Part 7 (1/2)
”Well,” I said, ”we are just entering business. In the first case I charged you merely for the work done; in the second, I charge you for the idea.”
”What idea?” he inquired.
”The idea that cleanliness is part of any business man's capital.”
”Well, go ahead.”
When both signs were polished I offered to do the big plate-gla.s.s windows for ten cents each. This was thirty cents below the regular price, and I was permitted to do the job. Tim, of course, took his cap off, rolled his s.h.i.+rtsleeves up and worked with a will beside me.
After that, we swept the sidewalk, earning the total sum of thirty-five cents. We tried to do other stores, but the nationality of most of them was against us; nevertheless, in the course of the afternoon, we made a dollar and a half. I took Tim to ”Beefsteak John's,” and we had dinner. Then I began to boast of the performance and to warn Tim that on the following Sunday afternoon I should explain my success to the men in the bunk-house.
”Yes, yes, indeed, yer honour,” said Tim, ”y're a janyus! There's no doubt about that at all, at all! But----”
”Go on,” I said.
”I was jist switherin',” said Tim, ”what a wontherful thing ut is that a man kin always hev worruk whin he invints ut.”
”Well, that's worth knowing, Tim,” I said, disappointedly. ”Did you learn anything else?”
”There's jist one thing that you forgot, yer honour.”
”What is it?” I asked.
”Begorra, you forgot that if all the brains in the bunk-house wor put together they cudn't think of a thrick like that--the thrick of cleaning a window wid stuff from a dhrugstore! They aint got brains.”
”Why haven't they?”
”Ach, begorra, I dunno except for the same raisin that a fish hasn't no horns!”
We retraced our steps to the drugstore and the tailor-shop and the hardware store, and paid our bills and I handed over what was left to Tim.
This experiment taught me more than it taught Tim. It made a better student of me. I had investigated the cases of a hundred men in that same bunk-house--their nationality, age and occupation--and I had tried to find out the cause of their failure. And my superficial inquiry led me to the conclusion that the use of intoxicating liquor was the chief cause.
The following table shows the trade, nationality and age of one of our Sunday audiences in the B---- bunk-house. The audience numbered 108, and were all well-known individually to the Lodging House Missionary.
_Trade_
Engineer 1 Waiter 1 Watchman 1 Labourers 17 'Longsh.o.r.emen 7 Junkmen 3 Mechanics 3 Coal Heavers 18 Street Peddlers 4 Beer Helpers 2 Knife Grinders 4 Tailors 4 Cooks 2 Cigar Makers 2 Upholsterer 1 Painter 1 Butcher 1 Shoemakers 6 Gardeners 3 Gilder 1 Jeweler 1 Oysterman 1 Bronzer 1 Truckman 1 Firemen 2 Last Maker 1 Farmer 1 Thieves and b.u.ms of various grades 18 ____ Total 108
_Nationality_
Germans 52 Americans 19 Irish 22 English 4 Swedish 2 Austrians 2 Scotch 2 Welsh 1 French 2 Greek 1 Cuban 1 ____ Total 108
_Age_
Between 20 and 30 21 ” 30 and 40 30 ” 40 and 50 29 ” 50 and 60 20 ” 60 and 70 8 ____ Total 108 Average age, 41 years
Despite my experience with Tim Grogan, I diagnosed the condition of these men as being entirely due to strong drink. I went back over the ground and investigated with a little more care the causes that led them to drink, and this was the more fruitful of the two investigations. I wondered why men would not even stick at a job when I got them work. A careful investigation led me to the belief that, when a man gets out of a job once, he loses just a little of the routine, the continuity, the habit of work, and it is just a little harder to apply himself when he begins again. If a man loses a job two or three times in a year, it is just as many times harder to go on with a regular job when it comes. Lack of regular employment is the cause not only of the physical disintegration, but of the moral disintegration also; so, these men who had been out of employment so often, actually could not stick at a job when they got it. They were disorganized. A few of them had the stamina to overcome this disorganization. I found the same to be true in morals. When a man made his first break, it was easier to make the second, and it was as easy for him to lose a good habit as to acquire a bad one.