Into this room, all through the afternoon, streamed a curious medley of people. Tall men, small men, rough men, dapper men, and loudly dressed women, who for the most part seemed inclined to corpulence. They talked sometimes; many seemed well acquainted. Others appeared to be strangers, and they glanced about them uneasily, apparently suspicious of their fellows.
This seemed a curious waiting room for a Fifth Avenue "Mercantile Agency."
But inside the room to the left, marked "private," was the explanation of the mystery; at last there was a partial explanation of the curious throng.
As the occupants chatted, or kept frigid and uneasy silence, in the outer room a fat man, smooth of face and monkish in appearance, occasionally appeared at the private portal and admitted one person at a time.
After disappearing through this door, his visitors were not seen again, for they left by another door, which automatically closed and locked itself as they went directly into the hall corridor where the elevators ran.
In the private office of the "Mercantile Agency" the fat man would sit at his desk and listen attentively to the words of his visitor.
"Speak up, Joe. You know I"m hard of hearing--don"t whisper to me,"
was the tenor of a remark which he seemed to direct to every visitor.
Yet strangely enough he frequently stopped to listen to voices in the outer room, which he appeared to recognize without difficulty.
On this particular afternoon a dapper-dressed youth was an early caller.
"Well, Tom, what luck on the steamer? Now, don"t swallow your voice.
Remember, I got kicked in the ear by a horse before I quit bookmaking, and I have to humor my hearing."
"Oh, it was easy. That Swede, Jensen, came over, you know, and he had picked out a couple of peachy Swede girls who were going to meet their cousin at the Battery. Minnie and I went on board ship as soon as she docked, to meet our relatives, and we had a good look at "em while they were lined up with the other steerage pa.s.sengers. They were fine, and we got Jensen to take "em up to the Bronx. They"re up at Molloy"s house overnight. It"s better to keep "em there, and give "em some food. You know, the emigrant society is apt to be on the lookout to-day. The cousin was there when the ferry came in from the Island, all right, but we spotted him before the boat got in, and I had Mickey Brown pick a fight with him, just in time to get him pinched. He was four blocks away when the boat landed, and Jensen, who had made friends with the girls coming over, told them he would take "em to his aunt"s house until they heard from their cousin."
"What do they look like? We"ve got to have particulars, you know."
"Well, one girl is tall, and the other rather short. They both have yellow hair and cheeks like apples. One"s name is Lena and the other Marda--the rest of their names was too much for me. They"re both about eighteen years old, and well dressed, for Swedes."
The fat man was busy writing down certain data on a pad arranged in a curious metal box, which looked something like those on which grocers"
clerks make out the order lists for customers.
"Say, Henry, what do you use that thing for? Why don"t you use a fountain pen and a book?" asked the dapper one.
"That"s my affair," snapped the fat man. "I want this for records, and I know how to do it. Go on. What did Mrs. Molloy pay you?"
"Well, you know she"s a tight one. I had to argue with her, and I have a lot of expense on this, anyway."
"Go on--don"t begin to beef about it. I know all about the expenses.
We paid the preliminaries. Now, out with the money from Molloy. It was to be two hundred dollars, and you know it. Two hundred apiece is the exact figure."
The visitor stammered, and finally pulled out a roll of yellow-backed bills "Well, I haven"t gotten mine yet," he whined.
"Yours is just fifty on this, for you"ve had a steamer a.s.signment every day this week. You can give your friend Minnie a ten-spot. Now, report here to-morrow at ten, for I"ve a new line for you. Good day.
Shut the door."
The fat man was accustomed to being obeyed. The other departed with a surly manner, as though he had received the worst of a bargain. The manager jotted down the figures on the revolving strip of paper, for such it was, while the pencil he used was connected by two little metal arms to the side of the mechanism. Some little wheels inside the register clicked, as he turned the paper lever over for a clean record.
He put the money into his wallet.
He went to the door to admit another.
"Ah, Levy, what do you have to say?"
"Ah, Meester Clemm, eet"s a bad bizness! Nattings at all to-day. I"ve been through five shoit-vaist factories, and not a girl could I get.
Too much of dis union bizness. I told dem I vas a valking delegate, but I don"t t"ink I look like a delegate. Vot"s to be done?"
The manager looked at him sternly.
"Well, unless you get a wiggle on, you"ll be back with a pushcart, where you belong, over on East Broadway, Levy. The factories are full of girls, and they don"t make four dollars a week. Lots of pretty ones, and you know where we can place them. One hundred dollars apiece, if a girl is right, and that means twenty-five for you. You"ve been drawing money from me for three weeks without bringing in a cent.
Now you get on the job. Try Waverley Place and come in here to-morrow.
You"re a good talker in Yiddish, and you ought to be able to get some action. Hustle out now. I can"t waste time."
The manager jotted down another memorandum, and again his machine clicked, as he turned the lever.
A portly woman, adorned in willow plumes, sealskin cloak and wearing large rhinestones in her rings and necklace, now entered at the manager"s signal.
"Well, Madame Blanche, what have you to report?"
"I swear I ain"t had no luck, Mr. Clemm. Some one"s put the gipsy curse on me. Twice this afternoon in the park I"ve seen two pretty girls, and each time I got chased by a cop. I got warned. I think they"re gettin" wise up there around Forty-second Street and Sixth Avenue."
"Well, how about that order we had from New Orleans? That hasn"t been paid yet. You know it was placed through you. You got your commish out of it, and this establishment always wants cash. No money orders, either. Spot cash. We don"t monkey with the United States mail.
There"s too many city bulls looking around for us now to get Uncle Sam"s men on the job."
The portly person under the willow plume, with a tearful face, began to wipe her eyes with a lace kerchief from which, emanated the odor of Jockey Club.
"Oh, Mr. Clemm, you are certainly the hardest man we ever had to do business with. I just can"t pay now for that, with my high rents, and gettin" shook down in the precinct and all."
"Can it, Madame Blanche. I"m a business man. They"re not doing any shaking down just now in your precinct. I know all about the police situation up there, for they"ve got a straight inspector. Now, I want that four hundred right now. We sent you just what was ordered and if I don"t get the money right now you get blacklisted. Sh.e.l.l out!"
The manager"s tone was hard as nails.
"Oh, Mr. Clemm ... well, excuse me. I must step behind your desk to get it, but you ain"t treatin" me right, just the same, to force it this way."
Madame Blanche, with becoming modesty, stepped out of view in order to draw forth from their silken resting place four new one hundred dollar bills. She laid them gingerly and regretfully on the desk, where they were quickly s.n.a.t.c.hed up by the business-like Clemm.
"Maybe I"ll have a little order for next week, if you can give better terms, Mr. Clemm," began the lady, but the manager waved her aside.
"Nix, Madame. Get out. I"m busy. You know the terms, and I advise you not to try any more of this hold-out game. You"re a week late now, and the next time you try it you"ll be sorry. Hurry. I"ve got a lot of people to see."
She left, wiping her eyes.
The next man to enter was somewhat mutilated. His eye was blackened and the skin across his cheek was torn and just healing from a fresh cut.
"Well, well, well! What have you been up to, Barlow? A prize fight?"
snapped Clemm.
"Aw, guv"nor, quit yer kiddin". Did ye ever hear of me bein" in a fight? Nix. I tried to work dis needle gag over in Brooklyn an" I got run outen de t"eayter on me neck. Dere ain"t no luck. I"d better go back to der dip ag"in."
"You stick to orders and stay around those cheap department stores, as you"ve been told to do, and you"ll have no black eyes. Last month you brought in eleven hundred dollars for me, and you got three hundred of it yourself. What"s the matter with you? You look like a panhandler?
Don"t you save your money? You"ve got to keep decently dressed."
"Aw, guv"nor, I guess it"s easy come, easy go. Ain"t dere nottin"