Document text
Forms to be Filled out for Eacn Interview
FORM 1.
Circumstances of Interview
STATE New York
NAME OF IIORKErt Herman Partnaw
ADDRESS 530 Parkside Avenue,
DATE February 13, 1939
SUBJECT Leisure Folklore
1. Date and time c' interview January -February, 1939
9 Place of interview
Union Square
FOLKLORE
NEI YORK
3. Name and address of informant A group of anonymous people in the park.
4. Name and address of person, if any, wno put you in
touch with informant.
5. Name and address of person, if any, accompanying you
6. Description of room, house, surroundings, etc.
(Use as many additional sheets as necessary, for any of the forms, each
bearing the proper heading and the number to which the material refers.)
-2
Six months in jail and six months out
He IS an average man.
(MORE, MORE.)
They act so very queer
When they are full of
RAT -GUT! Sinn! BOOZE AND BEER!
Right here on Union Square
BARI
In contempt
while the drunken nuts
Talk away
just walk away.
(DON'T WALK SO FAST, WE'LL GET BLISTERS ON OUR FEET...HERE, CHICK,
CHICK, CHICK, CHICK, CHICK...)
Cowards. Cowards...Sneaki Freakl...Go back to the coffin, all of
you.
HYGIENE JOE
People ain't nacheral. Dey eat too much. Ye know, yer stomach
kin hold maybe a pint. De jamority uh people cram a whole quart inta
it. What happOe Neuritis, arthritis, nepritis, colitis ant so forth.
Take de question uh sex. Majority uh people are sex poivoits. Ovhdo
it. Can't stay away from de wife. Got to adulterate her. Animals don't
do dat, insects neider. It ain't nacheral. Ye kin sit near ah fire,
ye don' have to lay right in it, do yuh? Ye kin smell poison, cancha,
ye don' have to go ahead an' drink it. Ye kin drink water, ye don'
have to drown in it. Am I right or wrong? Moe' nacheral place in de
woill is de Caribbeans. Plenty a froot an yuh kin nevuh get constipated.
I wuz dere six yeehs ago. Before dat I wuz just an honest dope.
Yuh know, work alla time, worryinl and take everything serious.
Well, suddenly I started in usin my eyes an I saw an awful lot,
I'm tellinl yuh. Fir instance, I discovered de less a guy works
the more money he's makin. Aftuh a while, I started in workin'
less, see? I figgered you know de way I figgered. But sumthin
went wrong wid de idea. De less I woiked de less I wuz makia. But
I still figgered de same way. So I tried it again. I woiked less
n less, and den I stopped altogether. I'm stubborn. You know. Once
I get an idea, I don' let go. So I got fired. So I thought I'd blow
de stink off and I goes down to de Caribbes. Dat UTZ heaven... Soons
I can I'm goint to work on dat problem again. Go an, find me anodder
job an find out what wuz wrong wid my system. Nacherally, so fars I
see personally it wuz all right. But de most nacheral way of all is
like de way I'm doin' now. Not woikin at all. It's de most hygienic.
How does it strike yuh, am I right or wrong?
IT'S FROM TINE IMIRMORIAL, HUH?
I'm de depression generation. I can't wait. I wanna go off
and do sumthin big right away. Fr instance, get sumthin virgin and
play it play it big. But I dunno, nuthin happens. Some man I wuz
talkin to in de park here tol' me once about Moses, haw he usetuh go
around like dis too until he got disgusted. Den, aftah while, de
older guys de died off, den he wuz boss. Jeez, I gotta wait de sane
as Moses, is dat a fact? It's from time immemorial? Wotta shame.
My personal opinion is I could amount tuh sumthin if thins wuz dif-
frint. Somtimes I think to myself I could be a leader. A Capone,
a Schultz, one uh den. Not one uh de mob. Way on top like Moses.
-4
Why not? I got wot it takes, I catch on quick, I come from smart
people. But I dunno wot's de trouble. I can't play dirty tricks
on people. If I wuz only able to play dirty tricks on people, I
dunno, I could turn out to be de biggest success. But somehow I
like to be widda guys that are bucking it insteada suckin it, yuh
know wot I mean? I despise de suckers. Look it den two girls holdin
each other. Is it true about den? Dey're pretty. Jeez, motta shame...
Didja evuh read de Well uh Loneliness?...I get de best books outs de
library, it doan help. I dunno, books doan do me no good. Why is
dat? Wot's wrong wid me anyhow? I gotta snap outs it. Last week I
went ovah to one a den bar an grills on Tird Avenue, just fez- well,
you know, I wanted tuh do sumthin unusual. Wbt dlyuh tink I noticed?
Al]. de men dere dey were wearin different suits. Not one uh dem wuz
wearin de same suit, wotta glih think uh dat? An dere muz thirty eight
men dere, not countin de bartender. Kin it be dere ain't two people
de same in dis world? Is dat possible? Wot duh you think? When
do de best ideas come to you? Tuh me dey come two, tree in de mawning.
One time I hitch -hiked to Philadelphia fez- tree days. It's a funny
thing, maybe you got a million worries on yer head but you hit de
road an everyting just disappeass like magic, you forget everything.
Well, when I come back to Noo York it wuz too late to go home, it
wuz one in de mawnin. So I come right oveh to de park here and I
laid down right on dis bench an stood dere all night. I just laid
dere wid my eyes open an looked up adduh stahs. Dere wuz oder guys
on de oder benches too. Den, befaw I knows it, de sparrows wuz
singin in de trees. I dunno, I like it here. I sorts find friend-
ship here, I guess. Dat's important, ainit? I don neveh feel lonely
in dis pahk. I suppose dat's de dreamy side uh me, ainit? I like
day way. Sumtimes I go to a movie, den I walk aroun' thinkin it
ovah. Lotsa things. De whole world. Fr instance, wot would I do
if I suddenly got lotsa money/ Now I go to de movies twice a.week.
Naturally I play dis game Screeno. Wbt dyuh tink, every day some-
body is winnin, I nevuh won once. Dat way I'm diffrint from oder
people. No luck. Sometimes I wonduh suposin I won a big prize wot
would I do? Would I spend it or put it in de bank or would it make
me dizzy? You know wot I tink? I'd go ahead an buy a whole outfit
and go off to an island. Some place nobody ever gone tuh before.
I'd get me a gun an a knapsack an breeches and boots an a knife
and a mackinaw and I dunno I guess I'd travel. Travel all over
de world. Africa, Honolulu, South America. Den again, maybe I'd
spend dat money on my old lady. Send her out to Lakewood fer de
wintuh. Dere's two sides tuh my nacher. Wot's de difference, I
doan win anyhow. I doan deserve it, maybe. I wuz always de flawuh
uh de class, de bloamin idiot. How hand I try, I can't control my-
self from bein bad. I'm always thinking uh things that don't do me
no good. Riddles an things what's go, no legs and walks, or what's
got eyes an can't see or what turns without movin. De trouble is I
got things on my mind. Jeez, wen de stork brought me to my old lady
he musta said tuh her. "Nuts tuh you." See dat man oven dere? He
doan have no home he sleeps on uh platform oflh big buildin. I
useta delivuh packages oveh dere. I see im once in a while on my
may home. He sells razor blades an shoelaces an odor tin s. I
dunno, I can't make it out, it's too much fer me, maybe it's like
dat man said to me once, it's from time immemorial. All I know is
I got no moral standids no more. Dis kinda life's givin me pimples.
Wbt dyuh tink, is dat yeast stufr dey talks about on de radio is
dat good for pimples?
-6.
ONY DE TROOT KIN SAVE YULI
Dey doan edjicate yuhs. Dey domesticate yuh. Dey make tame
animals outs yuh. Why? So dey kin use yuh in de next -blood -bath dey
got up dare sleeve. Dem big parasites. Dem big dirty parisites.
Feedin of yuh bones, ails time. Why, even yuh own mothers are on
dere side. Take a baby. When he grows up an wantsa know de factsa
life, mmt does yuh own mother say? De boogey man is gonna getchuh.
I tellyuh, we want de troot. Only de troot wiilyuh be set free. An
none uh dese here dirty yelluh socialists an communists is gonna tell
it tuh yuh. Dere ails, dem bought an paid fuh an owned. Yuh bulldozed,
dat's mut yuh ahr. Why, dere's one man who's woikin an nine welkin de
streets. One man, rind yuh, woikin tuh support sixteen men. Yuh doan
buhlieve it? Go over tuh de Cahnegie Libary an look up de facts. Yuh
make twenty five dolluhs a week sols de boss kin make tweny five dollars
an hour. And you do nutin about it. Wotsa mattuh wid you guys anyway?
Looks me. Iwuz locked up tree hundred times for tellin de troot an
I been loinin, an loinin, since I been seven, studyin human nachuh an
life,
an everyting. I tell yuhs only de troot kin save yuh...Wot?
Wot's de troot? Wot'se mattuh, widyuh? Doncha listen? 0, a wise g4V,
huta
ALL PUFFED UP WID PRIDE
Brother is you saved?....Is you saved from sin?
(NUHI)
You nevuh sinned, bvother?
(NOI)
N-o-o-o?....You're all puffed up wid pride, aintcha
my•
son...
Listen, An heard dere wuz a man who died on de craws for me.
An I wuz baptized in de knowledge uh this and wuz saved by de be-
loved Father and de Ho-o-o-ly Ghost.
(GWAN, MAME ALONE!)
Does yuh desahre de key, son, to de Kingdom uh Hevven? Den
wash yuhself in de blud uh de lamb, son. In de knowledge uh dat is
SALVASHUN.
(DE KEY? HERE'S DE KEY....MAZUMAI)
As -a -a -h, no, my son. You is blinded an mis-guided. You is
deaf, you is misleale....
(YE)
Son, doncha wanna save your soul from de livin FELT?
(SOUL? NOT'S DAT? WHERE IS IT? IN MY LIVER, IN MY LUNGS, IN
MY BELLY? WHAT'S ITS ADDRESS?)
Address?....Lo-o-o-r', son, it ain't go no address, de soul
hasn't. Least, I can't tell yuh... De Lord he says it's in the Bible
and he made it, he should know. But de knowledge thereof, so, de
Lord God, in his almighty wisdom, he hid it foam= until I reach de
next won'.
(NEXT WORLD! DON' KNOW DE PLACE, NEVAH HOID OF IT.)
No?...I've heard of it, son. I knows it....Listen, Alse not
livin now, son...Ahse waitin dat's all. Ahse purparin an ahse purgin
myself Dom all evil.
(NOT MEI)
Aintcha sfraid?... Aintoha ffraid rah may go to de livin HELL?
(N -A -A. -Al I KNOW IF I DO I'M GONNA MEET LOTSA PEOPLE DOWN DERE.
YOU TOOI)
Mercy, n -o -o -o. I don' wanna see atz down dere, son. You'll
look so strange an terrible wid fire ail around yuh...No, indeed, Purge
you' heart, son.
LISTEN
I know before I listen and I listen before I know. Hah,
hah. I'LL GET THE BEST OF YOU YitT.
How can you get the best of me when you can't get the best
of yourself?
WAIT, YOU SEE, I'LL GET YOU TOMORROW.
Why should I wait for tomorrow when tomorrow will come to
me.
LISTEN, I'VE GOT SOME MONEY IN MY HANDS, I'LL
You haven't got the money. The money's got you.
AW, DRY UP, WILL YUH?
C1MON,BREAK IT UP BOYS.
C'mon, breat it up. Hire a hail. Clmon, beat it. Yuh're
blockin deh road. Cimon, break it up.