Always it was John Barleycorn. Even a tramp, in those halcyon8 days, could get most frequently drunk. I remember, inside the prison at Buffalo9, how some of us got magnificently jingled, and how, on the streets of Buffalo after our release, another jingle3 was financed with pennies begged on the main-drag.
I had no call for alcohol, but when I was with those who drank, I drank with them. I insisted on travelling or loafing with the livest, keenest men, and it was just these live, keen ones that did most of the drinking. They were the more comradely men, the more venturous, the more individual. Perhaps it was too much temperament10 that made them turn from the commonplace and humdrum11 to find relief in the lying and fantastic sureties of John Barleycorn. Be that as it may, the men I liked best, desired most to be with, were invariably to be found in John Barleycorn's company.
In the course of my tramping over the United States I achieved a new concept. As a tramp, I was behind the scenes of society—aye, and down in the cellar. I could watch the machinery12 work. I saw the wheels of the social machine go around, and I learned that the dignity of manual labour wasn't what I had been told it was by the teachers, preachers, and politicians. The men without trades were helpless cattle. If one learned a trade, he was compelled to belong to a union in order to work at his trade. And his union was compelled to bully13 and slug the employers' unions in order to hold up wages or hold down hours. The employers' unions like-wise bullied14 and slugged. I couldn't see any dignity at all. And when a workman got old, or had an accident, he was thrown into the scrap-heap like any worn-out machine. I saw too many of this sort who were making anything but dignified15 ends of life.
So my new concept was that manual labour was undignified, and that it didn't pay. No trade for me, was my decision, and no superintendent's daughters. And no criminality, I also decided16. That would be almost as disastrous17 as to be a labourer. Brains paid, not brawn18, and I resolved never again to offer my muscles for sale in the brawn market. Brain, and brain only, would I sell.
I returned to California with the firm intention of developing my brain. This meant school education. I had gone through the grammar school long ago, so I entered the Oakland High School. To pay my way I worked as a janitor19. My sister helped me, too; and I was not above mowing20 anybody's lawn or taking up and beating carpets when I had half a day to spare. I was working to get away from work, and I buckled21 down to it with a grim realisation of the paradox22.
Boy and girl love was left behind, and, along with it, Haydee and Louis Shattuck, and the early evening strolls. I hadn't the time. I joined the Henry Clay Debating Society. I was received into the homes of some of the members, where I met nice girls whose skirts reached the ground. I dallied23 with little home clubs wherein we discussed poetry and art and the nuances of grammar. I joined the socialist24 local where we studied and orated political economy, philosophy, and politics. I kept half a dozen membership cards working in the free library and did an immense amount of collateral25 reading.
And for a year and a half on end I never took a drink, nor thought of taking a drink. I hadn't the time, and I certainly did not have the inclination26. Between my janitor-work, my studies, and innocent amusements such as chess, I hadn't a moment to spare. I was discovering a new world, and such was the passion of my exploration that the old world of John Barleycorn held no inducements for me.
Come to think of it, I did enter a saloon. I went to see Johnny Heinhold in the Last Chance, and I went to borrow money. And right here is another phase of John Barleycorn. Saloon-keepers are notoriously good fellows. On an average they perform vastly greater generosities27 than do business men. When I simply had to have ten dollars, desperate, with no place to turn, I went to Johnny Heinhold. Several years had passed since I had been in his place or spent a cent across his bar. And when I went to borrow the ten dollars I didn't buy a drink, either. And Johnny Heinhold let me have the ten dollars without security or interest.
More than once, in the brief days of my struggle for an education, I went to Johnny Heinhold to borrow money. When I entered the university, I borrowed forty dollars from him, without interest, without security, without buying a drink. And yet—and here is the point, the custom, and the code—in the days of my prosperity, after the lapse28 of years, I have gone out of my way by many a long block to spend across Johnny Heinhold's bar deferred29 interest on the various loans. Not that Johnny Heinhold asked me to do it, or expected me to do it. I did it, as I have said, in obedience30 to the code I had learned along with all the other things connected with John Barleycorn. In distress31, when a man has no other place to turn, when he hasn't the slightest bit of security which a savage-hearted pawn-broker would consider, he can go to some saloon-keeper he knows. Gratitude32 is inherently human. When the man so helped has money again, depend upon it that a portion will be spent across the bar of the saloon-keeper who befriended him.
Why, I recollect33 the early days of my writing career, when the small sums of money I earned from the magazines came with tragic34 irregularity, while at the same time I was staggering along with a growing family—a wife, children, a mother, a nephew, and my Mammy Jennie and her old husband fallen on evil days. There were two places at which I could borrow money; a barber shop and a saloon. The barber charged me five per cent. per month in advance. That is to say, when I borrowed one hundred dollars, he handed me ninety-five. The other five dollars he retained as advance interest for the first month. And on the second month I paid him five dollars more, and continued so to do each month until I made a ten strike with the editors and lifted the loan.
The other place to which I came in trouble was the saloon. This saloon-keeper I had known by sight for a couple of years. I had never spent my money in his saloon, and even when I borrowed from him I didn't spend any money. Yet never did he refuse me any sum I asked of him. Unfortunately, before I became prosperous, he moved away to another city. And to this day I regret that he is gone. It is the code I have learned. The right thing to do, and the thing I'd do right now did I know where he is, would be to drop in on occasion and spend a few dollars across his bar for old sake's sake and gratitude.
This is not to exalt35 saloon-keepers. I have written it to exalt the power of John Barleycorn and to illustrate36 one more of the myriad37 ways by which a man is brought in contact with John Barleycorn until in the end he finds he cannot get along without him.
But to return to the run of my narrative38. Away from the adventure-path, up to my ears in study, every moment occupied, I lived oblivious39 to John Barleycorn's existence. Nobody about me drank. If any had drunk, and had they offered it to me, I surely would have drunk. As it was, when I had spare moments I spent them playing chess, or going with nice girls who were themselves students, or in riding a bicycle whenever I was fortunate enough to have it out of the pawnbroker's possession.
What I am insisting upon all the time is this: in me was not the slightest trace of alcoholic40 desire, and this despite the long and severe apprenticeship41 I had served under John Barleycorn. I had come back from the other side of life to be delighted with this Arcadian simplicity42 of student youths and student maidens43. Also, I had found my way into the realm of the mind, and I was intellectually intoxicated44. (Alas! as I was to learn at a later period, intellectual intoxication45 too, has its katzenjammer.)
野性的呼唤 The Call of the Wild
The Iron Heel 铁蹄
野性的呼唤 The Call of the Wild
The Iron Heel 铁蹄
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1
behold
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| v.看，注视，看到 | |
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jingled
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| 喝醉的 | |
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jingle
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| n.叮当声，韵律简单的诗句；v.使叮当作响，叮当响，押韵 | |
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genial
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| adj.亲切的，和蔼的，愉快的，脾气好的 | |
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flasks
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| n.瓶，长颈瓶， 烧瓶( flask的名词复数 ) | |
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prohibition
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| n.禁止；禁令，禁律 | |
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7
plumbing
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| n.水管装置；水暖工的工作；管道工程v.用铅锤测量（plumb的现在分词）；探究 | |
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halcyon
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| n.平静的，愉快的 | |
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buffalo
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| n.(北美)野牛；(亚洲)水牛 | |
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temperament
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| n.气质，性格，性情 | |
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humdrum
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| adj.单调的，乏味的 | |
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machinery
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| n.(总称)机械，机器；机构 | |
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bully
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| n.恃强欺弱者，小流氓；vt.威胁，欺侮 | |
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bullied
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| adj.被欺负了v.恐吓，威逼( bully的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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dignified
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| a.可敬的，高贵的 | |
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decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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disastrous
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| adj.灾难性的，造成灾害的；极坏的，很糟的 | |
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brawn
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| n.体力 | |
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janitor
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| n.看门人，管门人 | |
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mowing
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| n.割草，一次收割量，牧草地v.刈，割( mow的现在分词 ) | |
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buckled
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| a. 有带扣的 | |
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paradox
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| n.似乎矛盾却正确的说法；自相矛盾的人(物) | |
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dallied
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| v.随随便便地对待( dally的过去式和过去分词 )；不很认真地考虑；浪费时间；调情 | |
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socialist
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| n.社会主义者；adj.社会主义的 | |
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collateral
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| adj.平行的；旁系的；n.担保品 | |
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inclination
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| n.倾斜；点头；弯腰；斜坡；倾度；倾向；爱好 | |
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generosities
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| n.慷慨( generosity的名词复数 )；大方；宽容；慷慨或宽容的行为 | |
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28
lapse
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| n.过失，流逝，失效，抛弃信仰，间隔；vi.堕落，停止，失效，流逝；vt.使失效 | |
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deferred
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| adj.延期的，缓召的v.拖延，延缓，推迟( defer的过去式和过去分词 )；服从某人的意愿，遵从 | |
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obedience
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| n.服从，顺从 | |
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distress
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| n.苦恼，痛苦，不舒适；不幸；vt.使悲痛 | |
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gratitude
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| adj.感激，感谢 | |
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recollect
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| v.回忆，想起，记起，忆起，记得 | |
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tragic
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| adj.悲剧的，悲剧性的，悲惨的 | |
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exalt
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| v.赞扬，歌颂，晋升，提升 | |
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illustrate
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| v.举例说明，阐明；图解，加插图 | |
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myriad
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| adj.无数的；n.无数，极大数量 | |
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narrative
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| n.叙述，故事；adj.叙事的，故事体的 | |
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oblivious
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| adj.易忘的，遗忘的，忘却的，健忘的 | |
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alcoholic
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| adj.（含）酒精的，由酒精引起的；n.酗酒者 | |
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41
apprenticeship
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| n.学徒身份；学徒期 | |
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42
simplicity
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| n.简单，简易；朴素；直率，单纯 | |
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43
maidens
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| 处女( maiden的名词复数 )； 少女； 未婚女子； （板球运动）未得分的一轮投球 | |
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44
intoxicated
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| 喝醉的，极其兴奋的 | |
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45
intoxication
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| n.wild excitement;drunkenness；poisoning | |
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