The Titan

Jewish and American extraction, he had been born and raised in the Fourteenth and spoke with a decidedly American accent. He was neither small nor large⁠—sandy-haired, shifty-eyed, cunning, and on most occasions amiable. Just now he was decidedly nervous, wrathy, and perplexed, for he had been brought here against his will. His slightly oleaginous eye⁠—not unlike that of a small pig⁠—had been fixed definitely and finally on the munificent sum of thirty thousand dollars, no less, and this local agitation threatened to deprive him of his almost unalienable right to the same. His ordeal took place in a large, low-ceiled room illuminated by five very plain, thin, two-armed gas-jets suspended from the ceiling and adorned by posters of prizefights, raffles, games, and the “Simon Pinski Pleasure Association” plastered here and there freely against dirty, long-unwhitewashed walls. He stood on the low raised platform at the back of the room, surrounded by a score or more of his ward henchmen, all more or less reliable, all black-frocked, or at least in their Sunday clothes; all scowling, nervous, defensive, red-faced, and fearing trouble. Mr. Pinski has come armed. This talk of the mayor’s concerning guns, ropes, drums, marching clubs, and the like has been given very wide publicity, and the public seems rather eager for a Chicago holiday in which the slaughter of an alderman or so might furnish the leading and most acceptable feature.

“Hey, Pinski!” yells someone out of a small sea of new and decidedly unfriendly faces. (This is no meeting of Pinski followers, but a conglomerate outpouring of all those elements of a distrait populace bent on enforcing for once the principles of aldermanic decency. There are even women here⁠—local church-members, and one or two advanced civic reformers and W.C.T.U. barroom smashers. Mr. Pinski has been summoned to their presence by the threat that if he didn’t come the noble company would seek him out later at his own house.)

“Hey, Pinski! You old boodler! How much do you expect to get out of this traction business?” (This from a voice somewhere in the rear.)

Mr. Pinski (turning to one side as if pinched in the neck). “The man that says I am a boodler is a liar! I never took a dishonest dollar in my life, and everybody in the Fourteenth Ward knows it.”

The Five Hundred People Assembled. “Ha! ha! ha! Pinski never took a dollar! Ho! ho! ho! Whoop‑ee!”

Mr. Pinski (very red-faced, rising). “It is so. Why should I talk to a lot of loafers that come here because the papers tell them to call me names? I have been an alderman for six years now. Everybody knows me.”

A Voice. “You call us loafers. You crook!”

Another Voice (referring to his statement of being known). “You bet they do!”

Another Voice (this from a small, bony plumber in workclothes). “Hey, you old grafter! Which way do you expect to vote? For or against this franchise? Which way?”

Still Another Voice (an insurance clerk). “Yes, which way?”

Mr. Pinski (rising once more, for in his nervousness he is constantly rising or starting to rise, and then sitting down again). “I have a right to my own mind, ain’t I? I got a right to think. What for am I an alderman, then? The constitution⁠ ⁠…”

An Anti-Pinski Republican (a young law clerk). “To hell with the constitution! No fine words now, Pinski. Which way do you expect to vote? For or against? Yes or no?”

A Voice (that of a bricklayer, anti-Pinski). “He daresn’t say. He’s got some of that bastard’s money in his jeans now, I’ll bet.”

A Voice from Behind (one of Pinski’s henchmen⁠—a heavy, pugilistic Irishman). “Don’t let them frighten you, Sim. Stand your ground. They can’t hurt you. We’re here.”

Pinski (getting up once more). “This is an outrage, I say. Ain’t I gon’ to be allowed to say what I think? There are two sides to every question. Now, I think whatever the newspapers say that Cowperwood⁠—”

A Journeyman Carpenter (a reader of the Inquirer). “You’re bribed, you thief! You’re beating about the bush. You want to sell out.”

The Bony Plumber. “Yes, you crook! You want to get away with thirty thousand dollars, that’s what you want, you boodler!”

Mr. Pinski (defiantly, egged on by voices from behind). “I want to be fair⁠—that’s what. I want to keep my own mind. The constitution gives everybody the right of free speech⁠—even me. I insist that the streetcar companies have some rights; at the same time the people have rights too.”

A Voice. “What are those rights?”

Another Voice. “He don’t know. He wouldn’t know the people’s rights from a sawmill.”

Another Voice. “Or a load of hay.”

Pinski (continuing very defiantly now, since he has not yet been slain). “I say the people have their rights. The companies ought to be made to pay a fair tax. But this twenty-year-franchise idea is too little, I think. The Mears bill now gives them fifty years, and I think all told⁠—”

The Five Hundred (in chorus). “Ho, you robber! You thief! You boodler! Hang him! Ho! ho! ho! Get a rope!”

Pinski (retreating within a defensive circle as various citizens approach him, their eyes blazing, their teeth showing, their fists clenched). “My friends, wait! Ain’t I goin’ to be allowed to finish?”

A Voice. “We’ll finish you, you stiff!”

A Citizen (advancing; a bearded Pole). “How will you vote, hey? Tell us that! How? Hey?”

A Second Citizen (a Jew). “You’re a no-good, you robber. I know you for ten years now already. You cheated me when you were in the grocery business.”

A Third Citizen (a Swede. In a singsong voice). “Answer me this, Mr. Pinski. If a majority of the citizens of the Fourteenth Ward don’t want you to vote for it, will you still vote for it?”

Pinski (hesitating).

The Five Hundred. “Ho! look at the scoundrel! He’s afraid to say. He don’t know whether he’ll do what the people of this ward want him to do. Kill him! Brain him!”

A Voice from Behind. “Aw, stand up, Pinski. Don’t be afraid.”

Pinski (terrorized as the five hundred