Part 28 (1/2)
As I learned that , Rourke was the foreman-mason for minor tasks for all that part of the railroad that lay between New York and fifty miles out, on three divisions He had a dozen or so men under him and was in possession of one car, which was shunted back and forth between the places in which he happened to be working He was a builder of concrete platfor piers, and, in fact, anything that could be made out of crushed stone and cement, or bricks and stone, and he was sent here and there, as necessity required As he explained to me at the tiet to his place of labor by seven
The great railroad coentle master, and did not look upon his ease, or that of his men, as important At the same time, as he himself confessed, he did notnow for the company for all of twenty-two years, ”rain or shi+ne” Darkness or storm made no difference to him
”Shewer, I have to be there,” he observed once with his quizzical, elusive Irish grin ”They're not payin' et up that way yerself every day fer a year,my spare and none too well articulated frame, ”it'd make a man av ye”
”Yes?” I said tolerantly ”And how et, Rourke?”
”Two an' a half a day”
”You don't say!” I replied, pretending admiration
The munificence of the corporation that paid him two and a half dollars a day for ten hours' work, as well as for superintending and constructing things of such importance, struck ht” to be happy, only I could not see it At the sa that he was better situated thanonly twelve cents an hour for ten hours' work, and the sight of the fore was a torture to , red-headed ignoraet out from under him At the same ti I could find a fore was to do this, and the more I eyed this particular specienial, really kindly, aly simple and sincere I decided to appeal to him to take me on his staff
”Hoould you like to take me, Mr Rourke, and letto him why I was here
”Shewer,” he replied ”Ye'd do fine”
”Would I have to ith the Italians?” I asked, wondering hoould make out with a pick and shovel My frame was so spare at the ti the type of physique required for day labor
”There'll be plenty av work fer ye to do without ever yer layin' a hand to a pick er shovel,” he replied cours do it Look at their backs an' arrms, an'
then look at yers”
I was ready to blush for shame These poor Italians whom I was so ready to contemn were immeasurably roes, Rourke?” I asked after a time
”They're not black”
”Well, bedad, they're not white, that's waan thing shewer,” he added
”Aany man can tell that be lookin' at thi
”Very well, then, they're black,” I said, and we left theafter I put in a plea to be transferred to hiranted The day that I joined his flock, or gang, as he called it, he was at Willia a concrete coal-bin It was a pretty place, surrounded by trees and a grass-plot, a vast improvement upon a dark indoor shop, and see sun, the green leaves, the gentle fresh winds of heaven!
Rourke was down in an earthen excavation under the depot platfor with his plumb-bob and level, and when I looked in on him hopefully he looked up and srin
”Yes,” I laughed
”Well, ye're jist in tio down to the ahffice”
”Certainly,” I replied, but before I could say more he climbed out of his hole, his white jeans odorous of the new-turned earth, and fished in the pocket of an old gray coat which lay beside him for a soiled and crumpled letter, which he finally unfolded with his thick, cluers Then he held it up and looked at it defiantly
”I waant ye to go to Woodlawn,” he continued, ”an' look after son the bill fer thio down to the ahffice an' take thiain he fished around and produced another crumpled slip, this time of a yellow color (hoell I came to know them!), which I soon learned was an ok blank, a for received, if no more than a stick of wood or a nail or a bolt The company demanded these of all fore department was useless without the of the ”nonsinse av it,” and the ”onraisonableness” of deoin' to sthale thim from thim,” he declared irritably and defiantly
I saw at once that some infraction of the railroad rules had occurred and that he had been ”called down,” or ”jacked up” about it, as the railroad eon, and as defiant and pugnacious as his royal Irish temper would allow At the same time he was pleased to think that I or some one had arrived ould relieve him of this damnable ”nonsinse,” or so he hoped He was not so inexperienced as not to iine that I could help him with all this In fact, as ti here
He flung a parting shot at his superior as I departed