Page 122

By Jack Joseph Smith

the temptation to be respected, Jesus is the temp- tation to be disrespected, and money is the temp- tation to be low. "Come-on now Animal, My reputation isn't real bad, but it's bad enough for me not to be afraid of being honest. I like to work. With it I can loose my mind. I'm a working man Animal, but I'm not a slave at heart, and I intend on leaving the employ of others forever" old men mostly old, but sometimes too often than not, young. The young seemingly desirous of the faces given to the fate of the clown's mask with- out movement. Taken over each morning rhythms mere- own blinking, that led them down a singular alley of multiple glasses. These older men dream of the sea, and let the bags of similar memories rest an eye-opened next to an eye closed upon the brows of marriage impossible. The old men would lift their drinks, and gruff at the ladies in red and dripping bosoms. These bosoms mostly covered with torn silk, and sweating lace. There was always a joke passing to and fro along the bar

Original Scan

Page 122

AI Interpretation

GPT

This page sets temptation, work, and tavern ritual against each other, using barroom talk to expose a world of exhausted masculinity, memory, and self-mockery.

The page moves from abstract temptations into a highly social scene of men, drinks, jokes, and worn erotic display. That turn is important because it shows how ideas about Jesus, money, honesty, and labor don't stay philosophical here; they become part of a repeated barroom theater where dignity and degradation keep mixing.

Claude

The O'Mahoney bar passage where 'temptation to be respected' becomes the page's governing diagnosis. Jack's 'loose my mind' and the 'mere-own blinking' typed under handwritten NARROW substitution keep the page in its original register — blurred and first-person — rather than the crisper handwriting suggests.