to stand by his
friends--he no longer needs friends. When these people get wise enough
not to be fooled by Tom and old Dan, they won't need Grant! In the
meantime--just look at 'em--look at 'em paying twice as much for rent as
they pay up town: gouged at the company stores down here for their food
and clothing; held up by loan sharks when they borrow money; doped with
aloes in their beer, and fusil oil in their whiskey, wrapped up in
shoddy clothes and paper shoes, having their pockets picked by weighing
frauds at the mines, and their bodies mashed in speed-up devices in the
mills; stabled in filthy shacks without water or sewers or electricity
which we uptown people demand and get for the same money that they pay
for these hog-pens--why, hell's afire and the cows are out--Laura! by
Godfrey's diamonds, if I lived down here I'd get me some frisky dynamite
and blow the whole place into kindling." He sat blinking his
indignation; then began to smile. "Instead of which," he squeaked, "I
shall endeavor by my winning ways to get their votes." He waved a gay
hand and added, "And with God be the rest!"

Towering above a group of workers from the South of Europe--a delegation
from the new wire mill in Plain Valley, Grant Adams came swinging down
the street, a Gulliver among his Lilliputians. Although it was not even
twilight, it was evident to the Doctor that something more than the
changing shifts in the mills was thickening the crowds in the street.
Little groups were forming at the corners, good-natured groups who
seemed to know that they were not to be molested. And the Doctor at his
window watched Grant passing group after group, receiving its
unconscious homage; just a look, or a waving hand, or an affectionate,
half-abashed little cheer, or the turning of a group of heads all one
way to catch Grant's eyes as he passed.

At the Captain's vacant lot, Grant rose before a cheering throng that
filled the lot, and overflowed the sidewalk and crowded far down the
street. Two flickering torches flared at his head. An electric in front
of the Hot Dog and a big arc-light over the door of the smelter lighted
the upturned faces of the multitude. When the crowd had ceased cheering,
Grant, looking into as many eyes of his hearers as he could catch,
began:

"I have come to talk to Esau--the disinherited--to Esau who has
forfeited his birthright. I am here to speak to those who are toiling in
the world's rough work unrequited--I am he