“Sure. And it works.”
“You said about cops—”
“Central Committee keeps order an’ makes rules. Then there’s the ladies. They’ll call on your ma. They keep care of kids an’ look after the sanitary units. If your ma isn’t working, she’ll look after kids for the ones that is working, an’ when she gets a job—why, there’ll be others. They sew, and a nurse comes out an’ teaches ’em. All kinds of things like that.”
“You mean to say they ain’t no cops?”
“No, sir. No cop can come in here without a warrant.”
“Well, s’pose a fella is jus’ mean, or drunk an’ quarrelsome. What then?”
The watchman stabbed the blotter with a pencil. “Well, the first time the Central Committee warns him. And the second time they really warn him. The third time they kick him out of the camp.”
“God Almighty, I can’t hardly believe it! Tonight the deputies an’ them fellas with the little caps, they burned the camp out by the river.”
“They don’t get in here,” the watchman said. “Some nights the boys patrol the fences, ’specially dance nights.”
“Dance nights? Jesus Christ!”