We turned the corner, and soon I saw what was before us, and almost cried out with glee. It was really too good to be true! Carpenter, in the course of his talks with strikers, had learned where their soup-kitchen was located, the relief-headquarters where their families were being fed; and he now had the sublime audacity to take the picture magnate to lunch among them! The place was an empty warehouse, fitted with long tables, and benches made of planks that were old and full of splinters. Here in rows of twenty or thirty were seated men and women and children, mixed together; before each one a bowl of not very thick soup, and a hunk of bread, and a tin cup full of hot brown liquid, politely taken for coffee. It was a meal which would have been spurned by any of the “studio bums” of T-S's mob-scenes; but now T-S was going to be a good sport, and sit on a splintery plank and eat it!
Nor was that all. As we pushed our way into the place, Carpenter turned to the magnate, and without a trace of embarrassment, said: “You understand, Mr. T-S, I have no money. But we must pay—”
“Oh, sure!” said T-S, quickly. “I'll pay!”
“Thank you,” said the other; and he turned to an official of the union with whom he had got acquainted in the course of the morning. He introduced us all, not forgetting the secretary, and then said: “Mr. T-S is the moving picture producer, and wants to have lunch with you, if you will consent.”
“Oh, sure!” said the official, cordially.
“He will pay for it,” added Carpenter. “He has brought along a thousand dollars for that purpose.”
T-S started as if some one had struck him; and the official started too. “WHAT?”
“He will pay a thousand dollars,” declared Carpenter. “It is a fact, and you may tell the people, if you wish.”
“My Gawd, no!” cried T-S wildly.
But the official did not heed him. He faced the crowd and stretched out his arms. “Boys! Boys! This is Mr. T-S, the picture producer, and he's come to lunch with us, and he's going to pay a thousand dollars for it!”
There was a moment of amazed silence, then a roar from the company. Men leaped to their feet and yelled. And there stood poor T-S-not enjoying the ovation!
“Give it to them,” whispered Carpenter; and the magnate, thus held up, took out the roll of bills, and turned it over to the trembling official, who leaped onto a chair and waved the miracle before the crowd. “A thousand dollars! A thousand dollars!” He counted it over before their eyes and called, louder than ever, “A thousand dollars!”
Carpenter, followed by T-S and the secretary and myself, went down the line of tables, shaking hands with many on the way, and being patted on the back by others. Also T-S shook hands, and was patted. Seats were found for us, and food was brought—double portions of it, as if to make the plight of ............