U.S.A_ - John Dos Passos [134]
They had a tequila each before dinner at a little bar where nothing was sold but tequila out of varnished kegs. Salvador showed G. H. Barrow how to drink it, first putting salt on the hol ow between his thumb and fore-finger and then gulping the little glass of tequila, licking up the salt and swal owing some chile sauce to finish up with, but he got it down the wrong way and choked.
At supper they were pretty drunk and G. H. Barrow
kept saying that Mexicans understood the art of life and that was meat for Salvador who talked about the Indian genius and the Latin genius and said that Mac and Ben were the only gringos he ever met he could get along with, and insisted on their not paying for their meal. He'd charge it to his friend the chief of police. Next they went to a cantina beside a theater where there were said to be French girls, but the French girls weren't there. There were three old men in the cantina playing a cel o, a violin and a piccolo. Salvador made them play La Adelita and everybody sang it and then La Cucaracha. There was an old man in a broadbrimmed hat with a huge shiny pistol-holster on his back, who drank up his drink quickly when they came in and left the bar. Salvador whispered to Mac that he was General Gonzales and had left in order not to be seen drinking with gringos.
-314-Ben and Barrow sat with their heads together at a table in the corner talking about the oil business. Barrow was saying that there was an investigator for certain oil interests coming down; he'd be at the Regis almost any day now and Ben was saying he wanted to meet him and Barrow put his arm around his shoulder and said he was sure Ben was just the man this investigator would want to meet to get an actual working knowledge of conditions. Meanwhile Mac and Salvador were dancing the Cuban
danzon with the girls. Then Barrow got to his feet a little unsteadily and said he didn't want to wait for the French girls but why not go to that place where they'd been and try some of the dark meat, but Salvador insisted on taking them to the house of Remedios near the American em-bassy. " Quelquecosa de chic," he'd say in bad French. It was a big house with a marble stairway and crystal chande-liers and salmonbrocaded draperies and lace curtains and mirrors everywhere. " Personne que les henerales vieng aqui," he said when he'd introduced them to the madam, who was a darkeyed grayhaired woman in black with a black shawl who looked rather like a nun. There was only one girl left unoccupied so they fixed up Barrow with her and arranged about the price and left him. "Whew, that's a relief" said Ben when they came out. The air was cold and the sky was al stars.
Salvador had made the three old men with their instru-ments get into the back of the car and said he felt romantic and wanted to serenade his novia and they went out to-wards Guadalupe speeding like mad along the broad cause-way. Mac and the chauffeur and Ben and Salvador and the three old men singing La Adelita and the instruments chirping al off key. In Guadalupe they stopped under some buttonbal trees against the wal of a house with big grated windows and sang Cielito lindo and La Adelita and Cuatro mil pas, and Ben and Mac sang Just to keep her from the foggy foggy dew and were just starting Oh, -bury me not on the lone prairie
-315-bury me not on the lone prairie when a girl came to the window and talked a long time in low Spanish to Sal-vador. Salvador said, "El a dit que nous make escandalo and must go away. Très chic."
By that time a patrol of soldiers had come up and were about to arrest them al when the officer arrived and rec-ognized the car and Salvador and took them to have a drink with him at his bil et. When they al got home to