Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 15.djvu/102

 88 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

and when repulsed replied with insulting speech. I was within six feet of the door when registration began. In half an hour I was fully twenty feet away, with a great wall of human beings in front of me. This plainly was no place for politeness; the fight for first place there would put a Grand Street bargain-coun- ter crush to shame and make a football hero look to his laurels. The race was not to the strong but to the canny. Gay girls soon began to pay toll in kisses or promises and were shoved up ahead. I was beaten about for over two hoi^rs and I saw women grow dizzy and faint and drop out. I grew so interested in the spec- tacle that I lost sight of the objective point, and that I procured a number before dark was due to the dogged persistence of one of my new friends, who handed in my name and obtained for me the coveted ribbon badge stating that my number was 185 in Yard B, Company 4. There was a different color for each yard. Mine was pink and I pinned it on with pride. Ordinary fore- sight would have prevented the horrors of the afternoon. It would have been so easy to have two registration booths, one for men and the other for women.

The next important event of the day was the evening service in the big dance hall conducted by the promised evangelist. Practically everybody on the ground turned out to the stereopti- con lecture on the "Parables of Jesus." As many said at the door, "We'll sample it." The music seemed to meet with ap- proval, but when the minister commenced offering a stereo- typed prayer he was greeted with "cut it out," and "to the tim- ber." He did neither, and then followed a stampede for the door by fully two-thirds of the men present. The rest of the audience engaged in conversation. The crowd sauntered in to hear the next piece of music, but when the lecture began it grew restive and soon voiced its disapproval in no uncertain terms. I was away back near the door and could see that the minister was laboring under great difficulties. The hall was very large and the acoustic properties as bad as they could possibly be and his lantern was sputtering. But worse than all this was his in- ability to "get next" to the situation, to use the pickers' phrase. The Parables of Jesus are interesting but not to that crowd