Big Kennedy is dead now; and I will say no worse nor better of him than this: He was a natural captain of men. Had he been born to a higher station, he might have lighted a wick in history that would require those ten thicknesses of darkness which belong with ten centuries, to obscure. But no such thing could come in the instance of Big Kennedy; his possibilities of eminence, like my own, were confined to Tammany and its politics, since he had no more of education than have I. The time has gone by in the world at large, and had in Big Kennedy's day, when the ignorant man can be the first man.
Upon the day following my release, as he had bid me.
I sought Big Kennedy. He was in his barroom, and the hour being mid-morning I was so far lucky as to find him quite alone. He was quick to see me, too, and seemed as full of a pleasant interest in me as though my simple looks were of themselves good news. He did most of the talking, for I sat backward and bashful, the more since I could feel his sharp eyes upon me, taking my measure. Never was I so looked over and so questioned, and not many minutes had come and gone before Big Kennedy knew as much of me and my belongings as did I myself. Mayhap more; for he weighed me in the scales of his experience with all the care of gold, considering meanwhile to what uses I should be put, and how far I might be expected to advance his ends.
One of his words I recall, for it gave me a glow of relief at the time; at that it was no true word. It was when he heard how slightly I had been taught of books.
“Never mind,” said he, “books as often as not get between a party's legs and trip him up. Better know men than books. There's my library.” Here he pointed to a group about a beer table. “I can learn more by studyin' them than was ever found between the covers of a book, and make more out of it.”
Big Kennedy told me I must go to work.
“You've got to work, d'ye see,” said he, “if it's only to have an excuse for livin'.”
Then he asked me what I could do. On making nothing clear by my replies—for I knew of nothing—he descended to particulars.
“What do you know of horses? Can you drive one?”
My eye brightened; I might be trusted to handle a horse.