MORNING SERIAL
OF the anger he felt when, summoned to the supervisor’s office, they entered, cap in hand, knees shaking, as though called to the presence of the Almighty for judgment on their sins.
His impressions of the long-continued slump were jotted down in his notebooks. All his passion and his anger.
Shuffle, shuffle. Drag your soleless boots along the shining, polished floor. Lean against the counter and stare with tired eyes at the printed notices: “Box 5,” “No Smoking.” Answer with tired tongue the dreary question: “No work?” Touch your cap, you snivelling underdog. Look around you and see the empty faces devoid of all human hope and love, staring… staring… staring.
Oh, you fool. Get away from it all! But where? Around the corner where Despair sits, brooding and melancholy, his dark, shadowy frame deeper than the shadows that encompass him? No, not there! Look at the green fields, the trees, the blue sky above. The radiance which is nature’s smiles around you, but you see it not. You see only the dusty pavements parched with summer thirst, and the living dead who walk beside you; the mean, dirty streets, unclean as a leper’s hideous sores; the pillared building, EMPLOYMENT EXCHANGE, where the bodies and souls of men are for sale.
Get away from it all! Sit you down, my boy. There, on a seat in the park. Listen to the beggar as he passes, ragged pants, downatheel.
“Oh Da-a- a-an- ny bhoy The pipes, the pipes are caw-aw- lin’ From glen to glen, an’ down the mountainside ….” You look in your pockets, but you have nothing to give to your poor, unfortunate brother — nothing. And you remember, suddenly, a night when winter snows lay crisp and white along the silent streets.
You saw, then, a man and woman. They were both young in years, but aged in body — maybe in mind, too. He was dressed in coat and trousers. He had no vest or shirt, and the night was cold.
She was dressed in a long, ragged coat; a thin coat, with no lining. They had canvas slippers on their feet, and the man was pushing a heavy, dilapidated pram filled with odds and ends, their worldly possessions, and covered with tarpaulin.