Page 190

By Jack Joseph Smith

time, pushed by the theory behind the distruction of the single family dwelling; And she thought to the opening of her door, (under the sun may my walk maybe be golden, but not judged as if I were a leaf of paper ready to be put in a bank; and under stars let me not be bagged by sentimental literature, either in the possession of my own mind, or by the manipulation of money.) She was an artist. Inside Jiven Joe's he was preparing for the child- rens, dance song. One that would bring them in light- ly; One that would swirl them again in to a delight for bedtimedreams. Something to make the mothers too, of the way of their daughters engaging sleep. Lastly for him in thought; children and theatre were a hold out from debauchery. The living mask of the child and dramatist viewed as creatures upon the American earth, covered the pain of a non-glorified birth, like the armor of a medieval knight covered the entire flesh of his being as the preventive meaning before indul- gence. Still, old Marie sat watching. Her two early teen- age daughters had joined her on the steps; but her little one, the only with blond hair, played down the street under the lamp-post; She was in a scammer; and Marie smiled. It was nice to see the little one look

Original Scan

Page 190

AI Interpretation

GPT

The page opposes redevelopment, money, and sentimental packaging to art, children's play, and theatre, then returns to old Marie watching her daughters on the street.

Joe's preparation for the children's song gives the scene a moral center. Against banks, the destruction of single-family dwellings, and adult debauchery, the page holds up performance and childhood as endangered but still luminous ways of living.


Claude

The young Marie's interior prayer is the page's hinge: 'under the sun may my walk maybe be golden, but not judged as if I were a leaf of paper ready to be put in a bank,' a refusal of both 'sentimental literature' and 'the manipulation of money,' capped by the flat handwritten verdict 'She was an artist.' Against the 'theory behind the distruction of the single family dwelling,' Joe's preparation of a 'childrens, dance song' frames 'children and theatre' as 'a hold out from debauchery,' the performer's 'living mask' likened to 'the armor of a medieval knight.' The page closes back on Marie smiling at her blond 'little one' in a 'scammer,' play set against demolition. This reading remains provisional because handwritten revisions near the song/debauchery passage are unresolved and were omitted, though the 'She was an artist' insertion was legible and kept.