Maggie: A Girl of the Streets
by
Stephen Crane
Part 2 out of 2
"An' wid all deh bringin' up she had, how could she?"
moaningly she asked of her son. "Wid all deh talkin' wid her I did
an' deh t'ings I tol' her to remember? When a girl is bringed up
deh way I bringed up Maggie, how kin she go teh deh devil?"
Jimmie was transfixed by these questions. He could not
conceive how under the circumstances his mother's daughter and his
sister could have been so wicked.
His mother took a drink from a squdgy bottle that sat on the
table. She continued her lament.
"She had a bad heart, dat girl did, Jimmie. She was wicked
teh deh heart an' we never knowed it."
Jimmie nodded, admitting the fact.
"We lived in deh same house wid her an' I brought her up an'
we never knowed how bad she was."
Jimmie nodded again.
"Wid a home like dis an' a mudder like me, she went teh deh
bad," cried the mother, raising her eyes.
One day, Jimmie came home, sat down in a chair and began to
wriggle about with a new and strange nervousness. At last he spoke
shamefacedly.
"Well, look-a-here, dis t'ing queers us! See? We're queered!
An' maybe it 'ud be better if I--well, I t'ink I kin look 'er up
an'--maybe it 'ud be better if I fetched her home an'--"
The mother started from her chair and broke forth into a storm
of passionate anger.
"What! Let 'er come an' sleep under deh same roof wid her
mudder agin! Oh, yes, I will, won't I? Sure? Shame on yehs,
Jimmie Johnson, for sayin' such a t'ing teh yer own mudder--teh yer
own mudder! Little did I t'ink when yehs was a babby playin' about
me feet dat ye'd grow up teh say sech a t'ing teh yer mudder--yer
own mudder. I never taut--"
Sobs choked her and interrupted her reproaches.
"Dere ain't nottin' teh raise sech hell about," said Jimmie.
"I on'y says it 'ud be better if we keep dis t'ing dark, see?
It queers us! See?"
His mother laughed a laugh that seemed to ring through the
city and be echoed and re-echoed by countless other laughs.
"Oh, yes, I will, won't I! Sure!"
"Well, yeh must take me fer a damn fool," said Jimmie,
indignant at his mother for mocking him. "I didn't say we'd make
'er inteh a little tin angel, ner nottin', but deh way it is now
she can queer us! Don' che see?"
"Aye, she'll git tired of deh life atter a while an' den
she'll wanna be a-comin' home, won' she, deh beast! I'll let 'er
in den, won' I?"
"Well, I didn' mean none of dis prod'gal bus'ness anyway,"
explained Jimmie.
"It wasn't no prod'gal dauter, yeh damn fool," said the
mother. "It was prod'gal son, anyhow."
"I know dat," said Jimmie.
For a time they sat in silence. The mother's eyes gloated on
a scene her imagination could call before her. Her lips were set
in a vindictive smile.
"Aye, she'll cry, won' she, an' carry on, an' tell how Pete,
or some odder feller, beats 'er an' she'll say she's sorry an' all
dat an' she ain't happy, she ain't, an' she wants to come home agin,
she does."
With grim humor, the mother imitated the possible wailing
notes of the daughter's voice.
"Den I'll take 'er in, won't I, deh beast. She kin cry 'er two eyes out
on deh stones of deh street before I'll dirty deh place wid her.
She abused an' ill-treated her own mudder--her own mudder what
loved her an' she'll never git anodder chance dis side of hell."
Jimmie thought he had a great idea of women's frailty, but he
could not understand why any of his kin should be victims.
"Damn her," he fervidly said.
Again he wondered vaguely if some of the women of his acquaintance
had brothers. Nevertheless, his mind did not for an instant
confuse himself with those brothers nor his sister with theirs.
After the mother had, with great difficulty, suppressed the
neighbors, she went among them and proclaimed her grief.
"May Gawd forgive dat girl," was her continual cry. To attentive
ears she recited the whole length and breadth of her woes.
"I bringed 'er up deh way a dauter oughta be bringed up an'
dis is how she served me! She went teh deh devil deh first chance
she got! May Gawd forgive her."
When arrested for drunkenness she used the story of her
daughter's downfall with telling effect upon the police justices.
Finally one of them said to her, peering down over his spectacles:
"Mary, the records of this and other courts show that you are the
mother of forty-two daughters who have been ruined. The case
is unparalleled in the annals of this court, and this court
thinks--"
The mother went through life shedding large tears of sorrow.
Her red face was a picture of agony.
Of course Jimmie publicly damned his sister that he might
appear on a higher social plane. But, arguing with himself,
stumbling about in ways that he knew not, he, once, almost came to
a conclusion that his sister would have been more firmly good had
she better known why. However, he felt that he could not hold such
a view. He threw it hastily aside.
Chapter XIV
In a hilarious hall there were twenty-eight tables and twenty-
eight women and a crowd of smoking men. Valiant noise was made on
a stage at the end of the hall by an orchestra composed of men who
looked as if they had just happened in. Soiled waiters ran to and
fro, swooping down like hawks on the unwary in the throng;
clattering along the aisles with trays covered with glasses;
stumbling over women's skirts and charging two prices for
everything but beer, all with a swiftness that blurred the view of
the cocoanut palms and dusty monstrosities painted upon the walls
of the room. A bouncer, with an immense load of business upon his
hands, plunged about in the crowd, dragging bashful strangers to
prominent chairs, ordering waiters here and there and quarreling
furiously with men who wanted to sing with the orchestra.
The usual smoke cloud was present, but so dense that heads and
arms seemed entangled in it. The rumble of conversation was
replaced by a roar. Plenteous oaths heaved through the air.
The room rang with the shrill voices of women bubbling o'er with
drink-laughter. The chief element in the music of the orchestra
was speed. The musicians played in intent fury. A woman was
singing and smiling upon the stage, but no one took notice of her.
The rate at which the piano, cornet and violins were going, seemed
to impart wildness to the half-drunken crowd. Beer glasses were
emptied at a gulp and conversation became a rapid chatter.
The smoke eddied and swirled like a shadowy river hurrying toward
some unseen falls. Pete and Maggie entered the hall and took chairs
at a table near the door. The woman who was seated there made
an attempt to occupy Pete's attention and, failing, went away.
Three weeks had passed since the girl had left home. The air of
spaniel-like dependence had been magnified and showed its direct
effect in the peculiar off-handedness and ease of Pete's ways toward her.
She followed Pete's eyes with hers, anticipating with smiles
gracious looks from him.
A woman of brilliance and audacity, accompanied by a mere boy,
came into the place and took seats near them.
At once Pete sprang to his feet, his face beaming with glad surprise.
"By Gawd, there's Nellie," he cried.
He went over to the table and held out an eager hand to the woman.
"Why, hello, Pete, me boy, how are you," said she, giving him her fingers.
Maggie took instant note of the woman. She perceived that her
black dress fitted her to perfection. Her linen collar and cuffs
were spotless. Tan gloves were stretched over her well-shaped
hands. A hat of a prevailing fashion perched jauntily upon her
dark hair. She wore no jewelry and was painted with no apparent
paint. She looked clear-eyed through the stares of the men.
"Sit down, and call your lady-friend over," she said cordially to Pete.
At his beckoning Maggie came and sat between Pete and the mere boy.
"I thought yeh were gone away fer good," began Pete, at once.
"When did yeh git back? How did dat Buff'lo bus'ness turn out?"
The woman shrugged her shoulders. "Well, he didn't have as
many stamps as he tried to make out, so I shook him, that's all."
"Well, I'm glad teh see yehs back in deh city," said Pete,
with awkward gallantry.
He and the woman entered into a long conversation, exchanging
reminiscences of days together. Maggie sat still, unable to
formulate an intelligent sentence upon the conversation and
painfully aware of it.
She saw Pete's eyes sparkle as he gazed upon the handsome
stranger. He listened smilingly to all she said. The woman was
familiar with all his affairs, asked him about mutual friends,
and knew the amount of his salary.
She paid no attention to Maggie, looking toward her once or
twice and apparently seeing the wall beyond.
The mere boy was sulky. In the beginning he had welcomed with
acclamations the additions.
"Let's all have a drink! What'll you take, Nell? And you,
Miss what's-your-name. Have a drink, Mr. -----, you, I mean."
He had shown a sprightly desire to do the talking for the company
and tell all about his family. In a loud voice he declaimed
on various topics. He assumed a patronizing air toward Pete.
As Maggie was silent, he paid no attention to her. He made a
great show of lavishing wealth upon the woman of brilliance
and audacity.
"Do keep still, Freddie! You gibber like an ape, dear," said the
woman to him. She turned away and devoted her attention to Pete.
"We'll have many a good time together again, eh?"
"Sure, Mike," said Pete, enthusiastic at once.
"Say," whispered she, leaning forward, "let's go over to
Billie's and have a heluva time."
"Well, it's dis way! See?" said Pete. "I got dis lady frien' here."
"Oh, t'hell with her," argued the woman.
Pete appeared disturbed.
"All right," said she, nodding her head at him. "All right for you!
We'll see the next time you ask me to go anywheres with you."
Pete squirmed.
"Say," he said, beseechingly, "come wid me a minit an' I'll tell yer why."
The woman waved her hand.
"Oh, that's all right, you needn't explain, you know. You wouldn't
come merely because you wouldn't come, that's all there is of it."
To Pete's visible distress she turned to the mere boy,
bringing him speedily from a terrific rage. He had been debating
whether it would be the part of a man to pick a quarrel with Pete,
or would he be justified in striking him savagely with his beer
glass without warning. But he recovered himself when the woman
turned to renew her smilings. He beamed upon her with an
expression that was somewhat tipsy and inexpressibly tender.
"Say, shake that Bowery jay," requested he, in a loud whisper.
"Freddie, you are so droll," she replied.
Pete reached forward and touched the woman on the arm.
"Come out a minit while I tells yeh why I can't go wid yer.
Yer doin' me dirt, Nell! I never taut ye'd do me dirt, Nell.
Come on, will yer?" He spoke in tones of injury.
"Why, I don't see why I should be interested in your
explanations," said the woman, with a coldness that seemed to
reduce Pete to a pulp.
His eyes pleaded with her. "Come out a minit while I tells yeh."
The woman nodded slightly at Maggie and the mere boy, "'Scuse me."
The mere boy interrupted his loving smile and turned a shrivelling
glare upon Pete. His boyish countenance flushed and he spoke,
in a whine, to the woman:
"Oh, I say, Nellie, this ain't a square deal, you know. You aren't
goin' to leave me and go off with that duffer, are you? I should think--"
"Why, you dear boy, of course I'm not," cried the woman,
affectionately. She bended over and whispered in his ear.
He smiled again and settled in his chair as if resolved
to wait patiently.
As the woman walked down between the rows of tables, Pete was
at her shoulder talking earnestly, apparently in explanation.
The woman waved her hands with studied airs of indifference.
The doors swung behind them, leaving Maggie and the mere boy
seated at the table.
Maggie was dazed. She could dimly perceive that something
stupendous had happened. She wondered why Pete saw fit to
remonstrate with the woman, pleading for forgiveness with his eyes.
She thought she noted an air of submission about her leonine Pete.
She was astounded.
The mere boy occupied himself with cock-tails and a cigar. He
was tranquilly silent for half an hour. Then he bestirred himself
and spoke.
"Well," he said, sighing, "I knew this was the way it would be."
There was another stillness. The mere boy seemed to be musing.
"She was pulling m'leg. That's the whole amount of it," he
said, suddenly. "It's a bloomin' shame the way that girl does.
Why, I've spent over two dollars in drinks to-night. And she goes
off with that plug-ugly who looks as if he had been hit in the face
with a coin-die. I call it rocky treatment for a fellah like me.
Here, waiter, bring me a cock-tail and make it damned strong."
Maggie made no reply. She was watching the doors. "It's a
mean piece of business," complained the mere boy. He explained to
her how amazing it was that anybody should treat him in such a
manner. "But I'll get square with her, you bet. She won't get far
ahead of yours truly, you know," he added, winking. "I'll tell her
plainly that it was bloomin' mean business. And she won't come it
over me with any of her 'now-Freddie-dears.' She thinks my name is
Freddie, you know, but of course it ain't. I always tell these
people some name like that, because if they got onto your right name
they might use it sometime. Understand? Oh, they don't fool me much."
Maggie was paying no attention, being intent upon the doors.
The mere boy relapsed into a period of gloom, during which he
exterminated a number of cock-tails with a determined air, as if
replying defiantly to fate. He occasionally broke forth into
sentences composed of invectives joined together in a long string.
The girl was still staring at the doors. After a time
the mere boy began to see cobwebs just in front of his nose.
He spurred himself into being agreeable and insisted upon her
having a charlotte-russe and a glass of beer.
"They's gone," he remarked, "they's gone." He looked at her
through the smoke wreaths. "Shay, lil' girl, we mightish well make
bes' of it. You ain't such bad-lookin' girl, y'know. Not half
bad. Can't come up to Nell, though. No, can't do it! Well, I
should shay not! Nell fine-lookin' girl! F--i--n--ine. You look
damn bad longsider her, but by y'self ain't so bad. Have to do
anyhow. Nell gone. On'y you left. Not half bad, though."
Maggie stood up.
"I'm going home," she said.
The mere boy started.
"Eh? What? Home," he cried, struck with amazement.
"I beg pardon, did hear say home?"
"I'm going home," she repeated.
"Great Gawd, what hava struck," demanded the mere boy of himself, stupefied.
In a semi-comatose state he conducted her on board an up-town car,
ostentatiously paid her fare, leered kindly at her through the
rear window and fell off the steps.
Chapter XV
A forlorn woman went along a lighted avenue. The street was
filled with people desperately bound on missions. An endless crowd
darted at the elevated station stairs and the horse cars were
thronged with owners of bundles.
The pace of the forlorn woman was slow. She was apparently
searching for some one. She loitered near the doors of saloons and
watched men emerge from them. She scanned furtively the faces in
the rushing stream of pedestrians. Hurrying men, bent on catching
some boat or train, jostled her elbows, failing to notice her,
their thoughts fixed on distant dinners.
The forlorn woman had a peculiar face. Her smile was no
smile. But when in repose her features had a shadowy look that was
like a sardonic grin, as if some one had sketched with cruel
forefinger indelible lines about her mouth.
Jimmie came strolling up the avenue. The woman encountered
him with an aggrieved air.
"Oh, Jimmie, I've been lookin' all over fer yehs--," she began.
Jimmie made an impatient gesture and quickened his pace.
"Ah, don't bodder me! Good Gawd!" he said, with the
savageness of a man whose life is pestered.
The woman followed him along the sidewalk in somewhat the
manner of a suppliant.
"But, Jimmie," she said, "yehs told me ye'd--"
Jimmie turned upon her fiercely as if resolved to make a last
stand for comfort and peace.
"Say, fer Gawd's sake, Hattie, don' foller me from one end of
deh city teh deh odder. Let up, will yehs! Give me a minute's
res', can't yehs? Yehs makes me tired, allus taggin' me. See?
Ain' yehs got no sense. Do yehs want people teh get onto me?
Go chase yerself, fer Gawd's sake."
The woman stepped closer and laid her fingers on his arm.
"But, look-a-here--"
Jimmie snarled. "Oh, go teh hell."
He darted into the front door of a convenient saloon and a
moment later came out into the shadows that surrounded the side
door. On the brilliantly lighted avenue he perceived the forlorn
woman dodging about like a scout. Jimmie laughed with an air of
relief and went away.
When he arrived home he found his mother clamoring.
Maggie had returned. She stood shivering beneath the torrent
of her mother's wrath.
"Well, I'm damned," said Jimmie in greeting.
His mother, tottering about the room, pointed a quivering
forefinger.
"Lookut her, Jimmie, lookut her. Dere's yer sister, boy.
Dere's yer sister. Lookut her! Lookut her!"
She screamed in scoffing laughter.
The girl stood in the middle of the room. She edged about as
if unable to find a place on the floor to put her feet.
"Ha, ha, ha," bellowed the mother. "Dere she stands! Ain'
she purty? Lookut her! Ain' she sweet, deh beast? Lookut her!
Ha, ha, lookut her!"
She lurched forward and put her red and seamed hands upon her
daughter's face. She bent down and peered keenly up into the eyes
of the girl.
"Oh, she's jes' dessame as she ever was, ain' she? She's her
mudder's purty darlin' yit, ain' she? Lookut her, Jimmie! Come
here, fer Gawd's sake, and lookut her."
The loud, tremendous sneering of the mother brought the
denizens of the Rum Alley tenement to their doors. Women came in
the hallways. Children scurried to and fro.
"What's up? Dat Johnson party on anudder tear?"
"Naw! Young Mag's come home!"
"Deh hell yeh say?"
Through the open door curious eyes stared in at Maggie.
Children ventured into the room and ogled her, as if they formed
the front row at a theatre. Women, without, bended toward each
other and whispered, nodding their heads with airs of profound
philosophy. A baby, overcome with curiosity concerning this object
at which all were looking, sidled forward and touched her dress,
cautiously, as if investigating a red-hot stove. Its mother's
voice rang out like a warning trumpet. She rushed forward and
grabbed her child, casting a terrible look of indignation at the girl.
Maggie's mother paced to and fro, addressing the doorful of
eyes, expounding like a glib showman at a museum. Her voice rang
through the building.
"Dere she stands," she cried, wheeling suddenly and pointing
with dramatic finger. "Dere she stands! Lookut her! Ain' she a
dindy? An' she was so good as to come home teh her mudder, she
was! Ain' she a beaut'? Ain' she a dindy? Fer Gawd's sake!"
The jeering cries ended in another burst of shrill laughter.
The girl seemed to awaken. "Jimmie--"
He drew hastily back from her.
"Well, now, yer a hell of a t'ing, ain' yeh?" he said, his
lips curling in scorn. Radiant virtue sat upon his brow and his
repelling hands expressed horror of contamination.
Maggie turned and went.
The crowd at the door fell back precipitately. A baby falling
down in front of the door, wrenched a scream like a wounded animal
from its mother. Another woman sprang forward and picked it up,
with a chivalrous air, as if rescuing a human being from an
oncoming express train.
As the girl passed down through the hall, she went before open
doors framing more eyes strangely microscopic, and sending broad
beams of inquisitive light into the darkness of her path. On the
second floor she met the gnarled old woman who possessed the music box.
"So," she cried, "'ere yehs are back again, are yehs? An'
dey've kicked yehs out? Well, come in an' stay wid me teh-night.
I ain' got no moral standin'."
From above came an unceasing babble of tongues, over all of
which rang the mother's derisive laughter.
Chapter XVI
Pete did not consider that he had ruined Maggie. If he had
thought that her soul could never smile again, he would have
believed the mother and brother, who were pyrotechnic over the
affair, to be responsible for it.
Besides, in his world, souls did not insist upon being able to smile.
"What deh hell?"
He felt a trifle entangled. It distressed him. Revelations
and scenes might bring upon him the wrath of the owner of the
saloon, who insisted upon respectability of an advanced type.
"What deh hell do dey wanna raise such a smoke about it fer?"
demanded he of himself, disgusted with the attitude of the family.
He saw no necessity for anyone's losing their equilibrium merely
because their sister or their daughter had stayed away from home.
Searching about in his mind for possible reasons for their conduct,
he came upon the conclusion that Maggie's motives were correct,
but that the two others wished to snare him. He felt pursued.
The woman of brilliance and audacity whom he had met in the
hilarious hall showed a disposition to ridicule him.
"A little pale thing with no spirit," she said. "Did you note
the expression of her eyes? There was something in them about
pumpkin pie and virtue. That is a peculiar way the left corner
of her mouth has of twitching, isn't it? Dear, dear, my cloud-
compelling Pete, what are you coming to?"
Pete asserted at once that he never was very much interested
in the girl. The woman interrupted him, laughing.
"Oh, it's not of the slightest consequence to me, my dear young man.
You needn't draw maps for my benefit. Why should I be concerned about it?"
But Pete continued with his explanations. If he was laughed
at for his tastes in women, he felt obliged to say that they were
only temporary or indifferent ones.
The morning after Maggie had departed from home, Pete stood
behind the bar. He was immaculate in white jacket and apron and
his hair was plastered over his brow with infinite correctness.
No customers were in the place. Pete was twisting his napkined
fist slowly in a beer glass, softly whistling to himself and
occasionally holding the object of his attention between his eyes
and a few weak beams of sunlight that had found their way over
the thick screens and into the shaded room.
With lingering thoughts of the woman of brilliance and
audacity, the bartender raised his head and stared through the
varying cracks between the swaying bamboo doors. Suddenly
the whistling pucker faded from his lips. He saw Maggie walking
slowly past. He gave a great start, fearing for the previously-
mentioned eminent respectability of the place.
He threw a swift, nervous glance about him, all at once
feeling guilty. No one was in the room.
He went hastily over to the side door. Opening it and looking
out, he perceived Maggie standing, as if undecided, on the corner.
She was searching the place with her eyes.
As she turned her face toward him Pete beckoned to her
hurriedly, intent upon returning with speed to a position behind
the bar and to the atmosphere of respectability upon which the
proprietor insisted.
Maggie came to him, the anxious look disappearing from her
face and a smile wreathing her lips.
"Oh, Pete--," she began brightly.
The bartender made a violent gesture of impatience.
"Oh, my Gawd," cried he, vehemently. "What deh hell do yeh
wanna hang aroun' here fer? Do yeh wanna git me inteh trouble?"
he demanded with an air of injury.
Astonishment swept over the girl's features. "Why, Pete! yehs tol' me--"
Pete glanced profound irritation. His countenance reddened
with the anger of a man whose respectability is being threatened.
"Say, yehs makes me tired. See? What deh hell deh yeh wanna
tag aroun' atter me fer? Yeh'll git me inteh trouble wid deh ol'
man an' dey'll be hell teh pay! If he sees a woman roun' here
he'll go crazy an' I'll lose me job! See? Yer brudder come in
here an' raised hell an' deh ol' man hada put up fer it! An' now
I'm done! See? I'm done."
The girl's eyes stared into his face. "Pete, don't yeh remem--"
"Oh, hell," interrupted Pete, anticipating.
The girl seemed to have a struggle with herself. She was apparently
bewildered and could not find speech. Finally she asked in a low voice:
"But where kin I go?"
The question exasperated Pete beyond the powers of endurance.
It was a direct attempt to give him some responsibility in a matter
that did not concern him. In his indignation he volunteered information.
"Oh, go teh hell," cried he. He slammed the door furiously
and returned, with an air of relief, to his respectability.
Maggie went away.
She wandered aimlessly for several blocks. She stopped once
and asked aloud a question of herself: "Who?"
A man who was passing near her shoulder, humorously took the
questioning word as intended for him.
"Eh? What? Who? Nobody! I didn't say anything,"
he laughingly said, and continued his way.
Soon the girl discovered that if she walked with such
apparent aimlessness, some men looked at her with calculating eyes.
She quickened her step, frightened. As a protection, she adopted
a demeanor of intentness as if going somewhere.
After a time she left rattling avenues and passed between rows
of houses with sternness and stolidity stamped upon their features.
She hung her head for she felt their eyes grimly upon her.
Suddenly she came upon a stout gentleman in a silk hat and a
chaste black coat, whose decorous row of buttons reached from his
chin to his knees. The girl had heard of the Grace of God and she
decided to approach this man.
His beaming, chubby face was a picture of benevolence and
kind-heartedness. His eyes shone good-will.
But as the girl timidly accosted him, he gave a convulsive
movement and saved his respectability by a vigorous side-step.
He did not risk it to save a soul. For how was he to know that
there was a soul before him that needed saving?
Chapter XVII
Upon a wet evening, several months after the last chapter,
two interminable rows of cars, pulled by slipping horses,
jangled along a prominent side-street. A dozen cabs, with coat-enshrouded
drivers, clattered to and fro. Electric lights, whirring softly,
shed a blurred radiance. A flower dealer, his feet tapping
impatiently, his nose and his wares glistening with rain-drops,
stood behind an array of roses and chrysanthemums. Two or three
theatres emptied a crowd upon the storm-swept pavements. Men
pulled their hats over their eyebrows and raised their collars to
their ears. Women shrugged impatient shoulders in their warm
cloaks and stopped to arrange their skirts for a walk through the
storm. People having been comparatively silent for two hours burst
into a roar of conversation, their hearts still kindling from the
glowings of the stage.
The pavements became tossing seas of umbrellas. Men stepped
forth to hail cabs or cars, raising their fingers in varied forms
of polite request or imperative demand. An endless procession
wended toward elevated stations. An atmosphere of pleasure and
prosperity seemed to hang over the throng, born, perhaps, of good
clothes and of having just emerged from a place of forgetfulness.
In the mingled light and gloom of an adjacent park,
a handful of wet wanderers, in attitudes of chronic dejection,
was scattered among the benches.
A girl of the painted cohorts of the city went along the street.
She threw changing glances at men who passed her, giving smiling
invitations to men of rural or untaught pattern and usually seeming
sedately unconscious of the men with a metropolitan seal upon their faces.
Crossing glittering avenues, she went into the throng emerging
from the places of forgetfulness. She hurried forward through the
crowd as if intent upon reaching a distant home, bending forward in
her handsome cloak, daintily lifting her skirts and picking for her
well-shod feet the dryer spots upon the pavements.
The restless doors of saloons, clashing to and fro, disclosed
animated rows of men before bars and hurrying barkeepers.
A concert hall gave to the street faint sounds of swift,
machine-like music, as if a group of phantom musicians were
hastening.
A tall young man, smoking a cigarette with a sublime air,
strolled near the girl. He had on evening dress, a moustache, a
chrysanthemum, and a look of ennui, all of which he kept carefully
under his eye. Seeing the girl walk on as if such a young man as
he was not in existence, he looked back transfixed with interest.
He stared glassily for a moment, but gave a slight convulsive start
when he discerned that she was neither new, Parisian, nor theatrical.
He wheeled about hastily and turned his stare into the air,
like a sailor with a search-light.
A stout gentleman, with pompous and philanthropic whiskers,
went stolidly by, the broad of his back sneering at the girl.
A belated man in business clothes, and in haste to catch a
car, bounced against her shoulder. "Hi, there, Mary, I beg your
pardon! Brace up, old girl." He grasped her arm to steady her,
and then was away running down the middle of the street.
The girl walked on out of the realm of restaurants and
saloons. She passed more glittering avenues and went into darker
blocks than those where the crowd travelled.
A young man in light overcoat and derby hat received a glance
shot keenly from the eyes of the girl. He stopped and looked at
her, thrusting his hands in his pockets and making a mocking smile
curl his lips. "Come, now, old lady," he said, "you don't mean to
tell me that you sized me up for a farmer?"
A laboring man marched along with bundles under his arms.
To her remarks, he replied: "It's a fine evenin', ain't it?"
She smiled squarely into the face of a boy who was hurrying by
with his hands buried in his overcoat, his blonde locks bobbing on
his youthful temples, and a cheery smile of unconcern upon his
lips. He turned his head and smiled back at her, waving his hands.
him. "He's all right! He didn't mean anything! Let it go!
He's a good fellah!"
"Din' he insul' me?" asked the man earnestly.
"No," said they. "Of course he didn't! He's all right!"
"Sure he didn' insul' me?" demanded the man, with deep anxiety
in his voice.
"No, no! We know him! He's a good fellah. He didn't mean anything."
"Well, zen," said the man, resolutely, "I'm go' 'pol'gize!"
When the waiter came, the man struggled to the middle of the floor.
"Girlsh shed you insul' me! I shay damn lie! I 'pol'gize!"
"All right," said the waiter.
The man sat down. He felt a sleepy but strong desire to straighten
things out and have a perfect understanding with everybody.
"Nell, I allus trea's yeh shquare, din' I? Yeh likes me, don' yehs, Nell?
I'm goo' f'ler?"
"Sure," said the woman of brilliance and audacity.
"Yeh knows I'm stuck on yehs, don' yehs, Nell?"
"Sure," she repeated, carelessly.
Overwhelmed by a spasm of drunken adoration, he drew two or
three bills from his pocket, and, with the trembling fingers of an
offering priest, laid them on the table before the woman.
"Yehs knows, damn it, yehs kin have all got, 'cause I'm stuck on yehs,
Nell, damn't, I--I'm stuck on yehs, Nell--buy drinksh--damn't--we're havin'
heluva time--w'en anyone trea's me ri'--I--damn't, Nell--we're havin'
heluva--time."
Shortly he went to sleep with his swollen face fallen forward on his chest.
The women drank and laughed, not heeding the slumbering man in the corner.
Finally he lurched forward and fell groaning to the floor.
The women screamed in disgust and drew back their skirts.
"Come ahn," cried one, starting up angrily, "let's get out of here."
The woman of brilliance and audacity stayed behind, taking up
the bills and stuffing them into a deep, irregularly-shaped pocket.
A guttural snore from the recumbent man caused her to turn and look
down at him.
She laughed. "What a damn fool," she said, and went.
The smoke from the lamps settled heavily down in the little
compartment, obscuring the way out. The smell of oil, stifling in
its intensity, pervaded the air. The wine from an overturned glass
dripped softly down upon the blotches on the man's neck.
She smiled squarely into the face of a boy who was hurrying by with his
hands buried in his overcoat, his blonde locks bobbing on his youthful
temples, and a cheery smile of unconcern upon his lips. He turned his
head and smiled back at her, waving his hands.
"Not this eve--some other eve!"
A drunken man, reeling in her pathway, began to roar at her. "I ain'
ga no money, dammit," he shouted, in a dismal voice. He lurched on up
the street, wailing to himself, "Dammit, I ain' ga no money. Damn ba'
luck. Ain' ga no more money."
The girl went into gloomy districts near the river, where the tall
black factories shut in the street and only occasional broad beams of
light fell across the pavements from saloons. In front of one of these
places, from whence came the sound of a violin vigorously scraped, the
patter of feet on boards and the ring of loud laughter, there stood a
man with blotched features.
"Ah, there," said the girl.
"I've got a date," said the man.
Further on in the darkness she met a ragged being with shifting,
blood-shot eyes and grimey hands. "Ah, what deh hell? Tink I'm a
millionaire?"
She went into the blackness of the final block. The shutters of the
tall buildings were closed like grim lips. The structures seemed to
have eyes that looked over her, beyond her, at other things. Afar off
the lights of the avenues glittered as if from an impossible distance.
Street car bells jingled with a sound of merriment.
When almost to the river the girl saw a great figure. On going forward
she perceived it to be a huge fat man in torn and greasy garments. His
gray hair straggled down over his forehead. His small, bleared eyes,
sparkling from amidst great rolls of red fat, swept eagerly over the
girl's upturned face. He laughed, his brown, disordered teeth gleaming
under a gray, grizzled moustache from which beer-drops dripped. His
whole body gently quivered and shook like that of a dead jelly fish.
Chuckling and leering, he followed the girl of the crimson legions.
At their feet the river appeared a deathly black hue. Some hidden
factory sent up a yellow glare, that lit for a moment the waters
lapping oilily against timbers. The varied sounds of life, made joyous
by distance and seeming unapproachableness, came faintly and died away
to silence.
In a partitioned-off section of a saloon sat a man with a half dozen
women, gleefully laughing, hovering about him. The man had arrived at
that stage of drunkenness where affection is felt for the universe.
"I'm good f'ler, girls," he said, convincingly. "I'm damn good f'ler.
An'body treats me right, I allus trea's zem right! See?"
The women nodded their heads approvingly. "To be sure," they cried out
in hearty chorus. "You're the kind of a man we like, Pete. You're outa
sight! What yeh goin' to buy this time, dear?"
"An't'ing yehs wants, damn it," said the man in an abandonment of good
will. His countenance shone with the true spirit of benevolence. He was
in the proper mode of missionaries. He would have fraternized with
obscure Hottentots. And above all, he was overwhelmed in tenderness for
his friends, who were all illustrious.
"An't'ing yehs wants, damn it," repeated he, waving his hands with
beneficent recklessness. "I'm good f'ler, girls, an' if an'body treats
me right I--here," called he through an open door to a waiter, "bring
girls drinks, damn it. What 'ill yehs have, girls? An't'ing yehs wants,
damn it!"
The waiter glanced in with the disgusted look of the man who serves
intoxicants for the man who takes too much of them. He nodded his head
shortly at the order from each individual, and went.
"Damn it," said the man, "we're havin' heluva time. I like you girls!
Damn'd if I don't! Yer right sort! See?"
He spoke at length and with feeling, concerning the excellencies of his
assembled friends.
"Don' try pull man's leg, but have a heluva time! Das right! Das way
teh do! Now, if I sawght yehs tryin' work me fer drinks, wouldn' buy
damn t'ing! But yer right sort, damn it! Yehs know how ter treat a
f'ler, an' I stays by yehs 'til spen' las' cent! Das right! I'm good
f'ler an' I knows when an'body treats me right!"
Between the times of the arrival and departure of the waiter, the man
discoursed to the women on the tender regard he felt for all living
things. He laid stress upon the purity of his motives in all dealings
with men in the world and spoke of the fervor of his friendship for
those who were amiable. Tears welled slowly from his eyes. His voice
quavered when he spoke to them.
Once when the waiter was about to depart with an empty tray, the man
drew a coin from his pocket and held it forth.
"Here," said he, quite magnificently, "here's quar'."
The waiter kept his hands on his tray.
"I don' want yer money," he said.
The other put forth the coin with tearful insistence.
"Here, damn it," cried he, "tak't! Yer damn goo' f'ler an' I wan' yehs
tak't!"
"Come, come, now," said the waiter, with the sullen air of a man who is
forced into giving advice. "Put yer mon in yer pocket! Yer loaded an'
yehs on'y makes a damn fool of yerself."
As the latter passed out of the door the man turned pathetically to the
women.
"He don' know I'm damn goo' f'ler," cried he, dismally.
"Never you mind, Pete, dear," said a woman of brilliance and audacity,
laying her hand with great affection upon his arm. "Never you mind, old
boy! We'll stay by you, dear!"
"Das ri'," cried the man, his face lighting up at the soothing tones of
the woman's voice. "Das ri', I'm damn goo' f'ler an' w'en anyone trea's
me ri', I treats zem ri'! Shee!"
"Sure!" cried the women. "And we're not goin' back on you, old man."
The man turned appealing eyes to the woman of brilliance and audacity.
He felt that if he could be convicted of a contemptible action he would
die.
"Shay, Nell, damn it, I allus trea's yehs shquare, didn' I? I allus
been goo' f'ler wi' yehs, ain't I, Nell?"
"Sure you have, Pete," assented the woman. She delivered an oration to
her companions. "Yessir, that's a fact. Pete's a square fellah, he is.
He never goes back on a friend. He's the right kind an' we stay by him,
don't we, girls?"
"Sure," they exclaimed. Looking lovingly at him they raised their
glasses and drank his health.
"Girlsh," said the man, beseechingly, "I allus trea's yehs ri', didn'
I? I'm goo' f'ler, ain' I, girlsh?"
"Sure," again they chorused.
"Well," said he finally, "le's have nozzer drink, zen."
"That's right," hailed a woman, "that's right. Yer no bloomin' jay! Yer
spends yer money like a man. Dat's right."
The man pounded the table with his quivering fists.
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"Yessir," he cried, with deep earnestness, as if someone disputed him.
"I'm damn goo' f'ler, an' w'en anyone trea's me ri', I allus
trea's--le's have nozzer drink."
He began to beat the wood with his glass.
"Shay," howled he, growing suddenly impatient. As the waiter did not
then come, the man swelled with wrath.
"Shay," howled he again.
The waiter appeared at the door.
"Bringsh drinksh," said the man.
The waiter disappeared with the orders.
"Zat f'ler damn fool," cried the man. "He insul' me! I'm ge'man! Can'
stan' be insul'! I'm goin' lickim when comes!"
"No, no," cried the women, crowding about and trying to subdue him.
"He's all right! He didn't mean anything! Let it go! He's a good
fellah!"
"Din' he insul' me?" asked the man earnestly.
Chapter XVIII
In a partitioned-off section of a saloon sat a man with a half
dozen women, gleefully laughing, hovering about him. The man had
arrived at that stage of drunkenness where affection is felt
for the universe.
"I'm good f'ler, girls," he said, convincingly. "I'm damn
good f'ler. An'body treats me right, I allus trea's zem right!
See?"
The women nodded their heads approvingly. "To be sure," they
cried out in hearty chorus. "You're the kind of a man we like,
Pete. You're outa sight! What yeh goin' to buy this time,
dear?"
"An't'ing yehs wants, damn it," said the man in an abandonment
of good will. His countenance shone with the true spirit of
benevolence. He was in the proper mode of missionaries. He
would have fraternized with obscure Hottentots. And above all,
he was overwhelmed in tenderness for his friends, who were all
illustrious.
"An't'ing yehs wants, damn it," repeated he, waving his hands
with beneficent recklessness. "I'm good f'ler, girls, an' if
an'body treats me right I--here," called he through an open door
to a waiter, "bring girls drinks, damn it. What 'ill yehs have,
girls? An't'ing yehs wants, damn it!"
The waiter glanced in with the disgusted look of the man who
serves intoxicants for the man who takes too much of them. He
nodded his head shortly at the order from each individual, and
went.
"Damn it," said the man, "we're havin' heluva time. I like
you girls! Damn'd if I don't! Yer right sort! See?"
He spoke at length and with feeling, concerning the
excellencies of his assembled friends.
"Don' try pull man's leg, but have a heluva time! Das right!
Das way teh do! Now, if I sawght yehs tryin' work me fer drinks,
wouldn' buy damn t'ing! But yer right sort, damn it! Yehs know
how ter treat a f'ler, an' I stays by yehs 'til spen' las' cent!
Das right! I'm good f'ler an' I knows when an'body treats me
right!"
Between the times of the arrival and departure of the waiter,
the man discoursed to the women on the tender regard he felt for
all living things. He laid stress upon the purity of his motives
in all dealings with men in the world and spoke of the fervor of
his friendship for those who were amiable. Tears welled slowly
from his eyes. His voice quavered when he spoke to them.
Once when the waiter was about to depart with an empty tray,
the man drew a coin from his pocket and held it forth.
"Here," said he, quite magnificently, "here's quar'."
The waiter kept his hands on his tray.
"I don' want yer money," he said.
The other put forth the coin with tearful insistence.
"Here, damn it," cried he, "tak't! Yer damn goo' f'ler an' I
wan' yehs tak't!"
"Come, come, now," said the waiter, with the sullen air of a
man who is forced into giving advice. "Put yer mon in yer
pocket! Yer loaded an' yehs on'y makes a damn fool of yerself."
As the latter passed out of the door the man turned
pathetically to the women.
"He don' know I'm damn goo' f'ler," cried he, dismally.
"Never you mind, Pete, dear," said a woman of brilliance and
audacity, laying her hand with great affection upon his arm.
"Never you mind, old boy! We'll stay by you, dear!"
"Das ri'," cried the man, his face lighting up at the soothing
tones of the woman's voice. "Das ri', I'm damn goo' f'ler an'
w'en anyone trea's me ri', I treats zem ri'! Shee!"
"Sure!" cried the women. "And we're not goin' back on you,
old man."
The man turned appealing eyes to the woman of brilliance and
audacity. He felt that if he could be convicted of a
contemptible action he would die.
"Shay, Nell, damn it, I allus trea's yehs shquare, didn' I?
I allus been goo' f'ler wi' yehs, ain't I, Nell?"
"Sure you have, Pete," assented the woman. She delivered an
oration to her companions. "Yessir, that's a fact. Pete's a
square fellah, he is. He never goes back on a friend. He's the
right kind an' we stay by him, don't we, girls?"
"Sure," they exclaimed. Looking lovingly at him they raised
their glasses and drank his health.
"Girlsh," said the man, beseechingly, "I allus trea's yehs
ri', didn' I? I'm goo' f'ler, ain' I, girlsh?"
"Sure," again they chorused.
"Well," said he finally, "le's have nozzer drink, zen."
"That's right," hailed a woman, "that's right. Yer no
bloomin' jay! Yer spends yer money like a man. Dat's right."
The man pounded the table with his quivering fists.
"Yessir," he cried, with deep earnestness, as if someone
disputed him. "I'm damn goo' f'ler, an' w'en anyone trea's me
ri', I allus trea's--le's have nozzer drink."
He began to beat the wood with his glass.
"Shay," howled he, growing suddenly impatient. As the waiter
did not then come, the man swelled with wrath.
"Shay," howled he again.
The waiter appeared at the door.
"Bringsh drinksh," said the man.
The waiter disappeared with the orders.
"Zat f'ler damn fool," cried the man. "He insul' me! I'm
ge'man! Can' stan' be insul'! I'm goin' lickim when comes!"
"No, no," cried the women, crowding about and trying to subdue
him. "He's all right! He didn't mean anything! Let it go!
He's a good fellah!"
"Din' he insul' me?" asked the man earnestly.
"No," said they. "Of course he didn't! He's all right!"
"Sure he didn' insul' me?" demanded the man, with deep anxiety
in his voice.
"No, no! We know him! He's a good fellah. He didn't mean
anything."
"Well, zen," said the man, resolutely, "I'm go' 'pol'gize!"
When the waiter came, the man struggled to the middle of the
floor.
"Girlsh shed you insul' me! I shay damn lie! I 'pol'gize!"
"All right," said the waiter.
The man sat down. He felt a sleepy but strong desire to
straighten things out and have a perfect understanding with
everybody.
"Nell, I allus trea's yeh shquare, din' I? Yeh likes me, don'
yehs, Nell? I'm goo' f'ler?"
"Sure," said the woman of brilliance and audacity.
"Yeh knows I'm stuck on yehs, don' yehs, Nell?"
"Sure," she repeated, carelessly.
Overwhelmed by a spasm of drunken adoration, he drew two or
three bills from his pocket, and, with the trembling fingers of
an offering priest, laid them on the table before the woman.
"Yehs knows, damn it, yehs kin have all got, 'cause I'm stuck
on yehs, Nell, damn't, I--I'm stuck on yehs, Nell--buy drinksh--
damn't--we're havin' heluva time--w'en anyone trea's me ri'--I--
damn't, Nell--we're havin' heluva--time."
Shortly he went to sleep with his swollen face fallen forward
on his chest.
The women drank and laughed, not heeding the slumbering man in
the corner. Finally he lurched forward and fell groaning to the
floor.
The women screamed in disgust and drew back their skirts.
"Come ahn," cried one, starting up angrily, "let's get out of
here."
The woman of brilliance and audacity stayed behind, taking up
the bills and stuffing them into a deep, irregularly-shaped
pocket. A guttural snore from the recumbent man caused her to
turn and look down at him.
She laughed. "What a damn fool," she said, and went.
The smoke from the lamps settled heavily down in the little
compartment, obscuring the way out. The smell of oil, stifling
in its intensity, pervaded the air. The wine from an overturned
glass dripped softly down upon the blotches on the man's neck.
Chapter XIX
In a room a woman sat at a table eating like a fat monk in a picture.
A soiled, unshaven man pushed open the door and entered.
"Well," said he, "Mag's dead."
"What?" said the woman, her mouth filled with bread.
"Mag's dead," repeated the man.
"Deh hell she is," said the woman. She continued her meal.
When she finished her coffee she began to weep.
"I kin remember when her two feet was no bigger dan yer t'umb,
and she weared worsted boots," moaned she.
"Well, whata dat?" said the man.
"I kin remember when she weared worsted boots," she cried.
The neighbors began to gather in the hall, staring in at the
weeping woman as if watching the contortions of a dying dog. A
dozen women entered and lamented with her. Under their busy hands
the rooms took on that appalling appearance of neatness and order
with which death is greeted.
Suddenly the door opened and a woman in a black gown rushed in
with outstretched arms. "Ah, poor Mary," she cried, and tenderly
embraced the moaning one.
"Ah, what ter'ble affliction is dis," continued she. Her vocabulary
was derived from mission churches. "Me poor Mary, how I feel fer yehs!
Ah, what a ter'ble affliction is a disobed'ent chil'."
Her good, motherly face was wet with tears. She trembled in
eagerness to express her sympathy. The mourner sat with bowed head,
rocking her body heavily to and fro, and crying out in a high,
strained voice that sounded like a dirge on some forlorn pipe.
"I kin remember when she weared worsted boots an' her two
feets was no bigger dan yer t'umb an' she weared worsted boots,
Miss Smith," she cried, raising her streaming eyes.
"Ah, me poor Mary," sobbed the woman in black. With low,
coddling cries, she sank on her knees by the mourner's chair,
and put her arms about her. The other women began to groan
in different keys.
"Yer poor misguided chil' is gone now, Mary, an' let us hope
it's fer deh bes'. Yeh'll fergive her now, Mary, won't yehs, dear,
all her disobed'ence? All her t'ankless behavior to her mudder an'
all her badness? She's gone where her ter'ble sins will be judged."
The woman in black raised her face and paused. The inevitable
sunlight came streaming in at the windows and shed a ghastly
cheerfulness upon the faded hues of the room. Two or three of the
spectators were sniffling, and one was loudly weeping. The
mourner arose and staggered into the other room. In a moment she
emerged with a pair of faded baby shoes held in the hollow of her hand.
"I kin remember when she used to wear dem," cried she.
The women burst anew into cries as if they had all been stabbed.
The mourner turned to the soiled and unshaven man.
"Jimmie, boy, go git yer sister! Go git yer sister an' we'll
put deh boots on her feets!"
"Dey won't fit her now, yeh damn fool," said the man.
"Go git yer sister, Jimmie," shrieked the woman, confronting
him fiercely.
The man swore sullenly. He went over to a corner and slowly
began to put on his coat. He took his hat and went out, with a
dragging, reluctant step.
The woman in black came forward and again besought the mourner.
"Yeh'll fergive her, Mary! Yeh'll fergive yer bad, bad,
chil'! Her life was a curse an' her days were black an' yeh'll
fergive yer bad girl? She's gone where her sins will be judged."
"She's gone where her sins will be judged," cried the other
women, like a choir at a funeral.
"Deh Lord gives and deh Lord takes away," said the woman in
black, raising her eyes to the sunbeams.
"Deh Lord gives and deh Lord takes away," responded the others.
"Yeh'll fergive her, Mary!" pleaded the woman in black. The
mourner essayed to speak but her voice gave way. She shook her
great shoulders frantically, in an agony of grief. Hot tears
seemed to scald her quivering face. Finally her voice came and
arose like a scream of pain.
"Oh, yes, I'll fergive her! I'll fergive her!"
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