NEW OPPORTUNITIES
I had found that I was badly handicapped in all intercourse with my
Italian fellow workers by the fact that I knew nothing of their
language and that they knew but little English. The handicap did not
lie so much in the fact that we couldn't make ourselves understood--we
could after a rough fashion--as it did in the fact that this made a
barrier which kept our two nationalities sharply defined. I was always
an American talking to an Italian. The boss was always an American
talking to a Dago. This seemed to me a great disadvantage. It ought to
be just a foreman to his man or one man to another.
The chance to acquire a new language I thought had passed with my high
school days, but down here everyone was learning English and so I
resolved to study Italian. I made a bargain with Giuseppe, the young
sculptor, who was now a frequent visitor at our flat, to teach me his
language in return for instruction in mine. He agreed though he had
long been getting good instruction at the night school. But the lad
had found an appreciative friend in Ruth who not only sincerely
admired the work he was doing but who admired his enthusiasm and his
knowledge of art. I liked him myself for he was dreaming bigger things
than I. To watch his thin cheeks grow red and his big brown eyes flash
as he talked of some old painting gave me a realization that there was
something else to be thought of even down here than mere money
success. It was good for me.
The poor fellow was driven almost mad by having to offer for sale some
of the casts which his master made him carry. He would have liked to
sell only busts of Michael Angelo and Dante and worthy reproductions
of the old masters.
"There are so many beautiful things," he used to exclaim excitedly in
broken English; "why should they want to make anything that is not
beautiful?"
He sputtered time and time again over the pity of gilding the casts.
You'd have thought it was a crime which ought to be punished by
hanging.
"Even Dante," he groaned one night, "that wonderful, white sad face of
Dante covered all over with gilt!"
"It has to look like gold before an American will buy it," I
suggested.
"Yes," he nodded. "They would even gild the Christ."
Ruth said she wanted to learn Italian with me, and so the three of us
used to get together every night right after dinner. I bought a
grammar at a second hand bookstore but we used to spend most of our
time in memorizing the common every day things a man would be likely
to use in ordinary conversation. Giuseppe would say, "Ha Ella il mio
cappello?"
And I would say,
"Si, Signore, ho il di Lei cappello."
"Ha Ella il di Lei pane?"
"Si, Signore, ho il mio pane."
"Ha Ella il mio zucchero?"
"Si, Signore, ho il di Lei zucchero."
There wasn't much use in going over such simple things in English for
Giuseppe and so instead of this Ruth would read aloud something from
Tennyson. After explaining to him just what every new word meant, she
would let him read aloud to her the same passage. He soon became very
enthusiastic over the text itself and would often stop her with the
exclamation,
"Ah, there is a study!"
Then he would tell us just how he would model whatever the picture
happened to be that he saw in his mind. It was wonderful how clearly
he saw these pictures. He could tell you even down to how the folds of
the women's dresses should fall just as though he were actually
looking at living people.
After a week or two when we had learned some of the simpler phrases
Ruth and I used to practise them as much as possible every day. We
felt quite proud when we could ask one another for "quel libro" or
"quell' abito" or "il cotello" or "il cucchiaio." I was surprised at
how soon we were able to carry on quite a long talk.
This new idea--that even though I was approaching forty I wasn't too
old to resume my studies--took root in another direction. As I had
become accustomed to the daily physical exercise and no longer
returned home exhausted I felt as though I had no right to loaf
through my evenings, much as the privilege of spending them with Ruth
meant to me. My muscles had become as hard and tireless as those of a
well-trained athlete so that at night I was as alert mentally as in
the morning. It made me feel lazy to sit around the house after an
hour's lesson in Italian and watch Ruth busy with her sewing and see
the boy bending over his books. Still I couldn't think of anything
that was practicable until I heard Giuseppe talk one evening about the
night school. I had thought this was a sort of grammar school with
clay modeling thrown in for amusement.
"No, Signore," he said. "You can learn anything there. And there is
another school where you can learn other things."
I went out that very evening and found that the school he attended
taught among other subjects, book keeping and stenography--two things
which appealed to me strongly. But in talking to the principal he
suggested that before I decided I look into the night trade school
which was run in connection with a manual training school. I took his
advice and there I found so many things I wanted that I didn't know
what to choose. I was amazed at the opportunity. A man could learn
here about any trade he cared to take up. Both tools and material
were furnished him. And all this was within ten minutes' walk of the
house. I could still have my early evenings with Ruth and the boy even
on the three nights I would be in school until a quarter past seven,
spend two hours at learning my trade, and get back to the house again
before ten. I don't see how a man could ask for anything better than
this. Even then I wouldn't be away from home as much as I often was in
my old life. There were many dreary stretches towards the end of my
service with the United Woollen when I didn't get home until midnight.
And the only extra pay we salaried men received for that was a
brighter hope for the job ahead. This was always dangled before our
eyes by Morse as a bait when he wished to drive us harder than usual.
I had my choice of a course in carpentry, bricklaying, sheet metal
work, plumbing, electricity, drawing and pattern draughting. The work
covered from one to three years and assured a man at the end of this
time of a position among the skilled workmen who make in wages as much
as many a professional man. Not only this but a man with such training
as this and with ambition could look forward without any great
stretch of the imagination to becoming a foreman in his trade and
eventually winning independence. All this he could accomplish while
earning his daily wages as an apprentice or a common laborer.
The class in masonry seemed to be more in line with my present plans
than any of the other subjects. It ought to prove of value, I thought,
to a man in the general contracting business and certainly to a man who
undertook the contracting of building construction. At any rate it was
a trade in which I was told there was a steady demand for good men and
at which many men were earning from three to five dollars a day. I must
admit that at first I didn't understand how brick-laying could be
taught for I thought it merely a matter of practice but a glance at the
outline of the course showed me my error. It looked as complicated as
many of the university courses. The work included first the laying of a
brick to line. A man was given actual practice with bricks and mortar
under an expert mason. From this a man was advanced, when he had
acquired sufficient skill, to the laying out of the American bond; then
the building of square piers of different sizes; then the building of
square and pigeon hole corners, then the laying out of brick footings.
The second year included rowlock and bonded segmental arches; blocking,
toothing, and corbeling; building and bonding of vaulted walls;
polygonal and circular walls, piers and chimneys; fire-places and
flues. The third year advanced a man to the nice points of the trade
such as the foreign bonds--Flemish, Dutch, Roman and Old English;
cutting and turning of arches of all kinds,--straight, cambered,
semi-circular, three centred elliptical, and many forms of Gothic and
Moorish arches; also brick panels and cornices. Finally it gave
practice in the laying out of plans and work from these plans. Whatever
time was left was devoted to speed in all these things as far as it was
consistent with accurate and careful workmanship.
I enrolled at once and also entered a class in architectural drawing
which was given in connection with this.
I came back and told Ruth and though of course she was afraid it might
be too hard work for me she admitted that in the end it might save me
many months of still harder work. If it hadn't been for the boy I
think she would have liked to follow me even in these studies.
Whatever new thing I took up, she wanted to take up too. But as I told
her, it was she who was making the whole business possible and that
was enough for one woman to do.
The school didn't open for a week and during that time I saw something
of Rafferty. He surprised me by coming around to the flat one
night--for what I couldn't imagine. I was glad to see him but I
suspected that he had some purpose in making such an effort. I
introduced him to Ruth and we all sat down in the kitchen and I told
him what I was planning to do this winter and asked him why he didn't
join me. I was rather surprised that the idea didn't appeal to him but
I soon found out that he had another interest which took all his spare
time. This interest was nothing else than politics. And Rafferty
hadn't been over here long enough yet to qualify as a voter. In spite
of this he was already on speaking terms with the state representative
from our district, the local alderman, and was an active lieutenant of
Sweeney's--the ward boss. At present he was interesting himself in
the candidacy of this same Sweeney who was the Democratic machine
candidate for Congress. Owing to some local row he was in danger of
being knifed. Dan had come round to make sure I was registered and to
swing me over if possible to the ranks of the faithful.
The names of which he spoke so familiarly meant nothing to me. I had
heard a few of them from reading the papers but I hadn't read a paper
for three months now and knew nothing at all about the present
campaign. As a matter of fact I never voted except for the regular
Republican candidate for governor and the regular Republican candidate
for president. And I did that much only from habit. My father had been
a Republican and I was a Republican after him and I felt that in a
general way this party stood for honesty as against Tammanyism. But
with councillors, and senators and aldermen, or even with congressmen
I never bothered my head. Their election seemed to be all prearranged
and I figured that one vote more or less wouldn't make much
difference. I don't know as I even thought that much about it; I
ignored the whole matter. What was true of me was true largely of the
other men in our old neighborhood. Politics, except perhaps for an
abstract discussion of the tariff, was not a vital issue with any of
us.
Now here I found an emigrant who couldn't as yet qualify as a citizen
knowing all the local politicians by their first names and spending
his nights working for a candidate for congress. Evidently my arrival
down here had been noted by those keen eyes which look after every
single vote as a miser does his pennies. A man had been found who had
at least a speaking acquaintance with me, and plans already set on
foot to round me up.
I was inclined at first to treat this new development as a joke. But
as Rafferty talked on he set me to thinking. I didn't know anything
about the merits of the two present candidates but was strongly
prejudiced to believe that the Democratic candidate, on general
principles, was the worst one. However quite apart from this, wasn't
Rafferty to-day a better citizen than I? Even admitting for the sake
of argument that Sweeney was a crook, wasn't Rafferty who was trying
his humble best to get him elected a better American than I who was
willing to sit down passively and allow him to be elected? Rafferty at
any rate was getting into the fight. His motive may have been selfish
but I think his interest really sprang first from an instinctive
desire to get into the game. Here he had come to a new country where
every man had not only the chance to mix with the affairs of the ward,
the city, the state, the nation, but also a good chance to make
himself a leader in them. Sweeney himself was an example.
For twenty-five years or more Rafferty's countrymen had appreciated
this opportunity for power and gone after it. The result everyone
knows. Their victory in city politics at least had been so decisive
year after year that the native born had practically laid down his
arms as I had. And the reason for this perennial victory lay in just
this fact that men like Rafferty were busy from the time they landed
and men like me were lazily indifferent.
Three months before, a dozen speakers couldn't have made me see this.
I had no American spirit back of me then to make me appreciate it. You
might better have talked to a sleepy Russian Jew a week off the
steamer. He at least would have sensed the sacred power for liberty
which the voting privilege bestows.
I began to ask questions of Rafferty about the two men. He didn't know
much about the other fellow except that he was "agin honest labor and
a tool of the thrusts." But on Sweeney he grew eloquent.
"Sure," he said. "There's a mon after ye own heart, me biy. Faith he's
dug in ditches himself an he knows wot a full dinner pail manes."
"What's his business?" I asked.
"A contracthor," he said. "He does big jobs for the city."
He let himself loose on what Sweeney proposed to do for the ward if
elected. He would have the government undertake the dredging of the
harbor thereby giving hundreds of jobs to the local men. He would do
this thing and that--all of which had for their object apparently just
that one goal. It was a direct personal appeal to every man toiler. In
addition to this, Rafferty let drop a hint or two that Sweeney had
jobs in his own business which he filled discreetly from the ranks of
the wavering. It wasn't more than a month later, by the way, that
Rafferty himself was appointed a foreman in the firm of Sweeney
Brothers.
But apart from the merits of the question, the thing that impressed me
was Rafferty's earnestness, the delight he took in the contest itself,
and his activity. He was very much disappointed when I told him I
wasn't even registered in the ward but he made me promise to look
after that as soon as the lists were again opened and made an
appointment for the next evening to take me round to a rally to meet
the boys.
I went and was escorted to the home of the Sweeney Club. It was a good
sized hall up a long flight of stairs. Through the heavy blue smoke
which filled the room I saw the walls decorated with American flags
and the framed crayon portraits of Sweeney and other local
politicians. Large duck banners proclaimed in black ink the current
catch lines of the campaign. At one end there was a raised platform,
the rest of the room was filled with wooden settees. My first
impression of it all was anything but favorable. It looked rather
tawdry and cheap. The men themselves who filled the room were pretty
tough-looking specimens. I noticed a few Italians of the fat class and
one or two sharp-faced Jews, but for the most part these men were the
cheaper element of the second and third generation. They were the
loafers--the ward heelers. I certainly felt out of place among them
and to me even Rafferty looked out of place. There was a freshness, a
bulk about him, that his fellows here didn't have.
As he shoved his big body through the crowd, they greeted him by his
first name with an oath or a joke and he beamed back at them all with
a broad wave of his hand. It was evident that he was a man of some
importance here. He worked a passage for me to the front of the hall
and didn't stop until he reached a group of about a dozen men who were
all puffing away at cigars. In the midst of them stood a man of about
Rafferty's size in frame but fully fifty pounds heavier. He had a
quiet, good-natured face. On the whole it was a strong face though a
bit heavy. His eyes were everywhere. He was the first to notice
Rafferty. He nodded with a familiar,
"Hello, Dan."
Dan seized my arm and dragged me forward:
"I want ye to meet me frind, Mister Carleton," he said.
Sweeney rested his grey eyes on me a second, saw that I was a
stranger here, and stepped forward instantly with his big hand
outstretched. He spoke without a trace of brogue.
"I'm very glad to meet you, Mr. Carleton," he said.
I don't know that I'm easily impressed and I flattered myself that I
could recognize a politician when I saw one, but I want to confess
that there was something in the way he grasped my hand that instantly
gave me a distinctly friendly feeling towards Sweeney. I should have
said right then and there that the man wasn't as black as he was
painted. He was neither oily nor sleek in his manner. We chatted a
minute and I think he was a bit surprised in me. He wanted to know
where I lived, where I was working, and how much of a family I had. He
put these questions in so frank and fatherly a fashion that they
didn't seem so impertinent to me at the time as they did later. Some
one called him and as he turned away, he said to Rafferty,
"See me before you go, Dan."
Then he said to me,
"I hope I'll see you down here often, Carleton."
With that Dan took me around and introduced me to Tom, Dick and Harry
or rather to Tim, Denny and Larry. This crowd came nearer to the
notion I had of ward politicians. They were a noisy, husky-throated
lot, but they didn't leave you in doubt for a minute but what every
mother's son of them was working for Sweeney as though they were one
big family with Daddy Sweeney at the head. You could overhear bits of
plots and counter plots on every side. I was offered a dozen cigars in
as many minutes and though some of the men rather shied away from me
at first a whispered endorsement from Dan was all that was needed to
bring them back.
There was something contagious about it and when later the meeting
itself opened and Sweeney rose to speak I cheered him as heartily as
anyone. By this time a hundred or more other men had come in who
looked more outside the inner circle. Sweeney spoke simply and
directly. It was a personal appeal he made, based on promises. I
listened with interest and though it seemed to me that many of his
pledges were extravagant he showed such a good spirit back of them
that his speech on a whole produced a favorable effect.
At any rate I came away from the meeting with a stronger personal
interest in politics than I had ever felt in my life. Instead of
seeming like an abstruse or vague issue it seemed to me pretty
concrete and pretty vital. It concerned me and my immediate neighbors.
Here was a man who was going to Congress not as a figurehead of his
party but to make laws for Rafferty and for me. He was to be my
congressman if I chose to help make him such. He knew my name, knew my
occupation, knew that I had a wife and one child, knew my address. And
I want to say that he didn't forget them either.
As I walked back through the brightly lighted streets which were still
as much alive as at high noon, I felt that after all this was my ward
and my city. I wasn't a mere dummy, I was a member of a vast
corporation. I had been to a rally and had shaken hands with Sweeney.
Ruth's only comment was a disgusted grunt as she smelled the rank
tobacco in my clothes. She kept them out on the roof all the next
day.