Dutch Robertson sat on a bench on Brooklyn Bridge with the collar of his army overcoat turned up, running his eye down Business Opportunities. It was a muggy fog-choked afternoon; the bridge was dripping and aloof like an arbor in a dense garden of steamboatwhistles. Two sailors passed. “Ze best joint I’ve been in since B. A.”
Partner movie theater, busy neighborhood ... stand investigation ... $3,000.... Jez I haven’t got three thousand mills.... Cigar stand, busy building, compelled sacrifice.... Attractive and completely outfitted radio and music shop ... busy.... Modern mediumsized printingplant consisting of cylinders, Kelleys, Miller feeders, job presses, linotype machines and a complete bindery.... Kosher restaurant and delicatessen.... Bowling alley ... busy.... Live spot large dancehall and other concessions. We Buy False Teeth, old gold, platinum, old jewelry. The hell they do. Help Wanted Male. That’s more your speed you rummy. Addressers, first class penmen.... Lets me out.... Artist, Attendant, Auto, Bicycle and Motorcycle repair shop.... He took out the back of an envelope and marked down the address. Bootblacks.... Not yet. Boy; no I guess I aint a boy any more, Candystore, Canvassers, Carwashers, Dishwasher. Earn While You Learn. Mechanical dentistry is your shortest way to success.... No dull seasons....
“Hello Dutch.... I thought I’d never get here.” A grayfaced girl in a red hat and gray rabbit coat sat down beside him.
“Jez I’m sick o readin want ads.” He stretched out his arms and yawned letting the paper slip down his legs.
“Aint you chilly, sittin out here on the bridge?”
“Maybe I am.... Let’s go and eat.” He jumped to his
feet and put his red face with its thin broken nose close to hers and looked in her black eyes with his pale gray eyes. He tapped her arm sharply. “Hello Francie.... How’s my lil girl?”
They walked back towards Manhattan, the way she had come. Under them the river glinted through the mist. A big steamer drifted by slowly, lights already lit; over the edge of the walk they looked down the black smokestacks.
“Was it a boat as big as that you went overseas on Dutch?”
“Bigger ’n that.”