Finding that he could make no headway against her alone, he called upon the union to assist him, claiming that she was employing non-union labor4, and had thus been able to cut down the discharging rates to starvation prices.
A meeting was accordingly called by the executive committee of the Knights5, and a resolution passed condemning7 certain persons in the village of Rockville as traitors8 to the cause of the workingman. Only one copy of this edict was issued and mailed. This found its way into Tom Grogan's letter-box. Five minutes after she had broken the seal, her men discovered the document pasted upside down on her stable door.
McGaw heard of her action that night, and started another line of attack. It was managed so skillfully that that which until then had been only a general dissatisfaction on the part of the members of the union and their sympathizers over Tom's business methods now developed into an avowed11 determination to crush her. They discussed several plans by which she could be compelled either to restore rates for unloading, or be forced out of the business altogether. As one result of these deliberations a committee called upon the priest, Father McCluskey, and informed him of the delicate position in which the union had been placed by her having hidden her husband away, thus forcing them to fight the woman herself. She was making trouble, they urged, with her low wages and her unloading rates. “Perhaps his Riverence c'u'd straighten her out.” Father McCluskey's interview with Tom took place in the priest's room one morning after early mass. It had gone abroad, somehow, that his Reverence12 intended to discipline the “high-flyer,” and a considerable number of the “tenement-house gang,” as Tom called them, had loitered behind to watch the effect of the good father's remonstrances13.
What Tom told the priest no one ever knew: such conferences are part of the regime of the church, and go no farther. It was noticed, however, as she came down the aisle14, that her eyes were red, as if from weeping, and that she never raised them from the floor as she passed between her enemies on her way to the church door. Once outside, she put her arm around Jennie, who was waiting, and the two strolled slowly across the lots to her house.
When the priest came out, his own eyes were tinged15 with moisture. He called Dennis Quigg, McGaw's right-hand man, and in a voice loud enough to be heard by those nearest him expressed his indignation that any dissension should have arisen among his people over a woman's work, and said that he would hear no more of this unchristian and unmanly interference with one whose only support came from the labor of her hands.
McGaw and his friends were not discouraged. They were only determined16 upon some more definite stroke. It was therefore ordered that a committee be appointed to waylay17 her men going to work, and inform them of their duty to their fellow-laborers.
Accordingly, this same Quigg—smooth-shaven, smirking18, and hollow-eyed, with a diamond pin, half a yard of watch-chain, and a fancy shirt—ex-village clerk with his accounts short, ex-deputy sheriff with his accounts of cruelty and blackmail19 long, and at present walking delegate of the union—was appointed a committee of one for that duty.
Quigg began by begging a ride in one of Tom's return carts, and taking this opportunity to lay before the driver the enormity of working for Grogan for thirty dollars a month and board, when there were a number of his brethren out of work and starving who would not work for less than two dollars a day if it were offered them. It was plainly the driver's duty, Quigg urged, to give up his job until Tom Grogan could be compelled to hire him back at advanced wages. During this enforced idleness the union would pay the driver fifty cents a day. Here Quigg pounded his chest, clenched20 his fists, and said solemnly, “If capital once downs the lab'rin' man, we'll all be slaves.”
The driver was Carl Nilsson, a Swede, a big, blue-eyed, light-haired young fellow of twenty-two, a sailor from boyhood, who three years before, on a public highway, had been picked up penniless and hungry by Tom Grogan, after the keeper of a sailors' boarding-house had robbed him of his year's savings21. The change from cracking ice from a ship's deck with a marlinespike, to currying22 and feeding something alive and warm and comfortable, was so delightful23 to the Swede that he had given up the sea for a while. He had felt that he could ship again at anytime, the water was so near. As the months went by, however, he, too, gradually fell under the spell of Tom's influence. She reminded him of the great Norse women he had read about in his boyhood. Besides all this, he was loyal and true to the woman who had befriended him, and who had so far appreciated his devotion to her interests as to promote him from hostler and driver to foreman of the stables.
Nilsson knew Quigg by sight, for he had seen him walking home with Jennie from church. His knowledge of English was slight, but it was enough to enable him to comprehend Quigg's purpose as he talked beside him on the cart. After some questions about how long the enforced idleness would continue, he asked suddenly:—
“Who da horse clean when I go 'way?”
“D—n her! let her clean it herself,” Quigg answered angrily.
This ended the question for Nilsson, and it very nearly ended the delegate. Jumping from the cart, Carl picked up the shovel24 and sprang toward Quigg, who dodged25 out of his way, and then took to his heels.
When Nilsson, still white with anger, reached the dock, he related the incident to Cully, who, on his return home, retailed26 it to Jennie with such variety of gesture and intonation27 that that young lady blushed scarlet28, but whether from sympathy for Quigg or admiration29 for Nilsson, Cully was unable to decide.
Quigg's failure to coax30 away one of Tom's men ended active operations against Tom, so far as the union was concerned. It continued to listen to McGaw's protests, but, with an eye open for its own interests, replied that if Grogan's men would not be enticed31 away it could at present take no further action. His trouble with Tom was an individual matter, and a little patience on McGaw's part was advised. The season's work was over, and nothing of importance could be done until the opening of the spring business. If Tom's men struck now, she would be glad to get rid of them. It would, therefore, be wiser to wait until she could not do without them, when they might all be forced out in a body. In the interim32 McGaw should direct his efforts to harassing33 his enemy. Perhaps a word with Slattery, the blacksmith, might induce that worthy34 brother Knight6 to refuse to do her shoeing some morning when she was stalled for want of a horse; or he might let a nail slip in a tender hoof35. No one could tell what might happen in the coming months. At the moment the funds of the union were too low for aggressive measures. Were McGaw, however, to make a contribution of two hundred dollars to the bank account in order to meet possible emergencies, something might be done. All this was duly inscribed36 in the books of the committee,—that is, the last part of it,—and upon McGaw's promising37 to do what he could toward improving the funds. It was thereupon subsequently resolved that before resorting to harsher measures the union should do all in its power toward winning over the enemy. Brother Knight Dennis Quigg was thereupon deputed to call upon Mrs. Grogan and invite her into the union.
On brother Knight Dennis Quigg's declining for private reasons the honorable mission intrusted to him by the honorable board (Mr. Quigg's exact words of refusal, whispered in the chairman's ear, were, “I'm a-jollyin' one of her kittens; send somebody else after the old cat”), another walking delegate, brother Knight Crimmins by name, was selected to carry out the gracious action of the committee.
Crimmins had begun life as a plumber38's helper, had been iceman, night-watchman, heeler, and full-fledged plumber; and having been out of work himself for months at a time, was admirably qualified39 to speak of the advantages of idleness to any other candidate for like honors.
He was a small man with a big nose, grizzled chin-whiskers, and rum-and-watery eyes, and wore constantly a pair of patched blue overalls40 as a badge of his laborship. The seat of these outside trousers showed more wear than his hands.
Immediately upon his appointment, Crimmins went to McGaw's house to talk over the line of attack. The conference was held in the sitting-room41 and behind closed doors—so tightly closed that young Billy McGaw, with one eye in mourning from the effect of a recent street fight, was unable, even by the aid of the undamaged eye and the keyhole, to get the slightest inkling of what was going on inside.
When the door was finally opened and McGaw and Crimmins came out, they brought with them an aroma42 the pungency43 of which was explained by two empty glasses and a black bottle decorating one end of the only table in the room.
As Crimmins stepped down from the broken stoop, with its rusty44 rain-spout and rotting floor-planks, Billy overheard this parting remark from his father: “Thry the ile furst, Crimmy, an' see what she'll do; thin give her the vinegar; and thin,” with an oath, “ef that don't fetch'er, come back here to me and we'll give 'er the red pepper.”
Brother Knight Crimmins waved his hand to the speaker. “Just leave'er to me, Dan,” he said, and started for Tom's house. Crimmins was delighted with his mission. He felt sure of bringing back her application within an hour. Nothing ever pleased him so much as to work a poor woman into an agony of fright with threats of the union. Wives and daughters had often followed him out into the street, begging him to let the men alone for another week until they could pay the rent. Sometimes, when he relented, the more grateful would bless him for his magnanimity. This increased his self-respect.
Tom met him at the door. She had been sitting up with a sick child of Dick Todd, foreman at the brewery45, and had just come home. Hardly a week passed without some one in distress46 sending for her. She had never seen Crimmins before, and thought he had come to mend the roof. His first words, however, betrayed him:—
“The Knights sent me up to have a word wid ye.”
Tom made a movement as if to shut the door in his face; then she paused for an instant, and said curtly47, “Come inside.”
Crimmins crushed his slouch-hat in his hand, and slunk into a chair by the window. Tom remained standing48.
“I see ye like flowers, Mrs. Grogan,” he began, in his gentlest voice. “Them geraniums is the finest I iver see”—peering under the leaves of the plants. “Guess it's 'cause ye water 'em so much.”
Tom made no reply.
Crimmins fidgeted on his chair a little, and tried another tack10. “I s'pose ye ain't doin' much just now, weather's so bad. The road's awful goin' down to the fort.”
Tom's hands were in the side pockets of her ulster. Her face was aglow49 with her brisk walk from the tenements50. She never took her eyes from his face, and never moved a muscle of her body. She was slowly revolving51 in her mind whether any information she could get out of him would be worth the waiting for.
Crimmins relapsed into silence, and began patting the floor with his foot. The prolonged stillness was becoming uncomfortable.
“I was tellin' ye about the meetin' we had to the union last night. We was goin' over the list of members, an' we didn't find yer name. The board thought maybe ye'd like to come in wid us. The dues is only two dollars a month. We're a-regulatin' the prices for next year, stevedorin' an' haulin', an' the rates'll be sent out next week.” The stopper was now out of the oil-bottle.
“How many members have ye got?” she asked quietly.
“Hundred an' seventy-three in our branch of the Knights.”
“All pay two dollars a month?”
“That's about the size of it,” said Crimmins.
“What do we git when we jine?”
“Well, we all pull together—that's one thing. One man's strike's every man's strike. The capitalists been tryin' to down us, an' the laborin'-man's got to stand together. Did ye hear about the Fertilizer Company's layin' off two of our men las' Friday just fer bein' off a day or so without leave, and their gittin' a couple of scabs from Hoboken to”—
“What else do we git?” said Tom, in a quick, imperious tone, ignoring the digression. She had moved a step closer.
Crimmins looked slyly up into her eyes. Until this moment he had been addressing his remarks to the brass52 ornament53 on the extreme top of the cast-iron stove. Tom's expression of face did not reassure54 him; in fact, the steady gaze of her clear gray eye was as uncomfortable as the focused light of a sun lens.
“Do you do any helpin'?”
“Yis;” stiffening56 a little. “I'm the walkin' delegate of our branch.”
“Oh, ye're the walkin' delegate! You don't pay no two dollars, then, do ye!”
“No. There's got to be somebody a-goin' round all the time, an' Dinnis Quigg and me's confidential57 agents of the branch, an' what we says goes”—slapping his overalls decisively with his fist. McGaw's suggested stopper was being loosened on the vinegar.
Tom's fingers closed tightly. Her collar began to feel small. “An' I s'pose if ye said I should pay me men double wages, and put up the price o' haulin' so high that me customers couldn't pay it, so that some of yer dirty loafers could cut in an' git it, I'd have to do it, whether I wanted to or not; or maybe ye think I'd oughter chuck some o' me own boys into the road because they don't belong to yer branch, as ye call it, and git a lot o' dead beats to work in their places who don't know a horse from a coal-bucket. An' ye'll help me, will ye? Come out here on the front porch, Mr. Crimmins”—opening the door with a jerk. “Do ye see that stable over there! Well, it covers seven horses; an' the shed has six carts with all the harness. Back of it—perhaps if ye stand on yer toes even a little feller like you can see the top of another shed. That one has me derricks an' tools.”
Crimmins tried to interrupt long enough to free McGaw's red pepper, but her words poured out in a torrent58.
“Now ye can go back an' tell Dan McGaw an' the balance of yer two-dollar loafers that there ain't a dollar owin' on any horse in my stable, an' that I've earned everything I've got without a man round to help 'cept those I pays wages to. An' ye can tell 'em, too, that I'll hire who I please, an' pay 'em what they oughter git; an' I'll do me own haulin' an' unloadin' fer nothin' if it suits me. When ye said ye were a walkin' delegate ye spoke59 God's truth. Ye'd be a ridin' delegate if ye could; but there's one thing ye'll niver be, an' that's a workin' delegate, as long as ye kin9 find fools to pay ye wages fer bummin' round day 'n' night. If I had me way, ye would walk, but it would be on yer uppers, wid yer bare feet to the road.”
Crimmins again attempted to speak, but she raised her arm threateningly: “Now, if it's walkin' ye are, ye can begin right away. Let me see ye earn yer wages down that garden an' into the road. Come, lively now, before I disgrace meself a-layin' hands on the likes of ye!”
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1
discomfiture
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| n.崩溃；大败；挫败；困惑 | |
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intensified
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| v.（使）增强， （使）加剧( intensify的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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hatred
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| n.憎恶，憎恨，仇恨 | |
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labor
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| n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦 | |
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knights
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| 骑士； （中古时代的）武士( knight的名词复数 )； 骑士； 爵士； （国际象棋中）马 | |
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knight
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| n.骑士，武士；爵士 | |
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7
condemning
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| v.（通常因道义上的原因而）谴责( condemn的现在分词 )；宣判；宣布…不能使用；迫使…陷于不幸的境地 | |
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8
traitors
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| 卖国贼( traitor的名词复数 )； 叛徒； 背叛者； 背信弃义的人 | |
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kin
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| n.家族，亲属，血缘关系；adj.亲属关系的，同类的 | |
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10
tack
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| n.大头钉；假缝，粗缝 | |
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11
avowed
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| adj.公开声明的，承认的v.公开声明，承认( avow的过去式和过去分词) | |
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12
reverence
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| n.敬畏，尊敬，尊严；Reverence:对某些基督教神职人员的尊称；v.尊敬，敬畏，崇敬 | |
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13
remonstrances
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| n.抱怨，抗议( remonstrance的名词复数 ) | |
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aisle
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| n.（教堂、教室、戏院等里的）过道，通道 | |
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tinged
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| v.（使）发丁丁声( ting的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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waylay
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| v.埋伏，伏击 | |
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smirking
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| v.傻笑( smirk的现在分词 ) | |
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19
blackmail
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| n.讹诈，敲诈，勒索，胁迫，恫吓 | |
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clenched
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| v.紧握，抓紧，咬紧( clench的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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21
savings
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| n.存款，储蓄 | |
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currying
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| 加脂操作 | |
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23
delightful
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| adj.令人高兴的，使人快乐的 | |
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24
shovel
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| n.铁锨，铲子，一铲之量；v.铲，铲出 | |
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25
dodged
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| v.闪躲( dodge的过去式和过去分词 )；回避 | |
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26
retailed
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| vt.零售（retail的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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27
intonation
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| n.语调，声调；发声 | |
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28
scarlet
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| n.深红色，绯红色，红衣；adj.绯红色的 | |
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29
admiration
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| n.钦佩，赞美，羡慕 | |
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30
coax
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| v.哄诱，劝诱，用诱哄得到，诱取 | |
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31
enticed
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| 诱惑，怂恿( entice的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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32
interim
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| adj.暂时的，临时的；n.间歇，过渡期间 | |
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harassing
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| v.侵扰，骚扰( harass的现在分词 )；不断攻击（敌人） | |
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34
worthy
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| adj.(of)值得的，配得上的；有价值的 | |
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35
hoof
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| n.(马，牛等的)蹄 | |
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36
inscribed
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| v.写，刻( inscribe的过去式和过去分词 )；内接 | |
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37
promising
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| adj.有希望的，有前途的 | |
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38
plumber
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| n.(装修水管的)管子工 | |
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qualified
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| adj.合格的，有资格的，胜任的，有限制的 | |
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40
overalls
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| n.（复）工装裤；长罩衣 | |
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41
sitting-room
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| n.（BrE）客厅，起居室 | |
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42
aroma
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| n.香气，芬芳，芳香 | |
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43
pungency
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| n.（气味等的）刺激性；辣；（言语等的）辛辣；尖刻 | |
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44
rusty
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| adj.生锈的；锈色的；荒废了的 | |
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45
brewery
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| n.啤酒厂 | |
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46
distress
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| n.苦恼，痛苦，不舒适；不幸；vt.使悲痛 | |
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47
curtly
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| adv.简短地 | |
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48
standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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49
aglow
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| adj.发亮的；发红的；adv.发亮地 | |
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50
tenements
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| n.房屋，住户，租房子( tenement的名词复数 ) | |
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51
revolving
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| adj.旋转的，轮转式的；循环的v.（使）旋转( revolve的现在分词 )；细想 | |
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52
brass
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| n.黄铜；黄铜器，铜管乐器 | |
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53
ornament
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| v.装饰，美化；n.装饰，装饰物 | |
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54
reassure
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| v.使放心，使消除疑虑 | |
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55
blurted
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| v.突然说出，脱口而出( blurt的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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56
stiffening
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| n. (使衣服等)变硬的材料, 硬化 动词stiffen的现在分词形式 | |
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57
confidential
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| adj.秘（机）密的，表示信任的，担任机密工作的 | |
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58
torrent
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| n.激流，洪流；爆发，(话语等的)连发 | |
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59
spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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