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loaldus hichmene.
Assistant Directew
r:o(loral Writers' Project
i.ILinrAntri
"Loyalist? That sonofabiteL:. Franco, Viao woulc:In't be a
Loyalist? Ye 're all IyUt. Ly brother was killed fiGhts.
inr at •eruel. -.1y mother war killee by bombinc in lrids
1:1C sister died an the way to ne 'rench border, starved
to death, by Christ. If T. -Acta been back there I would've
been (load too. I know it. I would've orabbed a cun and
foucht those ixtstu 4 ot me. I wanted to f,..et
into It. I ha letters, from hom all the tie. DLit I
never could save onoach money for passaze fare. I can't
save noncy. It burnz my 72ockcts. I Pet druni!: and spend
it all."
Lopez was dark, cAun4'. vil(-eyed with protrudinc
false tooth and a hil i= lau8h. 1i.in ziining,
Lc bitterness lives L:.s life with a 1::::.imulnG
'7:1241ss in hand, omptied to the TalfliC of his Spanish lan3hter.
7 as a •orilla, Lopez still 1m2 in L-.17.1 s;a:ut.7,..4'.. of the
sunshine and ;;ayet.:1- of rpain, Tpan that now lies a:717.er
the wreelmce of modem warfarc.
I worked the quarries of northern 'in before corinc
to this country. I came here for the adventure of lt,
ss. Quincy was where I went from Now York. Put didn't
like C'_uincy. tonocuttcc there told zx about Darre. I quit
nu job, cot a quart of wTlir;77, and took a train out of 7orth
tai;ion.
up out
f,:oadarn ROod and drImY: on that train. I woke
rontpclicr. I ad to ride that Gasoline Tooner-
19843
1.
2,
ville Trolley to Barre. I felt awful by Christ that nnrning
I hit Barre.
I wus a stranger in Dame but not for long. The
first night I got in a poker game vith Italian stonecutters.
And we got drunk again too. I loot money so they liked no.
otter than if I won. Later I wen money plenty, but it was
o. k. then. irerybody knew Lopez. Lopez knew everybody.
It was nothing to ,et a job them days. Just walk into a
abed. They ask what you do, you tell them, they put you to
work.
In Spain I cut stone by band. am I got here they bnil
the new machinery. I learnt to use the sandblast. A fellow
took no in and learnt me. A Spanish fellow who know people
I knew back home. It's not so bad to learn. The power shivers
your arms. Your whole body shivers. Dut it ain't too bad...
In the strike in 1921 I got in jail. 3.c had a big fight.
V,e jumped this bunch of Frenchmen and we kicked the living
hell out of them. I broke one fellow's jaw. Lly Jesus I felt
the bone give under my fist. .hon one of those French bastards
hit me over the head with a club or something. It :mocked no
out cold. I woke up in jail. I didn't start the roddann fight
but they pinched no. I was the only one rot pinched. I cot
off o. k. though, a fine of ton -and -costs. rJ.en bucks was
nothing then. I,ut right now ten bucks is plenty money, by
God. Plenty money.
1 never married. I like the girls as well as anybody,
but not to marry. You don't have to marry them. I have too
Lindh fun with the boys. There's a good
nontpelier. They have a damn good time, get along o.
raise hell, insult each other, play tricks on each other,
drink, laugh, sometimes fit, but all in good fun. I don't
thin', there's no place like it is around here.
Probably the people, the people that call themselves
nice, say we're a tough bunch.. But we don't care about that
either, or about than. They drink j'ast as goddamn much as
we do, only they keep out of sight in their homes •And
they sleep with eadh o::herla wives, their office girls, some-
body anyway, probably a goddamn sight more than we do. They're
worse than we are, I think. People like that I got no use for.
Vie may be rough and tough, we swear a lot, drink a lot, Ara we
don't hide what we do. e got blood in our veins Instead of
water. 7e do a man's work and lead a man's life. naybe we're
wild, maybe we're crazy... At least by God we're alive
while we live.
Lots of fellows I know have quit the stone business.
Afraid. One guy never oven came back after his tools. :tit
most of 118 stay in It once we get started. Chet else you
goinF to do? You learn a trade, you work teni-fifteen yearn
at it, it's all you cot, ain't it? You make enough noncy to
ray your way. It's bettor money than you can get on any other
job. _Aron If you don't always get full time in.
I have a :pod time anyway. I ain't kicking and I ain't
seared. I like to ,-,c) to all the gams football, basket.
ball, baseball. :_;ot an old. Dodge, it ain't much of a car,
4
but it goee. I load it up with a gang and we go to the games.
In the summer there's swimming and dances out at the lakes,
carnivaln and fairs to go to. al the time thereto gambling
if you want it, there's bowling and movie shows and poolrooms.
-rid rather be here than a big city. I'd rather be bore than
any place, I guess. The Spain I knew ain't no more, that's
all.
Vie bad some r0fug008 here this spring, you know that?
One of them %new my brother. Tle bad been fighting with my
brother over there. Lle toe at Teruel when my brother got it.
Ile didn't like to ta311, much about it though. I don't blame
the fellow. It must've been a hell of a thing. He didn't
see my brother get it. le saw him after. Machine cuns, I
guess. L'Inyway he got it quick and clean. I felt better
knovinr7 that much... The IMmigration came after those fellows
and took them Sone sonotabitch squealed probably. I don't
%now what they did with them. Tetnap say they deported them;
ethers say they're bolding theri. I don't %now. It Beene
for chrisake they could leave them alone after all they been
throurh already.
It makes me so geddamn mad when I think about that war.
bout Prance and Iitler and nbssolini„ three sonsabitches.
I want to oet my hands on their throat. I'll bet you their
goddamn eyes pop out if I get those bands on them. I'd like
to be locked up in a room with the three of them. And see
who comes out... It wouldn't be one of them bantards, I'll
tell you that much.
Dut it don't do no good to get burned up. It's better
to have another drink PTO forget that stuff. And be glad
you're here instead of over there
I'm the only one in my famiday left n There's another
brother somewhere but nobody knows where. Or whether he's
livinr or dead. :lc ran away from home a long time ago. ke
never heard from him again. Ile was wild like the rest of us
only wilder.
I cet alon with Italians here as well as I do with my
own neople, Most of them feel like we do about Fascism und
all that, I get along all right with moat everybody. r'eme
of them think Lopez is crazy. All of them think Lopes don't
,7,Ive a damn far nothing. aways laughing, always singing,
always happy. Aare°, maybe.„ Put they don't see inside.
ahey ain't supposed to. They ought to know souetimes a man
'au/7hr- loudest when he feels the worst.
Yes, we got a i1punish ("flub here. Tvery runday we go
there, play cards, drink, talk, shoot the dice. 7ost of the
men are married with fannies. They like to come there to
get away from their wives and the kids yelling. It's a place
for men to come and talk men's talk. They talk baseball and
Drize-fights, politics here and over across, stonecutting.
They watch the girls go by dressed up for church. It's nice
to loo!..7 at them but they don't want them where they are.
They ::sp there to !,::et away fnmm women.
70 matter what hapl)ons I'll keep on laughing. And I'll
keep on cutting stone as long as there's stone to cut. Those
tvo things are all I cot, coo? Laughing and working. bile
1 7,ot them I can't lose, can 1? You're coddamn right I can't
lose. 'AIIE people sgy: There goes Lopez, the crazy happy
fool." Jnd maybe they're ridht. 'out only Lopez really tnovs
about