Public-domain ebook
Lady Luck
by Hugh Wiley
Language: en3,255 downloads on Project Gutenberg
Subjects
In: Humour·Novels·American Literature
Public-domain ebook sourced from Project Gutenberg #26165.
About this book
The novel opens in a bustling Memphis train station, where the narrator, a street‑wise figure who calls himself the Wild‑Cat, retrieves a battered bed‑roll and a goat mascot named Lily. From the clatter of the lunch counter to a rickety express wagon pulled by a “languid black mule,” the scene is thick with dialect and the gritty details of post‑war life: iron helmets from dead Germans, a prize‑winning trophy, and a kitchen dominated by a hulking, “ebony Amazon” who debates ham gravy. The Wild‑Cat’s rambling speech, peppered with slang and broken English, drifts from the mundane (selling corn‑bread to a goat) to the conspiratorial, as he recounts his own wanderings from San Francisco to France, his ties to a Captain Jack, and the tangled histories of former soldiers and “uplifters.” The opening establishes a world of itinerant characters, barroom games, and a restless quest for money and identity.
Written in a highly colloquial, vernacular style that mimics the speech of early twentieth‑century African‑American street culture, the text feels like a spoken‑word narrative captured on paper. Its rhythm, frequent phonetic spellings, and rapid shifts between humor and hardship evoke the oral storytelling traditions of the Harlem Renaissance era, though the language is deliberately rougher than the polished prose of mainstream fiction of the time. Readers who enjoy immersive dialect, gritty urban settings, and a mosaic of fragmented dialogues, especially those interested in early African‑American literary voices and the social undercurrents of post‑World‑I America, will find this unconventional, dialogue‑driven adventure compelling.
Characters in Lady Luck
- Wild‑CatTall African‑American man in battered overcoat, flat cap, weathered face, holding a bed‑roll
- LilyScruffy white goat with tangled hair, tethered to a stool, eyes bright and curious
- Captain JackMiddle‑aged white man in faded military coat, brass buttons, grizzled beard, holding a battered bed‑roll
The opening · free to read
"Mebbe de wah is done, but de Democrats ain't. Git out ob heah wid dat goat, fo' you ruins mah trade."
The Wildcat picked up Captain Jack's bed-roll from the floor beside the lunch counter in the Memphis station. He accumulated Lily from where the travelworn mascot goat was tethered to an adjoining stool. Together they walked from the lunch room in which he had sought refreshment after an arduous ride from San Francisco to Memphis.
"Come on heah, Lily. Ol' Cap'n Jack an' de lady done went home in a takes-a-grab. Boy takes a grab at yo' money, an' if deys any lef', you gives it to a policeman fo' arrestin' him. Us rides a 'spress wagon."
On the street fronting the station the Wildcat chartered a rickety express wagon hauled by a languid black mule. "Whuf!" the driver grunted. "Sho' is de ponderestest bed-roll Ah eveh lifted."
"'At bed-roll's full of iron helmets f'm dead Germans, fo' Cap'n Jack to 'membeh de wah by. De officehs craves to 'membeh de wah. Us 'listed boys craves to fo'git it."
The driver of the express wagon looked sideways at the Wildcat. "When did de goat die?"
"How come?"
"Sit him on de side ob me whah de win' ain't blowin'. Wuz he de Dove ob Peace de wah'd go on fo'eveh. Whut's dem culled ribbons doin' on dat goat?"
"De blue ribbon is mah mascot's quality. De red an' white ones is patriotism."
"Thought mebbe dey wuz fus' an' secon' prizes fo' smellin'."
The Wildcat handed the driver of the express wagon a cigar.
"Smoke dis offsetteh," he said. Drifting along on a haze of conflicting aromas, the outfit arrived finally at the residence of Captain Jack. "Heah's de fifty cents," the Wildcat said to the express driver.
"Cost me dat to git de goat smell renovated off me. Wuth six bits."
"On yo' way. I'll six bits you! Quit whiffin' wid dat nose, befo' I busts yo' loose f'm it. On yo' way! C'm on, Lily."
The Wildcat spent the rest of the afternoon shuffling furniture around inside of Captain Jack's house. At four o'clock Captain Jack's wife arrived, convoying a perspiring three-hundred-pound trophy which she had been fortunate enough to capture.
"Yo' is de cook, is yo'?" the Wildcat said to the newly enthroned ruler of the kitchen.
The ebony Amazon looked at him. "Who is you?"
"I's champion ration battler ob de world. Wait till I gits back." The Wildcat returned presently with an armful of wood. "You claims you's a cook--well, woman, I lights de fiah. Den you sees kin yo'."
"Kin I what?"
"Fust yo' barbecues 'at ham hangin' theh. When Ah gits th'oo, half of it will be lef'. Whilst de ham's sizzlin' you th'ows enough cawn bread togetheh to fill de big pan. When Ah gits th'oo dey'll be half of it lef'. When de ham juice begins to git sunburned you makes some ham gravy. Ah spec' ham gravy's de fondest thing Ah is of. I says 'Howdy, ham gravy!' an' afteh me an' de vittles gits acquainted, mah appetite won't need grub no mo'n a fish needs shoes."
"Cut de ham." The Wildcat carved off five or six thick slices.
The cook looked at him. "Is you fo'gittin' me?"
"You hungry? De way you looks, yo's et all de grub whut is."
"Nach'ral to be fat. Look at de elephant. How come you so skinny?"
"Wah mis'ry. All I et fo' two yeahs in France wuz Guv'ment rashuns. Dey wuzn't fillin'. I et myse'f down to boy-size pants de fust yeah. Secon' yeah dey lets me run wild 'cause dey couldn't find no unifawm small enough."
"Wuz yo' in de big drive?"
"I'll say I wuz. Us boys drove more railroad spikes at St. Sulpice dan a colonel has cooties. Woman, how come you knows all about de names ob de wah?"
"I had a husban' uplifteh in de wah whut wrote me letters. Mebbe yo' met up wid him, name bein' Huntington Boone."
The Wildcat's jaw sagged open as far as the roots of his lolling tongue. "Honey Tone! De uplifteh? He's yo' man?"
"You knows him?'
"Ah knows him some--goin' on a thousan' francs he lifted off me wid de gallopin' ivory."
"Ain't de same one. Huntington saw de light an' swerve f'm de sin road to de straight an' narrow in de Fall Revival five yeahs back--de time Sis Ellers got drowned at de baptisin' an' stayed undeh till she blowed up at Vicksbu'g. Mah man went oveh as a uplifteh."
"'At's de boy. He swerved back at de sinful life. De on'y upliftin' he done wuz wid us boys' money an' coonyak."
The Wildcat was thoughtful for a moment.
"Whah at is he now?" he suddenly asked.
"I ain't seed him since he went away. Wore out mah black alpaca mournin' dress an' spilt icecream all oveh de otheh at a social. 'At's how come Ah's in calico."
"I ain't seed him neveh since--"
"Since when?"
"Since he sailed fo' N' O'leans on de iron boat."
"He done come back! Praise de Lawd!"
The book keeps going
Keep reading, and see it illustrated
Reading is free forever. Sign up and watch scenes appear while you read.
Scenes Storieta drew for other classics.
