The Iceman Cometh by Harold Bloom, Eugene O’Neill Read Free Book Online

that guy trying to catch pneumonia?
    He indicates LEWIS .
    LARRY
    Stares at him almost frightenedly — then looks away and grasps eagerly this chance to change the subject. He begins to describe the sleepers with sardonic relish but at the same time showing his affection for them .
    That’s Captain Lewis, a one-time hero of the British Army. He strips to display that scar on his back he got from a native spear whenever he’s completely plastered. The bewhiskered bloke opposite him is General Wetjoen, who led a commando in the War. The two of them met when they came here to work in the Boer War spectacle at the St. Louis Fair and they’ve been bosom pals ever since. They dream the hours away in happy dispute over the brave days in South Africa when they tried to murder each other. The little guy between them was in it, too, as correspondent for some English paper. His nickname here is Jimmy Tomorrow. He’s the leader of our Tomorrow Movement.
    PARRITT
    What do they do for a living?
    LARRY
    As little as possible. Once in a while one of them makes a successful touch somewhere, and some of them get a few dollars a month from connections at home who pay it on condition they never come back. For the rest, they live on free lunch and their old friend, Harry Hope, who doesn’t give a damn what anyone does or doesn’t do, as long as he likes you.
    PARRITT
    It must be a tough life.
    LARRY
    It’s not. Don’t waste your pity. They wouldn’t thank you for it. They manage to get drunk, by hook or crook, and keep their pipe dreams, and that’s all they ask of life. I’ve never known more contented men. It isn’t often that men attain the true goal of their heart’s desire. The same applies to Harry himself and his two cronies at the far table. He’s so satisfied with life he’s never set foot out of this place since his wife died twenty years ago. He has no need of the outside world at all. This place has a fine trade from the Market people across the street and the waterfront workers, so in spite of Harry’s thirst and his generous heart, he comes out even. He never worries in hard times because there’s always old friends from the days when he was a jitney Tammany politician, and a friendly brewery to tide him over.
    Don’t ask me what his two pals work at because they don’t. Except at being his lifetime guests. The one facing this way is his brother-in-law, Ed Mosher, who once worked for a circus in the ticket wagon. PatMcGloin, the other one, was a police lieutenant back in the flush times of graft when everything went. But he got too greedy and when the usual reform investigation came he was caught red-handed and thrown off the Force.
    He nods at JOE .
    Joe here has a yesterday in the same flush period. He ran a colored gambling house then and was a hell of a sport, so they say. Well, that’s our whole family circle of inmates, except the two barkeeps and their girls, three ladies of the pavement that room on the third floor.
    PARRITT
    Bitterly .
    To hell with them! I never want to see a whore again! As larry flashes him a puzzled g la nce, he adds confusedly . I mean, they always get you in dutch.
    While he is speaking willie oban has opened his eyes. He leans toward them, drunk now from the effect of the huge drink he took, and speaks with a mocking suavity .
    WILLIE
    Why omit me from your Who’s Who in Dypsomania, Larry? An unpardonable slight, especially as I am the only inmate of royal blood.
    To PARRITT — ramblingly .
    Educated at Harvard, too. You must have noticed the atmosphere of culture here. My humble contribution. Yes, Generous Stranger—I trust you’re generous—I was born in the purple, the son, but unfortunately not the heir, of the late world-famous Bill Oban, King of the Bucket Shops. A revolution deposed him, conducted by the District Attorney. He was sent into exile. In fact, not to mince matters, they locked him in the can and threw away the key. Alas, his was an adventurous spirit that