The Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck [262]
5 *black-tongue: Used here as a colloquialism for pellagra. See note 2 for Chapter 21 below.
CHAPTER 20
1 *Durham: Bull Durham tobacco.
CHAPTER 21
1 *people: In the typescript, this was followed by a paragraph Steinbeck later eliminated: “Once the Germans in their hordes came to the rich margin of Rome; and they came timidly, saying we have been driven give us land. And the Romans armed the frontier and built forts against the hordes of need. And the legions patrolled the borders, cased in metal, armed with the best steel. And the barbarians came, naked, across the boarder, humbly, humbly. They received the swords in their breasts and marched on; and their dead bore down the swords and the barbarians marched on and took the land. And they were driven by their need, and they conquered with their need. In battle the women fought in the line, and the yellow-haired children lay in the grass with knives to hamstring the legionaries, to snick through the hamstrings of the horses. But the legions had no needs, no wills, no force. And the best trained, best armed troops in the world went down before the hordes of need.”
2 pellagra: A nutritional disorder caused by a poor diet, especially one deficient in niacin (nicotinic acid), a member of the vitamin B family. Symptoms include skin lesions, gastrointestinal discomfort, neurological disturbances, dermatitis, diarrhea, and dementia.
CHAPTER 22
1 *It was still dark when he awakened. . . . maybe we could get you on: For this scene Steinbeck revised an earlier first-person narration, “Breakfast,” which appeared in Pacific Weekly 5 (November 9, 1936), p. 300, and was reprinted in his short story collection, The Long Valley (New York: The Viking Press, 1938).
2 *Farmers’ Association . . . Bank of the West: On the galley sheets Carol Steinbeck responded to a Viking Press editor’s question regarding possible libel suit over these names: “Real names are Associated Farmers and Bank of America.” Steinbeck added: “probably shoot me as it is!”
3 *frawny: In a note addressed to his editor on the galley sheets Steinbeck wrote: “Beautiful word—means sweat and dust mixed.”
4 Salvation Army: International nonsectarian Christian organization founded in England in 1861 began work in the United States in 1880 to serve the impoverished and needy. During the Depression its change from the ideal of providing spiritual and personal counseling to the direct method of providing charity caused resentment in some groups.
CHAPTER 23
1 recruit against Geronimo: In 1885-1886 the U.S. Army, with as many as five thousand white soldiers and five hundred Indian auxiliaries, conducted a vigorous campaign in Arizona and Mexico to recapture Chiricahua Apache leader Geronimo (1829-1909) and a small band of his followers who refused to be confined to a reservation in San Carlos, Arizona. In early September, 1886, Geronimo surrendered.
2 “As I Walked through the Streets of Laredo”: “Streets of Laredo” or “The Cowboy’s Lament,” a popular Western ballad about a dying cowboy written around 1860, is modeled on a traditional Irish melody.
CHAPTER 24
1 *“Down Home Blues”: Words and music by Tom Delaney; first recorded by Ethel Waters in April, 1921.
2 Gregorio’s: Fictional name for DiGiorgio Fruit Corporation, founded by Sicilian immigrant Joseph A. DiGiorgio, in San Joaquin Valley. In 1937 his productive acreage was 40,000 acres, making his industrial farm operation one of the largest of its kind in the world.
3 “Ol’ Dan Tucker”: Written by Dan Emmett for the group, Unglula Minstrels, which formed in 1843: “Come to town de udder night, I hear de noise an/ saw de fight, De watch-man was a run-nin roun, cry-in/ Old Dan Tuckers come to town, So get out de way!”
4 *what happened in Akron, Ohio: On February 17, 1936, workers struck at the 14,000 employee Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company in Akron because 137 men had been laid off the third shift after the work day was increased from 6 hours to 8 hours. Although only about 200 of the 14,000 member work force were labor union adherents, thousands of workers left the plant to establish an 11-mile picket line around Goodyear