MAGGIE_ A GIRL OF THE STREETS(街头女郎梅季)

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MAGGIE: A GIRL OF THE STREETS

MAGGIE: A GIRL OF

THE STREETS

BY STEPHEN CRANE

MAGGIE: A GIRL OF THE STREETS

Chapter I

A very little boy stood upon a heap of gravel for the honor of Rum

Alley. He was throwing stones at howling urchins from Devil's Row

who were circling madly about the heap and pelting at him.

His infantile countenance was livid with fury. His small body was

writhing in the delivery of great, crimson oaths.

"Run, Jimmie, run! Dey'll get yehs," screamed a retreating Rum

Alley child.

"Naw," responded Jimmie with a valiant roar, "dese micks can't make

me run."

Howls of renewed wrath went up from Devil's Row throats. Tattered

gamins on the right made a furious assault on the gravel heap. On their

small, convulsed faces there shone the grins of true assassins. As they

charged, they threw stones and cursed in shrill chorus.

The little champion of Rum Alley stumbled precipitately down the

other side. His coat had been torn to shreds in a scuffle, and his hat was

gone. He had bruises on twenty parts of his body, and blood was

dripping from a cut in his head. His wan features wore a look of a tiny,

insane demon.

On the ground, children from Devil's Row closed in on their antagonist.

He crooked his left arm defensively about his head and fought with

cursing fury. The little boys ran to and fro, dodging, hurling stones and

swearing in barbaric trebles.

From a window of an apartment house that upreared its form from

amid squat, ignorant stables, there leaned a curious woman. Some

laborers, unloading a scow at a dock at the river, paused for a moment and

regarded the fight. The engineer of a passive tugboat hung lazily to a

railing and watched. Over on the Island, a worm building and crawled

slowly along the river's bank.

A stone had smashed into Jimmie's mouth. Blood was bubbling over

his chin and down upon his ragged shirt. Tears made furrows on his dirt-

MAGGIE: A GIRL OF THE STREETS

stained cheeks. His thin legs had begun to tremble and turn weak,

causing his small body to reel. His roaring curses of the first part of the

fight had changed to a blasphemous chatter.

In the yells of the whirling mob of Devil's Row children there were

notes of joy like songs of triumphant savagery. The little boys seemed to

leer gloatingly at the blood upon the other child's face.

Down the avenue came boastfully sauntering a lad of sixteen years,

although the chronic sneer of an ideal manhood already sat upon his lips.

His hat was tipped with an air of challenge over his eye. Between his

teeth, a cigar stump was tilted at the angle of defiance. He walked with a

certain swing of the shoulders which appalled the timid. He glanced over

into the vacant lot in which the little raving boys from Devil's Row

seethed about the shrieking and tearful child from Rum Alley.

"Gee!" he murmured with interest. "A scrap. Gee!"

He strode over to the cursing circle, swinging his shoulders in a

manner which denoted that he held victory in his fists. He approached at

the back of one of the most deeply engaged of the Devil's Row children.

"Ah, what deh hell," he said, and smote the deeply-engaged one on the

back of the head. The little boy fell to the ground and gave a hoarse,

tremendous howl. He scrambled to his feet, and perceiving, evidently,

the size of his assailant, ran quickly off, shouting alarms. The entire

Devil's Row party followed him. They came to a stand a short distance

away and yelled taunting oaths at the boy with the chronic sneer. The

latter, momentarily, paid no attention to them.

"What deh hell, Jimmie?" he asked of the small champion.

Jimmie wiped his blood-wet features with his sleeve.

"Well, it was dis way, Pete, see! I was goin' teh lick dat Riley kid and

dey all pitched on me."

Some Rum Alley children now came forward. The party stood for a

moment exchanging vainglorious remarks with Devil's Row. A few

stones were thrown at long distances, and words of challenge passed

between small warriors. Then the Rum Alley contingent turned slowly in

the direction of their home street. They began to give, each to each,

MAGGIE: A GIRL OF THE STREETS

distorted versions of the fight. Causes of retreat in particular cases were

magnified. Blows dealt in the fight were enlarged to catapultian power,

and stones thrown were alleged to have hurtled with infinite accuracy.

Valor grew strong again, and the little boys began to swear with great

spirit.

"Ah, we blokies kin lick deh hull damn Row," said a child,

swaggering.

Little Jimmie was striving to stanch the flow of blood from his cut lips.

Scowling, he turned upon the speaker.

"Ah, where deh hell was yeh when I was doin' all deh fightin?" he

demanded. "Youse kids makes me tired."

"Ah, go ahn," replied the other argumentatively.

Jimmie replied with heavy contempt. "Ah, youse can't fight, Blue

Billie! I kin lick yeh wid one han'."

"Ah, go ahn," replied Billie again.

"Ah," said Jimmie threateningly.

"Ah," said the other in the same tone.

They struck at each other, clinched, and rolled over on the cobble

stones.

"Smash 'im, Jimmie, kick deh damn guts out of 'im," yelled Pete, the

lad with the chronic sneer, in tones of delight.

The small combatants pounded and kicked, scratched and tore. They

began to weep and their curses struggled in their throats with sobs. The

other little boys clasped their hands and wriggled their legs in excitement.

They formed a bobbing circle about the pair.

A tiny spectator was suddenly agitated.

"Cheese it, Jimmie, cheese it! Here comes yer fader," he yelled.

The circle of little boys instantly parted. They drew away and waited

in ecstatic awe for that which was about to happen. The two little boys

fighting in the modes of four thousand years ago, did not hear the warning.

Up the avenue there plodded slowly a man with sullen eyes. He was

carrying a dinner pail and smoking an apple-wood pipe.

As he neared the spot where the little boys strove, he regarded them

MAGGIE: A GIRL OF THE STREETS

listlessly. But suddenly he roared an oath and advanced upon the rolling

fighters.

"Here, you Jim, git up, now, while I belt yer life out, you damned

disorderly brat."

He began to kick into the chaotic mass on the ground. The boy Billie

felt a heavy boot strike his head. He made a furious effort and

disentangled himself from Jimmie. He tottered away, damning.

Jimmie arose painfully from the ground and confronting his father,

began to curse him. His parent kicked him. "Come home, now," he

cried, "an' stop yer jawin', er I'll lam the everlasting head off yehs."

They departed. The man paced placidly along with the apple- wood

emblem of serenity between his teeth. The boy followed a dozen feet in

the rear. He swore luridly, for he felt that it was degradation for one who

aimed to be some vague soldier, or a man of blood with a sort of sublime

license, to be taken home by a father.

MAGGIE: A GIRL OF THE STREETS

Chapter II

Eventually they entered into a dark region where, from a careening

building, a dozen gruesome doorways gave up loads of babies to the street

and the gutter. A wind of early autumn raised yellow dust from cobbles

and swirled it against an hundred windows. Long streamers of garments

fluttered from fire-escapes. In all unhandy places there were buckets,

brooms, rags and bottles. In the street infants played or fought with other

infants or sat stupidly in the way of vehicles. Formidable women, with

uncombed hair and disordered dress, gossiped while leaning on railings, or

screamed in frantic quarrels. Withered persons, in curious postures of

submission to something, sat smoking pipes in obscure corners. A

thousand odors of cooking food came forth to the street. The building

quivered and creaked from the weight of humanity stamping about in its

bowels.

A small ragged girl dragged a red, bawling infant along the crowded

ways. He was hanging back, baby-like, bracing his wrinkled, bare legs.

The little girl cried out: "Ah, Tommie, come ahn. Dere's Jimmie and

fader. Don't be a-pullin' me back."

She jerked the baby's arm impatiently. He fell on his face, roaring.

With a second jerk she pulled him to his feet, and they went on. With the

obstinacy of his order, he protested against being dragged in a chosen

direction. He made heroic endeavors to keep on his legs, denounce his

sister and consume a bit of orange peeling which he chewed between the

times of his infantile orations.

As the sullen-eyed man, followed by the blood-covered boy, drew near,

the little girl burst into reproachful cries. "Ah, Jimmie, youse bin fightin'

agin."

The urchin swelled disdainfully.

"Ah, what deh hell, Mag. See?"

The little girl upbraided him, "Youse allus fightin', Jimmie, an' yeh

knows it puts mudder out when yehs come home half dead, an' it's like

MAGGIE: A GIRL OF THE STREETS

we'll all get a poundin'."

She began to weep. The babe threw back his head and roared at his

prospects.

"Ah, what deh hell!" cried Jimmie. Shut up er I'll smack yer mout'.

See?"

As his sister continued her lamentations, he suddenly swore and struck

her. The little girl reeled and, recovering herself, burst into tears and

quaveringly cursed him. As she slowly retreated her brother advanced

dealing her cuffs. The father heard and turned about.

"Stop that, Jim, d'yeh hear? Leave yer sister alone on the street. It's

like I can never beat any sense into yer damned wooden head."

The urchin raised his voice in defiance to his parent and continued his

attacks. The babe bawled tremendously, protesting with great violence.

During his sister's hasty manoeuvres, he was dragged by the arm.

Finally the procession plunged into one of the gruesome doorways.

They crawled up dark stairways and along cold, gloomy halls. At last the

father pushed open a door and they entered a lighted room in which a large

woman was rampant.

She stopped in a career from a seething stove to a pan-covered table.

As the father and children filed in she peered at them.

"Eh, what? Been fightin' agin, by Gawd!" She threw herself upon

Jimmie. The urchin tried to dart behind the others and in the scuffle the

babe, Tommie, was knocked down. He protested with his usual

vehemence, because they had bruised his tender shins against a table leg.

The mother's massive shoulders heaved with anger. Grasping the

urchin by the neck and shoulder she shook him until he rattled. She

dragged him to an unholy sink, and, soaking a rag in water, began to scrub

his lacerated face with it. Jimmie screamed in pain and tried to twist his

shoulders out of the clasp of the huge arms.

The babe sat on the floor watching the scene, his face in contortions

like that of a woman at a tragedy. The father, with a newly-ladened pipe

in his mouth, crouched on a backless chair near the stove. Jimmie's cries

annoyed him. He turned about and bellowed at his wife:

MAGGIE: A GIRL OF THE STREETS

"Let the damned kid alone for a minute, will yeh, Mary? Yer allus

poundin' 'im. When I come nights I can't git no rest 'cause yer allus

poundin' a kid. Let up, d'yeh hear? Don't be allus poundin' a kid."

The woman's operations on the urchin instantly increased in violence.

At last she tossed him to a corner where he limply lay cursing and

weeping.

The wife put her immense hands on her hips and with a chieftain-like

stride approached her husband.

"Ho," she said, with a great grunt of contempt. "An' what in the devil

are you stickin' your nose for?"

The babe crawled under the table and, turning, peered out cautiously.

The ragged girl retreated and the urchin in the corner drew his legs

carefully beneath him.

The man puffed his pipe calmly and put his great mudded boots on the

back part of the stove.

"Go teh hell," he murmured, tranquilly.

The woman screamed and shook her fists before her husband's eyes.

The rough yellow of her face and neck flared suddenly crimson. She

began to howl.

He puffed imperturbably at his pipe for a time, but finally arose and

began to look out at the window into the darkening chaos of back yards.

"You've been drinkin', Mary," he said. "You'd better let up on the bot',

ol' woman, or you'll git done."

"You're a liar. I ain't had a drop," she roared in reply.

They had a lurid altercation, in which they damned each other's souls

with frequence.

The babe was staring out from under the table, his small face working

in his excitement.

The ragged girl went stealthily over to the corner where the urchin lay.

"Are yehs hurted much, Jimmie?" she whispered timidly.

"Not a damn bit! See?" growled the little boy.

"Will I wash deh blood?"

"Naw!"

MAGGIE: A GIRL OF THE STREETS

"Will I--"

"When I catch dat Riley kid I'll break 'is face! Dat's right! See?"

He turned his face to the wall as if resolved to grimly bide his time.

In the quarrel between husband and wife, the woman was victor. The

man grabbed his hat and rushed from the room, apparently determined

upon a vengeful drunk. She followed to the door and thundered at him as

he made his way down stairs.

She returned and stirred up the room until her children were bobbing

about like bubbles.

"Git outa deh way," she persistently bawled, waving feet with their

dishevelled shoes near the heads of her children. She shrouded herself,

puffing and snorting, in a cloud of steam at the stove, and eventually

extracted a frying-pan full of potatoes that hissed.

She flourished it. "Come teh yer suppers, now," she cried with

sudden exasperation. "Hurry up, now, er I'll help yeh!"

The children scrambled hastily. With prodigious clatter they arranged

themselves at table. The babe sat with his feet dangling high from a

precarious infant chair and gorged his small stomach. Jimmie forced,

with feverish rapidity, the grease-enveloped pieces between his wounded

lips. Maggie, with side glances of fear of interruption, ate like a small

pursued tigress.

The mother sat blinking at them. She delivered reproaches,

swallowed potatoes and drank from a yellow-brown bottle. After a time

her mood changed and she wept as she carried little Tommie into another

room and laid him to sleep with his fists doubled in an old quilt of faded

red and green grandeur. Then she came and moaned by the stove. She

rocked to and fro upon a chair, shedding tears and crooning miserably to

the two children about their "poor mother" and "yer fader, damn 'is soul."

The little girl plodded between the table and the chair with a dish-pan

on it. She tottered on her small legs beneath burdens of dishes.

Jimmie sat nursing his various wounds. He cast furtive glances at his

mother. His practised eye perceived her gradually emerge from a

muddled mist of sentiment until her brain burned in drunken heat. He sat

MAGGIE: A GIRL OF THE STREETS

breathless.

Maggie broke a plate.

The mother started to her feet as if propelled.

"Good Gawd," she howled. Her eyes glittered on her child with

sudden hatred. The fervent red of her face turned almost to purple. The

little boy ran to the halls, shrieking like a monk in an earthquake.

He floundered about in darkness until he found the stairs. He

stumbled, panic-stricken, to the next floor. An old woman opened a door.

A light behind her threw a flare on the urchin's quivering face.

"Eh, Gawd, child, what is it dis time? Is yer fader beatin' yer mudder,

or yer mudder beatin' yer fader?"

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MAGGIE:AGIRLOFTHESTREETS1MAGGIE:AGIRLOFTHESTREETSBYSTEPHENCRANEMAGGIE:AGIRLOFTHESTREETS2ChapterIAverylittleboystooduponaheapofgravelforthehonorofRumAlley.HewasthrowingstonesathowlingurchinsfromDevil'sRowwhowerecirclingmadlyabouttheheapandpeltingathim.Hisinfantilecountenancewaslividwithfury.Hissmallb...

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