As the sea fell slumberously still, life recovered its audacity. Again
the decks became clamorous, multitudinous. People thronged the
promenade, or swarmed on the benches that do duty for deck chairs.
They began smoking everywhere again, and out came the stewards and the
Black Crowd to enjoy a sociable cigarette. There was little to do but
talk, until the dancing began. The grim sailor looked pityingly on
Babel, as he patrolled the Second Class partition. He was for smaller
ships. “On a smaller ship,” he deigned to remark, “you can come up and
throw your weight around.”
Differences in manners obtruded. The third day out a youth emerged
whom I took to be a swineherd from the beech forests of Croatia. He
was not handsome. His fringe encroached upon his little eyes. His chin
was unformed. Up over his trousers, as if he had just waded through
the piggery, his socks were drawn. There he stood, plastic youth, a
hand in his pocket, pivotting a heel, surveying the world through his
own hirsute thatch. Suddenly, deliberately, he blew his nose
Adam-like. A Swedish woman next me turned livid. “De dirty pig.” I
felt myself the brother of a Swede. The Croatian saw us but beheld us
not. His mouth ajar, he ruminated afresh on the fleshpots of Croatia.
Raw material, simple even to the verge of our ancestral slime. I
prayed “God be with thee,” and looked elsewhere.
That evening amid the throng which waited for admittance to the dining
room appeared a Greek. The glaring electric light concentrated on that
swart face, flung-out chest, and bared neck. He was incredibly
blasphemous and incredibly self-important. “Seventy-five dollars, see.
American money!” He showed his money to us, and gave a chuckle. His
lip curled. “They only Hunkies,” indicating his companions who
connected themselves with him by slavish eyes. “I in America before,
Christ, yes!” His eye roved boldly, and he showed his white teeth.
“I got more money still, you bet your life. When I get over I marry no
Hunkie. I marry Henglish girl. Yeh, Christ, you bet!” He antagonized
us, and yet we watched him eagerly. He lapped up our interest.
Overcome with the savor of attention, he incontinently spat. I drew
away. “It’s a’ right,” he said half-obsequiously, “I know what I do. I
no’ spit on American.” He felt too much kinship to spit on an
American.
So things happen, but only in the steerage. At the door of the café
below, you will not find a Polish count informing the steward: “I
marry a Henglish girl. No penniless Hunkie for me.” Nor will the
first-class steward answer: “Who cares? Who’ll buy a beer?”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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