Page:Upbuilders by Lincoln Steffens.djvu/321

 life, men worked still with old tools, with old laws, with constitutions and charters which hindered more than they helped. Men suffered from this. There were lawyers enough; many of our ablest men were lawyers. Why didn't some of them invent legislative implements to help the people govern themselves? Why had we no tool makers for democracy?"

U'Ren is a very quiet man. He never would strike one as a blacksmith. He never would strike one at all. Slight of figure, silent in motion, he speaks softly, evenly, as he walks; and they call him, therefore, the "pussy cat."

"You see," he purred now, "I saw it all in terms of the mechanic."

But he feels it all in the terms of religion. His mother, also Cornish, also of the class that labours hard, was also religious—a Methodist. She taught her children from the Bible. Jehovah, Moses, and Jesus were the ideals of this humble family, and, for some - reason, Moses caught the imagination of her oldest boy, William. He always wanted to hear about Moses, the lawgiver, and when he could read for himself, Exodus and Numbers were the books he loved best. And just as some boys want to be Napoleon, so young U'Ren dreamed that when he grew up he would be like Moses, the giver of laws that