Ellis Island: Three Novels

by Joan Lowery Nixon

  “That doesn’t bring Johnny back,” Rose said bitterly.

  “As I said before, you’re being too hard on Tim,” Michael told her. “When he and Johnny …”

  Rose held up the palm of one hand as she interrupted. Couldn’t they tell how much this was hurting her and how heartbroken she was about Tim? “Please stop!” she insisted. “I don’t want to talk about Tim. We have to think about what we’re going to do.”

  Pacing back and forth across the small parlor Rose tried to plan and speak at the same time. “Johnny had a round-trip ticket and the girls’ one-way tickets in second class with him. Will the authorities let us have the tickets, do you think?”

  “I don’t know,” Da said helplessly.

  Ellen spoke up. “It would probably depend on how fair the person in charge wanted to be and how well he could be persuaded.”

  Da perked up and for the first time looked hopeful. “Ah, Rosie,” he said, “you have a good way of putting words together to get what you want. The British police would listen to you, they would.”

  Rosie groaned. With all her heart she wanted to go after her sisters, but how could she?

  “Da,” she said, “I am the only one in the family with a job. We have to pay rent and buy food.”

  “I want to work,” he began, but Rose interrupted.

  “I know you do,” she said gently, “and you’re a good, hard worker, too. Ma was always proud of all you could do, but we have to be honest with each other about our situation. Michael’s leg will take time to heal. He can’t work, and he isn’t able to get Bridget and Meggie. Da, you’re the one who will have to go.”

  Her father’s hands shook and Rose pretended to herself that she hadn’t noticed.

  “Me, Rosie?” he asked, then he dropped his voice as though he were speaking to himself. “It wasn’t supposed to be this way, you know. Maura would bring the little ones with her when it was her turn to come over. That’s the way we’d planned it. But Maura …” His eyes filled with tears as he said, “The girls need me.”

  She took a deep breath and said, “Da, it isn’t just Bridget and Meggie who need you. Johnny also needs his father. He needs to know that you’re there to stand by him and to see that he gets whatever and whomever he needs—a barrister, an advocate—someone who will help him get as light a sentence as possible.”

  “Do you really think I can do all this?” Da asked.

  “Of course you can,” Rose answered bluntly, “if you just stop drinking.”

  Ellen’s gasp caused Rose’s cheeks to burn, but she kept her eyes on her father. “You can do it, Da,” she repeated firmly, in spite of the terrible doubt she felt. What other choice did they have? Da was the only one who could go.

  “All right, all right,” Da murmured. “I’ll do as you wish, Rosie.”

  “Thank you,” she said. What she really wished was that Da could be once again her strong, wonderful father—the father who could solve all her problems.

  “What about Da’s ticket across and the train ticket to the ship in New York?” Michael asked.

  Rose wanted to groan aloud, to fling herself across her bed and let somebody else come up with the solution to the problem, but she said, “I’ve given the hospital the little we’d saved. We’ll need at least fifty dollars, maybe more, so I suppose we’ll have to borrow the money.”

  Ellen spoke quickly, staring down at her hands. “I’ve been saving a bit of money on my own for the wedding, but this comes first. You can count on fifteen dollars.”

  As Rose expressed her thanks, she caught the special, loving look that passed between Michael and Ellen. Although she was happy for them and grateful that Ellen would someday be her sister, she jealously ached with the loss of Tim’s love.

  “Who else do we know who might help?” Da asked.

  They looked at one another helplessly until Rose said, “Johnny bragged about all the fine things Alderman McMahan could do and told us he’d even helped with this … this smuggling scheme. Maybe he’ll continue to help by lending the rest of the money Da will need.”

  “He didn’t give money,” Michael said. “He only arranged for the legal papers Bridget and Meggie would need.”

  “Then he might even help with Johnny’s legal problems, too,” Rose said. “The least I can do is give it a try. If the Sweeneys will let me take an hour off tomorrow morning I’ll visit the alderman’s office and ask. Surely, it won’t hurt to ask.”

  “I can give you an hour off without docking your pay,” Mr. Sweeney said, frowning with concern, “but I hope you understand, Rose, that if you’re gone any longer I’ll have to deduct the time from your salary. It’s only fair. Toward midday the store gets busy, and we’ll need your help.”

  “I understand,” Rose answered. “I’ll go to Alderman McMahan’s office right now, and what I have to say won’t take long.”

  A short while later she entered McMahan’s office and explained her lack of time to the same young man who had visited Sweeney’s.

  He looked at her as though he’d never seen her before. “I’ll tell the alderman,” he said pompously and vanished behind the heavy door that led to the inner offices.

  Rose waited at least twenty minutes, now and then nervously glancing at the loudly ticking clock that hung on the far wall. She was surprised when the outer door opened, and Tim entered the room.

  He stopped and stared. “Rosie?” he asked. “What are you doing here?”

  “I came to ask the alderman to help Johnny,” she answered. “I also need to ask him for a loan. We don’t have enough money to send Da to take care of Johnny and to bring back Bridget and Meggie.”

  “Your father?” Tim blurted out. “You’re sending him?”

  Rose lifted her chin, hoping Tim couldn’t see the blush staining her cheeks. “He’s always been a good, loving father,” she said. “There’s no reason why he shouldn’t go.”

  “I’m sorry, Rosie. I guess I meant …”

  Rose slumped against the back of the chair. “There’s a very good reason why Da should be the one to go,” she said honestly. “Michael is laid up with his injured leg, and I’m the only one able to support us right now.”

  “I wanted to come and see Michael,” Tim said, “but I didn’t know if you …”

  He didn’t finish the sentence, letting the words rise as if he’d been asking a question, but Rose didn’t answer. She looked again at the clock, and Tim asked, “Have you been waiting long?”

  “More than twenty minutes.”

  “I’ll see what I can do,” he said, but he paused at the door of the inner office and glanced at the locket that gleamed against her white shirtwaist. “Rosie … about us,” he began.

  Rose’s heart began to thump, and she tried to force it to slow down. “If I’m not back within the hour Mr. Sweeney will deduct the time from my wages,” she told him.

  “Then I’ll talk to McMahan,” Tim said quietly, and entered the inner office.

  The door opened again in a few seconds and Paddy hurried out, throwing an anxious look behind him. Tim appeared in the doorway and beckoned. “Come in, Rosie. The alderman hadn’t been told you were waiting to see him.”

  Rose went through a smaller office into a large room decorated with paintings of landscapes that looked as though they belonged in a museum. Alderman McMahan rose from behind a gigantic, gleaming cherrywood desk and gestured to a chair.

  “Please sit down, Miss Carney,” he said. “The sad plight of your brother Johnny has just come to my attention.”

  As Rose perched on the edge of a large, leather covered chair, McMahan lowered himself into his own chair and shook his head sadly. “You realize, of course, that I had no knowledge of his plan to smuggle money for that group he belongs to. You know about the group?”

  “All I’ve been told is that it’s made up of some of the members of the Clan na Gael.”

  He nodded sagely. “It’s probably just as well that neither of us know much about its actions.
I’m all for home rule in Ireland, but not the way these young hotheads are going about it.”

  Rose didn’t believe him. His words were too smug and self-assured. She supposed he had to protect himself, but she didn’t like the way he was lying in order to do it. She had no choice but to accept what he’d said. Through the open door she heard Tim clear his throat. Time was running out. She’d better get to the point. “Johnny needs help,” she told McMahan.

  “Ah, that he does. What a shame. He’s a fine lad, a fine lad,” he repeated. “How could he have gotten himself into such a fix? If there was only something I could do for him you can be assured I’d do it.”

  “There is something you could do,” Rose said, suddenly encouraged. “Johnny will need legal help. He’ll need a barrister, but we have no money to …”

  McMahan interrupted, holding up a hand. “Oh, he’ll get help from the insurgents and their supporters in Ireland. I’m sure of that. But as for me … well, I think you can understand that in my position I can’t afford to become involved.”

  “You were involved in providing the papers my little sisters would need to enter the United States.”

  His eyes lit up, and he smiled. “That’s an entirely different matter. Providing the proper paperwork to my constituents is part of my job. I can only repeat that I had no idea money would be smuggled to the Irish insurgents, and I had no part in this at all.”

  Rose took a deep, shuddering breath and clenched her fists, which lay in her lap. She knew about the paperwork he was so sanctimonious about, like fixing traffic citations, but she was well aware that she had to keep herself in control. It was terribly important not to alienate the alderman. “Then please, Mr. McMahan, will you lend us the money for my father’s train fare and passage to Ireland to get my sisters? We will pay every penny of the loan back with whatever interest seems fair to you. I promise.”

  There was a long pause while the alderman leaned back in his chair, rubbing his hand over the grooves in his face from his forehead down to his chin. Finally he straightened up, leaned on the desk, and said, “Miss Carney, I ask you, how would this look? You’d know and I’d know that the money was for your father’s passage, but there might be some who would think I was supporting your brother’s cause.”

  Rose gasped. “I wouldn’t tell! No one ever need know the money came from you.”

  McMahan preened just a bit as he said, “A man in my position has his enemies. They know everything about me, from what I pay for my clothes to what I eat for dinner. It wouldn’t take long for them to find out if I lent money to your family, and the rumors would begin.”

  Rose had a hard time keeping her composure. She fought against a dark cloud of panic and tried to keep her voice from rising as she said, “I don’t know where else to go for help!”

  McMahan hesitated just a moment, then said, “A word of advice from a friend. You’ll find plenty of moneylenders in Chicago, but don’t borrow from them. Their rates are so exorbitant you’ll never be free.”

  He got to his feet and walked toward the open doorway. Rose stood, too, realizing she was being dismissed, and followed him to the outer office. He chatted pleasantly as he bid her good-bye, but Rose was so desperate she didn’t hear a word he was saying.

  A few minutes later she crossed to the block on State Street that held Sweeney’s Dry Goods Store, but she paused outside a small jewelry shop, drawn to a card in the window on which was printed GOLD AND SILVER BOUGHT AND SOLD.

  Rose touched the locket with trembling fingers. It was her last tie to Tim and to Johnny, and she had promised herself to wear it always.

  Frantically, before she could stop herself, she flung open the door of the shop and stepped inside.

  An elderly man scrambled toward her, squinting to see her better. “What can I do for you?” he asked.

  Rose reluctantly removed the locket, dropping the chain into his outstretched hand. “Your sign says that you buy gold,” she said. “How much will you pay for this locket?”

  The man put on a pair of thick glasses and held the locket almost to his nose as he studied it. Then—to Rose’s horror—he gently bit it. “No harm done,” he said to her. “That’s one way to test for real gold.”

  Again he studied the locket, looked up at Rose, and said, “Two dollars.”

  “Only two dollars!” Rose exclaimed. “It must have cost much more!”

  “What it cost doesn’t concern either of us. What you asked is how much I’d give you for it.”

  “It’s not enough.” Rose was sick at heart at what she had almost done. She held out a hand, palm up, for the locket.

  “Two-fifty and no more.”

  “No,” Rose said. “Let me have my locket, please.”

  “You won’t find a better price anywhere else.”

  Rose stared at him. “I need at least fifty dollars.”

  The man laughed and dropped the locket into her palm. “Good luck,” he said.

  Rose fastened the chain of the locket once again around her neck and left the store, hurrying toward Sweeney’s. What had she been thinking of? How could she have sold this locket at any price?

  “I want my sisters.” The words came out in a sob. Two people passing on the sidewalk turned and stared at her curiously, but Rose didn’t care.

  The rest of the day she worked like an automaton. All she could think was, What should I do? Where will I get the money? My sisters … we must come up with enough money to bring my sisters to Chicago!

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  THAT evening, after the Carneys had eaten dinner, Rose told Michael and Da about her unsuccessful meeting with the alderman. “I don’t know who else to ask for a loan, do you?” she asked.

  Da stared down at the table. “It would be no use to bring it up with my friends. Most of the boys have little or nothing to spare. It’s hard to get jobs when each morning at the hiring site there’s a large crowd of laborers and many of them are young, strapping lads.” He sighed and added, “I’ve been looking into something I hope will work out, but at the present it’s worth nothing at all.”

  “We’ll get no help from the banks,” Michael said. “We not only have nothing to offer for collateral, we’re still in debt to the doctor and hospital.”

  Something clicked in Rose’s mind, setting off a surge of excitement. “How do you ask for money from a bank?” she asked Michael. “Who would you talk to?”

  Taken aback, Michael answered, “I don’t know. There’d be a bank official of some sort, I’d imagine.” He looked to Da. “Do you know who that would be?”

  Da shook his head. “I’ve never had business with banks, so I couldn’t be telling you for sure, but you’re probably right, Michael. There’d be some kind of a bank official in charge of things.”

  “Jane Addams would know,” Rose told them. “At Hull House they teach people how to understand credit and how to use banks.”

  “But Rosie,” Michael remonstrated, “bankers don’t just hand over money if you have nothing of value to put in its place.”

  “We have our own good minds and our own strong backs,” Rose said. “We’ll earn the money and pay back every cent.”

  “That’s not enough.”

  Rose got to her feet. “I won’t believe that unless I hear Miss Addams say those very same words herself.”

  “Are you going there now?” Da asked.

  “As soon as I get my hat,” Rose answered.

  Da stood, too, and for an instant Rose could see in him the strong, young father he used to be. “Then I’ll escort you, daughter,” he said. “It’s a fine, bright night, and there may be a few rapscallions about, stirring up mischief.”

  With a grateful heart Rose hugged her father, and the faint hope that had begun to grow became a strong, positive feeling. Everything would work out the way it should. She’d find a way to make it happen.

  * * *

  As they made the trip to Hull House, Rose felt as close to her father as she had when she was a
little girl. People sat on their front stoops, enjoying the night air, and children played tag and chase around and under the streetlights. Smells of cabbage and onions and spices drifted from wide-open windows, and occasional bursts of music overrode the jangle and clank of the cable cars.

  Hull House was bright with lights when they arrived, and Rose entered the classroom building, her right hand tucked inside her father’s elbow.

  He removed his hat and nodded at a well-dressed woman. Expensive, Rose thought as she took careful note of the woman’s braid-trimmed brown silk dress with a brown-and-white hat to match. As the woman stepped up to greet them with a smile, Rose asked, “Please, ma’am, do you know where we can find Jane Addams?”

  “Miss Addams is in Washington, D.C., on business,” the woman said. Rose realized how distraught she must have looked when the woman quickly added, “My name is Edna. Is there anything I can do to help you?”

  “We don’t want to be troubling you,” Da told her, and Rose could feel his arm tremble.

  Rose was determined. She introduced Da and herself, then said, “Jane Addams told me that banking and credit classes are taught here, and we need to learn how to borrow money from a bank. My mother has died, and my two little sisters are still in Ireland. We have no money to send my father to get them, so we’ll need to borrow some as soon as we can.”

  The woman glanced toward the open door of a still-lighted, empty classroom. “Come in here with me,” she said. “I’m a friend of Jane Addams and a volunteer here at Hull House. I don’t teach the class on financial matters, but I know enough about banking procedure to give you the information you’ll need.”

  Soon they were seated in three wooden chairs, drawn close together, and the woman said, “When you request a loan, a banker is going to ask you what kind of collateral you have to back that loan.”

  “I understand that part,” Rose said.

  “Do you have collateral?”

  Rose took a deep breath and repeated what she had told Michael. “My father, my brother, and I have good minds and strong backs. We will work to pay back every cent of the loan and every cent of the interest due on it.”