Pacific, the Gulf, the Atlantic and Canada—­and yet, although they did not relish, him or his treatment of them, once here they stayed.  Walking or running or idling about with them one could always hear from one or another that Culhane was too harsh, a “bounder,” an “upstart,” a “cheap pugilist” or “wrestler” at best (I myself thought so at times when I was angry), yet here they were, and here I was, and staying.  He was low, vulgar—­yet here we were.  And yet, meditating on him, I began to think that he was really one of the most remarkable men I had ever known, for these people he dealt with were of all the most difficult to deal with.  In the main they were of that order or condition of mind which springs from (1), too much wealth too easily acquired or inherited; or (2), from a blazing material success, the cause of which was their own savage self-interested viewpoint.  Hence a colder and in some respects a more critical group of men I have never known.  Most of them had already seen so much of life in a libertine way that there was little left to enjoy.  They sniffed at almost everything, Culhane included, and yet they were obviously drawn to him.  I tried to explain this to myself on the ground that there is some iron power in some people which literally compels this, whether one will or no; or that they were in the main so tired of life and so truly selfish and egotistic that it required some such different iron or caviar mood plus such a threatening regimen to make them really take an interest.  Sick as they were, he was about the only thing left on which they could sharpen their teeth with any result.

As I have said, a part of Culhane’s general scheme was to arrange the starting time for the walks and jogs about the long and short blocks so that if one moved along briskly he reached the sanitarium at twelve-thirty and had a few minutes in which to bathe and cool off and change his clothes before entering the dining-room, where, if not at the bathroom door beforehand, Culhane would be waiting, seated at his little table, ready to keep watch on the time and condition of all those due.  Thus one day, a group of us having done the long block in less time than we should have devoted to it, came in panting and rejoicing that we had cut the record by seven minutes.  We did not know that he was around.  But in the dining-room as we entered he scoffed at our achievement.

“You think you’re smart, don’t you?” he said sourly and without any preliminary statement as to how he knew we had done it in less time.  “You come out here and pay me one hundred a week and then you want to be cute and play tricks with your own money and health.  I want you to remember just one thing:  my reputation is just as much involved with the results here as your money.  I don’t need anybody’s money, and I do need my orders obeyed.  Now you all have watches.  You just time yourselves and do that block in the time required.  If you can’t do it, that’s one thing; I can forgive a man too weak or sick to do it.  But I haven’t any use for a mere smart aleck, and I don’t want any more of it, see?”