Page:The plastic age, (IA plasticage00mark).pdf/276

254 the drums beat on—boom, boom, boom, boom. . . A boy and girl sought a dark corner. He shield her with his body while she took a drink from flask. Then he turned his face to the corner ai drank. A moment later they were back on tl floor, holding each other tight, drunkenly swa ing. . . Finally the last strains, a wail of agony“Ev-’ry one knows that I’m just Sec-ond-hai Rose—from Sec-ond Av-en-ue.”

The couples moved slowly off the floor, tl pounding of the drums still in their ears and in the blood; some of them sought the fraternity booth some of the girls retired to their dressing-roor perhaps to have another drink; many of the m< went outside for a smoke and to tip a flask upwar Through the noise, the sex-madness, the hal drunken dancers, moved men and women qui sober, the men vainly trying to shield the worm from contact with any one who was drunk. The] was an angry light in those men’s eyes, but most < them said nothing, merely kept close to their p.ar ners, ready to defend them from any too asserti friend.

Again the music, again the tom-tom of the drum On and on for hours. A man “passed out cole and had to be carried from the gymnasium. A gi got a “laughing jag” and shrieked with idiot laughter until her partner managed to lead her pr testing off the floor. On and on, the constai