Jimmie Higgins | Page 3

present, because the members of
this usually efficient local were half-distracted, like a nest of ants that
have been dug out with a shovel. The most faithful ones showed a
tendency to forget what they were doing, and to gather in knots to talk
about the news which had come over the cables and had been published
in that morning's paper. Jimmie Higgins would have liked to hear what
the rest had to say; but somebody had to keep at work, for the local was
in the hole nearly three hundred dollars for to-night's affair, and it must
succeed, even though half the civilized world had gone suddenly insane.
So Jimmie continued to climb step-ladders and tie bunting.
When it came to lunch-time, and the members of the Decorations
Committee were going out, it suddenly occurred to one of them that the
drayman who was to bring the literature might arrive while there was
nobody to receive it. So Comrade Higgins was allowed to wait during
the lunch hour. There was a plausible excuse--he was on the Literature
Committee; indeed, he was on every committee where hard work was
involved--the committee to distribute leaflets announcing the meeting,
the committee to interview the labour unions and urge them to sell

tickets, the committee to take up a collection at the meeting. He was
not on those committees which involved honour and edification, such
as, for example, the committee to meet the Candidate at the depot and
escort him to the Opera-house. But then it would never have occurred
to Jimmie that he had any place on such a committee; for he was just an
ignorant fellow, a machinist, undersized and undernourished, with bad
teeth and roughened hands, and no gifts or graces of any sort to
recommend him; while on the Reception Committee were a lawyer and
a prosperous doctor and the secretary of the Carpet-weavers' Union, all
people who wore good clothes and had education, and knew how to
talk to a Candidate.
So Jimmie waited; and when the drayman came, he opened up the
packages of books and pamphlets and laid them out in neat piles on the
literature tables, and hung several of the more attractive ones on the
walls behind the tables; so, of course, Comrade Mabel Smith, who was
chairman of the Literature Committee, was greatly pleased when she
came back from lunch. And then came the members of the German
Liederkranz, to rehearse the programme they were to give; and
Comrade Higgins would have liked first rate to sit and listen, but
somebody discovered the need of glue, and he chased out to find a
drug-store that was open on Sunday.
Later on there was a lull, and Jimmie realized that he was hungry. He
examined the contents of his pockets and found that he had seventeen
cents. It was a long way to his home, so he would step round the corner
and have a cup of coffee and a couple of "sinkers" at "Tom's". He first
conscientiously asked if anybody needed anything, and Comrade
Mabel Smith told him to hurry back to help her put out the leaflets on
the seats, and Comrade Meissner would need help in arranging the
chairs on the stage.

III

When you went from the Leesville Opera-house and turned West in

Main Street, you passed Heinz's Cafe, which was a "swell" eating-place,
and not for Jimmie; and then the "Bijou Nickelodeon", with a
mechanical piano in the entrance; and the "Bon Marche Shoe Store",
which was always having a fire-sale or a removal sale or a bankruptcy
clearing-out; and then Lipsky's "Picture Palace", with a brown and
yellow cowboy galloping away with a red and yellow maiden in his
arms; then Harrod's "Fancy Grocery" on the corner. And in each of
these places there was a show-card in the window, with a picture of the
Candidate, and the announcement that on Sunday evening, at eight
o'clock, he would speak at the Leesville Opera-house on "War, the
Reason and the Remedy". Jimmie Higgins looked at the cards, and a
dignified yet joyful pride stirred in his bosom; for all of them were
there because he, Jimmie, had interviewed the proprietors and obtained
their more or less reluctant consent.
Jimmie knew that on this Sunday, in cities all over Germany, Austria,
Belgium, France and England, the workers were gathering by millions
and tens of millions, to protest against the red horror of war being let
loose over their heads. And in America too--a call would go from the
new world to the old, that the workers should rise and carry out their
pledge to prevent this crime against mankind. He, Jimmie Higgins, had
no voice that anybody would heed; but he had helped to bring the
people of his city