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The Cadillac in Bhom |
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We moved out of the hotel into our own apartment so that Anita could look out for her mother. There was nothing too good for that old lady and she realized it. When she asked for the best apparels, she always got them. Anita loved her mother very much and I thought an awful lot of the old lady myself.
Of course, Anita was devoted to me more so than to her mother. If I told her to do something, she listened to everything 1 said and she respected me as her husband, as few women today respect their husbands. Aside from that, Anita was a very beautiful woman and she dressed very handsomely with plenty diamonds to elaborate the condition. 1 couldn't wish for a finer woman than Anita. In fact, I don t believe there was ever one born finer than Anita and I know I ve missed an awful lot by leaving her. It was all a mistake, but nevertheless it happened, as 111 tell you.
America went into the war and they wanted me to register, even offered to make me an officer, but I said I wouldn't be no better off as a dead officer than as a dead private. I tried to stay out of it, like most musicians, and played lots of benefits and they didn't draft me, until just before the Armistice. Business was booming, so much so, till George Brown, who was now a big politician came around and said, clf youfl put up $600 and your partner $600, 111 kick in the same amount and well control this campaign and run this town to suit ourselves." I told him that I wasn't so interested in running the town as in making some money, and that caused him to deepen in his anger toward me.
One day I got a telegram in Frisco, where I had gone on business, that Zack had lost the §2000 roll of my gambling house. I came home and fired Zack Williams, but that wasn't the end to the mess. The police were making trouble about the license for Anita's hotel, and I couldn't help her because she wTas accusing me of another woman. She wouldn't even talk to
"But whether Jelly was really 'one of the higher-ups/ as he claimed, or just a procurer is immaterial, for . . . Jelly loved music and played . . . not because he had to, but because of the immeasureable pleasure he received. . . .** Wm. Russell, The Needle, July, 1944. |
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