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About The Wealth makers of the world. (Lincoln, Nebraska) 1894-1896 | View Entire Issue (Sept. 5, 1895)
TIIK WEALTH MAKE September 5, 1895 (CONTINUED FBOM LIST Will.) CHAPTER TIL. FRANK GREY BECUKEB AN APPOINTMENT AND LOSES IT. '.' "And this is a Sabbath day in great new Babylon of Chicago," Grey mused as he wended his way one Sunday morning to the post office. He was not strait-laced in his opinions nor in any way puritanical, but the utter dis regard of that Day of Best he had from childhood been accustomed to observe jarred his feelings strangely. The city was 1 'running full blast." Theaters, concert-halls, "dives" ef every descrip tion were open to the public, who seemed bent upon taking every advan tage of enjoyment they offered. To Grey the scene was hideous. It was not the gay, out-door festival of a Parisian Sunday; but a day on which young men shut themselves up in bil- "been nr the wabs, bib?" liard-halls and gambling dens, and drank themselves into a state of leth argy. It was a vulgar, senseless, be-hind-the-screen kind of a Sunday. Frank Grey had resolved upon a journalistic career. lie felt that he could write, and as he was temperate, energetio and modestly willing to be gin at the bottom of the profession and work his way up, he did not anticipate much trouble in securing a position, and with this end in view he had writ ten to the managing editor of every newspaper in the city a letter of appli cation for immediate employment, if needs be, volunteering to give his serv ices for nothing at the start. When he' reached the post office he took his place in the long line of ex pectant men patiently taking their turn of inquiry at the little window. It might be ten minutes before his chance would come, so he spent the time in scanning the features of the men near him, speculating on their lots in life, for they were, of course, all like himself, strangers, and probably nine out of every ten men who had come to this Mecca of the destitute to seek em ployment. His attention was especially attracted to the person immediately in front of him a tall, broad-shouldered, hand some young man, with a face expres sive of intense anxiety. "Algernon Granville?" the stranger asked when his turn came. The clerk hastily ran over a pile of letters and shook his head. "Are you sure?" "Nothing for you. Pass on," was the curt response. Grey was sure he saw the young man's face flush and then grow deathly pale as he strode away. For himself there were four letters, each bearing the address in large black letters of a Chicago daily paper. He chuckled to himself as he received them, his only apprehension being that he had been precipitant in offering his services in such a broadcast manner, which might lead to the embarrass ment of more than one accepting his proposition. Putting the precious mis sives in his pocket to be enjoyed at leis ure in his lodgings he strolled away with much self-satisfaction, pausing for a moment to gaze with wonder into the shop-windows of Clark street, where the second-class tradesmen were driv ing a roaring business notwithstanding the city ordinances which prescribe fines innumerable for all violators of the Sabbath day. He had crossed two blocks on his way to his lodging when his attention was attracted to a second-hand basement clothes store, in which, to his surprise, his handsome neighbor at the post office was standing in the midst of some dirty Jewish salesmen, engaged in a violent altercation, everyone of the shopmen speaking at onoe, and the young gen tleman indignantly protesting in loud and angry tones. Without a moment's reflection Grey sprang down , the steps t the young man's side. "Can I serve you in any way?" was the impetuous offer. "What is the mat ter?" "Nothing. You thought it was a row, did you? Good fellowl it's only a way these enterprising gentlemen have of doing business." Oh, indeed," Grey replied, blushing at his impatient interference. "I am very sorry I intruded." "Never mention it. And now," said the stranger, turning to the store peo- 5 ile, "if you will not give me ten dollar! or an overcoat for which I paid fifty not a month ago, give me the garment lck." ' - ' A babel of polyglotlo depreciation followed. ."Surely," said Grey, "yon are not CopM&ftrjtts. thinking of selling that handsome over coat?" "Not for four dollars, which is all the beggars offer." "Get your ooat and come along with me; I have something to propose; you must; you shall." And, notwithstand ing the opposition of the Jews, who, in their agony at losing a customer, of fered nine, ten, eleven and then, with a scream like the cry of a lost spirit, twelve dollars they escaped to the sidewalk. "Let me be your friend," Grey said, grasping the arm of his new acquaint ance. "I am sure the dilemma that compels a gentleman to sell his coat in a strange city can be easily explained, and you will confer a favor on me by " "Letting you act the role of a trans Atlantic Brother Cheerible to a dis tressed yet deserving young man. The twin is at home, I suppose, waiting to take me to his heart and fortunes." "Nay. I am as great a stranger in the city as yourself I am implying that you are a stranger and " "A thousand pardons," the young man interrupted, grasping Grey's hand: "You are a royal good fellow and de serve a frank explanation. I am a peripatetic Englishman out of luck. My necessities are a mere passing shadow, but it is the confounded need of ready cash that is driving me to my wits' end. There never was such a land as this for spending money and during a scamper through the west I have got into difficulties. Leaving my baggage out in Omaha as security for a hotel bill, I started for this- big, dirty, scrambling, hustling human beehive of a Chicago." Grey laughed. "You, will like the plaoe if you stop here long enough. They say that every one who comes here hates it the first month of his residence, endures it the second, and adores it the third," he said. "Well, I'm in the first stage of expe rience, and I candidly confess I detest It but to return to my story: My re mittance is not come, and, as I do not know anyone in the country, I am in what you would call a 'tarnation fix."' "I do not know that I should use such an expression," Grey smiled. "Only American gentlemen in English novels would talk in that way; but never mind that. You want some ready money. I am not a Jay Gould, but I can spare you a little, if you put your pride in your pocket and accept my offer as cor dially as it is offered." "Agreed with all my heart. By Gad, if all your countrymen were as fine, big-hearted fellows as you are, I should like to pitch my tent among you." Thus began between two young men, who half an hour before did not know of each other's existence, a friendship that was to last a lifetime. In the silence of his chamber that night, after a day pleasantly spent with his new acquaintance, Grey drew forth the letters that contained his fate, sure of a choice of positions and only hop ing that he would have the good judg ment to choose the best. As the letters were read one after another, his cheek flushed, and when the last wasperused he sat down on the bed gazing with the blankest stare of disappointment. 4 The fact is, they were all worded alike, as though one hand had written them, and each contained the assurance that the members of the staff of that particular journal never resigned, rare ly died and that there was not even the thinnest hope of present or future liter ary employment. On one letter, how ever, some good fellow had scribbled a postscript in pencil: "If you can get the humblest living In any bonest way, young man, give up the Idea of Journalism in Chicago. John Bailey." Thus one bubble burst and now an other scheme for solving the great problem of existence must be devised. Why not call upon this John Bailey? He was evidently a man with sympa thetic tendencies, or he would never have troubled himself to add that scribbled bit of advice. Accordingly next morning Frank Grey tramped up the rickety stair case that led to the editorial rooms of the great daily. He had no difficulty in finding the man for whom he was searching evidently a person in au thority and in a few minutes found himself in the presence of an oldish man, rather inclined to corpulency, whose well-to-do air and comfortable surroundings hardly served to point a moral to his wail over the blighted prospects of journalism. He received the young man, who stammered his apologies for his importunity, with good-humored cordiality. "Soyo-i are another moth fluttering In the candle of literary hope?" he asked, with an amused smile. "Well, yes, if you put it so. I do most earnestly wish to join your ranks." "What do you think you are fit for?" "Oh, I am modest; I am willing to start with a pittance, nay, to work for a time with no remuneration, if the chance be given me." "Exactly. But what are your quali fications?" "I can write rapidly and with tol erable accuracy. I have already done some magazine work, and " "Bahl" interrupted the eocentrio ed itor. "Can you wallow in the mire of ward politics? Are you hand-ln-glove with the loafers who hang around Hans Pumpernlckle's beer saloon? Can you forget that you are a man and be tray private confidences; lie about peo ple who have been gracious to you; put up with insults; write against your. mont nolftnn convictions, and be ready to Ik; kicked out of your berth by .your employer, who has found a man with a skin a little tougher or a conscience a little denser than your own? Can you, I ak?" "Well, if you are the result of this peculiar training, I " "Might venture too. Ah, young man, we are not similarly situated I never "can i sebvk you isr Asr WAT?" had to begin at the bottom. In my young days things were different, and there was no mob of hungry scribblers hanging on to a newspaper. However, thank your blessed stars, there is no chance of your getting on the daily however suicidically you may be in clined." "What chance, sir, do you think I would have with the weeklies?" "Their name is legion, but with the exception of three or four you would be either requested to write for starva tion wages or be engaged at a high sal ary and never paid. You might, if you were lucky, get nine dollars a week, and a bricklayer's wages are four dol lars a day." "The picture you draw is not encour aging." "Nor do I mean it to be. Fly from this over-populated city, to which every young adventurous breadwinner from every country on the earth makes his way, till the streets are teeming with the unemployed but, say, have you an imagination? Can you paint word pictures? The story papers do pay well, but you must have served your appren ticeship before you will be admitted into their columns. So that chance is barred." "And you know of nothing?" "Why, yes,"said Mr, Bailey, reflective ly, "there's an old friend of mine, who used to be a colleague in this office, who told me the other day that he wanted help. He's been badly bitten by social ism, and he runs a sheet which he seriously thinks is to redeem the world, though I never saw it, nor do I know anything about his pecuniary responsi bility. Men with whims rarely amount to much, and I guess he's sunk all he had accumulated in this venture." "Would you mind giving me his ad dress?" "With pleasure. Here, let me write you a line of introduction. It is a pity you cannot make up your mind to fol low a respectable line of occupation, but if you are determined to go wrong, you may as well meet your fate at once." Bidding adieu to his new friend, who he afterwards learned was fastidiously touchy on anyone else presuming to slight the profession of journalism, Grey hurried to the address he had re ceived. The building which housed, with twenty other crafts, the Labor Times, was not prepossessing in its exterior. However, after mounting three flights of stairs for then there was not as now an elevator in every office building in Chicago he came to a door bril liantly illuminated with colored pla cards. There was a grand pictorial representation of Labor as a knight in armor, mounted on a superb charger, pinning to the earth with a huge spear the fiery dragon of Capital, and half , a dozen other florid denunciations of equal significance. Grey modestly tapped at the door, then entered. The walls of the office were pro fusely adorned with flaring posters, while its furniture consisted of three common Windsor chairs and large pine table abundantly littered with papers, behind which sat a tall, gaunt old man with gray hair falling over his shoulders. "Col. Gilchrist, I presume?" Grey in quired. "At your service," the gentleman bowed with old-time politeness. "I bear you this letter of introduc tion." "Ah, I see, from my old friend Bailey. Well, young man, what can I do for you?" This with a new air of patron age in his tones. "I am seeking literary work. Your journal is likely to enlist my sympa thies, and I have called to see if there is, as Mr. Bailey suggested, a vacancy on your staff." "You have means?" "Well, yes, enough to keep me for a month or two." "That is good no experience, eh?" "Exactly." "Well, as It happens, I do need help. Of course you are aware that the privi lege of working upon a journal of such influence as the Labor Times carries with it a weight in considering the amount of salary." ''Well, yes; I do not expect much to start on." "I am offering, under such circum stances, but twenty-five dollars." "A week, sir?" "A weekl No, a monthl" roared the old man, aghast at the extravagant ideas of his visitor. "But that will not pay my board bilL Chicago is a dear place to live in, and I am now giving eight dollars a week for the use of a room which has the only advantage that you can lie in bed and reach everything in it, together with badly cooked meals and wretched serv ice." "So you decline?" "No. I accept, as the experience may be valuable to me." So Grey was installed In the other di lapidated chair as a full-blown editor, enjoying the distinguished privilega of "molding the opinions of millions of readers," as his employer graphically put it. Now it chanced that at noon the pro prietor of the Labor Times announced his intentions of strolling over to a res taurant for a lunch a free lunch, one of the blessings to the bibulous, for which Chicago is remarkable and Grey found himself in full charge of the establishment. "None will call at this hour," the great man observed; "so you might be looking over our file and get on to the hang of our line of action." But hardly was his back turned when a visitor appeared a frank, well dressed, good-looking young man of pleasing exterior. "The editor of the Labor Times?" he asked. "Well, one of them," Grey smiled. "Then, sir, I've brought an article I've written. " Of course, I've only had a common-school education, and it isn't up to much as a literary production, but I think it's got some ideas in it, and you might be inclined to publish it." "The subject?" "Well, it is just workingman's no tions on capital and labor a little out of the common for a mechanic in these troublesome times, for I take it that while trades unions are fine things in their way, there's such a thing as over doing the laboringman's protection and crippling enterprise." "Are you a mechanic?" Grey asked, wonderingly. "Shipwright," was the abrupt an swer; "in the employ of Moore &. Mar ston, down at the dry docks. George Harland's my name. And, oh, before I forget it, I want to put an ad. into the Times of a furnished room 'I've got to let to some quiet man of steady habits." Grey started. "A furnished room, you say? What rent do you ask for it?" "Five dollars a month with stove and gas." "Would it suit me?" "Why, no, I don't think it would. You see, sir, it's not in one of the ave nues, but right out in A Hundred and "COL, 6ILCHBI8T, I PBESUME?" Fiftieth street not that the neighbor hood isn't respectable or the cottages kind of pretty but I guess it's not quite up to your requirements." Nevertheless Grey took down the ad dress and the very next day was in possession of the vacant chamber. But meanwhile a startling event was to happen, which was to turn the current of his plans by one instant sweep of the hand of misfortune. v It was towards four o'clock in the afternoon that the two editors were conversing pleasantly, for the senior was a man of ripe experience and great natural power of observation, and was becoming more genial towards his well- mannered subordinate or perhaps the Real Old Kentuck he had imbibed at his free lunch had warmed his heart when, without a knock, the door opened and a squarely-built, broad shouldered i man, showily dressed, whose heavy gold watchchain and rings were in painful contrast to his low-bred face and black finger nails, entered. The proprietor welcomed - him en thusiastically nay, if I were not writ ing of so great a man, I would say, with cringing servility. "My new associate editor, Mr. Grey," said the colonel, calling his visitor's at tention to his amused assistant. "The gentleman's name?" Grey asked, as he shook hands. . "Ah, this is Herr Schlossinger the great Schlossinger, you know." "But, forgive my ignorance, I " "What, you don't know Schlossingerl Not know Schlossinger, the socialist! Not know the leading spirit in the great labor movement of the city of Chicago) Not know the fiery orator, before whose burning denunciations tyrants tremble and kings shake in their thrones! Not know " But the colonel's eloquence was in terrupted by the Chicago Demosthenes, who turned rudely to Grey and said, without the faintest sign of German accent, but in the strong western vernacular: "See here, young feller, I'm tickled to death that the ole cuss hes had the sense ter put young blood on his one-hoss paper; for it's milder now nor ef it was run, by a woman's sewin'-circle; a chile might put more go into it. See?" Grey nodded. "Now, I shan't bother my head about Gilchrist any longer. You look as if yer could swing a pen, an' I shall give the straight tip ter you every time, an' ef you know beans when the bag's open youll follow my orders, jest es I give 'em to yer." "Does the paper belong to you?" Grey asked, aghast at the possibility. "Not by a long shotl but for all that I guess I'm the heart an' the liver an' the lungs an' the backbone of it. See?" "I presume," asked Grey, coolly, "you're what they call a professional agitator?" "You've hit It, stranger." "And," continued Grey, with aggra vating nonchalance, "you belong to a class of men for whose occupation I confess I have nothing but contempt." Schlossinger blazed forth in a torrent f of oaths, while the poor colonel rose in bewildered deprecation. "To a class of men," Grey went on, as soon as he could get a hearing, "who have no interest in the reform of social abuses, who prey upon the working- man, and wax fat upon his hard-earned wages." "Do you hear him?" yelled Schloss inger, advancing. "Leave this office, you hound, you dog!" "I am not a tyrant, and I am not a king, Mr. Schlossinger," Grey said, with exasperating coolness, "except so far as every American oitizen is a sovereign, and that Is why I do not quake at your approach nay, perhaps why, if you come one step nearer, I shall soil my hands by knocking you down." Almost suiting the action to the word, he sprang upon the communist. "Down on your knees and beg my par don, or I wiU thrash you within an inch of your life," he cried, like one stung to sudden frenzy. "Gilchrist! quickl police!" gasped the fallen agitator, who, notwithstanding his muscular build, never moved a finger to Oeiend himself. Grey flung him scornfully aside. "Pshaw! I have done with you; you are not worth chastisement; but never dare to set foot in this office while I am here." By now, however, the colonel's scat tered senses had recovered their equi librium. "I, sir, am master here," he cried. "Herr Schlossinger, I humbly apolo gize for this man's insolence and I ig nominiously discharge him on the spot!" "Don't give me any o' yer taffy," the agitator growled, turning his venom on one he dared insult. "I'll pay yer back for this, yer see ef I don't I'll ruin yer sure es my name's Hermann Schloss inger!" "My dear, dear friend," the colonel deprecated, "how could I help it? Don't visit on me the sins of another. Don't-" But Frank Grey stopped the old man's abject apologies. "Col. Gilchrist," he said, not without a touch of kindness In his tone, "don't degrade yourself by wasting words on such a hound. It is painful to see a man of your education and antecedents subjected to the dictates of a loutish brute like this king quaker; but if you must continue your connection with him, do let me entreat you, adopt an other method in dealing with him. When he is insolent, kick him kick him hard it will do him good and you no harm for though you are an old broken man, he will not dare to retal iate, and I am sure he has too sincere an antipathy to a police court to make you legally responsible for his whip ping." With this parting shot, Grey left the Labor Times: to reconstruct the world without his valuable assistance. But this meant no work and no work in Chicago means more than in any other city in the world means that if a man falls down in the rank on the march none have time to stop in the rush and roar of that phenomenal Babylon to pick him up. Another trouble awaited him, 'on reaching his boarding place: Stewart, his newly-made friend, had received his remittance, and, all elate, was only de laying his departure to wish him good- "Good-by, old fellow; I shall never forget your kindness." "Good luck go with you," was Grey's warm rejoinder. "Remember my address in London. There's no knowing in the whirligig of time when we may meet again." . The regret Grey felt at the loss of this young man he had known so short a time puzzled him. "Surely,", he communed with him self when he was left alone, "there is some force of electro-biology which draws souls together some subtle at traction which controls congenial spir its, which we shall all understand some day in God's good time. I feel it in my bones that Stewart and I will meet again." Yes, they would meet again. (To be Continued.) Inconsistency. The old party papers, without excep tion, are in a sheol of a fix. The east ern democratic and republican papers are yelling their lungs out in behalf of the gold standard, declaring this to be the true policy of the two parties, while the same press of the south and west is yelling itself into contortions for the double standard. They are simply playing on' the prejudices of their respective sections, hoping in the two-faced game to be able to hold enough damphules in line to carry the next presidential election. Go it, you old rapscallions, and have fun while you can; your time is short and sweet. Butte (Mont ) Bystander. No Hope There. "As well hope for the republican party "to inaugurate free trade as for the democrats to. give us free silver." People's Sentinel. One would be as reasonable as the other. It is true that southern and western democrats in their state con ventions have frequently declared in favor of free silver; but when it has come to a vote in congress democrats have voted against it by large major ities. The national democracy of to day is so largely dominated by the gold standard element of the north and east that there is no reasonable hope that the party will ever give us free silver. Weatherford (Tex.) Leader. Ba a Man. Don't be afraid of public opinion, but help to make it To fear public opinion is pretty fair evidence that you have no opinion of. your own. It is probably easier to let politicians think for you than to think for your self, but it don't pay in the long run. Instead of fearing public opinion, get good opinions, based on equity and justice, and make public opinion con form to them. Don't be weak-kneed; don't shrink because somebody might laugh at you; don't let public opinion make acoward of you. Do a man's part in this struggle. Coming Nation. Dr. Miles' Nerve Platters JSe. at anOragglfta. ) Oregon Politics If you want to keep X L 1 1-1 . - I puaicu on iopunsm in. " Oregon and the Pacific Northwest, SUBSCRIBE FOB The . . . People's Party Post, $1.00 per year. Portland, Oregon. YOU ARE OUR AGENT. . For a Club of Five yearly sub scribers we will give a Year's Subscription to the person send ing it. Send for Sample Copies and work among your neigh bors. Address, THE WEALTH MAKERS, J. S. 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