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02 - Porgy by DuBose Heyward · Porgy

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  Speaker 1: Section two, Part one. Porgy lived in the golden age,
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  Speaker 1: not the golden age of remote and a legendary past,
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  Speaker 1: nor yet the chimerical era treasured by every man, past
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  Speaker 1: middle life that never existed except in the heart of youth,
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  Speaker 1: but an age when men not yet old were boys
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  Speaker 1: in an ancient, beautiful city that time had forgotten before
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  Speaker 1: it destroyed. In this city there persisted the golden age
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  Speaker 1: of many things, and not the least among them was
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  Speaker 1: that of beggary. In those days, the profession was one
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  Speaker 1: with a tradition. A man begged, presumably because he was hungry,
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  Speaker 1: much as a man of more energetic temperament became a
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  Speaker 1: stevedore from the same cause. His plea for help produce
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  Speaker 1: the simple reactions of a generous impulse, a movement of
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  Speaker 1: the hand, and the gift of a coin, instead of
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  Speaker 1: the elaborate and terrifying processes of organized philanthropy. His antecedents
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  Speaker 1: and his mental age were his own affair, and in
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  Speaker 1: the majority of cases he was as happily oblivious of
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  Speaker 1: one as of the other. Had it all been otherwise,
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  Speaker 1: had Porgy come a generation or even a score of
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  Speaker 1: years later, there would have been a repetition of the
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  Speaker 1: old tragedy of genius without opportunity. For as the artist
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  Speaker 1: is born with the vision of beauty, and the tradesman
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  Speaker 1: with an eye for barter, so was Porgy equipped, by
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  Speaker 1: a beneficient providence a career of mendicacy, instead of the
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  Speaker 1: sturdy legs that would have predestined him for the life
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  Speaker 1: of a stevedore or one of the great cotton wharves.
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  Speaker 1: When he entered the world totally inadequate, neither extremities quick
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  Speaker 1: to catch the eye and touch the ready sympathy of
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  Speaker 1: the passer. By either by birth or through the application
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  Speaker 1: of a philosophy of life, he had acquired a personality
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  Speaker 1: that could not be ignored, one which at the same
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  Speaker 1: time interested and suddenly disturbed. There was that about him
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  Speaker 1: which differentiated him from the hordes of fellow practitioners who
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  Speaker 1: competed with him for the notice of the tender hearted.
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  Speaker 1: Where others bid eagerly for attention and burst into vuluble
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  Speaker 1: things and blessings, Porgi sat silent, rapped. There was something
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  Speaker 1: Eastern and mystic about the intense introspection of his look.
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  Speaker 1: He never smiled, and he acknowledged gifts only by a
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  Speaker 1: slow lifting of the eyes that had odd shadows in them.
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  Speaker 1: He was black, with the almost purple blackness of undulterated
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  Speaker 1: ungo blood. His hands were very large and muscular, and,
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  Speaker 1: even when flexed idly in his lap, seemed shockingly formidable
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  Speaker 1: in contrast with his frail body, unless one was unusually preoccupied.
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  Speaker 1: At the moment of dropping a coin in his cup.
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  Speaker 1: He carried away in return a very defiant yet somewhat
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  Speaker 1: disquieting impression, a sense of infinite patience, and beneath it
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  Speaker 1: the vibration of unrealized but terrific energy. No one knew
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  Speaker 1: Porgy's age. No one remembered when he first made his
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  Speaker 1: appearance among the ranks of the local beggars. A woman
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: who had remarried twenty years before remembered him because he
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  Speaker 1: had been seated on the church steps and had given
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  Speaker 1: her a turn when she went in. Once a child
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  Speaker 1: saw Porgy and said, suddenly, what is he? Way eighty four.
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  Speaker 1: That expressed him better than anything else. He was waiting,
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  Speaker 1: waiting with the concentrating intensity of a burning glass, as
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  Speaker 1: consistent in the practice of his profession, as any of
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  Speaker 1: the business and professional men who were his most valued customers.
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  Speaker 1: Porgy was to be found any morning by the first
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  Speaker 1: arrival in the Financial District against the wall of the
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  Speaker 1: old apothecary shop that stands at the corner of King
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  Speaker 1: Charles Street and the Meeting House Road. Long custom reinforced
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  Speaker 1: by an eye for the beautiful, had endured that spot
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  Speaker 1: to him. He would sit there in the cool of
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  Speaker 1: the early hours and look across the narrow thoroughfare into
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  Speaker 1: the green freshness of Jasper Square, where the children flew
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  Speaker 1: their kites and played hide and seek among the shrubs. Then,
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  Speaker 1: when the morning advanced and the sun poorted semi tropical
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  Speaker 1: heat between the twin rows of brick to lie and
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  Speaker 1: pounded there like a stagnant pool of flame, he would
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  Speaker 1: experience a pleasant atavistic calm, and would doze lightly under
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  Speaker 1: the terrific heat, as only a full blooded negro can.
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  Speaker 1: Toward afternoon, a slender blue shadow would commence to grow
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  Speaker 1: about him that would brought in with great rapidity, cool
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  Speaker 1: the baking flags, and the tide of customers home before
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  Speaker 1: his empty cup. But Poorgy best loved the late afternoons,
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  Speaker 1: when the street was quiet again and the sunlight deep
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  Speaker 1: with color shot level over the low roof of the
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  Speaker 1: apothecary shop to paint the cream stucco on the opposite
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  Speaker 1: dwelling of ruddy gold, and turn the old rain washed
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  Speaker 1: tiles on the roof to burnished copper. Then the slender,
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  Speaker 1: white clad lady who lived in the house would throw
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  Speaker 1: open the deep French windows of the second story drawing room, and,
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  Speaker 1: sitting at the piano, where Porgy could see her dimly,
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  Speaker 1: she would play on through the dusk until Old Peter
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  Speaker 1: drove by with his wagon to carry him home. Porgy
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  Speaker 1: had but one vice. With his day reduced to the
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  Speaker 1: dead level of the commonplace, he was by night an
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  Speaker 1: inverterate gambler. Each evening his collections were carefully divided into
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  Speaker 1: a minimum for room and food, and the remainder for
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  Speaker 1: the evening's game. Seen in the light of the smoking
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  Speaker 1: kerosene lamp, with a circle of excited faces about him,
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  Speaker 1: he was no longer the beggar in the dust. His
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  Speaker 1: stagnant blood leaped to sudden life. He was the peer
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  Speaker 1: of the great hulking fellows who swung cotton bales and
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: stank introlbly from labor in the fertilizer mills. He even
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  Speaker 1: knew that he had won their grudging respect, for he
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  Speaker 1: had a way of coaxing and wheedler the little ivory
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  Speaker 1: cubes that forced them to respond the loud oh my baby,
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  Speaker 1: an explosive come seven of his fellow gamesters seldom brought silver.
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  Speaker 1: When he experienced that light, keen feeling, and thought of
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  Speaker 1: the new, soft spoken words to say. In those hours,
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  Speaker 1: he lost his look of living in the future. While
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  Speaker 1: the ivories flew, he existed in an intense and burning present.
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  Speaker 1: One Saturday night in late April, with the first premonitory
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  Speaker 1: breath of summer in the air, Porgy sat in the
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  Speaker 1: gaming circle that had gathered before his door in Catfish
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  Speaker 1: Row and murmured softly to his gods of chance. All
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  Speaker 1: day he had been conscious of a vague unrest. There
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  Speaker 1: had been no breeze from the bay, and from his
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  Speaker 1: seat outside the apothecary shop, the sky showed opaque blue gray,
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  Speaker 1: and bore heavily upon the town. Towards evening, a thunderhead
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  Speaker 1: had lifted over the western horizon and growled ominously, but
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  Speaker 1: it had passed, leaving the air hot, a vitiated and moist.
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  Speaker 1: The Negroes had come in for the night feeling irritable,
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  Speaker 1: and instead of the usual Saturday night of song and talk,
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  Speaker 1: the rooms were for the most part dark and silent,
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  Speaker 1: and the court deserted. The game started late and there
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  Speaker 1: were few players. Opposite Porgy, sitting upon his haunches and
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  Speaker 1: casting his dice in moody silence, was a Negro called Crown.
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  Speaker 1: He was a Stevadoor, had the body of a gladiator
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  Speaker 1: and a bad name. His cotton hook, hanging from his
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  Speaker 1: belt by a thong, gleamed in the lamplight and ran
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  Speaker 1: a clear note on the flags when he leaned forward
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  Speaker 1: to throw. Crown had been drinkin with Robins, who sat
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  Speaker 1: next to him, and the air was ranked with the
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  Speaker 1: effluvium of vile corn whiskey. Robins was voluble, and, as
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  Speaker 1: usual when in liquor, talked incessantly of his wife and children,
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  Speaker 1: of whom he was inordinately proud. He was a good provider, and,
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  Speaker 1: except for his Saturday night drink, an game of steady habits.
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  Speaker 1: Da lady o mine is a born white ful snigger.
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  Speaker 1: He boasted. She family belonged to Governor Rutliche ain't yer
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  Speaker 1: see missus Rutliss. She herself come to visit she when
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  Speaker 1: she's sick. An dim chillin O mine dim is raised
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  Speaker 1: weird ways. You best save your talk for them, damned
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  Speaker 1: dice'dy sain't it no patience with woman? Cut in a
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  Speaker 1: young negro of the group, DA's the truth called another
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  Speaker 1: day is all two after the same nig of money
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  Speaker 1: that meg ag can't get long. Shut y'all, damn mouth,
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  Speaker 1: and row growled Crown. Robbins taken aback, roll the dice hastily.
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  Speaker 1: Scarcely had they settled before a Crown scooped them fiercely
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  Speaker 1: into his great hand, and swearing foully at them, sent
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  Speaker 1: them tumbling out across the faintly illuminated circle to lose
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  Speaker 1: them on the first cast. Then Porgy took them up
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  Speaker 1: tenderly and held them for a moment, cut in his muscular,
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  Speaker 1: slim fingered hand. O little stars, roll me some light,
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  Speaker 1: he sang softly. Made a pass and one roll me
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  Speaker 1: a sunny moon, he urged, And again the cubes did
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  Speaker 1: his bidding Porgy, which dim dice. Crown snarled as he
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  Speaker 1: drained his flask and scented, shattering across the pavement under
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  Speaker 1: the beadling walls of the tenement. The game went swiftly forward.
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  Speaker 1: In a remote room, several voices were singing drowsily, as
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  Speaker 1: though burned by the oppression of the day. In another
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  Speaker 1: part of the building, some one was picking a guitar
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  Speaker 1: monotonously chored after cord until the dark throbbed like an
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  Speaker 1: old wound. But the players were oblivious of all except
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  Speaker 1: the splash of orange light that fell upon the flags,
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  Speaker 1: and the living little cubes that flashed or dwaddled upon it,
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  Speaker 1: according to the mood of the hand that propelled them.
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  Speaker 1: Peter the old wagoneer sat quietly smoking in Porgy's doorway
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  Speaker 1: and looked on with the indulgent smile of tolerant age. Once,
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  Speaker 1: when crowned, lost heavily and turned snarling upon Robins with
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  Speaker 1: pro dim damned dice, fair nigger, he cautioned mildly, friend,
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  Speaker 1: and liquor and dice ain't meant to associate you men's best.
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  Speaker 1: Go slow. Then in a flash it happened Robins rolled again,
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  Speaker 1: called the dice, and retrieved them before a crown slow
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  Speaker 1: wits got The count then swept the heap of coins
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  Speaker 1: into his pocket with a low snarl, straight from his
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  Speaker 1: crouching position, Crown hurled its tremendous weight forward, shattering the
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  Speaker 1: lamp and bowling Robins over against the wall. Then they
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  Speaker 1: were up and facing each other. The oil from the
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  Speaker 1: broken lamp settled between two flags and blazed up Rootily.
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  Speaker 1: Crown was crouched for a second spring with lips drawn
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  Speaker 1: from gleaming teeth. The light fell strong upon thrusting jaw
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  Speaker 1: and threw the sloping brow into shadow. One hand touched
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  Speaker 1: the ground, lightly balancing the massive torso. The other arm
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: held the cotton hook forward, ready, like apprehensile claw. In comparison,
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  Speaker 1: Robins was pitifully slender and inadequate. There was a single,
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  Speaker 1: desperate moment of indecision. Then he took his only chance.
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  Speaker 1: Like a throned spear. He hurled his lift body forward
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  Speaker 1: under the terrifying hook and clenched down. Down. Down the
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  Speaker 1: sentries they slid, clothes could not hold them. Miraculously, the
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  Speaker 1: tawny ridge bodies tore through the thin coverings, bronze ropes
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  Speaker 1: and bars, slid and wove over great shoulders. Bright roody
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: plains leaped out on backs in the fire flare, then
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: were gulped by sliding shadows. A heady, best real stench
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  Speaker 1: absorbed all other odors. A fringe of shadowy watchers crept
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  Speaker 1: from cavernous doorways, sensed it, and commenced to wail eerily
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  Speaker 1: backward and forward. In a space no larger than a
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  Speaker 1: small room, The heaving, inseparable mass rocked and swayed, breath
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  Speaker 1: labored like steam. At times, the fused single body would
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  Speaker 1: thrust out a rigid arm, or the light would point out,
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  Speaker 1: for one hideous second, a tortured mad face. Again, the
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  Speaker 1: mass would rise, as though propelled a short distance from
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  Speaker 1: the earth, topple and crash down upon the pavement with
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  Speaker 1: a jarring impact. Such terrific expenditure of human energy could
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  Speaker 1: not last. The end came quickly, and with startling suddenness.
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  Speaker 1: Crown broke his adversary's weakened hold and held him the
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  Speaker 1: length of one mighty arm. The other swung the cotton
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  Speaker 1: hook downward. Then he dropped his victim and swaggered drunkenly
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  Speaker 1: towards the street. Even to the most inexperienced, the result
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  Speaker 1: would have been obvious. Robin's was dead, horribly dead. A
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  Speaker 1: scream rose to a crescendo of unendurable agony, and a
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  Speaker 1: woman broke through the circle of spectators and cast herself
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  Speaker 1: upon the body. The fire flickered to a faint blue flame, unearthly, terrifying.
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  Speaker 1: Porgy shivered violently, whimpered in the gloom, then drew himself
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  Speaker 1: across his threshold, and closed the door. Catfish row in
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  Speaker 1: which Porgy lived was not a row at all, but
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  Speaker 1: a great brick structure that lifted its three stories about
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  Speaker 1: the three sides of a quart. The fourth side was
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  Speaker 1: partly closed by a high wall, surmounted by jagged edges
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  Speaker 1: of broken glass set firmly in an old lime plaster,
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  Speaker 1: and pierced in its center by a wide entrance way.
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: Over the entrance, there still remained a massive grill of
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  Speaker 1: the Italian wrought iron and uttered capital of marble, surmounted
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  Speaker 1: each of the lofty gate posts. The court itself was
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  Speaker 1: paised with large flagstones, which, even beneath the accumulated grime
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  Speaker 1: of a century, glimmered with faint and burying pastel shades
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: in direct sunlight. The south wall, which was always in shadow,
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  Speaker 1: was likened from pavement to rotten gutter, and opposite the
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  Speaker 1: northern face unbroken except by rows of small paned windows
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  Speaker 1: showed every color through its flaking stucco, and in summer
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: a steady blaze of scarlet from rows of geraniums that
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: bloomed in old vegetable tints upon every window sill. Within
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  Speaker 1: the high ceiling rooms, with their battered colonial mantles and
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: broken decorations of atom designs in plaster. Governors had come
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: and gone, and ambassadors of kings had schemed and danced.
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  Speaker 1: Now before the gaping entrance lay only a narrow, cobbled street,
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  Speaker 1: and beyond a tumbled wharf used by Negro fishermen, only
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: the bay remained unchanged. Beyond the litter of the wharf,
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: it stretched to the horizon, taking its mood from the
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: changing skies, always different, invariably the same. Directly within the
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: entrance of the row, and having upon the street a
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: single bleary window wherein were displayed plates of fried fish,
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: was the cook shop, which catered to the residence of
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: the tenement. Porky's room was opposite the shop and enjoyed
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: the great advantage of having a front window that commanded
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: the street and harbor, and an inner door where he
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: could sit and enter into the life of the court
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: to him. The front window signified adventure, the door home.
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: It was Pergy's custom, when the day's work was done
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: and he had exchanged a part of his collections for
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: his evening meal of fish and bread, to sit at
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: his front window and watch the world pass by. The
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: great cotton wharfs lay up the river beyond the row,
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: and when the cotton season was on, he loved to
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: sit in the dusk and see the drays go by.
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: They would sweep into view with a loud thunder of
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: wheels on the cobbles, and from his low seat they
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: loomed huge and mysterious in the gathering dark. Sometimes there
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: would be twenty of them in a row, with great
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: swiftly stepping mules, crouched figures of drivers, and bales piled
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: toweringly above them. Always Porgie experienced a vague and not
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: unpleasant fear. When the drays swung past. There was power, vast,
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: all inspiring. It could so easily crush him were he
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: in his path. But here, safe within his window, he
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: could watch it with perfect safety. At times when the
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: train was unusually long, the sustained rhythmic thunder, and the
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: sweep of form after form passed his window produced an odd,
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: pleasurable bolt attachment in his mind, and pictures of strange
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: things and places would brighten and feed. But the night
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: following the killing, the window was closed, and through the
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: open door behind him beat the rhythm of a dirge
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: from Robin's room. What a matter? Chill in came the strophy,
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: and the antistrophe swelled to the answer, paying gud'st abody
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: and I can't stand still. Porgy sat upon his floor,
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: counting the day's collection, one dollar and twenty cents. It
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: had been a good day. Perhaps the sorrow that had
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: brooded over his spirit had quickened the sympathy of the
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: passers by. But to matter, Sister Jesus got a brother,
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: and I can't stand still. Every since Porgy had come home,
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: the air had swung to the rhythm of the chant.
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  Speaker 1: He divided his pile into equal portions and commenced to
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: pocket one. The burdens swayed out again, paying God's da
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: bardi and I can't stand still. He hesitated a moment,
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: poured all the coins together again, selected a twenty five
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: cent piece, which he put into his pocket, and taking
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: the remainder in his hand, went out and drew himself
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: across the short distance to the room of mourning. The
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: body lay upon a bed in the corner of the room,
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: sheeted to the eyes, and upon its breast rested a
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: large blue sauce. Sir standing in a circle about the bed,
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: or seated upon the floor backs to the wall were
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: a score of negroes, some singing and others swaying, patting
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: the floor with their large feet. For not a single
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: moment since the body had been laid out, had the
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: rhythm slackened With each hour it gathered weight until it
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: seemed to swing the massive structure. Porgy had heard that
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: Robbins had left no burial insurance, the customary Saturday night
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: festivities having consumed the slender margin between daily wage and
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: immediate need. Now at the sight of the saucer, he
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: knew that rumor had not erred. It had been an
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: old custom among penniless negroes to prepare the course thus
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: then to sing dirges until neighborhood sympathy provided the wherewithal
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: for proper interment. Recent years had introduced the insurance agent
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: and the buring lodge, and the old custom had fallen
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: into disuse. It had even become a grievous reproach to
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: have a member of the family a saucer, buried nigger
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: at the foot of the bed. Bowed by the double
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: weight of sorrow and disgrace, the widow sat swaying to
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: the rhythm like a beech palm in the ebb and
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: flow of a bleak sea wind. The sight of her grief,
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: the closed room, the awful presence beneath the sheet, and
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: the unceasing pulse of sound that beat against his ears
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: all contributed to a stir, a strange desire into being
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: within porgy. Suddenly he threw his head back and wailed
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: long and quaveringly, and rushed a vast feeling of relief.
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: He wailed again, emptied his handful of small coins into
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: the saucer, and sank to the floor at the end
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: of the bed. Presently he commenced to croon with the others,
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: and a sense of exultation flooded his being, compelling him
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: from the despair of the dirge to a more triumph measure. Oh,
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: I got a little brother and a new grabe yard.
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: What outshine the sun, he sang, without missing the beat.
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: The chorus shifted, And I'll meet him in the primise's land.
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: Then came a rude interruption. A short yellow negro bustled
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: into the room. His voice was low, oily and penetrating.
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: He was dressed entirely in black and had an air
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: of great importance. The song fell away to scarcely more
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: than a throbbing silence. The man crossed the room to
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: where the widow sat, huddled at the foot of the bed,
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: and touched her on the shoulder. She raised her face
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: like a burned out ember. How does saucers stand now,
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: my sister, he whispered, at the same time, casting an
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: appraising glance towards the subject of his inquiry. Dear, ain't
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: but fifteen dollar, she replied, in a flat, despairing voice.
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: And he gots to get buried tomorrow, called an awed
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: voice or the boar. The health will take him and
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: give him to the students. The widow scream shrilled wildly.
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: She rose to her knees and clutched the man's hand
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: between both of hers. Oh, for God's sakes, bury him
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: in the graveyard. I'm going to work Monday, and I
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: swear to God I'm going to pay you ever sent
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: for a second, even the rhythm ceased, leaving an aching
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: suspense in the air. Watchers waited tensely, wide eyes riveted
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: on The man's face pleaded silently presently, his professional manner
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: slipped from him. All right, sister, he said, simply, with
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: the box and one carriage. It will cost me more
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: than twenty five, but I'll see you through. You can
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: all be ready at eight tomorrow. It's a long trip
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: to the cemetery. The woman relaxed silently across the foot
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: of the bed, her head between her outflung arms. Then
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: from the narrow confines of the room, the song beat
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: up and out triumphantly. Oh I got a little brother
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: in the new grave. Yah WoT outshine the sun. The
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: rhythms swelled in voices in the court and upper rooms
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: took it up until the deeply rooted old walls seemed
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: to rock and surge with the sweep of it. In
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: the cool of the early morning, the procession took its
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: departure for the cemetery that lay beyond the city limits
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: to the north. First, when the dilapidated hearse with its
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: rigid wooden plumes and faded black velvet draperies that nodded
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: and swayed inside the plate glass panels. Then followed the
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: solitary carriage, in which could be seen mass black accentuated
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: by several pairs of white cotton gloves held to lowered eyes.
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: Behind the carriage came the mourners in a motley procession
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: of wagons and buggies that had been borrowed for the occasion.
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: Porgy drove with Peter, and four women seated on straight
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: chairs in the wagon behind them completed their company. From
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: time to time, a long drawn whale would rise from
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: one of the conveyances to be taken up and passed
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: back from wagon to wagon like a dismal echo. A
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: movie from the Nigro district. Into the wide thoroughfare of
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: Meeting House Road, with its high buildings and its white
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: bases that masked and scattered on the pavements, the Cortege
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: appeared almost grotesque, with the odd fusion of comedy and
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: tragedy so inextricably a part of Negro life. In its
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: deep moment, the fat German who kept the shop on
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: the corner of King Charles Street and Summer Road called
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: his clerk from the depths of the building, and their
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: stomach shook with laughter. But the little dark Russian jew
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: in the next shop, who dealt in abumpinably smelling clothing,
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: gave them a reproving look and disappeared. In the cemetery
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: lay several miles beyond the city limits. The lot was
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: bare of trees, but among the gray's many bright flowering
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: weeds masked the ugliness of the troubled earth. To the eastward,
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: a wide marsh stretched away to a far bright line
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: of sea. Westward, plowed fields swept out to a distant
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: forest of yellow pine. From the sea to the far
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: tree tops, the sky swung a dizzy arch of thin
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: blue high in the center of which several buzzards hung, motionless,
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: watching in the vast emptiness of the morning. The little
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: procession crawled out to the edge of the broken wooden
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: fence that marked the enclosure and stopped. By the time
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: the last wagon had arrived, the cheap pine casket was
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: rested upon battens over the grave, and the preacher, robed
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: in white, was preparing to commence the service. The mourners
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: gathered close about the grave. Death Ain't you got no shame?
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: Called a clear, high soprano voice, and immediately the mortal
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: embodiment of infinite sorrow broke and swayed about the grave
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: in the funeral chant. Three times the line swung its
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: curve of song, shrill, keen agonizing, then it fell away
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: to a heart wrenching miner on the burden, take this
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: man and gone gone death. Ain't you got no shame?
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: When the singing ceased, the burial service commenced, the preacher
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: extemporizing fluently. Taking his rhythm from the hid, he poured
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: his words along its interminable reiteration until the cumulative effect
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: rocked the entire company. The final moment of the ritual arrived.
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: The lid was removed from the casket, and the mourners
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: were formed into line to pass and look upon the
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: face of the dead. A very old bent negress went first.
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: She stooped, then suddenly, with a shriek of anguish, cast
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: herself beside the coffin. Tell Peter dhold de d'aux open
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: for me. How's coming soon? She cried, Yes, God goin soon,
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: responded a voice in the crowd. Others pressed about the grave,
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: and the air was stabbed by scream on scream, grief
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: spent itself freely terrifyingly, slowly, the clashing sounds merged into
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: the regular of a spiritual, beautiful and poignant. It rose,
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: swelling out above the sounds of falling earth as the
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: grave was filled. What you're gonna do when you come
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: out to wilderness, Come out to wilderness, Come out to wilderness.
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: What you're gonna do when you come out to wilderness?
• 31:24
  Speaker 2: Leanie noll, my lord, Leanie No, my lord, Leanie No.
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: My lord, Leani No, my lord? Who died on cardv
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: The music faded away in vague, uncertain miners. The mood
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: of the crowd changed almost tangibly. There was an air
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: of restless apprehension. Nervous glances were directed towards the entrance. Peter,
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: always sagacious unless taken unawares, had conferred in advance with
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: Porgy about this moment. When he had helped him from
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: the wagon, he had stationed him just inside the fence,
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: where he could be lifted quickly into the road. The
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: last man into the grave yard going to be the
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: next one to get buried, he had reminded his friend. Now,
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: as the final shovel of earth was thrown upon the grave,
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: he came running to Porgy and lifted him quickly into
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: the road. Behind them broke a sudden earthshaking burst of sound,
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: as of the stampeding of many cattle, and passed them.
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: The mourners swept, stumbling, fighting for a room, some assisting
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: weaker friends, others fighting savagely to be free of the enclosure.
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: In the center of the crowd, Plunging forward with the
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: robes flying, was the preacher. In an incredibly short time,
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: the lot was cleared. Then from a screaming brush near
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: the grave, arose the old negress, who had been the
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: first to wail out her grief. She had lain there forgotten.
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: Overcome by the storm of her emotion, she tottered feebly
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: into the road. Never you mind, sister, the preacher assured
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: her comfortedly, God always loved the righteous. Dazed and much
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: pleased at the attention that she was receiving, while still
• 33:35
  Speaker 1: happily unmindful of its cause, the old woman smiled a
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: vague smile and was hoisted into the wagon. During the funeral,
• 33:44
  Speaker 1: the sun had disappeared behind clouds that had blown in
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: swiftly from the sea, and now a scurry of large
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: drops swept over the vehicles and trailed away across the
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: desolate graves. That's all right now for Robins, commented Porgy.
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: God Don sent the rain already for wash his footsteps
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: off the earth. Oh yes, brother, contributed a woman's voice
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: and aid men my Jesus. At another. In the early
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: afternoon of the day of the funeral, Porky sat in
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: his doorway communing with Peter. The old man was silent
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: for a while, his grizzled head bowed and an expression
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: of brooding tenderness upon his lined face. Robin's were a
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: good man, he reflected at length, and that nigger Crown
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: wore a killer and forever getting into trouble. Yet dead
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: lie Robins, with his wife and fatherless, chilling, and Crown
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: done gone. He always knew the same thing over again,
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: somewhere else gone for true. I'll wrecky done loose now
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: on Kitty Walk Island, in them palm tree tickets and
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: a rope ain't never make foy ketch 'em and hang 'em.
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: Porky stopped suddenly and motioned with his head towards someone
• 35:16
  Speaker 1: who had just entered the court. The new arrival was
• 35:19
  Speaker 1: a white man of stocky build wearing a wide brim
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: hat and a goatee. He was swinging a heavy cane,
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: and he crossed the court directly and paused before the
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: two for a moment. He stood looking down at them
• 35:34
  Speaker 1: with brows drawn fiercely together. Then he drew back his coat,
• 35:39
  Speaker 1: exhibiting a police badge and a heavy revolver in a
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: breast holster. You killed Robbins, he shout out suddenly at Peter,
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: and I'm going to hang you for it. Come along now,
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: and he reached out and laid a firm hand upon
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: the old man's shoulder. Peter shook violently, and his eyes
• 35:59
  Speaker 1: rolled in his head. He made an infectual effort to speak,
• 36:03
  Speaker 1: tried again, and finally said, for God, Boss, I ain't
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: never done it. Like a flash, the pistol was out
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: of his holster and pointing between his eyes. Who did it?
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: Then snapped the man crown Boss, I done seen him?
• 36:19
  Speaker 1: Do 'em? Peter cried in utter panic. The man laughed shortly.
• 36:24
  Speaker 1: I thought so, then, he said. Then he turned to Porgy.
• 36:28
  Speaker 1: You saw it too, eh. There was panic in Porgy's
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: face and in his lap. His hands had clinched upon
• 36:35
  Speaker 1: each other, but his eyes were fixed upon the paving.
• 36:39
  Speaker 1: He drew a deep breath and waited. A flare of
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: anger swept the face above him. Come out with it.
• 36:46
  Speaker 1: I don't want to have to put the law on you.
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: Porgy's only answer was a slight tremor that shook the
• 36:53
  Speaker 1: hands in his lap. The detective's face darkened and sweat
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: showed up under his hat brim. Suddenly, his temper bolted.
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: Look at me, you damn nigger, he shouted. Suddenly, the
• 37:06
  Speaker 1: sitting figure before him relaxed, almost, it seemed, muscle by muscle.
• 37:12
  Speaker 1: At last, the hands fell apart and lay flexed and idle. Finally,
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: Porgy raised his eyes that had become hard and impenetrable
• 37:24
  Speaker 1: as onyx. They met the angry glare that beat down
• 37:28
  Speaker 1: upon them without flinching. After a long moment, he spoke,
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: slowly and with great quietness. I ain't know nothing about him.
• 37:36
  Speaker 1: I've been inside asleep on my bed with the double clothes.
• 37:43
  Speaker 1: You a damn liar, the man snapped. He shrilled a whistle,
• 37:47
  Speaker 1: and two policemen entered. He saw the killing, the detective said,
• 37:51
  Speaker 1: in indicating Peter. Take him along and lock him up
• 37:54
  Speaker 1: as a material witness. How about the cripple, asked one
• 37:58
  Speaker 1: of the officers. He could not have helped seeing it.
• 38:01
  Speaker 1: The man said sourly, that's his room right there, But
• 38:05
  Speaker 1: I can't make him come through. But it don't matter.
• 38:09
  Speaker 1: One's enough to hang Crown if we ever get him.
• 38:12
  Speaker 1: Come get the old man in the wagon. The policeman
• 38:17
  Speaker 1: lifted the shaking old negro to his feet. Come along, uncle,
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: it ain't going to be as bad for you as
• 38:23
  Speaker 1: Crown anyway, encouraged one of them. Then the little party
• 38:28
  Speaker 1: passed out of the interest, leaving Porgy alone. From the street.
• 38:33
  Speaker 1: Sounded the shrill gong of the patrol wagon, followed by
• 38:37
  Speaker 1: the beat of swiftly receding hoofs upon the cobbles. Ten
• 38:43
  Speaker 1: days had passed since the detective had taken Peter away.
• 38:46
  Speaker 1: For a week, the wagon had waited under the tottering shed,
• 38:50
  Speaker 1: and the dejected old horse had subsisted upon a varied
• 38:54
  Speaker 1: diet brought to him by the friends of his absent master.
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: Then a man had come and taken the outfit away.
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: In answer to the protests of the negroes. He had
• 39:04
  Speaker 1: exhibited a contract dated three years previous, by which Peter
• 39:08
  Speaker 1: was to pay two dollars a week for an indefinite
• 39:11
  Speaker 1: period on an exorbitant purchase price. Failure to pay any
• 39:17
  Speaker 1: installment would cause the property to revert to the cellar.
• 39:21
  Speaker 1: It all looked thoroughly legal, and so the dilapidated old
• 39:25
  Speaker 1: rig rattled over the cobbles and departed. Then the man
• 39:29
  Speaker 1: from the installment furniture house came. He was a vile mouthed,
• 39:34
  Speaker 1: bearded Teuton, and swore so fiercely that no one dared
• 39:39
  Speaker 1: to protest when he loaded Peter's furniture on his truck
• 39:43
  Speaker 1: and drove away. Now there remained in a corner of
• 39:48
  Speaker 1: Porgy's room where he had taken them into custody, only
• 39:52
  Speaker 1: a battered leather trunk, a chromo of the Great Emancipator,
• 39:58
  Speaker 1: and a bundle of old clothes, mute reminders of their
• 40:03
  Speaker 1: kindly and gentle old owner. End of Section two