Chicago (Ill.) -- Fiction; City and town life -- Fiction; Coal mines and mining -- Pennsylvania -- Fiction; Labor leaders -- Fiction
And then a freight elevator came slowly down from the upper part of the
warehouse and from it jumped a small grey-haired man with a yard stick
in his hand. He had a sharp restless eye and a short stubby grey beard.
Striking the floor with a bound he began to talk. “We pay two dollars
for nine hours' work here--begin at seven, quit at five. Will you come?”
Without waiting for an answer he turned to the German. “Tell those two
old 'rummies' to get their time and get out of here,” he said, turning
again and looking expectantly at McGregor.
McGregor liked the quick little man and grinned with approval of his
decisiveness. He nodded his assent to the proposal and, looking at the
German, laughed. The little man disappeared through a door leading to
an office and McGregor walked out into the street. At a corner he turned
and saw the German standing on the platform before the warehouse looking
after him. “He is wondering whether or not he can whip me,” thought
McGregor.
* * * * *
In the apple warehouse McGregor worked for three years, rising during
his second year to be foreman and replacing the tall German. The German
expected trouble with McGregor and was determined to make short work
of him. He had been offended by the action of the gray-haired
superintendent in hiring the man and felt that a prerogative belonging
to himself had been ignored. All day he followed McGregor with his eyes,
trying to calculate the strength and courage in the huge body. He knew
that hundreds of hungry men walked the streets and in the end decided
that the need of work if not the spirit of the man would make him
submissive. During the second week he put the question that burned in
his brain to the test. He followed McGregor into a dimly-lighted upper
room where barrels of apples, piled to the ceiling, left only narrow
ways for passage. Standing in the semi-darkness he shouted, calling the
man who worked among the apple barrels a foul name, “I won't have you
loafing in there, you red-haired bastard,” he shouted.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account