IT was when I was in my fifteenth year that face to face I first met
politics. Or to fit the phrase more nearly with the fact, I should say
it was then when politics met me. Nor was that meeting in its incident
one soon to slip from memory. It carried for a darkling element the
locking of me in a graceless cell, and that is an adventure sure to
leave its impress. The more if one be young, since the trail of events
is ever deepest where the ground is soft. It is no wonder the business
lies in my mind like a black cameo. It was my first captivity, and there
will come on one no greater horror than seizes him when for the earliest
time he hears bars and bolts grate home behind him.
On that day, had one found and measured me he would not have called me
a child of thoughts or books or alcoves. My nature was as unkempt as the
streets. Still, in a turbid way and to broadest banks, the currents of
my sentiment were running for honesty and truth. Also, while I wasted no
space over the question, I took it as I took the skies above me that law
was for folk guilty of wrong, while justice even against odds of power
would never fail the weak and right. My eyes were to be opened; I was
to be shown the lesson of Tammany, and how law would bend and judges bow
before the mighty breath of the machine.
It was in the long shadows of an August afternoon when the Southhampton
boat was docked--a clipper of the Black Ball line. I stood looking on;
my leisure was spent about the river front, for I was as fond of the
water as a petrel. The passengers came thronging down the gang-plank;
once ashore, many of the poorer steerage sort stood about in misty
bewilderment, not knowing the way to turn or where to go.
In that far day a special trade had grown up among the piers; the men to
follow it were called hotel runners. These birds of prey met the
ships to swoop on newcomers with lie and cheat, and carry them away
to hostelries whose mean interests they served. These latter were the
poorest in town, besides being often dens of wickedness.
As I moved boy-like in and out among the waiting groups of immigrants,
a girl called to me. This girl was English, with yellow hair, and cheeks
red as apples. I remember I thought her beautiful, and was the more to
notice it since she seemed no older than myself. She was stark alone and
a trifle frightened.
“Boy,” said Apple Cheek, “boy, where can I go for to-night? I have
money, though not much, so it must not be a dear place.”
Before I could set my tongue to a reply, a runner known as Sheeny Joe
had Apple Cheek by the arm and was for leading her away.
“Come with me,” said Sheeny Joe to Apple Cheek; “I will show you to a
house, as neat as pins, and quiet as a church; kept it is by a Christian
lady as wears out her eyes with searching of the scriptures. You can
stay there as long as ever you likes for two shillin' a day.”
This was reeled off by Sheeny Joe with a suave softness like the flow of
treacle. He was cunning enough to give the charge in shillings so as to
match the British ear and education of poor Apple Cheek.
“Where is this place?” asked Apple Cheek. I could see how she shrunk
from Sheeny Joe, with his eyes greedy and black, and small and shiny
like the eyes of a rat.
“You wouldn't know the place, young lady,” returned Sheeny Joe; “but
it's all right, with prayers and that sort of thing, both night and
mornin'. It's in Water Street, the place is. Number blank, Water
Street,” repeated Sheeny Joe, giving a resort known as the Dead Rabbit.
“Come; which ones is your bundles? I'll help you carry them.”
Now by general word, the Dead Rabbit was not unknown to me. It was
neither tavern nor boarding house, but a mill of vice, with blood on
its doorstep and worse inside. If ever prayers were said there they must
have been parcel of some Black Sanctus; and if ever a Christian went
there it was to be robbed and beaten, and then mayhap to have his throat
cut for a lesson in silence.
“You don't want to go to that house,” said I, finding my voice and
turning to Apple Cheek. “You come to my mother's; my sister will find
you a place to stay. The house he's talkin' about”--here I indicated
Sheeny Joe--“aint no tavern. It's a boozin' ken for crimps and thieves.”
Without a word, Sheeny Joe aimed a swinging blow at my head: Apple Cheek
gave a low scream. While somewhat unprepared for Sheeny Joe's attack,
it falling so sharply sudden, I was not to be found asleep; nor would
I prove a simple conquest even to a grown man. My sinister strength,
almost the strength of a gorilla, would stand my friend.
Quick as a goat on my feet, and as soon to see a storm coming up as any
sailor, I leaped backward from the blow; and next, before Sheeny Joe
recovered himself, I was upon him with a wrestler's twitch and trip
that tossed him high in the air like a rag. He struck on his head and
shoulders, the chimb of a cask against which he rolled cutting a fine
gash in his scalp.
With a whirl of oaths, Sheeny Joe tried to scramble to his feet; he was
shaken with rage and wonder to be thus outfaced and worsted by a boy. As
he gained his knees, and before he might straighten to his ignoble feet,
I dealt him a crashing blow between the eyes, or rather, on the bridge
of the nose, which latter feature for Sheeny Joe grew curved and beaky.
The blow was of the sort that boxers style a “hook,” and one nothing
good to stop. Over Sheeny Joe went with the kicking force of it, and lay
against the tier of casks, bleeding like tragedy, beaten, and yelling
“murder!”
Sheeny Joe, bleeding and roaring, and I by no means glutted, but still
hungry for his harm, were instantly the center of a gaping crowd that
came about us like a whirlpool. With the others arrived an officer of
the police.
“W'at's the row here?” demanded the officer.
“Take him to the station!” cried Sheeny Joe, picking himself up, a
dripping picture of blood; “he struck me with a knuckle duster.”
“Not so fast, officer,” put in a reputable old gentleman. “Hear the
lad's story first. The fellow was saying something to this girl. Nor
does he look as though it could have been for her benefit.”
“Tell me about it, youngster,” said the officer, not unkindly. My age
and weight, as against those of Sheeny Joe, told with this agent of
the peace, who at heart was a fair man. “Tell me what there is to this
shindy.”
“Why don't you take him in?” screamed Sheeny Joe. “W'at have you to do
with his story?”
“Well, there's two ends to an alley,” retorted the officer warmly. “I'll
hear what the boy has to say. Do you think you're goin' to do all the
talkin'?”
“The first thing you'll know,” cried Sheeny Joe fiercely, “I'll have
them pewter buttons off your coat.”
“Oh, you will!” retorted the officer with a scowl. “Now just for that
I'll take you in. A night in the jug will put the soft pedal on that
mouth of yours.” With that, the bluecoat seized Sheeny Joe, and there we
were, one in each of his hands.
For myself, I had not uttered a syllable. I was ever slow of speech, and
far better with my hands than my tongue. Apple Cheek, the cause of the
war, stood weeping not a yard away; perhaps she was thinking, if her
confusion allowed her thought, of the savageries of this new land to
which she was come. Apple Cheek might have taken herself from out the
hubbub by merely merging with the crowd; I think she had the coolness to
do this, but was too loyal. She owned the spirit, as it stood, to come
forward when I would not say a word to tell the officer the story. Apple
Cheek was encouraged to this steadiness by the reputable old gentleman.
Before, however, Apple Cheek could win to the end of the first sentence,
a burly figure of a man, red of face and broad as a door across the
shoulders, pushed his way through the crowd.
“What is it?” he asked, coming in front of the officer. “Turn that man
loose,” he continued, pointing to Sheeny Joe.
The red-faced man spoke in a low tone, but one of cool command. The
officer, however, was not to be readily driven from his ground; he
was new to the place and by nature an honest soul. Still, he felt an
atmosphere of power about the red-faced personage; wherefore, while he
kept strictest hold on both Sheeny Joe and myself, he was not wanting of
respect in his response.
“These two coves are under arrest,” said the officer, shaking Sheeny Joe
and myself like rugs by way of identification.
“I know,” said the other, still in the low cool tone. “All the same, you
turn this one loose.”
The officer still hesitated with a look of half-defiance. With that the
red-faced man lost temper.
“Take your hands off him, I tell you!” cried the redfaced man, a spark
of anger showing in his small gray eyes. “Do you know me? I'm Big
Kennedy. Did you never hear of Big John Kennedy of Tammany Hall? You
do what I say, or I'll have you out in Harlem with the goats before
to-morrow night.”
With that, he of the red face took Sheeny Joe from between the officer's
fingers; nor did the latter seek to detain him. The frown of authority
left his brow, and his whole face became overcast with a look of surly
submission.
“You should have said so at the jump,” remarked the officer sullenly.
“How was I to know who you are?”
“You're all right,” returned the red-faced one, lapsing into an easy
smile. “You're new to this stroll; you'll be wiser by an' by.”
“What'll I do with the boy?” asked the officer.
“Officer,” broke in the reputable old gentleman, who was purple to the
point apoplectic; “officer, do you mean that you will take your orders
from this man?”
“Come, my old codger,” interrupted the red-faced one loftily, “stow
that. You had better sherry for Fift' Avenue where you belong. If you
don't, th' gang down here may get tired, d'ye see, an' put you in
the river.” Then to the officer: “Take the boy in; I'll look him over
later.”
“An' the girl!” screamed Sheeny Joe. “I want her lagged too.”
“An' the girl, officer,” commanded the red-faced one. “Take her along
with the boy.”
Thus was the procession made up; the officer led Apple Cheek and myself
to the station, with Sheeny Joe, still bleeding, and the red-faced man
to be his backer, bringing up the rear.
At the station it was like the whirl and roar of some storm to me. It
was my first captivity--my first collision with the police, and my wits
were upside down. I recall that a crowd of people followed us, and were
made to stand outside the door.
The reputable old gentleman came also, and tried to interefere in behalf
of Apple Cheek and myself. At a sign from the red-faced man, who stood
leaning on the captain's desk with all the confidence of life, that
potentate gave his sharp command.
“Screw out!” cried he, to the reputable old gentleman. “We don't want
any of your talk!” Then to an officer in the station: “Put him out!”
“I'm a taxpayer!” shouted the reputable old gentleman furiously.
“You'll pay a fine,” responded the captain with a laugh, “if you kick up
a row 'round my station. Now screw out, or I'll put you the wrong side of
the grate.”
The reputable old gentleman was thrust into the street with about as
much ceremony as might attend the delivery of a bale of goods at one's
door. He disappeared, declaring he would have justice; at which a smile
widened the faces of the sophisticated officers, several of whom were
lounging about the room.
“He'll have justice!” repeated the captain with a chuckle. “Say! he
aought to put that in the Joe Miller Joke-book.” Then to the red-faced
man, who still leaned against the desk, the image of autocracy sure of
itself: “What is it to be, Mr. Kennedy?”
“Why,” quoth the red-faced one, “you must lock this boy up. Yes, an' the
girl, too; she had better go in for the night. I'll take a look into th'
business, an' let the judge know in the mornin'.”
“I don't think, captain,” interposed the officer who brought us from the
docks, “there's any use locking up these people. It was nothin' but a
cheap muss on the pier.”
“Say! I don't stand that!” broke in Sheeny Joe. “This party smashed me
with a bar of iron. The girl was in the play; an' I say they're both to
go in.”
“You 'say,'” mocked the captain, in high scorn. “An' who are you? Who is
this fellow?” he demanded, looking about him.
“He's one of my people,” said the red-faced man, still coolly by the
desk.
“No more out of you!” snarled the captain to the kindly officer, as the
latter again tried to speak; “you get back to your beat!”
“An' say!” cried the red-faced man, slowly rousing from his position
by the desk; “before you go, let me give you a word. You're a sight too
gabby; you had better think more and say less, or you won't last long
enough as a copper to wear out that new uniform. An' if anybody asks,
tell him it was Big Kennedy that told you.”
They led me to a cell, while poor Apple Cheek, almost fainting, was
carried to another. As I was being taken away, Anne came rushing in. Bad
news is a creature of wings, and Anne had been told my adventures by
a small urchin who ran himself nearly to death in defeating two fellow
urchins for the privilege before I had reached the station.
Anne did not observe me as she came in, for I stood somewhat to the
rear, with several turnkeys and officers between. I could see the white
face of her, and how the lamps of a great alarm were lighted in her
eyes. Her voice was so low with terror I could not hear her words.
Evidently she was pleading, girl-fashion, for my liberty. The tones of
the captain, however, rose clear and high.
“That'll do ye now,” said he in a manner of lordly insolence, looking
up from the desk to which he had returned. “If we put a prisoner on
the pavement every time a good-looking girl rushed in with a yarn about
bein' his sister, we wouldn't need no cells at all. This boy stays till
the judge takes a look at him in the mornin'. Meanwhile, you had better
get back to your window, or all the men will have left the street.”
At this, a mighty anger flamed up in my heart. I tore away from the
officer who had me by the shoulders, and, save that three others as
practiced in the sleight of it as football players instantly seized me,
I should have gone straight at the captain's neck like a bulldog.
“I'll have his life!” I foamed.
The next moment I was thrown into a cell. The door slammed; the lock
shot home; with that, my heart seemed to turn to water in my bosom and I
sank upon the stone floor of my cage.