Page 24

By Jack Joseph Smith

2. These were experiences of structure. Mount Mercy Academy. Very few young boys. So flowers in the garden. Plays in costume and running in knickers. First and second grade circlular on the floor in nineteen forty eight, with Juvenile Hall' s fence across the street from the schools stoned steped terraces. The first time through was nineteen fifty five for Doolin. He was on his way for a two week retrial at Throne Hill. Headed for the county his father thought. Lawrence of the Wallbash River. Springtime. Alanzo Johnsons' baseball team picked Clifton and his two friends Butch Howard and William Sterling up first day out. Alanzo is sixteen during this one time stay for the three boys. Johnson would go on to become fourth contender for the heavyweight championship. He told a guy on the street for a long while to leave him alone and was refused until violence broke out is what got Alanzo into Thorn Hill. All three boys watched him. And approached him to ask question about their enviorment and what they must do to pass through without getting into any- thing outside their duties. He had the boys hold down an older boy than they, fifteen to seventeen, who was suffering dangerously with a great possibility of fatality from an eptaletic sezure while he took and held his tongue. Even the quard, the boss, respected Alanzo for that very controled act. Cigar Cid had come up the ranks. That's all there is dur- ing this time. No education all the way to the board of directors who are replaced only with their death. He talked tough and would remain as mean as the job

Original Scan

Page 24

AI Interpretation

GPT

The narrator recalls schooling and juvenile confinement, where the boys seek Alanzo Johnson's advice and help restrain another boy during a seizure.

The narrator credits Alanzo with controlling a dangerous scene and describes the guard's respect for him. Cigar Cid follows as an institutional authority whose rank depends on succession rather than education. The revised opening names experiences of structure.


Claude

Page 2 opens 'These were experiences of structure.' and moves from Mount Mercy Academy in 'nineteen forty eight', with 'Juvenile Hall' s fence across the street', to Doolin's 1955 'two week retrial at Throne Hill', where sixteen-year-old Alanzo Johnson picks Clifton, Butch Howard and William Sterling for his baseball team. Alanzo has the boys hold down an older boy 'suffering dangerously with a great possibility of fatality from an eptaletic / sezure' while he holds his tongue, and 'Even the quard, / the boss, respected Alanzo for that very controled act.'

The prose sets two institutions side by side, the school and the juvenile home, and treats both as teachers of order. Alanzo becomes the model of competence under pressure, while Cigar Cid's rise shows authority that comes from rank rather than education. Many typed cancellations and handwritten insertions show the author sharpening the seizure scene.