with the size and brand of the collar. The sole business of
the assistant foreman in charge here, as Gilbert well knew,
after maintaining due decorum and order, was to see that
this stamping process went uninterruptedly forward. Also
that after the seventy-five to one hundred thousand dozen
collars were duly stamped and transmitted to the stitchers,
who were just outside in the larger room, to see that they
were duly credited in a book of entry. And that the number
of dozens stamped by each girl was duly recorded in order
that her pay should correspond with her services.
For this purpose a little desk and various entry books,
according to size and brand, were kept here. Also the
cutters’ slips, as taken from the bundles by the stampers
were eventually delivered to this assistant in lots of a dozen
or more and filed on spindles. It was really nothing more
than a small clerkship, at times in the past held by young
men or girls or old men or middle-aged women, according
to the exigencies of the life of the place.
The thing that Whiggam feared in connection with Clyde
and which he was quick to point out to Gilbert on this
occasion was that because of his inexperience and youth
Clyde might not, at first, prove as urgent and insistent a
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master of this department as the work there required. There
were nothing but young girls there—some of them quite
attractive. Also was it wise to place a young man of Clyde’s
years and looks among so many girls? For, being
susceptible, as he might well be at that age, he might prove
too easy—not stern enough. The girls might take
advantage of him. If so, it wouldn’t be possible to keep him
there very long. Still there was this temporary vacancy, and
it was the only one in the whole factory at the moment. Why
not, for the time being, send him upstairs for a tryout? It
might not be long before either Mr. Liggett or himself would
know of something else or whether or not he was suited for
the work up there. In that case it would be easy to make a
re-transfer.
Accordingly, about three in the afternoon of this same
Monday, Clyde was sent for and after being made to wait
for some fifteen minutes, as was Gilbert’s method, he was
admitted to the austere presence.
“Well, how are you getting along down where you are
now?” asked Gilbert coldly and inquisitorially. And Clyde,
who invariably experienced a depression whenever he
came anywhere near his cousin, replied, with a poorly
forced smile, “Oh, just about the same, Mr. Griffiths. I can’t
complain. I like it well enough. I’m learning a little
something, I guess.”
“You guess?”
“Well, I know I’ve learned a few things, of course,” added
Clyde, flushing slightly and feeling down deep within himself
a keen resentment at the same time that he achieved a half-
ingratiating and half-apologetic smile.
“Well, that’s a little better. A man could hardly be down
there as long as you’ve been and not know whether he had
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learned anything or not.” Then deciding that he was being
too severe, perhaps, he modified his tone slightly, and
added: “But that’s not why I sent for you. There’s another
matter I want to talk to you about. Tell me, did you ever
have charge of any people or any other person than
yourself, at any time in your life?”
“I don’t believe I quite understand,” replied Clyde, who,
because he was a little nervous and flustered, had not quite
registered the question accurately.
“I mean have you ever had any people work under you—
been given a few people to direct in some department
somewhere? Been a foreman or an assistant foreman in
charge of anything?”
“No, sir, I never have,” answered Clyde, but so nervous that
he almost stuttered. For Gilbert’s tone was very severe and
cold—highly contemptuous. At the same time, now that the
nature of the question was plain, its implication came to
him. In spite of his cousin’s severity, his ill manner toward
him, still he could see his employers were thinking of
making a foreman of him—putting him in charge of
somebody—people. They must be! At once his ears and
fingers began to titillate—the roots of his hair to tingle: “But
I’ve seen how it’s done in clubs and hotels,” he added at
once. “And I think I might manage if I were given a trial.” His
cheeks were now highly colored—his eyes crystal clear.
“Not the same thing. Not the same thing,” insisted Gilbert
sharply. “Seeing and doing are two entirely different things.
A person without any experience can think a lot, but when it
comes to doing, he’s not there. Anyhow, this is one
business that requires people who do know.”
He stared at Clyde critically and quizzically while Clyde,
feeling that he must be wrong in his notion that something
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was going to be done for him, began to quiet himself. His
cheeks resumed their normal pallor and the light died from
his eyes.
“Yes, sir, I guess that’s true, too,” he commented.
“But you don’t need to guess in this case,” insisted Gilbert.
“You know. That’s the trouble with people who don’t know.
They’re always guessing.”
The truth was that Gilbert was so irritated to think that he
must now make a place for his cousin, and that despite his
having done nothing at all to deserve it, that he could
scarcely conceal the spleen that now colored his mood.
“You’re right, I know,” said Clyde placatingly, for he was still
hoping for this hinted-at promotion.
“Well, the fact is,” went on Gilbert, “I might have placed you
in the accounting end of the business when you first came if
you had been technically equipped for it.” (The phrase
“technically equipped” overawed and terrorized Clyde, for
he scarcely understood what that meant.) “As it was,” went
on Gilbert, nonchalantly, “we had to do the best we could
for you. We knew it was not very pleasant down there, but
we couldn’t do anything more for you at the time.” He
drummed on his desk with his fingers. “But the reason I
called you up here to-day is this. I want to discuss with you
a temporary vacancy that has occurred in one of our
departments upstairs and which we are wondering—my
father and I—whether you might be able to fill.” Clyde’s
spirits rose amazingly. “Both my father and I,” he went on,
“have been thinking for some little time that we would like to
do a little something for you, but as I say, your lack of
practical training of any kind makes it very difficult for both
of us. You haven’t had either a commercial or a trade
education of any kind, and that makes it doubly hard.” He
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340
paused long enough to allow that to sink in—give Clyde the
feeling that he was an interloper indeed. “Still,” he added
after a moment, “so long as we have seen fit to bring you
on here, we have decided to give you a tryout at something
better than you are doing. It won’t do to let you stay down
there indefinitely. Now, let me tell you a little something
about what I have in mind,” and he proceeded to explain
the nature of the work on the fifth floor.
And when after a time Whiggam was sent for and appeared
and had acknowledged Clyde’s salutation, he observed:
“Whiggam, I’ve just been telling my cousin here about our
conversation this morning and what I told you about our
plan to try him out as the head of that department. So if
you’ll just take him up to Mr. Liggett and have him or some
one explain the nature of the work up there, I’ll be obliged
to you.” He turned to his desk. “After that you can send him
back to me,” he added. “I want to talk to him again.”
Then he arose and dismissed them both with an air, and
Whiggam, still somewhat dubious as to the experiment, but
now very anxious to be pleasant to Clyde since he could
not tell what he might become, led the way to Mr. Liggett’s
floor. And there, amid a thunderous hum of machines,
Clyde was led to the extreme west of the building and into a
much smaller department which was merely railed off from
the greater chamber by a low fence. Here were about
twenty-five girls and their assistants with baskets, who
apparently were doing their best to cope with a constant
stream of unstitched collar bundles which fell through
several chutes from the floor above.
And now at once, after being introduced to Mr. Liggett, he
was escorted to a small railed-off desk at which sat a short,
plump girl of about his own years, not so very attractive,