U.S.A_ - John Dos Passos [45]
Now there were two cops. One of them had the young
man by the shoulders and was trying to pul him loose from the lamppost.
"Come on, Fainy, we'l be late for the show," Maisie kept saying.
"Hey, get a file; the bastard's locked himself to the post," he heard one cop say to the other. By that time Maisie had managed to hustle him to the theater box-office. After al , he'd promised to take her to the show and she hadn't been out al winter. The last thing he saw the cop had hauled off and hit the young guy in the corner of the jaw. Mac sat there in the dark stuffy theater al afternoon. He didn't see the acts or the pictures between the acts. He didn't speak to Maisie. He sat there feeling sick in the pit of his stomach. The boys must be staging a free-speech fight right here in town. Now and then he glanced
-114-at Maisie's face in the dim glow from the stage. It had puffed out a little in wel satisfied curves like a cat sitting by a warm stove, but she was stil a good looker. She'd already forgotten everything and was completely happy looking at the show, her lips parted, her eyes bright, like a little girl at a party. "I guess I've sold out to the sonsobitches al right, al right," he kept saying to him-self. The last number on the programme was Eva Tanguay.
The nasal voice singing I'm Eva Tanguay, I don't care brought Mac out of his sul en trance. Everything sud-denly looked bright and clear to him, the proscenium with its heavy gold fluting, the people's faces in the boxes, the heads in front of him, the tawdry powdery mingling of amber and blue lights on the stage, the scrawny woman flinging herself around inside the rainbow hoop of the spotlight.
The papers say that I'm insane
But . . . I . . . don't . . . care.
Mac got up. "Maisie, I'l meet you at the house. You see the rest of the show. I feel kind of bum." Before she could answer, he'd slipped out past the other people in the row, down the aisle and out. On the street there was nothing but the ordinary Saturday afternoon crowd. Mac walked round and round the downtown district. He didn't even know where I.W.W. headquarters was. He had to
talk to somebody. As he passed the Hotel Brewster he caught a whiff of beer. What he needed was a drink. This way he was going nuts.
At the next corner he went into a saloon and drank four rye whiskies straight. The bar was lined with men drink-ing, treating each other, talking loud about basebal , prizefights, Eva Tanguay and her Salome dance.
Beside Mac was a big redfaced man with a wide-brimmed felt hat on the back of his head. When Mac
-115-reached for his fifth drink this man put his hand on his arm and said, "Pard, have that on me if you don't mind
. . . I'm celebratin' today.""Thanks; here's lookin' at you," said Mac. "Pard, if you don't mind my sayin' so, you're drinkin' like you wanted to drink the whole barrel up at once and not leave any for the rest of us . . . Have a chaser.""Al right, bo," said Mac. "Make it a beer chaser."
"My name's McCreary," said the big man. "I just sold my fruit crop. I'm from up San Jacinto way."
"So's my name McCreary, too," said Mac.
They shook hands heartily.
"By the living jumbo, that's a coincidence . . . We must be kin or pretty near it . . . Where you from, pard?"
you from, pard?"
"I'm from Chicago, but my folks was Irish."
"Mine was from the East, Delaware . . . but it's the good old Scotch-Irish stock." They had more drinks on that. Then they went to
another saloon where they sat in a corner at a table and talked. The big man talked about his ranch and his apricot crop and how his wife was bedridden since his last child had come. "I'm awful fond of the old gal, but what can a fel er do? Can't get gelded just to be true to your wife.""I like my wife swel ," said Mac, "and I've got swel kids. Rose is four and she's beginning to read already and Ed's about learnin' to walk. . . . But hel , before I was married I used to think I might amount to somethin'
in the world . . . I don't mean I thought I was anythin'
in particular . . . You know how it is.""Sure, pard, I used to feel that way when I was a young fel er."