked out of +the room. The greater part of the remainder of that meeting was +devoted to a discussion of him and his personality and his influence +in the local. He was no Socialist at all, declared Schneider, he was +an English aristocrat, or the next thing to it--his wife had two +brothers in the British Expeditionary Force, and a nephew already +enlisted in the Territorials, and a visiting cousin on the point of +setting out for Canada, as the quickest way of getting into the +mix-up. But in spite of all these damaging circumstances, the local +was not disposed to give up its most generous supporter, and Comrade +Gerrity, the organizer, and Comrade Goldstein of the Ypsels, were +constituted a committee to go and plead with him and try to bring +him back into the fold. + +As for Jimmie Higgins, his problem was not so complicated. He had no +relatives anywhere that he knew of; and if he had any "country", the +country had failed to make him aware of the fact. The first thing +the "country" had done for him was to put him into the hands of a +negro woman who fed him gruel and water and gave him no blanket in +winter. To Jimmie this country was an aggregation of owners and +bosses, who made you sweat hard for your wages, and sent the police +to club you if you made any kick. A soldier Jimmie thought of as a +fellow who came to help the police when they got hard pushed. This +soldier walked with his chest out and his nose in the air, and +Jimmie referred to him as a "tin willie", and summed him up as a +traitor to the working-class. + +And so it was easy for our little machinist to agree with the +Roumanian Jewish cigar-seller in calling himself an +"anti-nationalist". It was easy for him to laugh and applaud when "Wild +Bill" demanded what the hell difference it made to any working man +whether or not the Kaiser got a railroad to Bagdad. He did not +thrill in the least over the story of the British Army falling back +step by step across France, and holding ten times their number of +invaders. The papers called this "heroism"; but to Jimmie it was a +lot of poor fools who had had a flag waved in their eyes, and had +sold themselves for a shilling to the landlords of their country. In +one of the Socialist papers that Jimmie read, there appeared every +week a series of comic pictures in which the working man was figured +as a guileless fool by the name of "Henry Dubb". Poor Henry always +believed what he was told, and at the end of each adventure he got a +thump on the top of his nut which caused stars to sprout over the +page. And of the many adventures of Henry Dubb, the most absurd were +when he got himself into a uniform. Jimmie would cut these pictures +out and pass them round in the shop, and among his neighbours in the +row of tenement-shacks where he lived. + +Nor did it make much difference in Jimmie's feelings when he read of +German atrocities. To begin with, he did not believe in them; they +were just a part of the poison-gas of war. When men were willing to +stab one another with bayonets, and to blow one another to pieces +with bombs, they would be willing to lie about one another, you +might be sure; the governments would lie deliberately, as one of the +ways of making the soldiers fight harder. What? argued Jimmie: tell +him that Germans were a lot of savages? When he lived in a city with +hundreds of them, and met them all the time at the local? + +Here, for instance, was the Forster family; where would you find a +kinder lot of people? They were much above Jimmie in social +standing--they owned their own house and had whole shelves full of +books, and a pile of music as high as yourself; but recently Jimmie +had stopped on a Socialist errand, and they had invited him in to +supper, and there was a thin, worn, sweet-faced little woman, and +four growing daughters--nice, gentle, quiet girls--and two sons +younger than Emil; they had a pot-roast of beef, and a big dish of +steaming potatoes, and another of sauerkraut, and some queer pudding +that Jimmie had never heard of; and then they had music--they were +fairly dippy on music, that family, they would play all night if you +would listen, old Hermann Forster with his stout, black-bearded +face turned up as if he were seeing Heaven. And you wanted Jimmie to +believe that a man like that would carry a baby on a bayonet, or +rape a girl and then cut off her hands! + +Or there was Comrade Meissner, a neighbour of Jimmie's, a friendly +little chatter-box of a man who was foreman-in-charge of a dozen +women from as many different races of the earth, packing bottles in +the glass-works. The tears would come into Meissner's pale blue eyes +when he told how he was made to drive these women, sick, or in the +family way, or whatever it might be. And remember, it was an +American superintendent and an American owner who gave Meissner his +orders--not a German! The little man could not quit his job, because +he had a brood of children and a wife with something the matter with +her--nobody could tell what it was, but she took all kinds of patent +medicines, which kept the family poor. Sometimes Lizzie Higgins +would go over to see her, and the two would sit and exchange ideas +about ailments and the prices of food; and meantime Meissner would +come over to where Jimmie was minding the Jimmie babies, and the two +would puff their cobs and discuss the disputes between the +"politicians" and the "direct actionists" in the local. And you +wanted Jimmie to believe that men like Meissner were standing old +Belgian women against the walls of churches and shooting them full +of bullets! + + + + +IV + + + +But as the weeks passed, the evidence of atrocities began to pile +in, and so Jimmie Higgins was driven to a second line of defence. +Well, maybe so, but then all the armies were alike. Somebody told +Jimmie the saying of a famous general, that war was hell; and Jimmie +took to this--it was exactly what he wanted to believe! War was a +return to savagery, and the worse it became, the better Jimmie's +argument went. He was not interested in men's efforts to improve +war, by agreeing that they would kill in this way but not in that +way, they would kill this kind of people but not that kind. + +These ideas Jimmie got from his fellow members in the local, and +from the Socialist papers which came each week and from the many +speakers he heard. These speakers were men and women of burning +sincerity and with a definite and entirely logical point of view. +Whether they talked about war, crime, prostitution, political +corruption, or any other social evil, what they wanted was to tear +down the old ramshackle structure, and to put in its place something +new and intelligent. You might possibly bring them to admit slight +differences between capitalist governments but when it came to a +practical issue, to an action you found that to these people all +governments were alike--and never so much alike as in war-time! + +Nor was there ever such need for Socialist protest! Very quickly it +became apparent that it was not going to be an easy matter for +America to keep out of this world-vortex. Because American working +men did not get a living wage, and could not buy what they produced, +there was a surplus product which had to be sold abroad; so the +business of American manufacturers depended upon foreign +markets--and here suddenly were all the principal trading nations of the +world plunging in to buy all the American products they could, and to +keep their enemies from buying any at all. + +A woman speaker came to Leesville a shrewd little body with a sharp +tongue, who had these disputes figured out, and gave them in +dialogue, as in a play. Kaiser Bill says, "I want cotton" John Bull +says, "You shan't have it." Uncle Sam says, "But he has a right to +have it. Get out of the way, John Bull." But John Bull says, "I will +hold up your ships and take them into my ports." Uncle Sam says, +"No, no! Don't do that!" But John Bull does it. And then the Kaiser +says, "What sort of a fellow are you to let John Bull steal your +ships? Are you a coward, or are you secretly a friend of this old +villain?" Uncle Sam says, "John Bull, give me my German mail and my +German newspapers, at least. But John Bull answers, "You've got a +lot of German spies in your country--that's why I can't let you have +your mail. You can't have German papers because the Kaiser fills +them full of lies about me." And the Kaiser says, "If John Bull +won't let me have my cotton and my meat and all the rest of it, why +don't you stop sending anything to him?" He waits a while, and then +he says, "If you won't stop sending things to that old villain, I'll +sink the ships, that's all." And Uncle Sam cries, "But that's +against the law!" "Whose law?" says the Kaiser. "What sort of a law +is it that works only one way?" "But there are Americans on those +ships!" cries Uncle Sam. "Well, keep them off the ships!" answers +the Kaiser. "Keep them off till John Bull obeys the law." + +Put in this way the situation was easy for any Jimmie Higgins to +understand; and month by month, as the debate continued, Jimmie's +own point of view became clearer. He was not interested in sending +cotton to England, and still less in sending meat. He thought he was +lucky if he had a bit of meat twice a week himself, and it was plain +enough to him that if the fellows who owned the meat were not +allowed to ship it abroad, they might sell it in America at a price +that a working man could pay. Nor was that just greediness on +Jimmie's part; he was perfectly willing to go without meat where an +ideal was involved--look at the time and money and energy he gave to +Socialism! The point was that by sending goods to Europe, you helped +to keep up the fighting; whereas, if you quit, the fools must come +to their senses. So the Jimmie Higginses worked out their +campaign-slogan: "Starve the War and Feed America!" + + + + +V + + + +In the third month of the war, disturbing rumours began to run about +Leesville. Old Abel Granitch had taken on a contract with the +Belgian government, and the Empire Machine Shops were going to make +shells. Nothing appeared about this in the local papers, but +everybody claimed to have first-hand knowledge, and although no two +people told the same story, there must be some basis of truth in +them all. And then, one day, to Jimmie's consternation, he heard +from Lizzie that the agent of the landlord had called and served +notice that they had three days to vacate the premises. Old man +Granitch had bought the land, and the Shops were to build out that +way. Jimmie could hardly credit his ears, for he was six city blocks +from the nearest part of the Shops; but it was true, so everyone +declared; all that land had been bought up, and half a thousand +families, children and old people, and sick people, men on their +death-beds and women in child-birth--all had three days in which to +move themselves to new quarters. + +Let anyone imagine the confusion, the babel of tongues, the women on +their porches calling to one another, asking and giving advice! The +denunciations and the scoldings and the threats to resort to law! +The raids upon landlords, and how the prices went up! Jimmie hurried +off to Comrade Meissner, who had bought a house and was paying +instalments on it; Meissner, being a Socialist, did not try to +fleece him, but was glad to have help in making his payments. There +were no partitions in the garret which Jimmie rented, but they would +hang curtains and make do somehow, and Lizzie would use Mrs. +Meissner's stove until they could get something fixed upstairs. And +then to the corner grocery, to borrow a hand-cart and get started at +moving the furniture; for to-morrow everybody would be moving, and +you would not be able to get anything on wheels for love or money. +Until after midnight Jimmie and Meissner worked at transporting +babies and bedding and saucepans and chairs and chicken-coops piled +on the hand-cart. + +And next morning at the shop, more excitement! It was four years now +that Jimmie had been in the employ of old man Granitch, and in all +that time he had done but one thing; standing in a vast room amid a +confusion of whirling belts and wheels, a roar and screech and +grumble and whirl that completely annulled one of the five senses. +There came in front of him, mechanically propelled, a tray full of +small oblong blocks of steel, which he fed, one with each hand, into +two places in a machine; the machine took these blocks, and rounded +off one end, and ground the rest a little smaller, and put a thread +on it, and it dropped into a tray on the other side, a bolt. Because +Jimmie had to watch the machine, and keep the oil-cups full, his was +classed as semi-skilled labour, and was paid nineteen and a half +cents an hour. Some time ago an expert had studied the process, and +figured that with labour at that price it was one-eighth of a cent +per hour cheaper to have the work done by hand than to instal a +machine to do it; and so for four years Jimmie had his job, standing +on one spot from seven to twelve, and again from twelve-thirty to +six, and carrying home every Saturday night the sum of twelve +dollars and twenty-nine cents. You might have thought that the huge +machine-works would have made it twelve-thirty for good measure; +but if so, you do not understand large scale production. + +And now, all of an instant and without warning, Jimmie's precisely +ordered and habitual world came to an end. He was at his post when +the whistle blew, but the machinery did not move. And presently came +the Irish foreman with the curt announcement that the machinery +would never move again, at least not on that spot; it was to be +cleared out of the way, and new machinery set up, and they were to +fall to forthwith with wrenches and hammers and crow-bars to make a +new world! + +So for a week they did; and meantime, every night as he went home, +Jimmie saw people's homes being wrecked--roofs falling in clouds of +dust, and gangs of men loading the debris into huge motor-trucks. +Before long they had got acetylene torches, and were working all +night-gangs of labourers who lived in tents on vacant lots outside +the city and kept their canvas cots warm with double shifts of +sleepers. Jimmie Higgins realized the dreadful truth, that in spite +of all the agitation of Socialists, the war had actually come to +Leesville! + + + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +JIMMIE HIGGINS STRIKES IT RICH + +I + + + + + +It was some time before Jimmie understood the nature of the new +machinery he was helping to set up. It was nobody's business to +explain, for he was only a pair of hands and a strong back; he was +not supposed to be a brain--while as for a soul or a conscience, +nobody was supposed to be that. Russian agents had come to Leesville +with seventeen millions of the money which the Paris bankers had put +up; and so overnight whole blocks of homes were swept out of +existence, and a huge new steel structure was rising, and on the +spot where for four years Jimmie had made certain motions of the +hands, they were preparing to manufacture new machinery for the +quantity production of shell-casings. + +When Jimmie had definitely learned what was in process, he was +brought face to face with a grave moral problem. Could he, as an +international Socialist, spend his time making shells to kill his +German comrades? Could he spend his time making the machinery to +make the shells? Would he take the bribe of old man Granitch, a +working man's share of the hideous loot--an increase of four cents +an hour, with the prospect of another four when the works got +started? Jimmie had to meet this issue, just when it happened that +one of his babies was sick, and he was cudgelling his head to think +how he could ever squeeze out of his scanty wage the money to pay +the doctor! + +The answer was easy to Comrade Schneider, the stout and sturdy +brewer, who stood up in the local and spoke with bitter scorn of +those Socialists who stayed on in the pay of that old hell-devil, +Granitch. Schneider wanted a strike in the Empire Machine Shops, and +he wanted it that very night! But then rose Comrade Mabel Smith, +whose brother was a bookkeeper for the concern. It was all very well +for Schneider to talk, but suppose someone were to demand that the +brewery-workers should strike and refuse to make beer for +munition-workers? That was a mere quibble, argued Schneider; but the +other denied this, declaring that it was an illustration of what the +worker was up against, with no control of his own destiny, no voice +as to what use should be made of his product. A man might say that +he would have nothing to do with munition-work, and go out into the +fields as a farmer--to raise grain, to be shipped to the armies! The +solidarity of capitalist society was such that nowhere could a man +find work that would not in some way be helping to kill his +fellow-workers in other lands. + +Jimmie Higgins talked solemnly to Lizzie of moving to +Hubbardtown--tempted thereto by the signs he saw in an agency which +had been set up in a vacant store on Main Street. The Hubbard Engine +Company was trying to steal old man Granitch's workers, and was +offering thirty-two cents an hour for semi-skilled labour! Jimmie +made inquiry and learned that the company was extending its plant +for gas-engines; for what purpose was not told, but men suspected +that the engines were to go into motor-boats and be used for the +sinking of submarines. So Jimmie decided that Comrade Mabel Smith +was right; he might as well stay where he was. He would take as much +money as he could get and use his new-found prosperity to make +trouble for the war-profiteers. It was the first time in his life +that Jimmie had ever been free from money-fear. He could now get a +job anywhere at good wages, and so he did not care a hang what the +boss might say. He would talk to his fellow-workers, and explain the +war to them; a war of the capitalists at present, but destined +perhaps to turn into another kind of war, which the capitalists +would not find to their taste! + + + + +II + + + +It was wonderful, incredible, the thing which had befallen +Leesville. Full of hatred for the system as Jimmie Higgins was, he +could not but be thrilled by what he saw. Thousands of men pouring +into the once commonplace little city--men of a score of races and +creeds, men old and young, white and black--even a few yellow ones! +It was a boom like San Francisco in '49; the money which the Paris +bankers had paid to the Russian government, and which the Russian +government had paid to old man Granitch, spread out in a golden +flood over the city. The speculators raised the price of land, the +house-owners raised rents, the hotels doubled their prices, and even +so, had to put people to bed on pool tables! Even Tom Callahan of +the "Buffeteria"' had to hire two assistants, and build an +extension, and move his kitchen into the back yard. + +At night the hordes of strangers roamed the streets, and Lipsky's +"Picture Palace" was packed to the doors, and the "Bon Marche Shoe +Stores" had a new bankruptcy sale every week, and the swinging doors +of the saloons were never still for hours on end. Of course, where +so many men were gathered, there came women--swarms of women--of as +many races as the men. Leesville had some two score churches, and +had kept hitherto a careful pretence of decency; but now all +barriers went down, the police-force of the city was overwhelmed by +the new population--or was it by the golden flood from Paris by way +of Russia? Anyway, you saw sights on Main Street which confirmed +your distrust of war. + +Never had there been such an opportunity for Socialist propaganda! +All these hordes of men, collected from the ends of the earth, torn +loose from home ties, from religion, from old habits of every sort, +thrown together promiscuously, living in any old way, ready for any +old thing that might come along! In former days these men had taken +what was handed out to them by their newspaper editors and preachers +and politicians; they had engaged in commonplace and respectable +activities, had lived tame and unadventurous lives. But now they +were making munitions; and you might say what you pleased, but there +was a certain psychological condition incidental to the making of +munitions. An employer could look pious and talk about law and +order, so long as he was setting his men to hoeing weeds or +shingling roofs or grading track; but what could he say to his men +when he was making shells to be used in blowing men to pieces? + +So came the Socialist and the Anarchist and the Syndicalist and the +Industrial Unionist. Look at these masters, look at this +civilization they have produced! In the world's oldest centres of +culture ten or twenty millions of wage-slaves have been hurled +together--and then the Socialist or Anarchist or Syndicalist or +Industrial Unionist would describe in detail the bloody and bestial +operations which these ten or twenty millions of men were +performing. And each day's papers would bring fresh details for them +to cite--famine and pestilence, fire and slaughter, poison gas, +incendiary bombs, torpedoed passenger-ships. Look at these pious +hypocrites, the masters, with their refinement, their culture, their +religion! These are the people you are asked to follow, it is for +such as these that you have been chained to the machines all these +weary, toil-crowded years! + + + + +III + + + +On every street corner, in every meeting-room, in every spot where +the workers gathered at the noon hour, you would hear such +arguments; and you would find men listening to them--men who perhaps +had never listened to such arguments before. They would nod, and +their faces would become grim--yes, the people up on top must be a +rotten lot! Here in America, supposed to be a land of liberty and +all that--here they were just the same, they were crowding to the +trough to drink the blood that was poured out in Europe. Of course, +they covered their greed with a camouflage of sympathy for the +Allies; but did anybody believe that old man Granitch loved the +Russian government? Certainly nobody in Leesville did; they knew +that he was "getting his", and their hearts hardened with a grim +resolve to "get theirs". + +At first they thought they were succeeding. Wages went up, almost +for the asking; never did the unskilled man have so much money in +his pocket, while the man who could pretend to any skill at all +found himself in the plutocratic class. But quickly men discovered +the worm in this luscious war-fruit; prices were going up almost as +fast as wages--in some places even faster. The sums you had to pay +to the landlord surpassed belief; a single working man would be +asked two or three dollars a week for twelve hours' use of a +mattress and blanket, which in the old days he might have got for +fifty cents. Food was scarce and of poor quality; before long you +found yourself being asked to pay six cents for a hunk of pie or a +cup of coffee--and then seven cents, and then ten. If you kicked, +the proprietor would tell you a long tale about what he had to pay +for rent and labour and supplies; and you could not deny that he was +probably right. About the only thing that did not go up was a +postage-stamp; and the Socialist would point to this and explain +that the Post Office was run by Uncle Sam, instead of by Abel +Granitch! + +Every rise in price was a fresh stick of fuel for the Socialist +machine, and gave new power to their propaganda of "Starve the War +and Feed America!" The Socialist saw millions of tons of goods being +loaded into steamships and sent to Europe to be destroyed in war; he +saw the workers of Europe becoming enslaved by a bonded debt to a +class of parasites in America, he saw America being drawn closer and +closer to the abyss of the strife. The Socialist loved no part of +this process. He clamoured for an embargo--not merely on munitions, +but on food and everything, until the war-lords of Europe came to +their senses. He urged the workers to strike, and thus force the +politicians to declare the embargo. + +Especially, of course, he urged this if he were a German or an +Austrian, a Hungarian or a Bohemian. The latter were subject races, +but they could not in these early days see beyond the fact that +their fathers and brothers and cousins were being killed by the +shells that were made in the Empire Machine Shops. With them stood +also the Jews, who hated the Russian government so bitterly that +nothing else mattered; also the Irish, whose first idea in life was +to pay back John Bull for his sins of several centuries, and whose +second idea was to take part in any sort of shivaree that was going. +It was quite bewildering to Jimmie Higgins; he had wrestled with +Catholics of several nations and got nothing but hard words for his +pains, but now all of a sudden Tom Callahan of the "Buffeteria" and +Pat Grogan of the grocery on the corner made the discovery that +maybe he was not such a fool after all! + + + + +IV + + + +As a result of this ferment among the workers, the local had doubled +its membership, and was holding soap-box meetings on a corner off +Main Street on two evenings every week. The plans for the weekly +paper, however, still hung fire. Comrade Dr. Service had lost his +two brothers-in-law, one in the battle of Mons, and the other in the +first frightful gas-attack at Ypres, where whole regiments of men +were caught unprepared and died in awful torments. Also two of his +wife's cousins had paid the price--one was blind, and the other a +prisoner at Ruhleben, the worst fate of all. So Dr. Service made one +last indignant speech in the local, and took his five hundred +dollars to start a chapter of the Red Cross! + +But now the Germans and the war-haters in the local were asking +themselves, was Socialism to languish in the city of the Empire +Machine Shops, just because one rich man with an English wife had +proved a renegade? Such a question answered itself! The work of +collecting subscription lists was taken up more vigorously than +ever; and already more than half the lost five hundred had been made +up, when one evening John Meissner came home with a most amazing +story. + +It was his custom to stop at Sandkuh's for one glass of beer on his +way home in the evening; and when anybody in the saloon got to +arguing about the war, he would take his chance to put in a little +propaganda. This time he had made a regular speech, declaring that +the workers would soon put an end to the munition-business; and a +fellow had got to talking with him, asking him all sorts of +questions about himself, and about the local. How many members did +it have? How many of them felt as Meissner did? What were they doing +about it? Pretty soon the man had drawn Meissner to a table in the +back part of the place, asking about the proposed paper, and what +its policy was to be; also about the unions in the city, and their +policy, and the personalities of the leaders. + +The man had said he was a Socialist, but Meissner did not believe +him. Meissner thought he must be some kind of union organizer. There +had been talk of various unions making an effort to break into the +domain of old man Granitch; and, of course, there was always the I. +W. W. trying to break in everywhere with its programme of the "one +big union". + +Meissner went on to tell how this mysterious stranger had stated to +him that it would be possible to get plenty of money to back the +proposition of a strike in the Empire Shops. The new plant was just +ready to start up, and fresh swarms of men were coming in; what was +wanted was some live fellows to get in with them and agitate for an +eight hour day and a minimum wage scale of sixty cents an hour. Men +who were willing to do that could get good money, and plenty of it; +if the Leesville Worker would advocate such a policy, there was no +reason why it should not start up the very next week, and publish a +big edition and flood the town. The one essential was that +arrangements should be made secretly. Meissner must trust no one +save dyed-in-the-wool "reds", who would be willing to hustle, and +not say where the pay came from. As earnest of his intentions, the +stranger pulled out a roll of bills, and casually drew off half a +dozen and slipped them into Meissner's hands. They were for ten +dollars each--more money than a petty boss at the glass-works had +ever got into his hands at one time in all his life! + +Meissner exhibited the roll, and Jimmie stared with wide-open eyes. +Here indeed was a new development of the war--ten dollar bills for +Socialist propaganda to be picked up in the back rooms of saloons! +What was this fellow's name? And where did he hang out? Meissner +offered to take Jimmie to meet him, and so the two bolted their +suppers and set out at top speed. + + + + +V + + + +Jerry Coleman had mentioned several saloons where he was known, and +in one of these they found him, a smooth-faced, smooth-spoken young +fellow whom Jimmie would have taken for a detective or +"spotter"--having had dealings with such in his days "on the road". +The man wore good clothes, and his finger-nails were cared for, +something which, as we know, is seldom permitted to working-men. But +he did not put on airs, and he bade them call him by his first name. +He talked to Jimmie a while, enough to make sure of his man, and +then he peeled off some more bills, and told Jimmie to find more +fellows who could be trusted. It wouldn't do for any one person to +have too much money, for that would excite suspicion; but if they +would go to work and spend that much for dodgers to be distributed +among the munition-workers, and for street-meetings, and for the +proposed radical paper--well, there was plenty more money in the +place where this had come from. + +Where was that place? Jimmie asked; and Jerry Coleman looked wise +and winked. Then, after further consideration, he decided it might +be well to tell them, provided they would pledge themselves not to +mention it to others without his permission. This pledge they gave, +and Jerry stated that he was a national organizer for the American +Federation of Labour, which had resolved to unionize these +munition-plants, and to establish the eight hour day. But it was of +the utmost importance that the bosses should not get wind of the +matter; it must not be revealed to anyone save those whom Coleman +saw fit to trust. He was trusting Jimmie and Meissner, and they +might know that the great labour organization was behind them, and +would see them through regardless of expense. Of course, it would be +expected that they would use the money honestly. + +"Gee!" exclaimed Jimmie. "What do you take us for? A bunch of +crooks?" + +No, said the other, he was not such a poor judge of character. And +Jimmie remarked grimly that anybody who was looking for easy money +did not go into the business of Socialist agitation. If there was +anything a Socialist could boast of, it was that their workers and +elected officials never touched any graft. Mr. Coleman--that is, +Jerry--would be handed a receipt for every dollar they spent. + +It chanced that that same night there was a meeting of the +Propaganda Committee of the local, which consisted of half a dozen +of the most active members. Jimmie and Meissner hurried to this +place, with their new-found wealth burning a hole in their pockets. +They informed the committee that they had been collecting money for +the propaganda fund, and produced before the eyes of the astounded +comrades the sum of one hundred dollars. + +It happened that the chairman of the committee had just received +from the National Office of the party in Chicago a sample of a new +leaflet entitled "Feed America First"; this leaflet could be had in +quantities for a very low price, a dollar or two per thousand; as a +result of Jimmie's contribution, a telegram was sent for ten +thousand of the leaflets to be shipped by express. And then there +was a proposition from the state office for Comrade Seaman, author +of a book against war, to speak every night for two weeks in +Leesville. The local had voted to turn down his proposition for lack +of funds; but now, with the new contributions, the propaganda +committee felt equal to the fifty dollars involved. And then there +was the idea of Comrade Gerrity, the organizer, who was conducting +street meetings every Wednesday and Saturday nights; if he could +have an assistant, at fifteen a week, the soap-boxing could go on +every night. John Meissner here put in--he was sure that +contributions could be got for that purpose, provided the decision +was made without delay. So the decision was made. + + + + +VI + + + +The meeting was adjourned, and then Meissner and Jimmie went into +conference with Gerrity, the organizer, and Schneider, the brewer, +and Comrade Mary Allen, all three of whom happened to be on the +committee entrusted with the affairs of the Worker. Jimmie explained +that they had met a union organizer--they could not tell about him, +but the committee would have a chance to meet him--who would put up +the balance of the money needed, provided that the paper would be +willing to call at once for a strike of the Empire employees. Could +that promise be made? And Comrade Mary Allen laughed, indicating her +scorn for anybody who could cherish a doubt on that question! +Comrade Mary was a Quaker; she loved all mankind with religious +fervour--and it is astonishing how bitter people can become in the +cause of universal love. Her sharp, pale face flushed, and her thin +lips set, as she answered that the Worker would most surely fight +the war-profiteers, so long as she was on the managing committee! + +It was finally decided that Comrade Mary should call on Jerry +Coleman in the morning, and satisfy herself that he really meant +business; if so, she would get the full committee together on the +following evening. The committee had authority to go ahead, as soon +as the necessary fund was made up, so if Coleman was all right, +there was no reason why the first issue of the paper should not +appear next week. Comrade Jack Smith, a reporter on the Herald, the +capitalist paper of Leesville, was to resign and become editor of +the Worker, and he already had his editorials written--had been +showing them about in the local for the past month! + +Jimmie and Meissner set out for home, happy in the feeling that they +had accomplished more for Socialism on that one night than in all +the rest of their lives. But then, as they walked, there came +suddenly a clamour of bells on the night air; a fire! They knew the +signals, and counted the strokes, and made the discovery that it was +in the neighbourhood of their own home! An engine went by on the +gallop, with sparks streaming out behind, and they broke into a run. +Before they had gone a couple of blocks, they saw a glare in the +sky, and their hearts were in their throats; poor Meissner panted +that he had neglected to pay his last month's insurance! + +But as they ran, in the ever-growing throng of people, they realized +that the fire was too near for their own home; also, it was a bigger +blaze than could have been made by any number of shacks. And +presently there were shouts in the crowd, "It's the Empire! The Old +Shops!" There came a hook and ladder truck, rushing by with +shrieking siren, and then the fire-chief in his automobile with a +fiercely clanging bell; they turned the corner, and far down the +street before them was the building in which for four years Jimmie +had tended the bolt-making machine. They saw that one whole end of +it was a towering, leaping, sweeping pillar of flames! + + + + + + +CHAPTER V + +JIMMIE HIGGINS HELPS THE KAISER + +I + + + + + +Jimmie Higgins regarded with the utmost resentment the determination +of the war to come to Leesville, in spite of all his labours to keep +it out. Take the most preposterous thing you could imagine--the most +idiotic thing on the face of the earth--take German spies! When +Jimmie heard people talking about German spies, he laughed in their +faces, he told them they were a bunch of fools, they belonged in the +nursery; for Jimmie classed German spies with goblins, witches and +sea-serpents. And here suddenly the bewildered little man found +himself in the midst of a German spy mania, the like of which he +could never have dreamed! + +Everybody seemed to take it for granted that the Empire Machine +Shops had been burned by German agents; they just knew it, and by +the time the fire was out they had a hundred various stories to +support their conviction. The fire had leaped from place to place in +a series of explosions; the watchman, who had passed through the +building only two minutes before, had rushed back and seen blazing +gasolene, and had almost lost his life in the sweep of the flames. +And next morning the Leesville Herald was out with letters half a +foot high, telling these tales and insisting that the plant had been +full of German agents, disguised as working men. + +Before the day was by the police had arrested a dozen perfectly +harmless German and Austrian labourers; at least that was the way it +seemed to Jimmie, because of the fact that two of the men were +members of the Socialist local. Somebody told Mrs. Meissner that all +the Germans in Leesville were to be arrested, and the poor woman was +trembling with terror. She wanted her husband to run away, but +Jimmie persuaded them that this would be the worst possible course; +so Meissner stayed in the house, and Jimmie kept his mouth shut for +three whole days--an extraordinary feat for him, and a trial more +severe than being in gaol. + +He had lost his job--for ever, he thought. But in this again he +misjudged the forces which had taken his life in their grip--the +power of the gold which had come to Leesville by way of Russia. The +day after the fire he received word to report for work again; old +man Granitch was so anxious to keep his workers out of the clutches +of the Hubbard Engine Company that he put them all, skilled and +unskilled, at the job of clearing away the debris of the fire! And +five days later came the first carloads of new material, brought on +motor-trucks, and the rebuilding of the Empire Shops began. Would +you believe it--some of the machinery which had not been damaged too +much in the fire was fixed up, and at the end of a couple of weeks +was starting up again, covered by a temporary canvas shelter, and +with the walls of the new building rising round it! + +That was the kind of thing which made America the marvel of the +world. It had made old man Granitch young again, people said; he +worked twenty hours a day in his shirt-sleeves, and the increase in +his profanity was appalling. Even Lacey Granitch, his dashing son, +quitted the bright lights of Broadway and came home to help the old +man keep his contracts. The enthusiasm for these contracts became as +it were the religion of Leesville; it spread even to the ranks of +labour, so that Jimmie found himself like a man in a surf, +struggling to keep his feet against an undertow. + + + + +II + + + +The plans for the Worker were delayed, for the reason that when +Comrade Mary Allen, the Quaker, went to look for Jerry Coleman the +day after the fire, that dispenser of ten dollar bills had +mysteriously disappeared. It was a week before he showed up again; +and meantime fresh events had taken place, both in the local and +outside. To begin with the latter, as presumably the more important, +an English passenger liner, the pride of the Atlantic fleet, loaded +to the last cabin with American millionaires, was torpedoed without +warning by a German submarine. More than a thousand men, women and +children went down, and the deed sent a shudder of horror through +the civilized world. At the meeting of Local Leesville, which +happened to take place the evening afterward, it proved a difficult +matter to get business started. + +The members stood about and argued. What could you say about a +government that ordered a crime like that? What could you say about +a naval officer who would carry out such an order? Thus Comrade +Norwood, the young lawyer; and Schneider, the brewer, answered that +the German government had done everything that any reasonable man +could ask. It had published a notice in the New York papers, to the +effect that the vessel was subject to attack, and that anyone who +travelled on her would do so at his peril. If women and children +would ride on munition-ships-- + +"Munition-ships?" cried Norwood; and then Schneider pointed to a +news-dispatch, to the effect that the Lusitania had had on board a +shipment of cartridge-cases. + +"A fine lot of munitions!" jeered the lawyer. + +Well, was the reply, what were cartridge-cases for, if not to kill +Germans? The Germans had been attacked by the whole world, and they +had to defend themselves. When you looked at Comrade Schneider, you +saw a man who felt himself attacked by the whole world; his face was +red up to the roots of his hair, and he was ready to defend himself +with any weapon he could get hold of. + +Comrade Koeln, a big glass-blower, broke into the discussion. The +German government was authority for the statement that the Lusitania +had been armed with guns. And when Norwood hooted at this, every +German in the room was up in arms. What did he have to disprove it? +The word of the British government! Was not "perfidious Albion" a +byword! + +"The thing that beats me," declared the young lawyer, "is the way +you Germans stand up for the Kaiser now, when before the war you +couldn't find enough bad things to say about him." + +"What beats me," countered Schneider, "is how you Americans stand up +for King George. Every newspaper in Wall Street howling for America +to go into the war--just because some millionaires got killed!" + +"You don't seem to realize that the greater number of the men who +lost their lives on that ship were working men!" + +"Ho! Ho!" hooted Comrade Stankewitz. "Vall Street loves so the +vorking men!" + +Comrade Mary Allen, who loved all men, took up the argument. If +those working men had been killed in a mine disaster, caused by +criminal carelessness and greed for profits; if they had died of +some industrial disease which might easily have been prevented; if +they had been burned in a factory without fire-escapes--nobody in +Wall Street would have wanted to go to war. And, of course, every +Socialist considered this was true; every Socialist saw quite +clearly that the enormity of the Lusitania sinking lay in the fact +that it had reached and injured the privileged people, the people +who counted, who got their names in the papers and were not supposed +to be inconvenienced, even by war. So it was possible for Jimmie +Higgins, even though shocked by what the Germans had done, to be +irritated by the fuss which the Wall Street newspapers made. + +Young Emil Forster spoke, and they listened to him, as they always +did. It was a quarrel, he said--and as usual in quarrels, both sides +had their rights and wrongs. You had to balance a few English and +American babies against the millions of German babies which the +British government intended to starve. It was British sea-power +maintaining itself--and of course controlling most of the channels +of publicity. It appealed to what it called "law"--that is to say, +the customs it had found convenient in the past. British cruisers +were able to visit and search vessels, and to take off their crews; +but submarines could not do that, so what the British clamour about +"law" amounted to was an attempt to keep Germany from using her only +weapon. After all, ask yourself honestly if it was any worse to +drown people quickly than to starve them slowly. + +And then came "Wild Bill". This wrangling over German and British +gave him a pain in the guts. Couldn't they see, the big stiffs, that +they were playing the masters' game? Quarrelling among themselves, +when they ought to be waking up the workers, getting ready for the +real fight. And wizened-up little Stankewitz broke in again--that +vas vy he hated var, it divided the vorkers. There was nothing you +could say for var. But "Wild Bill" smiled his crooked smile. There +were several things you could say. War gave the workers guns, and +taught them to use them; how would it be if some day they turned +these guns about and fought their own battles? + + + + +III + + + +Comrade Gerrity now took the chair and made an effort to get things +started. The minutes of the last meeting were read, new members were +voted on, and then Comrade Mary Allen rose to report for the Worker +committee. The fund had been completed, the first number of the +paper was to appear next week, and it was now up to every member of +the local to get up on his toes and hustle as never in his life +before. Comrade Mary, with her thin, eager face of a religious +zealot, made everyone share her fervour. + +All save Lawyer Norwood. Since the retirement of Dr. Service he was +the chief pro-ally trouble-maker, and he now made a little speech. +He had been agreeably surprised to learn that the money had been +raised so quickly; but then certain uncomfortable doubts having +occurred to him, he had made inquiries and found there was some +mystery about the matter. It was stated that the new paper was to +demand a general strike in the Empire; and of course everybody knew +there were powerful and sinister forces now interested in promoting +strikes in munition factories. + +"Wild Bill" was on his feet in an instant. Had the comrade any +objection to munition workers demanding the eight hour day? + +"No," said Norwood, "of course not; but if we are going into a fight +with other people, we surely ought to know who they are and what +their purpose is. I have been informed--there seems to be a little +hesitation in talking about it--that a lot of money has been put up +by one man, and nobody knows who that man is." + +"He's an organizer for the A. F. of L.!" The voice was Jimmie's. In +his excitement the solemn pledge of secrecy was entirely forgotten! + +"Indeed!" said Norwood. "What is his name?" + +Nobody answered. + +"Has he shown his credentials?" Again silence. + +"Of course, I don't need to tell men as familiar with union affairs +as the comrades here that every bona-fide organizer for a union +carries credentials. If he does not produce them, it is at least +occasion for writing to the organization and finding out about him. +Has anybody done that?" + +Again there was silence. + +"I don't want to make charges," said Norwood-- + +"Oh, no!" put in "Wild Bill". "You only want to make insinuations!" + +"What I want to do is merely to make sure that the local knows what +it is doing. It is no secret anywhere in Leesville that money is +being spent to cause trouble in the Empire. No doubt this money has +passed through a great many hands since it left the Kaiser's, but we +may be sure that his hands are guiding it to its final end." + +And then what an uproar! "Shame! Shame!" cried some; and others +cried, "Bring your proofs!" The "wild" members shouted, "Put him +out!" They had long wanted to get rid of Norwood, and this looked to +be their chance. + +But the young lawyer stood his ground and gave them shot for shot. +They wanted proofs, did they? Suppose they had learned of a +capitalist conspiracy to wreck the unions in the city; and suppose +that the Leesville Herald had been clamouring for "proofs"--what +would they have thought? + +"In other words," shouted Schneider, "you know it's true, yust +because it's Yermany!" + +"I know it's true," said Norwood, "because it would help Germany to +win the war. One doesn't have to have any other evidence--if a +certain thing will help Germany to win the war, one knows that thing +is being done. All you Germans know that, and what's more, you're +proud of it; it's your efficiency that you boast." + +Again there was a cry of "Shame! Shame!" But the cry came from +Comrade Mary, the Quaker lady, and it was evident that she had +expected a chorus, and was disconcerted at being alone. + +Young Norwood, who knew his Germans, laughed scornfully. "Just now +your government is selling bonds in America, supposed to be for the +benefit of the families of the dead and wounded. Some of those bonds +have been taken in this city, as I happen to know. Does anybody +really believe the money will reach the families of the dead and +wounded?" + +This time the Germans answered. "I belief it!" roared Comrade Koeln. +"And I! And I!" shouted others. + +"That money is staying right here in Leesville!" proclaimed the +lawyer. "It is preparing a strike in the Empire!" + +A dozen men wanted the floor at once. Schneider, the brewer, got it, +for the reason that he could outbellow anyone else. "What does the +comrade want?" he demanded. "Is he not for the eight hour day?" + +"Has he got any of the old man Granitch's money?" shrilled "Wild +Bill". "Or maybe he doesn't know that Granitch is spending money to +get smart young lawyers to help keep his munition slaves at work?" + + + + +IV + + + +Norwood, having thrown the fat into the fire, sat down for a while +and let it blaze. When the Germans taunted him with being afraid to +say what he really meant--that the local should oppose the demand +for the eight hour day--he merely laughed at them. He had wanted to +make them show themselves up, and he had done it. Not merely were +they willing to do the work of the Kaiser--they were willing to take +the Kaiser's pay for doing it! + +"Take his pay?" cried "Wild Bill". "I'd take the devil's pay to +carry on Socialist propaganda!" + +Old Hermann Forster rose and spoke, in his gentle sentimental voice. +If it were true that the Kaiser was paying money for such ends, he +would surely find he had bought very little. There were Socialists +in Germany, one must remember-- + +And then came a shrill laugh. Those tame German Socialists! It was +Comrade Claudel, a Belgian jeweller, who spoke. Would any rabbit be +afraid of such revolutionists as them? Eating out of the Kaiser's +hand--having their papers distributed in the trenches for government +propaganda! Talk to a Belgian about German Socialists! + +So you saw the European national lines splitting Local Leesville in +two: on the one side, the Germans and the Austrians, the Russian +Jews, the Irish and the religious pacifists; on the other side, two +English glass-blowers, a French waiter, and several Americans who, +because of college-education or other snobbish weakness, were +suspected of tenderness for John Bull. Between these extreme +factions stood the bulk of the membership, listening bewildered, +trying to grope their way through the labyrinth. + +It was no easy job for these plain fellows, the Jimmie Higginses. +When they tried to think the matter out, they were almost brought to +despair. There were so many sides to the question--the last fellow +you met always had a better argument than anyone you had heard +before! You sympathized with Belgium and France, of course; but +could you help hating the British ruling classes? They were your +hereditary enemies--your school-book enemies, so to speak. And they +were the ones you knew most about; since every American jack-ass +that got rich quick and wanted to set himself up above his fellows +would proceed to get English clothes and English servants and +English bad manners. To the average plain American, the word English +stood for privilege, for ruling class culture, the things +established, the things against which he was in rebellion; Germany +was the I. W. W. among the nations--the fellow who had never got a +chance and was now hitting out for it. Moreover, the Germans were +efficient; they took the trouble to put their case before you, they +cared what you thought about them; whereas the Englishman, damn him, +turned up his snobbish nose, not caring a whoop what you or anybody +might think. + +Moreover, in this controversy the force of inertia was on the German +side, and inertia is a powerful force in any organization. What the +Germans wanted of American Socialists was simply that they should go +on doing what they had been doing all their lives. And the Socialist +machine had been set up for the purpose of going on, regardless of +all the powers on earth, in the heavens above the earth, or in hell +beneath. Ask Jimmie Higgins to stop demanding higher wages and the +eight hour day! Wouldn't anybody in his senses know what Jimmie +would answer to that proposition? Go chase yourself! + + + + +V + + + +But, on the other hand, it must be admitted that Jimmie was +staggered by the idea that he might be getting into the pay of the +Kaiser. It was true that the traditions of the Socialist movement +were German traditions, but they were German anti-Government +traditions: Jimmie regarded the Kaiser as the devil incarnate, and +the bare idea of doing anything the Kaiser wanted done was enough to +make him stop short. He could see also what a bad thing it would be +for the movement to have any person believe that it was taking the +Kaiser's money. Suppose, for example, that a report of this +evening's discussion should reach the Herald! And with the public +inflamed to madness over the Lusitania affair! + +After the discussion had proceeded for an hour or so, Norwood made a +motion to the effect that the Worker committee should be instructed +to investigate thoroughly the sources of all funds contributed, and +to reject any that did not come from Socialists, or those in +sympathy with Socialism. The common sense of the meeting asserted +itself, and even the Germans voted for this motion. Sure, let them +go ahead and investigate! The Socialist movement was clean, it had +always been clean, it had nothing to conceal from anyone. + +But then came another controversy. Claudel moved that Norwood should +be made a member of the committee; and this, of course, was bitterly +opposed by the radicals. It was an insult to the integrity of the +committee. Then, too, suggested Baggs, an Englishman, perhaps +Norwood might really find out something! The Jimmie Higginses voted +down the motion--not because they feared any disclosures, but +because they felt that a quiet, sensible fellow like Gerrity, their +organizer, might be trusted to protect the good faith of the +movement, and without antagonizing anybody or making a fuss. + +The investigation took place, and the result of it was that the +money which Jerry Coleman had contributed for the Worker was quietly +returned to him. But the difference was at once made up by the +Germans in the local, who regarded the whole thing as a put-up job, +an effort to block the agitation for a strike. These comrades took +no stock whatever in the talk about "German gold"; but on the other +hand they were keenly on the alert for the influence of Russian +gold, which they knew was being openly distributed by old Abel +Granitch. And so they put their hands down into their pockets and +dug out their scanty wages, so that the demand for social justice +might be kept alive in Leesville. + +The upshot of the whole episode was that the local rejected the +Kaiser's pay, but went on doing what the Kaiser wanted without pay. +This could hardly be considered a satisfactory solution, but it was +the best that Jimmie Higgins was able to work out at this time. + + + + +VI + + + +The first issue of the Worker appeared, with Jack Smith's editorial +spread over the front page, calling upon the workers of the Empire +to take this occasion to organize and demand their rights. "Eight +hours for work, eight hours for sleep, eight hours for play!" +proclaimed Comrade Jack; and the Herald and the Courier, stung to a +frenzy by the appearance of a poacher on their journalistic +preserves, answered with broadsides about "German propaganda". The +Herald got the story of what had happened in the local; also it +printed a picture of "Wild Bill", and an interview with that terror +of the West, who declared that he was for war on the capitalist +class with the aid of any and every ally that came along--even to +the extent of emery powder in ball-bearings and copper nails driven +into fruit trees. + +The Herald charged that the attitude of the Socialists toward +"tainted wealth" was all a sham. What had happened was simply that +the German members of the local were getting German money, and +making it "Socialist money" by the simple device of passing it +through their consecrated hands. As this had been hinted by Norwood +in the local, the German comrades now charged that Norwood had +betrayed the movement to the capitalist press. And so came another +bitter controversy in the local. The young lawyer laughed at the +charge. Did they really believe they could take German money in +Leesville, and not have the fact become known? + +"Then you think we are taking German money?" roared Schneider; and +he clamoured furiously for an answer. The other would not answer +directly, but he told them a little parable. He saw a tree, sending +down its roots into the ground, spreading everywhere, each tiny +rootlet constructed for the purpose of absorbing water. And on the +top of the ground was a man with a supply of water, which he poured +out; he poured and poured without stint, and the water seeped down +toward the rootlets, and every rootlet was reaching for water, +pushing toward the places where water was likely to be. "And now," +said Norwood, "you ask me, do I believe that tree has been getting +any of that water?" + +And here, of course, was the basis of a bitter quarrel. The +hot-heads would not listen to subtle distinctions; they declared +that Norwood was accusing the movement of corruption, he was making +out his anti-war opponents to be villains! He was providing the +capitalist press with ammunition. For shame! for shame! "He's a +stool-pigeon!" shrieked "Wild Bill". "Put him out, the Judas!" + +The average member of the local, the perfectly sincere fellow like +Jimmie Higgins, who was wearing himself out, half-starving himself +in the effort to bring enlightenment to his class, listened to these +controversies with bewildered distress. He saw them as echoes of the +terrible national hatreds which were rending Europe, and he resented +having these old world disputes thrust into American industrial +life. Why could he not go on with his duty of leading the American +workers into the co-operative commonwealth? + +Because, answered the Germans, old man Granitch wanted to keep the +American workers as munition-slaves; and to this idea the +overwhelming percentage of the membership agreed. They were not +pacifists, non-resistants; they were perfectly willing to fight the +battles of the working-class; what they objected to was having to +fight the battles of the master-class. They wanted to go on, as they +had always gone, opposing the master-class and paying no heed to +talk about German agents. Jimmie Higgins believed--and in this +belief he was perfectly correct--that even had there been no German +agents, the capitalist papers of Leesville would have invented them, +as a means of discrediting the agitators in this crisis. Jimmie +Higgins had lived all his life in a country in which his masters +starved and oppressed him, and when he tried to help himself, met +him with every weapon of treachery and slander. So Jimmie had made +up his mind that one capitalist country was the same as another +capitalist country, and that he would not be frightened into +submission by tales about goblins and witches and sea-serpents and +German spies. + + + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +JIMMIE HIGGINS GOES TO JAIL + +I + + + + + +Every evening now the party held its "soap-box" meetings on a corner +just off Main Street. Jimmie, having volunteered as one of the +assistants, would bolt his supper in the evening and hurry off to +the spot. He was not one of the speakers, of course--he would have +been terrified at the idea of making a speech; but he was one of +those whose labours made the speaking possible, and who reaped the +harvest for the movement. + +The apparatus of the meeting was kept in the shop of a friendly +carpenter near-by. The carpenter had made a "soap-box" that was a +wonder--a platform mounted upon four slender legs, detachable, so +that one man could carry the whole business and set it up. Thus the +speaker was lifted a couple of feet above the heads of the crowd, +and provided with a hand-rail upon which he might lean, and even +pound, if he did not pound too hard. A kerosene torch burned some +distance from his head, illuminating his features, and it was +Jimmie's business to see that this torch was properly cleaned and +filled, and to hold it erect on a pole part of the time. The rest of +the time he peddled literature among the crowd--copies of the +Leesville Worker, and five and ten cent pamphlets supplied by the +National Office. + +He would come home at night, worn out from these labours after his +daily toil; he would fall asleep at Lizzie's side, and have to be +routed out by her when the alarm-clock went off next morning. She +would get him a cup of hot coffee, and after he had drunk this, he +would be himself again, and would chatter about the adventures of +the night before. There was always something happening, a fellow +starting a controversy, a drunken man, or perhaps a couple of thugs +in the pay of old man Granitch, trying to break up the meeting. + +Lizzie would do her best to show that sympathy with her husband's +activities which is expected from a dutiful wife. But all the time +there was a grief in her soul--the eternal grief of the feminine +temperament, which is cautious and conservative, in conflict with +the masculine, which is adventurous and destructive. Here was +Jimmie, earning twice what he had ever earned before, having a +chance to feed his children properly and to put by a little margin +for the first time in his harassed life; but instead of making the +most of the opportunity, he was going out on the streets every +night, doing everything in his power to destroy the golden occasion +which Fate had brought to him! Like the fellow who climbs a tree to +saw off a limb, and sits on the limb and saws between himself and +the tree! + +In spite of her best efforts, Lizzie's broad, kindly face would +sometimes become hard with disappointment, and a big tear would roll +down each of her sturdy cheeks. Jimmie would be sorry for her, and +would patiently try to explain his actions. Should a man think only +of his own wife and children, and forget entirely all the other +wives and children of the working-class? That was why the workers +had been slaves all through the ages, because each thought of +himself, and never of his fellows. No, you must think of your class! +You must act as a class--on the alert to seize every advantage, to +teach solidarity and stimulate class-consciousness! Jimmie would use +these long words, which he had heard at meetings; but then, seeing +that Lizzie did not understand them, he would go back and say it +over again in words of one syllable. They had old man Granitch in a +hole just now, and they must teach him a lesson, and at the same +time teach the workers their power. Lizzie would sigh, and shake her +head; for to her, old man Granitch was not a human being, but a +natural phenomenon, like winter, or hunger. He, or some other like +him, had been the master of her fathers for generations untold, and +to try to break or even to limit his power was like commanding the +tide or the sun. + + + + +II + + + +Events moved quickly to their culmination, justifying the worst of +Lizzie's fears. The shops were seething with discontent, and +agitators seemed fairly to spring out of the ground; some of them +paid by Jerry Coleman, no doubt, others taking their pay in the form +of gratification of those grudges with which the profit-system had +filled their hearts. Noon-meetings would start up, quite +spontaneously, without any prearrangement; and presently Jimmie +learned that men were going about taking the names of all who would +agree to strike. + +The matter was brought to a head by the Empire managers, who, of +course, were kept informed by their spies. They discharged more than +a score of the trouble-makers; and when this news spread at +noon-time, the whole place burst into a flame of wrath. "Strike! +strike!" was the cry. Jimmie was one of many who started a +procession through the yards, shouting, singing, hurling menaces at +the bosses, challenging all who proposed to return to work. Less +than one-tenth of the working force made any attempt to do so, and +for that afternoon the plant of the Empire Machine Shops, which was +supposed to be turning out shell-casings for the Russian government, +was turning out labour-union, Socialist, and I. W. W. oratory. + +Jimmie Higgins was beside himself with excitement. He danced about +and waved his cap, he shouted himself hoarse, he almost yielded to +the impulse to jump upon a pile of lumber and make a speech himself. +Presently came Comrades Gerrity and Mary Allen, who had got wind of +the trouble, and had loaded a whole edition of the Worker into a +Ford; so Jimmie turned newsboy, selling these papers, hundreds of +them, until his pockets were bursting with the weight of pennies and +nickels. And then he was pressed into service running errands for +those who were arranging to organize the workers; he carried bundles +of membership-cards and application-blanks, following a man with a +bull voice and a megaphone, who shouted in several languages the +location of union headquarters, and the halls where various foreign +language meetings would be held that evening. Evidently someone had +foreseen the breaking of this trouble, and had been at pains to plan +ahead. + +Late in the afternoon Jimmie was witness of an exciting incident. In +one of the shops a number of the men had persisted in returning to +work, and an immense throng of strikers had gathered to wait for +them. They were afraid to come out, but stayed in the building after +the quitting-whistle, while those outside jeered and hooted and the +bosses telephoned frantically for aid. The greater part of the +Leesville police-force was on hand, and in addition, the company had +its own guards and private detectives. But they were needed all over +the place. You saw them at the various entrances, menacing, but not +quite so sure of themselves as usual; their hands had a tendency to +slip back to the bulge on their right hips. + +Jimmie and another fellow had got themselves an empty box and were +standing on it, leaning against the wall of the building and +shouting "Ya! Ya!" at every "scab" head that showed itself. They saw +an automobile come in at the gate, its horn honking savagely, +causing the crowd to leap to one side or the other. The automobile +was packed with men, sitting on one another's knees, or hanging to +the running-boards outside. There came a second car, loaded in the +same fashion. They were guards, sent all the way from Hubbardtown; +for of course the Hubbard Engine Company would help out its rivals +in an emergency such as this. That was the solidarity of capitalism, +concerning which the Socialists never wearied of preaching. + +The men leaped from the cars, and spread themselves fanwise in front +of the door. They had nightsticks in their hands, and grim +resolution in their faces; they cried, "Stand back! Stand back!" The +crowd hooted, but gave slightly, and a few minutes later the doors +of the building opened, and the first of the timid workers emerged. +There was a howl, and then from somewhere in the throng a stone was +thrown. "Arrest that man!" shouted a voice, and Jimmie's attention +was attracted to the owner of this voice--a young man who had +arrived in the first automobile, and was now standing up in the +seat, from which position he could dominate the throng. "Arrest that +man!" he shouted again, pointing his finger; and three of the guards +leaped into the crowd at the spot indicated. The man who had thrown +the missile started to run, but he could not go fast in the crowd, +and in a moment, as it seemed, the guards had him by the collar. He +tried to jerk away, and they struck him over the head, and laid +about them to keep the rest of the throng at bay. "Take him inside!" +the young man in the car kept shouting. And one of the guards +twisted his hand in the collar of the wretched stone-thrower, until +he grew purple in the face, and so half-dragged and half-ran him +into the building. + + + + +III + + + +The young man in the car turned toward the crowd which was blocking +the way to the exit. "Get those men out of the way!" he yelled to +the guards. "Drive them along--God damn them, they've got no +business in here." And so on, with a string of dynamic profanity, +which stung both guards and policemen into action, and made them ply +their clubs upon the crowd. + +"Do you know who that is?" asked Jimmie's companion on the box. +"That's Lacey Granitch." + +Jimmie started, experiencing a thrill to the soles of his ragged +shoes. Lacey Granitch! In the four years that the little machinist +had worked for the Empire, he had never caught a glimpse of the +young lord of Leesville--something which may easily be believed, +for the young lord considered Leesville "a hole of a town", and +honoured it with his presence only once or twice a year. But his +spirit brooded over it; he was to Leesville a mythological figure, +either of wonder and awe, or of horror, according to the temperament +of the contemplator. One day "Wild Bill" had arisen in the local, +and held aloft a page from the "magazine supplement" of one of the +metropolitan "yellows". There was an account of how Lacey Granitch +had broken the hearts of seven chorus-girls by running away with an +eighth. He fairly "ate 'em alive", according to the account; in +order to give an idea of the atmosphere in which the young hero +abode, the whirl of delight which was his life, the artist of the +Sunday supplement had woven round the border of the page a maze of +feminine ankles and calves in a delirium of lingerie; while at the +top was a supper-table with champagne-corks popping, and a lady clad +in inadequate veils dancing amid the dishes. + +This had happened while the local was in the midst of an acrimonious +controversy over "Section Six". Should the Socialist party bar from +its membership those who advocated sabotage, violence and crime? +Young Norwood was pleading for orderly methods of social +reconstruction; and here stood "Wild Bill", ripping to shreds the +reputation of the young plutocrat of the Empire Shops. "That's what +you geezers are sweating for! That's why you've got to be good, and +not throw monkey-wrenches in the machinery--so the seven +broken-hearted chorus-girls can drown their sorrows in champagne!" + +And now here was the hero of all these romantic escapades, forsaking +the white lights of Broadway, and coming home to help the old man +keep his contracts. He stood in the seat of the automobile, glancing +this way and that, swiftly, like a hunter on the alert for dangerous +game. His dark eyes roamed here and there, his proud face was pale +with anger, his tall, perfectly groomed figure was eloquent of +mastership, of command. He was imperious as a young Caesar, terrible +in his vengeance; and poor Jimmie, watching him, was torn between +two contradictory emotions. He hated him--hated him with a deadly +and abiding hatred. But also he admired him, marvelled at him, +cringed before him. Lacey was a wanton, a cursing tyrant, a brutal +snob; but also he was the master, the conqueror, the proud, free, +rich young aristocrat, for whom all the rest of humanity existed. +And Jimmie Higgins was a poor little worm of a proletarian, with +nothing but his labour-power to sell, trying by sheer force of his +will to lift himself out of his slave-psychology! + +There is an old adage that "a cat may look at a king". But this can +only have been meant to apply to house-cats, cats of the palace, +accustomed to the etiquette of courts; it cannot have been meant for +proletarian cats of the gutter, the Jimmie Higgins variety of red +revolutionary yowlers. Jimmie and his companion stood on their +perch, shouting "Ya! Ya!" and suddenly the crowd melted away in +front of them, exposing them to the angry finger of the young +master. "Get along now! Beat it! Quick!" And Jimmie, poor little +ragged, stunted Jimmie, with bad teeth and toil-deformed hands, +wilted before this blast of aristocratic wrath, and made haste to +hide himself in the throng. But it was with blazing soul that he +went; every instant he imagined himself turning back, defying the +angry finger, shouting down the imperious voice, even smashing it +back into the throat from which it came! + + + + +IV + + + +Jimmie did not even stop for supper. The greater part of the night +he worked at helping to organize the strikers, and all next day he +spent arranging Socialist meetings. He worked like a man possessed, +lifted above the limitations of the flesh. For everywhere that day +he carried with him the image of the proud, free, rich young +aristocrat, with his dark eyes roaming swiftly, his tall, perfectly +groomed figure eloquent of mastership, his voice ringing with +challenge. Jimmie was for the time utterly possessed by hatred; and +he saw about him thousands of others sharing the mood and shouting +it aloud. Every speaker who could be found was turned loose to talk +till he was hoarse, and in the evening there was to be half a dozen +street meetings. That was always the way when there were strikes; +then the working man had time to listen--and also the desire! + +So came the final crisis, when the little machinist had to show the +stuff he was made of. He was holding aloft the torch at the regular +meeting-place on the corner of Main and Third Streets, and Comrade +Gerrity was explaining the strike and the ballot as two edges of the +sword of labour, when four policemen came suddenly round the corner +and pushed their way through the crowd. "You'll have to stop this!" +declared one. + +"Stop?" cried Gerrity. "What do you mean?" + +"There's to be no more street-speaking during the strike." + +"Who says so?" + +"Orders from the chief." + +"But we've got a permit." + +"All permits revoked. Cut it out." + +"But this is an outrage!" + +"We don't want any argument, young man--" + +"But we're within our rights here." + +"Forget it, young feller!" + +Gerrity turned swiftly to the throng. + +"Fellow-citizens," he cried, "we are here in the exercise of our +rights as American citizens! We are conducting a peaceable and +orderly political meeting, and we know our rights and propose to +maintain them. We--" + +"Come down off that box, young feller!" commanded the officer; and +the crowd hooted and booed. + +"Fellow-citizens!" began Gerrity again; but that was as far as he +got, for the policeman seized him by the arm and pulled; and Gerrity +knew the ways of American policemen too well to resist. He came +down--but still talking. "Fellow-citizens--" + +"Are you goin' to shut up?" demanded the other, and as Gerrity still +went on orating, he announced: "You are under arrest." + +There were half a dozen Socialists with the party, and this was a +challenge to the self-respect of everyone of them. In an instant +Comrade Mabel Smith had leaped on to the stand. "Fellow workers!" +she cried. "Is this America, or is it Russia?" + +"That'll do, lady," said the policeman, as considerately as he +dared; for Comrade Mabel wore a big picture-hat and many other signs +of youth and beauty. + +"I have a right to speak here, and I mean to speak," she declared. + +"We don't want to have to arrest you, lady--" + +"You either have to arrest me, or else allow me to speak." + +"I'm sorry, lady, but it's orders. You are arrested." + +Then came the turn of Comrade Stankewitz. "Vorking men, it is for +the rights of the vorkers ve are here." And so they jerked him off. + +And then "Wild Bill". This hundred per cent, middle-of-the-road +proletarian had been hanging on the outskirts of the meeting, having +been forbidden by the local to take part in the speaking, because of +the intemperate nature of his utterances; but now, of course, all +rules went down, and Bill leaped on to the shaking platform. "Are we +slaves?" he yelled. "Are we dogs?" And it would seem that the police +thought so, for they yanked him off the platform, and one of them +seized him by the wrist and twisted so that his oration ended in a +shriek of pain. + +Then came Johnny Edge, a shy youth with an armful of literature, +which he hung on to in spite of police violence; and then--then +there was one more! + +Poor Jimmie! He did not in the least want to get arrested, and he +was terrified at the idea of making even so short a speech as was +here the order of the night. But, of course, his honour was at +stake, there was no way out. He handed his torch to a bystander, and +mounted the scaffold. "Is this a free country?" he cried. "Do we +have free speech?" And Jimmie's first effort at oratory ended in a +jerk at his coat-tail, which all but upset the frail platform upon +which he stood. + +There were four policemen, with six prisoners, and a throng about +them howling with indignation, perhaps ready to become violent--who +could say? The guardians of order had been prepared however. One of +them stepped to the corner and blew his whistle, and a minute later +came the shriek of a siren, and round the corner came swinging the +city's big patrol-wagon, the "Black Maria". The crowd gave way, and +one by one the prisoners were thrust in. One of them, "Wild Bill", +feeling himself for a moment released from the grip of his captors, +raised his voice, shouting through the wire grating of the wagon: "I +denounce this outrage! I am a free American--" And suddenly Jimmie, +who was next in the wagon, felt himself flung to one side, and a +policeman leaped by him, and planted his fist with terrific violence +full in the orator's mouth. "Wild Bill" went down like a bullock +under the slaughter-man's axe, and the patrol-wagon started up, the +cry of its siren drowning the protests of the crowd. + +Poor Bill! He lay across the seat, and Jimmie, who had to sit next +to him, caught him in his arms and held him. He was quivering, with +awful motions like a spasm. He made no sound, and Jimmie was +terrified, thinking that he was dying. Before long Jimmie felt a hot +wetness stealing over his hands, first slimy, then turning sticky. +He had to sit there, almost fainting with horror; he dared not say +anything, for maybe the policeman would strike him also. He sat, +clutching in his arms the shaking body, and whispering under his +breath, "Poor Bill! Poor Bill!" + + + + +V + + + +They came to the station-house, and Bill was carried out and laid on +a bench, and the others were stood up before the desk and had their +pedigrees taken. Gerrity demanded indignantly to be allowed to +telephone, and this demand was granted. He routed Lawyer Norwood +from a party, and set him to finding bail; and meantime the +prisoners were led to cells. + +They had been there only a couple of minutes when there came +floating through the row of steel cages the voice of a woman +singing. It was Comrade Mabel Smith in that clear sweet voice they +had so often listened to on "social evenings" in the local. She was +singing the Internationale: + + Arise, ye prisoners of starvation. + Arise, ye wretched of the earth! + +The sound thrilled them to the very bones, and they joined in the +chorus with a shout. Then, of course, came the jailer: "Shut up." +And then again: "Shut up!" And then a third time: "Will ye shut up?" +And then came a bucket of water, hurled through the cell bars. It +hit Jimmie squarely in the mouth, and in the words of the poet, "the +subsequent proceedings interested him no more!" + +About midnight came Lawyer Norwood and Dr. Service. Both of these +men had protested against the street-speaking at this time; but of +course, when it came to comrades in trouble, they could not resist +the appeal to their sympathies. Such is the difficulty of entirely +respectable and decorous "parlour" Socialists, in their dealings +with the wayward children of the movement, the "impossibilists" and +"direct actionists" and other sowers of proletarian wild oats. Dr. +Service produced a wad of bills and bailed out all the prisoners, +and delivered himself of impressive indignation to the +police-sergeant, while waiting for an ambulance to carry "Wild Bill" +to the hospital. Jimmie Higgins, who had always hitherto shouted +with the "wild" ones, realized suddenly how pleasant it is to have a +friend who wears black broadcloth, and carries himself like the +drum-major of a band, and is reputed to be worth a couple of hundred +thousand dollars. + +Jimmie went home; and there was Lizzie, pacing the floor and +wringing her hands in anxiety--for there had been no way to get word +to her what had happened. She flung herself into his arms, and then +recoiled in fright when, she discovered that he was wet. He told her +the story; and would you believe it--Lizzie, being a woman, and only +in the A-B-C stage of revolutionary education, actually did not know +that it was a glorious and heroic adventure to be arrested! She +thought it a disgrace, and tried to persuade him to keep the +dreadful secret from the neighbourhood! And when she found that he +was not through yet, but had to go to court in the morning and be +tried, she wept copiously, and woke up Jimmie Junior, and started +him to bawling. She was only to be pacified when Jimmie Senior +agreed to take off his wet clothes at once, and drink a cup or two +of boiling hot tea, and let himself be covered up with blankets, so +that he might not die of pneumonia before he could get to court. + +Next morning there was a crowded court-room and a stern and solemn +judge frowning over his spectacles, and Lawyer Norwood making an +impassioned defence of the fundamental American right of free +speech. It was so very thrilling that Jimmie could hardly be kept +from applauding his own lawyer! And then Comrade Dr. Service arose, +and in his most impressive voice gave the professional information +that "Wild Bill's" nose had been broken, and three of his front +teeth knocked out, and that he was in the hospital and unable to +come to court; and all the other prisoners were called upon to +testify what "Wild Bill" had done to bring this fate upon him. The +policeman who had struck the blow testified that the prisoner had +resisted arrest; a second policeman testified, "I seen the prisoner +hit him first, your Honour,"--which caused Comrade Mabel Smith to +cry out, "Oh, the ungrammatical prevaricator!" The upshot of the +trial was that each of the defendants was fined ten dollars. Comrade +Gerrity led off with an indignant refusal to pay the fine; the rest +of them followed suit--even Comrade Mabel! This caused evident +distress of mind to the judge, for Comrade Mabel with her indignant +pink cheeks and her big picture-hat looked more than ever the lady, +and it is a fact known even to judges that American jails have not +been constructed for ladies. The matter was settled by Lawyer +Norwood paying her fine, in spite of her protests, and her demand to +be sent to jail. + + + + +VI + + + +The five men were led away, over the "Bridge of Sighs", as it was +called, to the city jail, where they had their pedigrees taken +again, and their pictures and their finger-prints--which for the +first time impressed upon their minds the fact that they were +dangerous criminals. Their clothes were taken away, and shirts and +trousers given them, whose faded blue colour seemed to have been +impregnated with the misery of scores of previous wearers. They were +led through steel-barred doors, and along dark, steel-barred +passages to one of the "tanks". A "tank", you discovered, was one +floor of this four-storied packing box; on each side of it were a +row of a dozen barred cells, each with four bunks, so that the total +maximum population which might be crowded into the central space of +the "tank" was ninety-six; however, this only happened on Monday +mornings, when the "drunks" had all been brought in, and before the +courts had had time to sort them out. + +After you had lain down on your bunk for a few minutes, or had +leaned against the wall of the "tank", you felt an annoying stinging +sensation somewhere on you. You began to rub and scratch; before +long you would be rubbing and scratching in a dozen different +places, and then you would observe your neighbour watching you with +a grin. "Seam-squirrels?" he would say; and he would bid you take +off your coat, and engage in the popular hunting game of the +institution. Jimmie remembered having heard a speaker refer to the +city jail as the "Leesville Louseranch"; he had thought that a good +joke at the time, but now it seemed otherwise to him. + +It was splendid to stand up in court and to take your stand as a +martyr; but now Jimmie discovered, as many an unfortunate has +discovered before him, that being a martyr is not the sport it is +cracked up to be. There were no heroics now, no singing. If you even +so much as hummed, they took you out and shut you up in a dark hole +called the "cooler"! Nor could you read, for there was no light in +your cell, and perpetual twilight in the central gathering place of +the "tank". Apparently the only things the authorities of Leesville +wished you to do were to hunt "seam-squirrels", to smoke cigarettes, +to "shoot craps", and to make the acquaintance of a variety of +interesting young criminals, so that when you were ready to resume +your outside life you might decide whether you wanted to be a +hold-up man, a safe-cracker, a forger, or a second-story operator. + +Jimmie Higgins, of course, brought a different psychology from that +of the average jail-inmate. Jimmie could do his kind of work just as +well in jail as anywhere else; and barring the torment of vermin, +the diet of bread and thin coffee and ill-smelling greasy soup, and +the worry about his helpless family outside, he really had a happy +time-making the acquaintance of tramps and pickpockets, and +explaining to them the revolutionary philosophy. A man who went in +to remedy social injustice all by himself could never get very far. +It was only when he realized himself as a member of a class, and +stood as a class and acted as a class, that he could accomplish a +permanent result. Some of the workers had discovered this, and had +set out to educate their fellows. They brought the wondrous message, +even to those in jail; holding out to them the vision of a world +made over in justice and kindness, the co-operative commonwealth of +labour, in which every man should get what he produced, and no man +could exploit his fellows. + + + + +VII + + + +Three days passed, and then one afternoon Jimmie was summoned to see +a visitor. He could guess who the visitor was, and he went with his +heart in his throat, and looked through the dark mesh of wire, and +saw Lizzie standing--stout, motherly Lizzie, now very pale, and +breathing hard, and with tears running in little streamlets down her +cheeks. Poor Lizzie, with her three babies at home, and her plain, +ordinary, non-revolutionary psychology, which made going to jail a +humiliation instead of a test of manhood, a badge of distinction! +Jimmie felt a clutch in his own throat, and an impulse to tear down +the beastly wire mesh and clasp the dear motherly soul in his arms. +But all he could do was to screw his face into a dubious smile. +Sure, he was having the time of his life in this jail! He wouldn't +have missed it for anything! He had made a Socialist out of +"Dead-eye Mike", and had got Pete Curley, a fancy "con" man, to +promise to read "War, What For?" + +There was only one thing which had been troubling him, and that was, +how his family was getting on. They had had practically nothing in +the house, he knew, and poor Meissner could not feed four extra +mouths. But Lizzie, also screwing her face into a smile, assured him +that everything was all right at home, there was no need to worry. +In the first place, Comrade Dr. Service had sent her a piece of +paper with his name written on it; it appeared that this was called +a cheque, and the groceryman had exchanged it for a five dollar +bill. And in the next place there was a domestic secret which Lizzie +had to confide--she had put by some money, without letting Jimmie +know it. + +"But how?" cried Jimmie, in wonder--for he had thought he knew all +about his household and its expenses. + +So Lizzie explained the trick she had played. Jimmie had committed +an extravagance, treating her to a new dress out of his increased +earnings: a gorgeous contrivance of several colours, looking like +silk, even if it wasn't. Lizzie had stated that the cost was fifteen +dollars, and he, the dupe, had believed it! The truth was she had +bought the dress in a second-hand shop for three dollars, and had +put twelve dollars away for the time of the strike! + +And Jimmie went back to his "tank", shaking his head and +philosophizing: "Gee! Can you beat these women?" + + + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +JIMMIE HIGGINS DALLIES WITH CUPID + +I + + + + + +The strike was over when Jimmie came out of jail; it had been +settled by the double-barrelled device of raising the wages of the +men and putting their leaders behind bars. Jimmie presented himself +at his old place of working, and the boss told him to go to hell; so +Jimmie went to Hubbardtown, and stood in the long line of men +waiting at the gate of the engine company. Jimmie knew about +black-lists, so when his time came to be questioned, he said his +name was Joe Aronsky, and he had last worked in a machine-shop in +Pittsburg; he had come to Hubbardtown because he had heard of high +pay and good treatment. While he was answering these questions, he +noticed a man sitting in the corner of the room studying his face, +and he saw the boss turn and glance in that direction. The man shook +his head, and the boss said: "Nothin' doin'." So Jimmie understood +that the Hubbard Engine Company was taking measures to keep its +shops clear of the agitators from Leesville. + +He spent a couple of days trying other places in his home town, but +all in vain--they had him spotted. At the brewery they were slower +than elsewhere--they took him on for two hours. Then they found out +his record, and "fired" him; and Jimmie "kidded" the boss, saying +that they were too late--he had already given a Socialist leaflet to +every man in the room! + +On Jefferson Street, an out of the way part of the town, was a +bicycle-shop kept by an old German named Kumme. One of the comrades +told Jimmie that he wanted a helper, and Jimmie went there and got a +job at two dollars a day. That was poor pay at present prices, but +Jimmie liked the place, because his boss was a near-Socialist, a +pacifist--for all countries except Germany. He got round it by +saying that every nation had a right to defend itself; and Germany +was the nation which had been attacked in this war. A good part of +the energies of the old man went into proving this to his customers; +if there were any customers who did not like it, they could go +elsewhere. + +Those who came were largely Germans, and so Jimmie was kept fully +supplied with arguments against the munitions industry, which they +called a trade in murder, and in favour of the programme of "Feed +America First". Among those who frequented the place was Jerry +Coleman, who was still on the job, and as well supplied with +ten-dollar bills as ever. He had now revealed himself as an +organizer for a new propaganda society, called "Labour's National +Peace Council". Inasmuch as Labour and Peace were the phrases upon +which Jimmie lived, he saw no reason why he should not back this +organization. Coleman assured Jimmie he hated the Kaiser, but that +the German "people" must be defended. So Jimmie became, without +having the least idea of it, one of the agencies whereby the Kaiser +was subsidizing social discontent in America. + +But Jimmie was more careful now in his agitations. He had brought +such distress into his home by his jail sentence, that he had been +forced to make promises to Lizzie. Her anxiety for her children +could no longer be kept to herself; and this caused a certain amount +of friction between them, and sent Jimmie out grumbling at his lot +in life. What was the use of trying to educate a woman, who could +see no farther than her own kitchen-stove? When you wanted to be a +world-saviour, to walk tip-toe on the misty mountain-tops of +heroism, she dragged you down and chained you to the commonplace, +taking all the zest and fervour out of your soul! The memories of +"seam-squirrels" and of thin coffee and ill-smelling and greasy soup +had slipped somewhat into the background of Jimmie's mind, and he +lived again the sublime hour when he had confronted the court and +stood for the fundamental rights of an American citizen. He wanted +to have that act of daring appreciated at its true value. Poor, +blind, home-keeping Lizzie, who could not fulfil these deeper needs +of her husband's soul! + +Jimmie had been, so far in his married life, as well domesticated as +could be expected of a proletarian propagandist. He had yearned to +own a home of his own, and meantime had manifested his repressed +wish by getting a big packing-box and some broken shingles, and +building a model play-house for Jimmie Junior in the back yard. He +had even found time on his tired and crowded Sundays to start a +garden in midsummer, the season when the local was least active. But +now, of course, the war had come to obsess his mind, driving him to +terror for the future of humanity, tempting him to martyrdoms and +domestic irritations. + + + + +II + + + +It was at this critical period in Jimmie's life that there appeared +in Leesville a vivid young person by the name of Evelyn Baskerville. +Evelyn was no tired kitchen slave--with her fluffy brown hair, her +pert little dimples, her trim figure, her jaunty hat with a turkey +feather stuck on one side of her head. Evelyn was a stenographer and +proclaimed herself an advanced feminist; at her first visit she set +the local upside down. It happened to be "social evening", when all +the men smoked, and this "free" young thing took a cigarette from +her escort and puffed it all over the place. This, of course, would +not have made a stir in great centres of culture such as London and +Greenwich Village; but in Leesville it was the first time that the +equality of women had been interpreted to mean that the women should +adopt the vices of the men. + +Then Evelyn had produced from her handbag some leaflets on Birth +Control, and proposed that the local should undertake their +distribution. This was a new subject in Leesville, and while the +members supposed it was all right, they found it embarrassing to +have the matter explained too fully in open meeting. Evelyn wanted a +"birth strike", as the surest means of ending the war; she wanted +the Worker to take up this programme, and did not conceal her +contempt for reactionaries in the movement who still wanted to +pretend that babies were brought by storks. The delicate subject was +finally "tabled", and when the meeting adjourned and the members +walked home, everyone was talking about Miss Baskerville--the men +mostly talking with the men, and the women with the women. + +Pretty soon it became evident that the vivid and dashing young +person was setting her cap for Comrade Gerrity, the organizer. As +Gerrity was an eligible young bachelor, that was all right. But +then, a little later, it began to be suspected that she had designs +upon Comrade Claudel, the Belgian jeweller. Doubtless she had a +right to make her choice between them; but some of the women were of +the opinion that she took too long to choose; and finally one or two +malicious ones began to say that she had no intention of +choosing--she wanted both. + +And then fell a thunderbolt into Jimmie's life. It was just after +his arrest when fame still clung to him; and after the meeting +Comrade Baskerville came up and engaged him in conversation. How did +it feel to be a jailbird? When he told her that it felt fine, she +bade him not be too proud--she had served thirty days for picketing +in a shirt-waist strike! As she looked at him, her pretty brown eyes +sparkled with mischief, and her wicked little dimples lost no +curtain-calls. Poor, humble Jimmie was stirred to his shoe-tips, for +he had never before received the attentions of such a fascinating +creature--unless perchance it had been to sell her a newspaper, or +to beg the price of a sandwich in his tramp days. Here was one of +the wonderful things about the Socialist movement, that it broke +down the barriers of class, and gave you exciting glimpses of higher +worlds of culture and charm! + +Comrade Baskerville continued to flash her dimples and her wit at +Jimmie, despite the fact that Comrade Gerrity and Comrade Claudel +and several other moths were hovering about the candle-flame, and +all the women in the local watching out of the corners of their +eyes. Finally, to Jimmie's unutterable consternation, the vivid +young goddess of Liberty inquired, "Wouldn't you like to walk home +with me, Comrade Higgins?" He stammered, "Yes"; and they went out, +the young goddess plying him with questions about conditions in the +jail, and displaying most convincing erudition on the subject of the +economic aspects of criminology--at the same time seeming entirely +oblivious to the hoverings of the other moths, and the disgust of +the unemancipated ladies of Local Leesville. + + + + +III + + + +They walked down the street together, and first Comrade Baskerville +shivered with horror at the "seam-squirrels", and then exclaimed +with delight over the conversion of "Dead-eye Mike" to Socialism, +and then made merry over the singing of the Internationale in the +police-station. Had she discovered a "character" in this seemingly +insignificant little machinist? At any rate, she plied him with +questions about his past life and his ideas. When he told her of his +starved and neglected childhood, she murmured sympathetically, and +it seemed to the fascinated Jimmie that here was a woman who +understood instinctively all the cravings of his soul. She laid her +hand on his arm, and it was as if an angel were touching +him--strange little thrills ran like currents of electricity all +over him. + +Yes, Comrade Baskerville could appreciate his sufferings, because +she had suffered too. She had had a stepmother, and had run away +from home at an early age and fought her own way. That was why she +stood so firmly for woman's emancipation--she knew the slavery of +her sex through bitter experience. There were many men who believed +in sex-equality as a matter of words, but had no real conception of +it in action; as for the women--well, you might see right here in +the local the most narrow, bourgeois ideas dominating their minds. +Jimmie did not know what ideas Comrade Baskerville meant, but he +knew that her voice was musical and full of quick changes that made +him shiver. + +He was supposed to be taking her home; but he had no idea where she +lived, and apparently she had no idea either, for they just wandered +on and on, talking about all the wonderful new ideas that were +stirring the minds of men and women. Did Comrade Higgins believe in +trial marriages? Comrade Higgins had never heard of this wild idea +before, but he listened, and bravely concealed his dismay. What +about the children? The eager feminist answered there need not be +any children. Unwanted children were a crime! She proposed to get +the working-class women together and instruct them in the technique +of these delicate matters; and meantime, lacking the women, she was +willing to explain it to any inwardly embarrassed and quaking man +who would lend his ear. + +Suddenly she stopped and cried, "Where are we?" And there came a +peal of merry laughter, as she discovered they had gone far astray. +They turned and set off in the right direction, and meantime the +lecture on advanced feminism continued. Poor Jimmie was in a +panic--tumbled this way and that. He had considered himself a +radical, because he believed in expropriating the expropriators; but +these plans for overthrowing the conventions and disbanding the +home--these left him aghast. And trilled into his ear by a vivid and +amazing young thing with a soft hand upon his arm and a faint +intoxicating perfume all about her! Why was she telling these things +to him? What did she mean? What? WHAT? + + + + +IV + + + +They came to the house where she lived. It was late at night, and +the street was deserted. It was up to Jimmie to say good night, but +somehow he did not know how to say it. Comrade Evelyn gave him her +hand, and for some reason did not take it away again. Of course it +would not have been polite for Jimmie to have pushed it away. So he +held it, and looked at the shadowy form before him, and felt his +knees shaking. "Comrade Higgins," said the brave, girlish voice, "we +shall be friends, shall we not?" And of course, Jimmie answered that +they would--always! And the girlish voice replied, "I am GLAD!" And +then suddenly it whispered, "Good night!" and the shadowy form +turned and flitted into the house. + +Jimmie walked away with the strangest tumult in his soul. It was +something which the poets had been occupied for centuries in trying +to portray, but Jimmie Higgins had no acquaintance with the poets, +and so it was a brand new thing to him, he was left to experience +the shock of it and to resolve the problems of it all alone. To be +rolled and tossed about like a man in a blanket at a college +ragging! To be a prey to bewilderment and fear, hope and longing, +despair and rebellion, delicious excitement, angry self-contempt +and tormenting doubt! Truly did that poet divine who first conceived +the symbol of the mischievous little god, who steals upon an +unsuspecting man and shoots him through the heart with a sharp and +tormenting arrow! + +The worst of it was, Jimmie couldn't tell Lizzie about it. The first +time in four years that he had had a trouble he could not tell +Lizzie! He even felt ashamed, as he came home and crawled into +bed--as if he had done some dreadful wrong to Lizzie; and yet, he +would have been puzzled to tell just what the wrong was, or how he +could have avoided it. It was not he who had made the young feminist +so delicious and sweet and frank and amazing. It was not he who had +made the little god, and brewed the poison for the arrow's tip. No, +it was some power greater than himself that had prepared this +situation, some power cruel and implacable, which plots against +domestic tranquillity; perhaps it was some hireling of capitalism, +which will not permit a propagandist of social justice to do his +work in peace of soul. + +Jimmie tried to hide what was going on; and of course--poor, naive +soul--he had never learned to hide anything in his life, and now was +too late to begin. The next time the local met, the women were +saying that they were disappointed in Comrade Higgins; they had +thought he was really devoted to the cause, but they saw now he was +like all the rest of the men--his head had been turned by one smile +on a pretty face. Instead of attending to his work, he was following +that Baskerville creature about, gazing at her yearningly, like a +moon-calf, making a ninny of himself before the whole room. And he +with a wife and three babies at home, waiting for him and thinking +he was hustling for the cause. When the meeting adjourned, and the +Baskerville creature accepted the invitation of Comrade Gerrity to +escort her home, the dismay of Comrade Higgins was so evident as to +be ludicrous to the whole room. + + + + +V + + + +In the interest of common decency it was necessary for the women of +the local to take action on this matter. At least, a couple of them +thought so, and quite independently and without pre-arrangement they +called on Lizzie next day and told her that she should come more +frequently to meetings, and keep herself acquainted with the new +ideas of advanced feminism. And so when Jimmie came home that night, +he found his wife dissolved in tears and there was a most harrowing +scene. + +For poor Elizabeth Huszar, pronounced Eleeza Betooser, had had no +chance whatever to familiarize herself with the new ideas of +advanced feminism. Her notions of "free unions" had been derived +from a quite different world, whose ideas were not new, but on the +contrary very, very old, and were "advanced" only on the road to +perdition. She judged Jimmie's behaviour according to thoroughly old +standards, and she was broken-hearted, overwhelmed with grief and +shame. He was like all the rest of men--and when she had fondly +thought he was different! He despised her and spit upon her--a woman +he had picked up in a brothel. + +Poor Jimmie was stunned. He was conscious of no disrespect for +Lizzie, it had not occurred to him to think that she might take the +matter that way. But so she had taken it, beyond doubt, and with +intensity that frightened him. He would not have believed that so +many tears could stream from one woman's eyes--nor that his good, +broad-faced, honest wife could be so abject in her misery. "Oh, I +knowed it, I knowed it all along--it would be that way! I hadn't +never ought to married you--you know I told you so?" + +"But, Lizzie!" pleaded the husband. "You're mistaken. That hadn't +nothin' to do with it." + +She turned upon him wildly, her fingers stuck out as if she would +claw him. "You mean to tell me if you hadn't 'a married a woman off +the street, you'd 'a gone chasin' a fluffy-haired girl? If you'd 'a +had a decent wife, that you knowed had some rights--" + +"Lizzie!" he protested in consternation. "Listen here--" + +But she was not to be stopped. "Everybody said I was a fool; but I +went an' done it, 'cause you swore you'd never hold it up to me! An' +I went an' had them children"--Lizzie swept her arm at the +children, as if to wipe them off the earth, to which they had come +by a cruel mistake. + +Jimmie Junior, who was old enough to know that something serious was +happening, and whose instinct was all against being wiped off the +earth, began to howl wildly; and that set off the little ones--soon +they were all three of them going at the top of their lungs. +"Boo-hoo-hoo!" + +It was truly a terrible climax to a romance. Jimmie, almost +distracted, seized the hand of his injured spouse. "It's all +nonsense!" he cried. "What they been tellin' you! I ain't done a +thing, Lizzie! I only walked home with her one night." + +But Lizzie answered that one night was plenty enough--she knew that +from intimate and hateful experience. "And I know them fluffy-headed +kind that frizzes their hair. What does she want to walk home at +night with married men fer? And talkin' about the things she does--" + +"She don't mean no harm, Lizzie--she's tryin' to help workin' women. +It's what's called birth control--she wants to teach women--" + +"If she wants to TEACH women, why don't she TALK to the women! +What's she all the time talkin' to MEN fer? You think you can tell +me tales like that--me, that's been what I have?" And Lizzie went +off into another fit, worse than ever. + + + + +VI + + + +Jimmie found that it was with romance as with martyrdom--there was +a lot of trouble about it which the romancers did not mention. He +really felt quite dreadful, for he had a deep regard for this mother +of his little ones, and he would not have made her suffer for +anything. And she was right, too, he had to admit--her shots went +deep home. "How'd you feel, if you was to find out I'd been walkin' +home with some man?" When it was put to him that way, he realized +that he would have felt very badly indeed. + +A flood of old emotions came back to him. He went in memory with his +group of roystering friends to the house of evil where he had first +met Elizabeth Huszar, pronounced Eleeza Betooser. She had taken him +to her room, and instead of making herself agreeable in the usual +way, had burst into tears. She had been ill-treated, and was +wretchedly lonely and unhappy. Jimmie asked why she did not quit the +life, and she answered that she had tried more than once, but she +could not earn a living wage; and anyhow, because she was big and +handsome, the bosses would never let her alone, and what was the +difference, if you couldn't keep away from the men? + +They sat on the bed and talked, and Jimmie told her a little about +his life, and she told about hers--a pitiful and moving story. She +had been brought to America as an infant; her father had been killed +in an accident, and her mother had supported several children by +scrub-work. Lizzie had grown up in a slum on the far east side of +New York, and she could not remember a time when she had not been +sexually preyed upon; lewd little boys had taught her tricks, and +men would buy her with candy or food. And yet there had been +something in her struggling for decency; of her own volition she had +tried to go to school, in spite of her rags; and then, when she was +thirteen she had answered an advertisement for work as a nursemaid. +That story had made an especial impression upon Jimmie--it was truly +a most pitiful episode. + +Her place of employment had been a "swell" apartment, with a +hall-boy and an elevator--the most wonderful place that Lizzie had +ever beheld; it was like living in Heaven, and she had tried so hard +to do what she was told, and be worthy of her beautiful mistress and +the lovely baby. But she had been there only two days when the +mistress had discovered vermin on the baby, and had come to Lizzie +and insisted on examining her head. And of course she had found +something. "Them's only nits!" Lizzie had said; she had never heard +of anybody who did not have "nits" in their hair. But the beautiful +lady had called her a vile creature, and ordered her to pack up her +things and get out of the house at once. And so Lizzie had had to +wait until she became an inmate of a brothel before anybody took the +trouble to teach her how to get the "nits" out of her hair, and how +to bathe, and to clean her finger-nails and otherwise be physically +decent. + +Jimmie recalled all that, and he fell on his knees before his wife, +and caught her two hands by main force, and swore to her that he had +not done any wrong; he went on to tell her exactly what wrong he had +done, which was the best way to convince her that he had not done +any worse. He vowed again and again that he would never, never dally +with Cupid again--he would see Comrade Baskerville at once and tell +her it was "all off". + +And so Lizzie looked up through her tears. "No," she said, "you +don't need to see her at all!" + +"What shall I do, then?'" + +"Just let her alone--don't tell her nothin'. She'll know it's off +all right." + + + + +VII + + + +But when you have a dead romance, you cannot leave it to rot on the +highway; you are driven irresistibly to bury it decently. In spite +of his solemn promises, Jimmie found himself thinking all the time +about Comrade Baskerville, and how he would act when he met her next +time--all the noble and dignified speeches he would make to her. He +must manage to be alone with her; for of course he could not say +such things with the jealous old hags of the local staring at him. +The best thing, he decided, would be to tell her the frank and +honest truth; to tell her about Lizzie, and how good and worthy she +had been, and how deeply he realized his duty to her. And then tears +would come into Comrade Baskerville's lovely eyes, and she would +tell him that she honoured his high sense of marital responsibility. +They must renounce; but of course they would be dear and true +friends--always, always. Jimmie was holding her hands, in his fancy, +as he said these affecting words: Always! Always! He knew that he +would have to let go of the hands, but he was reluctant to do so, +and he had not quite got to the point of doing it when, walking down +Jefferson Street on his way home from work--behold, in front of him +a trim, eager little figure, tripping gaily, with a jaunty hat with +a turkey-feather stuck on one side! Jimmie knew the figure a block +away, and as he saw it coming nearer, his heart leaped up and hit +him in the bottom part of his neck, and all his beautiful speeches +flew helter-skelter out of his head. + +She saw him, and the vivid, welcoming smile came upon her face. She +came up to him, and their hands clasped. "Why!" she cried. "What a +pleasant meeting!" + +Jimmie gulped twice, and then began, "Comrade Baskerville--" And +then he gulped again, and began, "Comrade Baskerville--" + +She stopped him. "I'm not Comrade Baskerville," she declared. + +He could not get the meaning of these unexpected words. + +"What?" he said. + +"Haven't you heard the news?" she said, and beamed on him. "I'm +Comrade Mrs. Gerrity." + +He stared at her, utterly bewildered. "I've been that for +twenty-four whole hours! Congratulate me!" + +Little by little the meaning of the words began to dawn in Jimmie's +stupid head. "Comrade Mrs. Gerrity!" he echoed. "But--but--I thought +you didn't believe in marriage." + +There came the most bewitching smile, a smile decorated with two +rows of pearly white teeth. "Don't you understand, Comrade Higgins? +No woman believes in marriage--until she meets the right man." + +This was much too subtle. Jimmie was still gaping open-mouthed. +"But then, I thought--I thought--" he stopped again; for in truth, +he had not known quite what he thought, and anyway, it seemed futile +to try to formulate it now. + +But, of course, she knew, without his telling her; she knew the +meaning of his look of dismay, and of his stammering words. Being a +kind little creature, she laid her hand on his arm. "Comrade +Higgins," she said, "don't think I'm too mean!" + +"Mean?" he cried. "Why, no! What? How--" + +"Try to imagine you were a girl, Comrade Higgins. You can't propose +to a man, can you?" + +"Why, no--that is--" + +"That is, not if you want him to accept! You have to make him do it. +And maybe he's shy, and don't do it, and you have to put the idea in +his head for him. Or maybe he's not sure he wants you, and you have +to make him realize how very desirable you are! Maybe you have to +scare him, making him think you're going to run off with somebody +else! Don't you see how it is with a girl?" + +Jimmie was still bady dazed, but he saw enough to enable him to +stammer, "Yes." And Comrade Baskerville--that is, Comrade Mrs. +Gerrity--gave him her hand again. + +"Comrade Higgins," she said, "you're a dear, sweet fellow, and you +won't be too angry with me, will you? We'll be friends, won't we, +Comrade Higgins?" + +And Jimmie clasped the soft, warm hand, and gazed into the shining +brown eyes, and he made a part of the wonderful speech which he had +been planning as he walked. He said: "Always! Always!" + + + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +JIMMIE HIGGINS PUTS HIS FOOT IN IT + +I + + + + + +The world struggle continued with constantly increasing ferocity. +All summer long the Germans hammered at the French and British +lines; while the British hammered at the gates of Constantinople, +and the Italians at the gates of Trieste. The Germans sent their +giant airships to drop loads of bombs on London and their submarines +to sink passenger-steamers and hospital-ships. Each fresh outrage +against international law became the occasion of more letters of +protest from the United States, and of more controversies in the +newspapers, and in Congress, and in Kumme's bicycle-shop on +Jefferson Street, Leesville. + +In this last place, to be sure, the discussions were rather +one-sided. Practically all who came there regarded the munitions +industry as an accursed thing, and made no secret of their glee at +the misfortunes which befell it; at shipyards which caught fire and +burned up, at railroad bridges and ships at sea destroyed by +mysterious explosions. Kumme, a wizened-up, grizzle-haired old +fellow with a stubby nose and a bullet-head, would fall to cursing +in a mingling of English and German when anyone so much as mentioned +the fleets of ships that went across the water, loaded with shells +to kill German soldiers; he would point a skinny finger at whoever +would listen to him, declaring that the Germans in this country were +not slaves, and would protect their Fatherland from the perfidious +British and their Wall Street hirelings. Kumme took a newspaper +printed in German, and a couple of weeklies published in English for +the promotion of the German cause; he would mark passages in these +papers and read them aloud--everything that the mind of man could +recall or invent that was discreditable to Britain, to France and +Italy, to Wall Street, and to the nation which allowed Wall Street +to bamboozle and exploit it. There were many Americans who had +"muck-raked" their own country in the interests of social reform, +and had praised the social system of Germany. These arguments the +German propagandists now found useful, and Jimmie would take them to +the Socialist local and pass them about. From the meeting of the +local he and Meissner would go to the saloon where they had +rendezvous with Jerry Coleman, who would distribute more ten-dollar +bills to be used in the printing of anti-war literature. + +Old Kumme had a nephew by the name of Heinrich, who paid him a visit +now and then. He was a tall, fine-looking fellow, who spoke much +better English than his uncle, and wore better clothes. Finally he +came to stay, and Kumme announced that he was to help in the shop. +They didn't need any help that Jimmie could see, and certainly not +from a fellow like Heinrich, who couldn't tell a spoke from a +handle-bar; but it was none of Jimmie's business, so Heinrich put on +working clothes, and spent a couple of weeks sitting behind the +counter conversing in low tones with men who came to see him. After +a while he took to going out again, and finally announced that he +had secured a job in the Empire. + + + + +II + + + +And then to the hangers-on in the shop there was another +addition--an Irish working man named Reilly. The Irishman was a +peculiar problem in the war--the thorn of the Allied conscience, the +weak spot in their armour, the broken link in their chain of +arguments; and so every German was happy when an Irishman entered +the room. This fellow Reilly came to have a punctured tyre mended, +and stopped to tell what he thought about the world-situation. Old +man Kumme slapped him over the back, and shook him by the hand, and +told him he was the right sort, and to come again. So Reilly took to +hanging about; he would pull from his pocket a paper called +Hibernia, and Kummc would produce from under the counter a paper +called Germania, and the two would denounce "perfidious Albion" by +the hour. Jimmie, bending over the straightening of a sprocket, +would look up and grin, and exclaim, "You bet!" + +It was winter-time, and darkness came early, and Jimmie was doing +his work by electric light in the back of the shop, when Reilly came +and mysteriously drew him into a corner. Did he really mean what he +said about hatred of war, and willingness to fight against it? The +Empire Shops were now turning out thousands of shell-casings every +day, to be used in the murder of men. It was useless to try to start +a strike, there were so many spies at work, and they fired every man +who opened his mouth; if an outsider tried it they would send him to +jail--for, of course, old Granitch had the city government in his +vest-pocket. + +All this was an old story to Jimmie; but now the Irishman went on to +a new proposition. There was a way to stop the work of the Empire, a +way that had been tried in other places, and had worked. Reilly knew +where to get some T.N.T.--an explosive many times more powerful than +dynamite. They could make bombs out of the steel tubing of bicycles, +and Jimmie, knowing the Empire Shops as he did, could find a way to +get in and arrange matters. There was big money in it--the fellows +who did that job might live on Easy Street the rest of their lives. + +Jimmie was stunned. He had been perfectly sincere in classifying +German spies with sea-serpents; and here was a sea-serpent right +before his eyes, raising his head through the floor of Kumme's +bicycle-shop! + +Jimmie answered that he had never had anything to do with that sort +of thing. That wasn't the way to stop war; that was only making more +war. The other began to argue with him, showing that it wouldn't +hurt anybody; the explosion would take place at night, and all that +would be damaged would be Abel Granitch's purse. But Jimmie was +obdurate; fortunately one thing that had been incessantly pounded +into his head at the local was that the movement could not use +conspiracy, it must work by open propaganda, winning the minds and +consciences of men. + +First the Irishman became angry, and called him a coward and a +molly-coddle. Then he became suspicious, and wanted to know if +Jimmie would sell him out to the Empire. Jimmie laughed at this; he +had no love for Abel Granitch--the damned old skunk might do his own +spying. Jimmie would simply have nothing to do with the matter, one +way or the other. And so the project was dropped; but the little +machinist was moved to keep his eyes open after that, and he made +note of how many Germans, all strangers, were making the shop a +meeting-place; also the quick intimacy which had developed between +the Irishman and Heinrich, Kumme's nephew, who held himself so +straight and had no back to his head. + +Matters came to a climax with startling suddenness--the explosion +of a bomb, though not the kind which Jimmie was expecting. It was an +evening in February, just as he was about to close up, when he saw +the door of the shop open, and four men walk in. They came with a +peculiar, business-like air, two of them to the puzzled Jimmie, and +the other two to Kumme. One turned back the lapel of his coat, +showing a large gold star, and announcing, "I am an agent of the +government, and you are under arrest." And at the same time the +other seized Jimmie's arms and slipped a pair of handcuffs over his +wrists. He passed his hands over his prisoner, a ceremony known as +"frisking"; and at the same time the other men had seized Kumme. +Jimmie saw two more men enter at the rear door of the shop, but they +had nothing to do, for both Jimmie and Kumme had been too much +startled to make any move to escape. + +They were led out to an automobile, shoved in and whirled away. No +questions were answered, so after a bit they stopped asking +questions and sat still, reflecting upon all the sins they had ever +committed in their lives, and upon the chances of these sins being +known to the police. + + + + +III + + + +Jimmie thought he was going to jail, of course; but instead they +took him to the Post Office building, to an upstairs room. Kumme was +taken to another room, and Jimmie did not see him again; all that +Jimmie had time to know or to think about was a stern-faced young +man who sat at a desk and put him on a griddle. "It is my duty to +inform you that everything you state may be used against you," said +this young man; and then, without giving Jimmie a chance to grasp +the meaning of these words he began firing questions at him. All +through the ordeal the two detectives stood by his side, and in a +corner of the room, at another desk, a stenographer was busily +recording what he said. Jimmie knew there were such things as +stenographers--for had he not come near falling in love with one +only a short time before? + +"Your name?" said the stern-faced young man; and then, "Where do you +live?" And then, "Tell me all you know about this bomb-conspiracy." + +"But I don't know nothin'!" cried Jimmie. + +"You are in the hands of the Federal government," replied the young +man, "and your only chance will be to make a clean breast. If you +will help us, you may get off." + +"But I don't know nothin'!" cried Jimmie, again. + +"You have heard talk about dynamiting the Empire Shops?" + +"Y--yes, sir." + +"Who?" + +"A man--" Jimmie got that far, and then he recollected the promise +he had given. "I--I can't tell!" he said. + +"Why not?" + +"It wouldn't be right." + +"Do you believe in dynamiting buildings?" + +"No, sir!" Jimmie put into this reply a note of tense sincerity, and +so the other began to argue with him. Atrocious crimes had been +committed all over the country, and the government wished to put a +stop to them; surely it was the duty of a decent citizen to give +what help he could. Jimmie listened until a sweat of anxiety stood +out on his forehead; but he could not bring himself to "peach" on +fellow working men. No, not if he were sent to jail for ten or +twenty years, as the stern-faced young man told him might happen. + +"You told Reilly you wouldn't have anything to do with bombs?" asked +the young man; and Jimmie answered "Sure, I did!" And his poor head +was so addled that he didn't even realize that in his reply he had +told what he had been vowing he would never tell! + +The questioner seemed to know all about everything, so it was easy +for him to lead Jimmie to tell how he had heard Kumme cursing the +Empire Shops, and the country, and the President; how he had seen +Kumme whispering to Reilly, and to Germans whose names he had not +learned, and how he had seen Heinrich, Kumme's nephew, cutting up +lengths of steel tubing. Then the questioner asked about Jerry +Coleman. How much money had Jimmie got, and just what had he done +with it? Jimmie refused to name other people; but when the young man +made the insinuation that Jimmie might have kept some of the money +for himself, the little machinist exclaimed with passionate +intensity--not one dollar had he kept, nor his friend Meissner +either; they had given statements to Jerry Coleman, and this though +many a time they had been hard up for their rent. The police could +ask Comrade Gerrity and Comrade Mary Allen, and the other members of +the local. + +So the questioner led Jimmie on to talk about the Germans in the +movement. Schneider, the brewer, for example--he was one of those +who cursed the Allies most vehemently, and he had been in this +bomb-conspiracy. Jimmie was indignant; Comrade Schneider was as good +a Socialist as you could find, and Socialists had nothing to do with +bombs! But young Emil Forster--he had been making explosives in his +spare hours, had he not? At which Jimmie became still more outraged. +He knew young Emil well; the boy was a carpet-designer and musician, +and if anybody had told such tales about him, they were lying, that +was all. The questioner went on for an hour or so, tormenting poor +Jimmie with such doubts and fears; until finally he dropped a little +of his sternness of manner, and told Jimmie that he had merely been +trying him out, to see what he knew about various men whose +pro-German feelings had brought them under suspicion. No, the +government had no evidence of crime against Schneider or Forster, or +any of the bona-fide Socialists. They were just plain fools, letting +themselves be used as tools of German plotters, who were spending +money like water to make trouble in munition factories all over the +country. + + + + +IV + + + +The questioner, who explained himself as a "special agent" of the +Department of Justice, went on to read Jimmie a lecture. A sincere +man like himself ought to be ashamed to let himself be taken in by +German conspirators, who were trying to break up American industry, +to lead American labour by the nose. + +"But they want to stop the making of munitions!" cried Jimmie. + +"But's that's only so that Germany can make more munitions!" + +"But I'm opposed to their being made in Germany, too!" + +"What can you do to stop it in Germany?" + +"I'm an international Socialist. When I oppose war in my own +country, I help the Socialists to oppose it in other countries. I +ain't a-going to stop--not so long as I've got any breath left in +me!" And here was Comrade Jimmie, delivering a sermon on pacifism to +the "special agent" of the government, who held his fate in his +hands! But no one was going to defend war to Jimmie Higgins and not +be answered--even though Jimmie might go to jail for the rest of his +life! + +The young man laughed--more genially than Jimmie would have thought +possible at the start of this grilling. "Higgins," he said, "you're +a good-natured idiot. You can thank your lucky stars that one of the +men you trusted happened to be a government detective. If we didn't +know the truth about you, you might have had a hard time clearing +yourself." + +Jimmie's jaw had fallen. "A government detective! Who is the +government detective?" + +"Reilly," said the young man. + +"Reilly? But it was him that tempted me!" + +"Well, congratulate yourself that you resisted temptation!" + +"But maybe he tempted Heinrich, too!" + +"No, Heinrich didn't have to be tempted. It was on account of +Heinrich that we began the investigation. He has been making +explosives and planting them all over the country. His name isn't +Heinrich, and he isn't a nephew of Kumme; his name is von Holtz, and +he's a Prussian officer, a personal friend of the Kaiser." + +Jimmie was speechless. For the love of Mike! He had been sitting in +the back part of old Kumme's bicycle-shop, filling his pipe from +the tobacco-pouch of a personal friend of the Kaiser. He had called +this personal friend of the Kaiser a fool and a jackass, informing +him that a real mechanic could put a ball-bearing together while he, +the personal friend of the Kaiser, was spitting on his hands. Could +you beat it? + +Mr. Harrod, the "special agent", informed Jimmie that he would have +to testify as to what he knew; and Jimmie was so indignant at the +way he had been taken in that he was willing to do so. He would have +to give bond to appear, added the other; did he know anyone who +would vouch for him? Jimmie racked his harassed brain. Comrade Dr. +Service might consent, if he were quite sure that Jimmie had not +really meant to help the Germans. Mr. Harrod kindly consented to +give this assurance, and called up Dr. Service, whom he seemed to +know, and told him the circumstances. Dr. Service finally said that +he would put up a couple of thousand dollars to guarantee Jimmie's +appearance before the grand jury and at the trial. Mr. Harrod added +that if Dr. Service would promise to come in the morning and attend +to the matter, the government would take his word and let the +witness go for the night. The doctor promised, and Jimmie was told +that he was free till ten o'clock next morning. He went out like a +skylark escaping from a cage! + + + + +V + + + +He had been warned not to talk to anyone, so he told Lizzie that he +had been kept late to make repairs on a motor-cycle. And next +morning he got up at the usual hour, to avoid exciting suspicion, +and went and stared at the shop, which was locked up, with a +policeman on guard. He bought a copy of the Leesville Herald, and +read the thrilling story of the German plot which had been unearthed +in Leesville. There were half a dozen conspirators under arrest, and +more than a dozen bombs had been found, all destined to be set off +in the Empire Shops. Franz Heinrich von Holtz, who had blown up a +bridge in Canada and put an infernal machine on board a big Atlantic +liner, had been nailed at last! + +Half an hour before time, Jimmie was waiting at the Post Office +building, and when Comrade Dr. Service arrived, they went in and +signed the bond. Coming out again, the grim and forbidding doctor +ordered Jimmie into his car, and oh, what a dressing-down he did +give him! He had Jimmie where he wanted him--right over his +knees--and before he let him up he surely did make him burn! The +little machinist had been so cock-sure of himself; going ahead to +end the war, by stopping the shipping of munitions, and paying no +heed to warnings from men older and wiser than himself! And now see +what he had got himself in for--arrested with a gang of fire-bugs +and desperadoes, under the control and in the pay of a personal +friend of the Kaiser! + +Poor Jimmie couldn't put up much of a defence: he was cowed, for +once. He could only say that he had had no evil intention--he had +merely been agitating against the trade in munitions--a wicked +thing-- + +"Wicked?" broke in the Comrade Doctor. "The thing upon which the +freedom of mankind depends!" + +"W--what?" exclaimed Jimmie; for these words sounded to him like +sheer lunacy. + +The other explained. "A nation that means to destroy its neighbours +sets to work and puts all its energies into making guns and shells. +The free peoples of the world won't follow suit--you can't persuade +them to do it, because they don't believe in war, they can't realize +that their neighbours intend to make war. So, when they are attacked +their only chance for life is to go out into the open market and buy +the means of defence. And you propose to deprive them of that +right--to betray them, to throw them under the hoofs of the +war-monster! You, who call yourself a believer in justice, make +yourself a tool of such a conspiracy! You take German money--" + +"I never took no German money!" cried Jimmie, wildly. + +"Didn't Kumme pay you money?" + +"But I worked in his shop--I done my ten hours a day right +straight!" + +"And this fellow Jerry Coleman? Hasn't he given you money?" + +"But that was for propaganda--he was agent for Labour's National +Peace Council--" + +And the Comrade Doctor fairly snorted. "How could you be such an +ass? Don't you read the news? But no--of course, you don't--you +only read German dope!" And the Comrade Doctor drew out his +pocket-book, which was bursting with clippings, and selected one +from a New York paper, telling how the government was proceeding +against the officials of an organization called "Labour's National +Peace Council" for conspiring to cause strikes and violence. The +founder of the organization was a person known as "the Wolf of Wall +Street"; the funds had been furnished by a Prussian army officer, an +attache of the German legation, who had used his official immunity +to incite conspiracy and wholesale destruction of property in a +friendly country. What had Jimmie to say to that? + +And poor Jimmie for once had nothing to say. He sat, completely +crushed. Not merely the money which he had got from Kumme on +Saturday night, but also the ten-dollar bills which Jerry Coleman +had been slipping into his hand--they, too, had come from the +Kaiser! Was the whole radical movement to be taken over by the +Kaiser, and Jimmie Higgins put out of his job? + + + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +JIMMIE HIGGINS RETURNS TO NATURE + +I + + + + + +Kumme's bicycle-shop went out of business, and its contents were +sold at auction. Jimmie Higgins watched the process wistfully, +reflecting how, if he had not wasted his substance on Socialist +tracts, if he had saved a bit of his wages like any normal human +being, he might have bought this little business and got a start in +life. But alas, such hopes were not for Jimmie! He must remain in +the condition which the President of his country described as +"industrial serfdom"; he must continue to work for some other man's +profit, to be at the mercy of some other man's whim. + +He found himself a job in the railroad shops; but in a couple of +weeks came an organizer, trying to start a union in the place. +Jimmie, of course, joined; how could he refuse? And so the next time +he went to get his pay he found a green slip in his envelope +informing him that the Atlantic Western Railroad Company would no +longer require his services. No explanation was given, and none +sought--for Jimmie was old in the ways of American wage-slavery, +euphemistically referred to as "industrial serfdom". + +He got another start as helper to a truckman. It was the hardest +work he had yet done--all the harder because the boss was a dull +fellow who would not talk about politics or the war. So Jimmie was +discontented; perhaps the spring-time was getting into his blood; at +any rate, he hunted through his Sunday paper, and came on an +advertisement of a farmer who wanted a "hand". It was six miles out +in the country, and Jimmie, remembering his walk with the Candidate, +treated himself to a Sunday afternoon excursion. He knew nothing +about farm-work, and said so; but the munition-factories had drained +so much labour from the land that the farmer was glad to get +anybody. He had a "tenant-house" on his place, and on Monday morning +Jimmie hired his former boss--and truckman--to move his few sticks +of furniture; he bade farewell to his little friend Meissner, and +next day was learning to milk cows and steer a plough. + +So Jimmie came back to the bosom of his ancient Mother. But alas, he +came, not to find joy and health, not as a free man, to win his own +way and make a new life for himself; he came as a soil-slave, to +drudge from dawn to dark for a hire that barely kept him going. The +farmer was the owner of Jimmie's time, and Jimmie disliked him +heartily, because he was surly-tempered and stingy, abusing his +horses and nagging at his hired man. Jimmie's education in +farm-economics was not thorough enough to enable him to realize that +John Cutter was as much of a slave as himself--bound by a mortgage +to Ashton Chalmers, President of the First National Bank of +Leesville. John drudged from dawn to dark, just as Jimmie did, and +in addition had all the worry and fear; his wife was a sallow and +hollow-chested drudge, who took as many bottles of patent-medicine +as poor Mrs. Meissner. + +But Jimmie kept fairly cheerful because he was learning new things, +and because he saw how good it was for the babies, who were getting +fresh air and better food than they had ever had in their little +lives before. All summer long he ploughed and harrowed and hoed, he +tended horses and cows and pigs and chickens, and drove to town with +farm produce to be sold. He would be too tired at night even to read +his Socialist papers; for six months he let the world go its way +unhindered--its way of desperate strife and colossal anguish. It was +the time when the German hordes hurled themselves against the +fortifications of Verdun. For five horrible months they came on, +wave upon endless wave; the people of France set their teeth and +swore, "They shall not pass!" and the rest of civilization waited, +holding its breath. + + + + +II + + + +The only chance Jimmie had to talk about these matters was of a +Saturday night when he strolled up to the store at a near-by +cross-roads. The men he met here were of a new type to him--as +different from factory people as if they came from another planet. +Jimmie had been taught to laugh at them as "hayseeds"; +intellectually he regarded them as relics of a vanished age so, of +course, he could not listen to their talk very long without "butting +in". He began with the declaration that the Allies were as bad as +the Germans. He got away with that, because they had all been taught +to hate the "Britishers" in their school-books, and they didn't know +very much about Frenchmen and "Eye-talians". But when Jimmie went on +to say that the American government was as bad as the German +government--that all governments were run by capitalists, and all +went to war for foreign markets and such plunder--then what a +hornet's nest he brought about his ears! "You mean to say American +armies would do what them Proosians done in Belgium?" And when +Jimmie answered "Yes," an indignant citizen rose from his seat on a +cracker-box, and tapped him on the shoulder and said: "Look here, +young feller, you better run along home. You'll git yerself a coat +of tar and feathers if you talk too much round these parts." + +So Jimmie shut up for a while; and when he went out with his armful +of purchases, an aged, white-whiskered patriarch who had been +listening got up and followed him out. "I'm going your way," he +said. "Git in with me." Jimmie climbed into the buggy; and while the +bony old mare ambled along through the summer night the driver asked +questions about Jimmie's life. Where had he been brought up? How had +it been possible for a man to live all his life in America, and know +so little about his native land? + +Peter Drew was this old farmer's name, and he had been in the first +battle of Bull Run, and had fought with the Army of Northern +Virginia all the way to Richmond. So he knew how American armies +behave; he could tell Jimmie about a million free men who had rushed +to arms to save their nation's integrity, and had made a clean job +of it, and then gone quietly back to their work at farm and forge. +Jimmie had heard Comrade Mary Allen, the Quaker, make the statement +that "Force never settled anything". He repeated this now, and the +other replied that an American ought to be the last person in the +world to make such a statement, for his country had provided the +best illustration in history of the importance of a good job of +spanking. It was force that had settled the slavery question--and +settled it so that now you might travel in the South and have a hard +time to find a man that would want to unsettle it. + +But Jimmie knew nothing about all that; he knew nothing about +anything in America. The old man said it frightened him to realize +that the country had let a man grow up in it with so little +understanding of its soul. All that precious tradition, utterly dead +so far as Jimmie was concerned! All those heroes who had died to +make free the land in which he lived, and to keep it free--and he +did not know their names, he did not even know the names of the +great battles they had fought! The old man's voice trembled and he +laid his hand on Jimmie's knee. + +The little Socialist tried to explain that he had dreams of his own. +He was fighting for international freedom--his patriotism was +higher and wider than any one country. And that was all right, said +the other, but why kick down the ladder by which you had +climbed--and especially when you had perhaps not entirely finished +climbing? Why not know the better side of your own country, and +appeal to it? Peter Drew went on to tell of a speech he had heard +Abraham Lincoln make, and to quote things Lincoln had said; could +Jimmie doubt that Lincoln would have opposed the rule of the country +by Wall Street? And when a country had been shaped and guided by +such men as Lincoln, why trample its face and besmirch its good +name--just because there were in it some evil men contending against +its ideals of freedom and democracy? + +This old soldier lived about a mile from Jimmie, and asked his new +friend to come and see him. So the next afternoon, which was Sunday, +Lizzie put on a newly starched dress, and Jimmie packed the two +smallest infants in the double perambulator, and took Jimmie +Junior's chubby hand and they trudged down the road to the farmhouse +which the old man's father had built. Mrs. Drew was a sweet-faced, +rather tired looking old lady, but her pale eyes seemed to smile +with hospitality, and she brought out a basket of ripe peaches, and +sat and chatted sympathetically with Lizzie about the care of +babies, while Jimmie and the old man sat under the shade of an elm +tree by the kitchen-door and discussed American history. Jimmie +listened to stories of battle and imprisonment, of monster heroisms +and self-immolations. Up to this time he had been looking at war +from the outside, as it were; but now he got a glimpse of the soul +of it, he began to understand how a man might be willing to leave +his home and his loved ones, and march out to fight and suffer and +die to save his country in which he believed. + +And here was another new idea: this old fellow had been a soldier, +had fought through four years of incessant battles, and yet he had +not lost his goodness. He was kind, gentle, generous; he gave +dignity to the phrases at which Jimmie had been taught to mock. It +was impossible not to respect such a man; and so little by little +Jimmie was made to reflect that there might be such a thing as the +soul of America, about which Peter Drew was all the time talking. +Perhaps there was really more to the country than Wall Street +speculators and grafting politicians, policemen with clubs and +militiamen with bayonets to stick into the bodies of working-men who +tried to improve their lot in life! + + + + +III + + + +In the course of the summer Jimmie had to take several days off and +go into Leesville to attend the trial of the German plotters. He had +to take the witness-stand and tell all he knew about Kumme and +Heinrich and the other men who had frequented the bicycle-shop. It +was a very serious experience, and before it was over Jimmie was +heartily glad that he had rejected the invitation to help blow up +the Empire Machine Shops. The trial ended with a sentence of six +months for Jimmie's old employer, and of two years each for Heinrich +and his pals. The law allowed no more--to the intense disgust of the +Leesville Herald. The Herald was in favour of a life-sentence for +anyone who interfered with the industry upon which the prosperity of +the city depended. + +Among those who came to the trial was Comrade Smith, editor of the +Worker, and Jimmie sat with him in Tom's "Buffeteria", and heard an +account of the latest developments in the Empire Shops. The movement +of discontent had been entirely crushed; the great establishment was +going at full blast, both day and night. They were taking on +hundreds of new hands, mostly women and girls, speeding them faster +and faster, turning out tens of thousands of shell-casings every +day. And still they were not satisfied; new buildings were going up, +the concern was spreading like a huge blot over the landscape. There +was talk of an explosive factory near-by, so that shells might be +filled as fast as they were made. + +The "boom" conditions continued in Leesville; speculators were +reaping harvests, it seemed as if the masters of the city were all +on a spree. Comrade Smith advised Jimmie to stay where he was, for +it was getting to be harder and harder for the workers in Leesville +to get anything to eat. But out on the heights along the river +front, the part of the city called "Nob Hill", new palaces were +rising. And it was that way all over the Eastern part of the +country, said the young editor; the rich no longer knew what to do +with their millions. + +On the day the trial ended, Jimmie stayed in town to attend a +meeting of the local and pay his back dues. So he met all his old +friends, and heard "Wild Bill" get up and deliver one of his +tirades. Bill had in his hand a newspaper clipping telling of the +amazing madness that had struck Wall Street. Munition stocks were +soaring to prices beyond belief; "war-babies", men called them, with +unthinkably cynical wit. On the "Great White Way", to which they +rushed to celebrate these new Arabian Nights, there was such an orgy +of dissipation as the world had never seen. "And is this what we +have to slave for!" yelled "Wild Bill"--looking wilder than ever +since the police had broken his nose and knocked out his three front +teeth. "This is why we are chained to our jobs--shut up in jail if +we so much as open our mouths! Piling up millions for old man +Granitch, so that young Lacey can marry chorus-girls and divorce +them--or steal away another man's wife, as they say he's doing just +now!" + +Then young Emil Forster spoke, explaining to Jimmie the inner +significance of terrific world-events. Russia was in the midst of a +gigantic offensive, which was meant to overwhelm Austria; England at +the same time was hurling in her new armies on the Somme; for these +two giant movements they wanted shells--millions and millions of +shells from America, which alone could make enough of them. The +railroads were clogged with them, they were piled mountain-high at +the terminals and ports; whole fleets of steamers were loading up +with them, and proceeding to England and France, and to Russia by +way of Archangel. And, of course, the German submarines were out to +stop them; the whole world was like a powder-magazine over the +issue. The President, by his series of notes, had forced Germany to +agree not to sink passenger-vessels; but this promise was not easy +to keep--accidents kept happening, and the temper of the peoples was +rising, America was being drawn nearer every hour to the vortex of +this dreadful strife. Such was the picture which Jimmie carried back +to the farm; you could hardly wonder if he missed that peace and joy +which men are supposed to imbibe at the bosom of their Mother +Nature! + + + + + + +CHAPTER X + +JIMMIE HIGGINS MEETS THE OWNER + +I + + + + + +It was late at night when Jimmie left the Socialist local, and took +the trolley out into the country. He had to walk nearly two miles +from where he got off, and a thunder-storm had come up; he got out +and started to trudge through the darkness and the floods of rain. +Several times he slipped off the road into the ditch, and once he +fell prone, and got up and washed the mud from his eyes and nose +with the stream of fresh water pouring about his head. While he was +thus occupied he heard the sound of a horn, and saw a glare of light +rushing up. He jumped into the ditch again, and a big automobile +went by at a fast pace, spattering showers of mud all over him. He +plodded on, swearing to himself. Some of them munition-millionaires, +no doubt--tearing over the country at night honking their +horns like they owned the roads, and covering poor walking +people with their splashings! + +And so on, until Jimmie came round a turn of the road and saw the +white glare of light again, this time standing still. It seemed to +be pointing up into the trees; and when he got nearer he made out +the reason--it had run off the road into the ditch, and then up the +other slope, and there rolled over on to its side. + +"Hello!" said a voice, as Jimmie came slopping up. + +"Hello!" he answered. + +"How far is it to the nearest house?" + +"Maybe half a mile." + +"Who lives there?" + +"I do." + +"Have you got a horse and buggy?" + +"There's one at the big house, just a piece beyond." + +"Do you suppose we could get enough men to turn this car over?" + +"I dunno; there ain't many about here." + +"Damn!" muttered the man to himself. Then, after a moment, "Well, +there's no use staying here." This to his companion, whom Jimmie +made out to be a woman. She was standing still, with the cold rain +pouring over her. The man put his arm about her, and said to Jimmie, +"Lead the way, please." So Jimmie set out, slopping through the mud +as before. + +Nothing more was said until they reached the "tenant-house" where +the Jimmies lived. But meantime the little Socialist's mind was +busy; it seemed to him that the man's voice was familiar, and he was +trying to recall where and how he had heard it before. They came to +the house, which was dark, and the couple stood on the porch while +Jimmie went in and groped for a match and lighted the single smoky +oil-lamp on which the household depended. Carrying it in his hand, +he went to the door and invited the couple in. They came; and so +Jimmie got a glimpse of the face of the man, and almost dropped the +lamp right there where he stood. It was Lacey Granitch! + + + + +II + + + +The young lord of Leesville was too much occupied with his own +affairs to notice the look on the face of the yokel before him; or +perhaps he was so used to being recognized, and to being stared at +by yokels. He looked about the room and saw a stove. "Can you get us +a fire, so this lady can get dry?" + +"Y--yes," said Jimmie. "I--I suppose so." But he made no move; he +stood rooted to the spot. + +"Lacey," put in the woman, "don't stop for that. Get the car +started, or get another." And Jimmie looked at her; she was rather +small, and very beautiful--quite the most beautiful human creature +that Jimmie had ever looked at. One could see that she was +expensively dressed, even though everything she had on was soaked +with rain. + +"Nonsense!" exclaimed Lacey. "You can't travel till you get +dry--you'd be ill." And he turned upon Jimmie. "Get a fire, won't +you?" he exclaimed. "A big fire. I'll make it worth while to you for +whatever you do. Only don't stand there gaping all night," he added +impatiently. + +Jimmie leaped to obey; partly because he had been in the habit of +leaping to obey all his life--but also partly because he was sorry +for the beautiful wet lady, and because, if he stood and stared any +longer, Lacey Granitch might recognize him. The moment when Jimmie +had been singled out in the herd of strikers and cursed by the young +master of the Empire Machine Shops was one of the most vivid +memories of Jimmie's rebellious life, and it did not occur to him +that the incident might not have equally impressed the other +participant. + +In a few minutes the stove was hot; and urged by her escort, the +lady took off her driving-coat and hat, and hung them over a chair. +Everything underneath was wet, and the man urged her to take off her +skirt and blouse. "What does he matter?" he argued, referring to +Jimmie; but the lady would not do it. She stood by the stove, +shivering slightly, and pleading with her escort to make haste, to +find some way to get the car running again. They might be followed-- + +"Oh, nonsense, Helen!" cried Lacey. "You are tormenting yourself +with nightmares. Be sensible and get dry." He piled the wood into +the stove, and ordered Jimmie to get another armful; and Jimmie +obeyed with his hands and feet--but meantime his rebellious little +brain was taking in every detail of the situation, putting this and +that together. + +The talking had waked up Lizzie, so Jimmie rushed into the next room +and whispered, "Lacey Granitch is here!" If he had told her that the +Angel Gabriel was there, or Jehovah with all his thunders and his +retinue of seraphim, poor Lizzie could not have been more stunned. +Jimmie ordered her to get up, and get on her dress and shoes, and +get a cup of coffee for the lady; the dazed woman obeyed--though +she would rather have crawled under the bed than face the celestial +personages who had taken possession of her home. + + + + +III + + + +Lacey ordered Jimmie to accompany him, to find some help to get the +car into travelling condition. They went out together, and on the +porch, before they braved the rain again, young Granitch stopped and +spoke: "See here, my man; I want you to help me get a gang together, +and I want you to keep quiet, please--say nothing about who was in +the car. If any other people come along and ask questions, keep your +mouth shut, and I'll make it worth while to you--well worth while. +Do you understand?" + +Every instinct in Jimmie Higgins was ready to answer, "Yes, sir." +That was what he had always answered to such commands--he, and his +father, and his father's fathers before him. But something else +within him resisted this instinct--the new revolutionary psychology +which he had so painfully acquired, and which made continual war +upon his old-time docilities. It seemed that this was the moment, if +ever in his life, to show the stuff he was made of. He clenched his +hands, and everything in him turned to iron. "WHO IS THAT LADY?" he +demanded. + +Lacey Granitch was so taken aback that he started visibly. "What do +you mean?" + +"I mean--is she your wife? Or is she some other man's wife?" + +"Why you damned--" And the young lord of Leesville stopped, +speechless. Jimmie fell back a couple of steps, as a matter of +precaution, but he did not weaken in his rigid resolve. + +"I know you, Mr. Granitch," he said; "and I know what you're doing. +You might as well know you ain't foolin' nobody." + +"What the hell is it to you?" cried the other; but then he stopped +again, and Jimmie heard him breathing hard. Evidently he made an +effort to keep his self-control; when he spoke again, his voice was +quieter. "Listen, my good fellow," he said. "You have a chance to +make a good deal of money to-night--" + +"I don't want your money!" broke in Jimmie. "I wouldn't touch your +filthy money, that you get by murdering men!" + +"My God!" said Lacey Granitch; and then, weakly: "What have you got +against me?" + +"What have I got? I was workin' in the Empire, an' I went on strike +for my rights, an' you cursed me like I was a dog, an' you sent the +police an' had me arrested, an' they smashed Wild Bill's nose, an' +sent me up for ten days when I hadn't done nothin'--" + +"Oh! So that's it, is it?" + +"Yes, that's it; but I wouldn't mind that so much--if it wasn't for +them shells you're makin' to kill men over in Europe. And you +spendin' the money drinkin' champagne with chorus-girls, an' runnin' +off with other men's wives!" + +"You--" and Lacey uttered a foul oath, and leaped at Jimmie; but +Jimmie had expected that, he was looking out for himself. There was +no railing to the little porch on which he stood, and he leaped off +to the ground and away. Because he knew the lay of the land, he +could run faster in the darkness than his pursuer. + +He sped down the path and out into the road--and there was the +headlight of an automobile, almost upon him. The vehicle came to an +instant stop, and a startled voice cried, "Hey, there!" + +"Hey, there!" answered Jimmie, and stopped in the light; for he did +not believe that his enemy would dare pursue him there. + +The voice from the car spoke again. "There's an automobile off the +road a ways back here. Do you know anything about who the people are +that were driving it?" + +"Sure I do!" answered Jimmie promptly. + +"Where are they?" + +"They're up in that house--Lacey Granitch an' a lady named Helen--" + +And instantly the door of the car was flung open. A man leaped out, +and another man, and another; they kept coming--Jimmie would not +have believed that an automobile could have held so many people. Not +one of them said a word, but all started on the run for Jimmie's +house as if they were charging in a battle. + + + + +IV + + + +Jimmie followed behind. He heard sounds of a scuffle on the lawn, +and screams from inside. At first the little farm-hand could not +make up his mind what to do, but finally he ran to the house; and +there in the front room he saw the beautiful lady, with her wet hair +streaming down her back, and the tears streaming down her face, sunk +on her knees, before the man who had hailed Jimmie from the +automobile. She had caught his coat with her two hands, and clung to +it with such desperation that when he tried to draw away he dragged +her along the floor. "Paul!" she was screaming. "What are you going +to do?" + +"Be quiet! Be quiet!" commanded the man. He was young, tall and +superhumanly handsome; his face had the white light of a passionate +resolve, his lips were set like those of a man who is marching to +his death in battle. "Answer me!" cried the woman again and again; +until finally he said: "I shan't kill him; but I mean to teach him +his lesson." + +"Paul, Paul, have mercy!" sobbed the woman; she went on pleading +hysterically, in the most dreadful distress that Jimmie had ever +seen or heard. "It wasn't his fault, Paul, it was mine! I did it +all! Oh, for Christ's sake! You are driving me mad!" She moaned, she +implored, she sobbed till she choked herself; and when the man tried +to tear her hands loose she fought with him, he could not get free +of her. + +"You're not going to move me, Helen," he declared. "You might as +well get that clear." + +"But I tell you it was my fault, Paul! I ran away with him!" + +"All right," answered the man, grimly. "I'll fix him so no other +man's wife will ever run away with him." + +Her clamour continued more wildly than ever, until two other men +came into the room. "Joe," said Paul, to one of them, "take her down +to the car and keep her there. Don't let her call for help--if +anybody comes along, keep her quiet, keep your hand tight over her +mouth." + +"Paul, you're a fiend!" shrieked the woman. "I'll kill you for +this!" + +"You're welcome to," answered the man. "I shouldn't care--but I'm +going to do this job before I die." And he tore the woman's hands +away from him, and by his stern anger he gave the other two men the +necessary resolution. They carried her, half-fainting, out of the +room. + +All this time Jimmie Higgins had been standing like one turned to +stone; and Lizzie had shrunk into a far corner of the room, all but +paralysed with terror. Now the man turned to them. "My good people," +he said, "we want to borrow your room for a half-hour or so. We'll +pay you well for it--enough to buy the whole house if you want to." + +"W--w--what are you goin' to do?" stammered Jimmie. + +"We're going to teach a little fundamental morality to a young man +whose education has been neglected," replied the other. That somehow +did not tell Jimmie very much, but he forebore to speak again, for +never in all his life had he seen a man who conveyed to him the +impression of such resistless force as this man. He was truly a +superhuman creature, terrifying, panoplied in lightnings of wrath. + +The door of the house opened again, and Lacey Granitch came in, with +a man on each side holding him by the arms and a pair of handcuffs +on his wrists. Of all the dreadful spectacles that Jimmie had seen +that dreadful night, the worst was the face of the young master of +the Empire Machine Shops. It was green--absolutely and literally +green. His knees trembled so that he seemed about to sink to the +floor, and his dark eyes were those of an animal in a trap. + +There came another man behind him carrying two black cases in his +hands. He opened one, and took out some instrument with wires +attached, and hung part of it to a hook on the wall; he pressed a +switch, and a soft white radiance flooded the room. The man who was +in command, the one whom the lady had called "Paul", now turned to +Jimmie and his wife. "You may take your lamp," he said. "Go into the +other room and stay there till we call you, please." + +"W--w--what are you goin' to do?" Jimmie found courage to stammer +again. But the other merely bade him to go into the other room and +stay, and it would be all right, and he would be well paid for his +time and trouble. There was no use trying to interfere; no use +trying to get away, for the house would be watched. + + + + +V + + + +Jimmie Junior had been wakened by the uproar, and was whimpering; so +Lizzie hurried to quiet him, and Jimmie set the little smoky lamp on +the dresser, and went and sat on the bed beside her, holding her +hand in his. Both their hands were shaking in a way that was +amazing. + +Every sound from the other room was plainly audible. Lacey was +pleading, and "Paul" commanded him to hold his tongue. There was a +scuffle, and then terrified moans, which died away. There began to +steal into the Higgins's bedroom a most ghastly odour; they could +not imagine what it was. And then they began to hear wild clamour +from Lacey Granitch, as if he were suffering in hell. It was awful +beyond words; the perspiration came out in beads on the faces of the +listeners, and Jimmie was just about making up his mind that it was +his duty to rush in and protest, or perhaps to climb out of the +window and make an effort to steal away and summon help, when the +door opened and the man called "Paul" came in, closing the door +behind him. + +"It's all right," said he. "People always make a fuss when they're +given an anaesthetic, so don't let it frighten you." And he stood +there waiting, rigid, grim, while the sounds went on. Finally they +died away and silence fell--a long, long silence. He opened the +door and went back into the other room, and the two Jimmies were +left holding each other's shaking hands. + +Now and then they heard a man speak in a low voice, or someone move +across the room; and always that ghastly, overpowering odour kept +creeping in, making them think they would die of suffocation, and +their three babies also. The suspense and horror had become almost +unbearable--when finally they began to hear Lacey Granitch again, +moaning, sobbing--most harrowing sounds. "My God! My God!" whispered +Lizzie, "What are they doing?" And when Jimmie did not answer, she +whispered again. "We ought to stop them! We ought to get help!" + +But then once more the door opened, and "Paul" came in. "It's all +right now," he said. "He's coming out." Neither of the Jimmies had +the least idea what "coming out" meant, but they were reassured to +know that the masterful person at least was satisfied. They waited; +they heard Lacey vomiting, as it seemed--and then they heard him +cursing, in between his feeble gasps. He called the men the same +foul name that he had called Jimmie; and that somehow made the whole +affair seem better--it brought one down to earth again! + +"Paul" went out and stayed for a while, and when he came back, he +said, "We're going now; and understand, there's nothing for you to +worry about. We shall leave the patient here, and as soon as we get +to a telephone, we'll notify the hospital to send an ambulance. So +all you have to do is to wait, and keep quiet and don't worry. And +here's something for the use of your house--" The man put out his +hand with a roll of bills, which Jimmie mechanically took--"and if +anybody asks you about what happened to-night, just say you didn't +see anything and don't know anything whatever about it. I'm sorry to +have troubled you, but it couldn't be helped. And now, good night." + +And so the masterful young man went out, and they heard him and his +companions tramping down the porch-steps. They listened, until they +heard the automobile start up and disappear in the darkness. Then +from the next room they heard a moan. + +Trembling with terror, Jimmie got up and stole to the door, and +opened it a tiny crack. The room was in utter darkness. "Get me some +water!" the voice of Lacey groaned; and Jimmie tiptoed back and got +the little smoky lamp, and came to the door again. He peered in, and +saw that Lacey was lying on the floor with a sheet over +him--everything but his head, which was resting on a pillow. His +face was yellow and twisted with pain. "Water! Water!" he sobbed; +and Jimmie rushed to get a glass and fill it from the pail. When he +brought it, Lacey first tried to drink, and then began to vomit; +then he lay, sobbing softly to himself. He saw Jimmie staring at +him, and his eyes filled with sudden hate and he whispered, "This is +what you got me in for, you damned little skunk!" + + + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +JIMMIE HIGGINS FACES THE WAR + +I + + + + + +The ambulance arrived, and the two attendants who came with it +brought in a stretcher and carried young Granitch away. Jimmie +opened the windows to get rid of the odour of ether, and meantime he +and Lizzie sat for hours discussing every aspect of the dreadful +scene they had witnessed, and speculating as to its meaning. When +Jimmie investigated the roll of bills which had been slipped into +his hand, he found that there were ten of them, new, crisp, and +bright yellow, each having the figure twenty printed upon it. It was +more money than these two humble little people had ever had or +expected to have in all their lives. It was literally blood-money +they felt, but it would be hard to see who would be benefited if +they rejected it. Certainly the deed which had been done that night +could not be undone--not for all the money that old Granitch had +heaped up in his vaults. + +Jimmie kept quiet, as he had been bidden, and apparently no one told +about his part in the affair--no reporters came out to his country +home to ask for interviews. But when he went to the cross-roads +store a couple of nights later he found that the storm was all +over--nobody was talking or thinking about anything else. The news, +in fact, had gone by telegraph all over the world, and wherever +people read it they shuddered with horror, and the Socialists had a +choice illustration of the effect of excessive wealth upon morals. + +There were half a dozen versions of the story, Jimmie found; some +declared that the outraged husband had caught young Granitch in his +home and had fetched a surgeon there; others that he had taken him +to a hospital; others that the operation had been performed in a +road-house near by. But none mentioned the tenant-house on the farm +of John Cutter, and Jimmie wrapped himself in his pride of superior +knowledge, and let the loungers in the country store chatter on. He +would go back each night for new gossip; and first he heard that old +man Granitch was meaning to have all the conspirators arrested and +sent to jail; but then it was said that young Lacey had left the +hospital and vanished, no one knew where. And they never knew; never +again did he appear to curse the strikers at the Empire, nor to +break the hearts of chorus-girls on the Great White Way! His grim +old father's hair turned grey in a few weeks; and while he went on +to fill his contracts with the Russian government, all men knew that +his heart was eaten out with grief and rage and shame. + +Jimmie and his wife held numerous confabulations over those +twenty-dollar bills. What should they do with their fortune? The +Worker, always in need of funds, was just now issuing bonds in small +denominations, and Jimmie could not imagine any better financial +investment than a working-class paper; but Lizzie, alas, could not +be made to see it. And then his eye was caught by an advertisement +of an oil-company, published in a Socialist paper, which lifted it +above suspicion. But again Lizzie blocked the way. She begged her +visionary husband to turn the money over to her; she argued that +half of it belonged to her anyhow--had she not done her part to earn +it? "What part?" Jimmie asked; and she answered that she had kept +quiet--and what more had he done? + +Eleeza Betooser wanted that treasure to insure safety for the +children through whatever troubles might come to their propagandist +father. And finally the propagandist father gave way, and the woman +proceeded to secure the money in the ancient way of her sex. She +took the ten crisp bills and sewed them in a layer of cloth, and +wound the cloth about the ankle of her right leg, and sewed it +there, and put a stocking over it to hide it. And that apparatus +would stay there--day or night, winter or summer, it would never +part from its owner. She would be a walking bank, a bank that she +knew was safe from panic or crisis; the feeling of the two hundred +dollars about her ankle would be communicated to every part of +Lizzie--warming her heart, delighting her brain, and stimulating her +liver and digestion. + + + + +II + + + +And soon the chances of life caused Jimmie to be glad of the innate +conservatism of the feminine nature. The giant British offensive was +drowned in mud and blood on the Somme, and the Russian offensive +went to pieces before Lemberg; and meantime John Cutter stowed his +barrels of apples in the cellar, and got the last of his corn-crop +husked, and drove his load of pumpkins to market; and then one +Saturday night, after the cows had come in, wet and steaming with +November rain, he informed his hired man that he would not need his +services after that month, he would no longer be able to afford +"help". + +Jimmie stared at him in consternation--for he had thought that he +had a permanent job, having learned the work and having heard no +serious complaints. + +"But," explained Cutter, "the work's all done. Do you expect me to +pay you to sit round? I'll be glad to take you on next spring, of +course." + +"And what'll I do in the meantime?" Jimmie glared, and all his +hatred of the villainous profit-system welled up in his heart. So +much food he had helped to raise and store away--and not a pound of +it his! "Say," he remarked, "I know what you want! Some kind of a +trained bear, that'll work all summer, and go to sleep in winter an' +not eat nothin'!" + +The little Socialist was all the crosser, because he knew that his +boss had just made a lucky stroke--they were running a spur on the +railroad out to the vast explosives plant they were constructing in +the country, and Cutter had got the price of his mortgage for a +narrow strip of land that was nothing but wood-lot. Jimmie had seen +the deal made, and had put in a useful word as to the value of that +"timber", but now he had no share in the deal. He must be content +with an offer of the tenant-house for five dollars a month through +the winter, and a job with the rail-road company, grading track. + +There came rain and snow and blizzards, but the rail-road +construction stopped for nothing. It went on in three shifts, day +and night; for half the world was clamouring for the means to blow +itself up, and the other half must work like the devil to furnish +the means. At least that was the way the matter presented itself to +Jimmie Higgins, who took it as a personal affront the way this +diabolical war kept pursuing him. He had fled into the country from +it, bringing his little family to a tenant-house on an obscure, +worn-out farm, several miles from the nearest town; but here all of +a sudden came a gang of Dagoes with picks and shovels. They lifted +up and set to one side the chicken-house where Lizzie kept her +eleven hens and one rooster, and the pig-sty where one little hog +gobbled up their table-scraps; and two days later came a huge +machine, driven by steam, creeping on a track, picking up rails and +ties from a car behind it, swinging them round and laying them in +front of it, and then rolling ahead over the bed it had made. So the +railroad just literally walked out into the country, and before long +whole train-loads of cement and sand and corrugated iron walls and +roofing came rattling and banging past the Higgins's back-door. Day +and night this continued; and a little way beyond they knew that a +two-mile square of scrubby waste was being laid out with roads and +tracks and little squat buildings, set far apart from each other. In +a few months the frightened family would lie awake at night and +listen to trains rattling past, coming out from the explosives +plant, piled to the tops with loads of trinitrotoluol, and such +unpronounceable instruments of murder and destruction. And this was +the fate which capitalism had handed out to an ardent +anti-militarist, a propagandist of international fraternity! + + + + +III + + + +Jimmie Higgins went into the Socialist local now and then, to pay +his dues and to refresh his soul on pacifist speeches. Just before +Christmas the President of the United States wrote a letter to all +the warring nations pleading with them to end the strife; intimating +that all the belligerents were on a par as to badness, and stating +explicitly that America had nothing to do with their struggle. This, +of course, brought intense satisfaction to the members of Local +Leesville of the Socialist party; it was what they had been +proclaiming for two years and four months! They had never expected +to have a capitalist President in agreement with them, but when the +opportunity came, they made the most of it; clamouring that the +capitalist President should go farther--should back up his words by +actions. If the warring nations would not make peace, let America at +least clear her skirts by declaring an embargo, refusing to furnish +them with the means of self-destruction! + +But for some reason incomprehensible to Jimmie Higgins, the +capitalist President would not take this further step; and time +moved on, and at the end of January fell a thunder-bolt, in the +shape of a declaration from the German government that beginning +next day it rescinded its agreement to visit and search steamers, +and declared war to the death against all vessels sailing in barred +zones. Jimmie went to a meeting of the local a few days after that, +and found the gathering seething with excitement. The President had +appeared before Congress that day and made a speech calling for war; +and the Germans and Austrians in the local were wild with +indignation, shaking their fists and clamouring against the +unthinkable outrage of an attack upon the Fatherland. There was a +new edition of the Worker just out, filled with bitter protests, and +the Germans and the pacifists wanted to pledge the local to a +movement for a general strike of labour throughout the country. +Street-meetings had been resumed--for, of course, since the strike +in the Empire had been settled, the police had had no pretext to +prevent them. The extremists now wanted anti-war speakers on every +corner, and anti-war leaflets shoved under every doorstep; they were +willing to put up the money and to pledge their time for these +activities. + +Lawyer Norwood rose and revealed the split that was now full-grown +in the party. For the United States to lie down before that insolent +declaration of the German government would be to imperil everything +which a lover of liberty held dear. It would mean that Britain would +be starved out of the war, and British sea-power shattered--that +British sea-power upon which free government had based itself +throughout the world. Norwood was unable to get any further for the +tempest of jeering and ridicule that overwhelmed him. "Freedom in +Ireland!" shrieked Comrade Mary Allen. "And in India! And in Egypt!" +bellowed Comrade Koeln, the glass-blower, whose mighty lungs had +been twenty years preparing for this emergency. + +It was hard to stop the laughter--it seemed so funny that a man who +called himself a Socialist should be defending British battleships! +But Comrade Gerrity, the chairman, pounded with his gavel, and +insisted that the meeting should give fair play, that every speaker +should be heard in his turn. So Norwood went on. He understood that +no government in this world was perfect, but some were better than +others, and it was a fact of history, whether or not they chose to +admit it, that such freedom as had already been secured in the +world--in Britain and Canada and Australia and New Zealand and the +United States--had rested under the protection of British +battleships. If those battleships went down, it would mean that +every one of those free communities would begin building up a +military force many times as strong as they had now. If the United +States did not maintain the established customs of sea-commerce in +the present crisis, it would mean one thing and one only--that +America would spend the next thirty years devoting her energies to +preparing for a life-and-death struggle with German Imperialism. If +we were not to fight later, we must fight now-- + +"All right, you fight!" shouted Comrade Schneider, the brewer, his +purple face more purple than ever before in the history of Local +Leesville. + +"I'm going to fight all right," answered the young lawyer. "This is +my last speech here or anywhere else--I'm leaving for an officers' +training-camp to-morrow. I have come here to do my duty, to warn you +comrades--even though I know it will be in vain. The time for debate +has passed--the country is going into war--" + +"I'm not going into war!" roared Schneider. + +"Be careful," answered the other. "You may find yourself in before +you know it." + +And the big brewer laughed to shake the plaster off the walls. "I'd +like to see them send me! To fight for the British sea-power! Ho! +Ho! Ho!" + + + + +IV + + + +It was a stormy speech young Norwood made, but he persisted to the +end, so that, as he said, his conscience might be clear, he might +know that he had done what he could to protect the movement from its +greatest blunder. He warned them that the temper of the country was +rising; you could see it rising hour by hour, and things which had +been tolerated in the past would be tolerated no longer. Democracy +would protect its life--it would show that in a crisis it was as +strong as militarism-- + +"Yes, and turn itself into militarism to do it!" cried Comrade Mary +Allen. The Quaker lady was almost beside herself; she, more even +than the Germans, saw in what was transpiring the violation of her +most sacred convictions. + +America, her own country, was giving itself to war, making ready to +turn its resources to the wholesale mutilation of men! Comrade +Mary's thin face was white; her lips were tight with resolve, but +her feelings betrayed themselves by the quivering of her nostrils. +And oh, what a speech she made! Such torrents of furious hatred in +the cause of universal love! Comrade Mary quoted a Socialist writer +who had said that just as gladiatorial combats had continued until +Christian monks were willing to throw themselves into the arena, so +war would continue until Socialists were willing to throw themselves +beneath the hoofs of the cavalry. And in this Quaker spinster you +saw one Socialist who was ready to go out that very night and throw +herself beneath the hoofs of cavalry, infantry, or artillery, or +even of a police automobile. + +And that was the sentiment of the meeting as a whole. If America +entered the European strife, it would be because the Socialist +organization had exhausted its means of protest in vain. They would +call meetings, they would distribute literature, they would voice +their convictions on the streets and in the shops and wherever the +people might be reached. They would have no part in this wicked +strife, either now or later; they would continue in the future, as +in the past, to denounce and to expose the capitalist politicians +and the capitalist newspapers who caused war and thrived upon war. +And in proportion to the intensity of their feelings would be their +bitterness and contempt for the few renegades who in this hour of +crisis, this test of manhood and integrity, were deserting the +movement and going to enrol themselves in officers' training-camps! + +And so when Jimmie went home that night he carried with him an +armful of revolutionary literature, which during the noon-hour he +proceeded to distribute among the workers on the construction-job, +which was now inside the preserves of the explosives company. So +naturally in the course of the afternoon he was summoned before the +boss and discharged; they escorted him to the limits of the +property, and told him that if he ever returned he would be shot on +sight. And then at night he went up to the cross-roads store and +tried to give out his literature there, and got into a controversy +with some of the cracker-box loungers, one of whom jumped up and +shook his fist in Jimmie's face, shouting, "Get out of here, you +dirty little louse! If you don't stop talking your treason round +here, we'll come down some night and ride you out of the country on +a rail!" + + + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +JIMMIE HIGGINS MEETS A PATRIOT + +I + + + + + +The country, it seemed, was hell-bent for war; and Jimmie Higgins +was hell-bent for martyrdom. If the great madness were to take +possession of America, it would not be without his having done what +he could to prevent it. He would stand in the path of the war +chariot, he would throw himself beneath the hoofs of the cavalry; +and block the road with his dead body. To which vivid programme +there was only one obstacle--or, to be precise, four obstacles, one +large and three small, the large one being Eleeza Betooser. + +Poor Lizzie of course had no real comprehension of the world-forces +against which her husband was contending; to Lizzie, life consisted +of three babies, whom it was her duty to feed and protect, and a +husband, who was her instrument for carrying out this duty. The +world outside of these was to her a vague and shadowy place, full of +vague and shadowy terrors. Somewhere up in the sky was a Holy Virgin +who would help when properly appealed to, but Lizzie was handicapped +in appealing to this Virgin by the fact that her husband despised +the Holy One, and would cast insulting doubts upon her virtue. + +Now the shadowy terrors of this vast outside world were moving to +ends of their own, and her poor, puny husband persisted in putting +himself in their way. He had got turned out of his job, for the +fourth or fifth time since Lizzie had known him, and he was in +imminent danger of getting into jail, or into a coat of tar and +feathers. As the controversy grew hotter and the peril greater, +Lizzie came to a condition which might have been diagnosed as +chronic impending hysteria. Her eyes were red from secret weeping, +and at the slightest provocation she would burst into floods of +tears and throw herself into her husband's arms. This would start +off Jimmie Junior and the little ones, who always took their cue +from him. And Jimmie Senior would stand perplexed and helpless. Here +was a new aspect of the heroic life, not dealt with in the books. He +wondered--had there ever in history been such a thing as a married +martyr? If so, what had this martyr done with his family? + +Jimmie would try to explain this to his distressed spouse. It was a +question of saving a hundred million people from the horrors of war; +what did one man matter, in comparison with that? But alas, the +argument did not carry at all, the simple truth being that the one +man mattered more to Lizzie than all the other ninety-nine million, +nine hundred and ninety-nine thousand, nine hundred and ninety-nine. +And besides, what could the one man do? One poor, obscure, helpless +working-man out of a job-- + +"But it's the organization!" he cried. "It's all of us +together--it's the party! We promised to stand together, so we got +to do it! If I drop out, I'm a coward, a traitor! We must make the +workers understand--" + +"But you can't!" cried Lizzie. + +"But we're doin' it! Come see!" + +"And what can they do?" + +Which of course started Jimmy off on a propaganda speech. What could +the workers do? Say rather, what could they not do! How could any +war be fought without the workers? If only they would stand +together, if they would rise against their capitalist oppressors-- + +"But they won't!" sobbed the woman. "They got no use for you at all! +You go an' get fired--or you get your face beat in, like poor Bill +Murray--" + +"But is that any worse than goin' to war?" + +"You ain't got to go to war!" + +"Who says I ain't? I got to go, if the country goes. They'll drag me +off and make me! If I refuse they'll shoot me! Ain't they doin' that +in England and France an' Roosia an' all them countries?" + +"But will they do it here?" cried Lizzie, aghast. + +"Sure they will! That's exactly what they're gettin' ready for--what +we're fightin' to stop them from! You don't know what's goin' on in +this country--listen here!" + +And Jimmie hauled out the last issue of the Worker, which quoted +speeches made in Congress, calling for conscription, declaring that +such a measure was an essential war-step. "Don't you see what +they're up to? An' if we're goin' to stop them, we gotta act now, +before it's too late. Hadn't I just as good go to jail here in +Leesville as be shipped over to Europe to be shot--or maybe drowned +by a submarine on the way?" + +And thus a new terror was introduced into Lizzie's life--robbing +her of sleep for many a night thereafter, planting in her +mother-heart for the first time the idea that she might be concerned +in the world-war. "What'd become of the babies?" she wailed; and +Jimmie answered: Whose business was it to bother about working-class +babies, under the hellish capitalist system? + + + + +II + + + +So Jimmie had his way for a bit--he went into Leesville and helped +distribute literature, and held the torch at street-meetings, where +some people hooted at them and others defended them, and the police +had to interfere to prevent a riot. It was at this time that a +militant majority was trying to drive through the Senate a +declaration of war against Germany, and a handful of pacifists +blocked the way in the closing hours of the session, thus causing a +delay of several weeks. How you regarded this action depended upon +your point of view. The President denounced them as "wilful men", +and the Wall Street newspapers apparently wanted them lynched; +whereas Jimmie and his fellows in the local hailed them as heroes +and friends of mankind. The Socialists argued that the President had +been re-elected, only four months before, by pacifist votes, and +upon a pacifist platform; and now he was sweeping the country into +war, and denouncing those who stood upon his former convictions! + +On top of this came another event which set Jimmie almost beside +himself with excitement. For three days all news from Petrograd was +cut off; and then came a report, electrifying the world--the Tsar +had been overthrown, the Russian people were free! Jimmie could +hardly believe his eyes; he went in to the meeting of the local +three nights later, to find his comrades celebrating as if the world +was theirs. Here was the thing they had been preaching, day in and +day out, all these weary years, amid ridicule, hatred and +persecution; here was the Social Revolution, knocking at the gates +of the world! It would spread to Austria and Germany, to Italy, +France, England--and so to Leesville! Everywhere the people would +come into their own, and war and tyranny would vanish like a hateful +nightmare! + +Speaker after speaker got up to proclaim this glorious future; they +sang the Marseillaise and the Internationale, and the Russians who +were present clasped one another in their arms, with tears running +down their cheeks. It was voted that they must hold a mass-meeting +immediately, to explain this epoch-making event to the people of the +city; also they must stand more firmly than ever by their programme +of opposition to war. Now, with Social Revolution knocking at the +gates of the world, what was the use of America's going in for +militarism? + +So Jimmie set to work with redoubled fervour, giving all his time to +agitation. He had apparently no chance of getting a job, and for the +moment he gave up trying. The keeper of the cross-roads store, being +down on him because of his ideas, refused him any more credit; and +so poor Lizzie was driven to do what she had vowed never to do--take +off the stocking from her right leg, and unsew the bandage from her +ankle, and extract one of the ten precious twenty-dollar bills. +Their bright yellow was considerably faded now, their beautiful +crispness gone entirely; but the store-keeper made no kick on that +account--he returned the change, and incidentally took occasion to +give her a friendly warning concerning her husband's reckless talk. +There was trouble coming to him, and his wife had better shut him up +before it was too late. So poor Lizzie ceased being a pacifist, and +went home to have more hysterics on her husband's bosom. + + + + +III + + + +Being unable to hold him back, she sent word by the mail-carrier to +old Peter Drew to come up and help; the old farmer hitched up his +bony mare and drove to see them, and for a couple of hours talked +America while Jimmie talked Russia. Was America to lie down before +the Kaiser? Jimmie would answer that they were going to bring down +the Kaiser in the same way they had brought down the Tsar. The +workers of Russia having shown the way, never more would the workers +of any nation bow to the yoke of slavery. Yes, even in the so-called +republics, such as France, which was ruled by bankers, and America, +which was ruled by Wall Street--even here, the workers would read +the lesson of revolt! + +"But in America the people can get anything they want!" cried the +bewildered old man. "They only have to vote--" + +"VOTE?" snarled Jimmie. "An' have their votes thrown out by some +rotten political gang, like they got here in Leesville? Don't talk +to me about votin'--they told me I'd moved into a new district an' +lost my vote--lost it because I lost my job! So it's old man +Granitch has the say whether I can vote or not! You'll find the same +thing true of two-thirds of the men in the Empire Shops--half the +unskilled men in the country got no votes, because they got no home, +no nothin'." + +"But," argued the old soldier, "how will you run your new +working-class government, if not by votes?" + +"Sure, we'll run it by votes," Jimmie answered--"but first we'll +turn out the capitalists; they won't have the money to buy political +machines; they won't own the newspapers an' print lies about us. +Look at this Leesville Herald right now--just plain downright lies +they print--we can't get any truth at all to the people." + +And so it went. It was of no use for the old man to plead for the +"country"; to Jimmie the "country" had let itself be lost, +suppressed, taken over by the capitalists, the "plutes". Jimmie's +sense of loyalty was not to his country, but to his class, which had +been exploited, hounded, driven from pillar to post. In past times +the government had allowed itself to be used by corporations; so now +it was in vain that the President made appeals for justice and +democracy, using the beautiful language of idealism. Jimmie did not +believe that he meant it; or anyhow, Wall Street would see that +nothing came of his promises. The "plutes" would take his words and +twist them into whatever sense they wished; and meantime they went +on pouring abuse on Jimmie Higgins--throwing the same old mud into +his eyes, blinding him with the same old hatred. So there was no way +for an old soldier and patriot to break through the armour of +Jimmie's prejudice. + +IV + +Next day was to be the great mass-meeting in celebration of the +Russian revolution; and would you believe it, Lizzie was hoping to +persuade Jimmie to stay away; she had brought Mr. Drew to help +persuade him! Poor Lizzie had visions of everybody in the hall being +carted off to jail, of Jimmie getting up and shouting something, +causing the police to fall on him and beat in his skull with their +clubs. It was in vain he declared that he was going to do nothing +more romantic than sell literature and act as usher. She clasped him +in her arms, weeping copiously, and when he was still obdurate, she +declared that she would go with him. She would try to persuade Mrs. +Drew to take care of the babies for one night. + +Old Peter Drew answered that he would be interested to attend the +meeting himself. How would it do for him to come for Lizzie and the +little ones, and leave the latter at his home, and then drive with +Lizzie to the meeting? They could meet Jimmie at the Opera-house, +where he would be spending the day decorating. Then after the +meeting they could all drive back together. "Fine!" said Jimmie, who +had visions of the old soldier becoming infected with revolutionary +fever. + +But alas, it did not work out that way. To Jimmie's consternation +the old man turned up at the Opera-house in a faded blue uniform +with brass buttons all over it! Everybody stared, of course; and +they stared all the harder because they saw this military personage +in company with Comrade Higgins. The old boy gazed about at the +swarms of people, many of them with red buttons, the women with red +ribbons or sashes; he gazed at the decorations--the huge flag and +the long red streamers, the banner of the Karl Marx Verein, and the +banner of the Ypsels, or Young Peoples' Socialist League of +Leesville, and the banner of the Machinists' Union, Local 4717, and +of the Carpenters' Union, District 529, and of the Workers' +Co-operative Society. He turned to Jimmie and said, "Where's the +American flag?" + +The Liederkranz sang the Marseillaise, and after the audience had +cheered and waved red handkerchiefs and shouted itself hoarse, +Comrade Gerrity, the chairman, made a little speech. For many years +all Socialists had been accustomed to employ a metaphor by which to +describe conditions in their country, and now they would no longer +be able to use it, for Russia was free, and America would follow her +example when she had the sense. He introduced Comrade Pavel +Michaelovitch, who had come all the way from New York to tell them +the meaning of the greatest event of history. Comrade Pavel, a +slender, frail, scholarly-looking man with a black beard and +black-rimmed spectacles, said a few words in Russian, and then he +talked for an hour in broken English, explaining how the Russians +had won their way to freedom, and now would use it to set free the +rest of the proletariat. And then came Comrade Schultze, of the +Carpet Weavers' Union, assuring them that there was no need to go to +war with Germany, because the German workers had been shown the way +to freedom, and would follow very soon; Schultze knew, because his +brother was editor of a Socialist paper in Leipzig, and he had +inside information as to what was going on in the Fatherland. + +Then Comrade Smith, the editor of the Worker, was introduced, and +the trouble began. The young editor wasted no time in preliminaries; +he was an international revolutionist, and no capitalist government +was going to draft him for its bloody knaveries. Never would he be +led out to murder his fellow-workers, whether in Germany, Austria, +Bulgaria or Turkey; the masters of Wall Street would find that when +they set out to drive American free men to the slaughter-pen, they +had made the mistake of their greedy lives. "Understand me," +declared Comrade Smith--though there seemed so far to have been +nothing in which anyone could possibly have misunderstood +him--"understand me, I am no pacifist, I am not opposed to war--it +is merely that I purpose to choose the war in which I fight. If they +try to put a gun into my hands, I shall not refuse to take it--not +much, for I and my fellow wage-slaves have long wished for guns! But +I shall use my own judgement as to where I aim that gun--whether at +enemies in front of me, or at enemies behind me--whether at my +brothers, the working-men of Germany, or at my oppressors, the +exploiters of Wall Street, their newspaper lackeys and military +martinets!" + +The sentences of this speech came like the blows of a hammer, and +they struck forth a clamour of applause from the audience. But +suddenly the cheering crowd became aware that something out of the +ordinary was happening. An aged, white-whiskered man clad in a faded +blue uniform had risen from his seat in the middle of the hall and +was shouting and waving his arms. People near him were trying to +pull him down into his seat, but he would not be squelched, he went +on shouting; and the audience in part fell silent out of curiosity. +"Shame! Shame!" they heard him cry. "Shame upon you!" And he pointed +a trembling finger at the orator, declaring, "You are talking +treason, young man!" + +"Sit down!" shrieked the crowd. "Shut up!" + +But the old man turned upon them. "Are there no Americans at all in +this audience? Will you listen to this shameless traitor without one +word?" + +People caught him by the coat-tails, men shook their fists at him; +at the other side of the hall "Wild Bill" leaped upon a chair, +shrieking: "Cut his throat, the old geezer!" + +Two policemen came running down the aisle, and the "old geezer" +appealed to them: "What are you here for, if not to protect the flag +and the honour of America?" But the policemen insisted that he stop +interrupting the meeting, and so the old man turned and stalked out +from the hall. But he did not go until he had turned once more and +shaken his fist at the crowd, yelling in his cracked voice, +"Traitors! Traitors!" + + + + +V + + + +Poor Jimmie remained in his seat, overwhelmed. That he, the most +devoted of workers for Socialism, should have been the cause of such +a disgraceful scene--bringing to this revolutionary meeting a man in +the uniform of a killer of the working-class! He could not stay and +face the comrades; before the speaking had finished, he gave Lizzie +a nudge, and the two got up and stole out, dodging everyone they +knew. + +Outside they stood in perplexity. They thought, of course, that the +old man would have driven away without them; they pictured the long +walk from the trolley-line in the darkness and mud--and with Lizzie +dressed in her only Sunday-go-to-meeting! But when they went to the +place where Mr. Drew had left his buggy, to their surprise they +found him patiently waiting for them. Seeing them hesitate, he said, +"Come! Get in!" They were much embarrassed, but obeyed, and the old +mare started her amble towards home. + +They rode for a long time in silence. Finally Jimmie could not stand +it, and began, "I'm so sorry, Mr. Drew. You don't understand--" But +the old man cut him off. "There's no use you and me tryin' to talk, +young man." So they rode the rest of the way without a sound--except +that once Jimmie imagined he heard Lizzie sobbing to herself. + +Jimmie really felt terribly about it, for he had for this old +soldier a deep respect, even an affection. Mr. Drew had made his +impression not so much by his arguments, which Jimmie considered +sixty years out of date, as by his personality. Here was one patriot +who was straight! What a pity that he could not understand the +revolutionary point of view! What a pity that he had to be made +angry! It was one more of the horrors of war, which tore friends +apart, and set them to disputing and hating one another. + +At least, that was the way it seemed to Jimmie that night, while he +was still full of the speeches he had heard. But at other times +doubts assailed him--for, of course, a man cannot defy and combat a +whole community without sometimes being led to wonder whether the +community may not have some right on its side. Jimmie would hear of +things the Germans had done in the war; they were such dirty +fighters, they went out of their way to do such utterly revolting +and useless, almost insane things! They made it so needlessly hard +for anyone who tried to defend them to think of them even as human +beings. Jimmie would argue that he did not mean to help the Germans; +he would resent bitterly the charges of the Leesville newspapers +that he was a German agent and a traitor; but he could not get away +from the uncomfortable fact that the things he was doing DID have a +tendency to further German interests, at least for a time. + +When that was pointed out to him by some patriot in a controversy, +his answer would be that he was appealing to the German Socialists +to revolt against their military leaders; but then the patriot would +begin to find fault with the German Socialists, declaring that they +were much better Germans than Socialists, and citing utterances and +actions to prove it. One German Socialist had stood up in the +Reichstag and declared that the Germans had two ways of +fighting--their armies overcame their enemies in the field, while +their Socialists undermined the morale of the workers in enemy +countries. When that passage was read to Jimmie, he answered that it +was a lie; no such speech had ever been made by a Socialist. He had +no way of proving it was a lie, of course; he just knew it! But +then, when he went away and thought it over, he began to wonder; +suppose it were true! Suppose the German workers had been so drilled +and schooled in childhood that even those who called themselves +revolutionists were patriots at heart! Jimmie would begin to piece +this and that together--things he had heard or read. Certainly these +German Socialists were not displaying any great boldness in fighting +their government! + +The answer was that they could not oppose their government, because +they would be put in jail. But that was a pretty poor answer; it was +their business to go to jail--if not, what right had they to expect +Jimmie Higgins to go here in America? Jimmie presented this problem +to Comrade Meissner, who answered that if Jimmie would go first, +then doubtless the German comrades would follow. But Jimmie could +not see why he should be first; and when they tried to clear up the +reason, it developed that down in his heart Jimmie had begun to +believe that Germany was more to blame for the war than America. And +not merely would Comrade Meissner not admit that, but he became +excited and vehement, trying to convince Jimmie that the other +capitalist governments of the world were the cause of the +war--Germany was only defending herself against them! So there they +were, involved in a controversy, just like any two non-revolutionary +people! Repeating over the same arguments which had gone on in the +local between Norwood, the lawyer, and Schneider, the brewer; only +this time Jimmie was taking the side of Norwood! Jimmie found +himself face to face with the disconcerting fact that his devoted +friend Meissner was a German--and therefore in some subtle way +different from him, unable to see things as he did! + + + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +JIMMIE HIGGINS DODGES TROUBLE + +I + + + + + +War or no war, the soil had to be ploughed and seed sown; so John +Cutter came to his tenant and proposed that he should resume his job +as farm-hand. Only he must agree to shut up about the war, for while +Cutter himself was not a rabid patriot, he would take no chances of +having his tenant-house burned down some night. So there was another +discussion in the Higgins family. Lizzie remembered how, during the +previous summer, Jimmie had worked from dawn till dark, and been too +tired even to read Socialist papers, to say nothing of carrying on +propaganda; which seemed to the distracted wife of a propagandist +the most desirable condition possible! Poor Eleeza Betooser--twice +again she had been compelled to take down the stocking from her +right leg, and unsew the bandage round her ankle, and extract +another of those precious yellow twenty-dollar bills; there were +only seven of them left now, and each of them was more valuable to +Lizzie than her eye-teeth. + +Jimmie finally agreed that he would gag himself, so far as concerned +this country-side. What was the use of trying to teach anything to +these barnyard fools? They wanted war, let them go to war, and be +blown to bits, or poisoned in the trenches! If Jimmie had +propaganding to do, he would do it in the city, where the +working-men had brains, and knew who their enemies were. So once +more Jimmie harnessed up John Cutter's horses to the plough, and +went out into John Cutter's field to raise another crop of corn for +a man whom he hated. All day he guided the plough or the harrow, and +at night he fed and cared for the horses and the cows, and then he +came home and ate his supper, listening to the rattling of the long +freight-train that went through his backyard, carrying materials for +the making of TNT. + +For the great explosives plant was now working day and night, +keeping the war in Jimmie's thoughts all the time, whether he would +or not. In the midnight hours the trains of finished materials went +out, making Jimmie's windows rattle with their rumble and clatter, +and bearing his fancies away to the battle-line across the seas, +where men were soon to be blown to pieces with the contents of these +cars. One night something went wrong on the track, and the train +stopped in his backyard, and in the morning he saw the cars, painted +black, with the word "danger" in flaming red letters. On top of the +cars walked a man with a club in his hand and a bulge on his hip, +keeping guard. + +It appeared that someone had torn up a rail in the night, evidently +for the purpose of wrecking the train; so there came a detective to +Jimmie, while he was working in the field, to cross-question him. +They had Jimmie's record, and suspected him of knowing more than he +would tell. "Aw, go to hell!" exclaimed the irate Socialist. "D'you +suppose, if I'd wanted to smash anything, I'd done it on the place +where I work?" And then, when he went home to dinner, he found that +they had been after Lizzie, and had frightened her out of her wits. +They had threatened to turn them out of their home; Jimmie saw +himself hounded here and there by this accursed war--until it +finished by seizing him and dragging him to the trenches! + + + + +II + + + +The new Congress had met, and declared a state of war with Germany, +and the whole country was rushing into arms. Men were enlisting by +hundreds of thousands; but that was not enough for the +militarists--they wanted a conscription-law, so that every man might +be compelled to go. If they were so sure of themselves and their +wonderful war, why weren't they satisfied to let those fight it who +wanted to? So argued the rebellious Jimmie and his anti-militarist +associates. But no! the militarists knew perfectly well that the +bulk of the people did not want to fight, so they proposed to make +them fight. Every energy of the Socialist movement was now +concentrated on the blocking of this conscription scheme. + +Local Leesville hired the Opera-house again, organizing a +mass-meeting of protest, and the capitalist papers of the city began +clamouring against this meeting. Was the patriotism and loyalty of +Leesville to be affronted by another gathering of sedition and +treason? The Herald told all over again the story of the gallant old +Civil War veteran who had risen in his seat and shouted his protest +against the incitements of "Jack" Smith, the notorious "red" editor. +The Herald printed a second time the picture of the gallant old +veteran in his faded blue uniform, and the list of battles in which +he had fought, from the first Bull Run to the last siege of +Richmond. Some farmer passing by handed a copy of this paper to +Lizzie, adding that if there was any more treason-talk in this +locality there was going to be a lynching bee. So Jimmie found his +wife in tears again. She was absolutely determined that he should +not go to that meeting. For three days she wept and argued with him, +and for a part of three nights. + +It would have been comical if it had not been so tragic. Jimmie +would use the old argument, that if he did not succeed in stopping +the war, he would be dragged into the trenches and killed. So, of +course, Lizzie would become a pacifist at once. What right had the +war to take Jimmie from her? The little Jimmies had a right to their +father! All children had a right to their fathers! But then, after +Lizzie had expressed these tearful convictions, Jimmie would say, +"All right, then, he must go to that meeting, he must do what he +could to prevent the war." And poor Lizzie would find herself +suddenly confronting the terrors of the police with their clubs and +the patriots with their buckets of tar and bags of feathers! No, +Jimmie must not carry on any propaganda, Jimmie must not go to the +meeting! Poor Jimmie would try to pin her down; which way did she +want him killed, by the Germans, or by the police and the mobs? But +Lizzie did not want him killed either way! She wanted him to go on +living! + +Jimmie would try to arrange a compromise for the present. He would +go to the meeting, but he would promise not to say a word. But that +did not console Lizzie--she knew that if anything happened, her man +would get into it. No, if he were determined to go, she would go, +too,--even if they had to load the three babies into the +perambulator, and push them two or three miles to the trolley! If +Jimmie tried to make a speech, she would hang on to his coat-tails, +she would clasp her hands over his mouth, she would throw herself +between him and the clubs of the policemen! + +So matters stood, when on the afternoon before the meeting there +came a heavy rain, and the road to the trolley was rendered +impossible for a triple-loaded baby-carriage. So there were more +hysterics in the family; Jimmie took his wife's hand in his and +solemnly swore to her that she might trust him to go to this +meeting, he would not do anything that could by any possibility get +him into trouble. He would not try to make a speech, he would not +get up and shout--no matter what happened, he would not say a word! +He would merely sell pamphlets, and show people to their seats, as +he had done at a hundred meetings before. To make sure of his +immunity, he would even leave off the red badge which he was +accustomed to display on Socialist occasions! By these pledges +repeated over and over, he finally succeeded in pacifying his +weeping spouse, and gently removed her clutch on his coat-tails, and +departed, waving his hand to her and the kids. + +The last thing he saw through the rain was Jimmie Junior, +flourishing a red handkerchief which Lizzie at the last moment had +extracted from her husband's pocket. The last sound he heard was +Jimmie Junior's voice, shouting: + +"You be good now! You shut up!" Jimmie went off, thinking about this +little tike; he was five years old, and growing so that you could +notice the difference overnight. He had big black eyes like his +mother, and a grin full of all the mischief in the world. The things +he knew and the questions he asked! Jimmie and Lizzie never got +tired of talking about them; Jimmie recalled them one by one, as he +trudged through the mud--and, as always, he set his lips and +clenched his hands, and took up anew the task of making the world a +fit place for a working-man's child to grow up in! + + + + +III + + + +The principal orator of the evening was a young college professor +who had been turned out of his job for taking the side of the +working-class in his public utterances, and who was therefore a hero +to Jimmie Higgins. This young man had the facts of the war at his +finger-tips; he made you see it as a gigantic conspiracy of +capitalists the world over to complete their grip on the raw +materials of wealth, and on the bodies and souls of the workers. He +bitterly denounced those who had forced the country into the war; he +denounced the Wall Street speculators and financiers who had made +their billions already, and would be making their tens of billions. +He denounced the plan to force men to fight who did not wish to +fight, and his every sentence was followed by a burst of applause +from the throng which packed the Opera-house. If you judged by this +meeting, you would conclude that America was on the verge of a +revolution against the war. + +The young professor sat down, wiping the perspiration from his pale +forehead; and then the Liederkranz sang again--only it was not +called the Liederkranz now, it had become known as the "Workers' +Singing Society", out of deference to local prejudice. Then arose +Comrade Smith, editor of the Worker, and announced that after the +collection the orator would answer questions; then Comrade Smith +launched into a speech of his own, to the effect that something +definite ought to be done by the workers of Leesville to make clear +their opposition to being dragged into war. For his part he wished +to say that he would not yield one inch to the war-clamour--he was +on record as refusing to be drafted in any capitalist war, and he +was ready to join with others to agree that they would not be +drafted. The time was short--if anything were to be done, they must +act at once-- + +And then suddenly came an interruption--this time not from an old +soldier, but from a sergeant of police, who had been standing at one +side of the stage, and who now stepped forward, announcing, "This +meeting is closed." + +"What?" shouted the orator. + +"This meeting is closed," repeated the other. "And you, young man, +are under arrest." + +There was a howl from the audience, and suddenly from the pit in +front of the stage, whence ordinarily the orchestra dispensed sweet +music, there leaped a line of blue-uniformed men, distributing +themselves between the public and the speaker. At the same time down +the centre aisle came a dozen soldiers marching, with guns in their +hands and bayonets fixed. + +"This is an outrage!" shouted Comrade Smith. + +"Not another word!" commanded the police official; and two policemen +who had followed him grabbed the orator by each arm and started to +lead him off the stage. + +Comrade Gerrity leaped to the front of the platform. "I denounce +this proceeding!" he shouted. "We are holding an orderly meeting +here--" + +A policeman laid hold of him. "You are under arrest." + +Then came Comrade Mabel Smith, sister of the editor of the Worker. +"For shame! For shame!" she cried. And then, to a policeman, "No, I +will not be silent! I protest in the name of free speech! I +declare--" And when the policeman seized her by the arm, she +continued to shout at the top of her lungs, driving the crowd to +frenzy. + +There were disturbances all over the audience. Mrs. Gerrity, wife of +the organizer, sprang up in her seat and began to protest. It +happened that Jimmie Higgins was in the aisle not far from her, and +his heart leaped with strange, half-forgotten emotions as he saw +this trim little figure, with the jaunty hat and the turkey feather +stuck on one side. Comrade Evelyn Baskerville, of Greenwich Village, +she of the fluffy brown hair and the pert little dimples and the +bold terrifying ideas, she who had so ploughed up the soul of Jimmie +Higgins and almost broken up the Higgins' home--here she was, +employing a new variety of coquetry, by which she compelled three +soldiers with rifles and bayonets to devote their exclusive +attention to her! + +And then Comrade Mary Allen, the Quaker lady, who believed in moral +force applied through the ear-drums. She stood in the aisle with her +armful of pamphlets and her red sash over her shoulder, proclaiming, +"In the name of liberty and fair play I protest against this +outrage! I will not see my country dragged into war without +asserting my right of protest! I stand here, in what is supposed to +be a Christian city; I speak in the name of the Prince of Peace--" +and so on, quite a little speech, while several embarrassed young +men in khaki were trying to find out how to hold their rifles and a +shouting Quakeress at the same time. + +And then Comrade Schneider, the brewer. He had been up on the stage +with the singers, and now got somehow to the front. "Haf we got no +rights in America left?" he shouted. "Do we in this audience--" + +"Shut up, you Hun!" roared someone on the front of the crowd, and +three policemen at once leaped for Comrade Schneider, and grabbed +him by the collar, twisting so hard that the German's face, always +purple when he was excited, took on a dark and deadly hue. + +Poor Jimmie Higgins! He stood there with his armful of "War, What +For?"--trembling with excitement, itching in every nerve and sinew +to leap into this conflict, to make his voice heard above the +uproar, to play his part as a man--or even as a Comrade Mabel Smith, +or a Comrade Mary Alien, or a Comrade Mrs. Gerrity, nee Baskerville. +But he was helpless, speechless--bound hand and foot by those solemn +pledges he had given to Eleeza Betooser, the mother of babies. + +He looked about, and near him in the aisle he saw another man, also +bound hand and foot--bound by the memory of the smash in the face +which had broken his nose and knocked out three of his front teeth! +"Wild Bill" saw a policeman watching him now, eager for another +pretext to leap on him and pound him; so he was silent, like Jimmie. +The two of them had to stand there and see the fundamental +constitutional rights of American citizens set at naught, to see +liberty trampled in the dust beneath the boots of a brutal soldiery, +to see justice strangled and raped in the innermost shrine of her +temple. At least, that was what you had seen if you read the +Leesville Worker; if on the other hand you read the Herald--which +nine out of ten people did--then you learned that the forces of +decency and order had at last prevailed in Leesville, the propaganda +of the Hun was stifled for ever, the mouthers of sedition had felt +the heavy hand of public indignation. + + + + +IV + + + +Outside, a crowd gathered to jeer while the prisoners were loaded +into the patrol-wagon; but the police drove them away, keeping +everybody moving, and breaking up several attempts at +street-oratory. Jimmie found himself with half a dozen other +comrades, wandering aimlessly down Main Street, talking over and +over what had happened, each explaining why and how he had not +shared the crown of martyrdom. Some had shouted as loud as the rest, +but had been missed by the police; some had thought it wiser to run +away and live to shout another day; some wanted to start that very +night to print a leaflet and call another mass-meeting. They +adjourned to Tom's "Buffeteria" to talk things over; they took +possession of a couple of tables, and got their due quotas of coffee +and sandwiches, or pie and milk, and had just got fairly started on +the question of raising bail without the help of Comrade Dr. +Service--when suddenly something happened which drove all thoughts +of the meeting out of their minds. + +It was like a gigantic blow, striking the whole world at once; a +cosmic convulsion, quite indescribable. The air became suddenly a +living thing, which leaped against your face; the windows of the +little eating-place flew inward in a shower of glass, and the walls +and tables shook as if with palsy. The sound of it all was a vast, +all-pervasive sound, at once far off and near, tailing away in the +clatter and crash of innumerable panes of glass falling from +innumerable windows. Then came silence, a sinister, frightful +silence, it seemed; men stared at one another, crying, "My God! +What's that?" The answer seemed to dawn upon everyone at once: "The +powder-plant!" + +Yes, that must be it, beyond doubt. For months they had been talking +about it and thinking about it, speculating as to the probabilities +and the consequences. And now it had happened. Suddenly one of the +company gave a cry, and they turned and stared at his white face, +and realized the terror that clutched his heart. Comrade Higgins, +whose home was so near the place of peril! + +"Gee, fellers, I gotta go!" he gasped; and several of the comrades +jumped up and ran with him into the street. If there was a single +pane of glass left intact in Leesville, you would not have thought +it as you trod those pavements. + +If Jimmie had been trained in efficiency, and accustomed to spending +money more freely, he might perhaps have found out something by the +telephone or by inquiry at the newspaper offices; but the one thing +he thought of was to take the trolley and get to his home. The +comrades ran with him, speculating with eager excitement, trying to +reassure him--it could be nothing worse than some glass and some +dishes smashed. Some had thought of going all the way with him, but +they remembered they would be too late for the last trolley back, +and they had their jobs in the morning. So they put him on the car +and bade him good-bye. + + + + +V + + + +The trolley was packed with people going out to see what had +happened, so Jimmie had plenty of company and conversation on the +way. But when he came to his stop, he got off and walked alone, for +the others were going to the explosives plant, and they rode a mile +or so farther on the car. + +Never would Jimmie forget that journey--that walk of nightmares. The +road was pitch-dark, and before he had gone more than half the +distance, he stumbled over something, and fell head-foremost. He got +up, and groped, and discovered that it was a tree, lying prone +across the road. He searched his mind, and remembered a great dead +tree that stood at that spot. Could the explosion have knocked it +down? + +He went on, feeling his way more cautiously, yet goaded to greater +speed by his fears. A little way further was a farm-house, and he +went into the yard and shouted, but got no reply. The yard was +covered with shingles, apparently blown from the roof. He went on, +more frightened than ever. + +He came to a turn in the road which he knew was less than half a +mile from his home; and here there were several horses and wagons +tied, but no one to answer his calls. The road passed through a +wood; but apparently there was no road any more--the trees had been +picked up bodily and thrown across it. Jimmie had to grope this way +and that, and he ran a piece of broken branch into his cheek, and by +that time was almost ready to cry with fright. He knew that his home +was two miles from the explosives plant, and he could not conceive +how an explosion could have done such damage at such a distance. + +He saw a lantern ahead, bobbing this way and that, and he shouted +louder than ever, and finally succeeded in persuading the bearer of +the lantern to wait for him. It proved to be a farmer who lived some +way back; he knew no more than Jimmie did, and they made their way +together. Beyond the woods, the road was littered with loose dirt, +bushes, bits of fence and rubbish, burned black. "It must have been +near here," declared the man, and added words which caused Jimmie's +heart almost to stand still. "It must have been on the railroad +track!" + +They came to a little rise, from which in day-time the line of the +railroad was visible. They saw lanterns, many of them, moving here +and there like a swarm of fire-flies. "Come this way," Jimmie begged +of the farmer, and ran towards his home. The road was buried under +masses of earth, as if thousands of steam-shovels had emptied their +contents on it. When they came to where the fence of Jimmie's house +ought to have been, they found no fence, but a slide of loose earth +that had never been there before. Where the apple-tree had been +there was nothing; where the lawn had been there was a pitch down a +hill, and where the house had been was a huge valley, seeming in the +darkness a bottomless abyss! + + + + +VI + + + +Jimmie was distracted. He grabbed the lantern from the other man, +and ran this way and that, looking for some of the familiar +landmarks of his home--the chicken-house, the pig-sty, the back +fence with the broken elm tree in the corner, the railroad beyond. +He could not believe that he had come to the place at all--he could +not credit the reality of such nightmare sights as his eyes reported +to him. He rushed about, stumbling over mountains of upheaved brown +dirt, sliding down into craters that were filled with a strange, +penetrating odour which caused his eyes to smart; and then +clambering out again and running after men with lanterns, shouting +questions at them and not waiting for an answer. It seemed to him +that if he ran just a little farther he must surely find the house +and the other things he was looking for; but he found nothing but +more craters and more mountains of dirt; and little by little the +horrible truth became clear to him, that all the way down the +railroad track, as far as he could see or run, this gigantic trough +extended, a valley of raw dirt with mountains on each side, crowned +here and there with wheels and axles and iron trucks of blown-up +freight-cars, and filled in the bottom with the deadly fumes of +trinitrotoluol! + +Jimmie cried out to the men and women with lanterns, asking had they +seen his wife and babies. But no one had seen them--no one had +notified them of the impending explosion! Jimmie was sobbing, +calling out distractedly; he ran out to the road, and after much +searching found a charred tree-stump which gave him his precise +bearings, so that he knew where the house should have been, and +could assure himself that it was precisely where that frightful +slope started down into the abyss. He slid around on this slope, +calling aloud, as if he expected the spirits of his loved ones might +have remained there, defying all the power of suddenly expanding +gases. He ran back across the road and called, as if they might have +fled that way. + +At last he ran into Mr. Drew; old Mr. Drew, who a couple of weeks +before had taken Eleeza Betooser and her three little ones driving +in his buggy! That memory was the nearest Jimmie could get to them, +and so he clutched the old soldier's arm, and held on to it, weeping +like a little child. + +The old man tried to draw him away, to get him to his home. But +Jimmie must stay on the spot, he was held by a spell of horror. He +wandered about, dragging Mr. Drew with him, pleading with people to +no purpose; now and then he would break out with curses against +war-makers, and especially those who made explosives and transported +them in freight-trains through other men's back-yards. For once +people heard him without threats of lynching. + +So on through this night of anguish. Jimmie lost old man Drew in the +darkness, and was all alone when the dawn came, and he could see the +sweep of desolation about him, and the awe-stricken faces of the +spectators. Soon afterwards came the climax. He saw a crowd +gathered, and as he came up, this crowd parted for him. Nobody +seemed to want to speak, but they all watched, as if curious to see +what he would do. One of the men bore a burden, wrapped in a +horse-blanket; Jimmie gazed, and after a moment's hesitation the man +threw back part of the blanket and there before Jimmie's eyes was a +most horrible sight--a human leg, a large white leg, the lower half +covered with a black stocking tied at the top with a bit of tape. It +was such a leg as you see in the windows of stores where they sell +pretty things for ladies; only this leg was soft, mangled at the +top, smeared with blood, and partly charred black. One glance was +enough for Jimmie, and he put his hands over his eyes and turned and +ran--out to the road and away, away--anywhere from this place of +nightmares! + + + + +VII + + + +Jimmie's whole world was wiped out, ended. He had no place to go, no +care what became of him. He stumbled on till he came to the +trolley-track, and got on the first car which came along. It was +pure chance that it happened to be going back to Leesville, for +Jimmie had no longer any interest in that city. When the car came to +the barn, he got out and wandered aimlessly, until he happened to +pass a saloon where he had been accustomed to meet Jerry Coleman, +distributor of ten-dollar bills. Jimmie went in and ordered a drink +of whisky; he did not tell the saloon-keeper what had happened, but +took the drink to a table and sat down by himself. When he had +finished, he ordered another, because it helped him not to think; he +sat there at the table, drinking steadily for an hour or more. And +so upon his confused mind there dawned a strange, a ghastly idea, +climax of all that night of horror. Which leg of Lizzie was it the +man had been carrying wrapped in a horse-blanket? The right leg or +the left? If it was the left leg, why, nothing; but if it was the +right, why then, under the stocking was sewed a bandage, and in that +bandage was wrapped a package containing seven faded yellow +twenty-dollar bills! + +And what would they do about it? Would they bury the leg without +investigation? Or would the man who had found it happen to undress +it? And what was Jimmie to do? A hundred and forty dollars was not +to be sneezed at by a working-man--it was more money than he had +ever had in his life before, or might ever have again. But could he +go to the man and say, "Did you find any money on my wife's leg?" +Could he say, "Please give me my wife's leg, so that I can undress +it and unsew the bandage and get the money that I was paid for +keeping quiet about the surgical operation on Lacey Granitch, that +was done in my house before it was blown to pieces by the +explosion." + +Jimmie thought it all over while he took a couple more drinks, and +finally settled it to himself: "Aw, hell! What do I want with money? +I ain't a-goin' to live no more!" + + + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +JIMMIE HIGGINS TAKES THE ROAD + +I + + + + + +Jimmie Higgins was wandering down the street, when he ran into "Wild +Bill", who was, of course, greatly surprised to see his friend in a +drunken condition. When he heard the reason, he revealed an +unexpected side of his nature. If you judged "Wild Bill" by his +oratory, you thought him a creature poisoned through and through, a +soul turned rancid with envy, hatred and malice and all +uncharitableness. But now the tears came into his eyes, and he put +his arm over Jimmie's shoulder. "Say, old pal, that's bum luck! By +God, I'm sorry!" And Jimmie, who wanted nothing so much as somebody +to be sorry with, clasped Bill in his arms, and burst into tears, +and told over and over again how he had gone to what had been his +home, and found only a huge crater blown out by the explosion, and +how he had gone about calling his wife and babies, until at last +they had brought him one leg of his wife. + +"Wild Bill" listened, until he knew the story through and then he +said, "See here, old pal, let's you and me quit this town." + +"Quit?" said Jimmie, stupidly. + +"Every time I open the front of my face now, the police jump in it. +Leesville's a hell of a town, I say. Let's get out." + +"Where'll we go?" + +"Anywhere--what's the diff? It's coming summer. Let's slam the +gates." + +Jimmie was willing--why not? They went back to the lodging-house +where Bill lived, and he tied up his worldly goods in a +gunny-sack--the greater part of the load consisting of a diary in +which he had recorded his adventures as leader of an unemployed army +which had started to march from California to Washington, D.C., some +four years previously. They took the trolley, and getting off in the +country, walked along the banks of the river, Jimmie still sobbing, +and Bill in the grip of one of his fearful coughing spells. They sat +down beside the stream not so far from where Jimmie had gone in +swimming with the Candidate; he gave a touching account of this +adventure, but fell asleep in the middle of it, and Bill wandered +off and begged some food at a farm-house, using his cough as a +convenient lever for moving the heart of the housewife. When night +came, they sought the railroad and got on board a southward-moving +freight; so Jimmie Higgins went back to the tramps life, at which he +had spent a considerable part of his youth. + +But there was a difference now; he was no longer a blind and +helpless victim of a false economic system, but a revolutionist, +fully class-conscious, trained in a grim school. The country was +going to war, and Jimmie was going to war on the country. The two +agitators got off the train at a mining-village, and got a job as +"surface men", and proceeded to preach their gospel of revolt to the +workers in a lousy company boarding-house. When they were found out, +they "jumped" another freight, and repeated the performance in +another part of the district. + +The companies were too vigilant for there to be any chance of a +strike; but "Wild Bill" whispered to the young workers that he knew +a trick worth two of that--he would teach them the art of "striking +on the job"! This idea, of course, had great charm for embittered +men; enabling them to pay back the boss, while at the same time +continuing on his pay-roll. Bill had read whole books in which the +theory and practice of "sabotage" were worked out, and he could tell +any sort of workman tricks to make his employer sweat under the +collar. If you worked in a machine-shop, you dropped emery-powder +into the bearings; if you worked on a farm, you drove copper nails +into the fruit-trees, which caused them to die; if you packed +apples, you stuck your thumb-nail into one, which made sure that the +whole box would be rotten when it arrived; if you worked in a +saw-mill, you drove a spike into a log; if you worked in a +restaurant, you served double portions to ruin the boss, and spit in +each portion to make sure the customer did not derive any benefit. +All these things you did in a fervour of exaltation, a mood of +frenzied martyrdom, because of the blaze of hate which had been +fanned in your soul by a social system based upon oppression and +knavery. + + + + +II + + + +To Jimmie, living the obscure and comparatively peaceful life of a +Socialist propagandist, the question of "sabotage, violence and +crime" had been a more or less academic one, about which the +comrades debated acrimoniously, and against which they voted by a +large majority. But now Jimmie was out among the "wobblies", the +"blanket-stiffs"--the unskilled workers who had literally nothing +but their muscle-power to sell; here he was in the front-line +trenches of the class war. These men wandered about from one job to +another, at the mercy of the seasons and the fluctuations of +industry. They were deprived of votes, and therefore of their status +as citizens; they were deprived of a chance to organize, and +therefore of their status as human beings. They were lodged in +filthy bunk-houses, fed upon rotten food, and beaten or jailed at +the least word of revolt. So they fought their oppressors with any +and every weapon they could lay hands on. + +In the turpentine-country, in a forest, Jimmie and his pal came to a +"jungle", a place where the "wobblies" congregated, living off the +country. Here around the camp-fires Jimmie met the guerillas of the +class-struggle, and learned the songs of revolt which they +sang--some of them parodies on Christian hymns which would have +caused the orthodox and respectable to faint with horror. Here they +rested up, and exchanged data on the progress of their fight, and +argued over tactics, and cussed the Socialists and the other +"politicians" and "labour-fakirs", and sang the praises of the "one +big union", and the "mass strike", and "direct action" against the +masters of industry. They told stories of their sufferings and their +exploits, and Jimmie sat and listened. Sometimes his eyes were wide +with consternation, for he had never met men so desperate as these. + +For example, "Strawberry" Curran--named for his red hair and +innumerable freckles--an Irish boy with the face of a choir-singer, +and eyes that must have been taken straight out of the blue vault of +Heaven. This lad told about a "free speech fight" in a far Western +city, and how the chief of police had led the clubbing, and how they +had got back at him. "We bumped him off all right," said +"Strawberry"; it was a favourite phrase of his--whenever anybody +got in his way, he "bumped him off". And then "Flathead Joe", who +came from the Indian country, was moved to emulation, and told how +he had put dynamite under the supports of a mine-breaker, and the +whole works had slid down a slope into a canyon a mile below. And +then a lame fellow, "Chuck" Peterson, told about the imprisonment of +two strike-leaders in the hop-country of California, and of the +epidemic of fires and destruction that had plagued that region for +several years since. + +All such things these men talked about quite casually, as soldiers +would talk about the events of the last campaign. This class-war had +been going on for ages, and had its own ethics and its own +traditions; those who took part in it had their heroisms and +sublimities, precisely like any other soldiers. They would have been +glad to come into the open and fight, but the other side had all the +guns. Every time the "wobblies" succeeded in organizing the workers +and calling a big strike, all the agencies of capitalist repression +were called in--they were beaten by capitalist policemen, shot by +capitalist sheriffs, starved and frozen in capitalist jails, and so +their strike was crushed and their forces scattered. After many such +experiences, it was inevitable that the hot-headed ones should take +to secret vengeance, should become conspirators against capitalist +society. And society, forgetting all the provocations it had given, +called the "wobblies" criminals, and let it go at that. But they +were a strange kind of criminal, serving a far-off dream. They had +their humours and their humanities, their literature and music and +art. Among them were men of education, graduates of universities +both in America and abroad; you might hear one of the group about +these camp-fires telling about slave-revolts in ancient Egypt and +Greece; or quoting Strindberg and Stirner, or reciting a scene from +Synge, or narrating how he had astounded the family of some lonely +farm-house by playing Rachmaninoff's "Prelude" on a badly +out-of-tune piano. + +Also you met among them men who had kept their gentleness, their +sweetness of soul, men of marvellous patience, whose dream of human +brotherhood no persecution, no outrage had been able to turn sour. +They clung to their vision of a world redeemed, made over by the +outcast and lowly; a vision that was brought to the world by a +certain Jewish Carpenter, and has haunted mankind for nineteen +hundred years. The difference was that these men knew precisely how +they meant to do it; they had a definite philosophy, a definite +programme, which they carried as a gospel to the wage-slaves of the +world. And they knew that this glad message would never die--not all +the jails and clubs and machine-guns in the country could kill it, +not obloquy and ridicule, not hunger and cold and disease. No! for +the workers were hearing and understanding, they were learning the +all-precious lesson of Solidarity. They were forming the "one big +union", preparing the time when they would take over industry and +administer it through their own workers' councils, instead of +through the medium of parliaments and legislatures. That was the +great idea upon which the Industrial Workers of the World was based; +it was this they meant by "direct action", not the sinister thing +which the capitalist newspapers made out of the phrase. + + + + +III + + + +The country was going into its own war, which it considered of +importance, and it called upon Jimmie Higgins and the rest of his +associates to register for military service. In the month of June +ten million men came forward in obedience to this call--but Jimmie, +needless to say, was not among them. Jimmie and his crowd thought it +was the greatest joke of the age. If the country wanted them, let it +come and get them. And sure enough, the country came--a sheriff, and +some thirty farmers and turpentine-workers sworn in as deputies and +armed with shot-guns and rifles. Should their sons go overseas to be +killed in battle, while these desperadoes continued to camp out on +the country, living on hogs and chickens which honest men had worked +to raise? They had wanted to break up this "jungle" for some time; +now they could do it in the name of patriotism. They surrounded the +camp, and shot one man who tried to slip out in the darkness, and +searched the rest for weapons, and then loaded them into half a +dozen automobiles and took them to the nearest lock-up. + +So here was Jimmie, confronting a village draft-board. How old was +he? The truth was that Jimmie did not know definitely, but his guess +was about twenty-six. The draft-limit being thirty, he swore that +he was thirty-two. And what were they going to do about it? They +didn't know where he had been born, and they couldn't make him +tell--because he didn't know it himself! His face was lined with +many cares, and he had a few grey hairs from that night of horror +when his loved ones had been wiped out of existence. + +These farmers knew how to tell the age of a horse, but not how to +tell the age of a man! + +"We'll draft ye anyhow!" vowed the chairman of the board, who was +the local justice of the peace, an old fellow with a beard like a +billy-goat. + +"All right," said Jimmie, "but you'll get nothin' out o' me." + +"What d'ye mean?" + +"I mean I wouldn't fight; I'm a conscientious objector to war." + +"They'll shoot ye!" + +"Shoot away!" + +"They'll send you to jail for life." + +"What the hell do I care?" + +It was difficult to know what to do with a person like that. If they +did put him in jail, they would only be feeding him at the expense +of the community, and that would not help to beat the Germans. They +could see from the flash in his eyes that he would not be an easy +man to break. Local interest asserted itself, and the old fellow +with the wagging beard demanded: "If we let ye go, will ye get out +o' this county?" + +"What the hell do I care about your old county?" replied Jimmie. + +So they turned him loose, and "Wild Bill" also, because it was +evident at a glance that he was not long for this world and its +wars. The two of them broke into an empty freight-car, and went +thundering over the rails all night; and lying in the darkness, +Jimmie was awakened by a terrified cry from his companion, and put +out his hand and laid it in a mess that was hot and wet. + +"Oh, my God!" gasped Bill. "I'm done for!" + +"What is it?" + +"Haemorrhage." + +The terrified Jimmie did not even know what that was. There was +nothing he could do but sit there, holding his friend's trembling +hand and listening to his moans. When the train stopped, Jimmie +sprang out and rushed to one of the brakemen, who came with his +lantern, and saw "Wild Bill" lying in a pool of blood, already so +far gone that he could not lift his head. "Jesus!" exclaimed the +brakeman. "He's a goner, all right." + +The "goner" was trying to say something, and Jimmie leaned his ear +down to him. "Good-bye, old pal," whispered Bill. That was all, but +it caused Jimmie to burst out sobbing. + +The engine whistled. "What the hell you stiffs doin' on this train?" +demanded the brakeman--but not so harshly as the words would +indicate. He lifted the dying man--no very serious burden--and laid +him on the platform of the station. "Sorry," he said, "but we're +behind schedule." He waved his lantern, and the creaking cars began +to move, and the train drew away, leaving Jimmie sitting by the +corpse of his pal. The world seemed a lonely place that long night. + +In the morning the station-agent came, and notified the nearest +authorities, and in the course of the day came a wagon to fetch the +body. What was the use of Jimmie's waiting? One "Potter's field" was +the same as another, and there would be nothing inspiring about the +funeral. The man who drove the wagon looked at Jimmie suspiciously +and asked his age; they were scarce of labour in that country, he +said-the rule was "Work or fight". Jimmie foresaw another session +with a draft-board, so he leaped on to another freight train, taking +with him as a legacy "Wild Bill's" diary of the unemployed army. + + + + +IV + + + +It was harvest-time, and Jimmie went West to the wheat country. It +was hard work, but the pay made your eyes bulge. Jimmie realized +that war was not such a bad thing--for the ones that stayed at +home! If you didn't like one farmer's way of speaking to you, or the +kind of biscuits his wife offered you, you could move on to the +next, and he would take you in at four bits more per day. It was the +nearest approach to a working-man's paradise that Jimmie had ever +encountered. There was really only one drawback--the pestiferous +draft-boards that never stopped snooping round. They were for ever +hauling you up and threatening and questioning you--putting you +through the same scene over and over. Why couldn't the fools give +you a card, showing that you had been through the mill, and let that +settle it? But no, they wouldn't give you a card--they preferred to +go on jacking you up because you had no card. It was all a trick, +thought Jimmie, to wear him out and force him into their army by +hook or by crook. But here was one time when they would not get away +with it! + +However, Jimmie Higgins was not nearly so dangerous a character, now +that "Wild Bill" was gone out of his life. It was really not his +nature to cherish hate, or to set out deliberately to revenge +himself. Jimmie was a Socialist in the true sense of the word--he +felt himself a part of society, and that peace and plenty and +kindness which he desired for himself he desired for all mankind. He +was not dreaming of a time when he could turn the capitalists out of +power and treat them as they were now treating him; he meant the +world to be just as good a place for the capitalists as for the +workers--all would share alike, and Jimmie was ready to wipe out the +old scores and start fair any day. His propaganda regained its +former idealistic hue, and it was only when somebody tried to drag +him into the slaughter-pen that he developed teeth and claws. + +So he became fairly happy again--happier than he had thought he +could ever be. It was in vain he told himself that he had nothing to +live for; he had the greatest thing in the world to live for, the +vision of a just and sane and happy world. So long as anybody could +be found to listen while he talked about it and explained how it +might be achieved, life was worth while, life was real. It was only +now and then that his bitter heartache returned to plague him--when +he awakened in the night with his arms clasped about the memory of +the soft, warm, kindly body of Eleesa Betooser; or when he came to a +farmhouse where there were children, whose prattle reminded him of +the little fellow who had been his prime reason for wanting a just +and sane and happy world. Jimmie found that he could not bear to +work in one farmhouse where there were children; and when he told +the farmer's wife the reason, he and the woman declared a temporary +truce to the class-war, and celebrated it with half a large apple-pie. + + + + +V + + + +The Socialists held a National Convention at St. Louis, and drew up +their declaration concerning the war. They called it the most +unjustifiable war in history, "a crime against the people of the +United States"; they called on the workers of the country to oppose +it, and pledged themselves "to the support of all mass movements in +opposition to conscription". This was, of course, a serious step to +take at such a time; the comrades realized it, and there were solemn +gatherings to discuss the referendum, and not a little disagreement +as to the wisdom of the declaration. In the town of Hopeland, near +which Jimmie was working, there was a local, and he had got himself +transferred from Leesville, and paid up his back dues, and had his +precious red card stamped up-to-date. And now he would go in and +listen to debates, just as exciting and just as bewildering as those +he had heard at the outbreak of the war. + +There were some who pointed out the precise meaning of those words, +"all mass-movements in opposition to conscription." The leading +dry-goods merchant of the town, he was a Socialist, declared that +the words meant insurrection and mob violence, and the resolution +would be adjudged a call to treason. At which there leaped to his +feet a Russian Jewish tailor, Rabin by name; his first name was +Scholem, which means Peace, and he cried in great excitement: "Vot +business have ve Socialists vit such vords? Ve might leaf dem to de +enemy, vot?" + +You might have thought you were in Leesville, listening to Comrade +Stankewitz. The only difference was that there were not many Germans +in this town, and those few confined their discussions to Ireland +and India. + +Jimmie would hear the arguments, back and forth and back again, and +his mind would be in greater confusion than ever. He hated war as +much as ever; but, on the other hand, he was learning to hate the +Germans, too. The American government, going to war, had been forced +to assert itself, and the stores and billboards were covered with +proclamations and picture-posters, and the newspapers were full of +recitals of the crimes which Germany had committed against humanity. +Jimmie might refuse to read this "Wall Street dope", as he called +it, but the working-men with whom he was associating read it, and +would fire it at him whenever they got into a controversy. Also the +daily events in the news dispatches--the sinking of hospital-ships +filled with wounded, the shelling of life-boats, the dragging away +into slavery in coal-mines of Belgian children thirteen and fourteen +years old! How could any man fail to hate and to fear a government +which committed such atrocities? How could he remain untroubled at +the thought that he might be assisting such a government to victory? + +Jimmie was honest, he was trying to face the facts as he saw them; +and when he stopped to think, when he remembered the things he had +done in company with "Wild Bill" and "Strawberry" Curran and +"Flathead Joe" and "Chuck" Peterson, he could not deny that he had +been, however unintentionally, helping the Kaiser to win the war. In +his arguments with others, Jimmie dared not tell all he knew about +such matters; so, when he argued with himself, his conscience was +troubled, and doubt gnawed at his soul. Suppose it were true, as +Comrade Dr. Service had tried to prove to him, that a victory for +the Kaiser would mean that America would have to spend the next +twenty or thirty years getting ready for the next war? Might it not +then be better to forego revolutionary agitation for a while, until +the Kaiser had been put out of business? + +There were not a few Socialists who argued this way--men who had +been active in the movement and had possessed Jimmie's regard before +the war. Now they denounced the St. Louis resolution--the "majority +report" as it was called. When this report was carried in referendum +by a vote of something like eight to one, these comrades withdrew +from the party, and some of them bitterly attacked their former +friends. Such utterances were taken up by the capitalist press; and +this made Jimmie Higgins indignant. A fine lot of Socialists, to +quit the ship in the hour of peril! Renegades, Jimmie called them, +and compared them with Judas Iscariot and Benedict Arnold and +such-like celebrities of past ages. They, being exactly the same +sort of folk as Jimmie, answered by calling Jimmie a pro-German and +a traitor; which did not make it easier to persuade Jimmie to listen +to their arguments. So both sides became blinded with anger, +forgetting about the facts in the case, and thinking only of +punishing a hated antagonist. + + + + +VI + + + +All over the country now men were sending their sons to the +training-camps, and putting their money into "liberty-bonds". So +they were in no mood to listen to argument--they would fly into a +rage at the least hint that the cause in which they were making +sacrifices was not a perfectly just and righteous cause. There was +an organization called the "People's Council for Peace and +Democracy", which attempted to hold a national convention; the +gathering was broken up by mobs, and the delegates went wandering +over the country, trying in vain to get together. The mayor of +Chicago gave them permission to meet in that city, but the governor +of the state sent troops to prevent it! You see, the people of the +country had learned all about the organization for which Jerry +Coleman had been working--"Labour's National Peace Council"; and +here was another organization, bearing practically the same name, +and carrying on an agitation which seemed the same to the average +man. The distinction between hired treason and super-idealism was +far too subtle for the people to draw in a time of such peril. + +It was becoming more and more the fashion to arrest Socialists and +to suppress their papers; the government authorities in many places +declared the "majority report" unmailable, and indicted state and +national secretaries for having sent it out in the ordinary routine +of their business. Jimmie received a letter from Comrade Meissner in +Leesville, telling him that Comrade "Jack" Smith had been given two +years in the penitentiary for his speech in the Opera-house, and the +other would-be speakers had been fined five hundred dollars each. +Several issues of the Worker had been barred from the mails, and now +the police had raided the offices and forced the suspension of the +publication. All over the country that sort of thing was happening, +so now if you argued with Jimmie in favour of the war, his answer +was that America was more Prussian than Prussia, and what was the +use of fighting for Democracy abroad, if you had to sacrifice every +particle of Democracy at home in order to win the fight? + +Jimmie really believed this--he believed it with most desperate and +passionate intensity. He looked forward to a war won for the benefit +of oppression at home; he foresaw the system of militarism and +suppession riveted for ever on the people of America. Jimmie would +admit that the President himself might be sincere in the fine words +he used about democracy; but the great Wall Street interests which +had run the country for so many decades--they had their secret +purposes, for which the war-frenzy served as a convenient cloak. +They were going to make universal military service the rule in +America; they were going to see to it that every school-child +learned the military lessons of obedience and subordination. Also +they were going to put the radical papers out of business and put a +stop to all radical propaganda. Those Socialists who had been +trapped into supporting the President's war-programme would wake up +some morning with a fearful dark-brown taste in their mouths! + +No, said Jimmie Higgins, the way to fight war was to resist the +subterfuges, however cunning and plausible, by which men sought to +persuade you to support war. The way to fight war was the way of the +Russians. The propaganda of proletarian revolt, the glorious example +which the Russian workers had set, would do more to break down the +power of the Kaiser than all the guns and shells in the world. But +the militarists did not want it broken that way--Jimmie suspected +that many of them would rather have the war won by the Kaiser than +have it won by the Socialists. The governments refused to give +passports to Socialists who wanted to meet in some neutral country +and work out the basis of a settlement upon which all the peoples of +the world might get together; and Jimmie took the banning of this +Socialist conference as the supreme crime of the world-capitalism, +it was evidence that world-capitalism knew its true enemy, and meant +to use the war as an excuse to hold that enemy down. + + + + +VII + + + +Day by day Jimmie was coming to place more of his hopes in Russia. +His little friend Rabin, the tailor, took a Russian paper published +in New York, the Novy Mir, and would translate its news and +editorials. Local Hopeland, thus inspired, voted a message of +fraternal sympathy to the Russian workers. In Petrograd and Moscow +there was going on, it appeared, a struggle between the pro-ally +Socialists and the Internationalists, the true, out-and-out, +middle-of-the-road, thick-and-thin proletarians. The former were +called Mensheviki, the latter were called Bolsheviki, and, of +course, Jimmie was all for the latter. Did he not know the +"stool-pigeon Socialists" at home, who were letting themselves be +used by capitalism? + +The big issues were two--first, the land, which the peasants wanted +to take from the landlords; and second, the foreign debt. The +Russian Tsar had borrowed four billion dollars from France and a +billion or two from England, to be used in enslaving the Russian +workers and driving several millions of them to death on the +battlefield. Now should the Russian workers consider themselves +bound by this debt? When anybody asked Jimmie Higgins that question, +he responded with a thunderous "No", and he regarded as hirelings or +dupes of Wall Street all those Socialists who supported Kerensky in +Russia. + +When the American government, wishing to appeal to the Russian +people for loyalty in the war, sent over a commission to them, and +placed at its head one of the most notorious corporation lawyers in +America, a man whose life, the Jimmies said, had been sold to +service in the anti-liberal cause, Jimmie Higgins's shrill voice +became a yell of ridicule and rage. Of course, Jimmie's organization +saw to it that the Bolsheviki were informed in advance as to the +character of this commission--something which was unnecessary, as it +happened, because immediately after the overthrow of the Tsar there +had begun a pilgrimage of Russian Socialists from New York and San +Francisco, men who had seen the seamy side of American capitalism in +the slums of the great cities, and who lost no time in providing the +Russian radicals with full information concerning Wall Street! + +It chanced that in San Francisco a well-known labour leader had been +charged with planting a bomb to break up a "preparedness" parade. He +had been convicted upon that which was proven to be perjured +testimony, and the labour unions of the country had been conducting +a campaign to save his life--which campaign the capitalist +newspapers had been carefully overlooking, according to their +invariable custom. But now the returned exiles in Petrograd took up +the matter, and organized a parade to the American embassy, with a +demand for the freeing of this "Muni". The report, of course, came +back to America--to the immense bewilderment of the American people, +who had never heard of this "Muni" before. To Jimmie Higgins it +seemed just the funniest joke on earth that a big labour-struggle +should be on in San Francisco, and Americans should get their first +news about it from Petrograd! Look! he would cry--how much real +democracy there is in America, how much care for the working +classes! + +So all that summer and autumn, while Jimmie Higgins slaved in the +fields, getting in his country's wheat-crop, and then his country's +corn crop, there was a song of joy and awakening excitement in his +soul. Far over the seas men of his own kind were getting the reins +of power into their hands, for the first time in the history of the +world. It could not be long before here in America the workers would +learn this wonderful lesson, would thrill to the idea that freedom +and plenty might really be their portion. + + + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +JIMMIE HIGGINS TURNS BOLSHEVIK + +I + + + + + +Winter was coming, and the farm-workers moved to the cities; but +this year they did not go as down-and-out-o'-works--they went, each +man a little kink. Jimmie wandered into the city of Ironton, and got +himself a job in a big automobile shop at eight dollars a day, and +set to work agitating for ten dollars. It was not that he had any +need of the extra two dollars, of course, but merely because his +first principle in life was to make trouble for the profit-system. +The capitalist papers of this middle-Western metropolis were +furiously denouncing working-men who struck "against their country" +in war-time; Jimmie, on the other hand, denounced those who used +"country" as camouflage for "boss" and made the war a pretext to +deprive labour of its most precious right. + +There was a Socialist local in Ironton, still active and determined +in spite of the fact that its office had been raided by the police, +and most of the party's papers and magazines barred from the mails. +You could always get leaflets printed, however; and if you could no +longer denounce the war directly, you could jeer at England's +exhibition of "democracy" in Ireland, you could point to the profits +of the profiteers, and demand conscription of wealth along with +conscription of manhood. Some American Socialists became almost as +subtle as that German rebel of pre-war days, who, desiring to +lampoon the Kaiser, wrote an account of the life of the Roman +Emperor Agricola, reciting his vanities and insane extravagances. + +Late in the autumn came an event which should have troubed Jimmie +Higgins more deeply than it did. Along the Izonzo river the Italian +armies were facing the Austrians, their hereditary enemies; they +were at the end of a long, exhaustive, and for the most part +unsuccessful campaign, and the Italian Socialists at home were +carrying on precisely such a warfare against their own government as +Jimmie Higgins was carrying on in America. They were helped by the +Catholic intriguers, who hated the Italian government because it had +destroyed the temporal power of the Pope; they were helped by the +subtle and persistent efforts of Austrian agents in their country, +who spread rumours among Italian troops of the friendly intentions +of the Austrians, and of the imminence of a truce. These agents went +so far as to fake copies of the leading Italian newspapers, with +accounts of starvation and riots in the home cities, and the +shooting down of women and children. These papers were given out in +the Italian trenches, before a certain mountain-sector where the +Austrian troops had been fraternizing with the Italians; and then, +during the night, the Austrian troops were withdrawn, and picked +German "shock-troops" substituted, which attacked at dawn and drove +through the Italian lines, sweeping back the army along a +hundred-mile front, capturing some quarter of a million prisoners +and a couple of thousand cannon--practically all the Italians had. + +That Jimmie Higgins did not pay more attention to this terrifying +incident was in part because he read it in the capitalist papers and +did not believe it; but mainly because his whole attention just now +was centred on Russia, where the proletariat was about to make its +bid for power. Now you would see how wars were to be ended and peace +restored to a distracted world! + +The moderate Socialist government of Kerensky was pleading with the +capitalist masters of the Allied nations for a statement of their +peace terms, so that the workers of Russia might know what they were +fighting for. The Russian workers wanted a declaration in favour of +no annexations, no indemnities, and disarmament; on such terms they +would help fight the war, in spite of all the starvation and +suffering in distracted Russia. But the Allied statesmen would not +make any such declaration, and the Russian workers, backed by all +the Socialists of the world, declared that the reason was that these +Allied statesmen were waging an imperialist war--they did not intend +to stop fighting until they had taken vast territories from the +German powers, and exacted a ransom that would cripple Germany for a +generation. The Russian workers refused point-blank to fight for +such aims, and so in November came the second revolution, the +uprising of the Bolsheviki. + +Almost their first action when they took possession of the palaces +and government archives was to publish to the world the secret +treaties which the rulers of England, France and Italy had made with +Russia. These treaties formed a complete justification for the +attitude of the Russian revolutionists--they showed that the Allied +imperialists had planned most shameless plundering; England was to +have the German colonies and Mesopotamia, France was to have German +territory to the Rhine, and Italy was to have the Adriatic coast, +and to divide Palestine and Syria with England and France. + +And here was the most significant fact to Jimmie Higgins--these +enormously important revelations, the most important since the +beginning of the war, were practically suppressed by the capitalist +newspapers of America! First these papers printed a brief item--the +Bolsheviki had given out what they claimed were secret treaties, but +the genuineness of these documents was gravely doubted. Then they +published evasive and lying denials from the British, French and +Italian diplomats; and then they shut up! Not another word did you +read about those secret treaties; except for one or two American +newspapers with traditions of honour, the full text of those +treaties was given in the Socialist press alone! "And now," cried +Jimmie Higgins to the working men in his shop, "what do you think of +those wonderful allies of ours? What do you think of those Wall +Street newspapers of ours?" Could any working-man who had such facts +put before him fail to realize that Jimmie Higgins had a case, and a +most important work in the world to do, in spite of all his unreason +and his narrowness? + + + + +II + + + +Jimmie was now in the seventh heaven, walking as if on air. A +proletarian government at last, the first in history! A government +of working-men like himself, running their own affairs, without the +help of politicians or bankers! Coming out before the world and +telling the truth about matters of state, in language that common +men could understand! Disbanding the armies, and sending the workers +home! Turning the masters out of the factories, and putting +shop-committees in control! Taking away the advertising from the +crooked capitalist papers, and so putting them out of business! Our +little friend would rush to the corner every morning to get the +paper and see what had happened next; he would go down the street so +excited that he forgot his breakfast. + +Jimmie had made a new acquaintance in Ironton; the little tailor, +Rabin, whose name was Scholem, which means Peace, had given him a +letter to his brother, whose name was Deror, which means Freedom. +Each afternoon when the automobile factory let out, Jimmie would get +an evening paper and take it to Deror's tailor-shop and the two +would spell out the news. By God, look at this! Did you ever hear +the like? The man in charge of the Bolshevik foreign office was a +Marxian Jew who had helped edit the Novy Mir, the revolutionary +paper which Scholem had read to Jimmie! He had been a waiter in the +Waldorf-Astoria hotel, and now he was giving out the secret +treaties, and issuing propaganda manifestoes to the international +proletariat. + +The American capitalist press was full of lies about the new +revolution, of course; but Jimmie could read pretty well between the +lines of the capitalist press, and the few Socialist papers that +were still in business, and which he read at the headquarters of the +local, gave him the rest of what he wanted. To Jimmie, of course, +everything the Bolsheviki did was right; if it wasn't right it was a +lie. The little machinist knew that the Bolsheviki had repudiated +the four-billion-dollar debt which the government of the Tsar had +contracted with the bankers of France, and Jimmie knew perfectly +well what was the lying power of four billion dollars. + +The American papers were shocked because the Russian Socialists were +deserting the cause of democracy, and giving Germany a chance to win +the war. The American papers called them German agents, but Jimmie +did not take any stock in such talk as this. Jimmie was familiar +with the "frame-up" as it is operated against the workers in +America. He saw that the first thing the Bolshevik leaders did was +to make an appeal to the revolutionary workers of Germany. The +Russian proletariat had shown the way--now let the German +proletariat follow! Literature was printed and shipped wholesale +into Germany, leaflets were dropped by aviators among the German +troops; and when Jimmie and Deror read that the German generals had +protested to the Russians against such practices, they laughed aloud +with delight. Well might the war-lords squeal; they knew what was +coming to them! And when in January Jimmie and Deror read of the +revolting of a brigade of German troops, and a strike of several +hundred thousand working men throughout Germany, they thought the +end was at hand. The little tailor got up in local Ironton and made +a motion that it take to itself the name "Bolshevik"--which motion +was carried with a whoop. And these American Bolsheviki went on to +consult with the labour-unions, suggesting that they should form +"shop-committees", and prepare for the taking over of industry +a la Russe! + + + + +III + + + +But something went suddenly wrong with the newly built revolutionary +steam-roller. The German military chiefs seized their strike-leaders +at home and threw them into jail, or shipped them off to the front +trenches to be slaughtered. By terrorism, shrewdly mixed with +cajolery, they broke the strike, and sent the grumbling slaves back +to their treadmill. And then the German armies began to march into +Russia! + +It was the crisis to which Jimmie Higgins had been looking forward +ever since the war began. Tolstoi had taught that if one nation +refused to fight, it would be impossible for another nation to +invade it; and while Jimmie Higgins was no mystic or religious +non-resistant, he agreed in this with the great Russian. No workers +in an enemy army could possibly be brought to fire upon their +peace-proclaiming brothers! + +And here at last was the test of the theory; here were German +Socialists ordered to march against Russian Socialists--ordered to +fire upon the red flag! Would they do what their masters, the +war-lords, commanded? Or would they listen to the clamorous appeals +of the international proletariat, and turn their guns against their +own officers? + +All the world saw what happened; it saw the glorious revolutionary +machine, in which Jimmie Higgins had put all his trust, run into a +ditch and land its passengers in the mud. The German armies marched, +and the Socialists in the German armies did exactly what the +non-Socialists did--they fired upon the red flag, as they would have +fired upon the flag of the Tsar. They obeyed the orders of their +officers, like true and loyal Germans; they drove back the +Bolsheviki in confusion, taking their guns and supplies, and +destroying their cities; they led off the Russian women and children +into slavery, precisely as if they were Belgian or French women and +children, destined by the German Gott as the legitimate prey of +Kultur. They sacked Riga and Reval, they overran all the Eastern +portions of Russia--Courland, Livonia, Esthonia; they moved into the +rich grain country of Southern Russia, the Ukraine; they landed from +their ships and took Finland, wiping out the liberties of that +splendid people. They were at the gates of Petrograd, and the +Bolshevik government was forced to flee to Moscow. Of all which +military feats the German Socialist papers spoke with stern pride! + + + + +IV + + + +Poor Jimmie Higgins! It was like the blow of a mighty fist in the +face; he was literally stunned--it was weeks before he could grasp +the full meaning of what was happening, the debacle of all his +hopes. And it was the same with Ironton's Bolshevik local; all the +"pep" was gone out of its proceedings. To be sure, some noisy ones +went on shouting for revolution the very next day--men, who had been +talking formulas for twenty or thirty years, and had no more notion +of a fact than they had of a pseudopodium. But the sensible men of +the group knew that their "St. Louis resolution" was being shot to +death over there in the trenches before Petrograd. + +It was interesting especially to see Rabin. The common belief of +Americans was that a Jew could not be induced to fight; they told a +story about one who cried out to his son, asking why he was letting +another boy pummel him, and the son whispered in reply, "Keep still, +I got a nickel under my foot!" All through the war the Jewish +Socialists in America had been, next to the Germans, the most ardent +pacifists; but now here was a social revolution managed by Jews, +here was a Russian government which gave the Jews their rights for +the first time in history! So the little Jewish tailor stood up +before these American Bolsheviki, and with tears running down his +cheeks declared: "Comrades, I am already tru vit speeches; I am +going into dis var! I vill put myself vit de Polish Socialists, vit +de Bohemian Socialists--I fight de Kaiser to de death! So vill fight +every Jewish Socialist in de vorld!" And this was no mere +braggadocio--Comrade Rabin actually proceeded to shut up his +tailor-shop, and went away to join the "red brigade", which was +being organized by the Jewish revolutionists of New York! + +If the German war-lords had set out deliberately to ham-string the +American Socialists, to make it impossible for them to go on +demanding peace, they could not have acted differently. They dragged +the helpless Bolsheviki into a peace-conference at Brest-Litovsk, +and forced them to cede away all the territories that Germany had +taken, and on top of that to pay an enormous indemnity. They planned +to compel the new Russian government to become a vassal to the +Central Powers, working to help them enslave the rest of the world. +The German armies went through the conquered territories, stripping +them bare, robbing the peasants of every particle of food, beating +them, shooting them, burning their homes if they resisted. They gave +to the world such a demonstration of what a German peace would mean, +that everywhere free men set their teeth and gripped their hands, +and swore to root this infamous thing from out civilization. Even +Jimmie Higgins! + + + + +V + + + +Yes, even Jimmie! He made up his mind that he would work as hard as +ever he could, and produce as many automobile-trucks as he could. +But alas, a man cannot be hounded and oppressed all his life, cannot +have hatred and rebellion ground into the deeps of his soul, and +then forget it over-night because of certain intellectual ideas, +certain new items that he reads in his paper. What happened to +Jimmie was that his mind was literally torn in half; he found +himself, every twenty-four hours of his life, of two absolutely +contradictory and diametrically opposite points of view. He would +vow destruction to the hated German armies; and then he would turn +about and vow destruction to the men at home who were managing the +job of destroying the German armies! + +For these men were Jimmie's life-long enemies, and were no more able +to forget their prejudices over-night than was Jimmie. For example, +the lying capitalist paper which Jimmie had to read every morning! +When Jimmie had read a patriotic editorial in the Ironton Daily Sun, +it had become utterly impossible for him to help win the war that +day! Or the politicians, seeking to use the war-cry of democracy +abroad to crush all traces of democracy at home; to "get" the +radicals whom they hated and feared, and by means of taxes on +necessities and a bonded debt to put the costs of the war on to the +poor! Or the capitalists, making fervid speeches about patriotism, +but refusing to give up the whip-hand over their wage-slaves! + +Jimmie Higgins was working in a factory, making automobile-trucks +for the armies in France; and the owners of the factory would not +let the men have a union, and so there was a strike. The bosses made +an agreement to take everybody back and permit a union, and then +proceeded treacherously to violate the agreement, getting rid of the +most active organizers on this or that transparent pretext. Jimmie +Higgins, trying to help with the skill of his hands to make the +world safe for democracy, was turned out of his job and left to +wander in the streets, because a big profit-seeking corporation did +not believe in democracy, and refused to permit its workers any +voice in determining the conditions of their labour! The Government +was trying to deal with emergencies such as this, to put an end to +the epidemic of strikes which was hindering the war-work everywhere; +but the government had not yet got its machinery going, and meantime +Jimmie's little feeble sprout of patriotism got a severe chill. + +Jimmie got drunk and wasted a part of his money on a woman of the +street. Then, being ashamed of himself, and still plagued by the +memory of his dead wife and babies, he straightened up and resolved +to start life anew. He found himself thinking about Leesville; it +was the only place in the world where he had ever been really happy, +and now since Deror Rabin had gone East, it was the only place where +he had friends. How were the Meissners getting on? How was Comrade +Mrs. Gerrity, nee Baskerville? What was Local Leesville thinking +about Russia and about the war? Jimmie took a sudden resolve to go +and find out. He priced a ticket, and found that he had enough money +and to spare. He would take the journey--and take it in state, as a +citizen and a war-worker, not as a tramp in a box-car! + + + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +JIMMIE HIGGINS MEETS THE TEMPTER + +I + + + + + +When Jimmie Higgins stepped off the train at Leesville, it was a +blustery morning in early March, with snow still on the ground and +flurries of it in the air. In front of the station was a public +square, with a number of people gathered, and Jimmie strolled over +to see what was going on. What he saw was a score of young men, some +in khaki uniforms, some in ordinary trousers and sweaters, being +drilled. Jimmie, being in the mood of a gentleman of leisure, +stopped to watch the show. + +It was the thing he had been talking and thinking about for nearly +three years: this monstrous perversion of the human soul called +Militarism, this force which seized hold of men and made them into +automatons, moving machines which obeyed orders in a mass, and went +out and did deeds of which none of them taken separately would have +been capable, even in their dreams. Here was a bunch of average nice +Leesville boys, employees of the shops near-by, "soda-jerkers" and +"counter-jumpers", clerks who had deftly fitted shoes on to the feet +of pretty ladies. Now they were submitting themselves to this +deforming discipline, undergoing this devilish transmogrification. + +Jimmie's eye ran down the line: there was a street-car conductor he +knew, there was a machinist from the Empire, also there was a son of +Ashton Chalmers, president of the First National Bank of Leesville. +And suddenly Jimmie gave a start. Impossible! It could not be! +But--it was! Young Emil Forster! Emil a Socialist, Emil a German, +Emil a student and thinker, who had penetrated the hypocritical +disguises of this capitalist war, and had fearlessly proclaimed the +truth every Friday night at the local--here he was with a suit of +khaki on his rather frail figure, a rifle in his hand and a look of +grim resolve on his face, going through the evolutions of +squad-drill: left, right, left, right, left, right--column left, +march--one, two, three, four--left, right, left, right--squad right +about, march--left, right, left, right--squad left oblique +march--and so on. If you are to form any picture of the scene you +must imagine the swift tramp of many feet in unison--thump, thump, +thump, thump, thump, thump; you must imagine the marchers, with +their solemnly set faces, and the orders thundered out by a +red-faced young man of desperate aspect, the word MARCH coming each +time with a punch that hit you over the heart. This red-faced young +man was the very incarnation of the military despot as Jimmie had +pictured him; watching with hawk-like eye, scolding, pounding, +driving, with no slightest regard for the feelings of the slaves he +commanded, or for any of the decencies of civilized intercourse. + +"Hold those half-steps, Casey! Keep your eye on the end man--you'll +have him splitting his legs if you don't wait for him. Column left, +march--one, two, three, four--now you're all right--off with +you--that's better! Put a little pep into your feet, Chalmers, for +God's sake--if you go marching into Berlin like that they'll think +it's the hospital squad! By the right flank, column fours, +march--watch your distance there, end man! How many times do you want +me to tell you that?"--and so on and on--tramp, tramp, tramp, +tramp--while a small boy standing beside Jimmie, evidently a truant +from school, chanted over and over: "Left--left--the soldier got +drunk and he packed up his trunk and he left--left! And do you not +think he was right--right?" + + + + +II + + + +Now if you have ever stood about and watched outdoor exercise or +games, on a day in March with snow on the ground and a keen wind +blowing, you know how it is--you have to stamp your feet to keep +warm; and if in your neighbourhood there are twenty left feet +smiting the ground in unison, and then twenty right feet smiting the +ground in unison, it is absolutely inevitable that your stamping +should keep time to the smiting; also the rhythm of your stamping +will be communicated upwards into your body--your thoughts will +keep time with the marching squad--tramp, tramp, tramp, +tramp--left, right, left, right! The psychologists tell us that one +who goes through the actions appropriate to an emotion will begin to +feel that emotion; and so it was with Jimmie Higgins. By a process +so subtle that he never suspected it Jimmie was being made into a +militarist! Jimmie's hands were clenched, Jimmie's jaw was set, +Jimmie's feet were tramping, tramping on the road to Berlin, to +teach the Prussian war-lords what it meant to defy the free men of a +great republic! + +But then something would happen to blast these budding excitements +in Jimmie's soul. The red-faced fellow would break into the rhythm +of the march. "For the love of Mike, Pete Casey, can't you remember +those half-steps? Squad, halt! Now look here, what's the matter with +you? Step out and let me show you once more." And poor Casey, a +meek-faced little man with sloping shoulders, who had been running +the elevator in the Chalmers Building up to a week ago, would +patiently practise marching without moving, so that the rest of the +line could wheel round him as a pivot. The petty tyrant who scolded +at him was determined to have his own way; and Jimmie, who had had +to do with many such tyrants in his long years of industrial +servitude, was glad when this particular one got mixed up in his +orders, and ran his squad into the fountain in the middle of the +drill-ground, and some of them marched over the parapet, sliding +down into the ice-covered basin below. The spectators roared, and so +did the marchers, and the red-faced man young had to join in, and to +come down off his high horse. + +The conflict of impulses went on in Jimmie's soul. These marching +men were the "fools" at whom he had been mocking for something over +two years. They did not look like "fools" he had to admit; on the +contrary, they looked, quite capable of deciding what they wanted to +do. And they had decided; they had quit their jobs several weeks in +advance of the time when they would be called for the draft, and had +set to work to learn the rudiments of the military art, in the hope +of thus getting more quickly to France. Among them were bankers and +merchants and real estate dealers, side by side with soda-jerkers +and counter-jumpers and elevator-men--and all taking their orders +from an ex-blacksmith's helper, who had run away to fight in the +Philippines. + +Jimmie got this last bit of information from a fellow who stood +watching; so he realized that here was the thing he had been reading +about in the papers--the new army of the people, that was going +forth to make the world safe for democracy! Jimmy had read such +words, and thought them just camouflage, a trap for the "fools". But +here, a sight of wonder before his eyes, a son of Ashton Chalmers, +president of the First National Bank of Leesville, being ordered +about and hauled over the coals by an ex-blacksmith's helper, who +happened to know how to shout with the accents of a pile-driver: +"Shoulder HUMPS! Order HUMPS! Present HUMPS!" + +The squad spread itself out for exercise--grasping their heavy +rifles and swinging them this way and that with desperate violence. +"Swing over head and return, ready, exercise--one, two, three, four, +five, six, seven, eight--eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, +one." It was no joke making those swings in such quick time; the +poor little elevator-man Casey was left hopelessly behind, he could +only make half the swing, and then couldn't get back to place on the +count; he would look about, grinning sheepishly, and then fall into +time and try again. Everybody's face was set, everybody's breath was +coming harder and harder, everybody's complexion was becoming +apoplectic. + +"Swing to the right!" shouted the blacksmith-tyrant. "Ready, +exercise--one, two"--and so on. And then he would yell: "No, +Chalmers, don't punch out with your arms--swing up your gun! Swing +it up from the bottom! That's the way! Poke 'em! Poke 'em! Put the +punch into 'em!" And over Jimmie stole a cold horror. There was +nothing on the end of those guns but a little black hole, but Jimmie +knew what was supposed to be there--what would some day be there; +the exercise meant that these affable young Leesville store-clerks +were getting ready to drive a sharp, gleaming blade into the bowels +of human beings! "Poke 'em! Poke 'em!" shouted the ex-blacksmith, +and with desperate force they swung the heavy rifles, throwing their +bodies to one side and leaping out with one foot. Horrible! +Horrible! + + + + +III + + + +Man is a gregarious animal, and it is a fundamental law of his being +that when a group of his fellows are doing a certain thing, and +doing it with energy and fervour, anyone who does not do it, who +does not share the mood of energy and fervour shall be the object of +ridicule and anger, shall feel within his own heart confusion and +distress. This is true, even if the group is doing nothing more +worthwhile than making itself drunk. How much more shall it be when +it is engaged in making the world safe for democracy! + +The only way the man can save himself is by holding before his mind +the belief that he is right, and that some day this will be +recognized; in other words, by appealing to some other group of men, +who in some future time will applaud him. If he is sure of this +future applause, he can manage to stand the jeers for the moment. +But how when he begins to doubt--when his mind is haunted by the +possibility that the men of the future may agree with those of the +present, who are learning to march in unison, and to poke bayonets +into the bodies of Huns! + +One of the things which brought this destructive doubt to Jimmie's +soul was the sight of Emil Forster, learning to march and to poke. +Emil had been one of his heroes, Emil knew a hundred times as much +as he--and Emil was going to the war! The squad marched away to the +City hall across the square, and deposited its rifles in a room in +the basement, and then Emil came out, and Jimmie went up to him. The +young carpet-designer of course was delighted to meet his old +friend, and asked him to go to lunch. As they walked along the +street together Jimmie asked what it meant, and Emil answered: "It +means that I have made up my mind." + +"You're going to fight the German people?" + +"Strange as you'll think it, I'm going to fight them for their own +good. Bebel wrote in his memoirs that the way to get democratic +progress in autocratic countries is through military defeat; and it +seems up to America to provide this defeat for Germany." + +"But--you were preaching just the opposite!" + +"I know; it makes me feel foolish sometimes. But things have +changed, and there's no sense in shutting your eyes to facts." + +Jimmie waited. + +"Russia, more especially," continued Emil, answering the unspoken +question. "What's the use of getting Socialism, if you're just +throwing yourself down for a military machine to run over you? +You're playing the fool, that's all--and you have to see it. What +hope is there for Russia now?" + +"There's the German Socialists." + +"Well, they just didn't have the power, that's all. What's more, we +have to face the fact that a lot of them aren't really +revolutionists--they're politicians, and haven't dared to stand out +against the crowd. Anyhow, whatever the reason is, they didn't save +their own country, and they didn't save Russia. They certainly can't +expect us to give them a third chance--it costs too much." + +"But then," argued Jimmie, "ain't we doin' just what we blame them +for doin'--turnin' patriots, supportin' a capitalist government?" + +"When you're supporting a government," replied Emil, "it make's a +lot of difference what use its making of your support. We all know +the faults of our government, but we know too that the people can +change it when enough of them get ready, and that makes a real +difference. I've come to realize that if we give the Kaiser a +beating, the German people will kick him out, and then we can talk +sense to them." + + + + +IV + + + +They walked along for a bit in silence, Jimmie trying to assimilate +these ideas. They were new--not in the sense that he had not heard +them before, but in the sense that he had not heard them from a +German. "How does your father feel?" he asked at last. + +"He hasn't changed," replied the other. "And that makes it pretty +hard--it's all we can do to keep from quarrelling. He's old, and new +ideas don't come to him easily. Yet you'd think he'd be the first to +see it--his father was one of the old revolutionists, he was put in +jail in Dresden. I don't suppose you know much about the history of +Germany." + +"No," said Jimmie. + +"Well, in those days the German people tried to get free, and they +were put down by the troops, and the real revolutionists were driven +into exile. Some of them came over here--like my grandfather. But, +you see, their children have forgotten about their wrongs--they look +back on Germany now, and think of it sentimentally, as it's pictured +in the stories and songs--a sort of Christmas-tree Germany. They +don't know about the Germany that's grown up--the Germany of iron +and coal kings, that combines all the cruelty of feudalism with +modern efficiency and science--the Beast with the Brains of an +Engineer!" + +They walked on, Emil lost in thought. "You know," he broke out, +suddenly, "this war has been a revelation to me--the most horrible +you could imagine. It's as if you loved a woman, and saw her go +insane before your eyes, or turn into some sort of degenerate. For I +believed in the Christmas-tree Germany; I loved it, and I argued for +it, I just couldn't bring myself to believe what I read in the +papers. Now I look back, and it seems like a trap that the German +war-lords had set for my mind--reaching way over here into America, +and making me think what they wanted me to! Perhaps I've gone to the +other extreme--I find I distrust everything that's German. Father +accused me of it last night; he was singing an old German song that +says that when you hear men singing you may lie down in peace, for +bad men have no songs. And I reminded him that the nation which +taught that idea had marched into Belgium singing!" + +"Gee!" exclaimed Jimmie. He could imagine how old Hermann Forster +had taken that remark! + +The young carpet-designer smiled, rather sadly. "He says it's +because I've put on khaki. But the truth is, I'd been full of these +thoughts, and all at once they came to a head. I was drafted, and I +had to make up my mind one way or the other. I decided I'd +fight--and then, when I'd decided, I wanted to get into it right +away." Emil paused, and looked at his friend and asked, "What about +you?" + +Jimmie, of course, was a draft-evader, one of the hated "slackers". +Ordinarily, he would have told Emil, and the two of them would have +grinned. But now Emil was in khaki, Emil was a patriot; perhaps it +would not be wise to trust him entirely! "They haven't got me yet," +said Jimmie; and then, "I ain't so sure as I used to be, but I ain't +ready to be a soldier--I dunno's I could stand bein' bossed like +that fellow does it." + +Emil laughed. "Don't you suppose I want to learn?" + +"But does he need to call you names?" + +"That's part of the game--nobody minds that. He's putting the pep +into us--and we want it in." + +Jimmie found that such a new point of view that he didn't know what +to reply. + +"You see," the other went on, "if you really want to fight, you go +in for it; it's quite remarkable how your feelings change. You +imagine yourself in the presence of the enemy, and you know your +success depends on discipline; if there's a leader, and especially +if you feel that he knows his business, you're glad to have him to +teach you, to make the whole machine do what you want it to. I know +it sounds funny from me, but I've learnt to love discipline." And +Emil laughed, a nervous laugh. "This army means business, let me +tell you; and it's got right down to it. They've been fighting three +and a half years over in Europe, and they send their best men over +to show us, and we dig in and learn--I tell you, we work as if the +devil was after us!" + + + + +V + + + +It sounded so strange to hear things like this from the lips of Emil +Forster! Jimmie could hardly make them real to himself--the world +was slipping from under his feet. The Socialist movement was being +seduced--won over by the militarists! He didn't quite dare to say +this; but he hinted, cautiously, "Ain't you afraid maybe we'll get +used to fightin'--to discipline and all that? Maybe they'll trick +us--the plutes." + +"I know," said the other. "I've thought of that, and I've no doubt +they'll try it--they want universal training for that very purpose. +We have to fight them, that's all; we have to fight right now--to +make clear why we're going into this war. We have to hold it before +the people--that this is a war to bring democracy to the whole +world. If we can fix that in people's minds, the imperialists won't +have a look in." + +"If you could do it, of course--" began Jimmie, hesitatingly. + +"But we ARE doing it!" cried Emil. "We're doing it day by day. Look +at this strike here in Leesville." + +"What strike?" + +"Didn't you know there'd been another walk-out in the Empire Shops?" + +"No, I didn't." + +"The men went out, and the government sent an arbitration +commission, and forced both sides to accept an award. They broke old +Granitch down--made him recognize the union and grant the basic +eight-hour day." + +"My God!" exclaimed Jimmie. It was the thing for which he had stood +up in the Empire yards and been cursed by young Lacey Granitch; it +was the thing for which he had been sent to jail and devoured by +lice! And now the government had helped the men to win their demand! +It was the first time--literally the first in Jimmie's whole +life--that he had been led to think of the government as something +else than an enemy and a slave-driver. + +"How did Granitch take it?" he asked. + +"Oh, awful! He threatened to quit, and let the government run his +plant; but when he found the government was perfectly willing, he +dropped his bluff. And look here--here's something else." Emil +reached into an inside pocket of his overcoat and pulled out a +newspaper clipping. "Ashton Chalmers went to a banquet at some +bankers' convention the other day and made a speech to them. Read +this." + +Jimmie, walking along, read some words that Emil had underlined in +pencil: "Whether we will or no, we have to recognize that the old +order is dead. We face a new era, when labour is coming into its +own. If we do not want to be left behind as derelicts, we shall have +to get busy and do our part to bring in this new era, which +otherwise will come with bloodshed and destruction." + +"For the love of Mike!" said Jimmie. + +"It's just about knocked Leesville out," said Emil. "You ought to +have seen the papers that reported the speech! It was as if God in +his Heaven had gone crazy, and the clergymen in the churches had to +tell the news!" + +To the little machinist there flashed a sudden idea. He caught his +friend by the arm. "Emil!" he exclaimed. "Do you remember that time +when Ashton Chalmers and old Granitch came to our meeting at the +Opera-house?" + +"Sure thing!" said Emil. + +"Maybe that done it!" + +"Nothing more likely." + +"And it was me that sold him the tickets!" + +Jimmie was thrilled to the bottom of his shoes. Such is the reward +that comes now and then to the soul of a propagandist; he struggles +on amid ridicule and despair--and then suddenly, like a gleam of +light, comes evidence that somewhere, somehow, he has reached +another mind, he has made a real impression. Ashton Chalmers had +listened to the Socialist orator, and he had gone away and read and +investigated; he had realized the force of this great world movement +for economic justice, he had broken the bonds and barriers of his +class, and told the truth about what he saw coming. When Jimmie read +the wonderful words which the bank president had spoken, he was +nearer to an impulse to fight Germany than at any previous moment of +his life! + + + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +JIMMIE HIGGINS WRESTLES WITH THE TEMPTER + +I + + + + + +Of course, not all the Socialists of Leesville had got the "military +bug" like Emil Forster. Late in the afternoon, Jimmie ran into +Comrade Schneider, on his way home from work at the brewery, and he +was the same old Schneider--the same florid Teuton countenance, the +same solid Teuton voice, the same indignant Teuton point of view. +All Jimmie had to do was to mention the name of Emil, and Schneider +was off. A hell of a Socialist he was! Couldn't even wait for the +drill-sergeant to come after him, but had to run and hunt for him, +had to go and put himself out in the public square, where the +town-loafers could watch him playing the monkey! + +No, said Schneider, with abundant profanity, he had not moved one +inch from his position; they could send him to jail any time they +got ready, they could stand him up before a firing-squad, but they'd +never get any militarism into him. Pressed for an answer, the big +brewer admitted that he had registered; but he wasn't going to be +drafted, not on his life! Jimmie suggested that this might be +because he had a wife and six children; but the other was too much +absorbed in his tirade to notice Jimmie's grin. He blustered on, in +a tone so loud that several times people on the street overheard, +and gave him a black look. Jimmie, being less in the mood of +martyrdom, parted from him and went to see the Meissners. + +The little bottle-packer was living in the same place, having rented +the upper part of his house to a Polish family to help meet his +constantly-rising expenses. He welcomed Jimmie with open +arms--patted him on the back with delight, and opened a bottle of +beer to treat him. He asked a hundred questions about Jimmie's +adventures, and told in turn about events in Leesville. The local as +a whole had stood firm against the war, and was still carrying on +propaganda, in the face of ferocious opposition. The working-classes +were pumped so full of "patriotic dope", you could hardly get them +to listen; as for the radicals, they were marked men--their mail was +intercepted, their meetings were attended by almost as many +detectives as spectators. A number had been drafted--which Meissner +considered deliberate conspiracy on the part of the draft-boards. + +Who had been taken? Jimmie asked. The other answered: Comrade +Claudel, the jeweller--he wanted to go, of course; and Comrade +Koeln, the glass-blower--he was a German, but had been naturalized, +so they had taken him, in spite of his protests; and Comrade +Stankewitz-- + +"Stankewitz!" cried Jimmie, in dismay. + +"Sure, he's gone." + +"Was he willing?" + +"They didn't ask if he was willing. They just told him to report." + +Somehow that seemed to bring the war nearer to Jimmie's +consciousness than anything that had happened so far. The little +Roumanian Jew had given him the greater part of his education on +this world-conflict; it was over the counter of the cigar-store that +Jimmie had got the first geography lessons of his life. He had +learned that Russia was the yellow country, and Germany the green, +and Belgium the pale blue, and France the light pink; he had seen +how the railroads from the green to the pink ran through the pale +blue, and how the big fortresses in the pale blue all faced towards +the green--something which Meissner and Schneider and the rest of +the green people considered a mortal affront, a confession of guilt +on the part of the pale blue people. Comrade Stankewitz's +wizened-up, eager little face rose before Jimmie; he heard the +shrill voice, trying to compose the disputes in the local. +"Comrades, all this vill not get us anyvere! There is but vun +question we have to answer, are we internationalists, or are we +not?" + +"My God!" cried Jimmie. "Ain't that awful?" + +He had got to the point where he was willing to admit that perhaps +the Kaiser had got to be licked, and maybe it was all right for a +fellow that felt like Emil Forster to go and lick him. But to lay +hold of a man who hated war with all his heart and soul, to drag him +away from the little business he had painfully built up, and compel +him to put on a uniform and obey other men's orders--well, when you +saw a thing like that, you knew about the atrocities of war! + + + + +II + + + +Comrade Meissner went on. Worse than that---they had taken Comrade +Gerrity. And Jimmie stared. "But he's married!" + +"I know," explained Meissner, "but that ain't what counts. What you +got to have is a dependent wife. An' the Gerritys didn't know +that--Comrade Evelyn held on to her job as stenographer, and +somebody must have told on them, for the board jacked him up and +cancelled his exemption. Of course, it was only because he was +organizer of the local; they want to put us out of business any way +they can." + +"What did Gerrity do?" + +"He refused to serve, and they sent a squad of men after him and +dragged him away. They took him to Camp Sheridan, and tried to put +him in uniform, and he refused--he wouldn't work, he wouldn't have +anything to do with war. So they tried him and sentenced him to +twenty-five years in jail; they put him in solitary confinement, and +he gets nothin' but bread and water--they keep him chained up by his +wrists a part of the time--" + +"Oh! OH!" cried Jimmie. + +"Comrade Evelyn's most crazy about it. She broke down and cried in +the local, and she went around to the churches--they have women's +sewing-circles, you know, and things for the Red Cross, and her and +Comrade Mary Allen gets up and makes speeches an' drives the women +crazy. They arrested 'em once, but they turned 'em loose--they +didn't want it to get in the papers." + +Comrade Meissner could not have foreseen how this particular news +would affect Jimmie; Meissner knew nothing about the strange +adventure which had befallen his friend, the amatory convulsion +which had shaken his soul. Before Jimmie's mind now rose the lovely +face with the pert little dimples and the halo of fluffy brown hair; +the thought of Comrade Evelyn Baskerville in distress was simply not +to be endured. "Where is she?" he cried. He had a vision of himself +rushing forthwith to take up the agitation; to raid the church +sewing-circles and brave the wrath of the she-patriots; to go to +jail with Comrade Evelyn; or perhaps--who could say?--to put about +her, gently and reverently, a pair of fraternal and comforting arms. + +Jimmie had the temperament of the dreamer, the idealist, to whom it +is enough to want a thing to see that thing forthwith come into +being. His imagination, stimulated by the image of the charming +stenographer, rushed forth on the wildest of flights. He realized +for the first time that he was a free man; while, as for Comrade +Evelyn, suppose the worst were to happen, suppose Comrade Gerrity +were to perish of the diet of bread and water, or to be dragged into +the trenches and killed--then the sorrowing widow would be in need +of someone to uphold her, to put fraternal and comforting arms about +her-- + +"Where is she?" Jimmie asked again; and Comrade Meissner dissipated +his dream by replying that she had gone off to work for an +organization in New York which was agitating for humane treatment +for "conscientious objectors". Meissner hunted up the pamphlet +published by this organization, telling most hideous stories of the +abusing of such victims of the military frenzy; they had been +beaten, tortured and starved, subjected to ridicule and humiliation, +in many cases dragged before courts-martial and sentenced to +imprisonment for twenty or thirty years. Jimmie sat up a part of the +night reading these stories--with the result that once more the +feeble sprout of patriotism was squashed flat in his soul! + + + + +III + + + +Jimmie went to the next meeting of the local. It was a slender +affair now, for some of the members were in jail, and some in the +training camps, and some afraid to come for fear of their jobs, and +some discouraged by incessant persecution. But the old war-horses +were there--Comrade Schneider, and gentle old Hermann Forster, and +Comrade Mabel Smith, with an account of her brother's mistreatment +in the county jail, and Comrade Mary Allen, the Quaker lady. This +last was still taking it as a personal affront that America should +be going into the bloody mess, in spite of all her denunciations and +protests; she was even paler and thinner than when Jimmie had seen +her last--her hands trembled and her thin lips quivered as she +spoke, you could see that she was burning up with excitement over +the monstrous wickedness of the world's events. She read to the +local a harrowing story of a boy who had registered as a +conscientious objector in New York, and had been taken out to a +training-camp and subjected to such indignities that he had shot +himself. Comrade Mary had no children of her own, so she had adopted +these conscientious objectors, and as she read of their experiences, +her soul was convulsed with a mingling of grief and rage. + +Jimmie went back to the Empire Shops and applied for a job. They +needed thousands of men, so the Herald declared--but they did not +need a single one like Jimmie! The man to whom he applied recognized +him at once, and said, "Nothin' doin'." For the sake of being nasty, +Jimmie went to the headquarters of the newly-formed union, and asked +them to force old Abel Granitch to give him work, according to the +terms of the agreement with the government. But the union secretary, +after thinking the matter over, decided that the provision against +black-listing applied only to men who had been out on the last +strike, not to the strikers of a couple of years before. "There was +no use going out of one's way to look for trouble," said this +secretary. Jimmie went away jeering at the union, and damning the +war as heartily as ever. + +He was in no hurry to get work, having still some money in his +pocket, and being able to live cheaply with the Meissners. He went +again to watch young Forster drilling, and went home with him and +heard an argument with old Hermann. You could see how this family +had been split wide open; the old man ordered his traitorous son out +several times, but the mother had flung herself into the breach, +pleading that the boy was going away in a few days, and perhaps +would never return. The evening that Jimmie was there, the paper +printed a speech of the President, outlining his purposes in the +war, the terms of justice for all peoples, a league of nations and +universal disarmament. Emil read this triumphantly, finding in it a +justification of his support of the war. Wasn't it a great part of +what the Socialists wanted? + +Hermann answered grudgingly that the words were all right, but how +about the deeds? Also, how about the other Allies--did the President +imagime he could boss them? No--to the imperialists of England and +France and Italy those fine words were just bait for gudgeons; they +would serve to keep the workers quiet till the war was won, and then +the militarists would kick out the American President and pick the +bones of the carcass of Germany. If they really meant to abide by +the President's terms, why didn't they come out squarely and say so? +Why didn't they repudiate the secret treaties? Why didn't England +begin her career in democracy by setting free Ireland and India? + +So it went; and Jimmie listened to both speakers, and agreed with +both alternately, experiencing more and more that distressing +condition of mental chaos, in which he found himself of two +absolutely contradictory and diametrically opposite points of view. + + + + +IV + + + +All winter long the papers had been full of talk about a mighty +German offensive that was coming in the spring. The German people +were being told all about it, and how it was to end the war with a +glorious triumph. In America nobody was sure about the matter; the +fact that the attack was boldly announced seemed good reason for +looking elsewhere. Perhaps the enemy was preparing to overwhelm +Italy, and wished to keep France and England from sending troops to +the weakened Italian line! + +But now suddenly, in the third week of March, the Germans made a +mighty rush at the British line in front of Cambrai; army upon army +they came, and overwhelmed the defenders, and poured through the +breach. The British forces fell back--every hour it seemed that +their retreat must be turned into a rout. Day by day, as the +dispatches came in, Jimmie watched the map in front of the Herald +office, and saw a huge gap opening in the British line, a spear-head +pointing straight into the heart of France. Three days, four days, +five days, this ghastly splitting apart went on, and the whole world +held its breath. Even Jimmie Higgins was shaken by the news--he had +got enough into the war by this time to realize what a German +triumph would mean. It took a strong pacifist stomach indeed to +contemplate such an issue of events without flinching. + +Comrade Mary Allen had such a stomach; to her religious fervour it +made no difference whatever which set of robbers ruled the world. +Comrade Schneider had it also; he knew that Germany was the +birth-place and cradle of Socialism, and believed that the best fate +that could befall the world was for the Germans to conquer it, and +let the German Socialists make it into a co-operative commonwealth +by and by. Comrade Schneider was now openly gloating over this new +proof of German supermanity, the invincibility of German discipline. +But most of the other members of the local were awed--realizing in +spite of themselves the seriousness of the plight which confronted +civilization. + +Jimmie would inspect the bulletin board, and go over to watch the +drilling, and then to Tom's "Buffeteria" with Emil Forster. He had +always had an intense admiration for Emil, and now the young +designer, distressed by the strife at home, was glad of someone to +pour out his soul to. He would help Jimmie to realize the meaning of +the British defeat, the enormous losses of guns and supplies, the +burden it would put upon America. For America would have to make up +these losses, America would have to drive the Germans out of every +foot of this newly-conquered territory. + +Jimmie would listen and study the matter out on the map; and so +gradually he learned to be interested in a new science, that of +military strategy. When once you have fallen under the spell of that +game, your soul is lost. You think of men, no longer as human +creatures, suffering, starving, bleeding, dying in agony; you think +of them as chess-pawns; you dispose of them as a gambler of his +chips, a merchant of his wares; you classify them into brigades and +divisions and corps, moving them here and there, counting off your +losses against the losses of the enemy, putting in your reserves at +critical moments, paying this price for that objective, wiping out +thousands and tens of thousands of men with a sweep of your hand, a +mark of your pencil, a pressure on an electric button! Once you have +learnt to take that view of life, you are no longer a human heart, +to be appealed to by pacifists and humanitarians; you are a machine, +grinding out destruction, you are a ripe apple, ready to fall into +the lap of the god of war, you are an autumn leaf, ready to be +seized by the gales of patriotism and blown to destruction and +death. + + + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +JIMMIE HIGGINS TAKES THE PLUNGE + +I + + + + + +Jimmie went home one evening to the Meissners, and there got a piece +of news that delighted him. Comrade Stankewitz had come back from +Camp Sheridan! The man to whom he had sold his tobacco-store having +failed to pay up, Stankewitz had got a three days' furlough to +settle his business affairs. "Say, he looks fine!" exclaimed +Meissner; and so after supper Jimmie hurried off to the little store +on the corner. + +Never had Jimmie been so startled by the change in a man; he would +literally not have known his Roumanian Jewish friend. The wrinkles +which had made him look old had filled out; his shoulders were +straight--he seemed to have been lifted a couple of inches; he was +brown, his cheeks full of colour--he was just a new man! Jimmie and +he had been wont to skylark a bit in the old days, as young male +creatures do, putting up their fists, giving one another a punch or +two, making as if they were going to batter in one another's noses. +They would grip hands and squeeze, to see which could hold out +longest. But now, when they tried it, there was "nothing to +it"--Jimmie got one squeeze and hollered quits. + +"Vat you tink?" cried Stankewitz. "I veigh tventy pounds more +already--tventy pounds! They vork you like hell in that army, but +they treat you good. You don't never have such good grub before, not +anyvere you vork." + +"You like it?" demanded Jimmy, in amazement. + +"Sure I like it, you bet your money! I learn lots of things vat I +didn't know before. I get myself straight on this var, don't you +ferget it." + +"You believe in the war?" + +"Sure I believe in it, you bet your money!" Comrade Stankewitz, as +he spoke, pounded with an excited fist on the counter. "Ve got to +vin this var, see? Ve got to beat them Yunkers! I vould have made up +my mind to that, even if I don't go in the army--I vould have make +it up ven I see vat they do vit Russia." + +"But the revolution--" + +"The revolution kin vait--maybe vun year, maybe two years already. +It don't do us no good to have a revolution if the Yunkers walk over +it! No, sir--I vant them Germans put out of Roumania und out of +Russia und out of Poland--und, I tell you, in this American army you +got plenty Roumanian Socialists, plenty Polish Socialists, und the +Kaiser vill be sorry ven he meets them in France, you bet your +money!" + +So Jimmie got another dose of patriotism, a heavy dose this time; +for Stankewitz was all on fire with his new conviction, as full of +the propaganda impulse as he had been when he called himself an +"anti-nationalist". He could not permit you to differ with +him--became irritated at the bare mention of those formula-ridden +members of the local who were still against the war. They were +fools--or else they were Germans; and Comrade Stankewitz was as +ready to right the Germans in Leesville as in France. He got so +excited arguing that he almost forgot the cigars and the show-cases +which he had to get rid of in two days. To Jimmie it was an amazing +thing to see this transformation--not merely the new uniform and the +new muscles of his Roumanian Jewish friend, but his sense of +certainty about the war, his loyalty to the President for the bold +deed he had done in pledging the good faith of America to securing +the freedom and the peaceful future of the harrassed and tormented +subject-races of Eastern Europe. + + + + +II + + + +Jimmie got a sheet of letter paper, and borrowed a scratchy pen and +a little bottle of ink from Mrs. Meissner, and wrote a painfully +mis-spelled letter to Comrade Evelyn Gerrity, nee Baskerville, to +assure her of his sympathy and undying friendship. He did not tell +her that he was beginning to wobble on the war; in fact, when he +thought of Jack Gerrity, chained up to the bars of a cell window, he +unwobbled--he wanted the social revolution right away. But then as +he went to drop the letter into the post office, so that it might go +more quickly, he bought a paper and read the story of what was +happening in France. And again the war-fervour tempted him. + +By desperate, frenzied fighting the British had succeeded in holding +up for a few days the colossal German drive. But help was +needed--instant help, if civilization was to be saved. The cry came +across the seas--America must send assistance--guns, shells, food, +and above all else men. Jimmie's blood was stirred; he had an +impulse to answer the call, to rush to the rescue of those desperate +men, crouching in shell-holes and fighting day and night for a week +without rest. If only Jimmie could have gone right to them! If only +it had not been necessary for him to go to a training-camp and +submit himself to a military martinet! If only it had not been for +war-profiteers, and crooked politicians, and lying, predatory +newspapers, and all the other enemies of democracy at home! + +Jimmie dropped his letter in the slot, and turned to leave the post +office, when his eye was caught by a sign on the wall-a large sign, +in bold, black letters: "YOUR COUNTRY NEEDS YOU!" Jimmie thought it +was more "Liberty Bond" business; they had been after him several +times, trying to separate him from his earnings, but needless to say +they hadn't succeeded. However, he stopped out of curiosity, and +read that men were needed to go to France--skilled men of all sorts. +There was a long list of the trades, everything you could think +of--carpenters, plumbers, electricians, lumbermen, stevedores, +railwaymen, laundrymen, cooks, warehousemen--so on for several +columns. Jimmie came to "machinists", and gave a guilty start; then +he came to "motor-cycle drivers" and "motor-cycle repairers"--and +suddenly he clenched his hands. A wild idea flashed over him, +causing such excitement that he could hardly read on. Why should he +not go to France--he, Jimmy Higgins! He was a man without a tie in +the world--as free as the winds that blow across the ocean! And he +was looking for a job--why not take one of these? + +It was a way he might share all the adventures, see the marvellous +sights of which he had been reading and hearing and without the long +delay in a training-camp, without waiting to be bossed about by a +military martinet! Jimmie looked to see what pay was offered; +fifty-one dollars a month and an "allowance" for board and expenses. +At the bottom of the sign he read the words: "Why not work for your +Uncle Sam?" Jimmie as it happened was in a fairly friendly mood +towards his Uncle Sam at that moment; so he thought, why not give +him a chance as a boss? After all, wasn't that what every Socialist +was aiming at--to be an employe of the community, a servant of the +public, rather than of some private profiteer? + + + + +III + + + +Jimmie went to the window to inquire, and the clerk told him that +the "war-labour recruiting office" was at the corner of Main and +Jefferson. He came to the corner designated, and there in a vacant +store was a big recruiting sign, "War Labour Wanted", and a soldier +in khaki walking up and down. A week ago Jimmie could not have been +bribed to enter a place presided over by a soldier; but he had +learned from Emil and Stankewitz that a soldier might be a human +being, so he went up and said, "Hello." + +"Hello, yourself," said the soldier, looking him over with an +appraising eye. + +"If I was to hire here, when would I start for France?" + +"To-night," said the soldier. + +"You kiddin' me?" + +"They ain't payin' me to kid people," said the other; and then, +"What's your hurry?" + +"Well, I don't want to be stalled in a trainin'-camp." + +"You won't be stalled if you know your business. What are you?" + +"I'm a machinist; I've repaired bicycles, an' I know a bit about +motor-cycles." + +"Walk in," said the soldier, and led the way, and presented Jimmie +to a sergeant at the desk. "Here's a machinist," he said, "and he's +in a hurry to get to work. Runnin' away from his wife, maybe." + +"There's a bunch of men starting for the training-camp to-night," +said the sergeant. + +"Trainin'-camp?" echoed Jimmie. "I want to go to France." + +The other smiled. "You wouldn't expect us to send you till we'd +tried you out, would you?" + +"No, I suppose not," replied Jimmie, dubiously. He was on his guard +against tricks. Suppose they were to enlist him as a worker, and +then make him fight! + +The other went on. "If you're competent, you'll get to France all +right. We need men over there in a hurry, and we won't waste your +time." + +"Well, now," said Jimmie, "I dunno's you'll want me at all when you +hear about me. I'm a Socialist." + +"Thought you were a machinist," countered the sergeant. + +"I'm a Socialist, too. I was in the strike at the Empire a couple of +years ago, and they blacklisted me. I can't get no work in the big +places here." + +"Well," said the sergeant, "it's a good town for you to quit, I +should say." + +"You want a man like that?" persisted Jimmie. + +"What we want is men that know machinery, and'll dig in and work +like hell to beat the Kaiser. If you're that sort we don't ask your +religion. We've got a bunch that start to-night." + +"Holy smoke!" said Jimmie. He had thought he would have time to ask +questions and to think matters over, time to see his friends and say +good-bye. But the sergeant was so efficient and business-like; he +took it so completely for granted that any man who was worth his +salt must be anxious to help wallop the Hun! Jimmie, who had come in +full of hurry, was now ashamed to back water, to hem and haw, to +say, "I dunno; I ain't so sure." And so the trap snapped on him--the +monster of Militarism grabbed him! + + + + +IV + + + +"Sit down," said the sergeant, and the anxious little Socialist took +the chair beside the desk, + +"What's your name?" + +"James Higgins." + +"Your address?" + +"I'm just stayin' with a friend." + +"The friend's address?" and so on: where had Jimmie worked last, +what work had he done, what references had he to offer. Jimmie could +not help grinning as he realized how his record must sound to a +military martinet. He had been discharged and blacklisted at the +motor-truck factory in Ironton, his last job; he had been discharged +and black-listed at the Empire Shops; he had been arrested and sent +to jail for "soap-boxing" on the streets of Leesville; he had been +arrested in the bomb-conspiracy of Kumme and Heinrich von Holst. The +sergeant entered each of these items without comment, but when he +come to the last, he stared up at the applicant. + +"I didn't have nothin' to do with it," declared Jimmie. + +"You got to prove that to me," said the sergeant. + +"I proved it once," replied Jimmie. + +"Who to?" + +"Mr. Harrod, the agent of the Department of Justice here." + +The other took up the telephone and called the post office building. +Jimmie listened to one-half of the conversation--would Mr. Harrod +look up the record of James Higgins, who was applying for enlistment +in the Mechanical Department of the Motor Corps? There was some +delay--Mr. Harrod was talking--while Jimmie sat, decidedly nervous; +but it was all right apparently--the sergeant hung up the receiver, +and remarked reassuringly, "He says you're just a dub. He told me to +congratulate you on having got some sense." + +Jimmie made the most of this more than dubious statement, and +proceeded to answer questions as to his competence. Was there +anybody at the Empire who could certify as to this? The sergeant was +about to call up the Empire Shops, but reconsidered; if Jimmie had +actually worked in a machine-shop and in a bicycle-shop, they would +surely be able to find something for him in the army. In an hour of +such desperate need they took most everyone. "How tall are you?" +demanded the sergeant, and added, "Weight don't matter so much, +because we'll feed you." + +The office of the medical examiner was upstairs in the same +building, and Jimmie was escorted upstairs, and invited to remove +his coat and shirt, and have his chest measured, and his heart and +lungs listened to, and his teeth counted, and his nose peered into, +and a score of such-like stunts. He had things wrong with him, of +course, but not too many for army purposes, it appeared. The doctor +jotted down the figures on a sheet and signed it, after which Jimmie +and the soldier went back to the recruiting-office. + +And now suddenly the little Socialist found himself with an +enlistment paper before him, and a wet pen in his hand. He had never +once been asked: "Is your mind made up? Do you really mean to take +this irrevocable step?" No, the sergeant had taken it for granted +that Jimmie meant business. He had done all this inquiring and +writing down of information, this weighing and measuring and what +not, and now he sat with a stern, compelling eye fixed on his +victim, as much as to say: "Do you mean to tell me that I've done +all that for nothing?" If Jimmie had actually refused to sign his +name, what a blast of scorn would have withered him! + +So Jimmie did not even stop to read all the paper; he signed. "And +now," said the sergeant, "the train leaves at nine-seventeen this +evening. I'll be there to give you your ticket. Don't fail to be on +hand. You understand, you're under military discipline now." There +was a new tone in these last words, and Jimmie quaked inwardly, and +went out with a sort of hollow feeling in the pit of his stomach. + + + + +V + + + +He rushed away to tell Comrade Stankewitz, who hugged him with +delight and shouted that they would meet in France! Then he went to +tell Emil Forster, who was equally glad. He found himself with an +impulse to hunt up Comrade Schneider and tell him. Jimmie discovered +in himself a sudden and curious antagonism to Schneider; he wanted +to have matters out with him, to say to him: "Wake up, you +mutt--forget that fool dream of yours that the Kaiser's goin' to win +the war!" + +There were others Jimmie thought of, upon whom he would not call. +Comrade Mary Allen, for example--he would let her get the news after +he was out of the reach of her sharp tongue! Also he thought of +Comrade Evelyn; he might never see her again; if he did see her, she +might refuse to speak to him! But Jimmie repressed the pang of +dismay which this realization brought him. He was going to war, and +the longings and delights of love must be put to one side! + +He went to the Meissners for supper, and broke the news to them. He +had expected protests and arguments, and was surprised by the lack +of them. Had the little bottle-packer been impressed by the +experiences of Comrade Stankewitz? Or could it be that he was afraid +to voice his full mind to Jimmie--just as Jimmie had been afraid in +the case of Emil Forster? + +Jimmie had some commissions to entrust to the Meissners; he would +leave with them the diary of "Wild Bill", which he had hung on to, +but which seemed hardly the sort of literature to take on a +transport. + +"Sure," assented Meissner. "Besides, the subs might get it." + +And Jimmie gave a sudden start. By heck! It was the first time the +idea had occurred to him. He would have to pass through the barred +zone! He might be in some fighting after all! He might never get to +France! "Say!" he exclaimed. "That ocean must be cold this time of +year!" + +For a moment he wavered. Surely it would have been more sensible to +wait till later in the season, when the consequences of a plunge +overboard would be less distressing! But Jimmie remembered the +armies, locked in their grip of death; never would despatch-riders +need their motor-cycles more urgently than now! Also Jimmie +remembered the sergeant at the recruiting-office. "You understand, +you're under military discipline now!" He set his jaw in a grim +resolve. The "subs" be damned, he would go and do his part! Already +he felt the thrill of his responsibility in this mighty hour of +history; he was a military man, with a stern duty to do, with the +destinies of nations depending upon his behaviour! + + + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +JIMMIE HIGGINS PUTS ON KHAKI + +I + + + + + +There were seven fellows who boarded the train that evening, under +the temporary charge of a blacksmith from the near by country. At +seven o'clock next morning they presented their papers at the +entrance-gate of the training-camp, and under the escort of a +soldier were marched down the main street, hanging on to their +bundles and suit-cases, and staring about them at the sights. + +It was a city inhabited by some forty thousand men, on a site which +a year ago had been waste scrub-land. Long rows of wooden buildings +stretched in every direction--barracks, dining-rooms, study-rooms, +offices, store-houses--with great stretches of exercise and +training-grounds between. Just to see this city, with its swarming +population of young men, all in uniform, erect, eager, well-set-up +and vivid with health, every man of them busy, and every man +seemingly absorbed in his job--that alone was a worth-while +experience. It was a new kind of city--a city without a loafer, +without a drunkard, without a parasite. The seven working-men from +Leesville felt suddenly slouchy and disgraced, with their +ill-fitting civilian clothes and their miscellaneous bundles and +suitcases. + +The first thing they did with the new arrivals was to make them +clean, to fumigate and vaccinate them. In a Socialist local one +meets all sorts of eccentrics, the lunatic-fringe of the movement, +and so it happened that Jimmie had listened to a tirade against the +diabolical practice of inoculation, which caused more deadly +diseases than it was supposed to prevent. But the medical officers +of this camp did not stop to ask Jimmie's conclusions on that vital +subject; they just told him to roll up the sleeve of his left arm, +and proceeded to wipe his skin clean and scratch it with a needle. + +And then came the tailor, to do him up in khaki. This also was +something the little machinist had not bargained for; he had taken +it as a matter of course that he would be allowed to work for Uncle +Sam in any old clothes, just as he had done for Abel Granitch. But +no--he must have an outfit, complete even to a tooth-brush, which +they would show him how to use. Having been done up neat and tight +in khaki, with a motor-wheel on his sleeve to show his branch of the +service, he stood and looked at himself in the glass, experiencing a +demoralizing and unworthy excitement. He was every bit as handsome +as Comrade Stankewitz! When he walked down the street would the +girls giggle, and turn to look at him, as they did at the sedate and +proper Comrade Emil? So the meshes of Militarism were being woven +about the soul of Jimmie Higgins. + + + + +II + + + +Jimmie was in quarantine, not allowed to go out of camp on account +of his typhoid and other vaccinations, There was enough about the +place to have interested him; but, alas, he became suddenly very +sick, and was terrified to realize that the opponent of inoculation +must have been right. His health had been undermined for ever, he +would suffer from a dozen obscure diseases! He went to the hospital, +miserable in body and still more miserable in mind; but in a couple +of days he began to feel better, and listened to the nurses, who +told him cheerfully that everybody felt that way for a bit. Then he +got up, and had several free days in which to complete his +recovery--days which he spent in wandering about the camp, watching +the fascinating sights. + +It was like a circus with hundreds of rings. The drilling and +marching he had seen in the Leesville square were here going on +wholesale. Hundreds of groups were being put through squad-drill and +the manual, while other groups were having special kinds of +exercises--climbing up walls, digging trenches, making roads, +shooting at targets. It rained every other day, and the ground was a +morass, but no one paid the least attention to that; the men came in +plastered with mud, and steaming like lard-vats. They seemed to +enjoy it; nothing ever interfered with their bantering and jokes. + +Jimmie watched them with alternating moods of curiosity and horror; +for the things that were done here brought the war, with its +infinite and multiform wickedness, before his very eyes. Here was a +group of men being taught to advance under fire; crawling on their +bellies on the ground, jumping from one hummock to another, flinging +themselves down and pretending to fire. A man in front, supposed to +have a machine-gun, was shouting when he had "got" them. Now they +unslung their little trenching-tools, and began to burrow themselves +like wood-chucks into the ground. "Dig, you sons o' guns, dig!" the +officer would shout. "Keep your head down, Smith! Make the dirt fly! +Put the jazz into it! That's the stuff!" + +Jimmie had never watched football practice, so he had no conception +of the efforts to which men could be goaded by "coaching". It was +abhorrent--yet also it was fascinating, the spell of it got hold of +him. He saw what these men were doing; they were learning to act in +masses, to act with paralyzing and terrific force. Whatever it was +they did, they did with the smash of a battering-ram. You saw the +fire in their eyes, the grim, set look on their faces; you knew that +they were not going to war with any hesitations or divided minds. + +You would move over a rise in the ground, and come upon a bunch of +them at bayonet-practice. You didn't require imagination to get the +hang of this; they had dummies made of leather, and they rushed at +these figures, hacking, stabbing--and here was the most amazing part +of it, shouting with rage. Actually the officers taught them to +yell, to snarl, to work up their feelings to a fury! It was +blood-curdling--Jimmie turned away from it sick. It was just what he +had been arguing for three years and a half--you had to make +yourself into a wild beast in order to go to war! + +Also Jimmie watched the target-ranges, from which came all day a +rattle of shots, like the whirr of many typewriters. Companies of +men came marching, and spread themselves out along the firing-steps, +and under the direction of instructors proceeded to contribute their +quota to the noise. Over by the targets were others who kept score +and telephoned the results; so all day long, winter or summer, rain +or shine, men were learning to kill their fellows, mechanically, as +if it were a matter of factory routine. At other ranges were moving +targets, where sharp-shooters were acquiring skill; you noticed that +their targets were never birds and deer, as at the +shooting-galleries which Jimmie had seen at the beaches and at Socialist +picnics. No, they were the heads or bodies of men, and each body +painted a greenish grey, matching the uniforms of the enemy. + + + + +III + + + +So day by day Jimmie lived with the idea of killing, confronting the +grim and ferocious face of war. He had thought that repairing +motor-cycles would be pretty much the same anywhere you did it; but +he found that it was one thing to repair motor-cycles to be ridden +by errand-boys and working-men out for a holiday with their +sweethearts, and another and entirely different thing to repair them +for fighting-men and dispatch-couriers. Jimmie was driven more +insistently than ever to make up his mind about this war. It was +every day less easy for him to hold two contradictory sets of +opinions. + +All the men he now met were of one opinion, and by no possibility to +be persuaded to consider any other. Jimmie found that he could get +them to agree that after this war for democracy there would be vast +changes in this world, the people would never more let themselves be +hoodwinked and exploited as they had; he found that he could +interest them in the idea of having the government run the great +industries, producing food and clothing for the people as it was now +producing them for the troops. But when he tried to give this +programme the name of Socialism, then the trouble began. Weren't +Socialists the lunatics who wanted to have America "lay down" like +Russia? The premise from which all discussion started with these men +was that America was going to win the war; if you tried to hint that +this matter could so much as be hesitated over, you met, first sharp +mockery, and then angry looks, and advice to go and take a pill and +get the Hun poison out of your system. + +Nor was there any use trying to talk about the dangers of +militarism. These men knew all about the dangers of militarism--for +the Kaiser. The man who is at the buttend of a gun, and knows how to +aim it so as to pick off a cat at six hundred yards--that man will +let the cat do the worrying. So, at any rate, the matter seemed to +these husky young recruits, who were learning to march in the mud +and sleep in the rain and chew up carpet-tacks and grind Huns into +leber-wurst. They were putting through the job--with a fierce and +terrifying gaiety; they exulted in their toughness, they called +themselves "grizzlies" and "mountain cats" and what not; they sang +wild songs about their irritability, their motto was "Treat 'em +rough!" It was a scary atmosphere for a dreamer and utopian; Jimmie +Higgins shrank into himself, afraid even to reach about for some +fellow-Socialist with whom he might exchange opinions about the +events of the outside world. + + + + +IV + + + +In the evening there were picture-shows, concerts, lectures-nearly +all dealing with the war, of course. They were held in big halls +built by the Y.M.C.A., an organization for which Jimmie had a hearty +contempt. He regarded it as a device of the exploiting classes to +teach submission to their white-collar slaves. But nobody could live +in a training-camp without being aware of the "Y". Jimmie was +invited to a lecture, and out of boredom he went. + +It was Sergeant Ebenezer Collins, imported from Flanders to tell the +"doughboys" about the wiles of the Hun. Sergeant Collins spoke a +weird language which Jimmie had never heard before, and not all of +which he could understand; it served, however, to convince him that +the sergeant was genuine--for nobody could possibly have faked such +a form of utterance! "When yer gow inter Wipers naow," said the +orator, "yer see owld, grye-headed lydies an' bybies like little +wite gowsts, an' yer sye ter them, 'Gow-a-wye, the 'Un may be 'ere +ter-dye,' but they wown't gow, they got now 'omes ter gow ter!" + +But in spite of the difficulties of a foreign language, you realized +that this Cockney sergeant was a man. For one thing he had a sense +of humour; he had kept it in the midst of terror and death--kept it +standing all night in trenches full of icy-cold water, with icy-cold +water pouring down his collar. Also the sergeant had a sense of +honour--there were things he could not do to a 'Un, even though the +'Un might do them to him. Jimmie had listened to excited debates in +Local Leesville, as to whether the Allies were really any better +than the Germans; whether, for example, the Allies would have sunk +passenger-liners with women and babies on board, if it had been +necessary in order to win the war. Sergeant Collins did not debate +this question, he just revealed himself as a fighting man. "It's +because we plye gymes, an' they down't," he remarked. "If yer plye +gymes, yer now 'ow to plye fair." + +For three years and eight months Jimmie had been hearing stories +about atrocities, and for three years and eight months he had been +refusing to believe them. But now the Cockney sergeant told about a +pal who had been wounded in a night attack by the 'Uns, and the +sergeant had tried to carry him back and had had to leave him; +towards dawn they made a counter-attack, and retook the village, and +there they found the sergeant's pal, still alive, in spite of the +fact that he was spiked to a barn-door with bayonets through his +hands and feet. When that story was told, you heard a low murmur run +through the room and saw a couple of thousand young men clenching +their hands and setting their jaws, getting ready for their big job +in France. + +"Just now," said the sergeant, "the Germans were making the most +desperate attack of the war. The British were at bay, with their +backs against the wall. It was upon the men in the training-camps of +America that the decision rested; there was no one but them to save +the day, to save the rest of the world from falling under the hoofs +of the Hun monster. Would they do their part?" Jimmie Higgins heard +the answer from those two thousand young throats, and the pacifist +in him shrunk deeper out of sight. + +But the pacifist was never entirely silent. War was wrong! War was +wrong! It was a wicked and brutal way for human beings to settle +their disagreements. If human beings were not yet intelligent enough +to listen to reason--well, even so, that didn't make war right! A +man had to have principles, and to stand by them--how else could he +make the world come his way? Yes, war was wrong! But, meantime, war +was here; and calling it wrong did not put a stop to it! What the +devil was a fellow to do? + + + + +V + + + +As soon as Jimmie was able to work, they took him to the part of the +camp where a motor-cycle division was training. Here was a big +repair-shop, with plenty of damaged machines upon which he might +display his skill. He did not know the particular engine they used +here, but he soon learned the secrets of it, and satisfied the +officers in charge that he knew how to take one apart and put it +together again, to replace and mend tyres, to clean ball-bearings +and true crooked rims. "You're all right," they said. "And you're +needed like the devil over there. You won't have to wait long." + +There was a platform where the trains came into the camp, and every +few hours now there came a long train to be loaded with men. Jimmie +got his notice, and packed his kit and answered roll call and took +his place; at sundown of the next day he was detrained at a +"mobilization-camp"--another huge city, described in the cautious +military fashion as "Somewhere in New Jersey", though everybody +within a hundred miles knew its exact location. Here was a port, +created for the purposes of war, with docks and wharves where the +fleets of transports were loaded with supplies and troops. The +vessels sailed in fleets, carrying thirty or forty thousand men at +once. From the port of New York alone there was going out a fleet +like this every week--the answer of America to the new drive of the +Hun. + +One met here, not merely the fighting-men, but the forces of all the +complicated service behind the lines: gangs of lumbermen from the +far North-west, who were to fell the forests of France and make them +into railroad-ties and timber for trenches; railway-men, miners, and +construction-gangs, engineers and signalmen, bridge-builders and +road-makers, telephone-linemen and operators, the drivers of forty +thousand motor-cars and of five thousand locomotives; bakers and +cooks, menders of shoes and of clothing, farmers to till the soil of +France, and doctors and nurses to tend its sick and wounded. There +was nothing which the skill and knowledge of a nation of a hundred +million people had to offer that was not gathered into this vast +encampment. All the youngest and keenest were here, eager to do +their part, laughing at danger, tingling with excitement, on tip-toe +with curiosity and delight. Jimmie Higgins, watching them, found his +doubts melting like an April snow-storm. How could any man see this +activity and not be caught up in it? How could he be with these +laughing boys and not share their mood? + +Jimmie himself had not had a merry childhood, he did not know the +youth of his own country--the breezy, slangy, rather shocking, +utterly irrepressible youth of this democratic world. If there was +anything they did not know--well, they did not know it; if there was +anything they could not do--their motto was: "Show me!" Jimmie, not +having been to school, found himself having a hard time with their +weird slang. When one of these fellows hailed you, "Hey, pimp!" it +did not necessarily mean that he did not like you: when he greeted +you, "Hey, sweetness!" it did not mean that he felt for you any +over-powering affection. If he referred to his officer as +"hard-boiled", he did not have in mind that this officer had been +exposed to the action of water at 212 degrees Fahrenheit; he merely +meant that the officer was a snob. When he remarked, "Good night!" +in broad daylight, he meant you to understand that he disagreed with +you. + +He disagreed frequently and explosively with Jimmie Higgins, trying +to point out a difference between the German rulers and the German +people! Such subtleties had no interest for these all-knowing boys. +When Jimmie persisted, they called him a "nut", a "poor cheese"; +they told him that he was "cuckoo", that his "trolley was twisted"; +they made whirling motions with their hands to indicate that he had +"wheels in his head", they made flapping motions over him to signify +that there were "bats in his belfry". So Jimmie subsided, and let +them talk their own talk--imploring one another to "have a heart", +or to "get wise", or to "make it snappy", or to "cut out the rough +stuff". And he would sit and listen while they sang with zest a song +telling about what they were going to do when they got to France: + + Bring the good old bugle, boys, we'll sing another song, + Sing it with a spirit that will move the world along, + Sing it as we love to sing it, just two million strong-- + While we are canning the Kaiser. + + CHORUS: + + Oh, Bill! Oh, Bill! We're on the job to-day! + Oh, Bill! Oh, Bill! We'll seal you so you'll stay! + We'll put you up in ginger in the good old Yankee way-- + While we are canning the Kaiser. + + Hear the song we're singing on the shining roads of France; + Hear the Tommies cheering, and see the Poilus prance; + Africanders and Kanucks and Scots without their pants-- + While we are canning the Kaiser. (Chorus) + + Bring the guns from Bethlehem, by way of old New York; + Bring the beans from Boston, and don't leave out the pork; + Bring a load of soda-pop and pull the grape-juice cork-- + While we are canning the Kaiser. (Chorus) + + Come you men from Dixieland, you lumberjacks of Maine; + Come you Texas cowboys, and you farmers of the plain; + Florida to Oregon, we boast the Yankee strain-- + While we are canning the Kaiser. (Chorus) + + Now we've started on the job we mean to put it through; + Ship the kings and kaisers all, and make the world anew; + Clear the way for common folk, for men like me and you-- + While we are canning the Kaiser. + + CHORUS: + + Oh, Bill! Oh, Bill! We're on the job to-day! + Oh, Bill! Oh, Bill! We'll seal you so you'll stay! + We'll put you up in ginger in the good old Yankee way-- + While we are canning the Kaiser. + + + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +JIMMIE HIGGINS TAKES A SWIM + +I + + + + + +You did not stop very long in the mobilization-camp, for the arrival +of your train was timed with the arrival of the ship on which you +were to sail. You had a meal, sometimes you slept a night, then you +marched to the docks. Nor was there much of the traditional "sweet +sorrow" about the departure of these great fleets; the weeping +mothers and sisters had not been notified to be present, and the +ladies of the canteen-service had given coffee and sandwiches, +cigarettes and chocolate, to so many tens of thousands that they had +forgotten about tears. It was like the emigration of a nation; the +part of America that was now on the other side was so large that +nobody would need to feel homesick. + +Jimmie's embarking was done at night; on the long, covered piers, +lighted by arc-lights, the soldiers set down their kits and stood +about, munching food, singing songs, and keeping one another's wits +sharpened for battle. They filtered on board, and then without a +light or a sound the vessel stole down the long stretches of the +harbour, and out to sea. One never knew at what hour the enemy +submarines might attempt a raid on the American side, so the +entrance to the harbour was mined and blockaded, a narrow passage +being opened when the ships passed through. + +When morning came the convoy was out at sea, amid glorious green +rollers, and Jimmie Higgins was lying in his narrow berth, cursing +the fates that had lured him, the monster of Militarism into whose +clutches he had been snared. The army medical service had a serum to +prevent small-pox and another to prevent typhoid, but they had +nothing for sea-sickness as yet; so for the first four days of the +trip Jimmie wished that a submarine would come and end his misery +once for all. + +At last, however, he came on deck, an utterly humbled Socialist +agitator, asking only a corner to lie in the sunshine--preferably +where he could not see the Atlantic surges, the very thought of +which turned him inside out. But gradually he found his feet again, +and ate with permanence, and looked out over the water and saw the +other vessels of the convoy, weirdly painted with many-coloured +splotches, steaming in the shape of a gigantic V, with two cruisers +in front, and another on each side, and another bringing up the +rear. Day and night the look-outs kept watch, and the wigwag men and +the heliograph men were busy, and the wireless buzzed its warnings +of the movements of the underwater foe. The U-boats had not yet got +a transport, but they had made several tries, and everyone knew that +they would continue trying. Twice a day the clanging of bells +sounded from one end of the vessel to the other, and the crews +rushed to the boat-drill; each passenger had his number, and unless +he was ill in his berth he had to take his specified place, with his +life-preserver strapped about his waist. + +The passengers played cards, and read and sang and skylarked about +the decks. Up on the top deck, to which Jimmie was not invited, were +officers, also a number of women and girls belonging to the hospital +and ambulance units. "Janes" was the term by which the soldier-boys +described these latter; you could see they were a good sort of +"Janes", serious and keen for their job, looking business-like and +impressive in their uniforms with many pockets. Among them were +suffragists, answering the taunt of the other sex, showing that in +war as well as in peace the world needed them; it had to find a +place for them on board the most badly crowded transport. + +Never having been on an ocean-liner before, Jimmie did not know that +it was crowded; it did not trouble him that there was hardly room +for a walk on the decks. He watched the sea and the great white +gulls and the piebald ships; he watched the crew at work, and got +acquainted with his fellow-passengers. Before long he found a driver +of an ambulance who was a Socialist; also an I.W.W. from the Oregon +lumber-camps. Even the "wobblies", it appeared, had come to hate the +Kaiser; a bunch of them were in France, and more would have come, if +the government had not kept them cross by putting their leaders into +jail. An army officer with some sense had gone into the +spruce-country of the far North-west, and had appealed to the +patriotism of the men, giving them decent hours and wages, and +recognizing their unions; as a result, even the dreaded I.W.W. +organization had turned tame, and all the lumberjacks had pitched in +to help in "canning the Kaiser!" + + + + +II + + + +The fleet was nearing the submarine-zone and it was time for the +convoying destroyers to arrive. Everybody was peering out ahead, and +at last a cry ran along the decks: "There they are!" Jimmie made out +a speck of smoke upon the horizon, and saw it turn into a group of +swiftly-flying vessels. He marvelled at the skill whereby they had +been able to find the transports on this vast and trackless sea; he +marvelled at the slender vessels with their four low, rakish stacks. +These sea-terriers were thin skins of steel, covering engines of +enormous power; they tore through the water, literally with the +speed of an express train, leaving a boiling white wake behind. +Seeing them rock and swing from side to side in the waves, hurled +this way and that, you marvelled that human beings could live in +them and not be jerked to pieces. Jimmie never tired of observing +them, nor did they tire of racing in and out between the vessels of +the convoy, weaving patterns of foam, the men on their decks +watching, watching for the secret foe. + +Everyone on board the transports, of course, was on the alert. +Jimmie in his secret heart was scared stiff, but he did not reveal +it to these mocking soldier-boys, who made merry over German U-boats +as they did over sauerkraut and pretzels and Limburger and +"wienies", otherwise known as "hot dogs". Actually, Jimmie found, +they were hoping to encounter a submarine; not to be hit, of course, +but to have the torpedo pass within a foot or two, so that they +might have something thrilling to write to the folks at home. + +There came storms, and blinding sheets of rain across the water, and +mists that hid everything from view; but still the little +sea-terriers dashed here and there, winding their foam wakes about +the fleet, by night as well as by day. How they managed to avoid +collisions in the dark was a mystery beyond imagining; Jimmie lay +awake, picturing one of them plunging like a sharp spear into the +rows of bunks in the steerage where he had been stowed. But when +morning dawned, his berth was unspeared, and the watch-dogs of the +sea were still weaving their patterns. + +It was a day of high wind, with clouds and fitful bursts of sunshine +in which the waves shone white and sparkling. Jimmie was standing by +the fail with his "wobbly" friend, watching the white-caps, when his +companion called his attention to a sparkle that seemed to persist, +hitting one in the eye. They pointed it out to others, and as the +orders were strict to report anything out of the way, someone +shouted to the nearest look-out. A cry went over the ship, and there +was hasty wigwagging of the signalman, and three of the destroyers +leaped away like hounds on the chase. + +There were some on board who had glasses, and they cried out that it +was a black object, and finally reported it a raft with people on +it. Later, when Jimmie reached port, he heard an explanation of the +sparkle which had caught his eye--a woman on the raft had a little +pocket-mirror, and had used this to flash the sun's rays upon the +vessel, until at last she had attracted attention. + +Those who had glasses were mostly on the upper deck, so Jimmie did +not see anything of the rescue; the transports, of course, did not +swerve or delay, for their orders forbade all altruisms. Even the +little destroyers would not approach the raft until they had scoured +the sea for miles about, and then they did not stop entirely, but +slid by and tossed ropes to the people on the raft, dragging them +aboard one by one. A seaman standing near Jimmie explained this +procedure; it appeared that the submarines were accustomed to lurk +near rafts and life-boats, preying upon those vessels which came to +their rescue. Distressed castaways were bait--"live bait", explained +the seaman; the U-boats would lurk about for days, sometimes for a +week, watching the people in the life-boats struggle against the +waves, watching them die of exposure, and starvation and thirst, +watching them signal frantically, waving rags tied on to oars, +shouting and praying for help. One by one the castaways would +perish, and when the last of them was gone, the U-boat would steal +away. "Dead bait's no good," explained the seaman. + + + + +III + + + +This mariner, Toms by name, came from Cornwall; for the transport +was British, and so also the convoying warships--Jimmie's fate had +been entrusted to "perfidious Albion"! Seven times this Toms had +been torpedoed and seven times rescued, and he had most amazing +tales to tell to landlubbers, and a new light to throw on a subject +which our Socialist landlubber had been debating for several +years--the torpedoing of passenger-vessels with women and children +on board. Somehow Jimmie found it a different proposition when he +heard of particular women and children, how they looked and what +they said, and what happened when they took to open boats in +midwinter, and the boats filled up with water, and the children +turned blue and then white, and were rescued with noses and ears and +hands and feet frozen off. + +Jimmie was a working-man, and understood the language of +working-men, their standards and ways of looking at life. And here +was a working-man; not a conscious Socialist, to be sure, but a +union man, sharing the Socialist distrust of capitalists and rulers. +What this weather-bitten toiler of the sea told to Jimmie, Jimmie +was prepared to understand and believe; so he learned, what he had +refused to learn from prostitute newspapers, that there was a code +of sea-manners and sea-morals, a law of marine decency, which for +centuries had been unbroken save by pirates and savages. The men who +went down to the sea in ships were a class of their own, with +instincts born of the peculiar cruelties of the element they +defied--instincts which broke across all barriers of nations and +races, and even across the hatreds of war. + +But now these sea-laws had been defied, and the Hun who had defied +them had placed himself outside the pale of the human race. In the +souls of seamen there had been generated against him a hatred of +peculiar and unique ferocity; they hunted him as men hunt vipers and +rattlesnakes. The union to which this Toms belonged had pledged +itself, not merely for the war, but for years afterwards, that its +members would not sail in German ships, nor in any ship in which a +German sailed, nor in any ship which sailed to a German port, nor +which carried German goods. It had refused to carry Socialist +delegates desiring to attend international conferences with German +Socialists; it had refused to carry for any purpose labour leaders +whom it considered too mercifully disposed towards Germany. + +When Jimmie learned this, you can imagine the arguments, continuing +far into the night! Quite a crowd gathered about, and they gave it +to the little Socialist hot and heavy. The upshot of it was that +somebody reported him, and the officer in command of his +"motor-unit" read him a stern lecture. He was not here to settle +peace-terms, but to do his work and hold his tongue. Jimmie, awed by +the fangs and claws of the monster of Militarism, answered, "Yes, +sir," and went away and sulked by himself the whole day, wishing +that the submarines might get this transport, with everybody on +board except two Socialists and one "wobbly". + + + + +IV + + + +It was the morning of the day they were due in port. Everybody wore +life-preservers, and stood at his station; when suddenly came a +yell, and a chorus of shouts from the side of the ship, and Jimmie +rushed to the rail, and saw a white wake coming like a swift fish +directly at the vessel. "Torpedo!" was the cry, and men stood rooted +to the spot. Far back, where the white streak started, you could see +a periscope, moving slowly; there was a volley of cracking sounds, +and the water all about it leaped high, and the little sea-terriers +rushed towards it, firing, and getting ready their deadly +depth-bombs. But of all that Jimmie got only a glimpse; there came a +roar like the opening of hell in front of him; he was thrown to the +deck, half-stunned, and a huge fragment of the rail of the vessel +whirled past his head, smashing into a stateroom behind him. + +The ship was in an uproar; people rushing here and there, the +members of the crew leaping to get away the boats. Jimmie sat up and +stared about him, and the first thing he saw was his friend the +"wobbly", lying in a pool of blood, with a great gash in his head. + +Suddenly somebody began to sing: "Oh, say, can you see by the dawn's +early light--" Jimmie had always hated that song, because jingoes +and patrioteers used it as an excuse to bully and humiliate radicals +who did not jump to their feet with sufficient alacrity. But now it +was wonderful to see the effect of the song; everybody joined and +the soldier-boys and working-men and nurses and lady +ambulance-drivers, no matter how badly scared, recalled that they +were part of an army on the way to war. Some helped the crews to get +the boats into the water; others bound up the wounds of the injured, +and carried them across the rapidly-slanting decks. + +The great ship was going down. It was horrible to realize--this +mighty structure, this home for two weeks of several thousand +people, this moving hotel with its sleeping-berths, its +dining-saloons, its kitchens with lunch ready to be eaten, its +mighty engines and its cargo of every kind of necessity and comfort +for an army--all was about to plunge to the bottom of the sea! +Jimmie Higgins had read about the torpedoing of scores of +ocean-liners, but in all that reading he had learned less about the +matter than he learned in a few minutes while he clung half-dazed to +a stay rope, and watched the life-boats swing out over the sides and +disappear. + + + + +V + + + +"Women first!" was the cry; but the women would not go until the +wounded had been taken, and this occasioned delay. Jimmie helped to +get his friend the "wobbly", and passed him on to be lowered with a +rope. By that time the deck had got such a slant that it was hard to +walk on it; the bow was settling, and the stern rearing up in the +air. Never could you have realized the size of an ocean-liner, until +you saw it rear itself up like a monstrous mountain, preparatory to +plunging beneath the waves! "Jump for it!" shouted voices. "They'll +pick you up from the other vessels. Jump and swim." + +So Jimmie rushed to the rail. He saw a life-boat below, trying to +push away, and being beaten against the vessel by the heavy waves. +He heard a horrible scream, and saw a man slip between the boat and +the side of the liner. People on every side of him were jumping--so +many that he could not find a clear spot in the water. But at last +he saw one, and climbed upon the rail and took the plunge. + +He struck the icy water and sank, and a wave rolled over him. He +came up quickly, owing to his life-preserver, and gasped for breath, +and was choked by another rushing wave and then pounded on the head +by an oar in the hands of a struggling sailor. He managed to get out +of the way, and struck out to get clear of the vessel. He knew how +to do this, thanks to many "swimmin'-holes"--including the one he +had visited with the Candidate. But he had never before swam in such +deadly cold as this; it was colder than he had dreamed when he had +talked about it with Comrade Meissner! Its icy hand seemed to smite +him, to smite the life out of him; he struggled desperately, as one +struggles against suffocation. + +The waves beat him here and there; and then suddenly he was seized +as if by the falls of Niagara, drawn along and drawn under--down, +down. He thought it was the end, and when again he bobbed up to the +surface, his breath was all but gone. The great bulk of the vessel +was no longer in sight, and Jimmie was struggling in a whirlpool, +along with upset boats and oars and deck-chairs and miscellaneous +wreckage, and scores of people clinging to such objects, or swimming +frantically to reach them. + +Jimmie was just about ready to roll over and let his face go under, +when suddenly there loomed above him on the top of a wave a boat +rowed swiftly by sailors. One in the boat flung a rope to him, and +he tried to catch it, but missed; the boat plunged towards him, and +an arm reached out, and caught him by the collar. It was a strong +and comforting arm, and Jimmie abandoned himself to it, and +remembered nothing more for a long time. + + + + +VI + + + +When Jimmie opened his eyes again he was in a most extraordinary +position. At first he could not make it out, he was only aware of +endless bruises and blows, as if someone were shaking him about in a +gigantic pepper-cruet. As Nature protested desperately against such +treatment, Jimmie fought his way back to consciousness, and caught +hold of something, in his neighbourhood, which presently turned out +to be a brass railing; he struggled to ward off the blows of his +tormentors, which turned out to be the aforesaid railing, plus a +wall, plus two other men, one on each side of him, the three of them +being lashed to the brass railing with ropes. The wall and railing +and Jimmie and the other men were behaving in an incredible +fashion--swinging down, as if they were plunging into a bottomless +abyss, then swinging up, as if they were going to part altogether +from this mundane sphere; the total enormous swing, from bottom to +top, being mathematically calculated to occupy a period of five and +one-half seconds of time. + +Jimmie discovered before long that there were a whole row of men, +lashed fast and subjected to this perplexing form of torture. They +made you think of a row of carcasses in a butcher-shop--only, who +could picture a butcher-shop whose floor careened to an angle of +forty-five degrees in one direction, and then, in a space of +precisely five and a half seconds, careened to an angle of +forty-five degrees in the opposite direction? + +And they kept bringing more carcasses and hanging them in this +insane butcher-shop! Two sailors in uniforms would come staggering, +carrying a man between them, clinging to the railing, to Jimmie, to +the other men, to anything else they could grab. They would make a +desperate rush while the swing was right, and get to a new place on +the railing, where they would tie the new man with a bit of rope +about his waist, and leave him there to be mauled and pounded. One +side of the room was lined solid with carcasses, and then the other +side, and still they came. This was apparently a dining-saloon, +there being a table down the middle, and two rows of chairs; they +lashed people into these chairs, they brought others and lashed them +to the bottom of the chairs--any old place at all! There were some +who thought they could hold on for themselves; but after the sailors +were gone they discovered that it took more skill to hold on than +they realized, and they would come hurtling across the floor, +winding up with a crash on top of someone else. + +It was not the first time in Jimmie's life that he had had to +scramble for himself in some uncomfortable situation; he got his +wits together quickly. He was shivering as if with ague, and he +managed to get out of his wet coat. There being a couple of ladies +strapped into chairs in front of him, he did not like to go further; +but presently came sailors with armfuls of blankets, and made him +perform the complicated feat of getting out of his dripping icy +uniform and getting the blanket wrapped around his middle, so that +the rope would not saw him into halves. Then came a steward with a +pot of hot coffee; being marvellously expert at holding this at all +angles of the ship, he poured it into cups with little funnels for +drinking, and thus got some down Jimmie's throat. + +The little machinist felt better after that, and was able to devote +attention to the man on his right, who had hit his nose so many +times that it was bleeding in a stream, and had been tilted at so +many angles that the blood had run into his eyes and made him blind. +The man on the other side of him apparently could make no effort at +all to keep his face from being pounded, or his feet from being +thrown into the pit of Jimmie's stomach; after Jimmie made a number +of protests, an officer came along, and put his ear to the man's +chest and pronounced him dead. They brought another rope, and lashed +him tighter, so that he would behave himself. + +For several hours Jimmie clung to that railing. The destroyer would +soon be in port, they kept telling him; meantime they brought him +hot soup to keep up his strength. Some people fainted, but there was +nothing that could be done for them. The first boat-loads of the +rescued had filled up the berths of both officers and crew; the rest +must hang on to the railings as best they could. They should be +thankful it was decent weather, said one of the sailors; the vessel +didn't roll any faster in bad weather, but it rolled much farther in +the same time--a distinction which struck Jimmie as over-subtle. + +The poor fellow's arms were numb with exhaustion, he had lost hope +that anything in the world ever could be still, when the +announcement was made that the harbour was in sight, and everybody's +troubles would soon be over. And sure enough, the rolling gradually +became less. The little vessel still quivered from stem to stern +with the movement of her enormous engines, but Jimmie didn't mind +that--he was used to machinery; he got himself untied from the +railing, and lay down on the floor, right there where he was, and +fell asleep. Nor did he open his eyes when they came with a +stretcher, and carried him on to a pier and slid him into a +motor-truck and whisked him off to a hospital. + + + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +JIMMIE HIGGINS ENTERS SOCIETY + +I + + + + + +When Jimmie took an interest in life again he was lying in a bed: a +bed that actually was still, that did not rise with a leaping motion +to the ceiling, and then sink like a swift elevator into the +basement. Better yet was the fact that this bed had clean sheets, +and a lovely angel in spotless white hovering about it. You who read +of Jimmie Higgins's adventures have perhaps been blessed with some +of the good things of life, and may need to have it explained to you +that never before had Jimmie known what it was to sleep between +sheets--to say nothing of clean sheets; never had he known what it +was to sleep in a night-gown; never had he had hot broth fetched to +him by a snow-white angel with a bright smile and an aureole of +golden-brown hair. This marvellous creature waited on his slightest +nod, and when she was not busy running errands for him, she sat by +his bedside and chatted, asking him all sorts of questions about +himself and his life. She thought he was a soldier, and he, +shameless wretch, discovered what she thought, and delayed to tell +her that he was a common repairer of motor-cycles! + +This was a war-hospital, and there were terrible sights to be seen +here, terrible sounds to be heard; but Jimmie for a long time missed +them almost entirely--he was so comfortable! He lay like a nice dozy +cat; he ate good things and drank good things, and then he fell +asleep, and then he opened his eyes in the sunshine of a golden +brown aureole. It was only gradually that he realized that somewhere +in the ward a man was choking and gasping all night, because the +inside of his lungs had been partly eaten out with poisonous acids. + +Jimmie inquired and was told that more than a hundred people on the +transport had lost their lives, including several women; the nurse +brought a paper with a list of the casualties, among which he read +the name of Mike Angoni--his friend the "wobbly" from the far West! +Also the name of Peter Toms--the seaman from Cornwall, caught at the +eighth attempt! Jimmie read that the submarine which had sunk the +transport had been shattered by a depth-charge, and the sea all +strewn with the wreckage of it; and strange and terrible as it might +seem, Jimmie, the pacifist, the Socialist, experienced a thrill of +satisfaction! Not once did he stop to reflect that on board this +under-water craft might have been some German comrade, some poor, +enslaved, unhappy internationalist like himself! Jimmie wanted the +sneaking, treacherous terrors of the sea exterminated, regardless of +everything! + +The nurse with the halo of golden-brown hair got interested in her +American patient, and would sit and talk with him every chance she +got. She learned about Eleeza Betooser and the babies who had been +blown to pieces in the explosion. Also she learned about Jimmie's +being a Socialist, and asked him questions about it. Wasn't he just +a little hard on the leisure classes? Might it not be that some of +the capitalists would be as glad as he to know about a better social +system? The young lady pronounced the word "capitalists" with the +accent on the "it", which puzzled Jimmie for a time; also she +assured him that "wage schedules" would never go back to what they +were before the war, and Jimmie had to ask what a "schedule" might +be. He did not have to ask what she meant by a "tart", because there +it was on his tray--a delicious little strawberry pie. + + + + +II + + + +This meant that the destroyer had come to an English port; the nurse +was a Britisher. If Jimmie had had tact, he would have remembered +that Britishers have an outfit of earls and dukes and lords and +things, to which they are sentimentally attached. But tact is not +the leading virtue of Socialists; in fact, Jimmie made a boast of +scorning it--if people asked his opinion, he "gave it to 'em +straight". So now he caused this white angel to understand that he +regarded the effete aristocracies of the old world with abysmal +contempt; he meant to put them out of business right off the bat. In +vain the white angel pleaded that some of them might be useful +people, or at any rate well-meaning: Jimmie pronounced them a bunch +of parasites and grafters; the thing to do was to make a clean sweep +of them. + +"You won't cut off their heads?" pleaded the nurse. "Surely they +ought to have a chance to reform!" + +"Oh, sure!" answered Jimmie. "All I mean is, everybody's got to go +to work--the dooks an' aristercrats like the rest." + +The nurse went off, carrying Jimmie's chamber to be emptied; and +while she was gone, the man in the next bed, a gun-pointer from an +American destroyer with his head bandaged up so that he looked like +a Hindu swami, turned his tired eyes upon Jimmie and drawled: "Say, +you guy, you better can that line o' talk!" + +"Whaddyer mean?" demanded Jimmie, scenting controversy with some +militarist. + +"I mean that there young lady belongs to the nobility herself." + +"Go on!" said Jimmie. + +"Straight!" said the other. "Her father's the earl of Skye-terrier, +or some such damn place." + +"Aw, cut it out!" growled the little machinist--for you never knew +in dealing with these soldier-boys whether you were being "kidded" +or not. + +"Did you ask her name?" + +"She told me it was Miss Clendenning." + +"Well, you ask her if she ain't the Honourable Beatrice Clendenning, +and see what she says." + +But Jimmie could not get up the nerve to ask. When the young lady +came back, carrying his chamber washed clean, her pet patient was +lying still, but so red in the face that she suspected that he had +been trying to get out of bed without permission. + + + + +III + + + +Nor was that the end of wonders. Next day there ran a murmur of +excitement through the ward, and everything was cleaned up fresh, +though there was really nothing that needed cleaning. Flowers were +brought in, and each nurse had a flower pinned on her waist. When +Jimmie asked what was "up", the Honourable Beatrice looked at him +with a quizzical smile. "We're going to have some distinguished +visitors," she said. "But you won't be interested--a class-conscious +proletarian like you." + +And she would not tell him; but when she went out, the fellow in the +next bed told. "It's the king and queen that's comin'," said the +gun-pointer. + +"Aw, ferget it!" said Jimmie--quite sure he was being "kidded" this +time. + +"Comin' to see the submarine victims," said the gun-pointer. "You +cut out your Socialist rough stuff for to-day." + +Jimmie asked the nurse when she came back; and sure enough it was +true--the king and queen were to visit the hospital, and pay their +respects to the victims of the U-boat. But that wouldn't interest +Jimmie Higgins. Would he not rather be carried away and put in a +private room somewhere, so that his revolutionary eyes would not be +offended? Or would he stay, and make a soap-boxer of His Majesty? + +"Sure, he won't have no time to talk to a feller like me!" said +Jimmie. + +"Don't you be too sure," replied the other. "He's got nothing to do +but talk, you know!" + +Jimmie didn't venture any farther, because he knew that the +Honourable Beatrice was laughing at him, and he had never been +laughed at by a woman before, and didn't know quite how to take it. +He could not have been expected to understand that the Honourable +Beatrice was a suffragette, and laughed at all men on general +principles. Jimmie lay quietly in his bed and concealed the unworthy +excitement in his soul. Wasn't that the devil now? Him, a little +runt of a working man from nowhere in particular, that had been +brought up on a charity-farm, and spent a good part of his life as a +tramp--him to be meeting the king of England! Jimmie had a way of +disposing of kings that was complete and final; he called them +"kinks" and when he had called them that he had settled them, wiped +them clean out. "None o' them kinks for me!" he had said to the +Honourable Beatrice. + +But now a "kink" was coming to the hospital! And what was Jimmie +going to do? How the devil did you talk to 'em? Did you have to say, +"Your Majesty"? Jimmie gripped his hands under the bed-covers. "I'll +be damned if I do!" He summoned his revolutionary fervour, he called +up the spirits of his "wobbly" friends, "Wild Bill" and "Strawberry" +Curran and "Flathead Joe" and "Chuck" Peterson. What would they do +under these circumstances? What would the Candidate do? Somehow, +Jimmie's revolutionary education had been neglected--nothing had +ever been said in any Socialist local as to how a comrade should +behave when a "kink" came to visit him! + +Jimmy was naturally a kindly human being; he was ready to respond to +the kindness of other human beings. But was it in accord with +revolutionary ethics to be polite to a "kink"? Was it not his duty +to do something to show his contempt for "kinks"? Maybe his Royal +Nibs never had anybody to "stand up to him" in all his life before. +Well, let him have it to-day! + + + + +IV + + + +A nurse rushed into the ward in great excitement, and whispered, +"They're coming!" And after that the nurses all stood round, +twisting their hands together nervously, and the patients lay with +their eyes glued on the door where the apparition was to appear. + +At last there came in sight a man dressed in uniform, who Jimmie +would never have dreamed could be a king--except that he had seen +his picture in the illustrated papers. He was a medium-sized, rather +stoop-shouldered little gentleman, decidedly commonplace-looking, +with a closely-trimmed brown beard turning grey, and rosy cheeks +such as all Englishmen have. He was escorted by the head of the +hospital staff; and behind him came a lady, a severe-looking lady +dressed in black, with a couple more doctors escorting her, and +behind them several officers in uniform. + +The king and queen stopped at the head of the room, and looked down +the rows of beds. Each of them wore a friendly smile, and nodded, +and said: "How do you do?" And, of course, everybody smiled back, +and the nurses curtsied and said, "How do you do, Your Majesties?" + +And then His Majesty said: "I hope everybody is doing well?" And the +doctor called the head nurse in charge of the ward, who came up +smiling and bowing and answered that everybody was doing +beautifully, thank you; at which both His Majesty and Her Majesty +declared that they were so pleased. The queen looked about, and +seeing a man with many bandages, went to him and sat by his bedside +and began to ask him questions; the king moved down the centre of +the room, until suddenly his eye happened on the Honourable +Beatrice. + +She had not moved; she stood at her place like the other nurses. But +Jimmie, watching, saw a smile come upon the king's face, and he +moved towards her saying: "Oh! how do you do?" The young lady went +to meet him, quite as if she were used to meeting kings every day. + +"How are your patients doing?" inquired His Majesty. + +"Beautifully," said she; and His Majesty said that he was +pleased--just as if he had not said the same words only a minute +before. He looked at the patients with benevolent but tired-looking +eyes; and the Honourable Beatrice, by those subtle methods known to +women, brought it about that he looked especially at her favourite. +She knew that he would wish to talk to some of the patients, and by +ever so slight a movement she brought it about that it was towards +Jimmie Higgins he advanced. + +"What is your name?" he asked, and then, "Well, Higgins, how are you +feeling?" + +"Sure, I'm all right," said Jimmie sturdily; "I wanner get up, only +she won't let me." + +"Well," said His Majesty, "the time was when the king was the +tyrant, but now it's the nurse." He smiled at the Honourable lady. +"Are you an American soldier?" + +"Naw," replied Jimmie, "I'm only a machinist." + +"This is a war of machines," replied His Majesty, graciously. + +"I'm a Socialist!" exclaimed Jimmie, right off the bat. + +"Indeed!" said His Majesty. + +"You bet!" was the reply. + +"But you're not one of those Socialists who oppose their country, I +see." + +"I done it for a long time," said Jimmie. "I didn't see we had no +business in this here war. But I been changin'--a bit." + +"I'm glad to hear that," remarked His Majesty. "Doubtless your +recent experience has helped you to change." + +"Sure," replied Jimmie. "But I'm still a Socialist, don't you make +no mistake about that, Mr. King." + +"I won't," said His Majesty; and he looked at the Honourable +Beatrice, and between them there flashed one of those subtle +messages which highly sophisticated people know how to give and to +catch--entirely over the heads of Socialist machinists from +Leesville, U.S.A. To the Honourable Beatrice the message conveyed. +"How perfectly delicious!" To His Majesty it conveyed, "I knew you'd +enjoy it!" + +Jimmie's mind was, of course, occupied entirely with the idea of +propaganda. He must make the most of this strange opportunity! +"Things is goin' to be changed after this here war!" said he. "Fer +the workin' people, I mean." + +"They'll be changed for all of us," said His Majesty. "The dullest +of us know that." + +"The workin' people got to get what they earn!" persisted Jimmie. +"Why, Mr. King--back home where I come from a feller could work +twelve hours a day all his life, an' not have enough saved up to +bury himself with. An' they say it was worse here in England." + +"We have had terrible poverty," admitted His Majesty. "We shall have +to find some way of getting rid of it." + +"There ain't no way but Socialism," cried Jimmie. "Look into it, an' +you'll see! We gotter get rid o' the profit-system. The feller that +does the work has gotter get what he produces." + +"Well," said His Majesty, "you'll agree with me this far at +least--we must beat the Germans first." And then he turned to the +Honourable Beatrice. "We shall learn much from our American +visitors," he said, and flashed her another of those subtle +messages, which indicated that perhaps it was not a good thing for +patients in hospitals to become excited over Socialist propaganda! +So the Honourable Beatrice turned to the man in the other bed, and +His Majesty turned also; he ascertained that the man's name was +Deakin, and that he came from Cape Cod. His Majesty remarked how +badly England needed good Yankee gun-pointers, and how grateful he +was to those who came to help the British Navy. Jimmie listened, +just a tiny bit jealous--not for himself, of course, but because he +knew that Socialism was so much more important than gun-pointing! + + + + +V + + + +At the foot of the bed there stood a military officer. He had been +there for some time, but Jimmie did not notice him till the king +rose and moved away. The officer was just the sort of hand-made +aristocrat that Jimmie imagined all officers to be; smooth-shaven, +except for a little toy moustache, with serene, impassive features, +a dapper and immaculate uniform, and a queer little fancy stick in +his hand, to show that he never did anything resembling work. He was +eyeing the machinist with what the machinist suspected to be a +superior air. "Well, my good man," said he, "you had a talk with the +king!" + +That seemed obvious enough. "Sure!" said Jimmie. + +"Generally," continued the officer, "when one talks with the king, +one addresses him as 'Your Majesty'--not as 'Mr. King'." + +Jimmie was tired now, and not looking for controversy; so he did not +bridle as he might otherwise have done. "Nobody told me," said he. + +"Also," continued the other, "one is not supposed to volunteer +opinions. One waits for the king to ask a question, and then one +answers." + +Jimmie's eyes were closed, and he only half-opened them as he +answered. "They been tellin' me this here is a war for Democracy!" +said he. + + + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +JIMMIE HIGGINS WORKS FOR HIS UNCLE + +I + + + + + +They gave Jimmie Higgins a couple of days to lie about in the +grounds of the hospital, and make the acquaintance and hear the +experiences of men who had lost arms and legs in battle, or had been +burned by flame-throwers, or ruined for life by poison-gases. +Strange as it might seem, Jimmie found among these men not a few +with whom he could talk, whose point of view was close to his own. +These Britishers had been through the mill; they knew. None of the +glory stuff for them! Leave that for the newspaper scribblers, the +bloody rascals who stayed at home and beat on tomtoms, driving other +men to march in and die. You went and got yourself battered up, +ruined for life--and then what would they do for you? It was a hard +world to a man who was crippled and helpless. Yes, said Jimmie; the +same hard world that it was to a Socialist, a dreamer of justice. + +But there was the old dilemma, from which he had never been able to +find escape, whether in Leesville, U.S.A., or on the high seas, or +here in old England. What were you going to do about the Huns? To +hold out your hand to them was like putting it into a tiger's cage. +No, by God, you had to fight them, you had to lick them, cost what +it might! And the speaker would go on and tell of things he had +seen: a Prussian officer who had shot a British surgeon in the back, +after this surgeon had bound up his wounds; a commandant of a +prison-camp who had withdrawn all medical aid in a typhus epidemic, +and allowed his charges to perish like rats. + +So, hell though it was, you had to go through with it; if you were a +man, you had to set your teeth and grip your hands and take your +share of the horror, whatever it might be. And Jimmie, being +something of a little man in his way, would set his teeth and grip +his hands and take in imagination, the share of the particular human +wreck who happened to be talking to him. So Jimmie Higgins was +battered back and forth, like a tennis-ball, between the two forces +of Militarism and Revolution. + +Just now was another crisis--the Huns had begun a furious drive in +Flanders, the third battle of Ypres, and the British were falling +back, not in rout, but in retreat which might become rout at any +hour. The bulletins came in several times a day, and people in the +streets would stop and read them, their faces full of fear. When the +wind was right you could hear the guns across the Channel; Jimmie +would lie at night and listen to the dull, incessant thunder--a +terrific, man-made storm, in which showers of steel were raining +down upon the heads of soldiers hiding in shell-holes and +hastily-dug trenches. The war seemed very near indeed when the wind +was right! + + + + +II + + + +Still, a fellow has to live. Jimmie was in a foreign land for the +first time in his life, and when they turned him loose, he and a +couple of other American chaps went wandering about the streets, +staring at the sights of this town, which had been a small harbour +before the war, but now was a vast centre of the world's commerce, +one of the routes by which large sections of Britain were moved +across the Channel every day. + +You saw in the streets no men out of uniform, except a few old ones; +you saw nobody at all idle, except the young children. The women +were driving the trucks, and operating the street-cars, which were +called "trams", and the elevators, which were called "lifts". +Everybody's face was sober and drawn, but they lightened up when +they saw the Americans, who had come so far to help them in their +trouble. In the cake-shops, and the queer little "pubs" where +rosy-cheeked girls sold very thin beer, they could not be polite +enough to the visitors from overseas; even the haughtiest-looking +"bobby" would stop to tell you the way about the streets. "First to +the roight, third to the left," he would say, very fast; and when +you looked bewildered, he would say it again, as fast as ever. + +But they needed motor-cycles so badly in the new American armies +that they didn't give Jimmie much time to be a hero; he got his +orders and a new outfit, and bade farewell to the Honourable +Beatrice, promising to write to her now and then, and not to be too +hard on the aristocracy. He crossed the Channel, alive with boats +like the Hudson River with its ferries, and came to another and +still bigger port, which the Americans had taken and made over new +for the war. Long vistas of docks had been built since the fighting +began; Jimmie saw huge cranes that dipped down into the hold of a +ship, and pulled out whole locomotives, or maybe half a dozen +automobile trucks in one swoop. + +Behind these docks was a tangle of railroad yards and tracks, and +miles upon miles of sheds, piled to the top with stores of every +sort you could imagine. A whole encampment-city covered the +surrounding hills, crowned by an old, creaking, moss-grown +windmill--the Middle Ages looking in dismay upon these modern times. + +Nobody took the trouble to invite Jimmie to inspect these marvels, +but he got glimpses here and there, and men with whom he chatted +told him more. One man had been directing the unloading of canned +tomatoes; for six months he had seen nothing but crates upon crates +and car-loads upon car-loads of canned tomatoes, coming into one end +of a shed and going out at the other. Somewhere in the higher +regions dwelt a marvellous tomato-brain, which knew exactly how many +cans a division of dough-boys in a training-camp would consume each +day, how many would be needed by patients in hospitals, by lumbermen +in French forests, by revellers in Y.M.C.A. huts. Every now and then +a ship brought another supply, and the man who told Jimmie about it +bossed a gang of negroes who piled the crates on trucks. + +And then Jimmie met a Frenchman, who had been a waiter in a Chicago +hotel, and now was bossing a gang of wire-haired Korean labourers. +Jimmie had thought he knew all the races of the earth in the shops +and mills and mines of America; but here he heard of new kinds of +men--Annamese and Siamese, Pathans and Sikhs, Madagascans and +Abyssinians and Algerians. All the British empire was here, and all +the French colonies. There were Portuguese and Brazilians and West +Indians, bushmen from Australia and Zulus from South Africa; and +these not having proven enough, America was now pouring out the +partly melted contents of her pot--Hawaiians and Porto Ricans, +Filipinos and "spiggoties", Eskimos from Alaska, Chinamen from San +Francisco, Sioux from Dakota, and plain black plantation niggers +from Louisiana and Alabama! Jimmie saw a gang of these latter +mending a track which had been blown out of place by a bomb from an +aeroplane; their black skins shining with sweat, their white teeth +shining with good-nature as they swung their heavy crow-bars, a long +row of them moving like a machine chanting to keep in unison, +"Altogether--heave!" the officer would call, and the line would +swing into motion-- + + "Get a MULE! + An' a JACK! + No SLOW! + No SLACK! + Put the HUMP! + In yo' BACK--" + + + + +III + + + +For nearly four years Jimmie had been reading about France, and now +he was here, and could see the sights with his own eyes. People with +wooden shoes, for example! It was worth coming across the seas to +see women and kids going clatter, clatter along the cobbled streets. +And the funny little railroad-coaches, with rows of doors like +rabbit-pens. It was a satisfaction to notice that the train had a +real man-sized engine, with U.S.A. painted thereon. Jimmie owned a +share in that engine, and experienced Socialistic thrills as he rode +behind it. + +He had got separated from his "unit", thanks to the submarine and +the sojourn in the hospital. They had given him a pass, with orders +to proceed to a certain town, travelling on a certain train. Now +Jimmie sat looking out of the window, as happy as a boy out of +school. A beautiful country, the fresh green glory of spring +everywhereupon it; broad, straight military highways lined with +poplars, and stone houses with queer steep roofs, and old men and +women and children toiling in the fields. + +Jimmie chattered with the men in the compartment, soldiers and +workers, each a cog in the big machine, each bound upon some +important errand. Each had news to tell--tales of the fighting, or +of the progress of preparation. For more than a year now America had +been getting ready, and here, in the most desperate crisis of the +war, what was she going to do? Everybody was on tip-toe with +excitement, with impatience to get into the scrap, to make good in +the work upon which his soul was set. Every man knew that the +"dough-boys" would show themselves the masters of "Fritz"; they knew +it as religious people know there is a God in Heaven--only, unlike +most religious people, they were anxious to get to this heaven and +meet this God at the earliest possible moment. Next to Jimmie sat a +Wisconsin farmer-boy, German in features, in name, even in accent; +yet he was ready to fight the soldiers of the Kaiser--and quite sure +he could lick them! Had he not lived since childhood in a free +country, and been to an American public-school? + +Everybody had funny stories to tell about the adventures of soldiers +in a foreign land. The French were all right, of course, especially +the girls; but the shop-keepers were frugal, and you had better +count your change, and bite the coins they offered you. As for the +language--holy smoke! Why did civilized people want to talk a lingo +that made you grunt like a pig--or like a penful of pigs of all +sizes? Across the way sat a Chicago street-car conductor with a +little lesson book, and now and then he would read something out +loud. AN, IN, ON, UN, and many different sizes of pigs! When you +wanted bread, you asked for a pain, and when you wanted a dish of +eggs, you asked for a cat-roof omelette. How was this for a +tongue-twister--say five hundred and fifty-five francs in French! + +Fortunately you didn't have to say that many--not on the pay of a +dough-boy, put in a plumber from up-state in New York. For his part, +he did not bother to grunt--he would make drinking motions or +eating motions, and they would bring him things till they found what +he wanted. One time he had met a girl that he thought was all right, +and he wanted to treat her to a feed, so he drew a picture of a +chicken, thinking he would get it roasted. She had chattered away to +the waiter, and he had come back with two soft-boiled eggs. That was +the French notion of taking a girl out to dinner! + + + + +IV + + + +They loaded Jimmie into a motor-lorry and whirled him away. You knew +you were going to the war then, by heck; there were two almost solid +processions of wagons and trucks, loaded with French soldiers and +materials going, and damaged French soldiers returning. It was like +Broadway at the most crowded hour; only here everything went by in a +whirl of dust--you got quick glimpses of drivers with tense faces +and blood-shot eyes. Now and then there would be a blockade, and men +would swear and fume in mixed languages; staff-cars in an extra +hurry would go off the road and bump along across country, while +gangs of negro labourers, French colonials, seized the opportunity +to fill up the ruts worn in the highway. + +They put Jimmie off at a village where his motor-unit was located, +in a long shed made of corrugated iron, the sort of shed which the +army threw up overnight. Here were a score of men working at +repairs, and Jimmie stopped for no formalities, but took off his +coat and pitched in. There was plenty of work he could see; the +machines came, sometimes whole truck-loads of them, damaged in every +way he had ever seen before, and in new ways not dreamed of in +Kumme's bicycle-shop--tyres torn to shreds by fragments of shrapnel, +frames twisted out of shape by explosions, and nasty splotches of +blood completing the story. + +It was one of the many places where American units had been taken to +plug the damaged French lines. There was a reserve battalion near +by, and outside this village a group of men were at work, putting up +tents for a hospital. Some thirty miles ahead was the front, and you +heard the guns off and on, a low sullen roar, punctuated with +hammer-strokes f big fellows. Millions of dollars every hour were +being blown to nothingness in that fearful inferno; a gigantic +meat-mill that was grinding up the bodies of men and had never +ceased day or night for nearly four years. You could be a violent +pacifist in sound of those guns, or you could be a violent +militarist, but you could not be indifferent to the war, you could +not be of two minds about it. + +And yet--Jimmie Higgins was of two minds! He wanted to beat back the +Huns, who had made all this fearful mess; but also he wanted to beat +the profiteers who were making messes at home. It happened that +Jimmie had reached the army at a trying moment, when there were no +American big guns, and when promises of machine-guns and aeroplanes +had failed. There was wild excitement in the home papers, and not a +little grumbling in the army. It was graft and politics, men said; +and Jimmie caught eagerly at this idea. He pointed out how the +profiteers at home were entrenching themselves, making ready to +exploit the soldiers returning without jobs. That was a line of talk +the men were ready for, and the little machinist rejoiced to see the +grim look that came upon their faces. They would attend to it, never +fear; and Jimmie would go on to tell them exactly how to attend to +it! + + + + +V + + + +But that was only now and then, when the wind was the other way, and +you did not hear the guns. For the most part Jimmie's thoughts were +drawn irresistibly to the front; about him were thousands of other +men, all their thoughts at the front, their hands clenched, their +teeth set, their beings centred upon the job of holding the Beast at +bay. Jimmie saw the grey ambulances come in, and the wounded lifted +out on stretchers, their heads bandaged, their bodies covered with +sheets, their faces a ghastly waxen colour. He saw the poilus, fresh +from the trenches, after God alone knew what siege of terror. They +came staggering, bent double under a burden of equipment. The first +time Jimmie saw them was a day of ceaseless rain, when the dust +ground up by the big lorries was turned into ankle-deep mud; the +Frenchmen were plastered with it from head to foot; you saw under +their steel helmets only a mud-spattered beard, and the end of a +nose, and a pair of deep-sunken eyes. They stopped to rest not far +from the place where Jimmie worked; they sank down in the wet, they +fell asleep in pools of water, where not even beasts could have +slept. You did not have to know any French to understand what these +men had been through. Good God! Was that what was going on up there? + +Jimmie thanked his stars he was no nearer. But that coward's comfort +did not last him long, for Jimmie was not a coward, he was not used +to letting other men struggle and suffer for him. His conscience +began to gnaw at him. If that was what it cost to beat down the +Beast, to make the world safe for democracy, why should he be +escaping? Why should he be warm and dry and well-fed, while +working-men of France lay out in the trenches in the rain? + +Jimmie went back and worked overtime without extra pay--something +that old man Granitch had never got out of him, you bet, nor old man +Kumme either. For three whole days he stayed a militarist, +forgetting his life-long training in rebellion. But then he got into +an argument with a red-headed Orangeman in his unit, who expressed +the opinion that every Socialist was a traitor at heart, and that +after the war the army should be used to make an end of them all. +Jimmie in his rage went farther than he really meant, and again got +a "calling down" from his superior officer; so for several days his +proletarian feelings blazed, he wanted the revolution right away, +Huns or no Huns. + + + + +VI + + + +But most of the time now the spirit of the herd mastered Jimmie; he +wanted what all the men about him wanted--to hold back the Beast +from these fair French fields and quaint old villages, and these +American hospitals and rest-camps and Y.M.C.A. huts--to say nothing +of motor-cycle repair-sheds with Jimmie Higgins in them! And the +trouble was that the Beast was not being held back; he was coming +nearer and nearer--one bull rush after another! Jimmie's village was +near the valley of the Marne, and that was the road to Paris; the +Beast wanted to get to Paris, he really expected to get to Paris! + +The sound of guns grew louder and louder, and rumour flew wild-eyed +and wild-tongued about the country. The traffic in the roads grew +denser, but moving more slowly now, for the Germans were shelling +the road ahead, and blockades were frequent; one huge missile had +fallen into a French artillery-train only a couple of miles away. +"They'll be moving us back, if this keeps up," said Jimmie's +sergeant; and Jimmie wondered: suppose they didn't move them! +Suppose they forgot all about it? Was there any person whose +particular duty it was to remember to see that motor-cycle units got +moved in the precise nick of time? And what if the Germans were to +break through and sweep over all calculations? This was a little +more than Jimmie Higgins had bargained for when he entered the +recruiting-office in Leesville, U.S.A.! + +They gave out gas-masks to everyone in Jimmie's unit, and put an +alarm bell in the shed, and made everybody practise putting on the +masks in a hurry. Jimmie was so scared that he thought seriously of +running away; but--such is the perversity of human nature--what he +did was to run in the opposite direction! His officer in command +came into the shed and demanded, "Can any of you men ride?" And +imagine any fellow who worked at repairing motor-cycles admitting +that he couldn't ride! "I can!" said Jimmie. "I can!" said every +other workman in the place. + +"What is it!" asked Jimmie--always of the forward and pushing sort. + +"The French ask for half a dozen men in a rush. They've had several +motor-cycle units wiped out or captured." + +"Gee!" said Jimmie. "I'll go!" + +"And me!" said another. "And me!" "And me!" + +"All right," said the officer, and told them off: "You and you and +you. And you, Cullen, take command. Report to French headquarters at +Chatty Terry. You know where it is!" + +"Sure, Mike!" said Cullen. "I been there." Jimmie hadn't been to +"Chatty Terry", but he knew it was somewhere across the Marne. The +officer gave him a map, showing the villages through which he would +go. Jimmie and his companions named these villages, using sensible +language, without concession to the fool notions of the natives. +Wipers, Reems, Verdoon, Devil Wood, Arm-in-tears, Saint Meal--all +these Jimmie had heard about; also a place where the Americans had +won their first glorious victory a week ago, and which they called, +sometimes Cantinny, sometimes Tincanny. And now Jimmie was going to +"Chatty Terry", in charge of a red-headed Orangeman who a few days +ago had expressed the opinion that all Socialists were traitors and +should be shot! + +The officer gave them passes, one for each man, in case they got +separated, and they started towards the place where the new machines +were lined up. On the way Jimmie had a moment of utter panic. What +was this he was getting himself in for, idiot that he was? Going up +there where the shells were falling, wiping out motor-cycle units! +And shells that were full of poison gases, most of them! Of all the +fool things he had done in his life this was the crown and climax! +His knees began to shake, he turned sick inside. But then he glanced +about, and caught Pat Cullen's menacing blue eye; Jimmie returned +the glare, and the spirit of battle flamed up in him, he laid hold +of the handles of a motor-cycle and strode towards the door. Was any +Irish mick going to catch him in a funk, and "bawl him out" before +this crowd, and put the Socialist movement to shame? Not much! + + + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +JIMMIE HIGGINS MEETS THE HUN + +I + + + + + +The six motor-cyclists leaped on to their machines and went chugging +down the road. Of course they raced one another; all motor-cyclists +always race--and here was the best of all possible excuses, the +French army in dire need of them, several of its precious +cycle-units wiped out or captured! They tore along, dodging in and +out between trucks and automobiles, ambulances and artillery +caissons, horse-wagons and mule-wagons, achieving again and again +those hair's-breadth escapes which are the joy in life of every +normal motor-cyclist. Now and then, when things were too slow, they +would try a crawl in the ditches, or push their machines over the +ploughed fields. So it happened that Jimmie found himself competing +with his red-headed Irish enemy; there was a narrow opening between +two stalled vehicles, and Jimmie made it by the width of his hand, +and vaulted on to his machine and darted away, free and +exulting--his own boss! He shoved in the juice and made time, you +bet; no "mick" was going to catch up and shout orders at him! + +There were long trains of refugees streaming back from the +battle-fields; pitiful peasant-people with horse-carts and dog-carts +and even wheelbarrows, toothless old men and women trudging +alongside, children and babies stuck in amidst bedding and furniture +and saucepans and bird-cages. This was war, as the common people saw +it; but Jimmie could not stop now to think about it--Jimmie was on +his way to the front! There were big observation balloons up over +his head, looking like huge grey elephants with broad ears; there +were aeroplanes whirring about, performing incredible acrobatic +feats, and spraying each other with showers of steel; but Jimmie had +no time for a single glance at these marvels--Jimmie was on his way +to the front! + +He swept around a curve, and there directly in front of him was a +hole in the middle of the road, as big as if a steam-shovel had been +working for a week. Jimmie clapped on the brakes, and swerved +sideways, missing a tree and plunging into a cabbage patch. He got +off and said, "Gee!" once or twice; and suddenly it was as if he +were whacked on the side of the ear with a twelve-inch board--the +whole world about him turned into a vast roar of sound, and a +mountain of grey smoke leaped into being in front of him. Jimmie +stared, and saw out of a little clump of bushes a long black object +thrust itself out, like the snout of a gigantic tapir from some +prehistoric age. It was a ten-inch gun, coming back from its recoil; +and Jimmie, smelling its fumes, struggled back to the road with his +machine, before the monster should speak again and stifle him +entirely. + +There was a frame-house in the distance, and in front of it a +barnyard, and sheds with thatched roofs. There came a scream, +exactly like the siren of Hook and Ladder Company Number One that +used to go tearing about the streets in Leesville, U.S.A; a light +flashed in one of the sheds, and everything disappeared in a burst +of smoke, which spread itself in the air like a huge duster made +from turkey feathers. There came another shriek, a little nearer, +and the ground rose in a huge black mushroom, which boiled and +writhed like the clouds of an advancing thunderstorm. Boom! Boom! +Two vast, all-pervading roars came to Jimmie's ears; and his knees +began to quake. By heck! He was under fire! He looked ahead; there +must be Germans just up there! Was a fellow supposed to ride on +without knowing? + +There was a big battle on, that much was certain; but the uproar was +so distributed that one could hardly tell whether it was in front or +behind. However, the transport was steadily advancing--horse-wagons, +mule-wagons, motor-wagons, all plodding patiently, paying no heed to +the shell-bursts. And then Jimmie took a look behind, and saw that +infernal red-headed Orangeman! He imagined a raucous voice, +shouting: "C'mon here! Whatcher waitin' fer?" Jimmie bounced on to +his machine and turned her loose! + +He came to a place where something had hit a load of ammunition, and +there were pieces of a wagon and a driver scattered about; it was a +horrible mess, but Jimmie passed it without much emotion--his whole +soul was centred on beating Pat Cullen into "Chatty Terry"! He came +to the outskirts of a village, and there was a peasant's cottage +with the roof blown off, and a smell fresh out of the infernal +regions, and a terrified old woman standing by the road side with +two terrified children clinging to her skirts. Jimmy stopped his +machine and shouted: "Chatty Terry?" When the old woman did not +answer quickly, he shouted again: "Chatty Terry? Chatty Terry? Don't +you understand French? Chatty Terry?" The old woman apparently did +not understand French. + +He rode up the street of the village, and came to a military +policeman directing traffic at a crossing. This fellow understood +English, and said: "Chatty Terry? Eet ees taken!" And when Jimmie +stood dismayed, wondering what he was to do now, the policeman told +him that headquarters had been shifted to this village--it was in +the chateau; he did not say "chatty", so Jimmie did not understand +his kind of English. But Jimmie rode as directed, and came to a +place with iron gates in front, and a big garden, and a sentry in +front, and a bustle of coming and going, so he knew that he had +reached his destination, and had beaten his Irish enemy! + + + + +II + + + +Jimmie's pass was in duplicate French and English, so the sentry +could read it, and signed him to pass in. At the door of the chateau +he showed the paper again, and a French officer in the hall-way +espied him, and exclaimed, "A cyclist? Mon Dieu!" He half-ran Jimmie +into another room, where another officer sat at a big table with a +chart spread out on it, and innumerable filing cabinets on the +walls. "Un courier Americain!" he exclaimed. + +"Only one?" asked the officer, in English. + +"Five more's comin'," said Jimmie quickly. He hated Pat Cullen like +the devil, but he wouldn't have any French officer think that Pat +would lie down on his job. "The road's cut up, an' there's lots o' +traffic. I come as fast--" + +"See!" interrupted the officer--not quite as polite as Frenchmen are +supposed to be. "This packet contains maps, which we make from +aeroplane-photographs--you comprehend? It is for the artillerist--" + +The officer paused for a moment; there came a deafening crash +outside, and the window of the room collapsed and something grazed +Jimmie's face. + +"Voila!" remarked the officer. "The enemy draws nearer. Our wires +are cut; we send couriers, but they perhaps do not arrive; it needs +that we send many--what you say?--duplicates. You comprehend?" + +"Sure!" said Jimmie. + +"It is most urgent; the battle depends upon it--the war, it may be. +You comprehend?" + +"Sure!" said Jimmie again. + +"You are brave, mon garcon?" + +Jimmie did not reply so promptly to that; but the officer was too +tactful to wait. Instead, he asked, "You know French?" And when +Jimmie shook his head: "It needs that you learn. Say this: Botteree +Normb Cott. Try it, if it pleases you: Botteree Normb Cott." + +Jimmie, stammering like a schoolboy, tried; the officer made him +repeat the sounds, assuring him gravely that he need have no doubts +whatever; if he would make those precise sounds, any Frenchman would +know what he was looking for. He was to take the main road east from +the village and ride till he came to a fork; then he was to bear to +the right, and when he came to the edge of a dense wood, he was to +take the path to the left, and then say to everybody he met: +"Botteree Normb Cott!" + +"Is it that you have a weapon?" inquired the officer; and when +Jimmie answered no, he pressed a button, and spoke quick words to an +orderly, who came running with an automatic revolver and a belt, +which Jimmie proceeded to strap upon him with thrills, half of +delighted pride and half of anguished terror. "You will say to the +men of the botteree that the Americans come soon to the rescue. You +will find them, my brave American?" The officer spoke as if to a son +whom he dearly loved; and Jimmie, who had never received an order in +that tone of voice, reciprocated the affection, and clenched his +hands suddenly and answered, "I'll do my best, sir." He turned to +leave the room, when whom should he see coming in--Mike Cullen! +Jimmie gave him a wink and a grin, and hustled outside and leaped +upon his machine. + + + + +III + + + +And now here was the little machinist from Leesville, U.S.A., flying +down the battered street of this French village with something like +a mid-western cyclone going on in his head. They say that a drowning +man remembers everything that ever happened in his life; perhaps +that was not true of Jimmie, but certainly he remembered every +pacifist argument he had ever heard in his life. For the love of +Mike, what was this he had let himself in for? Bound for the spot +where the whole German army was trying to break through--upon an +errand the most dangerous of any in the war! How in the name of Karl +Marx and the whole revolutionary hierarchy had he managed to get +himself into such a pickle? He, Jimmie Higgins, Bolshevik and +wobbly! + +And he was going through with it! He was going to throw his life +away--just because he had started--because he had pledged +himself--because he was carrying maps which might enable a +"botteree" to win the war! Did he really care that much about this +infernal capitalist war? So cried out the proletarian demons in the +soul of Jimmie Higgins; and meantime the engine hammered and +chugged, and a miraculous power in the depths of his +subconsciousness moved the handle-bars so that he dodged shell-holes +and grazed automobiles. + +The air was full of the scream of shells and the clatter of their +bursting, an infernal din out of which he could hardly pick +individual sounds. The road ahead was less crowded; the vehicles had +left it, spreading out to one side or the other. How much farther +ahead was that fork? And suppose the Germans had got there, and had +captured "Botteree Normb Cott"--was he going to present them with a +brand new motor-cycle in addition? There were other "botterees" +which he passed; why couldn't he give them the maps? Jimmie rode on, +raging inwardly. If he had been a dispatch rider he would have known +all about this, but he was only a repair man, and they had had no +business to put such a job off on him! + +There were woods about him now, the trees smashed up by shells, and +Jimmie considered it the part of prudence to get off his machine and +steal forward and peer out to see if there were Germans in the +opening beyond. And suddenly his knees gave way, because of the +fright he was in, with all this deadly racket. He became violently +sick at his stomach, and began to act as he had acted on the first +three days of his ocean passage from New York. At the same time all +the other functions of his body began to operate. A group of +Frenchmen passing by burst into hilarious laughter; it was +ridiculous and humiliating, but Jimmie was powerless to help it--he +wasn't cut out for a soldier, he hadn't agreed to be a soldier, they +had had no business sending him up here where vast craters of +shell-holes were opening in the ground, and whole trees were being +lifted out of the earth, and the air was full of a stink which might +require a gas-mask or might not--how was poor Jimmie to tell? + + + + +IV + + + +He mastered the awful trembling of his knees and the grotesque +efforts of his body to get rid of everything inside him, and got on +his machine again and stole ahead. He could only go a few rods at a +time, because the road was so cut up. Should he leave the machine +and run for it? Or should he go back and tell them their infernal +maps were all wrong, there was no fork in the road? No--for there at +last was the fork, and after Jimmie had ridden and run a hundred +yards farther, there was a wheat-field, and a line of woods, and at +the edge of it four guns belching flame and smoke and racket. Jimmie +stood his machine in a ditch and went tearing across the fields, +wild with relief, because he had found his "Botteree Normb Cott", +and could hand over his precious packet and get out of this mess as +fast as two wheels would take him. + +But to his dismay he found that it wasn't the French battery, it was +an American battery; the French battery was farther ahead, and a +little to the right; the officer gave directions, taking it entirely +for granted that Jimmie would go on to his goal. + +But then came another officer. "What have you got there?" And when +Jimmie answered maps, he demanded them; he seemed as greedy for maps +as a child for his gifts on Christmas morning. He ripped open the +packet--what is called "cutting red tape" in the army--and spread +out the papers and began to call out figures to another officer who +sat on a camp stool at a little folding table, with many sheets of +figures in front of him. This officer went on noting down the +information--and the men at the guns went on shoving in shells and +stepping back while the screaming messengers were hurled upon their +way. In the rear were other men, wheeling up ammunition, unloading +one of the big camions which Jimmie had been dodging on the roads. +It was a regular factory, set up there in the middle of the fields, +dispatching destruction to the unseen foe. + +"We're having the hell of a time," remarked the officer, as he +folded up the maps again and handed them to Jimmie. "Our wires have +been cut three times in the last half-hour, and we have to shoot +blind." + +"Where are the Germans?" asked Jimmie. + +"Somewhere up ahead there." + +"Have you seen them?" + +"Good Lord, no! We hope to move before they're that near!" + +Jimmie felt a bit reassured by the quiet, business-like demeanour of +all the men in this death-factory. If they could stand the racket, +no doubt he could; only, they were all together, while he had to go +off by himself. Jimmie wished he had enlisted in the artillery! + +He shoved the maps into the inside pocket of his jacket, and chased +back to his machine and set out. He took a side-path as directed, +and then a wood-road--and then he got lost. That was all there was +to it--he was hopelessly lost! The path didn't behave at all as the +one he was looking for. It went through a long stretch of woods with +shattered trees lying this way and that; then it crossed a field of +grain, and then it plunged down into a ravine, and climbed to the +other side, and up a ridge and down again. "Hell!" said Jimmie to +himself. And if you could imagine all the noises in all the +boiler-factories in America, you would have something less than the +racket in that wood through which Jimmie was wandering, saying +"Hell!" to himself. + + + + +V + + + +He got to the top of the ridge, puffing and panting and dripping +perspiration; and there suddenly he jumped from his machine and ran +with it behind a tree-trunk and stood anxiously peering out. There +were men ahead; and what sort of men? Jimmie tried to remember the +pictures of Germans he had seen, and did they look like this? The +air was full of smoke, which made it hard to decide; but gradually +Jimmie made out one group, dragging a machine-gun on wheels; they +placed it behind a ridge of ground, and began to shoot in the +direction of Germany. So Jimmie advanced, but with hesitation, not +wanting to interfere with the aiming of the gun, which was making a +noise like a riveting machine, only faster and louder. It had a big +round cylinder for a barrel, and the men were feeding it with long +strips of cartridges out of a box, and were so intent on the process +that they paid no attention whatever to Jimmie. He stood and stared, +spellbound. For these creatures seemed not men, but hairy monsters +out of caves-ragged, plastered with mud, grimed and smoke-blackened, +with their faces drawn, their teeth shining like the teeth of angry +dogs. Jimmie forgot all about the enemy, he saw only this roaring, +flame-vomiting machine and the men who were a part of it. + +Suddenly one of the men leaped up, a little hairier and a little +blacker than the rest, and shouted, "Ah derry-air! Ah derry-air!" +And the gun stopped roaring and vomiting flame, and the men laid +hold and began to tug and strain to draw it back. The leader +continued exhorting them; until suddenly an amazing thing +happened--right in the midst of his shouting, the whole of his mouth +and lower jaw disappeared. You did not see what became of it--it +just vanished into nothingness, and there in the place of it was a +red cavern, running blood. The man stood with his startled eyes +shining white in his black and hairy face, and gurgling noises +coming out--as if he thought he was still shouting, or could if he +tried harder. + +The others paid not the least attention to this episode; they +continued tugging at the gun. And would you believe it, the man with +no mouth and jaw fell to helping again! The wheels struck a rise in +the ground, and he waved his hands in impotent excitement, and then +rushed at Jimmie, exposing to the horrified little machinist the +full ghastliness of that red cavern running blood. + +Jimmie tried his magic formula: "Botteree Normb Cott." But the man +waved his hands frantically and grabbed Jimmie by the arm--the very +incarnation of that Monster of Militarism which the little machinist +had been dodging for four years! He pushed Jimmie towards the gun, +and the other men shouted: "Asseestay!" So of course there was +nothing for Jimmie to do but lay hold and tug with the rest. + +Presently they got the wheels to moving, and rolled the thing up the +ridge. A wagon came bumping through the woods, and the men at the +gun gave a gasp which was meant to be a cheer, and one of them laid +hold of Jimmie again, crying: "Portay! Portay!" He dragged out a +heavy box and loaded it into Jimmie's arms and carried another +himself, and so in a few moments the machine-gun was drumming, and +Jimmie went on carrying boxes. The men who were driving the wagon +leaped upon the horses and drove away; and still Jimmie carried +boxes, blindly, desperately. Was it because he was afraid of the +little French demon who was shouting at him? No, not exactly, +because when he went back with a box he saw the little demon +suddenly double up like a jack-knife and fall forward. He did not +make a sound, he did not even kick; he lay with his face in the dirt +and leaves--and Jimmie ran back for another box. + + + + +VI + + + +He did it because he understood that the Germans were coming. He had +not seen them; but when the gun fell silent he heard whining sounds +in the air, as if from a litter of elephantine puppies. Sometimes +the twigs of trees fell on him, the dirt in front of him flew up +into his face; and always, of course, everywhere about him was that +roar of bursting shells which he had come to accept as a natural +part of life. And suddenly another man went down, and another--there +were only two left, and one of them signalled to Jimmie what to do, +and Jimmie did not say a word, he just went to work and learned to +run a machine-gun by the method favoured by modern educators--by +doing. + +Presently the man who was aiming the gun clapped his hand to his +forehead and fell backwards. Jimmie was at his side, and the gun was +shooting--so what more natural than for Jimmie to move into position +and look along the sights? It was a fact that he had never aimed any +sort of gun in his life before; but he was apt with machinery--and +disposed to meddle into things, as we know. + +Jimmie looked along the sights; and suddenly it seemed as if the +line of distant woods leaped into life, the bushes vomiting grey +figures which ran forward, and fell down, and then leaped up and ran +and fell down again. "Eel vienn!" hissed the man at Jimmie's side. +So Jimmie moved the gun here and there, pointing it wherever he saw +the grey figures. + +Did he kill any Germans? He was never entirely sure in his own mind; +always the idea pursued him that may be he had been making a fool of +himself, shooting bullets into the ground or up into the air--and +the poilus at his side thinking he must know all about it, because +he was one of those wonderful Americans who had come across the seas +to save la belle France! The Germans kept falling, but that proved +nothing, for that was the method of their advance, anyway, and +Jimmie had no time to count and see how many fell and how many got +up again. All he knew was that they kept coming--more and more of +them, and nearer and nearer, and the Frenchmen muttered curses, and +the gun hammered and roared, until the barrel grew so hot that it +burned. And then suddenly it stopped dead! + +"Sockray!" cried the two Frenchmen, and began frantically working to +take the gun to pieces; but before they had worked a minute one of +them clapped his hand to his side and fell back with a cry, and a +second later Jimmie felt a frightful blow on his left arm, and when +he tried to lift it and see what was wrong, half of it hung loose, +and blood ran out of his sleeve! + + + + +VII + + + +That was too much for the remaining Frenchman. He caught Jimmie by +the other arm, exclaiming "Vennay! Vennay!" Apparently that meant to +run away; Jimmie didn't want to run away, but the Frenchman +chattered so fast, and tugged so hard, and Jimmie was half-dazed +anyhow with pain, so he let himself be dragged back. And presently +they came to a dead soldier lying with a gun by his side, and the +Frenchman grabbed the gun and unstrapped the cartridge belt, and +then threw himself down behind a big rock. Jimmie remembered the +automatic which he had strapped at his waist; he held it out to the +Frenchman, shaking his head and saying, "No savvy! No work!"--as if +he thought the Frenchman would understand bad English better than +good English! But the Frenchman understood the head-shaking, and +showed Jimmie how to move the little catch which released the +trigger for firing. With hasty fingers he tore off the sleeve of +Jimmie's shirt, and bound up his arm tightly with a bandage from his +kit; then he raised up over the rock and cursed the sockray Bosh and +began to fire. Jimmie got up the nerve to peer out, and there were +the grey figures, much nearer now, and he knew they were Germans +because they were like the pictures he had seen. They were running +at him, firing as they came, and Jimmie fired his revolver, shutting +his eyes because he was scared of it. But then, finding that it +behaved all right, he fired again, and this time he did not close +his eyes, because he saw a big German running straight towards him, +the fury of battle in his face. It was plain what this German meant +to do--to leap on Jimmie with his sharp bayonet; and somehow Jimmie +never once thought of his pacifist arguments--he fired, and saw the +German fall, and was murderously glad at the sight. + +There were shots from behind him; apparently there had been a lot of +Frenchmen hidden in these woods, and the enemy was not finding it +easy to advance. Jimmie's companion jumped up and ran again, and +Jimmie followed, and a hundred yards or so back they came to a +shell-hole with half a dozen poilus in it. Jimmy tumbled in, and the +men chattered at him, and gave him more cartridges, so that when the +Germans appeared again he did his part. A bullet took a lump of hair +off his temple, and shrapnel exploding near by almost split his +ear-drums; but still he went on shooting. His heart was really in +the job now, he was going to stop these Bosh or bust. With five +Frenchmen, two of them wounded, he held the shell-hole for an hour; +one of them ran back and staggered up with a supply of ammunition, +and loaded up a rifle for Jimmie, and laid it so that he could +manage it with one hand. So Jimmie went on shooting, half-dead, +half-blind, half-choked with powder smoke. + +The sockray Bosh made another charge, and this was the end, every +man in the shell-hole knew. There were literally swarms of the grey +figures, their bullets came like a shower of hail. Jimmie decided to +wait till the enemy was near enough for him to aim the revolver with +effect. He crouched, watching a Frenchman with the life-blood oozing +out of a hole in his chest; then he raised up and emptied his +automatic, and still there were Germans rushing on. + +Jimmie was so very tired now, he really did not care very much what +happened; he knelt in the hole, looking up, and suddenly he saw the +huge figure of a German looming above him, his rifle poised. Jimmie +closed his eyes and waited for the blow, and suddenly the German +came down with a crash on top of him. + +Jimmie thought for sure he must be dead; he lay wondering, was this +immortality? But it did not seem like either heaven or hell as he +had imagined them, and gradually he realized that the German was +writhing and moaning. Jimmie wriggled from under, and looked up, +just in time to see another German loom over the shell-hole and +pitch forward and hit on his face. + +It was evident that somebody farther back was attending to these +Germans; so Jimmie lay still, with a feeble flicker of hope in his +heart. The rattle of shots went on, a battle that lasted ten or +fifteen minutes, but Jimmie was too tired to peer out and see how +matters were going. Presently he heard someone running up behind +him, and he looked around and up, and saw two men jump into the +shell-hole. He took one glance, and his heart leaped. The doughboys! + + + + +VIII + + + +Yes, sir, there were two doughboys in the shell-hole! Jimmie had +seen so many tens of thousands of them that he had no doubt. +Compared with the war-battered poilus, they were like soldiers out +of a fashion-plate: smooth-shaven, with long chins and thin lips, +and a thousand other details which made you realize that home was +home, and better than any other place in the world. And oh, the +beautiful business-like precision of these fashion-plate soldiers! +They never said a word, they never even glanced about; they just +threw themselves down at the edge of the shell-hole, and leaned +their rifles over and set to work. You didn't need to see--you could +tell from the look on these men's faces that they were hitting +something! + +Presently came two more, leaping in. Without so much as as a nod of +greeting, they settled down and went to shooting; and when they had +used up most of their cartridges, one of them got up and shouted to +the rear, and there came a man running with a fresh supply in a big +pouch. + +Later on came three more with rifles. Apparently there were not so +many Germans now, for these new-comers found time for words. "They +told us to hold a line back there," said one. "But hell!" + +"There's more Huns up ahead," said another. "Let's get 'em." + +"Just as well now as later," said a third. + +"You stay behind and get that finger tied up," said the first +speaker; but the other told him to go and get his own fingers tied +up. + +Then one of them looked about and spied Jimmie. "Why, here's a +Yank!" he cried. "What you doin' here?" + +Jimmie answered: "I'm a motor-cycle man, and they sent me with maps +for a battery, but I think it's been captured long ago." + +"You're wounded," said the other. + +"It ain't much," said Jimmie, apologetically. "It was a long time +ago, anyhow." + +"Well, you go back," said the doughboy. "We're here now--it'll be +all right." He said it, not boastingly, but as a simple matter of +fact. He was a mere boy, a rosy-cheeked kid with a little ugly +pug-nose covered with freckles, and a wide, grinning mouth. But to +Jimmie he seemed just the loveliest boy that had ever come out of +the U.S.A. "Can you walk?" he asked. + +"Sure!" said Jimmie. + +"And these Frenchies?" The doughboy looked at the others. "You savvy +their lingo?" When Jimmie shook his head, he turned to the +battle-worn hairy ones. "You fellows go back," he said. "We don't +need you now." When they stared uncomprehending, he asked: "Polly +voo Francy?" + +"We, we!" cried they in one voice. + +"Well, then," said the doughboy, "go back! Go home! Toot sweet! Have +sleep! Rest! We lick 'em Heinies!" As the poilus did not show much +grasp of this kind of "Francy", the doughboy boosted them to their +feet, pointed to the rear, patted them on the back, and grinned with +his wide mouth. "Good boy! Go home! American! American!"--as if that +was enough to make clear that the work of France in this war was +done! The poilus looked over the top of the shell-hole, and saw a +swarm of those new fashion-plate soldiers, darting forward through +the woods, throwing themselves down and shooting at the sockray +Bosh. They looked at the rosy-cheeked boy with the grateful faces of +dogs, and shouldered their packs and rifles and set out for the +rear, helping Jimmie, who suddenly found himself very weak, and with +a splitting headache. + + + + +IX + + + +These doughboys had a song that Jimmie had heard all the time: "The +Yanks are coming!" And now the song needed to be rewritten: "The +Yanks are here!" All these woods through which Jimmie had blundered +with his motor-cycle were now swarming with nice, new, clean-shaven, +freshly-tailored soldier-boys, turned loose to get their first +chance at the Hun. Four years they had been reading about him and +hating him, a year and a half they had been getting ready to hit +him--and now at last they were turned loose and told to go to it! +Back on the roads was an endless procession of motor-trucks, with +doughboys, and also marines, or "leather-necks", as they were +called. They had started at four o'clock that morning, and ridden +all day packed in like sardines; and here, a mile or two back in the +woods, the trucks had come to a halt, and the sardines had jumped +out and gone into this war! + +Jimmie did not realize till long afterwards what a world-drama he +had been witnessing. For four months the Beast had been driving at +Paris; irresistibly, incessantly, eating his way like a forest fire, +spreading ever wider and more fearful desolation--this Beast with +the Brains of an Engineer! The world had shuddered and held its +breath, knowing that if he got to Paris it would mean the end of the +war, and of all things that free men value. And now here he made his +last supreme rush, and the French lines wavered and cracked and gave +way; and so in this desperate crisis they had brought up the +truck-loads of doughboys for their first real test against the +Beast. + +The orders had been to hold at all hazards; but that had not been +enough for the doughboys, they and the leather-necks had seized the +offensive and sent the Germans reeling back. The very pride of the +Prussian army had been worsted by these new troops from overseas, at +whom they had mocked, whose very existence they had scouted. + +It was a blow from which "Fritz" never recovered; he never gained +another foot, and it was the beginning of a retreat that did not +stop until it reached the Rhine. And the Yanks had done it--the +Yanks, with the help of Jimmie Higgins! For Jimmie had got there +first; Jimmie had held the fort while the Yanks were coming! Yes, +truly; if he hadn't stuck by that machine-gun and helped to work it, +if he hadn't hid in that shell-hole, emptying the contents of a +rifle and an automatic pistol into the charging Huns, if he hadn't +held them up that precious hour--why, they might have swept over +this position, and the Yanks might not have had a chance to deploy, +and the victory of "Chatty Terry" might not have gone resounding +down the ages! The whole course of the world's history might have +been different, if one little Socialist machinist from Leesville, +U.S.A., had not chanced to be wandering through "Bellow Wood" in +search of a fabulous and never-discovered "Botteree Normb Cott!" + + + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + +JIMMIE HIGGINS SEES THE OTHER SIDE + +I + + + + + +But these exultations and glory-thoughts were reserved for a later +stage of Jimmie Higgins's life. At present he was weak, and his head +was splitting, and his left arm burning like fire. And on top of +this came a happening so strange that it drove the whole battle from +his thoughts. He was walking on a path with his French companions, +when one of them noticed a man in a French uniform lying on the +ground a little way to one side. He was not a soldier, but a +hospital-orderly or stretcher-bearer, as you could tell by the white +bandage with a red cross on his arm. He had been shot through the +shoulder, and someone had plugged up the wound and left him; so now +the French soldiers helped him to his feet and started to lead him +back. Jimmie watched them, and when he saw the man's face, the +conviction stole over him that he had seen that face before. He had +seen it, or one incredibly like it--and under circumstances of +intense emotion. The old emotion stirred in the depths of his +subconsciousness, and suddenly it burst to the surface, an explosion +of excitement. It could not be! The idea was absurd! But--it must +be! It was! The wounded French stretcher-bearer was Lacey Granitch! + +The young heir of the Empire Machine Shops might never have known +the little Socialist machinist; but recognition was so evident on +Jimmie's face, that Lacey was set groping in his own mind. Now and +then as the party walked along he stole an uneasy glance at his +fellow-countryman; and presently when they struck a road, and sat +down to rest and wait for a vehicle of some sort, Lacey put himself +beside Jimmie and began: "You're the fellow that was in the house +that night, aren't you?" + +Jimmie nodded; and the young lord of Leesville looked at him +uneasily, looked away, and then looked back. "I've got something I +want to ask you," he said. + +"What's that?" + +"Don't give me away." + +"How do you mean?" + +"Don't tell who I am: There's no reason why anybody should know. I'm +trying to get away from it." + +"I see," said Jimmie. "I won't tell." + +"You promise?" + +"Sure." + +Then was a silence. Then suddenly, with no reason that Jimmie could +see, the other exclaimed: "You'll tell!" + +"But I won't!" protested Jimmie. "What makes you say so?" + +"You hate me!" + +Jimmie hesitated, as if investigating his own mind. "No," he said, +"I don't hate you--not any more." + +"God!" exclaimed the other. "You don't need to--I've paid all I +owe!" + +Jimmie studied his face. Yes, you could see that was true. Not +merely was Lacey haggard, his features drawn with the pain he was +enduring; there were lines in his face that had not been put there +by a few days of battle, nor even by a couple of years of war. He +looked twenty years older than the insolent young aristocrat whom +Jimmie had seen hurling defiance at the Empire strikers. + +His eyes were searching Jimmie's anxiously, pleadingly. "I had to +get away," he said. "I couldn't face it--everybody staring at me, +grinning at me behind my back! I tried to enlist in the American +army, but they wouldn't have me--not to do any sort of work. So I +came to France, where they need men badly--they let me carry a +stretcher. I've been through it all now--more than a year. I've been +wounded twice before, but I can't seem to get killed, no matter +where I go. It's the fellows that want to live that get killed--damn +it!" + +The speaker paused, as if seeing visions of the men whom he had seen +die when they wanted to live. When he went on, it was in a voice of +humble entreaty. "I've tried to pay for my blunders. All I ask now +is to be let alone, and not have everybody gossiping about me. +That's fair, isn't it!" + +Jimmie answered: "I give you my word--I won't tell a soul about it." + +"Thank you," said Lacey; and then, after a moment's pause, "My name +is Peterson. Herbert Peterson." + + + + +II + + + +A truck came along and gave them a lift to the nearest +dressing-station: a couple of tents with big red crosses on them, +and a couple more being put up, and motor-cars bringing nurses and +supplies, and others with loads of wounded, French and American. +Jimmie was so weak now that he hardly cared about anything; he took +his place in a row of wounded men, waiting patiently, trying not to +make a fuss, because this was war, and the Hun had to be licked, and +everybody was doing his best. He lay down on the ground, and shut +his eyes; and gradually there came to him a familiar odour. At first +he thought it was the product of his imagination--because he had +just met Lacey Granitch, and had been reminded of the night when he +and Lizzie had crouched in the room of the lonely farm-house and +listened to the sounds and smelled the odour through the door. And +presently Jimmie heard the very same sounds from the tent--moans and +shrieks, babbling as of insane men. How strange that both times when +he smelt this odour and heard these cries he should be with the +young master of the Empire Shops! + +Jimmie's turn came, and they led him into the tent, making short +work of him--merely ascertaining that no artery was cut and that he +would not bleed to death, and then tagging him for the brigade +hospital. They loaded him into a truck with a score of other +"sitting cases", including Lacey Granitch, and treated him to a long +ride which he did not at all enjoy. At the hospital, which was a big +group of tents, now swarming with activity, Jimmie waited his turn +again--so many wounds all at once, and so few to tend them! + +At last he was led into the operating-place; the first sight that +greeted his eyes being a couple of orderlies carrying out a tub +filled with sawed-off arms and legs and miscellaneous fragments of +men. There was a surgeon with a white costume smeared with blood, +and a white mask over his face, and several nurses with white masks +also. Nobody greeted him, or stopped for preliminaries--they laid +him on the operating-table, and covered all but his shattered arm +with a rubber sheet, and slit off his bandages, and then a nurse put +someting over his face and said, "Breathe deeply, please." + +It was that ghastly odour again, but overpowering now. Jimmie +breathed, and everything began to rock and swim, his head began to +roar, worse than when he had fought the machine-gun. He could not +stand any more of it; he cried and struggled to get loose, but they +had strapped his feet, and someone held his other arm, so his +frantic efforts were of no avail. + +He began to fall; head over heels he went tumbling, into vast +bottomless abysses-down, down, down. He heard a strange voice +saying: "Their collars are too tight." The words rang in his ears, +they assumed monstrous and overwhelming significance, they became a +whole universe by themselves--"Their collars are too tight!" All the +rest of creation ceased, the lamp of being went out; there remained +only a voice, pronouncing amid whirling infinities: "Their collars +are too tight!" + + + + +III + + + +Somewhere in the vast spaces of chaos was a snore. Then ages +afterwards, out of the void there arose a mysterious forgotten +effort to get something out of a choking throat. After several such +unaccountable manifestations, the feeble flame of consciousness that +called itself Jimmie Higgins flickered up, and he realized that it +was he who was trying desperately not to be choked. Also he realized +that he was become one horrible pain; somebody had driven a nail +through his arm, and fastened him tight to the ground by it; also +they had blown up his stomach, so that it was threatening to burst, +and when he choked, it was an agony. He gasped for help, but no one +paid any attention to him; he was all alone in the dungeon-house of +pain, buried and forgotten for ever. + +Gradually he emerged from the misty regions of anaesthesia, and +realized that he was on a stretcher, and being carried. He moaned +for water, but no one would give it to him. He pleaded that there +was something dreadful wrong with him, he was going to burst inside; +but they told him that was only ether gas, and not to worry, he +would soon be all right. They laid him on a cot in a room, one of a +long row, and left him to wrestle with demons all alone. This was +war, and a man who had only a shattered arm might count himself +among the lucky. + +So through a night and a day Jimmie lay and made the best of a bad +situation. There were two nurses in this tent, and Jimmie, having +nothing to do but watch them, conceived a bitter rage at them both. +One was lean and angular and sallow; she went about her duties +grimly, with no nonsense, and Jimmie did not realize that she was +ready to drop with exhaustion. The other was pretty, with fluffy +yellow hair, and was flirting shamelessly with a young doctor. +Perhaps Jimmy should have reflected that men were being killed +rapidly these days, and it was necessary that some should concern +themselves with supplying the future generations; but Jimmie was in +no mood to probe the philosophy of flirtation--he remembered the +Honourable Beatrice Clendenning, and wished he was back in Merrie +England. Also he remembered his pacifist principles, and wished he +had kept out of this hellish war! + +But his pain became somewhat less, and they loaded him into an +ambulance and took him farther back, to a big base hospital. Here, +before long, he was able to sit up, and to be wheeled out into the +sunshine, and to discover the unguessed raptures of +convalescence--the amazing continuous appetite, the amazing +continuous supply of good things to eat and drink; the bliss of +looking at trees and flowers, and listening to the singing of birds, +and telling other people how you rode out on a motor-cycle to look +for "Botteree Normb Cott"--what the hell was that, anyhow?--and ran +into the whole Hun army, and held it up for a couple of hours, and +won the battle of Chatty Terry all alone! + + + + +IV + + + +One of the first persons Jimmie saw was Lacey Granitch, and Lacey +took him off to a corner of the park and said, "You haven't told +anyone?" + +"No, Mr. Granitch," said Jimmie. + +"My name is Peterson," said Lacey. + +"Yes, Mr. Peterson," said Jimmie. + +It was a strange acquaintance between these two, chosen from the +opposite poles of social life, and brought together in the democracy +of pain. Jimmie had the young lord of Leesville down, and might have +walked on his face; but strange as it might seem, Jimmie took +towards him an attitude of timid humility. Jimmie felt that he had +betrayed him to a cruel and hideous vengeance; moreover, in spite of +all his revolutionary fervours, Jimmie could not forget that he was +talking to one of the masters of the world. You might hate with all +your soul the prestige and power that went with the Granitch +millions, but you couldn't be indifferent to it, you could never +feel natural in the presence of it. + +As for Lacey, he was no longer the proud, free, rich young +aristocrat; he had suffered, and learned respect for his fellowmen, +regardless of money. He heard how this little Socialist machinist, +whom once he had cursed in a herd of strikers, had ridden into the +jaws of death and helped to nail the Beast through the snout. So he +wanted to know about him, and these two sat conversing for hours, +each of them discovering a new world. + +Just now all Europe and America were engaged in furious argument on +the subject of the Bolsheviki. Had they betrayed democracy to the +Hun, or were they, as they claimed, leading the way for mankind to a +newer and broader kind of democracy? Lacey, of course, believed the +former--everyone in the American army believed it, and in fact +everybody in France, except a few dyed-in-the-wool reds. When Lacey +found that Jimmie was one of these reds, he questioned him, and they +had it hot and heavy for days. How could men have done what Lenin +and Trotzky had done, unless they were paid German agents? So Jimmie +had to set forth the theory of internationalism; the Bolsheviki were +making propaganda in Germany, they were doing more to break the +power of the Kaiser than even the Allied armies. How did Jimmie know +that? He didn't know the details, of course, but he knew the soul of +internationalism; he could tell what Lenin and Trotzky were doing, +because he knew what he would be doing, were he in their place! + +They talked on and on, and the young lord of Leesville, who would +some day fall heir to an enormous fortune, and had been trained to +think of it as his by every right, human and divine, heard a little +runt of a machinist from the shops explain how he was going to seize +that mass of property--he and the rest of his fellows combined into +one big union--and how they were going to run it, not for Lacey's +benefit, but for the benefit of all society. Jimmie forgot all +respect for persons when he got on this theme; this was his dream, +this was the proletariat expropriating the expropriators, and he +told about it with shining eyes. In time past the young lord of +Leesville would have answered him with insolent serenity, perhaps +with a threat of machine-guns; but now he said hesitatingly that it +was a large programme, and he feared it couldn't be made to work. + + + + +V + + + +He was moved to question Jimmie about his past life, so as to +understand how such fanaticism had come to be. So Jimmie told about +starvation and neglect, about overwork and unemployment, about +strikes and jails and manifold oppressions. The other listened, +nodding his head. "Yes, of course, that was enough to drive any man +to extremes." And then, thinking further, "I wonder", said he, +"which of us two got the worse deal from life." + +Jimmie was without means of understanding that remark, Lacey had had +everything, hadn't he? To which Lacey answered, "I had too much, and +you had too little; and which is worse for a man?" + +By way of making clear what was in his mind, he told Jimmie a little +about his own life. He pictured a big household, with a father beset +by business cares, and turning over the managing of his home to +employees. "My mother was a fool," said Lacey. "I suppose it sounds +bad for a man to say that, but I've known it all my life. Maybe the +old man was too busy to look up a woman with sense--or maybe he +didn't believe there were any. Anyhow, my mother's idea was to be +seen spending more money than any other woman in town; that was her +'position', and her children were part of the show--we must wear +more clothes and bully more servants than anybody else's children. +I've thought it all out--I've had lots of opportunity for thinking +of late. I can't remember when I didn't hit my nurse in the face if +she tried to take away a toy from me. I never had to ask for +anything twice--if I did, I went into a tantrum and got it. I +learned to smoke and to drink wine, and then came the women--the +women finished me, as you know." + +He paused; and Jimmie nodded sympathetically, remembering the story +of the eight chorus-girls about whom "Wild Bill" had read out in the +local. + +"It's hell for a boy to have a lot of money," said Lacey, "and to be +preyed on by women. You have your human emotions, of course--you're +absolutely compelled to believe in some women; and they're all +perfectly cold-blooded--at least the kinds that a rich boy meets. I +don't mean only adventuresses--I mean the society-girls, the ones +you're supposed to marry. Their damned old harpies of mothers are +pushing behind them, of course--laying out everything they own for +clothes, and not knowing how they can pay the bills for last season. +They set out to catch you, they're mad with the determination, they +don't care about reputation, they'll do any damned thing. You take +them out in your car, and then they want to get out and pick +flowers, and they draw you into the woods, and presently you've got +hold of their hands, and then you're hugging and kissing them, and +then you go the limit. But then you've got to marry them; and when +they find you won't, they have hysterics, and say they're going to +shoot their heads off; only they don't shoot their heads off, they +kiss you some more, and borrow your diamond scarf-pin and forget to +return it." + +The young lord of Leesville fell silent. Sombre memories possessed +him, and Jimmie, darting a swift glance at him, saw the look of +weary age on his face. "I've never talked with anybody about what +happened at the end," said he, "and I never mean to; but I'll say +this much--the time I loved a married woman was the only honest love +I ever had, because she was the only woman who wasn't looking to +marry me!" + +That was, of course, too subtle for a man like Jimmie Higgins. But +this much the little Socialist got--that the heir of the Granitch +fortune had been in truth a miserably unhappy mortal. And this was +an extraordinary revelation to Jimmie, who had taken it for granted +that the rich were the lucky ones of earth. He had hated them on the +supposition that they were without care; they were the Lotus-eaters, +of whom the poet wrote that they + + "live and lie reclined + On the hills like Gods together, careless of mankind, + For they lie beside their nectar, and the bolts are hurl'd + Far below them in the valleys, and the clouds are lightly curl'd + Round their golden houses, girdled with the gleaming world: + + Where they smile in secret, looking over wasted lands, + Blight of famine, plague and earthquake, roaring deeps and fiery + sands, + Clanging fights and flaming towns, and sinking ships and pray- + ing hands. + But they smile, they find a music centred in a doleful song + Steaming up, a lamentation and an ancient tale of wrong. + Like a tale of little meaning tho' the words are strong; + Chanted from an ill-used race of men that cleave the soil, + Sow the seed, and reap the harvest with enduring toil, + Storing yearly little dues of wheat, and wine and oil. + +But now Jimmie had crossed the social chasm, he had seen the other +side of the problem of riches and poverty. After that revelation, he +would be more merciful in his judgements of his fellow-mortals; he +would understand that the system in which we are trapped makes true +happiness impossible--for those who have too much as well as for +those who have too little. + + + + + + +CHAPTER XXV + +JIMMIE HIGGINS ENTERS INTO DANGER + +I + + + + + +While Jimmie wandered through the streets of this French town, +letting his broken arm get strong again, the death-grapple of the +war continued. In mid-July the Germans made a last desperate lunge +at the Marne; they were stopped dead in a couple of days by the +French and Americans combined; and then the Allied +commander-in-chief struck back, smashing in the side of the German +salient, and driving the enemy, still fighting furiously, but moving +back from the soil of France. All France caught its breath with +excitement, with relief mingled with dread. So many times they had +hoped, through these four weary, hideous years, and so many times +their hopes had been dashed! But this time there was no mistake--it +was really the turning of the tide. The enemy resisted at every +step, but he went on moving out of the salient, and the Allies went +on lunging--now here, now there, see--sawing back and forth, and +keeping their opponents bewildered. + +Jimmie read about it in the army paper, the Stars and Stripes; and +now, for the first time in four years, Jimmie's mind was one mind on +the war. Jimmie was on the field of every battle, his teeth set, his +hands clenched, his whole soul helping at the job. He had got over +the disorders of anaesthesia, and was forgetting the shock of his +wound; he had realized that wounds, and even death, were something a +man could bear--not cheerfully, of course, not lightly, but you +could bear them, if only you knew that the Beast was being put out +of business. + +In the old days the word German had meant to Jimmie fellows like +Meissner and Forster and Schneider; but now it meant a huge grey +form looming over the edge of a shell-hole, its face distorted with +hate, its bayonet poised to plunge. Perhaps the most vivid +impression of Jimmie's whole life was the relief he had felt when he +realized that some doughboy had shot a bullet into that looming +figure. Let there be more doughboys, more and more, until the last +figure had been shot! Jimmie knew, of course, that the policy he had +been advocating in America had not tended to that end; if Jimmie in +Leesville had had his way, there would have been no doughboys to +rescue Jimmy at Chatty Terry! Jimmie was quite clear on that point +now, and for the time being the pacifist was dead in him. + +He listened to the talk of the men in this hospital. They had all +been through the mill, they had got their wounds, light or severe, +but it had not broken their spirit--not a bit of it; there was +hardly one among them who was not hoping to get cured and to get +back into the game before it was over. That was how they took it--a +game, the most sensational, the most thrilling that a man would ever +play. These boys had been brought up on football, the principal +training and only real interest in life of some hundreds of +thousands of young Americans every year. They had brought the spirit +and the method of football with them into the army, and communicated +it to those less fortunate millions who had been neither to college +nor to high school: the team-work, the speed, the incessant, +gruelling drill, the utter, unquestioning loyalty, the persistent +searching of eager young minds for new combinations, new tricks; and +above all the complete indifference to the possibility of a broken +collar-bone or a damaged heart-valve, provided only that the game +should be won! + +This army was attacking a foe who relied on machine-guns to break +formations and give time to withdraw stores and big guns to safety; +so the life of young America for the moment had become a study of +the arts of rushing machine-guns. Jimmie listened to the +conversation of the new men, and saw the technique being worked out +before his eyes. Tanks were all right, aeroplanes were all right, +when you had them; but mostly you did not have them, in time, so the +doughboy was learning to take machine-guns with the bayonet. You had +a little squad, trained like a football team, with its own system of +signals, its formations worked out by young heads put together at +night. It was a costly game--you would be lucky if a third of the +players came out alive; but if you could get one man to the +machine-gun with a bayonet, you had won the game--because he would +take the gun and turn it about on the retreating Germans, and could +kill enough of them in a minute to make up for the losses of his +squad. + + + + +II + + + +Lacey Granitch's shoulder healed, and he went back to his job. He +told Jimmie what it had meant to him to meet a Socialist; if he +could believe what Jimmie believed, he wouldn't mind living, even +with his shame. Jimmie gave him the names of books to read, and +Lacey promised to read them; of course, Jimmie was proud and +happy--seeing a vision of the Empire Machine Shops turned over to the +control of the workers, the capitalist system committing hari-kari +in one American industry. + +Jimmie got a letter from one of the working-men in the repair +station where he had last worked, telling him that the Americans had +taken over this sector, and now there was a big shop established, +and when was he coming back? But Jimmie was not so eager to come +back; working on motor-cycles did not seem a thrilling prospect to +one who had held up the whole Hun army and won the battle of Chatty +Terry. Having proven his mettle as a fighting man, Jimmie wondered +if there mightn't be some way for him to get into the real army, and +do a real man's work. + +He wrote a letter to the officer in command of his motor-unit, +telling what had happened to him, and couldn't it be arranged? In +reply the officer said that he would have an investigation made, and +if Jimmie's story could be verified, he would have honourable +mention, and promotion of some sort. And sure enough, a month later, +when Jimmie was ready to leave the hospital, came official notice +that he was promoted to be a sergeant of motor-transport, and +ordered to report to headquarters in a certain harbour on the +English Channel for assignment. Sergeant Jimmie Higgins! + +Jimmie reported, of course, and was put in charge of a dozen +cyclists and repair men, newly arrived on a transport. These men +looked up to Jimmie as a veteran and hero, and Jimmie, who had never +enjoyed authority in his life before--except you count Jimmie Junior +and the two kids--may have had his head turned just a little bit. +But there was real work to be done, and no time for strutting. There +was excitement in the air, wild rumour and speculation; this little +unit of Jimmie's, composed of specially fit men, was going somewhere +on a special errand--an expedition, evidently by sea. Nobody was +told where--that wasn't the way in the army; but presently there +were issued sheepskin-lined coats and heavy wool-lined boots--in the +middle of August! So they knew that they were bound for the Far +North, and for some time. Could it be a surprise attack in the +Baltic? Either that, said the wiseheads, or else Archangel. Jimmie +had never heard of this latter place, and had to ask about it. It +appeared that the Allies had landed enormous masses of stores at +this port in far Northern Russia; and now that the Russians had +dropped out of the war, the Germans were threatening to take +possession. + +Jimmie was thrilled to the soles of his new wool-lined boots. He was +going to Russia, going to see the revolution! Jimmie had but a vague +idea of world-conditions now, for during the past three or four +months he had been reading only official papers, which confined +their attention to the job, and carefully omitted mention of +difficulties and complications. The people with whom he talked +insisted that it was necessary for the Allies to do something to +counter the Brest-Litovsk treaty; if the Germans were allowed to +take possession of helpless Russia and use it for their purposes, +they might hold out for another hundred years. The Russian people +themselves must realize this, and welcome Allied help! Jimmie wasn't +sure on this latter point, but he remembered the Rabin brothers and +their enthusiasm for the Allied cause, so he put his doubts to +sleep, and helped get his motor-unit stowed on board a transport. + + + + +III + + + +There came a passage across the North Sea and up the coast of +Norway; a region of fogs and restless winds, and incessant deadly +peril of submarine and mine. There were three transports in the +expedition, and a couple of warships convoying them, and half a +dozen destroyers weaving their foam patterns in and out. Every day +the air grew colder, and the period of daylight shorter; they were +entering the Land of the Midnight Sun, but at the time of year when +midnight noons were approaching. The men had plenty of time for +reading and talk; so Jimmie discussed the war from the Socialist +point of view, defending the Russian revolutionists; and so, as +usual, he made somebody angry, and got himself and his seditious +opinions reported. + +Lieutenant Gannet was the name of Jimmie's superior officer. He had +been a clerk in a cotton-mill before the war, and had never had the +exercise of authority. Now he had to learn suddenly to give orders, +and his idea of doing it was to be extremely sharp and imperative. +He was a deeply conscientious young man, keen on the war, and +willing to face any hardship or peril in fulfilment of his duty; but +Jimmie could not have been expected to appreciate that--all Jimmie +knew was that his superior had a way of glaring from behind his +spectacles as if he was sure that someone was lying to him. + +Lieutenant Gannet didn't ask what Jimmie had said; he told Jimmie +what he had said, and informed him that that kind of talk wasn't +going on in the army while he was in hearing. Jimmie's business was +to keep some motor-cycles in repair, and some cyclists on their job; +about other matters let him hold his tongue, and not try to run the +affairs of the nation. Jimmie ventured the remark that he had said +nothing but what President Wilson was saying all along. To which the +lieutenant replied that he was not interested in Sergeant Higgins's +opinions of President Wilson's opinions--Sergeant Higgins was to +keep his opinions to himself, or he would get into serious trouble, +So Jimmie went away, seething with indignation, as much of a rebel +as he had ever been in Local Leesville. + +What were the rights of a soldier, anyway? Was he privileged to +discuss political issues, and to agree with the utterances of the +President of his country? Might he believe, as the President +believed, in a just peace and the right of all peoples to freedom +and self-determination, even though many of the officers of the army +hated and despised such ideas? Jimmie didn't know, and there was +nobody to tell him; but Jimmie knew that he hadn't meant to give up +his rights as a citizen when he enlisted to fight for democracy, and +if these rights were taken away from him, it would not be without a +struggle. + + + + +IV + + + +The transports came into the region of icebergs, and low-hanging +mists, and rocky cliffs covered with snow, and flocks of seagulls +flying over them. For days and nights on end they steamed in those +Arctic waters, and came at last into the White Sea, and the harbour +of Archangel. + +The Allies had been here since the beginning of the war, building +docks and sheds and railway yards; but they had never been able to +build enough, and the transport department of the corrupt Russian +government having gone to pieces, here were mountains of supplies of +every sort you could think of for an army, piled high on the shores. +At least, that was what Jimmie had been told; he had read in the +newspapers that the statement was made officially in answer to +questions in the British Parliament. Jimmie had understood that he +was here to save those mountains of supplies from the Germans, and +he was surprised when he looked about the harbour and saw no +mountains of any sort. + +Back in the interior were vast trackless forests of fir-trees, and +moss-covered swamps in which in summertime a man would sink up to +his neck. Now, in September, they were already frozen solid, and you +travelled over them with a sledge and a team of reindeer, bundled up +in furs and looking, except for the whiskers, like the pictures of +Santa Claus you had seen when you were a kid. But most of the +traffic of the army was upon the rivers which cut the forests and +swamps, and the single railroad, which was being put back into +commission. + +This country had, of course, no roads on which motor-cycles could be +used, even in summer. Jimmie found that his job would be confined to +the city and the encampments near about. A few streets would be kept +clear of snow, and the little band of messengers would scoot about +them, now and then taking a slide into a snow-bank and smashing +things up. That would have been all right, and Jimmie would have +bossed the job and been happy as he knew how to be--had only his +mind been at peace. + +For the first few days, of course, he had no time to think, he was +as busy as an ant, getting himself and his men ashore, and setting +up their benches and tools in an iron shed, with a roaring stove at +each end, and heaps of firewood which the peasants brought on +heavy flat sledges dragged by reindeer. Jimmie and his unit worked, +not merely during the hours of daylight, but most of the hours of +darkness, not stopping for Sundays. There were five thousand men to +be got ashore with their supplies--and in a desperate rush, as if +the Germans were expected at any hour. It was some while before +Jimmie found time to go about the city, to meet the "Tommies", who +had been here a month before him, and to hear what they had done, +and what they were expecting to do. + +Jimmie had understood that this expedition was to fight the Germans; +but now he became suspicious; apparently it was to fight the +Bolsheviki! The social revolution had accomplished itself in +Archangel, and a council of working-men and peasants had been in +full control, when the British troops and sailors had made a +surprise attack and seized the port, driving the revolutionists in +confusion before them. Now they were sending an expedition up the +railroad, and another on steamers up the North Dwina river, pursuing +Russian Socialists and driving them back into frozen swamps! And +here were American troops, being hurried ashore, and outfitted and +made ready to join in what seemed to Jimmie to be warfare upon +organized working-men! + +Jimmie was almost beside himself with bewilderment. It was all so +new and strange to him--and he had nobody to advise him. At home, if +there were a Socialist problem to settle, he would take it to +Meissner or Stankewitz, or Comrade Gerrity the organizer, or Comrade +Mabel Smith, the chairman of the Literature Committee. But now, in +all this expedition Jimmie did not know a single man who had any +idea of radicalism; they looked upon the Bolsheviki as mad dogs, as +traitors, criminals, lunatics, any word that seemed worst to you. +The Bolsheviki had deserted the cause of the Allies, they had gone +into league with Germany to betray Democracy; so now the Americans +had come to teach them the lesson of law and order. The Americans +looked upon themselves as an advance guard of a vast expedition +which was to march to Petrograd and Moscow, and wipe the idea of +Bolshevism off the map. And Jimmie Higgins was to help! Jimmie +Higgins, bound and gagged, lashed to the chariot of Militarism, was +to take part in destroying the first proletarian government in +history! + +The more Jimmie thought of it, the more indignant he became; he took +it as a personal outrage--a scurvy trick that had been played upon +him. He had swallowed their propaganda, he had filled himself up +with their patriotism, he had dropped everything to come and fight +for Democracy. He had gone into battle, had risked his life, had +suffered wounds and agony for them. And now they had broken their +bargain with him, they had brought him here and ordered him to fight +working-men--just as if he had been a militiaman at home! Democracy +indeed! Here they were marching in, glorying in their purpose to +conquer the Russian Revolutionists! + +And Jimmie Higgins, under martial law, must obey and hold his +tongue! Jimmie thought of all his friends at home who had denounced +the military machine; he thought of Comrade Mary Allen, of Comrade +Mabel Smith, and Comrade Evelyn Baskerville and Comrade Gerrity; he +had rejected their advice, and now, if they could see what he was +doing, how they would spurn him! Jimmie writhed at the very thought; +nor was he consoled when one of the men in his company gave him an +"inside" story of what was happening here--that in order to persuade +the British to submit their armies to the control of a French +general, and thus to save the situation in France, the Americans had +been forced to submit their own armies also; and now they found +themselves ordered to march in and fight a revolutionary government +which had repudiated its debt to France, and so had given offence to +a naturally frugal people. + + + + +V + + + +Jimmie met a man whom he might almost have taken for Deror Rabin, so +much did he resemble the little Jewish tailor. A big, +black-whiskered peasant brought a load of wood for the fires; and +there was a Jew helping him--a chap with a sharp face and keen +black eyes, his cheeks sunken as if he had not had enough to eat for +years, and his chest racked by a cough. He had wrapped his feet and +his hands in rags, because he had neither boots nor gloves; but he +seemed cheerful, and presently, as he dumped down a load, he nodded +and said, "Hello!" + +"Hello yourself!" replied Jimmie. + +"I speak English," said the fellow. + +It didn't surprise Jimmie that anybody should speak English; he was +only surprised when they didn't. So he smiled and said, "Sure!" + +"I been in America," went on the other. "I vork by sveat-shop in +Grand Street." + +You could see that he preferred gossiping to carrying wood; he stood +about and questioned, "Vere you vork in America?" When the peasant +grumbled at him in Russian, he went back at his job; but as he went +away, he said, "I talk vit you some time about America." To which, +of course, Jimmie answered with a friendly assent. + +A couple of hours later, when he went out from his work, he found +the little Jew waiting for him in the darkness. "I git lonesome some +time for America," he said; and walked down the street with Jimmie, +beating his thin arms to keep warm. + +"Why did you come back?" Jimmie inquired. + +"I read about revolution. I tink maybe I git rich." + +"Huh!" said Jimmie, and grinned. "What did you get?" + +"You belong to union in America?" countered the other. + +"You bet I do!" said Jimmie. + +"Vat sort of union?" + +"Machinists." + +"You been on strike, maybe?" + +"You bet I have!" + +"You got licked, maybe?" + +"You bet!" + +"You don't never scab, hey?" + +"Not much!" + +"You vat you call class-conscious?" + +"You bet! I'm a Socialist!" + +The other turned upon him, his voice trembling with sudden +excitement. "You got a red card?" + +"You bet!" said Jimmie. "Right inside my coat." + +"My God!" cried the other. "A comrade!" He stretched out his hands, +which were bundled up with old gunny-sacking, to Jimmie. "Tovarish!" +cried he. And standing there in the freezing darkness, these two +felt their hearts leap into a hot glow. Here, under the Arctic +Circle, in this wilderness of ice and desolation, even here the +spirit of international fraternity was working its miracles! + +But then, shaking with excitement, the little Jew pawed at Jimmie +with his bundled hands. "If you are Socialist, vy you fight de +Russian vorkers?" + +"I'm not fighting them!" + +"You vear de uniform." + +"I'm only a motor-cycle man." + +"But you help! You kill de Russian people! You destroy de Soviets! +Vy?" + +"I didn't know about it," pleaded Jimmie. "I wanted to fight the +Kaiser, and they brought me here without telling me." + +"Ah! So it iss vit militarism, vit capitalism! Ve are slaves! But we +vill be free! And you vill help, you vill not kill de Russian +vorkers!" + +"I will not!" cried Jimmie, quickly. + +And the little stranger put his arm through Jimmie's "You come vit +me, quick! I show you someting, tovarish!" + + + + +VI + + + +They threaded the dark streets till they came to a row of +working-men's hovels, made of logs, the cracks stuffed with mud and +straw--places in which an American farmer would not have thought it +proper to keep his cattle. "So live de vorkers," said the stranger, +and he knocked on the door of one of the hovels. It was unbarred by +a woman with several children about her skirts, and the men entered +a cabin lighted by a feeble, smoky lamp. There was a huge oven at +one side, with a kettle in which cabbage was cooking. The man said +nothing to the woman, but signed Jimmie to a seat before the oven, +and fixed his sharp black eyes on his face. + +"You show me de red card?" he said, suddenly. + +Jimmie took off his sheepskin-lined overcoat, and unbuttoned his +sweater underneath, and from an inside pocket of his jacket took out +the precious card with the due-stamps initialled by the secretaries +of Local Leesville and Local Hopeland and Local Ironton. The +stranger studied it, then nodded. "Good! I trust you." As he handed +back the card he remarked, "My name is Kalenkin. I am Bolshevik." + +Jimmie's heart bounded--though he had guessed as much, of course. +"We called our local in Ironton Bolshevik," said he. + +"Dey drive us out from here," continued the Jew, "but I stay behind +for propaganda. I look for comrades among de Americans, de British. +I say, 'Do not fight de vorkers, fight de masters, de capitalists.' +You understand?" + +"Sure!" said Jimmie. + +"If de masters find me, dey kill me. But I trust you." + +"I'll not tell!" said Jimmie quickly. + +"You help me," went on the other. "You go to de American soldiers, +you say, 'De Russian people have been slaves so many years; now dey +get free, and you come to kill dem and made dem slaves again!' Vy +iss it? Vat vill dey say, tovarish?" + +Jimmie answered: "They say they want to lick the Kaiser." + +"But we help to lick de Kaiser! Ve fight him!" + +"They say you've made peace with him!" + +"Ve fight vit propaganda--de vay de Kaiser fear most of all. Ve +spend millions of roubles, we print papers, leaflets--you know, +comrade, vat Socialists do. Ve send dem into Germany, we drop dem by +aeroplanes, we have printing-presses in--vat you call it, de Suisse, +de Nederland--everyvere. De Germans read, dey tink, dey say. Vy do +we fight for de Kaiser, vy do we not be free like de Russians? I +know it, tovarish, I have talked vit many German soldiers. It goes +like a fire in Germany. Maybe it take time--a year--two years--but +some day people see de Bolsheviki vere right, dey know de vorkers, +de heart of de vorkers--dey have de life, de fire dat cannot be put +out in de heart!" + +"Sure," said Jimmie. "But you can't tell things like that to the +doughboys." + +"My God!" said Kalenkin. "Don't I know! I vas in America! Dey tink +dey are de people vat de good God made! Dey know everyting--you +cannot teach dem. Dey are democracy; dey have no classes; +vage-slaves--dat iss just foreign--vat you call it--scum, hey? Dey +vill shoot us--I have seen how dey beat de vorkers ven dey strike on +Grand Street." + +"I've been through it all," said Jimmie. "What can we do?" + +"Propaganda!" cried Kalenkin. "For de first time we have plenty +money for propaganda--all de money in Russia for propaganda! +Ever'vere in de vorld we reach de vorkers--everyvere we cry to dem: +Rise! Rise and break your chains! You tink dey vill not hear us, +tovarish! De capitalists know dey vill hear us, dey tremble, so dey +send armies to beat us. Dey tink de armies vill obey--always--is it +not so?" + +"They think the Russian people will rise against you." + +At which the little man laughed, a wild hilarious laugh. "Ve have +got our own government! For de first time in Russia, de first time +in de vorld, de vorkers rule; and dey tink we rise against +ourselves! Dey put up--vat you call it--puppets, vat dey call +Socialists, dey make a government here in Archangel, vat dey call +Russian! Dey fool demselves, but dey don't fool de Russians!" + +"They think this government will spread," said Jimmie. + +"It vill spread just so far as de armies go--just so far. But in +Russia, all de people come together--all are Bolsheviki, ven dey see +de foreign armies coming. And vy, tovarish? Because dey know vat it +means ven capitalists come to make new governments for Russia. It +means bonds--de French, de British debt! You know?" + +"Sure, I know," said Jimmie. + +"It is billions, fifteen billions of roubles to France alone. De +Bolsheviki have said, 'Ve do not pay dem so quick.' And for vy? Vat +did dey do vit dat money! Dey loaned it to de Tsar, and for vat? To +make slaves out of de Russian people, to put dem in armies and make +dem fight de Japanese, to make police-force and send hundert +thousand Russian Socialists to Siberia! Is it not so? And Russian +Socialists pay such debts? Not so quick! Ve say, 'Ve had nothing to +do vit such money! You loaned it to de Tsar, now you collect it from +de Tsar! But dey say, 'You must pay!' And dey send armies, to take +de land of Russia, to take de oil and de coal and de gold. So, +tovarish! Dey vill put down de Soviets! But if so, dey must take +ever' town, ever' village in Russia--and all de time we make +propaganda vit de soldiers, we make it vit Frenchmen and Englishmen +and Americans, just like we make it vit Germans!" + + + + +VII + + + +The little man had made a long speech, and was exhausted; the +coughing seized him, and he pressed his hands to his chest, and his +white face flushed red in the firelight. The woman brought him water +to drink, and stood by him with a hand on his shoulder; her broad +peasant's face, deeply lined with care, quivered at every spasm of +the man's. Jimmie quivered, too, sitting there watching, and facing +in his own soul a mighty destiny. He knew the situation now, he knew +his own duty. It was perfectly plain, perfectly simple--his whole +life had been one long training for it. Something cried out in him, +in the words of another proletarian martyr, "Let this cup pass from +Me!" But he stilled the voice of his weakness, and after a while he +said: "Tell me what to do, comrade." + +Kalenkin asked, "You have made propaganda in America?" + +"Sure," said Jimmie. "I went to jail once for makin' a speech on the +street." + +And the other went to a corner of the cabin, and dug under half a +dozen cabbages, and brought out a packet. It contained leaflets, a +couple of hundred perhaps, and the Jew handed one to Jimmie, +explaining, "Dey ask me, 'How shall we make de Americans +understand?' I say, 'Dey must know how ve make propaganda vit de +Germans.' I say, 'Print de proclamations vat we give to de German +troops, and make English translation, so de Americans and de +Englishmen can read.' You tink dat help?" + +Jimmie took the leaflet and moved the lamp a bit nearer and read: + +"Proclamation of the Army Committee of the Russian Twelfth Army +(Bolshevik), posted throughout the city of Riga during its +evacuation by the Russians: + +"German Soldiers! + +"The Russian soldiers of the Twelfth Army draw your attention to the +fact that you are carrying on a war for autocracy against +Revolution, freedom and justice. The victory of Wilhelm will be +death to democracy and freedom. We withdraw from Riga, but we know +that the forces of the Revolution will ultimately prove themselves +more powerful than the force of cannons. We know that in the long +run your conscience will overcome everything, and that the German +soldiers, with the Russian Revolutionary Army, will march to the +victory of freedom. You are at present stronger than we are, but +yours is only the victory of brute force. The moral force is on our +side. History will tell that the German proletarians went against +their revolutionary brothers, and that they forgot international +working-class solidarity. This crime you can expiate only by one +means. You must understand your own and at the same time the +universal interests, and strain all your immense power against +imperialism, and go hand-in-hand with us--toward life and liberty!" + +Jimmie looked up. + +"Vat you tink of it?" cried Kalenkin, eagerly. + +"Fine!" cried Jimmie. "The very thing they need! Nobody can object +to that. It's a fact, it's what the Bolsheviki are doing." + +The other smiled grimly. "Tovarish, if dey find you vit dat paper, +dey shoot you like a dog! Dey shoot us all!" + +"But why?" + +"Because it is Bolshevik." + +Jimmie wanted to say. "But it's true!" However, he realized how +naive that would sound. So he waited, while Kalenkin went on: + +"You show it only to men you can trust. You hide de copies, you take +vun and make it dirty, so you say, 'I find it in de street.' See, +iss it so de Bolsheviki fight de Kaiser? If it iss so, vy do we need +to fight dem? So you give dese; and some day I come vit someting +new." + +Jimmie agreed that that was the way to set about it. He folded up a +score of the leaflets and stowed them in an inside pocket of his +jacket, and put on his heavy overcoat and gloves, which he wished he +could give to the sick, half-starved and half-frozen Bolshevik. He +patted him reassuringly on the back, and said: "You trust me, +comrade; I'll hand them out, and they'll bring results, too, I'll +bet." + +"You don't tell about me!" exclaimed Kalenkin with fierce intensity. + +To which Jimmie answered. "Not if they boil me alive." + + + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI + +JIMMIE HIGGINS DISCOVERS HIS SOUL + +I + + + + + +Jimmie went to supper in the mess-hall; but the piles of steaming +hot food choked him--he was thinking of the half-starved little Jew. +The thirty pieces of silver in the pocket of his army jacket burned +each a separate hole. Like the Judas of old, he wanted to hang +himself, and he took a quick method of doing it. + +Next to him at the table sat a motor-cyclist who had been a union +plumber before the war, and had agreed with Jimmie that working-men +were going to get their jobs back or would make the politicians +sweat for it. On the way out from the meal, Jimmie edged this fellow +off and remarked, "Say, I've got somethin' interestin'." + +Now interesting things were rare here under the Arctic Circle. +"What's that?" asked the plumber. + +"I was walkin' on the street," said Jimmie, "an' I seen a printed +paper in the gutter. It's a copy of the proclamation the Bolsheviki +have made to the German soldiers, an' that they're givin' out in the +German trenches." + +"By heck!" said the plumber. "What's in it?" + +"Why, it calls on them to rise against the Kaiser--to do what the +Russians have done." + +"Can you read German?" asked the other. + +"Naw," said Jimmie. "This is in English." + +"But what's it doin' in English?" + +"I'm sure I dunno." + +"What's it doin' in Archangel?" + +"Dunno that either." + +"Holy Christ!" cried the plumber. "I bet them fellers are trying +their stunts on us!" + +"I hadn't thought of that," said Jimmie, subtly. "Maybe it's so." + +"They won't get very far with the Yanks, I bet," predicted the +other. + +"No, I suppose not. But, anyhow, it's interesting, what they say." + +"Lemme see it," said the plumber. + +"But say," said Jimmie, "don't you tell nobody. I don't want to get +into trouble." + +"Mum's the word, old man." And the plumber took the dirty scrap of +paper and read. "By God!" said he. "That's kind o' funny." + +"How do you mean?" + +"Why, that don't sound like them fellers were backing the Kaiser, +does it?" And the plumber scratched his head. "Say, that sounds all +right to me!" + +"Me too!" said Jimmie. "Didn't know they had that much sense." + +"It's just what the German people ought to have, by God," said the +plumber. "Seems to me we ought to hire fellows to give out things +like that." + +"I think so, too," said Jimmie, enraptured. + +The plumber reflected again. "I suppose," said he, "the trouble is +they wouldn't give it to the Germans only; they'd want to give it to +both sides." + +"Exactly!" said Jimmie, enraptured still more. + +"And, of course, that wouldn't do," said the plumber; "that would +interfere with discipline." So Jimmie's hopes were dashed. + +But the upshot of the interview was that the plumber said he would +like to keep the paper and show it to a couple of other fellows. He +promised again that he wouldn't mention Jimmie, so Jimmie said all +right, and went his way, feeling one seed was lodged in good soil. + + + + +II + + + +The "Y" had come to Archangel along with the rest of the expedition, +and had set up a hut, in which the men played checkers and read, and +bought chocolate and cigarettes at prices which they considered too +high. Jimmie strolled in, and there was a doughboy with whom he had +had some chat on the transport. This doughboy had been a printer at +home, and he had agreed with Jimmie that maybe a whole lot of +politicians and newspaper editors didn't really understand President +Wilson's radical thought, and so far as they did understand it, +hated and feared it. This printer was reading one of the popular +magazines, full of the intellectual pap which a syndicate of big +bankers considered safe for the common people. He looked bored, so +Jimmie strolled up and lured him away, and repeated his play-acting +as with the plumber--and with the same result. + +Then he strolled in to see one of the picture-shows which had been +brought along to beguile the long Arctic nights for the expedition. +The picture showed a million-dollar-a-year girl doll-baby in her +habitual role, a poor little child-waif dressed in the newest +fashion and with a row of ringlets just out of a band-box, sharing +those terrible fates which the poor take as an everyday affair, and +being rewarded at the end by the love of a rich and noble and +devoted youth who solves the social problem by setting her up in a +palace. This also had met with the approval of a syndicate of +bankers before it reached the common people; and in the very midst +of it, while the child-waif with the ringlets was being shown in a +"close-up" with large drops of water running down her cheeks, the +doughboy in the seat next to Jimmie remarked, "Aw, hell! Why do they +keep on giving us this bunk?" + +So Jimmie suggested that they "cut it", and they went out, and +Jimmie played his little game a third time, and again was asked to +leave the leaflet he had picked out of the gutter. + +So on for two days until Jimmie had got rid of the last of the +manifestoes which Kalenkin had entrusted to him. And on the evening +of the last day, as the subtle propagandist was about to turn into +his bunk for the night, there suddenly appeared a sergeant with a +file of half a dozen men and announced, "Higgins, you are under +arrest." + +Jimmie stared at him. "What for?" + +"Orders--that's all I know." + +"Well, wait--" began Jimmie; but the other said there was no wait +about it, and he took Jimmie by the arm, and one of the other men +took him by the other arm, and marched him away. A third man slung +Jimmie's kit-bag on to his shoulder, while the rest began to search +the place, ripping open the mattress and looking for loose boards in +the floor. + + + + +III + + + +It didn't take Jimmie very long to figure out the situation. By that +time he had come into the presence of Lieutenant Gannet, he had made +up his mind what had happened, and what he would do about it. + +The lieutenant sat at a table, erect and stiff, with a terrible +frown behind his glasses. He had his sword on the table and also his +automatic--as if he intended to execute Jimmie, and had only to +decide which method to use. + +"Higgins," he thundered, "where did you get that leaflet?" + +"I found it in the gutter." + +"You lie!" said the lieutenant. + +"No, sir," said Jimmie. + +"How many did you find." + +Jimmie had imagined this emergency, and decided to play safe. +"Three, sir," said he; and added, "I think." + +"You lie!" thundered the lieutenant again. + +"No, sir," said Jimmie, meekly. + +"Whom did you give them to?" + +Jimmie hadn't thought of that question. It stumped him. "I--I'd +rather not say," said he. + +"I command you to say," said the lieutenant. + +"I'm sorry, sir, but I couldn't." + +"You'll have to say before you get through," said the other. "You +might as well understand that now. You say you found three?" + +"It might have been four," said Jimmie, playing still safer. "I +didn't pay any particular attention to them." + +"You sympathize with these doctrines," said the lieutenant. "Do you +deny it?" + +"Why, no sir--not exactly. I sympathize with part of them." + +"And you found these leaflets in the gutter, and you didn't take the +trouble to count whether there were three or four?" + +"No, sir." + +"There couldn't have been five?" + +"I don't know, sir--I don't think so." + +"Certainly not six?" + +"No, sir," said Jimmie, feeling quite safe now. "I'm sure there +weren't six." + +So the lieutenant opened a drawer in the table before him, and took +out a bunch of the leaflets, folded, wrinkled and dirt-stained, and +spread them before Jimmie's eyes, one, two, three, four, five, six, +seven. "You lie!" said the lieutenant. + +"I was mistaken, sir," said Jimmie. + +"Have you searched this man?" the officer demanded of the other +soldiers. + +"Not yet, sir." + +"Do it now." + +They made certain that Jimmie had no weapons, and then they made him +strip to the skin. They searched everything, even prying loose the +soles of his boots; and, of course, one of the first things they +found was the red card in the inside jacket-pocket. "Aha!" cried the +lieutenant. + +"That's a card of the Socialist party," said Jimmie. + +"Don't you know that back home men who carry that card are being +sent to jail for twenty years?" + +"It ain't fer carryin' the card," said Jimmie, sturdily. + +There was a pause, while Jimmie got his clothes on again. "Now, +Higgins," said the lieutenant, "you have been caught red-handed in +treason against your country and its flag. The penalty is death. +There is just one way you can escape--by making a clean breast of +everything. Do you understand?" + +"Yes, sir." + +"Then tell me who gave you those leaflets?" + +"I'm sorry, sir, I found them in the gutter." + +"You intend to stick to that silly tale?" + +"It's the truth, sir." + +"You will protect your fellow-conspirators with your life?" + +"I have told you all I know, sir." + +"All right," said the lieutenant. He took a pair of handcuffs from +the drawer and saw them put on Jimmie. He picked up his sword and +his automatic--and Jimmie, who did not understand military +procedure, stared with fright. But the lieutenant was merely +intending to strap the weapons on to his belt; then he got into his +overcoat and his big fur gloves and his fur hat that covered +everything but his eyes and nose, and ordered Jimmie brought along. +Outside an automobile was waiting, and the officer and the prisoner +and two guards rode to the military jail. + + + + +IV + + + +There was terror in the soul of the prisoner, but he did not let +anyone see it. And in the same way Lieutenant Gannet did not let +anyone see the perplexity that was in his soul. He was a military +officer, he had his stern military duty to do, and he was doing it; +but he had never put anybody in handcuffs before, and had never +taken anybody to jail before, and he was almost as much upset about +it as the prisoner. + +The lieutenant had seen the terrible spectacle of Russia collapsing, +falling into ruin and humiliation, because of what seemed to him a +propaganda of treason which had been carried on in her armies; he +realized that these "mad dogs" of Bolsheviki were deliberately +conspiring to poison the other armies, to bring the rest of the +world into their condition. It seemed to him monstrous that such +efforts should be under way in the American army. How far had the +thing gone? The lieutenant did not know, and he was terrified, as +men always are in the presence of the unknown. It was his plain +duty, to which he had sworn himself, to stamp his heel upon the head +of this snake; but still he was deeply troubled. This Sergeant +Higgins had been promoted for valour in France, and had been, in +spite of his reckless tongue, a pretty decent subordinate. And +behold, here he was, an active conspirator, a propagandist of +sedition, a defiant and insolent traitor! + +They came to the jail, which had been constructed by the Tsar for +the purpose of holding down the people of the region. It loomed, a +gigantic stone bulk in the darkness; and Jimmie, who had preached in +Local Leesville that America was worse than Russia, now learned that +he had been mistaken--Russia was exactly the same. + +They entered through a stone gateway, and a steel door opened before +them and clanged behind them. At a desk sat a sergeant, and except +that he was British, and that his uniform was brown instead of blue, +it might have been Leesville, U.S.A. They took down Jimmie's name +and address, and then Lieutenant Gannet asked: "Has Perkins come +yet?" + +"Not yet, sir," was the reply; but at that moment the front door was +opened, and there entered a big man, bundled in an overcoat which +made him even bigger. From the first moment, Jimmie watched this man +as a fascinated rabbit watches a snake. The little Socialist had had +so much to do with policemen and detectives in his hunted life that +he knew in a flash what he was "up against". + +This Perkins before the war had been an "operative" for a private +detective agency--what the workers contemptuously referred to as a +"sleuth". The government, having found itself in sudden need of much +"sleuthing", had been forced to take what help it could get, without +too close scrutiny. So now Perkins was a sergeant in the secret +service; and just as the carpenters were hammering nails as at home, +and the surgeons were cutting flesh as at home, so Perkins was +"sleuthing" as at home. + +"Well, sergeant?" said the lieutenant. "What have you got?" + +"I think I've got the story, sir." + +You could see the relief in Gannet's face; and Jimmie's heart went +down into his boots. + +"There's just one or two details I want to make sure about," +continued Perkins. "I suppose you won't mind if I question this +prisoner?" + +"Oh, not at all," said the other. He was relieved to be able to turn +this difficult matter over to a man of decision, a professional man, +who was used to such cases and knew how to handle them. + +"I'll report to you at once," said Perkins. + +"I'll wait," said the lieutenant. + +And Perkins took Jimmie's trembling arm in a grip like a vice, and +marched him down a long stone corridor and down a flight of steps. +On the way he picked up two other men, also in khaki, who followed +him; the four passed through a series of underground passages, and +entered a stone cell with a solid steel door, which they clanged +behind them--a sound that was like the knell of doom to poor +Jimmie's terrified soul. And instantly Sergeant Perkins seized him +by the shoulder and whirled him about, and glared into his eyes. +"Now, you little son-of-a-bitch!" said he. + +Having been a detective in an American city, this man was familiar +with the "third degree", whereby prisoners are led to tell what they +know, and many things which they don't know, but which they know the +police want them to tell. Of the other two men, one Private Connor, +had had this inquisition applied to him on more than one occasion. +He was a burglar with a prison-record; but his last arrest had been +in a middle Western town for taking part in a bar-room fight, and +the judge didn't happen to know his record, and accepted his tearful +plea, agreeing to suspend sentence provided the prisoner would +enlist to fight for his country. + +The other man was named Grady, and had left a wife and three +children in a tenement in "Hell's Kitchen", New York, to come to +fight the Kaiser. He was a kind-hearted and decent Irishman, who had +earned a hard living carrying bricks and mortar up a ladder ten +hours a day; but he was absolutely convinced that there existed, +somewhere under his feet, a hell of brimstone and sulphur in which +he would roast for ever if he disobeyed the orders of those who were +set in authority over him. Grady knew that there were certain wicked +men, hating and slandering religion, and luring millions of souls +into hell; they were called Socialists, or Anarchists, and must +obviously be emissaries of Satan, so it was God's work to root them +out and destroy them. Thus the Gradys have reasoned for a thousand +years; and thus in black dungeons underground they have turned the +thumb-screws and pulled the levers of the rack. They do it still in +many of the large cities of America, where superstition runs the +police-force, in combination with liquor interests and public +service corporations. + + + + +VI + + + +"Now, you little son-of-a-bitch," said Perkins, "listen to me. I +been lookin' into this business of yours, and I got the names of +most of them Bolsheviks you been dealing with. But I want to know +them all, and I'm going to know--see?" + +In spite of all his terror, Jimmie's heart leaped with exultation. +Perkins was lying! He hadn't found out a thing! He was just trying +to bluff his prisoner, and to make his superior officer think he was +a real "sleuth". He was doing what the police everywhere do--trying +to obtain by brutality what they cannot obtain by skill and +intelligence. + +"Now, you're goin' to tell," continued the man. "You may think you +can hold out, but you'll find it's no go. I'll tear you limb from +limb if you make me--I'll do just whatever I have to do to make you +come through. You get me?" + +Jimmie nodded his head in a sort of spasm, but his effort to make a +sound resulted only in a gulp in his throat. + +"You'll only make yourself a lot of pain if you delay, so you'd +better be sensible. Now--who are they?" + +"They ain't anybody. They--" + +"So that's it? Well, we'll see." And the sergeant swung Jimmie +about, so as to be at his back. "Hold him," he said to the two men, +and they grasped the prisoner's shoulders; the sergeant grasped his +two wrists, which were handcuffed together, and began to force them +up Jimmie's back. + +"Ow!" cried Jimmie. "Stop! Stop!" + +"Will you tell?" said the sergeant. + +"Stop!" cried Jimmie, wildly; and as the other pushed harder, he +began to scream. "You'll break my arm! The one that was wounded." + +"Wounded?" said the sergeant. + +"It was broken by a bullet!" + +"The hell you say!" said the sergeant. + +"It's true--ask anybody! The battle of Chatty Terry in France!" + +For just a moment the pressure on Jimmie's arms weakened; but then +the sergeant remembered that military men who have a career to make +do not go to their superior officers with sentimentalities. "If you +were wounded in battle," said the sergeant, "what you turnin' +traitor for? Give me the names I want!" And he began to push again. + +It was the most horrible agony that Jimmie had ever dreamed of. His +voice rose to a shriek: "Wait! Wait! Listen!" The torturer would +relax the pressure and say: "The names?" And when Jimmie did not +give the names, he would press harder yet. Jimmie writhed +convulsively, but the other two men held him as in a vice. He +pleaded, he sobbed and moaned; but the walls of this dungeon had +been made so that the owners of property outside would not be +troubled by knowing what was being done in their interest. + +We go into museums and look at devilish instruments which men once +employed for the torment of their fellows, and we shudder and +congratulate ourselves that we live in more humane days; quite +overlooking the fact that it does not need elaborate instruments to +inflict pain on the human body. Any man can do it to another, if he +has him helpless. The thing that is needed is the motive--that is +to say, some form of privilege established by law, and protecting +itself against rebellion. + +"Tell me the names!" said the sergeant. He had Jimmie's two hands +forced up the back of his neck, and was lying over on Jimmie, +pushing, pushing. Jimmie was blinded with the pain, his whole being +convulsed. It was too horrible, it could not be! Anything, anything +to stop it! A voice shrieked in his soul: "Tell! Tell!" But then he +thought of the little Jew, pitiful, trusting--no, no, he would not +tell! He would never tell! But then what was he to do'? Endure this +horror? He could not endure it--it was monstrous! + +He would writhe and scream, babble and plead and sob. Perhaps there +have been men who have endured torture with dignity, but Jimmie was +not one of these. Jimmie was abject, Jimmie was frantic; he did +anything, everything he could think of--save one thing, the thing +that Perkins kept telling him to do. + +This went on until the sergeant was out of breath; that being one +disadvantage of the primitive hand-processes of torture to which +American police-officials have been reduced by political +sentimentalism. The torturer lost his temper, and began to shake and +twist at Jimmie's arms, so that Connor had to warn him--he didn't +want to break anything, of course. + +So Perkins said, "Put his head down." They bent Jimmie over till his +head was on the ground, and Grady tied Jimmie's legs to keep them +quiet, and Connor held his neck fast, and Perkins put his foot on +the handcuffs and pressed down. By this means he could continue the +torture while standing erect and breathing freely, a great relief to +him. "Now, damn you!" said he. "I can stay here all night. Come +through!" + + + + +VII + + + +Jimmie thought that each moment of pain was the worst. He had never +had any idea that pain could endure so long, could burn with such a +white and searing flame. He ground his teeth together, he chewed his +tongue through, he gound his face upon the stones. Anything for a +respite--even a new kind of pain, that he might forget the screaming +ache in his shoulders and elbows and wrists. But there was no +respite; his spirit was whirled and beaten about in bottomless +abysses, and from their depths he heard the voice of Perkins, as +from a far-off mountain-top: "Come through! Come through--or you'll +stay like this all night!" + +But Jimmie did not stay like that; for Perkins got tired of standing +on one foot, and he knew that the Lieutenant was pacing about +upstairs, wondering why it took so long to ask a few questions. +Jimmie heard the voice from the far-off mountain-top: "This won't +do; we'll have to string him up for a bit." And he took from his +pocket a strong cord, and tied one end about Jimmie's two thumbs, +and ran the other end over an iron ring in the wall of the +dungeon--put there by some agent of the Tsar for use in the cause of +democracy. The other two men lifted Jimmie till his feet were off +the ground, and then made fast the cord, and Jimmie hung with his +full weight from his thumbs, still handcuffed behind his back. + +So now he was no trouble to the three jailers--except that he was an +ugly-looking object, with his face purple and convulsed, and his +bloody tongue being chewed up. They turned him about, with his face +against the stones, and then they had nothing but the sounds of him, +which had become feebler, but were none the less disagreeable, a +babbling and gabbling, continuous and yet unrhythmic, as if made by +a whole menagerie of tormented animals. + +Still the minutes passed, and Perkins's irritation grew. He wouldn't +have minded for himself, for his nerves were strong, he had handled +a good many of the I.W.W. in the old days back home; but he had +promised to get the information, and so his reputation was at stake. +He would prod Jimmie and say: "Will you tell?" And when Jimmie still +refused, finally he said: "We'll have to try the water-cure. Connor, +get me a couple of pitchers of water and a good-sized funnel." + +"Yes, sir," said the ex-burglar, and went out; and meantime Perkins +addressed his victim again. "Listen, you little hell-pup," said he. +"I'm going to do something new, something that'll break you sure. I +been with the army in the Philippines, and seen it worked there +many's the time, and I never yet seen anybody that could stand it. +We're going to fill you up with water; and we'll leave you to soak +for a couple of hours, and then we'll put in some more, and we'll +keep that up day and night till you come through. Now, you better +think it over and speak quick, before we get the water in, because +it ain't so easy to get out." + +Jimmie lay with his face against the wall, and the agony of his +tortured thumbs was like knives twisted into him; he listened to +these threats and heard again the cry in his soul for respite at any +hazard. + +Jimmie was fighting a battle, the sternest ever fought by man--the +battle of conscience against the weakness of the flesh. To tell or +not to tell? The poor tormented body shrieked, Tell! But conscience, +in a feeble voice, gasped over and over and over, No! No! No! It had +to keep on insisting, because the battle was never over, never won. +Each moment was a new agony, and therefore a fresh temptation; each +argument had to be repeated without end. Why should he not tell? +Because Kalenkin had trusted him, and Kalenkin was a comrade. But +maybe Kalenkin was gone now, maybe he had died of one of his +coughing spells, maybe he had heard of Jimmie's arrest and made his +escape. Maybe they would not torture Kalenkin as they had Jimmie, +because he was not a soldier; they might just put him in jail and +keep him there, and others would do the work. Maybe-- + +And so on. But the feeble voice whispered in the soul of Jimmie +Higgins: You are the revolution. You are social justice, struggling +for life in this world. You are humanity, setting its face to the +light, striving to reach a new goal, to put behind it an old horror. +You are Jesus on the Cross; and if you fail, the world goes back, +perhaps for ever. You must hold out! You must bear this! And this! +And this! You must bear everything--for ever--as long as needs be! +You must not "come through!" + + + + +VIII + + + +Connor came back with his pitchers of water and his funnel! They +took Jimmie down--oh, the blessed relief to his thumbs!--and laid +him on the ground, with his racked and swollen hands still +handcuffed under him; and Grady sat on his feet, and Connor sat on +his chest, and Perkins forced the funnel down his throat and poured +in the water. + +Jimmie had to swallow, of course; he had to gulp desperately, to +keep from being choked; and pretty soon the water filled him up, and +then began the most fearful agony he had yet endured. It was like +the pain of the ether-gas, only infinitely worse. He was blown out +like a balloon; his insides were about to burst; his whole body was +one sore boil--and Connor, sitting on his stomach, sat a little +harder now and then, to make sure the water got jostled into place. +Jimmie could not scream, but his face turned purple and the cords +stood out on his forehead and neck; he began to strangle, and this +was worst of all; every convulsion of his body stabbed him with ten +thousand knives. + +Jimmie had talked with a number of the "wobblies" who had had this +"water-cure", a regular device of police-authorities in small towns +and villages. It is simple and cheap and cleanly; it leaves no blood +and no bruises to be exhibited in court; it muzzles the victim, so +that his screams cannot be heard through jail-windows--therefore a +simple denial covers it completely. "Wild Bill" had had this +treatment, "Strawberry" Curran had had it several times. But oh, +thought Jimmie, it could not be like this--no human being had ever +endured anything like this! Poor Jimmie was not learned in history, +and did not realize that men have endured everything that other men +can inflict. They will continue to endure it, so long as privilege +is written in the law, and allowed to use the law in its unholy +cause. + +So the battle of the ages went on in the soul of Jimmie Higgins. He +was a little runt of a Socialist machinist, with bad teeth and +gnarled hands, and he could do nothing sublime or inspiring, nothing +even dignified; in fact, it would be hard for anyone to do anything +dignified, when he lies on the floor with a gallon or two of water +in him, and one man sitting on his legs and another on his stomach, +and another jamming a funnel into his mouth. All Jimmie could do was +to fight the fearful fight in the deeps of him, and not lose it. +"Lift your knee if you are ready to tell," Perkins would say; and +Grady would rise up, so that Jimmie could lift his knee if he wanted +to; but Jimmie's knee did not lift. + +Far down in the deeps of Jimmie Higgins' tormented soul, something +strange was happening. Lying there bound and helpless, despairing, +writhing with agony, half-insane with the terror of it, Jimmie +called for help--and help came to him; the help which penetrates +all dungeon walls, and cheats all jailors and torturers; that power +which breaks all bars of steel and bars of fear-- + +"Thou has great allies; Thy friends are exultations, agonies, And +love, and man's unconquerable mind!" + +In the soul of Jimmie Higgins was heard that voice which speaks +above the menaces and commands of tyranny: which says: I am Man, and +I prevail. I conquer the flesh, I trample upon the body and rise +above it. I defy its imprisonments, its prudences and fears. I am +Truth, and will be heard in the world. I am Justice, and will be +done in the world. I am Freedom, and I break all laws, I defy all +repressions, I exult, I proclaim deliverance!--and because, in +every age and in every clime, this holy Power has dwelt in the soul +of man, because this mystic Voice has spoken there, humanity has +moved out of darkness and savagery into at least the dream of a +decent and happy world. + +So Jimmie lay, converting his pain into ecstasy, a dizzy and +perilous rapture, close to the border-line of madness; and Sergeant +Perkins arose and looked down on him and shook his head. "By God!" +said he. "What's in that little hell-pup?" He gave Jimmie a kick in +the ribs; and Jimmie's soul took a leap, and went whirling through +eternities of anguish. + +"By Jesus, I'll make you talk!" cried Perkins, and he began to kick +with his heavy boots--until Connor stopped him, knowing that this +was not ethical--it would leave marks. + +So finally the sergeant said abruptly, "Wait here." And he went +upstairs to where Gannet was pacing about. + +"Lieutenant," he said, "that fellow's a stubborn case." + +"What does he say?" + +"I can't get a word out of him. He's a Socialist and a crank, you +know, and you'd be surprised how ugly some of them fellows can be. +As soon as I get the story complete I'll report to you, but meantime +there's no use your waiting here." + +So the officer went away, and Perkins went back to the dungeon and +gave orders that every two hours someone should come and fill Jimmie +up with water, and give him another chance to say "Yes". And Jimmie +lay and moaned and wept, all by himself, quivering now and then with +the perilous ecstasy, which does not last, but has to be renewed by +continuous efforts of the will, as a tired horse has to be driven +with spur and whip. Never, never could this battle be truly won! +Never could the body be wholly forgotten, its clamorous demands +wholly stilled! God comes, but doubt follows closely. What is the +use of this fearful sacrifice? What good will it accomplish, who +will know about it, who will care? Thus Satan in the soul, and thus +the eternal duel between the new thing that man dreams, and the old +thing that he has made into law. + + + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII + +JIMMIE HIGGINS VOTES FOR DEMOCRACY + +I + + + + + +Another day had come--though Jimmie did not know it in his dungeon. +All he knew was that Sergeant Perkins returned, and stood looking at +him, picking his teeth with a quill. This little Bolshevik had stood +the water-cure longer than any man whom Perkins had ever known, and +he wondered vaguely what sort of damned fool he was, what he thought +he was accomplishing, anyhow. + +But it was necessary to keep after him, for Perkins knew that his +career was at stake. He was supposed to have found out something, +and he hadn't! So he ordered Jimmie tied up by the thumbs, the poor +thumbs that were swollen to three times their normal size, and +nearly black in colour. But now Jimmie's good Mother Nature +interfered to stop the proceedings; the pain was so exquisite that +Jimmie fainted, and when the sergeant saw that he was being cheated, +he cut his victim down and left him lying on the damp stones. + +So for three days Jimmie's life consisted of alternating swoons and +agony--the regular routine of the "third degree" in more obstinate +cases; and always, in his conscious moments, Jimmie called upon the +God in himself, and the God responded with his hosts, and trumpets +of triumph echoed in Jimmie's soul and he did not "come through". + +So on the fourth day the three torturers entered the cell, and +lifted him to his feet, and carried him up the stone stairs, and +wrapped him in a blanket and put him in an automobile. + +"Listen now," said Perkins, who sat by his side, "they're going to +try you by court-martial. Hear me?" + +Jimmie made no response. + +"And I'll explain this for your health--if you tell any lies about +what we done to you, I'll take you back to that dungeon and tear you +limb from limb. You get me?" Still Jimmie did not answer--the sullen +little devil, thought Perkins. But in Jimmie's soul there was a +faint flicker of hope. Might he not make appeal to the higher +authorities, and be saved from further torture? Jimmie had believed +in his country, and in his country's purpose to defend democracy; he +had read the wonderful speeches of President Wilson, and could not +bring himself to think that the President would permit any man to be +tortured in prison. But alas, it was a long way from the White House +to Archangel--and still longer if you measured it through the +ramifications of the army machine, a route more thoroughly +criss-crossed with red tape than any sector of the Hindenburg line +with barbed wire. + +Jimmie was taken into a room where seven officers sat at a big +table, looking very stern and solemn. Perkins supported him under +the arm-pits, thus making it look as if he were walking. He was +placed in a chair, and took a glance about him--but without seeing +much hope in the faces which confronted him. + +The president of the court-martial was Major Gaddis, who had been a +professor of economics in a great university before the war: that is +to say, he had been selected by a syndicate of bankers as a man who +believed in a ruling class, and could never by any possibility be +brought to believe in anything else. He was a man of strict honour, +a very gracious and cultivated gentleman if you happened to belong +in his social circle; but he was convinced that the duty of the +lower classes was to obey, and that the existence of civilized +society depended upon their being made to obey. + +Next to him sat Colonel Nye, as different a type as could be +imagined. Nye had been a soldier of fortune in Mexico and Central +America, and had found prosperity as a captain of one of those +condottieri bands which were organized by the big corporations of +America before the war, for the purpose of crushing strikes. He had +commanded a private army of five thousand men, horse, foot and +artillery, known to the public as the Smithers Detective Agency. +During a great coal-strike he had been placed by a state government +in virtual charge of the militia, and had occupied himself in +turning loose machine-guns on tent-colonies filled with women and +children. He had been tried by a militia court-martial for murder +and acquitted--thus making it impossible for any civilian grand-jury +ever to indict him and have him hanged. And now he had been +automatically taken from the state militia into the national army, +where he made a most efficient officer, with a reputation as a +strict disciplinarian. + +First-Lieutenant Olsen had been a dry goods clerk, who had gone into +an officers' training-camp. As he hoped to rise in the world, he +looked to his superiors always before he expressed an opinion. The +same was true of Captain Gushing, who was a good-natured young +bank-cashier with a pretty wife who spent his salary a couple of +months before he got it. The fifth officer, Lieutenant Gannet, did +most of the talking, because he was Jimmie's immediate superior, and +had conducted the investigations into the case. He had discussed the +matter with Major Prentice, the Judge-Advocate of the court, also +with Captain Ardner, the young military lawyer who went through the +form of defending Jimmie; the three had agreed that the case was a +most serious one. The propaganda of Bolshevism in this Archangel +expedition must certainly be nipped in the bud. The charge against +Jimmie was insubordination and incitement to mutiny, and the penalty +was death. + + + + +II + + + +Jimmie sat in his chair, only partly aware of what was going on, +because of the agony in his swollen thumbs and his twisted arms. His +flicker of hope had died, and he had lost interest in the +proceedings--all his energy was needed to endure his pain. He would +not tell them where he had got the leaflets, and when they badgered +him, he just grunted with pain. He would not talk with Captain +Ardner, who tried in vain to persuade him that he was acting in +his--the prisoner's--interest. Only twice did Jimmie flare up; the +first time when Major Gaddis voiced his indignation that any citizen +of the great American democracy should ally himself with these +Bolshevik vermin, who were carrying on a reign of terror throughout +Russia, burning, slaying, torturing-- + +"Who talks about torturing?" shrieked Jimmie, half-starting from +his chair. "Ain't you been torturing me--regular tearin' me to +pieces?" + +The court was shocked. "Torturing?" said Captain Gushing. + +"Torturin' me for days--a week, maybe, I dunno, in that there +dungeon!" + +Major Gaddis turned to Sergeant Perkins, who stood behind Jimmie's +chair, barely able to withhold his hands from the prisoner. "How +about that, Sergeant?" + +"It is utterly false, sir." + +"Look at these thumbs!" cried Jimmie. "They strung me up by them!" + +"The prisoner was violent," said Perkins. "He nearly killed Private +Connor, one of the guards, so we had to use severe measures." + +"It's a lie!" shrieked Jimmie. But they shut him up, and the +dignified military machine ground on. Anybody could see that +discipline would go to pieces if the word of a jailer did not +prevail over that of a prisoner, the word of a loyal and tried +subordinate over that of a traitor and conspirator, an avowed +sympathizer with the enemy. + +Presently the presiding officer inquired if the prisoner was aware +that he had incurred the death-penalty. Getting no reply, he went on +to inform the prisoner that the court would be apt to inflict this +extreme penalty, unless he would reconsider and name his accomplices +among the Bolsheviki, so that the army could protect itself against +the propaganda of these murderers. So Jimmie flared up again--but +not so violently, rather with a touch of fierce irony. "Murderers, +you say? Ain't you gettin' ready to murder me?" + +"We are enforcing the law," said the court. + +"You make what you call law, an' they make what they call law. You +kill people that disobey, an' so do they. What's the difference?" + +"They are killing all the educated and law-abiding people in +Russia," declared Major Gaddis, severely. + +"All the rich people, you mean," said Jimmie. "They make the rich +obey their laws; they give them a chance, the same as everybody +else, then if they don't obey they kill them--just as many as they +have to kill to make them obey. An' don't you do the same with the +poor people? Ain't I seen you do it, every time there was a strike? +Ask Colonel Nye there! Didn't he say: 'To hell with habeas +corpus--we'll give them post-mortems?'" + +Colonel Nye flushed; he did not know that his fame had followed him +all the way from Colorado to the Arctic Circle. The court made haste +to protect him: "We are not conducting a Socialist debate here. It +is evident that the prisoner is impenitent and defiant, and that +there is no reason for leniency." So the court proceeded to find +Jimmie Higgins guilty as charged, and to sentence him to twenty +years' military confinement--really quite a mild sentence, +considering the circumstances. In New York City at this very time +they were trying five Russian Jews, all of them mere children, one a +girl, for exactly the same offence as Jimmie had +committed--distributing a plea that American troops should cease to +kill Russian Socialists; these children received twenty years, and +one of them died soon after his arrest--his fellows swore as a +result of torture inflicted by Federal secret service agents. + + + + +III + + + +So Jimmie was taken back to prison. Major Gaddis, who was really a +just man, and made law and order his religion, gave the strictest +orders that the prisoner should not again be hung up by the thumbs. +It was, of course, desirable to find out who had printed the +Bolshevik leaflets, but in the effort to make the prisoner tell he +should receive only the punishments formally approved by the army +authorities. + +So Jimmie went back to the underground dungeon, and for eight hours +every day a chain was fastened about his wrists, and the other end +run up into the iron ring, so that his feet barely touched the +floor; and there Jimmie hung, and tried out his conscience--this +being the test then being undergone by many men at the disciplinary +barracks at Fort Leavenworth. Jimmie's conscience really was nothing +like as strong as it ought to have been. Jimmie had moods of +shameless self-pity, moods of desperate and agonizing doubt. He did +not mean to let his dungeon-keepers know this, but they listened +behind the door through a slot which the Tsar had had contrived for +this purpose; it could be closed while the prisoner was screaming +under torture, and then opened by the jailer without the prisoner's +knowledge. + +So Perkins heard Jimmie sobbing and wailing, talking to himself and +to other people--to someone called "Strawberry", and to someone else +called "Wild Bill", asking them if they had ever suffered anything +like this, and was it really worth while, would it help the +revolution? Perkins thought he had got some important information +here, and took it to Lieutenant Gannet, with the result that inquiry +was made through all the American Forces for men known as +"Strawberry" and "Wild Bill". But these men could not be found; as +it happened, "Wild Bill" had taken refuge in a place to which not +even the army intelligence service can penetrate, and "Strawberry" +Curran was just then being tried with a bunch of other "wobblies" in +California and subjected to much the same kind of treatment as +Jimmie was receiving in Archangel. + +It was a big advantage that Sergeant Perkins had in his struggle +with Jimmie, that the pitiful weakness of Jimmy's soul was exposed +to him, while the soul of Perkins was hidden from Jimmie. For the +truth was that Perkins was suffering from rage, mingled with not a +little fear. What the hell was this idea that could keep a little +runt of a working-man stronger than all in authority? And how was +this idea to be kept from spreading and wrecking the comfortable, +well-ordered world in which Perkins expected soon to receive an army +commission? The very day after the court-martial, which was supposed +to be a profound military secret, the army authorities were +astounded to discover, posted in several conspicuous places, a +placard in English, reading: + +"American soldiers, do you know that an army sergeant is being +tortured and has been sentenced to twenty years in a dungeon for +having tried to tell you how the Bolsheviki are making propaganda +against the German Kaiser? + +"Do you know the true reason your armies are here? Are you willing +to die to compel the Russian people to accept your ideas of +government? Are you willing to have your comrades tortured to keep +the facts from you?" + +And of course the doughboys who read this placard wanted to know if +it told the truth. And quickly word spread that it did. Men who +still had copies of the leaflet which Jimmie had distributed now +found eager readers for it, and soon all the men knew its contents, +and were debating the question of the use of American armies to put +down social revolution in a foreign country. These same questions +were being asked in the halls of Congress back home. Senators were +questioning the right of sending troops into a country against which +war had never been declared, and other Senators were demanding that +they be immediately withdrawn. And this news also reached the men, +and increased the danger. Archangel was not a pleasant place to +stay, especially with winter coming on fast; men were disposed to +grumble--and now they had a pretext! + + + + +IV + + + +The authorities who were handling this army laboured under one +grievous handicap, probably never before faced by any army in +history. The Commander-in-Chief of the army, who determined its +policies and tried to set its moral tone, kept coming now and then +before Congress and making speeches full of incendiary and reckless +utterances, calculated to set dangerous thoughts to buzzing in the +heads of soldiers, to break down discipline and undermine morale. +The President wrote a letter to a political convention in which he +declared that the workers of America were living in "economic +serfdom"; he declared again and again that every people had a right +to determine their own destinies and form of government without +outside interference. This while the army was trying to put down +those Russians who were in revolt against "economic serfdom" in +their own country! + +An army, you see, is a machine built to fight; a man who goes into +it and takes part in its work, very quickly acquires its tone, which +is one of abysmal contempt for all politicians, particularly of the +talking and letter-writing variety, the "idealists" and "dreamers" +and "theorists", who do not understand that the business of men is +to fight battles and win them. All the officers of the old army, the +West-Pointers, had been bred in the tradition of class-rule, they +had in their very bones the idea that they were a special breed, +that obedience to them was a law of God; while of the new officers, +the overwhelming majority came from the well-to-do, and were not +favourable to speech-making and letter-writing about the rights of +man. They were without enthusiasm for the idea of having a pacifist +secretary of war set over them by the "idealist" commander-in-chief. +They did not hesitate to vent their indignation; and when this +pacifist secretary gave orders about conscientious objectors which +were based upon sentimentalism and theory, the army machine took the +liberty of interpreting these orders and trimming the nonsense out +of them. And the farther away you got from the office of the +pacifist secretary, the more thorough the trimming inevitably +became; thus producing the phenomenon which poor Jimmie Higgins +found so bewildering--that policies laid down by sincere +humanitarians and liberals in Washington were carried out in +Archangel by an ex-detective trained in a school of corruption and +cruelty. + +Jimmie Higgins couldn't understand that here in Archangel were +Americans taking their orders from British and French officers, who +wasted no breath on pacifism and sentiment, who had no fool ideas +about wars for democracy. Was one obscure little runt of a Socialist +machinist to be allowed to block their world-plans? Setting himself +up as an authority, presuming to accept literally the passages of +his President, in defiance of their authority in Archangel! Allying +himself with traitorous and criminal scoundrels, trying to poison +the minds of American soldiers and light the flame of mutiny among +them! Just as once Jimmie Higgins had found himself in a strategic +position where he had held up the whole Hun army and won the battle +of Chateau-Thierry, so now he found himself in a position of equal +strategic importance--on the line of communication of the Allied +armies attacking Russia, and threatening to cut the line and force +the armies into retreat! + + + + +V + + + +It became more essential than ever to discover these Bolshevik +sympathizers and stamp out their propaganda. As hanging Jimmie up by +the wrists had not brought forth the desired information, Jimmie was +put in solitary confinement on a diet of bread and water, this being +another test of sincerity of conscience. For the conscience a diet +of white flour and water may be all right, but Jimmie soon found +that it is very bad indeed for the intestinal tract and the +blood-stream--being, in truth, far worse than a diet of water alone. +The man who lives on white flour and water for a few days suffers +either from complete stopping of the bowels, or else from dysentery; +his blood becomes clogged with starch poisons, his nerves +degenerate, he falls a quick victim to tuberculosis, or pernicious +anasmia, or some other disease which will prevent his ever being a +sound man again. + +Also, Jimmie received the water-treatment, as included in the Fort +Leavenworth regiment. It was necessary that all prisoners should be +bathed; which was interpreted by some guards to mean that they +should have a stream of icy water turned on them, and be forced to +stand under it. Because Jimmie's arms were too badly injured for him +to scrub himself, Connor seized a rough brush and salt, and rubbed +off strips of his skin. When Jimmy wriggled away, they followed him +with the hose; when he screamed, they turned it into his mouth and +nose; when he fell down, they let the cold water run over him for +ten or fifteen minutes. + +Jimmie had had a good deal of harsh treatment in the course of his +outcast life, but never so closely concentrated in point of time. +His spirit remained unbroken, but his body gave way, and then his +mind began to give also. He fell a victim to delusions; the +nightmares which haunted his sleep lay siege to his waking hours +also, and he thought he was being tortured at times when he was just +hanging by his chains. Until at last Perkins, listening through the +door, heard strange cries and grunts, beast-like noises, barkings, +and growlings. He called Connor and Grady, and the three of them +stood listening. + +"By God!" said Grady. "He's dippy." + +"He's nutty," said Connor. + +"He's batty," said Perkins. + +But the idea occurred to all of them--perhaps he was shamming! What +was easier than for one of those emissaries of Satan to pretend to +have a devil inside him? So they waited a bit longer, until Connor, +coming to chain Jimmie up, found him gnawing off the ends of his +fingers. That was really serious, so they sent for the +prison-surgeon, who had to make but a brief inspection to convince +himself that Jimmie Higgins was a raving madman. Jimmie fancied +himself some kind of fur-bearing animal, and he was in a trap, and +was trying to gnaw off his foot so as to escape. He snapped his +teeth at everyone who came near him; he had to be knocked senseless +before a straight-jacket could be got on him. + + + + +VI + + + +And so it was that Jimmie Higgins at last made his escape from his +tormentors. Jimmie doesn't know anything about the Russian Jew, +Kalenkin, any more; he could not tell the secret if he wanted to, so +they have given up testing his conscience, and they treat him +kindly, and have succeeded in persuading him that he is out of the +trap. Therefore he is a good beast--he crawls about on all fours, +and eats his food out of a tin platter without using his gnawed-off +fingers. He still has torturing pains in the arm-joints, but he does +not mind them so much, because, being a beast, he suffers only the +pain of the moment; he does not know that he is going to suffer +to-morrow, nor worry about it. He is no longer one of those who +"look before and after and pine for what is not". He is a "good +doggie", and when you pat him on the head he rubs against you and +whines affectionately. + +Poor, mad Jimmie Higgins will never again trouble his country; but +Jimmie's friends and partisans, who know the story of his +experiences, cannot be thus lightly dismissed by Society. In the +industrial troubles which are threatening the great democracy of the +West, there will appear men and women animated by a fierce and +blazing bitterness; and the great democracy of the West will marvel +at their state of mind, unable to conceive what can have caused it. +These rebellious ones will be heard quoting to the great democracy +the words of its greatest democrat, spoken in solemn warning during +the slaughter and destruction of the Civil War: "If God will that it +continue until all the wealth piled by the bondman's two hundred and +fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop +of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the +sword, as it was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be +said, 'The judgements of the Lord are true and righteous +altogether.'" + +THE END + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Jimmie Higgins, by Upton Sinclair + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JIMMIE HIGGINS *** + +***** This file should be named 5677.txt or 5677.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/5/6/7/5677/ + +Produced by Charles Aldarondo + +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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