Criminals -- Fiction; New York (State) -- Social life and customs -- Fiction
Eat-'Em-Up-Jack wore his honors modestly, as great souls ever do, and
there occurred nothing at the New Brighton to justify that re-baptism.
There he preserved the proprieties with a black-jack, and never once
brought his teeth into play. Did some boor transgress, Eat-'Em-Up-Jack
collared him, and cast him into the outer darkness of Great Jones
Street. If the delinquent foolishly resisted, Eat-'Em-Up-Jack emphasized
that dismissal with his boot. In extreme instances he smote upon him
with a black-jack--ever worn ready on his wrist, although delicately
hidden, when not upon active service, in his coat sleeve.
Tricker, drinking seltzer and lemon, sat watching the dancers as they
swept by. He himself was of too grave a cast to dance; it would have
mismatched with his position.
Eat-'Em-Up-Jack, who could claim social elevation by virtue of his
being sheriff, came and stood by Tricker's table. The pair greeted one
another. Their manner, while marked of a careful courtesy, was distant
and owned nothing of warmth. The feuds of Kelly were the feuds of
Eat-'Em-Up-Jack, and the latter knew that Tricker and Kelly stood not as
brothers.
As Eat-'Em-Up-Jack paused by Tricker's table, passing an occasional
remark with that visitor from Park Row, Bill Harrington with Goldie Cora
whirled by on the currents of the _Beautiful Blue Danube_. Tricker's
expert tastes rejected with disfavor the dancing of Goldie Cora.
“I don't like the way she t'rows her feet,” he said.
Now Goldie Cora was the belle of the New Brighton. Moreover,
Eat-'Em-Up-Jack liked the way she threw her feet, and was honest in
his admiration. As much might be said of Harrington, who had overheard
Tricker's remark. Eat-'Em-Up-Jack, defending his own judgment, declared
that Goldie Cora was the sublimation of grace, and danced like a leaf in
a puff of wind. He closed by discrediting not only the opinion but the
parentage of Tricker, and advised him to be upon his way lest worse
happen him.
“Beat it, before I bump me black-jack off your bean!” was the way it was
sternly put by Eat-'Em-Up-Jack.
Tricker, cool and undismayed, waved his hand as though brushing aside a
wearisome insect.
“Can that black-jack guff,” he retorted. “Un'er-stan'; your bein' a
fighter don't get youse nothin' wit' me!”
Harrington came up. Having waltzed the entire length of the _Beautiful
Blue Danube_, he had abandoned Goldie Cora, and was now prepared to
personally resent the imputation inherent in Tricker's remark anent that
fair one's feet.
“He don't like the way you t'row your feet, eh? I'll make him like it.”
Thus spake Harrington to Goldie Cora, as he turned from her to seek out
Tricker.
No, Gangland is not so ceremonious as to demand that you lead the lady
to a seat. Dance ended, it is good form to leave her sticking in the
furrow, even as a farmer might his plow, and walk away.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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