The daily worker., 1932-12-16

II forgot to tell you. When 1
come in, see, there was bunch of
Reds outside Of the building. They
was holding an outdoor meeting.
didn't stop to watch them, but
when l was going past I seen they
had all kinds of signs about un-
employment relief and all that. So
every once in a while they would
bust out hollering, giving the char
ity punks the Bronx cheer, 1 guess
You could hear them all the way
up on the seventh floor. The old
dame up there might Of been part
deaf, but she could hear that hol-
lering, all right. She stops writing
on the papers and looks at me
over her glasses and wrinkles her
nose up. She says, How can a
person do any work with that mob
of loafarS hollering down there?'
Work9 That was good.
Wen anyways, she says to me,
You should of come here sooner
SOS TO give us time. SoonS you
got that paper served on you Be
sides, we don't give out no money
or food of nothing like that. You
got to register at your police sta
tion if you want to get food checks.
All we do is commit children that
their parents can't support them
Well says, how about taking
the kid, then, just till we get up
on our feet again? The way it is
now, it don't get any milk at all,
and after tomorrow it won't get
farina even. It's got a bad cold
in the head right now from them
cold rooms
Why, amt you got no heat?'
she says.
"'I said once we amt
But is that the only child you
got, just this one 16 months old
baby? Because we don't encourage
parents with only one child to give
it UP. 1t leaves the mother without
no responsibility
well, that sure steamed me
up. i says to her, For Christ
sake. How the helfs the mother
going TO have any responsibility
If you let the kid croak from
starvation?'
'She got all huffed up. Here,
here--where do you think you're
at, in a speakeaSy?' she says, like
that. Don't let me hear any more
of that kind of talk out of you,
Mister. I'll have you throwed out
of here, first thing you know. The
idea
Il seen it was no use talking
to a female punk like her So I
got up. Before I went out, 1 says
to her, I forgot I forgot I was
just lousy bum looking for
handout.'
When I was hallway to the
door, I heard her saying, Loafer.
He ought to be down there with
the rest of them good for nothing
Bolsheviks. That's where he be-
longs And God damn it, maybe
she wasn't wrong, either"
THE old lady was watching me
1 from her corner. I seen that
scared look come over her face
again. The candle was getting low.
Ellen stood up and went over to
the cupboard and took out new
one. She lit it on the stump of the
old one, blowed that out and put it
on the shelf, and after that she
stuck the new candle on top of the
can Of cleanser, putting a couple of
drops of the hot wax on it first to
make it stick. Then she set the can
back on the stove and took her
seat. She asked me, kind of disap-
pointed like, "Is that all?"
Let me tell you," 1 says. 'We'll
eat yet. Unless the cops screw us
up like the Emergency Unemploy-
ment did. So from the Public We'll
fare walked over to the 18th Pre-
cinct Station to sign up for the
food checks. Well, the Welfare Of
ficer there says, No, you belong to
the 18th Precinct Then 1 had to
hoof it all the way back to the
Bowery, damn near, and what the.