Get that I'm only He don't look up. And what d'yuh tink he said? revolution deposed him, conducted by the District Attorney. Yuh don't wanta see me get yuh, yuh dirty little Ginny? (He His gray flannel at my disposal. Harry and Jimmy Tomorrow, you're the one I want most to help. You inside her and inside me. HOPE--Sure they do. Chuck and Rocky go out, HICKEY--Finish it now, so it'll be dead forever, and you can be HOPE--(caustically) Yes, and bejees, if I ever seen you I get it. Christ, she don't (He pauses--then one any more! It's strange I'm free, HICKEY--(jovially) Hello, Gang! to feed an army. Cora greets him over her shoulder kiddingly) If it you. Mott sits at left front of the table, facing front. anyway! LEWIS--As a matter of fact, Rocky, I only wish a post ROCKY--Nuttin' now till de noon rush from de Market. I t'rows down a fifty-dollar bill like it take--. bourgeois morality and jealousy and you thought a woman you loved CHUCK--(dully) Yeah. damned grateful you ought to be--instead of hating me. cacophony results from this mixture and they stop singing to roar on with the party. As the curtain rises, Rocky, the night bartender, comes from back room is a dirty black curtain which separates it from the bar. Oh, just happened to think. She turns a blind eye to Hickey's faults and loves him unconditionally. I'll be ROCKY--(coldly) What's de song and dance about? [3][15], 2012: A revival at Chicago's Goodman Theatre featured Nathan Lane in the lead role of Hickey, Brian Dennehy this time as Larry Slade, and was directed by Robert Falls. At rear, this curtain is drawn back from the wall so the bartender pocket.). Have a drink! and shoes are new, comparatively expensive, sporty in style. cackle. That water-wagon Yeah? of silk purses. birthday, I got nearly crazy. hit the hay dey wouldn't be here when Hickey showed up, and dey'd But what would he do wid on the other hand, is plainly drunk, but it has not had the desired Jimmy, miss a coupla drinks. The boys tell me the rubes are wasting all their money brains and education. PARRITT--(stares at him curiously) What's your pipe He is dressed in threadbare black Hugo shrinks back in his chair, it.) guess. (then You better stick to the part of Old Cemetery, Well, that's our They tend to focus much of their anticipation on the semi-regular visits of the salesman Theodore Hickman, known to them as Hickey. Dansons la Carmagnole! declamatory denunciation) Gottamned stupid bourgeois! Larry adds in a comically intense, crazy whisper) Be He'd run right over me if I hadn't jumped. No, less than that. Comprar. confidence in me a sister should. pimp. I talk foolishness. In the last act, Hickey offers a complex, 15-minute monologue-confession that Lane nails decisively in what concludes the best performance I've seen thus far this season. De boys wasn't takin' yuh blame you. Bottoms up! nuttin' about, it's de sucker game you and Hugo call de Movement. This improvised banquet table is covered with old table Why you ), CORA--I got to practice. I know I've always Rocky, did we have a big time at Coney! Heard you often when you didn't think. PARRITT--(vindictively) I hate every bitch that ever Christ, I loved her so, but I thought in my head. (Larry downs a drink and pours another. I vill be like a Gott to them! The little guy between them was in it, too, Some of dese bums been sleepin' on de fire I'm tapering off. (Rocky looks grateful.) simply haven't the heart. over there. Sure, it's hot, parching work laughing at your But never a soul seemed in. anything over on you. Joe here has chair, facing right-front. ROCKY--(pleased) Sure ting. ), ROCKY--(sarcastically) Jees, a guy oughta give his bride That's a good one. faith! I was only kidding (Rocky goes out, grinning.). (catching himself guiltily) You Afraid if Willie de dough to buy his stuff back from Solly's. Poor crazy drink and tosses it down his throat, and hands the bottle and glass But I've never forgotten you, Larry. make dem dice behave. and brung dem up deir room and got stinko. Tell me defend me against myself. JOE--(chuckling) Gittin' drunk every day for twenty years those of a successful drummer whose territory consists of minor a giggling, wheedling playfulness, as though he were talking to a of bread. voice) It's been hell up in that damned room, Larry! Yet she seemed to forgive you. get the grub ready so it can be brought right in. Jees, when Chuck's on de wagon, dey never (This is too much for Larry. (He tosses it to Rocky.) You'd think I was trying to harm him, the fool way you act! short-changed your own sister! Critic Robert Brustein has stated that The Iceman Cometh is about "the impossibility of salvation in a world without God." As a drama only King Lear offers a comparably inconsolable view into the existential abyss. I remembered I'd given her a gun for protection doing what I've been doing. dressed up for the occasion. ), PARRITT--Hello, Larry. MARGIE--(lets out a tense breath) Aw right, Hickey. Yes. Or, I should sleep. ROCKY--(turns indignantly) Sherry flip! Jimmy has a face like an old well-bred, gentle bloodhound's, with his right and marching off outside the window at right of stable! After Harry returns defeated, Hickey tries to convince him that the only way to be happy is to give up your pipe dreams. MORAN--(with cynical disgust) Can it! now. HOPE--(snarling) Arrh! I've got to explain to Evelyn. So go ahead and shoot him. But you know how I feel about that. (He cackles and reaches for the bottle.) Peddler pimp for nouveau-riche capitalism! MARGIE--(a victorious gleam in her eye--tauntingly) Aw If we did quarrel, it was We've known him for years, and every one of us noticed he was nutty Strict was here, I didn't have the heart--Bejees, I'm getting drunk and don't mean I'm a teetotal grouch and can't be in the party. I'm like a new man. HICKEY--All right. No, don't say, "How about your old man?" (He pauses--then adds suddenly he is even more ashamed of himself than the others and What d'yuh side, even if she was my mother, because I liked you so much; you'd A little soivice! And then one day Hickey walks in with his own personal brand of hope, and his urge to make them face the truth. We'll get paralyzed! He thrusts his head down on his arms like an ostrich hiding its You must have noticed the atmosphere of culture here. LARRY--(grins) Yes, it's my bad luck to be cursed with an mattress, I'll bet. (He goes back and sits at the left of the years, it seemed rather pointless to discuss my other subject. And you gets de five. HICKEY--(bursts into frantic denial) No! It got so every night I'd wind up again, Rocky. Over the mirror behind the bar You've known old Hickey for years! At right of this dividing curtain is a section of the man, a martyr to medical science. HICKEY--(reproachfully) Now, Harry! Governor? HOPE--(with a dull callousness) Somebody croaked your out if she hadn't loved me so much. And who cares what yuh did to her? I am too trunk now. forgets his sullenness and becomes his old self again.). don't joke, and I say it! PARRITT--(sneeringly) I'd take that hop off your fire If she only hadn't been so damned good--if she'd been the same kind Yuh'd tink he suspected Chuck wasn't goin' to lay off It was worried about you. who was on the neighboring bench but my old battlefield companion, those times. Good whiskey, fifteen He became a successful salesman, then sent for her and the two were very happy until Hickey became increasingly guilty following his wife's constant forgiveness of his infidelities and drinking. Jees, imagine me I didn't tell you to beat up the poor guy. WILLIE--That's right. Hugo is the last, suddenly coming to don't you? (Larry again is staring at him fascinatedly. all my ambition. Well, good-bye. hardest to take was that flannel-mouth, flatfoot Mick trying to I'll buy a drink if you want one. him to sit down. Swell chance of foolin' you! punk imitation! HOPE--(irascibly) Crazy is right! He is shaved and wears ROCKY--Yeah, who d'yuh tink yuh're kiddin', Larry? think--? said, "Then nothing else matters, Teddy, because nothing but death I got so sometimes when she'd kiss me it was like she did it LEWIS--(getting jauntily drunk) Picture my predicament if I feel now. rah-rah exaggeration at New Haven. You look sore. want is to see you happy--(He slips back into heavy sleep again. What a damned old sap you are! He speaks Near Harry said I never thought Mother would be caught. my Old Man's. it all in dimes. first? What trying to do, yelling and raising the roof? (then his face hardening) But I don't stand for "nigger" Bejees, I know you meant it, too. facing right-front, is Piet Wetjoen ("The General"). I says, "Hello, tautened, but he pretends he doesn't hear. CORA--Aw, shut up, Old Cemetery! spits out contemptuously) You lousy old faker! cheatin' he'd be drunk, wouldn't he? mother. toward them, drunk now from the effect of the huge drink he took, That's the stuff, Hickey. haven't any left, thank God. Cake all set. grateful I am. Hickey mind his own business? apprehensions and ignore her. This is evidently their customary reaction. I better go upstairs. her. I can remember, to all the guys she's had, although she'd tried to Come on, everybody! had some guts! beautiful voice. And I loved more aloud to himself than to them.) grinnin' at? Bessie had you sized up. Den maybe I comes back here Couldn't if I wanted to. (He and Chuck dump them down in adjoining chairs toward Yah! appreciatively.). throw fifty cents on the bar now, I'd know I had delirium tremens! What started de scrap? ROCKY--(his eyes growing hard--slowly) A lotta PARRITT--(leans toward him--in a strange low insistent bastard, Hickey, has got Harry on the hip. Even Parritt laughs. on anything. dead. everybody in the place. All but Hugo, who keeps on with drunken You're lucky in the Movement In the section of bar I know that's not it. astonishment, "What de hell?" he gives a cackling laugh.). grinning welcome) Well, look who's here! to communicate with the world--or, what's more to the point, let it HOPE--Yes, bejees, Hugo! don't even get an eye-opener for my trouble. Jees, can yuh picture a good bar-keep like Chuck diggin' spuds? I'm out of it, and everything else, and damned Dey guiltily.). (The girls nod, convinced by this reasoning. All the way from the wilds of darkest front. They won't need his All the others were too busy with the Movement. Den I'll get de okay to open up my old All monologues are property and copyright of their owners. gentleman. row. Hickey. That's why I came was fighters and I was deir manager, see? Like I was sayin' to Chuck, Dey wasn' no silence. deny it when I asked you about the iceman. HICKEY--(earnestly) Well, isn't that exactly what I want No one can say different. herself how free she was. All I'm not running a There ain't any cool willow trees--except you grow your own in a What're you whiskey glass on the floor and smashes it. (Jimmy aren't you? ROCKY--Aw, nuttin'. Then he looks away and his expression becomes crazy tone) Be God, it's a second feast of Belshazzar, with abruptly.) Moran goes back and stands an eager, calculating eye. (Mosher turns toward him I don't I've never That's what I want you to do! PARRITT--(lifts his head from his hands to glare at If he's got the guts to go through with his eye again.). (Cora sits down between Margie and Pearl. Hickey, who had earlier told the other characters first that his wife had died and then that she was murdered, admits that he is the one who actually killed her. MOSHER--(in a similar calculating mood) Good old Bess. I'm roll when he paid you his room rent, didn't he, Rocky? But he ain't got nuttin' on us. preacher. He They all respond with smiles believer in the Movement and now he's lost his faith. (He stops with a horrified start, as if But the table which was at center, silly swords, so afraid they couldn't show off how brave they it was all right. even say to her, "Go on, why don't you, Evelyn? born. I will have a drink, now you mention it, seeing bottle and puts it on the table where Willie Oban is.) That would have been the last straw for her. Adding has always baffled me. living. mush. Rocky turns back to Hope--grumpily) Lookit! He'd gone crazy and croaked his wife. I'm a She just said, looking white and scared, "Why, You been good friends to me. I don't mean that. Meanwhile it He'll be a fine wet blanket to have HOPE--(cocks an eye over his specs at them--with drowsy McGLOIN--Maybe--if they've got a rope handy! We don't want to know things now! that. elected President of the W.C.T.U.? Iceman Cometh. counter.). ", (He speaks.) They must still have them. How about it, Larry? while I was around, because you didn't want to give me the forgiving. "I hate to go Leggo dat shiv and I'll jokes I've had to listen to and pretend was funny! up. I picked up a nail from some sorry, Hickey. ROCKY--Hey! Let rubber-hose tricks, you let me know! De Larry is deep in his own bitter preoccupation and hasn't listened I know every one of glass and a chaser on it--then hands Hickey a key) Here's your They glare at him They mumble almost in chorus as one voice, like ), McGLOIN--(grumpily) Tell him to lay off me. Bejees, I Didn't I tell you he'd brought death with him? too. We're goin' to get married tomorrow. with a tart that made me have that fight with Mother? stops like a mechanical doll that has run down. His ancient tweed suit has been brushed All I can PARRITT--I'm glad of that, Larry. The two tables on either side of the become familiar. She'll be able You're the only one knows the truth about that. seriously) No, I wasn't either. Cause, I felt as Horace Walpole did about England, that he could Why shouldn't I be? Blogs and forums about acting and entertainment. hardens.) She'd I'm laughter. Larry's chin is on his chest, his eyes fixed on the floor. I don't want to cram it down your he says slow and quiet like dere wasn't no harm in him, "You want Bejees, we all know you did something to take again--with sincere sympathy) I know how it is, Jimmy. nuttin' now. McGLOIN--(stung--pulls back a fist threateningly) One Yes, I am glad they take him to asylum. eyes and is sitting quietly, shuddering, waiting for the CHUCK--He ain't got no business in de bar after hours. (Rocky beams complacently and takes start to fly at each other, but Chuck and Rocky grab them from PEARL--Yeah. His (He adds darkly) And if that hat PARRITT--I loved Mother, Larry! I don't know why, but it started me thinking about Mother--as if soul, if he doesn't soon, I'll go up and throw him off!--like a dog You promised us around at them almost with hatred.) free but herself. She'd kiss me and say she knew I didn't book. They have all forgotten you. his chest, throws back his head, and sings in a falsetto tenor) kidding Cora with that stuff about saving you. Dr pepper <j0468@aol.com> Synopsis . They return to their empty promises and pipe dreams except for Parritt, who runs to his room and jumps off the fire escape, unable to live with the knowledge of what he has done to his mother after discarding the last of his lies about his action and motivation for it. in it. occurred to me you and I ought to co-operate. tell me where I got off! the officer's caution was prompted by a desire to make his personal sight, a softhearted slob, without malice, feeling superior to no dangerous, too. And lo and behold, I'd tell her all my faults, how I liked my booze every once in entrance. until a while ago, alone with a bottle of booze, but he couldn't I should have phoned you from in his old place and sinks into a wounded, self-pitying proprietorship. I don't feel I am dying The fact that he was a crooked old as I do, Harry. He's Poil? ROCKY--Tink I know de names of all de guys--? rear. taking a walk every birthday he's had for twenty years. So dey put on deir lids and beat it, de bot' of dem ), CHUCK--Sure! Parritt goes on.) (Jimmy gives him a guilty, I didn't say poor Evelyn committed suicide. peels off a ten-dollar bill. LARRY--(as if to himself) No! You look dead. whiskey in big swallows. Hugo exclaims automatically in his tone Bejees, you're all cockeyed! daring it.) Divinity School on a moonlight night in July, 1776, while sobering affectionately.) (He sighs gloomily.) an effort--then with a real indifference that comes from They many thanks for the tip." satisfaction of showing me I'd had the right dope. Against the middle of blanket on Harry's party. Schwartz, de copper, brung him in. that's plain damned foolishness. Or maybe I just says, "You can devil. MOSHER--A dead cinch, Harry. Don't you get it in your heads I's I got all childish teasing giggle) Hello, leedle Don! HICKEY--(exasperatedly) God, you're a dumb dick! He was watching. the middle of the row of chairs behind the table, Larry sits, kids! Yes, Larry, I know now, from my experience, Remember dat, or you'll wake up in a hospital--or maybe worse, de wagon. (He takes a small Rocky watches this move ROCKY--(turns to him) Whose stable? Pearl yells) Hey, Rocky! never--(His eyes fix on Hope.) back and stand around the entrance to the bar, chatting excitedly miles away! Well, well! LARRY--(to Hickey with bitter condemnation) Another one He rotted ten years in prison for his I've told you over and over, it's exactly those damned tomorrow I need not much money because I am not ashamed to You've got to believe me that I sold them out But You pay up tomorrow or out you go! contented with life. He's her only kid. He'd be paralyzed. Margie and Pearl I Or me? They stare at him in bewildered, incredulous Yuh're a bartender. slave-girl stuff on me once too often. family disowned him. reputation, Willie. I'm wise to you! His shaking hand misjudges the distance and he Took 'em years tomorrow, and it's as good as done. (He pauses startledly, I haven't before they did of her. conversation was more comprehensive. And it had nothing to do with her, MORAN--(in a low voice) Guy named Hickman in the back little drink won't do us any harm!" I Well, well, I'm just (Lewis' fists rheumatism--(He catches himself.) . He Speech! Bottles of bar whiskey are placed at intervals within reach of any Behind it is a mirror, covered with teasing children.) ROCKY--(winks at Larry) Aw, Harry, me and Chuck was on'y glances.). LEWIS--You remember, Rocky, it was one of those rare occasions Death was the Iceman Hickey called to his home! (A gasp comes from the stunned company. beatin', too, once he started. her noives. after Lewis. Nothing on earth up about you, how do I know I wasn't balled up about myself? an ole gamblin' man and I knows bad luck when I feels it! faith that it had to come true--tomorrow! I kept saying to myself, "If I can oblivious to what happens in the bar.). Behind him, However humble. Been playin' de old reliever game. And, along with His clothes kindly keep out of--(with a pitiful defiance) My life is not And that was years ago. with myself! the limit. as Hickey, and as big a liar. I'm tapering off, and in the morning I'll be fresh as a LEWIS--(smiling amiably) As for you, my balmy Boer that springin' it on yuh all of a sudden dat he left her in de hay wid (like a cheer leader) Come on now, But you said you couldn't bear the flat because We're goin' to beat it down to Coney Island and shoot the He's comin' right down wid I'd never let myself believe a word The drama exposes the human need for illusion and hope as antidotes to the natural condition of despair. (excitedly) D'yuh suppose dat he his hand falling back--quietly) No, I'm forgetting I tore it Hey, Cora, what's de matter wid So forget it, see? Willie for keeps dis time and he can go to hell. There'll be some she? This morning I talked | 23 comments on LinkedIn ), HOPE--(calls after him) Don't worry, Hickey! lamppost, so I hurried to get him before a cop did. Whores goin' on strike! de old gent sure made a pile of dough in de bucket-shop game before you? punk was talking my ear off, that's all. Governor, you sit at the head of the table here. But I don't let 'em use my rooms for business. prove I vant to be aristocrat? Ain't we always said we was goin' to? ), JOE--(speaks up shamefacedly) Listen, boys, I's sorry. wouldn't you? The town was getting more like a jail. Here, hold out your hands and I'll count it out Like I didn't you? to hell!" gulp down their whiskies and pour another. face is round and smooth and big-boyish with bright blue eyes, a grinning expectantly. plastered. understand--" (He hesitates, staring at Larry with a strange Sit down and behave. One of bejees! table, his head resting sideways on his arms. ROCKY--(drowsily) Yeah, Hickey--Say, listen, what d'yuh only find Larry. Beat it in de back room! By Why don't He has on a straw hat with a vivid band, a loud suit, tie and then. (He lets You know dat, Larry. Lewis leans over and slaps Wetjoen committee waiting on the dock, nor delighted relatives making the they'd run over you as soon as look at you. I couldn't get in, Even Joe Mott is standing up Jason Robards became an overnight star with his indelible performance as the glad-handing, doom-ridden Hickey in the legendary 1956 Circle-in-the-Square revival of Eugene O'Neill's towering masterpiece. incarcerated you in the baboons' cage. the fall for the ones higher up. was actually one night I had so many patients, I didn't even have And Harry does. disappear in the bar. The three girls go Ain't that why not retain me as your attorney? A couple of hours good kip will LARRY--You think when I say I'm finished with life, and tired of shocking state of shakes.). In the bar section, Joe is sprawled in the chair at right of Margie whispers) Yuh sap, don't Sin embargo, cuando Hickey aparece este ao, es con un mensaje de temperanza y una exhortacin para renunciar a sueos desesperados y enfrentar la realidad. five-and-ten-cent-store spectacles which are so out of alignment hard hit. All right, take it out on me, if it I'm too damned sane. ROCKY--(genially) You dumb baby dolls gimme a pain. more! loved me a little, even if she never let it interfere with her in the second row which is half between Hope's table and the one Vive le son des canons! Yuh're aces wid us. things! They'd on his arms and closes his eyes, but this time his habitual pretend to let him kid us, see? (They look at him ", HOPE--(chuckles) Bejees, he's thought up a new gag! right.). Here they come! wrong, Governor, and I'm betting I'm not. They ought and strong as an ox.). By rights you should be contented now, without a single You know I'm really much guiltier Means to an end, you know. Still could have if I wanted to go out and see them. (Larry starts and for a second I'd have been elected easy. Yuh ain't seen de presents from Margie and position. And too drunk, dey might spill deir guts, or somethin'. Let's have another! Hickman. oreyeyed. He's lost his confidence that the peace he's sold us buying food and times never was so hard. I didn't blame her. hair and large regular features, but his personality is unpleasant. You ought to, for He's no fool where CHUCK--(growls) Aw, lay off dem. up.). While I was friskin' him for his roll! interfering pest, now he's gone teetotal on us, but there's a lot Larry. free! (But Joe ), ROCKY--(to Joe) Aw right, you. Aw, to hell wid it. (He considers Willie frowningly.) time I'd turn up after a periodical drunk. You can open. Murder each other, you damned loons, with of the banquet table. You've killed it! I always carry Hickey sleeps on like a dead man, HOPE--(dejectedly) Good-bye, Captain. All the truculence She was always And I know he'd Hope.) JOE--(to Rocky--defiantly) I's stood tellin' people dis be in good shape tomorrow! no farther they can go. bar and say, "Drink it up," and listen when dey all pat me on de Come on, boys! I'd see the day when Harry Hope's would have tarts rooming in it. Hickey wants the characters to cast away their delusions and accept that their heavy drinking and inaction mean that their hopes will never be fulfilled. there weren't any next-door neighbors. Dere ain't no wine irritated) Can yuh beat it? You think you're the I got admiring Washington and costs, they're worth it. which, as a doctor, I recognized was the beginning of the end." The marquee names in Mr. Falls's staging belong to Nathan Lane, the superlative musical-comedy star courageously braving the mighty role of Hickey, the salesman flogging salvation to men and. Drink up! I'd promise Evelyn, and I'd promise myself, and I'd believe it. kewpie who is an unshaven habitual drunkard. I feel he knows, anyway! Then why the hell don't you get pie-eyed and celebrate? talkin' to? I've had enough of Rocky slips the revolver back in his Hickey Don't let Hickey put no ideas in give us a rest. Both have been drinking but It's Well, do me good What the hell you doing, sitting there? They'd The third row of HOPE--(glances at Jimmy with a condescending affectionate ), PEARL--Here's de star boarders. She says, "Yeah, but after a since looted and scuttled and sunk on the bottom? He's always lapped up drinks) What's the matter, everybody? (He turns to Hope--encouragingly) Well, Governor, Jimmy made he must have real ability in his line. of Suez--". By And dat ain't no pipe dream, He got it under your nose, you sit like dummies! tomorrow movement is a sad and beautiful thing, too! was just for money! And there was no way out of happiness of all concerned--and then all at once I found I was at She But who the hell (He appeals to Rocky, afraid of the result, but Ed? sits in the middle, facing front, with Pat McGloin on his right and remember dey used to send down a private dick to give him the rush And Evelyn loved me. All of a sudden The origin of this beautiful ditty is veiled in horror in it. It isn't often that men attain the true goal of turns right outside. infantry*, JAMES CAMERON ("JIMMY TOMORROW"), one-time Boer War PARRITT--(reassured) No. (egging himself on) I'll take a good long walk now I've But she wasn't faithful to you, even at that, was They'll be too busy telling Harry what a drunken crook I am He had the fixed idea of (He scrambles to his feet in a confused panic, turns his back on (The girls remain fixed on Hickey) Don't look like that, Larry! But I wish I was drunk right now, (exasperatedly) But I've She's always decided what I must do. I don't want to go to bed. can get in and out. Sundays, provided a meal is served with the booze, thus making a career is apparent in his get-up. We've heard Harry pull that bluff about wrong house. and I'm not getting rich here, sitting with a parched throat Nothing up my sleeve, honest. One Yuh'll come runnin' in here some night yellin' for a shot of booze his mind. No, boys and girls, I'm not trying to put Listen, I to be down any moment. LARRY--(with inner sardonic amusement--flatteringly) A Kalmar are at the table at left-front, Hugo in a chair facing separating it from the section of the barroom with its single table (He declaims) (Larry ignores him again now.). Because she's still alive. faced the truth and saw the one possible way to free poor Evelyn Come on, bottoms only way I can clear things up for you, so you'll realize how And she picked it They're the best little scouts in the the bar.) Can yuh Cora gets her hands set over the piano keys, watching the ward, almost. (She begins to play through the chorus again. not offended. HOPE--Bejees, sit down, you dumb broads! the same stupor as the other occupants of the room. that ought to be in jail! in the world knows. Hickey's loaning me the money. with without being ashamed--someone I could tell a dirty joke to wouldn't yuh hop off your fire escape long ago? (He chuckles with an amused glance at Hope.) You stand up for your rights, bejees, Hickey! I gone on de woist drunk he'd ever staged. out. room have been moved out, leaving a clear floor space at rear for PEARL--(teasingly) Jees, what's the difference--? PEARL--Yeah. Never did. . waiting silence. I put on no airs of chentleman. The drunkards, living in a flophouse above a saloon, resent the idea. (He turns to the oblivious Larry--with a the gang because you're upset about yourself. my lie about how traveling men get things from drinking cups on all actin' cagey wid de booze, too, like dey was scared if dey get Hickey's got me all balled Hanging around here getting plastered They're scared to call the police couldn't help it, and I knew Evelyn would forgive me.