The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1926-12-15
a MEW
NOVEL
Gao. ensl.ir
Copyright 1926. by Upton sinclair3

One of the young fellows who had
taught at Dan Irving's labor college
was in New York, and Bunny met
him, and they talked about what
was going on in the labor movement
all over the world. Bunny would
have liked to meet him again, and
to go to meeting were 50
many exciting things in tbs great
city, headquarters of the radical
movement as of everything else.
But Wee found out about this, and
set out to save him-iust as if he
had wanted to smoke opium or
drink absinthe! She would make
engagements for him, and claim his
time, and question him, with an anx-
ious, where is my wandering boy
tonight" sort Of an air. Bunny
knew, of course, that she was doing
it for his souls salvation, and doubt
less at Dads direct request; but all
the same it was a bore.
He had one other acquaintance, to
whom Wee made no Objectionable
mother. She had married again
some time ago, and her husband
was rich, and she had a lovely
home, so she had written. Bunny
went to see her, and had to make an
extreme effort not to reveal his con,
sternation at her appearance. A
dreadful example of what happened
woman who yielded to her crav-
ing for a square meal! Mamma had
filled out till she was round as a
ball of butter, and so soft that it
was hard to keep together on a hot
day like this. Fair, fat, and forty"
runs the saying; the surgeons add,
land a bad gall bladder" but Bunny
didn't know that, and neither did
Mamma. She was dressed like q
queen in his honor, and had a
poodle dog-selected, as Wee would
have said, to match her figure. Her
husband was dealer in jewelry,
and apparently he used his wife
instead of a safe. She insisted on
giving Bunny a diamond ring, and
when he told her about the strike,
she gave him another to be sold for
the strikers relief fund. Oil men
were cruel, said Mamma-she knew.
VII. Wy
Dad was attending to the business
which had brought him East. He
didn't say much about 1t, and that
was unusual, so Bunny knew it was
something off color. Presently he
wormed it out of his father. 1t had
to do with those naval reserve
leases they were planning to get
President Harding had been NAV
gurated, and had made Barney
Brockway his Encouragement, 40
cording to schedule, and appointed
Vernon Roscoe's man as secretary
of the interior. This was Senator
Crisby, an old party hack who had
served Roscoe and O'Reilly when
they We're occupied in turning out
one Mexican administration and put
ting in another they had held over
the Mexicans' heads the threat OF
American Intervention, and this
Grisby, as senator from Texas, had
clamored for war, and almost got It.
! He couldn't let women alone, Dad
said, and so he was always busted,
and ready for any new job that
came along.
Now he was to give the oil men a
whole string of valuable leases for
practically nothing; but he had to
have more money, there were a lot
of fellows that had to have lot
more money. That was the trouble
in dealing with politicians; you
bought them before election, and
then you had to buy them again
after election. They wouldn't "stay
put" like business men. What Dad
had come on here for was to con
suit a lawyer that Verne considered
the greatest in the country and fix
up a little corporation for the pur-
| pose of buying government officials
legally. or course Dad didn't put It
in those crude words, but that was
what it amounted to, Bunny insist
ed, and how could it be done? Dad
answered that real good lawyer
could do anything. This was going
to be a Canadian corporation, so
that it wouldn't have to obey United
States laws; and the men that took
stock in It were to get their leases
in the end. But the trouble was, no
body could be sure just what the
leases would be worth, and Pete
O'Reilly and Fred Orpen were try
ing to make Dad and Verne put UP
too big share Of the money Verne
was made and said they could got TO
hell and he wanted Dad to settle
down and wait while in New York.
and bluff them out. Could Bunny
make up his mimi to skip the rest
of his college term, and maybe do
some studying with tutor, and pass