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Doctor Cavallo 
 
 EUGENE F. BALDWIN and MAURICE EISENBERG 
 COLLABORATORS 
 
 PEORIA, ILLINOIS 
 1895 
 
 » . -• > o 
 
Copyrighted, 1895, 
 By Eugene F. Baldwin and Maurice Eisenberg. 
 
 [All rights reserved.] 
 
 PRESS OF 
 
 J. W. FRANKS & SONS 
 
 FBORfA. ELt, 
 
Doctor Cavallo 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 "Sore throat? Unable to swallow? High fever r 
 Flushed cheeks? Little white patches in the throat? 
 Margaret has the diphtheria! That's what ails her," 
 said Bob Lawrence, bringing his hand down on the 
 table in his excitement. 
 
 It was a little family group of three. Mr. Lawrence, 
 a staid and respectable merchant in the the city of 
 
 P , Mrs. Lawrence, a matronly woman, and Robert, 
 
 their son, in business with his father. Margaret, the 
 daughter, younger than Bob, had not come down to 
 breakfast, and in response to Bob's questions her 
 mother had been describing her symptoms. 
 
 44 Get a physician at once" said Mr. Lawrence, ad- 
 dressing his wife. 
 
 M Whom shall I call?" she inquired. 
 
 u Dr. Blake," said the father. 
 
 "He is the best of the old school," returned Mrs. 
 Lawrence, "but I rather prefer homoeopathy for these 
 throat diseases." 
 
 436342 
 
4 ,;DOCT0^ CAVALLO 
 
 "Oh!" returned Bob, "it isn't the system, it's the 
 man. The only good thing about homoeopathy is that 
 it keeps a stream of something going down your throat 
 all the time, and the patient has his mind occupied 
 thinking which glass he took the last dose out of, and 
 getting mixed up and being afraid that he is taking one 
 remedy all the while, so that he has no time to think 
 of the malady, and nature does the rest, as she gen- 
 erally will if let alone." 
 
 "Well, then," returned his mother, "Dr. Blake?" 
 
 "Yes, Dr. Blake," whose whole idea is quinine and 
 
 podophyllin" said Bob. He gives quinine for a cold 
 
 and leptandrin and podophyllin for everything else. 
 
 It isn't the system that you want, it is the man. Get 
 
 Dr. Cavallo." 
 
 "Dr. Cavallo? He has'nt much of a practice, has 
 he?" queried his father. 
 
 "What do . you know of him? 1 ' Mrs. Lawrence 
 put in. 
 
 "Why," said Bob, "he was a demonstrator in the 
 college; but every one there said he was smart, and 
 the 'medicos,' who are generally a rough set, were 
 wrapped up in him. Since he has been here he has 
 been very successful. I have met him several times 
 and renewed our acquaintance." 
 
 " I don't like," said his mother, " to call in a new 
 doctor." 
 
 "There you are wrong," returned her son. "With 
 all due respect to you, he is not what you would call 
 new, as he has been practicing for some time, and as 
 for your objection to new physicians, let me tell you, 
 Mother, the doctors fresh from college come out with 
 all of the new ideas, and where there is no question 
 
DOCTOR CAVALLO 5 
 
 in regard to the malady, as seems to be the case with 
 Margaret's trouble, a new doctor is better than an old 
 one. The only advantage that an old doctor has over 
 a new one is, that he knows all the laws of heredity 
 and so can keep track of the cranks. He knows, 
 when old Mrs. Jones calls him in and tells him that 
 she is dying, that she can't last ten hours, that she is 
 good for fifteen years yet; while when Bill Smith tells 
 him that he * coughed up a little blood last night which 
 he thinks must have come from a tooth,' the doctor 
 knows that the case is serious, for all of the Smiths 
 have died of consumption and poor Bill's life is meas- 
 ured by months." 
 
 "All of this doesn't help Margaret," said his mother. 
 "What are you going to do?" 
 
 • " I am going to call Dr. Cavallo," said her son, and 
 stepping to the telephone he found that the Doctor 
 would be in his office in a few minutes, and that he 
 would go over and attend the call. 
 
 Having settled this matter to his satisfaction, Bob 
 resumed his seat at the table and having had his cup 
 of coffee replenished, began: 
 
 "You see, Mother, it is this way: diphtheria is a 
 poison caused by microbes — little germs that float 
 around in the atmosphere. You can breathe them in 
 with perfect impunity if there is no way in which they 
 can get to the blood, but you catch cold and you cough 
 until you tear loose the little blood vessels in the 
 throat and then brother microbe comes along and 
 buries in the spot, gets into the blood and there you 
 are." 
 
 "What nonsense [are you talking, Robert?" said his 
 father. 
 
6 DOCTOR CAVALLO 
 
 rt Fact ! " said Bob. M Latest development of science. 
 The microbe multiplies by fission ; that is by breaking 
 in two; the halves grow to the length of the old one 
 and then break in two again, and thus multiply. The 
 first two become four, they become eight, then sixteen, 
 then thirty-two, then sixty-four, then one hundred and 
 twenty-eight, and so on. In a few hours, from a single 
 pair, they increase to millions.'" 
 
 " Robert, how you do run on," returned his mother. 
 
 "But what makes the white patches in the throat ?" 
 said his father, who secretly admired his son. 
 
 "That" said Bob, "is because the microbes bury in 
 the mucous membrane and destroy it. They produce 
 a poison in the blood that causes paralysis of the 
 heart." 
 
 His mother smiled upon him with that mild ap- 
 proval which mothers are wont to express, and then 
 said in her quiet manner, " How did you come to know 
 all this?" 
 
 "Til tell you that, too," said Bob in his off-hand 
 way. " I had a l medico ' as room-mate at college part 
 of the time. Good fellow he was, too, and greatly 
 stuck on his profession, on Dr. Cavallo and on bacteri- 
 ology. He had diphtheria as a theme, and the way 
 he pored over it, and dinned it into me, and had little 
 messes of veal broth where he cultivated them — I 
 believe that he would have inoculated himself with 
 them if I had not stopped him." 
 
 " Robert ! " said his mother reproachfully. 
 
 His father only laughed and added : "What would 
 your Aunt Jane say to this?" 
 
 "Aunt Jane being a Christian Scientist," said Bob, 
 " is not going to be astonished at anything that can 
 
DOCTOR CAVALLO 7 
 
 be told her. If she can fasten her mind on a point it 
 is settled." 
 
 "I expect her in this morning," added Mrs. 
 Lawrence. 
 
 " For Heaven's sake don't let her into Margaret's 
 room or she will fasten her mind on a crack in the 
 floor, and there will be no getting rid of her for two 
 weeks." 
 
 As he rattled on, a domestic opened the door, and 
 announced, "Dr. Cavallo." Bob arose, and greeting 
 the new comer introduced him to his parents. 
 
 As the two men stood side by side they offered a 
 marked contrast. Bob was a manly fellow, with his 
 square shoulders and his round head, set off by his 
 brown hair, cut short. There was laughter in his eye, 
 a sense of humor playing about his mouth and his 
 open, frank face. He was one that you instinctively 
 liked and took on trust at once. 
 
 The doctor was somewhat his elder, but he was 
 graver. His olive complexion, black eyes and hair 
 well became him. His face showed marks of long 
 and profound study. His athletic figure, the hand, 
 lithe, flexible and slender, but strong, the slope of the 
 shoulders, the well made hips, while these gave evi- 
 dence of tremendous power, all bespoke the man of 
 refinement, the man of action, and the man of thought. 
 He seemed with his steady poise, the resonant tones 
 of his voice, the straightforward look out of his eyes, 
 the manly firmness of his walk, the very grasp of his 
 hand as one who possessed great reserve powers. 
 While one admired Bob at the first glance, Dr. 
 Cavallo instinctively inspired respect and confidence. 
 Perhaps his great power lay in his wonderful sympathy. 
 
8 DOCTOR CAVALLO 
 
 You felt this in his magnificent eyes, in the grasp 
 of his hand that thrilled one as if the owner possessed 
 strong magnetic power, and that indefinable some- 
 thing that for want of a better term we call personal 
 magnetism. He impressed you as having a will strong 
 enough to pursue its object through difficulties and 
 dangers and great enough to be able to sink his own 
 personality in the effort to succor others. 
 
 As he stood quietly conversing with the two elderly 
 people he presented a perfect type of the professional 
 man, grave, dignified, yet sympathetic. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 Mrs. Lawrence took the doctor at once to the 
 chamber of the sick girl. Bob fidgeted about and 
 then said : "The trouble with these contagious dis- 
 eases, father, is that you never know what to expect. 
 A person may have a 'very mild attack of diphtheria 
 and yet may give it in its worst form to another. What 
 a pathetic story it is, that of Queen Victoria's daughter, 
 the Princess Alice. Her little child was sick and dying 
 with the awful malady, and it asked her to give it a 
 parting kiss. She knew the danger, but she complied, 
 and printing a kiss upon the little thing's lips, took 
 diphtheria in its worst form and died." 
 
 '* Horrible," said Mr. Lawrence. 
 
 "This," said Bob, "is what gives me a pain, when 
 I hear people talk about diphthretic sore throat, as if 
 the disease, in a mild form could be fooled with. I 
 think," he said, "that it's a case where the microbe 
 isn't so active, that's all." Then he added, " I sup- 
 pose we ought to report it to the Board of Health." 
 
 '* Not so fast," replied his father, " let us know what 
 it is first." 
 
 "Well we will have a chance to know all about 
 it now," said Bob, looking out of the window, "for 
 here comes Aunt Jane." Even as he spoke a fat little 
 
10 DOCTOR CAVALLO 
 
 body, long past middle life, came toiling up the walk and 
 Bob good naturedly opened the door, allowing her to 
 enter. She panted up the steps, walked into the room 
 and flinging herself into a chair, said, " I never had 
 such a dreadful time in all my life. I really thought that 
 I should die. The wind blew so awfully that positively 
 I was afraid I should blow away. Why it was a perfect 
 cyclone." 
 
 "Why didn't you exert your will power and stop the 
 whole gale, Aunt Jane? " said Bob, with a twinkle in his 
 eye. "What is the use in having these annoyances 
 when you can will them all away?" 
 
 " If our faith was equal to our desires," said she 
 gravely, " we could easily say to this mountain depart, 
 and it would be moved into the sea." 
 
 "Yes," said Bob, "but how about the wind?" 
 
 "The wind bloweth where it listeth," said she, "and 
 no man knoweth whither it is bound." 
 
 " There is where you differ from the weather depart- 
 ment," said Bob, " although from the blunders that 
 they have been committing lately they had better fall 
 back on Job and give the whole thing up, as a bad con- 
 undrum, too much for them. 
 
 "Robert," said his father, gravely, "do not be so 
 irreverent." 
 
 "Irreverent?" echoed Bob, "I am the most devout 
 duck to be found within four blocks, except that I 
 take no stock in weather prophets and I am beginning 
 to lose faith in the government itself. It has been prom- 
 ising us a cold wave for a week and it has been as hot 
 as Tophet all of the time. 
 
 "Where is your mother, Robert?" inquired Aunt 
 Jane, " I haven't seen her in an age. Is she never going 
 
DOCTOR CAVALLO II 
 
 to return my call? I must positively give up visiting 
 her." 
 
 "She is up stairs attending to Margaret who has the 
 diphtheria," replied Bob. 
 
 "The diphtheria," returned Aunt Jane. "Oh how 
 horrible, and what is she doing for it? Do let me 
 call Mrs. Wilkins. She is such an eminent authority 
 in these matters. Her cures are perfectly wonderful." 
 
 l< No, she has Dr. Cavallo. No Christian Science 
 for us, if you please." 
 
 "Dr. Cavallo!" shrieked the woman. "What will he 
 give your poor sister? Nothing but drugs and drugs 
 and drugs. Why will you depend on such things when 
 what you need is faith? Oh, how I wish I understood 
 the science better; I must try and persuade your mother 
 to send for Mrs. Wilkins. Why, she never gives the 
 slightest thing at all, but just sits and prays by the sick 
 bed, oh, such lovely prayers, and her patients get 
 right up and are cured." 
 
 "Yes," said Bob, **I have heard of her. She is that 
 old lady that doctored Mrs. Toohey's baby for the 
 croup. The little thing died and I had hard work to 
 keep the medical society from prosecuting Mrs. Wilk- 
 ins. Served her right too, only I am a great deal of 
 a crank myself and I take all of the fraternity under my 
 protection, especially if they are women. 1 ' 
 
 "Prejudice, mere prejudice," said the little body. 
 " There is not a pain, disease, habit, sin, infirmity, fear, 
 accident or heart ache that cannot by means of Chris- 
 tian Science be relieved or entirely cured." 
 Bob gave a low whistle. 
 
 "That this sweeping statement seems incredible to 
 the common sense does not change the fact," said 
 
12 DOCTOR CAVALLO 
 
 Aunt Jane. "The living witnesses are with us and 
 they will gladly tell or write their wonderful experi- 
 ences. When you understand that the power that does 
 this work is Infinite Mind, you will say that all things 
 are possible with God." 
 
 44 And you think that Mrs. Wilkins has a section of 
 this power, that old snuffy female. Holy smoke!" 
 said Bob, "give us faith." 
 
 "If materia medica was the right thing God would 
 have given it authority and sanction," said Aunt Jane. 
 
 "Your argument proves too much, Aunt Jane," 
 said Bob. " Now for instance, if God had believed 
 that the steam engine was constructed on the right 
 principles, he would have made Adam a present of one 
 in the garden of Eden. As he didn't do it the steam 
 engine must have come from the devil," and Bob 
 laughed at his own wit. 
 
 "Robert," said his father, "do not mock at sacred 
 things." 
 
 " Mrs. Mary Eddy has gone to the root of the whole 
 matter," said Aunt Jane, "when she said 'Mind is all- 
 in-all. Divine Mind and its ideas are the only reali- 
 ties'" 
 
 "Do you believe that Christian Science can set a 
 broken bone?" asked Bob. " Now let us get down to 
 the plain facts." 
 
 "Certainly I do," said Aunt Jane, firmly. " Did 
 Jesus say to his disciples, take the Gospel and dissect 
 a man; become thoroughly acquainted with his ana- 
 tomy and physiology and then if he is sick you can 
 heal him; or, go into a chemist's laboratory, analyze the 
 material elements of a dead body and matter will 
 instruct you how to heal a man? Did Jesus say to his 
 
DOCTOR CAVALLO 1 3 
 
 disciples or to Christian Scientists, go study anatomy, 
 number the bones, understand the joints, consult the 
 marrow, that when a bone is broken or a joint dislo- 
 cated you may take Christ, who never studied anatomy 
 or bade anyone study it to set, replace or heal?" 
 
 41 Go on, Aunt Jane," said Bob with mock gravity, 
 " this reads like a leaf out of a book. Go on, and you 
 may make a Christian Scientist out of me yet." 
 
 "You are dead in sin, I fear," said the little' body, 
 " and I must be going. Tell your mother that I called 
 and that I was very sorry to learn that Margaret is 
 sick, but we are to have a meeting this afternoon and 
 I will bring up her case before the class, 1 ' so saying she 
 bustled out and was gone. 
 
 When she had gone, Bob burst into a fit of laughter 
 and said, " as soon as I mentioned the word diphtheria 
 she began to be uneasy. You couldn't have kept her 
 in the house with a yoke of oxen. Strange that these 
 people who have so many and such infallible cures for all 
 diseases are frightened to death when it comes to catch- 
 ing anything themselves. The trouble, I suspect, with 
 Aunt Jane is, that she sticks to Christian Science 
 because it's cheaper than any other system." 
 
 What more Robert would have said was lost to the 
 world, for just then his mother came back followed by 
 the Doctor, and Mr. Lawrence's inquiry as to what the 
 trouble was with his daughter was met by the physi- 
 cian, saying "I do not think there is any cause to fear. 
 Miss Lawrence is very weak and the prostration was 
 sudden and great, but I have no fear but she will re- 
 cover." 
 
 11 Is it as bad as that? " said Mr. Lawrence. 
 
 44 Diphtheria is not a thing to fool with," interposed 
 
14 DOCTOR CAVALLO 
 
 Bob, "and I want you, Doctor, to do your best; see 
 Margaret twice a day and don't spare any effort to 
 bring her around." 
 
 "You seem to be somewhat of a medical man your- 
 self," remarked the Doctor, smiling. 
 
 " Yes," said Bob, " I roomed with Seidel; you remem- 
 ber him?" 
 
 The Doctor nodded assent. 
 
 "Awful smart fellow. Ran wild on bacteriology. 
 Went West after graduating, became a great mining 
 expert and made a fortune. Now, father we must 
 attend to business. The Doctor here will come around 
 this afternoon, and Margaret will be all right in two 
 days. Come, Doctor, we will all go down town to- 
 gether, 1 ' and the three passed out of the door and 
 down the steps, bidding good-bye to Mrs. Lawrence 
 as they departed. 
 
CHAPTER III, 
 
 "It is the noblest of professions and the meanest 
 of trades, v said Dr. Maurice Cavallo to himself, "and 
 if that is the way old Father Hippocrates found it 
 what can a fellow expect in these degenerate days?" 
 and so saying, he drew forth a match, searched in his 
 pockets, found a cigar, and lighting it, proceeded to 
 pour forth a cloud of smoke. In this occupation 
 he was standing before his window contemplating the 
 street and watching it rain, when he saw Bob Law- 
 rence go by and he hastily knocked on the window 
 to attract his attention. That individual, on seeing who 
 it was that was calling to him, stopped, closed his 
 umbrella, and soon could be heard stamping up stairs. 
 He opened the office door, stood his umbrella up in a 
 corner where the surplus water would run into a tin 
 basin in which the Doctor had "a culture." Dr. Cav- 
 allo started at first to stop him, but as the special 
 bacteria had long since died out, a result of too much 
 crowding, he desisted, and watched the other settle 
 himself in a chair, pull a cigar out of his pocket, 
 light it, and then fish around for a match. This 
 found, he joined in, and they steadily sent out a cloud 
 of smoke together. 
 
 Finally, the Doctor found time to put the question 
 that he had been aching to ask and yet hesitated 
 from some unaccountable impulse to do. 
 
l6 DOCTOR CAVALLO 
 
 "How is your sister? 1 ' 
 
 "Oh," said Bob, "she is all right; no worse since 
 you dismissed the case. Ugly thing this diphtheria. 
 Do you know that I had half a notion to be a doctor 
 myself? Seidel talked so much to me about it that I 
 had a great mind to become a 'dig' and try for a 
 profession." 
 
 Cavallo laughed. " Let me congratulate you on your 
 escape." 
 
 "Oh yes," said Bob, "I know all about it. Settle 
 in some town, go in and physic the poor ; treat every- 
 body, pay or no pay, live on one potato a month, 
 and keep a fast horse and drive around like thunder 
 to give people an idea that you are rushed with 
 work. Go to church and hire a boy to run in, right 
 in the midst of the second lesson, go up the aisle and 
 whisper to you that you are wanted; then you tumble 
 out, knock over all the hats in the aisle, and drive 
 around as if you had half the lives of the city in your 
 medicine case." 
 
 "What a physician you would have made," said Dr. 
 Cavallo, smiling in spite of himself. 
 
 "I had the whole thing down fine, 1 ' replied Bob. 
 "Every time a boy cut his finger, rush around to the 
 newspaper offices and report an astonishing case of 
 surgery. ' The son of our well-known citizen, Mr. 
 Thomas Smith, met with a serious accident yester- 
 day, but the timely arrival of the great surgeon, Dr. 
 Lawrence, saved the lad's finger and undoubtedly, by 
 preventing the effusion of blood, remedied what might 
 have been a serious affair.' Oh, I know all the arts by 
 which the modern doctor gets free advertising and 
 cheats the newspapers." 
 
DOCTOR CAVALLO 1 7 
 
 "Instead of which profession," said Dr. Cavallo, 
 looking at him from across the table, " Mr. Robert 
 Lawrence chose to devote himself to business, to the 
 sordid acquisition of wealth, and thus robbed the pro- 
 fession of what might have been its brightest ornament 
 and the world of a savant who would have conferred 
 luster upon science itself." 
 
 "It is all right," replied Bob, "but, my dear sir, the 
 secret of practicing medicine is like everything else, 
 what you can get out of it. If I practiced medicine I 
 would do it for money just the same as any thing 
 else. This notion that a doctor must work for nothing 
 and trust to the Lord is one of the foolish ideas born of 
 the monks of the middle ages. They gave every 
 man a mug of ale, a half a loaf of bread, and doctored 
 him when he was sick, all for nothing. We stick to 
 the idea that he is still to be doctored free, but we 
 charge him for the ale and the bread. Now I am abso- 
 lutely without prejudice, and I would as soon be a 
 doctor as a lawyer or preacher or anything else." 
 
 " Without prejudice," repeated Cavallo, bitterly. 
 " Is there any human being who can truly say that he is 
 without prejudice?" 
 
 u Prejudice, said Bob, " is merely a question of op- 
 portunity and condition. For instance, every nation 
 has at some time been under the yoke. I am a Saxon 
 and I have the pleasure of knowing that less than a 
 thousand years ago my ancestors wore a yoke around 
 their necks that had the name of their Norman 
 master marked on it. The negro is mobbed in the 
 South, sneered at in the North, but treated as an equal 
 in England, where he has no trouble to get a white 
 wife. The Chinaman is regarded as a howling nuisance 
 
1 8 DOCTOR CAVALLO 
 
 in San Francisco, but he is looked upon with favor in 
 New England, where the best ladies will take him 
 by the hand and welcome him to Sunday school and 
 teach him his letters and the sublime principles of the 
 Christian faith. Take the Jews." 
 
 The doctor made a gesture of impatience and 
 offered his visitor a fresh cigar as if the subject were 
 distasteful to him. 
 
 Bob stopped long enough to light it, and then went 
 on without noticing him. 
 
 "Now in England, Disraeli, Moses Montiflore, the 
 Rothschilds, and George Eliot in 'Daniel Deronda,' 
 have thrown a romance around the name of Jew, 
 so that England's best and bravest, the most exclu- 
 sive nobility in the world, headed by the Queen, a 
 great stickler for precedent and form, sets apart one 
 day in every year in which to strew with flowers the 
 grave of England's great Jew, the man who maintained 
 peace with honor." 
 
 "You have not lighted your cigar," said the Doctor. 
 
 u Now wait until I get through, because I have a 
 theory on this," said the other. a How is it in Russia ? 
 There the Jew-baiting frenzy has broken out with the 
 greatest virulence. The accounts of the persecutions 
 are as awful as anything mentioned in the days of 
 Ferdinand and Torquemada in Spain. Now why?" 
 
 " Race prejudice," said Cavallo. 
 
 "Not a bit of it," replied Bob. "The real trouble 
 is the despotism of the Czar is so galling and oppres- 
 sive that the people wait to see on whom they can 
 lay the blame. Kick a boy for chalking your fence 
 and he will throw a stone at the first friendless dog he 
 meets. The outrages against the Russian Jews repre- 
 
DOCTOR CAVALLO 19 
 
 sent the measure of tyranny that the common people 
 are getting at the hands of the bureaucracy." 
 
 "How is it in Germany?" inquired Cavallo, with a 
 show of interest. 
 
 "There you are again," returned Bob, "with a 
 stronger illustration of my theory. Germany owes 
 much to the Jews. With such names as the Mendels- 
 sohns, of Carl Marx, of Eduard Lasker, of Heine, of 
 Auerbach, the cultivated German knows that literature, 
 art and science have all been benefitted by the Jew, and 
 yet such is the pressure of military despotism and such 
 the repressive tendencies of the present government that 
 an uneasy feeling is creeping through all classes. The 
 government keeps it down by appealing to the patriot- 
 ism of the people. Feeling the harness gall, they 
 in turn look about for some means of venting their 
 ill-humor and they have fallen afoul of the Jews. The 
 violence of the attack shows, not that the Jews are in 
 the wrong, but measures the force of the despotism 
 of the government. Some time the pot lid will blow 
 off and then look out. 
 
 "For my part," continued Bob, "I do not see why 
 the Germans in this country should continue their un- 
 reasoning prejudice against the Jews. The Germans 
 come here in many cases to escape the galling military 
 service in their own land. They are made welcome. 
 Every facility is given them and yet they often display 
 an unreasoning adherence to their old notions. Why, 
 only the other day in St. Louis a crank delivered a long 
 diatribe against the Jews as a race, and the Westliche 
 Post, formerly considered to be the organ of such 
 liberal and enlightened statesmen as Carl Schurz, ac- 
 tually printed seven columns of the stuff. I am an 
 
20 DOCTOR CAVALLO 
 
 American and am willing to accord every man his full 
 measure of rights, but I am unwilling to see the old 
 prejudices of the old world foisted upon us and taught 
 in the public prints as if they were something to be 
 proud of." 
 
 " The Jew," said Cavallo gloomily, "has been in all 
 ages the Messiah to humanity and he has been re- 
 warded by the fagot and the torch." 
 
 "I don't know about the Messiah," returned Bob, 
 laughing, '* and I rather think my father would dispute 
 you on that point, but the Jew has done a good deal that 
 is a fact. He did give us banking and exchange." 
 
 "And medicine and law, and he is the author of mod- 
 ern science," interrupted Cavallo. 
 
 "Modern science," replied Bob, "how do you make 
 that out?" 
 
 "Why, when the Arabs, having embraced Islam, 
 swept over the world, they were an ignorant race of 
 barbarians. The first thing that they did was to burn 
 the library at Alexandria. The Jews became their teach- 
 ers, and they taught the Arabs the science of numbers, 
 which we call the Arabic notation; it is really the 
 old Chaldean system taught them by the Jews. They 
 founded the universities in Spain at Valladolid, and at 
 Seville, where Pope Sylvester himself graduated. The 
 monks thought, because Sylvester knew something of 
 science he could tell where all the treasures of the 
 world were located. It was from the great Spanish 
 universities that the Renaissance started and the Italian 
 schools began. The Bologna university owes its ex- 
 istence to the scholars started and educated by the 
 Spanish Jews. They are the ones that translated the 
 old Greek classics and who brought to light the hidden 
 learning of the ancients,' 1 
 
DOCTOR CAVALLO 21 
 
 "Good for them," said Bob, "but what gave them 
 their start in medicine?" 
 
 "Because," returned Cavallo, "the church insisted 
 that disease was either the work of devils or special 
 punishment for sin and, in either case, it could only be 
 cured by exorcism or prayer. When a man had the 
 colic or rheumatism they rubbed him with the bones 
 of a saint, if he had fever they had no other remedy. 
 The Jews, not being under this rule, were forced to 
 study the laws of nature, They investigated the quali- 
 ties of plants and herbs. Their love-philters contained 
 phosphorus long before the pharraacopceia contained 
 the drug as an aphrodisiac. Belladonna was known 
 to them long before the Gentile had any conception 
 of it. They prescribed pqdophyllin long before 'the 
 mandragora's moans 1 was known to Europe. In fact. 
 Leah knew something about it as you can see, if you 
 will read the book of Genesis and she put it to a strange 
 use, for she came it over Rachel with a lot of man- 
 drakes. Old Albertus Magnus says that he had dis- 
 covered the secret of Solomon's Seal which was im- 
 parted to him by a Jew, as you can see by the name, for 
 he was pupil of the great Maimonides." 
 
 "That must be so," said Bob, "for I remember read- 
 ing that Queen Elizabeth had a Jew, Lopez, for a phy- 
 sician, and it is said he gave Shakespeare his idea of 
 Shylock. 1 ' 
 
 " Every great man had a Jew doctor, for it was soon 
 found that where the bones of the saint refused to 
 act, that the rhubarb of the Jew expert was pretty 
 certain to produce the required result," said Cavallo, 
 grimly. 
 
 The high chamberlain of Ferdinand and Isabella of 
 
22 DOCTOR CAVALLO 
 
 Spain was a Jew, Don Isaac Abarbanel, and he narrowly 
 averted that bloody persecution of the Inquisition. 
 He was a great man and he offered Ferdinand a large 
 sum of money to forego his purpose. Torquemada 
 heard of it and breaking into the room where the con- 
 tract was being discussed, elevated a crucifix, yelling 
 at the top of his voice: 4 Behold the modern Judas 
 Iscariot who would sell his Lord for thirty pieces of 
 silver.' 
 
 That was enough, and the consequence of letting 
 the old pirate loose was the massacre of three hundred 
 thousand Jews, the best intellect of Spain. Perhaps it 
 is some compensation to reflect that Spain has never 
 recovered from the blow." 
 
 "Why do you talk in this way ? " said Bob. "You 
 are a Spaniard yourself, as I have heard." 
 
 Cavallo's cheek darkened and his brow flushed. 
 He shut his hand hard down on the palm, and then 
 he answered slowly : 
 
 " I am of Spanish descent." After a pause he added : 
 M My immediate ancestors came from Holland. Hol- 
 land," he continued, "the parent of freedom where the 
 Pilgrim Fathers learned their lessons in liberty and 
 in government.'" 
 
 "Yes, there is another illustration of my theory," 
 said Bob. "The Pilgrim Fathers, knocked around 
 from pillar to post, driven from England, sent over into 
 Holland, kicked, maltreated and abused, finally won 
 the respect of the world by going out and doing 
 something, and then they were never ashamed of 
 their faith." 
 
 Cavallo started. 
 
 "A Pilgrim was willing to stand up and let them 
 
DOCTOR CAVALLO 23 
 
 hack off his ears and put him in pillory, and pelt him 
 and wool him in all possible ways. To be sure 
 when he got a chance he showed them that he could 
 shave off heads himself, but he always stuck to his 
 colors. 
 
 "So of the Irish. They are the finest soldiers in 
 Europe and have shown it on every battlefield, and yet 
 when Cromwell captured three thousand of them 
 at Drogheda he knocked them in the head solely 
 to save ammunition. William III 'of pious, blessed 
 and immortal memory, who saved England from brass 
 money, wooden shoes and Popery ' called them savage 
 kerns. Why it is not so very long ago that the legend 
 1 No Irish need apply ' was attached to every want in 
 the newspapers when the parties wished a hired girl." 
 
 "I have often thought, 1 ' said Cavallo gravely, u that 
 the Irish ought to the most outspoken race for human 
 liberty and the Brotherhood of Man of any in the 
 world." 
 
 "This is in accordance with my idea," said Bob. 
 "They have been oppressed and they turn on some 
 one beneath them. Like the story of the Irish stow- 
 away from Dublin. The colored cook found him the 
 second day out and saved him by making him his 
 assistant. He fed him all the way over, but Pat, 
 by mingling with some of the other passengers, learned 
 that it was not the thing for white people to mix 
 with colored ones in the new country. As they landed 
 the colored cook fixed up a good breakfast for his 
 fellow assistant, and as they parted the cook slipped 
 a quarter into the other's hand. The Irishman re- 
 fused it, saying with a gesture of contempt : ' I wush 
 to receive no assistance from your degraded race.' " 
 
24 DOCTOR CAVALLO 
 
 "God's vengeance does not sleep, and he punishes 
 all crimes,' 1 said Cavallo, gloomily. " The nation that 
 fosters injustice shall perish by injustice. No people 
 can afford to cultivate a spirit of class hatred, for as 
 certain as the sun rises and sets, so shall they learn 
 that these are but bloody instructions that shall return 
 to plague the inventors. Many peoples have tried it. 
 and the end has been that it has eaten out the national 
 spirit like a canker and left it, as Spain is left to-day, 
 a poor, shattered hulk in the highways of the world. 
 Italy tried it and in tears and sorrow is she endeavor- 
 ing to throw off the yoke. 
 
 "The Saxon race is proud of its achievements, and is 
 proud that it to-day stands in the foremost ranks of 
 civilization ; that it has wrought out its own independ- 
 ence by its own right arm, and that in science, in art, 
 in all that constitutes true progress it stands without a 
 compeer — the one great branch triumphant on the sea, 
 the other equally invincible on the land. 
 
 11 But let it reflect that it has gained this freedom and 
 this independence, not by its own efforts, but because 
 there was breathed into the souls of its fathers as with 
 the breath of life, the inspiration, the lofty devotion, 
 the high and unshrinking purpose, found, not in its own 
 traditions, not in its own literature, but in the old Jew- 
 ish Bible, and in the old Jewish Bible alone." 
 
 "That is great," repeated Bob, enthusiastically ham- 
 mering on the table. " Hear, hear. It sounds like 
 a chapter from Isaiah. You must have a trace of the 
 old prophetic blood in you, Cavallo?" 
 
 The dark shade again swept across the doctor's face 
 and he made no reply. The other continued: 
 
 " I say, come up to-night and spend the evening at the 
 
DOCTOR CAVALLO 2$ 
 
 house. I want the governor to get started on the future 
 of the Jews. He is simply immense and when he gets 
 going there is no holding him. I must go to business 
 now." 
 
 So saying he threw the cigar stump into the grate 
 and shaking out his umbrella, with an air of mock 
 gravity, put on his hat, saluted the doctor, and in reply 
 to the other's half amused response to his salutation 
 went down the stairs whistling a stawe of the latest 
 popular melody. 
 
 When he had gone the gloom deepened on Cavallo's 
 face and he shut his teeth hard. Then he broke out : 
 
 u What a fool and coward slave am I, to sit here and 
 deny my race and creed, to hear the epithet 'Jew 1 
 bandied about without opening my head to defend 
 the faith or the blood of my fathers. 1 ' 
 
 He paused, and then he burst out with that bitter 
 epigram by Heine, the great German poet. 
 
 " It is not a crime to be a Jew but it is a terrible 
 misfortune." 
 
 With these words he drew on his riding coat and 
 putting his medicine case in his pocket went off on 
 his rounds to visit his patients. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Doctor Maurice Cavallo sat before his grate fire in 
 a discontented mood. The thought of the conversa- 
 tion in the morning galled him. He felt that he was 
 acting a part. He hated himself for not having made 
 a frank avowal to Bob and then — if he had — he stop- 
 ped and saw in imagination the friendly doors of the 
 Lawrence house closed against him and the fair face 
 of his gentle patient rose before him. What had 
 he to do with her? He was of an alien race. 
 
 An alien race! The world does not yet accord 
 him full social recognition or greet him with the respect 
 that is due a man. It tolerates but it does not welcome 
 him. The stigma of contumely still hangs over him. 
 Wherever he may go, in what ever country he may cast 
 his lot, he is everywhere an alien and he feels that he 
 is regarded as an outcast. He was depressed and 
 he arose and paced back and forth in his office. " Hath 
 not a Jew, hands?" he said to himself. "'If you tickle 
 us do we not laugh, if you prick us do we not bleed?" ' 
 
 A Jew ! and then the fair face of Margaret broke 
 in upon his vision and her radiant beauty passed before 
 his mental gaze. He shook his head as if he could not 
 bear the thought of her face being turned from him 
 with disdain and aversion. 
 
 44 But, then, what is the use of all this? I am an 
 
DOCTOR CAVALLO 2J 
 
 American citizen," he said, u why should I go about 
 proclaiming my ancestry? 
 
 11 What is this great American nation anyway but a 
 composite race, formed of all the blood of the earth? 
 It is the future, not the past, that counts. 'I am the 
 Rudolph of Hapsburg, of my family,' said Napoleon, 
 and why should not every ambitious soul say the same? 
 
 11 After all what is the golden rule of philosophy but 
 silence? Well did the old Greek and Egyptian sages 
 enjoin upon their disciples a silence of seven years. 
 It was Ben Franklin who said that he had often re- 
 pented for opening his mouth, never for keeping it 
 shut. What does a man's pedigree amount to anyway? 
 He simply has to strive against heredity all of his life 
 and if he is lucky he will outgrow his tendencies." 
 
 The more his mind ran on in this strain the calmer 
 he grew. Yes, he would say nothing about it, but he 
 would go ahead and live like other people. As for 
 his race, that was a thing that he could not help, 
 but that man is a fool who will allow such things to 
 overmaster him or stand in his way. " Now truce 
 farewell and ruth begone," he said to himself as he 
 got up and made his toilette. He felt that a burden 
 had been litfed from his mind and he took his hat and 
 cane with a certain sense of gaiety and freedom. 
 
 He walked out into the starlit ni^ht and inflated his 
 lungs with a feeling of physical pleasure. The quiet 
 evening and the early darkness relieved his soul of its 
 burden. He wanted sympathy and almost uncon- 
 sciously he took his way to the Lawrence mansion. 
 'He said to himself that he ought to call and see how 
 his patient was getting along for he had dismissed 
 the care of Margaret for some days. 
 
28 DOCTOR CAVALLO 
 
 He mounted the steps and his heart swelled within 
 him as the door swung back and the invitation to enter 
 was given in hearty tones. 
 
 There was something in this family that soothed his 
 temper and acted like a sedative to him. 
 
 He was shown into the sitting room and he noted 
 that he was greeted with pleasure and the home-like 
 feeling of being almost like one of the family satisfied 
 him still more. It was a new experience to him, from 
 having been a wanderer for so long. It took him back 
 to his own home life, and the careful affection of his 
 own mother, but this made him wince again. Was he 
 the man to disown the flesh and blood that bore him? 
 
 So when Mrs. Lawrence came forward and greeted 
 him, he answered mechanically and took her proffered 
 hand, mentally thinking what she would say if she 
 only knew. 
 
 Then he turned to Margaret and aroused himself to 
 ask after her health. He found her convalescent but 
 looking all the lovelier for the slight pallor that mantled 
 her cheek. She greeted him warmly, for if there be 
 anything that stirs the affections even in the coldest 
 breast it is that which we feel towards the physician 
 who has brought us from pain to health. 
 
 The effect on a young and ardent girl, therefore, is 
 so much stronger as the affections are glowing, the 
 spirits high and the imagination active and intense. 
 She blushed a little as he took her hand, gravely felt 
 her pulse, and said with a smile, "All that we need 
 now is a little care. 1 ' 
 
 "Ah, doctor, I consider that we were very fortuni 
 ate to get you when we did. The disease was fully 
 mastered, sir, at the start," said Mr. Lawrence. 
 
DOCTOR CAVALLO 20, 
 
 "What did I tell you," said Bob, "it is not the sys- 
 tem, it is the man. The fact is that the doctors now 
 lay it down that manners in a sick room are a good 
 and more efficacious than medicine." 
 
 "When I was a boy," said Mr. Lawrence, "they did 
 not have diphtheria, they called it putrid sore throat 
 and they used to bleed people for it, and blister them." 
 
 "And kill them before they got through," added 
 Bob. 
 
 "Oh, I don't know as they did any worse than they 
 do now. People were sick, and then they were well. 
 There isn't much difference. When they were crazy 
 they thought they had devils, but this has the sanction 
 of Scripture for that. Christ cast out devils, and if he 
 did then, why not now?" said Mr. Lawrence. 
 
 -"The Salvation Army believes in this, only they 
 thump a drum to scare him away," said Bob. "The 
 Indians do the same." 
 
 "Moses used to have the walls scraped for leprosy. 
 We think that it is a blood disease, but in view of the 
 recent researches in microbes, why was not Moses 
 right?" continued Mr. Lawrence, earnestly. 
 
 " There is no doubt that most of the old lawgiver's 
 precepts are founded upon the highest sanitary wis- 
 dom," said Dr. Cavallo. " Modern science is coming to 
 think his way, even to the practice of killing animals 
 for food, for the German army regulations now are about 
 adopting them almost in their smallest detail ! " 
 
 "The Jews," said Mr. Lawrence, "are a curious peo- 
 ple. There is no doubt in my mind that the time 
 will come when they will acknowledge Christ and 
 be gathered into the kingdom. Then they will reas- 
 semble in Jerusalem and we shall see the greatest 
 
30 DOCTOR CAVALLO 
 
 spiritual government on earth. That they have been 
 reserved all of these years is only another instance of 
 the truth of Christianity. Only their own blindness of 
 mind and hardness of heart has kept them from the 
 light of the 'Holy One of Israel.' " 
 
 Cavallo made a gesture of dissent and then fell into 
 his gloomy fit again. 
 
 Bob laughed and said, "I told you, Doctor, that 
 when the governor got started on the Jews there is no 
 •whoa' to him.'' 
 
 " Robert, I wish that you would learn to treat your 
 father with more respect," said Mr. Lawrence. 
 
 "Go on, father," said Bob, "I won't interrupt." 
 
 With the air of a man who has found his favorite 
 theme, Mr. Lawrence continued. 
 
 ,l You must know, Doctor, that the early Puritans 
 in New England conceived the idea that their case 
 was similar to the Jews and so they took up the teach- 
 ings of Moses and applied them to themselves. I was 
 taught when young that it was wrong to have a fire on 
 the Sabbath day unless it was a case of necessity. The 
 meeting house was never warmed except by a foot 
 stove for the comfort of the very old. We used to 
 shiver all through the sermon, which sometimes would 
 be three hours long, and was never less than two 
 hours. 1 ' 
 
 "Holy smoke," said Bob, rt these fifteen minute chaps 
 would not have stood much of a chance to get a con- 
 gregation then, would they?" 
 
 "Saturday afternoon we had to put away our things 
 when the sun went down and come into the house and 
 read our Bible until bed time. Sundays, a slight meal 
 in the morning, then church, then a cold lunch if we 
 
DOCTOR CAVALLO 3 I 
 
 got any thing, then afternoon service. Then we stood 
 up around father and said the shorter catechism or we 
 sang psalms until dark and then we went to evening 
 meeting. But after sundown the strictness was re- 
 laxed and all the young fellows went to see their girls." 
 
 11 This was some compensation, at any rate," put in 
 Bob. 
 
 M In the week days we went to Wednesday evening 
 prayer meeting and monthly concert, where we heard 
 about the heathen. This was the way that the New 
 England youths were brought up, and it is the found- 
 ation, sir, of the sturdy men and of the independence 
 of this nation. All of the quotations were made from 
 the Bible, and the dagger of Ehud and the sword 
 of the Lord and of Gideon had a good deal to do 
 in achieving the independence of these colonies." 
 
 u I believe that I have imbibed some of father's 
 spirit, for I have always felt the greatest enthusiasm for 
 the Jews," said Margaret. 
 
 Cavallo turned upon her a glance of astonishment and 
 admiration. 
 
 " If I were a Jewish maiden," she continued, " I should 
 be proud of such a glorious race. I should prize above 
 everything the descent from Miriam and Deborah. 
 Here is a patent of nobility that far outranks any 
 other, — a patent that comes down in the very word of 
 God himself, and has the divine sanction. The deliver- 
 ance of women comes not from the texts of the latter- 
 day philosophy, but from the very inception of the 
 race ; from her who ' sounded the loud timbrel oyer 
 Egypt's dark sea ;' from her 'who judged Israel forty 
 years. 7 To be ashamed of this heritage, as were some 
 of my Jewish schoolmates, is to be ashamed of all 
 
32 DOCTOR CAVALLO 
 
 that is greatest and best in history, to be ashamed of 
 the influences that have blessed the world, and given 
 rise to the greatest prophets and the greatest law- 
 givers, the wisest statesmen and the loftiest poets ! " 
 
 " Hooray, hooray ! Hear, hear. Daniel in the lion's 
 den ; Judith with the head of Holofernes ; Lot's wife 
 and the pillar of salt. Who had supposed that 
 Meg had so much poetry wrapped up in her soul ? 
 What do you say to that, doctor ? Doesn't that stir 
 your blood ?" 
 
 Cavallo had risen, and his pale cheek glowed with 
 the flush of his feelings. The girl whom he had thought 
 would despise and spurn him because of his race, had 
 risen to point out to him the path of duty. It sud- 
 denly showed him a strength of character, a purpose 
 lofty and heroic, that thrilled him like an electric 
 shock. 
 
 "Stir my blood ? indeed it does," he cried. "It is 
 a voice to me out of heaven, for I — I am a Jew." 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 There was a pause, and for a time no one spoke. 
 The kitchen girl had come in with coal for the 
 grate, and as she stirred the ashes and shook down the 
 embers, every one felt a sense of relief for the inter- 
 ruption. Cavallo, himself, experienced a great feeling 
 of exultation. His secret was revealed, and he drew 
 himself up with a proud air of defiance. His nerves 
 tingled, and he realized that emotion which comes to 
 a man after the first shock of battle has passed — as if 
 he wished now to rush inter the fray. He had erected 
 the barrier which the prejudice of past ages had fur- 
 nished, and he felt, for the moment, how great was the 
 interval which those few words had made between 
 them. 
 
 Mr. Lawrence was the first to break silence. " My 
 dear sir, I am very glad to know this. Now, tell me all 
 about the Talmud." 
 
 Bob burst into a fit of laughter. u Father reminds 
 me of the little daughter of a Presbyterian clergy- 
 man. A visitor called one day to see her father, 
 and found no one at home but this little girl, aged ten. 
 He asked if her father was in. 'No,' she said, 'you 
 poor sinner, but if it is your sins that you come to in- 
 quire about, come right in. I understand the whole 
 scheme of salvation, and I will give it to you.' " 
 
 " I do not see, sir," remarked his father, "what there 
 is wrong in asking about the Talmud." 
 
34 DOCTOR CAVALLO 
 
 "You seem to think," said Bob, "that the Talmud 
 is a book that you can read in the course of two days. 1 ' 
 
 "Well, if it is not that, what is it?" 
 
 " Why," he answered, " it is a series of books. There 
 are some one hundred and twenty-nine in number. It 
 took a thousand years to compose them, and they com- 
 bine all the wisdom of a thousand years, — text, com- 
 mentary, parable, deduction, with a smattering of 
 everything under the sun — history, geography, soci- 
 ology, a treatise on all knowledge." 
 
 With the habitual reticence of the Jew on matters con- 
 cerning his faith, Cavallo had listened with ill-concealed 
 impatience. Finally, he said, "The true Jew does not 
 seek to impose his religious views upon others. He is 
 not engaged, like the rest of the world, in proselytizing. 
 His religion is a matter between himself and his God, 
 and he seeks no intermediary. We believe that religion 
 is a question of individual conscience. We do not seek 
 proselytes." , 
 
 "The fact is," laughed Bob, "our people are always 
 trying to convert somebody. The Methodist is trying 
 to convert the Baptist, the Presbyterian is trying to win 
 over the Universalist ; the Episcopalian who believes in 
 high church looks upon the low churchman as little 
 better than an outsider ; while, when all is done, the 
 Salvation Army comes along, and sweeps in every one 
 who has escaped from the churches and taken to the 
 streets. As for the Christian Scientists, they do not 
 believe in anything but perfect absorption in their work, 
 and relegate everyone else to the ' demnition bow 
 wows/ " 
 
 " Why do not the Jews believe in conversions ? " 
 asked Mrs. Lawrence. 
 
DOCTOR CAVALLO 35 
 
 "The lofty conception of the Jew," replied Cavallo, 
 " is too great to stoop to the arts of the propagandist. 
 His God lives serene and high, the Ruler, the Creator 
 of heaven and earth. Time and again the old prophets 
 inculcate the idea that he was only satisfied with a con- 
 trite heart and an humble spirit. To live in strict 
 obedience to the law, to worship him, with a life of jus- 
 tice, charity and peace to all men ; to contemplate him 
 was the highest conception of perfection, and to study 
 his law with the sole endeavor to continually reach a 
 purer and higher ideal. This is true Judaism, a practice 
 that is consistent with every advance in civilization, 
 every discovery of science, every step made for 
 humanity. ' Be of them that are persecuted rather than 
 of them that persecute,' may have been startlingly 
 new to the pagan Roman, but it was known to the Jews 
 long before the advent of Christianity. With this feel- 
 ing, the true Jew shrinks from the noisy clamour of the 
 sects whose only stock phrase is 'believe. 1 With him 
 religion is progressive, and is to be realized only by an 
 uncompromising life of piety and virtue. To depart 
 from it in a single instance is to profane this sentiment, 
 and to defile his thoughts is a sin. As for himself, he 
 does not understand how it is possible for a particle 
 of bread, under certain conditions, to transform the 
 whole physical frame, and without contrition or acts 
 indicating a desire for a higher life, take the partakers 
 into heaven — winning it by a trick, so to speak." 
 
 Margaret listened with absorbing interest. It was to 
 her a revelation, for she had no idea that the ancient 
 religion was anything more than unmeaning rites. 
 
 As for Mr. Lawrence, he was bewildered. He had 
 an idea that all the matters of belief, all the higher 
 
36 DOCTOR CAVALLO 
 
 sentiments, had come in with the new dispensation, and 
 that the Jewish ceremonies were a mass of puerile 
 forms to which the race clung because they were under 
 a curse, like the spell of the witches of the middle ages, 
 which they would one day shake off, when the right 
 moment came. To find that they were actuated by 
 pure morality and an earnest desire for truth was some- 
 thing that never crossed his mind. He always prayed 
 for the Jews, coupling them and the heathen together, 
 but he had never been instructed as to why they 
 specially needed his prayers, except that they would 
 not see that the Messiah had already come. 
 
 "Judaism," said Cavallo, thoughtfully, "is the in- 
 spiration of humanity itself, for it alone satisfies the 
 conditions of a pure conception of the Creator, high, 
 serene, faultless, merciful, but dealing with his children 
 by means of immutable law. Upon this tenet is the 
 faith founded — immutable law. Sin must and will be 
 punished. To escape it the sinner must not sin. He 
 must keep the law, and to keep the law he must lead a 
 pure and blameless life. The essence of Judaism is 
 therefore not in leading a life of indifference and care- 
 lessness and then at the last moment by mumbling 
 some prayer or by purchasing the favor of the church, 
 get into heaven by a side door and thus cheat the devil. 
 High, lofty and ennobling, the Jew rises to the full con- 
 ception of his duty. By a life of study and thought 
 he prepares his mind for instruction and removes it 
 from the gross and heavy cares that afflict the soul and 
 weigh it down. 
 
 "Long before Humboldt enunciated it, the rabbis 
 taught that the universe is law. Long before Newton 
 demonstrated that the principle of gravitation operated 
 
DOCTOR CAVALLO 37 
 
 upon all things, the rabbis insisted that the universe is 
 held in place by eternal principles, the violation of any, 
 even the smallest of which, would produce chaos. 1 ' 
 
 "Almost thou persuadest me to be a Jew, 1 ' para- 
 phrased Bob. 
 
 " It was this lofty ideal that inspired the mind of the 
 great Baruch Spinoza,' 1 continued Cavallo, " and guided 
 him on in his pursuit of that philosophy by which he 
 lighted the torch of investigation and illuminated the 
 path along which Goethe, following after, transformed 
 modern Europe and set in motion a train of events that 
 have not yet ceased to operate. Why the great Mai- 
 monides himself said that the Bible must be construed 
 in line with known facts. If it differed from these its 
 saying must be conceived to be allegorical. This was 
 in the twelfth century. He is the great light of medi- 
 aeval Judaism. So far was he ahead of any Christian 
 writer that it is doubtful if any of the sects that then 
 filled Europe could even understand him, much less 
 follow in his footsteps." 
 
 "Why, this is certainly extraordinary; but my 
 dear doctor, where in the world is a man to find all of 
 this, for this is something quite new?" inquired Mr. 
 Lawrence. 
 
 " Consider for. a moment what Jewish philosophy 
 means, 1 ' replied the other. " Any other nation numbers 
 its writers by a small group and their work is crowded 
 into a few years. The whole Grecian cult is but about 
 six centuries. The Roman literature does not coyer 
 a much longer period, for it speedily became corrupt 
 under the imperial rule. German literature was so 
 rude even in the days of Frederick the Great that he 
 would not speak the language of his mother tongue, 
 
38 DOCTOR CAVALLO 
 
 but said it was only fit for the pigs. English literature 
 dates from the days of good Queen Bess, and she lived 
 in the sixteenth century. The Jewish literature comes 
 down in an unbroken line from the days of Moses, for 
 there is no doubt that the great lawgiver laid down 
 those rules that have been the admiration of all suc- 
 ceeding ages. These rules were given seven hundred 
 years before Homer, and how they dwarf the senti- 
 ments expressed in the old Grecian bard with its sav- 
 age details of slaughter — its ill-treatment of its cap- 
 tives and its private revenges." 
 
 "The Jews were not much behind. See how Samuel 
 served Agag," Bob put in. 
 
 "Yes, all of which proves that the code was far in 
 advance of the age. The Mosaic code says 'thou shalt 
 not oppress the stranger, for thou wast a bondman in 
 
 Egypt.' " 
 
 "What a magnificent rule of mercy is that," replied 
 Cavallo. " No other creed ever came up to it and it 
 was given when all the world was wrapped in bar- 
 barism. Can any one blame the old rabbis for be- 
 lieving that a thing that was so far advanced, so great, so 
 beneficent, so filled with the highest truth, must have 
 been communicated by God himself in the thunders of 
 Mt. Sinai." 
 
 " I believe it was," said Mr. Lawrence. 
 
 " Be careful, father, or the doctor will have you in the 
 synagogue with a praying shawl around your neck 
 chanting Hebrew," interrupted Bob. "You would make 
 a fine old rabbi." 
 
 "In addition to this," said Cavallo, continuing, for 
 he saw that Margaret was listening to him, and this was 
 a direct spur to his thoughts, "the Jewish faith is the 
 
DOCTOR CAVALLO 39 
 
 only one that is progressive. Every other one starts 
 with the idea that the whole truth has been revealed, 
 that man has been told all that he can ever know, and 
 there is no progress possible. For two thousand years 
 the Christian church has been steadily fighting science. 
 When it was not roasting Jews, it was hunting victims 
 who taught that the earth was round, that the sun is 
 the center of our solar system, that the sun and moon 
 did not stand still and that the phenomenon of nature 
 cannot be changed by the exorcism of a priest. The 
 Jews were constantly enlarging the bounds of knowl- 
 edge. The doctrine of evolution with them had full 
 play. The code of Moses was enlarged by the oral 
 law. The oral law was enlarged by the commentaries 
 and those in turn were supplemented by new declara- 
 tions. Such men as Maimonides laid down principles 
 far in advance of their time, and their teachings were 
 received by the great body of their countrymen. The 
 vitality of Judaism consists in this fact, that it has ad- 
 vanced not always as rapidly as it should, but as 
 rapidly as it was able to perceive the truth. It has, to 
 use an expression, grown like a tree, always at the top, 
 and the lower branches have steadily decayed and 
 dropped off. This is what makes it the hope of the 
 future. 1 ' 
 
 "The hope of the future," objected Bob. "You are 
 putting it pretty strong." 
 
 " Because it, and it alone, offers the conditions of 
 advancement. The religious principle is the one thing 
 in man's nature that has resisted the shock of time. It 
 is a necessary part of him, and it must and will make 
 itself felt. Judaism is the only belief that matches the 
 latest scientific facts. That is, the feeling that there 
 
40 DOCTOR CAVALLO 
 
 is an overwhelming, overmastering force in the world, 
 who rules it by means of fixed and definite laws. This, 
 science is beginning to express and formulate. Now, 
 it is impossible to prevent the human mind from ex- 
 pressing its sense of depending upon this force in some 
 form or other. The notion that it can be propitiated 
 by some sort of subterfuge, by saying so many prayers, 
 or by telling beads, or by professing that by means of 
 a mediator its laws can be set aside and the punish- 
 ment that follows sin avoided, is to the Jew rank heresy 
 — nothing more nor less." 
 
 "This is deism pure and simple," interposed Mr. 
 Lawrence, on whom this philosophy was almost lost. 
 
 "You may call it what you like, but it is modern 
 Judaism, and it is consistent with the broadest humani- 
 tarian ideas. This sentiment does not content itself 
 with flinging a penny to the beggar, and satisfied that 
 it has condoned a sin by its charity, takes its way along, 
 giving the subject no further thought, but it goes down 
 into the slums and cleanses them. It feels that as long 
 as one human being lacks the necessities of life its mis- 
 sion is not fulfilled. It brings to this work the best 
 scientific instruction. It protests against corruption in 
 the government, against filth in the streets, against ill- 
 crowded apartments, against oppression everywhere. 
 It lifts its voice against wrong, and it is not satisfied 
 with temporary measures, but it wants to go to the root 
 of the matter. I say, as the rabbis said of old, that 
 every one engaged in the work of uplifting humanity 
 will have a share in the future life, no matter what 
 church he belongs to, what creed he professes ; for 
 he has subscribed to the great principle, the vital, liv- 
 ing soul of Judaism ! " 
 
DOCTOR CAVALLO 4 1 
 
 " It is not Judaism, but Christianity, that should re- 
 ceive the credit for this/' insisted Mr. Lawrence. 
 
 " All that is best in Christianity, 1 ' replied Cavallo, 
 41 it took from Judaism ; its charity, its fellowship, its 
 elevation of women, its hope, its better impulses. 
 When it absorbed the domineering principles, the old 
 beliefs, the worship of images, of dependence upon a 
 mediator, it fell away from the old faith, and, in this, 
 fails to answer the altered conditions of the human 
 mind. In so far it is not progressive. The Jew has 
 always been as far in the vanguard of religious thought 
 as he has in commerce, law, medicine and the arts, and it 
 is because he is progressive that he represents the high- 
 est aspiration, not only of this but of all ages. People 
 who see him with his curls plastered on his temples and 
 his phylacteries bound on his forehead and his arm, 
 may laugh at him, but these are the links that bind him 
 to the past and that save him from being swept en- 
 tirely away. They teach him, at all events, respect for 
 law." 
 
 "Well," said Bob, " this is as good as anything that 
 St. Paul ever wrote. I am going to copy it off, and 
 head it, 4 The Gospel of St. Cavallo to the Lawrences.' " 
 
 The doctor felt annoyed. He had been carried away 
 by the warmth of his feelings, and his pent-up spirits 
 led him to say far more than he intended, and far 
 more than he would have done at any other time and 
 place. He detested discussion and hated debate, most 
 of all a discussion upon these matters. He had pon- 
 dered over them long and thoroughly, and he had come 
 to some conclusions about them, but Bob's remark 
 smote upon his ear. 
 
 Mr. Lawrence took up the thread of the discourse, 
 
42 DOCTOR CAVALLO 
 
 and gave a long lecture upon what he considered the 
 true status of the question, openly saying that the time 
 would come when the Jews would seek the promised 
 land. 
 
 This led Bob to make a good-natured calculation as 
 to how many the promised land would hold, and what 
 they would do when they got there, and various other 
 sarcastic remarks tending to discredit his father's 
 theory. 
 
 Mr. Lawrence, however, was too full of his subject to 
 mind the reflections cast upon his ideas by his son. 
 Having conceived that the Jews were ultimately to be 
 redeemed and saved according to the formula laid 
 down in the books, it was now merely a question of 
 time with him. To be sure certain contingencies came 
 up, such as the battle of Armageddon, the beast with 
 seven heads and ten horns, the valley of dry bones, and 
 the other mystic notions, much dwelt on by those 
 writers who wish to reduce the visions in the books of 
 Daniel and Ezekiel to the exactness of a mathematical 
 formula. 
 
 Little heed did Cavallo pay to them. His thoughts 
 were far away. He leaned his head upon his hand and 
 gave himself up to reverie. 
 
 Margaret alone saw that he was disturbed, and she 
 said, timidly : 
 
 '* Doctor, you have given us all new light. What you 
 have said is, indeed, a revelation, and I can understand 
 what is meant when it speaks of one whose lips have 
 been touched with a live coal from off the altar. 
 What a glorious future you have before you." 
 
 Cavallo looked at her inquiringly. 
 
 She went on: "Why, to live this ideal life — to ex- 
 
DOCTOR CAVALLO 43 
 
 emplify it, to show the world that the conception of 
 the Jew is a higher and nobler one than those who 
 sneer at him ; to be able to say with just pride ' I am a 
 Jew, and as such, I challenge all the world to surpass 
 me in the high attributes that adorn humanity, and that 
 illustrate the Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood 
 of Man.' " 
 
 His enthusiasm rose, his eye sparkled, and his breast 
 heaved. "You recall me to myself," he cried. " I will 
 do it. To live this life, yes, this is, indeed, god-like ; 
 and one who strives, even though he falls short, may 
 well say, i I have done all that may become a man !' " 
 
 The subject was too much, and he stopped. Then he 
 added, in a lower tone to her, "You have been my in- 
 spiration, my better angel." 
 
 She held out her hand to him. "You need no in- 
 spiration," she softly answered, " but no wavering." 
 
 The conversation lagged. Bob descended to trivial- 
 ities, and, finally, the doctor took his leave. 
 
 As he went out no one spoke, until Mr. Lawrence 
 arose and stirred the fire in the grate vigorously. Then 
 he said : 
 
 "Splendid fellow, that doctor, and can't he talk, 
 though. What a great pity it is that he is a Jew." 
 
 "Oh, I don't know," said Bob. "It don't make 
 much difference nowadays. These Jews get on. They 
 all make money and enjoy themselves. For my part, 
 I think about as much of a man if he is a Jew as if he 
 isn't." 
 
 "A man is pretty much what his mother's creed 
 makes him. He may think that he has outgrown it, 
 but in middle age and in old age, particularly, he comes 
 back to it. Heredity is a great deal stronger than 
 
44 DOCTOR CAVALLO 
 
 grace. Put four thousand years of breeding behind 
 a man, and what is he going to do ?" 
 
 "What do you think of him, now, Margaret ?" in- 
 quired her mother. 
 
 Margaret did not reply for the moment. She was 
 engaged in looking into the fire. Then she said, 
 slowly, " I think as father does, that it is a great pity 
 that he is a Jew, but what a mistake there would have 
 been if he had been born anything else ?" 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Mr. Timothy Dodd sat in Dr. Cavallo's office looking 
 the picture of solid satisfaction. He wore one of the 
 doctor's cast off suits which fitted him tolerably well. 
 He had a silk hat on his head which he always put on 
 when the doctor went out. and carefully took off 
 again as soon as he saw the doctor coming back. Now 
 he had swept the office, dusted it, built a fire, and draw- 
 ing up a chair, he proceeded to light one of the doc- 
 tor's cigars and smoke it with an apparent relish. 
 
 Timothy had begun life at the very foot of the lad- 
 der. As soon as he could toddle he sold papers; then 
 he blackened boots. He was getting a little too large 
 for this occupation when he attracted the notice of Dr. 
 Cavallo, who took him in as stable boy, and all around 
 helper generally. He was very subservient at the be- 
 ginning, but lately he had begun to put on airs, and 
 now whatever the doctor owned he considered belonged 
 to them both ; he smoked his cigars on the sly. and 
 was rapidly growing into a vast conceit with himself. 
 
 He picked up the morning paper and settled himself 
 down in the chair with due professional gravity, when 
 the door opened and a thin, pale faced woman came in. 
 
 She bore the marks of hard work ; her hands showed 
 that she had spent many a day at the wash tub, and her 
 face was marked by those heavy lines that come early 
 and stay late on people of her class. 
 
46 - DOCTOR CAVALLO 
 
 Timothy saw her and he became twice as dignified as 
 before, and only said, "Take a sate, Mrs. O'Hara. It's 
 the dochter ye want, I'm thinkin'." 
 
 Mrs. O'Hara broke out at once : 
 
 " It's him, the blessed man; I'm that sick I cud faint, 
 and there's me old man doubled up with the rheuma- 
 tics, and wid a pain in his back." 
 
 "Pain in his back?" echoed Tim. "He have plum- 
 bago, luk out, its ketchin'." 
 
 " Phat's that ye say, Tim?" she inquired anxiously. 
 
 "Mrs. O'Hara," returned Tim, "whin a man is de- 
 votin' his days to the interest of his profession and his 
 noits to the study of the principles of science, its little 
 enough that you moit gev him a title showin' jue re- 
 spict, if not to the man, at laist to the intilligence that 
 he's sthrivin' after. There air people in the worrld that 
 do be callin' me Misther Dodd." 
 
 "Saints preserve us," rejoined the old lady. "Whin 
 did the young rooster get his spurs. Luk at that, and 
 luk at that. I, who was prisint at his birth whin his 
 mother, God rist her sowl, did'nt have the wealth of a 
 second-hand blanket to wrap him in. ' Misther Dodd,' 
 indade. Could ye git a bucket large enough, young 
 feller, to soak yer hid." 
 
 " Janious is ever the child of poverty, Mrs. O'Hara," 
 said Tim, who knew that it would never do to get the 
 old woman started on his pedigree. 
 
 "The Doddses have been nursed by affliction and wint 
 hungry through want, but they niver complained and 
 they always came to the fore with ideas, which is, in 
 the long run, worth more than dollars. It is not boast- 
 in' I am," he added, seeing that the old lady was about 
 to start in again, "but I am studying the science of 
 medsin." 
 
DOCTOR CAVALLO 47 
 
 "Ye air, air ye. Well, now, Tim, that's a good thing, 
 too, an' I trust ye'll do well at it." 
 
 "Its not a light thing, Mrs. O'Hara. In the first 
 place, ye have to master the essentials, then ye take up 
 the corporosities, and after ye have that ye are in a fit 
 condition to ondersthand the perdicamints. Ye air then, 
 Mrs. O'Hara, as ye might say, on the very treshold 
 of the science. After that, when ye have the essen- 
 tials and the corporosities and the perdicamints down 
 foine, as ye may say, ye may begin on the treshold of 
 the thary of medsin. No sooner do ye get that, 
 then, but not till then, do ye begin worruk on the 
 practice. You may do all of this, havin', as I said be- 
 fure, the essentials and the corporosites and the pre- 
 dicamints and the thary, but widout the practice ye 
 might stharve to death.* There air those, to be sure, 
 who begin at the practice without having mastered the 
 others, and thim, Mrs. O'Hara, is quacks. But ye hev 
 to study, Mrs. O'Hara. Take the dochter, now, he 
 knows siven languages." 
 
 "Does he, and phat are they ?" 
 
 "In the furrst place, he knows American, and thin he 
 knows English, and after that he knows German, and 
 thin comes High Dootch, and following that is low 
 Dootch and thin Dootch. 1 ' 
 
 "That's six," said Mrs. O'Hara, who had kept count. 
 
 "Yes, in addition to that he knows how to write 
 orthers for the droog sthures. Ye might go up and 
 down, and down and up, Mrs. O'Hara, and find men 
 otherwise well educated who couldn't by any man- 
 ner of means read the orthers on a droog sthure." 
 
 "They's writ in Latin," remarked Mrs. O'Hara, 
 "same as the blissid prayer book." 
 
48 DOCTOR CAVALLO 
 
 "There's where ye make a mistake and fall into an 
 error, Mrs. O'Hara," said Tim. " I asked the dochter 
 if they was Latin, and he said anything but Latin, an' 
 he knows." 
 
 "Tim," cried the old lady in a burst of admiration, 
 "ye talk like a scule master. Air ye far on to it? 1 ' 
 
 "I am jist troo wid the essentials and am gettin' on 
 to the corporosities. A man came in here the other 
 day, and sez he to me, sez he, 'Misther Dodd,'" for 
 Tim wanted to impress the old lady that she ought to 
 call him by his title. "'Misther Dood,' says he, 'I 
 do be bavin' an appendix.' Ah, ha, says I, cut it aff, 
 says I, and Dr. Cavalloo burst out laughin', says he, 
 •Tim, ye couldn't hev giv a better answer nor that, if 
 ye had all the laming of the siven colleges in your 
 hid.' " 
 
 "It's an aisy life," said Mrs. O'Hara, looking around 
 and contrasting it with what she knew of the hardships 
 of a laborer's lot. 
 
 " Is it," sneered Tim, contemptuously, " much you 
 know about it. In the first place, you have to be that 
 quick that a minit a man comes in here you can clap 
 yer eye on him, and say, 'That man is sick.' " 
 
 " Af coorse," replied Mrs. O'Hara, contemptuously, in 
 her turn, "he wuldn't be comin' here unless he was 
 sick." 
 
 " Wudn't he," returned Tim, triumphantly. " Listen 
 to the ignorance of her. Why, here's the place they 
 come ; and the doctor sez, sez he, there is siveral kinds 
 of disayses that affects us. There's fevers and there's 
 colds, and there's janders and there's sickness. Now, 
 ye hev to be that quick that you can tell whin a man 
 has janders or whin he is only sick. 1 ' 
 
DOCTOR CWALLO 49 
 
 " But what wuld a man be comin' up here for pro- 
 vidin 1 he was well ?" 
 
 Tim looked cautiously around to see that no one was 
 listening, and then he said, mysteriously, " Insurance." 
 
 "Whin his house burns down? 1 ' said she, with a 
 puzzled air. 
 
 " No," said Tim, more mysteriously than ever, "whin 
 he is a chate. Sh — h. Mony a man with a big policy 
 has cum up these stairs pretendin' to be dead, demand- 
 in' his money, whin the docther takes wan luk at him, 
 and sez, sezs he, fixin' his glitterin' eye on him, ' Ye're 
 a liar,' says he, 'git out,' and they go down that there 
 stairs as well as ever they was in their life. Mrs. 
 O'Hara, if it wasn't for the honesty of that man and 
 his assistant, if I do say it meself, there wuldn't be wan 
 sthroke of wurrk done in this town, but every man wuld 
 be livin' on weekly wages, drawn from the insurance 
 societies. Whin a man devotes his time and his bodily 
 powers, Mrs. O'Hara, to buildin' up his intilligence, it's 
 little enough that people can do is to takeoff their hats 
 to him. It isn't that I care to be called l Misther' 
 Dodd, but it's the rispict due to the profession." 
 
 Mrs. O'Hara paid no attention to this hint. She 
 wasn't going to call a boy that she had known ever 
 since he was able to build mud pies, and whom she had 
 often chased out of her back yard with a broom, by any 
 such title. So she sighed heavily, and said, "I wish 
 the doctor would come. My old man is that sick that 
 I fear to lave him alone." 
 
 "It is plumbago," said Tim again. "What he needs 
 is physic." 
 
 " For a pain in the back ? Get out," returned the 
 old lady. " Phat he needs is something to rub on." 
 
50 DOCTOR CAVALLO 
 
 "Ye'll axcuse me, Mrs. O'Hara," said Tim, "thesay- 
 cret of disayse is to expel the humors from the body. 
 Physic is the groundwurrk of the thary of medsin, 
 and widout it the noble profession wud fall to the 
 ground." 
 
 " Get out, 1 ' she said, " it's little you know about it." 
 
 "Ye don't know me, Mrs, O'Hara," returned Tim. 
 " Before many years that sign that now hangs out of 
 dures will contain the names of 4 Cavalloo & Dodd, 
 Physicians and Sturgeons. 7 " 
 
 "Sturgeons," laughed Mrs. O'Hara. "Ye don't 
 know the name of yer own business ; sturgeons is fish." 
 
 " Fish it may be in wan sinse," said Tim, unwilling 
 to acknowledge that he had made a bull, "and yit, in 
 another and larger sinse, it manes a man of sience, 
 who cuts up people alive, clanes their insideswith acids 
 and ointments, and then sews them up as well as ever." 
 
 14 Saints preserve us," said the old lady, shuddering, 
 M ye don't do that here ?" 
 
 44 We don't, maybe, and then, again, maybe we do. 
 Luk here," and Tim, swinging wide open the closet 
 door, showed to the astonished woman a skeleton. 
 
 She gave one yell and sank back in the chair. Tim 
 closed the door and went back to his seat, chuckling 
 under a grim demeanor. " That," said he, " was a man 
 like you, who came here only last week, and sez he to the 
 doctor: * I am that sick I can't walk ' ; and the doctor 
 says he to him, ' lave yer bones here till next week, 
 and come around, and I'll have time to study up yer 
 case and attind to the matter, I think, sezs he, that yer 
 sick' ; and that man did that same, and after scrapin' 
 the bones and washin' them we found out what ailed 
 him, and we shall get him sthraitened up in good shape 
 against he comes back." 
 
DOCTOR CAVALLO 5 I 
 
 " Phat ailded him," querried the old lady, visibly im- 
 pressed by the sight. 
 
 "Well, he had miasma, and had it bad, but we've got 
 the better of it now, and the remedies that we have 
 applied is that powerful that it'll niver come back." 
 
 " It's mighty funny ye are, Mr. Tim Dodd,and smart 
 to try to froighten me, but don't be too top-minded 
 wid yer talk. Ye think that ye'll be in partnership wid 
 the dochter, but I cud tell ye that about him that wud 
 make yer two eyes bug out, mind that." 
 
 "Ye can tell me nothin' in regaard to that man. I 
 know him better than he knows himself," said Tim. 
 * I know his goins out and his comins in, what he aits 
 and what clothes he wears, and how he spinds his 
 money. Be gad, I know that, too." 
 
 "Oh, ye do, do ye; very well, did ye know, then, 
 that he was a Jew. Moind that, Mr. Tim Dodd, moind 
 that; 1 
 
 " I moind that, an' I know it's a lie," said Tim. " He 
 is an Eyetalian." 
 
 " An Eyetalian — a Dago," she returned with scorn, 
 " and peddles bananas, does he. No, he is a Jew." 
 
 11 It's a lie, that's what it is ; he is a gintleman, furrin' 
 born, and a man who would scorn such a dirty insinu- 
 ation, Mrs. O'Hara. I demand yer proof." 
 
 "Oh, ho, ye know so much. Thin I have it from his 
 own mouth. He was up at Lawrence's the other noight, 
 and when they abused the Jews, he got up, and said 
 he, ' I am a Jew,' said he, roight before them all ; and the 
 gurrl, who is my own niece, heard him at the time, for 
 she was putting some coals on the grate." 
 
 "Ah," said Tim, with an air of indifference, "he is 
 no Jew. Ye niver see a Jew in the larned professions. 
 
52 DOCTOR CAVALLO 
 
 They sell clothin', or they buy old iron, or they peddle 
 segars. He was declaimin', that's what he was doin'. 
 He will get up here and talk out of book for hours. 
 I've heard him say it more times than there are hairs 
 on yer head, Mrs. O'Hara, 'I'm a Jew, give me me 
 pound of flesh.' D'ye spose he wanted to ait the mate 
 that he called for in that way ? No, it's in the play." 
 
 44 It's not in the play ; for when he said it, he stood 
 up bold-like, Nora said, and it kem out wid thot force 
 and foire that scared the gurrl, she bein' but a young 
 thing, and she kem over and tould me, and me old man, 
 sez he, 4 that's it, he's a Christ-killer. 7 " 
 
 "Holy Mother," said Tim, "phat if it should be 
 thrue. He's a villain in disguise, and I've been waitin 7 
 on him and tratin 7 him like wan of us. There's no 
 thrustin 7 to appearances. He maybe a Toork, — and 
 why do ye come to him, Mrs. O'Hara ? " 
 
 u It's aginst the grain that I do, but I only found it 
 out last noight, and he do be so kind and tinder. 
 The rist of the dochters they come in, and they gev a 
 prescription and go out, and say, * get this filled,' whin, 
 perhaps, phat wid Pat's sickness, there won't be the 
 forty cints in the house to get the medsin wid, and 
 we that poor that the childer hav'nt got shoes to go to 
 choorch. It lay sore aginst my haart that he shud be 
 that kind of a man, and we lovin' him so. Here he 
 comes now." 
 
 Even as she spoke Dr. Cavallo came in. 
 
 Tim slipped his hat off his head and into a drawer, 
 and when the doctor entered he was the same servant 
 that he had been, but there was a puzzled look on his 
 face, and it was easy to see that it cost him an effort to 
 pay the doctor the same respect that was his wont. 
 
DOCTOR CAVALLO 53 
 
 His idol had been shattered, and he was unable for the 
 moment to erect another in its place. He slowly went 
 down stairs shaking his head. 
 
 The doctor drew up a chair, and asked the old lady 
 after her maladies. 
 
 She began querously enough to give her troubles, 
 but as she went on she resumed the old tale of distress. 
 " Pat was sick ; the oldest boy had gotten out on the 
 street and was a member of a tough gang of hoodlums, 
 and she was fearful that any night she would hear of 
 his arrest. The girls had gone, to work in a factory, 
 but it had failed, and they had lost two weeks 1 wages. 
 She was sick and discouraged, and she had a pain in the 
 breast, that prevented her working over the wash-tub, 
 and the Chinese laundries took all of her best custom- 
 ers. Pat had had a job as laborer on the streets, but a 
 change of administration had dropped him, and in 
 working for a private contractor, a bank of earth had 
 caved in and injured him, so that now he had a pain in 
 his back that prevented him from working, and winter 
 was coming on, and starvation stared them in the face. 1 ' 
 
 The doctor listened with sympathy, although he had 
 heard the tale many times before. He gave her some 
 medicine for Pat, and told her that he would call to 
 see him in the morning ; bid her to be cheerful and not 
 be cast down, that times would mend, work was cer- 
 tain to be plenty in the near future. Finally putting 
 something into her palm, he said, gently, " Now, Mrs. 
 O'Hara, promise me that you won't scrub any more 
 this week ; promise me this before you go. Take one 
 week off, and try and get rested." 
 
 She opened her hand, and saw in the palm a five- 
 dollar bill. She burst into a passionate storm of weep- 
 
54 • DOCTOR CAVALLO 
 
 ing : " Ah. dochter, dochter, an' I said ye were a Jew." 
 She cried again in going down the steps, and said, " An' 
 I called ye a Jew ; God bless ye." 
 
 At this remark a bitter smile flitted across the Doc- 
 tor's face. He felt that this was the beginning of his 
 contest. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Dr. Cavallo had had a hard day's work and he entered 
 his office just at dusk with a sense of utter weariness. 
 He had been down into the lower part of the city and 
 the scenes of want and destitution that he had wit- 
 nessed angered and disgusted him. He felt that every 
 member of the city Board of Health was criminally 
 neglecting his duties, and he determined that he would 
 take the whole matter in hand at an early day and see if 
 he could not do something towards alleviating the 
 misery of a nest of wretched souls that inhabited a 
 long conglomeration of buildings known as "Abbott's 
 Row." It was with this thought in his mind that he 
 saw on his table a telegram, and picking it up and 
 opening it he read the following : 
 
 On train, Oct. 12th, 189 — . 
 Maurice Cavallo. 
 
 Look for me on train 6:30. 
 
 Your Uncle. 
 
 This recalled to his mind the fact that he had, a week 
 before, received a letter from his maternal uncle, Abra- 
 ham Mendez, telling him that he would be in New York 
 on business and that he might come west and call on 
 him. So the telegram, while it was a surprise, was not 
 wholly unexpected. This uncle he had not seen since 
 
56 DOCTOR CAVALLO 
 
 he was a lad in London. Mendez was a kindly soul, 
 his mother's brother. He came over weekly from Hol- 
 land following his calling, which was that of a diamond 
 broker, and in these weekly pilgrimages he seldom for- 
 got his young nephew. Cavallo also smiled to himself 
 as he now recalled how exact his uncle used to be in 
 the performance of his religious duties and how he had 
 once rebuked his nephew with some asperity for omit- 
 ting some part of his morning prayer. 
 
 He looked at his watch. He had fifteen minutes in 
 which to make the train. To jump into his overcoat, 
 get into his carriage and drive towards the depot was 
 the work of a second, and he had no trouble in getting 
 there before the train came in. 
 
 There was the usual bustle as the train made its ap- 
 pearance, and as it gave the preliminary toots and then 
 drew into the depot he stationed himself where he 
 could see the passengers get off. He watched the 
 effusive greetings that ensued between a family party, 
 some of whose members had returned from a visit and 
 the rest that had come down to the depot to greet 
 them with much noise and demonstration of wordy 
 welcome. He saw the whole coach empty itself, and 
 he was about turning away when from the rear end he 
 saw a man whose looks showed that he was past sixty 
 but his step still had the elasticity of middle life. He 
 was compact and heavy set. His dress indicated that 
 his clothes were foreign made. He was loaded down 
 with portmanteaus, but Cavallo recognized him in an 
 instant. While years had passed since he saw him, his 
 features had not changed, and Cavallo went up and 
 greeted him. The old man grasped him by the hand 
 and then imprinted a kiss on both his cheeks, exclaim- 
 
DOCTOR CAVALLO 57 
 
 ing in Hebrew, in a broad, resonant voice, "Shallom 
 alaichem." (This is, M Peace be unto you," the common 
 salutation.) 
 
 After this he held the doctor out under the gas light 
 and took a long look at him, turning around and gazing 
 at him as if he were a gem. Then he kissed him once 
 more and said, "Well, it's the same face. You have 
 grown taller, but I would have recognized you any 
 where. You look like your poor mother, " Olehu 
 hashalom (" May peace be to her." No pious Jew ever 
 speaks of a departed female relative without saying 
 -Olehu hashalom.") 
 
 Cavallo finally broke away long enough to gather his 
 bundles together, put the old man into his vehicle, and 
 soon landed him at the office door. He brought him 
 in, helped him to remove his overcoat, and sat him 
 in a chair. Then followed inquiries about his trip and 
 his health and the doctor suggested that they go to 
 supper. The old gentleman, not heeding the invita- 
 tion, looked about, keenly scrutinizing everything. 
 The orifice, while not gorgeous, was comfortable, show- 
 ing great taste. There were two or three rare prints 
 on the wall, the rugs had been carefully dusted by Tim, 
 and every thing was in place. The instruments which 
 Tim always took great delight in exhibiting, were dis- 
 played so that they could be easily seen. A cheerful 
 fire was burning in the grate, and Cavallo took a secret 
 pride in seeing that his uncle's eyes took in everything 
 and that he was making a mental note of his surround- 
 ings. The old gentleman completed his inventory of 
 the things in the room and then rising from his chair 
 he went to the book case, evidently loooking for some 
 familiar volume, but he seemed to miss something, for 
 he^came back and stood musing by the fire. 
 
58 DOCTOR CAVALLO 
 
 Cavallo said to him again, that as he was hungry 
 after his long ride, they better get supper, and they 
 went out together. The old gentleman, on going out, 
 stopped as they passed the door, turned back and 
 shook his head sadly, but said nothing and followed 
 Cavallo down stairs and on the sidewalk. Cavallo 
 walked along with a feeling of pleasure. Here was his 
 only relative on this side of the water. The kindly 
 manner of the old man sent a glow through his soul. 
 It brought back to him again the days of his childhood 
 and the hours that he had passed as a youth when some 
 of his pleasantest recollections were, when under his 
 father's roof, this good old man had been so great a 
 delight and when his visits had been so warmly wel- 
 comed. He could hardly express his joy as they 
 walked along and he recalled to his uncle's mind the 
 days when he was carried on the old man's shoulder 
 and when he used to play his boyish pranks about 
 him. In memory of those days he burst into a musical 
 laugh, at which his uncle inquired, " Why do you laugh, 
 Maurice?" Cavallo said, u Uncle, I was just thinking, 
 do you remember when you came on ' Chanukah' and 
 you brought me a 'tendril,' and then I told you that 
 I would rather have a Christmas tree. I shall never 
 forget the horrified expression of your face and how 
 poor mother shrieked. Uncle, I have laughed at that 
 more than once." 
 
 "Yes, Maurice, you were always noted for your good 
 memory," replied his uncle, with the air of a man ab- 
 sorbed in thought. 
 
 By this time they had reached the fashionable res- 
 taurant of the city, and entering, Maurice sat his uncle 
 down at a table, and placed a bill of fare in his hand. 
 
DOCTOR CAVALLO 59 
 
 The obsequious waiter came up, and said to the old 
 gentleman, "Let me take your hat." 
 
 The other shook his head, replying, " Oh, I will keep 
 mine on." 
 
 The waiter stared, and then nodded, and remarked 
 under his breath to the doctor, u Quaker?' 1 but the 
 other made no reply. 
 
 Turning to his uncle, he facetiously remarked, " I 
 had almost forgotten, I see that you have not changed 
 much since the last time you boxed my ears for having 
 skipped a page of the 'Benschen' (grace after meal), 
 but never mind, see what will you have ? " 
 
 It seemed that all Cavallo's exuberance was entirely 
 lost on the old man. He was absorbed in brown study, 
 apparently directed to the bill of fare, for he studied it 
 as if it were a diamond, and he was trying to detect 
 a flaw in it. Finally, he laid it down, and said, sternly, 
 " Maurice, are you mocking me ? " 
 
 "Why," replied Maurice, laughingly, "mocking you, 
 uncle." Then checking himself, as a new light sud- 
 denly dawned upon him, he said, apologetically, "Well, 
 this is the very best restaurant in town, I surely would 
 not take you to any other place, uncle, and believe me, 
 I had forgotten all about ' kosher.' You see that I 
 have been away from home for so many years that I 
 have almost outgrown all the old customs." 
 
 Here he was interrupted by his uncle, who said : " I 
 knew that, in America, Judaism was lax and destructive, 
 but, on my life, never could I believe that my own 
 sister's son had so far forsaken his father's religion." 
 
 " Forsaken his father's religion, uncle ? " 
 
 "Aye, aye, what else, what else do you call this I At 
 your office I noticed in coming in, that the sacred 
 
60 DOCTOR CAVALLO 
 
 1 Mezzuzah ' was not on your door post." (The " Mez- 
 zuzah" is a piece of parchment with a glass eye in 
 the center, and the word "Shaddai" on it.) 
 
 " AmoHg your books I in vain looked for the l Torah' 
 or any other holy book." (The " Torah " is the 
 Pentateuch.) 
 
 " Now, in addition to this, you take your old uncle, 
 who has come over the sea a long distance to see the 
 child of his only sister, you take him to a Trafe res- 
 taurant." (That is, ritually, forbidden. Trafe is the 
 opposite of 4I kosher' 7 ; the latter represents things 
 that the Jews may eat, and the other that they may 
 not.) 
 
 " I am sixty years of age," added the old man, " trav- 
 eled have I extensively, much I have seen, but praised 
 be God, never was I culpable and guilty of eating any- 
 thing that was ' trafe.' " 
 
 Cavallo attempted to speak, but the old man went on. 
 
 "Think of how your poor mother's bones would 
 tremble in her grave if she could realize what a depth 
 of sin her son has descended to. You, Maurice, the 
 descendant of Rabbi Yechiel Ben Mannaseh — l Zich- 
 rono livrocho ' (may his memory be blessed) — the 
 Tzaadik who defended Israel's religion ; whose soul was 
 so holy that, like Daniel of old, the flames had no 
 power over him, and he went dancing to his death 
 mocking his tormentors, and whose mind left ' Yeru- 
 shah ' (a legacy) of large volumes of 'Meforshim' 
 (commentaries) — that you could have fallen from that 
 holy influence." 
 
 The doctor, dreading a scene in that public place, 
 suggested that he could eat something, and that they 
 would discuss these points in his office. The old man 
 
DOCTOR CAVALLO 6l 
 
 ruefully told the waiter to bring him some eggs, tea, 
 and toast without butter. 
 
 Cavallo, respecting the prejudices of his uncle, gave 
 a similar order, and they ate their meal in silence. 
 
 After this had been done, Cavallo inquired after his 
 home folks, his cousins and the family gossip, so dear 
 to the heart of the Jew, among whom the family ties 
 are the strongest of any people on earth. Then they 
 returned to the office. Here the doctor pulled out his 
 box of cigars, and asked his uncle to take a smoke. 
 The old man joined him, and then Cavallo said : 
 
 "Uncle, I am sorry that this thing happened to hurt 
 your feelings. It was unintentional ; knowing that 
 everything else has changed in the last twenty years, I 
 had thought that these forms had suffered change, too, 
 as they have in the United States." 
 
 " Change," echoed the old gentleman, " do you mean 
 that the laws of God are liable to change ? When God 
 laid them down in his own l Torah' (the law, or scrip- 
 ture.) And is it not written that this 'Torah' will 
 never be changed ? " 
 
 " So," replied Cavallo, u you really mean to say, uncle, 
 that it is necessary, in order to remain a Jew, for one to 
 stick to all of the old customs and ceremonies and 
 forms that were given to a people whose civilization 
 was so unlike ours." 
 
 " Necessary ! " repeated the old gentleman, " it is 
 necessary. This is Judaism, it is obligatory." 
 
 " Now, uncle, I don't want to hurt your feelings, but 
 I can take you to some of your co-religionists in this 
 city whose whole life is wrapped up in this ceremonial 
 law. They live l kosher,' indeed, but they are any- 
 thing but a credit to their religion or their race. On 
 
62 DOCTOR CAVALLO 
 
 the other hand, I can show you Jews who do not care 
 for the small details, but who lead upright lives filled 
 with charity and humanity. With the one Judaism is 
 simply dead legalism, with the other, it is a high and 
 lofty guide, dealing with the love of humanity." 
 
 "You," said the old man, slowly, "are losing your 
 Judaism." 
 
 " And you," returned the other, " are losing your 
 hold upon the rising generation. They will not sub- 
 mit to these little ceremonies. Now, you will, if you 
 cling to them, have no following. You must come up 
 to the recognition of this fact, that Judaism must keep 
 step with the age. If it doesn't it will be lost." 
 
 The old man seemed absorbed in thought. He 
 smoked slowly, and finally he asked : 
 
 "Is there no Jewish congregation in the city?" 
 
 " Oh, yes, there is a Jewish congregation, but I must 
 confess that I have no time to spare to idle away in 
 their society. I know some of the people of our faith, 
 some of them are capital fellows, one family in particu- 
 lar here, I am on very good terms with, but I have 
 never told them and they do not suspect that I am a 
 Jew." 
 
 ''Don't suspect that you are a Jew?" retorted the old 
 man. "Are you then ashamed of it? Look at your 
 fathers in Spain? When they were forced to wear a 
 yellow badge ; when to be a Jew was a disgrace and 
 they were in danger of the stake. Did they swerve? 
 When whole committees were expelled from that land 
 the choice was offered them to retain their faith and 
 be driven out, or give it up and keep their high posi- 
 tions. Did they bend the knee? And are you ashamed 
 of this glorious ancestry?" 
 
DOCTOR CAVALLO 63 
 
 "Oh, ashamed," answered Cavallo. M I have never in- 
 timated that I was, uncle. When it comes to that I am 
 as proud of it as you or any one, but I am not called 
 upon to proclaim my religion from the house tops. I 
 am not given to boasting of my own deeds, but I am 
 trying to live up to the teachings of the prophets. To 
 me, Judaism is not confined to the utensils of the 
 kitchen. It is not stored away in certain books, nor is 
 it wrapped up in obsolete customs." 
 
 a What do you mean by your Judaism, "almost sneered 
 his uncle. 
 
 M My Judaism," quietly replied Cavallo, "is a religion 
 of broad justice, of far reaching humanity, of uncom- 
 promising virtue, of abounding love to all who are in 
 need of sympathy and help as set forth by our teachers, 
 Moses, Isaiah, Amos and the other great lights." 
 
 "Tut, tut," retorted his uncle, curtly. "What is the 
 difference between a Christian and a Jew, then?' 
 
 "Difference ! none that I know of," said Cavallo. 
 
 "None," shrieked his uncle, "none, you say. Have 
 I lived these years to have my religious feelings out- 
 raged by mine own nephew? None! Have we Jews 
 been persecuted, slaughtered, spit upon, and mal- 
 treated these hundreds of years for nothing?" 
 
 "You mistake, uncle," answered Cavallo, with calm 
 dignity, "I meant to say that the Christian who prac- 
 tices broad charity and benevolence and lives up to the 
 principles of justice and mercy is in my humble opinion 
 a better Jew than the Jew who lives up to the dietary 
 law, believes in the old ceremonies, hugs the old ritual, 
 clings to the old dead husks of the superstitious ages, 
 but is indifferent to the principles of humanity. It is 
 these people that have rendered the name of Jew ob- 
 
64 DOCTOR CAVALLO 
 
 noxious to society. They have in the past thrown the 
 Jew into a Ghetto and to-day he is looked upon by 
 many with prejudice and even with hate. 
 
 " No difference, hey ! No difference between a Jew 
 and a Christian? 1 ' murmured Mr. Mendez, in whose 
 mind these words seemed to have burned their way 
 and to whom Cavallo's outbursts were entirely lost. 
 
 He relapsed into a stage of profound astonishment, 
 only stopping occasionally to stare at his nephew, and 
 shake his head. Finally he said, " How is the teach- 
 ing of our holy religion? Doesn't it say we are a holy 
 people, the chosen people, and only us did God select 
 from all the nations of the earth?" 
 
 "Science does not mention any selection, except 
 ' natural selection,'" said Cavallo. "The blood of the 
 Jew doesn't show under the microscope to be any 
 different from the blood of the Gentile, nor is there 
 any difference in his anatomy. The psychologist has 
 not discovered that there is any difference in the mind 
 of the Jew from that of any other race except it be 
 that he is a little quicker to think." 
 
 "What did our prophets then mean," retorted his 
 uncle, "by calring us a chosen people. Are you deny- 
 ing this?' 7 
 
 •'The Jews were a chosen people, just as other races 
 like the Egyptians, the Greeks and the Romans were 
 chosen to perform certain functions. So far as the 
 Jew is concerned he took upon himself in the dark 
 ages of the world to teach lessons of religion. Hence 
 he has had greater responsibilities thrust upon him, 
 which, if he is true to his calling, he must exemplify to 
 the world." 
 
 Mr. Mendez could only shake his head, and after 
 
DOCTOR CAVALLO 65 
 
 pulling at his cigar, he found that it had gone out. He 
 lighted another, and after getting it fairly started, he 
 uttered, in a voice of deep dejection: "No difference ; 
 no difference between a Jew and a Christian, and he 
 mine own nephew ! " 
 
 "Uncle, you seem to take my remarks very much at 
 heart," added Cavallo. "They were innocently made, 
 but let us be a little more serious about it. Wherein 
 have I sinned ? It would be useless for me to enter 
 into an argument against your idea of special selection 
 from any other but a Jewish view. Of course, I could 
 •cite such characters in support of my ideas as Geiger, 
 Stein, Holdheim, Einhorn and many others, but you 
 would answer, 'These were reformed rabbis, destructive 
 teachers,' notwithstanding that these men have ad- 
 vanced the standard of Jewish culture, have, by dint of 
 their intellects, demanded a recognition of Jewish 
 ideals from a hostile world. Notwithstanding all this, 
 you would regard them as renegades, would not accord 
 them any Jewish authority. Very well. You ac- 
 knowledge the binding force of the Talmud, do you 
 not?" 
 
 "Well, go on," said his uncle. 
 
 " No ; answer me, in all fairness, answer me. Do 
 you not acknowledge the Talmud as the highest 
 authority ? " 
 
 "Well," peevishly replied the other, " of course I do, 
 next to the ' Torah.' " 
 
 "Well, then," continued Cavallo, u does not the Tal- 
 mud maintain that everyone who repudiates and denies 
 idolatry is a Jew? And in another place the sages 
 taught that the righteous of the Gentiles will enjoy 
 future life. Were they apostates because their religion 
 
 3 
 
66 DOCTOR CAVALLO 
 
 was not narrow ? Were they renegades because they 
 taught that even the state in the future life depended, 
 not on faith, not on birth, not on creed, but on conduct ? 
 You readily understand, uncle, that the advanced Jew 
 of to-day regards the Talmud as literature, merely recog- 
 nizing it as a sort of anthropological development of Jew- 
 ish culture ; yet, I must say, that these very Talmudic 
 sages who maintain ideas so far in advance of their 
 age, would blush to see the deification made by some 
 of our co-religionists of their plain interpretations. 
 
 " I could cite, too, many passages in Sacred Writ, 
 which you will admit impose far superior and more 
 binding authority on the Jew than any works written 
 since, in support of my argument, that before God there 
 is no difference between man and man." 
 
 11 So ! you can, can you ! Cite passages from the Bible, 
 where the Jew is not superior to the Christian ?" 
 
 11 Of course, there are no such passages in the Bible 
 about Christians, but what I mean to convey, uncle, is 
 that the Bible, while laying special duties on Israel, 
 emphasizes throughout, the teachings of conduct and 
 life in preference to creed, dogma and form. It makes 
 no distinction in the performance of duty between man 
 and man. But before I go any farther, uncle, a thought 
 just strikes me as an illustration in point. Nearly two 
 thousand years ago, the Talmud tells us, a dispute 
 arose among the learned rabbis as to which was the 
 most important verse in the Bible. One held that it 
 was ' Love thy neighbor as thyself,' another cited 
 another verse. Finally, a sage said that neither of 
 these filled the idea, but that the holiest verse was the 
 first verse in the fifth chapter of Genesis, which says : 
 'This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the 
 
DOCTOR CAVALLO 67 
 
 day that God created man, 1 mark ye, he created man — 
 not Jew, not Gentile, not black, not white, but man — 
 4 in the likeness of God made he him. 1 Conclusively 
 showing by this that before God all men are equal, and 
 that all men have the same origin. 11 
 
 "So," said the old man, "why do you cite the 
 Talmud ? You don^ believe in it. 11 
 
 " I do believe in it ; that is, I believe in that part 
 where the rabbis have shown a broad spirit of tolerance 
 and fraternal love," said Cavallo. 
 
 The old man was perplexed. He seemed at his wit's 
 end, and again he murmured, "No difference between 
 a Christian and a Jew ! " 
 
 This exclamation was lost on Cavallo, who went on: 
 
 " Uncle, do you believe that the Psalmist was a Jew ? " 
 
 The old man's eyes shone, and he shouted, "What 
 else was he ? — a Christian ?" 
 
 The cut passed unheeded by Cavallo, who continued. 
 
 " Since this Psalmist was a Jew, we may safely ask 
 him for a definition of Judaism. I remember, uncle, 
 how deep these words, that I am about to cite to you, 
 sank into my heart when a lad, while the minister 
 chanted so impressively in the old Portugese syna- 
 gogue on the eve of our New Year, 'Who shall ascend 
 into the hill of the Lord and who shall stand in his 
 holy place,' which put into our every day talk would 
 be another way for putting the question, 'What shall 
 we do to be saved? 1 " 
 
 " Mark his answer. He says nothing about l Kosher ' 
 or ' Trafe,' ' Mezzuzah,' or anything about our forms 
 and rites but ' He that hath clean hands and a pure 
 heart. 1 Now, uncle, do you want anything broader? 
 Do you find any difference between the born Israelite 
 and the Gentile in this?' 1 
 
68 DOCTOR CAVALLO 
 
 The old man groaned and muttered, " No difference, 
 eh, no difference ! " 
 
 " I could go on, but it is useless," pursued his nephew. 
 " Let me cite you one or two more prophets. The 
 life and customs of the Jews in the time of Amos are 
 not unknown to you. They scrupulously, it seems, ob- 
 served all of the regulations and the rites of the Temple, 
 but they lacked two littje things : humanity and justice. 
 How this prophet lashed them for their misdeeds ! 
 Listen to what this great Jew says in the name of 
 Jehovah : 
 
 " ' I hate and despise your feast days and I will not 
 delight in your solemn assemblies ; take thou away 
 from me the noise of thy songs, for I will not hear the 
 melody of thy viols, but let justice run down as water 
 and rightousness as a mighty stream.' How is this, 
 uncle, as a definition of Judaism?" 
 
 The old man moved uneasily in his seat and feebly 
 said, " No difference ! " and shook his head mournfully. 
 
 Cavallo went on, •■ Micah, another of our great teach- 
 ers, after denying that God wants sacrifices and bribery, 
 says 4 He hath showed thee, oh, man, what is good and 
 what the Lord doth require of thee (nothing more) 
 but to do justice and to love mercy and to walk humbly 
 with thy God.' Now, you see, he does not mention 
 the word Jew even, or Israelite. I tell you this is the 
 greatest gospel of human brotherhood ever advanced 
 by anyone, and if this does not make one a Jew, I 
 would like to have you tell me what will. This is the 
 Judaism in which I believe." 
 
 The old man shook his head again, but he secretly 
 admired the brilliant intelligence of his nephew, and 
 although he was not wholly convinced, the new light 
 
DOCTOR CAVALLO 69 
 
 that had been thrown upon the subject set him think- 
 ing and he only said : 
 
 "What a pity, dear Maurice, that you don't make 
 better use of your knowledge of our sacred literature.'" 
 
 Maurice replied, " I do not understand you. Better 
 use?" 
 
 "Aye," rejoined the old man. "Why do you separ- 
 ate yourself from your people?" 
 
 "My people," echoed Cavallo. "My people! In- 
 deed, uncle, if there be anything that I am proud of, it 
 is that I am not separated from my people. My 
 belief is, every man who practices humanity, who be- 
 lieves in justice, who loves his fellow man, who has 
 hope in the future, and works for the right in the 
 present — such men are my brethren whatever their 
 creed, their color, or their race. The sooner our co- 
 religionists recognize this divine principle, the sooner 
 will race prejudice and religious intolerance disappear." 
 
 The old man seemed lost in thought. His head fell 
 on his breast. 
 
 Cavallo, looking at his watch, added, "Why, dear me, 
 I had no idea that it was so late. It is thoughtless of 
 me to keep you up after your long journey. When 
 you are ready we will retire." 
 
 The old man arose slowly and said, "Yes, you are 
 right. A night's rest will do me good." 
 
 Putting on his hat and overcoat they started for the 
 hotel. When they went up to his room, as they parted, 
 the old man said, " Maurice, I am glad, indeed I am, 
 that I came. I am glad that we had this talk to-night, 
 and be it far from me to sit in judgment on you, but 
 there is one thing I would like to have you promise me. 
 Now, will you?" 
 
70 DOCTOR CAVALLO 
 
 Cavallo, smiling, said, "That depends, uncle, if you 
 are not too hard on me.' 7 
 
 "Promise me," entreated the old man, "that you will 
 connect yourself with the congregation, and take a 
 little deeper interest in your brethren, and in our faith. 
 Now will you?" 
 
 Cavallo hesitated. "Uncle, I will think of it, you 
 are not going to leave right away ? I will see you in the 
 morning." 
 
 "Yes," said the old man, "I must take the first train 
 back. I only came here to have a look at you, that's 
 all. Promise me now!" 
 
 The old man's voice trembled, and to pacify him, 
 and to atone for the pain that he had unintentionally 
 caused him, Cavallo replied : 
 
 "Well, uncle, sleep well. If this will be a source of 
 pleasure to you, I will do so, to please you." 
 
 Abraham Mendez, overcome with emotion, em- 
 braced his nephew, and placing his hand on his head 
 with reverent benediction, blessed him, and they bade 
 each other good night. 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 Timothy Dodd had not recovered his spirits. He 
 went about his work mechanically. He polished up 
 the furniture in the office, but he no longer did this 
 with his old-time enthusiasm. The sight of the surgi- 
 cal instruments, as they lay in their polished cases, 
 afforded him no delight. When he looked at the little 
 sign that hung out in front, it did not fill his soul with 
 swelling ambition, and he no longer saw in his mind's 
 eye the words, " Cavallo & Dodd, Physicians and Sur- 
 geons," in gold letters, as he had once fondly imagined 
 would one day be the case. He even wore the Doctor's 
 second-hand clothes with reluctance, and a particular 
 vest that he had long fancied, he did not lay away as he 
 intended, thinking that he would wear it himself when 
 the Doctor had forgotten it. Instead of these things, 
 he only shook his head sagaciously and mournfully, 
 and ejaculated, " An' him a Jew." Only one thing af- 
 forded him solace, he pilfered more of the Doctor's 
 cigars out of the box than he did before, and smoked 
 them without stint. Even when the Doctor began to 
 suspect something, and inquired where his cigars had 
 gone, Tim responded, "The rats must hev tuk thim, 1 ' 
 and he did not even afflict his soul for the sin of lying. 
 Now he paused, and eyeing a picture of the Doctor on 
 the wall, shook his fist at it, wrathfully, and said, "An 1 
 
J2 DOCTOR CAVALLO 
 
 ye are a Jew," as if the photograph was responsible for 
 the whole race question. 
 
 He was aroused from this reverie by a noise on the 
 stairs, and going to the door, he admitted Bob Law- 
 rence and a companion of about the same age, a broad- 
 shouldered man, with a massive head and an air of 
 assurance. They came in, and Bob, showing the other 
 to a seat, asked, "Tim, where's the Doctor ?" 
 
 " At prisint, sor, he's out," replied Tim. 
 
 " I know that," said Bob, " any one can see that. I 
 asked you where he was ? " 
 
 "Whin he's not in, he's out," explained Tim, "an' 
 whin he's not out, he's in." 
 
 "Do you know where he is?" inquired Bob, im- 
 patiently. 
 
 "He's halin' the sick, puttin' eyes into the blind, fas- 
 tenin' legs onto the lame, and pullin 7 the teeth out of 
 the poor. Small use hev they for teeth, wid mate and 
 things so high." 
 
 " The Doctor is nicely fixed here," quoth Bob's com- 
 panion. " Fine case of instruments there." 
 
 This warmed Tim's heart at once. u Luk at thim," 
 said he, "ain't they daisies. There's saws there that 
 wud cut a man's leg off so slick that it wud be a comfort 
 to him." 
 
 Both of his listeners burst into a peal of laughter. 
 Bob added, u I suppose, then, to make a man com- 
 pletely comfortable, you^would have to saw off both of 
 his legs ?" 
 
 U I tell ye, Misther Lawrence," explained Tim, 
 gravely, "thim instrumints is a very satisfyin' sight. 
 Whin a man comes in here groanin' wid pain, and the 
 dochter ain't in, I say to him, go to the case there, 
 
DOCTOR CAVALLO 73 
 
 sez I, and select the saw or the huk that you wud 
 fancy you wud have thrust into yez, sez I, and whin 
 the dochter comes in, we'll stretch ye out on the 
 operatin' table in the back room, an' I give ye my wurd 
 that ye'll have no raison to quistion the fidility of the 
 wurrk done on yez." 
 
 " This ought to make them more than satisfied," said 
 Bob's companion, gravely. " It ought to make them 
 uproariously happy.'* 
 
 "They ginerally go away wid a great calm in their 
 moind." 
 
 "The saycrit of medsin," continued Tim, earnestly, 
 "is to so afflict the patient that he does'nt suspict what 
 ye are about to do to him, and thin ye jab him and git 
 the insthrumint into him, an' begin twistin' it around 
 before he comprehinds the plan that ye are purshuin'." 
 "You have got the thing down fine, Tim," said Bob, 
 encouragingly. 
 
 "Ye see," added Tim, oracularly, "there is two 
 branches in the practice of medsin — thecertin and the 
 oncertin. Whin ye saw a man's leg off, ye know what 
 ye have done ; the leg is off ; that ye can see, and so 
 can he, that's certin. But whin ye gev him physic, ye 
 don't know what ye are doin'. Ye are, in a manner, 
 wurrkin' in the darrk. Ye have to wait. Somethin' de- 
 pinds on the medsin, and somethin 1 on the man's pidi- 
 gree. If his grandmother culdn't take casthor ile, the 
 man can't, in nine toimes out of tin. What are ye to 
 do ? This is the oncertin side." 
 
 "I thought," interrupted Bob, "that the uncertain 
 side was when the man took the medicine and then 
 refused to pay his bill." 
 
 "That's the calamitous side," replied Tim, "but we 
 
74 DOCTOR CAVALLO 
 
 are not discussin' now the finances, but the thary of 
 the professhun. There's dochters and dochters ; the 
 wan studies the finances solely, but we are not on the 
 make." 
 
 "You must be quite a doctor by this time, Tim," said 
 Bob, quizzingly. 
 
 " The thary of medsin consists, first, of the essentials, 
 thin of the corporosities, and, lastly, of the predica- 
 mints. I got into the corporosities," responded Tim, 
 "and thin I wuld'nt be let." 
 
 " How was that, why wouldn't you be let ? " 
 
 " Well, it was ould Mrs. Marks who had a pain. She 
 kem up here, and she sat the whole furenoon, and 
 finally, sez she, l The dochter was to lave me a com- 
 pund,' did he do it?" 
 
 "A compund, sez I to meself. 'Now a compund is 
 exactly what I kin make.' So I sez, k he did,' and I 
 wint to the dochter's case, and I made her up a bottle 
 with a little of everything in the case. I was that particu- 
 lar about it, I didn't put in anything more of wan kind 
 than another. It was as foine a compund as iver wint 
 out av any shop, and I gev her the full av the bottle, 
 and charged her forty cints. She wint aff, and whin 
 the dochter kem back I gev him the forty cints, and 
 tould him what I had done." 
 
 "What did he do ? " laughed Bob. 
 
 11 He dhruv down to the ould lady's house as fast as 
 he cud dhrive, an' tuk the bottle away from her be- 
 fore she had a chance tothry the compund, an' he kem 
 back an' he booted me all aroond the place. I niver 
 seen him so mad as he war that day." 
 
 "You should have tried it on the dog," said Bob's 
 companion. 
 
DOCTOR CAVALLO 75 
 
 "I did," replied Tim. 
 
 " Ah, ha ! and what became of him ? " 
 
 " He wint ded." 
 
 " You're a treasure," remarked Bob's companion, " you 
 ought to be a drug clerk." 
 
 " It's all right about the thary of medsin, but I have 
 discovered this," returned Tim, "it's not physic that 
 does the wurrk — it's moighty little to do wid it." 
 
 " What does it, then ? " asked Bob, desirous of drawing 
 Tim out. 
 
 " It's sthyle." 
 
 " Style," echoed Bob. 
 
 " That's phat it is," "Ye see wan of these big doch- 
 ters drivin' aroond about wid a cupay and a driver wid 
 a black hat. He comes up to a house, an' he goes 
 whiz up to the dure, an' he opens it, an' he goes prancin' 
 in wid his brist swellin' out in front, and he a smellin' 
 of peppermint and ashfetidy an' droogs, as if he was 
 gevin' his mind wholly to physic, and he sez to the 
 sick man, ' How are we to-day ?' An' he talks, an' he 
 uses big wurrds, an' takes upon himsilf half the dis- 
 ayse, an' he bounces around, an' he gives direcshuns, 
 an' sez he, l take a tayspoonfui out of this glass ivery 
 half hour, an' a tablespoonful out av that wan ivery 
 fifteen minits,' and he puts a termomether undher the 
 man's tongue, and he smiles softly to himself ; and the 
 man, sez he to himself, the ' disayse is bruk, or he 
 wudn't be that confident ;' an' thin he gits up, and 
 sez: 'O'll tackle a little soup/ an' he recovers. He 
 pays the dochter's big bill wid saycret satisfacshun, 
 whin all he needed was a little starvation and soup in 
 the first place." 
 
 M Is this the way Dr. Cavallo practises ?" 
 
?6 DOCTOR CAVALLO 
 
 " Ah ! the Dochter is that kind an' careful that whin 
 he goes into a sick room he stheps so gintly and 
 quiet loike that the man sez, ' Oi'm ashamed to be lyin' 
 here sick whin I ought to be at wurrk,' and so he gits up 
 at wance." 
 
 "He hypnotizes them, eh?" said Bob's companion. 
 
 " He does nothing of the kind," echoed a deep voice 
 behind them, and they turned, for Dr. Cavallo had 
 walked in, and going up to Bob's companion, slapped 
 him on the shoulder, and said, "Seidel, old man, how 
 are you ? " 
 
 "I did not suppose you would know me," replied 
 Seidel, answering to his name. 
 
 "As if I could ever forget you? Where have you 
 been ? How's bacteriology ?" 
 
 The other laughed. * Bacteriology has had to yield 
 to more pressing business. I am now an honest miner." 
 
 Tim had been sliding near the door. He had at last, 
 after repeated efforts, attracted Bob's attention, and by 
 an expressive pantomime, had indicated to him that he 
 must not reveal anything that had passed between 
 them. 
 
 Bob, good-naturedly, gave him back, in the same 
 pantomime, the assurance that they might saw both his 
 legs off before the secret should be torn from him, and 
 then Tim discreetly slid down the back way to chat 
 with the driver and have a look at the doctor's horses. 
 
 When this had been done, Bob arose and said : 
 " Now, gentlemen, I must attend to some business. 
 Seidel is staying with me, Doctor, and you must come 
 up. You haven't been to see us for a long time. I 
 will leave you two to talk over old times, and when you 
 get through, Seidel, drop into the office where you 
 were this forenoon." 
 
DOCTOR CAVALLO J J 
 
 With this Bob took himself away, leaving the two 
 together. 
 
 Cavallo looked at his old friend and pupil with a 
 pleased expression on his face. " Old fellow, it does 
 me good to see you, and they tell me that you have 
 grown rich." 
 
 Seidel laughed a hard, metallic laugh. "I have 
 made some money. I went west, as you know, tried 
 the practice of medicine. Too slow. Then I dabbled 
 a little in mines, got hold of some mining stock, sold 
 it, got hold of some more, sold that, began to make 
 money. Finally threw my practice to the winds and 
 started out as a stock broker, a promoter, or whatever 
 you call it." 
 
 "What is there in selling mining stocks?" asked the 
 doctor. 
 
 k4 A big commission," promptly responded the other. 
 " Mining is like a lottery. You may succeed, and you 
 may not. You are perpetually on the eve of striking it 
 rich. The very next day you may hit a perfect bonanza, 
 but in the meantime you need money. It takes money 
 to dig through porphyry and quartz and to follow a 
 lead that may after all be a false fissure. If you hit it, 
 you are all right. I don't want any more in mine. 
 My specialty is in selling stocks, not in operating the 
 mines." 
 
 u But are the mines worth anything?" inquired 
 Cavallo. 
 
 " Oh, some of them are, but I am not furnishing 
 brains for both ends of the trade. If the mine is a 
 good one, some one will make money out of it, if it is 
 a bad one, they only follow the experience of ten thou- 
 sand others." 
 
78 DOCTOR CAVALLO 
 
 "Seidel," returned Cavallo, 1< I would rather practice 
 medicine." 
 
 The other blushed under the steady gaze of his old- 
 time friend. At last he replied, " Now, my dear fellow, 
 this is as legitimate a calling as any. The world values 
 you for what you have, not what you can do. The age 
 of philanthropy has gone by. Make your pile and then 
 preach. 'Laugh and the world laughs with you. 
 Weep and you weep alone. 1 The motto nowadays is 
 4 Chisel your neighbor if you can, he'll do the same by 
 you.' The new gospel is, ' Do your neighbor or he will 
 do you.' " 
 
 "And your duty to humanity?" said Cavallo. 
 
 "Duty to humanity! my dear sir. Don't you know 
 that Vanderbilt voiced the new gospel when he said, 
 
 4 The public be d .' Of course ! What does the law 
 
 of the survival of the fittest, mean? Why, to crowd the 
 weaker ones to the wall and get what you can. 1 ' 
 
 "The law of the survival of the fittest, Seidel, is 
 that the noblest will survive. To follow your gospel, 
 as you call it, is to render the race unfit to survive and 
 it will be overborne.' 1 
 
 u Science shows us that life is a warfare. The strong- 
 est lives, the weak perish. This is all that there is 
 to it. r1 
 
 "And God," added Cavallo. 
 
 The other burst into a fit of laughter. "And you, a 
 medical man, spring that old chestnut? God? what is 
 he but a mere abstraction, a figment hatched in the 
 brains of priests in order to rob the people and make 
 them pay tribute. Show him to me under the micro- 
 scope and then I will believe in him." 
 
 "Your philosophy on this point is as bad as your 
 conclusion," replied Cavallo. 
 
DOCTOR CAVALLO 79 
 
 Just then the telephone sounded, and the doctor 
 went to it. Seidel arose with: "Well, I see that you 
 will be busy professionally ; I will come around again. 
 Good day." And out he went. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 The day was dark and muggy. There was a heavy 
 feeling in the air that rendered it difficult to respire. 
 As Dr. Cavallo reached his office, a call on his slate 
 made him stop and pause. "Another time in Abbot's 
 Row, with the O'HaraV he muttered wrathfully to 
 himself. Then he went into his office, filled up his 
 medicine case, and started off, for he knew that he 
 should need a full supply. The Row was the terror of 
 the city. It stood in a hollow. A drain had been be- 
 gun some time before, and had nearly reached it, but 
 when it came to the Row, Mr. Abbot, a wealthy prop- 
 erty owner, fought it off, refused to pay his proportion, 
 and had it stopped, on the ground that it would be a 
 detriment to his property. So the drain, qi* sewer, 
 stood with its open mouth, a few feet under ground, 
 discharging a perfect flood of horrors into the neigh- 
 borhood. The Row was a long and irregular pile of 
 buildings that fronted it, and occupied a good deal of 
 ground. Of architectural beauty it did not and could 
 not boast. The owner was penurious, and he had con- 
 structed it by buying every old barn and dwelling- 
 house that he could purchase cheap, and fitting them 
 up for dwellings that would rent, and so had made an 
 odd, patched-up, tumble-down place enough, but he 
 contrived to make it immensely populous. The Board 
 
DOCTOR CAVALLO 8 I 
 
 of Health had once or twice condemned it, but Abbot 
 had influence enough to prevent them from going to 
 any extreme measures with it. He was always going 
 to build, and he was on the point of havirtg it pulled 
 down. He was so excessively philanthropic in his 
 talk, that to listen to him, one would think that he was 
 about to overflow into a very benevolent channel, but 
 none of his schemes in this direction ever materialized. 
 On the contrary, every year saw him getting more and 
 more selfish. He fought every public improvement, 
 was opposed to water-works, preferring to use wells, 
 although the danger was often shown him of taking 
 water from the contaminated soil. He was eloquent 
 upon the building of cisterns. He was against all street 
 paving. He dwelt continually upon expense, and he 
 was always present at every meeting called upon to 
 take action upon anything that looked like costing 
 money, no matter what it was. Under the pretense of 
 being excessively public-spirited, he was as mean and 
 grinding a miser as it was possible to be. He attended 
 a hide-bound Presbyterian church where every man sat 
 stiff and upright, and believed, with himself, that 
 they were the elect, and that having been singled out 
 from the world by a crowning act of mercy, it was their 
 duty to keep the rest of mankind in subjection. To be 
 sure, it was argued by the Board of Health, that if 
 they let the Row alone it would eventually burn or rot 
 down, but in the meantime it was a perfect nest of dis- 
 ease, and under the conditions, it made Dr. Cavallo 
 grind his teeth every time he was called to attend any- 
 one there. 
 
 This time he pulled his hat down over his eyes with 
 the air of a man engaged or about to engage in a very 
 
82 DOCTOR CAVALLO 
 
 unpleasant duty. He walked down the small incline 
 at the bottom of which lay the Row. It arose up 
 before him in all its unpleasantness. He stopped at 
 the first room, where Mrs. O'Hara lived. The poor 
 woman had made a brave fight to keep her little flock 
 together. Her old man, Pat, sat by the fire nursing his 
 lame back. When he saw the doctor he arose, and 
 Mrs. O'Hara, with many apologies, dusted out a chair 
 for him to sit in. In spite of their poverty the little 
 room was tolerably clean. Mike, the hope of the 
 family, a heavily built youth of about twenty, sat by 
 the fire with a sullen look on his face. 
 
 When the doctor came in he moved just enough to 
 let him pass by him. The doctor had attended so long 
 on the family that he knew every detail of their daily 
 life, so he asked Mike, "What are you doing now?" 
 
 "Nothing'' growled Mike, "can't get no work." 
 
 "Why, have you tried?" responded the doctor. 
 
 Mike arose, ejected a quid of tobacco from his 
 mouth, and then grunted: "The Trades Union won't 
 let me in." 
 
 " What are the girls doing?" asked Dr. Cavallo, of 
 two rather bright, pretty girls, the eldest of whom 
 must have been eighteen. 
 
 "We hav'nt been doing anything since the factory 
 closed," responded the eldest. " I tried to get into 
 the Ten Cent store, but they only pay two dollars a 
 week. I won't work for that." 
 
 " Isn't there anything else that you can do?" inquired 
 Dr. Cavallo. 
 
 "No, there isn't," she answered with a tinge of defi- 
 ance in her manner. " I will starve before I will do 
 housework. I won't go into anyone's kitchen, that's 
 flat." 
 
DOCTOR CAVALLO 83 
 
 The old man broke in : " We always did well until 
 these times kem on, and I lost me place wid the city, 
 and thin I got me back hurted by the cavin' in on me. 
 Then the gurl's factory closed, and Moike, the domnd 
 lazy loon, got to running around the shtreets, doin' 
 nothing but divilment and belongin' to the Ham Head 
 gang. The police will run him in wan of these days 
 and then he'll remimber what his ould faather tould 
 him." 
 
 "You bet yer sweet life, the police won't run him in, 
 either, 1 ' retorted Mike. "The police wasn't made yet 
 that could handle me. I don't take no back seat for 
 any duffer that ever wore a star." 
 
 "Mike, you ought to be ashamed of yourself," re- 
 turned the doctor, "to sit here, a burden on your poor 
 old father and mother. Why don't you go out and 
 get into some honest occupation, instead of being a 
 tough and loafer?" 
 
 Mike bristled up with all the pugnacity of his class. 
 "See here, Doc', I don't take no back talk from a 
 Sheeney. Now d'ye moind that. I attend to my own 
 business. See!" 
 
 This was too much for his father. " Ye young thafe," 
 he roared, "do you sit there and insoolt your faather's 
 frinds. Git out!" and with that he raised his crutch 
 and brought it down with such force on Mike's head 
 that he laid him out on the floor. 
 
 This set them all off afresh. Mrs. O'Hara was quite 
 sure that Mike was killed, the girls cried and wrung 
 their hands, while the old man laughed, "Ah — h, a little 
 rap like that! Manny's the time I've had me hed laid 
 open worse nor that, an' I niver kicked." 
 
 Dr. Cavallo stilled the commotion, He got some 
 
84 DOCTOR CAVALLO 
 
 water and bathed Mike's head and found that he had 
 received a scalp wound which made it necessary to 
 bandage it. Then he had to attend to Pat's lame back 
 and show him how to rub the liniment on it. This was 
 interspersed with running remarks from Pat on the 
 general worthlessness of " Moike " and how since he 
 had got to running with the Ham Heads, he was rap- 
 idly going to the bad. "All that domnd b'y talks of 
 now, dochter, is prize foights and scrappin' schrapes. 
 He foight a prize foight ! He wud run like a loon at the 
 first soight of a good man's dookes." 
 
 Then Mrs. O'Hara had to be looked after. She had a 
 pain almost everywhere in her body and in fact she was 
 getting the rheumatism. The doctor saw to all of his 
 charges and was about leaving, when he heard a shrill 
 voice say, u Won't you please come and see my Mamma?" 
 He turned and found at his side the smallest mite of a 
 child. Her blue eyes, her infantile face, her air of gen- 
 tle care and the sad notes of her voice showing that 
 misery had already set its seal upon her. young as she 
 was, made the doctor reply, M Certainly, my little one, 
 show me where your mamma is." 
 
 "God bless the child," cried Pat, "It's little Daisy." 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 Dr. Cavallo followed her out into the passage 
 and into a small back room and there lying on a bed 
 was the form of a woman. The place was small and 
 the ceiling low. The floor was rotten and in one cor- 
 ner it had given way, so that the foundation could be 
 seen between the boards and the base. The open 
 window allowed the fetid smell of rotting cabbage and 
 the offal that had been thrown out |om the rooms 
 above to fill the apartment. The back yard had been 
 the receptacle time out of mind for all the waste of the 
 Row. The place was filled with old tin cans, beer bot- 
 tles in great number and variety, even a stray keg or two 
 testified to times when some inhabitant of the Row had 
 been able to gather enough together to afford a sym- 
 posium. There was little in the room but an old 
 stove, cracked and broken, with one of its legs entirely 
 gone and the missing member supplied by a brick and 
 the other three in various stages of rickety dilapidation. 
 On the stove were the remains of some baked potatoes, 
 looking as if the person who had last prepared the 
 meal had used the top of the stove for a dining table. 
 There was a table on which there were a few dishes, 
 but these were all dirty and filled with odds and ends, 
 a few crumbs of bread here and there and some milk 
 in a pitcher, which had been suffered to sour. The 
 
86 DOCTOR CAVALLO 
 
 ashes had been taken out of the stove and had been 
 dumped in a corner. The torn paper, the soiled walls, 
 the broken furniture, testified to the last degree of pov- 
 erty and want. When he first went in the doctor saw 
 nothing but the outline of a woman on the bed and she 
 lay so still that he thought that she was dead. He 
 went to the bedside and explored her pulse mechanic- 
 ally, for the room was dark so that he could not see at 
 first, but as his eyes became used to the gathering 
 gloom he was shocked, for before him on the bed was 
 a well known face. 
 
 It was that of a woman who had, some years before, 
 come to the city as the wife of a railroad line agent. 
 He was a good fellow and he had a good position, but 
 he began to drink, and after a time he lost his place, 
 and began to descend lower and lower in the scale. 
 A slight noise in the corner of the room attracted 
 the doctor's attention, and he looked to see what 
 it was. To his astonishment, he discerned that this 
 was the husband, the once popular and witty James 
 Dayton, who showed, by the looks of his face, that 
 he had been drinking heavily, but he had slept it off 
 to some extent. He got up from the floor, where 
 he had flung himself, and steadying his steps with an 
 effort, he came forward, looked at the doctor, and then 
 came up to the bedside extending a dirty hand. 
 
 All that remained to him was his boisterous off-hand 
 way — the last touches of a manner that had formerly 
 made him the prince of good fellows. He was clothed 
 in a coat that showed the worst stages of decay, and his 
 shirt was matted with dirt. His pants were a pair of 
 old overalls, held up by a belt around the waist, the 
 belt consisting of a piece of harness. His shoes had 
 
DOCTOR CAVALLO 87 
 
 been thrown away by some more fortunate wearer, but 
 anything was good enough now for Jim Dayton. 
 
 "Doc.," he stuttered, " how are ye? Ye see we're in 
 pretty tough luck, but if ye kin do anything for the old 
 woman, do it, and I'll make it all right yit." 
 
 "James," entreated the sick woman, " do be quiet." 
 
 "That's all right," returned the drunkard, " I know 
 Doc. and he knows me. I aint flush just at present, 
 but, you mark me, I'll strike it rich yit. If I had a 
 little money, I know of a deal I could go into that 
 would give us money enough to allow us to run over 
 the people in this town, and tell 'em to send in their 
 bill." 
 
 11 Dayton," returned the doctor, " I am shocked. 
 Pray be quiet. I wish to hear what your wife wants." 
 
 " It's all right, Doc," answered the inebriate. " Any- 
 thing she wants she ought to have. She's stuck to me 
 through thick and thin, and you bet yer life I won't go 
 back on her now." 
 
 " Oh, God ! " murmured the poor soul from her bed, 
 " has it come to this ? James, I wish that you would 
 go out, I want to speak to the doctor." 
 
 11 All right," replied the other, M I'll go. I tell you, 
 Doc, we've got to do as the women say. When they 
 set their foot down, you bet we've got to knuckle to 
 'em," and with this he staggered out. 
 
 The poor woman moaned. " Oh," she said, " Doc- 
 tor, it is this terrible drink. He is that way all of the 
 time ; he is never sober. He never gave me an unkind 
 word ; always good-natured. He never struck me, or 
 even offered to do so, but when he gets liquor in his 
 head, he is this same good-natured, shiftless, incompe- 
 tent fellow. Any one can do with him what he likes. 
 
88 DOCTOR CAVALLO 
 
 Oh,' 1 she said, and she wrung her hands, " what am I 
 to do with Daisy? Doctor, doctor, promise me that 
 when I die you will look after my little girl. It is 
 dreadful to think of leaving her here with all of these 
 low people." 
 
 While this conversation had been going on, the little 
 girl had drawn near her mother and held one of 
 her hands. As she heard the request that her mother 
 made, she turned such a mute and appealing glance 
 upon Dr. Cavallo that the sight nearly unmanned him. 
 The poor little thing had seen too much misery to 
 weep. She had passed all of that, for she had tasted, 
 to its fullest extent, the wretched life of a druukard's 
 child. Her little dress scarcely concealed her form. 
 •She was pinched by starvation, but through it all she 
 strove to keep up a perfect composure. She only 
 pressed her mother's hand and looked at the doctor. 
 
 " Have you no friends? 1 ' 
 
 "None, none," she murmured. " My father cast me 
 off because I wpuld live with Mr. Dayton, but I thought 
 when he gave me his solemn word that he would not 
 drink that he would keep it, but the moment he is with 
 his old associates he forgets everything that he has 
 promised. 1 ' 
 
 The doctor was moved, accustomed as he was to 
 scenes of woe. Going to the door, he called Dayton 
 in, and as that individual came rollicking back, he 
 said, with his air of easy indifference, "Well, have you 
 two got the whole thing fixed up?" 
 
 " Dayton ! " said the doctor, " stop your talk and 
 listen to me. Your wife wishes me to take your little 
 daughter and find a home for her. Do you understand 
 what this means? 1 ' 
 
 "All right, 1 ' he replied, with a laugh. "If it suits 
 
DOCTOR CAVALLO 89 
 
 my wife, it suits me. I can see Daisy when I get in 
 luck again. I tell you that it will only be a few days 
 now when this thing will be different. It's a long lane 
 that has no turning, and you can bet that by and by my 
 luck will come out. Daisy will ride in her carriage 
 yet." 
 
 With many a wise shake of the head and curses on 
 his luck, Dayton repeated, over and over, that his luck 
 would change, and that when it did, he would not for- 
 get his friends. Those who had stuck to him he would 
 recompense. His wife should wear diamonds and 
 Daisy should have a new silk dress every day. He sat 
 down at the foot of the bed and went over and over 
 this until he wearied them all. 
 
 Finally, Dr. Cavallo went out and returned with Mrs. 
 O'Hara. He made an arrangement with that woman 
 and her two daughters lor the care of poor Mrs. Day- 
 ton and for the attention that little Daisy so sadly 
 needed. He then left some medicine and gave direc- 
 tions for some clothing for the little girl. 
 
CHAPTER XL 
 
 He completed his act of charity and congratulated 
 himself that he was through, but he was not to escape 
 so easily. As he went into the yard to try and take a 
 shorter cut to the street cars, a head was thrust out of 
 the window and a voice said, u Oh, Doc, come up and 
 look at the kids." 
 
 He turned back and mounting the stairway he 
 groped his way into a hall, and as he came along 
 the passage a door was opened and he went into it. 
 It was a long, low room filled with cribs in a row 
 against the wall. A man was anxiously looking into 
 one of the cribs, and as the doctor came in he ex- 
 plained: 
 
 "This is old Mother Wooley's nursery and these little 
 things have been crying until I could not stand it and 
 I came in." At this half a dozen children set up a 
 piteous, wailing cry and the doctor inquired: "For 
 heaven's sake, what is this?" 
 
 There was dirt and squalor everywhere. The in- 
 fants were in cradles, some wrapped in rags, some with 
 coverlids over them. There was a dish of milk on the 
 stove and a few remains of food on an old table, but it 
 looked like a chamber of horrors, while on the bed was 
 an old crone fast asleep, evidently in a drunken de- 
 bauch. 
 
DOCTOR CAVALLO gi 
 
 The doctor shook her roughly. " So this is old 
 Mother Wooley's baby farm, is it," he said to himself. 
 "Great heavens, to think that this old hag is suffered 
 to run this establishment under the very nose of the 
 police!" He continued shaking her until at last she 
 sat up and began to make a clucking noise. "There, 
 there ; lie still. There, there ; that's a deary. Lie 
 still ; nursey will rock you to sleep." Then, as she 
 further opened her eyes, she saw the doctor and sat up. 
 
 "Oh, doctor," she began in a whining voice, " I'm so 
 tired looking after my little dears that I just laid down 
 to get a little sleep." 
 
 "Get up," replied the doctor sternly, " something 
 is wrong here !" He struck a light with a match that 
 he had in his pocket and, finding a broken lamp, 
 which he lighted, went over to the crib, lifting one 
 of the little things out, held it up to the light. 
 "Just as I thought," he said, "diphtheria. Why, the 
 whole town will be infected within a week if this nest 
 isn't cleaned out. Why haven't you reported this to 
 the city physician? " 
 
 "It's nothin' but croup," whined she, "and I can 
 always cure croup with onion syrup. There's no 
 danger." 
 
 He was disgusted and disheartened. Here in the 
 very heart of civilization and in a wealthy com- 
 munity, this old hag had been allowed to carry on her 
 traffic, for it was evident that her profit lay not in 
 bringing the children up, but in sending them down. 
 He did what he could, but that was very little. At 
 last he called the old hag up to him and said : 
 
 "Now, I want you to attend to this. See. that no 
 other children come into this room until the health 
 officer has been here." 
 
92 DOCTOR CAVALLO 
 
 Then he turned to his male companion, who had 
 been looking on at the arrangements, and asked, 
 "What are you doing here?" 
 
 14 Repairing the roof," returned the other. " Old 
 Abbot gives me so much a year to patch his buildings, 
 and he has a standing order to fix up this old rookery 
 when there is nothing else to do. So when it leaks 
 too bad, I come up here and daub some tar on the spots 
 and that does until the next rain." 
 
 " It's an awful place," said the doctor, in disgust. 
 
 The other laughed, "You haven't seen it yet. Why 
 that old hag has probably a thousand lives to answer 
 for. When they come to make up the slaughter of the 
 innocents, her order wHI be running over. But you 
 can see sights that would make your heart ache any 
 time. Look at that now." 
 
 The doctor looked out of the window and he saw a 
 little child tumbling along with a tin pail in its hand. 
 
 " What d'ye think of that? " said the roofer. 
 
 "What is it?" asked the doctor. 
 
 "That little thing, it can't be more than five years 
 old, has been rushing the growler, that is, getting beer 
 in its can," he said apologetically, seeing that the doc- 
 tor did not understand him, "and the fellows down in 
 the saloon have been getting the little thing drunk. 
 See, it can hardly walk." 
 
 "Good God!" ejaculated Cavallo. 
 
 "There is no telling what that Ham Head gang won't 
 do," said the roofer. "The Row don't wake up until 
 about midnight, but from that until four is the most 
 God-forsaken place in the city. Women crazy drunk, 
 fighting and screaming. Men yelling at the tops of 
 their voices. Little children running in and out of the 
 
DOCTOR CAVALLO 93 
 
 saloons with cans, into the rooms. Every sort of wick- 
 edness and crime is carried on here and allowed to run 
 riot." 
 
 44 Why do the police not shut down on it?" 
 
 14 Because, 1 ' replied the roofer, M some one has a pull." 
 
 The doctor frowned and then added, " Some one else 
 will have to have a 'pull,' too." With this he went off 
 to find the Board of Health. 
 
 The gentlemen who constituted this body were in 
 their rooms in the City Hall, and as Cavallo went in they 
 greeted him. He briefly stated his errand, that there 
 was a bad case, in fact, several bad cases, of diptheria 
 in Abbott's Row. They made a note of it and then 
 promised that they would have the necessary warning 
 put up the next day. This warning consisted of tack- 
 ing up a large card with the word " Diptheria" on it on 
 the building. Then there was a pause. Finally Dr. 
 Cavallo remarked: M Gentlemen, there is another thing, 
 I wish to enter formal complaint against Abbott's Row 
 as a nuisance, and I shall insist that it be torn down." 
 
 The members of the Board looked at each other, 
 finally one of them replied: "Well, you know how it is, 
 Doctor, I don't want to have the old man on my back. 
 If you make this complaint you must sign it yourself." 
 
 " That is what I will do," replied Dr. Cavallo. " I 
 shall stand to my guns. Now I want you to do the 
 same." 
 
 11 Of course if you press this matter we shall have to 
 act, but now, see here," said the physician of the Board, 
 taking Cavallo aside, " can't you put this off until after 
 the meeting ot the Board of Supervisors? They elect a 
 County Physician next week and I am a candidate. I 
 tell you frankly, between us, that I don't want to go 
 
9'4 DOCTOR CAVALLO 
 
 into that fight with a row on my hands with old Abbott." 
 
 u l insist upon some action being taken at once," re- 
 turned Cavallo, "and it must be attended to." 
 
 u Well, you know the old man as well as I do and 
 you know that this will make an awful row.'" 
 
 " Let it make what row it will. I am not going to sit 
 still and see this thing carried on any further," insisted 
 Cavallo, adding, "Abbott's Row will have to come 
 down. 1 ' 
 
 He was not satisfied with this, but he himself filled 
 up a printed form stating that complaint had been 
 made that Abbott's Row was a nuisance and a menace 
 to the general health, and he made it still more binding 
 by stating that this action was taken on a complaint 
 made by Dr. Cavallo and then he made the president 
 of the Board sign it. Still fearing that the exegencies 
 of ward politics would defeat the whole scheme, he took 
 the notice and dropped it into the mail himself. This 
 done he went to his room and slept the sleep of the 
 just, feeling that he had enlisted for the fight and that 
 he was now ready for the fray. 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 The next morning he had hardly had his breakfast 
 before he was waited on by no other than Mr. Abbott 
 himself. He was a tall, lean man, excessively digni- 
 fied and important. As he stood in the office, a little 
 bent with age, he was the very embodiment of the 
 Presbyterian idea. He looked as if he had swallowed 
 the five points, and with them the spirit of John Calvin 
 and the ghost of Michael Servetus into the bargain. 
 While he was dignified, there was a suggestion of 
 cringing servility in everything that he said. It was 
 evident that he wished to make a good impression 
 upon the doctor, and he rubbed his hands over and 
 over with that air of washing them that an insincere 
 person often uses. He asked, with a smile on his face 
 that was little short of ghastly, if this was Dr. Cavallo. 
 
 "That is my name," replied the doctor. 
 
 "Ah, well sir, I am glad to see you. I am a man of 
 business and in my morning mail was a notice that a 
 complaint had been lodged against me on account of 
 Abbott's Row. I simply wished to say to you that I 
 am now having plans prepared looking to erecting 
 upon that site commodious and comfortable apartment 
 houses. I believe, sir, in homes for the poor. I have 
 always taken a deep interest in this subject, and I have 
 now come to the fruition of a scheme that has been 
 
96 DOCTOR CAYALLO 
 
 long in my mind. I shall 
 model homes." 
 
 " I am pleased to know that," replied Dr. Cavallo 
 dryly, u for those buildings have been a nest of disease 
 and a nursery of filth long enough." 
 
 "No doubt, sir, no doubt,' 1 assented Mr. Abbott, 
 "and yet they have been a great accommodation to 
 many poor people who could afford no other place; 
 but for the shelter of those rooms many a poor family 
 would have suffered, sir, suffered." 
 
 " I hope you will attend to the sewer, too, Mr. Ab- 
 bott, when you build," added Cavallo. 
 
 "I certainly shall, sir. I intend to leave nothing 
 undone. Perfect sewerage, water, gas — and — and — n 
 he added, as if the thought just struck him, "electric 
 
 light." 
 
 "I am exceedingly glad, 1 ' returned Dr. Cavallo, "and 
 I shall be proud to think that I was instrumental even 
 in a small degree in hastening forward so great an im- 
 provement," 
 
 "Yes, sir; yes, sir, 11 responded Mr. Abbott, "and 
 now I shall ask you to kindly recall your complaint 
 until I get my plans perfected. I assure you, sir, it 
 will only be a few days." As he said this a grin of 
 satisfaction overspread his face and made him look 
 ten times uglier than before. He was a picture of 
 avarice, of craft in thinking that he had overreached 
 the doctor as he had many others. For years he had 
 used these same promises to keep the hand of author- 
 ity off Abbott's Row. He knew that if the doctor 
 pressed his complaint he was likely to be indicted for 
 keeping a nuisance, for allowing a saloon to run with- 
 out warrant of law, and for harboring females of ill re- 
 
DOCTOR CAVALLO 97 
 
 pute. He had maintained this place in spite of every- 
 thing that had been done. When he received the 
 notice from Dr. Cavallo he was seriously alarmed, but 
 now this was done away with. He had conquered 
 again, and his grin of satisfied pride deepened as he 
 waited for the doctor's reply. 
 
 "Oh," replied Cavallo good naturedly, "there is no 
 necessity for doing that. Let the workmen go ahead 
 and tear down the buildings. Then the ground will be 
 cleared for the new improvements." 
 
 "Tear down the buildings," echoed Abbott, "why 
 should they tear down the buildings?" 
 
 "So as to get the ground cleared for the new edi- 
 fices." 
 
 "I tell you," roared Abbott, " that those buildings 
 don't pay two per cent, on their cost. No man can 
 afford to put up buildings in this town tor rent. What 
 with taxes and insurance and repairs it will bankrupt 
 anyone who tries it." 
 
 "Then you are not going to put up those model 
 houses that you spoke about ?" asked Cavallo, quietly. 
 
 44 I will sell the whole thing out at once, if I can get 
 enough to guarantee me one per cent, on my money," 
 he shouted, getting more and more angry. 
 
 "Very well," assented Cavallo, " I will find some one 
 to take you up on that proposition." 
 
 "Ah, ha," yelled the old man, "I see it now, it is a 
 Jew trick, and you want to get hold of that property 
 cheap. This is your boasted philanthropy. It is a 
 scheme, a plot to try and make me sell out. This is a 
 real estate swindle, and I know it." 
 
 44 Mr. Abbott, you have made half a dozen statements 
 here that are false, and this is like all of the rest. 
 
98 DOCTOR CAVALLO 
 
 I shall not recall my complaint. On the contrary, 
 I shall press it, and of this you may be assured, that 
 Abbott's Row must come down." 
 
 The old man boiled with passion. He shook with 
 rage, and for a time he was unable to speak. When 
 he did find voice, he burst .out, "You sneaking and 
 infernal Jew, you outcast and worthless fag-end of a 
 detested race, you talk of trying to help your fellows, 
 when you are simply arranging to steal my property ; 
 yes, sir, steal my property. I have lived in this city 
 for sixty years, and I have always paid my debts. You 
 are the first man who ever dared to bring a charge 
 against me. But I tell you don't go too far, don't you 
 aggravate me, sir. I will not stand everything. I will 
 publish you, sir, to the world as a Jew. I will show you 
 up to the whole city, I will destroy your practice, I will 
 drive you from town." 
 
 He had talked until he was out of breath, and he 
 now stopped, and stood panting with rage, the white 
 foam of passion 'on his lips, and his teeth snarling in 
 his head like a disappointed wolf, the picture of baffled 
 greed, of disappointed avarice, of malice and of spite. 
 
 Dr. Cavallo looked at him with contempt. M Mr. 
 Abbott, you poor craven, words are useless, for you 
 are past all expostulation. You have for years 
 fattened on the misery of your fellow-creatures whom 
 you have crowded into that infamous Row. You have 
 made it a nest of villainy, the hiding place for fraud 
 and the cover for crime. You have stood by and seen 
 men destroyed, women debauched, and little innocent 
 children murdered. As long as you could get a single 
 cent, you have allowed this to go on, and you have 
 steadily checked and stopped every effort to cleanse 
 
DOCTOR CAVALLO 99 
 
 ' the foul ulcer. It has been a breeding place for dis- 
 ease and a lazar house of suffering. You cannot rail 
 the seal from off this bond, and your Row must and 
 shall go." 
 
 " Now, sir," he added, "you will oblige me by getting 
 out of my office with your utmost speed." As he said 
 this, he drew himself up, and the miser, yelling, 
 11 Don't, dont, I'll go," pattered downstairs as fast as 
 his legs could carry him. 
 
 A few hours later a very dignified gentleman called 
 to see Dr. Cavallo. He introduced himself as Dr. 
 McHale. He was very cordial, and after beating 
 about the bush awhile, told Cavallo that he had 
 called on a particular matter of business. ** My vener- 
 able friend, Mr. Abbott, a warm hearted, but eccentric 
 soul, was seriously hurt at some little misunderstanding 
 that had occurred. Really he had in mind extensive 
 improvements, but he is, my dear sir, I assure you, a 
 man who can be coaxed, but cannot be driven. We 
 have to be very careful with him in -church matters. 
 He is liberal to a fault if you stroke him the right way, 
 but, sir, he is like an enraged tiger if he is aroused. 
 Now, really, my dear Doctor Cavallo, I wish that you 
 would yield a little in this matter. If you will with- 
 draw your complaint, I shall, I am confident, be able to 
 show him his duty, and he will then take this action of 
 his own accord." 
 
 " Dr. McHale," said Cavallo, "with all due respect to 
 your cloth and your profession, I do not believe that 
 Abbott will ever build anything better than he has now. 
 He has evaded this thing and whined and begged off 
 for years and the Row is just what it always has been, 
 a disseminator of disease, a nuisance to the city and a 
 menace to the public health." 
 
100 DOCTOR CAVALLO 
 
 Dr. McHale was a large man with a tremendous 
 head and mutton chop whiskers. He was a minister 
 of the gospel and this fact was proclaimed in his manner 
 of looking at you, in the way he carried his cane, in his 
 clean shaven chin, in his high cheek bones, in his majes- 
 tic manner, and in the very fit of his cravat. He had 
 another sign of Presbyterianism, too, that was apparent 
 at once. He had no stomach and he looked, with his 
 large head, as if nature had spent so much material on 
 that organ that she had nothing left for the rest of him. 
 He now assumed a benevolent aspect, as of a man who 
 knew all the social questions and had them at his fin- 
 gers 1 ends and could tell them off at once. He put on 
 an air of deep wisdom, and when it came to looking 
 wise, no one could equal Dr. McHale. 
 
 41 Oh, well," he replied, " I'll tell you about that. 
 You have to have these places. Every large city con- 
 tains them. Why, I went to New York once, and an- 
 other clergyman and myself went through the slums, 
 as they are called, with a policeman. It was perfectly 
 awful, the dens of vice that we saw. It made me sick, 
 but still you have to have them.' 1 
 
 M Not in this city at any rate." 
 
 14 Oh, yes, you do. Now, my dear sir, I am an older 
 man than you and you ought to listen to the wisdom 
 of age. If you give these people more comfortable 
 quarters, you simply fix them so that they can earn 
 more money to give to the priest. Every effort that is 
 made to lift these people up from their condition is 
 only pouring so much more money into the pockets 
 of the Catholic church." 
 
 44 Dr. McHale," replied Cavallo with dignity, "you 
 disgrace your cloth by such arguments. Your words 
 
DOCTOR CAVALT.Q 101 
 
 are instinct with savage bigotry and oppression. For 
 my part I blush for you. I do not wonder that Mr. 
 Abbott lives the life of miserly greed that he does, if his 
 spiritual teacher is constructed in so narrow a mold."" 
 
 The reverend doctor grew very red in the face and he 
 could only mutter that he trusted that he had not been 
 misunderstood. But Cavallo was boiling with rage 
 and only bowed him loftily out. He had not recovered 
 his equanimity when the door 'opened and the Mayor 
 came in. 
 
 Mayor Sawyer was a good fellow, always ready to 
 do anyone a favor, and as he promised everybody 
 everything, he was continually in hot water, but he 
 managed to get out of every scrape as fast as he got into 
 them, by making more promises. He came jauntily in 
 and began at once, "I say Doc, about this Abbott 
 matter. The old man is as mad as a wet hen. He 
 wants me to see what can be done about getting you 
 to withdraw your complaint. You know that Row of 
 his ? I told him that they ought to come down, which 
 is all true, but I kind o' want to satisfy him. He's a 
 power with the Presbyterians and I got a big pull out 
 of them the last time I ran. You see I agreed to shut 
 up the saloons Sunday if they would vote for me, and 
 then after I was elected, the boys kind o' wanted me to 
 be liberal and I had to kind o' shut one eye ye know. 
 Now, if I can get this matter fixed up it will square me. 
 You'll be wanting something of me, City Physician or 
 County Physician, or something of that kind. Dr. 
 McHale has been around and old Abbott himself. 
 They are a pretty powerful faction." 
 
 u So they want the saloons closed on Sunday, do they, 
 and allow a pest-house, an unmitigated nuisance, a 
 
102 DOCTOR CAVALLO 
 
 chamber of horrors, a place where baby farming and 
 all unclean things fester and rot, to run ? Well, 
 I hardly know which is the greater sinner in the sight 
 of heaven," said Cavallo " Abbott or his preacher ? 
 But this I am determined upon, Abbott's Row must go. 
 I will pursue this unrighteous old man until he removes 
 that place from the sight of the sun. I will not abate 
 one jot, and he shall find one man in this city whom he 
 can neither lie to nor dissuade from his purpose." 
 
 The Mayor rejoined : " Well, I have done all that I 
 agreed to, and have exerted my influence. If any one 
 says anything to you about it, you say that I called on 
 you. You understand how it is with me? " 
 
 As he went out, Cavallo smiled grimly to himself. 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 Having thus carried his point. Dr. Cavallo did not 
 rest until he had seen the Board of Health condemn 
 the Row as a nuisance, and in spite ot the efforts of 
 Abbott to stop it, they gave orders to level it to the 
 ground. Then the doctor found himself confronted 
 with a new problem, what to do with the tenants ? 
 Some of these were like Pat O'Hara, indifferent to 
 their surroundings, but occupying the Row because 
 the rent was cheap. Others were on the border line 
 between the good and the bad, but would live 
 upright lives if the environments were good. Some 
 were wholly bad, and were made worse by the oppor- 
 tunities for evil that surrounded them. With a saloon 
 near at hand, and every chance for supplying their evil 
 appetites, they drifted down lower and lower, like Jim 
 Dayton, with every succeeding year. 
 
 Mr. Abbott, with the cunning of his craft, claimed 
 that he was really sheltering a lot of poor, who would 
 otherwise be put upon the street. He induced some of 
 his tenants to goto the newspapers, and state that, were 
 it not for him, they would be thrust out in the cold. 
 One of the papers, edited by a man who was always 
 sneering at everything that smacked of progress, openly 
 denounced the doctor's efforts, and insisted that he 
 was only trying to get cheap notoriety. 
 
104 DOCTOR CAVALLO 
 
 In this emergency, Cavallo bethought himself of Mrs. 
 Bernheim. The Bernheims were the leaders of society, 
 Christian and otherwise. Mr. Bernheim was a reserved, 
 quiet man, but with the unmistakable manners of a 
 leader. His word was as good as his bond, and what- 
 ever he said was regarded as law throughout the city. 
 His many business ventures did not allow him much 
 time to devote to society, so he gave his wife carte 
 blanche, which she used to good advantage. 
 
 Mrs. Bernheim was a worthy helpmeet for such a 
 husband. She was a pronounced type of a Jewish 
 beauty, and, in addition, she was lively, vivacious, 
 pleasant, hospitable and fond of society. Both of them 
 were lovers of art, and he was particularly well read, 
 and both were exceedingly fond of the drama. He de- 
 lighted to see his beautiful mansion thrown open to 
 their friends, and he encouraged his wife in every way, 
 so that there was a heartiness about their hospitality 
 that added zest to its enjoyment. Mrs. Bernheim was 
 a lover of literature, and the literary people who visited 
 the city were always welcomed to her home. 
 
 She was the soul of charity and this she extended 
 with a bountiful hand. She paid the rent of some, she 
 advanced funds to others to embark in business. She 
 looked after the sick, she sent wine and fruit to the 
 convalescent. There was nothing loud about this, nor 
 did she stop to inquire into creed or religion. Every 
 suffering soul received her kind attention. She did 
 not content herself with sending out money lavishly. 
 She went in person, and her carriage was as often at the 
 door of some poor family in the lower part of the city 
 as it was before some fashionable mansion in the 
 aristocratic part of the town. She had these traits by 
 
DOCTOR CAVALLO 105 
 
 heredity. Her mother was widely known as a noble 
 woman, large-hearted in all her ideas, and her daughter, 
 with greater opportunities, had simply carried out the 
 mother's impulses. The household shared this feeling. 
 The children took up the work laid down, and the 
 Bernheim mansion was not only the scene of joyous 
 festivities, but of pure almsgiving, based upon the high- 
 est conceptions — -that of rendering the objects of aid 
 self-supporting. It was thus large-hearted, but dis- 
 criminating and just. 
 
 Dr. Cavallo had seen her work among the poor and 
 had attended to many of her patients, and a warm 
 friendship had sprung up between them. 
 
 In his present dilemma he could think of- no one 
 who could or would assist him so well as she. So he 
 jumped into his carriage and called on the Bernheims. 
 The lady received him with a smile. " I have just re- 
 turned from the East, but 1 see by the papers, doctor, 
 that you have won quite a reputation since I have been 
 gone. That is right. I have always said, If you can't 
 be popular, why, be notorious." 
 
 "Not so bad as that, I hope, Mrs. Bernheim," he re- 
 plied, " I am very glad, indeed, that you are familiar 
 with this errand of mine. You have read all about it?" 
 "Oh, yes," responded she, "I know all about it. I 
 know Abbott, too. He is always full of promises but 
 he never carries them out. I went the other day with 
 Mrs. Willits to get subscriptions for the Home of the 
 Destitute and we called on Abbott. What do you 
 think he gave us, doctor? Why, his sympathy and a 
 tract showing that salvation is free, and that the poor 
 could become self-sustaining, only by leaning on the 
 cross, and he promised that he would send his pastor, 
 Dr. McHale, around to preach to them." 
 
106 DOCTOR CAVALLO 
 
 Pleasantly chatting, she invited the doctor to a seat. 
 He said: "You know, Mrs. Bernheim, that I can 
 hardly leave my office at this time of day, but the case 
 is pressing, and my errand, therefore shall be briefly 
 stated. 
 
 " I'm all attention, doctor." 
 
 "You are aware of the necessities of those people 
 in Abbott's Row. I need not tell you what a nuis- 
 ance and menace to public health this place is. Now 
 it has to come down, and I am worried to know 
 what to do with the poor people when forced out of 
 their homes, if we can allow such a term in connection 
 with their hovels. Now, Mrs. Bernheim, I can 
 provide quarters for the entire thirty families for sixty 
 days. They can be put in the barns at the fair grounds. 
 Then the extreme cold weather will come on and they 
 will have to move." 
 
 "What do you wish me to do, doctor?" 
 
 41 1 have roughly sketched out a plan for model 
 dwelling houses. They can be erected in rows and en- 
 larged as occasion requires by simply adding to them. 
 At present, while building, we can provide enough 
 rooms and accommodations, nicely ventilated and 
 warmed, for seventy-five families, furnishing them with 
 everything necessary, plenty of ground for the children 
 to play, plenty of fresh air. These are to be rented 
 to the deserving poor, not the shiftless and the lazy, 
 still the rent will not be more than they are paying 
 now for their miserable shanties. Then they can be en- 
 couraged to buy their holdings at so much a week in 
 payment. In short, make these not the ordinary 
 tenement houses, but attractive places, with trees and 
 shrubs. Land in the lower part of the city is cheap, 
 and this plan can be easily carried out." 
 
DOCTOR CAVALLO 107 
 
 Her black eyes sparkled. " Doctor, doctor, what a 
 romantic scheme ! You wish me to organize a colony 
 and become its queen. I should be the Empress of 
 Cavalloville, but the only trouble is, that it will take 
 the fortune of a Rothschild. I suppose that we shall 
 need a synagogue, a church and a chapel to minister 
 to their spiritual needs?" 
 
 "Jesting aside, Mrs. Bernheim, I am in earnest." 
 
 "Gracious alive! where do you expect to get the 
 money from? " 
 
 " Nothing simpler or easier. Roughly calculating, 
 the whole scheme will not cost so much. Land can be 
 purchased in the neighborhood of the factories for 
 three hundred dollars an acre. As soon as these houses 
 are built the street car line will build an extension to 
 them. The houses can be put up for five hundred 
 dollars each. This gives each house a front room, 
 dining room, bed room and kitchen, with pantry on the 
 ground floor, small cellar below, with two good bed 
 rooms above. We will start in with thirty houses at 
 first, just what we have tenants for. Then we can add 
 to it with the exigencies of the case. Each home will 
 have its own coal house and outhouse, with yard room, 
 cut off from its neighbor by a fence, a good supply of 
 water from the waterworks, and a sewer under the 
 whole, properly trapped. 1 ' 
 
 She laughed. u What a contractor you would make. 
 Why don't you go into the building business? 1 ' 
 
 "This is what I am doing right now, Mrs. Bernheim. 
 The whole scheme will not cost twenty thousand 
 dollars. Now, as fast as the houses sell on these 
 weekly payments, we can build more homes and make 
 it an interest-paying investment, self-supporting, and, 
 
108 DOCTOR CAVALLO 
 
 at the same time educating the tenants to own their 
 own fire-sides, and above all, this takes them away from 
 the slums and the vice-breeding sinks, giving the 
 children fresh air and ground to play on. This is sys- 
 tematic charity. It doesn't pauperize." 
 
 She reflected. "I will talk it over with Mr. Bern- 
 heim." 
 
 This was just what Dr. Cavallo wanted, and he 
 bowed himself out. 
 
 That night, when Mr. Bernheim came home, he was 
 in unusually good spirits. He had made a great deal 
 of money that season and the prospect was roseate 
 for the future. When they had left the tea table 
 and he was settled in the drawing room, she began, 
 woman-like: 
 
 "Henry, you know you promised to buy me that 
 diamond necklace that we saw in New York, for a 
 present on my birthday. 1 ' 
 
 "Yes," he responded, "do you want it now?" 
 
 "No, but I wish to know what it will cost." 
 
 "Never look a gift horse in the mouth, my dear." 
 
 11 But I wish to know the cost for a very particular 
 reason." 
 
 "Well, then," said he, "the price is twenty thousand 
 dollars." 
 
 " I want that money for a different purpose. I have 
 jewels enough now." 
 
 So she took her pen and paper and began with the 
 figures that the doctor had given her. Her husband 
 listened at first with indifference, then he took a lan- 
 guid interest, then he sat upright, and taking out his 
 pencil, said : 
 
 "After all it isn't a bad investment. That property 
 
DOCTOR CAVALLO IO9 
 
 will double in value as soon as the street cars are built 
 to it, and the factories will always give desirable ten- 
 ants. The result, my dear, will be this : The sober 
 and industrious will go in and buy the property on 
 those terms, and then where will your charity be?" 
 
 u This is just the purpose of the plan, to make people 
 sober and industrious. Charity consists, as you always 
 preach, not in giving people something that they do 
 not earn, that makes paupers of them, but in showing 
 them how they can earn what they need." 
 
 "Take the case of the O'Haras," Mr. Bernheim 
 added. "You can never do anything with Mike 
 O'Hara. He is a natural born thug and bum." 
 
 11 His two sisters will work in the factories and the 
 old man can get a job as watchman, so that the rest of 
 the family will be saved, even if the boy does go wrong 
 and grows up worthless. As it is, the whole of them 
 will, under their present conditions, be paupers or 
 worse." 
 
 They discussed the matter in its varied bearings, and 
 the next morning she reminded him of it. 
 
 He took the idea down town with him and it so 
 happened that his architect dropped in to consider an 
 extension to one of his mills. After the architect had 
 finished the work, Mr. Bernheim spoke to him in re- 
 gard to the project that he had in mind. The other 
 agreed to sketch out something of the sort and the up- 
 shot was that finally Mr. Bernheim got a plan to his 
 liking, although the cost was a little more than the doc- 
 tor had figured. 
 
 Little by little the project grew, and at last the 
 ground was purchased and the contract was let. Mrs. 
 Bernheim was greatly delighted, and before the houses 
 
110 DOCTOR CAVALLO 
 
 were erected she had, with the doctor's advice and 
 counsel, selected the tenants. 
 
 This was not difficult to do. The idle and lazy would 
 not stir. They clung to the slums and slouched off 
 into tumble-down places near the river bank, for this 
 class of people, like vermin, hate the light of day and 
 seek concealment. Pat O'Hara, with his wife and 
 family, were the first to move. And, as they put their 
 humble furniture into the new edifice, Pat was as happy 
 as a king. He went down to Dr. Cavallo's office and 
 there ran across Timothy Dodd. 
 
 He astonished that worthy by paying so flattering a 
 tribute to the doctor that even Timothy's grandilo- 
 quent and flowing phrase was silenced. 
 
 "He was that deloighted," said Tim, " ef the angel 
 Gabriel had kem in that minit Pat wud hev made him 
 gev up his horn and turn it over to Cavallo as the best 
 entitled to it in pint of merit, jist." 
 
CHAPTER XV. 
 
 If Dr. Cavallo had been a vain man or one easily 
 elated by flattery, he would have had his head turned, 
 for he was overwhelmed with praise. He knew, how- 
 ever, how unmeaning are the compliments that are 
 showered upon anyone who, for the moment, has at- 
 tracted public attention. He pursued the even tenor 
 of his way, only responding courteously to those who 
 met him and shook him by the hand, asserting that his 
 victory over Abbott was the best thing that had occur- 
 red in the history of the city. 
 
 He knew that he had a foe in the old man whose 
 hate was unrelenting, and who would follow him in 
 every line that he undertook with the malignity of the 
 wolf. 
 
 Nevertheless, he felt he was so greatly in the right, 
 that he scorned Abbott and his threats. As for those 
 who followed in Abbott's wake, the most that they 
 could do would be to sneer. He was walking along the 
 street considering the matter, and turning the whole 
 question over in his mind, when he saw Miss Lawrence 
 before him, he quickened his steps, and overtaking 
 her, courteously greeted her. 
 
 She smiled as she met him, and they walked on to- 
 gether. What was the burden of their discourse ? Let 
 every reader of this tale himself answer the question. 
 
112 DOCTOR CAVALLO 
 
 What do youth and beauty always talk about ? The 
 lisping language of love is enchanting enough to us 
 when we are at the other end of love's telephone, but 
 it is stale, flat and unprofitable to the hearer. What is 
 a more beautiful sight than a mother crooning to her 
 babe ? What is more absurd than a translation of her 
 words when depicted in cold type? Cavallo was a man 
 who had seen much and had reflected deeply, but he 
 was no more exempt from an invasion of the affections, 
 if we may so call it, than you would be in his place. 
 
 All the world loves a lover, and all the world laughs 
 at him just the same. 
 
 What is more simple, to carry out the parallel farther, 
 than to sit and listen to one side of a conversation. To 
 hear one over the telephone say, "Yes." " No, I 
 think not." " Not at all." "You won't." So, in lis- 
 tening to the conversation of lovers, the bystander only 
 gets half of it. He misses the inflections and the im- 
 plications that are the missing links, and that make the 
 conversation not only intelligible, but interesting to the 
 other party. 
 
 Cavallo told her the story of little Daisy Dayton, for 
 one thing, and how he had seen the poor mother 
 buried, and had provided a home for the little 
 girl. The recital brought the tears to Margaret's 
 eyes, for she was sympathetic, and she remembered 
 when Mrs. Dayton had first come to the city, a blush- 
 ing bride, and when the unhappy wreck that now shuf- 
 fled along the street was one of the best known men in 
 the city. 
 
 They talked of art and literature, and of everything 
 but themselves, and yet the under current, the secret 
 sympathy, that ran through their talk, gave to it that 
 interest that added weight to their words. 
 
DOCTOR CAVALLO 113 
 
 Inasmuch as every reader of this story will have an 
 experience of his own to fall back upon, and can recall 
 dozens of times when he was in this same state, walk- 
 ing with the girl he loved, it seems needless to try to 
 point a moral and adorn a tale with the conversation 
 between this couple. The doctor had a set purpose in 
 life, and he had received from this girl a strong im- 
 pulse to shape his career along the line that he was 
 pursuing. Whether she was actuated by any stronger 
 motive than a desire to see him grandly heroic, he did 
 not know. He felt sometimes that the interest she 
 manifested in him was purely sympathetic. While she 
 might regard his race with admiration from a historical 
 point of view, would she care enough for the individual 
 to sink the question of race ? 
 
 This puzzled him, but he was very happy as it was. 
 To listen to her praise as they walked, as she told him 
 how she admired his conduct in the late affair with 
 Abbott, was pleasure enough, and he took delight in it. 
 
 It soothed him, annoyed as he had been with the 
 strain of the last few days' contest. He felt that here 
 he was appreciated, and if it led to nothing else, he 
 would enjoy this to the full. So he walked on by her 
 side, feeling refreshed in the pleasant autumn air, in the 
 cool breeze, in the presence of Margaret ; the very 
 rustle of her dress, the soft tones of her voice, gave 
 him a sense of exquisite pleasure. He responded to 
 her sweet and gentle influence, and his soul was soothed 
 and calmed. 
 
 From this he was rudely awakened, for, as they came 
 to the crossing of a street they were joined by Seidel. 
 That individual was in the highest spirits. He joked 
 them both with his good natured badinage, addressed 
 
114 DOCTOR CAVALLO 
 
 Miss Lawrence with easy familiarity, once even calling 
 her Margaret, at which Cavallo winced. He had the 
 easy swing of audacity and gave his tongue full vent. 
 While it seemed to Cavallo to be the perfection of 
 friendly talk, there was a subtle undercurrent of sar- 
 casm, a finely disguised effort to belittle him. He dis- 
 puted some of Cavallo's remarks with grace, yet with 
 an air of superiority that nettled the doctor, but it was 
 done so deftly that he could not take umbrage at it. He 
 brought up something that happened at college and as- 
 sumed that Cavallo was in some of the students' esca- 
 pades. There was nothing bad in it and nothing to 
 which one could seriously object, but the intention 
 seemed to be to show Margaret that Cavallo was act- 
 ing a part, — that he had led elsewhere a different life. 
 
 Cavallo returned short answers to this badinage, 
 whereupon Seidel would beg his pardon, telling Miss 
 Lawrence not to mind his talk, that he would be the 
 last one in the world to reveal things that had been 
 done in moments of youthful indiscretion. Then he 
 would end in a hearty laugh, that, while it was insin- 
 cere and metallic, a laugh peculiar to Seidel, yet it 
 served his purpose in making him pass for the mo- 
 ment as a good fellow who only saw the ridiculous 
 side of life and meant to get all the enjoyment out 
 of the world that he could. 
 
 He openly, before Cavallo's face, paid Margaret the 
 little gallant attentions that beauty demands and re- 
 ceives from her admirers without a thought other than 
 that they are her due, for she has always received them. 
 Cavallo shrank from this exhibition and it seemed to 
 him profanation for Seidel to venture upon little famil- 
 iarities on the street, which, innocent enough, he himself 
 
DOCTOR CWALLO 115 
 
 would never have thought of offering. He walked along 
 silently listening to the conversation between Margaret 
 and Seidel, for she, noticing Cavallo's manner, strove 
 to hide it from the other as much as she could, and she 
 laughingly parried Seidel's remarks and rounded off 
 the shafts of his wit with brilliant repartee. This only 
 aroused Seidel to more effort, and he rattled on in a 
 stream of mocking satire and fun, even sometimes ma- 
 liciously put, until they came to the Lawrence home, 
 when he escorted her into the house, for he was still 
 stopping with Bob. 
 
 The doctor bowed and parted with them, but he 
 thought he detected a triumphant smile in Seidel's face 
 that sent the blood to his own brow, and he turned 
 back and sought the security of his own office. He 
 was provoked. He felt that in the battle between him- 
 self and Seidel that had just passed, he had been 
 worsted and humiliated in the eyes of the one he 
 loved. He instinctively discerned that he was to have 
 a rival in this brilliant young fellow, this man who 
 posed at one moment as a man of business and the 
 next as a shrewd student, and perhaps again as a 
 thorough man of the world. What chance did he have 
 against this trained athlete, so to speak, in all matters of 
 society, against one who knew all the avenues to a 
 woman's heart, and who practiced upon the affections 
 of the young maiden with the experience of a veteran, 
 not hampered by any consideration of love. Seidel had 
 no feeling that it was descecration to approach Miss 
 Lawrence. To him she was simply a good alliance. If 
 he married her, and the doctor winced again at the 
 thought, it would enable him to use the Lawrences to 
 further his schemes. All of these things made the doc- 
 
Il6 DOCTOR CAVALLO 
 
 tor ill at ease. He tried to read, and pored over a vol- 
 ume in which was a case that he wished to study, but 
 he found that he had lost interest in the matter, and 
 after reading one page over two or three times, he 
 closed the book and went out of doors. 
 
CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 When the intelligence was noised about that Ab- 
 bott's Row had been condemned and the order given 
 to demolish it, it created a stir in the community. 
 Abbott had defied public sentiment so long in this 
 matter that the gratification that he had been worsted 
 was general and widespread. 
 
 The editor of the German paper was a man of broad 
 sympathy and generous impulses. He had a profound 
 contempt for hypocrisy in any shape. Herr Muller 
 rather fancied impaling fellows of this sort on his pen, 
 and he had gathered around him quite a following. 
 His German subscribers believed in him and loyally 
 supported him. He was an authority on art, and on 
 music, for he was himself a fine singer. He was a ready 
 and eloquent speaker, and he had recently delivered 
 an address at the grave of a fellow comrade that was 
 the talk of the city. He was sympathetic as a 
 woman, yet sturdy as a lion, detesting shams of all 
 sorts, and fighting them with all his power and vigor. 
 
 He had many a time called the attention of the pub- 
 lic to the nuisance of Abbott's Row, but he had failed 
 to remove it. He now came out and, in a glowing 
 article, recounted the work that Cavallo had wrought, 
 and by way of giving Abbott a further stab, said that 
 
Il8 DOCTOR CAVALLO 
 
 this great reform had been achieved in spite of Christian 
 influence by a Jew. 
 
 The publication of this in Herr Muller's paper 
 created an intense sensation. The next morning a 
 number of influential citizens called to congratulate the 
 doctor. Many of these had signed his petition. Prom- 
 inent among them was Mr. Aaron Tobias. This gen- 
 tleman had been connected with the fortunes of the 
 city for over thirty years. He was an active, genial, 
 public spirited man. He was placed on every com- 
 mittee and at the head of every movement for the 
 benefit of the city. He held advanced ideas on all 
 social and religious questions, and was withal gen- 
 erous and hospitable. Now he was effusive. He did 
 not, before he read it in Herr Muller's paper, suspect 
 that Dr. Cavallo belonged to his race, and the thought 
 that a work that every one else had failed in had been 
 wrought by one of his own people so pleased him that 
 he ran over with feeling. 
 
 His evident delight touched the doctor himself and, 
 he responded to the compliments of his new friend 
 with some warmth. This gratified Mr. Tobias still 
 more, and he went off and brought back Mr. Philip 
 Herman whom he introduced as president of the con- 
 gregation. Mr. Herman was a good man. This was felt 
 in the grasp of his hand, in the tone of his voice, and 
 in the benevolent aspect of his face. They talked of 
 different matters, and the interview ended by Mr. Tobias 
 arranging a dinner party at his house for the next 
 Sunday at which he invited the doctor to be present. 
 
 The latter pleaded his profession, which made it ex- 
 tremely difficult for him to promise to attend a social 
 gathering, but Mr. Tobias would not take ' no,' and 
 
DOCTOR CAVALLO I I 9 
 
 ended by obtaining the doctor's consent, no intervening 
 circumstance preventing, to be present, and the two 
 gentlemen took their leave highly gratified. 
 
 As the days went by, Dr. Cavallo found no reason 
 why he should not fulfill his engagement, and 
 Sunday found him walking up the steps of the Nus- 
 man residence. 
 
 Home is always a delight to the Jew. The family 
 and the household are very dear to him, and these 
 have interwoven all the little ties that bind the mem- 
 bers together, and act upon the Jews with tenfold 
 force because of their isolation. 
 
 Mr. Tobias and his wife were never so happy as 
 when dispensing hospitality, and the dinner was a great 
 success. Mr. Herman and his wife were there and the 
 conversation ran upon religious matters. 
 
 The doctor was introduced to the rabbi and was de- 
 lighted with him. He found that he was a learned man, 
 not only in his specialty, Hebrew literature, but in 
 various other branches, and with it all he possessed the 
 modesty that distinguishes the true student from the 
 pretender. The rabbi spoke of the difficulty of keeping 
 the congregation together when such diverse ideas pre- 
 vailed, and added that the true reason is, beeause the 
 thinkers, the men of advanced ideas, do not affiliate with 
 the congregation. They drift away and may often be 
 found scoffing at a state of things which they might 
 remedy if they would but exert their influence and throw 
 their efforts into the scale. Dr. Cavallo reflected. His 
 promise to his uncle came up before him. Perhaps he 
 was taking this very position. It was not by sneering 
 at them, but by leading them, that Moses brought his 
 people out of the land of Egypt. Suppose the great 
 
120 DOCTOR CAVALLO 
 
 prophet had stood afar off, satisfied with having mas- 
 tered all the learning of the Egyptians, what would 
 have been the result to his race? 
 
 Then Margaret's words of inspiration rose up before 
 him. 
 
 He said : rt Perhaps we are in fault in this matter. I 
 feel that I have been derelict myself. I think that I will 
 join your congregation." 
 
 The eyes of Mr. Herman shone with pleasure. " I 
 shall take pride in presenting your name," he said. 
 
 Cavallo's mind was now made up. He had taken the 
 last step that was lacking to identify himself with his 
 people, and he had done this at the suggestion of the 
 girl he loved. If she wedded another, if this should 
 be an additional barrier between them, he had, at least, 
 been true to the purpose which he had chosen as 
 the guiding impulse of his life. He felt all the better 
 for having made his choice, and he took part in the 
 conversation, feeling that he was one of the little 
 group. 
 
 The rabbi, too, felt strengthened by the accession. 
 He was a very treasure house of fancy, and he gave se- 
 lections from the Midrash, little fables, and touching 
 stories of love and suffering, all pointing a moral, or 
 conveying between the lines some great truth. 
 
 The Midrash is filled with this delicate poetry, the 
 garnered wisdom of centuries of thought and study. 
 It is as yet, to the Christian, an unexplored region, 
 and as the rabbi unfolded it and dwelt upon what it 
 taught, the doctor was astonished to find how deeply 
 those old Hebrew seers had pondered upon that Provi- 
 dence that guides the actions of men, and, at a time 
 when the rest of the world was wrapped in the dark- 
 
DOCTOR CAVALLO 121 
 
 ness of barbarism, they had demonstrated the principles 
 of eternal justice, and embalmed them in these little 
 parables for the benefit of posterity. 
 
 He was delighted that the rabbi stood on this high 
 plane. It was a solace to find that he had gone over 
 the same ground that he himself had traveled, and 
 had arrived at the same conclusions. 
 
 Tobias, too, surprised him, for he found that he pos- 
 sessed fine literary taste, and was a man cultured in his 
 manners and refined in his ideas. As for Herman, no 
 one could be in his society long without feeling that in 
 the affections, in the sterling qualities of the soul, the 
 old man was fully entitled to the respect in which he 
 was held by the community. 
 
 When the doctor had left the house and was on his 
 way to the office, he thought that there was little sense 
 or reason for any Jew to be ashamed of his people. 
 "Here," he said to himself, "are three men that in in- 
 tellect, in culture, in the higher qualities that adorn the 
 character and give standing to a community, are fitted 
 to take their place with the best." The thought gave 
 him real pleasure. His task would not be so hard 
 after all. 
 
 The main trouble, he mused, lies in their isolation. 
 What should be done by this people is to affiliate with 
 their neighbors ; to take an active interest in affairs ; 
 to take hold of the questions of the day ; to show that 
 they are Americans, citizens of the great republic, 
 and not caring for anything beyond. "The reproach 
 against us," he said, "is that we wish to return to Jeru- 
 salem, when this is as absurd a proposition as if it were 
 said that we wish to go back to Egypt. The Jew is a 
 Jew because of his religion, not because of his country. 
 
122 DOCTOR CAVALLO 
 
 His native land is here, and there is nothing to pre- 
 vent him from being the very highest type of an 
 American citizen." 
 
 He began to speculate upon the best way to bring 
 out his idea, and to elevate his people along this line. 
 It was evident that it could not be done simply by 
 making distinctively Jewish societies, but by encourag- 
 ing the young men to mingle with their neighbors. 
 
 In short, he thought, we must make the Jew take the 
 same plane as any other religious body, convincing the 
 public that it is a religion with him and not a nation- 
 ality. We do not continually throw up to a man that 
 he is a Methodist or Baptist. The second gener- 
 ation that is coming up must be Americans by birth and 
 Jews in religion, because this embodies the grandest 
 ideas of God and the most enlarged type of humanity. 
 
 He f jit under this new light that he could go to the 
 synagogue and take part in the service, seeing in the 
 old ceremonies only the fossil roots of things that once 
 had a vital meaning, rescuing the people from idolatry, 
 but which now are only the reminder of past and 
 and buried regulations. 
 
 He felt that this was the plane on which the rabbi 
 stood, and that on this platform he could meet both 
 Tobias and Herman. 
 
 14 Observances," he soliloquized, 4t appeal strongly to 
 some minds. Look how Masonry has, by its fidelity 
 to certain sentiments, maintained it's place in the world 
 and is still a moving force bound together because it 
 offers the largest expression of human brotherhood." 
 
 The more he pondered upon this subject the stronger 
 he grew in his feeling that here was the work laid out 
 for him. He felt that he could show Margaret that 
 
DOCTOR CAVALLO 1 23 
 
 along this line his career lay, and to develop it must 
 be the purpose of his life. 
 
 To be a Jew, in this large conception, was to be the 
 pioneer of advanced thought and the prophet of a 
 larger life and more glorious hope. 
 
CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 The weeks drifted by with little incident. Dr. Cav- 
 allo had gone on his way unostentatiously, but he felt 
 that his influence was extending. His practice had 
 enormously increased. The poorer classes looked 
 upon him with affection. Abbott still nourished his 
 hatred and showed it even when they passed on the 
 street. Bob broke the monotony of the doctor's hum- 
 drum life by now and then dropping in on him and 
 talking metaphysics, science, religion, politics, and 
 lastly, mining, for by this time his head began to be 
 611ed with mining schemes. Seidel was at times effu- 
 sive, and at times distant. He was paying open atten- 
 tion to Miss Lawrence, and people began to whisper 
 that he meant something more than the attentions of a 
 friend. He accompanied her everywhere. 
 
 Timothy Dodd had wholly overcome his prejudice 
 against the Jews and had taken a warm interest in 
 the cottages of Mrs. Bernheim, but this grew more out 
 of his attachment to the elder O'Hara girl than from 
 any other motive. He spent many an hour at the 
 cottage arguing with Pat on the " essentials, the cor- 
 porosities and the perdicaments."" 
 
 Between his work at the factories as watchman and 
 arguing with Timothy, Pat expended the rest of his 
 time in scoring M Moike" for his worthlessness in join- 
 ing the Ham Heads and studying " divilment." 
 
DOCTOR CAVALLO I 25 
 
 41 That dom'd by'e," he said, " would rayther be rush- 
 in' the growler than ingaged in an honest occypay- 
 shun." 
 
 The doctor went to the synagogue, for Messrs. Tobias 
 and Herman dropped in on him one Friday even- 
 ing, saying that the rabbi would speak on an important 
 subject that night, and since the doctor was already a 
 member of the congregation they would feel happy in 
 having him accompany them, which he did. 
 
 The rabbi spoke on " The Inspiration of the Penta- 
 teuch." After paying a glowing tribute to the ethics 
 and moral precepts scattered throughout its pages, and 
 after showing the amount of good those teachings have 
 accomplished in the upbuilding of civilization, he cau- 
 tiously, yet with scientific accuracy, showed the com- 
 posite structure of that book. He brought out the 
 fact, which must have been startlingly new to most of 
 his hearers, that many of the events ascribed to Moses 
 never could have been written by him, since they refer 
 to a period long after his time. An inspired book, 
 the rabbi said, must be historically, geographically and 
 scientifically true in its every detail, and here citing 
 contradictory passages, and glaring anachronisms, he 
 conclusively proved to the satisfaction of the thinking 
 portion of the congregation that the entire Pentateuch 
 could not have been the work of inspiration. 
 
 Withal he presented a platform broad enough for all 
 mankind. This was a new departure to most of the 
 rabbi's flock, who were accustomed to regard the 
 Pentateuch as divinely revealed. Dr. Cavallo listened 
 with interest. It was in harmony with his own thoughts, 
 but he had no idea that he should find such opinions 
 boldly proclaimed from a Jewish pulpit. 
 
126 DOCTOR CAVALLO 
 
 Dr. Cavallo had been a close student in his reading, 
 and had kept in touch with the reform movement, but 
 years had passed since he had been inside of a syna- 
 gogue, and his chief recollections were those of his boy- 
 hood, when he was sent to an ultra-orthodox one where 
 the men and women were separated and the women 
 were screened from the men. The men were wrapped 
 in woolen and silken praying scarfs. Services were 
 conducted exclusively in Hebrew, many of the prayers 
 were shouted without any regard for rhythm, melody 
 or harmony. The minister would once in two months, 
 seldom oftener, deliver a sermon which acted as 
 a perfect soporific. It was filled with quotations 
 from the Talmud and commentaries and dealt largely 
 with dietary laws, ritualistic observances and ceremo- 
 nial rites. 
 
 Here the scene was entirely different. The families 
 sat together. The praying scarfs had been laid aside. 
 The men sat with uncovered heads. The noise gave 
 way to decorum and devotion. The prayer book, 
 while by no means modern enough to suit him and 
 his views, was hundreds of years in advance of the 
 old ritual. The music was melodiously intoned by 
 a cultured choir, most of whom were Gentiles, but 
 recognized masters of their art in the community. 
 That which pleased him most was the large num- 
 ber of Christians, of both sexes, who listened atten- 
 tively to the discourse of the rabbi. On the whole he 
 felt glad and pleased. He said to himself, "I will 
 come oftener." The two gentlemen who accompanied 
 him were more than recompensed when, at the close 
 of the service, Cavallo frankly gave them his views 
 and the pleasing impressions that he had gained. He 
 
DOCTOR CAVALLO 1 27 
 
 also interchanged ideas on sociology and religion with 
 the rabbi. He became more impressed with the fact 
 that he had been passive these years, while Judaism 
 was actively engaged in the work of the Renaissance. 
 
 A strong attachment grew up between himself and 
 the rabbi, for he found him pleasant and congenial. 
 
 One day, after Cavallo's usual round of visits, he 
 sat down with a feeling that he had earned a little 
 time for himself. He recalled the look that Seidel 
 had given him when they last parted. Then he thought 
 of Margaret and he felt that he ought to call on the 
 Lawrences. Then the picture of Abbott came up be- 
 fore him and the bitter hate that the old man cherished 
 for him, and the pen picture of old Trapbois in Scott's 
 portrait of the miser in u The Fortunes of Nigel," came 
 into his mind. He was in this state of reverie when 
 the door opened and the rabbi came in. His arrival 
 was opportune, for Cavallo wanted some one to talk to 
 and the rabbi was just the one whose conversation gave 
 him relief. 
 
 Cavallo told him that he was sorry that he could not 
 hear him last Friday night, but there were some points 
 in his published address that met with his hearty ap- 
 proval. The subject was, "The Brotherhood of Reli- 
 gions," in which the rabbi had taken the ground that 
 the elements of truth are contained in all beliefs, and 
 that no one religion can claim a monopoly of the truth. 
 That all religions have more or less the essence of re- 
 velation. With all of this the doctor, being in close 
 sympathy, expressed his hearty concurrence. 
 
 41 Your sermons, as far as I have heard and read them, 
 hardly harmonize with your ritual. In your ritual you 
 are exclusive, while your addresses are inclusive. I 
 
128 DOCTOR CAVALLO 
 
 have been estranged from the synagogue some years 
 and ought to be the last to cast the first stone, yet per- 
 mit me to remark that the English translation of some 
 of the prayers is strained and the prayers, too, smack 
 of medevial and oriental notions." 
 
 "My dear doctor," replied the rabbi, " I fully agree 
 with you. No one realizes the situation, the glaring 
 inaccuracies, the unpresentable methods which most 
 congregations struggle under more than do I. Full well 
 do I know that our prayer book was mostly composed in 
 an age of wailing and tears, and is not apt to be strik- 
 ingly inviting, nor fit the changed condition of the 
 times. But you must not forget that it is yet within the 
 recollection of many when the word reform was the 
 scare crow and bug bear of all of the congregations. 
 Now see how vast have been our improvement in this 
 direction. You and I no longer could be induced to 
 follow the methods that were in vogue when we were 
 lads. So you see, little by little the spirit of the age 
 broadens the horizon of the Jew. 
 
 "It seems to me," remarked Cavallo, " that from 
 what I have seen of your members you will have 
 very few obstacles placed in your way in furthering 
 these advanced views." 
 
 The rabbi smiled significantly. "It is true, doctor, 
 that most of my congregation are honest, sincere, good- 
 natured, and some of them are even thinkers. The latter 
 stand with their faces toward the sun. While born in 
 the orthodox faith, they have long since left the 
 wilderness, and are ready, as it were, to cross 
 the Jordan, but like all communities there are some 
 who are stumbling blocks. We have factions here, 
 a few that are self-assertive, opinionated, wrong 
 
DOCTOR CAVALLO 120, 
 
 headed, and conservative, but these men wield a con- 
 siderable influence in the community, and rather 
 than quarrel with them they are allowed to crush 
 almost every proposition that would benefit the cause. 
 It isn't that they mean to do it, for I believe that they 
 are, in their own way, somewhat conscientious, but the 
 fact remains, all the same. At congregational meet- 
 ings they make it so intolerably unpleasant for the ad- 
 vanced element that the latter frequently remain away, 
 so that the others have the field all to themselves. 
 What this congregation most sadly needs is leader- 
 ship:" 
 
 "This is discouraging," sympathized Cavallo, "for 
 there is a great possibility in this very community of 
 building up a religious sentiment." 
 
 "That's it," replied the rabbi, "I know this to be a 
 fact and, without a tinge of egotism, I feel this to be 
 my mission. I am endeavoring, all that I can in an 
 humble way, to weaken the walls of race prejudice, and 
 undermine the social barriers which are erected by in- 
 tolerance and hate, but there, again, how galling it is 
 to me, doctor, when looking over the audience from 
 the pulpit, seeing some of the very best Christians be- 
 fore me, I am compelled to read prayers that are 
 tinged with narrow and tribal ideas." 
 
 " I know it, and I feel for you, and I will gladly do 
 all that I can, for I believe that the time has come for 
 us to present the intellectual and the ethical side of 
 our religion to the world at large that will bring us de- 
 served recognition." 
 
 The rabbi mused for a moment, looked his friend 
 steadily in the face, then said: "We have known 
 each other but a short time, still there seems to be an 
 5 
 
130 DOCTOR CAVALLO 
 
 understanding between us, for we are both working for 
 the improvement of the community." 
 
 " I sincerely hope so," answered Cavallo. 
 
 "Well, you wish to help me, do you ?" 
 
 "With all my heart." 
 
 "Then start right now. Next Sunday a general 
 meeting of the congregation will take place, when some 
 very important changes in our ritual will be suggested. 
 The new Union Hebrew Prayer Book will come up for 
 adoption. I shall need strong backing, for, while Mr. 
 Jacob Kinofsky has agreed to work for the prayer 
 book, he is so uncertain that the chances are that he 
 will work against it." 
 
 Dr. Cavallo reflected. Some one must come to the 
 assistance of the venerable rabbi. He did not particu- 
 larly care to have a quarrel on his hands, but he could 
 at least go and see for himself, and be then in a posi- 
 tion to judge how great this sentiment was. Then, as 
 a member of the congregation, he ought to take up his 
 share of the burden and actively affiliate with them. He 
 therefore slowly replied, "I will assist in this work to 
 the utmost of my power, and I will be there as a 
 listener, at all events." 
 
 The rabbi, thanking him earnestly for his good will, 
 bade him a warm good-bye. 
 
CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 When the president rapped for order every member 
 of the congregation was in his seat. They felt that 
 this was to be a red letter day in the annals of Ohabei 
 Shalom. The new prayer-book was to come up for 
 consideration. There was an air of expectancy over 
 the whole assembly. The president briefly stated the 
 object of the meeting, and hoped that harmony would 
 prevail throughout its deliberations. "The prayer- 
 book," said he, "has been before you for some weeks 
 past, and has been adopted by most of the leading 
 congregations in the land," and he hoped that the 
 members of Ohabei Shalom would not be found in the 
 rear of this advanced movement. 
 
 After the applause had subsided which the presi- 
 dent's remarks elicited, Mr. Shultheimer moved the 
 adoption of the prayer-book. This motion was 
 seconded by at least one-half of the members present. 
 
 Mr. Einstein said that he wanted to say a word. 
 Mr. Einstein was a large, fat man, who wanted to pose 
 as a great reformer and benefactor of his race. In the 
 matter of swelling words he was perfectly at home, 
 and on this occasion he was full to the chin. He said 
 he was in favor of reform in pretty nearly everything 
 except when these bigots wanted to close all the bar- 
 ber shops on Sundays and shut up the clothing stores 
 
132 DOCTOR CAVALLO 
 
 so that a man couldn't get a clean shave nor a clean 
 shirt when he came in off the road. Every man ought 
 to have his religious scruples respected, but they were 
 carrying this closing business too far. 
 
 Here the president called him to order and inquired 
 what barber shops had to do with the prayer book. 
 
 "There are people, 1 ' said Mr. Einstein, "who want a 
 new set of prayers." For his part he was willing to pray 
 out of any book, so that the people were satisfied. It 
 was all the same to him. He had noticed this, that 
 those who didn't pray at all were the ones who stuck 
 closest to the old ritual. 
 
 Mr. Ikelheim said that he fully agreed with every- 
 thing that Mr. Einstein had said. Mr. Einstein had 
 put it very nicely. He wanted something new. He 
 wanted to be advanced. These old things must be 
 dropped and advanced ideas taken up. 
 
 Several other members spoke strongly urging the 
 adoption of the prayer book. 
 
 Then a call was made for the rabbi. 
 
 He briefly explained its origin and contents. It was 
 the outcome, said he, of careful study. He showed 
 that congregations in this country had, in the last years, 
 multiplied prayer books so much so, that it became 
 necessary for an Israelite, who left his own home and 
 desired to worship elsewhere, to take a trunk load of 
 various prayer books if he desired to keep in touch 
 with the services at the places he visited. 
 
 After many years of earnest work by the rabbis, the 
 new prayer book has been adopted by their conference, 
 the most representative body of its kind in the world. 
 These men are scholars, devoted to their duties, pro- 
 found thinkers, in love with their calling, champions 
 
DOCTOR CAVALl.O 133 
 
 of progress. The prayer book is in line with the spirit 
 of modern Judaism. All oriental notions and all ref- 
 erences to a return to Jerusalem have been eliminated. 
 In fact a broad spirit of catholicity breathes through- 
 out its pages. 
 
 There was a pause and then Mr. Kinofsky arose. 
 
 He was a thin, wild looking man with a short figure, 
 a haggard face, black hair, a pair of restless eyes and a 
 beard that ran out straight from his pointed chin. His 
 huge nose, hooked like a parrot's beak, and his narrow 
 forehead with its heavy crop of coarse black hair, 
 down low, gave him such an air that lately he went in 
 the city by the nickname of " Svengali." He had 
 come to the city as the van guard in the great Russian 
 persecution some years before. He started as a ped- 
 dler, and from having a pack he had now risen to the 
 dignity of two horses and a cart, and a peddler or two 
 under him, and he began to traffic in rags, in old iron, 
 and in all the waste of the city. He became the leader 
 of the Russian Jews, and assumed authority over them, 
 so that he represented that element in the congrega- 
 tion. This gave him a sort of power and influence 
 which he was not slow to use. He stoutly opposed 
 every innovation, regularly bound the phylacteries on 
 his arm and forehead, kissed the tzitzis (the fringe on 
 the praying shawl) when he prayed, and kept all the 
 fasts and feasts religiously. It hurt him when the 
 praying shawls were laid aside. At every new idea he 
 raised his voice in angry protest, and he always man- 
 aged to stir up strife over it. The congregation sus- 
 pected that the proposition to introduce a new prayer 
 book would arouse his active opposition. 
 
 He had begun by being subservient to his superiors, 
 
134 DOCTOR CAVALLO 
 
 now he had outgrown all of this. He was dicta- 
 torial, and loved to give his commands in a loud voice. 
 His favorite phrase was, "You hear me." 
 
 He was short, but lean, and he hobbled as he walked. 
 Now, he arose and said : " Meester President" and 
 every one turned and looked at him." 
 
 Seeing this, he went down in front, and looked at 
 the congregation. Some of the audience laughed, but 
 he stopped this by waving his hand at them. 
 
 Then he repeated, " Meester "President: I haf nod- 
 ings to say. Eef dat book suit you it suit me," at 
 which remark he received a round of applause. 
 
 He went on, "Veil, veil, not so geshvind (jargon 
 for fast), my frents. Dat vas a goot book, I hav no ob- 
 jection in beleeving it. Unt eef dat book goomes into 
 der skoal (synagogue) out goes Yacob Kinofsky. You 
 hear me. Mine frent, Mr. Einstein, says giv de peeble 
 vat dey vants, unt mine frent, Mr. Ikelheim, vants dat 
 book too. Veil, veil let dem hav dat book vid mine 
 gompliments, but, you hear me, dat book will nefer 
 gum into dat shool ven I knows mineself. Mine frent, 
 der rabbi, gets on de ground unt says, dat book is goot, 
 it's nice, it's great, it's vine, it vas made by dem rabbis 
 vots knows all about our neets unt our vants. Who is 
 dem rabbis vat goomes up unt tells us ve vants you to 
 take dot book for to pray ? I am a Jehudi (Jew), 
 Meester President unt shentelmens, unt do you mean to 
 tell me, 1 ' (here he adjusted his spectacles, and holding 
 up the prayer book before the congregation, shook it 
 at the rabbi, exclaiming, at the top of his voice), 
 " Ees dis die book dat you vants our childrens to take ; 
 vy die book stharts upside down, dere is no mussif 
 (part of the prayer) ; I finds no kedusha (sanctification 
 
DOCTOR CAVALLO I 35 
 
 prayer), unt many more dings I dont finds any ; dis 
 vas gomposed by dem rabbis dat is so great. Vat dey 
 doos ? Dey shmoke on Shabbas (Sabbath), dey eat 
 trafe, dey talks of Chaysus, unt dem otter fellows from 
 die pulbit. Dey vant us all to begum goyim ('gentiles), 
 Gatholics ! Gatholics ! ! Gatholics ! ! ! dey vant us all 
 to begum." 
 
 Here he was interrupted by Mr. Tobias, who inter- 
 posed an objection that the gentleman should be a 
 little more guarded in his expressions. 
 
 At this, Mr. Kinofsky nearly lost his head, vehem- 
 ently retorting that Mr. Tobias was no good Jehudi, 
 and telling that gentleman to shut up. Shaking his hand 
 before the rabbi's face, he shouted, M You vants new 
 prayer-book, eh, eh, to begum Gatholics ! Gatholics ! ! •' 
 
 The rabbi good-naturedly remarked, "Will you 
 kindly explain, Mr. Kinofsky, what you mean by this 
 insinuation ?" 
 
 u I takes no insults from you," roared Mr. Kinofsky. 
 " I leave it to die people here, you did say before dat 
 dat prayer-book was full of Gatholics." 
 
 Here they all burst out in a good-humored laugh, and 
 Mr. Tobias remarked that Mr. Kinofsky evidently 
 alluded to the fact that the rabbi stated that the prayer- 
 book breathes a broad spirit of catholicity. " I would 
 suggest, Mr. President, that for the benefit of the gen- 
 tleman, we secure a copy of Webster's Unabridged Dic- 
 tionary, and he will find that the word our rabbi used 
 is the broadest expression of universal love." 
 
 At this Mr. Kinofsky was furious. He approached 
 Mr. Tobias, and roared, "You teach me, you tells me 
 to gets Vebster's Dichionary unter die bridge. You 
 hear me. You, your'e a vine chudge, a vine oxample 
 
I36 DOCTOR CAVALLO 
 
 of Yehudaism. You gets up here die last meeting unt 
 say, ve don't vants no more shofar, no shofar (ram's 
 horn). Eh, you hear me. Vat's goin 1 to begum of 
 you. For a man likes you, ve don't vants no more 
 Yehudaism, ve don't vants no more relichion ; you don't 
 vant no more shofar. Die next ding you vill vants a 
 Ghristmas tree, and then you vill vants a grucifix on die 
 outside of die shool. Ah, ha ! You hear me. Ah, 
 ah ! Vat you say, now, you fellows ? " 
 
 Mr. Rixman, a progressive man, here interposed, and 
 said : "We are not a set of school boys, Mr. President, 
 to be tortured by this gifted Demosthenes. I, for one, 
 will no longer submit to it." 
 
 " Vat," shrieked Kinofsky, u you calls me names. 
 Ah, ha. I show you who made you. Ven you gums 
 into me, asking me to vote for a prayer-book, you don't 
 speaks dat vay ; you shust vait, I get even vid you some 
 day. You hear me." 
 
 11 I call Mr. Konifsky to order," said Mr. Davids, a 
 young professional man. 
 
 At that Mr. Kinofsky turned on him, and his voice 
 was hoarse with rage. "Orters," he said "orters. 
 Who gives me orters. I give orters. I send my mens 
 after orters. You give me orters. Ah, ha ! I show 
 you. I takes orters from no boty." 
 
 "You are not speaking to the question," said the 
 President of the congregation, mildly. 
 
 "Keveschion ! Keveschion," screeched Kinofsky, 
 wildly. u Who asks me keveschions? Ah, ah, you vants 
 dis prayer-book, haf dis book ; I vill not haf none. I 
 vants mine old sidder (prayer book). 
 
 Dr. Cavallo was disgusted, and he showed it so 
 plainly in his face that Mr. Tobias came over to him 
 and whispered, "This is fun, isn't it?" 
 
DOCTOR CAVALLO 137 
 
 The doctor was annoyed more than he cared to own. 
 He had had an idea that his work lay in the direction 
 of advanced Judaism, and he was at the very outset 
 brought face to face with the most repulsive features 
 of the whole subject. 
 
 He replied to Mr. Tobias, "Why do they not stop 
 such an outrageous performance?" 
 
 "My dear sir," responded Tobias, "he is a member 
 of the congregation and has the right to talk, but I will 
 speak to him." 
 
 So Mr. Tobias arose and suggested that Mr. Kinof- 
 sky had spoken about long enough and fully as long 
 as he was entitled to. 
 
 Kinofsky turned on him at once. M Ah ha," he 
 yelled. " Because I don't pay but tweluv tollar unt a 
 halup a year, you tinks you put me down. Ah ha, you 
 hear me. I vas a Jehudi and I vill talk. I vill say vats 
 is in mine het." 
 
 He went on working himself up into a towering 
 rage walking up and down the aisle screaming at the 
 top of his voice, Pausing in front of one man he 
 shouted : M You don't want no shofar, you don't keep no 
 Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement). You are no gut 
 Jehudi" He swung his fists, and at last one member 
 said : 
 
 "There is no longer any sense in tolerating this 
 man's abuse. He means to rule or ruin." 
 
 This was as fire to tow. He shouted ten times 
 louder than before. "Yes, ah, ha, thatvosme. Yes, I 
 vill rule or ruin. Ah, ha. Yes, I vill ! No shofar. 
 You hear me, no Yom Kippur. No nodings, all gone. 
 I vos a Choo. Tarn dat prayer book, you hear me. I 
 vas Yakob Kinofsky, unt ven the new prayer book 
 
I38 DOCTOR CAVALLO 
 
 gomes in, I goes out. Ven Yakob Kinofsky goes out, 
 everydings goes too, you hear me. I vos all vool unt 
 a yard vide on prayer books unt dings. I don't takes 
 a back seat from no man." And he ended by shaking 
 his fist under the nose of a new member and wanting 
 to fight. The uproar increased. Every member was 
 on his feet and wanted to say a word. Mr. Kinofsky 
 became more and more excited. He vowed he would 
 start another congregation, he said that he was the 
 only true Jew in the city and he knew more Hebrew 
 than the rabbi. Tobias whispered to Cavallo that, 
 while he could read a little Hebrew, he did not under- 
 stand what a word of it meant. 
 
 All of this time Mr. Kinofsky was prancing up and 
 down, waving his hand and shouting. 
 
 By this time Kinofsky had found an ally, a man with 
 a deep Russian brogue who had to leave his native 
 home near Wilna while quite a young man. Fortune 
 had smiled upon him in a small way. He had led a 
 life of strict economy and he had, with the shrewdness 
 of his race, convinced the community that by means 
 of fire sales he sold clothing cheaper than any one 
 else. He was a true bigot and he gloried in it. For 
 years he was a member of a little Russian-Polish con- 
 gregation conspicuous for its quarrels and its pen- 
 chant for dragging its dirty linen through the police 
 courts. These men were a set of uncouth individuals, 
 driven away from their native home, and while hard- 
 working and sober, they were anything but an honor 
 to Judaism. They practiced the old rites, intoned the 
 liturgy in traditional melodies and their entire re- 
 ligious life smacked of Palestine rather than America. 
 They all wanted to be leaders. They all posed as rab- 
 
DOCTOR CAVALLO 139 
 
 bis and teachers. The members of the Ohabei Shalom 
 did not recognize them, but they would, out of 
 kindness, contribute to the support of the Shochet 
 (ritual butcher). In this congregation Mr. Abram- 
 ovitz was a shining light, but he had finally quarreled 
 with his Polish brethren and then affiliated with 
 Ohabei Shalom. He prided himself on his perfect 
 mastery of Hebrew literature and in all his dealings 
 and conversations he flaunted some quotations from 
 the old masters, but never with any accuracy. In fact, 
 he was the most superficial fellow in the congregation. 
 He had a few smattering sentences, picked up in his 
 boyhood, when he was sent to a Hebrew school. When 
 Abramovitz became excited he relapsed into "Yid- 
 dish" (Hebrew jargon). 
 
 When he first attached himself to Ohabei Shalom he 
 was a fawning follower of the rabbi, but the latter soon 
 incurred his enmity. In delivering a series of ad- 
 dresses he made a plea for advanced thought. One of 
 these discourses troubled Abramovitz. 
 
 In this the rabbi made a strong appeal for a closer 
 union between the different denominations, and he men- 
 tioned the name of Jesus from the pulpit, lauding him 
 as a great teacher. This was enough for Abramovitz, 
 He declared that the rabbi was an enemy of Israel. Here 
 now was his opportunity to display his friendship for 
 Kinofsky, exhibit his marvelous acquaintance with Jew- 
 ish literature, and give his spiritual guide an under- 
 handed slap. 
 
 " Brooder Fres'idem*," he began, u I vas broud dat I 
 livs, unt I vas broud dat I vas here to listen to die vords 
 of mine goot frent, Meester Yakob Kinofsky. He vas 
 a Jehudii vat I calls a Choo, and so vas I. Who vants 
 
140 DOCTOR CAVALL0 
 
 to tell me about sidder ? Vill dese rabbis write prayers 
 for us ? Mine frents, gib a look in dat book (singing 
 his words), unt tell me eef dem Goyim (Gentiles), eef 
 dem Shabbes-breakers, chazer fressers (swine eaters), is 
 fit to make tfillis (rituals). The Anshe Keneses hagado- 
 lah (the men of the Great Synagogue), (still singing 
 the words as he spoke), the makers of the goot tfillah, 
 vas men zaddikim^ landonim (pious scholars), ai, ai, ai, 
 unt dat book our footers unt our mooters vent mit it, 
 day unt night, shlept mit it, unt vaked mit it, unt 
 valked efry hour unt efry minit. Dem vere Choo 
 rabbis, by golly, dat knows vat is vat. Dis book 
 (opening the book widely and almost breaking it) is a 
 Chooish book, eh ; it is a Anglis book, unt, Meester 
 President, mine heart unt mine soul vas vid Mr. Kinof- 
 sky, unt eef dat book gums in here, I, too goes out." 
 
 Having exhausted himself, the speaker sat down. 
 
 Here a number of gentlemen tried to catch the presi- 
 dent's eye, but Mr. Kinofsky jumped to his feet, and 
 continued his remarks, giving no other one a chance, 
 but his voice was so hoarse with shouting and scream- 
 ing, nothing could be understood. 
 
 An uproar set in, and the president, fearing that it 
 might break up in a melee, adjourned the meeting, and 
 the members gathered in little groups, and discussed 
 the unfortunate occurrence in an excited manner. 
 
 Cavallo was joined by the rabbi, Herman, and Tobias, 
 and together they walked out of the synagogue, 
 leaving Kinofsky and Abramovitz berating the whole 
 thing, the members, the rabbi, the prayer-book, and 
 everybody connected with it, to such members of the 
 congregation as would listen, either from sympathy or 
 for the humor of the scene. 
 
DOCTOR CAVALLO 141 
 
 As the little group walked away, Cavallo said, "And 
 this is the sort of men by whom we are judged. These 
 noisy, disagreeable, screeching fools, stamp the name 
 of Jew with opprobrium, and make us a taunt, a byword, 
 and a reproach in the eyes of the world ! " 
 
 "My dear sir," replied the rabbi, "think that that 
 man represents years of repression and persecution. 
 His ancestors and himself have been fairly ground into 
 the earth. He has been condemned to every sort of 
 indignity, and every kind of epithet has been heaped 
 upon him. Through it all he has been taught that he 
 is in a state of exile. The time will come, he 
 was told, when he would be rescued and taken back to 
 the promised land. Everything depended upon his 
 keeping up the old customs and the old observances. 
 It was because his fathers neglected these that they 
 were first enslaved by Babylon. The time that they 
 have been outcasts and captives cuts no figure, for 
 were they not four hundred years in the land of Egypt? 
 Were they not for seventy years in Babylon? The 
 longer the time the more glorious the deliverance. To 
 speak, therefore, of change to such a one as Kinofsky, 
 is to shock all of his sentiments and to arouse all of 
 his prejudices. He does not see the tendencies of 
 modern thought. He does not see that restoration is 
 impossible, and that if the command to go back to 
 Palestine were received to-morrow, he would be the last 
 to go, in fact, he would not go at all. He simply re- 
 sists all change. He would like to feel that everything 
 is just as it was, and when this is done he is satisfied. 
 It is possible to elevate his children. It is not possible 
 to move him. 1 ' 
 
 44 And Abramovitz ? " asked Tobias. 
 
142 DOCTOR CAVALLO 
 
 "The same thing with Abramovitz, 1 ' returned the 
 rabbi. u He has a little more superficial culture than 
 Kinofsky, and a little more sense of propriety, but he 
 has not enough to take him out of the same rut. In 
 fact, he represents the old maxim that a little learning 
 is a dangerous thing. Then he wanted to pose as 
 the friend of Kinofsky and get a dig at me. He knows 
 better, but when he thought that he could make a 
 point, he sacrificed everything else and took up a posi- 
 tion that he knew he could not sustain. In fact, the 
 evolution of these great ideas have not reached either 
 of them ; the one is protected by his ignorance, the 
 other by his conceit." 
 
 " I can say these things," continued the rabbi, "for I 
 am a Polish Jew myself, and received my early educa- 
 tion at Warsaw. The history of the Jews in Poland is 
 one of the most romantic and pathetic that can be con- 
 ceived. You know that for hundreds of years and all 
 through the Middle Ages, the Polish Jew occupied a 
 position of prominence throughout that kingdom. He 
 was then progressive and in advance of his times even. 
 He was the teacher. It was to Poland that the Jews in 
 France and Germany looked for their rabbis. The 
 names of Shalom Shachna, Solomon Lurya and Moses 
 Isserles are beacon lights in the line of classical scholar- 
 ship. To them were submitted all the difficult questions 
 that the Hebrew scholars in Germany, in France and in 
 Italy were incapable of answering. Since the terri- 
 ble persecution of the Czars, a great many of them 
 have been forced into narrow grooves, but even today, 
 nowhere in the world is the love of study so intensified 
 as it is among these Polish and Russian Jews. Many 
 a father and mother have denied themselves the neces- 
 
DOCTOR CAVALLO 143 
 
 saries of life to procure some education for their chil- 
 dren. I can well remember, some forty years ago, seeing 
 this great thirst for knowledge displayed even by the 
 poorest class. The mechanics, the workingmen, con T 
 gregated in their synagogues, which were provided 
 with plenty of books, and devoted at least one hour 
 every day to the study of the law. Many of these 
 people being denied by the government a secular edu- 
 cation, have been forced to fall back upon the Hebrew 
 literature alone for their intellectual development, and 
 this has made them all the more scrupulous in the ob- 
 servance of the law, and opposed to the slightest 
 change. 
 
 "A few years ago when I went back to Poland on a 
 visit, I was struck with the sight of old, white haired 
 men pouring over Shakspeare, Milton, Goethe, Schiller, 
 and others, whose works had been translated into 
 Hebrew, showing, that with all of their disadvantages, 
 they were endeavoring to reach out after higher culture. 
 It is almost a common thing in all Polish and Russian 
 cities which Jews inhabit, to find them repairing night 
 after night, and almost the entire day Saturday, to the 
 Beth Hamedrisch (House of Learning). They them- 
 selves, no matter how poor they are, superintend, to a 
 great extent, the education of their children. In Rus- 
 sia and Poland some of these very Jews, notwithstand- 
 ing their disabilities, have risen to the very highest sum- 
 mit of culture and learning. This is particularly the case 
 in literature, in art, in law, in music, in philology, in 
 mathematics, and in many other branches of culture. 
 While we sneer at the Polish peddler, did you ever re- 
 flect, doctor, that these Jews have the spirit of the mar- 
 tyr in them ? They are pushed out in the world. They 
 
144 DOCTOR CAVALLO 
 
 have been driven from their own land, and nearly all 
 other countries have closed the door against them. 
 Even their own brethren in other lands sneer at them for 
 their manners, for which they are not to blame. They 
 have been crushed in their own home and derided in 
 every other, and yet they could, by renouncing their 
 faith, have been allowed to live in their own country, 
 and could have had all honors conferred on them. 
 That they have chosen to accept degredation, starva- 
 tion, scorn, contempt and misery rather than to forsake 
 their own faith, is the strongest tribute that could be 
 adduced that the spirit of Judaism is not yet dead, but 
 is an ever living and vital principle. Those who say 
 with a sneer that there is no spirituality in Judaism, 
 ought to take off their hats to the next poor Polish 
 peddler they meet and ask his pardon, for his shoe 
 latchet they are unworthy to loose." 
 
 "It seems to me, 1 ' said Tobias, "that these two are 
 like blocks of granite. They are partially embedded 
 in the soil ; trees grow above them, flowers spring up, 
 blossom and bear seed ; grass fringes their base, and 
 the sky and sun put on their wonderful changes over 
 them, but the granite changes not, and remains, year 
 after year, solid, fixed and immovable." 
 
 " Yes, 1 ' said the rabbi, " but, after a time, even the 
 granite yields to the gentle influence of the summer 
 showers, and little by little they change the outline of 
 the boulder, wearing away a rough corner here and 
 smoothing down a rugged edge there, until at last the 
 lichens begin to grow upon its surface, and finally it, 
 too, shows the effects of cultivation." 
 
 " I did not know that you were a poet, Tobias, I 
 knew that the rabbi was given to this, but I never ex- 
 
DOCTOR CAVALLO 145 
 
 pected to hear it from you,*' Mr. Herman laughingly 
 remarked. 
 
 Then, addressing the doctor, he added : M I am, in- 
 deed, sorry that this should have occurred when you 
 made your first appearance officially. There are in all 
 communities, as you well know, men who, while they 
 are boisterous and obstreperous, are still not bad fel- 
 lows at heart. They are well meaning in their way, as 
 our friend remarked justly. They had a different train- 
 ing, different bringing up. Why, even the devil, they 
 say, is not so black as he is painted. These people 
 will come around in time, and I have no apprehension 
 as to the adoption of the Union Prayer Book. Every 
 thing will be all right in time. For the present, we 
 must let matters cool off some. Let this not, how- 
 ever, estrange you, as you see we need you more than 
 ever." 
 
 Shaking hands warmly, they parted. 
 
CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 When the doctor reached his office, he found on his 
 table a note from Mrs. Bernheim asking him to come 
 up to the house to meet Ram Chunder Sen, the great 
 Brahmin, who would deliver a discourse on the Occult 
 Science. The doctor smiled to himself. He cared 
 little for this sort of thing. There are enough mystic- 
 isms in real life to satisfy him, but he would not dis- 
 appoint his good friend who had stood by him in his 
 philanthropic measures and given them such enthusi- 
 astic support, and so he wended his way to the Bern- 
 heim mansion and soon was in the parlors of his host- 
 ess. He found Ram Chunder Sen, the perfect type of 
 a Brahmin after the most approved idea. He was a 
 tall, dark man, speaking fairly good English, with a 
 pleasant accent, but with a dignity that manifested it- 
 self in every wave of his hand, in every intonation and 
 inflection of his voice. 
 
 When the doctor came in, the eminent Hindoo was 
 delivering a discourse upon the world's cycles. If we 
 take two dice, he said, after so many throws we shall 
 see that we shall have double sixes once in so long, 
 and we can depend upon these coming up with the 
 sixes uppermost once in so often. If we take three 
 dice we shall find that once in so long the sixes will 
 come face uppermost. It will take longer with three 
 
DOCTOR CAVALLO 147 
 
 than with two. The same law holds good with four. 
 If we take a dozen dice we shall discover that in so 
 many throws we shall find all of the dice fall with the 
 sixes uppermost. 
 
 If we take ten thousand dice the same law holds 
 good. After so many throws, it may be ten thousand, 
 it may be a million, all of the dice will fall with the 
 six face uppermost. So we, in this room, are composed 
 of so many atoms of matter. We meej; here in a cer- 
 tain position. Now, in time, all of the atoms compos- 
 ing our systems will come together in the same posi- 
 tions that they are in now, and we shall be doing just 
 the same thing that we are now doing. It may take 
 millions of years or millions of millions of years to do 
 this, but this does not count in eternity. 
 
 This was delivered in a dreamy tone, suggestive of 
 the very deepest of the occult sciences, and Cavallo 
 listened with an amused interest and watched the 
 effect on the audience. Most of them were painfully 
 interested, and took in the words of the mystic as 
 those of a prophet. 
 
 When the lecture was over the guests were presented 
 to Ram Chunder Sen, and then they strolled about the 
 rooms. One man particularly attracted Cavallo's at- 
 tention. He was of medium size. His countenance, 
 heavy and characterless, was illumined by a pair of 
 sleepy eyes and his face was set off by a tremendous 
 mouth. He was introduced to the doctor by the name 
 of Mr. Lurello Nagle. Mr. Nagle greeted him with 
 one of those lifeless hand shakings that feels fish-like 
 in its deadness. 
 
 The doctor asked him how he liked the lecture. 
 
 Mr. Nagle sighed disdainfully. " I can only say, in 
 the language of Lincoln, ' For those who like this sort 
 
I48 DOCTOR CAVALLO 
 
 of a thing, this is pretty much the sort of thing that 
 they would like. 7 " 
 
 Cavallo stopped to analyze his new-made acquaint- 
 ance. He found that Mr. Nagle had an ill opinion of 
 everything and everybody. When he could not openly 
 sneer, he maligned and he damned with faint praise 
 everything that came under his notice. 
 
 Mrs. Nagle was entertaining a group of friends in a 
 corner. She gracefully greeted the doctor as he was 
 presented to her by her husband. She was a tall, regal 
 woman, with heavy black hair, and eyebrows that met 
 across her nose. She responded to the doctor's formal 
 compliments by saying that she had heard of him, and 
 was proud to meet him. 
 
 She was extremely gracious and vivacious. She told 
 him that she believed in science, that "she and Lurello 
 took nothing on trust." She made fun of both Jews 
 and Christians, of everything and everybody, but she 
 contrived to intersperse so many compliments to the 
 doctor, and even Nagle aroused himself to except the 
 doctor from his sweeping denunciations, so that 
 before he knew it himself, they had extracted a promise 
 from Cavallo that he would do them the honor of 
 taking dinner with them the next Sunday. He noticed 
 after he had given a somewhat reluctant consent, a sig- 
 nificant look pass between the two, and this puzzled 
 him. They were, however, so very polite, and Mrs* 
 Nagle so " deared "Mrs. Bernheim, and was treated by 
 that lady with such courtesy, that he felt ashamed of his 
 doubts. He did not like Nagle's face, but that, he said, 
 was probably owing to his tremendous mouth, and 
 after all, this was a mark that no one, he said to him- 
 self, ought to find fault with, that Nagle could not 
 help it. 
 
CHAPTER XX. 
 
 The Sunday following saw the doctor on his way to 
 the Nagle dwelling. He found that they lived in a flat, 
 somewhat pretentious in its outward appearance, but 
 in the interior there was an air of shoddy, and of 
 an effort to make the most of everything. One felt 
 this in the furniture, in the carpets, in the cheap books, 
 — little articles on the mantel and tables. It was one of 
 those places where, to use a French phrase, the differ- 
 ent articles in the room u swear at each other." 
 
 The doctor was surprised to find his old acquaint- 
 ance Seidel there as the sole guest. He seemed to be 
 on very intimate terms with the husband and wife. 
 The meal was eaten with a great apparent flow of good 
 humor. The doctor remarked that both Seidel and the 
 Nagles made special efforts to win his favor. They 
 laughed at everything humorous that he said, openly 
 flattered him to his face, and dwelt at length on his 
 efforts with Abbott's Row in such a way that it annoyed 
 him. He disclaimed their compliments, loaded with 
 effusive remarks, in which Seidel seemed to join, and 
 while unsparing in criticisms of everything else, they 
 made an open exception to him. Even Mrs. Bernheim 
 did not escape. 
 
 "I like her, 1 ' said Mrs. Nagle, "but I would like her 
 very much better if she were not so pronouncedly 
 Jewish." 
 
150 DOCTOR CAVALLO 
 
 The doctor looked at her with an air of grave sur- 
 prise. " I thought that you were a Jewess," said he. 
 " Surely, the grand niece of the great Rabbi Helsfelder, 
 the greatest authority on the Talmud in this country, 
 cannot be ashamed of her race ? " 
 
 " I simply detest it," she said, M and I wonder how 
 you can bear to identify yourself with this people, who 
 are so gross, so coarse. I threw them overboard long 
 ago." 
 
 Nagle smiled his malevolent smile, in which his mouth 
 seemed ready to take in all the world. " You will find 
 no superstition here. We believe only in what we can 
 see. As for those ceremonies they are simply stupid. 
 The Talmud is a pack of trash, and the Bible is not 
 much better." 
 
 His wife eagerly seconded his assertions, and to- 
 gether, they ridiculed all the old beliefs. Seidel joined 
 in occasionally and assisted them. The doctor thought 
 he saw, that while Seidel was secretly encouraging Nagle 
 in his talk, he was sneering at him all the time, and 
 finally, Mrs. Nagle, as if she were acting a part, openly 
 snubbed her husband, and 'appealed to Seidel for 
 authority for her remarks. 
 
 The doctor watched this by-play, and wondered why 
 he had been selected for the bystander and witness in 
 this strange domestic drama. For Nagle did not relish 
 the position, and while he seemed to be afraid of his 
 wife, he ventured once or twice to enter his protest, at 
 which she snubbed him more remorselessly than ever. 
 He made it up by abusing all of his acquaintances, in 
 which she encouraged him. 
 
 Finally, as the meal wore away, Seidel began to con- 
 dole with Cavallo for the fate that had thrown him into 
 
DOCTOR CAVALLO I $ I 
 
 active practice, and said, openly, that with his talents 
 he could do much better. Then he showed how Nagle 
 would make a small fortune by getting hold of some of 
 the mining stock, and that the chances now lay open 
 and fair for any one to embark. 
 
 Mrs. Nagle joined in, and with her feminine curiosity 
 wanted to know if they would not pay her a commis- 
 sion if she sold some of the stock. And Seidel went 
 on to show that in the West women brokers were quite 
 common, and great fortunes had been made by getting 
 hold of stock at a low figure, and unloading when the 
 time was ripe. 
 
 Doctor Cavallo smiled to himself at this bait so 
 thinly disguised, and seemed to acquiesce in all the 
 propositions that were started. He said that he had no 
 doubt that a great deal of money had been made that 
 way. 
 
 Seidel at this, brought up the career of the bonanza 
 kings, of a great many cases where men, poor one 
 week, had, by means of a lucky strike, accumulated 
 enough to last them all of their lives. He went on to 
 say that with the modern methods of business, any man 
 was a fool to slave at a profession when he might, by 
 one lucky investment, realize enough to keep the wolf 
 from the door forever. 
 
 To all of this the doctor, by his silence, seemed to 
 give assent. 
 
 Then Seidel went on to show that in this age and day 
 what is needed is something to speculate with. The 
 intrinsic value is nothing. Here is Reading stock, 
 The stock cannot pay a dividend for years, no matter 
 how well it may be managed, and yet there is always a 
 market for it. They buy and sell it with avidity, and 
 all because it fluctuates in value. 
 
152 DOCTOR CAVALLO 
 
 "So," replied the doctor, "you are really doing the 
 community a service by unloading on them a lot of 
 stocks that will not be worth anything, but that will, in 
 their rapid decline or fictitious advance, give them some- 
 thing to speculate with." 
 
 "It is not quite so bad as that," Seidel laughed, "be- 
 cause some of these stocks may be worth something 
 at some time. If they make a lucky strike the stock 
 will be worth all we ask for it. Of course they have to 
 take their chances." 
 
 Little by little the conversation drifted around to 
 the part that each was to play in the affair. Seidel 
 was to pose as the capitalist. Nagle was to play the 
 chemist and assayist and to give glowing reports when- 
 ever they were to ask him, and he was to be sent out 
 to the mines by a committee to be appointed by the 
 stockholders. This Seidel undertook to manipulate. 
 It was not without many explanations and misgivings 
 and tacking and filling that, after a time, it all came out. 
 They needed some man of character to head the enter- 
 prise and they had selected Cavallo to take this place. 
 If he would go in, they thought that he could interest 
 Bernheim and Tobias, and with these two names 
 Nagle felt sure he could float a large block of the 
 stock. 
 
 This was, in brief, what they hoped to do, but Seidel 
 was too good a student of human nature to spring this 
 upon the doctor without a vast deal of preliminary 
 talk. He even attempted to put it to him on his be- 
 nevolent side, and talked learnedly in regard to the 
 policy of the country in opening mines and developing 
 the west. 
 
 The doctor declined the proposition. He never 
 
DOCTOR CAVALLO 153 
 
 speculated and he did not know anything about min- 
 ing. He had always understood that it was a calling 
 that took an expert, and he did not care to embark 
 in it. 
 
 They pressed the matter, appealing to his cupidity. 
 Here was an opportunity to make more money in one 
 week than he could make in his practice in a year or 
 five years. Why not embrace it? Everyone specu- 
 lated more or less, and this was as legitimate a deal 
 as any. 
 
 Mrs. Nagle even appealed to him to do it for her 
 sake because she wanted to make a little money. 
 
 If anything more were needed to disgust the doctor, it 
 was this open expression of avarice, and he positively 
 declined. Conversation lagged after this. The meal 
 had long since been finished and they had adjourned 
 to the parlor. Cavallo, pleading an engagement, soon 
 after took his leave. 
 
 As he went down the steps Seidel looked at him and 
 muttered under his breath, "The infernal Jew." Turn- 
 ing, he saw Nagle watching him with his cavernous 
 grin. 
 
 "He didn't bite, did he?" he sneered. Nagle could 
 not help making an ill-natured remark, even when it 
 told against himself. 
 
 " No," said Seidel, "but I will put a tack into him 
 yet," 
 
 On his way home the doctor stopped a moment at 
 Tobias's. That gentleman was in high good humor 
 and asked him where he had been. 
 
 "I have taken dinner with the Nagles." 
 
 At that Tobias burst into a roar of laughter. 
 
 " Who are they?" asked Cavallo. "I have been 
 
154 DOCTOR CAVALLO 
 
 told that Mrs. Nagle was the niece of Rabbi Hels- 
 felder, and I expected to find them enthusiastic over 
 the future of the race." 
 
 "And you found them the very opposite. Well, 
 they are, in a word, renegades. They profess not to 
 be Jews. He is a bookkeeper holding a position in 
 one of our establishments. He also sets himself up as 
 a scientist. He professes to be a microscopist, and he 
 has filled his wife with the same sort of nonsense. She 
 is dying after social recognition. She runs after Mrs. 
 Bernheim for what favors she can get out of her, and 
 abuses her behind her back. She courts the society of 
 Christians, and is roundly snubbed by them, of course. 
 They are both of them soured and unhappy, berating 
 every one, and while professing to be no Jews, they 
 get the epithet, Jew, thrown in their faces at every 
 turn. For my part I am sorry for them, but you will 
 find this class everywhere. There are a set of fellows, 
 who, the moment they make a little money, begin to 
 have Christmas trees, and to imitate the Christians, 
 without daring to wholly forsake the customs of their 
 fathers. They are a sorry set of citizens, and you will 
 find that their acquaintance will profit you very little, 
 because they are continually trying to make money 
 out ot every one with whom they associate. They 
 have only one idea, and that is, to get out of everyone 
 something to better themselves ; either social position 
 or cash. This is the price of their friendship, and 
 their whole aim. 1 ' 
 
 Cavallo smiled, but said nothing. 
 
CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 Seidel had been, as we have seen, making his home 
 with the Lawrences. He had drawn Bob, out of the 
 very good nature of the latter, into his mining schemes, 
 but not to such an extent as he had hoped. For 
 Seidel could not keep money. It flowed through his 
 fingers like water. If he sold a little stock to-day, he 
 spent the money to-morrow. 
 
 He felt that Mrs. Lawrence did not fancy him much, 
 and that she rather deprecated the influence that he 
 had over Bob. 
 
 While he treated Margaret with deference, he as- 
 sumed a certain air of superiority that Mrs. Lawrence 
 did not like. If Margaret noticed it she did not betray 
 it, but repaid Seidel's talk with good humored gaiety. 
 He had discovered that Dr. Cavallo loved the fair and 
 gentle girl, and, partly to revenge himself upon the 
 latter, and partly to lay the train for an advantageous 
 alliance, he now began to pay Margaret more open and 
 marked attentions than before. He hoped that even if 
 he did not compromise her in some way by doing this 
 it would give Cavallo pain. 
 
 When, however, Cavallo refused his offer to go into 
 his stock schemes, Seidel felt that he had no time to 
 lose and his attentions began to be more demonstra- 
 tive. He dropped his superior airs and put on the 
 
I56 DOCTOR CAVALLO 
 
 character of a lover. Bob saw all this and was heart- 
 ily amused at it, but he did not interfere in the matter, 
 for he thought that Seidel was not much to his sister's 
 liking. 
 
 One day Seidel found Margaret alone in the library 
 and he took the opportunity to declare his sentiments. 
 He described his lonely life. How from boyhood he 
 had fought his way up, getting an education and win- 
 ning his diploma, as a doctor, in spite of every effort 
 to prevent him on the part of his own people who 
 wanted to make use of his services. 
 
 He thought to himself, "If I can win her sympathy 
 I am safe." 
 
 He grew warmer and warmer as he went on, telling 
 her that he had never seen any woman who was so 
 much a part of his life as was hers, and that she had 
 been to him the one bright spot in his later existence. 
 He was now in such a position, he told her, that he 
 could offer the woman of his choice all the comforts 
 and luxuries that would make existence enjoyable. 
 
 He was perfectly at home in this, for he could simu- 
 late a passion that he did not feel, and he was a good 
 actor, besides, Margaret flattered his vanity. He 
 thought that she would look uncommonly well as 
 his wife. 
 
 As for love, he laughed at that, and believed that 
 marriage was like any other contract entered into for 
 the mutual profit of both parties, and it ought to be 
 dissolved the moment it became irksome. He did not 
 avow these sentiments while seeking Margaret's hand, 
 but he set forth in the most roseate light, as likely to 
 affect her, all the advantages from his standpoint, and 
 ended by asking her flatly to tell him whether she ap- 
 preciated his affection, and would grant his suit. 
 
DOCTOR CAVALLO 157 
 
 Margaret was no coquette, but she listened to Seidel 
 with the utmost composure. There was such an air of 
 insincerity in all that he said, that she felt here was no 
 soul desirous of finding a congenial companion. It 
 was the cool calculation of the speculator, making as 
 good a bargain as he could, and haggling over the de- 
 tails to show that he was giving more than he received. 
 
 She, therefore, told him that he did her too much 
 honor. She was only a simple maiden, not worthy of 
 so great a place as to be the bride of the rich Mr. 
 Seidel. That she hoped he would recall his words, for 
 she felt sure that they must have been uttered without 
 due consideration. She was certain that they did not 
 have the slightest affiliation in either temper or taste, 
 and while she might be gratified at his proposal and 
 condesension, she could not accept it. 
 
 He grew a little angry at this, and charged her with 
 having acted the part of a coquette. 
 
 This she repelled, saying, that she had treated him 
 as her brother's friend and guest, and that if she had 
 displayed any interest in him, it was only to try and 
 make him feel at home — mere hospitality — such as she 
 would have accorded to any stranger. Then she added 
 that it was his vanity that spoke, not his affections. 
 
 He saw that he had made a mistake, and begged 
 her pardon, but he wanted her to consider his case for 
 a moment. He was in earnest. He wanted her for 
 his wife. If he had not been demonstrative, it was 
 because he had been taught by a long intercourse with 
 the world to conceal his feelings, and not to allow 
 every one to scan his heart. If she needed more time, 
 he would cheerfully give it to her, but he wanted her 
 to give him hope. 
 
I58 DOCTOR CAVALLO 
 
 To this she returned a decided negative. She did 
 not love him, she told him, and she never could bring 
 herself to regard him with that feeling that she must 
 bestow upon the man whom she would select. 
 
 He grew angry at this, and asked her if this refusal 
 arose because her affections were already pledged. 
 
 She refused to allow him to catechise her. It was 
 enough for him to know that she did not love him and 
 never would. 
 
 Then he grew exceedingly angry, and tauntingly told 
 her that she would do well to remember that she might 
 go through the woods like other maidens, and pick up 
 a crooked stick at the last. 
 
 She gave him no reply. 
 
 He went on with increasing bitterness and sarcasm, 
 and said that when a girl was willing to overlook a 
 question so great as a difference in race, there was no 
 telling what to expect. 
 
 She turned her indignant glance full upon him, and 
 swept out of the room. 
 
 He cursed his folly as soon as she had gone, and 
 thought that he would apologize for his rude and un- 
 courteous speech. Then he reflected that the best 
 thing he could do would be to say nothing. She would 
 not marry him, this was certain, and the only thing 
 left was to do the next best thing. He saw Mrs. 
 Lawrence, and laughingly bade her good-bye, say- 
 ing he must go to Chicago. He told Bob that he must 
 leave for a few days and attend to some business, and 
 that he had shared his hospitality a good while, for 
 which he thanked him. He cursed Cavallo, inwardly, 
 as he took his way to the train, and spent the time in 
 considering what trap he should set for that individual. 
 
DOCTOR CAVALLO I 59 
 
 If he had cherished a dislike for him before, now he 
 hated him with a virulence that knew no bounds. He 
 swore to himself that he would get even with him. 
 
 When he came back from his trip he took up his 
 abode with the Nagles. 
 
CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 When Dr. Cavallo found, one afternoon, upon his 
 call-book a notice that Mrs. Wm. Allen requested his 
 services at once, for her daughter was seriously ill, he 
 made a wry face. 
 
 "That pink and white bundle of femininity has been 
 eating too much candy and too many bon bons, and 
 thinks that I can give her something to set her right. But 
 it is not a doctor's province to choose his patients," 
 he mused and he set out for the Allen home. A very 
 beautiful place it was, surrounded by old trees, in 
 a lovely yard, and adorned with everything that 
 wealth could furnish. He was admitted to the sitting- 
 room, and there he found his patient, a young 
 woman of perhaps twenty years of age, dressed in 
 an extravagant negligee, lolling in a rocking-chair. 
 She looked, indeed, like an invalid, for she had a 
 muddy complexion, a sallow skin, her mouth was 
 drawn in at the corners, and her lips were dry and 
 parched. She had been engaged in reading a novel 
 and in chewing gum. The book she hid under her 
 seat, while the gum she dexterously put on the chair- 
 back, showing that she had acquired the habit by long 
 practice. Her mother was a well-preserved matron of 
 fifty years. She had worked and toiled in her younger 
 days with her husband, and had acquired a tract of 
 
DOCTOR CAVALLO l6l 
 
 land near the city, where they had carried on the busi- 
 ness of market gardeners. The rapid growth of the 
 city had swallowed it up, and Allen had sold it for 
 more per inch, they used to say, than he paid per acre. 
 He was a shrewd, careful man,,and he did not allow 
 any of this wealth to slip through his fingers. His 
 wife, plain and sensible about everything else, made a 
 fool of her daughter, for she brought her up in worse 
 than idleness. Reading novels and rocking all day 
 in an easy chair, was about ail the occupation that 
 this young lady followed. The doctor felt her pulse, 
 as he had done fifty times before, and said : 
 
 11 Miss Annie, it is useless for me to give you prescrip- 
 tions as long as you will eat candy at the rate you do. 
 You are simply destroying your digestion." 
 
 Annie giggled. " D'g'ever see a girl that you could 
 stop eatin 1 candy, Doc. ? " 
 
 The doctor frowned. " You will have to stop, Miss 
 Annie, or you will have a very serious attack of indi- 
 gestion." 
 
 u Oh, Doc, you don't call chocolates candy, now do 
 you, Doc. ? Say no, for I'm just goin' to eat as many 
 as I want to." 
 
 "Annie is very self-willed," said her mother, smiling 
 indulgently, "but I think, myself, that she eats too 
 much candy." 
 
 "Now, maw, you know that ain't so. I only bought 
 a quarter's worth of chocolates, and I gave some away 
 to Cholly. Met him on the street and told him to 
 come up, I was an interestin' invalid." . And Annie 
 giggled again. 
 
 The doctor felt disgusted, but he opened his case 
 and began to measure out some powders, for he 
 
l62 DOCTOR CAVALLO 
 
 knew that all that he could say in regard to diet would 
 do no good. 
 
 While he was thus engaged the door opened, and a 
 young man came in. Annie gave a sort of crooning 
 note and added, "Oh, Cholly, what fun, come in and 
 get some of my powders." 
 
 The young man advanced. He was a typical swell 
 of the latter day sort. He had on the very newest style 
 of tailor-made trousers, the creases were according 
 to the latest fashion, and everything else was cor- 
 rect. He came in with a wearied air, and, as Mrs. 
 Allen introduced him to the doctor, he said: "Oh, 
 yaas, about all I hear at the dinner table now is re- 
 marks upon Dr. Cavallo." 
 
 "You are, then, Mr. Abbott's son? 1 ' inquired the 
 doctor. 
 
 " Oh, yaas," replied Cholly, " the governor, you know, 
 is awful hot about those beastly old rookeries that you 
 made him tear down. Deuced awkward job, you know." 
 Then turning around, "Annie, I was going to ask you 
 to go and see a game, you know." 
 
 "What is it, golf ? I can't, because I'm sick, and 
 I have to stay in doors for fear of catchin' cold." 
 
 " Oh, yaas, that's deuced bad, you know. I thought 
 perhaps you might sit out on the porch and see the 
 tally-ho go by. All the club has got horns and they 
 are going out on a lark, you know." 
 
 11 Maw, main't I go just out on the porch ; say now, 
 lemme go, maw," pleaded Annie. 
 
 "Will it hurt her, do you think, doctor ?" 
 
 " No, the fresh air will do her good. The more 
 she gets of it the better it will be for her, if she will 
 put on sufficient clothing to keep warm." 
 
DOCTOR CAVALLO 1 63 
 
 "Come, Cholly," chirped she, and taking him by 
 the arm, they disappeared through a window that 
 opened out on the porch. 
 
 Mrs. Allen looked after them with motherly affec- 
 tion. Her matronly heart glowed with pride, and she 
 turned to the doctor, "Are they not a handsome 
 couple?" 
 
 He bowed politely, recalling the old lines, that every 
 crow thinks its own crowlets are white. 
 
 She went on,' "It is a family secret yet, but they are 
 to be married by and by. Mr. Abbott is anxious to 
 have the ceremony take place as soon as possible, for 
 he wants Mr. Allen to take Charley into business 
 with him, but we prefer to wait until Annie gets a 
 little stronger. She has such a delicate constitution. 
 Charley is a loveable young man, and so good. He 
 absolutely does not know what evil is. He would 
 not smoke a cigar the other evening, saying that it was 
 too strong for him. All that he will use in this direc- 
 tion are those little weak paper things." 
 
 "Good Heavens," thought Dr. Cavallo, "a cigarette 
 fiend." But he was too polite to interrupt the current 
 of Mrs. Allen's conversation, and she rippled along 
 with a 'full category of what a splendid young man 
 "Cholly" was. The doctor gave her instructions 
 to see that Miss Annie took her powders regularly, 
 and then he went back to his office musing upon 
 the fates that had thrown into the laps of these young 
 people wealth and luxury, without their having done 
 anything to merit either. 
 
CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 It was nearly midnight when he was aroused by a 
 ring at his office bell. He admitted the messenger, 
 who proved to be a small negro lad greatly excited. 
 
 "Doctah, doctah," he panted, "Miss Mamie done 
 told me to tell you to come as quick as you could to 
 de house. One of de girls is done gone sick." 
 
 "Miss Mamie. What Miss Mamie?" he inquired. 
 
 " Nothin' at all, but jist Miss Mamie," said the dar- 
 key, "come quick, it's despirt." 
 
 Putting his case into his pocket, the doctor told his 
 sable guide to lead the way and he followed. They 
 went across the principal streets and at last began to 
 go down towards the river into "L" street. This 
 street, at its lower end, was filled with wholesale 
 houses, but at the upper part it led to a blind end, and 
 little by little the commercial houses had deserted it. 
 Their former places had been taken up by a new class 
 of tenants — night-birds, creepers, the parasites that in 
 every large city gather in districts, keeping quiet 
 during the day, sally forth at night and hold high 
 carnival, reinforced by what the poet Milton calls 
 "sons of Belial flown with insolence and wine." The 
 doctor followed his guide through these streets, meet- 
 ing here and there some parties of revelers. Many 
 of them knew him, for they slunk into gutters and 
 
DOCTOR CAVALLO I 65 
 
 alleys as he passed, pulling their hats down over their 
 eyes so as to escape recognition. 
 
 Little time had he to stop for the purpose of finding 
 who had entered the domain of her of whom Solomon 
 says, "Her steps take hold on hell," but he followed 
 with the air of a man whose profession is to minister to 
 all pain, no matter who is the sufferer. So when the 
 colored lad stopped at one of the houses, a little larger 
 and more pretentious than the rest, rang the bell, 
 then dodged around the back way and disappeared, 
 he left the doctor alone before the door. 
 
 He waited a moment, and then there was a noise as 
 of some one taking down a bar and a chain. Then a 
 small opening appeared, and an eye was seen at the 
 crevice. It looked as if the scrutiny was not wholly 
 satisfactory, for this eye disappeared in turn, and 
 another one, the doctor judged, was taking its place. 
 Then a female voice exclaimed, " Pshaw ! it's only the 
 doctor, 1 ' and the door opened, and he was told to 
 enter. 
 
 He found himself in a hall dimly lighted. The sole 
 occupant was a woman, well along in middle life. She 
 was powerfully built, and she might have been hand- 
 some once, with a coarse, animal beauty. She bore the 
 aspect of a woman who could fight all the world, and 
 knew that she would have to do it, too. She was be- 
 dizened with jewelry, and her face was calcimined 
 over with chalk. She stood in front of him with a 
 defiant air, like that of a hunted rat, as if she did not 
 know just what to say. She broke forth : 
 
 "Doc, one of the girls is sick. I don't mind tellin' 
 you that it's a peculiar case. If things had'nt been 
 just so, you bet I'd a fired her to the hospital, only too 
 
l66 DOCTOR CAVALLO 
 
 quick, but I can't in this case. If I'd a knowed she was 
 goin' to be sick, I'd never tuk her in, but you git sali- 
 vated in this world when ever you try to do any one a 
 kindness. Leastways she is here and on my hands, and 
 I want her tuk care of, and as soon as she can git up 
 I'll ship her, but I can't do it now, for I don't want no 
 ambulance in front of my door. It's dead bad luck to 
 have it, that's what it is." 
 
 The doctor had already wearied of her talk, but he 
 said " Where is the young woman ? " 
 
 Putting her head into the back room, the landlady 
 called out, *' Oh, Jen, come here and show Doc. upstairs 
 to Mamie's room. I put her in your room, Jen, not 
 knowin' that she was goin' to be sick." 
 
 "That's a tough nut on me," said that young lady. 
 
 She was tall and angular. So angular that she went 
 by the name of "The Kangaroo." Whenever the habi- 
 tues of the place wanted a fight, it was easily had by 
 calling this young lady by this marsupial appellation. 
 
 She simply said, " Well, come on, Doc, and I'll show 
 you the hospital," and led the way upstairs. Opening 
 a door, she added u Here's old pills, himself," and laugh- 
 ing at her own wit, she went down again. 
 
 The doctor looked about him. The room was beau- 
 tifully furnished, but everything about it was erotic to 
 the last degree. The pictures on the walls displayed 
 it ; the ornaments on the stand showed it ; the whole 
 room was strewn with paraphernalia, costly, extrava- 
 gant, heaped in profusion ; perfumery bottles, card 
 cases and cards, cut-glass bottles, little brandy flasks, 
 hairpins, combs, brushes, face powders, washes, pastes, 
 aids to female beauty, lotions, patent medicines and 
 beautifiers without limit ; portraits of actors and 
 
DOCTOR CAVALLO I 67 
 
 actresses, and of women in various attitudes of greater 
 or less indecency. Books of the latest erotic ten- 
 dency, "Trilby," u The Quick and Dead," etc., and 
 all the brood of literature, from " Zola " down, were 
 on a mantel in the room. The doctor did not have 
 time to do more than cast a sweeping glance around the 
 place, when his eye was attracted to a figure lying on 
 the bed. It was that of a young woman, and he saw 
 that she was even then in the death agony. She was 
 lying on her back, but as spasm after spasm passed 
 over her, he could see by the expression of her face 
 that her time was short. He hastily took her hand, 
 but one look was enough. He propped her up in bed, 
 and taking his medicine case, gave her a large dose of 
 digitalis. Holding it to her lips, he finally saw her 
 swallow it, with that feeling of pleasure that only the 
 practiced physician knows. As the drug began to 
 take effect, he explored her pulse, and found that its 
 rapid beatings began to be checked. He put his head 
 down, and listened to the pulsations of her heart. The 
 grating noise partially died away. 
 
 Little by little the woman opened her eyes and 
 looked at him. He held a glass of water to her lips. 
 She moaned feebly and said, "Oh, why can't I die?" 
 Just then a ripple of laughter welled up from one of 
 the rooms below, and a voice said, "two come five." 
 
 The doctor soothed her, "Do .not distress yourself. 
 You must not be agitated. Your recovery depends 
 upon your keeping perfectly quiet." 
 
 She cast her mournful eyes upon him, and asked, 
 "Who wants to get well ? Oh, my God, why can't I 
 see my baby ? " 
 
 The doctor's heart was touched. The woman was 
 
I 68 DOCTOR CAVALLO 
 
 little better than a girl. She was still beautiful, even 
 though worn and wasted to a frightful degree. Her 
 speech was correct and she seemed to be a person 
 of some refinement. He was moved, and, drawing up 
 a chair, sat down by her side to feel her pulse. He 
 found it still high, and so irregular that he realized 
 that her time was short. 
 
 He suggested to her, " If you have any friends, I 
 would advise you to get them." 
 
 She looked at him, and great tears flowed down her 
 cheeks. " Friends," she wailed, " I am forsaken by 
 God and man. I have no friends. I have no husband. 
 I have no child. Oh, my God, why did he take away 
 my child ; why didn't he leave me my baby ? " 
 
 The doctor asked her where she left her child, but 
 in reply she only said : " He took it," and then she 
 beat the pillow and fell back in another spasm. 
 
 Realizing that unless he could calm her she would die, 
 Cavallo lifted her up, gave her more digitalis, and at 
 last had the satisfaction of seeing her come out of her 
 spasm and rest quietly. 
 
 She seemed so out of place with the surroundings, 
 that while she was resting, the doctor tried to shut out 
 the sound of laughter from below. A party had poses- 
 sion of the parlor, and they were sending out for re- 
 freshments every few minutes. Whenever the door 
 opened, their ribald laughter welled up into the sick 
 room, and he was disturbed by it, but the poor thing 
 on the bed before him never moved. A fellow be- 
 low sat down at the piano and began to sing a comic 
 song. Encouraged by the flattering plaudits of his com- 
 panions, he at last struck into " Home, Sweet Home," 
 singing it with pathos and true melody, for there is a 
 
DOCTOR CAVALLO 1 69 
 
 time when men, in a maudlin condition, respond to 
 sentiment. 
 
 The poor thing on the bed opened her eyes and 
 looked around, and then a tear stole silently down her 
 cheek. "Home, home," she said, ; 'Oh, my God, why 
 can't I die ? " 
 
 "What stress of fortune led you to this horrible 
 place ? " the doctor kindly asked. 
 
 She opened her great mournful eyes at him and 
 said, "And you, too, believe me as vile as the rest?" 
 She shut her eyes and turned her face to the wall. 
 
 11 My dear young lady, how am I to judge unless you 
 confide in me. Let me know what the trouble is, and 
 let us see if it cannot be remedied." She sobbed, and 
 again he told her not to excite herself, but to keep 
 quiet. 
 
 She paid no attention to what he said, but continued 
 to sob. At last she moaned, u I am lost, body and 
 soul, because I loved too blindly. I have been cast 
 down and trodden under foot, because I believed what 
 I was told. I have been wrecked, and, my God, my 
 little child has been torn from me, because I was too 
 unsuspecting," 
 
 Then she turned her great mournful eyes full on 
 Cavallo's face and said, " Doctor, do you believe in a 
 hell?" 
 
 "I believe that God punishes all sin," he gravely re- 
 plied. 
 
 " Then he will not punish me, for I have not sinned." 
 
 He looked at her incredulously. 
 
 "No, I have not sinned. I am, I have been, a true 
 wife. Before God, doctor, I have not sinned." 
 
CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 She relapsed into silence. From below came the 
 words, u For he's a jolly good fellow, that nobody 
 can deny." 
 
 "This is extraordinary," ejaculated the doctor to 
 himself, and he added, " My dear child, if it will lighten 
 your heart to tell your story, let me hear it. Perhaps 
 something can be done for you?" 
 
 "The only thing that can be done for me now is to 
 let me die," she said, bitterly. " I have been mur- 
 dered, and, my God, I have not deserved it." 
 
 She was seized with a choking fit. The doctor gave 
 her another potion, and raising her up, placed the pil- 
 lows behind her to make her more comfortable. 
 
 Then she said : "It was not my fault. I was a clerk 
 in a store. We only received four dollars a week, 
 but it was enough to keep soul and body together. I 
 was happy, although I did not know it, until this man 
 came into my life. He used to wait for me. He 
 made me presents ; he said he loved me, and I be- 
 lieved him. He said he would marry me, and I was 
 flattered with his attentions. Most girls would be, for 
 his father is rich and he had plenty of money, and 
 he wanted to take me out riding. He was always very 
 kind. Ihad all the money that I wanted, and I began 
 to dress better than the rest of the girls, until one day 
 
DOCTOR CAVALLO I/I 
 
 my employer congratulated me coarsely on what he 
 called ^my mash.'' I was indignant, and asked what it 
 meant, and one of the girls said, l Why, of course, we 
 know how you get these things.' I was more indignant, 
 and when he came around that evening, I told him that he 
 must stop coming to see me, for I would not have my 
 good name dragged around in that way. He professed 
 that he loved me and that he was going to marry me, but 
 that if he did, his father would cast him off and that he 
 could not make a living, — we'll be married in secret. 
 I was young and romantic and this suited me well 
 enough. So that night he came around to my room 
 with a witness, one of his chums, and drawing a ring 
 from his finger, he put it on mine, and said, 4 I hereby 
 wed thee with this ring.' His companion said that this 
 constituted as lawful a marriage as any that was ever 
 made by a priest, and we went into another town, 
 moved into rooms, and went to living together. At 
 first he was very devoted, then he grew neglectful, 
 then he was rough and used to complain a good deal. 
 Then my baby was born," and here the poor thing 
 broke down again and cried. rt Oh, my darling baby. 
 Why can't they let me see my angel baby before I die? 
 Why am I treated in this way?" 
 
 The doctor quieted her as best he could, and she 
 went on : " Oh, doctor, it was awful. Sometimes he 
 would go away for weeks, and we got so that we hardly 
 had enough to eat. The neighbors took pity on me at 
 first, and then they grew tired of it. I had to sell 
 first one thing and then another to keep soul and body 
 together. My baby was sick, and I could not get any 
 one to care for it. I did everything until I fell sick, 
 too, and then he took baby away, saying that he would 
 
172 DOCTOR CAVALLO 
 
 bring it back when I grew strong. He never did, and 
 he neglected me more and more, and wanted me to go 
 still further away. Then he brought me back to this 
 place. I did not know where we were going, but he 
 said that we would go to a boarding-house. My God, 
 when I woke up in the morning and found out where I 
 was, I thought that I should die. When I heard their 
 awful oaths and drunken yells, I felt as if I was — I 
 didn't know where. They used to laugh at me, but I 
 only felt a more horrible sense of misery than before. 
 Once I went out on the street resolved to get away 
 from it, but the looks that I received, and the jeers 
 and taunts, and the sense that I was an outcast, made 
 me feel ten times worse. I said, ; I am lost/ and I 
 crawled back. I was walled in on every side. The 
 women, hardened as they are, took pity on me. The 
 landlady said, ' Let her alone, I'll make her fellow pay 
 for her lodging, never you mind.' And she has given 
 me lodging and food, but the very horror of the sur- 
 roundings has almost driven me mad. I kept hid- 
 den in the back part of the house until I grew worse, 
 and then I was brought in here." 
 
 The doctor was indignant. Such rascality he did not 
 think existed in the world. "Who is your husband? 
 for such in the sight of God he is." 
 
 She made no reply. 
 
 "Can you find it in your heart to shield a man who 
 has so wronged you?" he asked, sternly "Tell me 
 who he is ? " 
 
 She said nothing, only turned her face to the wall, 
 and the silent tears stole down her cheeks again. 
 
 He paced the floor with burning wrath. Here was a 
 young woman who had been foully wronged, who had 
 
DOCTOR CAVALLO 1 73 
 
 been deceived and maltreated, and killed by inches 
 through neglect and cruelty, and yet her love for the 
 wretch was still so strong that she would not reveal his 
 name, lest he should suffer loss of social position. 
 "Love is stronger than death," he said to himself. 
 He was revolving in his own mind what he should do 
 in the matter, when he heard the door below open, and 
 a voice say, as the owner came into the hall, "I had a 
 devil of a time getting here ; all of the fellows wanted 
 me to stay, you know, and I had to fool them. Where 
 is the gang? Having a little game? Order up the 
 wine, and tell Josie that I am here." 
 
 At the sound of his voice the dying woman opened 
 her eyes and murmured one word, " Charley." 
 
 Doctor Cavallo walked down the stairs and con- 
 fronted, face to face — Charley Abbott. 
 
 The latter looked at him with surprise. Then a 
 glance of recognition came over him and he laughed : 
 "I say, Doc, I didn't know that you was a rounder, 
 too. Put it there, old head, 1 ' holding out his hand. 
 
 Dr. Cavallo frowned on the licentiate and was mag- 
 nificent in his wrath, but, smothering his hot indigna- 
 tion, he said, rt Charley Abbott, come with me." 
 
 The debauchee laughed at first. Then he said, 
 "What for," and then he began to turn pale. "Oh, I 
 say," he whimpered, rt no tricks, you know. No snap 
 game. I'll do anything that's square. I never go back 
 on an old friend. Say, what's up? " 
 
 Dr. Cavallo paid no attention to his words, but made 
 way for him, and as he pattered upstairs, followed after 
 him. He paused at the door, but the doctor simply 
 scowled at him, and he opened it and entered the 
 room. 
 
174 DOCTOR CAVALLO 
 
 The sick woman lifted her eyes and looked at him. 
 
 A man whose life is evil and whose acts are atro- 
 cious, is generally feebly sympathetic. He melts at 
 once, although half an hour afterwards he may forget 
 all about it. He makes ten thousand promises to re- 
 form, and then he fails to do anything in that direc- 
 tion. Charley Abbott was one of these fellows. He 
 was weak and wicked, for he had no moral balance. 
 He did the easiest thing at the moment. If it took a 
 lie to get out of it, he would lie. If he could get out of 
 by running away, he would run. As soon as he saw his 
 old love he melted at once, and, going to the bed, he 
 broke into tears. 
 
 "Oh, Charley," cried she, "you have come back at 
 last." 
 
 "I have," he sobbed, "and I will never leave you any 
 more. I will recognize you as my wife, and nobody 
 shall part us." 
 
 44 What have you done with our baby, Charley?" 
 
 "It's at the Home of the Friendless," he blurted 
 out. " I will bring it back. I will acknowledge it." 
 
 He went over and over this, and he was working 
 himself into suth a condition that Cavallo felt that he 
 ought to interpose for he could see that the effect of 
 the digitalis that he had given his patient was growing 
 less and the excitement would kill her, so he said, 
 "What do you intend doing?" 
 
 "I am willing to marry her" I — will. I — will do 
 it — now. I will go and get a license at once." 
 
 So saying, he went down stairs and they could hear 
 him getting into a hack and driving away with great 
 speed. 
 
CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 When he was gone Dr. Cavallo breathed a great sigh 
 of relief. He did not believe that he would return, 
 but the doctor had learned enough, and was determined 
 to see that the child was provided for. In the mean- 
 time he made the sick woman as comfortable as possi- 
 ble and sat down to wait for the strange denouement. 
 The laughter in the room below grew louder, so he 
 left his patient in a doze and went down to silence it. 
 
 The door was half open and he stepped in. Gathered 
 around the table were half a dozen youths, among them 
 the sons of some of the most prominent men in the 
 city. Each had a girl next him and a glass in front of 
 them. Whenever they lost at poker, for they were 
 playing u freeze out," everyone took a drink. It was 
 the duty of each girl to see that her " fellow " had his 
 glass filled and emptied. If he failed to do this she 
 drank the contents herself. Just as the doctor entered, 
 one of the players called to his companion, M Bill, order 
 up another bottle of wine." 
 
 a Not mush," said the other, •' beer at a dollar a 
 bottle is rich enough for your blood, and I'll match 
 you to see who pays for it." 
 
 This witticism was greeted with a burst of laughter. 
 
 " No," said the other, " I'll cut the cards." 
 
 Cavallo looked about him in disgust. The girls were 
 
I76 DOCTOR CAVALLO 
 
 smoking cigarettes, and three of them were chewing 
 tobacco. They had all been drinking beer to the point 
 almost of stupid saturation. They were young things, 
 the eldest not more than eighteen, but they already 
 began to look like hags, for it is the pace that kills, and 
 these girls had been guilty of the worst excesses. They 
 presented, even in their tawdry finery and their low-cut, 
 decollette dresses, little of the fascination of vice. In 
 truth, but for the intoxication that dulls the sense, not one 
 of the gilded youths would have given any one of them 
 a second thought. The girls came out of the gutter, 
 that was easy to see. Their conversation was a mixture 
 of oaths and ribaldry, of bad grammar and coarse talk. 
 This is the product that the slums breed. The strange 
 thing about it is, that it recruits its ranks so rapidly, 
 for the death-rate among these children of the slums 
 is appalling. They last, on an average, less than two 
 years. Their life, carousing all night and sleeping by 
 day, the amount of stimulants that they absorb, their 
 love for narcotics, morphine and chloral, sweeps them 
 into the grave like flies. As the doctor looked at the 
 <k Kangaroo," as she was called by one of the party, he 
 saw with his practised eye that she had pulmonary 
 trouble, and that her days were numbered. 
 
 In spite of the fact that the party were having what 
 they would call " fun," there was a melancholy cast over 
 the whole group. The young fellows cut the cards, 
 trying to be gay, and uttering filthy jokes, but there 
 was weariness and a blase air about the whole table. 
 They had drank and smoked until they were actually 
 stupid, and there was little in their conversation but 
 oaths, and even the witticims were stale, far-fetched 
 and simply vulgar, with not even the spark of freshness 
 
DOCTOR CAVALLO I 77 
 
 to give them point. Everything about the room was 
 tawdry and flashy. The girls, dressed in Mother Hub- 
 bards, looked hard and callous. They had their 
 little by-plays, and when the chips of one of the players 
 was exhausted, they all clamored to be allowed to get 
 the bottle of beer which he had lost. It meant a com- 
 mission to the poor thing that got it, for part of the 
 fascination to young men in this company is, that the 
 female creatures are, for the time, their slaves. There 
 is a sense of superiority in the mind of the poor dude, 
 who can order them about, and have them call him by 
 a term of endearment. Vapid as he is, he finds here 
 some one who will flatter him, wait upon him, fondle 
 him, as long as his money holds out, and make much 
 of him. 
 
 In this society all the conditions of the outer world 
 are reversed, for it is the man here who must be true ; 
 the woman is expected to be false, and to practise 
 falsity as a profession. It is a horrible travesty upon 
 natural conditions, a world where everything is wrong 
 side out and reversed. All this Dr. Cavallo saw in his 
 mind's eye as he glanced around the room. 
 
 The young fellows who were sitting at the table play- 
 ing cards were all well brought up, and were " taking 
 in the town." It is this class of boys in our cities, who 
 come up rapidly, sow their wild oats, and in the sowing, 
 reap a crop of disease and death that sweeps them into 
 their graves before their time. It is a stygian pit, a 
 nest of horrors, where drunkenness and disease, and 
 filth and want, and misery and crime hold high revel. 
 
 Only those who have never seen it, paint this life in 
 brilliant colors, for, in sober truth, there is nothing 
 brilliant and pleasant about it. If it were not for the 
 
I78 DOCTOR CAVALLO 
 
 intoxicants accompanying it, no one would seek in its 
 depths for companionship or solace. 
 
 When the glamor is stripped from it, the house of 
 Venus is like the cave of Thomas the Rhymer, where, 
 after the enchantment was over, the queen was a filthy 
 old hag ; the palace, a dismal cave ; the ornaments, 
 dead men's bones ; and the silks only rotting seaweed. 
 Pleasure is elusive, and it nowhere flees the pursuer 
 quicker than when he seeks it in the purlieus of lust. 
 The fools are those who seek to make it poetic, when 
 it is base, sordid and filthy. 
 
 Dr. Cavallo did not moralize. He only cast an 
 angry glance around the room, and said, "Gentlemen," 
 
 At the sound of his voice they all started, and the 
 girls dropped their cigarrettes. 
 
 u There is a sick woman up stairs, and I would like 
 to have you make a little less noise." 
 
 "It's Charley Abbott's woman, she's sick," explained 
 one of the nymphs. 
 
 "Well, this isn't exactly the place that I would 
 select for a hospital," remarked. one of the boys, "but 
 we'll dry up, Doc. It's late, anyhow." 
 
 The doctor went upstairs to his patient. The poor 
 thing had fallen into a doze when the hack came 
 back, and, greatly to the astonishment of the doctor, 
 Abbott came with it, but alone. He said: "There 
 is'nt a clergyman, nor a justice of the peace, that I can 
 get to marry us. We'll have to wait until to-morrow." 
 
 "Then it will be too late," returned Cavallo. 
 
 He thought that he detected callous indifference in 
 Abbott's looks. The thought of the motherless and 
 fatherless little child in the Home for the Friendless 
 gave him an inspiration. "Wait here, 1 ' he returned, 
 "and I will get you a clergyman." 
 
DOCTOR CAVALLO 1 79 
 
 He went out to the hack and dispatched a note to 
 the rabbi, asking him to get into the carriage and come 
 at once, without asking any question. Then they sat 
 down and waited. Charley fell asleep, so soon did 
 his good intentions evaporate. The sick girl stirred 
 feebly and moaned once or twice. As the moments 
 drifted by, the doctor wondered what Margaret would 
 say, when she heard of the part that he had taken 
 in this affair. While his thoughts took this diiection, 
 the carriage came back, and he went down and ad- 
 mitted his'friend. 
 
 The latter inquired, "What in the world is the matter 
 that you should want me to come to this place at two 
 o'clock in the morning ? " 
 
 " Rabbi," said Cavallo gravely, " the future of a soul 
 is at stake.' 1 
 
 They ascended the stairs together, and the doctor 
 went to the sick bed. Gently awakening the sick girl, 
 he told her that a minister had come, and that if she 
 felt strong enough he would unite her and Abbott in 
 marriage. He added, "You know that it is not on his 
 account that I do this, but for your child." 
 
 She gave him a look of gratitude. 
 
 He propped her up in the bed, joining their 
 hands, while the rabbi pronounced the words that 
 made them man and wife. 
 
 11 My baby," she gasped. 
 
 Charley burst into a passion of tears, vowing that he 
 would take care of it, and acknowledge it, and see 
 that it was provided for. He made a thousand pro- 
 testations that he would reform, that he never meant 
 to do a mean thing, and that he wanted to turn over a 
 new leaf and quit all these low fellows. His outbursts 
 
180 DOCTOR CAVALLO 
 
 were lost on the doctor, but not so on his wife. 
 She clung to him and did not want to let him go. 
 Something of the old spirit came out at the last moment. 
 In vain the doctor warned her that the scene was too 
 exciting, and tried to part them. The suggestion excited 
 her. She kept asking for her baby and wanting to 
 have it in her arms before she died. She was told that 
 she could have it in the morning, but that she must 
 keep quiet. The paroxyisms returned and kept grow- 
 ing more violent. The doctor informed -them that 
 she was dying, but this only increased Abbott's 
 tears, and he began to exhibit positive hysterics. He 
 bewailed his past life and his surroundings. The 
 scene became painful. The news that the girl was 
 dying was noised about the house and the girls in the 
 adjoining rooms came flocking in, in their dishevelled 
 dresses, and some of them were in a half intoxicated 
 condition, adding a weird picture to the scene. As the 
 paroxyisms of the dying woman grew stronger, they 
 shared in the feeling through sympathy and began to 
 shriek and moan, and break out into exclamations. 
 Then the rabbi commanded silence, offering that 
 beautiful prayer for the dead that forms a part of the 
 Hebrew service ; and with her hand clasped in that of 
 Abbott's, the spirit of his poor injured wife passed 
 away. 
 
 The dawn was breaking over the east as Dr. Cavallo 
 and the rabbi walked away from the house of sin, now 
 the house of death. They were both deep in thought. 
 
 " I have been at the side of many death beds," said 
 he, 4t but a wedding and a death in such a place I hope 
 never to see again." 
 
CHAPTER XXVL 
 
 The next morning the city was ablaze with excite- 
 ment. The occurences of the night before had taken 
 place too late for the morning papers, but the news of 
 Abbott's marriage flew far and wide. All sorts of ver- 
 sions were given, but that most commonly accepted 
 was that Dr. Cavallo, in revenge for the spite exhibited 
 against him by Abbott, had entrapped his son Charley 
 into a house of ill-fame, and had compelled him to 
 marry a girl there. The part that the rabbi had taken 
 in performing the ceremony was dilated upon, and it 
 was said that no Christian minister would lend himself 
 to this infamous plot. 
 
 The afternoon paper that had sneered at Cavallo's 
 work in cleaning out the " Row" came out with flaming 
 headlines entitled "A Jew Trick" and depicted the 
 virtues ot Charley Abbott, the philanthrophy of his 
 father, the grief of his mother, and then hinting at 
 something mysterious, described the agony of the fair 
 young girl whom Charley Abbott was soon to lead to 
 the altar and whose life was now blighted forever. 
 This article added fuel to the flames and the city was 
 soon divided into two hostile camps. Seidel bestirred 
 himself and induced Kinofsky to start a paper 
 protesting against the action of the rabbi and 
 Cavallo. He got Nagle to sign this after Kinofsky, and 
 
I 82 DOCTOR CAVALLO 
 
 Abramovitz followed. Then they took it to the 
 Weiner Brothers. These two kept a clothing store and 
 they were in mortal fear that they would do something 
 to hurt their trade. This was the whole of their idea. 
 Anything that kept people out of their store was an 
 evil, anything that brought them in was a benefit. 
 When Kinofsky told them that this action of the 
 rabbi's would arouse fishes (prejudice), they signed 
 the protest. 
 
 So did Joseph Levinsky, who also kept a clothing 
 store. He had long since withdrawn from the congre- 
 gation and did not even contribute to the charities of 
 his people. On the contrary, he put Christmas trees 
 in his window to catch trade, and gave little boys base 
 ball bats when they bought their suits of him. He 
 would have signed a petition to exterminate all the 
 Jews but himself, if he was sure that it would not be 
 applied to him. 
 
 Then Seidel proceeded to develop a new plot. 
 
 Fearing that Cavallo would expose his mining 
 scheme, he conceived a plan by which he hoped to 
 drive him out of the city. He induced some Jew- 
 baiters to call a meeting in a public hall, to which, they 
 invited "All citizens who deplore the late scandalous 
 proceedings as calculated to cast a blot upon the fair 
 fame of our city. 1 ' 
 
 Mr. Herman was greatly disturbed. He was a peace- 
 loving man, and he deplored these occurrences as calcu- 
 lated to breed hate and to stir up religious strife, so he 
 called upon Dr. Cavallo to expostulate with him. He 
 found the doctor in a condition of righteous wrath, but 
 dignified, uncompromising and determined. He had 
 done nothing but what was right, and he stood upon 
 
DOCTOR CWALLO 1 83 
 
 that ground. Young Abbott had, of his own accord, 
 chosen to right a great wrong which he had perpetrated, 
 and give his name to an innocent child, of whose 
 parentage there was no shadow of a doubt. 
 
 If it was a crime to see this done, to assist a poor 
 soul in her last death agony and rescue another soul 
 from the slums, so be it. He was quite ready to meet 
 the charge, and more, he would see that the young wife 
 was accorded a decent burial. 
 
 In this lofty style he met every assault that was 
 made upon him. He hunted up Kinofsky, and told 
 him that he need not attack the rabbi, for the act for 
 which that gentleman was censured was his alone, and 
 he gave Kinofsky such a scoring that he was abashed, 
 and stammered that he would stop circulating the 
 paper. 
 
 Then the doctor went to the house of death, and saw 
 that the last sad rites were paid to the late Mrs. Abbott. 
 Charley had left word that he would pay the bill, and 
 the undertaker had provided a beautiful casket. He 
 deliberated long as to whether he should attend the 
 funeral as chief mourner, and follow his wife to the 
 grave, but the uproar in the city was so great that he 
 shrank from facing it. And at the last moment, when 
 he had made up his mind to go, and take the. child, and 
 show the little thing its mother, his father peremptorily 
 forbade him to stir ; and he was still so much under 
 the influence of the old man, who was furious over his 
 son's action, that Charley desisted and remained at his 
 own home. 
 
 When the doctor went to the house no one was in 
 sight, but the door was open and he entered, and pass- 
 ing into the front room, saw that the undertaker was 
 
I 84 DOCTOR CAVALLO 
 
 alone with the dead. All the evidences of last night's 
 revel had been removed, and everything out of charac- 
 ter with the solemn time had been taken away. The 
 doctor noted this with a feeling of relief. Very lovely 
 the poor girl looked in the casket. The hunted look 
 was gone, and on the features, though worn and wasted, 
 rested an expression of perfect peace. Her glorious 
 hair filled the casket, and her lips, slightly parted, 
 showed the pearly teeth. 
 
 As the doctor looked down upon the form prepared 
 for its final home, he was amazed at the bewitching 
 beauty before him, for he realized what she must have 
 been when in the full bloom of maidenhood. No 
 wonder that she attracted the fancy of such as Abbott, 
 the doctor thought. 
 
 When the time came for the service, the aged 
 and venerable rabbi assembled the household. The 
 landlady gathered the girls together. They had made 
 some attempt to show their respect for the occa- 
 sion, and, although they had donned their soberest 
 garb, the finery revealed itself here and there, in taw- 
 dry touches that made their presence in the house of 
 death still more outre. As the rabbi dwelt upon the 
 uncertainty of life and the awful mystery of death one 
 after another of his auditors broke out into tears and 
 wailings.- The excitement increased until the room 
 was filled with the sound of sobbing women and peni- 
 tents, crying and asserting that they wanted to reform, 
 asservations writ in water and soon to be obliterated by 
 the first opportunity for revelry. 
 
 For these people are emotional, easily stirred to 
 tears, and easily depressed. Between nights of wassail* 
 they relapse into days of gloom, when they fly to mor- 
 
DOCTOR CAVALLO 1 85 
 
 phine for solace, and when the fit of remorse proves too 
 great for mastery, they find refuge in the grave of the 
 suicide. 
 
 Dr. Cavallo had encountered so many of these scenes 
 that they made no impression upon him, but the rabbi 
 was greatly moved. He was unaccustomed to such 
 sights, and, as they concluded the services and watched 
 the undertaker carry away the remains to the ceme- 
 tery, he linked his arm in that of the doctor and said, 
 "Great good ought to come out of this to those in- 
 mates." 
 
 "Not at all," replied the other. "They will forget 
 all about it in a day." 
 
 " I should think that it would make an everlasting 
 impression upon them," returned the rabbi. 
 
 " No. The distinguishing trait of these people is their 
 lack of memory. They are creatures of impulse. They 
 forget to-day what was told them yesterday. They 
 yield to every new whim. Like the gnats that dance 
 in the sunbeam, they are carried away with every shift- 
 ing breeze. From the days of Rahab, who took in the 
 spies on the wall, they are always attracted by new 
 faces and new impressions. Just as she betrayed her 
 own people, so they will forsake any old admirer for a 
 new one. The badge of their tribe is their inconstancy." 
 
 "Is there no hope for them?" 
 
 "Anything that exists, and that has always existed, 
 is not to be removed by a momentary plaster. To 
 change this condition, needs a profound remedy ap- 
 plied to the very foundations of society. That this 
 will come at some time I firmly believe, because the 
 passion that makes it, lies at the very root of our ani- 
 mal nature, but it is not to be accomplished by indi- 
 vidual effort applied to individual cases." 
 
CHAPTER XXVII, 
 
 They parted on the street corner and the doctor 
 went to his office. He could see the signs of the 
 gathering storm against him, but he cared little, for his 
 nature was such that he welcomed a contest where he 
 knew he was in the right. He passed Nagle on the 
 street. As he approached, the grin on that indi- 
 vidual's face widened and deepened. The sneer on his 
 countenance, that was now habitual, spread until it 
 looked as if his mouth would swallow up his face. 
 The recognition that he gave the doctor could be 
 taken for either triumphant defiance or malicious de- 
 light at having overreached him. The doctor did not 
 know with which to class it. He only thought to him- 
 self, u Nagle, if you are wise, you will never do anything 
 for which you will have to answer before a jury. That 
 mouth and grin will hang you without a chance for re- 
 prieve." 
 
 With it all Cavallo felt a sense of confidence. The 
 gage of battle had been thrown down. He had 
 picked it up and was ready for the strife. 
 
 As he entered his office a small boy brought him a 
 note. He saw that it was in Margaret's handwriting, 
 and tore it open. It was not signed and only con- 
 tained a quotation from an old English poet. It began, 
 " Stand firm." 
 
DOCTOR CAVALLO 187 
 
 41 Glorious girl," he said. * Yes, I will stand firm/' 
 He walked out and saw a crowd around a hand 
 bill that had just been pasted up. It read : 
 
 NOTICE. 
 
 ALL PERSONS WHO BELIEVE IN CHRISTIAN RULE AND WHO 
 ARE OPPOSED TO 
 
 JEW METHODS 
 
 ARE REQUESTED TO MEET IN WILKES HALL, WEDNESDAY 
 EVENING AT HALF PAST EIGHT. 
 
 ABLE SPEAKERS WILL BE PRESENT. 
 
 He read this over and then he took a long breath, 
 saying to himself, "And among the speakers will be 
 Dr. Cavallo." 
 
 Then he attended to his regular practice. He found 
 some of his patients exceedingly cool and they dis- 
 missed him, but for this he cared little. He went 
 home, and laying down, he slept a sleep unbroken by 
 dreams. 
 
 The day following, the morning papers came out 
 with their accounts of the marriage. They toned down 
 the scene a good deal from the excited statement of 
 the afternoon press, and one of them gave Abbott a 
 severe scoring, but none of them dared say a word for 
 Cavallo, but took the ground that he was actuated by a 
 desire to get even with Abbott. One of the editors 
 even grew jocular, and reminded Abbott that when he 
 woke up one of God's chosen people, he ought to have 
 been aware that he was fooling with the business end 
 of a hornet, and that when the Lord gave His people 
 
188 DOCTOR CAVALLO 
 
 the heathen for an inheritance, Presbyterians were not 
 excepted. 
 
 On the whole, the feeling against the doctor was in- 
 creased, rather than diminished, by the morning 
 papers. The afternoon paper made a flaming appeal 
 for a full attendance at the meeting, and as night came 
 on he could see little knots of men gathered in the 
 streets discussing and arguing, but as they invariably 
 lowered their voices at his approach, he could feel that 
 the current of opinion was against him. Just at dusk 
 he received a call by telephone, asking him to come 
 down to "Trent's" to see a man who had been injured 
 in a factory by getting caught in a machine. The 
 sender begged him to be quick. 
 
 "Trent's" was a boarding house, near the river, in 
 the lower part of the city, but there was quite an inter- 
 val between it and the nearest houses, a wide open 
 space, owned by an old fellow who would neither 
 improve nor sell it. 
 
 The doctor looked at his watch. It was six o'clock. 
 He had plenty of time to see his patient and get back 
 to the meeting. True, he would miss his supper, but 
 that did not trouble him. He boarded the street car, 
 rode down opposite Trent's, and, getting off, walked 
 slowly towards the boarding house. He had nearly 
 crossed the open field when he heard a noise behind 
 him, and he became aware that he was followed. A 
 gang of men and half grown boys were dogging his 
 footsteps. As they approached nearer, he heard half 
 muttered exclamations and growls, and as they came 
 still closer he recognized one voice. It said, " Kill the 
 domn'd Jew.' 1 
 
 The doctor said to himself, " Mike O'Hara." 
 
CHAPTER XXIX. 
 
 As he faced around he saw that he was caught. In 
 front of him was the mob. Behind him was only a 
 barn. If he attempted to escape he would be run 
 down on either side. He had no pistol and only a small 
 knife in his medicine case. The mob, evidently ex- 
 pecting that he would try to run, had spread out in a 
 sort of half circle, to hedge him in, and they now 
 gathered around, as he stopped and faced them, and 
 they began to jeer. 
 
 The doctor smiled disdainfully. "There isn't a rock 
 or a brick-bat in the whole crowd." 
 
 In the gathering gloom he knew that his greatest 
 danger lay in being hit on the head with a stone. With 
 this danger removed, he felt relieved to see that they 
 were mostly armed with sticks, and that Mike, the 
 leader, had a large club. 
 
 Nevertheless, he was in great danger, for if they all 
 closed in, and he was once knocked down, they would 
 jump on him, and speedily kick him to death. 
 
 They began to howl like wolves, and the burden of 
 their jibes was, " Jew, Jew." 
 
 He calculated. 
 
 Mike was the leader, that was plain. He had not 
 forgotten that he had once received a knock on the 
 head on the doctor's account, and it was evident that 
 something beside that urged him on. 
 
190 DOCTOR CAVALLO 
 
 The call over the telephone was not Mike's voice. 
 There was a conspiracy. Was it. Nagle, or Seidel, or 
 Abbott ? 
 
 A mob is always cowardly, and the doctor, in facing 
 his foes, had non-plussed them. If they could have 
 found bricks or stones, his career would have been 
 short, but the open plain was covered with a sod, and 
 this had been eaten off short by the cattle that some of 
 the people kept and herded on it. If they overpow- 
 ered him, it would be by hitting him with a club. 
 
 The doctor braced up against the little barn, and 
 waited for the attack. 
 
 Mike took the initiative. He advanced with his 
 club in the air. 
 
 "Ah, ha," said he, "ye domn'd Jew, I'll fix ye." 
 
 An untrained man does not know how to use a club. 
 He always strikes overhead, and after delivering one 
 blow he is helpless. The only fear that the doctor had 
 was that half a dozen might strike him at once. 
 
 When he left his office he had deliberated. It looked 
 as if it might rain, and he had taken his umbrella from 
 its rack. Then he had put it back, and, in its stead, he 
 had taken a light walking cane. It was small, but stiff, 
 and was, in the hands of an ordinary man, worse than 
 no weapon at all, for at the first blow it would break 
 over the assailant's head. But it had a steel ferule at 
 the end, and the doctor, passing it through his hands, 
 said, " It will do." 
 
 He had been a great fencer in the university, and he 
 smiled to himself as he saw Mike break loose from 
 his companions and steadily advance with his great 
 club uplifted in the air. They waited to see the out- 
 come, for a mob must have a leader. If Mike knocked 
 
DOCTOR CAVALLO I9I 
 
 him down they would speedily join in and finish the 
 work with their boots and sticks, but they would not 
 begin the attack. 
 
 Mike grinned to himself to see the doctor, standing 
 quietly, making no motion to defend himself. He 
 thought, M I'll hit him a swat by the side of the head, and 
 when he falls, I'll grab his watch and chain before the 
 other fellows gets 'em." So full of the idea of robbing 
 his victim was he, that he marched boldly up, and, 
 raising his club, brought it down with all of his force 
 on the doctor's head. 
 
 As it descended, the doctor, dexterously caught it, 
 twisted it to one side, and then sent his steel shod cane 
 into the bully's mouth. It tore its way through break- 
 ing out his front teeth and going through his cheek, 
 sent the blood over his shirt front in a torrent. 
 
 He gave a howl like a wounded animal, and, as he 
 turned around, presenting his face to the crowd behind 
 him, they uttered a cry of horror and dismay. The 
 doctor was quick to seize his advantage. He sprang 
 at the foremost fellows, striking one, and thrusting 
 another, and he managed to give several of them some 
 pretty severe wounds in the face and head, for he used 
 his light cane like a rapier, and wherever he thrust, he 
 brought blood. One after another turned, and in a few 
 moments the whole mob, yelling like a pack of coyotes, 
 fled, leaving him alone. 
 
 He went back to where he had stood by the side of 
 the barn and picked up his medicine case, where he 
 dropped it, and dusted it off. 
 
 He felt of his arm. "A slight bruise is all," he said. 
 
 Then he went on to Trent's. He found, as he sus- 
 pected, that he had not been called, and there had 
 been no accident. Then he took his way back. 
 
192 DOCTOR CAVALLO 
 
 As he got on the street car he saw Lurello Nagle, 
 but that individual avoided his eye. 
 
 The doctor looked at him in profound contempt. 
 
 He rode back to his office, went to his room, washed 
 the bruise on his arm and brushed his clothes. Then 
 he examined his cane. 
 
 There was blood on the ferule and on the wood. 
 
 " Mr. Michael O'Hara will do well to consult a dentist 
 the first thing in the morning," he ejaculated. 
 
 Then he looked at his watch. 
 
 " It is getting around to half-past eight," he said. " I 
 must face the other mob." 
 
 He left his office, and walked resolutely to the hall. 
 
CHAPTER XXX. 
 
 His entrance created quite a commotion, — an un- 
 easy feeling. A murmur ran about the room, and as 
 he sought a seat, the chairman came down, and, with 
 mock courtesy, asked him to go up on the platform. 
 
 Dr. Cavallo's blood was up, and he accepted the in- 
 vitation, to the surprise of that gentleman, and going 
 on the stage, took a seat. His action was greeted with 
 a storm of hisses and execrations, and those already on 
 the stage drew away from him, and took up seats apart. 
 
 He looked over the audience, and he could not see 
 one friendly face. He was alone. But his blood was 
 boiling. Something of the old Maccabean spirit was in 
 his veins. He faced the audience with a look of calm 
 dignity. 
 
 The meeting had been already opened by the selec- 
 tion of a well-known business man, Mr.. Radcliff, as 
 chairman. He was a good-natured fellow, always 
 ready to agree with the last speaker, and anxious for 
 public honors. He had long been a member of the 
 Board of Supervisors, and now he had secret aspir- 
 ations for Congress. He said, cautiously, that this 
 meeting had been called at the suggestion of some 
 well-known citizens, who would make known its pur- 
 pose further on. For his part, he was not well advised 
 what the motive was, but he had consented to preside, 
 7 
 
194 ' DOCTOR CAVALLO 
 
 to maintain order, and see that every one had a fair 
 show. Then he asked some one to state the object of 
 the meeting. 
 
 No one moved at first, and it seemed that the meet- 
 ing would be a flat failure. 
 
 Seidel had forseen this, and he had his man ready. 
 There was a young lawyer in the city, named Peterson. 
 He was an idle, dissipated chap, who could make a 
 brilliant talk, but he was allowing his love for whisky 
 to get the better of his intellect. Seidel had come 
 across him that afternoon and had treated him, and 
 outlining what he wanted, told him that now was his 
 chance. He ought to attend the meeting that evening, 
 and make a hit by abusing Ur. Cavallo, who was un- 
 popular. He would, in this way, get on the right 
 side, and, undoubtedly, old Abbott would pick him up 
 and give him business. Filled with this idea, Peterson 
 watched for his chance, and as every one else hung 
 back, he arose to his feet, and, addressing the chair, 
 was invited to come on the platform. As he made his 
 way up, Seidel started a cheer for him, which was 
 responded to and taken up by the others. This flat- 
 tered Peterson's vanity, and he felt he was on the right 
 track. 
 
 He said "That he had waited patiently for some one 
 to give expression to the indignation that stirred 
 this community. The morals of the city had been out- 
 raged ; the ancient ties of family had been broken up ; 
 the name of a respectable citizen had been dragged in 
 the dust ; a lovely girl was even now sitting in her lux- 
 urious home, weeping for her broken and shattered 
 hopes ; two Christian houses had been desolated, and 
 the scandal of an entire family had been dragged out, 
 
DOCTOR CAVALLO I95 
 
 ■ — the skeleton of a moral household had been exposed 
 to the light of day in order to gratify the malice, the 
 race hatred of this man, Dr. Cavallo. For his part, he 
 lifted up his voice in protest against such infernal, such 
 damnable villainy. He wished, in the name of out- 
 raged morals, in the name of virtue, in the name of the 
 holy profession of the clergy itself, to protest against 
 such profanation as had been witnessed when two men, 
 one a professional physician, the other a minister, had 
 profaned the very name of religion and of the holy in- 
 stitution of marriage, by descending to the slums, in a 
 sink of prostitution, uniting in marriage the scion of a 
 worthy house, the bearer of an honored Christian name, 
 with one of the lowest prostitutes in the city." 
 
 Feeling now sure of his ground, Peterson began a 
 tirade against the Jews as a people, and repeated every 
 epithet he could think of. This sort of attorney is 
 always great in villification, and encouraged by the 
 applause of his auditors, Peterson went all lengths. The 
 Ham Head gang had come in fresh from their encoun- 
 ter with the doctor, and at every epithet that the brain 
 of Peterson could coin, they yelled their approval. 
 Finally, the lawyer, after having fairly outdone himself 
 in vituperation and Billingsgate, began to call names 
 and he grew positively vulgar towards the close. This 
 was not exactly what Seidel wanted, so he set some of 
 the gang to yelling, " Give it to them." "Down with 
 the Sheenies," and the like, and in accordance with his 
 plan, they made so much noise that Peterson had to 
 close. 
 
 They began calling for some one else, and several 
 speakers followed, but as they could not match Peter- 
 son, their remarks were tame in comparison. At last 
 
I96 DOCTOR CAVALLO 
 
 Mr. Bezeke arose. He was a shoemaker and a profes- 
 sional agitator. The boys called him "Old Beeswax," 
 perhaps from the fidelity with which, once started, he 
 stuck to the subject. He now arose, and, going to the 
 platform, rolled up his sleeves, and said that he didn't 
 like the Jews, anyway. In his country, Germany, they 
 thought very little of them, and they were thinking 
 less every day. The Jews, when they get into a busi- 
 ness, drive everybody else out. A Jew always gets the 
 better of you in a trade, and they are monopolizing 
 this country. If you want to get money now you have 
 to go to a Jew. If you want to buy a railroad ticket, 
 or a cigar, or a coat, or a pair of suspenders, you have 
 to go to a Jew. Now they have gone into the boot 
 and shoe business, and every clothing store puts in a 
 stock of shoes, and an honest man cannot make a liv- 
 ing any more. The crowd laughed as they recalled 
 his trade, but he went on. For his part he hated 
 them. He was glad that he was no Jew. He took 
 his seat amid cries of l< Beeswax ! Beeswax ! " from 
 the boys in the gallery. 
 
 The meeting had not gone entirely to Seidel's liking. 
 Peterson was disreputable, and Bezeke was a crank. 
 It would not do to have it end in this way. Seidel saw 
 Dr. McHale in the crowd and he began to call for him. 
 The audience took up the cry, and the doctor was 
 obliged to come to the platform. He did not like the 
 idea at all, but as Abbott was mixed up in it, and as ha 
 owed Cavallo a grudge, he had come to the meeting 
 to look on. When he found that he was expected to 
 speak, he put a bold face upon it. He walked on the 
 stage, shook hands with the chairman, bowed to the 
 audience, came well down in front and said he wanted 
 
DOCTOR CAVALLO 197 
 
 to discuss this matter calmly and dispassionately. For 
 his part he had no prejudice. He looked upon all 
 men as equal, but he must say, that, if he were in 
 Georgia, he would be for a white man's government, 
 so in this Christian land he was for a Christian govern- 
 ment. In spite of everything that could be said in 
 favor of the Jews, he could not forget that this race had 
 crucified "our Lord and Saviour," and were still stiff- 
 necked and rebellious, refusing to recognize him and 
 unwilling to accept the gospel so freely tendered them. 
 That the Jew will eventually see the error of his ways, 
 he said, he knew. They would accept the Messiah and 
 would reform. But we can not but condemn their arts 
 in trade, in commerce, and in business. 
 
 "It was well known that, as has been stated here, 
 that they monopolize certain lines, and in those lines 
 the Christian is at a disadvantage. The Jews were 
 under a curse, but he was disposed to cast a veil of 
 charity over this and to insist that, if they would re- 
 form their methods and accept the truth, they are wel- 
 come, but until they do, 1 ' and the speaker raised his 
 hand in warning, "1 am in favor of visiting them with 
 the rigors of the law whenever they overstep the boun- 
 daries of the statute. Not in vain did our fathers 
 compel them to live apart, in sections of the city by 
 themselves. It might be necessary for society to do 
 this again. It might be necessary for the preservation 
 of our Faith, to again insist upon them wearing a 
 special dress. If this thing were done, for my part, I 
 should not greatly object to it. Two great English 
 writers have given us pictures of the Jews. The one 
 wrote Shylock, the other, Fagin." With this, the rev- 
 erend gentleman sat down and was applauded to 
 
I98 DOCTOR CAVALLO 
 
 the echo. Cavallo, looking over the crowd, saw far 
 back, under the gallery, Seidel and Nagle applauding 
 the speech and yelling in uproarious delight. 
 
 McHale's speech had hit the popular sentiment of 
 the hour, and even the chairman said that he felt much 
 gratified that he had heard the able remarks of the 
 talented and reverend gentleman. It was time that the 
 better element of society took a hand in the discussion 
 of these public questions. Would anyone else like to 
 speak?" 
 
 Some one called Cavallo, and after a pause, the cry 
 went up, " Cavallo, Cavallo." 
 
 There was a sneer on the face of the chairman, as he 
 said that there seemed to be a desire on the part of 
 some of the audience to hear from Dr. Cavallo, and as 
 that gentleman was with them he would give him an 
 opportunity to address them. 
 
 Cavallo arose, walked down to the footlights and 
 faced the meeting. 
 
CHAPTER XXXI. 
 
 McHale's speech had worked them up to the highest 
 pitch, and when the doctor came forward they roared 
 at him like hungry animals. Back in the crowd 
 he saw Seidel and Nagle laughing with triumph at the 
 success of the scheme and ever and anon yelling to 
 add to the commotion. 
 
 He was fresh from the encounter with the Ham 
 Head gang and his arm ached with the bruise, but the 
 same spirit glowed in his veins as when, with his back 
 to the barn, he drew his slender' cane through his 
 fingers and felt the point of the steel ferule to see if it 
 was in place. 
 
 His glowing "eye, the calmness and splendid courage 
 that he exhibited, the magnificent scorn that sat upon 
 his lip and the very splendor of his presence, as with 
 an imperious gesture he raised his hand to command 
 silence, hushed the clamor and it died away, and was 
 succeeded by a stillness so intense that every word 
 that he uttered could be plainly heard all over the hall. 
 
 "I come here because I am a man, and I am a man 
 because I am a Jew. I understand that this meeting is 
 called because of a fancied wrong that I have heaped 
 upon young Abbott. Listen, and I will tell you of the 
 greater wrong, for which that act was in some sort a 
 reparation." 
 
200 DOCTOR CAVALLO 
 
 He then depicted the events of that night. The 
 agony of the neglected girl, the artful way in which 
 she had been made to believe that she was a law- 
 ful wife. The steps by which, little by little, her 
 womanly sympathies had been preyed upon. The 
 maltreatment, the desertion, the starvation, the bring- 
 ing her back to the city, the spiriting away her baby, 
 the lodging her in a house of low repute, by which all 
 chance of regaining her lost position would be rendered 
 impossible, the frightful circumstances under which he 
 had been called to attend her, the ribald laughter, the 
 coarse obscenity, and the disgusting filth. The advent 
 of young Abbott, brought to the spot, not by penit- 
 ence, or by charity, but by his own lusts ; the sudden 
 fac ing of the woman whom he had wronged, and his fit 
 of repentance. "It was not my act," the doctor cried, 
 "that drove him to make some reparation to this poor 
 soul, but his own guilty conscience. Why did I permit 
 it to be done ? It was to save the innocent child, that 
 little girl, from the depths of degradation that would 
 have been heaped upon her as soon as she could learn 
 to distinguish right from wrong. It was to save one 
 human soul from the sins of its father. You," turning 
 to McHale, "who preach every Sunday the maxim, 
 'Suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid 
 them not, 7 would have sent this little innocent through 
 the world with the brand of Cain upon her brow, and 
 the scarlet letter upon her cheek, for a crime that was 
 committed, not by, but against her. You, professing 
 to bear tidings of peace and good will upon earth, 
 stand here and strive in malice and bigotry to revive 
 the spirit of the middle ages. You carry peace upon 
 your lips and a dagger in both hands. You represent 
 
DOCTOR CAVALLO 201 
 
 what you are pleased to call, the later civilization, but 
 you bear the brand of villainy, the crime of murder, 
 and you put the poisoned chalice of hate in the hands 
 of the mob, stirring up the worst passions of men, and 
 rejoicing in your work. The Judaism that I represent 
 is that of the highest humanity. The spirit that I fol- 
 low is that of the prophets of old, who demanded for 
 the oppressed, justice, not charity ; who strove to pro- 
 tect the weak against the strong, who endeavored to 
 shield the innocent and feeble, against the avaricious 
 grasp of the despoiler. Whoever comes with the mes- 
 sage of the brotherhood of man to me, is my brother. 
 I know no Jew, I know no Presbyterian, I know no 
 Methodist, no Catholic, nor any of the narrow divisions 
 by which men have been taught to separate themselves 
 from their fellow men. 'Whoever doeth the work of 
 humanity, the same is my mother and my brethren.'" 
 
 The tide was turned. His words were drowned in a 
 roar of applause. 
 
 A man was seen struggling to make his way down 
 the aisle. When he had reached the middle of the 
 house, he took off his hat, waved it, commanding 
 silence. 
 
 It was Pat O'Hara. 
 
 As soon as he was recognized, there was a cry of 
 " Listen to Pat. Give it to him, Pat." 
 
 He waved his hat again. " Hould on, bys. Yez all 
 know me." Then, as the audience grew still, he added : 
 " O'ive lived in this town forty odd years, and yez niver 
 knew Pat O'Hara to tell a lie." 
 
 He was applauded again, and this embarrassed him. 
 Then he went on : 
 
 "Oi say, O'ive lived here, aff an' on, and Oi know 
 
202 DOCTOR CAVALLO 
 
 Dochter Cavallo. Oi want to say that he's a man, an* 
 ony man that sez he ain't, is a dom liar, that's phat 
 he is." 
 
 A roar of laughter followed, and Pat was applauded 
 to the echo. 
 
 Then a man arose, and said that he wanted to tes- 
 tify to that, too. Who had come forward at a time 
 when the poor people of Abbott's Row had needed 
 homes, and put up lodging-houses for them but Mrs. 
 Bernheim? He was one of the tenants, and had been 
 benefitted by the plan adopted. 
 
 Two others said the same thing. 
 
 Then Pat O'Hara got upon his feet again, and said: 
 1 Yis, an' who tore down the domn'd ould Row, an' gev 
 us all a chance? Ah, ha, d'ye moind ; it was the doch- 
 ter. Don't fergit that, Misther Chairman, don't fergit 
 that, put it all down." 
 
 Pat was cheered. 
 
 Dr. Cavallo's speech had fairly turned 'the tide, and 
 when the meeting broke up, the crowd surged on the 
 platform, and shook him by the hand, and manifested 
 their delight at what he had done. 
 
 Seidel and Nagle walked away together, and for 
 some time neither spoke. 
 
 Then Seidel broke out, "I despise the fellow, but, 
 after all, it was as good as a play to see him turn on 
 that crowd and take them by the neck." 
 
 Nagle grinned. " Mike O'Hara probably thinks the 
 same, for when I left him in Jake's saloon he had his 
 whole cheek torn open, where Cavallo had punched him 
 with his cane." 
 
 Seidel gave an exclamation of impatience. 
 
 " I hope Mike kept his mouth shut ?" 
 
DOCTOR CAVALLO 203 
 
 "No, he couldn't, it's split open." 
 " He did n't say anything ? " 
 
 Nagle grinned again. " No, he could n't talk if he 
 wanted to." 
 
CHAPTER XXXII. 
 
 When the morning papers gave the report of the 
 meeting of the night before, and prefaced it with an 
 account of the attack that had been made upon Dr. 
 Cavallo, which the reporters had obtained from the 
 police, a revulsion of feeling took place in the city. 
 The police had found one of the members of the Ham 
 Head gang bleeding on the prairie, with a bad wound 
 in his neck. From him they had arrested Mike 
 O'Hara. When the old man, Pat, came home from 
 the meeting, and told what had been done, and how 
 he made a speech that was the cap sheaf of the even- 
 ing, and then learned that his son had attempted to 
 assassinate his friend, his anger knew no bounds. He 
 insisted that the whole thing should be told, and the 
 papers said surprising revelations had been made 
 against hitherto respectable parties. One of the first 
 callers upon Cavallo was Mr. Tobias, who asked why 
 he had not allowed his friends to come to his aid. "I 
 saw a notice of the meeting," said he, "but I did not 
 go, thinking that, perhaps, it was only a hoodlum 
 gathering. I was proud of you, doctor, when I read 
 the statement in this morning's paper. I can see you 
 now. as you stood up and faced them, and to think of 
 out there on the prairie, with nothing but a cane, fight- 
 ing those hoodlums. I tell you it was great. It was 
 magnificent." 
 
DOCTOR CAVALLO . 205 
 
 Mr Herman dropped in. "If Bernheim had been 
 here, I am satisfied those fellows would never have 
 dared to come out the way they did," he said, rt but he 
 has gone east. As for that little lawyer, he is too in- 
 significant to notice. I did think better of Dr. McHale, 
 but he was influenced by Abbott." 
 
 The visit that did him the most good was from Bob 
 Lawrence, "I sat in the gallery," said Bob, "and 
 when the old parson got through with his diatribe, I 
 started up the cry for you. I knew that you would 
 demolish him, but I was not quite prepared for such a 
 scoring as you gave him. Did you notice how the 
 chairman tacked and filled, agreeing with the last 
 speaker, always. That's Radcliff. If the crowd had 
 concluded to put the rope around your neck, he would 
 have chipped in just as cheerfully as he shook hands 
 with you when it was over, and congratulated you on 
 your speech. The world is damned by its hypocrites." 
 
 u It is damned by its cowards," returned Cavallo. 
 
 "It's all one," replied Bob, " l coward' and 'hypo- 
 crite ' are synonymous terms. The fact that a man is a 
 coward, makes him a hypocrite. I say this, for I 
 guess I am a little of both." 
 
 "How is that?" 
 
 "Oh, I sat there last night and allowed those fellows 
 to abuse you and the Jews and never opened my 
 mouth. If I had not been a mere pretense of a man I 
 would have gone down there and demolished the whole 
 lot. However, I am glad I did not, for you had all the 
 better opportunity. I tell you, doctor, I would like to 
 have your photograph as you walked down to those 
 footlights and held up your hand to still the crowd. I 
 never saw such a fine impersonation of wrath, disgust 
 
206 DOCTOR CAVALLO 
 
 and contempt in my life. What a splendid actor you 
 would make." 
 
 " Acting is not in my line. I never felt less like act- 
 ing in my life. I was thoroughly in earnest." 
 
 Bob moved uneasily about, got up and sat down, and 
 lighted one of the doctor's cigars, which the latter 
 courteously handed him. He hesitated "Doctor, you 
 are not a business man, and yet I feel like asking your 
 advice on a business point." 
 
 "What is it? You know full well that anything I 
 can do for you, I will do." 
 
 Bob gave a laugh. "Well, then, it's about this min- 
 ing deal. I have advanced some money to Seidel, and 
 now he wants me to go in with a syndicate and take 
 fifty thousand dollars worth of the stock." 
 
 44 Who are in the syndicate?" 
 
 44 Well, there's Nagle, and a lot of other chaps ; who, 
 I do not know, but Seidel says that they are good." 
 
 "The scheme, then, is to get Mr. Robert Lawrence 
 at the back of it, and really have him endorse the 
 project with his name, and, possibly, with his signa- 
 ture, and then float it. It is the old story of the chest- 
 nuts and the cat, but don't you be the cat." 
 
 Bob smoked slowly, and said, "It is singular how a 
 man's eyes can be blinded. With all of my knowledge, 
 I thought that it was a pretty good thing." With these 
 words he arose, and putting on his hat, walked slowly 
 down to his own office. 
 
 He had not been there long before Seidel came in, 
 the embodiment of good humor. 
 
 " Robert, how is the man of business to-day ? Im- 
 mersed in the calculations of tariffs and accounts and 
 rebates ?" 
 
DOCTOR CAVALLO 207 
 
 Robert drew up a chair for him, and Seidel con- 
 tinued in the same flowing vein of good nature: 
 
 "Cut loose, my dear sir, from these petty details. 
 Let the miserly and sordid grub. The time of the 
 nimble sixpence and the slow shilling is past. Specu- 
 lation is now the order of the day. The wealthy 
 speculates to increase his store, and the man of 
 humble means speculates to make a beginning. That 
 was a good remark which the poor man made to Van- 
 derbilt, when the railroad magnate told him to put by 
 his savings, and learn to economize, and not to be buy- 
 ing lottery tickets. He asked how long Vanderbilt 
 would have had to save and put by his earnings to ac- 
 quire his fifty millions ? That was a clincher." 
 
 " I have made some outside investments," said Bob, 
 doubtfully, "and I never got out clear." 
 
 "Yes, but what did you make it in ? Why, in land. 
 There you are, with something open and tangible, sub- 
 ject to taxation, to assessment for improvements, for 
 sewers and streets and alleys and bridges, and heaven 
 knows what. It lies open and patent to the day, and 
 any one can see it. Now, with stocks it isn't so. Look 
 at the fellows in our large cities, in the world's large 
 cities. What is the active principle of business today ? 
 Why, it is stocks ; it is grain, it is oil or cotton ; never 
 the material itself, but the representative of it. They 
 have tried to legislate it out of existence, but have they 
 done it ? No, it is stronger to-day than ever. Now, I 
 only want you to stand by this deal. The stock of this 
 mining company will go to par. We are going to list 
 it on the Stock Board, and then it will go kiting. 1 ' 
 
 14 1 was talking about it to Dr. Cavallo, and he did not 
 seem to be impressed with it." 
 
208 DOCTOR CAVALLO 
 
 Seidel threw back his head, and gave his peculiar 
 laugh. " Dr. Cavallo ! that's good. What does a pro- 
 fessional man know about business ? My dear boy, if 
 you had a boil, I should say go to Dr. Cavallo, by all 
 means. I heard him last night at the hall. Good 
 speech he made, too, from his standpoint. I could 
 have answered him if I had a mind to. But what does 
 Robert Lawrence, a shrewd operator, and with the 
 knowledge of the laws of business at his fingers' ends, 
 want with advice from a dreamer like this Cavallo ? If 
 you want to do anything, do it yourself. If I wanted 
 to know what to do, I would come to you in a matter 
 of this kind, for you know far more than any one in 
 this city." 
 
 In this manner, partly by flattery and partly by 
 cajoling, Seidel induced Robert to go into the scheme. 
 It took some time to accomplish this, but Bob was 
 easy going, and he finally yielded to the wiles of the 
 tempter, and gave him his signature, for which he was 
 to be secured by double the amount of stock. A 
 secret sense of doing the wrong thing, made him assent 
 to Seidel's suggestion, that the endorsement should be 
 kept a secret between them and the bank, for as it 
 was only a matter of form, nothing would come of it 
 any way. 
 
 Seidel left the office with a smile of satisfaction. 
 " The infernal Jew came very nearly upsetting the 
 boat, 1 ' he said, " but I have landed my fish after all." 
 
CHAPTER XXXIII. 
 
 Mr. Timothy Dodd recovered his poise. The fact 
 that many of the best citizens of the city called upon 
 his patron and congratulated him upon the stand that 
 he had taken, the notices in the newspapers, the in- 
 creased respect that was accorded the doctor, and, 
 above all, the great demand for his professional ser- 
 vices, gave Timothy new light, and with it an increased 
 air of his own importance as belonging to so popular 
 an establishment. He wore his high hat now as an 
 every day affair, and he placed it on one side of his 
 head, thereby increasing the sense of his own import- 
 ance. He had taken a great interest in the O'Hara 
 household since they had removed into one of the 
 model houses built by Mrs. Bernheim, and he spent a 
 good deal of time there. He put on his hat one even- 
 ing, and taking his usual course, stopped at the O'Hara 
 dwelling. 
 
 To open the gate and walk in, was the easy work of 
 an old friend. 
 
 He greeted the old gentleman with his air of lofty 
 courtesy, saying, " Good evenin' to all the house." 
 
 "The same to you, Timothy," said Pat. 
 
 The old gentleman was sitting in the front yard, in 
 his shirt sleeves, in all the glory of the independent 
 citizen, smoking his pipe. The eldest girl, as soon as 
 
210 DOCTOR CAVALLO 
 
 she saw Tim, came and sat in a hammock, that was 
 stretched from the corner of the house to a fence 
 picket. Inside the door, Tim could see the old lady 
 and the other daughter. 
 
 14 Where's Moike ?" he asked. 
 
 The old man replied, without taking the pipe from 
 his mouth, " Gone thrampin'." 
 
 "How's that ?" inquired Tim. 
 
 " I dhruv him out," said the old man. " Whin I kem 
 home from the meetin' in the hall, where me and the 
 dochter put down the mob, I found that that b'y of 
 moine had been ladin' an attack on the very mon that 
 I had been defindin'. A foine mess he made uv it ; the 
 dochter had got the betther uv him. Moike was a dis- 
 grace to his sex. The pulece hed him for a toime, but 
 the dochter wud make no complaint." 
 
 11 Lave him go," sez the dochter, and they turned him 
 out. " It'll be mony a day afore he'll relish his vittals, 
 Oi'm thinkinV 
 
 44 He kem home here an' laid aroun' wid a hed onto 
 him ye'd think he wus a buffalo. Ye're a Ham Head, 
 sez I, an' at last I gev him the bounce." 
 
 u Ye did roight," said Tim, "ye maintained the 
 honor uv the family. There is, as ye may say, two 
 kinds uv Oirish, there's the bog-throttin' kind, who 
 kem up widout rhyme or rayson, an' who are the fut- 
 stule uv the wurrld, an' thin there's the other kind, who 
 are the gintlest an' the foinest people on earth, — 
 scholars an' orathors and min distinguished by raysarch 
 and jainous. Thin, as ye may say, there's the thrue 
 Oirishman an' the false Oirishman, an' thin' there's wan 
 set that's naythur wan nor the other. The same way 
 wid the Jews. There's hoigh-moinded an' low-moinded 
 
DOCTOR CAVALLO 211 
 
 Jews. There's Jews that are peddlers an' there's Jews 
 that are professionals, an* there are others that are the 
 divil knows phat. Now, there's Dochter Cavallo," 
 
 "A foine man he is," said Pat. "He got me this 
 house and he got me into one of the factories as watch- 
 man, and he gev me a lift. To be sure, if it hadn't 
 been for me, the crowd in the hall wud hav got away 
 wid him, but in the nick of time I stepped in wid an 
 iloquent little spaach, giving them the tip of the blarney 
 and they quit." 
 
 "Tim, when are you going to be a doctor?" asked 
 the young lady, mischieviously. 
 
 " That's a question that is not to be answered off-hand 
 like, as ye may say 'what's the time of day,' Miss 
 Nora," replied Tim, loftily. "The science of physic is 
 not to be swallowed at wan dose, as ef it were a pill. 
 Ye hev to diagnose it." 
 
 u What's that," returned the young lady. "You are 
 always using these big words. How do you diagnose 
 a thing?" 
 
 " It's a midical term, embracing the whole thary of 
 the subject. It's origin is 'diag,' a Greek word, manin' 
 to throost, and 'nose,' signifying the manner in which, 
 as ye may say, ye have to throost yer nose into the 
 very bowels of the subject for to diskiver what yere 
 saykin' afther." 
 
 This was quite satisfactory to his auditor, the young 
 lady only remarking, "It must make an awful mess." 
 
 " Miss Nora," continued Tim, sitting down in the 
 hammock by her side, "there's only two things in this 
 wurrld worth studyin'." 
 
 11 What's them? " said she, coyly. 
 
 "Wan is the profession that a man do be followin', 
 and the other is the faymale heart." 
 
212 DOCTOR CAVALLO 
 
 11 Mister Dodd, you'll not be studying my heart, I 
 can tell you that." 
 
 "An' phy not?" 
 
 "Because, the first thing I'd know, you'd be wantin' 
 to diagnose it." 
 
 "Nora, ye must larn to distinguish between profis- 
 sional zale and the warm impulses of frindship." 
 
 "Sit on your own side of the hammock," said Nora. 
 " I prefer your professional zeal to too much friend- 
 ship ; you'r crowdin' me." 
 
 41 Oh, Nora," cried Tim, "there isn't space in this 
 wurrld enough for two of us." 
 
 " How do you mean to help the matter then ? " 
 asked Nora, pretending not to understand him. 
 
 " Phy, the only way we can help it is to become 
 wan." 
 
 She looked at him archly. " I thought that you was 
 takin' a great interest in my mother, all of this time. 
 It wasn't her then you came to see ?" 
 
 " Nora, I have great respict for yer mother, but it's 
 mostly on account of her havin' reared sich a foine 
 gurrl as you." 
 
 "Oh, go off, it's the way you talk to all the girls. I 
 wonder the tongue don't dry up in your head." 
 
 "It's the heart that's dryin' up in me body," cried 
 Tim. " It's like master, like man. The doctor is in 
 love with one fair crayture, and here I am on the 
 point of expirin' wid agony on the account of the 
 coldness of another." 
 
 "Tim," said Nora, with a sudden thought, " when 
 Dr. Cavallo marries Miss Lawrence, then — " 
 
 "An' thin," said he, expectantly. 
 
 "Then you can talk to me," and she laughed mer- 
 rily. 
 
DOCTOR CAVALLO 21 3 
 
 "It's well that the Bible says the human heart is 
 decaytful above all things and dispirately wicked," 
 said he. " It's that way wid the sex, wherever yez 
 foind them. There's the dochter, as foine a mon as ever 
 lived, and him on the point of lovin' that geyrl to dis- 
 traction, and gettin' no solace." 
 
 "Why," said Nora, "is not she mindin 1 to his love ?" 
 
 "It's that Seidel," returned Tim, "he's the divul 
 himself. He's thru that poor gurrl under a spell." 
 
 The old man had fallen asleep while this conversa- 
 tion had been going on, but he now awoke, and began 
 to groan and rub his back, at which Nora remarked : 
 "Father, you had better go into the house, you'll catch 
 the rheumatism." 
 
 " I'll not catch it," replied the old man, "By gob, 
 I've got it," and he hobbled into the house, and they 
 could hear him stirring out in the kitchen, after his 
 bottle of liniment. 
 
 Tim contined, "Miss Nora, there's min, and there's 
 other min. There's min like the dochter, that invite 
 confidence, bein' that open hearted that they fill yer 
 soul wid hope an' faith, to shake 'em by the hand. 
 Then there's others whom ye naturally fear, as ye 
 wud a snake, like that Seidel and Lurello Nagle, a 
 shape wearin' the garmints of a wolf." 
 
 "Why don't the doctor go straight up to Miss Law- 
 rence and say that he loves her and will marry her, and 
 settle this matter at once. He's good enough for any 
 woman. That's what you would do, Tim." 
 
 "There's difference bethune min. There's min who 
 could storm a cannon widout battin' their eye, but 
 whin they come in front of the woman they love, they 
 are that wake that the courage goes outen 'em, and 
 
214 DOCTOR CAVALLO 
 
 they feel as limp as a dish-rag. Now the dochter is a 
 mon among min. He wouldn't scare about gettin' out 
 an' foightin' a whole regimint, an' standin' there until 
 the flesh was hacked off his bones, but as for comin' 
 out, bould loike, to a woman, it's not in him, an' as like 
 as not he'll see Miss Lawrence carried away by this 
 sneakin' divil of a Seidel, widout a protest, and then 
 go breakin' his heart afterwards." 
 
 " He ought to diagnose this brute of a Seidel," sug- 
 gested Nora, looking slyly at Timothy. 
 
 "Yer an apt scholar. What a dochtor's wife ye will 
 make," and with that he went over the old customs. 
 If all the world loves a lover, all the world has been a 
 lover at some time, so that it is not necessary to tell 
 how Timothy sped in his love making. 
 
CHAPTER XXXIV. 
 
 Seidel was making progress at a rapid rate. He now 
 had plenty of money, for the moment, which he flour- 
 ished, and he was anxiously trying to cultivate the ac- 
 quaintance of the best people. He used his power 
 over Bob Lawrence to push himself into society, and, 
 as he was a man of good address, he had no difficulty 
 in making his way, then he posed as the lover of Miss 
 Lawrence, in spite of his rebuff, for his cool assur- 
 ance did not stop at anything. Bob did not like this, 
 but he was so far in Seidel's power that he could not 
 help himself. Seidel, having involved him, acted 
 towards Bob with the domineering audacity that he 
 displayed to everyone whom he could, in the least, 
 control. 
 
 While he was in this advantageous position, Seidel 
 attempted to renew his suit with Margaret and rein- 
 state their old relations of friendship. He paid her 
 the most marked attentions, whenever he could, in 
 public. He was profoundly deferential, and so polite 
 that people wondered that she could receive his favors 
 so indifferently. When he tried to turn the conversa- 
 tion into a sentimental channel, she quietly, yet firmly, 
 checked him. He carried his audacity so far that he 
 had Mrs. Nagle whisper around that Margaret and him- 
 self were engaged, but Margaret at once denied it with 
 
2l6 DOCTOR CAVALLO 
 
 such spirit that the rumor was crushed before it ob- 
 tained a foothold. Seidel was puzzled. He could 
 make his small points easily enough, but when he 
 attempted to do something that lay nearest his heart, 
 he was always quietly checkmated and baffled. He 
 took out his revenge by hating Cavallo more than 
 ever, and in studying up plans for his utter overthrow. 
 As for the doctor, in spite of Seidel's opposition, he 
 was inundated with work. His practice had enor- 
 mously increased, and an epidemic of grippe that raged 
 that winter, left him no chance for rest night or day. 
 While the malady raged in the lower parts of the city, 
 he had the satisfaction of knowing that it escaped the 
 Bernheim flats, as they were called. So many of the 
 working men had purchased homes on the favorable 
 terms that were offered, that great additions had been 
 made to them. Mrs. Bernheim was delighted, and, 
 with her characteristic generosity, she gave the doctor 
 full credit for the plan, and was never weary of chant- 
 ing his praises. 
 
 She was exceedingly active that winter in charitable 
 work, and, as the malady raged like a pestilence in the 
 poorer quarters of the city, she poured out her money 
 like water for the relief of the stricken, and gave plans 
 for the much larger increase of the model cottages in 
 the spring. The doctor once congratulated her upon 
 her work, but she checked him, saying, "Doctor, you 
 know this is inculcated upon every true Jew, for does 
 not the Talmud say : ' The house that is closed to 
 charity shall be opened to the physician.' " He laugh- 
 ingly replied : "If all my patients were to act on this 
 motto I fear that I should lack practice." And he 
 complimented her on becoming so devout a believer. 
 
DOCTOR CAVALLO 21 7 
 
 In spite of all the claims of society upon her, she 
 steadily kept in sight the needs of her people, as she 
 called her tenants, and she built up a spirit of 
 self-help among them, for no sooner was it noised 
 about that one family had purchased their house than 
 it spurred up others to do the same. Then the ones 
 who had bought, made little additions to their dwelling. 
 They would put on a bay window here and add a dor- 
 mer window there, so that the flats began to lose the 
 uniform look of sameness that they originally pos- 
 sessed, and that are inseparable from rented houses, 
 and take on the air of homes. Trees were planted and 
 vines trailed over the door. Roses and shrubs were 
 set out and the little cottages began to be adorned 
 with good taste. 
 
 Mrs. Bernheim lent them every assistance in her 
 power. Her large green-house was a world in itself, 
 and she now instructed her gardener to set apart a 
 place for geraniums and roses and kindred plants, so 
 that any tenant who desired could have a single plant 
 or an assortment, only agreeing to take care of them. 
 By this means the girls in the flats were instructed in 
 raising flowers, and the rooms soon possessed an air of 
 refinement. 
 
 People who had sneered at the experiment began to 
 say, "Of course, any one could see that it was a good 
 speculation," for, as the street cars had been extended 
 to the place, property went up enormously, and the 
 buildings steadily increased in value. When the ten 
 acres were exhausted, more land was procured. The 
 original investment had long since proved satisfactory, 
 and now the plant was managing itself. All the money 
 that was received from the payments or rents was put 
 
218 DOCTOR CAVALLO 
 
 back into new buildings as fast as either tenants or pur- 
 chasers could be procured. 
 
 Abbott was one of the foremost persons to protest 
 against this policy, for his old tumble-down tenements 
 would now no longer rent, and this he cherished as an 
 additional grievance against the doctor, and ground his 
 teeth when ever his name was mentioned. 
 
 Lurello Nagle denounced the whole thing as a real 
 estate deal. Any man, he said, who will get his neigh- 
 bor to buy a lot is a thief and a swindler. In vain was 
 it pointed out to him that the investment in every case 
 was a good one. He was down on it, and never was so 
 happy as when, with paper and pencil in hand, he could 
 show how much more certain the return would be if in- 
 vested in mining stock. He had endorsed for Seidel, 
 and was carrying a large block of the stock himself, 
 which he hoped to be able to get rid of at an early day, 
 but, thus far, he had little success. He finally induced 
 the working men in the mill, where he kept the books, 
 to put up a small sum each week and carry a block of 
 it, but this exhausted his powers of persuasion, and he 
 could do no more. He would have said more against 
 the flats, but he dreaded the influence of Bernheim. 
 That individual gave him his position, and Nagle was in 
 debted to him and to his wife for the social standing 
 that his own wife had secured, but he hated both the 
 Bernheims, and was only waiting in secret to do them 
 an ill turn. 
 
 When Seidel had secured Bob Lawrence's signature 
 at the bank, Nagle had hoped that his own stock would 
 have been taken off his hands, but Seidel would do 
 nothing of the kind, and he veiled his flat refusal by 
 telling Nagle that it was not time to unload yet, and 
 
DOCTOR CAVALLO 210, 
 
 that to have him get out now would overturn the whole 
 plan. When Nagle attempted to force him to keep his 
 promise, which was to let him out at the first opportunity, 
 he found that his wife was wholly under the influence 
 of Seidel, and she turned on him and berated him for 
 thinking of forsaking so good a friend as Seidel had 
 been to him. While Seidel treated him with cool con- 
 tempt, his wife began to openly snub him worse than 
 ever. He had, in the first- place, when they talked of 
 going in partnership in the stock deal, invited Seidel 
 to take up his quarters with him. He now found that 
 he could not rid himself of him. Seidel acted as if he 
 were the real master of the household, and began to 
 bully him at times in such a manner that Nagle felt like 
 ordering him out of the house, but Seidel had such an 
 influence over his wife, that he did not dare raise a row, 
 lest he should get the worst of it. 
 
 A more unhappy man than Lurello Nagle did not 
 exist. 
 
CHAPTER XXXV. 
 
 While Charley Abbott did not attend the funeral of 
 his wife, owing to the express commands of his father, 
 the blow that he had received sobered him. The 
 next day after the funeral, he went out to the Home 
 for the Friendless, and, taking his little daughter from 
 the care of the matron, placed her in charge of a member 
 of the family, an old aunt, who had always been proud 
 of him, and who lived in a little house at the edge of 
 town. He threw himself into his duties with some 
 care and attention and forsook his old companions. 
 They at first rather respected this and let him alone, 
 but when they found that he did not care for their 
 gibes and had settled down, it was whispered around 
 that he had sowed his wild oats and was beginning to 
 be a man. Old Mr. Allen noticed this, and was the 
 first one to extend the hand of cordiality to him. He 
 told him to come up to the house and see Annie, for 
 he was certain that all might yet be forgiven and for- 
 gotten. 
 
 One day he had worked hard, and at the close of the 
 business, he passed the Allen house, when he was 
 hailed by Annie herself with, rt Oh, Cholly, come in, 
 can't you ? " 
 
 He found her in the old position in the rocking- 
 chair, chewing the same everlasting gum. She held 
 
DOCTOR CAVALLO 221 
 
 out a hand to him which he took. " Annie,' 1 said he, 
 " I have not had the heart to come and see you after 
 what has happened, but — " 
 
 She interrupted him with a giggle, "Oh, you chaps 
 are all alike. I had an idea all of the time that you 
 were going out with the other boys and having a time." 
 
 "It has been a lesson to me." 
 
 She giggled again. '* That's what Jim Simpson is 
 always saying, and then he will be fuller 7 n a goose in a 
 week." 
 
 She continued to giggle, "And you were a married 
 man all of the time and I didn't know it ? Cholly, 
 it was awful tough. What sort of a looking thing is 
 it?" 
 
 "What do you mean ?" 
 
 "Why, the young'un." 
 
 " My daughter is a very beautiful child." 
 
 u Your daughter," she giggled, u oh, that is too good, 
 and you just ought to see your face when you said 
 1 my daughter.' It was better than a play," and she 
 shrieked with laughter. 
 
 " I do not see anything to laugh at." 
 
 II Why," she said, " you do not mean that you are 
 going to recognize the brat." 
 
 " I shall take care of my child." 
 
 " Very well, then, you will not take care of me," she 
 said hotly. 
 He bowed. 
 
 II I am not going to have a child in my house of 
 whose parentage you do not know. Born in the gutter, 
 and like as not growing up a thief." 
 
 "Stop!" he cried, "the child is, before God, my 
 own, and the woman who bore her was my wife. I 
 
222 DOCTOR CAVALLO 
 
 will not listen to aspersions that she does not deserve, 
 and for crimes that I alone committed." 
 
 " Now, Cholly," in a wheedling tone, M don't be a fool." 
 
 " I have been a villain, but I am not going to con- 
 tinue to be one, if I know myself. 1 ' 
 
 "How can we go into society with this thing hanging 
 to us ? Who would introduce the girl when she gets 
 old enough to come out ? What can we do with her ? 
 Do have some sense." 
 
 "The sins of the parent are visited upon the child, 
 but I am willing to try and shield my little one from 
 the consequences of my foolishness. I have no right 
 to ask you to share this burden. Good-bye, Annie." 
 He held out his hand and grasped hers, but he felt 
 that there was no response, and he walked away. 
 
 She cried a little, then she laughed, then she giggled. 
 Her mother came out and said, " What is the matter, 
 Annie, between you and Charley ?" 
 
 " Why, maw, I sacked him." 
 
 11 You didn't?" 
 
 '•That's what. He wanted to bring that thing's 
 young'un on us, wanted to take it into the house, and 
 I just told him 'nit.' I don't propose to hitch to any 
 one's young'uns, leastways those that don't come from 
 a straight source." 
 
 " You're right," said her mother, rt there's as good 
 fish in the sea as ever came out of it." 
 
 And Charley Abbott walked away saying to himself, 
 " I will not ask any one to share this burden with me, 
 but I will not shirk one jot from the consequences." 
 
 Thereafter he used to go down to the cottage of his 
 aunt and spend the evenings in company with her, and 
 it was his chief solace, after his day's work was done, 
 
DOCTOR CAVALLO 223 
 
 to sit with his daughter on his knee and listen to her 
 prattle. 
 
 When she grew old enough to talk and to call him 
 "Papa" he was delighted, and he would hold her on 
 his lap for hours. He began to look forward to the 
 evening with impatience, and to watch for the sight of 
 her sweet face at the gate, waiting for. his coming. 
 When she began to come out to meet him he felt a 
 glow at his heart that astonished him. When she was 
 sick he was in agony, and when she became better he 
 was the happiest man in the world. The little girl 
 brought sunshine into his life. He worked hard, and 
 took an interest in his business. Gradually he assumed 
 some of his father's cares, and tried to mitigate the 
 hard and rigorous rules over the tenants, but the old 
 man had the grip of the miser, and, while he allowed 
 his son some small latitude, the main purse strings he 
 kept in his own hands. As his bodily strength failed, 
 it only seemed to make his intellect sharper and 
 sharper, and to give him renewed zest for making 
 money, and to hate, with bitter and unrelenting purpose, 
 everyone who hindered him from making it. The 
 Bernheim flats were perpetually thrown up in his face 
 by his own tenants, some of them used it as an excuse 
 for not paying their own rents, some as a "reason why 
 they should get a rebate. He heard it forty times a 
 month, until the very mention of the name sent him 
 off into a fit of passion. He was well content that 
 Charley should settle down, and that at last he should 
 have taken up his home with his aunt and little daugh- 
 ter, for the reason that he spent far less money now 
 than he had when with his wild companions. This was 
 the crowning idea of Mr. Abbott's life. If he could 
 
224 DOCTOR CAVALLO 
 
 save money by adopting a certain course, that was the 
 one he pursued. He did not care about his little 
 grandchild, and as long as Charley was now living an 
 economical life, and was not lavishing money, he felt 
 satisfied. The disease of avarice had eaten into his 
 soul and destroyed all finer emotions. 
 
CHAPTER XXXVI 
 
 Seidel now determined on a plan that would realize 
 all of his hopes. He made up his mind that to 
 strengthen his position and increase the value of his 
 holdings, he must have a member of Congress whom he 
 could control. If he did this, he thought that he could 
 use this power to get his stocks listed on the New York 
 Stock Exchange, for while he had boasted that he was 
 about to do this, he had made no progress whatever. 
 
 "Now,' 1 he said to himself, "if I can go down to 
 New York City and say to those fellows, l I can deliver 
 .one vote to you on anything you want. It will cost 
 you no money, but you must let me in on the ground 
 floor to certain things,' I can get my stock listed, or 
 do anything else that I want." People do not buy 
 members of Congress nowadays, they work them 
 through influence. He felt that this was feasible, and 
 he pondered it over long, turning it over in his own 
 mind, he felt that he knew how to proceed. 
 
 He looked about him narrowly and carefully. He at 
 first thought of Bob Lawrence. If he could get Bob to 
 run, which he doubted, would he be able to control 
 him afterwards ? Here was the rub. He had used 
 Bob's credit to the utmost. He had induced him to 
 endorse notes, and then endorse more, telling him that 
 he had taken up the first ones. Instead of doing this, 
 
 8 
 
226 DOCTOR CAVALLO 
 
 he had renewed the first ones, and discounted the last. 
 He hoped to be able to make a turn before they would 
 fall due ; if not, he hoped that he could raise the money- 
 some other way, He was reduced to kiting, borrowing 
 money. He had Nagle completely drained, and he 
 smiled to see the efforts that that individual made to 
 get out of his clutches, the only result being that he 
 was more hopelessly in the toils. He had used all the 
 money that came into his hands in living lavishly, and 
 in speculating on the market in Chicago, and a recent 
 drop in wheat had caught him hard, so that he felt that 
 he must make one gigantic effort. 
 
 His audacity was great, and if he could get his man 
 elected to Congress, and could use him afterwards, he 
 could, he felt sure, get into some combination that 
 would help him out of his difficulties, for Seidel was a 
 great believer in luck. He always wanted to see the 
 new moon over his right shoulder, and while he pro- 
 fessed to be a Free-Thinker and a Scientist, he was full 
 of small superstitions and little observances. He 
 always blew twice in his shoes before he put them on 
 in the morning, would not walk under a ladder, and 
 hated to spill the salt. It is true that he laughed at 
 himself for maintaining these foolish notions, but he 
 did them, nevertheless. 
 
 " Now," he said to himself, "I want a man." He 
 ran over in his mind every one that he knew. "If old 
 Abbott had'nt made an ass of himself, I believe I could 
 have run Charley, and got him in with money and the 
 young man's racket, but, of course, that is out of the 
 question now. There were a good many available men, 
 but some of them were too poor, some of them knew 
 too much, and some knew too little. I want," he 
 
DOCTOR CAVALLO 227 
 
 argued to himself, " some fool who is rich and respec- 
 table." 
 
 Then he thought of Radcliff. He had had Radcliff 
 nominated as chairman of the meeting called to pro- 
 test against Cavallo when that gentleman had so mag- 
 nificently maintained his position and put them down. 
 Radcliff felt that he had been placed in a false position 
 that night, and he had not been on good terms with 
 Seidel since. 
 
 This, however, did not cut any figure with Seidel. 
 He was not to be abashed by anything of the sort. 
 Radcliff was a wholesale grocer, doing business on " L" 
 street, and there Seidel betook himself. He found the 
 great man in his orifice berating his clerks. He handled 
 a particular brand of cigars and he kept them on a 
 high shelf in his private orifice. In taking an account 
 of stock he overhauled a long pile of these cigar boxes. 
 He found the front row intact, but the boxes in the 
 back row were all empty. The clerks and drummers 
 about the place had been in the habit of helping them- 
 selves and of putting the empty cigar boxes back of 
 the full boxes, leaving the front ones untouched. To 
 say that Mr. Radcliff was mad when he discovered 
 this fact, is putting it feebly. He roared. He declared 
 that he stood up there like a chump, to be robbed ; 
 that he was preyed upon — first, by his drummers, then 
 by his bookkeepers, then by his friends, and lastly, by 
 his family. 
 
 He paced back and forth through his place and 
 shook his fist at imaginary foes. l< I am the old cow 
 that gives all the milk, and everyone has a pull at me. 
 Oh, yes, it's ' Mr. Radcliff,' when they want anything, 
 and 'that old fool,' behind my back ; I know all about 
 
228 DOCTOR CAVALLO 
 
 it. I have been through the whole mill. I have had 
 my leg pulled enough, I can tell you that," and he 
 turned and shook his fist again, this time in the very 
 face of Seidel, who had come in while he was engaged 
 in his gesticulation. 
 
 Radcliff was, secretly, rather glad that he had done 
 this unwittingly, so that he could pretend that he did 
 not see it. So he said, "Well, I don't take back any 
 thing IVe said, for no man," and then he went over 
 his woes for the benefit of Seidel, adding, M IVe been 
 robbed, robbed right here under my nose, and there's 
 a lot of thieving fellers out there, chuckling and laugh- 
 ing to themselves over it. Oh, yes ; I know it. I am 
 the target for everything. When a man gets out of 
 practice they say to him : 'Tackle old Radcliff, he'll 
 buy anything and take anything.' " 
 
 Seidel was vexed. He did not want to find his man 
 in this mood, so he tried to calm him down. He sym- 
 pathized with him. Told him that he had been in 
 business too long and he ought to retire, to which Rad- 
 cliff returned only a contemptuous snort, and allowed 
 that he knew what he wanted as well as anybody and 
 when he wanted to retire, he would make up his own 
 mind. Nevertheless, so strong was his propensity to 
 agree with everyone, that, after half an hour's talk, dur- 
 ing which Seidel set before him the duty he owed to 
 his country, and how margins in trade are getting 
 smaller anoVsmaller every year, requiring constant ac- 
 cession of capital, and more and more skill in handling 
 it, he made up his mind that perhaps the best thing 
 that he could do would be to get out of the trade, 
 where he could not be robbed. 
 
 Then little by little Seidel unfolded his plan of run- 
 
DOCTOR CAVALLO 229 
 
 ning him for Congress. Radcliff took the bait greedily, 
 but he was sharp enough to drive a bargain in regard 
 to it. 
 
 He protested that he was far from being a rich man, 
 that he would accept the duty and come to the rescue 
 of his party in this trying hour if he could be assured 
 that it would not take a fortune to run. Seidel then 
 showed him figures that it would not cost him much. 
 A good sum could be raised from the central commit- 
 tee. He would go among the friends of the party and 
 raise some more, and he showed Radcliff, on a card, 
 that he would not have to put up anything, if he did 
 not wish to do so. 
 
 This was what Radcliff wanted. ll I will, then, ac- 
 cept your proposition, Mr. Seidel, provided you take 
 off from my hands all of the financial responsibility. 
 I will donate my personal services, and will pay my 
 own expenses, but I will not put up a cent or stand 
 any assessment. I do not wish to appear mean in 
 this matter, and I shall simply turn the assessment 
 over to you, and you are to shoulder it. 
 
 Seidel hesitated. 
 
 "Come now, you think so much of my duty," said 
 Radcliff, " what do you think of that proposition ?" 
 
 Seidel cogitated. If he did this, why, it would only 
 be binding the old man closer to him, and enable 
 him to take entire charge of him. Perhaps this was 
 what he wanted, so he said, "Very good, I will under- 
 take the job." 
 
CHAPTER XXXVII 
 
 The nominating convention was still to be called, 
 but Seidel set to work. The next morning the party 
 paper had a long article as the leading editorial, sug- 
 gesting that Mr. John Radcliff, one of our best busi- 
 ness men, should be sent to Congress, adding that the 
 time for lawyers and unpractical people in the halls of 
 our national legislature is past, and that men with ex- 
 perience in affairs should be called to the helm. This 
 editorial Seidel wrote himself. He had some difficulty 
 in getting the article inserted, the editor flatly re-fusing 
 to do so, saying that old Radcliff was a hog, and that as 
 he had never advertised in the paper; the paper should 
 not do anything to help the matter along. Seidel, 
 however, waited until the editor had gone home and 
 then, going into the business office, bargained for the 
 insertion of a double-leaded article on the editorial 
 page. The clerk in charge insisted that he never sold 
 space at the head of the editorial columns, but Seidel 
 laughed at him, and, finally, by offering him double 
 rates, he secured it. He knew that there would be a 
 scene the next morning, but he thought that he could 
 fix that up. In the morning he prepared a petition 
 asking Mr. Radcliff to accept the nomination, and got 
 all the prominent merchants in business to sign it. 
 Most of them did so without reading it. Others asked 
 
DOCTOR CAVALLO 23 1 
 
 if it was a subscription for money, and on learning that 
 it was not, they cheerfully affixed their sign manuals. 
 In two hours he had the names of half the leading men 
 in the place. They would just as cheerfully have 
 signed a petition asking Radcliff to go and hang him- 
 self, but this does not militate against our glorious 
 system of petitions. 
 
 Armed with this, Seidel presented himself to the 
 counting room of the newspaper. The business man- 
 ager said, "Jones, the editor, is mad over the trick you 
 played on him." 
 
 "Oh, he is ; send him down." 
 
 In such a contest the first word is more than half the 
 battle. When, therefore, Jones put in an appearance, 
 Seidel began on him, told him that he was a baby in 
 politics, that instead of being the first to come out and 
 nominate the coming man, he wanted to hang back and 
 let some other one do it and then come sneaking along, 
 trying to get into the band wagon when it was ever- 
 lastingly too late. He showed him the petition. 
 " Look, here is a petition signed by every leading man 
 in the party, and a lot of the independents, begging 
 Radcliff to take the nomination. He will accept. Do 
 you want the first news, or don't you?' 1 His magnifi- 
 cent cheek astonished the editor, and he could only 
 gasp: "This is the first I have heard of it, or rather 
 you are the only one that has told me anything about 
 Radcliff." 
 
 "There you go, you are asleep. Get into the band 
 wagon, now, I tell you, or you will be left. Come out 
 to-morrow, and say, ' Our suggestion ot yesterday has 
 been eagerly taken up by the great body of voters, and 
 the name of Mr. John Radcliff, for Congress, has been 
 
232 DOCTOR CAVALLO 
 
 received with the utmost enthusiasm. 7 Take all the 
 credit for it, and push it." 
 
 The business manager eagerly chimed in, "Of course, 
 that's what we will do. And you will want a lot of 
 extra papers struck off with his acceptance in, won't 
 you ? 
 
 " Yes ; give me five hundred," said Seidel, and off he 
 went. 
 
 As soon as he had turned the corner, and got out of 
 sight of the newspaper office, he burst into a laugh. 
 "If they made me pay double rates for the editorial, I 
 will get even with them on the acceptance." 
 
 So he went to the reading-room in the hotel, and 
 wrote a glowing acceptance of the nomination, refer- 
 ing to the fact that he had always been willing to sink 
 his own peace and comfort for his party. He filled the 
 letter of acceptance with the most patriotic phrases 
 he could think of. Then he chuckled : M Now, I wont 
 even read it to the old fool ; I won't gratify him that 
 much.'" 
 
 He took it down to the grocery store, and found 
 Radcliff just opening the morning paper. 
 
 " Radcliff, sign this, please." 
 
 "What is it, a lightning rod note ?" 
 
 "No, it is no lightning rod note, it won't even cost 
 you a pound of sugar ; it's politics." 
 
 " All right, if you say it's right, I'll sign." 
 
 Away Seidel went, and had it affixed to his petition 
 from the business men. Then he wrote an editorial, 
 lauding Radcliff, and showing what a sacrifice that 
 gentleman was making to accept the office at this time, 
 and how he was willing to forego his own ease and his 
 own business, and devote himself to the burning ques- 
 
DOCTOR CAVALLO 233 
 
 tions of the hour. He wrote until the foreman expos- 
 tulated. 
 
 " I might as well tell you that we have a baking 
 powder * ad.' on the editorial page, and if you put in 
 that long petition and long editorial it will fill the 
 whole thing. You had better stop." 
 
 So Seidel had to stop after having likened Radcliff to 
 Cincinnatus. He was going to call him the Lincoln of 
 his party. 
 
 He had spent the whole forenoon in thus manufac- 
 turing a patriot. Then he went over to the hotel to 
 dinner. The clerk informed him that Mr. Radcliff had 
 been there to see him. 
 
 " He has, has he ! If he comes in while I am eating, 
 send him up." Seidel had finished his soup and fish, 
 and was on his way down the bill of fare to coffee and 
 nuts, when Mr. Radcliff came in, looking all around 
 the room, as if he wanted some one very much indeed. 
 
 Seidel spied him, and sent the waiter over to tell him 
 to come to his table. 
 
 He did so, sat down, and then, in a low voice, Rad- 
 cliff whispered : "Where was you? I have hunted all 
 over to find you." 
 
 " I was engaged in a little business of importance. 
 What is the trouble?" 
 
 Radcliff dropped his voice again and said, "Did you 
 see the morning paper?" 
 
 "Yes, I saw it." 
 
 "Did you read that article about me?" 
 
 "Yes, I read it." 
 
 "Well, hadn't there ought to be something done 
 about it?" 
 
 Seidel enjoyed his confusion, and, at last, he said, 
 
234 DOCTOR CAVALLO 
 
 " Oh, Radcliff ! and you told me that you had been a 
 member of the Board of Supervisors for five years and 
 knew all about politics. Why, my dear sir, a petition 
 has been prepared, duly signed by the leading men of 
 the party, asking you to run for Congress. You have 
 replied to it in burning words, stating that you would 
 much prefer the paths of private life, but that if it is 
 felt, that you can better serve the interests of your fel- 
 low-citizens in a public than in a private capacity, there 
 is no sacrifice too great for you to make, no burden too 
 heavy for you to bear. In short," said Seidel, "you are 
 willing to run and mighty glad of the chance, although 
 you don't say so. This glowing exordium is now in 
 type and will be printed in the morning." 
 
 "That's right. This is just what I was going to 
 suggest should be done," Radcliff replied. " Good 
 enough. I will order three papers to-morrow morning 
 and send them to some of my friends." 
 
 "Three papers," said Seidel, scornfully. 
 
 " I'll make it five." 
 
 A contemptuous reply came to Seidell lips, then he 
 checked himself. As by the terms of the contract, he 
 was forced to pay all the bills, what difference did it 
 make to him how many papers he ordered. Let him 
 quarrel with the newspaper men over that. 
 
 He resumed his meal, while Radcliff bored him with 
 a long account of how he was going to run the cam- 
 paign, what a high position he was going to take. 
 
 Seidel, wearied with his talk, ended it. " Radcliff, 
 do you want to know how to be elected ?" 
 
 11 Yes, I want all the information I can get." 
 
 " Well, then, remember Bismarck's maxim : ' The 
 party that makes the most promises carries the elec- 
 
DOCTOR CAVALLO 235 
 
 tions.' Don't be afraid, but promise everybody every- 
 thing." 
 
 And with these words he arose from the table, and 
 motioning Radcliff to go before, walked out of the 
 dining-room. Once out, he bade his candidate good 
 day, leaving him staring after him. 
 
 Radcliff thought, " He's a smart fellow, if he does 
 put on a good many airs." 
 
 Seidel's reflections were : •* The double-dyed ass to 
 talk to me about what ought to be done. I'd like to 
 have him out in Colorado running on an independent 
 ticket. Would'nt the boys skin his pocket-book for 
 him? If they didn't," he added grimly, "they would 
 shoot his hat full of holes. 
 
CHAPTER XXXVIII. 
 
 Once started on his career of manufacturing states- 
 men, Seidel found it easy sailing. There was very 
 little opposition, and of those, one he promised the 
 collectorship, another the postoffice. He gave one 
 man the patronage of his county, and induced another 
 to run for the state senate. In this way he finally 
 placated all the factions, so that when the convention 
 was called there was no opposition. To be sure, in 
 order to make the party harmonious, he had called 
 several of the caucuses in the lower wards in saloons, 
 and had selected delegates beforehand, voting them in, 
 and then, adjourning the caucus before any one knew 
 much what had been done. In other cases he had a 
 gang outside, and when the Committee on Credentials 
 met, they were empowered to fill all vacancies, so that 
 he had a large majority of delegates pledged to Rad- 
 cliff. It cost him a good deal to do this, but he felt 
 that this was his master-stroke, and he must make it a 
 success. He would not have cared so much if he had 
 not lostjso heavily on wheat, but he consoled himself 
 by saying, " after all it is not my money that I am 
 spending, it belongs to my creditors." 
 
 He did not dare trust himself to hear his candidate 
 respond to the call after he had been duly nominated, 
 but went into a side room. As he expected, Radcliff 
 
DOCTOR CAVALLO 237 
 
 put his foot in it, telling his hearers, the first thing, that 
 he was proud to meet 4t the wealth, intelligence and 
 aristocracy of the district in convention assembled." 
 At which bull there went up a great shout and roar. 
 However, Radcliff then alluded to the fact that he had 
 been a member of the Board of Supervisors for many 
 years, and had served on the Bridge Committee, and 
 this was not so bad. Seidel at last got him down and 
 out to the nearest saloon, where he made him set the 
 beer up to the crowd. 
 
 Even then, Radcliff took him out one side, and told 
 him, in a burst of generosity, that he did not mind 
 spending money for a little beer on an occasion like 
 this, and he should not charge this up to him as an 
 item of expense. 
 
 This notification that Radcliff intended to hold him 
 up to the contract disgusted Seidel more and more, but 
 he was in for it, and must play his hand out, he thought. 
 
 41 1 am like the Spartan youth, I must return with my 
 shield, or upon it." 
 
 It was not Seidel's nature to do anything by halves, 
 and he threw himself into the work with a will. He 
 organized all the thugs into a club, and had them 
 parade through the city, calling them the bone 
 and sinew of the people. "The bone and sinew " sig- 
 nalized their advent into the respectable portion of the 
 town by getting drunk, and tearing down signs, smash- 
 ing window panes and doing like depredations. In their 
 parade, they tipped over all of the apple-stands, all of 
 the peanut roasters, and threw all the boxes on the line 
 of march into the streets. Then they howled, and 
 ended by insulting decent people, until the more 
 respectable citizens shut themselves up in their homes. 
 
238 DOCTOR CAVALLO 
 
 The papers next day called the organization " Rad- 
 cliff's Lambs," and the Mayor called upon that worthy, 
 and told him that while he wanted to maintain strict 
 neutrality between the parties, if his * Lambs" made 
 any more such demonstrations, he would have the 
 whole lot run in. The next day they called upon 
 Seidel for instructions, and he told them that they were 
 a disgrace to the ticket, and that they must confine 
 themselves to their end of the city. 
 
 Seidel saw that he must have more money. He went 
 to the leading gamblers and sporting men, and told 
 them that they must come to the relief of the party. 
 This they were willing to do, if they could have some 
 guarantee that they would be allowed to run. He 
 tried to get it for them, and the result was that they 
 quarrelled among themselves, at last, the facts leaked 
 out, and the whole thing came down on Seidel's 
 head, in the shape of an expose by Herr Muller, 
 who raked Radcliff fore and aft, and that gentleman 
 came in hot haste to Seidel, and told him that he must 
 stop his work or the ticket would be ruined. 
 
 Seeing no way out of it, Seidel boldly staked his 
 last money on the throw. He organized clubs, he got 
 up political meetings, and he set out to have a hot 
 campaign. His party associates warned him not to go 
 too fast. "You have got no opposition as yet, they 
 said, what is the use of starting in so early?" but Seidel 
 wanted to show that he alone was running it, and that 
 if he made a vigorous fight now.it would frighten every 
 one off the track, and he would have a walk-away. He 
 said, "Every one else economizes money the first week 
 of the campaign, and the last week throws it away by 
 handfuls. Let us adopt the opposite policy." 
 
DOCTOR CAVALLO 239 
 
 In pursuance of his plan, he organized, in every ward, 
 gangs of men, most of them lewd fellows of the baser 
 sort, who spent their time in saloons yelling for Rad- 
 cliff, and shouting that they were going to have a 
 liberal government. 
 
 They would get out and have torch-light processions, 
 and these were accompanied with much noise and 
 tumult, generally ending in a drunken fight. Radcliff 
 was delighted with this at first, particularly when it 
 cost him nothing, and as he heard his name on every 
 corner, he thought that he was making progress. 
 
CHAPTER XXXIX. 
 
 Seidel now began to see that the opposition were be- 
 ginning to get together, and the chances were that 
 they would select a man. Then he determined on a 
 master stroke. He sent men into every ward and pre- 
 cinct and attended the primaries of the other side, and 
 placed his men on the delegations wherever he could. 
 He secured, on. the day of the nomination, a majority 
 of the committee on organization, and he had all of his 
 men accepted as delegates. Then he cleverly sprung 
 on the convention the name of a new man who was 
 vouched for as a warm partizan. He was a lawyer in an 
 adjoining county. As no one knew much about him 
 he was nominated, and the convention adjourned. It 
 was two or three days afterwards before it was noised 
 around that the nominee was thoroughly disreputable, 
 far worse than Radcliff. This assured Radcliff's elec- 
 tion, and that gentleman, in his incautious zeal and 
 vanity, went about boasting of what Seidel had done. 
 Seidel heard of it, and, going down to Radcliff, gave 
 him a scoring for thus revealing the whole plan of 
 battle, and under cover ot what a bull he had made, 
 forced that gentleman to endorse his note for five 
 thousand dollars. He took this over to Radcliff's own 
 bank and induced them to discount it. When he had 
 done this he tucked the money away and took a great 
 breath. "This, at least, tides me over." 
 
DOCTOR CWALLO 24 1 
 
 Then he added: "Now I am safe." The tide was 
 running in favor of Radcliff, for a quarrel had sprung 
 up among the men to whose party the old lawyer be- 
 longed, and everyone was charging the others with 
 being the tool of Seidel and of having sold out. In 
 the melee, Radcliff would run in without question, for 
 he was a much better man than his opponent. Seidel 
 chuckled, and rubbed his hands with glee. He called 
 on the Mayor and insisted in the name of the party on 
 the town "being run wide open," telling him that it 
 would make him popular with the business interests. 
 It did not take long for the intelligence to be noised 
 
 abroad that "everything went" in the city of P , 
 
 and shortly afterwards an influx of confidence men, 
 thieves, gamblers, and every conceivable kind of para- 
 site flocked in. The nights began to be saturnalias, 
 and the days filled with drunken revelery. A wave 
 of crime swept over the city, burglaries became 
 common and assaults frequent, respectable citizens 
 were knocked down and robbed. Stores were broken 
 open, thefts became frequent, and a general cry arose 
 against the administration. By this time the danger- 
 ous classes had enormously increased. They were 
 powerful enough to compel Seidel to use his influence 
 with the Mayor and get some of them appointed on 
 the police, and then the thefts became more and more 
 frequent. The newly appointed men speedily inocu- 
 lated the whole force with their spirit, and if a thief 
 was willing to divide, they found a way of silencing all 
 complaints. If a man came to the city hall with a tale 
 of robbery, if he were a stranger, they locked him up 
 and kept him until he agreed to leave; if a resi- 
 dent, they told him that if he would keep still they 
 
242 DOCTOR CAVALLO 
 
 would see if his property could not be restored. Then, 
 if he made continued inquiry, they would give him 
 part of it and keep the rest. In this way they stifled all 
 complaint, and the newspapers were told only of small 
 events, the little incidents, and the public did not learn 
 of the graver matters that were kept under cover. 
 Seidel acted as the go-between the parasites and the 
 police, and he was kept busy in arranging meetings, in 
 giving straw bail, and in making the thugs keep some- 
 where within bounds. 
 
 As he was making a profit out of the whole thing, it 
 was his interest to keep it up as long as possible, when 
 an incident occurred that produced an explosion. 
 
 Richard Holmes was an old gentleman, very benevo- 
 lent and public spirited. He had been down town one 
 afternoon and was returning home for supper. It was 
 hardly dark, when he was set upon by a couple of ruf- 
 fians, and in a public street, and within reach almost 
 of his own front door, he was knocked down, brutally 
 kicked and beaten, and his watch and pocket book 
 taken from him. A member of his family saw the 
 whole occurrence from the window of the house, gave 
 the alarm, and Mr. Holmes was carried into his home 
 nearly dead. This was an outrage that could not be 
 concealed, and the next morning the newspapers gave 
 full particulars. For several days Mr. Holmes wavered 
 between life and death, but he slowly rallied. The 
 police made vigorous efforts, apparently, to trace the 
 perpetrators of the dastardly outrage, and finally they 
 returned Mr. Holmes' watch, saying that it had been 
 sent back by mail, but the thugs who stole it had given 
 no clue to their whereabouts. 
 
 Then Herr Muller came to the front. He published 
 
DOCTOR CAVALLO 243 
 
 an article in English in his paper, denouncing the 
 whole affair, its perpetrators and its originators. 
 He said that it was evident that to simply pursue the 
 wretches who had committed this crime, would amount 
 to but little, the work must begin far back of them. 
 This he distributed all over the city. 
 
 It created a tremendous sensation. Forseeing the 
 probable wreck of all his hopes, Seidel visited the 
 leading men of the party, and had a conference at 
 Radcliff's, in which each one withdrew his patronage 
 from Herr Muller, and served notice on him that they 
 would not patronize his paper, as long as he con- 
 tinued his course of maligning his own people. As 
 the protest was signed, it presented a pretty formidable 
 list, and Seidel chuckled to himself as he took it in, 
 laid it down on Herr Muller's desk and asked him to 
 look over it. He paid no attention to it, and Seidel 
 went away feeling contempt for Herr Muller, and the 
 quiet way in which he submitted to his dictation. 
 
CHAPTER XL. 
 
 The next day he picked up Herr Muller's paper and 
 was amazed to find that the letter was published in full, 
 with every name attached, and that Muller had attacked 
 every man who had thus attempted to shield the ras- 
 cality of the administration and cover up the crime. 
 He told them that they were acting a part, and that 
 they fancied they were maintaining their allegiance to 
 their party, when they were the mere puppets of the 
 bold conspirator who stood behind them, and whose 
 name was Seidel, an adventurer, a scoundrel, a villain, 
 and a mere speculator in false securities and fictitious 
 mining shares. The article closed with an appeal for 
 every good citizen to meet in the hall that evening and 
 form an association to protect the good name of the 
 city against the present practices. 
 
 Herr Muller was not the man to hesitate. Having 
 picked up the gage of battle, he flooded the city with 
 handbills, in German and English, calling upon every- 
 one to come out to the meeting. 
 
 That night the hall was packed, Herr Muller took 
 the stand himself, and, after calling the meeting to 
 order, asked the assembly to nominate a chairman. He 
 was chosen to the position himself. He accepted it, 
 and in a speech of great power and force, he depicted 
 the evils under which the taxpayers were groaning, the 
 
DOCTOR CAVALLO 245 
 
 awful state of the city, at the mercy of villains, with 
 gamblers dictating the policy of the administration, 
 and thieves on the police force dividing the plunder 
 with the thieves in the street. Other speakers followed, 
 and at the close, at the suggestion of one of the part- 
 ners of Mr. Holmes, a Civic Federation was formed, 
 and committees were appointed to procure signers. 
 
 The next day the city was in a fever of enthusiasm, 
 and signers to the Civic Federation poured in hot and 
 furious, a headquarters was rented, and the work begun. 
 The Women's Club was asked to assist, and promptly 
 the members met, and passed a resolution endorsing 
 the work of the federation, pledged themselves to 
 assist, and appointed a committee to join the feder- 
 ation in anything in which they could act, either singly 
 or as a club. 
 
 Seidel listened disdainfully to the accounts of the 
 meeting and to the fears of Radcliff. ll Now, don't 
 you be a fool,'' he said, " They have nominated no 
 one, and the time will soon be past when they can do 
 so. If you will simply lay low, and keep that mouth 
 of yours shut, you will be all right. You are liable to 
 go around, and suggest to these fools just what we 
 don't want them to do." 
 
 The Civic Federation thus formed, took hold of the 
 work of purification, but at every turn they felt the 
 malign hand of Seidel in opposition. If they preferred 
 charges against a policeman, they found that the case 
 was put off, or they were told that the witnesses could 
 not be had, or the policeman would be suspended. 
 Then they would find that he had been put on special 
 duty, so that his pay went on just the same, and he 
 really received more favors on account of the charges 
 
246 DOCTOR CAVALLO 
 
 than he did before. It was felt that he was rewarded 
 for being made a martyr. 
 
 In this manner Seidel steadily neutralized the efforts 
 of the committee, and strove against the opposition. 
 
CHAPTER XLI. 
 
 Dr. Cavallo watched the progress of the strife with a 
 good deal of interest. He saw the aim of the Feder- 
 ation, and he saw, too, that Seidel's plan would result 
 in success, for he was wearing out the other side. The 
 doctor attended a meeting of the Federation one night, 
 at which some of the ladies of the Women's Club were 
 present. The interest in the meeting was dying 
 out, and to emphasize it, a gang of hoodlums from the 
 Ham Heads came into the back part of the hall, and 
 began to create a disturbance. Several times Herr 
 Muller called them to order, but they were noisy and 
 disagreeable. At last he said, half humorously, " Where 
 are the members of the Young Men's Christian Asso- 
 ciation football team, they might rid us of this annoy- 
 ance ? " At this half a dozen young men, belonging 
 to the club, arose in the house, and, forming in line, 
 made a rush at the Ham Heads. There was a struggle, 
 a contest, but the rough elements were no match for 
 the muscular young students who composed the foot- 
 ball team. They speedily drove the roughs before 
 them out of the door, downstairs and into the street. 
 This done, they came back, and were received with 
 uproarious applause. 
 
 Herr Muller stated that something must be done to 
 keep alive the interest of the federation. For his part, 
 
248 DOCTOR CAVALLO 
 
 he was willing to work, but he must see that his efforts 
 were sustained by the better element in the community. 
 He wanted them to feel that he was representing their 
 cause, not his own. He would like to hear from Dr. 
 Cavallo. 
 
 The doctor arose and said that while he was heartily 
 in favor of this movement, he could readily see where the 
 trouble was. They were fighting without any apparent 
 object. A tramp was once told that he could have a 
 dollar and a half if he would pound a log all day with 
 the head of his ax. He consented, but after an hour's 
 work he gave it up, saying that he'd be hanged if he 
 would chop without seeing the chips fly. 
 
 This was the trouble with the Civic Federation. 
 They were doing nothing. The American people want 
 action, not mere protests. If they wish to accomplish 
 results, they must do something. Now, what can 
 they do ? Why, it is well known that the whole aim 
 of the evil element that has been dominating the 
 city, is to elect Radcliff to Congress. The first thing that 
 must be done is to nominate a strongman against him. 
 When that is accomplished, the next thing is to take 
 hold of the city administration and purify that. He 
 followed in a glowing strain for united work, and for 
 action that promised deSnite results. 
 
 Herr Muller responded that the sentiments of the 
 doctor coincided with his own, and he would heartily 
 second his remarks, which he would do by nominating 
 Dr. Cavallo for the standard bearer in the coming 
 campaign. 
 
 This was received with applause, at the close of 
 which, Dr. Cavallo said that he was not a candidate for 
 the place, and under no circumstances would he accept. 
 
DOCTOR CAVALLO 249 
 
 Herr Muller was the man for the fight, and on Herr 
 Muller the burden must fall. 
 
 Herr Muller replied that the reform movement really 
 dated from the time that the doctor had made his 
 speech against race prejudice in that very hall, at a 
 public meeting called to denounce him for his acts of 
 charity and mercy. That the key note of the cam- 
 paign would be along the lines that he had laid down. 
 It was a duty that Dr. Cavallo owed to the community 
 to make this fight, for unless he did it, the whole thing 
 would fall by the wayside. 
 
 The doctor positively refused, saying that his pro- 
 fession took up all of his time, and he could not give 
 it up. In this undecided manner the meeting was 
 about to break up, when the captain of the football 
 team arose and said, that, while he was a young man 
 and did not purpose to give advice to his elders, he 
 would like to suggest that they defer the discussion of 
 the theme until the next evening, and that they call a 
 mass meeting to consider it. 
 
 This was carried and the meeting adjourned. Just 
 as Dr. Cavallo was leaving the hall, a small boy put a 
 note into his hand. He took it back to his office and 
 saw that it was from Margaret. He opened it. There 
 was but one line in it. It was the words of Bailly, the 
 great French academician, on taking his seat as Presi- 
 dent of the first Assembly : 
 
 " A good citizen will neither seek, nor refuse, office." 
 
CHAPTER XLII. 
 
 The next day, Dr. Cavallo tasted to the full, the 
 sweets of popularity. Every one, it seemed to him, of 
 note, called on him and urged him to accept the nomi- 
 nation, but still he hesitated. He knew the enormous 
 work that would devolve upon him, and what a load he 
 would have to sustain. He went over it again and 
 again and he did not see how he could accept it, and 
 every time, just as he had made up his mind to refuse, 
 Margaret's line came up in his mind: "A good citi- 
 zen will neither seek, nor refuse, office." 
 
 His professional career was very dear to him. He 
 was just getting where his reputation as a physician 
 was advancing with great strides. He was beginning 
 to be regarded as an authority. If he wished for 
 wealth, the time was not far distant, at the rate he was 
 progressing, when he could look forward to an enormous 
 practice. He would rather have his professional repu- 
 tation than all of the political honors in the world. 
 
 And he was now asked to abandon all of this, for 
 what? Why, to prevent a low adventurer, for so he 
 now classed Seidel, from running a respectable hum- 
 drum old grocer for Congress. 
 
 It looked to him as if the people ought not to ask 
 this sacrifice of him. If it had not been for Margaret's 
 note he would have laughed the proposition to scorn. 
 
DOCTOR CAVALLO 25 1 
 
 As it was, he went to see Herr Muller, and to beg 
 him to take the burden off his shoulders. 
 
 u No," said Herr Muller, "you must accept the nom- 
 ination." 
 
 u You know that I carry weight in this contest, for I 
 am a Jew." 
 
 "Yes," said the other, "and it will bring up all the 
 mud against you, and if you were not a Jew, I would 
 not press this matter so hard, but now is your oppor- 
 tunity to vindicate your race and show them that the 
 Jew stands on as high a plane of earnest endeavor to 
 achieve good government as the best. He has suffered 
 under bad government too long not to earnestly desire 
 every reform possible." 
 
 He spent the afternoon hating the time when the even- 
 ing meeting should be called. Once he made up his mind 
 to stay away, and yet, he felt that if he should, his 
 motives would be misconstrued. He was miserable. 
 Here, he had settled plans for life and he was working 
 them out to his own satisfaction, when they were 
 changed, through no fault of his, and his whole future 
 as a professional man blasted by an unforseen and 
 unfortunate occurrence. Why could not the public let 
 him alone? Why did he make that unlucky speech 
 that evening? If he had had the remotest idea that his 
 words would have been turned on him he never would 
 have made it. But being out of politics, and never 
 having taken part in the turmoil and scramble of office 
 seeking, he had considered it as something remote, and 
 now it was thrust into his face. 
 
 In this mood of discontent and thorough disgust 
 with himself, he went to the hall and sat down in a 
 seat far back ; but he was seen and made to take a place on 
 
252 DOCTOR CAVALLO 
 
 the stage. He tried to escape this, but his friends 
 would not allow him to refuse, and when the little 
 crowd of three or four were discovered slowly making 
 their way down to the front, for the hall was densely 
 packed, a shout went up that drowned all other noises. 
 It was a hearty welcome. 
 
 The chairman had already been chosen, and he was 
 making a long speech on the necessity of every honest 
 citizen standing up to the work of the Federation. 
 
 When he closed, Herr Muller said that it was well- 
 known why they had assembled. They had become 
 weary of fighting the enemy without ammunition. 
 Now they proposed to attack him in his stronghold, 
 and to do this they must have a man of purpose, a man 
 of convictions, to head the ticket. The confederation 
 had determined to put up a man for Congress who 
 would represent the ideas and purposes of the federa- 
 tion, that is, the demand for better government and for 
 reform in the admistration of it. There was but one 
 man who would answer the demand,- and this man was 
 Dr. Cavallo. The crowd roared its approval, and the 
 doctor arose to speak. When he got up he was more 
 inclined than ever to refuse. He was a brave man, but 
 the contest was not to his liking. 
 
 As he arose, the line of Margaret's note came to his 
 mind, and this still more depressed him. 
 
CHAPTER XLIII. 
 
 He began listlessly, and, as he stopped for a moment 
 he saw back in the crowd, looking at him, with a sneer 
 on his face, the evil countenance of Seidel. while be- 
 side him sat Lurello Nagle, coldly malignant, a sar- 
 donic grin spread over his huge mouth. 
 
 The sight was like an electric shock. His spirits 
 rose within him. He felt the inspiration of a mighty 
 purpose stir within his breast. He had an exultant 
 sense of power. He continued, no longer listlessly, no 
 longer depressed, to sketch the evils under which the 
 city groaned. He delineated with masterly hand the at- 
 tempt to capture — first, the congressional seat, then 
 the members of the legislature, all of whom had been 
 selected by the arch-manipulator, as was well known. 
 He showed how, by the cohesive power of public plun- 
 der, all of the offices had been apportioned, in order to 
 continue the gang now in power. For these reasons he 
 said the Civic Federation has felt that it must attack 
 this abuse at the citadel, it must place itself in the field, 
 and it must put men in the ofrlces who will administer 
 their power for the people and in the interest of justice 
 and good government. 
 
 He was greeted with a whirlwind of applause. And 
 when he took his seat his eyes swept over the spot 
 where he had seen Seidel and Nagle. They were both 
 
254 DOCTOR CAVALLO 
 
 gone. Then his glance rested on Margaret. She was 
 sitting in the gallery and she smiled upon him — a mes- 
 sage that sent the blood tingling through his veins. 
 
 Herr Muller stood up and said that it was manifest, 
 after that speech and the reception that Dr. Cavallo 
 had received, that he was the only man who could fill 
 the bill, and the position and duties which he had so 
 graphically mapped out. He asked the chairman to 
 put the question whether they should nominate Dr. 
 Cavallo on the reform ticket, and make him the can- 
 didate of the Civic Federation. 
 
 When the question was thus put, it was carried with 
 a whirlwind of applause. The chairman stated that, 
 in order to place his name properly before the peo- 
 ple, his petition would have to be signed by a cer- 
 tain per centage of voters. He told the secretary to 
 prepare a list and it would be placed on the table for 
 signatures after the meeting had adjourned. 
 
 It was proposed to adjourn and sign it then and 
 there, and this was carried. The whole audience 
 swarmed up to sign the petition and shake hands with 
 the doctor. 
 
 In this manner the evening wore away and the night 
 was far advanced when the tired out and weary doctor 
 sought his bed. His arm pained him and his head 
 ached. 
 
 Said he, " I half wish that old French academician 
 had kept his moral sentiments to himself. 1 ' 
 
CHAPTER XLIV, 
 
 Dr. Cavallo at once began to prepare for the battle. 
 He scanned the morning papers. The one that 
 Seidel controlled was almost silent. The editor had 
 not, apparently, had his instructions, he only briefly 
 outlined what had been done the night before, and 
 said, that if the Civic Federation put up a candi- 
 date, they must accept the fight forced upon them. 
 
 The other papers said little or nothing. 
 
 The Doctor felt that no time was to be lost. He 
 gathered the committee of the Civic Federation, and, 
 consulting with prominent citizens, all interested 
 in the cause of good government, he perfected the 
 remainder of the ticket, putting on good men, for 
 the time was too short to call a convention. They 
 made, in this way, an acceptable list of candidates, and 
 they took measures to have it filed with the proper 
 authorities, so that, under the Australian ballot law, it 
 would be printed. 
 
 He knew that they must now depend upon their 
 ability to educate the public to a sense of the necessity 
 for action and of cutting loose from old ties. The 
 American citizen hates to leave his old party. He will 
 talk as valorously as any reformer, but when the time 
 comes to vote, he is apt to feel like Bob Acres, that 
 his courage has oozed out at his finger ends, and that 
 
256 DOCTOR CAVALLO 
 
 he ought to support the regular ticket. So, Dr. 
 Cavallo tried to impress upon his fellow-reformers the 
 fact that they must not only address themselves to the 
 better class of citizens, but they must show them that 
 only by joining their forces should they be able to 
 conquer. 
 
 Seidel was busy in his own peculiar way. He told 
 Radcliff, when that gentleman began to exhibit signs of 
 weakening, that he was a fool. " This whole movement 
 is confined to the city and in the upper wards. It has 
 not had time to get into the country, and it will not 
 before election. I tell you we are safe." 
 
 So Siedel contented himself with simply appealing 
 to the party spirit, showing, day after day, that any one 
 who joined the Civic Federation would put a blot 
 on his political future that would operate against his 
 ever getting preferment at the hands of the party. 
 
 This had an enormous influence with the young men, 
 and kept many from joining the Federation. Those 
 who did had the stock phrase of "Bolters" thrown at 
 them. 
 
CHAPTER XLV. 
 
 Forseeing that if he were elected, he must make 
 known his candidacy to the whole people, Dr. Cavallo 
 mapped out a campaign, and turning over his practice 
 to a friend, he began his work throughout the district. 
 As soon as he was gone the Civic Federation lost all 
 interest in the matter. They seemed to think that they 
 had performed all that was required of them and that 
 the burden must be assumed by the doctor. 
 
 Seidel was quick to take advantage of this state of 
 affairs. He went on organizing his toughs and holding 
 processions and parades, in which the doctor's efforts 
 were ridiculed, and the transparencies loaded him 
 with epithets and contempt. 
 
 One morning he had his organ come out and de- 
 nounce the whole movement by which Dr. Cavallo was 
 nominated, as a Jew scheme, declared that he was noth- 
 ing but a Jew adventurer, and that this movement was 
 an effort to get another representative of the race into 
 Congress, so that they could call for the issuance of 
 more government bonds, and thus fasten their mone- 
 tary clutches on the nation. It was an article, crafty, 
 insinuating, bitter, and malicious, appealing to the low- 
 est instincts of the mob, and raising the Jew-baiting 
 spirit to the highest pitch. 
 
 It was followed that evening by a mass meeting of 
 
 9 
 
258 DOCTOR CAVALLO 
 
 the friends of the city government. The meeting 
 was addressed by the best speakers on their side, 
 among whom was Dr. McHale. He did not scruple 
 to say that he regarded the action of the meeting that 
 nominated Cavallo, as the work of cranks who de- 
 sired to break up the grand party, that had, on so 
 many occasions, saved the Union, and made it possible 
 to have a government at all. As for asking him to 
 vote for a man who stood forth as a representative of 
 that accursed race, he could not and would not do it. 
 
 The pace, thus set by McHale, Peterson followed, 
 the flood tides of abuse were fairly lifted and the 
 denunciation was bitter and deep.. One speaker thought 
 that they ought to hang every man who voted the 
 Civic Federation ticket. It was only calculated to 
 stir up strife and wreck the party. Another suggested 
 that if they could string up the candidates it would be 
 all the better. 
 
 The crowd cheered lustily, and then going out on 
 the street they made a bonfire in which they burned 
 Cavallo in effigy. Then they attacked the store of a 
 poor Jew, who dealt in second-hand clothing, and 
 looted it, driving him and his family out into the street. 
 
 The police stood by and saw this outrage and did 
 not interfere. 
 
 Grown bolder by this victory, the crowd broke all 
 the windows in Cavallo's office with stones. They 
 made a rush for his door, but not succeeding in open- 
 ing it, they battered it with brick-bats. 
 
 They would have done more damage, but Timothy 
 Dodd, who had been to the meeting, came up on the 
 outskirts of the howling depredators and yelled, "Here 
 comes Dr. Cavallo, run for your loives!" and the mob 
 scattered and fled, for it is always cowardly. 
 
DOCTOR CAVALLO 259 
 
 Gathering force, they drifted down to the next street 
 and broke the plate glass windows of Weiner Bros. 
 This firm had always been afraid of being called Jews, 
 and they were the first to suffer when the outbreak 
 came. 
 
 The mob looted everything that was in the show 
 windows, and decking themselved with neckties, 
 passed on, yelling and throwing stones through the 
 windows of every one whom they suspected of belong- 
 ing to the Civic Federation. 
 
 The Jew-baiting spirit was aroused in all its frenzy, 
 and encouraged by the apathy of the police, they 
 turned their attention to anything that came to hand. 
 
 They broke into a saloon and drank up all the 
 stock of liquor that the fellow had on hand. This 
 fired them to madness. They raged up and down, and 
 bombarded Joseph Levinsky's building. 
 
 He had put a caricature of Dr. Cavallo in his win- 
 dow and had a huge stuffed figure representing the 
 Civic Federation as an old woman feeding the doctor 
 with a spoon. The mob surged up against this, and 
 yelling "Jew, Jew," fusilladed it with bricks, smashing 
 in the windows. Then they stole the figure of the 
 woman, and mounting it on a cart, ran it up and 
 down the streets, while others, drunk with fury, went 
 into the interior of the store, pulling down piles of 
 clothing and throwing them into the street. The Ham 
 Head gang had good overcoats that season for the 
 first and last time in their lives. 
 
 They finally set fire to the stock. This brought out 
 the fire department, and the Mayor, thinking that mat- 
 ters had gone too far, ordered a double cordon of 
 police around the place, and told the fire department 
 to play on the crowd. 
 
260 DOCTOR CAVALLO 
 
 This dispersed them from that spot, but they went 
 off and began to loot more of the saloons. The 
 mob of thieves, already dangerously large in the city, 
 took advantage of this and began to plunder private 
 houses. Not content with this, they set on fire two or 
 three barns, and the sound of the fire engines at work, 
 the quick alarms following after each other, aroused the 
 whole population, and numbers of the citizens came 
 down town to see what was the matter. They found the 
 city in the hands of a drunken mob, who were beginning 
 to destroy property right and left. All order was lost, 
 and all authority. In this emergency, the colonel of 
 the regiment offered his assistance to the Mayor, and 
 the sheriff, a determined man, swore in all of the mem- 
 bers of the military company who were within reach, 
 as deputies. These protected the center of the city, 
 but the rioting spread to the outskirts, and the result 
 was such a night of terror as the city had never seen. 
 
 The next day, the city papers affected to make light 
 of the occurrences as the work of boys, but the metro- 
 politan sheets took up the matter and gave a full 
 account of the outrages, denouncing the Mayor and the 
 authorities, and telling them they ought to have known 
 that the outbreak was the result of their own coward- 
 ice; that to stir up the angry passions of the mob in 
 any one direction is to imperil the very foundations 
 of society. 
 
 Herr Muller was the only city editor who arose to a 
 full appreciation of the situation. He denounced the 
 gathering as a mob, and told the authorities that they 
 had aroused a spirit that would recoil on themselves. 
 That when they permitted defenceless citizens to be at- 
 tacked they were a disgrace to civilization. He called 
 
DOCTOR CAVALLO 26 1 
 
 on the Civic Federation to take prompt action in the 
 matter. 
 
 That body came together at once. The disturbance 
 of the night before opened their eyes. They made 
 complaints against the ring-leaders, and issuing war- 
 rants for rioting, had them lodged in jail. The offense 
 was so flagrant that Seidel did not dare bail them out, 
 and he had to wait and see what further action would 
 be taken. 
 
 Dr. Cavallo, on his return from the country, called 
 upon Mrs. Bernheim, and laying the condition of affairs 
 before that lady, begged her to give the weight of her 
 influence to the cause and show her sympathy for good 
 government. 
 
 She listened, and at first refused. She was not in 
 politics. He told her that the disorderly element now 
 had full control and that unless something was done to 
 hold up the hands of the better element, the Civic 
 Federation would abandon the fight in disgust. 
 
 The lady hesitated. 
 
 Then she said, "If you think it is necessary I will 
 take hold of the work." 
 
 She was as good as her word. That night she called 
 the Executive Committee of the Women's Club at her 
 house. She told them what she thought they ought to 
 do in this great emergency. She outlined the work 
 and asked them whether, in the great fight that was 
 now pending, there was any higher duty than that of 
 insisting upon good government? 
 
 Before the Executive Committee of the Women's 
 Club adjourned that night, they called a meeting 
 of the entire members of the organization at their hall 
 the next day. 
 
 When they met, each woman was appointed to a 
 
262 DOCTOR CAVALLO 
 
 certain duty. The entire city was districted, and each 
 member was held responsible for one section consisting 
 of so many blocks. It was her duty to go into her sec- 
 tion, canvass the houses, see that the women were 
 visited, and the right arguments put in their mouths ; 
 to find out how their brothers and husbands voted, and 
 to leave them such printed matter as was requisite. 
 Mrs. Nagle was, with grim humor, appointed to that 
 part of the city that embraced the Bernheim flats. 
 She colored to the eyes when this section was assigned 
 to her, for she felt that her efforts were known, and 
 that she was thus shelved. 
 
 The next morning the ladies of the Women's Club 
 were early in the field, and the citizens began to see 
 that something was being done. The members put 
 down the cry of the Seidel gang by telling the citizens 
 that Jew-baiting will end in Irish-baiting, in German- 
 baiting, in class distinctions. The colored population 
 were reminded that it was not very long before, that 
 Negro-baiting was a very popular pursuit, and that 
 when the cry of class distinction is raised, the weaker 
 always suffers most, but that the flame soon extends to 
 others, until it ends in lawlessness. 
 
 In this way the citizens' movement gained an enor- 
 mous increase in popularity. The Executive Commit- 
 tee of the Women's Club sent out through the coun- 
 try and organized Women's Clubs in the Congres- 
 sional district. The more the disgraceful occurrences 
 of the night of rioting became known, the more it hurt 
 Seidel's cause. Radcliff was waited on by a body of 
 the prominent citizens, and told that if he did not stop 
 dragging in these racial questions and sneering at the 
 doctor because he was a Jew, they would bring up his 
 
DOCTOR CAVALLO 263 
 
 record against him. This was a threat he well under- 
 stood, for during the war he had been a Knight of the 
 Golden Circle, and he was very sensitive in regard to 
 matters during that period. 
 
CHAPTER XLVI. 
 
 The gang that controlled the city administration 
 continued to yell "Jew! Jew!" until this cry became 
 the signal for the gathering of the worst classes, and 
 at last, in self-defence, the police were obliged to 
 charge the mob whenever they heard it, for it was 
 almost always followed by outrages against persons or 
 property, and, once started, the mob never asked ques- 
 tions as to whom they should rob. 
 
 Radcliff found that he was losing ground, and he 
 had another quarrel with Seidel, telling him that he 
 was a fool to start this cry in the first place. 
 
 Dr. Cavallo stumped the district. He had thrown 
 himself into the cause, and had spoken in every school 
 house. Everywhere his noble and commanding figure, 
 his recital of the causes that had forced him to take 
 the position, his eloquence, his knowledge and his 
 great professional reputation won him audiences, and 
 his sympathetic manner and the readiness with which 
 he responded to all questions, explaining what the 
 Civic Federation meant, and that the history of the 
 world has shown that the evils of city politics has 
 sapped the life of all republics, won him the hearts of 
 the rural voters. The farmers gathered to his side, 
 and at every meeting it was declared, Dr. Cavallo can 
 make more votes in one speech than others can in ten 
 years of argument. 
 
DOCTOR CAVALLO 265 
 
 He always avowed that he was a Jew, made no 
 evasion, showed them that the true Jew stands for the 
 highest patriotism and the purest government, and that 
 he was fighting not his own battle, but theirs. 
 
 Seidel read the accounts in the papers that came into 
 his party's headquarters, and inwardly cursed him. 
 Radcliff was hot one moment and cool the next. He 
 wanted Seidel to pay him back the five thousand dol- 
 lars, and he was in a fever lest he should lose it. He 
 smote the desk in his office. " Talk about Jew tricks," 
 he snarled, "the trick by which that fellow got me to 
 run, and then to endorse his note for five thousand dol- 
 lars, is worse than any Jew trick that I ever heard of." 
 And he felt that he was a fool to have been duped. 
 
 Nevertheless, Seidel was by no means discouraged. 
 "The opposition," he said to his followers, "consists 
 of a lot of old women, who make a great fuss, cackling, 
 but they can't vote. They don't amount to anything, 
 and the whole Civic Federation lives in one centre 
 ward. They can carry that, and then they are done. 
 Let them take it, we will sweep the city." 
 
 As the time for the election drew near, he sent into 
 the district all the money that he could raise, and 
 distributed it in the small towns. There is always a 
 purchasable element in these places, and with these he 
 kept in touch. He knew every committeeman, and he 
 toiled night and day getting figures and putting them 
 down in parallel columns. He announced the night 
 before to his associates, " We've got 'em. I do not 
 believe that they will carry a ward in this city, and if 
 the farmers stand firm, we shall get our man in. I 
 don't believe that Cavallo has made any headway, and 
 as for the Civic Federation, they are a lot of old 
 
266 DOCTOR CAVALLO 
 
 women. I can figure it out that we shall win by a 
 neck." And he believed it. He went home and to 
 bed, leaving his followers to hold a grand rally in the 
 hall, and grand rally it was. They had all the speak- 
 ers on their side, and among them was Congressman 
 Jagsby, who had dropped in from a Chicago district to 
 help them out. Jagsby was what is known in political 
 circles as a " Tarrier ;" that is, he was one of a gang 
 who ran the party for what there was in it. He began 
 with a volley of abuse, directed against everything and 
 everybody ; he abused the Civic Federation, who 
 wanted to run the country like a prayer-meeting. He 
 abused Cavallo. He attempted to abuse Mrs. Bern- 
 heim, but the moment he alluded to her, he was met by 
 such a storm of hisses and cries of " Put him out," 
 that he had to stop. For Pat CTHara was in the crowd, 
 and he got up on a chair. " That lady," he said " hez 
 been a mother to me, an' ye're a dom liar." 
 
 This produced a roar of laughter. As the audience 
 thought of Mrs. Bernheim in the full flush of power 
 and beauty, being claimed by a middle aged, bald 
 headed Irishman as his mother, they roared again. 
 Then they insisted upon Pat's getting on the stage 
 and making a speech. Then they carried him up, 
 crowding Congressman Jagsby into a corner, and yell- 
 ing. Pat waved his hands aloft and tried to make 
 them hear, but his voice was lost. Every hoodlum in 
 the city seemed to be present, and while they were 
 wildly tumultous, they were good natured. Pat man- 
 aged to get his voice heard. They mounted him on 
 a table and he cleared his throat and began : 
 
 "Byes. Byes. Any mon that brings the name of a 
 respictible lady into a place loike this, wid the intintion 
 
DOCTOR CAVALLO 267 
 
 of bemaning her, is a blackguayrd. Now, I put to yez 
 that we want to be frindly and law abidin', and I mov 
 ye, sorr," addressing the chairman, u that in order to 
 show that there's no harrd feelin' on this occasion, and 
 I'm shure I put it to the ignorance of the distinguished 
 guest that he fell into this mistake, I mov ye, sorr, 
 that Mr. Radcliff sets 'em up." 
 
 Then there was a yell, and everybody inundated the 
 platform, and Mr. Radcliff was born on the shoulders 
 of his enthusiastic followers down to the nearest 
 saloon, where the party kept him busy in paying for 
 the beer. He only said, in a deep tone of disgust, 
 "Stop 'em when they are at the end of the tenth keg. 
 I'll pay for no more." 
 
 In the hall the distinguished Congressman began 
 looking for his hat. 
 
 "You made a mistake," remarked the chairman, " in 
 attacking Mrs. Bernheim." 
 
 41 Oh, well," returned the chop fallen orator, "you 
 couldn't have kept that crowd here with a stump 
 machine. They didn't want a speech. They wanted 
 free beer. 1 ' 
 
 And with this philosophic declaration, they went 
 away, and the hall was locked. 
 
CHAPTER XLVII. 
 
 The nomination of Dr. Cavallo made old Abbott 
 furious. He had suffered such defeat at the doctor's 
 hands, that the very mention of the name " Cavallo" 
 aroused all the hatred in his nature, and when the nom- 
 ination was announced, he vindictively opposed the 
 whole movement. He had influence enough with Dr. 
 McHale to force that divine into taking a more out- 
 spoken position against the Civic Federation than he 
 otherwise would have done. 
 
 McHale was slow, ponderous, lethargetic He did 
 not like to exert himself. He had a wealthy congre- 
 gation, although it was small in number, and to them 
 he preached very acceptable sermons, for he filled 
 them with doctrinal points, and regularly threshed over 
 the old straw of the final perseverance of the saints, of 
 the elect, the redemption of man, and the problem of 
 original sin. Anything that was new was, to the 
 Doctor, an object to be avoided. He prided himself 
 on the fact that he was conservative, and that he took 
 no stock in evolution and Darwinism, did not believe 
 n "fads," or "isms," or " new lights. 1 ' Not until a 
 tenet was so old that it had become musty, did it pos- 
 sess attractions for Dr. McHale. 
 
 Abbott was visited by Seidel, who urged him to take 
 a prominent part in the canvass, and he committed 
 
DOCTOR CAVALLO 269 
 
 the old man into signing all the requests for meetings, 
 and all the protests against Cavallo with which the 
 papers were rilled. When Seidel ventured a step fur- 
 ther, and tried to get a contribution of money for the 
 expenses of the campaign, the avarice of Abbott was 
 at once aroused, and he refused, saying, that he would 
 work in his own way. This consisted in going around 
 to such people as owed him rent, and would not or 
 could not pay, and offering to give them a clear receipt 
 for the money, if they would work against Cavallo. 
 He was active in this matter, and his unrelenting hate 
 induced him to spend the most of his time in button- 
 holing people, and urging them to take a stand against 
 the Civic Federation and the Women's Club. 
 
 He urged McHale to preach a sermon on the matter, 
 and the Sunday before election, McHale announced 
 that he would give his views on the crisis that was now 
 impending. It cost him a great deal of effort to do 
 this. He had always taken his stand against sensation- 
 alism in the pulpit, not because he cared a straw about 
 the matter, but because, to preach on a live topic, cost 
 him some effort to write out his ideas in a new 
 track, while the old subjects took no thought whatever. 
 
 The Sabbath came and the church was pretty well 
 packed. McHale affected the patriarchial style. His 
 chokers were always immaculate in their whiteness. 
 His coat fitted without any creases. His mutton chop 
 whiskers were the only compromise that he admitted 
 with the world, and he only wore these because he 
 thought they gave him a greater air of dignity. He 
 announced as his text the words of St. Paul to the Cor- 
 inthians, 1st, 14th -34th: u Let your women keep silence 
 in the churches , for it is not permitted unto them to speak 
 
2^0 DOCTOR CAVALLO 
 
 but they are commanded to be under obedience, as also saith 
 the law!' 
 
 He said, "Ordinarily, I do not believe in degrading 
 the sacred desk by noticing the events that come and 
 go over our heads. These are of the earth, earthy; 
 while the pulpit should deal with heavenly things alone. 
 But there are times when personal considerations must 
 give way to the public good. We see now a wave of 
 irreligious thought sweeping over this community, and 
 it becomes every man to do his utmost to stop it. We 
 see that the bulwarks of society have been torn down 
 and a Jew has been nominated for the highest office 
 in the gift of the people of this district. As if to make 
 this nomination more farcical and indecent, woman 
 have been induced to enter the lists and to disgrace 
 her character by mingling in the filthy pool of politics. 
 In this emergency we should heed the words of the 
 great apostle : ■ Let your women keep silence in the 
 churches! 
 
 "The apostle was divinely inspired, and his words 
 come as a command to woman of the present day no less 
 than when he uttered them. Far be it from me to de- 
 tract from the work which woman should undertake. 
 The Bible is filled with accounts of the Dorcases, and 
 the Marys and Marthas. But where are they to be 
 found ? Invariably at the feet of some good man, 
 drinking in his words, receiving instruction from his 
 lips, ministering to him. This is the function of wo- 
 man. Not the equal of man, not side by side with him, 
 but his helpmeet, leaning on him, depending on him, 
 finding in him her guide and instructor and director. 
 If there be anything in the New Testament that appeals 
 strongest to our reason, it is that woman in the time of 
 
DOCTOR CAVALLO 2JI 
 
 the apostles was under the direction of man, and was 
 set to do those things in the churches which man did 
 not wish to do himself. If St. Paul had had the "New 
 Woman" in his mind, he could not have been more 
 emphatic in his remarks : * Let your women keep silence 
 in the churches' 
 
 u Fancy the apostle in these days seeing the modern 
 woman riding a bicycle ; wearing bloomers ; manag- 
 ing elections ; driving tandem ; traveling about alone 
 and unaided ; making stump speeches ; haranguing po- 
 litical meetings ; running for office ; getting on boards 
 organized for political purposes ; wearing tailor-made 
 clothes ; aping the cravats, the collars, the cuffs, the 
 very shoes of her brothers, and being in all respects as 
 like a man as she can. Is it not high time that the 
 churches speak out and insist that the words of St. 
 Paul are obligatory, and come as a Divine command. 
 ' Let your women keep silence in the churches! 
 
 "The true function of woman is to sanctify home. 
 There she is the acknowledged queen. There she 
 spends her time in those household duties, which, if 
 neglected, drive men away to seek companionship and 
 solace in the club and in the saloon. No man, I ven- 
 ture to say, ever yielded to the demon drink, whose 
 wife made home pleasant. No woman would lose the 
 affections of her spouse, if she daily knelt in prayer, 
 asking that she might be made worthy to share his for- 
 tunes, and seeking Divine light to fit her for the high 
 position of wifehood. Men must have the restraining 
 influences of home to keep them from the temptations 
 that assail them, and how can they have this when the 
 wife and mother is away at the club, or is absent at the 
 political meeting ? What right has a woman to under- 
 
2^2 DOCTOR CAVALLO 
 
 take these grave matters, when, probably at the very 
 time she does it, her children are roaming the streets, 
 or are crying at home for lack of that care and consid- 
 eration which they have lost, and she alone can give. 
 ' Let your women keep silence in the churches' 
 
 a If anywhere, they might be expected to be allowed 
 to speak in the churches. The active management of 
 many of the charities were committed to ihem. The 
 records of the early church show that to the deacon- 
 esses were entrusted many things, but the apostle, 
 knowing their weaknesses, would not even allow them 
 to speak in the churches, and if not in the church, cer- 
 tainly he would not sanction their speaking anywhere 
 else. Our Lord and Saviour, knowing the weakness of 
 women, and seeing that the curse has been wrought 
 upon man through her garrulity and evil speaking in 
 the Garden, uttered through the lips of his servant, 
 Paul, this sweeping prohibition against their being al- 
 lowed to speak anywhere. * Let your women keep silence 
 in the churches? 
 
 " Listen to the divine command, O woman, and do not 
 seek to do that which is unseemly. What a disgrace it 
 is to the city to see a Woman's Club, regularly organized, 
 and standing up like a reproach and menace to the 
 home, on one of our public streets ? Here the mem- 
 bers meet and cackle ; here they assemble, and, leaving 
 their domestic duties unattended, discuss what, — why, 
 "Politics," " Government," "Political Economy;" 
 and they even have now, in this very city, mapped out 
 the town, divided it into districts, and have appointed 
 certain women to canvass certain houses, all to put a 
 Jew in office, and to degrade and destroy the very sanc- 
 tuary of our institutions ! 
 
DOCTOR CAVALLO 273 
 
 14 If woman wishes a club, let her find it in the church. 
 If she desires to extend her field, let her beek it in mis- 
 sionary work, where her labors will be supervised by 
 her husband and by the worthy elders of the church, 
 who will see that her endeavors are directed in the 
 proper channel and her zeal towards proper objects. 
 Here is an institution founded by Christ himself, and 
 instituted by him, wherein woman can find her highest 
 mission and her most enduring monument. Why did 
 our Saviour rebuke Martha ? Because Mary was sit- 
 ting at his feet, in the humble attitude of attention, 
 drinking in his words. Why did he rebuke the apostles 
 for complaining of the woman with the box of oint- 
 ment ? Because she was annointing his feet, and wiping 
 them with the hairs of her head. 
 
 " Oh, ■ woman keep silence in the churches! and listen to 
 the voice of Jesus himself. It is He who commands 
 you to remain humble, and to cast aside this false 
 philosophy, and to show you that you possess modesty, 
 which you shall wear as a crown, and humility, which 
 shall become to you as a diadem. It is your duty to 
 bear your burdens with meekness and patience, suffer- 
 ing all things, believing all things, enduring all things. A 
 good woman is to her husband as a crown of righteous- 
 ness. And what is it to be a good woman ? It is to 
 win the love of a good man, to share his troubles and 
 his joys, to cool his fevered brow when racked with 
 pain, to minister unto him. Not to go shrieking around 
 the streets, marching in political processions; not in 
 getting up resolutions and in organizing ward commit- 
 tees. I am a minister of God, and I must proclaim his 
 truth. I see among you some who curl the lip in dis- 
 sent, and who are ready to deny my proposition. Let 
 
274 DOCTOR CAVALLO 
 
 me again call your attention to the words of St. Paul : 
 4 Let your women keep silence in the churches! 
 
 "Man is the oak, woman is the vine. Can the vine 
 stand upright ? No, if it attempts it, it is soon trailed 
 in the dirt, but when supported by the oak, how it 
 spreads abroad. How it adorns the landscape ; how 
 it breathes sweetness and balm, and affords the richest 
 fruit for the enjoyment and delectation of man. 
 
 " So it is with woman. Left to herself, she makes 
 shipwreck. She loses all the sweet and womanly 
 graces. She grovels in the dust. Every new fad she 
 takes up. She adorns herself in the garments of men, 
 and, mounting her ' wheel,' she becomes an object of 
 gossip and unfavorable comment. She is a thing of 
 laughter, sneers and jeers. But united to a Christian 
 man, she is the light of home, the glory of the house- 
 hold, the mainstay of the church. It is not by allow- 
 ing her to talk that her supreme excellencies are shown, 
 1 Let your women keep silence in the churches! 
 
 " Garrulity has ever been her curse. She needs the 
 strong and repressive hand of man to keep her in 
 check. Left to herself, her imagination runs riot. Her 
 affections, unrestrained, overflow their natural channel, 
 and she is like a fertile meadow, which, desolated by 
 the unchecked waters, becomes a dismal swamp. But 
 when the hand of man restrains these forces and con- 
 fines them within their proper limits, they irrigate 
 without flooding the land, and the fertile acres blossom 
 in God's glorious sunshine, and bear a luxurious harvest. 
 1 Let your women keep silence in the churches! 
 
 "Another thing, politics is too foul for women 
 to meddle with. Our needs must be wrought out 
 by the strong hand of man, and lovely and beauti- 
 
DOCTOR CAVALLO 2^5 
 
 ful women are too pure to be subjected to the contamin- 
 ating influences of our system of government. How 
 would any of my hearers like to have their wife, or 
 their daughter, or sister, attend one of the caucuses in 
 some of our wards, where the meeting is held in a 
 saloon ? Where the voter has to pick his way through 
 a crowd of smoking loafers ; where the ribald jest and 
 the obscene joke is handed around from one to another, 
 and where the conversation is so liberally punctured 
 with oaths, as to be unfit even to be repeated any- 
 where, much less in a place and on an occasion like 
 this. I speak that which I do know, when I say that 
 I would rather consign a daughter of mine to an open 
 grave, than to see her drag the glory of her sweet 
 womanhood into such scenes of vice and filth as I have 
 witnessed, when I have been forced by the exigencies 
 of politics to visit, when I desired to assist in the 
 purification of some foul ulcer in the body politic. 
 And if this was revolting to me, what would it be to 
 a sweet and pure woman, from whom all indelicate 
 things are sedulously excluded, but who would be thus 
 brought face to face with them. 
 
 " No, my hearers, when the apostle uttered the words, 
 'Let your women keep silence hi the churches' 1 he was 
 divinely inspired. He saw with prophetic vision what 
 danger would menace the Church of Christ in these latter 
 days, and he determined to set up, as a warning, the 
 words which would forever serve in the minds of the 
 truly pious to protect the sanctity of church and home. 
 
 " I may not suit everyone in this vast audience, I may 
 seem to be uttering that which is stale, and to the newer 
 blood here, it may smack of old fogyism, but when I 
 see before me the evils that are impending, when I see 
 
276 DOCTOR CAVALLO 
 
 what the New Woman has brought, and is still likely to 
 bring, when I see divorce become more frequent, the 
 authority of the husband set at naught, woman's work 
 neglected and turned over to menials, I feel that as 
 a minister of Christ, I must lift up my voice in an 
 effort to stem the tide and turn back this wave that is 
 sweeping over us. ' Let your women keep silence in the 
 churches' 
 
 " If the words of the apostle in this particular are 
 scorned, what credence can we place upon the rest of 
 his utterance? If he is false in one thing he must be 
 false in everything. The bars thus let down, we are 
 face to face with infidelity in its worst form. It there- 
 fore becomes us to see that no jot or tittle of the divine 
 commands is treated with disrespect, and we ought 
 to insist that the command, ' Let your women keep silence 
 in the churches? shall extend to all classes of society 
 and to all ranks. It plainly shows that in the apostle's 
 mind, woman occupies a subordinate position, and she 
 should never be allowed to leave it. Nor is this the 
 only text conferring this power upon man ; ■ Wives, 
 obey your husbands in the Lord \ for this is right? only em- 
 phasizes what I have already said. Away then with 
 women's clubs. Away with their work in politics. I 
 hope that on election day, every one of this congrega- 
 tion will show at the polls that he dissents from the 
 heresy of the 'New Woman,' and is willing to go on 
 record as a believer in the word of God and a follower 
 of the apostolic teaching." 
 
 The reverend gentleman took his seat, and the con- 
 gregation was dismissed. As the assembly slowly 
 passed out of the church they began to exchange views, 
 and opinion was divided. 
 
DOCTOR CAVALLO 2JJ 
 
 Mr. Lawrence said : " Dr. McHale has laid down the 
 law pretty strongly, but I think if the apostle were on 
 earth to-day, he would modify his views.'" 
 
 Bob, to whom this remark was addressed, for they 
 were walking home, laughed, and replied : M Father, 
 look out, you are getting liberal. The idea," he added, 
 " is this : woman, and the relations she sustains to 
 to society, is no more exempt from the law of evolution 
 than is anything else. The Greeks considered that 
 woman was only worthy of occupying a subordinate 
 position, and St. Paul, who had lived a good deal among 
 the Greeks, imbibed some of these notions, not only on 
 this point, but on a good many others. The church to- 
 day can't follow in his lead, for people won't have it." 
 
 "Still, St. Paul was undoubtedly inspired," insisted 
 Mr. Lawrence. 
 
 M He might have been for that day and generation, 
 but not for this. There are a great many things in the 
 Bible that were true then that are not now. For in- 
 stance, how foolish it would be now to take precautions 
 against putting new wine into old bottles. It was a 
 good idea then, when the bottles were made of goat 
 skins, but not true to-day when they are made of glass. 
 I think that if St. Paul were living to-day, Mrs. Bern- 
 heim could give him a point or two about keeping 
 silent, that would wake the old apostle up and put new 
 ideas into his head. Look how she is running this 
 campaign ! " 
 
CHAPTER XLVIII. 
 
 Timothy Dodd was profoundly happy. He went 
 into politics, and at once organized a company of em-' 
 bryo statesmen, and spent the greater part of his time 
 drilling them. When the doctor went on his campaign, 
 Timothy was left behind to keep the office. He began 
 by locking it up, and getting his legion into working 
 order. When he turned out at night with his squad, 
 arrayed in waterproof caps, swinging Chinese lanterns 
 and carrying canes, the summit of his ambition was 
 reached. He was chiefly anxious that they should pre- 
 sent a military appearance. 
 
 "Thrid up, theyre," he would cry; sthick out yer 
 chists, an' luk loike min." He emphasized this by 
 strutting up and down before his array, and exhorting 
 them to remember that in the next war they would have 
 a chance to go the front. 
 
 " Luk at the Ham Heads," he harangued his force, 
 14 Luk at thim. Ivery wan ov thim luks loike a thramp 
 from Thrampville. The position ov an intilligint 
 American citizen is to hould up his hid, an' expriss that 
 confidence in himself that his rayson shows him to be 
 gilty ov." 
 
 Timothy did not confine himself to his own party. 
 He went everywhere, and among his other acts, was to 
 get into the lower parts of the city, and attend one of 
 the ward meetings arranged by Seidel. 
 
DOCTOR CAVALLO 279 
 
 There was a monstrous blow-out to take place in the 
 Ninth Ward, so he went down early to have a hand 
 in it. 
 
 The headquarters were in a saloon. The rear end 
 had been cleared, so that there was nothing in it 
 but a bar and a few chairs, leaving a clear place in 
 front, where the crowd gathered. The regulars drifted 
 in early, and began to clamor for a treat. Soon 
 Seidel came in, and was set upon for drinks. He 
 graciously shook hands all around, greeting the old 
 rounders as "Tom" and u Bill," and affecting that 
 easy air of jocular familiarity which your politician 
 assumes, being particularly effusive just before election. 
 
 It was evident that the crowd expected something, 
 but it was not until Seidel opened out with a whole bar- 
 rel of beer, ordering it set up on the counter and tapped, 
 where all could see it, that the enthusiasm became 
 wildly hilarious. Then the pent-up noise of the crowd 
 broke forth, and between swarming up for a free drink 
 and cheering for Seidel, the scene soon became a Babel 
 of riot, a wild Bacchanalian confusion. The atmosphere 
 was thick and heavy, everyone was smoking and talk- 
 ing and drinking and cheering. The uproar moment- 
 arily increased, while the saloon-keeper, a huge type of 
 his class, dropped his usual air of sullen domination, and 
 put on, for the occasion and in honor of his patron, the 
 manners of a condescending and pleasant host. 
 
 This was not lost sight of by his customers, some of 
 whom even strove to be familiar with him. 
 
 " Whar's yer free lunch, Bill?" said one of them, 
 affecting terms of friendship, 
 
 " Free lunch, nothin'. It's free beer ye'll have to- 
 night, I'm thinkin'. Ye better hurry up and git yer 
 
280 DOCTOR CAVALLO 
 
 share, for when this keg's gone I don't know who'll 
 tap the next un !" 
 
 " Here's the silver mine fer to-night," returned a red- 
 nosed loafer, affectionately patting Seidel on the back. 
 «' And say, it ain't his leg we're pullin' neither. We've 
 got old Radcliff by the jowl, this heat, sure." 
 
 "That ain't no way to talk about the head of the 
 ticket. The more beer ye git into ye, the more disre- 
 spectful ye air," said the saloonkeeper, with a scowl. 
 " It's little enough that ye might be givin' him a title. 
 What's the matter of puttin' a ' Mister ' to his name? " 
 
 " Huh," was the response. " I've knowed Radcliff 
 ever sence he carne to this town. Why, he an' I've 
 made many a bar'l together, side by side. D'y'e 
 s'pose that I'm goin' to ' Mister ' Bill Radcliff? Not 
 on yer life ef I knows it. I'll vote for him out of old 
 acquaintance sake, but I don't allow to git on my knees 
 to him, not by a long shot." 
 
 The conversation drifted into a string of reminis- 
 cences. The speaker was one of that class denomi- 
 nated "old citizens," chiefly remarkable for remember- 
 ing so many things that have never happened. He 
 gave to the few that would listen to him, a long story 
 of how he and Radcliff had come to the city together, 
 and had worked in the same cooper shop and had 
 "churned" all one winter. Radcliff had saved his 
 money and started a grocery store, while he had spent 
 his, and was now drifting around, a poor wreck. Every 
 city has a large supply of the " old citizens," and they 
 always come out strong on occasions. 
 
 Seidel was in his glory. He enjoyed a thing of this 
 kind. He drank with ward workers here and there, 
 and found out the fellows whom he would have to buy, 
 
DOCTOR CAVALLO 28 1 
 
 the men who worked, and the men who simply worked 
 the candidates. There is a large class of what are 
 called "heelers," who are always on hand at elections, 
 pretending to work for this, or that, candidate. What 
 they really do is, to get as much money out of them 
 as possible, and give no service for it. Seidel was 
 sifting out these classes, finding out whom he could de- 
 pend upon, and who would be likely to take his money 
 and spend it for whisky without rendering any service 
 in return. The beer disappeared before he had finished 
 this part of his labors, and as it was hardly time to 
 call for speaking, he had the saloon keeper tap an- 
 other keg, and still another, for the place was now 
 packed as full as it could hold, and it was with the 
 greatest difficulty that he could move in and out. He 
 gathered the heads of the wards, the men who manage 
 the politics of the place, into a corner, and began to 
 plan. The matter having been arranged to his liking, 
 apparently, he saw that he must begin with his verbal 
 artillery. 
 
 It was his policy to commit the young men of his party 
 to his side, and so he had detailed a number of them 
 to make speeches at this meeting. He now set the 
 pace by telling his friends to call for Hawkins — a 
 young man who had just received his license to prac- 
 tice law. He was new at the business of making 
 speeches, so he declined, but the crowd would not 
 take " No," and they set him on the bar-counter and 
 told him to go on. 
 
 The air was stiffling, the room was clouded with 
 smoke, and the crowd was half inebriated. He cleared 
 his throat with a mighty effort, and began : 
 
 "Mr. Chairman, Fellow Citizens and Gentlemen of 
 
282 DOCTOR CAVALLO 
 
 the Ninth ward. It gives me pleasure this evening to 
 come among you, and to see you gentlemen, and to 
 welcome you in the name of the grand old party, to 
 which we all belong." 
 
 "That's right," said the old citizen by way of en- 
 couragement. " Go ahead. 1 ' 
 
 "I feel on this occasion, Mr. Chairman, like one who 
 knows that he is here representing this grand old party, 
 to which we all belong, fellow citizens and gentlemen." 
 
 "Hoorray," cheered a bystander, "go it, giv't 'tern." 
 
 "We have come here to honor, and to stand by, that 
 grand old party, to which we all belong, Mr. Chair- 
 man, which we may say belongs to us, Mr. Chairman. 
 We desire to save this country, Mr. Chairman, and 
 how can it be done, Mr. Chairman, fellow citizens and 
 gentlemen ? Is it to be done, Mr. Chairman, in any 
 other way, Mr. Chairman, fellow citizens and gentle- 
 men, than by following the leadership, and putting in 
 office men who belong to that grand old party, to 
 which, Mr. Chairman, we both belong, Mr. Chairman, 
 fellow citizens and gentlemen? M 
 
 "Hooray" yelled the ward heeler. "Set 'em up, 
 Hawkins, set 'em up. I'm that dhry, me troat is 
 cracked." 
 
 A rush was made on the bar, and in the crowd 
 some one seized the orator by both legs and bore 
 him over the heads of his auditors, until he was 
 deposited, his clothes torn and soiled, and his hat 
 smashed, at the feet of Seidel. 
 
 He looked that gentleman in the face and gasped, 
 "And this is politics, is it?" 
 
 "This is Ninth ward politics," returned Seidel, good 
 naturedly. 
 
DOCTOR CAVALLO 283 
 
 " Say, 1 ' asked the other, '• I made a fool of 'myself, 
 did'nt I?" 
 
 "Oh, no," Seidel replied, "you did first rate. You've 
 got to get used to it. Get Mudd up and hear him.'" 
 
 Mudd was also a young attorney, who had quite a 
 reputation for windy eloquence. He was summarily 
 seized and deposited on the counter, while the crowd 
 yelled with delight. Mudd was an old hand at these 
 affairs, and was'nt abashed. He put both hands in his 
 pockets, and standing up straight, put on an air of 
 consequential importance. "Saay, you all know me, 
 and you expect that I'm going to make a speech. Now, 
 saay, you can't give me no razzle dazzle like ye did 
 Hawkins. No? Well, I don't think you will! Now, 
 you don't want no speech here to-night. (Cries of "yes 
 we do. 1 ') I say No! What you want is free beer, and 
 as long as Radcliff's treat holds out, there won't be no 
 chance for eloquence, you tumble do ye?" At this, 
 the crowd yelled its approval. 
 
 " Now, what we want you fellows to do down in the 
 Ninth, is to come up and vote next Tuesday. You 
 remember the old adage, 'Vote early 'n ofn.' What 
 counts in this world is votes. Saay, d'y want the 
 wimmin to run this city and district? D'ye want that, 
 hey? (Yells of dissent.) Well, if ye don't want that, 
 get up and hustle. It's all right to drink a little beer 
 now and then. I drink it myself; but you must go and 
 dig. D'ye understand that? D-I-G; with a big bear- 
 ing down hard on the ' G'! This meetin' aint for fun. 
 It's for work. Every man of ye ought to go out and 
 be a missionary. Not them long-faced, sanctimonious 
 missionaries, that preach to the heathen, but a missionary 
 that goes out and takes his naybur by the ear and gits 
 
284 DOCTOR CAVALLO 
 
 him to vote for the hull ticket. That's the kind of 
 rooster I am; and I say to you right hear and now, 
 that ef you don't do this, you can expect that this here 
 town '11 be run by the wimmin." (Groans of dissent 
 from his hearers.) "That's what, and you'll get it too. 
 When the wimmin get hold — these old maids with long 
 faces and hair the color of hay, these freedom shriek- 
 ers and Bible bangers — you'll see what you'll git! No 
 more beer, neither Sundays nor week days. Every 
 man '11 have to come home of a Saturday night and 
 give his old woman his wages and sneak around and 
 beg for enough to git a plug of tobacco with. How 
 d'ye like that?" (Howls and yells of derision,) "Ah 
 ha! oh ho!! Ye don't like it? Well then, get out and 
 work for the ticket. Don't let no man in this ward 
 vote for Dr. Cavallo or any of that gang, Cheese 'em. 
 Drive 'em into the ground hard and break 'em off. 
 That's the way to use 'em up. We don't want no such 
 reform movement in our ward. Tell 'em that. Now 
 I'm going to stop. (Cries of "go on," "go ahead.") 
 "That's all right, but I'm going to stop with one more 
 remark, and that is, that Mr. Seidel has requested me 
 to make a very important communication, and that is, 
 that he has ordered Bill here, to tap a fresh keg of 
 beer. Stand back, you fellows in front, and give the 
 hind fellows a chance!" 
 
 The roar that went up when Mudd had finished, 
 attested to the popularity of the speaker and showed 
 how well he knew the way to the hearts of the voters 
 of the Ninth ward. 
 
 Seidel warmly congratulated him. "That was a 
 great speech, Mudd. You hit the nail on the head 
 every time, and clinched it. That's the way to do it. 
 
DOCTOR CWALI.O 285 
 
 That s the kind of speech to make votes. You have 
 got to appeal to their interests after all." 
 
 "I havn't practiced law in 'the criminal courts here 
 for nothing," replied Mudd. "If I can't get a crowd 
 in the old Ninth to just get on its bind legs and howl, 
 I'm no oyster," was the modest response. 
 
 The beer having been consumed, the audience was 
 in high good humor, and they began to call for some- 
 thing more. They found Bezeke in a corner, quietly 
 drinking, and they seized upon him and pulled him 
 out. He could not get to the bar, for a crowd of 
 struggling patriots pre-empted that, for they had dis- 
 covered that those nearest it had the first chance at 
 the beer, while those behind, got little or none of it. 
 So those whose thirst was stronger than their love for 
 eloquence, formed a solid line in front and would not 
 give way. Seeing this disposition, Seidel took a barrel 
 and planting it in a corner, put Bezeke on it and told 
 him to go ahead. He was a curious little man, so 
 short that he seemed to be in perpetual danger of fall- 
 ing into his own boots, of which, he always sported a 
 huge pair, sticking his pants into them. His tremend- 
 ous head, his short figure and his matted hair gave an 
 impression of ferocity to him which his words did 
 not belie. He looked about on the crowd, packed in 
 the little room, and with the words " Mine frents," 
 waited for the noise to still so that he could proceed. 
 
 "I am a shoomacher. I am a workin' mann who 
 labors all tay unt efrey tay to arn his taily pred. I 
 goomes mit dis guntry, and I finds, vat ? De sthones 
 mad of gelt ? Nein, mine frents. Dey is shust the 
 same as in the olt guntry. Hart vork unt poor pay, 
 mine frents. Who is to plame, mine frents ? Who is 
 
286 DOCTOR CAVALLO 
 
 to plame ? Who has the fine glose ? Who has the 
 carrriages, unt the dimonts, unt the vine viskys ? Hey 
 mine frents ! Who ? I tells you, mine frents. It vas 
 dem Choos. It vas dem Choos. Vat you going to do, 
 mine frents, mit dem Choos ? Vat you going to do ? 
 Vill you let dem run ofer us ? Hey ? Here is a nom- 
 inashun fear der Gongress. Dit they gif it to you, mine 
 frents, or to me, who knows somedings, too ? No, mine 
 frents, dey gif it to a Choo." 
 
 The crowd roared its approval, and cheered Bezeke 
 so loudly that be found it difficult to proceed, but he 
 went on : 
 
 " Now, ve vant to stop all dis. Ve vant to chine 
 hants unt say ve vill not buy no more goots of dem 
 Choos, nor any glotin', nor any poots or shoos, ve vill 
 pass dem all puy, unt puy of goot mens who makes 
 shoos sheaper as dem, unt ve vill go to der Gongress 
 our own zelfus and mit out any helup from dem, mine 
 frents. Ve shoud put down dese aristokraten, unt dese 
 mens mit money. I dell you, mine frents, any mann vot 
 gots a glean shirt is an obyect of zusbishun, mine frents. 
 Ven a mann pegins to plack his poots, he pegins to be 
 a schundrel ; ven he puts on agolar, he pegins to sthudy 
 tievin' ; ven he puts a bocket handkersheif in his boc- 
 kets, he sets oud for der roat to willainy." 
 
 This was too much and the saloon keeper shook his 
 fist at him over the end of the bar. il Shut up, ye ould 
 crank. Whin ye git started on that, ye ould wind mill, 
 ye are worse'n a Texas cyclone." 
 
 11 Ah ha ! " snapped Bezeke back. •• Mine frents, he 
 vas not to dalk in dot avay ven he was boor, but now he 
 makes money, unt he vos so diffrend. Ah, ha, he likes 
 not Socialismus, ven he pegins to git drade." 
 
DOCTOR CAVALLO 287 
 
 At this, one of the saloon-keeper's friends, who had 
 been working his way back to Bezeke, and evidently 
 acted under instructions, hit the barrel a kick, and the 
 great Socialist orator disappeared in a cloud of dust, 
 staves and hoops, and with the collapsed barrel, his 
 oratory came to an end. 
 
 Seidel was deep in consultation with the ward 
 workers. One of them summed up the situation as 
 follows : " If it wan't for this Australian ballot law we 
 could give ye most any majority here you would want 
 in reason. But this makin' a dead line^ beyond which 
 a worker can't pass, has cut down the enthusiasm a 
 good deal. You could, formerly, take a man up and 
 vote him, and see that he voted right, but now he can 
 fool ye all he has a mind to, and all you can do is to 
 buy him at last, and then, like as not, he'll lie out of it. 
 The good old times has passed," and he heaved a sigh 
 as he thought of how they used to manipulate the bal- 
 lots, the voters and the returns. 
 
CHAPTER XLIX. 
 
 The crowd steadily increased, until there was an 
 overflow meeting outside. It was now too large to 
 feed beer to with any sort of regard to economy, so 
 Seidel rigged up an extempore platform outside, 
 adorned it with a chair, a table and a pitcher, supposed 
 to contain water, and set his orators in motion out 
 there. 
 
 He picked up a venerable-looking old chap to pre- 
 side, and he called upon him to make a speech. The 
 old man was known as one of the wheel-horses of the 
 party. He boasted that he had belonged to it for fifty 
 years, and he could be depended upon to work this in 
 his speeches. So, when he was introduced as the chair- 
 man, he set off at his usual rate. 
 
 " Fellow Citizens : I thank you for the honor that 
 you have done me this evening in calling upon me to 
 preside over this large and intelligent meeting. I 
 have, gentlemen, been a member of this grand old 
 party for fifty-three years — fifty-three years, gentle- 
 men, fifty-three years, and if I live until next January, 
 it will be fifty-four, gentlemen, fifty-four years, and in 
 this time I have never scratched a ticket or refused to 
 vote. My motto for fifty-three years has been, ' My 
 party, right or wrong,' and by the Eternal, gentlemen, 
 I propose to stand by that motto. If it is good enough 
 
DOCTOR CAVALLO 289 
 
 to stand by for fifty-three years, it is good enough to 
 live by, and, if my life is spared, I will'give it a trial for 
 fifty-three years longer. Gentlemen, what is your 
 pleasure ?" He took his seat in the chair, and looked 
 about for a speaker. 
 
 The crowd called for Bill Geass, the saloonkeeper, 
 and, after howling and yelling until they were hoarse, 
 Bill came out, and wiping his hands on the towel that 
 served him for an apron, he nodded to his thirsty com- 
 patriots. 
 
 "I know what ye'v got me here fer," he began, cock- 
 ing his head on one side, "it's in the hope that I'll say 
 that I'm going to set 'em up. Well, now, in all fairness 
 to you I ain't going to do no such thing. See? In elec- 
 tion time it's the candidates' turn to attend to that little 
 duty, and it's my biz' to have 'em do it. Beer is what 
 makes elections win in the Ninth ward, and it's beer 
 that the people want. I did half expect to see Mr. 
 Radcliff here to-night, himself. It ain't that I ain't 
 satisfied with Mr. Seidel. He's a gentleman as any- 
 body js proud to take by the hand, and it's all right 
 for him to come down here, but still it ain't treatin' 
 the voters exactly right for Radcliff to stay back and 
 send another feller in his place. I ain't no kicker, but 
 I feel just as big an interest in the prosperity of the 
 ward as anybody. When the votes is counted out the 
 fust thing they want to know is, how did the Ninth 
 ward go? But when there's any favor to give out, 
 they fergit all about us. Now, I want every man that's 
 on the ticket to come down here and put hisself on a 
 level with us and let us see him. We ain't proud. I 
 don't know as I'd be ashamed to shake a man by the 
 hand just because he's running for Congress. He may 
 
 10 
 
29O DOCTOR CAVALLO 
 
 be a tolerably honest man afore he's elected, although 
 they do say that they git mighty crooked afterwards. 
 All I want is to see that they ain't stuck up. I want 
 'em to say ' Bill Geass,' after election, with the same 
 friendly feelin 1 that they do when they are countin' the 
 votes. This is a kind of love feast, and I am in the 
 humor to give the whole party a piece of my mind, 
 and 1 am just doing it to relieve myself. There will 
 be more beer after the speakin', and some of the boys 
 is goin' to let off fireworks in the back lot. I ain't 
 sayin' nothin' about a free lunch about midnight, be- 
 cause I don't want to interfere with the speakin.' I'm 
 a plain man of business who is stuck on his ward, and 
 who'll go as far towards maintainin' the honor of it as 
 any other snoozer that weighs less'n two hundred an' 
 fifty pounds." 
 
 The yells of approval that went up while his adddress 
 was delivered were tremendous, but when Bill deli- 
 cately alluded to the free lunch and to the fireworks, 
 all for the honor of the ward, the delight of his audi- 
 tors knew no bounds. He, himself, felt that it was a 
 master stroke, and when Seidel congratulated him and 
 told him : "Bill, this makes you the next alderman," 
 his swelling breast could hardly contain itself, and he 
 walked about with the fire of ambition in his eye, an 
 example for gods and men. 
 
 Seeing this, Sam Larkin edged his way in front and 
 so managed to catch the eye of the crowd, that they 
 began yelling for him. Sam was the present alderman, 
 and as he was soon to be up for re-election, he did not 
 propose to see Bill Geass take the apple from 
 him without a vigorous protest. He had discerned 
 Bill's ambition before this, and now he was certain of 
 
DOCTOR CAVALLO ■ 2^1 
 
 it. When, therefore, he induced his friends to call him 
 out, he mounted the table and looked down upon the 
 audience with a paternal smile. " Boys, how air ye ? 
 I don't need no introduction to the voters of the Ninth 
 ward. They know me and I know them. Many's the 
 tough fight we've had around the polls, but this I can 
 say, that as long as Sam Larkin was on deck the old 
 ward never failed to show up it's usual majority. The 
 boys could rely upon the Ninth, and the Ninth has al- 
 ways felt that it could rely on Sam Larkin. I ain't 
 given to boastin' much, but I reckin I've got more 
 curbin' and more improvements for this ward, than ary 
 three wards of the city. I said to the other fellows in 
 the upper wards, 'You do the payin' and I'll furnish 
 the work,' and if this here ward hain't been sewered 
 and curbed from one end to the other, its because 
 these here special assessments came in and knocked 
 my scheme endways. I don't mind tellin' you that IVe 
 been for anything that 'ud bring money into the ward, 
 and agin anything that 'ud take it out. My motto 
 has always been, 'The Ninth ward first, last and all the 
 time.' I tell ye boys, a man's got to be in the Council 
 some little time before he gets the hang of things, but 
 it ain't long before he learns enough to be able to git 
 onto their tricks. You bet Sam Larkin has been there 
 and been there a long time." 
 
 u How is it about the gas business ? v inquired a by- 
 stander. 
 
 This meant war, and Sam knew where the shot told. 
 He had been in the Council as the paid representative 
 of the gas company, and was so recognized. This was 
 the weak spot in his armor, and he knew that Bill 
 Geass had put the questioner up to ask it, with the in 
 
292 DOCTOR CAVALLO 
 
 tention of flooring him. He tried to gain time. "What 
 is that ?" said he. " I didn't understand." 
 
 The questioner came nearer. " How much did the 
 Gas Company pay ye, Sam, for gettin' thru' that last 
 conthract ? Answer me that ?" 
 
 Sam bristled with indignation. " Any man that says 
 that I tuk money for that contract, says wat ain't troo. 
 The Gas Company is our own citizens, and they are 
 entitled to any contract before the outsiders is let in. 
 My principles is, 4 Home fust agin the world.' Now, 
 fellow-citizens, I won't detain you, but will give way to 
 some other gentleman, who will discuss the issues of 
 the day." 
 
 The crowd began to get uneasy. They broke up 
 into little groups, and indulged in discussion and in an 
 occasional fight. They were getting tired of oratory, 
 and wanted some other diversion. Two or three 
 speakers followed, and one old-timer began back in the 
 days of Jefferson, and sketched the rise of parties and 
 the development of the constitution. He speedily 
 broke up interest in the meeting, and the crowd only 
 hung around the saloon waiting for the free lunch with 
 greater longing. The old man droned on, and the 
 street was filled with laughter and noise, until some of 
 the boys espied Timothy Dodd, and hauling him out of 
 the corner of the saloon, where he had been a quiet 
 spectator all the evening, yelled a " Spy," and hustled 
 him out of the door. Timothy watched his chance, and 
 as the noise had compelled the speaker to stop, 
 Timothy mounted the table. The sight of his attitude 
 — for he imitated the action of Dr. Cavallo as he had 
 seen him in the hall commanding silence — caused the 
 crowd to gather around to listen to him. 
 
DOCTOR CAVALLO 293 
 
 "Spoi ! a spoi ! O'id like to see the b'y that wud 
 call me thot face to face out in a tin-acre lot. I'm a 
 fray American citizen, attindin' to me joost roights. an* 
 I have as much roight to cum down to the Ninth Ward 
 to attind a public maytin' as any other mon. O'id hev 
 yez to know that O'im the son of Peter Dodd, an' Oi 
 wus born on the Flats, an' O'im, by nature and eddi- 
 cashun, a bether Ninth Warder than the most of yez. 
 An 1 whin Oi cum down to pay a neighborly and frindly 
 visit it is to be set on an' called a spoi. It's little 
 cridit yez do the warrd, the crowd of yez. O'ive 
 patiently waited durin' the whole discooshin 1 for some 
 mon to discuss the issues. O'ive heard iverything else, 
 but not a quistion as to the position of the parties. 
 
 "Ye've had free beer and loonch, and matters of 
 that kind, and ward politics, but there's not wan among 
 yez that has got into the sivinth hiven of politics, as 
 ye may say," he continued: " The thary of politics 
 is in gettin' min into offis, an' thin ye come down to the 
 dischosshn of min. There's min and there's other min, 
 an' ye hav to, in a manner, dissect the candidates. 
 Now there's Misther Radcliff. There ain't a better 
 joodge of groceries in the whole city. But does he 
 understhand the saycret ways of thewurrld of politics? 
 Can he, in a manner, as you might say, diagnose the 
 springs of office ? Here's where ye hev to think. 
 Society is loike a man himself. Sometimes, to use a 
 midical terrum, ye hev to give a profylactick, and 
 sometimes ye hev to administer an emetic, joost. Now 
 the question is, hev ye got a mon who ondersthands the 
 difference between the two ? When the political body 
 is sick, ye don't want quacks, d'ye moind that. Ye 
 hev to put the patient on a dose of diet, and he is a 
 smart mon who can tell at wonce, whether it's pills 
 
294 DOCTOR CAVALLO 
 
 that he needs, or only a bath. Don't make no mistak. 
 Oim not sayin' that Dochter Cavallo is the mon," he 
 said cautiously. " Oi put it to yez, however, to weigh 
 the matter well. Yer all agreed that the body politics 
 is nading a dose of somethin'. Jist what, is the ques- 
 tion. They're not loikely to settle it to-night, but take 
 a tumble now to yourselves, an' don't be goin' off half 
 cock, an' takin' powders, whin phat ye need is qui- 
 nine. 1 ' 
 
 "Begad, he's roight," yelled an Irishman. •' Go it, 
 Tim, we'll stand by yez." 
 
 44 Timothy Dodd nades no one to sthand by him. 
 He's able to sthand by himself.- The saycret of bat- 
 tlin' wid disayse is to know whin to take physic, and 
 whin to lave it alone. When a mon gets no better 
 wid physic, phat do we say ? We say the trouble wid 
 him is quacks. Whin the political body is sick and 
 gets no betther, may we not misthrust that the worms 
 that are gnawin' at its vitals, is the same old quacks ? 
 Gintlemin, beware of quacks. Don't let 'em fool yez. 
 They talk big, but whin it comes down to physic, ye 
 want a mon who knows. It's my opinion," repeated 
 Timothy, still cautiously, "that what the patient wants 
 at prisint, is a powerful lettin' alone. The less physic 
 ye poke into him, the sooner he'll get on his fate." 
 
 Seidel had listened to the last part of his speech and 
 he interfered. "That infernal Iishman will do us 
 more damage in that five minutes' speech than all the 
 rest have done us good. Why did they let him talk?" 
 
 He set his gang at work, and they cried Tim down, 
 but he had made friends in the crowd and they allowed 
 him to mingle with them without molesting him. He 
 stayed until the meeting broke up and the free lunch 
 was set out and the hungry crowd began to attack it. 
 
DOCTOR CAVALLO 295 
 
 He watched the last remains disappear, and the fel- 
 lows, filled to the neck with free beer and free lunch, 
 stagger off in different directions to their sleeping 
 places. He saw Bill Geass get into an argument with 
 Sam Larkin, in which they tried to settle the question 
 as to who should be the next alderman from the ward. 
 They began the conversation with many protestations 
 of friendship and ended with calling each other names, 
 and at last settled it by a free fight. For a time, Sam 
 had the better of it, but at last Bill reached for his 
 "second barkeeper," which consisted of a stout club 
 made of hickory, and with this, he brought Sam to 
 time, beating him over the head and then dragging 
 him out of the saloon and throwing him down the 
 steps with an oath, Sam lay at first like one stunned, 
 and Timothy went to his assistance. After getting 
 him out to the horse trough and pumping water on his 
 head, Sam came to himself and sat up. He realized 
 where he was, and started home, saying "Oh, you can't 
 kill a ward politician." 
 
 Timothy having made up his mind to see the whole 
 performance, walked back to the office by the break- 
 ing light of day. 
 
 "The American citizen is a quare dook. He wants 
 soofrage and he wants silf goovermint, and he wants, 
 the divil knows phat, and then whin he gets all of 
 these, he throws 'em all away for free beer. Why 
 don't he go for free beer in the first place and save 
 hissilf all the preliminaries. They talk about discoo- 
 sion and the thary of politics ; but, after all, the beer 
 question comes up and swipes the platter. It is the 
 pivot on which the liberty of parties hang. It's a great 
 country," said Tim, reflectively, " and the number of 
 fules is rapidly on the incrase." 
 
CHAPTER L. 
 
 The next day was warm, bright and beautiful. 
 
 Seidel came down to his headquarters at an early 
 hour. "I wish that it would rain," said he. "In 
 stormy weather our fellows will all come out, and their 
 side will all stay in. To-day we shall have a full vote. " 
 
 The time wore away without incident. There were 
 rumors that Radcliff was running ahead of his ticket in 
 this or that ward, that Cavallo was being scratched, 
 and that the Civic Federation was not getting a vote 
 below the street car barns. 
 
 To all this Seidel returned a contemptuous answer. 
 "What do they know about it? The only way to tell 
 is to wait until the votes are counted." 
 
 In the headquarters of the Civic Federation all was 
 activity. The women had canvassed the city and had 
 a list of disabled and aged voters. They sent their 
 carriages and made details for the work of getting 
 them in. As the day wore away, one after another re- 
 ported that the lists had been closed up. They ex- 
 hibited a precision and order in regard to it that as- 
 tonished the old politicians, and they all agreed that 
 the details of the political fight had never been handled 
 so well before. Mrs. Bernheim had the members of 
 the Y. M. C. A. Foot Ball team as her aide de camps, 
 and she sent them out as escorts in the lower wards, 
 
DOCTOR CAVALLO 297 
 
 and whenever one of these athletes could be seen tak- 
 ing care of a voter, and escorting him up to the line 
 allowed by the Australian ballot law, he was allowed a 
 respectful passage. 
 
 When the polls were closed, everyone breathed a long 
 sigh of relief and went home to supper. 
 
 Not so Seidel. He remained at headquarters where 
 he had arrangements made, so that, at each precinct, 
 the news would come to him by telephone. He sta- 
 tioned a boy at the telephone, and had his own figures 
 on sheets before him, so that he could at once refer to 
 the vote of last year, of two years ago, and what his 
 own estimate of the vote was. 
 
 The ticket was long, and it was nearly ten o'clock 
 before the first returns came in, then the boy announced, 
 u Here she comes. Ninth ward, fourth precinct." 
 
 "Ah, ha!" cried Seidel, arranging his sheets. "How 
 is it?" 
 
 M Forty-three for Radcliff." 
 
 "That's good," replied Seidel, " that's Billy Hayes' 
 work. Boys, we don't want to forget Billy. He has 
 stood at that poll all day, and has watched every 
 voter." 
 
 "Third precinct, sixth ward, sixteen for Radcliff." 
 
 " That's better. I thought Cavallo would hold us 
 down there." 
 
 "Old Dr. Blake has been in that section," replied a 
 ward heeler. " He hates Cavallo as the devil does 
 holy water." 
 
 "Second precinct, fourth ward, thirty-nine for Rad- 
 cliff" 
 
 " Hooray," yelled Seidel.* '* At this rate, Cavallo 
 won't get a ward. By George, that's great." 
 
298 DOCTOR CAVALLO 
 
 "That is some of old Abbott's work," said the same 
 heeler. " Old Abbott has a nest of rookeries there, and 
 he went all through them, and told his tenants that he 
 would forgive them their back rent, if they would give 
 Cavallo a black eye, and they have done it." 
 
 " First precinct, seventh ward, eighty-nine for Ca- 
 vallo." 
 
 There was silence. Seidel was the first to gather 
 confidence. 
 
 "That's the Bernheim flats," he said, "it's an offset 
 for Abbott's tenants." 
 
 "Second precinct, fifth ward," 
 
 ■"Stop," said Seidel, "now listen. What is it?" 
 
 «' Fifty-four for Radcliff." 
 
 "Hooray for him," yelled Seidel, "why that's a 
 ^complete turning over. Fifty-four for Radcliff. Gen- 
 tlemen, this settles it. If the city is going on in this 
 way, Cavallo won't have a leg to stand on. This is a 
 protest against the action of a lot of self-appointed 
 Pharisees, and the people won't stand any nonsense." 
 
 The ward heeler grinned. 
 
 " What are you laughing at ? " asked Seidel, hotly. 
 
 " Oh, nawthin'," said the fellow, " only that's old 
 Doctor McHale's ward. You've struck his congrega- 
 tion, that's all." 
 
 Just then the crowd began to cheer, and, on going 
 out, it was discovered that some boys had started a 
 bon-fire in front of the headquarters. 
 
 The boy dropped his voice at the telephone, and said 
 to Siedel, " bad news, do you want me to yell it out ?" 
 
 "No," replied Seidel. "what is it?" 
 
 "Warren county goes two hundred for Cavallo." 
 
 Seidel turned white. 
 
DOCTOR CAVALLO 299 
 
 "Great heavens! Ask the Central office to repeat 
 it. It can't be true." 
 
 The boy did so, and back came the answer: " Yes, it 
 is true." 
 
 Seidel made a few figures on his paper. 
 
 "He did scoop in those farmers, after all. It is just 
 what I have always said, these meetings in the red 
 school houses do count." 
 
 Then the boy cried out, " White county, fifteen hun- 
 dred for Radcliff.'" 
 
 "Ah, ha! "yelled Seidel, " this is something like. 
 Fifteen hundred for Radcliff. Why, it's a landslide, a 
 turning over." 
 
 Radcliff came in at this juncture and was followed 
 by a crowd. " How is it ?" he asked. 
 
 "You are gaining in the city, and have carried White 
 county by fifteen hundred. You are the next Congress- 
 man from this district." 
 
 Everybody yelled, and Radcliff was asked to make 
 a speech. Mounting the table, he thanked his friends 
 for what they had done for him and assured them that 
 he would not forget them. "This victory had been 
 won by hard work. I am a great believer in the 
 maxim, that 'To the victors belong the spoils,' and 
 boys, if I can get my hands on any of them spoils, I 
 propose to divide them up." 
 
 Just then the boy said, " Here's the whole seventh 
 ward. Shall I give it ? " 
 
 "Yes," replied Seidel, " let us have a little bad luck, 
 it will take the edge off the old man's enthusiasm." 
 
 "Seventh ward," roared the boy, "three hundred 
 and forty-seven for Cavallo ; balance of the ticket a 
 little behind him." 
 
300 DOCTOR CAVALLO 
 
 Radcliff' s jaw dropped. "This is bad, 1 ' and he 
 looked at Seidel. 
 
 "Yes," returned the other, indifferently, "but they 
 must have some votes. Look at the effort that they 
 have made. 7 ' 
 
 "Second ward, four hundred and twenty-eight for 
 Cavallo." 
 
 " What," shrieked Radcliff, " that's my ward. You 
 don't mean to tell me that my own neighbors have 
 gone back on me in that way." 
 
 The heeler grinned : " Say, Radcliff, when you get 
 back from Congress, come down and live in the Bloody 
 Ninth. That's the only place where they appreciate 
 ye." 
 
 11 Brownsville, forty-two votes for Radcliff." 
 
 *' I sent five kegs of beer down to Brownsville only 
 the day before election," said Seidel. "They should 
 have done better than that." 
 
 The votes came in, but the news began to grow worse 
 for Radcliff. The first returns came from the lower 
 wards, where the Ham Heads had full sway, and there 
 being very little scratching done, it did not take long 
 to get in the full vote, but now the rural districts and 
 precincts lying along the railroads, and in the little 
 towns began to send in their reports, and it was not so 
 favorable for Radcliff. The arrangements had been 
 made by Seidel with great care, and he had perfected 
 this with a view to the future. He had scanned the 
 aspect in every possible way, and was prepared for 
 whatever might happen. 
 
 "Now," he explained, as the returns began to come 
 in, "Cavallo may carry most of these outlying districts, 
 but until he can wipe out the majority of fifteen hun- 
 dred in White County, we are safe. 
 
DOCTOR CAVALLO 30 I 
 
 He felt good, but he was puzzled to account for the 
 vote of White County. He asked Radcliff if he had 
 done anything in that county to make it take such a 
 chute. It had only recently been added to that con- 
 gressional district, and none of the other politicians 
 could tell anything about it. 
 
 Radcliff pompously replied, "1 have a large trade 
 from that section and there is no doubt that some of 
 my old customers made up their minds to surprise me." 
 
 The noise increased. The streets were filled with 
 crowds of boys and men yelling for Radcliff, and seiz- 
 ing on all the stray boxes that they could get and 
 burning them up. The saloons were in full blast, and 
 some of the candidates on the Radcliff ticket were 
 buying beer, but cautiously, for everything depended 
 upon the vote of White County, and they were by no 
 means out of the woods. The votes for Cavallo, in the 
 country towns, increased steadily, but the returns in 
 most cases were only for the head of the ticket, and 
 this made the candidates on the county tickets with 
 Radcliff, look blue. 
 
 Radcliff, himself, was the very picture of effusiveness. 
 "Don't be cast down, boys," he said, " better luck next 
 time. I'll see that you are taken care of. Seidel, I 
 feel that I can congratulate you on the masterly man- 
 ner in which you have handled this campaign. The 
 bloomers don't win this time!" and Mr. Radcliff, having 
 had several drinks with his friends, looked the picture 
 of the patriotic statesman. 
 
 Then he took on a sober strain. " I have never had 
 any doubt in regard to my election. Of course, be- 
 tween you and me, I knew that the people of this 
 Congressional district would never stand it to see a Jew 
 representing them. 
 
302 DOCTOR CAVALLO 
 
 Just then, Shorty Smith came down the steps into 
 the headquarters. He was a well-known character 
 about town. He was M hail fellow well met" with every 
 one, obliging, pleasant, good natured, and friends with 
 the whole city. He had but one passion. He dearly 
 loved to bet. He would bet on every thing and any 
 thing. The turn of a card or a horse race. When any 
 event excited public interest, Shorty Smith was on 
 hand. Now he bustled into the little place and went 
 up to Radcliff flusteringly : 4 ' Radcliff, I'll bet ye, ye 
 aint elected. 
 
 "What!" roared Radcliff. "What are you talking 
 about?" 
 
 "Just what I say. I'll bet ye that ye ain't elected. 
 Money talks ; put up, or shut up." 
 
 "Why, I am elected. You are crazy." 
 
 " Oh, am I ? Well, then, here's a chance to win some 
 money from a crazy man. Put up your dough, old 
 man, any thing, from a five dollar note to a thousand." 
 
 Radcliff gazed at him. "Young man, you are throw- 
 ing away your money." 
 
 "Oh, I am ? Then here's your chance to get some 
 of it. Put up, now, or I'll go out on the street right in 
 front of these headquarters, and say Shorty Smith 
 backed ye down." 
 
 " Gentlemen," said Radcliff, appealing to the crowd, 
 "you hear this. I am, in a manner, forced to bet and 
 win this young man's money. I don't want to do it, 
 but I am forced to do it." 
 
 So saying, he drew out a roll of bills. "A thousand 
 dollars even," he said to the young man. 
 
 "That's it, 1 ' replied Shorty. "Here is a package 
 with the bank band around it. I didn't think that I 
 could get a sucker to take it in a lump." 
 
DOCTOR CAVALLO 3O3 
 
 The money was duly deposited with a third party, 
 when Shorty asked : " Do you want any more? That's 
 all of my roll, but I'll go and jtry to scare up some 
 more." 
 
 He had hardly gone, when Radcliff asked: u Do 
 you suppose that he has got any news that hasn't come 
 to us?" 
 
 ** No, I guess not," returned Seidel. " Boy, ask them 
 at the Central office if they have anything more." 
 
 "Here she is," replied the boy. "Corrected returns 
 from White county." 
 
 "Now," cried Seidel, authoritatively, " listen, you 
 fellows, and stop yelling." 
 
 "Corrected returns from White county. Fifteen 
 hundred and fourteen for Radcliff." 
 
 The crowd yelled. Then added the boy, '• Twenty- 
 seven hundred and eighty-seven for Cavallo.' 1 
 
 "What!" shrieked Radcliff. " What's that, twenty- 
 seven hundred for Cavallo?" 
 
 " How's that ! Seidel, how's that ! Read that again, 
 read it again,' 7 and the anxiety in the old man's face 
 was so great, that large drops of perspiration rolled 
 down his forehead. 
 
 " It seems," responded Seidel, trying to speak 
 calmly, "that the first dispatch only gave your total 
 vote, and not your majority." 
 
 11 It's a lie, Seidel, a lie," he yelled. " It's a Jew trick. 
 You have perpetrated this on me to beat me out of 
 more money. It was you," shaking his fist at Seidel, 
 "that got me into this. In the first place, you got me 
 to indorse your note for five thousand dollars. It was 
 you who sent that damned Smith around at the last 
 moment to rob me out of another thousand, when you 
 knew I was beaten." 
 
304 DOCTOR CAVALLO 
 
 " Mr. Radcliff," returned Seidel, rising from his chair, 
 11 this from you." 
 
 More he would have said, but he saw the old man's 
 face getting ashy white, and then he fell heavily on the 
 floor. 
 
 44 It's the heat," cried Seidel, "give him air; take 
 him home, get a carriage ; and he jumped over his 
 table, got the old man, had him carried out, and, putting 
 him into a carriage, sent him home. 
 
 As the vehicle rolled away, the crowd began to dis- 
 perse. The ward heeler asked, addressing Seidel, 
 "What is it, a fit ? " 
 
 Seidel remarked, in a low tone, "It's worse than a 
 fit, it's a stroke of apoplexy." 
 
 Then he went back into the headquarters. Ill news 
 travels fast, and Seidel smiled bitterly to see that his 
 crowd was already thinning out. 
 
 " Gentlemen, 1 ' he said, "we are beaten, horse, foot 
 and dragoons." 
 
 He took his valise, whic v h lay behind him, waited un- 
 til the last man had departed, then he locked up the 
 office and threw away the key. '* To the devil with it," 
 he said. He jumped into a hack, and giving directions 
 to the driver in a low voice, he went out into the night. 
 
CHAPTER LI. 
 
 Lurello Nagle was gloomingly considering what he 
 should do next, for the news of the defeat had reached 
 him too, and he saw that the game was up. He went 
 to headquarters to find Seidel, and discovered that 
 everything was locked. As he was turning away, he 
 ran against one of the working men in his mill. The 
 man had been drinking freely, and he was disposed to 
 be jocular. 
 
 "Say, Lurello," he said, "we've been licked, havn't 
 we?" 
 
 Nagle gave him no reply. 
 
 " Don't be stuck up, now," said the man. Then an 
 idea struck him : "Say, Lurello, what's Oriental stock 
 worth ?" 
 
 At any other time, perhaps, Nagle would not have 
 given him an ungracious answer. Now, he said " It 
 ain't worth a damn." 
 
 "What's that," cried his companion. "You don't 
 mean to tell me, Nagle, that you have been onloadin' 
 onto me ? " 
 
 Nagle tried to break away. 
 
 The fellow roared out, " Here b'ys, is a Jew that's 
 been playin' me a trick." 
 
 This was enough for the Ham Heads and they gath- 
 ered around him. In vain Nagle begged and offered 
 
306 DOCTOR CAVALLO 
 
 to treat if they would let him up. They got a blanket 
 and tossed him; then they rushed him through a bon- 
 fire just enough to singe him, but not enough to seri- 
 ously burn him, and every time the workman would 
 ask him, "Will ye take back that stock?" 
 
 At his refusal the crowd would invent some other 
 insult. They finally poured coal tar on his hair, blacked 
 his face with shoe blacking, and he was allowed to 
 escape. 
 
 More dead than alive, he went home. There was 
 no light in his house. He went to the front door; it 
 was open. With a sinking feeling at his heart, he went 
 up to his room. His wife was not there. He looked 
 about. Everything was in disorder. The bed had 
 been occupied, but his wife's trunks were gone and all 
 her articles of toilet, except here and there some little 
 thing that had been, apparently, dropped in her haste. 
 He went to Seidel's room, and his things too were 
 gone. The thoroughness with which his effects had 
 been taken, showed that he had prepared himself bet- 
 ter than his companion. 
 
 The unhappy man forgot his maltreatment, forgot 
 his wretched condition, forgot his bodily bruises before 
 this new woe, and he burst out like Cain, " My God, 
 my punishment is greater than I can bear." 
 
CHAPTER LII. 
 
 All the next day the returns came in, increasing the 
 Cavallo majority. As soon as the intelligence of his 
 victory was known, it was overshadowed in the city of 
 P by the scandal connected with Seidell disap- 
 pearance. He had, it appeared, involved everyone 
 in his defalcations. Bob Lawrence was ruined, but he 
 manfully said that he was a fool. He ought to have 
 known better, and he paid up his losses, and would not 
 allow his father to come to his assistance. He was still 
 young, he added, grimly, and with a touch of sardonic 
 humor, and probably the loss would do him good. 
 
 The stroke of apoplexy that Radcliff suffered was 
 fatal. 
 
 Poor Nagle was in a pitiable plight. His discovery 
 that Seidel had utterly ruined him, and had taken Mrs. 
 Nagle away broke him down. He would not be con- 
 soled and he sank into a decrepit, sorrow-stricken old 
 man, prematurely aged. 
 
 The losses that Seidel had inflicted, fell heavily upon 
 those who trusted him, for his mining schemes had 
 nothing to support them, and, with his disappearance, 
 the shares were worthless. What became of him no 
 one ever knew. It was rumored that he had been seen 
 in Canada, and, on the other hand, a fellow-townsmen 
 declared, long afterwards, he was approached by a 
 
308 DOCTOR CAVALLO 
 
 seedy mendicant, in the City of Mexico, who asked 
 him for charity, and that he discerned, under his rags, 
 the features of Seidel, but no one ever cared to solve 
 the truth of the story, or to try and ascertain what had 
 become of Mrs. Nagle. 
 
 As the returns came in, and the official vote was 
 published, it was seen that Cavallo had been elected 
 mainly by the vote in the country. The farmers and 
 rural population had come to his side with hardly an 
 exception. His opponents had carried the lower wards 
 of the cities and the river wards in the small towns. 
 As Shorty Smith said : " It was the fever an' ager vote 
 that went for Radcliff." 
 
 The Women's Club determined to hold a public 
 meeting, rejoicing over the victory. Mrs. Bernheim 
 proposed it, and, after everything was settled, she 
 called a mass meeting of the citizens at the hall where 
 the first one was held. The building was packed to its 
 fullest capacity. The stage was decorated with flowers 
 and palms, and every one who had borne a part in the 
 contest was there. The Civic Federation was present 
 in force. The chairman was, by common consent, Herr 
 Muller. 
 
 On taking this position, he said that he congratu- 
 lated the audience and the doctor for the great work 
 that had been accomplished. He wanted to remind 
 them of the fact that the credit was equally due to the 
 Women's Club and its President, Mrs. Bernheim. 
 
 When the Civic Federation faltered and everything 
 looked dark, she had organized the women and brought 
 victory out of defeat. He did not know but when 
 Doctor Cavallo had wearied of political life, that the 
 citizens of that Congressional district would do well to 
 choose Mrs. Bernheim to succeed him. 
 
DOCTOR CAVALLO 3O9 
 
 This amused the audience more than it did that lady. 
 She was present on the stage with her committee about 
 her, and among them was Miss Lawrence. 
 
 It was, however, a very joyous assembly, and as speaker 
 after speaker was called for, each one expressed his 
 satisfaction over the result, and hoped that this was the 
 last time that the race question would come up in that 
 district, for it had received such a rebuke, and the 
 defeat of those who had sought to make this an issue, 
 had been so great, that there was nothing left of them. 
 
 Dr. Cavallo was here called for, and he came forward. 
 
 He said, "That a short time before he had spoken 
 in that hall to an audience whose hearts were filled 
 with hate. He had faced them when they were ready- 
 to hang him to the nearest lamp-post. Very different 
 was it now." He then recounted the events of the 
 campaign. He thanked them for the splendid support 
 that they had given him. He wished to emphasize the 
 fact alluded to by Herr Muller, "that the battle had 
 been lost when the Women's Club came to the rescue. 
 
 " But while we rejoice now, we must not forget that 
 the battle is not yet over. As long as there exists one 
 soul in whose breast is envy against his fellow man, as 
 long as a single human being is crushed by the malice 
 of him who should be his brother, as long as there is 
 uncharitableness, and hate, and jealousy, and oppres- 
 sion, so long must the friends of progress keep the 
 beacon fires lighted and the armor bright. It is only by 
 watchfulness that we can accomplish this; only by 
 devotion to this idea that we can succeed. 
 
 He went on with an impassioned appeal to his hear- 
 ers to stand by this grand idea, to shake off, and banish 
 forever, the feeling that the distinctions that men have 
 
310 DOCTOR CAVALLO 
 
 in the past created, are divinely given. Rather are 
 they the remains of the barbarism of the past, that 
 savage feeling that regards every other man as a foe. 
 The glory of the latter day civilization is that it bursts 
 the shackles of the slave, that it uplifts the down- 
 trodden, that it elevates the depressed, that it puts a 
 staff in the hands of him who is lame, and supports the 
 feeble and weak. In doing this, it but carries out the 
 commands of the prophets of old, who laid down these 
 glorious maxims of charity and justice, maxims that, 
 after four thousand years, the world has hardly risen 
 to accept. 
 
 " The secret of good government," continued the doc- 
 tor, "is good citizens. The whole body politic is weighted 
 down by contending factions, where the best men stand 
 on either side, divided into two hostile camps, while a 
 small body of mercenaries, taking note of the nearly 
 equal division, step in and wield the power over both 
 of them. 
 
 44 There are more good people than bad in the world ; 
 more honest people than rogues ; more people intent 
 and anxious to secure good government than there are 
 who profit by bad government, and yet, such is the 
 foolish desire of men to stand by old traditions, that 
 they remain in their old lines, while the hordes of mer- 
 cenaries plunder both camps. It was against this con- 
 dition of things that Civic Federations in all cities are 
 now making their earnest fight. All republics that 
 have gone before have been weighted by these forces, 
 that has sunk them in the depths of municipal mis- 
 management. It was the hostile forces of Milo and 
 his gang of political gladiators that paved the way for 
 the overthrow of the Republic of Rome and the triumph 
 .of Caesar. 
 
DOCTOR CAVALLO 3II 
 
 " It is against this corruption in our cities, and the 
 effort to get the best people on the side of good order, 
 that the present political agitation owes its birth. On 
 this platform every man can stand. The evils which 
 we fight, are the same that in all ages have ruined 
 states and destroyed peoples. It was this that was the 
 curse of the ancient republics. It was not until the 
 gripe of avarice had sapped the strength of the ple- 
 beians that the barbarians made headway against Rome. 
 It was not until the luxury of the Asiatics had cor- 
 rupted the armies of Greece that she lost her martial 
 spirit. Against this demon of avarice, this desire to 
 account men as worthy only in proportion as they have 
 money, we must set our faces as with a flint. There is 
 something greater in life than merely heaping together 
 wealth, something loftier in existence than the worship 
 of money-bags. When this is made the standard of 
 success, everything dwarfs and shrivels in comparison. 
 The work of life seems mean and low. Enthusiasm 
 dies, and virtue itself becomes a matter of bargain and 
 sale. Politics under this system is a mere truckling for 
 measures and schemes, only a device to collect taxes 
 and a means of expending them. Statesmanship is 
 lost in party strife, and the whole idea rises no higher 
 than to possess the offices, considering them as the 
 legitimate spoils for party service, tossed from one set of 
 thieves back to another. The glow of patriotism, the 
 glory of serving the state, of being useful to one's kind, 
 is not considered, but all is lost in a scramble for place, 
 and these are multiplied until the offices become a 
 burden upon the taxpayers, and the public service is no 
 longer the measure of a man's worth. 
 
 "The great body of the people is waking up to a 
 
312 DOCTOR CAVALLO 
 
 realization of this, and while the evil is felt, it is not so 
 clearly seen as to enable them to throw it off. We 
 should remember that all nations have struggled 
 under it. It results, and has resulted everywhere else, 
 and in every other age and civilization, in the creation 
 of a privileged class whose efforts to eat up the sub- 
 stance of the producers, has at last reduced the real 
 supporters of the state to a condition of slavery and 
 servitude. 
 
 "The entire effort of all the great reformers of the 
 past has been to escape from this, and to rescue the 
 people. It was this that aroused the spirit of Moses, 
 the great lawgiver, and induced him to champion the 
 cause of Israel and take them out of the land of Egypt, 
 into the Land of Promise. It was this that aroused 
 the spirit of patriotism in the old prophets, that in- 
 spired Isaiah, who lashed the rich men of his day for 
 their wickedness, that spoke in the warning words of 
 Amos, that old shepherd, whose soul glowed within 
 him in hot indignation at the sins of the dominant class. 
 It rebuked the aristocracy by the lips of Jeremiah, and 
 broke out in indignant denunciation in Hosea. How 
 it flamed in the awful presence of Elijah, the prophet 
 of God, as he invoked the wrath of Jehovah against 
 Ahab, the wicked king, against Jezebel, the still more 
 wicked queen. And last of all, how it evoked denun- 
 ciation and warning from that great Jew, Jesus, the 
 Rabbi of Nazereth, who rebuked the fell spirit of 
 avarice ; who felt for the poor, who mingled with the 
 lowly, who cut the dry forms of legalism, and true to the 
 spirit of the great rabbis who preceded him, emanci- 
 pated the people from too great dependence on the 
 past. These prophets and teachers show us that 
 
DOCTOR CAVALLO 3 I 3 
 
 wherever a cry has gone up for humanity, there, in the 
 path, resolutely withstanding their work and hindering 
 it, has been the form of some man, whose soul, aflame 
 with avarice and distorted by greed, has striven to ob- 
 struct and bar the way. It is this lesson that has created 
 the Civic Federation. It is this that has united us. 
 
 " Before this spirit, which threatens us now as much 
 as it did in the past, every honest man must exert 
 himself. It is the platform upon which every true soul 
 must stand, Jew and Gentile, orthodox and reformer, 
 Methodist and Episcopalian, Presbyterian and Uni- 
 versalist, Catholic and Dissenter, for it is not in re- 
 ligious distinctions that our future danger lies. It is 
 not in keeping the Bible in or out of the public schools 
 that the Republic is to be saved. We shall not fight 
 this spirit by seeing the flag float from the school- 
 houses. It is when we forget that the Brotherhood of 
 Man implies the Fatherhood of God ; it is when we 
 forget that he who denies his brother denieth God. It 
 is when corporations chuckle to think that, having no 
 souls, they escape all responsibility for their work, that 
 the future of the country is imperiled. 
 
 "We may build schools and colleges, but they have 
 done these things before. We may erect lofty monu- 
 ments, but these have been erected before. We may 
 multiply means of communication, but to get over the 
 ground in an hour, when it used to take our fathers 
 days, does not solve these moral questions. The world 
 is anxious and excited, and is asking if it must tread 
 the same paths that have been already trod. Is our 
 present civilization to go the same road that others 
 have gone ? Is there to be no end to all this weary 
 work and weary waiting ? Can we catch no echo, from 
 
314 DOCTOR CAVALLO 
 
 the future, but is our civilization to blossom and to de- 
 cay, just as all former ones have done ? Are we unable 
 to solve this problem ? Must we go down into the 
 dust bin of the ages and acknowledge that we have 
 done no better than those who have preceded us ? 
 Is there, then, only the word ' Failure,' to be written all 
 across our work in this world, and is our boasted 
 scheme of human liberty only an accidental circum- 
 stance, to be dissipated as soon as our municipalities 
 grow large enough to overwhelm it ? Is republicanism 
 only possible in small and sparsely settled commun- 
 ities, the mountain tops, and the desert places ; but as 
 soon as the human animal collects in a mass, is he 
 doomed to generate out of his social condition, the 
 maladies that prove fatal to him ? Is he to see born 
 of his misery the parasites that consume him ? 
 
 "These are the burning questions of the hour, these 
 are the things that we must bear in mind when we 
 come face to face with the problems of government. 
 Every man who takes a hopeful view of the future, 
 every man who believes in the progress of the race, 
 and that the past is but a stepping-stone to the better 
 life that lies beyond, will agree that to see the danger 
 is the first thing towards avoiding it. But it must be 
 resolutely met. Its solution is so much higher than 
 any mere question of tariff, or of party manipulation, 
 that when we are brought to see it in its largest aspect, 
 we can but acknowledge, that towards this, all true 
 men must labor, for it, all good men must work, and 
 hope, and pray. 1 ' 
 
 The effort was in the highest degree aflame with true 
 eloquence, and when the doctor closed, he was sur- 
 rounded by enthusiastic friends. There was no need 
 
DOCTOR CAVALLO 3 I 5 
 
 to adjourn the meeting, it adjourned itself, and a gen- 
 uine love feast ensued. As soon as the doctor had 
 shaken hands with all of his friends he joined Margaret 
 at the back of the stage, and, as the groups began to 
 depart, he wrapped her cloak around her, and together 
 they walked down the hall and out on the streets 
 
 It was one of those evenings in the fall when Indian 
 summer had set in, and the air was filled with soft 
 haze. A full moon looked down upon them. For 
 some time they walked along, each filled with the 
 thoughts of what had been accomplished. The doctor 
 first broke silence. He recalled the time when he had 
 avowed his race and religion, and told her what a 
 struggle he had had, and how her words had turned 
 the current of his thoughts, and altered the tenor of 
 his whole life. Again, it was her notes, on two occa- 
 sions, that had supported him in an hour and at a time 
 when everything else seemed to have deserted him. 
 Had it not been for her, he would not have gone to the 
 hall and faced his enemies, and had it not been for her 
 he would not have accepted the nomination. 
 
 She modestly disclaimed any intention of doing any- 
 thing more than to give him the weight of her opinion. 
 If she had helped in any way to guide him in the 
 right path, she was only too happy to have been able 
 to do it. 
 
 He said that he realized that in spite of all that had 
 been said, there was a wide chasm between them, a 
 chasm that he had no right to ask her to cross, but 
 after having fought so hard a contest, he felt that his 
 was the privilege to seek his fortune further, and to 
 say to her what he would have left unsaid had he been 
 defeated. 
 
3l6 DOCTOR CAVALLO 
 
 She laughingly replied, "You are then thinking 'that 
 to the victor belong the spoils.' 
 
 Cavallo felt inspired. The whole torrent of his 
 pent up feeling broke through the floodgates of love. 
 Life without her, he told her, would be a barren desert, 
 for it was her sweet smile, her sympathetic glance, her 
 encouraging words, that spurred him to action. His 
 sky would be starless, his paradise without a charm, 
 his heaven cold and dreary without her — his first and 
 only love, his guiding star, his angel ! 
 
 What was her reply? 
 
 Let the reader answer. Here is one who has shown all 
 the high qualities that try a man in a prolonged contest. 
 Yet through it all, every act of his has portrayed the 
 man of high character, the man of undaunted courage, 
 of chivalry, of loyalty to his ideal, of tender and sym- 
 pathetic emotions, of heroic valor, of manly grace. 
 He has, against fearful odds, carried off the prize 
 and has won a victory which his best friends pro- 
 nounced impossible. Is it likely, that with these 
 qualities, a loving and ardent girl would refuse his suit? 
 
 What is race prejudice, what religious differences, 
 to two such souls as these, through whose every aspir- 
 ation breathes the fervor of religious poetry, and whose 
 sOuls pulsate in unison for the uplifting of their fellow 
 men, and who hear the voice of the living Father in 
 the rustling of the leaf, no less than in the muttering 
 of the elements, and discern the tracing of God on 
 the trestle board of his harmonious creation ? All 
 the sweet and holy emotions of love that sanctify 
 and adorn life, pulsated in their hearts, as, yielding to 
 the impulse of the time, in harmony with the tender 
 graces of the dying night, Cavallo clasped the hand of 
 
DOCTOR CAVALLO 317 
 
 his companion, and, with a kiss, sealed the solemn 
 betrothal. 
 
 When they strolled into the Lawrence mansion they 
 found Mrs. Lawrence waiting for them, and the doctor 
 walking up, put his hand in hers and said, " Mrs. Law- 
 rence, you have this night either gained a son or lost a 
 daughter." 
 
 What could the mother say? 
 
 THE END. 
 

 
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