Guests and workers joined together in the same dining hall, with no
distinctive division.... I sat next to Spalton's table, and a warm glow
of pleasure swept through me when he sent me a pleasant nod.
"Hello, Razorre," he had greeted me; then he had turned to the group at
his table and told them about me, I could see by their glances--but in a
pleasant way.
* * * * *
The next morning I was at work in the bindery, smearing glue on the
backs of unbound books. My wage was three dollars a week and "found," as
they say in the West. Not much, but what did it matter? There was a fine
library of the world's classics, including all the liberal and
revolutionary books that I had heard about, but which I could never
obtain at the libraries ... and there were, as associates and
companions, many people, who, if extremely eccentric, were,
nevertheless, alive and alert and interested in all the beautiful things
Genius has created in Art and Song....
Derelicts, freaks, "nuts" ... with poses that outnumbered the silver
eyes in the peacock's tail in multitude ... and yet there was to be
found in them a sincerity, a fineness, and a genuine feeling for
humanity that "regular" folks never achieve--perhaps because of their
very "regularness."
* * * * *
Here, at last, I had found another environment where I could "let loose"
to the limit .
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