Part 10 (1/2)

The boy lifted his head at this.

”You make me feel as though we'd just landed with the Pilgrims,” he said.

”So we have,” I said. ”June seventh of this very year we landed on Plymouth Rock just as our ancestors did two centuries ago. They've been all this time paving the way for you and me. They've built roads and schools and factories and it's up to us now to use them. You and I have just landed from England. Let's see what we can do as pioneers.”

I wanted to get at the young American in him. I wanted him to realize that he was something more than the son of his parents; something more than just an average English-speaking boy. I wanted him to feel the impetus of the big history back of him and the big history yet to be made ahead of him. He had known nothing of that before. The word American had no meaning to him except when a regiment of soldiers was marching by. I wanted him to feel all the time as he did when his throat grew lumpy with the band playing and the stars and stripes flying on Fourth of July or Decoration Day.

I urged him to study hard as the first essential towards success but I also told him to get into the school life. I didn't want him to stand back as his tendency was and watch the other fellows. I didn't want him to sit in the bleachers--at least not until he had proved that this was the place for him. Even then I wanted him to lead the cheering. I wanted him to test himself in the literary societies, the dramatic clubs, on the athletic field. In other words, instead of remaining pa.s.sive I wanted him to take an aggressive att.i.tude towards life. In still other words instead of being a middle-cla.s.ser I wanted him to get something of the emigrant spirit. And I had the satisfaction of seeing him begin his work with the germ of that idea in his brain.

In the meanwhile with the approach of cold weather I saw a new item of expense loom up in the form of coal. We had used kerosene all summer but now it became necessary for the sake of heat to get a stove. For a week I took what time I could spare and wandered around among the junk shops looking for a second hand stove and finally found just what I wanted. I paid three dollars for it and it cost me another dollar to have some small repairs made. I set it up myself in the living room which we decided to use as a kitchen for the winter. But when I came to look into the matter of getting coal down here I found I was facing a pretty serious problem. Coal had been a big item in the suburbs but the way people around me were buying it, made it a still bigger one.

No cellar accommodations came with the tenement and so each one was forced to buy his coal by the basket or bag. A basket of anthracite was costing them at this time about forty cents. This was for about eighty pounds of coal, which made the total cost per ton eleven dollars--at least three dollars and a half over the regular price.

Even with economy a person would use at least a bag a week. This, to leave a liberal margin, would amount to about a ton and a half of coal during the winter months. I didn't like the idea of absorbing the half dollar or so a week that Ruth was squeezing out towards what few clothes we had to buy, in this way--at least the over-charge part of it. With the first basket I brought home, I said, ”I see where you'll have to dig down into the ginger jar this winter, little woman.”

She looked as startled as though I had told her someone had stolen the savings.

”What do you mean?” she asked.

I pointed to the basket.

”Coal costs about eleven dollars a ton, down here.”

When she found out that this was all that caused my remark, she didn't seem to be disturbed.

”Billy,” she said, ”before we touch the ginger jar it will have to cost twenty dollars a ton. We'll live on pea soup and rice three times a day before I touch that.”

”All right,” I said, ”but it does seem a pity that the burden of such prices as these should fall on the poor.”

”Why do they?” she asked.

”Because in this case,” I said, ”the dealers seem to have us where the wool is short.”

”How have they?” she insisted.

”We can't buy coal by the ton because we haven't any place to put it.”

She thought a moment and then she said:

”We could take care of a fifth of a ton, Billy. That's only five baskets.”

”They won't sell five any cheaper than one.”

”And every family in this house could take care of five,” she went on.

”That would make a ton.”

I began to see what she meant and as I thought of it I didn't see why it wasn't a practical scheme.

”I believe that's a good idea,” I said. ”And if there were more women like you in the world I don't believe there'd be any trusts at all.”

”Nonsense,” she said. ”You leave it to me now and I'll see the other women in the house. They are the ones who'll appreciate a good saving like that.”

She saw them and after a good deal of talk they agreed, so I told Ruth to tell them to save out of next Sat.u.r.day night's pay a dollar and a half apiece. I was a bit afraid that if I didn't get the cash when the coal was delivered I might get stuck on the deal. The next Monday I ordered the coal and asked to have it delivered late in the day. When I came home I found the wagon waiting and it created about as much excitement on the street as an ambulance. I guess it was the first time in the history of Little Italy that a coal team had ever stopped before a tenement. The driver had brought baskets with him and I filled up one and took it to a store nearby and weighed into it eighty pounds of coal. With that for my guide I gathered the other men of the families about me and made them carry the coal in while I measured it out. The driver who at first was inclined to object to the whole proceeding was content to let things go on when he found himself relieved of all the carrying. We emptied the wagon in no time and the other men insisted upon carrying up my coal for me. I collected every cent of my money and incidentally established myself on a firm footing with every family in the house. Several other tenements later adopted the plan but the idea didn't take hold the way you'd have thought it would. I guess it was because there weren't any more Ruths around there to oversee the job. Then, too, while these people are far-sighted in a good many ways, they are short-sighted in others.