PRESERVATION PHOTOCOPY: ORIGINAL MATERIAL RESTRICTED

The Round the World Fliers

Going anywhere near Paterson? he said at the 23rd St.
ferry ticket booth. No, I said looking at him closely, red face,
mild blue eyes, long chin and sandy hair. Just a kid, more or
less. Why? Looking for a ride?

Yeah. Something in the accent, short and sharp. He was
bareheaded and coatless in a short sleeved and narrow striped blue
and white sweater shirt. His face sure was sunburned. O.K., get
in.

Boy! that's a relief, he said. I just walked down from
116th St. and let me tell you those pavements are hot - and hard.

Where you headed for?

Scranton. I got relatives there.

Been on the road long? Five days. Am I glad to get out
of that city. What kind of a place is that anyway? He shook his
head in retrospect. What's the matter, don't you like it? My
money gave out last night and I haven't had anything to eat since.
Think I could get a drink on this boat? No, I don't think so,
this is just for cars - unless you want to ask one of the hands.
There must be some place they get water here.

I can wait, he replied. He looked back at the receding
shore line and again shook his head slowly from side to side as
if in thought. At this moment it came on to rain in a great
burst of heavy drops like marbles pelting the low waves into a
thousand pits and a greyish mist of spray. Think this will last?
No, not more than a few minutes, I said. It'll cool things off
anyway. I hope I never see that place again, he returned to his
old theme.

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Don't blame you, I said. I don't like it either.

You know, he went on, I stopped in at a restaurant around
one o'clock this afternoon thinking maybe I could wash dishes or
sweep the place out or something for a sandwich and a cup of coffee.
It wasn't a fancy place and not a rough joint either, just ordinary.
Boy, what a reception I got. I've never done any panhandling but I
figured I was willing to work for anything I asked for. I almost
got thrown out of the place. The man came out from behind the
counter at me, I thought he was going to throw me out bodily. I
didn't even stop for a drink.

What'll you have? I asked him when the soda pop man came
by.

Cream soda, he said. Let me have a straw with it, I told
the man. Yes, sir.

Boy, does that taste good! I tell you you get awfully
empty when you can't even get water to drink in a place. You can
do an awful lot of walking on just water, you'd be surprised how
it picks you up. I've often heard it said an army marches on its
stomach. Do I know that now?

Where you from?

Montreal. Out of a job? I was only working two and three
days a week, then I was laid off entirely - for ten days. They
told me I might get steady work after that so I thought I'd look
around a bit - while I had the chance. I thought I'd take a look
at the city first then head for Scranton. My relatives will get
me home if I can't find anything there.

Have a cigarette.

3

No, not now.

What are you, a Scotchman? You look Scotch to me.

No, English, Powner, doesn't that sound like an English
name? Charlie Powner. My mother and father were both born in
England, one in Burton and the other in Broton, just outside
London, on the Trent. That's English enough too, isn't it?

I'm half English myself. Have any trouble finding rides?

Not much. The worst was in the city. I hopped on the
back of a couple of trucks and when they'd put me off I'd look
for another. Say, did you see the fliers come over?

No, I replied. I'm just in on a quick trip. Did you see
them?

What a racket! Around two o'clock I guess it was. I had
turned in to the park so I could set foot on the grass there for a
while to rest my feet after those hot pavements. All of a sudden
I heard a tremendous noise all around me, factory whistles, taxi
horns, people shouting. What the hell is this? I said, I couldn't
make it out. Then I hear the roar of the motors and saw the plane
overhead.

Was it flying low?

Not so very but you could tell it by the color and the
two tail fins, the two rudders. What a welcome! It was a regular
bedlam in the city for a few minutes. A great flight too. I'm
glad they got through. But I was worried during those six silent
hours after Fairbanks, Alaska. Boy, those Canadian north west
wilds are worse than any thing they'd find in Siberia. If they

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came down there, they'd never find them. They'll give them a big
parade tomorrow, I guess. It ought to be a sight. Not for me,
though. I hope to be in Scranton by that time.

Well, you did what you set out to do anyway. You saw
the city. How do you fellows eat when you're on the road that
way? That's what always gets me.

Well, when I left Montreal I took a dollar. My wife
told me I was crazy but I figured I could make it in five days
allowing twenty cents a day for food.

What could you eat for that?

Soup mostly. That fills you up. Yes, I said and if you
salt it well it makes up for what you sweat out on the road. Yes,
then you drink a lot of water and you feel fine.

Throw it in the river, I told him seeing him sit there
with the empty bottle in his hand. He looked at it, it was a tall
well made green bottle. No, he said, the fellow will want it back
or they'll charge him for it. Just then the Syrian returned with
his smile to collect the empty.

Getting off the boat I was busy with the controls and we
said nothing until he saw the half completed works at the Jersey
end of the 42nd St. tubes. What in hell's that? he said. Boy!
he said after my explanation, you do things right down here in the
States, don't you? Wonderful roads too. But we don't have the
auto accidents you do and no kidnapping either. But our roads
are awful muddy.

As we began crossing the meadows he said, There don't
seem to be many footing it down here.

5

Why, did you see more of them up state?

The roads were black with them between Albany and Boston
but they were mostly headed in an opposite direction from the way
I was going, out toward Buffalo and Rochester and places like that.
I saw two girls day before yesterday, I could see them coming for
quite a while and I'll be damned if I could tell they were girls
the way they were dressed. They stopped me to buy a couple of
cigarettes from me and even when they spoke to me I thought at
first they were boys. Only when I looked hard at them did I
realize that they were girls. What's the idea, I said, disquali-
ing yourselves that way? Oh, they said, we get by without so
much trouble in these clothes. They had come from Boston and
were headed for Elmira where they lived.

That's interesting.

I slept with two girls night before last. In a box car,
I think it must have been a private car for race horses, it was
so clean, I was looking around the yards for a place to flop in.
There was a colored man there and I asked him if it would be all
right if I hopped into that one. Sure, go ahead, he said. And
you'll find good, clean straw in there too. So in I got, it was
toward evening and did that straw feel good? Boy, I never slept
so well in my life, it was like the finest of soft feathers to me.
When I woke up in the morning I reached for a cigarette as I al-
ways do, first thing, and lit a match. It was getting light any-
how. And there they were, two girls, with skirts on and everything
sleeping in the opposite corner from me. They were snoring away

in good style so I got up and left them.

I've read something about it, I said. I understand the
railroad men take pretty good care of them through the country.

Yeah, they got the best everywhere. I understand down
through the south-west there's nothing but girls. Not for me
though. That's one part of the country I'm going to keep out of.

The rain had stopped by now. Steam was rising from the
heated roadway. I'm letting you off up here, I said. This is
Paterson Avenue. Stay right on it and you'll make Paterson with-
out any trouble. If you have any luck you might even get through
to Scranton tonight.

Yeah, I'd like to make it, he said. I don't want to leave
my wife up there alone too long. I got a little kid too. You
ought to see him. All he wants to do is be outdoors. Put him in
a pen and he'll stay there all day playing around. But he don't
like to be in the house. Here, I said, this'll get you some supper
and a bunk for the night if you need it.

Thanks a million, he said. Do you mind if I help myself
to one of those cigarettes now? Take the pack. No thanks, just
one. And if you're ever in Montreal, stop in and see us. 334
Mount Vernon Ave. Do it. We'll be delighted to see you. A
thousand thanks. So long.

As he was standing there speaking the last words I noticed
the material of his trousers, a heavy red-brown woolen stuff of a
much better quality than any but the wealthy possess in this
country.