Brecht Collected Plays: 1: Baal; Drums in the Night; In the Jungle of Cities; Life of Edward II of England; & 5 One Act Plays: "Baal", "Drums in the Night", "In the Jungle of Ci (World Classics) (20 page)

ANNA
: Oh, Andy!

KRAGLER
leads her off
: Are you warm?

ANNA
: But you’ve got no coat on.
She helps him on with it
.

KRAGLER
:
^87>
It’s cold.
^<87
He wraps her scarf round her neck
. Come now.

⁸⁸
The two walk side by side, without touching one another, Anna slightly behind him. In the air, high up, a long way off, a white, wild screaming: it comes from the newspaper buildings
.

KRAGLER
stops, listens, puts his arm round Anna
: It’s now four years.

As the screaming continues they walk away
.

The fight between two men in the great city of Chicago

Translator
:
GERHARD NELLHAUS

Prologue

You are in Chicago in 1912. You are about to witness an inexplicable wrestling match between two men and observe the downfall of a family that has moved from the prairies to the jungle of the big city. Don’t worry your heads about the motives for the fight, concentrate on the stakes. Judge impartially the technique of the contenders, and keep your eyes fixed on the finish.

Characters

Shlink the lumber dealer, a Malay
‧
George Garga
‧
John Garga, his father
‧
Mae Garga, his mother
‧
Mary Garga, his sister
‧
Jane Larry, his girl friend
‧
Skinny, a Chinese, Shlink’s clerk
‧
Collie Couch, known as Baboon, a pimp
‧
J. Finnay, known as Worm, hotel owner
‧
Pat Manky, a first mate
‧
A Salvation Army preacher
‧
Two Salvation Army girls
‧
The pugnosed man
‧
The barman
‧
C. Maynes, owner of a lending library
‧
Waiter
‧
Railway workers

[Numbers in the text refer to notes on p. 450 ff.]

The Lending Library of C. Maynes in Chicago

The Morning of 8 August 1912

Garga behind the counter. The doorbell rings. Enter Shlink and Skinny
.

SKINNY:
If we read the sign right, this is a lending library. We’d like to borrow a book.

GARGA:
What kind of a book?

SKINNY:
A fat one.

GARGA:
For yourself?

SKINNY
who looks at Shlink before each answer
: No, not for me; for this gentleman.

GARGA
: Your name?

SKINNY:
Shlink, lumber dealer, 6 Mulberry Street.

GARGA
taking down the name
: Five cents a week per book. Take your pick.

SKINNY
: No, you choose one.

GARGA:
This is a detective story, it’s no good. Here’s something better – a travel book.

SKINNY:
Just like that you say the book is no good?

SHLINK
stepping up to him
: Is that your personal opinion? I’ll buy your opinion. Is ten dollars enough?

GARGA:
Take it as a gift.

SHLINK
: You mean you’ve changed your opinion and now it’s a good book?

GARGA
: No.

SKINNY:
Ten dollars will buy you some fresh linen.

GARGA
: My job here is wrapping books, that’s all.

SKINNY:
It drives the customers away.

GARGA:
What do you want of me? I don’t know you. I’ve never seen you before.

SHLINK:
I never heard of this book and it doesn’t mean a thing to me. I’m offering you forty dollars for your opinion of it.

GARGA:
I’ll sell you the opinions of Mr J. V. Jensen and Mr Arthur Rimbaud, but I won’t sell you my own opinion.

SHLINK:
Your opinion is as worthless as theirs, but right now I want to buy it.

GARGA:
I indulge in opinions.

SKINNY:
Are your family millionaires?

GARGA:
My family live on rotten fish.

SHLINK
obviously pleased
: A fighter! I’d have expected you to come across with the words that would give me pleasure and get your family something better than fish.

SKINNY:
Forty bucks! That’s a lot of linen for you and your family.

GARGA
: I’m not a prostitute.

SHLINK
with humour
: I hardly think my fifty dollars would interfere with your inner life.

GARGA:
Raising your offer is one more insult and you know it.

SHLINK
naïvely
: A man’s got to know which is better, a pound of fish or an opinion. Or two pounds of fish or the opinion.

SKINNY:
Dear sir, your stubbornness will get you into trouble.

GARGA:
I’m going to have you thrown out.

SKINNY:
Having opinions shows you don’t know anything about life.

SHLINK:
Miss Larry says you wanted to go to Tahiti!

GARGA
: How do you know Jane Larry?

SHLINK
: She’s starving. She’s not getting paid for the shirts she sews. You haven’t been to see her in three weeks.
Garga drops a pile of books
.

SKINNY:
Watch your step! You’re only an employee.

GARGA:
You’re molesting me. But there’s nothing I can do about it.

SHLINK:
You’re poor.

GARGA:
I live on fish and rice. You know that as well as I do.

SHLINK
: Sell!

SKINNY
: Are you an oil king?

SHLINK
: The people in your neighbourhood feel sorry for you.

GARGA
: I can’t shoot down the whole neighbourhood.

SHLINK
: Your family that came from the prairies …

GARGA
: Sleep three in a bed by a broken drainpipe. I smoke at night, it’s the only way I can get to sleep. The windows are closed because Chicago is cold. Are you enjoying this?

SHLINK
: Of course your sweetheart …

GARGA
: Sews shirts for two dollars a piece. Net profit: twelve cents. I recommend her shirts. We spend Sundays together. A bottle of whisky costs us eighty cents, exactly eighty cents. Does this amuse you?

SHLINK
: You’re not coughing up your secret thoughts.

GARGA
: No.

SHLINK
: Nobody can live on twelve cents profit.

GARGA
: Each man to his taste. Some people like Tahiti, if you don’t mind.

SHLINK
: You’re well informed. That’s the simple life. On Cape Hay there are storms. But farther south you’ve got the Tobacco Isles, and green rustling fields. You live like a lizard.

GARGA
looking out of the window
,
dryly
: 94 degrees in the shade. Noise from the Milwaukee Bridge. Traffic. A morning like every other morning.

SHLINK
: But this morning is different; I’m starting my fight with you. I’m going to start by rocking the ground you stand on.
The bell rings
,
Maynes enters
. Your man has gone on strike.

MAYNES
: Why aren’t you taking care of these gentlemen, George?

SKINNY
bitingly
: His relations with us are strained.

MAYNES
: What do you mean by that?

SKINNY
: We don’t care for his greasy shirt.

MAYNES
: How dare you come to work like that, George? Is this a hash house? It won’t happen again, gentlemen.

SKINNY:
He’s saying something. He’s cursing up his sleeve! Speak up, man, use the voice God gave you!

GARGA
: I must ask you for new shirts, Mr Maynes. You can’t be a gigolo on five dollars a week.

SHLINK
: Go to Tahiti. Nobody washes there.

GARGA
: Thanks. Your concern is touching. I’ll send my sister to pray for you in church.

SHLINK
: Please do. She has nothing else to do anyhow. Manky’s the right man for her. He runs himself ragged for her. Your parents are starving and she doesn’t bat an eyelash.

GARGA:
Are you running a detective agency? Your interest in us is flattering, I hope.

SHLINK:
You’re just shutting your eyes. Your family is headed for disaster. You’re the only one who’s making any money, and you indulge in opinions! When you could be on your way to Tahiti.
Shows him a sea chart that he has with him
.

GARGA:
I’ve never seen you before in all my life.

SHLINK:
There are two passenger lines.

GARGA
: You just bought this map, didn’t you? It’s brandnew.

SKINNY:
Think it over, the Pacific!

GARGA
to Maynes
: Please ask these gentlemen to leave. They didn’t come to buy anything. They’re driving the customers away. They’ve been spying on me. I don’t even know them.

J. Finnay, called Worm, enters. Shlink and Skinny step back, pretending not to know him
.

WORM:
Is this C. Maynes’s lending library?

MAYNES:
In person.

WORM:
Shady establishment, if you ask me.

MAYNES:
Are you looking for books, magazines, stamps?

WORM
: So there are books? Filthy business. What’s the point of it? Aren’t there enough lies? ‘The sky was blue, the clouds flew east.’ Why not south? What people won’t swallow!

MAYNES:
Let me wrap this book for you, sir.

SKINNY:
Why not let him catch his breath? And I ask you, does this gentleman look like a bookworm?

GARGA:
It’s a plot.

WORM
: You don’t say! Listen to this. She says, ‘When you kiss me I always see your beautiful teeth.’ How can you see when you’re kissing? But that’s the way she is. Posterity will find out. The lewd bitch!
He grinds his heels on the books
.

MAYNES
: Look here, sir, you’ve ruined those books, you’ll have to pay for them.

WORM:
Books! What good are they? Did libraries stop the San Francisco earthquake?

MAYNES:
George, get a policeman.

WORM:
I’ve got a liquor store. That’s an honourable business.

GARGA:
He isn’t even drunk.

WORM:
The sight of such loafers makes me tremble like a leaf.

GARGA:
It’s a put-up job. They’re out to get me.

Couch, called Baboon,
¹
enters with Jane Larry. Worm steps back pretending not to know them
.

BABOON:
Come on in, my little white chick. This is Maynes’s rental library.

GARGA:
You’d better close the shop, Mr Maynes. Strange vermin are crawling into your papers, moths are eating your magazines.

WORM:
I always say: Look life straight in the eye.

BABOON:
Get your face out of my way! I can’t stand paper, especially newspaper.

GARGA:
Get the gun!

SHLINK
steps forward
: I ask you again, will you sell?

GARGA
noticing Jane
: No!

JANE
: George, is this your shop? Why are you staring at me? I was just going for a little walk with this gentleman.

GARGA
: Keep walking.

BABOON:
Say, let’s not get rough. Don’t you trust her? If I get excited, this book will end up in a thousand pieces. You still don’t trust her?

MAYNES
: I’ll fire you if you won’t trust her. My books are being ruined.

GARGA
: Go home, Jane, please. You’re drunk.

JANE
: What’s wrong with you, George? These gentlemen are being nice to me.
She drinks out of Baboon’s bottle
. They’ve bought me drinks. It’s hot today – 94. You know, George, it rips through you like lightning.

GARGA
: Go on home now. I’ll come tonight.

JANE
: You haven’t shown up for three weeks. I’m not going home any more. I’m fed up sitting around with those shirts.

BABOON
pulling Jane on to his lap
: That’s all over now.

JANE
: Oh, you’re tickling me. Stop that! George doesn’t like it.

BABOON:
In brief, she’s got a body that’s worth a few bucks. Can you afford it, sir? It’s a question of love and a question of drinks.

WORM:
Maybe you’d like to keep her a virgin? What do you want her to do? Scrub floors? Wash clothes?

SKINNY
: You expect a nice little pigeon like her to be an angel?

GARGA
to Shlink
: Are you trying to turn this place into the Wild West? Knives? Guns? Cocktails?

WORM
: Hold on! You can’t leave your job here. Maybe somebody will fall by the wayside. Sell!

GARGA:
Strange. Everybody knows what’s going on except me. – Jane!

BABOON:
Tell him!

JANE:
Don’t look at me that way, George! This may be my only chance. Can you buy me drinks? Oh, it’s not for the drinks! It’s like this, George: every morning I look in the mirror. It’s been two years now. You always go off and work for four weeks. When you were sick of it and needed liquor, you thought of me. I can’t take it any more! The nights, George! That doesn’t make me bad, not me. Don’t look at me that way, it’s not fair!