Well, the good book says to laugh and grow fat and since the barroom
has been taken away, what chance you got to hear any new stories I would
like to know. Well, so help me, I said I would tell the truth, and the
truth is some of them stories was not fit to offer up along with
your prayers, but at the same time you got acquainted with some right
up-to-date fellows. Well, what I want to know is how could you blame a
country for turning into Bolshevisitors if all chance for sociability is
shut off by the government from the plain people?
Well, the better class of them had pictures on the walls, and since they
been taken away what chance has a busy man like me got to go to a museum
and see all them works of art hand painted by artists and looking as
slick and shiny as one of these here circus lithographs. Well, a country
wants to look out what it is doing when it shuts off from the plain
people all the chance to educate itself in the high arts and hand
painting. Some of the frames by themselves must of been worth a good
deal of money.
The Good Book says you shalt not live by bread alone and if you ain't
got a chance to educate your self in the high arts or nothing after a
while this country will get to the place where all the foreign countries
will laugh at us for we won't know good hand painting when we see
it. Well, they was a story to all them hand paintings, and often when
business was slack I used to talk with Ed the bartender about them
paintings and what did he suppose they was about.
What chance have I got to go and buy a box to set in every night at the
Metropolitan Opera House I would like to know and hear singing. Well,
the good book says not to have anything to do with a man that ain't got
any music in his soul and the right kind of a crowd in the right kind of
a barroom could all get to singing together and furnish me with music.
A government that takes away all its music like that from the plain
people had better watch out. Some of these days there will be another
big war and what will they do without music. I always been fond of music
and there ain't anywhere I can go that it sounds the same sort of warmed
up and friendly and careless. Let alone taking away my chance to meet up
with different religions taking away my music has been a big blow to me.
Well, I will tell the truth so help me, it was a nice place to drop into
on a rainy day; you don't want to be setting down at home on a rainy
day, reading your Bible all the time. But since they been closed I had
to do a lot of reading to get through the day somehow and the wife
is too busy to talk to me and the rest of the family is at work or
somewheres.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account