第27章

Carrying the Banner.

I would not have the laborer sacrificed to the result.I would not have the laborer sacrificed to my convenience and pride, nor to that of a great class of such as me.Let there be worse cotton and better men.The weaver should not be bereaved of his superiority to his work.

-EMERSON.

'TO CARRY THE BANNER' means to walk the streets all night; and I, with the figurative emblem hoisted, went out to see what I could see.Men and women walk the streets at night all over this great city, but I selected the West End, making Leicester Square my base, and scouting about from the Thames Embankment to Hyde Park.

The rain was falling heavily when the theatres let out, and the brilliant throng which poured from the places of amusement was hard put to find cabs.The streets were so many wild rivers of cabs, most of which were engaged, however; and here I saw the desperate attempts of ragged men and boys to get a shelter from the night by procuring cabs for the cabless ladies and gentlemen.I use the word 'desperate' advisedly; for these wretched homeless ones were gambling a soaking against a bed; and most of them, I took notice, got the soaking and missed the bed.Now, to go through a stormy night with wet clothes, and, in addition, to be ill-nourished and not to have tasted meat for a week or a month, is about as severe a hardship as a man can undergo.Well-fed and well-clad, I have travelled all day with the spirit thermometer down to seventy-four degrees below zero;and though I suffered, it was a mere nothing compared with carrying the banner for a night, ill-fed, ill-clad, and soaking wet.

The streets grew very quiet and lonely after the theatre crowd had gone home.Only were to be seen the ubiquitous policemen, flashing their dark lanterns into doorways and alleys, and men and women and boys taking shelter in the lee of buildings from the wind and rain.

Piccadilly, however, was not quite so deserted.Its pavements were brightened by well-dressed women without escort, and there was more life and action there than elsewhere, due to the process of finding escort.But by three o'clock the last of them had vanished, and it was then indeed lonely.

At half-past one the steady downpour ceased, and only showers fell thereafter.The homeless folk came away from the protection of the buildings, and slouched up and down and everywhere, in order to rush up the circulation and keep warm.

One old woman, between fifty and sixty, a sheer wreck, I had noticed, earlier in the night, standing in Piccadilly, not far from Leicester Square.She seemed to have neither the sense nor the strength to get out of the rain or keep walking, but stood stupidly, whenever she got the chance, meditating on past days, I imagine, when life was young and blood was warm.But she did not get the chance often.She was moved on by every policeman, and it required an average of six moves to send her doddering off one man's beat and on to another's.By three o'clock she had progressed as far as St.James Street, and as the clocks were striking four I saw her sleeping soundly against the iron railings of Green Park.A brisk shower was falling at the time, and she must have been drenched to the skin.

Now, said I, at one o'clock, to myself; consider that you are a poor young man, penniless, in London Town, and that to-morrow you must look for work.It is necessary, therefore, that you get some sleep in order that you may have strength to look for work and to do work in case you find it.

So I sat down on the stone steps of a building.Five minutes later, a policeman was looking at me.My eyes were wide open, so he only grunted and passed on.Ten minutes later my head was on my knees, I was dozing, and the same policeman was saying gruffly, ''Ere, you, get outa that!'