WEBVTT

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This is called "Machine
Containing Johnson's Friends

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Wrecked," and it's
from the New York Times

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talking about an auto race.

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I'm so skilled with
these machines,

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I've got a patent
on a wrench that's

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only good for fixing flyers.

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Moriarty knew he
had no more chance

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at keeping up with me in a race
than a turtle has at catching

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a Bakersfield jack rabbit.

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Belle and the rest of the
girls believed his fast talk

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and piled into his auto like
a congregation into a church.

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I was in the lead
from the start,

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but I knew Moriarty was
close because I could

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hear the girls cheering him on.

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I had my driving
glasses on and I'm

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seeing things the faster
I go: a warm pail of water

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on a porch in Galveston.

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Thunderclouds over Ballarat,
soft as the mattresses

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at the Everleigh Club.

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A canvas as clean
as Saturday washing

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except for the wet outline, a
sweat angel on the spot where

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Tommy Burns might have
dropped if I'd let him fall.

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I wipe the dirt
from my glasses just

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in time to see a rabbit
hurrying across the road

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and pulled hard on the brake.

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That's when Moriarty
tried to pass.

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His wheels skidded on the
gravel and his back axle snapped

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like a rib.

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I've wrecked many a machine
and walked away whole,

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but this one was different.

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The wheels of his auto unhinged,
and Moriarty's motor car

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smashed into the back of mine.

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I wasn't familiar with the
girl sitting beside him,

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but she flew past, past me, past
the still hurrying jack rabbit,

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past Tiny's water pail
back home that couldn't

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move even if it wanted to.

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