THE NEBRASKA INDEPENDENT
MARCH 14, 1907.
V.t
7i
Tkm mrm
BUILT
That what the aamc meaas.
all Heaas wear "HMeram" sites. Demand them of your dealer
INIIST. fcold everywhere.
writ to us.
We alto make the
"Martha WasLbllfea" comfort
t jl of mea's, women's and children's shoes. Our trade
mark is stamped on every
1 Mayer Doot &
miiu..l..
Slaves of
Manchester Chronicle: I don't know
whether I'd rather be Maxim Gorky's
"Dock thief" than any or j of the fel
lows I saw tearing themselves to pieces
this morning in the struggle for cheap
bread, cheap beer, and a more or less
insanitary home,
I was watching some dock laborers
pulling, punning, twisting, and wrench
ing themselves in getting some thick
and long logs of wood from the hold
of an old ehip in No. 16 dock.
"Good God!" I thought to myself,
"and the best of us may have to come
to it "after all one. never knows!"
You must not suppose for a moment
that all dock laborersGodforsaken as
they may look in their industrial hades
are the Sikes and Hooligans of soci
ety. Nothing of the kind.
They help more than any other class,
I' admit, to keep up the petty criminal
annals of all our big, busy ports. Po
lice courts there are black with the
crimes of dock laborers. And the Jago
of the docker ia no less thrilling than
that of Arthur Morrison's.
And what of the record of dock trag
edies and dock heroism, which one
might cull from the unimaginative
documents in the alcoves of the coro
ners' courts? I have glanced through
'Ihese at one of the-courts. I came away
thinking what a fine opportunity of
adding one more piece of realism to his
numerous volumes Emile Zola missed
through not being acquainted with the
conditions of English dock laborers.
Still the material is there for any Eng
lish Zola who cares to come forward.
' But. there are among the docks ex
amples of pluck which some men will
show .to be independent of the help of
friends, relatives or charity. - "Facilis
est descensus Averni!" And often when
men bpgin to sink morally and socially,
when they begin to sink through this
or that, or some other misfortune, they
gravitate towards the docks, towards
that ferim. grey world of the casual la
borer, fearing the der?cension, as if they
were soing to the devil before their
time.
. . A Scholar.
Whv frmo time a man a man of
good breeding, education, and opulent
relatives used to come and regale his
classical knowledge with me o' nights
o nlcrhts poim-times when the wind
wa.s whistling and thundering about
tho dixk. And at 4 o'clock in the
morning you might have Keen htm
wending his way toward the srain
wnrehou'S skirting nme. clock or
other, to am Just enough to keep him
self. h wlV and bin children on mere
bread itnd butler and cheap potatoes.
"It's ay." he us-d ! exclaim, "to
ink to that level" pointing"' to t lic
docks. "Hut, my Rud once in.
how tt get out in th trouble!"
Welt I my, 1 m watching wrnie
cWken. ter themnHvo to pieces.
Thei" wa.i a ol:,? Mn,i m" ftj4 ,,f
inihimr noinewhere.
' m "! mi I did m the pur-
guerV iner.aH.Hl. Th-y ultimately
tiled t u Ma"'! '""l' No- U
"of'ioun I knew what they were
rn.ru r They w fler J"h
uTtu.-l to unload the bU for the
llmthlrV fplnnlruc Fifty-It
snoES for hen
iTke kigheit degree of style, fit and werkaaa
ship are embodied ia these solendid ahaea
mm thai m9I ka I. .....
ail neariif a,iaiity at tic price. They are
ON HONOR
That's what a trial will arove. Iv
It you canaot fet thei
,
"Vesfera Lady," and the
shoea and a full line
sole.
Shoe Co.,
:.
the Docks
dred fellows for sixty-six men's jobs!
That is the kind of thing which is
the cause of so much tragedy in dock
life; of so much poverty, profanity,
and hellishness in the homes, and the
streets, and the jerry-shops of the
dockers. '
The ConMcioiiMiiFMfl of Strength.
And there they were one hundred
men! young men, middle-aged men,
and old men. Broad-shoildered men,
pale-faced men, crippled men, hungry
looking men, and strong men strong
men buoyed up by an air of confidence.
They were buoyed up because they
knew that physiclal strength there was
more than character; They knew that
here they the young and muscular
were the fittest to survive. They had,
day by day, seen their weaker broth
ers, their older brothers pitilessly
tumbled to the wall.
And an overseer, with a red face, a
well-fed body, a book and a pencil,
came to select the fifty-six men he
wanted; he came to select them much
as he would select cattle for the
shambles, or just as an eastern plu
tocrat, in the old days, chose his wo
men slaves from the public market
place.
rne ntty-six neeaea men were
chosen. The others the rejected, the
human ovcrllow they "slunk" away as
if they had committed some crime
against society. No doubt the poor
beggars had, but whether society was
the aggressor or "not well, that's a
knotty problem.
They "slunk" away. And it is in those
that have to "slink" away that one
may measure much of the cause of
crime, -the cans-? of immorality, the
cause of starvation, of intemperance,
of insanity, of physical inefficiency, and
of the unemployableness of middle-aged
men in a city of docks and ships and
casual labor.
"Where'er yer goin' to, Bill?" one of
them asked his mate, standing near to
me.
i aun Know," saia am, wun a
pnarl, "an' it don't matter, either," his
under lip protruding beyond the upper.
And I learned that Bill had been to
four stands that morning, and had
failed on each occasion to get a Job
He started the round breakfastlessly,
ana enafi so.
Head to Kiuotion.
Hut Bill took it all as though it had
to be couldn't be helped, tie took it
all as though it were part and parcel
of his fate, part and parcel of what
experience had convinced him to ex
pect.
Thoxe emotions that bring tearn to
the eye of some men were dead
iiough In liill and hla mate.
"Can ver givo us a nip o' tobacco.
gitviu-r?" ald Bill to me.. taking ad-
vantage of my apparent Intercut in
him and bin mate. "So help me. 1
Kin't had a nmoke today, euvner!"
rrobably Hill was uttorlnir an un
truth, but I'm not going to hlamo lilm.
Hill and his equally unfortunate pal
plunged Into my pouch. iu1h! their
dirty pipe", felt In all their pocketa
without discovering a match.
"Match, guv-tier?" aaked Bill.
I handed him a boi. They lit thdr
pipe and nmoked them, not as mnn
mok ia an va-sy chair after a sub I
i -.aSBVllB I
ismw
I iSX In
Tra...' 1 3 I
stantial meal. They lit their pipes and
puffed at them like men who want to
stifle hunger.
I was wondering why they had been
rejected. Of course, I had an Idea.
Bill's mate, through a hard and
harsh and somewhat inhuman life had
been made old before his time, been
made old at forty. He was thin and
pale,, and weak in the legs.
As for Bill himself, he said: "I ne'er
bin the same, guvner, since the smash
on the ," and he mentioned a ship's
name. "Yer never heard o the smash,
guvner? Yer see, there were six ov
us workin' on the deck, when the main
jib ov a crane gav' way, an' drop
slap-bang on six on us. Michael
O'Flaherty was knocked to the bdttom
o' the hold, sir. An' they brought him
up dead ah, Mike was dead as the
jib itself, he was, was Mike."
- And Bill's mate nodded in assent,
and said: "He was, Bill."
"Yes, Mike was dead," repeated Bill.
"He was dead, and owld Bill Barley,
what keeps the 'Dockers' Spit' well,
Mike was dead an' he owed Billy tvvo-an'-four
for a night's spree, an' his
pals paid it awf in memory o' Mike
what was dead as dead as the Jib
itself, guvner!" -
"He was, Bill," again said Bill's
mate.
"Well, yer see, guvner, I was car
ried to the big place there" pointing
to the hospital "an' I lay there for
eight' weeks with all my innerds awry
never been the same bloke since.
guvner can't do a day's- work the
same; an' these divvils" meaning the
stevedores and foremen "knows it;
they knows it, guvner!"
And Bill re-lit his pipe and scratched
his chin with the uncharred end of the
match. He re-lit his pipe, drawing at
it as if he wanted to suppress the
hunger which was driving him not to
tears, but to profanity and desperate
thoughts. .
An "All-in"' FJkt.
He struck another of my matches,
and as the light glowed in his hard,
wrinkled, thick-skinned face, those who
had been selected for the job filed past
us, towards the incoming ship, filed
past us laughing, jesting and caring
not a I nearly said a damn well not
caring the snap of tip finger for the
uncertain ouiiook or tne rejected.
xney knew that it was all in the
fight. They knew that they might be
hurled at one side on the morrow. They
iv.icYv Liia,i was no use Deing in the
aumps anout what was Inevitable.
And Bill said. "Don't care that mnnh
for miseif, guvner!" and he waved his
cnriy. Jcnaried fingers in tho air. "Don
care that much for miseif. eruvner!
knows, an' my mate1 knows, wheer we
can ptnen a meal. We mebbe cop"t
but waat odds! Don't chre for miseif
guvner it's the wife at 'ome, and' the
Kias at 'ome!"
And Bill paused. Afterwards he ex
claimed, "My Gord, guvner, what'll
they do when I goes 'ome an' tells 'em
as I've had no luck agen? Do yo' think
I can race It sober? Blast 'em! They
winnat nave me now the stev-dores
But before the smash I told yo' about
the smash, guvner I were wa'th three
or four 'o these divvils" and he
pointed toward the weird procession
the "Jolly Beggars" wending and
winding towards the expected cotton
ship.
. "I could make my six bob a day
then, givnei" an' never be short ov a
job, never! But like my mate what's
called Bill like miseif I don't earn six
bob a wlk now!
And Bill stepped on one side to let
a lurry pass heavily laden with foreign
goods.
. 'But what about gettinrr something
to-eat?" I asked.
"Ah, well now," said Bill. "Ah, well
now," he repeated. "Thai's somethin'
o' course, that mun be done. But
there's only three ways, guvner
either take stinking charity, steal, or
send the missus send the missus
out!" Then in a whisper: "Do yo'
know what that means, guvner r
- I was too dumfounded at tho mo
ment to say anything. The suggestion
was not new to me. A few weeks'
Investigation into . the social ' and do
mestlc conditions of dockers had
opend my eyes to tha meaning before.
But never before had I heard it rrom
the Hps of a man who confessed that
he had done it!
Since the 5mik,
Bill had been made hard as hard as
nails by rough experience. And since
tho "smash there appeared no ordin
ary crime to which he had not been
forced to stoop, Remember .since tho
"smash."
"But what odds." lie kept on saying
to me; "I -was a bit of oil right be
fore the smash!"
And so he might have been.
"Give os a copper, guvner. ho asked
. . . . I 1.1m
mo aa I snowea signs oi leaving mm
and his mate.
"And you'll take soma of It homo to
tho wife and chlldrenr I aaid.
"S'elp mo God, ruvner. I wiin
But do you think ho did? Not ho.
It doesn't matter how I got to know.
hut Hill and his mat a had a good hour
or so with the money; they treated ono
or tww or their paia in tbo baxgala.
Msrs!Mers!!Hot!iers!
Urs. Winslow's Soothing Syrup
has been used for over SIXTY YEARS by MIL
LIONS of MOTHERS for their CHILDREN
while TEETHING, with PERFECT SUCCESS.
It SOOTHES the CH2I4, SOFTENS the GUMS.
ALLAYS all PAIN ; CURES WIND COLIC, and
Is the best remedy for DIARRIKEA. Sold by
Druggists in every part of the world. Ee sure
and ask for "Mrs. Wiuslow's Soothir Syrup,''
and take no other kind. Twenty-C ve c.s. a bottle.
"What a hard wretch!" you say.
No doubt. But don't forget tho
nasty trick that fate had played upon
him, and the way that society had neg
lected him.
I know that when I've seen Bill and
a . i , ' . A. 1 .11--
nis liKe in anoiner oock me pouuw
court dock I've, somehow or other,
had a sort of sympathy for them!
Tolntoi In H! Home.
Flynt in Success: By all odds tho
rv- rcii- infaraof Irtm Aatfiva Vl O t T? 1 1 eel a.
allowed me to see was Count Tolstoi,
And yet I had never read any of
Tolstoi's novels before meeting him,
and my notions of his altruism were
vague, indeed about what the -ideas
are of people who have never been in
Russia or seen Tolstoi, and who, on
learning that you have been there-and
met him, ask immediately: "Say, on
the level, is he a fakir or not?"
Once and for all, so far as my simple
intercourse with him Is concerned, it
may be most boldly declared that ho
never was a fakir no more of one when
he was sampling all the vices he could
hear of, than he is now in urging
others not to follow his example as an
explorer of Vicedom. j
The man at Yasnaya Polyana, in 1896,
was a fairly well preserved old gentle
man, with white beard, sunken gray
eyes, oyerhanglng bushy eyebrows, and
a slight stoop in the shoulders, which'
were carrying, I think, pretty close
to seventy years of age. - t
The place looked neglected and un
kept in many respects, but the two
remaining wings of the old mansion
wr rnnmv and enmfnrtahle. THiht
children of the original sixteen were '
living at the time of my visit, ranging:
in years from. thirty and over to four-'
teen. The- countess was the ''boss" of
the . establishment in and out of. tho
house. What she said of a mnm'ne
constituted the law for the day, so far
as work was concerned. She had as
sistants, and I think a superintendent,
to help her, but she -was the final au
thority in matters of management.
The count did not appear to take any
active part in the direction of affairs.
He spent his time writing, riding,
walking, and visiting with the guests,
of whom there were a goodly number.
At one time he may have worked ia
the fields with the peasants, but in July
ol xaun ne uia not snare any oi meir
toil at least I personally did not see
him at work among them. .
What the countess really thought
about the whole business I never found
out. We had one short conversation
which she delivered hirself of these re
marks: "You will hear many things
here that I do not agree with I be
lieve it Is better to "be and do than to
preach." I judged from these senti
ments that Tolstolism as a cult had not
captured her. But that she thought
much of the count as a man and hus
band was evident from her solicitio.ua
care of him. ,
. City people and other people who eat
what the farmer produces will be less
inclined than before to speak patron
izingly of the sons of the soil after
they have read the four six hundred
page volumes which go into Professor
Bailey's new encyclopedia of agricul
ture. That such a publication, 2,400
pages, nearly as wide as an unabridged
dictionary, is financially possible, in
Itself seems to mark a rapid progress
toward agriculture as a learned pro- '
fession.
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S
