The car clanged, and slowly started its noisy journey toward the Stanton Street Bridge, at which it stopped from three to five minutes, for the Mexican Immigration and Customs Officials to go through the car and make a pretense at examining everything that was being brought into Mexico, as if anything on the face of God's green earth that was brought into Mexico could hurt it.
"I wonder where I'll get off, now that I'm over here," thought Pearl, as the car left the bridge to ramble on its way on into the heart of Juarez, which is the sixteenth of September St. "I know," she thought, "I'll get off at the Tivoli, where all the gambling is, and see if I have any luck there."
"Hello, Honey," came the friendly voice of a heavy-set woman of about thirty, who five years before had been the toast of the border because of her beauty, but who now had begun to show what the excess of Men, Beer and Hook Shops, too numerous to mention, can do to a woman who had sold herself to any man with the price, and had given herself just as quickly to a man whom she thought she liked. "I saw you over here last night and wondered who you were. Did you just come to town? Well, my name is Evelyn—the last name don't matter, but better known as Bar Fly Ev. I'll be glad to show you the ropes around here. Come on and let's get off here at the Tivoli and snatch a couple of shots of whiskey, and see if there's a dollar to be made here. Of course, it's a little early just yet. The best time to pick a live guy is about an hour before the bridge closes tonight, that's when they are looking for a girl to spend the night with, and they ain't too particular. That's how I manage. Of course, you won't have to do that—you're too fresh looking—they'll go for you like a Texas hog goes for swill."
The Tivoli, the official gambling house of Juarez with any kind of a game you care to play, run square, but with the percentage so heavy for the house that a winning customer is a scarce thing.
"Say, Ev, did you have to get a permit when you came to this town, before you could hustle on this side?" asked Pearl.
"Hell, no, that's a lot of dirty gippery. The only permit I've got is the one that every woman has. Of course, I know what you have had to go through, and it's a damn shame that some louse didn't tip you off. That's the way them Mex's have of getting first pop at every girl that comes down here."
"What'll you girls have?" asked the bartender.