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SASMITA PALO and
KUMAR KUNAL JHA
Queer at Work
Sasmita Palo • Kumar Kunal Jha

Queer at Work
Sasmita Palo Kumar Kunal Jha
School of Management School of Management
and Labour Studies and Labour Studies
Tata Institute of Social Sciences Tata Institute of Social Sciences
Mumbai, India Mumbai, India

ISBN 978-981-13-8561-2    ISBN 978-981-13-8562-9 (eBook)

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-8562-9

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer
Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2020
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189721, Singapore
 Preface

This book is the result of five years of research, observation and interaction
with the LGBTQ community from various part of India. This would have
not been possible without the help and courage of all the individuals from
the LGBTQ community who have opened their hearts to tell their story
and are striving to bring positive change in the society. Initially, this
research was conducted by as part of my MPhil and PhD research. Such is
the situation of the LGBTQ individuals in India that there were more
reasons that I saw for not taking up this research rather than going ahead
with it. One factor that outweighed all the other factors was the fact that
I wanted to explore my own identity as a queer individual. I wanted to go
on a journey to know who I was as a person. This journey would not have
been possible without the support of Professor Sasmita Palo who has also
authored this book with me. Working with Professor Palo not only gave
me clarity with regard to the apt way of moving forward with this project
but also enabled us to do triangulation as we were now looking at the
issues faced by the LGBTQ community from an insider as well as an out-
sider perspective.
The main aim of this book is to bring out the voices and experiences of
individuals from the LGBTQ community in the workplace. At the same
time, this book also aims to sensitise leaders, change agents, human
resource and diversity managers with all the possibilities and limitations
associated with diversity and inclusion of LGBTQ individuals not only in
the workplace but also with regard to recognising LGBTQ rights as
human rights in the society. In the initial phase of the research, we con-
ducted 31 semi-structured in-depth interviews with individuals from the

v
vi PREFACE

LGBTQ community working in formal manufacturing and service sectors.

The sampling was purposive in nature and we used the snowballing tech-
nique to reach individuals from the community. We have also included our
observations while interacting with people and spaces during the duration
of the research.
The readers will be introduced to the normative and the non-normative
definitions around gender and the manner in which we perform gender.
We thought that it was crucial to give an “introduction to gender” as we
realised that during the research most of the individuals did not have clar-
ity on what really gender is and if there is an “alternate” way of performing
it. Our definition of gender is inclusive and we do not claim that it is the
ultimate and the most apt. The intention is to clear confusions around
gender by questioning the very basis on which it is constructed. We believe
that questioning the basis on which gender is constructed in our society
will help us not only to deconstruct the way gender is viewed but also in
reconstructing new lenses of viewing gender which are more inclusive.
The readers will notice that in the first few chapters they will have small
caselets, where they are asked questions with regard to how they would
solve a problem or react if they were in a certain situation. The caselets are
drawn from the experiences of the individuals from the LGBTQ individu-
als in their workplace. This will give an opportunity to the readers to step
into the shoes of an individual who either has a non-normative gender or
sexual orientation identity or is in a position where they might have the
power to address certain situation faced by an individual from the LGBTQ
community. Doing this would help the readers to see the same situation
from different perspectives. In the later part of the chapters, the readers
will be directly exposed to verbatim from the interviews conducted with
the individuals from the LGBTQ community.
While reading this book, the readers will notice that at some places, we
(the authors) have shifted from “we” to “I.” “I” has been used in the
research to highlight the insider perspective of our co-author who identi-
fies as queer. “We” has been used to bring out the findings and observa-
tions that both the authors have had together during the research. At
some places, we have also used “LGB” instead of “LGBT.” This is mainly
because recent changes in the law have given legal recognition to the
transgender community. Further, we have also used “LGBTQ” to signify
any gender and/or sexual orientation identity that does not meet the
expectations of the heteronormative society. Though we have tried our
best to bring in the differences in the issues faced at the workplace by
 PREFACE vii

l­esbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals, this book mostly covers
what in general an individual from the community, who may or may not
have disclosed their identity to their employers, faces due to their non-­
normative sexual orientation and gender identity.
We understand that there are many limitations of this research. Some of
them are not being able to properly represent the voices of individuals
who identify as asexual or intersex or covering only the formal manufac-
turing and service sectors which are mostly located in the cities that hardly
represent eight per cent of the Indian population. Another criticism could
be that we are looking at sexual orientation and gender identities in singu-
larity and not accounting for intersectionality. We could also be criticised
for the language being too simplistic for the gender discourse that most
academicians emphasised upon in the past. We have tried to keep the lan-
guage for this book lucid as we believe that a large part of the society
should be exposed to conversations which have been considered “diffi-
cult” or “tabooed” from a very long time. We would consider ourselves
grateful if we can initiate this difficult conversation on a larger level and
eventually move beyond these conversations towards creating a more
inclusive society for all. We would urge our readers to comment, criticise
and question what we have written as we believe that it is an integral part
of furthering any conversation.

Mumbai, India Sasmita Palo

 Kumar Kunal Jha
 Acknowledgement

From not being sure if we will be able to take up this project to this! We
have come a long way and we have not done it alone. There are a number
of people for whom we are grateful. We wish to thank the entire Tata
Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) community for making TISS a space
where one has the freedom and courage to take up research topics that
very few dare to study. A special thanks to each and every individual associ-
ated with the School of Management and Labour Studies at TISS.
This project would not have been possible if not for MD Zubaer. Thank
you for not only helping us envision the creative and the idea of cover
design for this book but also always providing moral support and encour-
agement when we hit the writer’s block. We would like to thank Professor
Bino Paul and Dr Tarun Menon for always being there and helping us
strengthen the research methodology. We would like to thank Abhishek
Tambhi without who data collection would have taken ages!
Thanking the individuals who agreed to participate in the research
would not even be an iota of what they have done for us. Thank you for
being brave, for trusting us, and for sharing your pain, sorry and happiness
with us. All of you are our role models. Thank you.
We would like to thank our parents and all the people who encouraged
us to do this research. Even though there were a few who believed in this
project, it is because of their faith that we are able to write this acknowledge-
ment. Having said this, we would also like to thank all the voices that dis-
couraged us from taking this project—you played an important role as well!
We would like to thank everyone for supporting us at each and every
step of this project from our publishing house—Palgrave Macmillan.

ix
 Contents

1 Introduction to Gender  1
Research Methodology   1
Introduction and Historical Context   3
Traditional Understanding of Gender   4
Conditioning and Bias   5
The Gender Quiz   6
Authentic Gender Model   6
NALSA Verdict  12
Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code (till September 2018)  18
Section 377 of the IPC After September 6, 2018  19
LGBT Community and the Workplace  21
References  30

2 Accepted as the Other: Discrimination, Identity Crises

and Coping Mechanism 33
Non-Verbal Discrimination  34
Verbal Discrimination  37
Physical Discrimination and Sexual Harassment  40
Fear of Discrimination  43
Managing Information Related to Non-Normative Identity
and Coming Out  45
Strategies to Come Out  49
The Impact of Discrimination  52
Identity Crises  54

xi
xii Contents

Living in Fear  55
Courtesy Stigma  56
Coping Mechanism  57
References  62

3 Heteronormativity in the Workplace 63

Heteronormativity in Organisations  66
Married or Gay?  66
Heteronormativity and Body Language  71
Heteronormativity and Gender Appropriate Dressing  75
References  80

4 Queer, Information Technology and Internet: The Virtual

and the Real 81
Internet Gave Me an Identity  86
Discrimination  95
References 103

5 Are Indian Organisations Safe for the LGBTQ Employees?105

Are Some Industries More Accepting Than Others? 111
Can LGBTQ Employees Lead Organisations? 117
Does Diversity and Inclusion Policy Matters? 122
References 126

6 Conclusion127
Need to Start Somewhere 128
Initiating Difficult Conversations 129
Creating Safe Spaces and Giving Space to People 130
Everyone Is Valued 131
When It Is All About Productivity 131
Having a Clear Stand 133

Glossary135

Index139
 CHAPTER 1

Introduction to Gender

It was only just over two decades ago in 1990 that the World Health
Organization removed homosexuality from its list of mental diseases.
Nevertheless, over 70 countries are participating in the United Nations
which still classify homosexuality as a criminal offence. Even in developed
countries which have anti-discrimination law to protect individuals from
the LGBT community, the hate crime that the community has to face has
been one of the highest. Further, the LGBT community is subjected to
non-violent discrimination, indifferent behaviour which is often not
recorded. In India, discrimination, hate crime, violence and stigmatising
attitudes on the LGBT community is often justified on the bases of social,
religious and traditional beliefs and value system. Before we deep dive into
this topic, we would briefly like to introduce our readers about the research
methodology and approach while writing this book. We have explained
the research methodology in detail in the preface of this book, so we will
keep it short over here.

Research Methodology
This book is the result of over five years of research, observation and inter-
action with the LGBTQ community from various parts of India. Since we
wanted to explore the issues of queer and non-normative sexual orientation
and gender identities specifically at the workplace, and to record the experi-
ences and voices of the individuals from the community at their workplace,

© The Author(s) 2020 1

S. Palo, K. K. Jha, Queer at Work,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-8562-9_1
2 S. PALO AND K. K. JHA

our approach for the research has been qualitative. We started this research
with semi-structured in-depth interviews in the metropolitan city of
Mumbai and Hyderabad. Over the years, we have been able to be present
and observe various spaces in the society that have been considered as safe
spaces by some individuals from the LGBTQ community. We have also
mentioned reflections on our journey while undertaking this research. At
some places, the readers will see the use of the pronoun “I,” while at other
spaces we have used the pronoun “We.” The places where the pronoun “I”
has been used is an insider perspective on the LGBTQ community given by
one of our co-authors. We have tried to keep the language as simple as pos-
sible, but we have not defined the meaning of terms such as gay, lesbian,
queer, cis-gender and so on. During the research, we have often noticed
that a few words were misunderstood, the meaning of some words was not
clear to many individuals and some words were often used interchangeably
due to lack of awareness by many people in the society and, at times,
even by individuals who are from the community. So we have given a glos-
sary towards the end of the book with the definition of some of these
words. We advise the readers to go through these words even when they
think they are aware of them. One way of making this exercise interesting
is that the readers can first see the word, try to define it on their own and
then see if there is any difference in their definition and the definition given
in the glossary. However, we do not claim that these definitions are most
apt and various factors affect the way they may be used.
Another thing that the readers will notice while reading this book is that
at most of the places we have used acronym LGBT, while at other places we
have used the acronym LGBTQ, LGBTQIA or LGB or queer to describe
the community. There is a difference between all of them and their usage.
Most of us would be aware that the acronym LGBT stands for Lesbian, Gay,
Bisexual and Transgender. When we use the acronym LGBTQ, LGBTQIA
or the word queer we are referring to the larger community which includes
various identities such as intersex, asexual, pansexual and attempts to include
minority and non-normative gender and sexual orientation identities.
Similarly, when we use the acronym LGB or LBT, then we are only referring
to Lesbian-Gay-Bisexual individuals and Lesbian-Bisexual-Transgender
individuals respectively. The reasons for excluding “T” at some places is
because there have been some changes in the legal recognition of the trans-
gender community in India and the transgender community may have legal
rights with respects to their ­non-­normative identity which individuals from
the gay, bisexual and queer community may not have. This is mainly because
 1 INTRODUCTION TO GENDER 3

the NALSA verdict (National Legal Services Authority v. Union of India

verdict) which legally recognised transgenders as the “third gender” was
passed before the decriminalisation of Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code
(IPC). We have briefly attempted to cover the NALSA verdict and Section
377 of the IPC in various chapters of this book.
The period of data collection for this book has majorly been during
2013 to 2018, a time when homosexuality was considered a criminal activ-
ity in India. We believe that this makes the research interesting and one of
its kind, as it records voices of individuals from the queer community at a
time where the act of even consensual same-sex activity was criminalised
by the Supreme Court which ruled out the High Court verdict of decrimi-
nalisation of homosexuality in the year 2009. Since the Supreme Court
had re-criminalised homosexuality in 2013, many individuals from the
community who had come out or were planning to come out had to go
back in the closet. In this chapter and subsequently in the book, we have
also attempted to answer if a change in the law facilitates any positive
change in the lives of the LGBTQ individuals.

Introduction and Historical Context

There has been an account of the existence of the queer community
throughout Indian history. Today, these historical accounts are often
brought in as an argument by LGBT right activists, and allies in the debate
against the stereotypical believe that LGBT identities are a gift of western
culture. On the contrary, in India, there have been various accounts that
help us to conclude that people from the LGBT community have existed
even before the British invasion. Further, people from the community have
been recognised and accepted as a part of the society in the pre-­British
colonisation era. It was the western societies that have been responsible for
suppressing sexuality. Foucault (1976) writes about the way sexuality was
suppressed by the western societies from the seventeenth to mid-twentieth
centuries as a result of the rise of capitalism and bourgeois society in the
first volume of History of Sexuality. It was a result of this suppression that
Section 377 of the penal code which criminalised homosexuality was intro-
duced in the British colonies—a regressive law that existed in India till late
2018 and criminalised even consensual same sex between adults. Today,
most of these western societies have been trying to rectify their mistakes
and problems caused due to suppression of human sexuality. This is not
only leading to higher acceptance of the LGBT community and sexual
minorities but also helping the societies to be more aware and open about
4 S. PALO AND K. K. JHA

gender and sexuality. These societies are now moving beyond the tradi-
tional gender model, and people are relatively more open towards having
conversations around a subject which was/is considered taboo for a very
long time. It is not that all individuals in these societies agree with these
attempts of rectification, but these societies have been able to create space
for difficult conversations successfully and have recognised LGBT rights as
human rights. These conversations, attempts around rectification of past
mistakes undertaken predominantly by the western society, and lack of
awareness and/or partial rejection of the historical development of human
sexuality lead individuals/groups in India to think that recognising
LGBTQ rights is a western conspiracy that intends to bestialise and infect
their own culture.
One of our observations was that most individuals who identified as
heterosexuals in India and, at times, even self-identifying individuals from
the LGBT community did not know much about the LGBT community
and their perceptions of the community were based on common stereo-
types. We realised that the primary reasons for these biases, questions and
curiosity that a large part of Indian society has towards the community are
a result of the traditional understanding of gender model and lack of
awareness on the issues of sexuality—which does include not only non-­
normative sexuality and gender identities but also normative ones. This is
not surprising in a country where it is still debated if sex education should
be part of school education curriculum. Nevertheless, we also felt that
more people were open to having discussions and that it was not very dif-
ficult for us to initiate conversations which are considered to be difficult
and tabooed.

Traditional Understanding of Gender

Traditional understanding of gender categorises gender into two catego-
ries of male and female depending on the biological sex of the individ-
ual, thus viewing gender in a binary. It is the biological sex of the
individual that defines the boundaries of gender identity, gender role
and its sexual orientation to the opposite gender. Even though India is a
nation with enormous cultural diversity—gender role, gender identity
and sexual orientation of the individual is based on the traditional model
of gender where the role and identities of men and women have clear
demarcation. Even in few matriarchal societies gender role and identities
of its people, though different from patriarchy, is based on traditional gender
 1 INTRODUCTION TO GENDER 5

model where biology becomes destiny. Thus, a child born with a penis
would be considered male, would be expected to be self-identified and
also collectively identified with/by the socially constructed identity of a
man most apt to that society, expected to adhere to the cultural defini-
tion of masculinity, perform all the roles that is appropriated for a man
in that particular society and have sexual orientation towards the oppo-
site gender that is a woman. Similarly, a child born with a vagina is
labelled as a female, expected to be feminine, play the role that is consid-
ered appropriate in that society and have a preference for the opposite
gender that is a man. Anything that does not fit in with the above model
is considered as non-­normative and deviant—often resulting in the soci-
ety taking or considering “corrective” measures which cause discrimina-
tion, stigma and violation of the individual’s human rights. Though
what is considered appropriate by the traditional gender model has
evolved over a period of time, and there is an increasing overlap between
the gender role and the identity of men and women—a majority of the
society(ies) still has/have not been able to move beyond the binary of
the traditional gender model. It is difficult to do away with these identi-
ties and concepts as a result of constant direct and indirect conditioning
which begins as soon the child is born or even before that when the
gender of the foetus is determined in the mother’s womb.

Conditioning and Bias

One of the instances where I realised the depth of integration of these
conditionings in human nature was when I was finding it difficult to switch
from a female to male pronoun for a friend whom I had known for a very
long time after his coming out to me. Even after reading and being
exposed to gender theories, I would address this friend in the female pro-
noun only to realise after I had spoken that I was using the wrong pro-
noun—correcting myself and again making the same mistake. I was finding
it challenging to address my friend in the desired pronoun as I had known
him for a very long time and had got used to addressing him with a female
pronoun. I had to be really reflexive and mindful of my speech to not
repeat my mistakes. Before this instance, I thought that I was very mindful
and sensitive at least with gender issues. It was then I realised that it was
so challenging to do away with the conditioning just because I had got
used to and was comfortable with it. I could understand the reasons that
it is difficult for a society to have even positive changes that lead to the
6 S. PALO AND K. K. JHA

inclusion and celebration of diversity as a result of conditioning which

would make most members/institutions in the society uncomfortable. In
fact, we are so comfortable and used to the gendered language that most
would like to keep their comfort and privilege even at the cost of lives of
other individuals who do not conform to the norms in the same society.

The Gender Quiz

Due to our work in the area of gender, we had opportunities to provide
gender and sexual harassment training to organisations and individuals
across India. During these training interventions, we decided that we will
test if providing gender sensitivity training to individuals actually makes
them sensitive towards concepts and issues related to gender. So we devel-
oped the gender quiz. First, we discussed the traditional gender model
where the biological sex of an individual determines the gender role, gen-
der identity and sexual orientation with our participants. While explaining
the same, we would also ask our participants to list and discuss the gender
bias or segregation that they have witnessed as a result of the traditional
gender model that we have been living in. After this, we discussed the
authentic gender model which is given by Samuel Lurie.

Authentic Gender Model

The authentic gender model, given by Samuel Lurie, gives room for inclu-
sion of more gender expression. Authentic gender model overcomes the
shortcoming of the traditional gender model which is based on a binary
system of recognising biological sex as male or female, gender role as mas-
culine or feminine, gender identity as a man or a woman, and sexual orien-
tation towards only the opposite biological sex leaving room for recognition
of only heterosexual individuals. In the authentic gender model, intersex is
included as a biological gender which leads to the recognition of more than
two biological sexes, thus negating the gender binary. Further, in gender
roles, androgynous roles are also included. The stereotype that an individ-
ual with certain biological sex is supposed to play only the appropriate role
to their sex is also broken. This model further recognises “unique” gender
identity which are/might be different from the traditional gender identity
that is again based on the biological sex at the birth of an individual. This
model recognises that an individual may or may not identify with the tra-
ditional gender identities and thus have unique or queer gender identity/
Exploring the Variety of Random
Documents with Different Content
The Project Gutenberg eBook of John Marvel,
Assistant
This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States
and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no
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Title: John Marvel, Assistant

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Most recently updated: October 23, 2024

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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JOHN MARVEL,

ASSISTANT ***
JOHN MARVEL
ASSISTANT
BY THOMAS NELSON PAGE
ILLUSTRATED BY
JAMES MONTGOMERY FLAGG
NEW YORK
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
1909
Copyright, 1909, by
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
Published October, 1909

TO THOSE LOVED ONES

WHOSE NEVER FAILING SYMPATHY HAS
LED ME ALL THESE YEARS
"To ply your old trade?" I asked.
 CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I. My First Failure 1
II. The Jew and the Christian 5
III. The Fight 16
IV. Delilah 26
V. The Hare and the Tortoise 36
VI. The Meteor 44
VII. The Hegira 55
VIII. Padan-Aram 67
IX. I Pitch My Tent 84
X. A New Girl 103
XI. Eleanor Leigh 114
XII. John Marvel 138
XIII. Mr. Leigh 147
XIV. Miss Leigh Seeks Work 154
XV. The Lady of the Violets 172
XVI. The Shadow of Sham 186
XVII. The Gulf 198
XVIII. The Drummer 215
XIX. Re-enter Peck 227
XX. My First Client 245
XXI. The Resurrection of Dix 259
XXII. The Preacher 275
XXIII. Mrs. Argand 286
XXIV. Wolffert's Mission 305
XXV. Fate Leads 319
 XXVI. Coll McSheen's Methods 339
XXVII. The Shadow 354
XXVIII. The Walking Delegate 361
XXIX. My Confession 381
XXX. Seeking One That Was Lost 398
XXXI. John Marvel's Raid 416
XXXII. Doctor Caiaphas 430
XXXIII. The Peace-maker 453
XXXIV. The Flag of Truce 465
XXXV. Mr. Leigh has a Proposal of Marriage Made Him 493
XXXVI. The Riot and Its Victim 507
XXXVII. Wolffert's Neighbors 517
XXXVIII. Wolffert's Philosophy 527
XXXIX. The Conflict 539
XL. The Curtain 563
 ILLUSTRATIONS
"To ply your old trade?" I asked Frontispiece
Wolffert ... was cursing me with all the eloquence of a
20
rich vocabulary
"Hi! What you doin'?" he stammered 60
"But you must not come in" 140
"Perhaps, you are the man yourself?" she added
302
insolently
"Speak her soft, Galley" 412
"I suppose it is necessary that we should at least
468
appear to be exchanging the ordinary inanities"
I am sure it was on that stream that Halcyone found
556
retreat
JOHN MARVEL, ASSISTANT
 I
MY FIRST FAILURE
I shall feel at liberty to tell my story in my own way; rambling along
at my own gait; now going from point to point; now tearing ahead;
now stopping to rest or to ruminate, and even straying from the
path whenever I think a digression will be for my own enjoyment.
I shall begin with my college career, a period to which I look back
now with a pleasure wholly incommensurate with what I achieved in
it; which I find due to the friends I made and to the memories I
garnered there in a time when I possessed the unprized treasures of
youth: spirits, hope, and abounding conceit. As these memories,
with the courage (to use a mild term) that a college background
gives, are about all that I got out of my life there, I shall dwell on
them only enough to introduce two or three friends and one enemy,
who played later a very considerable part in my life.
My family was an old and distinguished one; that is, it could be
traced back about two hundred years, and several of my ancestors
had accomplished enough to be known in the history of the State—a
fact of which I was so proud that I was quite satisfied at college to
rest on their achievements, and felt no need to add to its distinction
by any labors of my own.
We had formerly been well off; we had, indeed, at one time prior to
the Revolutionary War, owned large estates—a time to which I was
so fond of referring when I first went to college that one of my
acquaintances, named Peck, an envious fellow, observed one day
that I thought I had inherited all the kingdoms of the earth and the
glory of them. My childhood was spent on an old plantation, so far
removed from anything that I have since known that it might almost
have been in another planet.
It happened that I was the only child of my parents who survived,
the others having been carried off in early childhood by a scourge of
scarlet fever, to which circumstance, as I look back, I now know was
due my mother's sadness of expression when my father was not
present. I was thus subjected to the perils and great misfortune of
being an only child, among them that of thinking the sun rises and
sets for his especial benefit. I must say that both my father and
mother tried faithfully to do their part to counteract this danger, and
they not only believed firmly in, but acted consistently on, the
Solomonic doctrine that to spare the rod is to spoil the child. My
father, I must say, was more lenient, and I think gladly evaded the
obligation as interpreted by my mother, declaring that Solomon, like
a good many other persons, was much wiser in speech than in
practice. He was fond of quoting the custom of the ancient
Scythians, who trained their youth to ride, to shoot, and to speak
the truth. And in this last particular he was inexorable.
Among my chief intimates as a small boy was a little darkey named
"Jeams." Jeams was the grandson of one of our old servants—Uncle
Ralph Woodson. Jeams, who was a few years my senior, was a
sharp-witted boy, as black as a piece of old mahogany, and had a
head so hard that he could butt a plank off a fence. Naturally he and
I became cronies, and he picked up information on various subjects
so readily that I found him equally agreeable and useful.
My father was admirably adapted to the conditions that had created
such a character, but as unsuited to the new conditions that
succeeded the collapse of the old life as a shorn lamb would be to
the untempered wind of winter. He was a Whig and an aristocrat of
the strongest type, and though in practice he was the kindest and
most liberal of men, he always maintained that a gentleman was the
choicest fruit of civilization; a standard, I may say, in which the
personal element counted with him far more than family connection.
"A king can make a nobleman, sir," he used to say; "but it takes
Jehovah to make a gentleman." When the war came, though he was
opposed to "Locofocoism" as he termed it, he enlisted as a private
as soon as the State seceded, and fought through the war, rising to
be a major and surrendering at Appomattox. When the war closed,
he shut himself up on his estate, accepting the situation without
moroseness, and consoling himself with a philosophy much more
misanthropic in expression than in practice.
My father's slender patrimony had been swept away by the war, but,
being a scholar himself, and having a high idea of classical learning
and a good estimate of my abilities—in which latter view I entirely
agreed with him—he managed by much stinting to send me to
college out of the fragments of his establishment. I admired greatly
certain principles which were stamped in him as firmly as a fossil is
embedded in the solid rock; but I fear I had a certain contempt for
what appeared to me his inadequacy to the new state of things, and
I secretly plumed myself on my superiority to him in all practical
affairs. Without the least appreciation of the sacrifices he was
making to send me to college, I was an idle dog and plunged into
the amusements of the gay set—that set whose powers begin below
their foreheads—in which I became a member and aspired to be a
leader.
My first episode at college brought me some éclat.
 II
THE JEW AND THE CHRISTIAN
I arrived rather late and the term had already begun, so that all the
desirable rooms had been taken. I was told that I would either have
to room out of college or take quarters with a young man by the
name of Wolffert—like myself, a freshman. I naturally chose the
latter. On reaching my quarters, I found my new comrade to be an
affable, gentlemanly fellow, and very nice looking. Indeed, his broad
brow, with curling brown hair above it; his dark eyes, deep and
luminous; a nose the least bit too large and inclining to be aquiline;
a well-cut mouth with mobile, sensitive lips, and a finely chiselled
jaw, gave him an unusual face, if not one of distinction. He was
evidently bent on making himself agreeable to me, and as he had
read an extraordinary amount for a lad of his age and I, who had
also read some, was lonely, we had passed a pleasant evening when
he mentioned casually a fact which sent my heart down into my
boots. He was a Jew. This, then, accounted for the ridge of his well-
carved nose, and the curl of his soft brown hair. I tried to be as frank
and easy as I had been before, but it was a failure. He saw my
surprise as I saw his disappointment—a coolness took the place of
the warmth that had been growing up between us for several hours,
and we passed a stiff evening. He had already had one room-mate.
Next day, I found a former acquaintance who offered to take me into
his apartment, and that afternoon, having watched for my
opportunity, I took advantage of my room-mate's absence and
moved out, leaving a short note saying that I had discovered an old
friend who was very desirous that I should share his quarters. When
I next met Wolffert, he was so stiff, that although I felt sorry for him
and was ready to be as civil as I might, our acquaintance thereafter
became merely nominal. I saw in fact, little of him during the next
months, for he soon forged far ahead of me. There was, indeed, no
one in his class who possessed his acquirements or his ability. I used
to see him for a while standing in his doorway looking wistfully out
at the groups of students gathered under the trees, or walking
alone, like Isaac in the fields, and until I formed my own set, I would
have gone and joined him or have asked him to join us but for his
rebuff. I knew that he was lonely; for I soon discovered that the cold
shoulder was being given to him by most of the students. I could
not, however, but feel that it served him right for the "airs" he put
on with me. That he made a brilliant exhibition in his classes and
was easily the cleverest man in the class did not affect our attitude
toward him; perhaps, it only aggravated the case. Why should he be
able to make easily a demonstration at the blackboard that the
cleverest of us only bungled through? One day, however, we learned
that the Jew had a room-mate. Bets were freely taken that he would
not stick, but he stuck—for it was John Marvel. Not that any of us
knew what John Marvel was; for even I, who, except Wolffert, came
to know him best, did not divine until many years later what a
nugget of unwrought gold that homely, shy, awkward John Marvel
was!
It appeared that Wolffert had a harder time than any of us dreamed
of.
He had come to the institution against the advice of his father, and
for a singular reason: he thought it the most liberal institution of
learning in the country! Little he knew of the narrowness of youth!
His mind was so receptive that all that passed through it was
instantly appropriated. Like a plant, he drew sustenance from the
atmosphere about him and transmuted what was impalpable to us to
forms of beauty. He was even then a man of independent thought; a
dreamer who peopled the earth with ideals, and saw beneath the
stony surface of the commonplace the ideals and principles that
were to reconstruct and resurrect the world. An admirer of the Law
in its ideal conception, he reprobated, with the fury of the Baptist,
the generation that had belittled and cramped it to an instrument of
torture of the human mind, and looked to the millenial coming of
universal brotherhood and freedom.
His father was a leading man in his city; one who, by his native
ability and the dynamic force that seems to be a characteristic of the
race, had risen from poverty to the position of chief merchant and
capitalist of the town in which he lived. He had been elected mayor
in a time of stress; but his popularity among the citizens generally
had cost him, as I learned later, something among his own people.
The breadth of his views had not been approved by them.
The abilities that in the father had taken this direction of the
mingling of the practical and the theoretical had, in the son, taken
the form I have stated. He was an idealist: a poet and a dreamer.
The boy from the first had discovered powers that had given his
father the keenest delight, not unmingled with a little misgiving. As
he grew up among the best class of boys in his town, and became
conscious that he was not one of them, his inquiring and aspiring
mind began early to seek the reasons for the difference. Why should
he be held a little apart from them? He was a Jew. Yes, but why
should a Jew be held apart? They talked about their families. Why,
his family could trace back for two thousand and more years to
princes and kings. They had a different religion. But he saw other
boys with different religions going and playing together. They were
Christians, and believed in Christ, while the Jew, etc. This puzzled
him till he found that some of them—a few—did not hold the same
views of Christ with the others. Then he began to study for himself,
boy as he was, the history of Christ, and out of it came questions
that his father could not answer and was angry that he should put to
him. He went to a young Rabbi who told him that Christ was a good
man, but mistaken in His claims.
So, the boy drifted a little apart from his own people, and more and
more he studied the questions that arose in his mind, and more and
more he suffered; but more and more he grew strong.
The father, too proud of his son's independence to coerce him by an
order which might have been a law to him, had, nevertheless,
thrown him on his own resources and cut him down to the lowest
figure on which he could live, confident that his own opinions would
be justified and his son return home.
Wolffert's first experience very nearly justified this conviction. The
fact that a Jew had come and taken one of the old apartments
spread through the college with amazing rapidity and created a
sensation. Not that there had not been Jews there before, for there
had been a number there at one time or another. But they were
members of families of distinction, who had been known for
generations as bearing their part in all the appointments of life, and
had consorted with other folk on an absolute equality; so that there
was little or nothing to distinguish them as Israelites except their
name. If they were Israelites, it was an accident and played no
larger part in their views than if they had been Scotch or French. But
here was a man who proclaimed himself a Jew; who proposed that it
should be known, and evidently meant to assert his rights and
peculiarities on all occasions. The result was that he was subjected
to a species of persecution which only the young Anglo-Saxon, the
most brutal of all animals, could have devised.
As college filled rapidly, it soon became necessary to double up, that
is, put two men in one apartment. The first student assigned to live
with Wolffert was Peck, a sedate and cool young man—like myself,
from the country, and like myself, very short of funds. Peck would
not have minded rooming with a Jew, or, for that matter, with the
Devil, if he had thought he could get anything out of him; for he had
few prejudices, and when it came to calculation, he was the
multiplication-table. But Peck had his way to make, and he coolly
decided that a Jew was likely to make him bear his full part of the
expenses—which he never had any mind to do. So he looked
around, and within forty-eight hours moved to a place out of college
where he got reduced board on the ground of belonging to some
peculiar set of religionists, of which I am convinced he had never
heard till he learned of the landlady's idiosyncrasy.
I had incurred Peck's lasting enmity—though I did not know it at the
time—by a witticism at his expense. We had never taken to each
other from the first, and one evening, when someone was talking
about Wolffert, Peck joined in and said that that institution was no
place for any Jew. I said, "Listen to Peck sniff. Peck, how did you get
in?" This raised a laugh. Peck, I am sure, had never read "Martin
Chuzzlewit"; but I am equally sure he read it afterward, for he never
forgave me.
Then came my turn and desertion which I have described. And then,
after that interval of loneliness, appeared John Marvel.
Wolffert, who was one of the most social men I ever knew, was
sitting in his room meditating on the strange fate that had made him
an outcast among the men whom he had come there to study and
know. This was my interpretation of his thoughts: he would probably
have said he was thinking of the strange prejudices of the human
race—prejudices to which he had been in some sort a victim all his
life, as his race had been all through the ages. He was steeped in
loneliness, and as, in the mellow October afternoon, the sound of
good-fellowship floated in at his window from the lawn outside, he
grew more and more dejected. One evening it culminated. He even
thought of writing to his father that he would come home and go
into his office and accept the position that meant wealth and luxury
and power. Just then there was a step outside, and someone
stopped and after a moment, knocked at the door. Wolffert rose and
opened it and stood facing a new student—a florid, round-faced,
round-bodied, bow-legged, blue-eyed, awkward lad of about his own
age.
"Is this number ——?" demanded the newcomer, peering curiously at
the dingy door and half shyly looking up at the occupant.
"It is. Why?" Wolffert spoke abruptly.
"Well, I have been assigned to this apartment by the Proctor. I am a
new student and have just come. My name is Marvel—John Marvel."
Wolffert put his arms across the doorway and stood in the middle of
it.
"Well, I want to tell you before you come in that I am a Jew. You are
welcome not to come, but if you come I want you to stay." Perhaps
the other's astonishment contained a query, for he went on hotly:
"I have had two men come here already and both of them left after
one day. The first said he got cheaper board, which was a legitimate
excuse—if true—the other said he had found an old friend who
wanted him. I am convinced that he lied and that the only reason he
left was that I am a Jew. And now you can come in or not, as you
please, but if you come you must stay." He was looking down in
John Marvel's eyes with a gaze that had the concentrated bitterness
of generations in it, and the latter met it with a gravity that
deepened into pity.
"I will come in and I will stay; Jesus was a Jew," said the man on
the lower step.
"I do not know him," said the other bitterly.
"But you will. I know Him."
Wolffert's arms fell and John Marvel entered and stayed.
That evening the two men went to the supper hall together. Their
table was near mine and they were the observed of all observers.
The one curious thing was that John Marvel was studying for the
ministry. It lent zest to the jokes that were made on this incongruous
pairing, and jests, more or less insipid, were made on the Law and
the Prophets; the lying down together of the lion and the lamb, etc.
It was a curious mating—the light-haired, moon-faced, slow-witted
Saxon, and the dark, keen Jew with his intellectual face and his
deep-burning eyes in which glowed the misery and mystery of the
ages.
John Marvel soon became well known; for he was one of the slowest
men in the college. With his amusing awkwardness, he would have
become a butt except for his imperturbable good-humor. As it was,
he was for a time a sort of object of ridicule to many of us—myself
among the number—and we had many laughs at him. He would
disappear on Saturday night and not turn up again till Monday
morning, dusty and disheveled. And many jests were made at his
expense. One said that Marvel was practising preaching in the
mountains with a view to becoming a second Demosthenes; another
suggested that, if so, the mountains would probably get up and run
into the sea.
When, however, it was discovered later that he had a Sunday-school
in the mountains, and walked twelve miles out and twelve miles
back, most of the gibers, except the inveterate humorists like myself,
were silent.
This fact came out by chance. Marvel disappeared from college one
day and remained away for two or three weeks. Wolffert either could
not or would not give any account of him. When Marvel returned, he
looked worn and ill, as if he had been starving, and almost
immediately he was taken ill and went to the infirmary with a case of
fever. Here he was so ill that the doctors quarantined him and no
one saw him except the nurse—old Mrs. Denny, a wrinkled and bald-
headed, old, fat woman, something between a lightwood knot and
an angel—and Wolffert.
Wolffert moved down and took up his quarters in the infirmary—it
was suggested, with a view to converting Marvel to Judaism—and
here he stayed. The nursing never appeared to make any difference
in Wolffert's preparation for his classes; for when he came back he
still stood easily first. But poor Marvel never caught up again, and
was even more hopelessly lost in the befogged region at the bottom
of the class than ever before. When called on to recite, his brow
would pucker and he would perspire and stammer until the class
would be in ill-suppressed convulsions, all the more enjoyable
because of Leo Wolffert's agonizing over his wretchedness. Then
Marvel, excused by the professor, would sit down and mop his brow
and beam quite as if he had made a wonderful performance (which
indeed, he had), while Wolffert's thin face would grow whiter, his
nostrils quiver, and his deep eyes burn like coals.
One day a spare, rusty man with a frowzy beard, and a lank,
stooping woman strolled into the college grounds, and after
wandering around aimlessly for a time, asked for Mr. Marvel. Each of
them carried a basket. They were directed to his room and remained
with him some time, and when they left, he walked some distance
with them.
It was at first rumored and then generally reported that they were
Marvel's father and mother. It became known later that they were a
couple of poor mountaineers named Shiflett, whose child John
Marvel had nursed when it had the fever. They had just learned of
his illness and had come down to bring him some chickens and other
things which they thought he might need.
This incident, with the knowledge of Marvel's devotion, made some
impression on us, and gained for Marvel, and incidentally for
Wolffert, some sort of respect.
 III
THE FIGHT
All this time I was about as far aloof from Marvel and Wolffert as I
was from any one in the college.
I rather liked Marvel, partly because he appeared to like me and I
helped him in his Latin, and partly because Peck sniffed at him, and
Peck I cordially disliked for his cold-blooded selfishness and his
plodding way.
I was strong and active and fairly good-looking, though by no means
so handsome as I fancied myself when I passed the large plate-glass
windows in the stores; I was conceited, but not arrogant except to
my family and those I esteemed my inferiors; was a good poker-
player; was open-handed enough, for it cost me nothing; and was
inclined to be kind by nature.
I had, moreover, several accomplishments which led to a certain
measure of popularity. I had a retentive memory, and could get up a
recitation with little trouble; though I forgot about as quickly as I
learned. I could pick a little on a banjo; could spout fluently what
sounded like a good speech if one did not listen to me; could write,
what someone has said, looked at a distance like poetry and, thanks
to my father, could both fence and read Latin. These
accomplishments served to bring me into the best set in college and,
in time, to undo me. For there is nothing more dangerous to a young
man than an exceptional social accomplishment. A tenor voice is
almost as perilous as a taste for drink; and to play the guitar, about
as seductive as to play poker.
I was soon to know Wolffert better. He and Marvel, after their work
became known, had been admitted rather more within the circle,
though they were still kept near the perimeter. And thus, as the
spring came on, when we all assembled on pleasant afternoons
under the big trees that shaded the green slopes above the athletic
field, even Wolffert and Marvel were apt to join us. I would long ago
have made friends with Wolffert, as some others had done since he
distinguished himself; for I had been ashamed of my poltroonery in
leaving him; but, though he was affable enough with others, he
always treated me with such marked reserve that I had finally
abandoned my charitable effort to be on easy terms with him.
One spring afternoon we were all loafing under the trees, many of
us stretched out on the grass. I had just saved a game of baseball
by driving a ball that brought in three men from the bases, and I
was surrounded by quite a group. Marvel, who was as strong as an
ox, was second-baseman on the other nine and had missed the ball
as the center-fielder threw it wildly. Something was said—I do not
recall what—and I raised a laugh at Marvel's expense, in which he
joined heartily. Then a discussion began on the merits in which
Wolffert joined. I started it, but as Wolffert appeared excited, I drew
out and left it to my friends.
Presently, at something Wolffert said, I turned to a friend, Sam
Pleasants, and said in a half-aside, with a sneer: "He did not see it;
Sam, you—" I nodded my head, meaning, "You explain it."
Suddenly, Wolffert rose to his feet and, without a word of warning,
poured out on me such a torrent of abuse as I never heard before or
since. His least epithet was a deadly insult. It was out of a clear sky,
and for a moment my breath was quite taken away. I sprang to my
feet and, with a roar of rage, made a rush for him. But he was
ready, and with a step to one side, planted a straight blow on my
jaw that, catching me unprepared, sent me full length on my back. I
was up in a second and made another rush for him, only to be
caught in the same way and sent down again.
When I rose the second time, I was cooler. I knew then that I was in
for it. Those blows were a boxer's. They came straight from the
shoulder and were as quick as lightning, with every ounce of the
giver's weight behind them. By this time, however, the crowd had
interfered. This was no place for a fight, they said. The professors
would come on us. Several were holding me and as many more had
Wolffert; among them, John Marvel, who could have lifted him in his
strong arms and held him as a baby. Marvel was pleading with him
with tears in his eyes. Wolffert was cool enough now, but he took no
heed of his friend's entreaties. Standing quite still, with the blaze in
his eyes all the more vivid because of the pallor of his face, he was
looking over his friend's head and was cursing me with all the
eloquence of a rich vocabulary. So far as he was concerned, there
might not have been another man but myself within a mile.
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