"C M Kornbluth - I Never Ast No Favours" - читать интересную книгу автора (Kornbluth C M)

I Never Ast No Favors



C. M. Kornbluth




I Never Ast No Favors



Dear Mr. Marino:



I hesitate to take pen in hand and write you because I guess you do not remember me except maybe as
a punk kid you did a good turn, and I know you must be a busy man running your undertaking parlor as
well as the Third Ward and your barber shop. I never ast no favors of nobody but this is a special case
which I hope you will agree when I explain.
 To refresh your memory as the mouthpiece says in court, my name is Anthony Cornaro only maybe you
remember me better as Tough Tony, which is what they call me back home in the Ward. I am not the
Tough Tony from Water Street who is about 55 and doing a sixer up the river, I am the Tough Tony who
is going on seventeen from Brecker Street and who you got probation for last week after I slash that
nosy cop that comes flatfooting into the grocery store where some friends and I are just looking around
not knowing it is after hours and that the groceryman has went home. That is the Tough Tony that I am. I
guess you remember me now so I can go ahead.



With the probation, not that I am complaining, the trouble starts. The mouthpiece says he has known this
lad for years and he comes from a very fine churchgoing family and he has been led astray by bad
companions. So all



right, the judge says three years' probation, but he goes on to say if. If this, if that, environment, bad
influences, congested city streets, our vital dairy industry denuded тАФsuch a word from a judge!тАФof
labor . . .



Before I know what has happened, I am signing a paper, my Mama is putting her mark on it and I am on
my way toChiungaCountyto milk cows.



I figure the judge does not know I am a personal friend of yours and I do not want to embarrass you by
mentioning your name in open court, I figure I will get a chance later to straighten things out. Also, to tell