Transcriber's Note:
The cover image was created by the transcriber and is placed in the public domain.
| BIG BLUE BOOK NO. Edited by E. Haldeman-Julius | B–24 |
An Eye for an Eye
I
When Hank Clery left the switch-yards in the outskirts ofChicago he took the street car and went down town. He wasgoing to the county jail on the north side of the river. Hankhad never been inside the jail though he had been arrested anumber of times and taken to the police court, escaping luckily with asmall fine which his mother had contrived to pay. She was one ofthe best washerwomen of the whole neighborhood, and never withoutwork. All the officers knew that whenever Hank got into trouble hismother would pay the fine and costs. Hank had often been arrested,but he was by no means a bad fellow. He lived with his old Irishmother and was very fond of her and often brought his wages homeif none of the boys happened to be near when the pay-car came around.Hank was a switchman in one of the big railroad yards in Chicago.Of course, he and his companions drank quite a little, and then theirsports and pastimes were not of the gentlest sort; for that matterneither was their work—climbing up and down running cars and turningswitches just ahead of a great locomotive and watching to makesure which track was safe where the moving cars and engines wereall around—did not tend to a quiet life. Of course, most people thinkthat no man will work in a switch-yard unless he drinks. Perhaps noman would drink unless he worked in a switch-yard or some such place.
Well, on this day Hank was going to the jail, not on account ofany of his own misdeeds, but on an errand of mercy. The night before,the priest had come to Hank’s home and told him that his old friend,Jim Jackson, had begged for him to visit the jail. Hank at first refused,but the priest told him that Jim had no friends and was anxious tohave a few minutes’ talk with him before he died; Jim had some messagethat he wanted to give Hank that he could not leave with anyoneelse. Hank knew that Jim was to be hanged on Friday, and he hadthought about it a good deal in the last few days and wished that itwas over. He had known Jim for a long time; they had often beenout together and sometimes got drunk together. Jim once worked inthe yards, but one night one of the other boys was struck by theLimited as it pulled out on the main track, and Jim and Hank gatheredhim up when the last Pullman coach had rolled over him; and after thatJim could never go back to the yards; so he managed to get an oldhorse and wagon and began peddling potatoes on t