登陆注册
5406400000103

第103章

"That's it exactly," exclaimed the old man, in triumph."And Isay to them pious charity fakers, `Git the hell out of here where you can't do no good.Git back to yer own class that makes all this misery, makes it faster'n all the religion and charity in the world could help it.Git back to yer own class and work with them, and teach them and make them stop robbin' and beatin'

the baby.'"

"Yes," said the girl, "you are right.I see it now.But, Mr.

Brashear, they meant well."

"The hell they did," retorted the old man."If they'd, a' had love in their hearts, they'd have seen the truth.Love's one of the greatest teachers in the world.If they'd, a' meant well, they'd, a' been goin' round teachin' and preachin' and prayin'

at their friends and fathers and brothers, the plutocrats.

They'd never 'a' come down here, pretendin' they was doin' good, killin' one bedbug out of ten million and offerin' one pair of good pants where a hundred thousand pairs is needed.They'd better go read about themselves in their Bible--what Jesus says.

He knew 'em._He_ belonged to _us_--and _they_ crucified him."The horrors of that by no means lowest tenement region, its horrors for a girl bred as Susan had been! Horrors moral, horrors mental, horrors physical--above all, the physical horrors; for, worse to her than the dull wits and the lack of education, worse than vile speech and gesture, was the hopeless battle against dirt, against the vermin that could crawl everywhere--and did.She envied the ignorant and the insensible their lack of consciousness of their own plight--like the disemboweled horse that eats tranquilly on.At first she had thought her unhappiness came from her having been used to better things, that if she had been born to this life she would have been content, gay at times.Soon she learned that laughter does not always mean mirth; that the ignorant do not lack the power to suffer simply because they lack the power to appreciate; that the diseases, the bent bodies, the harrowed faces, the drunkenness, quarreling, fighting, were safer guides to the real conditions of these people than their occasional guffaws and fits of horseplay.

A woman from the hilltop came in a carriage to see about a servant.On her way through the hall she cried out: "Gracious!

Why don't these lazy creatures clean up, when soap costs so little and water nothing at all!" Susan heard, was moved to face her fiercely, but restrained herself.Of what use? How could the woman understand, if she heard, "But, you fool, where are we to get the time to clean up?--and where the courage?--and would soap enough to clean up and keep clean cost so little, when every penny means a drop of blood?""If they only couldn't drink so much!" said Susan to Tom.

"What, then?" retorted he."Why, pretty soon wages'd be cut faster than they was when street carfares went down from ten cents to five.Whenever the workin' people arrange to live cheaper and to try to save something, down goes wages.No, they might as well drink.It helps 'em bear it and winds 'em up sooner.I tell you, it ain't the workin' people's fault--it's the bosses, now.It's the system--the system.A new form of slavery, this here wage system--and it's got to go--like the slaveholder that looked so copper-riveted and Bible-backed in its day."That idea of "the system" was beyond Susan.But not what her eyes saw, and her ears heard, and her nose smelled, and her sense of touch shrank from.No ambition and no reason for ambition.No real knowledge, and no chance to get any--neither the leisure nor the money nor the teachers.No hope, and no reason for hope.No God--and no reason for a God.

Ideas beyond her years, beyond her comprehension, were stirring in her brain, were making her grave and thoughtful.She was accumulating a store of knowledge about life; she was groping for the clew to its mystery, for the missing fact or facts which would enable her to solve the puzzle, to see what its lessons were for her.Sometimes her heavy heart told her that the mystery was plain and the lesson easy--hopelessness.For of all the sadness about her, of all the tragedies so sordid and unromantic, the most tragic was the hopelessness.It would be impossible to conceive people worse off; it would be impossible to conceive _these_ people better off.They were such a multitude that only they could save themselves--and they had no intelligence to appreciate, no desire to impel.If their miseries--miseries to which they had fallen heir at birth--had made them what they were, it was also true that they were what they were--hopeless, down to the babies playing in the filth.An unscalable cliff; at the top, in pleasant lands, lived the comfortable classes; at the bottom lived the masses--and while many came whirling down from the top, how few found their way up!

On a Saturday night Ashbel came home with the news that his wages had been cut to seven dollars.And the restaurant had been paying steadily less as the hard times grew harder and the cost of unadulterated and wholesome food mounted higher and higher.

As the family sat silent and stupefied, old Tom looked up from his paper, fixed his keen, mocking eyes on Susan.

"I see, here," said he, "that _we_ are so rich that they want to raise the President's salary so as he can entertain _decently_--and to build palaces at foreign courts so as our representatives'll live worthy of _us_!"

同类推荐
  • 法华义疏

    法华义疏

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 司马法

    司马法

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 景定严州新定续志

    景定严州新定续志

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 法华曼荼罗威仪形色法经

    法华曼荼罗威仪形色法经

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 野老纪闻

    野老纪闻

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
热门推荐
  • 玄天玉壁

    玄天玉壁

    成长有很多定义,也需要付出很多代价。少年的成长,伴随着笑与泪,仇与恨,情与义。这个世界没有坏人,只有被情困住的人。这,是一个由一块传说中的玉璧和未知的宝藏所引发的故事。
  • 蛮妃猎君记

    蛮妃猎君记

    十六岁,我有了一个夫婿,君子国皇上最宠爱的第九个儿子——公子韩嫣。得知这个消息时,他一脸绝望,我也一脸绝望。他咆哮“我绝不娶能和狗熊搏斗的女人为妻!”我错愕“原来你居然是男的啊?”有百般虐待,就有百折不挠!男人婆和娘娘腔,且看他们在斗法中如何改造对方……
  • 逍遥梦路

    逍遥梦路

    深山宅男,一路种种田,养养鱼,做做梦,顺带悠闲成长的故事。咦?最后一不小心征服诸天万界,成为了大BOSS?莫非我还没睡醒?
  • 书谱

    书谱

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 金刚瑜伽降三世成就极深密门

    金刚瑜伽降三世成就极深密门

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 铁关刀

    铁关刀

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 科场条贯

    科场条贯

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 充钱当高手

    充钱当高手

    如某些人所说,本书是写着玩的,所以在后面的时候,主要娱乐为主,加以现代性话语。主人公为阮小天,穿越明朝游戏人间,然后卷入江湖斗争之中。魏忠贤是架空时空的一个人物,和历史有关也无关。本来写一部百万字以上的小说不是那么容易,所以觉得自己实力不够的情况下,只能当做练笔了。
  • 剪魂师

    剪魂师

    我叫杨木,是一名剪魂师,自从有一次触碰了我爸的剪纸工具,我走上了一条不归路……红纸剪生人,黑纸剪死人,掌管世间生死,犹如判官钟馗!为了争夺带有灵魂的剪纸法器,事端四起,命悬一线,法器之谜如何解开,且看我一一道来。
  • 庭树不知人去尽

    庭树不知人去尽

    她去了一个很远的地方,而我还在原地张望。这过往云烟,在心底关不住了……