“Where else will ye get min?” he demanded to know.  “The unions have the best, an’ the most av thim.  Thim outside fellies don’t amount to much.  They’re aall pore, crapin’ creatures.  If it wasn’t fer the railroad bein’ against the union I wouldn’t have thim at aall, and besides,” he added thoughtfully, and with a keen show of feeling for their point of view, “they have a right to do as they pl’ase.  Shewer, it’s no common workmen they arre.  They can lay their eight hundred bricks a day, if they will, an’ no advice from any waan.  If ye was in their place ye’d do the same.  There’s no sinse in allowin’ another man to waalk on ye whin ye can get another job.  I don’t blame thim.  I was a mason wanst meself.”

“You don’t mean to say that you acted as you say these men are going to act?”

“Shewer!”

“Well, I shouldn’t think you’d be very proud of it.”

“I have me rights,” he declared, flaring up.  “What kind av a man is it that’ll let himself be waalked on?  There’s no sinse in it.  It’s naht natchral.  It’s naht intinded that it should be so.”

“Very well,” I said, smoothing the whole thing over, and so that ended.

Well, the masons came, and a fine lot of pirates they surely were.  Such independence!  Such defiance!  Such feverish punctilio in regard to their rights and what forms and procedures they were entitled to!  I stared in amazement.  For the most part they were hale, healthy, industrious looking creatures, but so obstreperously conscious of their own rights, and so proud of their skill as masons, that there was no living with them.  Really, they would have tried the patience of a saint, let alone a healthy, contentious Irish foreman-mason.  “First off,” as the railroad men used to say, they wanted to know whether there were any non-union men on the job, and if so, would they be discharged instanter?—­if not, no work—­a situation which gave Rourke several splendid opportunities for altercations, which he hastened to improve, although the non-union men went, of course.  Then they wanted to know when, where, and how they were to get their money, whether on demand at any time they chose, and this led to more trouble, since the railroad paid only once a month.  However, this was adjusted by a special arrangement being made whereby the building department stood ready to pay them instantly on demand, only I had to run down to the division office each time and get their pay for them at any time that they came to ask for it!  Then came an argument (or many of them) as to the number of bricks they were to lay an hour; the number of men they were to carry on one line, or wall; the length of time they were supposed to work, or had worked, or would work—­all of which was pure food and drink to Rourke.  He was in his element at last, shouting, gesticulating, demanding that they leave or go to ——.  After all these things had been adjusted, however, they finally consented to go to work, and then of course the work flew.  It was a grand scene, really inspiring—­forty or fifty masons on the line, perhaps half as many helpers or mixers, the Italians carrying bricks, and a score of carpenters now arriving under another foreman to set the beams and lay the joists as the walls rose upward.