A Thousand and One Afternoons in ChicagoHecht, Ben
General
A Thousand and One Afternoons in Chicago
Hecht, Ben
Chicago (Ill.) -- Literary collections; Hecht, Ben, 1893-1964 -- Homes and haunts -- Illinois -- Chicago
"I'll give you the low down," says she with a sniff. "Men? They're all
alike. I don't care who they are or what their wives and pastors think of
them or what their mothers think of them. I got them pegged regardless.
Young and old, and some of them so old they've gone back to the milk diet,
they all make the same play when they come in here.
"And they're all cheap. Yes, sir, some are cheaper than others, of course.
There's the patent-leather hair lounge-lizard. I hand him the fur-lined
medal for cheapness. But I got a lot of other medals and I give them all
away, too.
"Well, sir, they come in here and you take hold of their hand and start in
doing honest work and, blooey! they're off. They're strangers in town. And
lonesome! My God, how lonesome they are! And they don't know no place to
go. That's the way they begin. And they give your hand a squeeze and roll
a soft-boiled eye at you.
"Say, it gets kind of tiring, you can imagine. Particularly after you've
been through what I have and know their middle names, which are all alike,
they all answering to the name of cheap sport. Sometimes I give them the
baby stare and pretend I don't know what's on their so-called minds. And
sometimes when my nerves are a little ragged I freeze them. Then sometimes
I take them up. I let them put it over.
"You'd be surprised. Liars! They're all rich. The young ones are all bond
salesmen with wealthy fathers and going to inherit soon. The middle-aged
ones are great manufacturers. The old ones are retired financiers. You
should ought to hear the lads when they're hitting on all six."
* * * * *
Peewee wagged a wise old head and her vermilion mouth registered scorn at
105 degrees Fahrenheit. A very cold light, however, kindled in her
beautiful eyes.
"Yes, yes, I've taken them up," she went on. "I've let them stake me to
the swell time. Say, ten dollars to one that these manicured millionaires
don't mean any more than the Governor's pardon does to Carl Wanderer. Not
a bit. I don't want to get personal, but, take it from me, they're all
after one thing. And they're a pack of selfish, mushy-headed tin horns
with fishhook pockets, the kind you can't pull anything out of.
"Well, to get back. About the first minute you get the big, come-on
squeeze. Then next the big talk about being strangers in your town. Then
next they open with the big, hearty invitations. Will you be their little
guide? And ain't you the most beautiful thing they ever set eyes on! And
say, if they'd only met you before they wouldn't be living around hotels
now, lonesome bachelors without a friend. I forgot to tell you, they're
all single. No, never married. Even some of the most humpbacked married
men you ever saw, who come in here dragging leg irons and looking a
picture of the Common People, they're single, too. I've seen them slip
wedding rings off their fingers to make their racket stand up.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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