SHORT STORY WEDNESDAY: OLD FAGS

 "Old Fags" by Stacy Aumonier  (first published in The Grim 13, edited by Frederick Stuart Green, 1917; reprinted in Hutchinson's Magazine, March 1928; and reprinted in The Edge of the Chair, edited by Joan Kahn, 1967, and in an abridged paperback version titled The Graveyard Shift, 1970)

"The boys called him 'Old Fags,' and the reason was not hard to seek.  He occupied a room in a bock of tenements off Lisson Grove, bearing the somewhat grandiloquent title of Bollingbroke Buildings, and conspicuous among the many doubtful callings that occupied his time was one in which he issued forth with a deplorable old canvas sack, which, after a day's peregrination along the gutters, he would manage to partly fill with cigar and cigarette ends.  The exact means by which he managed to convert this patiently gathered garbage into the wherewithal to support his disreputable body, nobody took the trouble to inquire, nor was there any further interest aroused by the disposal of the contents of the same sack when he returned with the gleanings of dustbins, distributed thoughtfully at intervals along certain thoroughfares by a maternal Borough Council."

Old Fags basically kept to himself.  He had lived in the building for seven years and no one knew anything about him.  He was unwashed and his clothes were caked with dirt.  His gleanings from the cigar and cigarette butts he accumulated were evidently enough to support him because he was never behind on his measly rent and always seemed to have enough for his constant bottle of cheap gin.  When his door was open a pungent smell of cooked onions for a stew would permeate the hallway.  His neighbors and those he met on the street avoided and berated him, but he seldom noticed.  He was basically a kind-hearted and simple soul; once, when the woman next door could not make her rent, he gave her fifteen shillings, which she slowly repaid, resenting him greatly all the while.

It was a poor neighborhood and times were hard and employment scarce.  One neighbor was old Mrs.  Birdle, who did laundry and ironing when she wasn't ill.  Her daughter, Minnie, was employed at the estate of Mrs. Bastien-Melland as a very low level servant -- so low that her mistress had never met her, nor talked to her, nor even knew she existed.  Mrs. Bastien-Melland's pride and joy was her dogs -- ten purebred show dogs, Chows and Pekinese, on whom she doted and spent money on their pampered care.  The dog groom was named Meads, a handsome but mean-spirited man with a weakness for women and gambling.  As dog groom, he had a somewhat comfortable position in the household and was considered among the higher echelon of its workers.

As it happened, Meads was occasionally interested in Minnie and took her out several times.  Then Minnie became an "unmarried girl in that condition" and was fired.  By this time Means had lost interest in her and had dropped -- he was already paying for children in Norfolk and Enfield, and was determined not to the same with anyone else.  But Mrs. Bridle was very ill and Minnie could scarce find work and the two were in desperate straights, seldom being able to afford food.  Minnie's health also began to be affected and she was often week and bed-ridden.  Seeing this, Old Fags offered them some of his ever-present onion stew, highly-spiced, and with undetermined meat and bones in it.

The baby came and milk for the infant was a paramount need, often provided to the expense of the two women.  Old Fag's stews became more important.  But times were also tough for Old Fags, his stews became weaker and weaker, with less and less meat, and at times only bones among the onions.  Then Old Fags made the mistake of passing out drunk in a public park and was arrested and spent ten days in jail.  When he returned to Bollingbrook Buildings, he found the Birdles in even more desperate circumstances.  He promised them that he would bring them a heaty stew that evening.

That day he came across Meads in a pub and plied him with drink and told him of a beautiful and willing woman who would be waiting for him that evening between six and seven, giving Meads a fictitious address.  But Mead had to walk the dogs between 5:30 and 6:30 -- Mrs. Bastien insisted and the imperious Mrs. Bastien-Melland must not be disobeyed.  but Old Fags offered to walk the dogs for Meads while he went on his romantic interlude.

And so it happened.  Meads spent hours trying to find the fictitious address and Old Fags took control of the dogs.  And that night, the Birdles had the "finest stoo" they've ever had in their lives.

Of course, there is more to the story than this, but this is its essence.  We never learn the actual fate of the dogs so out imagination must fill in the blanks.  The anthology in which the story first appeared, The Grim 13, was comprised of tales rejected by magazines because they were too gruesome or horrible...

Stacy Aumonier (1877-1928) was a stage performer and popular author who published six novels, a book of essays, a book of character studies, and some 85 short stories.  He was best known for his short stories, which were highly praised  by the likes of John  Galsworthy, Rebecca West, and James Hilton.  Part of his genius was in the variability of his writing; There is no typical Aumonier story, or typical Aumonier character."  Among his more noted tales were "The Octave of Jealousy," "Miss Bracegirdle Does Her Duty," "Where Was Wych Street," "The Accident of Crime," "The Landlord of the Love-a-Duck," "The Perfect Murder," and "A Source of Irritation."  Aumonier died of tuberculosis at age 51.