WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.670 align:middle line:90% 00:00:03.670 --> 00:00:04.660 align:middle line:90% How about that? 00:00:04.660 --> 00:00:05.485 align:middle line:90% Much more audible. 00:00:05.485 --> 00:00:09.340 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHS] OK, good. 00:00:09.340 --> 00:00:12.700 align:middle line:84% A couple of announcements before we begin tonight-- 00:00:12.700 --> 00:00:16.660 align:middle line:84% there will be issues of the Sonora Review for sale 00:00:16.660 --> 00:00:19.420 align:middle line:84% outside after the reading, both the current issue 00:00:19.420 --> 00:00:22.270 align:middle line:90% and some previous issues. 00:00:22.270 --> 00:00:25.180 align:middle line:84% And I also want to announce an event that 00:00:25.180 --> 00:00:27.520 align:middle line:84% may be of interest to some of you, which is taking place 00:00:27.520 --> 00:00:29.260 align:middle line:90% in the community this weekend. 00:00:29.260 --> 00:00:33.820 align:middle line:84% And that's the Chax Press Residency, a weekend residency 00:00:33.820 --> 00:00:37.630 align:middle line:84% of writers reading and talking that will feature Karen Kelly 00:00:37.630 --> 00:00:40.150 align:middle line:90% and Gil Ott on Friday night. 00:00:40.150 --> 00:00:45.160 align:middle line:84% And Sheila Murphy and Leslie Scalapino on Saturday night. 00:00:45.160 --> 00:00:47.980 align:middle line:84% Those readings will take place at the Community Design 00:00:47.980 --> 00:00:50.830 align:middle line:84% Resource Center downtown on Congress Street. 00:00:50.830 --> 00:00:55.420 align:middle line:90% 00:00:55.420 --> 00:00:58.120 align:middle line:84% It's a particular pleasure to introduce 00:00:58.120 --> 00:01:01.870 align:middle line:90% to you tonight one of our own. 00:01:01.870 --> 00:01:05.980 align:middle line:84% Robert Houston is a native of Alabama. 00:01:05.980 --> 00:01:10.690 align:middle line:84% In 1973, he received his PhD from the University of Iowa. 00:01:10.690 --> 00:01:13.060 align:middle line:84% Since that time, he's been on the faculty 00:01:13.060 --> 00:01:16.210 align:middle line:84% here at the University of Arizona. 00:01:16.210 --> 00:01:20.050 align:middle line:84% He was a Fulbright fellow in Peru in 1978, 00:01:20.050 --> 00:01:22.960 align:middle line:84% and has also lived and taught in Mexico, 00:01:22.960 --> 00:01:25.330 align:middle line:84% has made his creative presence felt 00:01:25.330 --> 00:01:29.050 align:middle line:84% around the country at numerous writers' conferences, notably 00:01:29.050 --> 00:01:31.090 align:middle line:84% The Bread Loaf Writers' Conference 00:01:31.090 --> 00:01:33.310 align:middle line:90% in Middlebury, Vermont. 00:01:33.310 --> 00:01:37.630 align:middle line:84% He's published 10 novels, including Bisbee '17, 00:01:37.630 --> 00:01:43.150 align:middle line:84% The Nation Thief, and most recently The Fourth Codex. 00:01:43.150 --> 00:01:47.290 align:middle line:84% He crossed over that feared and coveted territory 00:01:47.290 --> 00:01:51.560 align:middle line:84% into the movie industry when his novel Monday, Tuesday, 00:01:51.560 --> 00:01:57.100 align:middle line:84% Wednesday was adapted as the feature film, A Killing Affair. 00:01:57.100 --> 00:02:00.280 align:middle line:84% He's currently working on two novels, 00:02:00.280 --> 00:02:03.430 align:middle line:84% one titled The Book of the South, which 00:02:03.430 --> 00:02:06.850 align:middle line:84% is forthcoming from Pantheon Books, from which he 00:02:06.850 --> 00:02:08.180 align:middle line:90% will be reading tonight. 00:02:08.180 --> 00:02:10.419 align:middle line:84% So please welcome Robert Houston. 00:02:10.419 --> 00:02:13.905 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE] 00:02:13.905 --> 00:02:19.400 align:middle line:90% 00:02:19.400 --> 00:02:21.130 align:middle line:90% Thank you. 00:02:21.130 --> 00:02:23.000 align:middle line:84% You guys are scary audience, you know, 00:02:23.000 --> 00:02:27.380 align:middle line:84% because I can't leave town after the reading 00:02:27.380 --> 00:02:29.075 align:middle line:90% and that makes it doubly scary. 00:02:29.075 --> 00:02:31.880 align:middle line:90% 00:02:31.880 --> 00:02:37.940 align:middle line:84% I should say that for those of you who are concerned, as I am, 00:02:37.940 --> 00:02:42.920 align:middle line:84% with the NEA's policies, that I'm not 00:02:42.920 --> 00:02:47.120 align:middle line:84% receiving a penny of NEA money this evening. 00:02:47.120 --> 00:02:48.635 align:middle line:84% I'm not receiving a penny, period. 00:02:48.635 --> 00:02:49.135 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:02:49.135 --> 00:02:52.370 align:middle line:90% But it's at least comfortable. 00:02:52.370 --> 00:02:55.040 align:middle line:90% 00:02:55.040 --> 00:02:58.100 align:middle line:84% I'm going to read from a novel that I've been working 00:02:58.100 --> 00:03:01.460 align:middle line:90% on and at for several years. 00:03:01.460 --> 00:03:03.920 align:middle line:84% Continuing my interest in the third world, 00:03:03.920 --> 00:03:08.720 align:middle line:84% it's set in Alabama, which is not 00:03:08.720 --> 00:03:11.870 align:middle line:84% as Saturday Night Live said recently, 00:03:11.870 --> 00:03:14.990 align:middle line:90% Darwin's waiting room after all. 00:03:14.990 --> 00:03:19.850 align:middle line:90% 00:03:19.850 --> 00:03:21.950 align:middle line:84% On a serious note, I'd like to dedicate 00:03:21.950 --> 00:03:28.010 align:middle line:84% this reading this evening to the memory of Cecil Robinson, who 00:03:28.010 --> 00:03:32.960 align:middle line:84% died yesterday, who was twice chairman of the English 00:03:32.960 --> 00:03:39.670 align:middle line:84% Department, one of the kindest human beings I've ever known, 00:03:39.670 --> 00:03:42.460 align:middle line:84% a man who is in many ways responsible for my being 00:03:42.460 --> 00:03:45.430 align:middle line:90% here this evening-- 00:03:45.430 --> 00:03:51.600 align:middle line:84% a scholar and a gentleman in the best sense of both those terms. 00:03:51.600 --> 00:03:52.740 align:middle line:90% OK. 00:03:52.740 --> 00:03:56.610 align:middle line:84% This is tentatively titled The Book of the South. 00:03:56.610 --> 00:04:01.020 align:middle line:84% I might even do it without [? questions ?]---- nah. 00:04:01.020 --> 00:04:02.730 align:middle line:90% Don't want to be that macho. 00:04:02.730 --> 00:04:04.410 align:middle line:90% It's warm in here. 00:04:04.410 --> 00:04:07.470 align:middle line:84% I'll read less than the allotted time 00:04:07.470 --> 00:04:12.360 align:middle line:84% this evening, if I don't trip and break my neck first-- 00:04:12.360 --> 00:04:15.535 align:middle line:84% less than the allotted time, I hope, and get you out of here 00:04:15.535 --> 00:04:16.035 align:middle line:90% in time. 00:04:16.035 --> 00:04:22.202 align:middle line:90% 00:04:22.202 --> 00:04:25.770 align:middle line:84% "Pate knew, by God, what a dollar looked like. 00:04:25.770 --> 00:04:28.320 align:middle line:84% First, it looked like a fallow cornfield 00:04:28.320 --> 00:04:31.200 align:middle line:84% and 1,000 Chinese coolies putting in a rail 00:04:31.200 --> 00:04:33.330 align:middle line:90% bed in the Alabama heat. 00:04:33.330 --> 00:04:37.530 align:middle line:84% It looked like woods, enough woods to lose six armies in, 00:04:37.530 --> 00:04:40.650 align:middle line:84% and surveyor stakes with the little red pennants marching 00:04:40.650 --> 00:04:43.530 align:middle line:84% off to get lost in those woods too. 00:04:43.530 --> 00:04:46.290 align:middle line:84% Then it looked like a few dozen clapboard buildings 00:04:46.290 --> 00:04:49.080 align:middle line:84% in the cornfield and a couple of board and batten railroad 00:04:49.080 --> 00:04:52.350 align:middle line:84% section shacks they called a land company office. 00:04:52.350 --> 00:04:55.980 align:middle line:84% It was iron ore and coal they were beating the drums about, 00:04:55.980 --> 00:04:59.400 align:middle line:84% but it was land that was making the dollars fly. 00:04:59.400 --> 00:05:01.440 align:middle line:84% They were going to build them a city 00:05:01.440 --> 00:05:06.000 align:middle line:84% all at once, in a God-forsaken wilderness. 00:05:06.000 --> 00:05:09.720 align:middle line:84% Pate listened to their curlicued Southern folderol 00:05:09.720 --> 00:05:13.170 align:middle line:84% about redeeming the homeland with their city and their iron 00:05:13.170 --> 00:05:16.050 align:middle line:84% furnaces, and he thought, if you people 00:05:16.050 --> 00:05:19.410 align:middle line:84% know how to ride the Negroes and the mossback farmers up 00:05:19.410 --> 00:05:21.930 align:middle line:84% in those hills like you rode them during the war, 00:05:21.930 --> 00:05:24.630 align:middle line:84% you'll redeem your pocketbooks all right. 00:05:24.630 --> 00:05:27.600 align:middle line:84% You'll make enough iron in your city to turn every one of you 00:05:27.600 --> 00:05:30.570 align:middle line:84% into dammed reconstructed millionaires. 00:05:30.570 --> 00:05:34.110 align:middle line:84% And either way you bring it in, inventing you a city 00:05:34.110 --> 00:05:39.180 align:middle line:84% or making iron, I'll be pleased to pick me a piece of it. 00:05:39.180 --> 00:05:42.450 align:middle line:84% He'd ridden a rattling stage south from Chattanooga 00:05:42.450 --> 00:05:46.170 align:middle line:84% two weeks ago to the rail head, then caught a train into here 00:05:46.170 --> 00:05:49.890 align:middle line:84% since the tracks still stopped in the middle of nowhere. 00:05:49.890 --> 00:05:51.720 align:middle line:84% When he got off the train, he put up 00:05:51.720 --> 00:05:54.630 align:middle line:84% in the only place in town, a wooden thing 00:05:54.630 --> 00:05:58.470 align:middle line:84% they called a hotel, where he had to share a room in shifts 00:05:58.470 --> 00:06:00.300 align:middle line:90% with 12 other men. 00:06:00.300 --> 00:06:03.570 align:middle line:84% Some of them had their pockets full of money, but no stomach. 00:06:03.570 --> 00:06:06.000 align:middle line:84% An Irishman lawyer who shared his room got 00:06:06.000 --> 00:06:08.400 align:middle line:84% so disgusted after just two days, 00:06:08.400 --> 00:06:12.690 align:middle line:84% he decided to go back to Ireland and start a revolution. 00:06:12.690 --> 00:06:14.190 align:middle line:84% (IN IRISH ACCENT) Eat swill, toady, 00:06:14.190 --> 00:06:17.880 align:middle line:84% to the gentry, and dought on bugs, the Irishman told him. 00:06:17.880 --> 00:06:19.530 align:middle line:90% There's your fortune. 00:06:19.530 --> 00:06:23.370 align:middle line:84% I'll take me chances with the English. 00:06:23.370 --> 00:06:25.530 align:middle line:84% The Lord high muckety-muck of the place 00:06:25.530 --> 00:06:29.220 align:middle line:84% was a white-haired tree trunk of a man called Colonel James 00:06:29.220 --> 00:06:29.940 align:middle line:90% Powell. 00:06:29.940 --> 00:06:31.200 align:middle line:90% And he had energy. 00:06:31.200 --> 00:06:33.600 align:middle line:90% That was the trick, energy. 00:06:33.600 --> 00:06:35.580 align:middle line:84% Pate first saw him mounted like he 00:06:35.580 --> 00:06:39.270 align:middle line:84% was posing for a statue on a rearing calico pony, 00:06:39.270 --> 00:06:44.130 align:middle line:84% waving a gold-hilted sword and wearing a flapping red sash, 00:06:44.130 --> 00:06:49.590 align:middle line:84% the first Monday of May 1873, the day Powell 00:06:49.590 --> 00:06:51.570 align:middle line:90% made his city real. 00:06:51.570 --> 00:06:54.660 align:middle line:84% He had 100-foot wide streets in the cornfields 00:06:54.660 --> 00:06:56.160 align:middle line:90% with no houses on them. 00:06:56.160 --> 00:06:59.130 align:middle line:84% He had a mountain of iron ore on one side of him 00:06:59.130 --> 00:07:03.630 align:middle line:84% and a sea of coal on the other, with no decent furnace 00:07:03.630 --> 00:07:06.930 align:middle line:84% to make it all into iron with, nor finished railroad 00:07:06.930 --> 00:07:07.860 align:middle line:90% to ship it on. 00:07:07.860 --> 00:07:10.110 align:middle line:90% But by damn, he had energy. 00:07:10.110 --> 00:07:13.140 align:middle line:84% And he wanted his city to be official and a county seat. 00:07:13.140 --> 00:07:14.460 align:middle line:90% So he arranged it. 00:07:14.460 --> 00:07:16.298 align:middle line:90% He made them vote on it. 00:07:16.298 --> 00:07:18.090 align:middle line:84% (IN THICK SOUTHERN ACCENT) Vote my friends, 00:07:18.090 --> 00:07:20.760 align:middle line:84% he bellowed at the Negroes as they piled off 00:07:20.760 --> 00:07:23.940 align:middle line:84% the excursion trains he had sent out into the wilderness 00:07:23.940 --> 00:07:25.500 align:middle line:90% to round them up. 00:07:25.500 --> 00:07:28.860 align:middle line:84% Vote for God in your native land. 00:07:28.860 --> 00:07:30.930 align:middle line:84% By which Pate knew pissing well he 00:07:30.930 --> 00:07:33.240 align:middle line:84% meant the Episcopalian church in Alabama, 00:07:33.240 --> 00:07:35.430 align:middle line:90% but that was all right, too. 00:07:35.430 --> 00:07:38.850 align:middle line:84% The Negroes did not seem impressed. 00:07:38.850 --> 00:07:40.470 align:middle line:90% Who's that, Captain? 00:07:40.470 --> 00:07:43.320 align:middle line:84% One of the Negroes asked Pate as the line of them 00:07:43.320 --> 00:07:44.910 align:middle line:84% passed him on the way to the voting 00:07:44.910 --> 00:07:48.390 align:middle line:84% table and the free barbecue and corn whiskey. 00:07:48.390 --> 00:07:51.450 align:middle line:84% Pate waited until Powell rode close by and stopped 00:07:51.450 --> 00:07:52.620 align:middle line:90% bellowing a minute. 00:07:52.620 --> 00:07:56.370 align:middle line:84% And he said loud enough so that all the Negroes and Powell too 00:07:56.370 --> 00:08:00.510 align:middle line:84% could hear him, General Ulysses S. Grant, my friend. 00:08:00.510 --> 00:08:03.060 align:middle line:84% Take your hat off to General Ulysses S. 00:08:03.060 --> 00:08:06.600 align:middle line:90% Grant, come to Alabama at last. 00:08:06.600 --> 00:08:09.240 align:middle line:84% Colonel Powell rained his horse in long enough 00:08:09.240 --> 00:08:13.110 align:middle line:84% to lean down and say, while the Negroes took their hats off 00:08:13.110 --> 00:08:16.110 align:middle line:84% and cheered him, come to my rooms 00:08:16.110 --> 00:08:19.560 align:middle line:84% in the relay house for toddy this evening, sir. 00:08:19.560 --> 00:08:24.120 align:middle line:84% There's little fate and I believe you'd be at home. 00:08:24.120 --> 00:08:28.740 align:middle line:84% All the rest of the hot day as train after train pulled in 00:08:28.740 --> 00:08:32.340 align:middle line:84% and the Negroes piled off into the sweet smelling barbecue 00:08:32.340 --> 00:08:35.400 align:middle line:84% smoke and swirling dust, and the band 00:08:35.400 --> 00:08:38.520 align:middle line:84% blared Dixie at the white mossback farmers 00:08:38.520 --> 00:08:40.799 align:middle line:84% down from the hills with their creaking 00:08:40.799 --> 00:08:44.550 align:middle line:84% wagons full of half-fed fed and long rifles, 00:08:44.550 --> 00:08:48.120 align:middle line:84% Powell took his bow when one white man or another announced 00:08:48.120 --> 00:08:50.340 align:middle line:90% him as General U.S. Grant. 00:08:50.340 --> 00:08:55.100 align:middle line:84% And Pate thought, indeed, oh, indeed, I 00:08:55.100 --> 00:08:56.960 align:middle line:90% am at home in Birmingham. 00:08:56.960 --> 00:08:58.280 align:middle line:90% Thank you, Colonel. 00:08:58.280 --> 00:09:00.840 align:middle line:90% I am at home. 00:09:00.840 --> 00:09:06.520 align:middle line:84% Pate, né Petrovich, was last of Furman Street in Syracuse, 00:09:06.520 --> 00:09:11.010 align:middle line:84% New York, owner of six barges on the Erie Canal and a chop house 00:09:11.010 --> 00:09:14.130 align:middle line:90% with bar on Water Street. 00:09:14.130 --> 00:09:17.520 align:middle line:84% He had once been right honorable undersheriff of Onondaga 00:09:17.520 --> 00:09:20.460 align:middle line:84% County, and was a grass widower with no children 00:09:20.460 --> 00:09:23.760 align:middle line:84% whose wife had run away with the Canadian barge man. 00:09:23.760 --> 00:09:27.660 align:middle line:84% Before he came here, he sold his barges, his restaurant, 00:09:27.660 --> 00:09:30.930 align:middle line:84% his house, and his furniture for less than they were worth. 00:09:30.930 --> 00:09:33.930 align:middle line:84% That, he considered, had been a cheap price 00:09:33.930 --> 00:09:37.740 align:middle line:84% to pay for getting away from grim Syracuse. 00:09:37.740 --> 00:09:42.450 align:middle line:84% He had made it out two weeks after his 40th birthday. 00:09:42.450 --> 00:09:45.120 align:middle line:84% Colonel Powell, in his suite of rooms 00:09:45.120 --> 00:09:49.710 align:middle line:84% in the relay house, the thing they called a hotel, at ease 00:09:49.710 --> 00:09:52.770 align:middle line:84% on a green silk settle shaped like something that 00:09:52.770 --> 00:09:55.440 align:middle line:84% looked as if it might try to eat a man, 00:09:55.440 --> 00:09:57.950 align:middle line:90% had introduced him around. 00:09:57.950 --> 00:10:01.980 align:middle line:84% (IN THICK SOUTHERN ACCENT) Gentleman, Mr. Walsley Pate. 00:10:01.980 --> 00:10:05.670 align:middle line:84% Mr. Pate is late come among us, but I have reason 00:10:05.670 --> 00:10:09.510 align:middle line:90% to believe he has enterprise. 00:10:09.510 --> 00:10:13.410 align:middle line:84% And Pate had taken pains not to let himself puff up 00:10:13.410 --> 00:10:18.000 align:middle line:84% into the sin of pride, which would not do among these men. 00:10:18.000 --> 00:10:19.680 align:middle line:84% (IN THICK SOUTHERN ACCENT) Mr. Pate, 00:10:19.680 --> 00:10:24.060 align:middle line:84% the Elyton Land Company and friends. 00:10:24.060 --> 00:10:26.640 align:middle line:84% He had nodded and taken the hands that came toward him 00:10:26.640 --> 00:10:28.920 align:middle line:84% and filed to the dozen or so names. 00:10:28.920 --> 00:10:30.720 align:middle line:84% Most of the names he'd heard shuttled 00:10:30.720 --> 00:10:32.520 align:middle line:84% about on the porch of the relay house 00:10:32.520 --> 00:10:34.350 align:middle line:90% in the week he had been there. 00:10:34.350 --> 00:10:37.660 align:middle line:84% The flesh to the names had whiskers and broad cloth 00:10:37.660 --> 00:10:40.140 align:middle line:90% swallowtail coats like himself. 00:10:40.140 --> 00:10:44.100 align:middle line:84% And some smelled like wood smoke, some like rosewater, 00:10:44.100 --> 00:10:48.180 align:middle line:84% some like whiskey, all like money. 00:10:48.180 --> 00:10:51.060 align:middle line:84% They had red iron ore dust on their boots 00:10:51.060 --> 00:10:54.060 align:middle line:84% and seemed to take great pleasure in referring to one 00:10:54.060 --> 00:10:57.300 align:middle line:90% another as Colonel or Judge. 00:10:57.300 --> 00:11:01.560 align:middle line:84% Pate smoothed his beard often to make himself feel at ease, 00:11:01.560 --> 00:11:03.690 align:middle line:84% took a cigar when it was offered him, 00:11:03.690 --> 00:11:08.077 align:middle line:84% and felt swarthy and foreign among the accents. 00:11:08.077 --> 00:11:10.410 align:middle line:84% (IN THICK SOUTHERN ACCENT) You are not from this region, 00:11:10.410 --> 00:11:13.080 align:middle line:84% Mr. Pate, one or another would ask 00:11:13.080 --> 00:11:17.310 align:middle line:84% nearly every time he opened his mouth to start a conversation. 00:11:17.310 --> 00:11:21.190 align:middle line:84% No, sir, I'm from Syracuse, in the state of New York. 00:11:21.190 --> 00:11:24.480 align:middle line:84% (IN THICK SOUTHERN ACCENT) I see. 00:11:24.480 --> 00:11:29.190 align:middle line:84% Were you engaged in the late unpleasantness? 00:11:29.190 --> 00:11:30.600 align:middle line:90% I was not, sir. 00:11:30.600 --> 00:11:32.370 align:middle line:84% My business was such that I considered 00:11:32.370 --> 00:11:36.095 align:middle line:84% it more important to hire a replacement and remain with it. 00:11:36.095 --> 00:11:38.220 align:middle line:84% (IN THICK SOUTHERN ACCENT) A blessing for our side, 00:11:38.220 --> 00:11:40.110 align:middle line:90% no doubt, sir. 00:11:40.110 --> 00:11:43.080 align:middle line:84% You're in Birmingham on business, then? 00:11:43.080 --> 00:11:45.900 align:middle line:84% I am, yes, sir-- pate would answer and think. 00:11:45.900 --> 00:11:49.710 align:middle line:84% Why else would a human being be here? 00:11:49.710 --> 00:11:51.600 align:middle line:90% Purchasing land? 00:11:51.600 --> 00:11:53.260 align:middle line:90% No, sir, I intend to settle. 00:11:53.260 --> 00:11:56.280 align:middle line:84% I'm a capitalist, not a speculator. 00:11:56.280 --> 00:11:59.970 align:middle line:84% Powell himself held court and said little to him. 00:11:59.970 --> 00:12:01.890 align:middle line:84% After the supper dishes had been cleared, 00:12:01.890 --> 00:12:04.980 align:middle line:84% he was joined on the couch by a little pinch-faced man 00:12:04.980 --> 00:12:07.560 align:middle line:84% with a wisp of whiskers under his chin 00:12:07.560 --> 00:12:11.250 align:middle line:84% who seemed to blink at people more than he spoke to them. 00:12:11.250 --> 00:12:14.490 align:middle line:84% The man had come late and hadn't given his name. 00:12:14.490 --> 00:12:16.500 align:middle line:84% Now and again, for the rest of the evening, 00:12:16.500 --> 00:12:20.670 align:middle line:84% Pate noticed the two of them watching him, listening to him. 00:12:20.670 --> 00:12:24.000 align:middle line:84% Sometimes the man made a remark to Powell, 00:12:24.000 --> 00:12:29.070 align:middle line:84% while his eyes stayed on Pate, the way, Pate thought, somebody 00:12:29.070 --> 00:12:31.920 align:middle line:84% like him might once have sized up a Negro 00:12:31.920 --> 00:12:34.470 align:middle line:90% he was considering buying. 00:12:34.470 --> 00:12:38.370 align:middle line:84% Pate worked hard at pretending he didn't notice. 00:12:38.370 --> 00:12:41.760 align:middle line:84% After a time, the Elyton Land Company and friends 00:12:41.760 --> 00:12:43.410 align:middle line:84% got drunk enough to start calling 00:12:43.410 --> 00:12:46.380 align:middle line:84% each other by Christian names and celebrating the vote, 00:12:46.380 --> 00:12:49.020 align:middle line:84% and deciding who was going to get what office in the county 00:12:49.020 --> 00:12:52.650 align:middle line:84% government, and more or less let him be. 00:12:52.650 --> 00:12:56.580 align:middle line:84% Never know they had lost a war, business as usual. 00:12:56.580 --> 00:12:58.830 align:middle line:90% But that too was all right. 00:12:58.830 --> 00:13:02.850 align:middle line:84% It was a time to be still and watch. 00:13:02.850 --> 00:13:05.490 align:middle line:84% He tried to leave before he got his drunk as they were. 00:13:05.490 --> 00:13:08.640 align:middle line:84% But every time he did, Colonel Powell called him back. 00:13:08.640 --> 00:13:12.660 align:middle line:84% That and the pinch-faced man's unnatural interests 00:13:12.660 --> 00:13:14.880 align:middle line:90% puzzled and unsettled him. 00:13:14.880 --> 00:13:18.840 align:middle line:84% He was an outsider, a foreigner, and such small potatoes 00:13:18.840 --> 00:13:22.480 align:middle line:84% these men couldn't even make a decent pot roast with him. 00:13:22.480 --> 00:13:26.370 align:middle line:84% He got stiller and watched harder. 00:13:26.370 --> 00:13:31.260 align:middle line:84% Now, Powell's mantelpiece clock had gone to midnight long ago. 00:13:31.260 --> 00:13:33.090 align:middle line:84% And there were just three of them left, 00:13:33.090 --> 00:13:35.460 align:middle line:84% four if you counted Powell's Negro, which 00:13:35.460 --> 00:13:38.160 align:middle line:90% nobody seemed inclined to do-- 00:13:38.160 --> 00:13:43.150 align:middle line:84% Powell, himself, and the little pinch-faced man. 00:13:43.150 --> 00:13:45.460 align:middle line:84% Powell had sent out for more whiskey. 00:13:45.460 --> 00:13:47.080 align:middle line:90% He still sat erect. 00:13:47.080 --> 00:13:49.570 align:middle line:84% And even without his red sash and horse, 00:13:49.570 --> 00:13:53.140 align:middle line:84% made Pate think of a man posing for a statue. 00:13:53.140 --> 00:13:56.830 align:middle line:84% His thick white hair was smoothed back, neat as a wig. 00:13:56.830 --> 00:13:59.140 align:middle line:84% His eyes were serious and steady, 00:13:59.140 --> 00:14:01.270 align:middle line:90% his mouth hard and straight. 00:14:01.270 --> 00:14:05.950 align:middle line:84% And he held a silver toddy cup in front of him like a pistol. 00:14:05.950 --> 00:14:08.530 align:middle line:84% These people talked so slowly that 00:14:08.530 --> 00:14:11.260 align:middle line:84% except for a certain flattening in the pitch of the man's 00:14:11.260 --> 00:14:14.200 align:middle line:84% voice, you'd never have known he was so drunk he had needed 00:14:14.200 --> 00:14:16.510 align:middle line:84% help to walk straight enough to go into the hall 00:14:16.510 --> 00:14:20.020 align:middle line:84% and use the chamber pot not 10 minutes ago. 00:14:20.020 --> 00:14:24.620 align:middle line:84% Control it was, energy and control. 00:14:24.620 --> 00:14:26.500 align:middle line:84% (IN THICK SOUTHERN ACCENT) Mr. Pate, 00:14:26.500 --> 00:14:30.100 align:middle line:84% he said when he had seen that Pate was seated and tidied, 00:14:30.100 --> 00:14:31.810 align:middle line:90% too. 00:14:31.810 --> 00:14:35.620 align:middle line:90% My suspicions are confirmed. 00:14:35.620 --> 00:14:37.570 align:middle line:90% Sir? 00:14:37.570 --> 00:14:39.160 align:middle line:90% Pate put his toddy down. 00:14:39.160 --> 00:14:40.870 align:middle line:84% By God he knew he should have paid 00:14:40.870 --> 00:14:44.080 align:middle line:90% more mind to his unsettledness. 00:14:44.080 --> 00:14:47.380 align:middle line:84% He had not a friend within 1,000 miles if these men had 00:14:47.380 --> 00:14:52.000 align:middle line:84% decided to make something out of this late unpleasantness thing. 00:14:52.000 --> 00:14:54.910 align:middle line:84% Powell smiled a small smile that said 00:14:54.910 --> 00:14:57.075 align:middle line:90% he was pleased with himself. 00:14:57.075 --> 00:14:58.450 align:middle line:84% (IN THICK SOUTHERN ACCENT) I have 00:14:58.450 --> 00:15:02.410 align:middle line:84% remarked your conversation this evening. 00:15:02.410 --> 00:15:07.480 align:middle line:84% You are indeed a man of enterprise. 00:15:07.480 --> 00:15:09.760 align:middle line:84% Pate left his toddy where it was. 00:15:09.760 --> 00:15:12.400 align:middle line:90% I tried to be so, Colonel. 00:15:12.400 --> 00:15:13.900 align:middle line:84% (IN THICK SOUTHERN ACCENT) I take it 00:15:13.900 --> 00:15:18.160 align:middle line:84% too from your actions on my behalf this afternoon that 00:15:18.160 --> 00:15:22.570 align:middle line:84% you are not a so-called friend of the Negro. 00:15:22.570 --> 00:15:24.910 align:middle line:84% They've never been an especial concern of mine. 00:15:24.910 --> 00:15:26.210 align:middle line:90% No, sir. 00:15:26.210 --> 00:15:28.690 align:middle line:84% (IN THICK SOUTHERN ACCENT) I find it very interesting 00:15:28.690 --> 00:15:31.300 align:middle line:84% that you have experience an enforcement 00:15:31.300 --> 00:15:35.800 align:middle line:84% of the law in your native state, too, Mr. Pate. 00:15:35.800 --> 00:15:38.770 align:middle line:84% Some, Colonel, though my primary interest is business 00:15:38.770 --> 00:15:39.490 align:middle line:90% you understand. 00:15:39.490 --> 00:15:41.650 align:middle line:84% (IN THICK SOUTHERN ACCENT) Of course, sir. 00:15:41.650 --> 00:15:45.880 align:middle line:84% That's what remains for us today, isn't it? 00:15:45.880 --> 00:15:48.610 align:middle line:84% Might I ask if you've considered that there's 00:15:48.610 --> 00:15:53.770 align:middle line:84% no necessary contradiction between those two interests? 00:15:53.770 --> 00:15:56.080 align:middle line:90% Damn, the man kept you fuzzled. 00:15:56.080 --> 00:15:58.150 align:middle line:90% No, sir, I have not. 00:15:58.150 --> 00:16:02.710 align:middle line:84% Powell swept his arm toward the little wispy-whiskered man, who 00:16:02.710 --> 00:16:06.370 align:middle line:84% had sat quietly in an armchair and cradled his toddy cup 00:16:06.370 --> 00:16:09.412 align:middle line:84% in his lap since the last of the others had left. 00:16:09.412 --> 00:16:10.870 align:middle line:84% (IN THICK SOUTHERN ACCENT) Have you 00:16:10.870 --> 00:16:14.770 align:middle line:84% met my associate, Major Tucker, Mr. Pate? 00:16:14.770 --> 00:16:17.770 align:middle line:90% 00:16:17.770 --> 00:16:19.250 align:middle line:84% Somebody wearing a watch chain had 00:16:19.250 --> 00:16:22.180 align:middle line:84% run Winston Knox off the front porch of the relay house 00:16:22.180 --> 00:16:23.170 align:middle line:90% at dark. 00:16:23.170 --> 00:16:26.530 align:middle line:84% Then, since the voting was over, so was the free whiskey. 00:16:26.530 --> 00:16:29.560 align:middle line:84% And Winston wasn't of a mind to do without until all 00:16:29.560 --> 00:16:31.330 align:middle line:90% his business was done. 00:16:31.330 --> 00:16:34.090 align:middle line:84% He found him a white saloon, Webb's, where they told him 00:16:34.090 --> 00:16:35.890 align:middle line:90% the whiskey was all right. 00:16:35.890 --> 00:16:37.000 align:middle line:90% He wouldn't have known. 00:16:37.000 --> 00:16:38.920 align:middle line:84% He wasn't a drinking man, but for the little 00:16:38.920 --> 00:16:41.200 align:middle line:90% he made up himself. 00:16:41.200 --> 00:16:43.540 align:middle line:84% While he was in Webb's, a wind like there 00:16:43.540 --> 00:16:45.250 align:middle line:84% was about to be a rain had blown up. 00:16:45.250 --> 00:16:46.750 align:middle line:84% And when he came out, he didn't know 00:16:46.750 --> 00:16:48.400 align:middle line:84% if it was the whiskey or the wind that 00:16:48.400 --> 00:16:50.660 align:middle line:90% made his hat keep slipping off. 00:16:50.660 --> 00:16:52.300 align:middle line:84% He didn't know either what time it was, 00:16:52.300 --> 00:16:54.400 align:middle line:84% except surely it was in the middle of the night. 00:16:54.400 --> 00:16:57.160 align:middle line:84% And he kept being surprised that his fingers were holding 00:16:57.160 --> 00:16:59.230 align:middle line:84% his rifle all by themselves so that he 00:16:59.230 --> 00:17:02.740 align:middle line:84% forgot he was even carrying it for minutes at a time. 00:17:02.740 --> 00:17:06.609 align:middle line:84% In the relay house, the windows that Burl, the Colonel's darky, 00:17:06.609 --> 00:17:09.940 align:middle line:84% had shown to him that morning, were still lit. 00:17:09.940 --> 00:17:11.417 align:middle line:84% Burl had been afraid and told him 00:17:11.417 --> 00:17:13.750 align:middle line:84% he didn't want to lose his job for telling Winston where 00:17:13.750 --> 00:17:14.980 align:middle line:90% the man he worked for lived. 00:17:14.980 --> 00:17:17.063 align:middle line:84% But Winston had promised him he wouldn't let alone 00:17:17.063 --> 00:17:18.400 align:middle line:90% where he had found out. 00:17:18.400 --> 00:17:20.020 align:middle line:84% Him and Burl weren't in the habit 00:17:20.020 --> 00:17:22.569 align:middle line:90% of refusing one another things. 00:17:22.569 --> 00:17:24.359 align:middle line:84% All day he had kept telling himself 00:17:24.359 --> 00:17:26.859 align:middle line:84% that he had just wait till the Colonel got settled and could 00:17:26.859 --> 00:17:29.980 align:middle line:84% concentrate, and then he'd go up to those rooms and ask him. 00:17:29.980 --> 00:17:32.170 align:middle line:90% But he knew he was lying. 00:17:32.170 --> 00:17:34.420 align:middle line:90% That wasn't it at all. 00:17:34.420 --> 00:17:36.130 align:middle line:84% He walked the block to the railroad 00:17:36.130 --> 00:17:38.020 align:middle line:84% tracks and stared up at the lit window 00:17:38.020 --> 00:17:40.750 align:middle line:84% on the second floor of the relay house. 00:17:40.750 --> 00:17:43.390 align:middle line:84% Clouds scuttled over the high-pitched roof 00:17:43.390 --> 00:17:44.080 align:middle line:90% with the wind. 00:17:44.080 --> 00:17:46.840 align:middle line:84% And when he watched them, he lost his balance. 00:17:46.840 --> 00:17:48.970 align:middle line:84% There was no other light in the building, 00:17:48.970 --> 00:17:50.950 align:middle line:90% nobody coming in or out. 00:17:50.950 --> 00:17:54.160 align:middle line:84% He thought he saw Burl's big stooped shape 00:17:54.160 --> 00:17:56.560 align:middle line:90% move in front of the light. 00:17:56.560 --> 00:17:58.750 align:middle line:84% From down the street, somebody clattered out 00:17:58.750 --> 00:18:00.880 align:middle line:90% of Webb's, cussed. 00:18:00.880 --> 00:18:05.650 align:middle line:84% A mule brayed and then a wagon jangled away towards the woods 00:18:05.650 --> 00:18:07.210 align:middle line:90% to the north. 00:18:07.210 --> 00:18:09.790 align:middle line:84% He stayed without moving until the wagon was gone, 00:18:09.790 --> 00:18:13.890 align:middle line:84% trying to make out more things inside the window. 00:18:13.890 --> 00:18:16.950 align:middle line:84% He'd never asked anybody for a job before. 00:18:16.950 --> 00:18:19.540 align:middle line:84% He didn't know just how you were supposed to go about that. 00:18:19.540 --> 00:18:21.630 align:middle line:84% But he did know it was time, too. 00:18:21.630 --> 00:18:23.970 align:middle line:84% He hadn't hardly even seen a piece of real money 00:18:23.970 --> 00:18:28.140 align:middle line:84% since the war was over, and nobody else he knew had either. 00:18:28.140 --> 00:18:31.380 align:middle line:84% There was a right smart you could grow on 35 acres, 00:18:31.380 --> 00:18:33.570 align:middle line:84% but not plows nor mules and their clothes 00:18:33.570 --> 00:18:35.970 align:middle line:84% to wear if you didn't have a woman to make them for you. 00:18:35.970 --> 00:18:39.360 align:middle line:84% Nor would you get a woman without a shirt on your back. 00:18:39.360 --> 00:18:41.220 align:middle line:84% I dug coal, he'd say to the Colonel. 00:18:41.220 --> 00:18:43.170 align:middle line:90% Dug it since I was nine. 00:18:43.170 --> 00:18:45.330 align:middle line:84% I can dig coal 13, 14 ton a day, you 00:18:45.330 --> 00:18:46.530 align:middle line:90% give me the blasting powder. 00:18:46.530 --> 00:18:48.030 align:middle line:84% I can get it out with a pickaxe, you 00:18:48.030 --> 00:18:50.820 align:middle line:90% ain't got no blasting powder. 00:18:50.820 --> 00:18:52.560 align:middle line:84% He was on the porch of the hotel now 00:18:52.560 --> 00:18:55.110 align:middle line:84% and didn't recollect he had walked over to it. 00:18:55.110 --> 00:18:58.740 align:middle line:84% There was an open door leading up some stairs in front of him. 00:18:58.740 --> 00:19:01.170 align:middle line:84% If he was more used to walking in shoes, 00:19:01.170 --> 00:19:04.350 align:middle line:84% he wouldn't be making so damn much noise. 00:19:04.350 --> 00:19:06.690 align:middle line:90% Burl wore shoes every day now. 00:19:06.690 --> 00:19:08.850 align:middle line:84% Get me two pair of shoes, he thought. 00:19:08.850 --> 00:19:11.640 align:middle line:84% Get me two pair of shoes, get me a decent suit of clothes, 00:19:11.640 --> 00:19:15.180 align:middle line:84% get me $40 in my pocket, then get me out. 00:19:15.180 --> 00:19:18.360 align:middle line:84% That was all right, Burl, being a darky, got his shoes the way 00:19:18.360 --> 00:19:20.070 align:middle line:90% he did. 00:19:20.070 --> 00:19:22.320 align:middle line:84% Get me another drink of whiskey, I had another nickel, 00:19:22.320 --> 00:19:24.300 align:middle line:90% he thought. 00:19:24.300 --> 00:19:25.920 align:middle line:90% He ought to go home. 00:19:25.920 --> 00:19:27.690 align:middle line:84% But if it did, he'd never work up 00:19:27.690 --> 00:19:30.330 align:middle line:84% to coming and asking for a job again. 00:19:30.330 --> 00:19:33.180 align:middle line:84% Lights lit, Burl's moving around. 00:19:33.180 --> 00:19:34.410 align:middle line:90% The man ain't asleep. 00:19:34.410 --> 00:19:36.840 align:middle line:84% He can give you a job as easy in the middle of the night 00:19:36.840 --> 00:19:39.240 align:middle line:84% as in the middle of the day, can't he? 00:19:39.240 --> 00:19:42.270 align:middle line:84% He stood with his foot on the first step of the dark stairs 00:19:42.270 --> 00:19:46.350 align:middle line:84% until he was sure he had his balance, then started up. 00:19:46.350 --> 00:19:48.940 align:middle line:90% 00:19:48.940 --> 00:19:52.060 align:middle line:84% Pate calculated, then lost his figures 00:19:52.060 --> 00:19:55.240 align:middle line:84% in the fuddle of the toddies and the hour. 00:19:55.240 --> 00:20:00.040 align:middle line:84% At $5 per week per convict, split among himself 00:20:00.040 --> 00:20:03.100 align:middle line:84% and the judge and whoever else was involved in court costs 00:20:03.100 --> 00:20:06.970 align:middle line:84% down here, well, take a low figure and say his share was 00:20:06.970 --> 00:20:08.260 align:middle line:90% $0.50-- 00:20:08.260 --> 00:20:09.460 align:middle line:90% not a fortune. 00:20:09.460 --> 00:20:12.280 align:middle line:84% But that was per week, per convict. 00:20:12.280 --> 00:20:14.230 align:middle line:84% And how many weeks would it take one of them 00:20:14.230 --> 00:20:17.650 align:middle line:90% to work off his court costs? 00:20:17.650 --> 00:20:20.980 align:middle line:84% Now, Major, what might we expect court costs 00:20:20.980 --> 00:20:25.840 align:middle line:84% to run on, oh, a $5 vagrancy fine? 00:20:25.840 --> 00:20:28.720 align:middle line:84% He asked the little man who sat on the edge of his chair 00:20:28.720 --> 00:20:32.140 align:middle line:84% as if he were waiting to be asked to declaim. 00:20:32.140 --> 00:20:33.370 align:middle line:90% Pate couldn't like him. 00:20:33.370 --> 00:20:34.840 align:middle line:84% There was something of the staring 00:20:34.840 --> 00:20:38.500 align:middle line:84% fanatic in his eyes, a thing he had noticed in more than a few 00:20:38.500 --> 00:20:40.810 align:middle line:90% of these southern redeemers. 00:20:40.810 --> 00:20:46.030 align:middle line:84% It might be, he considered, a source of their energy. 00:20:46.030 --> 00:20:48.460 align:middle line:84% That depends on the judge, of course, Mr. Pate. 00:20:48.460 --> 00:20:51.160 align:middle line:84% I'd say that given a cooperative judge, which we will attempt 00:20:51.160 --> 00:20:54.700 align:middle line:90% to furnish you, roughly $200. 00:20:54.700 --> 00:20:56.800 align:middle line:90% I beg your pardon. 00:20:56.800 --> 00:21:00.490 align:middle line:84% Powell, his pistol of a toddy glass aimed at Pate, 00:21:00.490 --> 00:21:03.970 align:middle line:84% said, it's a fair figure, Mr. Pate. 00:21:03.970 --> 00:21:08.770 align:middle line:84% $0.50 a week per prisoner for up to 40 weeks for a vagrancy 00:21:08.770 --> 00:21:10.060 align:middle line:90% charge? 00:21:10.060 --> 00:21:14.480 align:middle line:84% What in God's name might court cost be for a felon? 00:21:14.480 --> 00:21:16.660 align:middle line:90% He tried to calculate again. 00:21:16.660 --> 00:21:19.930 align:middle line:84% Even if he was able to furnish them with only 10 prisoners 00:21:19.930 --> 00:21:24.670 align:middle line:84% a week, at the end of 40 weeks, he could have 400 leased out. 00:21:24.670 --> 00:21:28.090 align:middle line:84% And if he'd been able to furnish them 20 a week, 00:21:28.090 --> 00:21:32.470 align:middle line:84% that's very impressive, sir, he said and thought, oh, by God, 00:21:32.470 --> 00:21:35.560 align:middle line:84% yes, you've figured out how to ride them. 00:21:35.560 --> 00:21:38.620 align:middle line:84% He reached for his beard to calm his hands. 00:21:38.620 --> 00:21:44.810 align:middle line:84% And if this place turned out and grew 30 a week, 40-- 00:21:44.810 --> 00:21:46.900 align:middle line:84% You will need considerable labor, 00:21:46.900 --> 00:21:49.540 align:middle line:90% I take it, at a reasonable cost. 00:21:49.540 --> 00:21:52.180 align:middle line:84% Tucker inched a little more forward in his seat. 00:21:52.180 --> 00:21:54.760 align:middle line:84% (IN THICK SOUTHERN ACCENT) Mr. Pate, my associates 00:21:54.760 --> 00:21:57.880 align:middle line:84% and I control in one coal field, in one field, 00:21:57.880 --> 00:22:01.450 align:middle line:84% I repeat, three times the amount of coal that exists 00:22:01.450 --> 00:22:03.160 align:middle line:90% in the state of Pennsylvania. 00:22:03.160 --> 00:22:06.370 align:middle line:84% Two-thirds the amount in all of England, Mr. Pate, 00:22:06.370 --> 00:22:11.970 align:middle line:84% nearly 8,000 square miles of coal field. 00:22:11.970 --> 00:22:14.010 align:middle line:84% Are you listening to me, Mr. Pate? 00:22:14.010 --> 00:22:18.210 align:middle line:84% Our coal fields can supply the world, the entire world. 00:22:18.210 --> 00:22:21.060 align:middle line:84% with all the coal it needs for the next-- listen to me, sir-- 00:22:21.060 --> 00:22:24.540 align:middle line:90% the next 270 years. 00:22:24.540 --> 00:22:26.940 align:middle line:84% And there are others, perhaps even vaster, 00:22:26.940 --> 00:22:29.250 align:middle line:90% that we are only now exploring. 00:22:29.250 --> 00:22:32.520 align:middle line:84% I don't speak of the iron ore, the limestone, fire clay, 00:22:32.520 --> 00:22:35.070 align:middle line:90% Mr. Pate. 00:22:35.070 --> 00:22:36.720 align:middle line:90% Historic, Major. 00:22:36.720 --> 00:22:38.370 align:middle line:90% Historic. 00:22:38.370 --> 00:22:41.127 align:middle line:84% What in the hell else was a man supposed to say to that? 00:22:41.127 --> 00:22:42.210 align:middle line:90% (IN THICK SOUTHERN ACCENT) 00:22:42.210 --> 00:22:45.000 align:middle line:84% Frankly, Mr. Pate, we need a city marshal 00:22:45.000 --> 00:22:48.370 align:middle line:90% who is not from among us. 00:22:48.370 --> 00:22:51.780 align:middle line:84% We are, as you're aware, occupied by Northern troops 00:22:51.780 --> 00:22:52.950 align:middle line:90% yet. 00:22:52.950 --> 00:22:55.380 align:middle line:90% A disgrace, Major. 00:22:55.380 --> 00:22:57.900 align:middle line:84% The Major blinked at him and shoved a hair closer 00:22:57.900 --> 00:22:59.760 align:middle line:90% to the edge of his chair. 00:22:59.760 --> 00:23:02.280 align:middle line:84% Powell's Negro silently crossed the room 00:23:02.280 --> 00:23:03.930 align:middle line:90% and poured him another toddy. 00:23:03.930 --> 00:23:07.830 align:middle line:84% The window curtains snapped out into the room on a gust of rain 00:23:07.830 --> 00:23:13.890 align:middle line:84% smelling wind as Pate tried the figures again, adding zeros. 00:23:13.890 --> 00:23:16.200 align:middle line:84% Suddenly, like the snapping curtains, 00:23:16.200 --> 00:23:18.450 align:middle line:84% Tucker took the big Negro's wrist. 00:23:18.450 --> 00:23:19.980 align:middle line:90% Look at that, Mr. Pate. 00:23:19.980 --> 00:23:22.830 align:middle line:84% That is what we have that you don't. 00:23:22.830 --> 00:23:25.260 align:middle line:84% Harness that and you have enough strength 00:23:25.260 --> 00:23:29.970 align:middle line:84% to lift the entire white South into a new civilization. 00:23:29.970 --> 00:23:31.860 align:middle line:90% He let go of the wrist. 00:23:31.860 --> 00:23:34.290 align:middle line:84% The big Negro looked blank as a brick wall 00:23:34.290 --> 00:23:35.998 align:middle line:84% and went back to his chair in the corner. 00:23:35.998 --> 00:23:37.082 align:middle line:90% (IN THICK SOUTHERN ACCENT) 00:23:37.082 --> 00:23:38.370 align:middle line:90% And what is it doing now? 00:23:38.370 --> 00:23:40.650 align:middle line:84% It's wandering like the children of Israel 00:23:40.650 --> 00:23:43.380 align:middle line:84% listening to promises made by scoundrels who don't understand 00:23:43.380 --> 00:23:45.090 align:middle line:90% the first thing about it. 00:23:45.090 --> 00:23:48.870 align:middle line:84% The Major finally made it off his chair, up and declaiming. 00:23:48.870 --> 00:23:51.240 align:middle line:84% Powell watched him with what Pate determined 00:23:51.240 --> 00:23:53.910 align:middle line:90% was controlled interest. 00:23:53.910 --> 00:23:58.080 align:middle line:84% Tucker paced to the window, slapped at a curtain, 00:23:58.080 --> 00:23:59.583 align:middle line:90% and turned to the room again. 00:23:59.583 --> 00:24:01.500 align:middle line:84% Pate was impressed. (IN THICK SOUTHERN ACCENT) 00:24:01.500 --> 00:24:04.650 align:middle line:90% Do you understand me, sir? 00:24:04.650 --> 00:24:06.450 align:middle line:84% I understand, Major, that you need 00:24:06.450 --> 00:24:10.260 align:middle line:84% a supplier who can furnish you what you need at the least risk 00:24:10.260 --> 00:24:12.720 align:middle line:84% to yourself, someone who can deal 00:24:12.720 --> 00:24:14.640 align:middle line:84% with the federal authorities with the least 00:24:14.640 --> 00:24:17.730 align:middle line:90% friction or suspicion. 00:24:17.730 --> 00:24:20.100 align:middle line:90% Do I understand you? 00:24:20.100 --> 00:24:23.196 align:middle line:84% Tucker sat and cradled his cup in his lap. (IN THICK SOUTHERN 00:24:23.196 --> 00:24:24.900 align:middle line:90% ACCENT) Yes. 00:24:24.900 --> 00:24:27.435 align:middle line:90% Powell aimed his own cup again. 00:24:27.435 --> 00:24:30.450 align:middle line:84% (IN THICK SOUTHERN ACCENT) You can, of course, furnish letters 00:24:30.450 --> 00:24:34.770 align:middle line:90% of introduction, Mr. Pate. 00:24:34.770 --> 00:24:38.910 align:middle line:84% If I didn't, Pate thought, between myself and $2, 00:24:38.910 --> 00:24:40.680 align:middle line:84% I could damn well have a half dozen 00:24:40.680 --> 00:24:43.710 align:middle line:84% made up by morning in this place. 00:24:43.710 --> 00:24:46.830 align:middle line:84% He picked up his cup now and raised it, 00:24:46.830 --> 00:24:50.160 align:middle line:84% working hard at looking discreet. 00:24:50.160 --> 00:24:52.500 align:middle line:90% A toast, gentlemen. 00:24:52.500 --> 00:24:54.630 align:middle line:84% While he tried to think of a reasonable toast, 00:24:54.630 --> 00:24:57.240 align:middle line:90% a heavy knock rattled the door. 00:24:57.240 --> 00:24:59.760 align:middle line:84% Powell and Tucker glanced at each other, 00:24:59.760 --> 00:25:02.760 align:middle line:90% and the Negro got to his feet. 00:25:02.760 --> 00:25:06.000 align:middle line:84% It's your whiskey, Colonel, Tucker said. 00:25:06.000 --> 00:25:10.200 align:middle line:84% Powell nodded and motioned his Negro to the door. 00:25:10.200 --> 00:25:14.220 align:middle line:84% The man who stood in it, a man just beyond a boy's age, 00:25:14.220 --> 00:25:15.900 align:middle line:90% blinked at the light. 00:25:15.900 --> 00:25:19.020 align:middle line:84% He snatched his hat off, glared at the Negro, 00:25:19.020 --> 00:25:21.900 align:middle line:84% and made as if he were going to step into the room. 00:25:21.900 --> 00:25:23.370 align:middle line:90% The Negro didn't move. 00:25:23.370 --> 00:25:25.020 align:middle line:90% The man looked past him. 00:25:25.020 --> 00:25:28.080 align:middle line:90% Colonel Powell, he said. 00:25:28.080 --> 00:25:32.520 align:middle line:84% You have 'bidness with me, Powell said without getting up. 00:25:32.520 --> 00:25:34.860 align:middle line:84% He put his cup down and moved his hand 00:25:34.860 --> 00:25:37.170 align:middle line:90% slowly beneath his coat. 00:25:37.170 --> 00:25:40.920 align:middle line:84% The man, the boy, focused on him. 00:25:40.920 --> 00:25:43.950 align:middle line:84% Pate judged him to be a mossback from what he had come 00:25:43.950 --> 00:25:46.260 align:middle line:90% to know of mossbacks in a week. 00:25:46.260 --> 00:25:49.650 align:middle line:84% Hair larded, face hollow and grim, 00:25:49.650 --> 00:25:52.480 align:middle line:84% a single gallace holding up his trousers, 00:25:52.480 --> 00:25:55.170 align:middle line:90% a rifle growing out of his hand. 00:25:55.170 --> 00:25:56.910 align:middle line:90% No threat to these men. 00:25:56.910 --> 00:25:59.220 align:middle line:84% The kind of boy who died for them at Shiloh 00:25:59.220 --> 00:26:02.310 align:middle line:90% by the thousands, he'd warrant. 00:26:02.310 --> 00:26:04.830 align:middle line:90% Yes, sir, the boy said. 00:26:04.830 --> 00:26:08.055 align:middle line:90% I come-- I come about-- 00:26:08.055 --> 00:26:11.190 align:middle line:84% but the man's eyes had moved from Powell 00:26:11.190 --> 00:26:13.350 align:middle line:90% and settled on Tucker. 00:26:13.350 --> 00:26:17.700 align:middle line:84% His lips worked, but nothing came out, like, Pate thought, 00:26:17.700 --> 00:26:20.932 align:middle line:84% he was suddenly talking just to himself. 00:26:20.932 --> 00:26:22.890 align:middle line:84% (IN THICK SOUTHERN ACCENT) State your 'bidness, 00:26:22.890 --> 00:26:24.000 align:middle line:90% Powell said to him. 00:26:24.000 --> 00:26:27.270 align:middle line:84% Burl, get out of the way so I can see the man. 00:26:27.270 --> 00:26:30.510 align:middle line:84% The Negro stepped slowly back, keeping himself 00:26:30.510 --> 00:26:34.130 align:middle line:90% between the man and Powell. 00:26:34.130 --> 00:26:38.460 align:middle line:90% I come, the boy said-- 00:26:38.460 --> 00:26:45.840 align:middle line:84% and his face froze, stopped, wound down like a clock. 00:26:45.840 --> 00:26:48.180 align:middle line:84% His rifle was up before the Negro could more than 00:26:48.180 --> 00:26:49.920 align:middle line:90% grab the air beside it. 00:26:49.920 --> 00:26:52.560 align:middle line:84% Tucker's hand was only halfway to his face 00:26:52.560 --> 00:26:56.190 align:middle line:84% before the room filled up with noise and black powder smoke. 00:26:56.190 --> 00:26:59.310 align:middle line:84% And Tucker's head, its eyes in mid-blink, 00:26:59.310 --> 00:27:02.430 align:middle line:84% its wispy beard erased by the rifle ball, 00:27:02.430 --> 00:27:05.280 align:middle line:84% snapped back like a cracked whip. 00:27:05.280 --> 00:27:07.350 align:middle line:84% Pate gagged, but nonetheless leapt 00:27:07.350 --> 00:27:09.450 align:middle line:84% for the dark hole of the doorway. 00:27:09.450 --> 00:27:11.870 align:middle line:84% He and the Negro reached it at the same the time, 00:27:11.870 --> 00:27:14.660 align:middle line:84% reached it just as the ball from Powell's Derringer 00:27:14.660 --> 00:27:16.400 align:middle line:90% slapped the door frame. 00:27:16.400 --> 00:27:18.230 align:middle line:84% But in the seconds it took them to get 00:27:18.230 --> 00:27:22.490 align:middle line:84% there, the boy had vanished, disappeared into the blackness 00:27:22.490 --> 00:27:24.650 align:middle line:90% as surely as a blown out flame." 00:27:24.650 --> 00:27:29.620 align:middle line:90% 00:27:29.620 --> 00:27:30.400 align:middle line:90% Space break. 00:27:30.400 --> 00:27:35.990 align:middle line:90% 00:27:35.990 --> 00:27:38.150 align:middle line:84% "First, he had remembered in pieces, 00:27:38.150 --> 00:27:41.030 align:middle line:84% the way it had come slipping up on him while he was out plowing 00:27:41.030 --> 00:27:44.900 align:middle line:84% the mule or sitting on the front porch of an evening before bed. 00:27:44.900 --> 00:27:48.980 align:middle line:84% Then, because he'd remembered the pieces so much, 00:27:48.980 --> 00:27:50.390 align:middle line:90% he had got it by heart. 00:27:50.390 --> 00:27:53.300 align:middle line:84% Like a story from the Bible, he could close his eyes 00:27:53.300 --> 00:27:58.640 align:middle line:84% and tell himself all of a single piece, like this. 00:27:58.640 --> 00:28:02.390 align:middle line:84% He recollected how the summer dusk had flashed with fireflies 00:28:02.390 --> 00:28:04.520 align:middle line:84% while he watched them hang his daddy upside 00:28:04.520 --> 00:28:08.060 align:middle line:84% down over the stack of dry branches and kindling. 00:28:08.060 --> 00:28:11.330 align:middle line:84% It had been sometime in August in 1861. 00:28:11.330 --> 00:28:13.280 align:middle line:90% He had turned 10 that month. 00:28:13.280 --> 00:28:15.830 align:middle line:84% And he recollected too how his skin 00:28:15.830 --> 00:28:19.670 align:middle line:84% had stung where sweat had got into the grass cuts. 00:28:19.670 --> 00:28:23.660 align:middle line:84% By the way his daddy had flailed while they piled the branches 00:28:23.660 --> 00:28:26.540 align:middle line:84% up, Winston knew he wanted to fight 'em and cuss 'em. 00:28:26.540 --> 00:28:28.640 align:middle line:84% But his arms were tied with his own belt. 00:28:28.640 --> 00:28:31.970 align:middle line:84% And somebody had stuffed a torn off piece of his own shirt tail 00:28:31.970 --> 00:28:33.290 align:middle line:90% in his mouth. 00:28:33.290 --> 00:28:36.830 align:middle line:84% His black beard and hair hung upside down too, 00:28:36.830 --> 00:28:40.790 align:middle line:84% so that he looked to Winston like something hung up to dry. 00:28:40.790 --> 00:28:42.980 align:middle line:90% He didn't look like his daddy. 00:28:42.980 --> 00:28:45.830 align:middle line:90% Didn't look like anybody. 00:28:45.830 --> 00:28:48.200 align:middle line:84% One of the men kicked away the dry leaves 00:28:48.200 --> 00:28:50.563 align:middle line:84% from around the stack of branches beneath his daddy 00:28:50.563 --> 00:28:51.980 align:middle line:84% and said something about, did they 00:28:51.980 --> 00:28:55.370 align:middle line:84% want to burn the whole woods down from one damn mossback 00:28:55.370 --> 00:28:57.260 align:middle line:90% Unionist? 00:28:57.260 --> 00:28:59.580 align:middle line:90% Winston recognized the man. 00:28:59.580 --> 00:29:02.630 align:middle line:84% He'd been loading coal down on the river for old man Hamby 00:29:02.630 --> 00:29:04.850 align:middle line:84% with Winston's daddy that morning, 00:29:04.850 --> 00:29:07.010 align:middle line:84% when his daddy had said that if he was going off 00:29:07.010 --> 00:29:10.760 align:middle line:84% in anybody's arm, it'd be the other side's. 00:29:10.760 --> 00:29:12.680 align:middle line:84% He didn't have another tooth in his head 00:29:12.680 --> 00:29:14.900 align:middle line:90% and a shoe on his foot. 00:29:14.900 --> 00:29:17.180 align:middle line:84% A couple of the others he recognized, too. 00:29:17.180 --> 00:29:19.280 align:middle line:84% They were both big dogs whose people 00:29:19.280 --> 00:29:22.400 align:middle line:84% had creek-bottom land and niggers over between Trussville 00:29:22.400 --> 00:29:25.130 align:middle line:84% and Elyton and had come riding by his house 00:29:25.130 --> 00:29:27.920 align:middle line:90% last month to talk to his daddy. 00:29:27.920 --> 00:29:30.350 align:middle line:84% When they left, his daddy was hollering at him 00:29:30.350 --> 00:29:32.780 align:middle line:84% that he wouldn't studying killing nobody just so they 00:29:32.780 --> 00:29:34.970 align:middle line:90% could keep their slaves. 00:29:34.970 --> 00:29:40.340 align:middle line:84% Now, one of them, the baby-faced littlest one, had on a uniform 00:29:40.340 --> 00:29:44.330 align:middle line:84% Winston had never seen before-- a gray one, lighter britches 00:29:44.330 --> 00:29:47.910 align:middle line:84% and a darker coal with gold on the shoulders. 00:29:47.910 --> 00:29:52.160 align:middle line:84% He was telling everybody what to do and passing a jug around. 00:29:52.160 --> 00:29:54.410 align:middle line:84% They all fidgeted and paced right 00:29:54.410 --> 00:29:55.760 align:middle line:90% smart like they were nervous. 00:29:55.760 --> 00:29:57.710 align:middle line:84% But nobody seemed to be in a hurry, 00:29:57.710 --> 00:30:00.470 align:middle line:84% no more than if they were watching a game of Fives 00:30:00.470 --> 00:30:03.350 align:middle line:90% behind the courthouse. 00:30:03.350 --> 00:30:05.690 align:middle line:84% One of the other dozen or so men in the clearing 00:30:05.690 --> 00:30:07.640 align:middle line:90% hee-hawed at something. 00:30:07.640 --> 00:30:11.030 align:middle line:84% The second planter, who was raw-boned and red-headed 00:30:11.030 --> 00:30:13.850 align:middle line:84% and looked a couple of years older than the baby-faced one-- 00:30:13.850 --> 00:30:16.490 align:middle line:90% maybe 22 or 23-- 00:30:16.490 --> 00:30:18.410 align:middle line:90% told him to hush. 00:30:18.410 --> 00:30:21.410 align:middle line:84% Winston remembered that one's name was Matthews, 00:30:21.410 --> 00:30:23.480 align:middle line:84% because the man had give him three cents 00:30:23.480 --> 00:30:26.960 align:middle line:84% once to hold his horse at a cockfight. 00:30:26.960 --> 00:30:29.150 align:middle line:84% The two men glared at each other for a minute. 00:30:29.150 --> 00:30:34.040 align:middle line:84% Then Matthews said, softer, we're not having a party. 00:30:34.040 --> 00:30:35.190 align:middle line:90% It's necessary. 00:30:35.190 --> 00:30:37.250 align:middle line:90% That's all. 00:30:37.250 --> 00:30:39.380 align:middle line:84% Then he turned away, with his face stiff, 00:30:39.380 --> 00:30:41.690 align:middle line:84% and stared off into the woods just 00:30:41.690 --> 00:30:44.960 align:middle line:84% above where Winston was lying in the bushes. 00:30:44.960 --> 00:30:48.260 align:middle line:84% Winston ducked down and started to scrunch back some. 00:30:48.260 --> 00:30:50.060 align:middle line:84% But the darky who worked with his daddy 00:30:50.060 --> 00:30:54.050 align:middle line:84% at lay and bide time, Burl, held his big hand tight 00:30:54.050 --> 00:30:56.180 align:middle line:90% on his back to keep him still. 00:30:56.180 --> 00:30:58.460 align:middle line:84% His mama had sent both of 'em to look for his daddy 00:30:58.460 --> 00:31:01.160 align:middle line:84% when his daddy didn't come home for supper. 00:31:01.160 --> 00:31:05.510 align:middle line:84% Winston felt the rough osnaburg cloth of Burl's sleeve making 00:31:05.510 --> 00:31:07.940 align:middle line:84% pockmarks on his naked back, tried 00:31:07.940 --> 00:31:11.270 align:middle line:84% to wiggle out from under the hand, but Burl held tight. 00:31:11.270 --> 00:31:15.664 align:middle line:84% I got to get to Mama, Winston hissed at him. 00:31:15.664 --> 00:31:18.350 align:middle line:90% Shh, Burl whispered back. 00:31:18.350 --> 00:31:21.200 align:middle line:90% Ain't good dark yet little Knox. 00:31:21.200 --> 00:31:23.000 align:middle line:90% They catch us. 00:31:23.000 --> 00:31:25.760 align:middle line:90% They fixing to burn him up. 00:31:25.760 --> 00:31:27.770 align:middle line:90% No, they ain't. 00:31:27.770 --> 00:31:29.730 align:middle line:90% They just scaring him. 00:31:29.730 --> 00:31:32.360 align:middle line:90% He a white man. 00:31:32.360 --> 00:31:35.600 align:middle line:84% The man who'd kicked the leaves away, the coal loader, 00:31:35.600 --> 00:31:39.350 align:middle line:84% poked his daddy with a stick to keep him from twisting. 00:31:39.350 --> 00:31:42.440 align:middle line:90% It ain't no good, Knox, he said. 00:31:42.440 --> 00:31:44.900 align:middle line:90% You had a fair chance. 00:31:44.900 --> 00:31:47.540 align:middle line:90% I'm sorry for you. 00:31:47.540 --> 00:31:49.460 align:middle line:84% The baby-faced man in the uniform 00:31:49.460 --> 00:31:51.200 align:middle line:84% stepped up to the pile of branches 00:31:51.200 --> 00:31:53.480 align:middle line:84% and pointed at them with his boot toe. 00:31:53.480 --> 00:31:55.220 align:middle line:90% That's enough, he said. 00:31:55.220 --> 00:31:58.310 align:middle line:84% You looking to fire a locomotive? 00:31:58.310 --> 00:32:01.470 align:middle line:84% The man who had hee-hawed did it again. 00:32:01.470 --> 00:32:05.210 align:middle line:84% This time, Matthews kept staring at the woods. 00:32:05.210 --> 00:32:07.460 align:middle line:84% Winston's daddy twisted his shoulders 00:32:07.460 --> 00:32:11.120 align:middle line:84% hard to try to keep his eyes, eyes Winston 00:32:11.120 --> 00:32:14.510 align:middle line:84% couldn't tell anything about in the dusk 00:32:14.510 --> 00:32:17.360 align:middle line:90% set on the baby-faced one. 00:32:17.360 --> 00:32:21.020 align:middle line:84% Clayton, the baby-faced one said to Matthews, 00:32:21.020 --> 00:32:23.210 align:middle line:90% What was that one's name? 00:32:23.210 --> 00:32:25.350 align:middle line:90% Winston had to know his name. 00:32:25.350 --> 00:32:27.350 align:middle line:84% They were doing this to his daddy 00:32:27.350 --> 00:32:30.530 align:middle line:84% and he had to remember the man's name. 00:32:30.530 --> 00:32:33.030 align:middle line:90% Was it, Tucker? 00:32:33.030 --> 00:32:34.260 align:middle line:90% Yeah, Tucker. 00:32:34.260 --> 00:32:36.690 align:middle line:84% That was what his daddy called him last month-- 00:32:36.690 --> 00:32:38.460 align:middle line:90% Tucker. 00:32:38.460 --> 00:32:40.890 align:middle line:84% When this was all over and they cut his daddy down, 00:32:40.890 --> 00:32:43.770 align:middle line:84% 'cause nobody would really do this to his daddy, 00:32:43.770 --> 00:32:45.510 align:middle line:84% his daddy would surely want to know 00:32:45.510 --> 00:32:47.310 align:middle line:90% he remembered the man's name. 00:32:47.310 --> 00:32:49.770 align:middle line:90% Tucker, it was Tucker. 00:32:49.770 --> 00:32:52.950 align:middle line:90% Clayton, you want to do it? 00:32:52.950 --> 00:32:56.970 align:middle line:84% Matthews shook his head, then, with an effort, turned back 00:32:56.970 --> 00:32:59.100 align:middle line:90% to face the others. 00:32:59.100 --> 00:33:02.610 align:middle line:90% You can, he said. 00:33:02.610 --> 00:33:04.800 align:middle line:90% Tucker turned to the men. 00:33:04.800 --> 00:33:07.710 align:middle line:90% All right, boys, who's for it? 00:33:07.710 --> 00:33:11.160 align:middle line:84% The coal loader handed his long sharps rifle to a man 00:33:11.160 --> 00:33:13.240 align:middle line:90% beside him. 00:33:13.240 --> 00:33:16.230 align:middle line:84% It was me heard him say it, captain. 00:33:16.230 --> 00:33:17.760 align:middle line:90% Tucker nodded. 00:33:17.760 --> 00:33:20.190 align:middle line:90% Then well I'll tell you. 00:33:20.190 --> 00:33:22.470 align:middle line:84% The coal loader knelt and sparked his flint 00:33:22.470 --> 00:33:25.980 align:middle line:84% a couple of times into a little heap of punk he had made up. 00:33:25.980 --> 00:33:28.800 align:middle line:84% He blew on the punk, and when a wisp of smoke 00:33:28.800 --> 00:33:31.290 align:middle line:84% rose he crisscrossed what Winston knew 00:33:31.290 --> 00:33:34.500 align:middle line:90% were pitch pine slivers over it. 00:33:34.500 --> 00:33:40.650 align:middle line:84% Winston's daddy saw that and started grunting deep sounds 00:33:40.650 --> 00:33:42.750 align:middle line:90% over and over. 00:33:42.750 --> 00:33:46.380 align:middle line:84% Winston listened hard to make sure it was his daddy. 00:33:46.380 --> 00:33:49.830 align:middle line:84% His daddy had never made sounds like that before. 00:33:49.830 --> 00:33:52.410 align:middle line:90% They scared him. 00:33:52.410 --> 00:33:55.200 align:middle line:84% Everything in the clearing was getting harder and harder 00:33:55.200 --> 00:33:57.180 align:middle line:90% to see in the growing dusk. 00:33:57.180 --> 00:34:01.500 align:middle line:84% It was a magic lantern show the lamp was going out in. 00:34:01.500 --> 00:34:04.560 align:middle line:84% From behind him, Winston heard the steady sound 00:34:04.560 --> 00:34:06.600 align:middle line:84% of water flowing out of the spring, 00:34:06.600 --> 00:34:08.909 align:middle line:84% and around him the cicadas shrieking 00:34:08.909 --> 00:34:13.409 align:middle line:84% rose and fell rose and fell like it made them 00:34:13.409 --> 00:34:16.679 align:middle line:90% no mind at all about his daddy. 00:34:16.679 --> 00:34:20.639 align:middle line:84% The evening breeze gusted, scattered leaves 00:34:20.639 --> 00:34:24.120 align:middle line:84% brought the light smell of smoke to him. 00:34:24.120 --> 00:34:28.290 align:middle line:90% The fireflies flashed brighter. 00:34:28.290 --> 00:34:33.090 align:middle line:84% Tucker sheathed his sword and held it up like it was a torch. 00:34:33.090 --> 00:34:35.489 align:middle line:84% God have mercy on you Luther Knox. 00:34:35.489 --> 00:34:39.030 align:middle line:84% May your sorry life go to serve as an example from this day 00:34:39.030 --> 00:34:39.750 align:middle line:90% forth. 00:34:39.750 --> 00:34:41.969 align:middle line:84% If it does, you'll have fulfilled 00:34:41.969 --> 00:34:44.639 align:middle line:90% some purpose on this earth. 00:34:44.639 --> 00:34:47.010 align:middle line:84% He looked around him in the dying light 00:34:47.010 --> 00:34:49.710 align:middle line:84% like he was waiting for somebody to clap, 00:34:49.710 --> 00:34:53.610 align:middle line:84% his little face balled up like a fist. 00:34:53.610 --> 00:34:58.200 align:middle line:84% Theo, for God's sake, Matthews said. 00:34:58.200 --> 00:35:01.980 align:middle line:84% Tucker shot him a sharp look and lowered his sword. 00:35:01.980 --> 00:35:06.270 align:middle line:84% All right, he said to the coal loader, now. 00:35:06.270 --> 00:35:09.000 align:middle line:84% The coal loader looked up at him unsure. 00:35:09.000 --> 00:35:11.250 align:middle line:90% Hell, now. 00:35:11.250 --> 00:35:14.520 align:middle line:84% The coal loader shoved to the burning pile of pine slivers 00:35:14.520 --> 00:35:16.350 align:middle line:90% underneath the branches. 00:35:16.350 --> 00:35:19.320 align:middle line:84% Winston felt Burl's hand move up his back 00:35:19.320 --> 00:35:20.880 align:middle line:90% and press his head down. 00:35:20.880 --> 00:35:22.410 align:middle line:90% He shook free. 00:35:22.410 --> 00:35:24.930 align:middle line:84% Let me be, he whispered fiercely. 00:35:24.930 --> 00:35:26.220 align:middle line:90% You lied to me. 00:35:26.220 --> 00:35:28.830 align:middle line:90% They're going to do it. 00:35:28.830 --> 00:35:31.500 align:middle line:84% Winston's daddy's grunts had lengthened, 00:35:31.500 --> 00:35:35.370 align:middle line:84% turned into muffled little screams, the kinds of noises 00:35:35.370 --> 00:35:39.570 align:middle line:84% a hog made when you drug it out to the slaughtering frame. 00:35:39.570 --> 00:35:43.230 align:middle line:84% One of the men, a barefoot one, broke from the others 00:35:43.230 --> 00:35:44.400 align:middle line:90% and ran to the fire. 00:35:44.400 --> 00:35:46.740 align:middle line:84% (IN THICK SOUTHERN ACCENT) Hey, he whooped, lookie here. 00:35:46.740 --> 00:35:49.560 align:middle line:84% He snatched up a sliver of burning pitch pine 00:35:49.560 --> 00:35:52.170 align:middle line:84% and raised it high with one hand while he 00:35:52.170 --> 00:35:55.920 align:middle line:84% leaned over the pile of branches and pulled his daddy to him. 00:35:55.920 --> 00:35:58.650 align:middle line:84% His daddy's body lashed like a snake's 00:35:58.650 --> 00:36:00.120 align:middle line:90% you'd trapped with a hoe. 00:36:00.120 --> 00:36:01.920 align:middle line:90% But the man held on. 00:36:01.920 --> 00:36:04.530 align:middle line:84% Then he jammed the sliver of burning pitch 00:36:04.530 --> 00:36:06.720 align:middle line:84% between the buttons of his daddy's pants 00:36:06.720 --> 00:36:09.210 align:middle line:84% and gave him a push to set him spinning. 00:36:09.210 --> 00:36:11.520 align:middle line:90% Both ends at once, he hollered. 00:36:11.520 --> 00:36:15.510 align:middle line:84% Give me another and I'll get his ears, too. 00:36:15.510 --> 00:36:18.540 align:middle line:84% Matthews stepped to the man and shoved him out of the way. 00:36:18.540 --> 00:36:21.990 align:middle line:84% He pulled a branch from the pile and slapped the burning sliver 00:36:21.990 --> 00:36:23.820 align:middle line:84% away from Winston's daddy with it. 00:36:23.820 --> 00:36:26.070 align:middle line:84% Goddamn it, he yelled at the man. 00:36:26.070 --> 00:36:28.380 align:middle line:90% Goddamn it! 00:36:28.380 --> 00:36:31.290 align:middle line:84% He whirled and held the branch like a club, 00:36:31.290 --> 00:36:34.980 align:middle line:84% like he was keeping the dogs away from a kill. 00:36:34.980 --> 00:36:38.910 align:middle line:84% Everybody in the clearing got still, watching, 00:36:38.910 --> 00:36:42.060 align:middle line:84% all their fidgeting and pacing stopping 00:36:42.060 --> 00:36:46.110 align:middle line:84% like people on a music box that had run out. 00:36:46.110 --> 00:36:51.780 align:middle line:84% The fire caught, rose, spit sparks out among the fireflies, 00:36:51.780 --> 00:36:57.060 align:middle line:84% broke up the shrieking of the cicadas with its loud cracking. 00:36:57.060 --> 00:36:59.490 align:middle line:84% His daddy's noises changed again, 00:36:59.490 --> 00:37:01.290 align:middle line:90% pitched higher and higher-- 00:37:01.290 --> 00:37:06.270 align:middle line:84% just squeals, pure hog squeals, not screams now. 00:37:06.270 --> 00:37:10.950 align:middle line:84% His hair caught, then his beard, then the rag in his mouth. 00:37:10.950 --> 00:37:14.610 align:middle line:84% Winston smelled it, the bitter smell of burning hair, 00:37:14.610 --> 00:37:17.760 align:middle line:84% and rolled from beneath Burl's heavy arm. 00:37:17.760 --> 00:37:20.160 align:middle line:90% Burl grabbed for him and missed. 00:37:20.160 --> 00:37:22.440 align:middle line:84% Winston took a step toward his daddy, 00:37:22.440 --> 00:37:26.250 align:middle line:84% but his daddy was already somebody else, or something 00:37:26.250 --> 00:37:28.860 align:middle line:90% Winston was afraid of. 00:37:28.860 --> 00:37:31.780 align:middle line:84% He turned one way, turned another. 00:37:31.780 --> 00:37:36.070 align:middle line:84% Then, his legs so weak that he stumbled into briars that bit 00:37:36.070 --> 00:37:39.880 align:middle line:84% at him like dogs' teeth into claws of tree limbs, 00:37:39.880 --> 00:37:42.610 align:middle line:84% choking on what was coming up from his stomach, 00:37:42.610 --> 00:37:45.550 align:middle line:84% nothing in focus, not looking back, 00:37:45.550 --> 00:37:47.950 align:middle line:84% he ran through the darkening woods 00:37:47.950 --> 00:37:49.615 align:middle line:90% toward the sound of the water. 00:37:49.615 --> 00:37:52.240 align:middle line:90% 00:37:52.240 --> 00:37:57.670 align:middle line:84% Then, tonight with the coal oil smoke 00:37:57.670 --> 00:38:00.310 align:middle line:84% rising like wiggling black snakes 00:38:00.310 --> 00:38:03.670 align:middle line:84% from the lamps in Colonel Powell's room, 00:38:03.670 --> 00:38:05.320 align:middle line:90% Winston had thought. 00:38:05.320 --> 00:38:07.470 align:middle line:90% Daddy? 00:38:07.470 --> 00:38:09.450 align:middle line:90% Daddy, he'd come back. 00:38:09.450 --> 00:38:11.730 align:middle line:90% Daddy, he's right here, Daddy. 00:38:11.730 --> 00:38:14.010 align:middle line:90% He's sitting right there, Daddy? 00:38:14.010 --> 00:38:17.070 align:middle line:90% It's him, Daddy. 00:38:17.070 --> 00:38:18.990 align:middle line:84% And he didn't hardly feel the weight 00:38:18.990 --> 00:38:22.050 align:middle line:84% of the rifle in the least as it came up and followed 00:38:22.050 --> 00:38:25.170 align:middle line:90% his eyes to Tucker's face. 00:38:25.170 --> 00:38:27.720 align:middle line:84% But when his thumb pulled the hammer back 00:38:27.720 --> 00:38:30.330 align:middle line:84% and then the trigger gave beneath his finger, 00:38:30.330 --> 00:38:33.330 align:middle line:84% and he felt the kick and heard the explosion that 00:38:33.330 --> 00:38:36.870 align:middle line:84% emptied the room of everything but itself, 00:38:36.870 --> 00:38:41.340 align:middle line:84% it had been all as solid and right as an axe catching 00:38:41.340 --> 00:38:47.130 align:middle line:84% a log's grain and splitting it straight through to the ground. 00:38:47.130 --> 00:38:50.040 align:middle line:84% Now he ran along the wide empty street 00:38:50.040 --> 00:38:52.950 align:middle line:84% until it stopped in the middle of a cornfield. 00:38:52.950 --> 00:38:57.750 align:middle line:84% He stumbled into the beat down cornrows trying to run, still, 00:38:57.750 --> 00:39:01.140 align:middle line:84% trying to find a door into the dark wall of the woods 00:39:01.140 --> 00:39:05.940 align:middle line:84% at the edge of the field, running again just like in '61. 00:39:05.940 --> 00:39:10.980 align:middle line:84% Clay mud clung to his shoes and built up heavy as pig iron. 00:39:10.980 --> 00:39:14.760 align:middle line:84% He heard people hollering in the piece of a town behind him, 00:39:14.760 --> 00:39:18.060 align:middle line:84% heard a couple of pistols go off. 00:39:18.060 --> 00:39:21.390 align:middle line:84% God in heaven would forgive him what he'd done, 00:39:21.390 --> 00:39:24.690 align:middle line:90% but them people wouldn't." 00:39:24.690 --> 00:39:25.560 align:middle line:90% Thank you. 00:39:25.560 --> 00:39:28.910 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE] 00:39:28.910 --> 00:39:31.449 align:middle line:90%