|WHILE Camilla and Henry Champney bent a dark and a white head over
Aidee's book, Miss Eunice in the parlour bent a grey head over her
knitting, and thought of Camilla, and disapproved of the type of girls
who neither knitted nor even embroidered; who had hot cheeks, not over
such subjects, for instance, as “Richard,” but over such subjects as
“Problems of the Poor,” and “Civic Diseases.”
Miss Eunice looked up from her knitting now and then, and through the
window she saw across the river the huddle of East Argent's disordered
roofs, and factories, and chimneys powerfully belching black smoke, and
disapproved of what she saw.
There were others than Miss Eunice who disapproved of East Argent.
Dwellers on Herbert and Seton Avenues, those quiet, shaded avenues, with
their clean, broad lawns, were apt to do so.
Yet it was a corporate part of Port Argent and the nearest way to it was
over the Maple Street bridge.
The P. and N. Railroad passed under the East Argent approach to the
bridge, coming from its further freight yards on the right. At the first
corner beyond, if there happened to be a street sign there, which was
unlikely, the sign would read “Muscadine Street.”
Muscadine Street left ran down the river toward the belching factories;
Muscadine Street right, up the river between the freight yards on one
side and a row of houses on the other; depressing houses, of wood or
brick, with false front elevations feebly decorated; ground floors
mainly shops for meat, groceries, liquors, candies; upper floors overrun
with inhabitants. There were slouching men on the sidewalk, children
quarrelling in the muddy street, unkempt women in the windows, of
whom those with dull faces were generally fat, those with clever
faces generally drawn and thin. It was a street with iron clamours and
triumphant smells. It was a street whose population objected to neither
circumstance, and found existence on the whole interesting and more
than endurable. It was a street unaware of Miss Eunice Champney's
disapproval, and undisturbed by that of Herbert and Seton Avenues. It is
singular how many people can be disapproved of by how many others, and
neither be the better or worse on that account.
On the second corner was a grocery occupying the ground floor of a
flat-roofed, clap-boarded house. Around the corner, on a side street
leading east, a wooden stair ran up on the outside. At the top of the
stair a sign in black letters on a yellow background implied that “James
Shays, Shoemaker,” was able to mend all kinds of footwear, and would do
so on request. Inside the hallway, the first door on the right was the
shoemaker's door, and within were two small rooms, of which the first
was the shop.
A wooden table stood in the middle of the room, with a smoky-chimneyed
lamp thereon, some newspapers, and half of a book that had been ripped
savagely in two. A double shoemaker's bench stood next the window, a
cooking stove and a cupboard opposite. Clothes hung on wall-hooks, hides
lay on the floor.
Shays sat on one end of the bench, a grey-haired, grey-moustached,
watery-eyed man, pegging a shoe vaguely. A black-haired little man with
a thin black beard sat on the other end, stitching a shoe fiercely.
A redlipped, red-cheeked, thick-nosed, thick-necked man with prominent
eyes, sat tilted back in one of the wooden chairs, stating his mind
deliberately.
Most of these phases of Muscadine Street might be found so arranged, on
most mornings, by any visitor. Shays and the red-cheeked Coglan could
not be depended on; but the men on the sidewalk, the women in the
windows, the children in the street, the clamour and the smells would be
there; also the grocer, the butcher, and Hicks, the stitcher of vehement
stitches. If Coglan and Shays were there, Coglan would be found in the
process of stating his mind.
Hicks' eyes were black, restless, and intense, his mouth a trifle on
one side, his forehead high with a deep line down the middle. It was a
painful line; when he smiled it seemed to point downward frowningly to
the fact that the smile was onesided.
Coglan was Shays' associate in the pursuit of happiness. His value lay
in this: that upon a certain amount of hard liquor purchased by Shays,
and divided fairly and orderly between them, Shays became needy of help,
and Coglan generally remained in good condition and able to take him
home. Hicks was Shays' partner in the shop. His value lay in this: that
he did twice as much work as Shays, and was satisfied with half the
profits. Both men were valuable to Shays, and the shop supported the
three.
The relations between them had grown settled with time. Nearly four
years earlier Hicks had entered Shays' shop. There he learned to cobble
footwear in some incredibly short time, and took his place in the
apprehension of Muscadine Street. Hicks he called himself and nothing
more. “Hicks” was a good enough name. It went some distance toward
describing the brooding and restless little man, with his shaking,
clawlike fingers, smouldering temper, and gift for fluent invective.
Some said he was an anarchist. He denied it, and went into fiery
definitions, at which the grocer and candy man shook their heads
vaguely, and the butcher said, “Says he ain't, an' if he ain't, he
ain't,” not as I see which seemed a conclusive piece of logic. At any
rate he was Hicks.
The elderly Shays was a peaceful soul, a dusty mind, a ruined body. He
was travelling through his life now at a pace that would be apt to
bring him to the end of it at no distant date, enjoying himself, as he
understood enjoyment, or as enjoyment was interpreted to him by the
wise Coglan. Coglan maintained a solidly planted dislike of Hicks, whose
attacks threatened his dominance, whose acrid contempt and unlimited
vocabulary sometimes even threatened his complacence. Coglan's wisdom
saw that the situation was preferable to searching for jobs, and that
the situation depended on Hicks' acceptance of it. Hicks was a mystery
to him, as well as to Shays, and something of a fear, but Coglan was not
disturbed by the mystery. He could leave that alone and do very well.
But Hicks was a poisoned needle. Hicks knew where to find Coglan's
sensitive point and jab it. Coglan hated him solidly, but balancing
his dislike against his interest and ease, Coglan wisely found that the
latter were more solid still--beyond comparison solid.
All this could be learned by any visitor inquiring in Muscadine Street.
The grocer underneath would add tersely that Shays was a soak, but
good-hearted; that Hicks was a fool, and ought to set up shop for
himself; that Coglan was a loafer, and had his bread buttered now about
to suit him. Disapproval of each other was current in Muscadine Street.
It was a part of their interest in life.
The same morning sunlight that slanted through Henry Champney's tall
library and parlour widows was slanting through the small streaked
window of Shays, the shoe-mender. Coglan was stating his mind.
“Jimmy Shays, yer a good man,” he was saying slowly; “an', Hicksy, yer
an' industhrious man; but nayther of ye is a wise man; but Jimmy is the
wisest man of ye two. For why? Ask that, an' I says this. For when Jimmy
wants a bit of thinkin' done for him, he gets a sensible man to do
it, an' a poor man, an' a workin' man like himself, an' a man that's a
friend, and that stands by him in throuble. But what does ye do, Hicksy?
Ye goes over the river. Ye goes up to Seton Avenue. Ye listens to a
chin-waggin' preacher. An' what's his name? Aidee! He ain't a workin'
man himself, but wears the clothes of the rich, an' ates his dinner
wid the rich, an' says hard words of the friends of the poor. An' yer
desaved, Hicksy.”
Hicks stopped work and shook a thin fist at Coglan. “If you're talkin'
of him, you keep your manners.”
“Oi, the Preacher! Oi, he might be meanin' well, Hicksy. I ain't sayin'
not.”
“What are you saying then?” jabbing viciously with his needle. “Damn!
You're an Irishman, ain't you? Chin-wagging institution yourself. What!
Who's the working man? You! Ain't you got a description of you that's
vivider'n that?” breaking into a cackling laugh. “Then I'll ask you,
what friends of the poor you're talking about so glib, like a greased
wheel?”
“Oi! Yer askin' what I mean by a friend, Hicksy? Ye are! An' yer right,
an' I'll show ye the point. I'll speak to ye of John Murphy, now, what
I've had many a drink on him, an' a helpin' hand. A friend is a friend
in need. That's him. Now, thin, Murphy's a friend of Wood's, for he says
so. Now, thin, I'll show you Dick Hennion. For if I wants a job, I says
the word to Murphy, an' he speaks the word maybe to Hennion an' he gets
me a job, for he done it onct, an' I know, don't I? if so be it happen
I wants a job. An' Hennion's a friend of Wood's, too, as anywan knows.
Now! A friend of me, I says, is a man that acts friendly to me. That's
him. So would ye say, Hicksy, if ye was a wise man an' a man of sense,
instead of chasin' afther a chin-waggin' preacher, like a schnare-drum
afther a thrombone. Haw, haw, haw! a brass throm-bone! But Wood's a
friend of the poor, an' I've proved it. For why? For I say it's the rich
that he bleeds, but the poor man he's friendly to. Now, thin! What does
Aidee do but say the bad word of Wood. In consequence, in consequence, I
says,”--and Coglan smote his knee,--“he ain't no friend of the poor.”
Hicks' black eyes glittered and focussed themselves, a concentrated
stare at a minutely small spot between Coglan's eyes. His teeth clicked.
Coglan's laugh died away. He turned his eyes aside and rubbed his red
face uneasily.
“Coglan,” said Hicks, “I warned you before. You shake your mouth at the
Preacher again and I'll stick a knife into your dirty throat. You hear
that!”
Coglan's redness showed purple spots.
“Think I'm afraid of ye!”
“Yep, I think you are.”
“I'll break your little chick bones!”
“Yep. You're afraid, and you better stay so.”
“Hicksy!” broke in Shays with quavering voice. “Tom! we're all friends,
ain't we? Now, then, Tom, Hicksy makes a point you leave out the
Preacher, don't he? He'll argue peaceful. Jus' leave out the Preacher.
Won't you, Hicksy? Hey? You'll argue peaceful.”
“I said I would.”
“Leave out the Preacher,” said Shays. “All friens'. Hey?”
Coglan wiped his perspiring face. “I'm a sensible man,” he said. “When
Jimmy Shays asks a favour, I say, sure! I'm a sensible man.” He looked
resentfully and uneasily at Hicks, but seemed relieved to withdraw from
his aggressive position without losing his dominance.
“Oi! I told ye what I meant by a friend. I said Marve Wood was a friend
of the poor, an' I proved it. I'll be fair an' square. I'll ask ye,
what's _your_ meanin'?”
Hicks dropped his eyes, and fell to his jabbing needlework.
“Friend!” he said. “You mean a man that's useful to you. _You_ say so!
_You_ say so! That's your meaning. Good's what's good for me. Sense is
what agrees with me. Nothing's got any value that ain't valuable to
that God-forsaken, whiskey-soaked 'me,' named Coglan, that's got no more
value than to fertilise a patch of potatoes. Friend! You get another
word. I got nothing to say to you. But I'll tell you this. I'll tell you
what I think of Wood. He's got a reckoning coming. What is Wood? I'll
tell you that he's the meeting point of two enemies--the corporations
and the people, the rich and the poor. His job's to keep in with
both. That's what his friendliness amounts to. His job's to sell the
corporations what belongs to the people. And he'll grin at the people on
one side, so! And he'll wink at the corporations on the other, so! And
he'll say: 'How do, Johnny, and Billy, and Sammy?' So! And he'll say to
the corporations, 'What'll you give for Johnny's hat?' So! Then he gives
Johnny half what he gets for the hat, so! Then he's got Sammy and Billy
to back the deal, so! Well, what's Wood! I've told you what he is.
Friend of the poor! What do you know about it?” He dropped the shoe,
shook his loose fingers in the air, and cried. “He's a cancer! Cut him
out! He's an obstruction! Blow him up! What, then? Then I say this, Tom
Coglan, and I say it's a good thing when damn rascals are afraid!”
“Quotin' the Preacher?” said Coglan complacently.
Hicks narrowed his black eyes again, and focussed them on Coglan, who
turned away uneasily. Hicks went on:
“What you'd ask, if you were quick enough with your point, is whether
Wood ever did you a bad turn? No, he didn't. Nor said a word to me in
his life, nor I to him, nor want to. Will you ask me what I got against
him, then, or won't you, or are you too fat-headed to know what I'm
talking about?”
“Oi!” said Coglan. “Yer right. I'll ask ye that.”
“And I'll say that so long as this 'me' of mine”--tapping his narrow
chest--“ain't fertilising a patch of potatoes, a friend ain't going to
mean any man that does me a good turn, nor an enemy mean anybody that
does me a bad turn. A man that means no more'n that, ain't fit to
fertilise turnips. That's my meaning, Tom Coglan.”
“Oi! Quotin' the Preacher.”
“Yes, I am, some of it.”
He went back to his stitching sullenly. Coglan and Shays looked at each
other and then stealthily at Hicks.
“I hear no talk against the Preacher,” Hicks went on, after a time; “I
won't, and why not is my business. He ain't for you to understand, nor
the like of you, nor the like of Jimmy Shays,--neither him, nor his
talk, nor his book. What of it? There ain't another man in Port Argent
but me that understands that book. But the Preacher don't do all my
thinking for me, and you're wrong there, Coglan. What do you know about
him, or me? What's the use of my talking to you? But if you did know,
and then if you said, 'The Preacher holds a man back till he's like to
go crazy, and always did'; or if you said, 'The Preacher's for setting
you on fire and then smothering it, till he's burnt your bowels out';
and if you talked like that, as understanding him and me, maybe I'd talk
to you. I'd talk so, too, for his way ain't my way.”
He pointed a crooked finger at the torn book on the table.
“See that book! It's called 'Communism.' Half of it's right and half of
it's not. That's my way.”
His two-handed gesture of ripping the book in two was so sudden and
savage that Coglan dropped his chair and turned to look at the book in a
startled way, as if he expected to see something ghastly.
“But it ain't the Preacher's way. But I ain't the man to be held back,”
said Hicks, “and patted and cooed over. Not me. Show me a snake and I
stamp on it! Show me the spot and I hit it! Damn!”
He twisted his mouth. His teeth clicked again, and his crooked fingers
drove the glittering needles swiftly back and forth through the leather.
Coglan stared at him with prominent eyeballs and mouth open. Shays wiped
his glasses, and then his red-lidded eyes with his coat sleeve.
“All frien's, Hicksy! Ain't we?” he murmured uneasily.
Coglan recovered. “An' that's right, too. Jimmy Shays is a kind man and
a peaceable man, an' I'm a sensible man, an' yer an industhrious man,
but yer not a wise man, Hicksy, an'”--with sudden severity--“I'll thank
ye not to stomp on Tom Coglan.”
He got up. Shays rose, too, and put on his coat, and both went out of
the door. Hicks gave a cackling laugh, but did not look after them.
Presently he finished the shoe, laid it down, rubbed his hands, and
straightened his back. Then he went and got the torn book, sat down, and
read in it half an hour or more, intent and motionless.
The factory whistles blew for twelve o'clock. He rose and went to a side
cupboard, took out a leathern rifle case, put a handful of cartridges in
his pockets, and left the shop.
The grocer's children in the side doorway fled inward to the darkness
of the hall as he passed. The grocer's wife also saw him, and drew back
behind the door. He did not notice any of them.
The long eastward-leading street grew more and more dusty and unpaved.
He passed empty lots and then open fields, cornfields, clumps of woods,
and many trestles of the oil wells. He climbed a rail fence and entered
a large piece of woods, wet and cool. The new leaves were just starting
from their buds.
It was a mild April day, with a silvery, misty atmosphere over the green
mass of the woods. A few of the oil wells were at work, thudding in the
distance. Cattle were feeding in the wet green fields. Birds, brown and
blue, red-breasted and grey-breasted, twittered and hopped in tree and
shrub. A ploughman in a far-off field shouted to his team. Crows flapped
slowly overhead, dropping now and then a dignified, contented croak. The
only other sound was the frequent and sharp crack of a rifle from deep
in the centre of the woods.