Omaha daily bee., 1921-08-07
Jake Bravinsky, Anarchist, Sits
In at the Game Of Death and
Reaps an Ironic Reward.

Heaps an lronc Reward.
N that busy quarter OF an hour ere the great
liner-steam strideht from the exhaust pipes
L high up against the vast tunnels donkey
engines running for preliminary test as they
took up the slack Of the cables to the attendant
tugs-cast off from the landing stage but Few
of the preoccupied passengers noticed the hand-
cuffed man hurried by two detectives up the
third-class gangway into the ship. Those that
did shrank back uncomfortable. He stumbled
up like a man the way to execution. pale.
haggard, withdrawn into himself. faculties
numbed by the imminence of his fate. His eyes
stared without seeing. ..
The two detectives hustled him below. into
the depths Of the ship. along electric-lit cor
rdors where the light OF day never came
steward preceded them as a guide indicating at
last q cabin on the lowest berth-deck. The door
was opened and he was thrust into the tiny
apartment dimly lit by portfolio close under
the roof, the river water tapping green along
It's glass. 49," -
The prisoner stood stock-still where he was
pushed, bereft apparently OF voluntary motion
with the limbs that shook helplessly as In an
ague. His mean little face was imrnobzed
almost to imbecity. One Of the detectives
stood over him, looked into his vacant eyes,
"Now. no nonsense. Jake-or we'll have to
keep you tied up all the way" he said, imper-
sonay. With that he unlocked the handcuns.
The prisoners arms, freed. fell Imply pendant
The detective turned aud went out OF the cabin.
The prisoner watched his exit with lack
luster eyes that stared ina vague. and increas-
ing horror as the sound Of the key turning in
the lock penetrated slowly to his consciousness
Suddenly. though full perception released
spring in him. he leaped at the door.
LET me out! Let me out! Let me out,
say!" he screamed at the top OF his voice, ham
mering violently at the door. "Pofice!-police!
police ERE! Ere! 'Ere!-come backbone
back"
His cry, rang out on piercing note Of al
most maniac terror. OF extreme urgency of ap-
peal. 1--WE got something to tell yer-Ive got
something to tell yer! Don't let 'er start! Don't
let er start!-Oh, Gawd, don't let 'er start
Ere! Ere! Como back'-Police!-Com back!"-
He exhausted himself with a whirlwind OF
blows, hands and feet battering upon the closed
door, with flood OF agonzing appeals mingled
with bloodcurding curses that dropped suddenly
to whimperhg humility and broke out again
in a renewed fury of vehemence .. ..s
None answered him. The door remained
closed. AS he recoiled from it, gasping in de-
spair and terror. he heard the Shrek of the
liners siren in its last warning, the clank and
rumble Of cables paid out the first .throb of
its engines awakng to life. swirl of water In
motion darkened the glass disc of the port.
He sank down to seat upon his bunk.
breathing heavily as from weak and over
strained lungs, his pinched face a CHASTITY gray.
His eyes fixed themselves, fascinated, upon that
portfolio which the disturbed water obscured
from instant to instant They had cast Off were
moving out upon their voyage across the ocean.
The reaction from his intense effort left him
gripped in paralyzing certitude Of isolation. OF
utter impotence Penned here in this narrow
steel cell far below decks, like prisoner in an
oublette to be forgotten. cries and noises were
alike useless; II heard, We're only to- be con-
-tenptuously ignored. Numbed to the core OF
him, he ceased making sound. sat vaguely
staring before him into fitting mental pictures
where his conscious intelligence interVened only
by fits and starts "'' ,.-..
He saw himself in the, dapidated parlor
behind the boarded-up saloon in the squalid
street beyond the dock gates, saw once more the
white pinched face Of the deformed little Ger
man-Jew light up with evil triumph as he hoist
ed the heavy suitcase onto the table around
which the Comrades craned forward with
eager interest He saw him open 1t and. In
breathless silence, draw forth-a chunk coal!
The little Jew held It up for the appreciation
of his companions.
"Dere you are comrades!" He heard again
, the throaty, malicious chucke of the inventors
voice. .Cast in steel-I enameled it mineself-
and you can do vat you like vid It." He giggled
like one diabolcaly insane "You can drop it
you can hit it-you can do anything you like vtd
it-except burn It'll"
O'Donnell: had taken it from him like a
loving-cup and had gazed down upon 1t with al
most affectionate admiration
And II It should by accident be shoveled in
to a liners furnace. scomrades?" he had asked.
grimly facetious, in his pleasant tones, his
phraseo1ogy emphasizing, as was his wont, the
fact that he was a man of education.
"It will blow de belly out Of her!' the little
chemist had answered with a sudden violent
ferocity Dose explosves--dey will blow de
belly out Of de biggest ship dat efer sailed"
o'Donnell had smiled amiably and. still hold
ing aIoft the chunk OF pseudo coal like loving
cup, had looked around upon the clustered,
gaunt faces Of the Comrades" as though in Sc
lection of one to whom to give It.
"Comradesr. he had exclaimed. his soft voice
never more meifiuous. I'VE are going to strike
a real blow this time-one the bloodsuckers will
feel and remember They shall know that the
solidarity Of labor Is no vain boast!" t
Neither In Jake Bravinsky's reverie OF
"reminiscences; not at the moment upon those
eager faces craned towards the thing the big
man held, was there any perception OF unin-
tended irony.
longshoremens strike was in progress. and
the white-coared brigade recruited from the
desks of the shipping company's skyscraper
had sworn to turn the Gargantuan round and
get her to sea again, with mails. passengers
bunker-coal and some at least Of her cargo.
They were going to make good, 1t seemed,
thanks not a little to the strong force Of police
who protected them from the none too benevo-
lent solicitude Of the awkwardly- like workers
who xaassed sullenly beyond the locked dock
gates But not of that grim little group in
the dilapidated parlor was either a striker or
worker.
Neither Chlodzky. the Pole; Lipoff, the Rus
sian, nor he, Jake Bravinsky, the weedy de-
generate product of two generations In East
End, London, had ever done days work in
their lives except under the stern pressure OF
necessity or the law. He, Jake Bravinsky, ur-
gently needing distance between him and the
English police, had certainly assisted to fire the
A. A--,. S,,A~