XXIV
I went early next morning, but not early enough. The Mexican woman
told me that "the master" had waited, and finally had gone. He had
asked the way to the Labor Temple, and left word that I would find
him there. So I stepped back into my taxi, and told the driver to
take the most direct route.
Meantime I kept watch for my friend, and I did not have to watch
very long. There was a crowd ahead, the street was blocked, and a
premonition came to me: "Good Lord, I'm too late--he's got into some
new mess!" I leaned out of the window, and sure enough, there he was
standing on the tail-end of a truck, haranguing a crowd which packed
the street from one line of houses to the other. "And before he got
half way to the Labor Temple!" I thought to myself.
I got out, and paid the driver of the taxi, and pushed into the
crowd. Now and then I caught a few words of what Carpenter was
telling them, and it seemed quite harmless--that they were all
brothers, that they should love one another, and not do one another
injustice. What could there have been that made him think it
necessary to deliver this message before breakfast? I looked about,
noting that it was the Hebrew quarter of the city, plastered with
signs with queer, spattered-up letters. I thought: "Holy smoke! Is
he going to convert the Jews?"
I pushed my way farther into the crowd, and saw a policeman, and
went up to him. "Officer, what's this all about?" I spoke as one
wearing the latest cut of clothes, and he answered accordingly.
"Search me! They brought us out on a riot call, but when we got
here, it seems to have turned into a revival meeting."
I got part of the story from this policeman, and part from a couple
of bystanders. It appeared that some Jewish lady, getting her
shopping done early, had complained of getting short weight, and the
butcher had ordered her out of his shop, and she had stopped to
express her opinion of profiteers, and he had thrown her out, and
she had stood on the sidewalk and shrieked until all the ladies in
this crowded quarter had joined her. Their fury against soaring
prices and wages that never kept up with them, had burst all bounds,
and they had set out to clean up the butcher-shop with the butcher.
So there was Carpenter, on his way to the Labor Temple, with another
mob to quell!
"You know how it is," said the policeman. "It really does cost these
poor devils a lot to live, and they say prices are going down, but I
can't see it anywhere but in the papers."
"Well," said I, "I guess you were glad enough to have somebody do
this job."
He grinned. "You bet! I've tackled crowds of women before this, and
you don't like to hit them, but they claw into your face if you
don't. I guess the captain will let this bird spout for a bit, even
if he does block the traffic."
We listened for a minute. "Bear in mind, my friends, I am come among
you; and I shall not desert you. I give you my justice, I give you
my freedom. Your cause is my cause, world without end. Amen."
"Now wouldn't that jar you?" remarked the "copper." "Holy Christ, if
you'd hear some of the nuts we have to listen to on street-corners!
What do you suppose that guy thinks he can do, dressed up in
Abraham's nightshirt?"
Said Carpenter: "The days of the exploiter are numbered. The thrones
of the mighty are tottering, and the earth shall belong to them that
labor. He that toils not, neither shall he eat, and they that grow
fat upon the blood of the people--they shall grow lean again."
"Now what do you think o' that?" demanded the guardian of authority.
"If that ain't regular Bolsheviki talk, then I'm dopy. I'll bet the
captain don't stand much more of that."
Fortunately the captain's endurance was not put to the test. The
orator had reached the climax of his eloquence. "The kingdom of
righteousness is at hand. The word will be spoken, the way will be
made clear. Meantime, my people, I bid you go your way in peace. Let
there be no more disturbance, to bring upon you the contempt of
those who do not understand your troubles, nor share the heartbreak
of the poor. My people, take my peace with you!" He stretched out
his arms in invocation, and there was a murmur of applause, and the
crowd began slowly to disperse.
Which seemed to remind my friend the policeman that he had authority
to exercise. He began to poke his stick into the humped backs of
poor Jewish tailors, and into the ample stomachs of fat Jewish
housewives. "Come on now, get along with you, and let somebody else
have a bit o' the street." I pushed my way forward, by virtue of my
good clothes, and got through the press about Carpenter, and took
him by the arm, saying, "Come on now, let's see if we can't get to
the Labor Temple."
