The Voice of the Street Author:Ernest Poole General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1906 Original Publisher: A.S. Barnes Subjects: Fiction / Literary Fiction / Romance / General Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you... more » get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: CHAPTER III "what Sort Of A Game is This?" TWO years had gone by. . Saturday night was beginning, and the long low Bowery bar-room was packed with jostling forms; big banging fists; thick clouds of smoke and coarse red jovial faces; the deep harsh hum of voices rose now into oaths or again into bursts of laughter. All suddenly stopped. And one by one the faces turned to a corner in the rear -- to a battered piano. Over the yellow keys bent Dago Joe -- larger, more thick-set, but foul and shaggy as before. And beside him, ready . to sing, stood Lucky Jim; a little taller now and thinner, but on his broad dark face was the same strained eager look -- etched deeper in. His black tv/inkling eyes roved over the faces; his hands, as he leaned slightly forward, were clinched tight in the pockets of his coat. He began to sing. He felt the warm blood come leaping up through his veins, and his fresh crudesoprano voice leaped, too; leaped and shook and thrilled with the joy of being young, with the glorious passion of the music. But the words. Never had the great Faust love song been so interpreted: "I know -- a girl who is -- a -- wait -- in', Her face -- is white, her lips -- is -- shak -- in'; She knows -- that her George is off -- a -- drink -- in'. I am -- and while I drink, my heart -- is -- sink -- in'. I grab the bar tight! I feel I -- must -- fight! This curse inside me ! Where can I hide me ? I go on drink -- in', My heart is sink -- in', I go on dream -- in', My eyes is stream -- in...« less