“Bororos? Any relation to the Toreadors?”
“No — I believe they’re a totemistic tribe in South America or Australia or is it Madagascar. Anyway, I know this much about them: their totem is a red caterpillar called the Arara. And they believe themselves to be red Araras. Van den Stein — of course you’ve heard of him — asked them if they meant that after death they would become Araras? But they were shocked and offended and replied, ‘Oh no, we are Araras!’”
“Is this nonsense you’re talking to me? It sounds like Alice in Wonderland.”
“Said the Arara to the Bororo—”
“You aren’t a psychologist yourself, by any chance, are you?”
“Nothing like that. I sometimes wish I were. Every man his own psychoanalyst?”
“What do you do, if you don’t mind my asking so personal a question?”
“What do I do! That’s what a good behaviorist would ask, and what I often ask myself … Accurately and dispassionately put, I’m an unsuccessful author.”
“An author!.. Well. You could knock me down with a toothpick. You don’t look like an author.”
“No?”
“No. Where’s your long hair? your flowing tie? your — pardon me — maternity trousers?”
“Yes, I do lack the secondary sexual characteristics. That’s probably why I’m unsuccessful. Or at any rate, the two things go together. If a man takes himself seriously enough to dress the part, and to look like a damned fool, he may perhaps be crazy enough to be some good!”
“Well now, that’s an interesting point!.. Wait for me five minutes, will you? I’ve left my old reekie behind.”
“Sure.”
“—well, that’s all right. You have your opinion; and other people have theirs. Which kills the most — this last war — or tubercleosis?… So!.. You would pronounce judgment on it without knowing the facts. That’s what women do … Not all the people that’s in the street is bad. And not all the people that’s in the street is good. There’s no grand rules by which you can lay down the law — if you’re a good Christian. There’s only special cases, that’s all; and what you’ve got to do is to look into each case by itself, and judge it on its own merits … Everybody is aimin’ for the same place, ain’t they? That’s the fact to be remembered, and not the fact that they go different ways to get there from what you choose. That’s the way it is with religion. We all take different routes. But we’re all aimin’ to get to the same place. So what’s the good of quarrelin’ about the routes we take, or scorning one man because he goes this way, and another because he goes that … as long as they’re honestly striving to get to the good place … But if there’s a place on this earth that’s a second Sodom, it’s New York.”
“How are you, Mrs. Simpson? Have you got hearts?”
“For fair!”
“Hearts are trumps.”
“—the dollar, that’s their god, the almighty dollar. You see what they mean by that, don’t you?”
“Yes?”
“You remember the Jews in their journey through the desert. You remember how some of them, losing faith, backsliding, went whoring after false gods, and worshiped the golden calf. That is a symbol—the golden calf. And the golden calf is today the god of America. It’s the Almighty Dollar; instead of Almighty God. Mark my words.”
“Yes, that’s true, that’s a nice illustration for it. Everybody does worship gold—”
“I made a mistake!”
“That wasn’t fair!”
“She reneged!”
“But what I say is, if they don’t want to travel the same road with me, let them go their own way.”
“That’s what I say to my son, who joined the Christian Scientists. He’s always after me—”
“—Episcopalian, they call it in America—”
“Well, that’s the reason, you see, why I didn’t want to play for anything.”
“Anything, that’ll keep you in touch with God, that’s the great thing. But they all want to go their own way, nowadays. You can’t prevent it — it’s no use is it? trying to prevent it. But so long as they keep in touch with God, that’s the great thing.”
“—Christ, I mean.”
“Well, I never played it much, I just started.”
“They don’t deny Him. But they say He’s not the Son of God.”
“—beginning—”
“They say that Christ was a good man. The only thing they deny is His Kingship. But what do we mean, I ask you, by Christ? Have you stopped to think about that? That’s a point of very great importance. Is there any reason why we should reserve the title of Christ only for the one individual that was known as Jesus? There have been many Christs since Jesus of Nazareth. There was Saint Francis. There were some of the Popes, too, good and holy men. There was Moody and Sankey. There was Spurgeon. In what way was Spurgeon not deserving of the name of Christ? He gave his life to God — look at all those wonderful words and thoughts of his. And these are only a few. There have been many Christs — some of them lowly people that were never heard of in history. How many have been put on the rack for their faith in God? No man can say. There have been many Christs; and there will be Christs again.”
“We couldn’t have made a whole lot, could we?”
“The ace of diamonds was all I had.”
“Nine of trumps—”
“You have to follow suit, you see.”
“What’ll you do?”
“One spade.”
“One spade.”
“Ha ha ha! You have to say something different from her! You don’t follow suit in the bidding!”
“Well, if you’ve got one spade you’d better hold on to it!”
“They’re playing euchre, is it?”
“Miss Kennedy? No. She wasn’t a bigot. She might see things in a different light from what you do. But that isn’t bigotry. Because you’re Church — and she’s Chapel — does that give her the right to call you a bigot? No. Miss Kennedy was a Unitarian, and a God-fearing woman. You might not agree with her, but that wouldn’t make her a bigot.”
“Well — I try to fathom all these things—”
“It’s the way they’ve been brought up, that’s it, isn’t it, Mrs. Covey? They reverence God in their own way. And it seems good to them, just like your way seems good to you. It’s all in the way you’ve been brought up when you’re a child.”
“Well — that’s true, of course — and my husband is right where he says we should all strive to be tolerant — but just the same there’s some things that’s hard to understand or be tolerant of. I’ve had a good deal of religious experience, for after being brought up as a Churchwoman, when I married I became a Wesleyan. And then, singing as I did — I used to sing a lot — I went about a good deal to different sects and societies, and saw a good many different points of view. But some of the Catholic ideas, now, I cannot think they are good. And this although my best friend, a woman I’ve known all my life, died a Catholic. To my idea, the way they use the crucifix is wrong, like a kind of idolatry. For them, their crucifix is just a kind of talisman, to protect you. Just a talisman. And then the way they worship the mother of Christ — that’s another thing that seems to me uncalled for. I used to ask Mrs. Jennings, ‘Why is it you worship the mother of Christ as if she was a god? She was only a mortal woman like you or me.’ And of course, that’s just why it appeals to them. They have her there to represent all the mothers … Lots of my friends have been Catholics.”