They Call Me Carpenter | Page 6

We passed out through the arched doorway, and Broadway was before
us. I had another thrill of distress--a vision of myself walking down this
crowded street with this extraordinary looking personage. The crowds
would stare at us, the street urchins would swarm about us, until we
blocked the traffic and the police ran us in! So I thought, as we
descended the steps and started; but my fear passed, for we walked and
no one followed us--hardly did anyone even turn his eyes after us.
I realized in a little while how this could be. The pleasant climate of
Western City brings strange visitors to dwell here; we have Hindoo
swamis in yellow silk, and a Theosophist college on a hill-top, and
people who take up with "nature," and go about with sandals and bare
legs, and a mane of hair over their shoulders. I pass them on the street
now and then--one of them carries a shepherd's crook! I remember how,
a few years ago, my Aunt Caroline, rambling around looking for
something to satisfy her emotions, took up with these queer ideas, and
there came to her front door, to the infinite bewilderment of the butler,
a mild-eyed prophet in pastoral robes, and with a little newspaper
bundle in his hand. This, spread out before my aunt, proved to contain
three carrots and two onions, carefully washed, and shining; they were
the kindly fruits of the earth, and of the prophet's own labor, and my

old auntie was deeply touched, because it appeared that this visitor was
a seer, the sole composer of a mighty tome which is to be found in the
public library, and is known as the "Eternal Bible."
So here I was, strolling along quite as a matter of course with my
strange acquaintance. I saw that he was looking about, and I prepared
for questions, and wondered what they would be. I thought that he must
naturally be struck by such wonders as automobiles and crowded
street-cars. I failed to realize that he would be thinking about the souls
of the people.
Said he, at last: "This is a large city?"
"About half a million."
"And what quarter are we in?"
"The shopping district."
"Is it a segregated district?"
"Segregated? In what way?"
"Apparently there are only courtesans."
I could not help laughing. "You are misled by the peculiarities of our
feminine fashions--details with which you are naturally not familiar--"
"Oh, quite the contrary," said he, "I am only too familiar with them. In
childhood I learned the words of the prophet: 'Because the daughters of
Zion are haughty, and walk with stretched forth necks and wanton eyes,
walking and mincing as they go, and making a tinkling with their feet;
therefore the Lord will smite with a scab the crown of the head of the
daughters of Zion, and the Lord will discover their secret parts. In that
day the Lord will take away the bravery of their tinkling ornaments
about their feet, and their cauls, and their round tires like the moon, the
chains, and the bracelets, and the mufflers, the bonnets, and the
ornaments of the legs, and the headbands, and the tablets, and the
earrings, and nose jewels, the changeable suits of apparel, and the
mantles, and the wimples, and the crisping pins, the glasses, and the
fine linen, and the hoods, and the veils. And it shall come to pass that
instead of sweet smell there shall be stink; and instead of a girdle a rent;
and instead of well set hair, baldness; and instead of a stomacher a
girding of sackcloth; and burning instead of beauty.'"
From the point of view of literature this might be great stuff; but on the
corner of Broadway and Fifth Street at the crowded hours it was
unusual, to say the least. My companion was entering into the spirit of

it in a most alarming way; he was half chanting, his voice rising, his
face lighting up. "'Thy men shall fall by the sword, and thy mighty in
the war. And her gates shall lament and mourn; and she being desolate
shall sit upon the ground.'"
"Be careful!" I whispered. "People will hear you!"
"But why should they not?" He turned on me a look of surprise. "The
people hear me gladly." And he added: "The common people."
Here was an aspect of my adventure which had not occurred to me
before. "My God!" I thought. "If he takes to preaching on street
corners!" I realized in a flash--it was exactly what he would be up to! A
panic seized me; I couldn't stand that; I'd have to cut and run!
I began to speak quickly. "We must get across this street while we have
time; the traffic officer has turned the right