She and Jimmie lived.
The inexperienced fibres of the boy's eyes were hardened at an early age. He became a young man of leather. He lived some red years without laboring3. During that time his sneer4 became chronic5. He studied human nature in the gutter6, and found it no worse than he thought he had reason to believe it. He never conceived a respect for the world, because he had begun with no idols7 that it had smashed.
He clad his soul in armor by means of happening hilariously8 in at a mission church where a man composed his sermons of "yous." While they got warm at the stove, he told his hearers just where he calculated they stood with the Lord. Many of the sinners were impatient over the pictured depths of their degradation9. They were waiting for soup-tickets.
A reader of words of wind-demons might have been able to see the portions of a dialogue pass to and fro between the exhorter10 and his hearers.
"You are damned," said the preacher. And the reader of sounds might have seen the reply go forth11 from the ragged12 people: "Where's our soup?"
Jimmie and a companion sat in a rear seat and commented upon the things that didn't concern them, with all the freedom of English gentlemen. When they grew thirsty and went out their minds confused the speaker with Christ.
Momentarily, Jimmie was sullen13 with thoughts of a hopeless altitude where grew fruit. His companion said that if he should ever meet God he would ask for a million dollars and a bottle of beer.
Jimmie's occupation for a long time was to stand on streetcorners and watch the world go by, dreaming blood-red dreams at the passing of pretty women. He menaced mankind at the intersections14 of streets.
On the corners he was in life and of life. The world was going on and he was there to perceive it.
He maintained a belligerent15 attitude toward all well-dressed men. To him fine raiment was allied16 to weakness, and all good coats covered faint hearts. He and his order were kings, to a certain extent, over the men of untarnished clothes, because these latter dreaded17, perhaps, to be either killed or laughed at.
Above all things he despised obvious Christians18 and ciphers19 with the chrysanthemums20 of aristocracy in their button-holes. He considered himself above both of these classes. He was afraid of neither the devil nor the leader of society.
When he had a dollar in his pocket his satisfaction with existence was the greatest thing in the world. So, eventually, he felt obliged to work. His father died and his mother's years were divided up into periods of thirty days.
He became a truck driver. He was given the charge of a painstaking21 pair of horses and a large rattling22 truck. He invaded the turmoil23 and tumble of the down-town streets and learned to breathe maledictory24 defiance25 at the police who occasionally used to climb up, drag him from his perch26 and beat him.
In the lower part of the city he daily involved himself in hideous27 tangles28. If he and his team chanced to be in the rear he preserved a demeanor29 of serenity30, crossing his legs and bursting forth into yells when foot passengers took dangerous dives beneath the noses of his champing horses. He smoked his pipe calmly for he knew that his pay was marching on.
If in the front and the key-truck of chaos31, he entered terrifically into the quarrel that was raging to and fro among the drivers on their high seats, and sometimes roared oaths and violently got himself arrested.
After a time his sneer grew so that it turned its glare upon all things. He became so sharp that he believed in nothing. To him the police were always actuated by malignant32 impulses and the rest of the world was composed, for the most part, of despicable creatures who were all trying to take advantage of him and with whom, in defense33, he was obliged to quarrel on all possible occasions. He himself occupied a down-trodden position that had a private but distinct element of grandeur34 in its isolation35.
The most complete cases of aggravated36 idiocy37 were, to his mind, rampant38 upon the front platforms of all the street cars. At first his tongue strove with these beings, but he eventually was superior. He became immured39 like an African cow. In him grew a majestic40 contempt for those strings41 of street cars that followed him like intent bugs42.
He fell into the habit, when starting on a long journey, of fixing his eye on a high and distant object, commanding his horses to begin, and then going into a sort of a trance of observation. Multitudes of drivers might howl in his rear, and passengers might load him with opprobrium43, he would not awaken44 until some blue policeman turned red and began to frenziedly tear bridles45 and beat the soft noses of the responsible horses.
When he paused to contemplate46 the attitude of the police toward himself and his fellows, he believed that they were the only men in the city who had no rights. When driving about, he felt that he was held liable by the police for anything that might occur in the streets, and was the common prey47 of all energetic officials. In revenge, he resolved never to move out of the way of anything, until formidable circumstances, or a much larger man than himself forced him to it.
Foot-passengers were mere48 pestering49 flies with an insane disregard for their legs and his convenience. He could not conceive their maniacal50 desires to cross the streets. Their madness smote51 him with eternal amazement52. He was continually storming at them from his throne. He sat aloft and denounced their frantic53 leaps, plunges54, dives and straddles.
When they would thrust at, or parry, the noses of his champing horses, making them swing their heads and move their feet, disturbing a solid dreamy repose55, he swore at the men as fools, for he himself could perceive that Providence56 had caused it clearly to be written, that he and his team had the unalienable right to stand in the proper path of the sun chariot, and if they so minded, obstruct57 its mission or take a wheel off.
And, perhaps, if the god-driver had an ungovernable desire to step down, put up his flame-colored fists and manfully dispute the right of way, he would have probably been immediately opposed by a scowling58 mortal with two sets of very hard knuckles59.
It is possible, perhaps, that this young man would have derided60, in an axle-wide alley61, the approach of a flying ferry boat. Yet he achieved a respect for a fire engine. As one charged toward his truck, he would drive fearfully upon a sidewalk, threatening untold62 people with annihilation. When an engine would strike a mass of blocked trucks, splitting it into fragments, as a blow annihilates63 a cake of ice, Jimmie's team could usually be observed high and safe, with whole wheels, on the sidewalk. The fearful coming of the engine could break up the most intricate muddle64 of heavy vehicles at which the police had been swearing for the half of an hour.
A fire engine was enshrined in his heart as an appalling65 thing that he loved with a distant dog-like devotion. They had been known to overturn street-cars. Those leaping horses, striking sparks from the cobbles in their forward lunge, were creatures to be ineffably66 admired. The clang of the gong pierced his breast like a noise of remembered war.
When Jimmie was a little boy, he began to be arrested. Before he reached a great age, he had a fair record.
He developed too great a tendency to climb down from his truck and fight with other drivers. He had been in quite a number of miscellaneous fights, and in some general barroom rows that had become known to the police. Once he had been arrested for assaulting a Chinaman. Two women in different parts of the city, and entirely67 unknown to each other, caused him considerable annoyance68 by breaking forth, simultaneously69, at fateful intervals70, into wailings about marriage and support and infants.
Nevertheless, he had, on a certain star-lit evening, said wonderingly and quite reverently71: "Deh moon looks like hell, don't it?"
点击收听单词发音
1 insignificant | |
adj.无关紧要的,可忽略的,无意义的 | |
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2 coffin | |
n.棺材,灵柩 | |
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3 laboring | |
n.劳动,操劳v.努力争取(for)( labor的现在分词 );苦干;详细分析;(指引擎)缓慢而困难地运转 | |
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4 sneer | |
v.轻蔑;嘲笑;n.嘲笑,讥讽的言语 | |
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5 chronic | |
adj.(疾病)长期未愈的,慢性的;极坏的 | |
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6 gutter | |
n.沟,街沟,水槽,檐槽,贫民窟 | |
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7 idols | |
偶像( idol的名词复数 ); 受崇拜的人或物; 受到热爱和崇拜的人或物; 神像 | |
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8 hilariously | |
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9 degradation | |
n.降级;低落;退化;陵削;降解;衰变 | |
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10 exhorter | |
n.劝勉者,告诫者,提倡者 | |
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11 forth | |
adv.向前;向外,往外 | |
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12 ragged | |
adj.衣衫褴褛的,粗糙的,刺耳的 | |
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13 sullen | |
adj.愠怒的,闷闷不乐的,(天气等)阴沉的 | |
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14 intersections | |
n.横断( intersection的名词复数 );交叉;交叉点;交集 | |
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15 belligerent | |
adj.好战的,挑起战争的;n.交战国,交战者 | |
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16 allied | |
adj.协约国的;同盟国的 | |
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17 dreaded | |
adj.令人畏惧的;害怕的v.害怕,恐惧,担心( dread的过去式和过去分词) | |
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18 Christians | |
n.基督教徒( Christian的名词复数 ) | |
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19 ciphers | |
n.密码( cipher的名词复数 );零;不重要的人;无价值的东西 | |
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20 chrysanthemums | |
n.菊花( chrysanthemum的名词复数 ) | |
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21 painstaking | |
adj.苦干的;艰苦的,费力的,刻苦的 | |
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22 rattling | |
adj. 格格作响的, 活泼的, 很好的 adv. 极其, 很, 非常 动词rattle的现在分词 | |
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23 turmoil | |
n.骚乱,混乱,动乱 | |
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24 maledictory | |
adj.诅咒的,坏话的 | |
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25 defiance | |
n.挑战,挑衅,蔑视,违抗 | |
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26 perch | |
n.栖木,高位,杆;v.栖息,就位,位于 | |
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27 hideous | |
adj.丑陋的,可憎的,可怕的,恐怖的 | |
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28 tangles | |
(使)缠结, (使)乱作一团( tangle的第三人称单数 ) | |
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29 demeanor | |
n.行为;风度 | |
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30 serenity | |
n.宁静,沉着,晴朗 | |
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31 chaos | |
n.混乱,无秩序 | |
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32 malignant | |
adj.恶性的,致命的;恶意的,恶毒的 | |
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33 defense | |
n.防御,保卫;[pl.]防务工事;辩护,答辩 | |
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34 grandeur | |
n.伟大,崇高,宏伟,庄严,豪华 | |
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35 isolation | |
n.隔离,孤立,分解,分离 | |
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36 aggravated | |
使恶化( aggravate的过去式和过去分词 ); 使更严重; 激怒; 使恼火 | |
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37 idiocy | |
n.愚蠢 | |
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38 rampant | |
adj.(植物)蔓生的;狂暴的,无约束的 | |
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39 immured | |
v.禁闭,监禁( immure的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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40 majestic | |
adj.雄伟的,壮丽的,庄严的,威严的,崇高的 | |
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41 strings | |
n.弦 | |
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42 bugs | |
adj.疯狂的,发疯的n.窃听器( bug的名词复数 );病菌;虫子;[计算机](制作软件程序所产生的意料不到的)错误 | |
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43 opprobrium | |
n.耻辱,责难 | |
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44 awaken | |
vi.醒,觉醒;vt.唤醒,使觉醒,唤起,激起 | |
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45 bridles | |
约束( bridle的名词复数 ); 限动器; 马笼头; 系带 | |
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46 contemplate | |
vt.盘算,计议;周密考虑;注视,凝视 | |
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47 prey | |
n.被掠食者,牺牲者,掠食;v.捕食,掠夺,折磨 | |
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48 mere | |
adj.纯粹的;仅仅,只不过 | |
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49 pestering | |
使烦恼,纠缠( pester的现在分词 ) | |
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50 maniacal | |
adj.发疯的 | |
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51 smote | |
v.猛打,重击,打击( smite的过去式 ) | |
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52 amazement | |
n.惊奇,惊讶 | |
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53 frantic | |
adj.狂乱的,错乱的,激昂的 | |
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54 plunges | |
n.跳进,投入vt.使投入,使插入,使陷入vi.投入,跳进,陷入v.颠簸( plunge的第三人称单数 );暴跌;骤降;突降 | |
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55 repose | |
v.(使)休息;n.安息 | |
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56 providence | |
n.深谋远虑,天道,天意;远见;节约;上帝 | |
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57 obstruct | |
v.阻隔,阻塞(道路、通道等);n.阻碍物,障碍物 | |
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58 scowling | |
怒视,生气地皱眉( scowl的现在分词 ) | |
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59 knuckles | |
n.(指人)指关节( knuckle的名词复数 );(指动物)膝关节,踝v.(指人)指关节( knuckle的第三人称单数 );(指动物)膝关节,踝 | |
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60 derided | |
v.取笑,嘲笑( deride的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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61 alley | |
n.小巷,胡同;小径,小路 | |
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62 untold | |
adj.数不清的,无数的 | |
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63 annihilates | |
n.(彻底)消灭( annihilate的名词复数 );使无效;废止;彻底击溃v.(彻底)消灭( annihilate的第三人称单数 );使无效;废止;彻底击溃 | |
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64 muddle | |
n.困惑,混浊状态;vt.使混乱,使糊涂,使惊呆;vi.胡乱应付,混乱 | |
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65 appalling | |
adj.骇人听闻的,令人震惊的,可怕的 | |
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66 ineffably | |
adv.难以言喻地,因神圣而不容称呼地 | |
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67 entirely | |
ad.全部地,完整地;完全地,彻底地 | |
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68 annoyance | |
n.恼怒,生气,烦恼 | |
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69 simultaneously | |
adv.同时发生地,同时进行地 | |
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70 intervals | |
n.[军事]间隔( interval的名词复数 );间隔时间;[数学]区间;(戏剧、电影或音乐会的)幕间休息 | |
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71 reverently | |
adv.虔诚地 | |
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