Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1912-05-11
CHAPTER XVII.

Getting job on the water-frontrwaa
as easy as he had anticipated: but
what he had not reckoned on was
the overmastering, crushing fatigue
that made it impossible to keep it. A
man unaccustomed to serve and pro-
longed manual labor has little chance
on the docks Swollen muscles scared
his back like fire; the skin came OF
his hands till they were gummy with
blood and dirt; to stoop became tor
ture, and his feet, unused to the heavy
weights they were forced to carry,
caused him the most poignant distress.
One may be good all-round athlete
and in excellent physical condition,
and yet give out like woman when 1t
comes to unloading bricks all day, or
holding up your end Of three.inch
planks or.hours at a stretch.
Mats opinion Of the social fabric
underwent revolution. He is still
asking himself why those who toll the
hardest should be the worst paid.
Everything Is piled on the laborer; he
bears the world on his straining
shoulders; he is the Man Friday Of
civilization, while Crusoe, nicely got
up in goatskins and jingling his money
increasingly berates him as the LATEST
niger under the sun, and grudges
him the pittance that keeps body and
soul together.
Matt, working one day and often re-
cuperating for two. exefted every
nerve to find less killing employment.
Mr.. Doty, who might have helped him,
was absent at a chautauQua confer
ence; Matt had no one to lean on save
providence and himself. There were
openings here and there for skilled
men, but none seemingly for such as
he. He was unpleasantly conscious,
too, that he had lost caste; he was I'M
der some strange ban; people froze
at his approach and were glad to see
him leave. Goldstein conf1ded to him
T, that there was lot Of gossip run
ming around the place" and that
Somebody seems to have it in for you,
old man, and have it In good and
hard!" Nothing could induce the book
keeper to be more specific. "Oh,
what's the use?" he said, shying on
the subject 1.-THE towns got down
on you-and let it go at that
One Of the few that did not have "a
down on him" was Sullivan, the boss
stevedore. Sullivan was burly, bully
ing giant of a man, whose original
aversion had turned into a genuine
liking, and to whom Matt was indebt.
ed for many kindnesses. Matt had been
quickly promoted from "Hi, you Their,
to Sonny" which represented the two
poles of boss-stevedore consideration
AS Hi, you there" Matt had been
singled out for anything specially dis.
agreeable; as Sonny he was, com
lparatively speaking, pampered pet
His efforts to better himself, as the
phrase goes in that class, were sym
pathetically followed by Mr.. Sullivan
who was also keeping his eye open
in the young fellows interest. II
lopened-very ineffectually as 1t turned
jout-on the municipal watering cart;
on a secretary's job down at Fowler
and Beale's; on a position as checker
out at the Oriental Cafe. One day
| Sullivan beamingly announced new
possibility.
! "A fellow has been down here from
the Mountain View quarry" he said
"They are opening it up again, and ex
pect to put in shift of four hundred
Hunks. He was Incorporating fel
low, with a rubber-tired buggy and &
diamond pin, wanting me to figure OF
loading sandstone by the cubic. yard
land would / make contract II were
guaranteed a monthly minimum. Ons