human
My dear, quoth the Doctor to his daughter as he sat poking his feet with his cane in her little office at the Kindergarten, after they had discussed Lila's adventure of the night before,
gpt
I saw Tom up town this morning and he didn't seem to be exactly happy. I says, 'Tom, I hear you beat God at his own game last night!' and, the Doctor chuckled,
human
Laura, do you know, he wouldn't speak to me!
gpt
Why, father--that was mean--
human
Of course it was mean. Why--considering everything, I'd lick a man if he'd talk that mean to me. But my Eenjiany devil kind of got control of my forbearing Christian spirit and I cut loose.
gpt
Father--tell me, why did that woman object to Tom's use of Kenyon in the riot last night?
human
Don't ask me, child. She's a bad egg!
gpt
Lila says, continued the daughter,
human
Croatians, eh? That's what the new colony is down in Magnus. Well, we've got Letts and Lithuanians and why not Croatians? What a mix we have here in the Valley! I wouldn't wash 'em for 'em!
gpt
Well, father, I would. And when you get the dirt off they're mostly just folks--just Indiany, as you call it. They all take my flower seeds. And they all love bright colors in their windows. And they are spreading the glow of blooms across the district, just as well as the Germans and the French and the Belgians and the Irish. And they are here for exactly the same thing which we are here for, father. We're all in the same game.
human
Money?
gpt
No--you stupid. You know better. It's children. They're here for their children--to lift their children out of poverty. It's the children who carry the banner of civilization, the hope of progress, the real sunrise. These people are all confused and more or less dumb and loggy about everything else in life but this one thing; they all hope greatly for their children. For their children they joyfully endure the hardships of poverty; the injustice of it; to live here in these conditions that seem to us awful, and to work terrible hours that their children may rise out of the worse condition that they left in Europe. And they have left Europe, father, spiritually as well as physically. Here they are reborn into America. The first generation may seem foreign, may hold foreign ways--on the outside. But these American born boys and girls, they are American--as much as we are, with all their foreign names. They are of our spirit. When America calls they will hear and follow. Whatever blood they will shed will be real American blood, because as children, born under the same aspiring genius for freedom under which we were born, as children they became Americans. Oh, father, it's for the children that these people here in Harvey--these exploited people everywhere in this country,--plant the flowers and brighten up their homes. It's for their children that they are going with Grant to organize for better things. The fire of life runs ahead of us in hope for our children, and if we haven't children or the love of them in our hearts--why, father, that's what's eating Tom's heart out, and blasting this miserable woman's life! Grant said to-day: 'This baby here symbolizes all that I stand for, all that I hope to do, all that the race dreams!
human
Laura--tell me, what do you make out of Grant?
gpt
Father, Grant is a lonely soul without chick or child, and I'm sorry for him. He goes--
human
Well, now, Laura, piped the little man,
gpt
I realize that, father. Don't concern yourself about that. But I see Grant some way, eating the locusts and wild honey in the wilderness, calling out to a stiff-necked generation to repent. His eyes are focussed on to-morrow. He expects an immediate millennium. But he is at least looking forward, not back. And the world back of us is so full of change, that I am sure the world before us also must be full of change, and maybe sometime we shall arrive at Grant's goal. He's not working for himself, either in fame or in power, or in any personal thing. He's just following the light as it is given him to see it, here among the poor.
human
Well, my dear, that's a fine speech. But when I asked you about Grant I was rising to a sort of question of personal privilege. I thought perhaps I would mix around at his meeting to-night! If you think I should, just kind of stand around to give him countenance--and, he chuckled and squeaked:
gpt
To bundle up a few votes!
human
Do, father--do--you must!
gpt
Well, squeaked the little voice,
human
The Doctor chuckled and returned to his own affairs.
gpt
Being on the winning side isn't really important. But it's like carrying a potato in your pocket for rheumatism: it gives a feller confidence. And after all, the devil's rich and God's poor have all got votes. And votes count!
human
Oh, father--they're not God's poor, whose ever they are. Don't say that. They're Daniel Sands's poor, and the Smelter Trust's poor, and the Coal Trust's poor, and the Glass and Cement and Steel company's poor. I've learned that down here. Why, if the employers would only treat the workers as fairly as they treat the machines, keeping them fit, and modern and bright, God would have no poor!
gpt
Heigh-ho the green holly, he droned.
human
Well, have it your way. God's poor or Dan's poor, they're my votes, if I can get 'em. So we'll come to the meeting to-night and blow a few mouthfuls on the fires of revolution, for the good of the order!