登陆注册
5225400000001

第1章 CHAPTER I(1)

"You hear me, Saxon? Come on along. What if it is the Bricklayers? I'll have gentlemen friends there, and so'll you.

The Al Vista band'll be along, an' you know it plays heavenly.

An' you just love dancin'---"

Twenty feet away, a stout, elderly woman interrupted the girl's persuasions. The elderly woman's back was turned, and the back-loose, bulging, and misshapen--began a convulsive heaving.

"Gawd!" she cried out. "O Gawd!"

She flung wild glances, like those of an entrapped animal, up and down the big whitewashed room that panted with heat and that was thickly humid with the steam that sizzled from the damp cloth under the irons of the many ironers. From the girls and women near her, all swinging irons steadily but at high pace, came quick glances, and labor efficiency suffered to the extent of a score of suspended or inadequate movements. The elderly woman's cry had caused a tremor of money-loss to pass among the piece-work ironers of fancy starch.

She gripped herself and her iron with a visible effort, and dabbed futilely at the frail, frilled garment on the board under her hand.

"I thought she'd got'em again--didn't you?" the girl said.

"It's a shame, a women of her age, and . . . condition," Saxon answered, as she frilled a lace ruffle with a hot fluting-iron.

Her movements were delicate, safe, and swift, and though her face was wan with fatigue and exhausting heat, there was no slackening in her pace.

"An' her with seven, an' two of 'em in reform school," the girl at the next board sniffed sympathetic agreement. "But you just got to come to Weasel Park to-morrow, Saxon. The Bricklayers' is always lively--tugs-of-war, fat-man races, real Irish jiggin', an' . . . an' everything. An' The floor of the pavilion's swell."

But the elderly woman brought another interruption. She dropped her iron on the shirtwaist, clutched at the board, fumbled it, caved in at the knees and hips, and like a half-empty sack collapsed on the floor, her long shriek rising in the pent room to the acrid smell of scorching cloth. The women at the boards near to her scrambled, first, to the hot iron to save the cloth, and then to her, while the forewoman hurried belligerently down the aisle. The women farther away continued unsteadily at their work, losing movements to the extent of a minute's set-back to the totality of the efficiency of the fancy-starch room.

"Enough to kill a dog," the girl muttered, thumping her iron down on its rest with reckless determination. "Workin' girls' life ain't what it's cracked up. Me to quit--that's what I'm comin' to."

"Mary!" Saxon uttered the other's name with a reproach so profound that she was compelled to rest her own iron for emphasis and so lose a dozen movements.

Mary flashed a half-frightened look across.

"I didn't mean it, Saxon," she whimpered. "Honest, I didn't. I wouldn't never go that way. But I leave it to you, if a day like this don't get on anybody's nerves. Listen to that!"

The stricken woman, on her back, drumming her heels on the floor, was shrieking persistently and monotonously, like a mechanical siren. Two women, clutching her under the arms, were dragging her down the aisle. She drummed and shrieked the length of it. The door opened, and a vast, muffled roar of machinery burst in; and in the roar of it the drumming and the shrieking were drowned ere the door swung shut. Remained of the episode only the scorch of cloth drifting ominously through the air.

"It's sickenin'," said Mary.

And thereafter, for a long time, the many irons rose and fell, the pace of the room in no wise diminished; while the forewoman strode the aisles with a threatening eye for incipient breakdown and hysteria. Occasionally an ironer lost the stride for an instant, gasped or sighed, then caught it up again with weary determination. The long summer day waned, hut not the heat, and under the raw flare of electric light the work went on.

By nine o'clock the first women began to go home. The mountain of fancy starch had been demolished--all save the few remnants, here and there, on the boards, where the ironers still labored.

Saxon finished ahead of Mary, at whose board she paused on the way out.

"Saturday night an' another week gone," Mary said mournfully, her young cheeks pallid and hollowed, her black eyes blue-shadowed and tired. "What d'you think you've made, Saxon?"

"Twelve and a quarter," was the answer, just touched with pride "And I'd a-made more if it wasn't for that fake bunch of starchers."

"My! I got to pass it to you," Mary congratulated. "You're a sure fierce hustler--just eat it up. Me--I've only ten an' a half, an' for a hard week ... See you on the nine-forty. Sure now. We can just fool around until the dancin' begins. A lot of my gentlemen friends'll be there in the afternoon."

Two blocks from the laundry, where an arc-light showed a gang of toughs on the corner, Saxon quickened her pace. Unconsciously her face set and hardened as she passed. She did not catch the words of the muttered comment, but the rough laughter it raised made her guess and warmed her checks with resentful blood. Three blocks more, turning once to left and once to right, she walked on through the night that was already growing cool. On either side were workingmen's houses, of weathered wood, the ancient paint grimed with the dust of years, conspicuous only for cheapness and ugliness.

同类推荐
  • MARTIN CHUZZLEWIT

    MARTIN CHUZZLEWIT

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 题灞西骆隐士

    题灞西骆隐士

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • Beasts, Men and Gods

    Beasts, Men and Gods

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • The Rise and Progress of Palaeontology

    The Rise and Progress of Palaeontology

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • Queen Victoria

    Queen Victoria

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
热门推荐
  • 至源剑主

    至源剑主

    额隐剑印,于微小中崛起;剑术至源,破尽世间万法;三次失忆,成就至尊本我;逆源战乱,赢得万世沉浮。看一代剑主如何征得至源。
  • 诗酒趁年华:古诗词中的诗酒人生

    诗酒趁年华:古诗词中的诗酒人生

    循着古诗词中的酒香,酒魂,酒文化,解析诗酒所传达的精神世界和人生况味。这是一本古代诗词品赏,但重点不在解析本身,而在于通过诗词思考人生,解读世情。全书以情感为轴,分为四个部分:欢、思、伤、纵,代表酒的四种情感基调。作者精选历代24首酒诗,代表24种情感,通过富有张力和表现的文字,传递出大量有价值的文化、社会讯息,具有较强的艺术性和可读性。
  • 帝掌万古

    帝掌万古

    万古乾坤我为尊,诸天万界我为主。无上大道融吾身,诸多大帝皆为臣!
  • 把官司打到底

    把官司打到底

    五年前的那个春天,我的憨子舅舅给我打了一个电话。当时我在城里的重点中学上高二。舅舅憨,所以舅舅不可能知道,他的这个电话,从此改变了我的人生选择。舅舅在那个电话里告诉我,我妈为了做生意,和二条巷的胡玉香打起来了,打的结果是,我妈被胡玉香咬伤了胳膊。舅舅在电话里说,胡玉香下嘴真是狠,你妈胳膊上的一块肉都快要被她咬下来了!电话是管学生生活的汪老师通知我去接的。听到这个消息,我的眼泪当即就下来了。放下电话,我赶紧向汪老师请假,匆匆忙忙地坐上市内公交车,然后再坐轮渡,回城北郊区我的家。
  • 武侠龙套进化

    武侠龙套进化

    我在蝴蝶谷中学过医……我在草原上和幼时郭大侠一起放过马……我和韦小宝磕头拜过把子……我在侠客岛熬过药粥、在连城江边摆过渡船……我为剑神西门吹雪铸过剑……我也曾替身成为龙骑士志平兄…………高云麟在无限武侠龙套身份中历练。重生在类似南北朝战乱时代的武侠世界,成为一个濒死的小马奴,身份使然,被各大势力和武林纷争乱局逼迫、而报家仇,拥有武侠龙套进化系统的辅助,看一介身份卑微的死士营马奴如何崛起。
  • 星云叹

    星云叹

    古言版:史书记载:晟朝天兴二十二年,狄国公有一女嫁于轩琅亲王为正妃。时过三年,天兴帝崩,天下起五王之乱,轩琅王妃牺牲于此役,轩琅王悲。……天鼎五年,帝驾访江南,历时五月,携一民女进宫,直晋皇贵妃……未尽四年,病逝,未留子嗣,其帝哀,命其以皇后之礼制封葬于皇陵,不予立碑,以无名氏之冢殁于此地。其妃生时得帝盛宠,死时却不得其谥,不予其碑,怪哉,此乃千古之谜!(写不下了,完整版详见作品相关)白话文剧透:别的星球跑到我们地球来的人被叫做外星人,同样我们跑到别的星球去也被叫做外星人,这里讲的就是公元三千多年,地球人作为外星人成长为一国之后的故事。Ps:我的皇后是外星人(坑深,但能铲平)
  • 盛世江湖

    盛世江湖

    天地不仁,以万物为刍狗。当人们还对此迷茫不明的时候,早有一人风华绝代,站在天地的对面,关上了那扇门,护住了人间,也锁住了人间………这是一段异世人游异世江湖的故事,一段酸甜苦辣孤独享,一段爱恨情仇众生尝……
  • 电竞之冠军之路

    电竞之冠军之路

    电子竞技的世界里,第二名,永远是最大的失败者。因为只有冠军,才能收获鲜花与荣誉,才能被人记住。第二名,一无所有。而不幸身怀万年老二光环的富二代男主,到底要经历多少磨难才能拿到那个属于他的冠军?冠军之路,布满荆棘,最后究竟能不能够抵达梦想的终点,请看《电竞之冠军之路》
  • 生存的基本竞争

    生存的基本竞争

    认真分析我们平时生活中的种种欲望,不难发现,它们之间有一个共同的特点,即:它们通常是达到目的的手段而非目的本身。例如,我们需要钱,目的是买一辆汽车,原因是邻居有汽车,而我们又不愿意觉得低人一等,所以我们也需要一辆,这样我们就可以维护自尊心并且得到别人的爱和尊重。
  • 乔忠延客体散文

    乔忠延客体散文

    客体散文,是乔忠延多年写作实践的感悟和升华。就是将自己的文字贴近表达的对象去写,在质地上形成统一。作者乔忠延不会停留于一个表达对象,这样,随着表达对象的变化,就可以减少和避免自我重复。《乔忠延客体散文》即精选了一些这类的作品,让读者从不同的文章中具体感受作家怎样跳出重复的窠臼,以提升散文写作的品位。