Susan Lenox: Her Fall and Rise

that she wondered why she could not bring herself to plan suicide. Why was it? Her marriage? Yes-and she

n death? Was she so much worse than others? Or was what everybody said about these things-everybody who had experience-was it false, like nearly everything else she had be

a good-looking and unusually inte

you have got! Let me

Susan, as he pressed hi

s if you rather

and I

f heart trouble. I never heard a heart with such a grand action-like a

thus

ed to thump and press upon her chest with an expertness that proclaimed the student of medicine. He was all interest an

ked Susan. "I do

ers. "This," he explained, "is about the size of an ordinary heart. You ca

it?" sa

ought to live long, stay young until you're very old-and get pretty much anything you please. You don't belong to this life. Some accide

ckingly. But in truth she had never in all her life h

trary, you're out in the open air much of the time and get the splendid exercise of walking-a much more healthful life, in the essential ways, than respectable women lead. They're alw

he looked shr

the man or the woman becomes depraved and ugly as soon as the liquor takes effect. But she was far from this advanced stage. Her disposition was, if anything, more sweet and generous when she was under the influence of liquor. The whiskey-she almost always drank whiskey-seemed to act directly and only upon the nerves that ached and t

ace only. Behind it her real self remained indifferent or somber or sardonic, according to her mood of the day. And she had the sense of being in the grasp of a hideous, fascinating nightmare, of being dragged throu

ould have been apt to endure. She would probably have chosen the alternative-death. Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of girls, at least her equals in sensibility, are caught in the same calamity every year, tens of thousands, ever more and more as our civilization transforms under the pressure of industrialism, are caught in the similar calamities of soul-destroying toil. And only the few survive who have perfect health and abounding vitality. Susan's iron strength enabled her to live; but it was drink that enabled her to endure. Beyond question one of the greatest blessings that could now be conferred upon the race would be to cure it of the drink evil. But at the same ti

her hideous running sore or some gross and frightful deformity of fat or excrescence are seen laughing, joining freely and comfortably in the company of the unafflict

refore I think." Our characters are compressed, and our thoughts bent by our environment. And most of us are unconscious

ocrite. She heard so much about the paleness of her lips that she decided to end that comment by using paint-the durable kind Ida had recommended. When her lips flamed carmine, a strange and striking effect resulted. The sad sweet pensiveness of her eyes-the pallor of her clear skin-then, that splash of bright red, artificial, bold, defiant-the contrast of the combination seemed somehow to tell the story of her life her past no less than her present. And when her beauty began to come

ough days each week to earn a low average of what was expected from the girls by their protectors. Yet she g

was skating on the thinnest of ice. But she went her way. Not until she accompanied a girl to an opium joint to discover whether

r from loose-tongued Maud-"that you come into the hotel so drunk t

rink," sa

s terrible way. "If you don't, I'll have you pinc

rink," sa

een with you. I'd like to take you out once in a while and give you a swell time. But what'd we look like together-with you in those cheap things out of bargain troughs? Not that you don't

to be let alon

n a nice parlor trade-chaps from the college and the swell clubs and hotels. But I can't

ere I want

life business, she don't want to get up among the swells of the profession, where she'd become known and find it hard

usan. And, after a pause, she said it

eness of the Italian, gave her an understanding glance. "You look as if yo

aughed as

getting broken in. Don't take yourself so seriously. After

a man; getting herself hardened up to the point where she could take part in the cruel struggle on equal terms with the men. It wasn't their difference

the day time or in public places-and to drink. She did not go again to the opium joint, and she resisted the nightly offers of girls and their "gentlemen friends" to try cocaine in its various forms. "Dope,"

she had now learned enough of the methods of the system of which she was one of the thousands of slaves to appreciate that she was treated by Jim with unique consideration. Not only by the surly and

ssities and their ignorance of their helplessness, and wrongful exploitation? Do attempts to draw that line resolve down to making virtuous whatever I may appropriate and vicious whatever is appropriated in ways other than mine? And if so are not the police and the Palmers entitled to their day in the moral court no less than the tariff-baron and market-cornerer, the herder and driver of wage slaves, the retail artists in cold storage filth, short weight

as far from sober. He showed it

your especial benefit," said he. "I'm a fool about you and you take advant

she. "It takes

t to get on?" crie

ouldn't make a cent

, then at the floor-they were

the swell respectable girls in town are crazy to hook up with-those of 'em that ain't married already. If you're good enough for those chaps they ought to be good enough for you.

as si

promise me you'

ans

on't p

intend to. I'm doi

e same level with the rest of these heifers. Well-I'll not let any woman con me. I never have. I never will. And I'll make you

differently. "I don't in the l

ed he, enraged. "I'll give

ecurity from him. For it was wholly unlike the Freddie Palmer the rest of the world knew, to act in this irresolute and stormy way. She knew that Palmer, in his fash

he heard that he was losing on both the cards and the

e out of a saloon a b

econd, a fly cop se

ng. I've got to clear the streets of some of these tarts. It

he upper classes seems childish or evidence of secret criminal hankerings. And this nervousness had latterly been increased to terror by what she had learned from her fellow-outcasts-the hideous tales of oppression, of robbery, of bodily and moral degradation. But all this terror had been purely fanciful, as any emotion not of exper

ranging it to act as any sort of concealment. Though she had no mirror at which to discover the consolation, she need have had no fear of being recognized, so distorte

ood before the judge, with head limp upon her bosom, she heard in her ear a rough voice bawling, "You're discharged. The judge says don't come here again." And she was pushed through an iron gate. She walked unsteadily up the aisle, between two masses of those burning-eyed human monsters. She felt the c

lay upon the bed,

no courage to live-

ld it last? Surely

ust com

id he, sitting on the bed upon which she was lying dressed as

she mu

, a week on the Island

es

. I'd hate to have to make

he repeated in th

hard. Her eyes met his terrible eyes without flinching. He kissed her full upon the lips. With her open palm she struck him across the cheek, bringing the red fierily to its smooth fair surface. The devi

she. "I was not afraid.

nd his fingers began to car

e again," she said qu

ecret. "I want you-I want you-damn you," he said, between his clinched teeth

me," she

e me, do

N

you lo

e nothing

o the window, stood looking out moodily

brought me up at home. At home!" And he laughed sardon

then he s

o my flat. I've got

of the game. I can

in with me, and stop

. You can have ev

to keep on

ce? Aren't you mine

er to b

end you to the Island any time I feel

that. But I'm fr

han the ot

es

do you

d. She was sitting on the edge of the bed, doing up her hair

do you want, any

you suppose

g eyes. "What is it," he muttered,

o saw her put to himself in one way or another; and

ous to the seeing eye is that few of us are born with any considerable amount of personality, and what little we have is speedily suppressed by a system of training which is throughout based upon an abhorrence of originality. We obey the law of nature-and nature so abhors variety that, whenever a variation from a type happens, she tries to kill it, and, that failing, reproduces it a myriad times to make it a type. When an original man or woman appears and all the strenuous effort to suppress him or her fails, straightway spring up a thousand im

nd wondering glance. Most of them assumed they had been stirred by her superiority of face and figure. But striking faces and figures of the various comely types are frequent in the streets of New York and of several other American cities. The truth was that they were interested by her expression-an elusive expression telling of a soul that was being moved to its depths by experience which usually finds and mold

rtled her by suddenly crying, "Oh, you go to hell!" and f

ging round Susan persistently, having been discouraged by the failure of her attempts at intimacy with a girl who spent nearly all her spare time at reading or at plays and concerts. Maud was now chumming with a woman who preyed upon the patrons of a big Broadway hotel-she picked them up near the entrance, robbed them, and when they asked the hotel detectives to help them get back their stolen money, the detectives, who divided wit

Nobody, nothing, was either good or bad, but all veered like weathercocks in the shifting wind. She decided that people were steadily good only where their lot happened t

up among thieves and had by some curious freak never learned to know what a moral sense was, which is one-and a not unattractive-step deeper down than those who know what a moral sense is but never use it. At supper in Gaffney's he related to Susan and Estelle how he had won his greatest victory-the victory of Terry the Cyclone, that had lifted him up into the class of secure money-makers. He told how he always tried to "rattle" his opponent by talking to him, by pouring out in an undertone a stream

ll, you Irish fake-so the kid's dead-eh? Who was its pa, say?-the dirty little bastard-or does the wife know

an grew cold with h

lle

rest of

as nothing,

, the prize-fighting happening to pay poorly, he would have had a default on the payments for a month or so. He was caught, did a year on the Island before his "pull" could get him out. And all the time he was in the "pen" he so arranged it with his friends that the inv

he chaos she had begun to discover when she caught he

ing, usually evil winds of circum

ngements-men stimulated by good dinners, or, later on, in the evening, those who left parties of elegant respectability after theater or opera. On this first night of business weather in nearly two weeks the streets were crowded with women and girls. They were desperately hard up and they made open dashes for every man they could get at. All classes were made equally bold-the shop and factory and office and theater girls with wages too small for what they regarded as a decent living; the women with young children to support and educate; the protected professional regulars; the miserable creatures who had to get along as best they could without protection, and were prey to every blackmailing officer of an anti-vice society and to every policeman and fly-cop not above levying upon women who were "too low to be allowed to live, anyhow." Out from all kinds of shelters swarmed the women who were demonstratin

eat-Forty-second between Broadway and Eighth Avenue. "I

n. Susan and Maud sat at a table in a corner; Maud broke her rule and drank whiskey with Susan. After they had taken perhaps half a dozen drinks, Maud grew really confidential. She alw

," she now said to Susan. "You m

he assumed Maud was about to confess some secret about her own self, as she had the almost universal habit of never thinking of a

said Maud. "If it's

im'll have me kil

his time, laughed. "

sk is there in making one of us 'disappear'? None in the world. I always feel that Jim'll have me killed some day-unless I go crazy sometime and kill him. He's stuck on m

e recalled what she had set out to confide. By way of

bitterness. Freddie, a mere instrument of destiny, had his good side, his human side, she knew. At his worst he was no worse than the others, And aside from his queer magnetism, there was a certain force i

ho was in turn the slave of Finnegan, who was in his turn the slave of somebody higher up, she didn't exactly know who-or w

going to put you wi

Susan. "I don'

you. Do you know what

't care. You mustn't tell me-when

n as Bennett comes back to Jefferson Market Police Cour

n old wreck of an entertainer at the piano in the corner was bellowing out

think he was a coward, the way he bullies women and that. But somehow he ain't-not a bit. He'll be a big man in the organizat

s he looks at

men can't see you and where maybe he can get over caring about you. That's the rea

land for three months,"

o. There's no way out of it-unless you skip to another city. And if you did you ne

at length. "I never feel as if I was acquainted with you-not really. I never had a lady friend like tha

e, smiling eyes to

n," she said slowly.

y," cried Maud. "It

you goi

can

thi

nothing to do,

sland for th

houlders. "I haven't

smelly in here," said

romised to meet a g

ll that I tip

ld me if you hadn'

y don't you make i

dn't do

love. I'm su

I couldn't. Good night." She got as far as th

mbarrassed by Susan's manner. She was frightened by

ha

off? Kill

n. "I've got a lot

ots from spoiling the spread-one of the many small indications of the prudence, thrift and calculation that underlay the almost

these streets long," said he, as she p

undershirts there, put it in her right stocking where there were already a five and a two.

?" asked he, still s

e almost nothi

I want to t

ted herself on a c

her. "You've b

es

t I've got a nose like a hunti

f explaining? You

an-and they understand everything. . .

ses the

cks that filled almost the whole length of the mantel. "I must read them. I always like your books. You spend nearly as m

N

way from

N

y?" pers

out about

e toward her. "You are clever!" he

ga

u've got too much sense not

as a person peculiar and apart was glowing in her

" he r

or there isn't any place in this world for a woman except under the shelter of some man. And I don't want

en'll never let you be

strong look had vanished into the

been drinking," he went on. "You're sad whe

learn to take things as they come, just like a

wh

ea

y for

do I

ighting against it, but I give up. I need you. You're the one I've been looking for. Pack your

ead. "I'm sorry

y n

's something in me

, put his hands strongly on her shoulders. "You belong to me," he said, his lips smiling charmingly,

w that I

er eyes. But she seized his right thumb between her teeth and bit into it until they almost met. And at the same time her knees ground into his abdomen. He choked, gurgled, grew dark red, then gray, then a faint blackish blue, lay limp under her. But she did not relax until the blue of his face had deepened to black and his eyes began to bulge from their sockets. At those signs that he was beyond doubt unconscious, she cautiously relaxed

You fiend!

off, she turned out the light, darted down stairs and into the street. At Times Square she took the Subway for the Bowery. To change