( TM8 1 CATHOLIC WORKER I .1 Vol. XXXIV No. I JANUARY, 1968 8ubacriptlon1 Price le -· 25o Per Year But people from house con­ tinued, day after day, to try to see him. AMeeting with Ignazio Silone George Johnson, that Interna­ By JACK COOK tional hiker and OW Man-about­ BT DOROTHY DAY Town, visited u.~ just before In wrestling with the problem plete an interview as I would "May I never see another one," lobby, be<fore making his .ftrst Christin.as and spent hours trying of how to present the teachings have liked. uld Mike Herniak, as he swerved, descent t-o that m-ost modern of to find Pete in Bellevue. George of nonviolence in an age of mass Silone wanted to learn more tall and partially paralyzed in o:ie morgues, where the walls are lined possesses the art of being accepted violence; it seems to me that the about Peter Maurin (our founder) leg, like some rudderless ship in with lockers much like those ln as an equal by everybody­ writings of Ignazio Silone are of and ~ his peasant background. He bus stations. He was worried about his battered, grimy, stuffed wtth Bowery Man or professional; hence immense importance. When I first knew of Marc Sangnier's move­ my reaotion, for decomposition had rags and newspaper-swollen over­ he enlisted the aid of the head read Bread and Wine in the ment and hil journal, Le SiUon. set in. I assured him I was suf­ coat, into o ur kitchen Christmas man at Bellevue and both wandered forties, I was deeply impressed, which was suppressed ·in France ficiently acquainted with death. He morning. As always, Mike's decla­ the wards l.n search of Pete. We not only with the story of the at the time that Peter Maurin remarked, "It can't be any worse mation was appropriate and point­ finally learned on the morning revolutionary returning secretly lived there. He also wanted to than the dead Viet Cong." Dennis, ed. Not only is it true to say of of Christmas Eve (from another lrom his exile in Switzerland, but know whether I was a practicing being older and far more llcqu•aint­ him that he feeds on death, but brother, who came by later that with the call to a personalist ap­ Catholic, and expressed surprise ed with death, was not permitted that death-in cold and pain, in day with a 20-pound turkey· for proach which must precede any at the opposition The Catholio filth and squalor, in loneliness and to descend for fear of a heart us) that he had died in a different communitarian effort. Worker met with from some of the attack. abandon-4eeds on the men of the hospital. I had heard from Father Jack hierachy. He spoke of Danilo Bowery, As I write, it is reported Irish Pat, born and raised in Tom Likely has spent the holi­ English, a former OW editor, of Dolci, whom I was to meet later. the mountains· of Western Ireland, to me that in the basement of the days in the hospital, although he Silone's visit to the Trappist mona­ and of whom I wrote in the last old brownstone in which "Mama" deserted the English Army and went there much against his will. stery of the Holy Spirit at Con­ issue of The ,catholic Worker. joined the Irish Republican Army. used to live, a Bowery man last Only by taking advantage of one yers, Georgia. Silone spent the I knew from others that he had night in 5-degree Weqlther died He fought in the Battle of the of his ever more frequent and day at the Abbey within the en­ provided Dolci with generous fi- · from exposure. It is only fitting Four Courts in Dublin during violent seizures were we able to closure, and it was left to Father nacial help and had appeared in tha·t at the southern .end of this Easter Week and then in the Irish get the ambulance here and have English to be guest master and court during his many trials. He via dolorosa one finds the "Tombs" Civil War. We are uncertain of him committed. The ulcerous sores converse with his wife, a beautiful did not particularly like his cam­ (city jaiU a:id the morgue. his life in America before he came on his leg were aggravated by an I r i s h w o m a n whom he met paign against the Mafia, though It is about 8:30 Tuesday night, to the CW. Some say a prison inexplicable burn. His leg is set during his exile in Switzerland. he said that it showed great the 9th of January. Dennis Ward .guard; others, a trolley car opera­ in a removable cast, he is re­ They had come to Atlanta to dis­ courage. Perhaps he felt that the and I have just returned from the tor. He had been with the CW ceiving oxygen directly to the cuss the problems of the South time consumed was time lost from O.lfice of the Medioal Examiner­ since Staten Island days. Always lungs, and his face gives the im­ and had been brought to the his work ol regional alleviation a euphemism for that morgue on somewhat belligerent, tho ugh pression that the mortician had monastery by the editor of the of destitution, through study 30th Street and 1st Avenue, where harmless, he mellowed considera­ already . "set" it. Atlanta Constitution because there groups, buliding up of coopera­ unidentified dead bodies picked, up bly toward Christmas time. When Chuck returned from was an interna!.ional meeting of tives and the work toward irriga­ on the streets of Manhatten are Bayonne Pete, who had been "viewing" Pete for the last time, the Trappist order going on there. tion and reforestation. taken. " Case No. 294; Male; White; with the CW since before World he was quite disturbed, for he On another occasion Silone and Silone himself was born in Pes­ approx. 59 years old; picked up in V'ar II, died the morning of Christ­ could not recognize his friend. ' his wife had visited New York cina, an ancient town on the front of 22 Spring Street, N.Y.C.; mas Eve. On that day, also, one Earl Ovitt received 3rd degree and New England and had called slopes of the Mariella mountains, 8 Jan. 1968; unide:itified." year ago Nick the Waiter died. burns on ten per cent of his body the office of The Catholic Worker, in the Abbruzzi. His father died Irish Pat McG<>wan is dead. The metaphysical mysteries that when a valve on a steam pipe, di­ but I did not receive the message when he was ten years old. There We were told by a young night­ permeate life on the Bowery are rect from the furnace which he until they were well on their way were three sons, and the oldest clerk that all the office workers all the more real and raw during was trying to fix, burst. He, too. back to Italy. was injured when he fell from a had le.ft. It was an inconvenient this time of tinsel and general is hospitalized. Both Earl and So I was delighted when I was roof where he was playing and time to identify the dead. After 9 gaiety. Tom Likely sing the old songs. invited to dine with them in broke his back. He was terribly and before 5 o'clock was ideal. But Chuck Bassinette; a longtime Earl's "Hello Dolly," in fact, serves Rome in late October. We went crippled, but his mind was keener ·we happened to meet the medical f,aiend of both (rish Pat and Pete, as both his entrance and (some­ to a restaurant on the Piazza than ever. He died at fourtee·n. director <I suppose) himself, as he tOld me that Pete was in pretty times by request) his exit lines. Carlo Goldoni that· was usually was leaving the building, and he bad shape, and, when I went to He keeps up three buildings on very quiet, they said. There was (Continued on page 6) intervened for us; hence, as a per­ him, in the apartment he shared our street, plus doing odd jobs a large area outside for dining; of hauling by carts, which are _Jj P­ sonal favor, we were told, I would with Smokey Joe and Whiskers, ·but it was a cool night, so we went We wish to KO on record· aa be allowed to see the body for con­ and found him swollen in belly propriated in his own fashion. into one of the small rooms, fully supportinl" Dr. Benjamin ditional identification, since the and yellow and bloated in the After supper one evening. Earl, which, unfortunately, was very Spock and all others in .their clerk, being new there, did not ·face, it was clear that he was Tom, Dennis the Menace, Frances crowded and noisy that night. efforts to aid• and abet those know how to fill out the forms. The near the end. It was Chuck, too, Fur Piece (who is also hospital­ There were two tables full of younl" men facing conscription clerk · had recently returned who was told upon visiting the ized and possibly in danger of los­ noisy young Americans, one large and opposing' the War in Viet- · (wounded! from Vietnam, and he hospital that one of Pete's broth­ ing that leg, whose ulcerous green party ol uproarious Italians and nam. was somewhat nervous, as he chat­ ers had left orders that only im­ and golden sores so long remained still anothet: famil.Y with small D:)ROTHY DAI ted and smoked with us in the mediate family could visit Pete.