Page 114

By Jack Joseph Smith

dark it is once over the castle walls. When the enemy seems to be dead, then the agony begins. I fought them all. Right down to the teeth. O' Dandy and I took on fifteen cops in his drivway. The fight lasted for about a half hour or so. We put our backs against the garage door and they began to drop as they came to us. They could have used their guns, it's true, but it was a different kind of confront ation. They knew it. They understood. They wanted us in the same way that we wanted them. It had been building for a long time. They have put me behind bars at least twenty times since I came home from Velley Forge. The bastards. That night was hell when they finally over came us. They tied me up on a rail, like a pig for slaughter and carried me down the driveway. I could see the crowd of faces on the hill. They were like sheep without ears on a misty night. Everything turned into a ghost. When they had me in the car, they tried to break my arm with a claw. Do you know what a claw is. No. It's an instrument like a hand cuff they wrap around your arm. As they turn it, it tightens. The bastards. I told them to go fuck themselves. They kept on turning it untill I kicked the back of the drivers seat so hard; they were afraid to drive any more and they stoped turning the claw. When we got to the station, they put me in a cell and then brought O'Dandy in and worked him over in front of me. What a joke the world is. The man running for District Attorney on the Republican ticket defended us. What a trial! All Mount Lebanon was there, and we walked off. They thought we were going away for a year. And we walked off. Why? Because my Dad has political power on this Hill. My Dad had to call the attorney and ask him how much the bill was. Every last one of the senterols, I have watched fall under me. Down, down, bleeding with drips blending their deep red with green grass, until, they,

Original Scan

Page 114

AI Interpretation

GPT

Michael recounts a savage fight with police, being tied up and worked over with a "claw," and then escaping serious punishment because his father had enough political power on the Hill.

The account is vivid in its physical details: the garage door stand, the rail "like a pig for slaughter," the tool tightening on his arm, the station-house spectacle with O'Dandy. Bravado and bitterness sit together here, especially when public violence ends not in justice but in influence and release.

Claude

Michael tells how he and O'Dandy took on 'fifteen cops in his drivway' with their backs to the garage door, were tied 'on a rail, like a pig for slaughter', and how police tried to break his arm with 'a claw' until he kicked the driver's seat. Defended by 'The man running for District Attorney on the Republican ticket', they 'walked off' at trial 'Because my Dad has political power on this Hill.'

The page mixes pride in the fight with bitterness at the system, since the violence is ended not by justice but by his father's influence. The claim that 'They wanted us in the same way that we wanted them' presents the fight as a mutual ritual rather than a crime. Physical detail, such as the claw and the blood on green grass, keeps the bravado grounded in pain.