OTHERS: AND THEODORE MARRIN

Joe became a familiar figure in Greenwich Village. As time went on, and issue after issue of The Nine-Tenths appeared, he became known to the whole district. Whenever he went out people nodded right and left, passed the time of day with him, or stopped him for a hand-shake and a question. He would, when matters were not pressing, pause at a stoop to speak with mothers, and people in trouble soon began to acquire a habit of dropping in at his office to talk things over with the “Old Man.”

If it was a matter of employment, he turned the case over to some member of the Stove Circle; if it was a question of honest want, he drew on the “sinking-fund” and took a note payable in sixty days a most elastic note, always secretly renewable; if it was an idle beggar, a vagrant, he made short work of his visitor. Such a visitor was Lady Hickory. Billy was at his little table next the door; over in the corner the still-despondent Slate was still collapsing; at the east window sat Editor Sally Heffer, digging into a mass of notes; and near the west, at the roll-top desk, a visitor’s chair set out invitingly beside him, Joe was writing weird exercise of muttering softly, so as not to disturb the rest, and then scratching down a sentence.

Billy leaped up to receive her ladyship, who fatly rolled in, her tarnished hat askew, her torn thrice-dingy silks clutched up in one fat hand.

Lady Hickory gave one cry:

“There he is!”

She pushed Billy aside and rolled over into the visitor’s chair.

“Oh, Mr. Joe!”

Joe turned.

“What’s up?” he asked.

“Everything’s up I’m dying, Mr. Joe I need help I must get to the hospital ”

“Sick?”

“Gallopin’ consumption!”

Joe sniffed.

“It doesn’t smell like consumption,” he said with a sigh. “It smells like rum!”

He hustled her out rather roughly, Nathan Slate regarding him with mournful round eyes. Twenty minutes later Nathan came over and sat down.

“Mr. Joe.”

“Yes, Nathan.”

“There’s something troubles my conscience, Mr. Joe.”

“Let her rip!”

“Mr. Joe ”

“I’m waiting!”

Nathan cleared his throat.

“You say you’re a democrat, Mr. Joe, and you’re always saying, ’Love thy neighbor,’ Mr. Joe.”

“Has that hit you, Nathan?”

Nathan unburdened, evading this thrust.

“Why, then, Mr. Joe, did you turn that woman away?”

Joe was delighted.

“Why? I’ll tell you! Suppose that I know that the cucumber is inherently as good as any other vegetable, does that say I can digest it? Cucumbers aren’t for me, Nathan especially decayed ones.”

Nathan stared at him disconsolately, shook his head, and went back to puzzle it out. It is doubtful, however, that he ever did so.

Besides such visitors, there were still others who came to him to arbitrate family disputes which constituted him a sort of Domestic Relations Court and gave him an insight into a condition that surprised him. Namely, the not uncommon cases of secret polygamy and polyandry.

In short, Joe was busy. His work was established in a flexible routine mornings for writing; afternoons for callers, for circulation work, and for special trips to centers of labor trouble; evenings for going about with Giotto to see the Italians, or paying a visit, say, to the Ranns, or some others, or meeting at Latsky’s cigar store with a group of revolutionists who filled the air with their war of the classes, their socialist state, their dreams of millennium.

He gave time, too, to his mother evening walks, evening talks, and old-fashioned quiet hours in the kitchen, his mother at her needlework, and he reading beside her. One such night, when his mother seemed somewhat fatigued, he said to her:

“Don’t sew any more, mother.”

“But it soothes me, Joe.”

“Mother!”

“Yes.”

Joe spoke awkwardly.

“Are you perfectly satisfied down here? Did we do the right thing?”

His mother’s eyes flashed, as of old.

“We did,” she cried in her youthful voice. “It’s real it’s absorbing. And I’m very proud of myself.”

“Proud? You?”

“Yes, proud!” she laughed. “Joe, when a woman reaches my age she has a right to be proud if young folks seek her out and talk with her and make her their confidante. It shows she’s not a useless incumbrance, but young!”

Joe sat up.

“Have they found you out? Do they come to you?”

“They do especially the young wives with their troubles. All of them troubled over their husbands and their children. We have the finest talks together. They’re a splendid lot!”

“Who’s come, in particular?”

“Well, there’s one who isn’t married one of the best of them.”

“Not Sally Heffer!”

“The same!”

“I’m dinged!”

“That girl,” said Joe’s mother, “has all sorts of possibilities and she’s brave and strong and true. Sally’s a wonder! a new kind of woman!”

A new kind of woman! Joe remembered the phrase, and in the end admitted that it was true. Sally was of the new breed; she represented the new emancipation; the exodus of woman from the home to the battle-fields of the world; the willingness to fight in the open, shoulder to shoulder with men; the advance of a sex that now demanded a broader, freer life, a new health, a home built up on comradeship and economic freedom. In all of these things she contrasted sharply with Myra, and Joe always thought of the two together.

But unconsciously Sally was always the fellow-worker Myra what Myra meant he could feel but not explain; yet these crowded days left little time for thoughts sweet but often intense with pain. He wrote to her rarely mere jottings of business and health; he rarely heard from her. Her message was invariably the same the richness and quiet of country life, the depth and peace of rest, the hope that he was well and happy. She never mentioned his paper though she received every number and when Joe inquired once whether it came, she answered in a postscript: “The paper? It’s in every Monday’s mail.” This neglect irritated Joe, and he would doubly enjoy Sally’s heart-and-soul passion for The Nine-Tenths.

Sally was growing into his working life, day by day. Her presence was stimulating, refreshing. If he felt blue and discouraged, or dried up and in want of inspiration, he merely called her over, and her quiet talk, her sane views, her quick thinking, her never-failing good humor and faith, acted upon him as a tonic.

“Miss Sally,” he said once, “what would I ever do without you?”

Sally looked at him with her clear eyes.

“Oh,” she said, “I guess you’d manage to stagger along somehow.”

But after that she hovered about him like a guardian angel. What bothered her chiefly, when she thought of Joe’s work, was her lack of education, and she set about to make this up by good reading, and by attending lectures at night, and by hard study in such time as she could snatch from her work. She and Joe were comrades in the best sense. They could always depend upon each other. It was in some ways as if they were in partnership. And then there was that old tie of the fire to draw them together.

She was of great help in setting him right about the poor.

“People are happy,” she would say “most people are happy. Human nature is bigger than environment it bubbles up through mud. That’s almost the trouble with it. If the poor were only thoroughly unhappy, they’d change things to-morrow. No, Mr. Joe, it’s not a question of happiness; it’s a question of justice, of right, of progress, of developing people’s possibilities. It’s all the question of a better life, a richer life. People are sacred they mustn’t be reduced to animals.”

And with her aid he gained a truer perspective of the life about him learned better how to touch it, how to “work” it. The paper became more and more adapted to its audience, and began to spread rapidly. Here and there a labor union would subscribe for it in bulk for all its members, and the Stove Circle soon had many a raw recruit drumming up trade, making house-to-house canvasses. In this way, the circulation finally reached the five-thousand mark. There were certain unions, such as that of the cloak-makers, that regarded the paper as their special oracle swore by it, used it in their arguments, made it a vital part of their mental life.

This enlarged circulation brought some curious and unlooked-for results. Some of the magazine writers in the district got hold of a copy, had a peep at Joe, heard of his fame, and then took copies up-town to the respectable editors and others, and spread a rumor of “that idiot, Joe Blaine, who runs an underground paper down on Tenth Street.” As a passion of the day was slumming, and as nothing could be more piquant than the West Tenth Street establishment, Joe was amused to find automobiles drawing up at his door, and the whole neighborhood watching breathlessly the attack of some flouncy woman or some tailor-made man.

“How perfectly lovely!” one fair visitor announced, while the office force watched her pose in the center of the room. “Mr. Blaine, how dreadful it must be to live with the poor!”

“It’s pretty hard,” said Joe, “to live with any human being for any length of time.”

“Oh, but the poor! They aren’t clean, you know; and such manners!”

Sally spoke coldly.

“I guess bad manners aren’t monopolized by any particular class.”

The flouncy one flounced out.

These visits finally became very obnoxious, though they could not be stopped. Even a sign, over the door-bell, “No begging; no slumming,” was quite ineffective in shutting out either class.

There were, however, other visitors of a more interesting type professional men, even business men, who were drawn by curiosity, or by social unrest, or by an ardent desire to be convinced. Professor Harraman, the sociologist, came, and made quite a dispassionate study of Joe, put him (so he told his mother) on the dissecting-table and vivisected his social organs. Then there was Blakesly, the corporation lawyer, who enjoyed the discussion that arose so thoroughly that he stayed for supper and behaved like a gentleman in the little kitchen, even insisting on throwing off his coat, rolling up his sleeves, and helping to dry the dishes.

“You’re all wrong,” he told Joe when he left, “and some day possibly we’ll hang you or electrocute you; but it’s refreshing to rub one’s mind against a going dynamo. I’m coming again. And don’t forget that your mother is the First Lady of the Island! Good-by!”

Then there was, one important day, the great ex-trust man, whose name is inscribed on granite buildings over half the earth. This man so the legend runs is on the lookout for unusual personalities. The first hint of a new one puts him on the trail, and he sends out a detective to gather facts, all of which are card-indexed under the personality’s name. Then, if the report is attractive, this man goes out himself and meets the oddity face to face. He came in on Joe jovial, happy, sparkling, and fired a broadside of well-chosen questions. Joe was delighted, and said anything he pleased, and his visitor shrewdly went on. In the end Joe was stunned to hear this comment:

“Mr. Blaine, you’re on the right track, though you don’t know it. You think you want one thing, but you’re after another. Still keep it up. The world is coming to wonderful things.”

“That’s queer talk,” said Joe, “coming from a multimillionaire.”

The multimillionaire laughed.

“But I’m getting rid of the multi, Mr. Blaine. What more would you have me do? Each his own way. Besides” he screwed up his eye shrewdly “come now, aren’t you hanging on to some capital?”

“Yes in a way!”

“So are we all! You’re a wise man! Keep free, and then you can help others!”

The most interesting caller, however, judged from the standpoint of Joe’s life, was Theodore Marrin, Izon’s boss, manufacturer of high-class shirtwaists, whose Fifth Avenue store is one of the most luxurious in New York. He came to Joe while the great cloak-makers’ strike was still on, at a time when families were reduced almost to starvation, and when the cause seemed quite hopeless.

Theodore Marrin came in a beautiful heavy automobile. He was a short man, with a stout stomach; his face was a deep red, with large, slightly bulging black eyes, tiny mustache over his full lips; and he was dressed immaculately and in good taste a sort of Parisian-New Yorker, hail-fellow-well-met, a mixer, a cynic, a man about town. He swung his cane lightly as he tripped up the steps, sniffed the air, and knocked on the door of the editorial office.

Billy opened.

“Yes, sir.”

“Mr. Blaine in?”

“He’s busy.”

“I should hope he was! There, my boy.” He deftly waved Billy aside and stepped in. “Well! well! Mr. Blaine!”

Joe turned about, and arose, and accepted Mr. Marrin’s extended hand.

“Who do you think I am?”

Joe smiled.

“I’m ready for anything.”

“Well, Mr. Blaine, I’m the employer of one of your men. You know Jacob Izon?”

“Oh, you’re Mr. Marrin! Sit down.”

Marrin gazed about.

“Unique! unique!” He sat down, and pulled off his gloves. “I’ve been wanting to meet you for a long time. Izon’s been talking, handing me your paper. It’s a delightful little sheet I enjoy it immensely.”

“You agree with its views?”

“Oh no, no, no! I read it the way I read fiction! It’s damned interesting!”

Joe laughed.

“Well, what can I do for you?”

“What can I do for you!” corrected Marrin.

“See here, Mr. Blaine, I’m interested. How about taking a little ad. from me, just for fun, to help the game along?”

“We don’t accept ads.”

“Oh, I know! But if I contribute handsomely! I’d like to show it around to my friends a bit. Come, come, don’t be unreasonable, Mr. Blaine.”

Sally shuffled about, coughed, arose, sat down again, and Joe laughed.

“Can’t do it. Not even Rockefeller could buy a line of my paper.”

“Do you mean it?”

“Absolutely flatly.”

“Well, what a shame! But never mind. Some other time. Tell me, Mr. Blaine” he leaned forward “what are you? One of these bloody socialists?”

“No, I’m not a socialist.”

“What d’ye call yourself, then Republican?”

“No.”

“Democrat?”

“No.”

“Insurgent?”

“No.”

Marrin was horror-stricken.

“Not a blooming anarchist?”

Joe laughed.

“No, not an anarchist.”

“What are you, then? Nothing?”

“I can tell you what I’m not,” said Joe.

“What?”

“I’m not any kind of an ist.”

“A fine fellow!” cried Marrin. “Why, a man’s got to stand for something.”

“I do,” said Joe, “I stand for human beings and sometimes,” he chuckled, “I stand for a whole lot!”

Marrin laughed, so did Sally.

“Clever!” cried Marrin. “Damned clever! You’re cleverer than I thought hide your scheme up, don’t you? Well! well! Let me see your plant!”

Joe showed him about, and Marrin kept patting him on the back: “Delightful! Fine! You’re my style, Mr. Blaine everything done to a nicety, no frills and feathers. Isn’t New York a great town? There are things happening in it you’d never dream of.”

And when he left he said:

“Now, if there’s anything I can do for you, Mr. Blaine, don’t hesitate to call on me. And say, step up and see my shop. It’s the finest this side of Paris. I’ll show you something you’ve never seen yet! Good-by!”

And he was whisked away, a quite self-satisfied human being.

That very evening Marrin’s name came up again. It was closing-up time, Billy and Slate had already gone, and the room was dark save for the shaded lights over Joe’s desk and Sally’s table. The two were working quietly, and outside a soft fall of snow was muffling the noise of the city. There only arose the mellowed thunder of a passing car, the far blowing of a boat-whistle, the thin pulse of voices. Otherwise the city was lost in the beautiful storm, which went over the gas-lamps like a black-dotted halo. In the rear room there was a soft clatter of dishes. The silence was rich and full of thought. Joe scratched on, Sally puzzled over reports.

Then softly the door opened, and a hoarse voice said:

“Joe? You there?”

Sally and Joe turned around. It was Izon, dark, handsome, fiery, muffled up to his neck, his hat drawn low on his face, and the thin snow scattering from his shoulders and sleeves.

“Yes, I’m here,” Joe said in a low voice. “What is it?”

Izon came over.

“Joe!” his voice was passionate “there’s trouble brewing at Marrin’s.”

“Marrin? Why, he was here only to-day!”

Izon clutched the back of a chair and leaned over.

“Marrin is a dirty scoundrel!”

His voice was hoarse with helplessness and passion.

Joe rose.

“Tell me about this! Put it in a word!”

Tears sprang to Izon’s eyes.

“You know the cloak-makers’ strike well! Some manufacturer has asked
Marrin to help him out to fill an order of cloaks for him.”

“And Marrin ” Joe felt himself getting hot.

“Has given the job to us men.”

“How many are there?”

“Forty-five.”

“And the women?”

“They’re busy on shirtwaists.”

“And what did the men do?”

“As they were told.”

“So you fellows are cutting under the strikers you’re scabs.”

Izon clutched the chair harder.

“I told them so I said, ’For God’s sake, be men strike, if this isn’t stopped.’”

“And what did they say?”

“They’d think it over!”

Sally arose and spoke quietly.

“Make them meet here. I’ll talk to them!”

Izon muttered darkly:

“Marrin’s a dirty scoundrel!”

Joe smote his hands together.

“We’ll fix him. You get the men down here! You just get the men!”

And then Joe understood that his work was not child’s play; that the fight was man-size; that it had its dangers, its perils, its fierce struggles. He felt a new power rise within him a warrior strength. He was ready to plunge in and give battle ready for a hand-to-hand conflict. Now he was to be tested in the fires; now he was to meet and make or be broken by a great moment. An electricity of conflict filled the air, a foreboding of disaster. His theories at last were to meet the crucial test of reality, and he realized that up to that moment he had been hardly more than a dreamer.