U.S.A_ - John Dos Passos [72]
-170-country if they didn't watch out and a damn good thing too. The barkeep leaned across the bar and said they'd oughtn't to talk thataway, folks ud take 'em for German spies.
"Why, you're a German yourself, George," said one of the guys. The barkeep flushed and said, "Names don't mean nothin' . . . I'm a patriotic American. I vas talking yust for your good. If you vant to land in de hoosgow it's not my funeral." But he set them up to drinks on the house and it seemed to Joe that he agreed with 'em. They drank another round and Joe said it was al true but what the hel could you do about it? The guys said what you could do about it was join the I.W.W. and carry a red card and be a classconscious worker. Joe said that stuff was only for foreigners, but if somebody started a white man's party to fight the profiteers and the goddam bankers he'd be with 'em. The guys from Chicago began to get sore and said the wobblies were just as much white men as he was and that political parties were the bunk and that al southerners were scabs. Joe backed off and was looking at the guys to see which one of 'em he'd hit first when the barkeep stepped around from the end of the bar and came between them. He was fat but he had shoulders and a meanlooking pair of blue eyes.
"Look here, you bums," he said, "you listen to me, sure I'm a Cherman but am I for de Kaiser? No, he's a schweinhunt, I am sokialist unt I live toity years in Union City unt own my home unt pay taxes unt I'm a good
American, but dot don't mean dot I vil foight for
Banker Morgan, not vonce. I know American vorkman
in de sokialist party toity years unt al dey do is foight among each oder. Every sonofabitch denk him better den de next sonofabitch. You loafers geroutahere . . . closin'
time . . . I'm goin' to close up an' go home."
-171-One of the guys from Chicagothe
lee of the recruiting tent. Joe felt lousy. He went down into the subway and waited for the Brooklyn train.
At Mrs. Olsen's everything was dark. Joe rang and in a little while she came down in a padded pink dressing gown and opened the door. She was sore at being waked up and bawled him out for drinking, but she gave him a flop and next morning lent him fifteen bucks to tide him over til he got work on a Shipping Board boat. Mrs. Olsen looked tired and a lot older, she said she had pains in her back and couldn't get through her work any more. Next morning Joe put up some shelves in the pantry
for her and carried out a lot of litter before he went over to the Shipping Board recruiting office to put his name down for the officer's school. The little kike behind the desk had never been to sea and asked him a lot of dam-fool questions and told him to come around next week to find out what action would be taken on his application. Joe got sore and told him to f --k himself and walked out. He took Janey out to supper and to a show, but she
talked just like everybody else did and bawled him out for cussing and he didn't have a very good time. She liked the shawls though and he was glad she was making out
-172-so wel in New York. He never did get around to talking to her about Del a. After taking her home he didn't know what the hel
to do with himself. He wanted a drink, but taking Janey out and everything had cleaned up the fifteen bucks he'd borrowed from Mrs. Olsen. He walked west to a saloon he knew on Tenth Avenue, but the place was closed:
wartime prohibition. Then he walked back towards Union Square, maybe that fel er Tex he'd seen when he was walking across the square with Janey would stil be sit-ting there and he could chew the rag a while with him. He sat down on a bench opposite the cardboard battle-ship and began sizing it up: not such a bad job. Hel , I wisht I'd never seen the inside