laint from him concerning the weariness of labor. On the
contrary, he would whistle and sing until something went wrong, when
suddenly you would hear the most terrific uproar of words: "Come out av
that! Come out, now! Jasus Christ, man, have ye no sinse at aall? Put it
down! Put it down! What arre ye doin'? What did I tell ye? Have ye no
raison in ye, no sinse, ye h'athen nagur?"

"Great heavens!" I used to think, "what has happened now?"

You would have imagined the most terrible calamity; and yet, all told,
it might be nothing of any great import--a little error of some kind,
more threatening than real, and soon adjusted. It might last for a few
moments, during which time the Italians would be seen hurrying excitedly
to and fro; and then there would come a lull, and Rourke would be heard
to raise his voice in tuneful melody, singing or humming or whistling
some old-fashioned Irish "Come-all-ye."

But the thing in Rourke that would have pleased any one was his ready
grasp for the actualities of life--his full-fledged knowledge that work
is the thing, not argument, or reports, or plans, but the direct
accomplishment of something tangible, the thing itself. Thus, while I
was working with him, at least nothing that might concern the clerical
end of the labor could disturb him, but, if the sky fell, and eight
thousand chief clerks threatened to march upon him in a body demanding
reports and o.k.s, he would imperturbably make you wait until the work
was done. Once, when I interrupted him to question him concerning some
of these same wretched, pestering aftermaths of labor, concerning which
he alone could answer, he shut me off with: "The reports! The reports!
What good arre the reports! Ye make me sick. What have the reports to do
with the work? If it wasn't fer the work, where would the reports be?"
And I heartily echoed "Where?"

Another thing was his charming attitude toward his men, kindly and sweet
for all his storming, that innate sense of something intimate and
fatherly. He had a way of saying kindly things in a joking manner which
touched them. When he arrived in the morning, for instance, it was
always in the cheeriest way that he began. "Come, now, b'ys, ye have a
good day's work before ye today. Get the shovels, Jimmie. Bring the
line, Matt!" and then he would go below himself, if below it was, and
there would be joy and peace until some obstacle to progress interfered.
I might say in passing that Matt and Ji