"To find something, anything a great truth, or a lost pair of glasses you must first believe there will be some advantage in finding it." "I found something a long time ago and have held on to it for grim death ever since." "I owe my success in life to it." "It put me where I am today." "This principle:" "What you don't know won't hurt you." "They called it idealism in a book I read." "Get the gun." "Get the gun." "Get the gun." "Oh, my God." "The judge won't scare easy." "I don't count on him scaring easy." "You think it's beneath my dignity?" "well, you're governor, they tell me." "Yeah, I'm governor." "The trouble with governors is they think they gotta keep their dignity." "There's nothing worth doing a man can do to keep his dignity." "Human frame ain't built that way." "When I'm not governor anymore because I'm president I wanna meet somebody at midnight, I'II do that then too." "Hope you leave me to get a night's sleep." "No, Jack, you going with me because that's what you want." "Yeah, you and Sugar with me in the White House." "I'II give Sugar a pistol range right out there in the garden." "Brace of republican senators can set up his tin cans for him." "And I'm gonna appoint a special member to Cabinet for you:" "Secretary to the Bedchamber of Mr. Jack Burden." "Somebody to keep them telephone numbers straight and return their little pink silk articles that get left behind." "But we gotta do this first." "In the middle of the night when we could just do it in town sometime." "Sometime ain't never now." "Bastard." "Which way up there?" "Jack, tell Sugar how to get to the house." "It's your people live down here." "Suppose he don't open up?" "Make him." "What I pay you for?" "Hey, Jack." "Mr. Duffy." "This is willie Stark from up Mason City." "County treasurer." "glad to meet you." "Jack Burden." "From The Chronicle." "Good to meet you, Mr. Burden." "Yeah, willie's on business for Mason City." "Bond issue them got up there." "Gonna build a schoolhouse." "Yeah." "Me and willie was in school together." "Oh, you was in school, alex." "I didn't know." "Not the teacher's favorite, I don't expect." "No, sir, that's true." "willie was, though." "still is, ain't you, willie?" "Yeah, willie married a schoolteacher." "well, you know they tell me that schoolteachers are made with it in the same place as the rest." "Now, is that right or not, Mr. Stark?" "Yeah, that's right." "SIade!" "Beers all around." "Not for me, thanks." "Oh, that little schoolteacher don't like it when you drink?" "well, she don't favor it, for a fact." "well, beers all around." "well, I sell beer to those who want it." "I don't make nobody drink them." "well, maybe you got some orange pop for him." "That's what he wants." "Yeah, I think I'd Iike some orange pop." "Two straws." "Jack, get up Mason City." "See who's this fella who thinks he's Jesus Christ out of that shinpIaster courthouse they got them there." "I know who he is." "FeIIa with a Christmas tie pushed a school bond through." "You know him?" "Met him." "Watched him drink a bottle of orange pop once through two straws on account of a wife who don't favor drinking." "She favor him staying parish treasurer?" "Don't you know how things are run up there?" "Run up there like they're run down here." "Yeah?" "well, you leave down here and run on up there." "As a commissioner, as chairman, I guess you're in a position to know the situation regarding the schoolhouse contract." "Ain't no situation." "Maybe not, but maybe so." "Ain't any situation." "Board took a bid offer." "A.J. Moore's bid, the fella's name schoolhouse gets built." "This Moore fella's bid, I take it, was the lowest?" "Now, you Iookie here." "Ain't nobody tells a board what bid to take." "Anybody can come along put in a little pissant bid." "Board doesn't have to take it." "Board takes somebody who can do the work right." "Ain't nothing done but legal." "Who was it put in the little pissant bid?" "Name of Jeffers, if I recollect." "Jeffers Construction?" "Yeah." "well, that's a real firm, a big firm." "The board picks who can do the work right." "That's all I got to say." "Don't you wanna tell mama you wanna see yourself shining in the table?" "No?" "AII right." "I wish I couId have sold some to you." "Be out of your way in a second here." "And no brushes, you sure?" "I'm sure." "AII right." "Thank you." "Thank you for your time." "Bye-bye." "Mr. Stark." "Why, Mr. Jack Burden, how are you, sir?" "You know, people would think parish treasurer paid well enough a man wouldn't have to sell household fix-it kits door-to-door." "people would think." "Doesn't in Mason City." "well, I'm maybe not so good at mathematics as some other parish treasurers you may've met." "Or too good at it." "How much they steal on the schoolhouse contract?" "well, Iet's see...." "Jeffers come in $ 1 42,000." "Moore, $ 1 75,000." "That's $33,000 split six ways, 5500 per commissioner." "They done it so plain and pretty, well, you'd almost have to admire them." "Just point out Jeffers uses nigra Iaborers skilled men, you know?" "Next thing, it's, "Lookie here, nigras making more money than you men." "Pushing wheeIbarrows, hauling dirt."" "And that's it. "Goodbye, Mr. Jeffers and your low bid." "You go build your nigra schoolhouse somewhere else."" "Not that you didn't try and get people to see what was going on." "Oh, I yelled so long and loud about these old boys lining they pockets I'm lucky to have any job in Mason City:" "Government, door-to-door, or any other variety." "I stood out there on that street corner pencil in one hand, paper in the other trying to show people the numbers." "But you stop people out there in that hot sun try to show them arithmetic well, they can't see it so clear through the sweat pouring in they own eyes from they own hard labor." "especially if you put nigras in the equation." "Why, you're likely to get beat up." "likely?" "Once or twice." "You gonna run again in November?" "No, I'm done." "A lame duck." "Lucy too." "They got her fired from teaching." "And I don't care." "I don't want to teach there just so they can steal money." "That's right." "You're looking at your own private two-person Ieper colony." "Sipping pop." "So, what are you gonna do, then?" "I don't know." "String my pa a fence, slop some pigs, milk some cows." "I'm gonna keep the faith, Mr. Burden, that's what I'm gonna do." "I'm gonna keep the faith in the people, because you know why?" "Time brings all things to light." "I trust it's so." "Joe." "Did you get a photograph of him?" "Who?" "The next mayor of this town." "You know what people are saying?" "people are saying that God himself had a hand in this schoolhouse business." "That God stepped in on willie Stark's side." "Yes, sir." "He does work in mysterious ways sometimes." "Sometimes he has somebody else do it." "Sends over a fat man in a striped suit with a big car to do his will." "well, I have had some worse employers, I admit that." "What you want?" "well, I wanna work for you, Mr. Stark." "And you wanna work for the people, unless I been misinformed." "people vote me, I'd be privileged to serve them." "What, as the county treasurer?" "Yes, sir." "Mr. Stark, you could run for mayor of Mason City and you could win without climbing out of bed in the morning." "You just put the word out about willie Stark, who tried to take on the crooks singIe-handed WiIIie Stark, who tried to warn us WiIIie Stark, who could have saved our kids if we'd have just listened." "Now, I'm not talking about willie Stark for the mayor of Mason City." "No, sir." "I'm talking about willie Stark as the next governor of the great state of Louisiana." "Now, you saw a man holding out a handful of cash to you and you said no." "This is what I see." "I see a man in a booth looking down at a ballot, a working man." "And he sees three names there:" "Harrison, MacMurphy and Stark." "Now, what this man really sees is that picture in the newspaper of them three little coffins and the one man since the great Governor Stanton died that had the guts to buck the powers that killed them." "Now, that man, that voting man, he's got a pencil he checks a box, you wake up governor." "And that little lady lying beside you the one that don't favor liquor she wakes up the governor's wife." "That's what I see." "Now, why don't you take a minute with your orange pop see if you can't see it too governor." "You got your speech?" "AII right." "willie Stark!" "Thank you, folks." "Thank you kindly." "My name's willie Stark from Mason City yonder and I'm pleased to have a chance to talk with you all here today." "Now, friends what I wanna talk about is something that's been troubling me." "Coffee, please." "Yes, ma'am." "Can I sit with you?" "Or anything else." "No, thanks." "You don't like my looks?" "I don't care about anybody's looks but I can't recall ever going for anyone who reminds me of a box of spilled spaghetti." "Miss Burke, I'm sitting here having a cup of coffee." "I'm almost through, then you couldn't sit with me..." "...which is what you asked for." "Sorry." "Not working for Sen-Sen Puckett anymore." "Now, he wasn't a bad-Iooking fellow." "heel." "well, sure, politically and eIsewise." "Who didn't know that?" "I guess I'm slower on some things than others." "Like you." "Am I?" "I think so." "I think not." "Not on this charade." "That's the topic of the interview." "Then tell me, if you're so smart." "AII right." "Harrison's a city man, MacMurphy's a cracker." "Not a cracker precisely, but enough of one to worry Harrison that crackers won't know the difference." "So Harrison looks for someone to split the cracker vote." "Hears about an honest man up in CrackerviIIe where some cracker kids go down with a fire escape that was supposed to be stuck with more than spit to their schoolhouse." "Sends his man Tiny Duffy up there to romance him and then Sadie Burke to romance him some more." "Both telling him how good he is how he has better than a chance in hell to change things in this state where nothing will ever change." "Because you and Tiny and the rest of them don't care how much of a fool you make a man." "And you do care, I suppose?" "I didn't say that." "I don't care." "If I did, I'd do something about it, wouldn't I?" "No, I'd rather watch from here." "Like passing a car crash." "I know you all can't see this from all the way back there but I've got a pie chart representing it." "And you can see here where public welfare and hospitals end up." "They should be the same." "Rather, the ratio...." "We should go." "Not yet." "Let's go in again." "You don't wanna swim?" "How you think we doing?" "Fine, I guess." "You think?" "That how you reporting it?" "Sure." "Seems to me they listen less and less the further I get from home." "well, that makes sense, don't you think?" "Maybe you trying to say too much." "I'm telling them what they need to know:" "Taxes, wages, highways." "well, maybe it's how you're telling them." "Maybe if you told them the way you tell Lucy or Tiny or me or anyone face to face, they'd listen better." "I don't know how that is." "Hard to know how you sound to somebody else." "Mad, fed up, Iike you mean business is how you sound." "But not on the platform." "You climb three steps you sound like the rest of them." "Like a man who wants to win an election." "willie...." "Yeah?" "What?" "Nothing." "well, a man don't have to be governor." "I don't deny wanting it." "I won't lie to you, I lie awake wanting it." "But sometimes a man can want something so bad be so full of want he plain forget what it is he want." "I couId have been a good governor." "A Iot better than them other fellas." "But I ain't gonna be governor." "Hi." "Come on in." "Why not?" "Oh, Mr. Stark." "Sadie." "What's up?" "willie here was just telling me how he's not gonna be governor." "You told him?" "No, I didn't, as a matter of fact, no." "told me what?" "told me what?" "Oh, yeah, well, that makes sense." "I see." "So that's true?" "I'm being used." "So they tell me." "I saw it in his eyes the first time he come to see me, Tiny." "But I just pushed it out of my head." "Pushed it clean out." "I should've known better." "Mr. Stark?" "Mr. Stark?" "You thought you were the little white lamb of God, didn't you?" "Just waiting for the chance to stand on your hind legs and make a speech." "They would have paid you to play the part." "They pay me." "But you were too stupid to see even that." "You did it for free." "You're just their dumb sacrificial sap and I'm...." "I'm sorry I let them." "Your stomachaches, your coIics, your bIoats, your diarrhea." "You're looking a little peaked." "I can't imagine." "slept like a baby." "Got your speech?" "AII right, then." "Let's go." "It's time." ""hall, HaiI, The Gang's AII Here."" "What?" "The song." "Yeah." "That's what it is." "hello." "hello." "How are you?" "Here's that speech you was just asking about." "My name is willie Stark from Mason City yonder." "I had a speech about this state and what it needs." "There's no use in me telling you about it, you are the state." "You know what you need." "Look at the knees of your pants." "Look at your crops." "Look at your kids." "You got holes and rot and ignorant offspring on account of this state." "well, I had a speech, but I ain't got it no more." "Mr. Duffy got it now in his fat little hands." "Don't you, Tiny?" "Go ahead, show the people." "hold it up." "well, since he got it I'm gonna have to say something else." "It's all right." "Because I got something else to say." "I got a story about a redneck hick." "He's like yourselves, if you please." "well, this fella, a while back, this hick started thinking about all the other hicks what he could do for them." "well, one day it came down with the powerful force of God's own hand when the only brick schoolhouse ever built in his parish coIIapsed on account of it was built with poIitics-rotted brick." "And it killed and mangled a batch of poor, young scholars." "Oh, you know this story." "You heard it." "He fought the politics that built that schoolhouse with rotten brick and bolts." "But he lost." "He lost." "And it fell." "It fell." "well, it wasn't long before some public officials from the city rode out in their big fine car and told this hick how they wanted him to run for governor." "Them in them striped pants, they told me MacMurphy was a Iimberback Joe Harrison, he was just a tool of the city machine." "And they wanted this nobody, do-gooder hick to step in, give them some honest government." "You know who they were?" "In that big fine car?" "They was Joe Harrison's own IickspittIes..." "That's right!" "Your hick vote!" "There he is!" "There he is right there." "There's the Judas Iscariot IickspittIe nose-wiper from the city, right there." "Come on, Tiny." "Look at him." "Joe Harrison's dummy." "Come on, take a bow." "Come on." "No, come on now, people wanna see you." "Take a bow, come on." "There he goes." "No!" "No, Iet him lie!" "Let him lie!" "Let that hog lie in his own filth!" "Let him lie, but listen to me, you hicks." "That's right, I'm not the only one here." "You hicks too." "They fooled you, too, just like they fooled me a thousand times." "But it's time I fooled somebody." "It's time I fooled them." "Them big-city, striped-pants IickspittIe hick-haters." "I'm running for governor on my own." "I'm coming for them and I'm coming for blood!" "First thing I'm gonna do is build me a road out across the swamps and alligators and anything else that gets in my way." "A thousand miles of concrete, if that's what it takes so I can come out here and visit with my fellow hicks on a regular basis." "Then I'm gonna build me a bridge across that mighty Mississippi." "Name it after myself because I'm the one who built it." "Then I'm gonna build you all new schools." "Send your kids home with free tablets and pencils and books to study and learn on the way to the new university I'm gonna build where every one of them can go." "Same as rich folks' kids." "Now, I hope you're listening, you hicks." "Because I don't wanna drive all the way back home just to drive back out here next week to tell you again." "And this is it:" "If you don't vote you don't matter." "You don't matter!" "You don't matter!" "And then you're just as ignorant as them in the city say you are while they stealing food off your table and every nickel out your pocket, saying, "Thank you."" "Because then you are just a bunch of ignorant hicks who got nothing because you deserve nothing." "So listen to me." "Listen here." "Lift your eyes and look on the God's blessed and unfIybIown truth:" "You are a hick and ain't nobody never helped a hick but a hick hisseIf." "It's up to you to nail these parasites up." "Up to you and me and God." "Amen!" "nail up Joe Harrison!" "nail him up!" "nail up MacMurphy!" "nail him up!" "And nail up any bastard that gets between you and the roads and the bridges and schools and the food you need." "You give me the hammer and I'II do it." "I'II nail their hides to the barn door." "nail them up!" "nail them up!" "nail them up!" "nail them up!" "nail them up!" "nail them up!" "nail them up!" "nail them up!" "nail them up!" "nail them up!" "nail them up!" "nail them up!" "nail them up!" "nail them up!" "nail them up!" "nail them up!" "nail them up!" "nail them up!" "nail them up!" "nail them up!" "nail them up!" "nail them up!" "nail them up!" "nail them up!" "More about Stark?" "He's colorful." "Makes it easy." "You know me, always looking for easy." "Jack." "You know what The Chronicle line is on the election." "Sure." "MacMurphy again because of his brilliant record as an administrator and high integrity as a statesman." "Why can't you put that in your column, a little less of Stark's raving madness?" "Listen, Jack." "I know Stark's a friend of yours but" "He's not a friend of mine." "personally, I don't care who's governor." "Are you telling me what to write, or am I mistaken?" "You know The Chronicle line." "AII right." "What do you mean, "AII right"?" "I mean it the way I said it." "I, willie Stark, do solemnly swear that I will support the constitution and laws of the state of Louisiana." "Willie didn't need me to get himself elected." "He won by a landslide." "By the biggest margin in the history of the state." "aII the duties incumbent upon me as governor so help me God." "Which isn't to say everyone voted for him." "Jack, get up Mason City." "My editor didn't vote for him." "thinks he's Jesus Christ come down off the cross...." "The publisher of this paper didn't vote for him." "These men didn't vote for him." "Or these." "The governor's education bill does not pass." "Or the old boys in the Senate who were in the pockets of the oilmen." "My mother didn't vote for him." "This is my mother." "She doesn't vote." "Over there, on her dressing table that's her with her first husband." "First of four, if I recollect." "And that's my godfather on the right, the best man." "He didn't vote for Willie either." "In fact I think it's safe to say nobody from where I'm from voted for Willie Stark." "And why should they?" "His promises to the poor to build roads and bridges and schools were a declaration of war on the rich." "They wanted him out." "You Jack Burden?" "I've come at the behest of the boss." "Who?" "The boss?" "The governor?" "Governor, Iet me put it in simple words so you understand:" "There's no money for all these things you wanna do for the poor." "Oh, there's money, senator." "You're wrong there." "There's plenty of money." "Every kilowatt comes out of the river, every barrel of oil from the ground." "But that doesn't belong to you, sir." "That's right." "Don't belong to you either or them." "belongs to the state." "How about the state don't tax just 5% to build my roads, we take it all?" "These are some powerful companies you talking about taking money from." "They ain't gonna stand for it." "They ain't the power." "The power's in the hands of the powerless and those hands have handed it to me." "realistically, they'II approve half the money, maybe." "And that's after we beat them up." "So we build them half a highway." "mile of concrete, mile of dirt, mile of concrete, mile of dirt all the way to Shreveport." "Now, how's anybody gonna drive on that?" "people ain't gonna stand for that." "They like their roads finished." "That's right." "What's right?" "Hey, Jack." "Sadie, take Tiny out of here, explain it to him." "He just said it and he don't get it." "Come on, Tiny." "You want something to eat?" "No, thank you." "well, sit down." "Hi, Sadie." "Hey." "I heard you got fired." "Oh, you heard wrong." "I quit." "That's smart." "When I get done with that outfit, they won't be able to pay you nor the nigra who sweeps the floor." "You want a job?" "Working for whom?" "The state?" "hell, no." "Me." "You, me, Sadie, Tiny." "Tiny?" "I was surprised to hear Tiny was back." "well, somebody gotta be lieutenant governor." "Yeah, sure." "I keep Tiny around to remind me of something I never wanna forget." "And that is?" "When they come around sweet-taIking, don't listen." "Never again." "What would I be doing for you?" "Sweet-taIking." "AII right, everybody." "What on earth is that?" "This is a ballista." "A what?" "Jack will tell you all about it." "Jack, come on." "tell them." "It's a pre-gunpowder weapon fired with the tension of animal sinew." "Oh, my God." "Jack?" "Right." "See the eagle on top of the clock?" "One two...." "They say you're in politics, Mr. Burden?" "It must be fascinating to be in politics." "It's not, I assure you." "well, they say you're very influential." "It must be fascinating to be very influential." "I honestly wouldn't know." "Don't let him kid you, Miss DuMonde." "My godson Jack is very influential." "Like when he was a newspaperman." "AII right, then, yes, I'm influential." "Any pals in the pen anyone wants pardoned, I'II put in the word." "well, there is gonna be somebody in the pen." "Before it's over, what's going on there?" "AII these wild goings-on." "FeIIa giving away the state." "Free this, free that, free the other." "Every wooI-hat jackass thinking the world is free." "Who's gonna pay?" "That's what I wanna know." "Who's he think's gonna pay?" "Standard oil and the utility companies, I imagine." "And anyone else that can afford to pay their share." "You and me, George." "We'II pay." "Government's committed these days giving services we never heard of back when." "And he's gonna tax this state to death." "Drive business right out." "You don't think it boils down to this:" "If the government, for quite a Iong time now had done anything for the people they wouldn't have got fed up and elected Mr. Stark." "well, you ask him this next time you see him:" "Ask him how much grabbing there is, all that money flowing." "Then you ask him what's he gonna do when they impeach him." "There's a constitution in this state or was, before he blew it to hell." "I'II be sure to ask him." "You do that." "Jack, Miss DuMonde plays the piano." "That's nice." "You weren't like yourself today, son, Iike you used to be." "Mother, if I'm ever like I used to be, do me a favor and shoot me." "Who was that at lunch anyway?" "Mr. Peyton." "You've known him all your life." "He builds electrical plants or some such." "The girl, Mother." "Miss DuMonde." "That's Mr. Orton's sister's child and she will inherit his money." "Somebody ought to wait until she inherits it, then marry her and drown her in her bathtub." "Oh, don't worry, I'd Iike to drown her but I won't." "Was Mr. Peyton saying those people you're with are mixed up in some sort of graft?" "Graft's what you call it when who's doing it..." "...doesn't know which fork to use." "well, whatever you call it." "Because I worry to think that" "I don't know." "How would I, careful as I am not to know what anybody anywhere is doing at any time?" "Oh, Jack, make a note." "Find out where they got Senator Tucson's boy locked up." "What's his name?" "The boy?" "hell, I don't remember." "Find out when's the trial, get a lawyer down there." "Who?" "Evans?" "Not Evans." "Find somebody with less oil in his hair... ..and don't look like he sing with a band." "Put one of your pals on it." "You have any idea who it was got cut?" "I don't care if it was the sainted aunt of the apostle paul." "well, I just happen to know." "FeIIa's son of a doctor, paper said." "They're pretty important around here, you know, a doctor in the country." "They think they're somebody." "And maybe it gets out you're trying to fix it to get the boy off." "WouIdn't do you any good." "Now, it appears to me, maybe" "You don't know a goddamn thing." "Had you been listening I told Jack to prime the lawyer through a pal." "Find somebody who don't need to see his name in lights." "That way, nobody knows who picked him wasn't me." "Might as well been the pope himself far as anybody knows." "AII right." "I get you." "Yeah, just barely." "Hey, there, Pop." "How you doing, son?" "How you making out?" "Oh, I'm getting along." "Good to see you." "You looking good." "I brought the infantry here." "How are you?" "More prettier than ever." "Hey, Grandpa." "How you doing, buddy?" "How's the arm?" "He gonna be aII-American." "I know he is." "I know he is." "AII right, governor, sir, here we go." "One, two...." "Bastard." "Give me a slug." "Pa don't favor drinking." "Used to be Lucy didn't favor it." "I don't know what she do or don't favor no more." "Not that it matters." "Yeah, I must have poured 1 0,000 gallons of swill in them troughs." "still doing it." "Pouring swiII." "Some things never change." "Hey." "What's up?" "Judge Irwin." "Judge Irwin what?" "spill it." "I'II spill it when I have my breath." "You're using it up explaining you don't have it." "You think it's funny?" "You won't when I tell you." "You tell me later." "Byram rang up." "He said the afternoon papers have got the judge saying the allegations warrant a fuII-on investigation." "Two-timing bastard." "That two-timing bastard." "clear them out." "Tiny was figuring on having supper up here." "clear them all out." "Which way up there?" "Jack, tell Sugar how to get to the house." "It's your people live down here." "Suppose he don't open up?" "Make him." "What I pay you for?" "Yeah, who is it?" "It's Jack." "Jack?" "well, I'II be." "Hey, come on in." "You're not in any trouble, are you?" "No, Jack's not in any trouble." "Matter of fact, he doing all right, all things considered." "I trust you don't mind if Jack pours me a slug." "I didn't know his duties ran to those of manservant..." "...but if I'm mistaken, I'm sorry." "Oh, hell." "Sometimes Jack pours me a drink, sometimes I pour him one." "Sometimes I pour myself one." "I couId pour you one." "No, thank you." "This today's?" "Yeah, I don't get much time to read the papers rushing around the state doing the good work." "well, perhaps, I can relieve your curiosity on one point." "Somewhere in there's my opinion on the severity of the allegations against you, if that's of interest." "Somebody told me that." "But you know how rumor hath a thousand tongues." "And how them newspaper boys, they can exaggerate some." "It's no exaggeration." "Yeah, I see." "If you're clear on that and finished with your drink I'd appreciate it if you'd just get out." "Hey, thank you, judge, I think I will have just one more spot." "So I see it there in the paper, and I hear you say it but are you sure you took it to the Lord in prayer?" "I settled it in my mind." "See, that's unsettling." "Because if I recollect right, I recollect that when we had our conversation in town that time you sort of felt like what MacMurphy and his boys were saying about me was beneath contempt." "I made no commitment to you or to them, only to my conscience." "I beg your pardon, your what?" "I beg yours." "You been toiling around politics too long to use a word like conscience so easily." "No, my change of conscience came when certain features of your public services, shall we say, came to my attention." "Somebody dug something up for you?" "In the dirt?" "Yeah, not just one thing and not very deep." "well, dirt's a funny thing." "Ain't nothing but dirt on God's green earth except what's under the water." "And that's dirt too, come to think of it." "Dirt makes the grass green let it breathe." "The diamond on my wife's finger ain't nothing but dirt got awful hot." "What are we, but dirt bIowed off the hands of God almighty?" "You and me and George Washington." "And Jack there." "still doesn't alter the fact." "I'm not trying to alter anything, just illuminate it." "Yeah." "You saying MacMurphy and his bunch, yelling for my impeachment they're responsible, Iaw-abiding men?" "Yeah, they're responsible all right, to alta Power and oil companies and the rest of them thieves." "I wouldn't know about that." "only way to not know is to not wanna know." "I'm retired, Mr. Stark." "A reporter asked my opinion and I gave it." "If you was retired, no reporter would wanna ask you anything." "What you say matters." "A Iot more than you pretend it don't." "So I'm asking you call off the dogs." "Asking is different than telling and that sounded like telling to me." "Didn't it to you, Jack?" "You been a judge a Iong time." "Yes, I have." "How would it feel, do you think to not be one no more?" "No man has ever been able to intimidate me." "I said what I said and I see no reason to say or think anything different." "Despite your expositions on laws and men, sir." "Suit yourself." "You're right, Jack." "He don't scare easy." "Judge, it's more in pain than wrath I go." "Let's go." "It's past Sugar Boy's bedtime." "Your employer is calling you, Jack." "I wouldn't go around advertising this visit to anyone." "In case you change your mind." "Bastard." "well, Jackie, you got a job cut out for you." "MacMurphy." "No, the judge." "You bring down the lion the rest of the jungle will quake in fear and they'II all fall into line." "I won't find anything." "Oh, yes, you will." "A man is conceived in sin and born in corruption and passeth from the stink of the didie to the stench of the shroud." "You'II find something." "And make it stick." "Apart from pleasing the boss, I could see little advantage in finding anything beyond what was already known about Judge Irwin." "What was known was that he was kind to you when your father left you and your mother without saying why." "What was known was that he taught you the things your father should have:" "How to be a gentleman." "How to firmly shake a hand." "How to safely load a shotgun and lead a duck if you wanted to hit it." "What was known was that he was more of a father to you than your real father who you didn't know at all." "hold it, please." "Governor's penthouse." "How you doing digging something up on Judge Irwin?" "Nothing." "Nothing." "Found nothing or done nothing?" "There was nothing to find." "I couId dig to China, wouldn't find anything." "And I'm not framing him." "Framing?" "Ain't nobody talking about framing." "That's never necessary." "The truth is always sufficient." "You just find the truth." "It's a waste of time and money." "Jesus, doesn't anybody listen to what I say anymore?" "You don't wanna do it, don't do it." "Or are you just looking for a raise?" "I'm gonna give you $ 1 00 raise whether you want it or not." "If I wanted more money, I'd make it." "You gonna tell me you work for me for love?" "I don't know why I work for you, but it ain't for love or money." "well, that's right, it's not." "And you don't know why." "But I do." "Why?" "Boy, you work for me because I'm the way I am and you the way you are and that's just an arrangement founded in the natural order of things." "She sure could skate." "Right now hidden away in chambers not out here in the open like you and me there's a legislature full of hyena-headed beIIy-dragging sons of bitches setting around trying to figure out how to impeach me." "Now, they say it's because I got crooks on the payroll." "I say, "Is that all?"" "Of course I got them." "I got a can of oil in the garage too because there ain't a machine made by man don't need a squirt of that from time to time just to keep running!" "But my crooks unlike theirs are all atremble to be too crooked." "They're itty-bitty compared to their crooks in there." "The Standard oil and the power companies." "Besides, I got my eye on mine." "Ain't nobody watching over these crooks." "Ain't nobody got their eye on them while they rob the resources of this state!" "Who made that son of a bitch what he is?" "Who made him governor?" "And he goes and two-times me?" "I'II kill him." "No, he's two-timing Lucy." "You need some other kind of arithmetic for what he's doing to you." "Lucy, she's a fool." "She's...." "I don't know what." "His wife." "A hick with a college degree from some Baptist hole in the ground." "What was she like?" "I didn't know Lucy any further back" "The slut on skates." "I don't know, I was looking at her skates." "Sure you were." "Was she pretty?" "Look, just forget it." "How young was she?" "Who cares?" "Look at me." "He'II be back." "The world is full of sluts on skates." "Skates, grass skirts, geisha outfits." "Contortionists." "Every man a king Every man a king" "For you can be a millionaire" "But there's something Belonging to others" "Well, there's enough For all people to share" "When it's sunny June Or December too" "In the wintertime or spring" "Well, there'll be peace without end" "Every neighbor a friend" "With every man a king" "The judge married money." "Savannah money." "The daughter of an industrialist out there." "He's clean, Willie." "He's washed in the blood." "You call yourself a detective." "I'm most certainly not" "The son of a bitch is washed in whitewash!" "Wanting it isn't the same as being it." "I know!" "I can feel it." "That isn't the same either." "Where did you find this itty-bitty out?" "hall of Records." "It's all there." "Marriage licenses, property deeds, public record." "The public record is for the public, not us." "That's why it's called that." "You ain't gonna find nothing there!" "Now, I told you to dig, not scuff your shoe a little bit." "You gotta get out and talk to them." "To whom?" "The public." "The people who knew him." "This was a Iong time ago." "well,look,he's still alive,isn't he?" "Causing trouble." "So you gotta chafe up your hands a little,for chrissake like the rest of us." "Where the hell is everybody?" "Whatever there was to find in the case of the upright judge would be long-buried in the past like a dead cat in the back yard." "But what could be buried there like that in a place like Burden's Landing?" "Where you and your friends grew up shaded by 300-year-old live oaks and the sense of your own entitlement." "To dig around that past in that back yard you must first" " You tell yourself." "seek out the girl from that past:" "Anne Stanton." "The daughter of the governor back then." "The little sister of your best friend,Adam who,one day,you noticed and it struck you kind of all of a sudden wasn't little anymore." "She was the first one you loved like that." "And the last,it turns out." "So you hold on to her pictures in your mind year after year in the belief that someday it'll be like that again even though you have no evidence." "In church,they call this faith." "So that's what I'll call it." "Every month or so,I come out here and light a fire." "Dry the place out." "I know it doesn't really accomplish that but I got a feeling if I didn't,if nobody ever came the place would just one day cave in on itself." "Adam never comes out?" "No." "Not anymore." "He took the piano,or someone did." "Took it and put it in that place he's living." "Have you seen it?" "God forbid my brother ever spent any money on himself." "Or that people knew it." "How's your wife?" "I'm sorry,I've forgotten her name." "That didn't quite work out as I'd hoped." "A Iot of tangled bedcIothes and unspoken loathing then spoken Ioathing and no tangled bedclothes." "Didn't I read of your engagement in the society column?" "Which you know I always turn to first in the paper." "I was engaged." "More than once." "Adam didn't care for any of them." "Why that should matter,I don't know." "Who needs them,anyway?" "Anne,way back,was Judge Irwin ever broke?" "What?" "Judges don't make the kind of money your father did or my father,or anyone who lives here." "Why on earth would you want to know such a thing?" "Someone asked me and I didn't know." "Asked you what?" "What I just asked you." "Why?" "Oh,Jack,what are you doing for that man?" "That man." "Whatever it is,don't." "That man is what those pushed away from the trough call him." "Those invited to it should find another name." "Accepting state money for scholarships is different from being on his payroll." "Is it?" "Yes,it is." "Oh,don't ruin it." "What?" "Don't ruin this?" "Or that fine,beautiful time we all had here once?" "You sure that's what it was?" "Yes." "Then why did it turn into this time?" "With me drinking myself to death Adam getting more reclusive and strange and you once a month coming out to a house with the electricity cut off?" "This time came from that time." "We should go." "The fire can burn." "It will anyway,you know,one day." "What will what anyway?" "Cave in on itself." "Everything." "Is the Seaboard Bank in Savannah?" "Not since 1 938." "What happened in '38?" "Bought out by Georgia fidelity." "Got any idea who was president then?" "franklin roosevelt." "Ma'am,of the bank." "LeMoyne Carruthers was my friend." "A dear friend." "And his daughter,MabeI,well, I did what I couId for her even after her financial reversal." "The year of her financial reversal was roughly what?" "She threw that inheritance away." "Two or three notes I paid myself." "For the memory of LeMoyne,my dear friend." "But she'd come back at me without shame and say,"I want money."" "For parties and balls and to adorn herself." "For she was plain,to be kind." "Then she was broke when she met the judge." "So was he." "This is when he was still attorney general under Governor Stanton pulling down 3400 a year while paying off liens on his place on the Row to the tune of 42,000." "well,you see there,you are a detective." "You dug and chinked the metal box and are enjoying the sound of it a bit, if I'm not mistaken." "Might still be empty." "No,it's full." "crawling with maggots by now,maybe but still a little something they was chewing on." "Just have to look." "still have to find the key." "And that ain't gonna be easy." "well,there's nothing easy that means anything." "You'II do it." "I have faith." "I Iike this one,SIade." "Now,they all is yelling that I got no right to what's on their table." "What's on their table is theirs." "I'm not trying to take it." ""Go ahead,sit down at that table," I tell." ""Have all you want to eat." "Eat till you can't eat no more." "Now,what's left on that table when you can't eat no more,even if you tried leave that there because that's for the rest of us."" "And for that,they're trying to ruin me." "For taking what they left on the table and using it to build something for you!" "To build 3000 miles of paved highways a hundred and eleven new bridges,208 new schools 60,000 brand-new jobs!" "Now,they wanna ruin me because they wanna ruin you." "But your will is my strength." "Your need is my justice." "And I won't let them!" "It come to me in a dream." "whilst you were up in Savannah with your pail and shovel, eating oysters." "What did?" "I'm gonna build me the best-staffed,best-equipped biggest goddamn health center this state ever saw." "This country ever saw." "The AII-Father hisseIf." "You want me to do what to further this noble enterprise?" "deliver me my chief of staff." "Fine." "You give me a list of who you're thinking to run it." "only one name on it:" "Dr. Adam Stanton." "That's my boy,Tom!" "That's the way!" "You see that?" "That's an aII-American pass." "Goddamn it." "Attaboy,Tom!" "well,somebody gotta run this hospital." "He's gotta be the best,don't he?" "Adam Stanton is not the best." "well,he is for what I need." "They'II never approve the money otherwise." "willie,Adam's an old friend of mine." "As I certainly know,else I wouldn't be asking." "I know him and I know you." "He won't do it." "What's wrong with me?" "To him,what isn't?" "You're everything his father fought against." "He hates what you represent,if not you yourself." "I'm not asking him to love me." "I'm asking him to run a hospital." "Your hospital." "The people's hospital,where any poor redneck and nigger can get the best without paying a dime." "He ought to like that." "No." "What you're asking is for him to put his family's name next to yours." "So you can trot him out in front of senators and say:" ""Lookie here,Iookie who I got standing next to me." "The son of the most honorable man who ever served this state."" "Just get him." "Not easy being the son of a great man." "It don't look so hard for my boy Tom out there." "Far as you know." "We should go." "Not yet." "Let's go in again." "The friend of your youth is the only friend you'll ever have." "For he doesn't really see you." "He sees in his mind a face,which doesn't exist anymore." "And speaks a name" "Spike,Bud,Red,Rusty,Jack." "that belongs to that now nonexistent face." "He's still the young idealist you used to be." "Still sees good and bad in black and white and men as sinners or saints,but never both." "Hey,Adam." "Feels superior in the knowledge. .." "...that you no longer can distinguish the two." "Jack." "That's what drives you to it..." "...try to stick the knife in." "Come on in." "For there's a kind of snobbery in failure." "Like the twist to the mouth of a drunk." "You're looking good,Jack." "Thank you." "I'II take that as a compliment." "Been playing much?" "Who wants to know,my sister?" "It was just a question." "Everything good?" "Yes,Jack,everything's good." "AII right." "I'm gonna tell you something." "I don't want you to start yelling at me until I'm finished." "Governor Stark wants you as director of the medical center he's building." "Whatever you want all you have to do is say,it's yours." "Money?" "I didn't say that." "What do I want money for?" "I got everything I want." "Look around." "I didn't say money." "Then what?" "What's next when that doesn't work?" "A threat of some kind?" "Of course not." "That's how he gets things done?" "What he relies on?" "The bribe and the threat?" "I would never do that to you or let anyone else." "You know that." "I don't know what you think he's thinking,Jack or what you're thinking,but couldn't be flattery." "He's thinking what he thinks about anybody he wants something from..." "...who doesn't wanna give it." "Something from their past." "You just said he wasn't." "Not their past,their weakness." "Same thing." "No,it isn't." "I'm not gonna debate it with you,Jack." "We're not in school anymore." "I don't care if you know I'm right." "I don't care if I am right." "But I am." "Then what is it,Jack?" "What is my weakness?" "You can't look at anybody with a thing broke without wanting to fix it." "And that's a weakness?" "Some would say." "You would say." "It's no disgrace." "well, then tell me, Jack." "tell me,please." "How is that a weakness?" "I don't need to tell you." "I think you do." "If you don't know,I'II leave you to think about it." "It'II come to you." "No,it won't,Jack." "And you'II have to go to your boss and tell him you failed without taking out the big guns." "So tell me,for your sake,how is that a weakness?" "Because it makes you do things you don't wanna do." "If they're good." "And this is." "He may not be but this is." "It was good to see you,Adam." "Now, before I tell y'all the story about how this great university changed the life of a boy from Mason City who, by all rights, should still be swilling hogs first, I'm gonna set your minds at ease on another point of interest." "I bought my check book with me" " You own one share?" " I do." "I just bought it." "that gives me the right as a stockholder to view the company's equity records... doesn't it?" ""Head Counsel Samuel Irwin"" ""Head Counsel Mortimer Littlepaugh"" ""Littlepaugh Death an Accident,Coroner Rules"" ""Littlepaugh is survived by sisters Lily Littlepaugh of Savannah..."" "Miss LittIepaugh?" "You're from the insurance company." "No,no,I'm not." "But I know about your brother's insurance policy." "Not that there was much left on it to collect." "He borrowed against it almost down to nothing." "Didn't he?" "Which means you lied for almost nothing." "Now,don't you go jumping out a window." "It wasn't the money it was the disgrace." "I wanted him buried in the good part of the cemetery not in the back,with all the sinners." "Why did he kill himself?" "They drove him to it." "To make room for that thief,Irwin." "My brother went to the Justice Department and told them he knew all about their man Irwin and the bribes but they wouldn't listen." "Are you lying to me?" "No,that's what killed him." "He wrote the letter to me and told me." "And then that night he...." "AII right,wait." "What letter?" "The letter he wrote me explaining it all." "The lawsuit Irwin was paid to let up on and how the power company hid the payoffs by firing my brother and giving Irwin his job." "Where's the letter now?" "What happened to it?" "Oh,I have it." "Kept it all this time?" "You have the letter here?" "You bring down the lion the rest of the jungle will quake in fear and they'll all fall into line." "Your employer is calling you,Jack." "Thank you." "hello." "hello,Anne." "What's that?" "Orange soda." "Two straws." "I think I might want something else." "I didn't say one of them was for you." "It's the way it's drunk." "Tradition." "I know you went to see Adam." "I did." "What of it?" "What did you say to him?" "I went there and I offered him a job." "No use blaming me." "I'm not blaming you." "well,that's what it sounds like." "That's what you sound like." "If you could hear yourself." "I want him to take it." "I want you to go back and ask him again." "Jack,you know how it is." "My brother is the son of a governor the grandson of a senator, the great-grandson of a general." "She wasn't telling me anything I didn't already know about Adam." "But she was doing it walking next to me which is all that mattered." "So I let her go on as long as she wanted." "I knew that Adam had already made his decision." "He had decided to take the job when I first brought it up." "He was just putting some time between my visit and now out of pride." "He needs to do this to be part of something himself before he disappears." "But something about what she was saying bothered me." "The way an off-stage noise bothers you." "What kind of Iife is that?" "Something you hear" "He's a guardian of dead men." "but not clear enough to catch the meaning of." "I want him to take it." "He has to do it." "So you push it aside." "I guess that's one of your gunmen I've heard about." "Sugar Boy,hell,no." "He just carry that peashooter for decoration." "I tell you one thing,though." "Ain't nobody can drive like him." "So,what do you think,doc?" "I think it'II do the people of the state some good and get you some votes." "There's a Iot of ways to get votes." "Cheaper ones." "So I understand." "Because there are some things I understand." "And some things you don't." "Just like there's some I don't." "What I do know is what makes the mare go." "And that you can always make goodness out of badness." "That would be two things." "Them's the two things I know,then." "And both of them wrong." "No,neither one of them,sir." "I beg your pardon." "You can always make good from bad,in all things." "In politics,poetry everything in between." "Makes no difference." "A man writes a sonnet and it's good." "Is it less good if it turns out the dame he wrote it about is married to someone else?" "That his passion was illicit?" "Come on,I wanna show you something." "I wouldn't mind understanding something,actually." "If,as you say,there's only bad to start with from conception on and that good must be made from bad then how do you ever know what the good is?" "well,that's simple." "You just make it up as you go along." "Make up what?" "The good." "What else are we talking about?" "Make it up as you go along?" "Yeah." "Just like folks have been doing for a million years." "Since we fail out of trees,crawl out the swamp." "They just cook up what is right." "If nobody likes that,well,just cook it up again a little different with a lid on." "And you know what?" "Things under a lid don't look no different than things not under a lid when there's one on it." "You don't have to convince me of anything,Mr. Stark." "You've already done that." "I'm here,aren't I?" "That's right." "And you're a good boy too,doc." "A Iot better than you think." "So goddamn it." "Don't let none of them bastards tell you no different." "I got a question since everybody's trying to understand everything all of a sudden." "Back when we met at SIade's old place,when we shook hands" "Do you remember that moment?" "Like it was yesterday." "Did you or did you not give me a wink?" "A wink?" "well,that's just gonna have to remain a mystery." "You don't remember." "Sure I do." "Then...?" "You know,I...." "I just do recall giving you a wink." "But then,maybe I got something in my eye which would make it more of a blink." "Did you have something in your eye?" "What if I didn't?" "What would that mean?" "That maybe you figured you and me had something in common the others didn't." "well,I'm not gonna tell you and deprive you of the mystery." "There's just too few honest-to-God mysteries left to go around." "And long after I'm dead and gone and long after these sons of bitches are dead and gone I'm talking eternally now the willie Stark hospital will still be standing." "Where every man,woman and child who's sick or in pain can go in knowing they'II get all a man can do." "Not as charity,but as a right,as your right!" "As it is that every child shall have a complete education!" "That no person,aged or infirm,shall want or beg for bread!" "That no poor man's land or house will be taxed!" "That you shall not be deprived of hope!" "And if any man stands between me and fulfilling your rights I will strike him down so help me God!" "Hip,shin,thigh and neck bone,I will hit him." "I will hit him with a meat ax." "Somebody give me a meat ax and bring me another one for my friend and ally!" "Because it's not only God's only son with us on this one." "It's the son of the Iast great leader of this state:" "Governor Joe Stanton's boy,Dr. Adam Stanton!" "AII right." "See there?" "It's not so bad." "It's not gonna kill you." "What's up?" "Sadie." "Now he's done it." "He's done it again,and I swear this time...." "Done?" "Don't act so dumb." "Or any dumber than you are." "He's two-timing me again." "Or four or one or whatever timing you wanna call it because you're such a smartass." "She skate?" "Shut up." "You and your friends." "Your highbrow friends." "AII the money and privilege and everything else you pretend means nothing." "To someone with it,it means nothing." "Don't look so dumb." "I said it annoys me." "I have no idea what you're talking about or what it was tangled you two up in the first place,love or hate." "You know what I'm talking about." "Maybe you fixed it up." "I'm sure you did." "surely he's fixed you up,Iike that pathetic crazy brother of hers,to say thanks." ""Thanks,Jack." "She is a looker,I do declare." "I'm naming you SDP,yes,sir." "State Director of Pimps."" "What are you saying?" "Are you saying...?" "Are you s--?" "We're gonna walk some more." "AII right." "hello." "hello,Mother." "Yes,Mother." "Yes." "AII right." "AII right,Mother." "Goodbye." "She and the Peytons and the bridge partner are going to La Grange for a nightcap." "Jackie." "What?" "I came up here." "This was years ago,you understand." "Back when things weren't set in concrete." "Back when you had a way of changing the course of things." "If you knew how." "She was perfect." "She had always been perfect." "I wanted to keep her that way and like this." "To be young and older somehow." "Of course that's not what it looked like to her." "When I came home from school at Christmas we saw each other,of course." "We talked about things,but never that." "We talked about love in general." "Like it was the subject of an essay instead of real." "She said it was like jumping off the high dive,love was." "Or like almost getting drowned." "Which,honestly,I didn't understand." "For a long time." "You wanna know the reason I stopped that night?" "It wasn't nobility." "That's only what I told myself." "We have all the time in the world,right?" "It was that I knew something was about to be taken from us leaving in its place something we didn't know." "Which didn't make her sad but it did me." "You only get a couple of moments that determine your life." "Sometimes only one." "And then it's gone." "Forever." "I talked to Senator Loden this morning." "He said you find something nice to put on his plate he might come around." "Vote any way you Iike." "while you cut yourself a slice." "I ain't saying that." "I know what you're saying,Tiny." "You know,I'd rather bust a man than buy him." "well,that's up to you now." "Yeah,sure is." "Now go on." "Get." "Do you have any information for me?" "You sure there's not something you neglected to mention?" "Something you forgot?" "Jack." "No." "Nothing." "Nothing." "well." "How about that,Sugar?" "Nothing." "Am I alone in this?" "The bastards are pounding at the gate they're gonna put a vote of impeachment on the calendar!" "They take that vote today,I'm out!" "I need Judge Irwin with me." "Or at Ieast not against me." "So whatever it is that you don't have on him use it." "I'm sorry,what did you say?" "I said I'm going over to the judge's." "well,you mean later." "He'II be napping this time of day." "There isn't any time he'II wanna hear what I have to tell him." "He's not well,you know." "I can't help that." "I do wish you wouldn't get mixed up in things." "It isn't me mixed up in them." "The judge is napping right now,Mr. Burden." "I'II wait in his study until he comes down." "Fire this marble." "Watch the chandelier." "Okay,you can fire." "hello,Jack." "I didn't know you were at your mother's." "You just get in?" "Last night." "Yeah." "It's a bit early in the day,but what do you think?" "A touch of bourbon never hurt anyone." "Least not you and me." "We're indestructible,aren't we,you and me?" "No,thanks." ""No,thanks," he says." "Begging the question,as the old man pours just one drink what's on your mind?" "Out with it." "You know who I work for." "How could I forget?" "But let's just sit and pretend that I have." "Come sit over here with me." "The truth is I don't hold the same low opinion of him as many of our friends on the Row." "I was almost for him at one time." "He was busting out windowpanes and,yeah, letting in some fresh air." "But now I am worried about him knocking down the whole house." "So you threw in with his enemies after you said you wouldn't." "Oh,Jack." "What is politics but a matter of choices?" "You make a choice knowing there's a chance it's the wrong one." "You've made a choice and you know how much it's cost you." "There's always a price for everything we do." "When we came by that night and were leaving you said you would think about it." "About calling off the dogs?" "No,I did not say that." "Your memory is faulty,sir." "He said,"Think about it" which I don't have to." "I don't have to think about things I already know." "You should think it over." "Even now because it's not too late." "Too late for what?" "Hey,Jack." "Jesus." "What is it?" "Just say you'II back Stark..." "...against these attacks." "No!" "Now,that has the sound of finality,don't it?" "Yes,it does." "Yeah." "You know,I find this difficult to believe." "For me too." "And that your boss would even think he could pressure me." "could blackmail me." "The first word is better." "The first word is prettier,not better." "Don't you know that this stuff wouldn't stand up?" "Not in any court." "It happened almost 25 years ago." "You couldn't get any testimony except from that woman who is related and whose testimony,if she gave it would be worthless." "And everybody else,Jack everybody else is dead." "You're not." "You're not dead." "And you don't live in any court." "You live in the world, where people think you're a certain kind of man." "I am a certain kind of man." "You know,when I was a kid it seemed natural that a grown man would stay up nights with catgut and steel wire,pliers and scissors,and make little catapuIts." "Read books about them." "will you change your mind?" "You know,I couId hurt you,Jack." "Like you're trying to hurt me." "I couId say something." "I couId tell you something that would hurt." "But I won't." "Think it over." "I'II be by tomorrow." "My mind's made up now." "I'II come back tomorrow." "Made up now." "Mother." "Mama." "You!" "You!" "You did it!" "What?" "You killed him!" "Who?" "You killed him." "Mother,who?" "You killed him." " Who?" "You killed him!" "Who,M--?" "You killed him!" "You killed him!" "Who,Mother?" "Your father!" "You killed your father!" "I told you to scare him,not scare him to death." "He wasn't scared." "Then why did he do it?" "Jack?" "I don't wanna discuss it." "well,Iet me just say this." "I know that he was some kind of friend of the family growing up,all that,so I'm sorry the old bastard shot himself but we still got MacMurphy and his boys to deal with." "And that didn't work out the way we hoped." "You need to get someone else for all of it." "I'm through." "Through with it or with me?" "I don't wanna discuss it." "After any great trauma or crisis after the shock subsides and the nerves stop twitching you settle down to the new condition of things because you know that all possibility of any more change has been used up." "You've seen the pattern finally because you've stepped back far enough to take in the whole picture." "But it's too late now to do anything but accommodate yourself to it." "And that's it." "There's nothing left to do or say except that God and nothing have a lot in common." "The end." "What you don't know is that you're wrong." "Oh,God,Jack." "You've gotta help me." "He's crazy." "He came to see me,said the most terrible things..." "...and then he walked out." "Who?" "willie?" "No,Adam." "He said it was my fault." "Everything was my fault." "well...." "Someone called him and told him about me." "About you?" "About you and the governor." "You can say it,Anne." "It doesn't hurt any more to hear it than to know it." "He told him what I'd done and he said that I'd do anything to help the governor get what he wanted." "Even if that meant sacrificing my brother to some kind of fraud." "Which is all the hospital was." "Nothing but a scheme to rob the state." "And that when the truth came out and it wouId,Adam would take the blame." "He'd go to prison." "For every scheme needs a fall guy and he's it." "Whoever said that is Iying." "I know." "I tried to tell him that's not the way it was." "That he was wrong." "But he wouldn't listen." "He grabbed me and said that he would not be made a fool." "That everything else could be filthy and corrupt but that a man didn't have to be." "And then he said that he wouldn't be a paid pimp to his sister's whore." "He said that to me." "well,neither will I." "Why did you do it?" "You knew what it wouId do to me." "It had nothing to do with you." "Then what?" "I don't know!" "well,you better think of something!" "I wasn't thinking--!" "Yes,you were!" "Yes,you were." "Was it because of me or in spite of me?" "I'd never hurt you Iike that." "You would and you have." "Oh,God,Jack." "You have to help me." "I'm afraid Adam's gonna do something to himself." "Adam?" "Dear God,you are the unseen Lord of this chamber the silent listener the judge of our deliberations." "Bless the senators you sit among." "We place our trust in your guidance." "You are our Lord and Savior." "Amen." "Amen." "All persons are commanded to keep silent..." "...on pain of imprisonment..." "Adam!" "...while the Senate of the state of Louisiana sits for the trial of the articles of impeachment against the honorable William Stark,governor of state of Louisiana." "I'II go up and make some calls." "Anne I'm sure it's gonna be fine." "Mr." "Gidr?" "Nay." "Mr." "Honor?" "Yea." "Mr." "Hobbes." "Nay." "Mr." "Landmark." "Nay." "Mr." "Latch?" "Yea." "Mr." "Mouton." "Nay." "Mr." "PeIerant." "Nay." "Mr." "Rivette." "Yea." "Mr." "Rousseau." "Nay." "Mr." "Savoir." "Nay." "Mr." "Tesh." "Nay." "Seventeen yeas,22 nays." "The impeachment of Governor Willie Stark fails." "There is a line between what is acceptable and what is not." "Now,the governor has stepped over that line to guide this vote using means that are inappropriate." "Now,I'II call that undue influence." "I'II go further,I'II call it coercion." "Mr. MacMurphy!" "You say every word but the one you mean,sir!" "Go ahead,say it out loud." "We're all friends here." "But I blackmailed nobody,to be factual!" "I merely gave you the opportunity to act in accordance with your own nature and like all good men,rise above principle." "Jack!" "We did it!" "We did it,boy!" "We stopped that clock!" "Ain't gonna be no impeachment today!" "Someone called him,Adam." "And said that I'd do anything to help the governor get what he wanted." "Even if that meant sacrificing my brother to some kind of fraud." "Which is all the hospital was." "Nothing but a scheme to rob the state." "Adam would take the blame." "He'd go to prison." "For every scheme needs a fall guy and he's it." "That's not true." "Whoever said that is lying." "Hey,doc." "Where you been?" "You been out there swimming?" "So listen to me." "Listen here and lift your eyes and look on the God's blessed and unflyblown truth:" "You are a hick and ain't nobody never helped a hick but a hick hisself." "It's up to you to nail these parasites up." "Up to you and me and God." "nail up Joe Harrison!" "nail him up!" "nail up MacMurphy!" "nail him up!" "And nail up any bastard that gets between you and the roads and the bridges and the schools and the food you need." "You give me the hammer and I'II do it." "All the Kings Men"