Comrade Yetta

by Albert Edwards

After breakfast the next morning she took her seat again in the shade of the elm tree and, with her chin in her hands, pondered over the strike. She had a remarkable memory for words and phrases. She could have given a full synopsis of all the speeches she had heard in that month. Most of the people who had talked at the meetings had tried to tell what the strike meant. She went over the various and often contradictory explanations, and, supplementing them with her own experience and observations, reached an interpretation of her own. Much of it came as a direct inheritance from her father. The two speakers who had influenced her most were Longman and Braun. With the former she believed that all those who loved liberty were under a sacred obligation to struggle for it. And Braun's straightforward, concise statement of social organization seemed to her reasonable. As soon as possible she wanted to get a chance to study Socialism.

Meanwhile the storm kicked up by her arrest was growing apace. That morning the papers contained an open letter which the Commissioner of Corrections had addressed to the ladies of the Woman's Trade Union League. He had been forced to this action, because the evening papers had published interviews with other strikers who had been in the workhouse. They gave impressive details of the nauseous place, of the rank food, the vermin, the dark cells, and the debased associations. The Commissioner's letter was a dignified document. It had been written by his secretary. In a sweeping manner he denounced the accusations made by the strikers as malicious libel and referred the ladies of the Advisory Council and the public in general to page 213 of the last report of the Prison Association, which gave just tribute to the modern sanitation, the wholesome dietary, and the healthy régime of the workhouse.

"In regard to the case of Miss Rayefsky, about whom this agitation has centred, the Commissioner begs to point out that he has no manner of responsibility over commitments. It is not within his province to pass judgment on the decisions of the courts. He must accept whomsoever is committed to his custody. In reply to his inquiry, the warden of the workhouse informs him that, instead of suffering the fantastic tortures which certain hysterical lawbreakers have tried to persuade the public are actualities in the workhouse, Miss Rayefsky has been detailed to the work of nurse to the warden's children, and is living—probably in greater comfort than she ever knew before—as a member of his household.

"As the Commissioner does not care to ask the public to take his word in preference to irresponsible newspaper stories, he invites the Woman's Trade Union League to appoint a committee to visit Miss Rayefsky in the workhouse and report to the public."

While Yetta was pondering over the meanings of strikes and industrial warfare, all New York was discussing her case and reading what various society ladies thought about the way their pet had been treated. Pick-Axe lost his job as private detective and had to go back to highway robbery.

After lunch Yetta tackled the hardest problem of all—why had she tried to kill Pick-Axe? Instinctively she felt that Longman would understand. But neither Mabel nor Braun would,—Braun least of all. Her act did not fit in with Socialism. No other speakers had urged the strikers as vigorously as the Socialists to abstain from violence or lawbreaking. Longman was not the only one who would understand. There was Casey, the secretary of the Central Federated Union, and the men of the "Pastry Cooks' Union." She could have told them about it without any hesitancy. She tried for some minutes to decide whether her father would have understood. She was not sure. She wanted to judge herself justly in the matter, but try as hard as she might, she found it impossible to blame herself sincerely. Her speculations were interrupted by Longman's voice.

"What are you thinking about so hard?"

She jumped up in surprise to see that Longman and Mrs. Karner had come across the lawn without her hearing their approach. The warden had established himself in a chair where he could watch them.

Mrs. Karner had happened to be in the office when the Commissioner's letter arrived. She had appointed herself, together with Mabel and Longman, the committee to visit Yetta. They had notified the Commissioner, and he in turn had warned the warden. But just as they were about to start, a representative of the Association of Vest Manufacturers had telephoned to Mabel for a conference. It was too important to miss. So Mrs. Karner and Longman had come alone.