The toiler. [volume] (Cleveland, Ohio) 1919-1922, 1920-07-09
Chapter xxxv1II.
Decision [Continnadl

Collins arose and busted himself
, with the stew pan over the fire. HI
pretended to burn his fingers, anc
swore viciously. The oath was only q
disguised escape for his emotion OF
happiness, for it was now sewers
months since he began his endeavol
Ito convince Jack that he ought tt
throw his lot with the radical move
ment. This had not been an easy task
| The best workers are not enlisted in a
day. Brain processes of q profound
nature cannot easily he swerved from
one channel of pursuit into another
Jacks mind was drawn to natural
phenomena, generally out side of the
sphere of human activity, and Collins
had come to realize that to bend such
mind into new paths of activity
demanded more logic and argument
than he possessed.
Realizing that the emotions are often
more forceful stimuli to human action
than the processes of reason, he had
hit upon probably the only thing
which was capable of working a change
of attitude in the boys mind. So it
happened that Collins had brought
from out of the bourgeois world, the
spark which rendered the boys latent
social energy, kinetic. 1t was Olive
Anderson who as a purely emotional in
flucnce, caused the boy to decide in
favor of AN agitator's life.
This decision pleased Collins iml
mensly. He felt, that if he could sue
ceed in landing the boy in the midst
of terrific industrial problems, he
would then inevitably cast his lot with
the industrial movement.
Rudolph, too, reioiced in what he
considered a mutual victory over
Jack s natural tendencies, .altho he
was not so keenly aware of what had
been the catalyzing element between
Jacks brain and the class struggle.
He knew that Collins. had sent Jack s
notes to "a girl in North Dakota, and
he rather suspected that reply had
been received, but further than that
he knew nothing. On account of his
attitude toward woman,kind in gen
eral, both Collins and Jack had re-
Trained from discussing such matters
in his presence. He could therefore
not realize that this had anything 20
do with the boys change of attitude.
For it must be said that from such
a correspondence Rudolph would ex.
peet nothing, if not negative result
While he was greatly pleased with
the boy's decision to enter the class
struggle, he did not like the idea of
him going to the mines. He wanted
him TO follow agricultural work 81
tell you Ed" said he, addressing Col
Inns, cit is alright for the kid to 90
to the mines, but you must not for
get that he is enthusiastic just now,
when theiwhole mining world is seeth-
ing with trouble. But wait until the
trouble is over and things quiet down
a bit AS far agitation is concerned,
especially if Meyer, Haywood, and
Pettibone are acquitted, then he will
put all his mind ainto the work of min
ing, and the first queer crystal hai
sees he will turn geologist instead ofl
agitator. Prince Kropotkin raised the
wolf on bread and he was good
wolf for five years but one. day he
strayed among the chickens and i'm
mediately became wolf. | fear the
same thing for Jack. 1t is true we
have fed him up on the class struggle.
I agree swe have it under his skin,
but ! don't believe it has soaked thru.
We can U deny that his natural bent
is toward the study of nature in gen
eral, more than it is toward the study |
of society. ] would rather see him fol.
low agricultural work. He grew up in
it. 1t contains no novelty for him. He, |
| believe would rather study the slaves
than the slavery, and the migratory
workers are the place for him. / tell !
you, ] don't like to see him 60 into
the mines.'
Jack listened to all this, but made
no direct comment. There were two
forces at work in his brain. 1t was as
if simultaneously he bebcld two visions.
In the one he was opening the strait
fled pages of the earth s rock bound
history and laboriously spelling out
the secrets of the worlds childhood,
and in the other, he saw himself in
the midst of struggling crowd, that |
was toilsomely working its way hither
and thither in the darkness. While
among that crowd, there were few
men and women, who were forever
strainng toward the light. These few I
were in the mass but not of the mass.
The mass seemed to instinctively pro-
fer the darkness. Perhaps they only
moved as with the tide. And yet the
few that strained toward the light,
sought to climb the heights seemed TO
have a slight influence on that mass.
These few, gave their time, their
strength, and in many eases their
lives, that the darkness in which the
mass moved might become a little
lighter, that the thoughts that entered
The. minds of the mass might he a
little clearer, little happier, little
nobler. He half closed his eyes and
eaned back in his chair while Rudolph
was speaking. He hardly heard what
'"' N"'" '"t Ndt ohVHtiy NdlcHlnS
he vision of the human masses bear.
ng among them few that were dif.
'erent. For all the world they looked
ike sheep on a mountain side. great
lrab grey mass, with here aud there
! black speck. But in the human mass
he black sheep reacted different from
he others. Within them were tho souls
# eagles. They loved the light, altho
heir straining toward il seemed almost
'utile. How pitifully few they were2
Tcw few they had been through out
he ages, in comparison with the
drifting crowd.
He tried to call them by name, these
laywoods, these Pettibones, these
)ebses, these Manns, those Lieb.
.ncchts. Marx Lassnlles preakofaL;as