Atdtda35: Not one to tangle assholes with, 1003-1004

[Paul Nightingale]

We discover Foley Walker alone with his thoughts, ‘watching the traffic in
the street with a look of unreachable contempt’. This is part of Frank’s
take on a man he doesn’t know until Ewball has identified him as Vibe’s
‘devoted sidekick’. Cf earlier references to Walker as ‘the dedicated
substitute’ (330) and, in Vibe’s own words, ‘a full partner’ (725).

Also cf earlier descriptions of Walker’s appearance. On his first appearance
he is ‘a large and criminal-looking individual ... whittling an image of a
locomotive from a piece of firewood with one of those knives known
throughout the prisons of our land as an Arkansas toothpick’ (31). However,
following that introduction, he will be frequently caricatured. Firstly on
156: ‘... wearing a sporting suit in some horse-blanket plaid of vibrant
orange and indigo, and a top hat that matched’. Then, on 619, in Göttingen:
‘... Foley’s telltale fatality for the garish, exhibited here in an outfit
no description of whose tastelessness can be comfortably set upon one’s
page’. And then, a few pages later on 623: ‘Foley, in one of his canonical
outfits ...’ etc. After 31 the writing avoids any reference to him as a
threatening figure until the current section opening: ‘Frank noticed a
figure out on the porch of the Columbian Hotel, big, unsmiling,
sun-darkened’ (1003), a passage that concludes with Frank judging him ‘[n]ot
a hombre I would care to tangle assholes with’. Thus does the narrative take
us all the way back to Walker’s introduction.

We know that Vibe and Walker have come to Trinidad ‘to see what was on the
ground’ (1001); so a convergence of sorts might have been anticipated.
However, the narrative reminds us that Frank and Ewball have no way of
knowing or commenting on the distance between Vibe and Walker as described
on 1001. That relationship has, it seems, moved on; while Vibe’s
significance for Frank remains the same and takes him back to the death of
Sloat Fresno on 395 (Ewball’s reference to ‘two notches’ on 1004). We might
also be reminded of the distance between Frank and his brothers, for both
Reef and Kit are well aware of Walker’s identity.

Then, as the section concludes, there is, possibly, ‘a quick glimpse of
Mother Jones herself’ – juxtaposed to the sighting of the unknown Foley
Walker. On 1003 Ewball refers, perhaps with irony, to Vibe’s role as some
kind of inspirational leader, ‘mak[ing] sure the plutes don’t lose their
nerve’. A page later, the narrative describes Mother Jones’ own network,
‘friends among the railroad workers all up and down the line’ (1004).

Vibe’s speech on 1000-1001 is an attempt to write history: ‘When the scars
of these battles have long faded ...’ etc (1001). The speech ends with the
reference to his relationship with Walker, one that undermines the
triumphalism Vibe has tried to project. When the narrative moves on to
Ewball and Frank in 67.2 the emphasis is on a different kind of collective
action: Ewball’s ‘brothers-in-arms’ (1002). The reference to Mother Jones as
a figurehead for collective action is shaped by the description of the
popular support that makes her role possible. Hence, expelling her is ‘a
comical exercise ...’ etc (1004).