He Also Called His Shirt A Shoit

**

I first heard
Personville
called Poisonville
by a red-haired mucker
named Hickey Dewey
in the Big Ship
in Butte.
He also called
his shirt a shoit.
I didn't think anything
of what he had done
to the city's name.
Later I heard men
who could manage
their r's give it
the same pronunciation.

I still didn't
see anything in it
but the meaningless
sort of humor
that used to make
richardsnary
the thieves' word
for dictionary.
A few years later
I went to Personville
and learned better.

--Dashiell Hammett
Red Harvest





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** MCCABE AND MRS. MILLER :
OPENING CREDITS / FINAL SCENE