Jimmie Higgins | Page 5

they are just like every other
committee, or that you are tired to death, or maybe have a headache--"
Jimmie sat, gazing in awe-stricken silence. Not being a man of reading,
he had never heard of "the head that wears a crown". This was his first
glimpse into the soul of greatness.
The Candidate went on: "And then, too, Comrade, there's the news
from Europe. I want a little time. I can't bring myself to face it!"
His voice had grown sombre, and to Jimmie, gazing at him, it seemed
that all the sorrows of the world were in his tired grey eyes. "Perhaps
I'd better go," said Jimmie.
"No no," replied the other, with quick self-recovery. He looked and saw
that Jimmie had forgotten his meal. "Bring your things over here," he
said; and the other fetched his cup and saucer and plate, and gulped the
rest of his "sinkers" under the Candidate's eyes.
"I oughtn't to talk," said the latter. "You see how hoarse I am. But you
talk. Tell me about the local, and how things are going here."
So Jimmie summoned his courage. It was the one thing he could really
talk about, the thing of which his mind and soul were full. Leesville
was a typical small manufacturing city, with a glass bottle works, a
brewery, a carpet-factory, and the big Empire Machine Shops, at which
Jimmie himself spent sixty-three hours of his life each week. The
workers were asleep, of course; but still you couldn't complain, the
movement was growing. The local boasted of a hundred and twenty
members, though of course, only about thirty of them could be counted
on for real work. That was the case everywhere, the Candidate put in--it
was always a few who made the sacrifice and kept things alive.
Then Jimmie went on to tell about to-night's meeting, the preparations
they had made, the troubles they had had. The police had suddenly

decided to enforce the law against delivering circulars from house to
house; though they allowed Isaac's "Emporium" to use this method of
announcement. The Leesville Herald and Evening Courier were
enthusiastic for the police action; if you couldn't give out circulars,
obviously you would have to advertise in these papers. The Candidate
smiled--he knew about American police officials, and also about
American journalism.
Jimmie had been laid off for a couple of days at the shop, and he told
how he had put this time to good use, getting announcements of the
meeting into the stores. There was an old Scotchman in a real estate
office just across the way. "Git oot!" he said. "So I thought I'd better git
oot!" said Jimmie. And then, taking his life into his hands, he had gone
into the First National Bank. There was a gentleman walking across the
floor, and Jimmie went up to him and held out one of the placards with
the picture of the Candidate. "Would you be so good as to put this in
your window?" he inquired; and the other looked at it coldly. Then he
smiled--he was a good sort, apparently. "I don't think my customers
would patronize your business," he said; but Jimmie went at him to
take some tickets and learn about Socialism--and would you believe it,
he had actually shelled out a dollar! "I found out afterwards that it was
Ashton Charmers, the president of the bank!" said Jimmie. "I'd a' been
scared, if I'd a' known."
He had not meant to talk about himself; he was just trying to entertain a
tired Candidate, to keep him from brooding over a world going to war.
But the Candidate, listening, found tears trying to steal into his eyes.
He watched the figure before him--a bowed, undernourished little man,
with one shoulder lower than the other, a straggly brown moustache
stained with coffee, and stumpy black teeth, and gnarled hands into
which the dirt and grease were ground so deeply that washing them
would obviously be a waste of time. His clothes were worn and
shapeless, his celluloid collar was cracked and his necktie was almost a
rag. You would never have looked at such a man twice on the
street--and yet the Candidate saw in him one of those obscure heroes
who are making a movement which is to transform the world.

V

"Comrade Higgins," said the Candidate, after a bit, "let's you and me
run away."
Jimmie looked startled. "How?"
"I mean from the Committee, and from the meeting, and from
everything." And then, seeing the dismay in the other's face: "I mean,
let's take a walk in the country."
"Oh!" said Jimmie.
"I see it through the windows of the railroad-cars, but I don't set foot on
it for months at a time. And I was brought up in