Rocky Ford enterprise., 1915-09-10


Rose alley and asked him to follow
her. Some one was dying. He did
not wait for dinner, but hailing cab.
set out on another journey to Rose
alley.
He stumbled hastily up the gloomy
staircase to Romans door and raped
lightly. 1t was opened by an unkempt
foreign woman. doubtless neighbor.
and he entered. Save for her the
kitchen was empty. But by the light
of smoky lamp that stood on the
table near an inner door. he saw a
group dimly outlined On narrow
bed lay huge dropsical figure. seem.
ing to Mark already dead. The Matka,
more faded than ever, sat at the dy.
ing mans side, motionless as he, hef
gaze fixed rigidly upon him.
Thank you for coming" Kazia said
I'm glad you sent for me. Is there
anything can do?"
Yes. get Piotr. He went away early
this morning and doesn't know. II
was very sudden. You'll probably find
him at" She named a corner a mile
or more distant. HE makes speeches
there every evening""
The cab came to a halt at a corner
where many people passed. A small
changing crowd had gathered around
a man who from his soap box ha,
rangued them. He preached gospel
that. beginning with u germ OF love,
had grown In him into a creed of hate.
1t was rambling incoherent ha,
rangue. full of bitter denunciation and
vague generalities that never came to
n hn hrf IN
pouring Of a feeble mind obsessed by
sense of injury real or fancied and
cracking under the effort to inoculate
others with its venom. Mark listened
a moment
THE man must be mad" he thought
pitifully.
Piotr in his ramblings came to the
late strike. He began roll call Of
the masters of the Quinby company
Quinby himself. Henley. Higsbee,
Hare
And Truitt!" The hoarse voice be-
came. II that were possible. even more
bitter. He fairly writhed as he shrieked
out his charges. "Truitt the wife
beater! The rounder! With his
women" For several minutes he
raved on, regaling his audience with
an array of disgusting but apocryphal
details of Truths life that to his dis
eased fancy must have become proved
facts.
GO tell him to come here" Mark
ordered the cabman. Tell him his
father is dying"
Jaw, hell!" growled a big lrishman
in the crowd. audible even to the cab
shut up! Truths tn only wan av tn
lot wild BOWLS Z him."
'Fool-fool!" Piotr shook clenched
fists at the Irishman. Are you taken
Who was he working for then. you or
Quinby? Where was he when Hen
ley's strike breakers came to steal
your Jobs and shoot down your women?
Where was his money when your
children were starving for bread7
Where"
But the cabman had reached him
with Marks message. For a moment
Piotr stared stupidly. trying to take
in its meaning. Then he uttered
wild piercing cry.
"Dying!" He leaned toward the
crowd. hands and face twitching in his
frenzy. my fathers dying. but he
can walt while tell you about this
Truitt. When he was starting out
he came to our house, because my
father took pity on him. My father
loved him. better than he did his own
son. He watched over him. cared for
him, taught him all he knew of his
trade. Then the old man broke. He
wouldn't have been old anywhere else.
but he had burned himself up trying
to make Quinby's furnace hells pay.
They threw him out, of course-and
Truitt took his job. Truitt-partnsT
Of Quinby! The old mans heart broke.
Then his mind gave way. And now
he's dying-do you know where? In
Rose alley!"
The crowd had become very still
To them. too. the tragedy that tor.
tured the madman was clear: infinite
\ repetition could not take away its bit,
terness.
"And that isn't ALL" The emotional
delirium reached its climax. I'm that
house was a girl-just an ignorant
Hunky girl but the kind men love. And
Truitt made love to her. But when he
left US, he left her. too-anotheF
broken heart! To forget him she mar
ried worthless rummy she had to
leave. Then she went out into the
city to make her own iiving-you
know the fight and the price women
must pay or go down. And she-the
girl he wouldn't take up with him
she paid"
Bewilderment choked back the
stream of words. For a man-whose
pallor was not due to the garish arc
lamp-had leaped from the cab and
was elbowing a way swiftly toward
him. The crowd fell back to let the
man through, then pressed closer.