James Oppenheim

“ In the mighty machine of the city each has his place, each is provided for, each gets the glow of sharing in the world's work. The morning rush, splashed at street crossings with the gold of the eastern sun, is rippled with fresh eyes and busy lips. They are all in the machine. But our young man crouching in a corner of the crowded car is not of these; slinking down Broadway he is aware that the machine has thrown him out and he cannot get in. He is an exile in the midst of his own people. The sense of loneliness and inferiority eats the heart out of the breast; the good of life is gone ”

“ He bit his lips and automatically put his hand in his pocket and clutched the cold lump of steel. His wife put her two hands to her face—hers was exquisite misery at that moment. She spoke in a low wail:
"Oh, what have we done that we must suffer this way? And the baby——" she lowered her voice and spoke in an intense whisper. "He's going to be sick—he's going to die! And you," she cried wildly, "you're his father—you're my husband! Good God! why don't you act like a man!"
Anger touched him:
"Have I hunted a job or not? Get one yourself, if it's easy as talking." ”

“ Shops were full of food and clothes; there were houses enough for a million more souls; trains and ships swept in with floods of riches; factories poured out produce. A great city of civilization, well-lit, sanitary, secure, towering its wealth into the very skies, held them in its mighty heart. ”

“ We're fighters, Pete! Ain't we goin' to fight?"
"Sure, Annie!" he laughed, "like the devil!"
The Hunt began early next morning—the Hunt for the Job. The hunter, however, is really the hunted. Now and then he bares his skin to the unthinking blows of the world, and runs off to hide himself in the crowd. You may see him bobbing along the turbulent man-currents of Broadway, a tide-tossed derelict in the thousand-foot shadows of the skyscrapers. ”

“ I got a job! It's a dollar a day—very special. A grand house over near Fifth Avenue. Peter! Ain't it glorious, Pete?"
He humbly drew her close, and then the experiences of the day overmastered him. The growing mood of the long weeks broke its ice and went pell-mell down the valleys of April. He heaved terribly, his shoulders wrenched—wrenched—his head went down on her shoulder—he knew not what he was doing, but the long unnatural man-sobs shook through the darkening room. ”

“ Somehow he stumbled against the crib. Soft light from the kitchen fell on the sleeping child. He leaned close. Hard times indeed had come; he had wronged his wife; she too was suffering. He swallowed again and softly felt in his pocket for the lump of cold steel.
Then he fell to brooding on the baby's face. Sleep is an elemental thing, full of awe. ”

“ He was a failure and the world could not use him. He hardly dared to look a man in the eyes, to lift his voice above a whisper, to make a demand, to dare a refusal. He slunk home at last like a cowed and beaten animal.
It was two in the afternoon. Wearily he pushed in the door, and stood in the dancing sunlight on the kitchen floor. At the window, in the dazzling light, Annie was tucking the baby in the little shiny go-cart. She looked up anxiously and saw his stricken sick face and the limp body with the life gone out of it. ”

“ It gives a hunted look to a face; a man becomes a little white animal cowering in a corner.
The young wife felt the hurry to her heart of the mother-passion. What would happen to this little baby—her baby—her son? This little thing that cried so at her breast?
"Wait! wait!" she whispered sharply. "He's got to go to sleep! Don't make a sound!"
She glided into the small dark bedroom, and as the young man sank on a kitchen chair, his head against the little table, he heard her sweet mournful voice singing the child to sleep. Why was he unwittingly forced to make his young wife suffer? ”

“ There was that little baby in the crib! One had to care for him, one had to give all up utterly, as Annie had done, that one young soul might live and grow and be sunned into a man. One had to sacrifice even a bit of manhood. ”

“ But he stood gazing on the first star in the far-flushed skies, the evening star, and he knew and Annie knew by some strange vast tide of light through their hearts, that the Great White Fear had been flung out of the window, and was gone forever. There would be Hard Times and Good Times, there would be new Exilings and New Hunts, but they had learned how to Fight, to Fight in team with all the strength of man and woman married. ”

“ And the wife calmly took a bit of sewing and sat on the rocker. He glanced a second at her parted lips, her flashing eyes. He raised a clenched fist and smote the table softly:
"Damn it! he—" she knew he meant the boss—"he laid off the last of us to-night. Said he was sorry—it's hard times. Was that my fault? We're slaves—slaves; this country better look out——"
A wild light came into his eyes, the light of the terrorist. His wife looking quickly, spoke sharply:
"Don't you go to talking that way, Pete! Things is bad enough!" ”

“ Annie was roused to her full strength; they ate their money penny by penny; they resolutely forgot the little daily pleasures. And yet within two weeks, there was nothing left. Peter was up before dawn each morning to answer advertisements; but each time he was one of a hundred men storming one job. Several times the employer had to call the police to disperse the mob of the unemployed. There was work nowhere; men hung feverishly to their jobs; ordinary men did extraordinary work ”