BENEFITS OF AMERICAN LIFE
23
an American wife, and act lake a millionaire. And he had thirty
five dollars in the bank as a start toward these riches.
And hard times came to America. Takiss was out of work
in the winter, and again his savings melted. He was employed
for ten dollars a week in a candy store, working twelve hours,
and in four months, that job was gone. He worked for seven
dollars a week washing dishes in a large restaurant, and then,
his pay was cut to five dollars, and he went home every night,
tired, with chafed hands, and an aching back. He had less
money, also, to go to taxi dances. And he lost that job.
He walked the streets looking for other work, and always
he learned the same story-hard times.... He ate very frugally,
lived in a chilly room that was gnawed by rats, and wished that
he was back home again in his native Greek mountains. Every
day, he went out looking for a job, and sometimes, he found
work for a few days or a few weeks, and was able to skim along
while he tried again to find work.
One day he saw an advertisement with large letters at the
top-DANCE MARATHON. He investigated, and learned
that it was a contest in which everybody tried to dance longer
than the others, and the winner received a five hundred dollar
prize. And maybe if he won it, he would get a job in the movies
and become the idol of American girls, or go on the vaudeville
stage, or be given a contract to dance in a cabaret. And while
he was in the contest, he would be cared for, fed, and there would
be no room rent to pay. He was strong, and husky, and he
could dance. He was used to standing on his feet all day in res–
taurants, candy stores, and at hot dog stands. And this wa's his
chance to become rich. He would no longer have to tramp all
over town to be told that there were no jobs because it was hard
times. This was much better than saving up to own a candy
store, and grow fat like the American Greeks for whom he had
worked. And after he won this contest, and became famous, he
would go back to Greece with a trunk full of clothes and money,
and maybe a rich American wife whose skin was like milk.
Takiss entered the dance marathon, and when the rules
were explained to him, he only understood that he was to stay
out on the floor ·and dance, and if he was able to do that longer
than anyone else, he would get five hundred dollars. A num–
ber was pinned on his back, and he was assigned a partner named
Marie Glenn, a beautiful blonde American girl of the type he
had always dreamed of as a possible wife, At first, when she
