THIS HARD-BOILED TOWN
Meyer, Ernest L.
This Hard-Boiled Town By ERNEST L. MEYER SOMETIMES in these troubled days I lose faith in the formula that this is the best of all possible worlds. Sometimes I even waver in my belief that at...
...Now this incident is not at all important, but it illustrates my point...
...We'd finished our coffee and pie, and I pulled out a coin...
...But when I'm bogged in these spells of gloom I take heart in scanning pages out of my own little life, and many entries there help to lift me out of a season of muggy moral weather...
...Hauled hundreds of loads of Mamie Kesselrieder's home brew during prohibition...
...Maybe sometime when we're on the rocks...
...And you—well, come on and toss in your grips, Sauk City...
...Sure," I said...
...Get you there in 20 minutes...
...This is a hard-boiled burg, and no fooling...
...Well, I'm darned...
...Joe," said the driver, "coupla cups of coffee...
...Where you from...
...Maybe...
...You're telling me...
...Memories Of Sauk City "Sauk City...
...Tell you what," he said to me, "I hear there's a Coffee Pot job opening up down Queens Boulevard...
...The driver turned around, and he said: "I'm chilled through...
...Nice state...
...Madison...
...Say," he said, "gimme that Sunnyside address and you hop in...
...Cripes," said Joe, looking at me while.slicing the pie...
...Sure," I said...
...You keep your money, Sauk City," said the taxi driver...
...He served us, and we ate and drank...
...If it's all right with you, let's have a cup of hot coffee...
...Sometimes I even waver in my belief that at bottom most people are pretty decent folks, given a chance to express their decency...
...At the curb were waiting two taxi cabs...
...Well," I said, "I'd rather take a subway—" "Tough spot to find, brother...
...Just landed, you see, with nine bucks and no job...
...For years I lived 20 miles from there...
...Picked up this guy at Penn Station and found he comes from my old hangout in Wisconsin, and he knew Mamie Kesselrieder...
...he cried...
...No business' anyhow tonight...
...Well, that ain't all," said the driver...
...Nobody Ever Does Nothing' "You better," urged the taxicab driver...
...Ten thousands guys after every snowcleaning job—and no snow...
...Make it two pumpkins, Joe...
...Often...
...It'll do you good...
...The taxi had zoomed along a couple of miles of dark, deserted blocks when it slowed down in front of an all-night Coffee Pot...
...How much...
...Some difficulty with my baggage had detained me at the station, and when I at length emerged with my battered handbags the street was all but deserted...
...Like some pie...
...WeD," I said, "if you'lMet me—" "It's on the house," said Joe...
...he shouted...
...Cause in New York nobody is gonna do a darn thing for you...
...Know Mamie...
...Imagine this guy coming to New York without a job and only nine beans in his jeans...
...You're darn right not," said Joe feelingly...
...And then he said to me, "And if you're real hard up against it, you come in here to feed...
...Say, that pumpkin pie was swell...
...Eight bucks a week, and grub, but it's a 12-hour shift...
...It was getting colder, and he noticed me shivering...
...He was a hard guy with a flat nose, bushy red eyebrows, and his lips were chapped and blue...
...Here's a funny thing, Joe...
...The driver of one was dozing...
...Sure," said Joe vaguely...
...We're only half a mile or so from your address...
...But I'd rather—" "Nuts," he said...
...Soup line here's longer than a tail on kite...
...Got to change at the Plaza and all that...
...Can you tell me what subway—" "Hop in," he said...
...I'd just arrived in New York, and with deep misgivings, for I'd heard that Manhattan is a tough spot for a fellow without a job, especially with the depression still going good...
...We went in...
...About a dollar and a half...
...How's for another piece and another cuppa coffee...
...You remember I once told you about running home brew for Mamie, Joe...
...The driver of the other waved, and I walked over...
...Maybe in a week or so when your stake is shot you won't be able to buy pumpkin pie, because you know this is a darned hard-boiled town and nobody ever does nothing for you...
...Now you keep in touch with me and maybe—" "I will," I said...
...Hell's bells,'' he snorted...
...I thanked him...
...But the fact is I'm broke...
...Then Joe leaned over the counter...
...You don't say...
...You should've stayed there...
...This is my own cab...
...Wisconsin...
...It is an article of faith in those parts that hospitality, open-handedness, vary in direct proportion with the distance eastward from the Pacific, and that New York City is a prodigious callus on an otherwise tender continent...
...It happened on a night just nine years ago this week...
...You got to keep on your toes, fellow...
...She was a good scout...
...That's tough sledding in these times...
...I used to run a truck down the Wisconsin River cities six, seven years ago...
...Mulling this tradition late that December night nine years ago, I stood on the curbstone near the Pennsylvania Station...
...Won't charge you a dime, fellow...
...You can travel on the cuff for a while...
...You're a nut...
...Pumpkin," I said...
...Most of my life I have lived in the Mid West and Far West...
...I'll hustle you right out there...
...White haired, big as a barn door, and with a heart to match...
...A Friendly Cob Driver "I want to get to this address in Sunnyside, Long Island," I said, showing him a notation on a card...
...We bounced away, he yelling over his shoulder about Mamie, and "the guy that ran the Elite Cafe," and about a fellow named "Black Jack" Peterson I didn't know at all and which scared me a little, for it sounded like this driver had been a member of a tough crew...
...You keep your ears open for tips like what Joe just gave you...
...Now Joe and me got plenty good jobs...
...Say, ever been in Sauk City...
...He leaned far out of his window, thrusting his face into the light of the arc lamp and looking at me with interest...
Vol. 7 • December 1943 • No. 50
