New York (N.Y.) -- Drama; Social classes -- Drama; Unskilled labor -- Drama
SCENE--Three weeks later. A corner of Fifth Avenue in the Fifties on a
fine, Sunday morning. A general atmosphere of clean, well-tidied, wide
street; a flood of mellow, tempered sunshine; gentle, genteel breezes.
In the rear, the show windows of two shops, a jewelry establishment on
the corner, a furrier's next to it. Here the adornments of extreme
wealth are tantalizingly displayed. The jeweler's window is gaudy with
glittering diamonds, emeralds, rubies, pearls, etc., fashioned in
ornate tiaras, crowns, necklaces, collars, etc. From each piece hangs
an enormous tag from which a dollar sign and numerals in intermittent
electric lights wink out the incredible prices. The same in the
furrier's. Rich furs of all varieties hang there bathed in a downpour
of artificial light. The general effect is of a background of
magnificence cheapened and made grotesque by commercialism, a
background in tawdry disharmony with the clear light and sunshine on
the street itself.
Up the side street Yank and Long come swaggering. Long is dressed in
shore clothes, wears a black Windsor tie, cloth cap. Yank is in his
dirty dungarees. A fireman's cap with black peak is cocked defiantly on
the side of his head. He has not shaved for days and around his fierce,
resentful eyes--as around those of Long to a lesser degree--the black
smudge of coal dust still sticks like make-up. They hesitate and stand
together at the corner, swaggering, looking about them with a forced,
defiant contempt.
LONG--[_Indicating it all with an oratorical gesture._] Well, 'ere we
are. Fif' Avenoo. This 'ere's their bleedin' private lane, as yer might
say. [_Bitterly._] We're trespassers 'ere. Proletarians keep orf the
grass!
YANK--[_Dully._] I don't see no grass, yuh boob. [_Staring at the
sidewalk._] Clean, ain't it? Yuh could eat a fried egg offen it. The
white wings got some job sweepin' dis up. [_Looking up and down the
avenue--surlily._] Where's all de white-collar stiffs yuh said was
here--and de skoits--her kind?
LONG--In church, blarst 'em! Arskin' Jesus to give 'em more money.
YANK--Choich, huh? I useter go to choich onct--sure--when I was a kid.
Me old man and woman, dey made me. Dey never went demselves, dough.
Always got too big a head on Sunday mornin', dat was dem. [_With a
grin._] Dey was scrappers for fair, bot' of dem. On Satiday nights when
dey bot' got a skinful dey could put up a bout oughter been staged at
de Garden. When dey got trough dere wasn't a chair or table wit a leg
under it. Or else dey bot' jumped on me for somep'n. Dat was where I
loined to take punishment. [_With a grin and a swagger._] I'm a chip
offen de old block, get me?
LONG--Did yer old man follow the sea?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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