U.S.A_ - John Dos Passos [47]
-113-strike funds or anything like that he'd help them out with a couple of dol ars, but he never could do much for fear Maisie would find out about it. Whenever she found The Appeal to Reason or any other radical paper round the house she'd burn it up, and then they'd quarrel and be sulky and make each other's lives miserable for a few days, until Mac decided what was the use, and never spoke to her about it. But it kept them apart almost as if she thought he was going out with some other woman.
One Saturday afternoon Mac and Maisie had managed
to get a neighbor to take care of the kids and were going into a vaudevil e theater when they noticed a crowd at the corner in front of Marshal 's drugstore. Mac elbowed his way through. A thin young man in blue denim was standing close to the corner lamppost where the firealarm was, reading the Declaration of Independence: When in the course of human events . . . A cop came up and told him to move on . . . inalienable right life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
Now there were two cops. One of them had the young
man by the shoulders and was trying to pul him loose from the lamppost.
"Come on, Fainy, we'l be late for the show," Maisie kept saying.
"Hey, get a file; the bastard's locked himself to the post," he heard one cop say to the other. By that time Maisie had managed to hustle him to the theater box-office. After al , he'd promised to take her to the show and she hadn't been out al winter. The last thing he saw the cop had hauled off and hit the young guy in the corner of the jaw. Mac sat there in the dark stuffy theater al afternoon. He didn't see the acts or the pictures between the acts. He didn't speak to Maisie. He sat there feeling sick in the pit of his stomach. The boys must be staging a free-speech fight right here in town. Now and then he glanced
-114-at Maisie's face in the dim glow from the stage. It had puffed out a little in wel satisfied curves like a cat sitting by a warm stove, but she was stil a good looker. She'd already forgotten everything and was completely happy looking at the show, her lips parted, her eyes bright, like a little girl at a party. "I guess I've sold out to the sonsobitches al right, al right," he kept saying to him-self. The last number on the programme was Eva Tanguay.
The nasal voice singing I'm Eva Tanguay, I don't care brought Mac out of his sul en trance. Everything sud-denly looked bright and clear to him, the proscenium with its heavy gold fluting, the people's faces in the boxes, the heads in front of him, the tawdry powdery mingling of amber and blue lights on the stage, the scrawny woman flinging herself around inside the rainbow hoop of the spotlight.
The papers say that I'm insane
But . . . I . . . don't . . . care.
Mac got up. "Maisie, I'l meet you at the house. You see the rest of the show. I feel kind of bum." Before she could answer, he'd slipped out past the other people in the row, down the aisle and out. On the street there was nothing but the ordinary Saturday afternoon crowd. Mac walked round and round the downtown district. He didn't even know where I.W.W. headquarters was. He had to
talk to somebody. As he passed the Hotel Brewster he caught a whiff of beer. What he needed was a drink. This way he was going nuts.
At the next corner he went into a saloon and drank four rye whiskies straight. The bar was lined with men drink-ing, treating each other, talking loud about basebal , prizefights, Eva Tanguay and her Salome dance.
Beside Mac was a big redfaced man with a wide-brimmed felt hat on the back of his head. When Mac
-115-reached for his fifth drink this man put his hand on his arm and said, "Pard, have that on me if you don't mind
. . . I'm celebratin' today.""Thanks; here's lookin' at you," said Mac. "Pard, if you don't mind my sayin' so, you're drinkin' like you wanted to drink the whole barrel up at once and not leave any for the rest of us . . . Have a chaser.""Al right, bo," said Mac. "Make it a beer chaser."
"My name's McCreary," said the big man. "I just sold my fruit crop. I'm