The Nine-Tenths

had never been before. He felt that all was over between them, that somehow she had convicted him of being brutal, selfish, and unmanly, and in the light of her condemnation he saw in h

ne to her in the beginning and trusted to her love and her insight; he should have let her share the aftermath of the fire; that fierce experience would have taught

service of the working class movement. There was no escape. He tried to bury himself in his books, regain for a m

Myra. He wrote it in a strange haste, the sen

wanted to help you; I wronged you when I wanted only to d

m I loved, whom I love now with every bit of my existence. I told you I belonged to those dead girls. Have you forgotten? Sixty of them-and three of my men. It was as if I had kill

aboring like men and women in cotton and knitting mills, in glass factory and coal-mine, and on the streets of cities, upon whose frail little spirits is thrust the responsibility, the wage burden, the money, and family trouble, the care and drudgery and mortal burden we grown people ou

s) the least I can do is to render up my life for the, lives that were lost-the least I can do is to fill myself with the spiri

llions to new levels of life, that fight for a better earth and a superber race of human beings; and in that fight I am with the pioneers, heart and soul; I am ringing with the joy and struggle of it; I am for it, with all my strength and all my power. It

n from going in myself? Let me see you once more. Do not deny me that. And understand that through l

yours

ad come to find an outlet for the overbearing flood within him. And then one evening in the Park like a flash came the plan. He must go among the poor, he must get to know them-not in this neighborhood, "a prophet is not without honor, etc."-but in some new place where he was unknown. He thought of Greenwich Village. Did not Fannie Lemick tell him that Sally Heffer lived in Greenwich Village? Well, he would look into the matter. He wa

s? What more direct? He was done with palliatives, finding men jobs, giving Christmas turkeys, paying

humor. This was the imp in him that always poked a little doubt into his heart and laughed at his ig

d structure, and the pattering liquid sound had a fresh mellow music. Here and there a man or woman, mush-roomed by an umbrella, dashed quickly for a car, and the trolle

offee and boiling cabbage, was crowded with people, but Joe and Marty took a little table to themselves in the darkest corner. They sat against the dirty rear wall, whose white paint was finger-marked, fly-specked, and food-spotted

ham

forth, shoving out a plate of

m-a

-harf!" "Make a sunstroke on the hash!

ll yer

ped between them and mopped off the

good?" a

garded Joe with

t veal c

the informati

, unable to hold in his excitement any

aned f

starting up the

choked, and cou

you woul

"but I'm not going

spoke

y n

l you lat

your nerve

ughed

reasons

I can see you doing nothing, blamed if I can't. Gettin' sporty, Joe, in your old age, aren't you? You'll be wearin

ghed wi

andmaids. No, Marty, I'm g

busi

g a mag

know about edit

ed Joe. "You don't have to know anything.

etty low, Joe. Why don't you stick to an honest busin

s deli

e are reaso

reas

t his boss as if Joe had turned into some unthinkable zoological oddity. Into Marty's prim-set life, with i

elp straighten things. You see, Marty? Now, what

spoke

know what I r

word

p in the business together, and we know each other well

o, Ma

leaned

k you're a b

laug

-like Columbus and Tom Watts and the prophets and

is in a pretty mess, and that probably the aforementioned "idi

tell me it

t's what I've got to face, Ma

used mi

you've changed, and we

printery without you.

voice-it became

y. I want your help t

little pad and the tw

e-just want to see what it will come to. Say an edition of twenty tho

spoke

y, Joe. Ch

es

r own p

es

a good cylinder p

much

-that's on the press. Will y

ave it set

it, fold, a

y-give that

'll dist

ide,

ews co

to go direct to the people. Say I get a hundre

t the paper to

k company-so

ill you charge

t a

o it," s

y n

to two cents. And then they put in twenty minutes

at 2 cts.,

nses

fit

as ex

it! Well, I

ine without getting stuck, and anyway, you just reckon there'll be expenses

," said Joe. "But the figur

irmed in

the devil is the printery

met, and

d dollars when it's rebuilt and busin

hat!" said M

oe, "I want yo

rty was

pay it off two thousand a year and five per cent.

ed loud. "Listen, my e

" snapped Joe.