§ 15
Jennie talked about this plan quite openly; she
would put a red ribbon in her hair, and pin a red badge on her bosom,
and go into meeting-places and sell little pamphlets with red covers.
So, of course, it would be Peter's duty to report her to the head of the
secret service of the Traction Trust. Peter regretted this, and was
ashamed of having to do it; she was a nice little girl, and pretty, too,
and a fellow might have had some fun with her if she had not been in
such a hysterical state. He would sit and look at her, as she sat bent
over her typewriter. She had soft, fluffy hair, the color of twilight,
and even white teeth, and a faint flush that came and went in her
cheeks — yes, she would not be bad looking at all, if only she would
straighten up, and spend a little time on her looks, as other girls did.
But no, she was always in a tension, and the devil of it was, she
was trying to get Peter into the same state. She was absolutely
determined that Peter must get wrought up over the wrongs of the working
classes. She took it for granted that he would, when he was instructed.
She would tell him harrowing stories, and it was his duty to be duly
harrowed; he must be continually acting an emotional part. She would
give him some of her "literature" to read, and then she would pin him
down and make sure that he had read it. He knew how to read — Pericles
Priam had seen to that, because he wanted him to attend to the printing
of his circulars and his advertisements in the country newspapers where
he was traveling. So now Peter was penned in a corner and compelled to
fix his attention upon "The A. B. C. of Socialism," or "Capital and
Proletariat," or "The Path to Power."
Peter told himself that it was part of his job to acquire
this information. He was going to be a "Red," and he must learn their
lingo; but he found it awfully tiresome, full of long technical words
which he had never heard before. Why couldn't these fellows at least
talk American? He had known that there were Socialists, and also
"Arnychists," as he called them, and he thought they were all alike. But
now he learned, not merely about Socialists and "Arnychists," but about
State Socialists and Communist Anarchists, and Communist Syndicalists
and Syndicalist Anarchists and Socialist Syndicalists, and Reformist
Socialists and Guild Socialists, to say nothing about Single Taxers and
Liberals and Progressives and numerous other varieties, whom he had to
meet and classify and listen to respectfully and sympathetically. Each
particular group insisted upon the distinctions which made it different,
and each insisted that it had the really, truly truth; and Peter became
desperately bored with their everlasting talk — how much more simple to
lump them all together, as did Guffey and McGivney, calling them all
"Reds!"
Peter had got it clearly fixed in his mind that what these "Reds"
wanted was to divide up the property of the rich. Everyone he had
questioned about them had said this. But now he learned that this wasn't
it exactly. What they wanted was to have the State take over the
industries, or to have the labor unions do it, or to have the working
people in general do it. They pointed to the post office and the army
and the navy, as examples of how the State could run things. Wasn't that
all right? demanded Jennie. And Peter said Yes, that was all right; but
hidden back in Peter's soul all the time was a whisper that it wouldn't
make a damn bit of difference. There was a sucker born
every minute, and you might be sure that no matter how they fixed it up,
there would always be some that would find it easy to live off the rest.
This poor kid, for example, who was ready to throw herself away for any
fool notion, or for anybody that came along and told her a hard-luck
story — would there ever be a state of society in which she wouldn't be a
juicy morsel to be gobbled up by some fellow with a normal appetite?
She was alone in the house all day with Peter, and she got to
seem more and more pretty as he got to know her better. Also it was
evident that she liked Peter more and more as Peter played his game.
Peter revealed himself as deeply sympathetic, and a quick convert to the
cause; he saw everything that Jennie explained to him, he was horrified
at the horrible stories, he was ready to help her end the European war
by starting a revolution among the working people of American City.
Also, he told her about himself, and awakened her sympathy for his harsh
life, his twenty years of privation and servitude; and when she wept
over this, Peter liked it. It was fine, somehow, to have her so sorry
for him; it helped to compensate him for the boredom of hearing her be
sorry for the whole working class.
Peter didn't know whether Jennie had learned about his bad
record, but he took no chances — he told her everything, and thus took
the sting out of it. Yes, he had been trapped into evil ways, but it
wasn't his fault, he hadn't known any better, he had been a pitiful
victim of circumstances. He told how he had been starved and driven
about and beaten by "Old Man" Drubb, and the tears glistened in Jennie's
grey eyes and stole down her cheeks. He told about loneliness and
heartsickness and misery in the orphan
asylum. And how could he, poor lad, realize that it was wrong to help
Pericles Priam sell his Peerless Pain Paralyzer? How could he know
whether the medicine was any good or not — he didn't even know now, as a
matter of fact. As for the Temple of Jimjambo, all that Peter had done
was to wash dishes and work as a kitchen slave, as in any hotel or
restaurant.
It was a story easy to fix up, and especially easy because the
first article in the creed of Socialist Jennie was that economic
circumstances were to blame for human frailties. That opened the door
for all varieties of grafters, and made the child such an easy mark that
Peter would have been ashamed to make a victim of her, had it not been
that she happened to stand in the path of his higher purposes — and also
that she happened to be young, only seventeen, with tender grey eyes,
and tempting, sweet lips, alone there in the house all day.
