Part 34 (1/2)
He paused, only to continue with fire: ”Or, if they have ambitions, know what they would best like to do, how helpless they are. No money, no opportunity.”
”I'll warrant, Mr. Ma.s.sey,” put in David, ”that there are many men employed in your steel mills who by natural inclination are totally unfitted for their jobs. Now, wouldn't scientific investigation in their early manhood have helped to find for them the right place and so added to their happiness?”
”Well, I'm not interested in that part of the question; their happiness has nothing to do with me,” returned John Ma.s.sey. ”I pay 'em their wages and that's enough. And I don't believe that every man is born with a special talent. They all look alike to me mostly.”
”Every man is born with the capacity to do something in a way impossible to another,” said the inventor with conviction. ”There are no two persons alike in the world.”
John Ma.s.sey smiled. He really now felt that he was being entertained.
Such another rare specimen as this inventor with his ridiculous contentions would be hard to find. So he said pleasantly: ”And after the machine has recorded its findings, what then?”
”Then you, and other men like you who have acc.u.mulated fortunes--”
”Stop!” cried the capitalist. ”Let me finish for you. After the machine has done its work, I'm to have the privilege of paying for the professional education or trade of these same impecunious young men.”
”Exactly, sir. The inst.i.tution you endow might be called the Temple of Natural Ability Apprais.e.m.e.nt. There the poor in money, but the rich in ambition may come; there the fumblers, the indecisive, may come to be put to a test. Ah, yours can be a great work.”
”A great opportunity for you, Mr. Ma.s.sey,” emphasized David, the gardener. ”I envy you.”
”You'd help out, wouldn't you, Eagle Man?” Suzanna now cried with perfect faith in his good will. ”You see, you'd have to when you remembered that there's a little silver chain stretching from your wrist to everybody else's in the world. It must be rubber-plated, I guess.”
”What do you mean?” asked the Eagle Man, involuntarily casting his glance down to his wrist, his flow of satire dammed.
”That's what Drusilla told me; we all belong. And you can't do something mean without breaking the chain that binds you to somebody else.”
”Ah, my dear,” said the Eagle Man, letting his hand fall upon her bright hair, ”you belong to a family of impossible visionaries.” He looked over at Suzanna's father, and his face suddenly grew crimson. ”Were you in earnest, Procter,” he cried, ”when you told me in Doane's hardware store that your machine meant a big opportunity to me--were you jesting?”
”Jesting! Why, I've pointed out your opportunity, plainly.”
”Shown me how I can throw a fortune away!”
After a moment Mr. Procter replied: ”We speak in different languages. By opportunity you can see only a chance to make more money.”
”Any other sane person makes the same guess,” Mr. Ma.s.sey replied.
The inventor's face grew sad. He had dreamed of John Ma.s.sey's response, a dream built on sand, as perhaps he should have known. But hope eternal sprang in his heart, and the belief that every man wished the best for his brother.
The silence continued. To break it Mr. Ma.s.sey turned to David.
”Your friend seems to think he has but to put before me the need for charity and I shall thank him effusively.”
David spoke slowly: ”My friend should have known better. He forgot, I suppose, your slums where you house your mill hands.”
”What do you mean by that?” Mr. Ma.s.sey began, when an exclamation from Suzanna, who was standing at the window, turned his attention there.
”See, there's a big fire over behind the big field,” she cried excitedly. ”Oh, look at the flames! The poor, poor people!”
David sprang to the window. ”It's over in the huddled district,” he cried. A fierce light sprang to his eyes. ”Where most of your men live with their families, John Ma.s.sey. I wonder how many will escape.”
CHAPTER XIX