He ran across the street with it and came back. The head office had a direct wire, and the answer came a minute after Flannery reached the waiting Mr. Warold.
"Westcote. Give fuller particulars. Name consignor. Contents. Objection to receiving. (Signed) Franklin."
Flannery showed the message to Mr. Warold, and then took up his pen again.
"President Interurban, Franklin," he wrote, "Consinor Westcote tag company, tags in it. o is in phenix and ph in sulfur and u in armordale.
Westcote."
The president sitting in his private office, received the message and wrinkled his brow as he read it. Telegraphing does not always improve the legibility of a message. As the message reached the president it read:
"Consinor westcote tag company tag sis in it oisin phenix phin sulfur uin armordale."
The president reached for his pile of various code-books and looked up the strange words. He found "phoenix" in one codebook with its meaning given as "extremely ill, death imminent." "Oisin" was not given, but the word "oisanite" was, and the meaning of that the code stated to be "five hundred head prime steers." It was enough. The Interurban did not wish to accept the transportation of five hundred extremely ill steers, whose death was imminent.
"Westcote, refuse consignment absolutely. Write particulars," he wired.
Flannery showed the telegram to Mr. Warold, who would have sworn, if swearing had been his custom, but it was not. He took the package of tags and went back to his office and did the tags up in smaller bundles and sent them by mail with a special delivery stamp on each lot, and charged the cost to the Interurban. Then he wrote a long and fervid letter to the president of the Interurban, in which he gave his opinion of the simplified spelling, and particularly of a man who would interpolate it into business by the power of his personal fiat.
And Flannery wrote too.
"President Interurban, Franklin," he wrote, "i sent warold away with his tags pakag as you say to. he is mad I gess he will try to make trubbel.
i tole him we coud not acsept pakags addrest to Phoenix Sulphur Company Armourdale and it made him mad. no falt of mine. i ast him to leve out o out of phoenix and to yous f insted of ph in sulphur and too take that u out of armourdale agreeble to generl order numbr 719 and he wont do it. no falt of mine. i got to spell rite when the rules sa so. no falt of mine. i aint makin rules i sais to him. pres of interurban is responssibel how we spel. i onnly spel as he sais too. Flannery."
The president received the two letters in the same mail. He read that of Mr. Warold first, and when he came to a threat to sue the company, he frowned. This was all new to him. There was nothing in the letter about five hundred indisposed cattle of any kind. He looked up Flannery"s telegrams, but they cast no light on it. Then he opened Flannery"s letter and read it. He got up and began walking up and down his office, stopping now and then to shake the fist in which he had crumpled Flannery"s letter. Then he called for Miss Merrill.
She came, carrying her notebook in one hand and fixing a comb in the back of her hair with the other.
"Take this!" said the president angrily. "Flannery, Westcote--" He tramped back and forth, trying to condense all the bitterness that boiled in him into telling words.
"You are a fool!" he said at length, meaning Flannery and not Miss Merrill.
Then he thought a while. Having said that, there was not much stronger that he could say. He had reached his climax too soon.
"Scratch that out," he said, and began walking again. He looked at Flannery"s letter and scowled.
Miss Merrill waited patiently. It gave her an opportunity to primp.
"Never mind, Miss Merrill," said the president finally. "I will call you later." He was wondering whether he should discharge Flannery, or issue Webster"s Unabridged as General Order Number 720, or what he should do.
And Flannery went on with his letter to Mary O"Donnell, for it was a work of several days with him. A love-letter was alone enough to worry him, but, when he had to think of things to say and still keep one eye on the list of three hundred words, his thoughts got away from him before he could find whether they had to be put in simplified words or in the good old go-as-you-please English that he usually wrote.
He was sitting at the desk when a messenger from the head office came in. The messenger had been sent down to Westcote by the president, and had just been across to the tag company to fix things up with Mr.
Warold. He had fixed them, and the lever he had used was a paper he held in his hand. It had mollified Mr. Warold.
As the messenger entered, Flannery looked up from his letter, and he smiled with pleasure. He was glad to see some one from the head office.
He wanted information about some of the words he was ordered to use. He was puzzled about "stript." Did it mean "striped" or "stripped"? And was "tost" the kind of toast you eat or the kind you drink? And how about that funny-looking combination of letters "thru," and a dozen others?
"I"m glad t"see th" sight av ye," he said, holding out his hand, "for I do be wantin" some help on these three hunderd worrds th" prisidint has been simplifyin" down. "T is a turrible job they be, thim three hunderd!
Some av thim I never will be after learnin". Look at this, now," he said, putting his finger on "orthopedic." "And this wan," he said, touching "esophagus." "Thim be tough wans! But it"s thankful I am there be but three hunderd av thim. There w"u"d be no ind t" th" day"s worrk sh"u"d th" prisidint take a notion t" reforrm th" whole dic-shunnery. If he was t" shorten all th" worrds in th" English language, I w"u"d have a long job av it, niver knowin" whin th" worrds was spelled right or wrong. They be a powerful increase of worrk, thim three hunderd worrds.
Take this wan, now--"thoroly"--"t is a bird, that wan is! But Flannery will stick t" th" list!"
The messenger laid the paper he had been holding upon Flannery"s desk.
"I will be needin" an a.s.sistant sh"u"d th" prisidint promulgate any more worrds like thim," said Flannery; "and I w"u"d recommind he be Corbett or Sullivan or wan of th" other sluggers, for th" patrons av th" company be not all easy-goin" like Mr. Warold. But progress is th" worrd of th"
day, and I stand for shorter worrds, no matter how much extry worrk they mek. Th" prisidint has a great head on him."
He opened the paper on his desk and read it.
"General Order Number Seven Hundred and Twenty:
"To all employees of the Interurban Express Company: Cancel General Order Number Seven Hundred and Nineteen. By order of the president."
"As I was sayin"," said Flannery, "th" prisidint has a great head on him."
III
FLEAS WILL BE FLEAS
Mike Flannery was the star boarder at Mrs. Muldoon"s, and he deserved to be so considered, for he had boarded with Mrs. Muldoon for years, and was the agent of the Interurban Express Company at Westcote, while Mrs.
Muldoon"s other boarders were largely transient.
"Mike," said Mrs. Muldoon, one noon, when Mike came for his lunch, "I know th" opinion ye have of Dagos, and niver a-one have I took into me house, and I think the same of thim meself--dirthy things, an" takin"
the bread away from th" honest Amercan laborin" man--and I would not be thinkin" of takin" one t" board at this day, but would ye tell me this:--is a Frinchmin a Dago?"
Flannery raised his knife and laid down the law with it.
"Mrs. Muldoon, mam," he said, "there be two kinds of Frinchmin. There be the respictible Frinchmin, and there be th" unrespictible Frinchmin.
They both be furriners, but they be cla.s.sed different. Th" respictible Frinchmin is no worse than th" Dutch, and is cla.s.sed as Dutch, but th"
other kind is Dagos. There is no harm in th" Dutch Frinchmin, for thim is such as Napoleon Bonnypart and the like of him, but ye want t" have nawthin" t" do with th" Dago Frinch. They be a bad lot."
"There was a Frinchmin askin" would I give him a room and board, this mornin"," said Mrs. Muldoon.
Flannery nodded knowingly.
"I knowed it!" he cried. ""T was apparent t" me th" minute ye spoke, mam. And agin th" Dutch Frinch I have nawthin" t" say. If he be a Dutch Frinchmin let him come. Was he that?"
"Sure, I don"t know," said Mrs. Muldoon, perplexed. "He was a pleasant-spoken man, enough. "T is a professor he is."
"There be many kinds of professors," said Mike.
"Sure!" agreed Mrs. Muldoon. "This wan is a professor of fleas."
Mike Flannery grinned silently at his plate.