Vignettes of Manhattan; Outlines in Local ColorMatthews, Brander
General
Vignettes of Manhattan; Outlines in Local Color
Matthews, Brander
Manhattan (New York, N.Y.) -- Fiction; Short stories, American
Five minutes later he had said good-night to his two chance
acquaintances and he was again back in the square. The scant food he had
been able to take lay hard in his stomach, and the liquor he had drunk,
little as that was also, was yet enough to make his head whirl. He did
not walk unsteadily, although he was conscious that it took an effort
for him to carry himself without swerving.
The bench on which he had been sitting was now occupied by four very
young men in evening dress, who were gravely smoking pipes, as though
they were trying to acquire a taste for this novel pastime. So he went
to the centre of the square, where he stood for a while looking at the
aquatic plants and listening to the spurtle of the fountain.
All the seats around the fountain were occupied by men and women, most
of whom seemed to have settled themselves for the night, as though they
were used to sleeping there. McDowell Sutro found himself speculating
whether he, too, would soon be accustomed to spending his nights in the
open air, without a roof over him.
One solid German had fallen into a slumber so heavy that his snore
became a loud snort. Then a gray-coated policeman waked the sleeper by
smiting the soles of his feet with the club.
"This park ain't no bedroom," said the policeman, "and I ain't goin' to
have you fellows goin' to sleep here either! See?"
After walking three or four times around on the outer circle of the
little park, the young man found a vacant seat on a bench near the
corner of Broadway and Seventeenth Street. The brilliantly lighted
cable-cars still glided swiftly up and down Broadway with their
insistent gongs, but they were now fewer and fewer; and the cross-town
horse-cars passed only two or three an hour. The long day of the city
was nearly over at last, and for the two or three hours before dawn
there would be peace and a cessation of the struggle.
As he sat back on the bench, sick with weariness, the occupant of the
seat next to him aroused herself. She was an elderly woman, with
grizzled hair.
"I beg your pardon--if I waked you up?" said the young man.
"You did wake me up," she answered, "but I forgive you. It's only
cat-naps I get anyway nowadays. I haven't stretched my legs out between
the sheets and had my fill of sleep for a month of Sundays. And I'm a
glutton for sleeping if I've the chance. But I'm getting used to
sitting up late," and she laughed without bitterness. "What time is it
now?" she asked.
McDowell Sutro involuntarily lifted his hand to the pocket of his
waistcoat, and then he dropped it quickly. Blushing, he answered, "I
don't know--I--"
"Time's up, isn't it?" she returned, with a laugh of understanding. "I
haven't got my watch with me either; I left it in my other clothes at my
uncle's. But Mr. Tiffany is a kind-hearted man, and he keeps a clock all
lighted up for us to see. Your eyes are younger than mine--what time is
it now?"
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.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account