20
PARTISAN REVIEW
and occupations. A large, snide and imperious lady was in charge;
I can guess her age-21 plus. But what does she do when it isn't
election time? What, for that matter, do all these functionaries func–
tion at when it isn't either election time or a war? My last experience
of types like these was in the air-raid organization.
"First voter?" Lady-in-Charge addresses next-in-line, a young
woman of surely no less than 35, but small, slim, wearing jeans.
It
is obvious that the registrant is chagrined, though she doesn't know
why. She says, "You've seen me before." Lady-in-Charge pushes her
eyeglasses still further along her nose-habitually they rest at a
dangerous halfway point-and looking out over their rims to the
crowded room, smirks, "How do you expect me to recognize you
if you keep looking younger all the time?" Her audience laughs.
With this fortification, Lady-in-Charge can continue her services
to the state with fresh vigor-a bit later, she will hold things up
for a full ten minutes while she drinks
.a
container of hot coffee.
Now, a few places on in the line there is, actually, a first voter, a
nervous girl of 21. Lady-in-Charge puts down her pen, sits back
and slowly studies her victim. Has the voter proof of literacy, per–
haps a diploma? The girl has no diploma; she offers a Columbia
bursar's receipt instead. Visibly hostile, Lady-in-Charge examines
the document and portentously refers the problem to the other ladies
of the board. Who is to take the responsibility? Finally the youngest
and best-looking member of the tribunal inquires pleasantly enough
what courses the girl is taking at Columbia and having got her
answer-First Voter is taking something improbable at General
Studies-nods approval. The inquisition would seem to be over and
First Voter is about to sign the register when along steps next-in–
line, another first voter, this time a young man of 21, no connection
of the young lady of 21 but similarly armed with a bursar's receipt.
At this, the neck of Lady-in-Charge reddens ominously. Two in a
row offering the same unorthodox evidence of their ability to read
and write, and the young man is grinning ! She is being hoaxed. No,
worse: she is being spoofed. It is of course against the girl that she
vents her anger. "How did you happen to bring that thing along
with you?" she demands. The girl is confounded, inarticulate. The
boy comes to her rescue. "We always carry it with us. We have to
