RUTH ARNOLD
Ruth Arnold was known among her friends as a queer girl. Neither the new
ones in New York nor the old ones of her birth town understood her
"strange impulses." They were constantly being shocked by ideas and
actions which they considered, to phrase it mildly, very unusual. The
friends in her old home were horrified when she decided to become a
stenographer. Friends in both places were horrified when, a little less
than a year before, it became known she was going to leave the home of
her aunt to become Mr. Driscoll's secretary. "What a fool!" they cried.
"If she had stayed she might have married ever so well!" Mrs. Baxter had
entreated, and with considerable elaboration had delivered practically
these same opinions. But Ruth was obstinate in her queerness, and had
left.
However, only a few weeks before, Mrs. Baxter had had a partial
recompense for Ruth's disappointing conduct. She had noted the growing
intimacy between Mr. Berman, who was frequently at her house, and Ruth,
and by delicate questioning had drawn the calm statement from her niece
that Mr. Berman had asked her in marriage.
"Of course you said 'yes,'" said Mrs. Baxter.
Ruth had not.
"My child! Why not?"
"I don't love him."
"What of that?" demanded her aunt, who loved her husband. "Love will
come. He is educated, a thorough gentleman, and has money. What more do
you want in a husband? And your uncle says he is very clever in
business."
Thus brought to bay, Ruth had taken her aunt into the secret that her
refusal had not been final and that Mr. Berman had given her six months
in which to make up her mind. This statement was Mrs. Baxter's partial
recompense. "Then you'll marry him, Ruth!" she declared, and kissed her
lightly.
Ruth understood herself no better than did her friends. She was not
conscious that she had in a measure that rare endowment--the clear
vision which perceives the things of life in their true relation and at
their true value, plus the instinct to act upon that vision. It was the
manifestations of this instinct that made her friends call her queer.
Her instinct, however, did not hold her in sole sway. Her training had
fastened many governing conventions upon her, and she was not always as
brave as her inward promptings. Her actions made upon impulse were
usually in accord with this instinct. Her actions that were the result
of thought were frequently in accord with convention.
It was her instinct that had impelled her to ask Tom to call. It was
convention that, on Sunday afternoon, made her await his coming with
trepidation. She was genuinely interested in the things for which Tom
stood, and her recent-born admiration of him was sincere. Nevertheless
his approaching visit was in the nature of an adventure to her. This
workingman, transferred from the business world to the social world,
might prove himself an embarrassing impossibility. Especially, she
wondered, with more than a little apprehension, how he would be dressed.
She feared a flaming necktie crawling up his collar, and perhaps in it a
showy pin; or a pair of fancy shoes; or a vest of assertive pattern; or,
perhaps, hair oil!
When word was brought her by a maid that Tom was below, she gave an
order that he was to wait, and put on her hat and jacket. She did not
know him well enough to ask him to her room. She could not receive him
in the parlor common to all the boarding-house. Her instinctive self
told her it would be an embarrassment to him to be set amid the
gossiping crowd that gathered there on Sunday afternoon. Her
conventional self told her that, if he were but a tenth as bad as was
possible, it would be more than an embarrassment for her to sit beside
him amid those curious eyes. The street was the best road out of the
dilemma.
He was sitting in the high-backed hall chair when she came down. "Shall
we not take a walk?" she asked. "The day is beautiful for February."
Tom acceded gratefully. He had glanced through the parted portières into
the parlor, and his minutes of waiting had been minutes of
consternation.
The first thing Ruth noted when they came out into the light of the
street was that his clothes were all in modest taste, and she thrilled
with relief. Mixed with this there was another feeling, a glow of
pleasure that he was vindicating himself to her conventional part.
Ruth lived but a few doors from Central Park. As they started across
Central Park West a big red automobile, speeding above the legal rate,
came sweeping down upon them, tooting its arrogant warning. Tom jerked
Ruth back upon the sidewalk. She glared at the bundled-up occupants of
the scurrying car.
"Don't it make you feel like an anarchist when people do that?" she
gasped.
"Not the bomb-throwing sort."
"Why not? When people do that, I've got just one desire, and that's to
throw a bomb!"
"What good would a bomb here or there do? Or what harm?" Tom asked
humorously. "What's the use trying to destroy people that're already
doomed?"
Ruth was silent till they gained the other side of the street. "Doomed?
What do you mean?" she then asked.
"Every dog has his day, you know. Them rich people are having theirs.
It's a summer day, and I guess it's just about noon now. But it's
passing."
Ruth had learned during her conversation with him on the previous
Tuesday that a large figurative statement such as this was likely to
have a great many ideas behind it, so she now proceeded to lead him to
the ideas' expression. The sun, drawing good-humoredly from his summer's
store, had brought thousands to the Park walks, and with genial
presumption had unbuttoned their overcoats. The bare gray branches of
bush and tree glinted dully in the warm light, as if dreamfully smiling
over the budding days not far ahead. But Tom had attention for the joy
of neither the sun nor his dependents. He thought only of what he was
saying, for he had been led to speech upon one of his dearest subjects.
Though he had left school at thirteen to begin work, he had attended
night school for a number of years, had belonged to a club whose chief
aim was debating, had read a number of solid books and had done a great
deal of thinking for himself. As a result of his reading, thinking and
observation he had come into some large ideas concerning the future of
the working class. In the past, he now said to Ruth, classes had risen
to power, served their purpose, and been displaced by new classes
stimulated by new ideas. The capitalist class was now in power, and was
performing its mission--the development and centralization of
industries. But its decline would be even more rapid than its rise. It
would be succeeded by the working class. The working class was vast in
numbers, and was filled with surging energy. Its future domination was
certain.
"And you believe this?" Ruth queried when he came to a pause.
"I know it."
"Admitting that all these things are coming about--which I don't--don't
you honestly think it would be disastrous to the general interest for
the workingman to come into power?"
"You mean we would legislate solely in our own interests? What if we
did? Hasn't every class that ever came into power done that? Anyhow,
since we make up nine-tenths of the people we'd certainly be legislating
in the interests of the majority--which can't always be said now. And as
for our ability to run things, I'd rather have an honest fool than a
grafter that knows it all. But if you mean we're a pretty rough lot, and
haven't much education, I guess you're about right. How can we help it?
We've never had a chance to be anything else. But think what the working
class was a hundred years ago! Haven't we come up? Thousands of miles!
That's because we've been getting more and more chances, like chances
for an education, that used to belong only to the rich. And our chances
are increasing. Another hundred years and we won't know ourselves. We'll
be fit for anything!"
"I see you're very much of a dreamer."
"Dreamer? Not at all! If you were to look ahead and say in a hundred
years from now it'll be 2000, would you call that a dream?"
"Hardly!" Ruth admitted with a smile.
"Well, what I'm telling you is just as certain as the passage of time.
I'm anything but a dreamer. I believe in a present for the working class
as well as a future. I believe that we, if we work hard, have the right,
now, to-day, to a comfortable living, and with enough over to give our
children as good an education as the children of the bosses; and with
enough to buy a few books, see a little of the world, and to save a
little so we'll not have ahead of us the terrible fear that we and our
families may starve when we get too old to work. That's the least we
ought to have. But we lack an almighty lot of having it, Miss Arnold.
"Take my own trade--and we're a lot better off than most workingmen--we
get three seventy-five a day. That wouldn't be so bad if we made it
three hundred days a year, but you know we don't average more than six
months' work. Less than seven hundred dollars a year. What can a man
with a family do in New York on seven hundred dollars a year? Two
hundred for rent, three hundred for food, one hundred for clothes.
There's six hundred gone in three lumps. Twenty-five cents a day left
for heat, light, education, books, amusement, travel, street-car
fare,--and to save for your old age!
"And then our trade's dangerous. I think half of our men are killed. If
you saw the obituary list that's published monthly of all the branches
of our union in the country, you'd think so, too! Every other
name--crushed, or something broke and he fell. Only the other day on a
steel bridge near Pittsburg a piece of rigging snapped and ten men
dropped two hundred feet. They landed on steel beams in a barge anchored
below--and were pulp. And after the other names, it's pneumonia or
consumption. D'you know what that means? It means exposure at work.
Killed by their work!... Well, that's our work,--and we get seven
hundred a year!
"And then our work takes the best part of our lives, and throws us away.
So long as we're strong and active, we can be used. But the day we
begin to get a little stiff--if we last that long!--we're out of it. It
may be at forty. We've got to learn how to do something else, or just
wait for the end. There's our families. And you know how much we've got
in the bank!
"Well, that's how it is in our union. Is seven hundred a year
enough?--when we risk our lives every day we work?--when we're fit for
work only so long as we're young men? We're human beings, Miss Arnold.
We're men. We want comfortable homes, we want to keep our children in
school, we'd like to save something up for the time when we can't work.
Seven hundred a year! How're we going to do it, Miss Arnold? How're we
going to do it?"
Ruth looked up at his glowing set face, and for the moment forgot she
was allied to the other side. "Demand higher wages!" her instinct
answered promptly.
"That's the only thing! And that's what we're going to do! More money
for the time we do work!"
He said no more. Now that the stimulant of his excited words was gone,
Ruth felt her fatigue. Engrossed by his emotions he had swung along at a
pace that had taxed her lesser stride.
"Shall we not sit down," she suggested; and they found a bench on a
pinnacle of rock from whence they looked down through a criss-cross of
bare branches upon a sun-polished lagoon, and upon the files of people
curving along the paths. Tom removed his hat, and Ruth turning to face
him took in anew the details of his head--the strong, square,
smooth-shaven face, the broad forehead, moist and banded with pink where
his hat had pressed, the hair that clung to his head in tight brown
curls. Looked,--and felt herself growing small, and the men of her
acquaintance growing small. And thought.... Yes, that was it; it was his
purpose that made him big.
"You have kept me so interested that I've not yet asked you about your
fight against Mr. Foley," she said, after a moment.
Tom told her all that had been done.
"But is there no other way of getting at the men except by seeing them
one by one?" she asked. "That seems such a laborious way of carrying on
a campaign. Can't you have mass-meetings?"
Tom shook his head. "In the first place it would be hard to get the men
out; they're tired when they come home from work, and then a lot of them
don't want to openly identify themselves with us. And in the second
place Foley'd be likely to fill the hall with his roughs and break the
meeting up."
"But to see the men individually! And you say there are twenty-five
hundred of them. Why, that's impossible!"
"Yes. A lot of the men we can't find. They're out when we call."
"Why not send a letter to every member?" asked Ruth, suggesting the plan
to her most obvious.
"A letter?"
"A letter that would reach them a day or two before election! A short
letter, that drove every point home!" She leaned toward him excitedly.
"Good!" Tom brought his fist down on his knee.
Ruth knew the money would have to come from his pocket. "Let's see. It
would cost, for stamps, twenty-five dollars; for the letters--they could
be printed--about fifteen dollars; for the envelopes six or seven
dollars. Say forty-five or fifty dollars."
Fifty dollars was a great deal to Tom--saved little by little. But he
hesitated only a moment. "All right. If we can influence a hundred men,
one in twenty-five, it'll be worth the money."
A thoughtful look came over his face.
"What is it?" Ruth asked quickly.
"I was thinking about the printing and other things. Wondering how I
could get away from work to see to it."
"Won't you let me look after that for you?" Ruth asked eagerly. "I look
after all our printing. I can leave the office whenever I'm not busy,
you know. It would take only a few minutes of my time."
"It really wouldn't?" Tom asked hesitantly.
"It wouldn't be any trouble at all. And I'd be glad to do it."
Tom thanked her. "I wouldn't know how to go about a thing of that sort,
anyhow, even if I could get away from work," he admitted.
"And I could see to the addressing, too," Ruth pursued.
He sat up straight. "There's the trouble! The addresses!"
"The addresses? Why?"
"There's only one list of the men and where they live. That's the book
of the secretary and treasurer."
"Won't he lend it to you?"
Tom had to laugh. "Connelly lend it to me! Connelly's one of the best
friends Foley's got."
"Then there's no way of getting it?"
"He keeps it in his office, and when he's not there the office is
locked. But we'll get it somehow."
"Well, then if you'll write out the letter and send it to me in a day or
two, I'll see to having it printed right away."
It flashed upon Tom what a strong concluding statement to the letter the
guarantee from Mr. Baxter would make. He told Ruth of his idea, of his
attempts to get the guarantee, and of the influence it would have on the
men.
"He's probably forgotten all about it," she said. "I think I may be able
to help you to get it. I can speak to Aunt Elizabeth and have her speak
to him."
But her quick second thought was that she could not do this without
revealing to her aunt a relation Mrs. Baxter could not understand. "No,
after all I can't be of any use there. You might try to see him again,
and if you fail then you might write him."
Tom gave her a quick puzzled glance, as he had done a few days before
when she had mentioned her relation to Mr. Baxter. She caught the look.
"You are wondering how it is Mr. Baxter is my uncle," she guessed.
"Yes," he admitted.
"It's very simple. All rich people have their poor relatives, I
suppose? Mrs. Baxter and my mother were sisters. Mr. Baxter made money.
My father died before he had a chance. After mamma died, I decided to go
to work. There was only enough money to live a shabby-genteel, pottering
life--and I was sick of that. I have no talents, and I wanted to be out
in the world, in contact with people who are doing real things. So I
learned stenography. A little over a year ago I came to New York. I
lived for awhile with my uncle and aunt; they were kind, but the part of
a poor relation didn't suit me, and I made up my mind to go to work
again. They were not pleased very well; they wanted me to stay with
them. But my mind was made up. I offered to go to work for my uncle, but
he had no place for me, and got me the position with Mr. Driscoll. And
that's all."
A little later she asked him for the time. His watch showed a quarter of
five. On starting out she had told him that she must be home by five, so
she now remarked: "Perhaps we'd better be going. It'll take us about
fifteen minutes to walk back."
They started homeward across the level sunbeams that were stretching
themselves out beneath barren trees and over brown lawns for their
night's sleep. As they drew near to Ruth's boarding-house they saw a
perfectly-tailored man in a high hat go up the steps. He was on the
point of ringing the bell when he sighted them, and he stood waiting
their coming. A surprised look passed over his face when he recognized
Ruth's companion.
As they came up the steps he raised his hat to Ruth. "Good-afternoon,
Miss Arnold." And to Tom he said carelessly: "Hello, Keating."
Tom looked him squarely in the eyes. "Hello, Berman," he returned.
Mr. Berman started at the omission of the "Mr." Tom lifted his hat to
Ruth, bade her good-afternoon, and turned away, not understanding a
sudden pang that shot into his heart.
Mr. Berman's eyes followed Tom for a dozen paces. "A very decent
sort--for a workingman," he remarked.
"For any sort of a man," said Ruth, with an emphasis that surprised her.
She took out her latch-key, and they entered.