THE FRIENDLY WITNESS
343
It was not long after the gift and Susie's first letter from
school that the evangelicals in town forgot their doctrinal disputes in
favor of a common, earthly aim, which was to close Charlie Bow–
man's club. These righteous people, with the first approach of an
early winter, seemed to feel a new crusading energy, as though they
had to fling off the lethargy of a summer that had been abominably
hot and enervating, even in a spiritual way, because their little
white frame churches, uncarpeted, brutally lighted by the plainest,
latitudinarian, unshaded bulbs, and the drowsy motions of palm leaf
fans, aroused an inwardness for which they reproached themselves
when the heat disappeared. With a unifying, cyclonic energy, they
burst in upon the Mayor, several weeks before the accusation of
fraud, and startled him considerably, for he was busy with another
project very dear to his heart, the reading of Sandburg's
Lincoln.
Putting aside his books, he cast a lively, friendly eye upon the man
and woman who did the talking, the others backing them up from
the pews, so to speak, with rapid, affirmative nods. "Looky here, it's
a shame!" the woman said, and the Mayor lowered his eyes. Without
any adornment or cosmetic, she was, nevertheless, strikingly garish.
The Mayor turned to the milky-faced man, bleached possibly by
many repentances, and thought, "Well, he's found a way to get
outside himself!" The man, as if sensing the Mayor's infinite
capacity for diversion, thrust his milky countenance across the
desk and said hoarsely, "Are you hearing me right!"
With this high wind upon his official cheek, there was an
obligation to make a statement about gambling and, sorry to be un–
able to command Lincoln's pithiness, the Mayor did manage to
say, "I've known Charlie Bowman, as most everyone else has, since
we were boys right here in this town and I'd like to say that
if
there
is gambling at the Tropical Club, as has been
alleged,
it's against
the law and will be terminated immediately."
Johnson meant exactly what he said, meant to acknowledge his
acquaintance with Bowman and to speak of the closing of the club.
Both were unnecessary since the old friendship between the men
was well known, the club had already closed the gambling rooms
and stored the equipment, wrapped in clean, new sheets, so that the
tables would not even need to be dusted when they were taken out
again. These idle, ghostly objects rested in the basement of Bowman's
