Document text
A ONE-MAN BO C T OF TEE UN SE
3.
"As time, time, time slips between
the fingers and flows through the heart
time after time it comes to this
comes to this, it is a question
of time"
This high-strung sidewalk in-
tellectual is wiry and swarthy
with oily skin and greasy eyes.
His mouth is twisted between
self-pity and bitter contempt.
A_ permanent grimace of satire is
on his lips. He earns carfare and
coffee -and b/ selling a scathing
broadside against Hitler. A hab-
itue of the New York Public Lib-
rary, he rounds out his nervous
denunciations of dictatorship with
cullings from encyclopedias and
thesaureses.
Forms to be Filled out for Each Interview
FOLKLO
STATE
NAME OF WORKER
ADDRESS
DATE
SUBJECT
FORM A NEW YORK
Circumstances of Interview
Herman Partnow
557 West 144 Street
May 98 1939
Unemployed fringe
1. Date and time of interview
April 17, 1939
2. Place of interview
'Second Avenue and 11 Street
3. Name and address of informant
Anonymous
4. Name and address of person, if any, who put you in
touch with informant.
5. Name and address of person, if any, accompanying you
6. Description of room, house, surroundings, etc.
6701) t,J 1Z,e
(Use as many additional sheets as necessary, for any of the forms,
each bearing the proper hoadinL and the number to which the material
refers.)
STATE
NAVE OF WORKER
ADDRESS
FORM C
Text of Interview (Unedited)
Herman Partnow
557 West 144 Street
DATE May 9, 1939
SUBJEK 0 ker. MAN boveor ifiCtrivt visjesi,
BO)tOTT T
FOLKLORE
NEW YORK
ONE —Milord Zioy Corr oF THE. kA;iveesE
Rinsommemommisaraa.
4.0,4 du cdvelo-rufebSak*S
m 4
4ammopuetudent.-ef of my contemporary friend.
spqaele=1:3:aboolase. Cosmology, histology, pathology,
neurology, astve4hysiology and the whole tautology of
existence are my fields. Bm4o-imphak.liewm.4100111170ritniods
del4m4Agomlagmadwomporik-si hommilawAtiriimmorAW
Is there a design, a scheme, a plan in this world? No, I
declare, no no and again no.
r*
207
is suffering omilieme fluctuations, alterations, transform& ions,
W "daliMalbd
PO ttward catastrophe, b14441
4,
in short, flux. In order t!Ls.a129.46101.1pa
heir front lawns and limousines 2 the
economic royalist gang of psychopaths, paranoiacs,
neuresthanics and megalomaniacs in short, butchers are
plotting to delude, deter, detract, deceive, extort us
with nationalism, patriotism, aryanism, racialism in
short, LIES. Everywhere trepidation, hallucination, anxiety
ta,
mallinapplogalmila. prevail. 1.1K 0014) littlEVS
The poor people may tudi'vacillate, fluctuate,
hesitate and waver. But my contemporary, they will
win their revenge. Air- he disinherited will have their
cosmic revenge. I promise it. Picture for yourself, for
example, tasta lug and ours. First, ours. Look at me. I'm
2
emaciated, dessicated, lacerated, withered in shQSt
dried up. Imagine me dead. litorlIMINIIIMPe. I'm lyiligAlike
a schlemiel in coffin of warped, bleached,
knotty lumber in short, a pine box. Along come the worms
the round worms, the flat worms, the earth worms, the tape
'they're wriggling
worms in short, worms. nagirazatamataa
and squirm/ they're searching for something to eatoonsonihisg
nutritious and nourishing. Wm* They smell here, they smell
there, nibble a piece here, a piece there. Phooey. Like
an old baked apple. Every bite produces nausea, dizziness, wind,
1
loss of appetite. I'm left in peace.
AM° MU,
Now akilk the scene shiftsaW. Morgan's
grave. A box of delicate wood, of sensitive fibres of
finest grain. A corpse that's mdinnimink freshman and
richness and succulet7- summers in Bar Harbor, winters
in Palm Beach. It's a toothsome bit of zoftig carnivorae.
In shffp stuffed kishke. Now enter the wormeA2Mionandm
ftaiMAL CAIk,
suspicious from igrmeal at my grave. A cautious sniff
-Ach dO,Lieta$.
and a nibble and HA-HA-A-A-ApAHI What have we hereliko
nom -meal or lunch or dinner but a repast 'banquet rare,
thernme running in droves a.
a feast. He rings the dinner gong and simannsaaii the ring-
worms, the earthworms, the round worms, the flat worms;
the tapeworms and prestol it's a skull and bones. You see?
*he cosmic revenge of the pool,' mixess***E2EMAEiNixx
BatzahskizIzzattxzazimaixtarmay
pauntat
o, my contemporary. I must have Wipe
4.111Mmee revenge now, now, now. MEAL can trifle with
3
1.10V14o/%4014101A4
lookjits, walkouts w ins sit owns slpepips'Apomillike
50 )444Al
'a one-man boycott
of the whole world.
$1111111111111ememilli111111mmilikompw
ballielINIMMINM You see? I blockade the universe.
Now look initecre gi re. Cast your imag-
CV- St
ination into the
Itakit Every day more and more people out of work, every
day more and more Shommodiewe Joining my ranks, year by
year more and more and more millions and billions
throughout the world Are you following me? Do you see
armiew the vision, the apparition, the overpowering
apocalyptic panorama? A whole world, my friend, without a
single person at work. .Colossal. What? .What
keeps me from going mad? Why, words, my contemporary,
just words.