.. that's
what.
CLARK: (In a powerful voice) And what improvements you figgers we
needs?
SIMMS: A whole heap. Now, for one thing we really does need a jail,
Mayor. We oughta stop runnin' these people out of town that
misbehaves, and lock 'em up. Others towns has jails, everytown I ever
pastored had a jail. Don't see how come we can't have one.
CLARK: (Towering angrily above the preacher) Now, wait a minute,
Simms. Don't you reckon the man who knows how to start a town knows
how to run it? I paid two hundred dollars out of this right hand for
this land and walked out here and started this town befo' you was
born. I ain't like some of you new niggers, come here when grapes'
ripe. I was here to cut new ground, and I been Mayor ever since.
SIMMS: Well, there ain't no sense in no one man stayin' Mayor all the
time.
CLARK: Well, it's my town and I can be mayor jus' as long as I want
to. It was me that put this town on the map.
SIMMS: What map you put it on, Joe Clark? I ain't seen it on no map.
CLARK: (Indignant) I God! Listen here, Elder Simms. If you don't like
the way I run this town, just' take your flat feets right on out and
git yonder crost the woods. You ain't been here long enough to say
nothin' nohow.
HAMBO: (From a nail keg) Yeah, you Methodist niggers always telling
people how to run things.
TAYLOR: (Practically unheard by the others) We do so know how to run
things, don't we? Ain't Brother Mayor a Methodist, and ain't the
school-teacher a .
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