652
PARTISAN REVIEW
tioned some bars along the side streets in the midtown area. He turned
down the next street, a little frightened, but excited by his own
boldness.
He stopped to look through the windows of several dingy places,
but he could not make up his mind to go into any of them. After
winding in and out of a few side streets, he realized that he had no
way of choosing among them for they all looked alike from the out–
side. There were always some flushed soldiers and sailors milling
around a few disheveled young girls, one or two older women hang–
ing over their drinks at the bar, and some stray men sitting gloomily
as though they were in a convalescent home. Finally, he picked one
bar where he felt he would not be conspicuous, because he saw several
apparently unattached men and women inside, and he walked in as
casually as he could.
He sat down at an empty table in the rear, and surveyed the
place. At one end a juke box was blaring a girl's tough voice trying
to be coy, and a bald man in shirt sleeves was huddling up to it,
jerking and stuttering to the rhythm of the song, his wet shirt clinging
to him like an oversized bathing suit. A solid row of men interspersed
with a few women lined the bar. Some were mumbling to each other;
the rest sat mutely, as though waiting for the night to run its course.
Here and there a few men were sitting alone, pawing a glass; and
at the table next to him were three girls spra.wled in their chairs,
looking bored and restless.
The waiter came over to
J.
J.,
and seemed irritated when he
ordered a beer.
J. J.
noticed that the place smelled of sweat and
whisky. He wondered who these people were, and decided they were
lumpens,
part of the drifting mass of manual and white-collar workers,
without ties, or roo.ts, or conscience. These were the little people, he
thought, whom Hitler and Mussolini were able to mobilize by instilling
in them a feeling of importance.
Soon
J.
J.
became aware that one of the girls at the next table
was looking at him. At first he pretended not to notice, but then he
began to try to catch her glance. When she smiled at him, he smiled,
too, but he tightened up with excitement. She continued to smile
reassuringly.
Suddenly she broke the deadlock. "Won't you buy me a drink?"
she asked him coyly.
