Homepage
Login
Profile
BookClubs
dmBox
Read Ebook: The Machine by Sinclair Upton
Font size:
Background color:
Text color:
Add to tbrJar First Page Next Page Prev Page
Ebook has 970 lines and 18173 words, and 20 pages
JACK. Oh, stuff, Julia! I've given up chasing after will-o'-the-wisps like that.
JULIA.--But think what she could do!
JACK. Yes. I used to think what a whole lot of people could do. You might as well ask me to think what her father could do... if he only wanted to do it, instead of poisoning the life-blood of the city, and piling up his dirty millions. Go about this town and see the misery and horror... and think that it's Jim Hegan who sits at the top and reaps the profit of it all! It's Jim Hegan who is back of the organization... he's the real power behind Boss Grimes. It's he who puts up the money and makes possible this whole regime of vice and graft...
JULIA. My dear boy, don't be silly.
JACK. How do you mean? Isn't it true?
JULIA. Of course it's true... but why declaim to me about it? You forget you are talking to the champion female muckraker of the country.
JACK. Yes, that's right. But I don't want to meet these people socially. They mean well, a lot of them, I suppose; but they've been accustomed all their lives to being people of importance... to have everybody stand in awe of them, because of their stolen money, and all the wonderful things they might do with it if they only would.
JULIA. My dear Jack, did you ever observe anything of the tuft-hunter in me?
JACK. No, I don't know that I have. But it's never too late.
JULIA. Well, until you do, have a little faith in me! Meet Laura Hegan, and judge for yourself.
JACK. All right, I'll meet her. But let me tell you, I don't propose to spare her feelings. She'll get things straight from me.
JULIA. That's all right, my boy. Give her the class war and the Revolution with a capital R! Tell her you're the only original representative of the disinherited proletariat, and that some day, before long, you intend to plant the red flag over her daddy's palace. Of course, what you'll actually do is meet her like a gentleman, and tell her of some of your adventures in Russia, and give her some idea of what's going on outside of her little Fifth avenue set. J ACK. Where did you run on to her?
JULIA. I met her at the settlement.
JACK. Good Lord! Jim Hegan's daughter! They were toadying to her there, I'll wager.
JULIA. Well, you know what settlement people are. She's been coming there for quite a while, and seems to be interested. She's given them quite a lot of money.
JACK. No doubt.
JULIA. I had a little talk with her one afternoon. She's a quiet, self-contained girl, but she gave me a peculiar impression. She seemed to be unhappy; there was a kind of troubled note in what she said. I had felt uncomfortable about meeting her... you can imagine, after my study of "Tammany and the Traction Trust."
JACK. Did she mention that?
JULIA. No, she never has. But I've several times had the feeling that she was trying to get up the courage to do it. I've thought, somehow, that she must be suffering about her father.
JACK. My God! Wouldn't it be a joke if Nemesis were to get at Jim Hegan through his daughter?
JULIA. Yes; wouldn't it!
JACK. How do you suppose he takes her reform activities?
JULIA. I don't know, but I fancy they must have had it out. She's not the sort of person to let herself be turned back when her mind's made up.
JACK. A sort of chip of the old block. If I'd known what was up, I wouldn't have suggested asking anybody else to come.. .
JULIA. Oh, that's all right; it won't make any difference.
JACK. This chap, Montague, that I 'phoned to you about... he's a sort of a convert of my own.
JULIA. I see. We'll reciprocate.
JACK. I think I've got Montague pretty well landed. You'll be interested in him... it's quite a story. It was last election day...
JULIA. Ah, there's somebody. Is that you, Miss Hegan?
JULIA. You found your way, did you?
LAURA. Oh, no trouble at all. How do you do?
JULIA. I am so glad to see you. Jack, this is Miss Hegan. Mr. Bullen.
LAURA. How do you do, Mr. Bullen?
JACK. I am very glad to meet you, Miss Hegan.
JULIA. Let me take your things.
LAURA. Oh, what a cozy place! I think these model tenements are delightful.
JULIA. They're indispensable to us agitators... an oasis in a desert.
JACK. Built for the proletariat, and inhabited by cranks.
LAURA. Is that the truth?
JULIA. It's certainly the truth about this one. Below me are two painters and a settlement worker, and next door is a blind Anarchist and a Yiddish poet.
LAURA. What's the reason for it?
JULIA. The places are clean and cheap; and whenever the poor can't pay their rent, we take their homes.
JACK. The elimination of the unfit.
LAURA. It sounds like a tragic explanation; but I guess it's true. And so this is Mr. Bullen. For such a famous revolutionist, I expected to find some one more dangerous-looking.
JULIA. Don't make up your mind too soon about Jack. He's liable to startle you.
LAURA. I'm not easily startled any more. I'm getting quite used to meeting revolutionists.
JACK. You don't call them revolutionists that you meet at the settlement, I hope?
LAURA. No; but all sorts of people come there.
LAURA. Why, no; not at all. Is it one of your Russian friends?
JACK. Oh, no; he's an American. His name is Montague. I was just starting to tell Julia about him when you came in.
LAURA. Go ahead.
Add to tbrJar First Page Next Page Prev Page