Eleanor Stuart

“ The sleep of young strength puts a wide distance between yesterday’s cares and to-day’s. The dawn that awoke Emma was gray, but it did not suggest the blight of ashes as had last night’s twilight. She was sure of the return of Jarlsen’s faculties, and she also knew that Quarry could have made no disturbance through the night. ”

“ With Martha Long for aid, she prepared for the doctor joyfully. They washed everything just for the love of the unaccustomed, that seizes women under suspense. Everything had been washed for the wedding, and was still much cleaner than its ordinary state. There was one day when the house-cleaning was finished and the doctor not yet come; so Martha undertook a little rudimentary cooking, and Emma raked up the little space of yard and dug out the weeds from the beds of cinder-spotted marigolds. ”

“ A woman’s voice answered him in full assent: “You’ll not be the only one to marry her, though; she’s got money now, and a rare head for livin’ straight.”
Emma had not seen the woman, but guessed it must be one of those who “wrought” in the offices of the plant, writing, or sorting the mass of mail. Excepting herself Quarry rarely spoke to any one of less class among the women.
She was very angry, and could see how Quarry had used it all in his talk; all the circumstances of her courtship he could twist into evidence that she had loved nothing of Jarlsen but what he had left her. ”

“ Few people can touch the dead without tears, and as Jerry Black said, “The blasts is dead men with live tongues.”
They had all gone; the room grew light as the crowd moved from the windows. Sunlight bathed the floor at Emma’s feet, and Black stood beside her, knowing she feared to be without him when Jarlsen was deaf to her and Quarry spoke his kind of love to her, and [Pg 55] her father was only a peevish old child. Quarry laid a nervous hand on Jarlsen, who had been roused more than once through his tactile sense as some old friend’s hand had lain for a moment on his. ”

“ Usually she met the day squad coming out from the town, the men standing in the ore cars, the smoke from their pipes and the straining, overworked little engine blown behind them toward the town—like a message sent home, Emma thought. But to-day no [Pg 152] cars passed, and she, being a child of toil, was quick to know that this meant a strike. She hurried on to her earnings, remembering that when men are out of work they have all day in which to spend their savings. Women see so little in strikes but higher wages until some one is dead. ”

“ Emma looked at him and liked him, for she saw that he knew at a glance what Quarry was. And she had taken lessons in him for a lifetime and had not learned him yet. Then the doctor rose and went into Jarlsen’s room.
Waiting for the doctor’s opinion is one of the fearful things that civilization has imposed on humanity. It is during such intervals of suspense that a racked mind learns the [Pg 102] pattern of the carpet, the similarity in outline of some familiar pieces of furniture, and of some impossible beast or bird sprawling on the wall papers. ”

“ Scarcely a blast had been managed without some one being thrown to the earth, mangled with jagged stones—“the throw” the men called them. It might be that some one would fall with the shock and find himself thereafter deaf to everything but the “dumb roaring,” and such a one would die of what the unlettered Methodist preacher said was “eternal injuries.” The very children feared the blast.
There were, however, three things [Pg 8] that Soot City loved: Pay-day, Jarlsen, and the cinder flare. ”

“ When some person has been the provoking cause of emotions so strong that the mind can not shake off their grasp, it is quick to misconceive that person. Quarry’s voice was a shock to Emma when at last she heard it in the yard, although a short time ago she had seen and had speech with him. ”

“ When a man has consented all his life to anything and [Pg 123] never met any circumstance, crucial or casual, with aught but irrelevant comment, he is rarely a factor in other people’s plans.
She was glad she had not had to get breakfast, for she had to tend Jarlsen. The day was wet, and his hurts seemed the sorer for the damp. When she had done all for him she laid her hand on his, but the dread of packing her wedding things was making war on her energies. ”

“ She could not see far, for most of the houses were dark; lights are too expensive for the rent-free Pastures. Raising the latch, she pushed the door quietly open and looked into her own home.
Quarry was at the kitchen table facing her, glaring in Jarlsen’s serenely blind countenance. Sleep had double-locked the Swede’s seared vision, and in complete unconsciousness he breathed freely, within a glance of Quarry’s eyes alive with malice.
Emma was frightened, so much so that she could not call. It seemed that Quarry must have [Pg 145] something to kill with, in his coarse, cramped hands. ”

“ Even to God Emma could not name Jarlsen’s death.
Her father came in at the climax of Jerry’s petition. He shook his head at Jarlsen’s big, quiet shape on the table, and announced in a voice that shook with emotion that “young men would be young men.” No one but Emma was galled with [Pg 49] this needlessly irrelevant statement. In the less book-learned phases of life many people use expressions just because they admire them, not because they express their feeling, their fancy, or a fact. ”

“ Emma did not find this quite satisfactory, so she said nothing.
“And there is something you have to be thankful for,” said Martha further, forgetting that nothing causes man to hate his lot like telling him to be thankful for it; “you’ve got a good man to fall back on. That Quarry’s more to you in most ways nor your born mother would be. ”

“ The drink of expatriated Poland is crude alcohol and water, and their drunkenness is a restless insanity that would be murderous in a less childish people. One idea that is directly referable to the Swede minds is that which gave rise to the blast rites. Their feeling had become general that a man might “get beyond the blast”—that is, get over its scorch and shock—if only his friends could be brought to behave as if he were really dead.
Emma was more than Norse in her superstitious observances. ”

“ Seeing anger on Emma’s face, he attempted to soothe her with vague smiles of fearful extent; they travelled swiftly across his flushed face and divided it into north and south intemperate zones.
“Stop that,” called Emma; “you’ve done enough!”
“Not yet!” shouted Quarry, impelled by an erratic enthusiasm; “I’ll do more for my Emma. I’ve laid out the money real well. We’ll buy the deepo and live in it! It’s [Pg 115] the finest house in Soot City, and if you want Jarlsen too, you can keep him for hired help. I don’t want there should be any stinting where love is king.” ”

“ Emma was so rapt in the first uninterrupted recital of her troubles that she did not observe Quarry as [Pg 101] he crossed the kitchen to the house door. He had the wallet in his hand, which shook; his face twitched and was chalk white.
“I hope that is not your father,” said Dr. Brent politely as he would say: “There is a shower coming; I hope it may not wet you.” ”

“ Quarry looked at her and at Jarlsen with a twist in his mouth that he thought of as “his smile.” He [Pg 66] realized that he could insult Emma thoroughly in the presence of a Soot citizen who could not stir to protect her.
“The women think you might as well marry,” he said. “You’ve got the fixin’s, and if you take me you’ve got the husband. The whole place expects a wedding off you. You’ve got the extra money to care for your friend here.”
“I’d rather give up the money than take you; besides,” she said spitefully, “there’s better men nor you in the town that knows I have money for my man. ”

“ No one stands up in the extremely [Pg 19] unorthodox Methodist chapel Soot City operatives affect, except those who are converted or those desiring the prayers of converts.
Now, Jarlsen stood always and was never criticised. His friends said he could sing better if he stood. No one ever asked him if this were true, because they were sure he would say it was not. Thus it may appear that Soot City was not religious, except at blast rites and funerals.
Emma’s heart grew mellow with his singing as she sat beside him. She loved him dearly, as young women do love the men who enrich their lives ”

“ For a moment the idea of bringing out the leather barber’s apron and the keen razors, as a tacit contradiction to any report of her wealth, seemed a clear inspiration. But with Quarry and Wavering Jim to talk, she knew all delicate denial to be useless.
She opened the house and sat along the narrow doorsill, her back to one jamb, her knees drawn up and fixed against the other. As the sun came up, the cinder flare crept in a stealthy flush along the earth and lost its power in [Pg 74] the heavens as the day grew bright. ”

“ The heat by the furnace was terrible; it shone on the iron trough in an outlined square of yellow, where the light streamed through the door cracks. She fitted the crook’s hook to the loop of the skewer and paused, waiting. Her thoughts were busy with the way in which they might fire the powder stores. Heat and cold hurried through her alternately; her hands and brow were wet. There were, [Pg 171] of course, no men on duty at the plant save forty of the factory force, Quarry among them. Emma saw that this was part of the blind. ”

“ No royal career, not even of some of the Roman or papal ones, has better shown us how truth can be stranger than fiction.”—New York Times.
“A striking and able work, deserving of the highest praise.”—Philadelphia Ledger.
“The book is well called a romance, for although no legends are admitted in it, and the author has been at pains to present nothing but verified facts, the actual career of the subject was so abnormal and sensational as to seem to belong to fiction.”—New York Sun. ”

“ It is hard for people who have never seen places like Soot City to believe in natures like Emma Butte’s and August Jarlsen’s. In river cities the labouring population may be augmented daily with a load of tramps and paupers who can travel on the river about as cheaply as their own feet can take them. No travel is as cheap as river boating. ”

“ Quarry laughed. “I guess,” he said, “you knew he was late before it would have been quite time for him to come. You know the listening heart worries terrible they say, and you ain’t got no call to be so high with me. You can hear them girls in the kitchen laughin’ at you, same’s I do. I guess Jarlsen’s getting tired, maybe. He’s kinder in demand, seein’ he’s the only fellow that’s kep’ his complexion in the whole plant.”
Emma grew rather white. “Stop your nasty tongue!” she cried imperatively. “You’re always lying! Your face is lying and your eyes can’t see straight. ”

“ Since the evening that Quarry had suggested the depot as a place of residence Emma had been free of his presence. She had heard of him from the men, however, and knew that he was speaking to them from the Bridge every evening. Revolt was in the air of Soot City; there were meetings, quite covertly, conducted by socialistic workmen in the cause of workfellows’ profits. Monopoly and co-operative profit were talked of constantly, and Grigg sold many drinks. It is a pity that the workingmen who invent Utopias should attempt to [Pg 141] sanctify them with an alcoholic immersion. ”

“ Kipling’s powers as a story-teller are evidently not diminishing. We advise everybody to buy ‘Many Inventions,’ and to profit by some of the best entertainment that modern fiction has to offer.”—New York Sun. ”

“ Jarlsen’s generosity was remarkable; for his countrymen are money-getters beyond any non-Semitic people. The knowledge of the value of money is born in them. There is a saying at the ore beds that testifies to this: “A Swede will go farther for a dollar than an Irishman will for a drink.”
But when Jarlsen took Emma Butte, in the face of the whole town, the men of his acquaintance marvelled greatly. If he were the [Pg 13] man whom Soot City loved, Emma was the woman who ruled it. She “had not the class” that her lover had. ”

“ Emma, we want the plant’s pension, and we’re going to get it!
“You’re going now,” he said, “to run out to the plant—to run your best; when you get there, go to the furnace. If you keep right on By [Pg 164] the Tracks, nobody’ll mind you. Quarry’s bought the furnace-minders, and they’re going to leave for the station to report a disturbance in the factory. The Devil’s Crook is in the little house by the furnace; it is by the door. You take it as you pass—no one’ll be there—and when you see a light in the factory you open the centre door and make a flare, for the police can’t see in the dark. ”

“ Since the beloved lips is silent, I expect I’m the first singer in the city. He had a way of doing gargles on the upper notes that would beat a seraph singing. But I’m goin’ to organize as notional a rite as I can, bringing forty years of experience, man and boy, to bear on this one sad occasion. ”

“ Kipling’s style is too well known to American readers to require introduction, but it can scarcely be amiss to say there is not a story in this collection that does not more than repay a perusal of them all.”—Baltimore American.
“As a writer of short stories Rudyard Kipling is a genius. He has had imitators, but they have not been successful in dimming the luster of his achievements by contrast.... ‘Many Inventions’ is the title. ”

“ It is the story of the life of young womanhood in France, dramatically told, with the light and shade and coloring of the genuine artist, and is utterly free from that which mars too many French novels. ”

“ My work’s among the peaceful, and sometimes I thank God I hev it mostly among dead men, seein’ what the live ones is like. But, Emma, he’s give the money in, so’s the strike fund can grow. He’s a gainin’, winnin’ kind of speaker, and he’s give up what he took to their cause, [Pg 128] and no one ain’t a-goin’ to touch him. Now you jest remember that the night’s blackest just before the sun comes, and don’t you loose your grip. When Jarlsen comes out from the blast you want him to find you jest es straight and steady es when he was took—don’t you now? ”

“ What is usual with one man may become the common talk of his district, if he be an influence in it. The vice of a member of the town corporation is the sorrow of the county. The men have gained their livelihood at the hands of the town; they nurse their birthplace when its resource is threatened; they work for it. Even as they live by it they die for it.
In feeling Jarlsen was an American ”

“ A wonderfully strong study of character; a powerful analysis of those elements which go to make up the strength and weakness of a man, which are at fierce warfare within the same breast; contending against each other, as it were, the one to raise him to fame and power, the other to drag him down to degradation and shame. ”