An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser

you go home with her?”

Clyde shook his head negatively.

“I should say I didn’t,” he exclaimed.

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“Well, where did you go then?” he asked.

Clyde told him. And after he had set forth a full picture of his

own wayfarings, Ratterer returned with: “Gee, you didn’t

know that that little Briggs girl left with a guy from out there

for New York right after that, did you? Some fellow who

worked in a cigar store, so Louise told me. She saw her

afterwards just before she left with a new fur coat and

all.” (Clyde winced sadly.) “Gee, but you were a sucker to

fool around with her. She didn’t care for you or nobody. But

you was pretty much gone on her, I guess, eh?” And he

grinned at Clyde amusedly, and chucked him under the

arm, in his old teasing way.

But in regard to himself, he proceeded to unfold a tale of

only modest adventure, which was very different from the

one Clyde had narrated, a tale which had less of nerves

and worry and more of a sturdy courage and faith in his

own luck and possibilities. And finally he had “caught, on” to

this, because, as he phrased it, “you can always get

something in Chi.”

And here he had been ever since—“very quiet, of course,”

but no one had ever said a word to him.

And forthwith, he began to explain that just at present there

wasn’t anything in the Union League, but that he would talk

to Mr. Haley who was superintendent of the club—and that

if Clyde wanted to, and Mr. Haley knew of anything, he

would try and find out if there was an opening anywhere, or

likely to be, and if so, Clyde could slip into it.

“But can that worry stuff,” he said to Clyde toward the end

of the evening. “It don’t get you nothing.”

And then only two days after this most encouraging

conversation, and while Clyde was still debating whether he

would resign his job, resume his true name and canvass

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the various hotels in search of work, a note came to his

room, brought by one of the bell-boys of the Union League

which read: “See Mr. Lightall at the Great Northern before

noon to-morrow. There’s a vacancy over there. It ain’t the

very best, but it’ll get you something better later.”

And accordingly Clyde, after telephoning his department

manager that he was ill and would not be able to work that

day, made his way to this hotel in his very best clothes. And

on the strength of what references he could give, was

allowed to go to work; and much to his relief under his own

name. Also, to his gratification, his salary was fixed at

twenty dollars a month, meals included. But the tips, as he

now learned, aggregated not more than ten a week—yet

that, counting meals was far more than he was now getting

as he comforted himself; and so much easier work, even if

it did take him back into the old line, where he still feared to

be seen and arrested.

It was not so very long after this—not more than three

months—before a vacancy occurred in the Union League

staff. Ratterer, having some time before established himself

as day assistant to the club staff captain, and being on

good terms with him, was able to say to the latter that he

knew exactly the man for the place—Clyde Griffiths—then

employed at the Great Northern. And accordingly, Clyde

was sent for, and being carefully coached beforehand by

Ratterer as to how to approach his new superior, and what

to say, he was given the place.

And here, very different from the Great Northern and

superior from a social and material point of view, as Clyde

saw it, to even the Green-Davidson, he was able once

more to view at close range a type of life that most affected,

unfortunately, his bump of position and distinction. For to

this club from day to day came or went such a company of

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seemingly mentally and socially worldly elect as he had

never seen anywhere before, the self-integrated and self-

centered from not only all of the states of his native land but

from all countries and continents. American politicians from

the north, south, east, west—the principal politicians and

bosses, or alleged statesmen of their particular regions—

surgeons, scientists, arrived physicians, generals, literary

and social figures, not only from America but from the world

over.

Here also, a fact which impressed and even startled his

sense of curiosity and awe, even—there was no faintest

trace of that sex element which had characterized most of

the phases of life to be seen in the Green-Davidson, and

more recently the Great Northern. In fact, in so far as he

could remember, had seemed to run through and motivate

nearly, if not quite all of the phases of life that he had thus

far contacted. But here was no sex—no trace of it. No

women were admitted to this club. These various

distinguished individuals came and went, singly as a rule,

and with the noiseless vigor and reserve that characterizes

the ultra successful. They often ate alone, conferred in pairs

and groups, noiselessly—read their papers or books, or

went here and there in swiftly driven automobiles—but for

the most part seemed to be unaware of, or at least

unaffected by, that element of passion, which, to his

immature mind up to this time, had seemed to propel and

disarrange so many things in those lesser worlds with which

up to now he had been identified.

Probably one could not attain to or retain one’s place in so

remarkable a world as this unless one were indifferent to

sex, a disgraceful passion, of course. And hence in the

presence or under the eyes of such people one had to act

and seem as though such thoughts as from time to time

swayed one were far from one’s mind.

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After he had worked here a little while, under the influence

of this organization and various personalities who came

here, he had taken on a most gentlemanly and reserved air.

When he was within the precincts of the club itself, he felt

himself different from what he really was—more subdued,

less romantic, more practical, certain that if he tried now,

imitated the soberer people of the world, and those only,

that some day he might succeed, if not greatly, at least

much better than he had thus far. And who knows? What if

he worked very steadily and made only the right sort of

contacts and conducted himself with the greatest care here,

one of these very remarkable men whom he saw entering

or departing from here might take a fancy to him and offer

him a connection with something important somewhere,

such as he had never had before, and that might lift him

into a world such as he had never known.

For to say the truth, Clyde had a soul that was not destined

to grow up. He lacked decidedly that mental clarity and

inner directing application that in so many permits them to

sort out from the facts and avenues of life the particular

thing or things that make for their direct advancement.

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Chapter 4

HOWEVER, as he now fancied, it was because he lacked

an education that he had done so poorly. Because of those

various moves from city to city in his early youth, he had

never been permitted to collect such a sum of practical

training in any field as would permit him, so he thought, to

aspire to the great worlds of which these men appeared to

be a part. Yet his soul now yearned for this. The people

who lived in fine houses, who stopped at great hotels, and

had men like Mr. Squires, and the manager of the bell-hops

here, to wait on them and arrange for their comfort. And he

was still a bell-hop. And close to twenty-one. At times it

made him very sad. He wished and wished that he could

get into some work where he could rise and be somebody—

not always remain a bell-hop, as at times he feared he

might.

About the time that he reached this conclusion in regard to

himself and was meditating on some way to improve and

safeguard his future, his uncle, Samuel Griffiths, arrived in

Chicago. And having connections here which made a card

to this club an obvious civility, he came directly to it and for

several days was about the place conferring with individuals

who came to see him, or hurrying to and fro to meet people

and visit concerns whom he deemed it important to see.

And it was not an hour after he arrived before Ratterer, who

had charge of the pegboard at the door by day and who