Matewan Page #6

Help me up.

You going somewhere?

This is miner's business

and you ain't no miner.

You two come along.

So, ah

last night he comes up here and

uh, he's all drunk and

everything and I says as how I

didn't want to have nothin'

to do with him and...

and I would call

some of you fellers

for help and

he says that all of you was

taken care of.

Taken care of, huh?

When I seen that there

weren't no help I...

He uh, kinda

forced me, he...

he forced me.

- Easy...

-That's okay. You better

hear this first hand.

Go ahead honey,

what happened then?

And afterwards he

thrown money on the bed like

I were some kind of a whore.

You done just fine, honey.

Now why don't you go sit outside

for a minute while we figure out

what we're going

to do about this.

So he don't have

no sense with women,

so what?

You know how Bridey

builds things up.

Take a look at this

that our friend left laying on

the floor last night.

Baldwin Felts Agency

What it say?

- It's a death warrant is what

for Mr. Joseph Kenehan.

So it's goodbye Mr. Kenehan, tonight.

Miners?

How'd you manage that?

That tramp that goes to

meet the passenger train.

Seems she's got the eye for Kenehan.

So he put it in her head

that Kenehan has been

bad mouthing her all around town.

He's got her down there right now

crying to the miners

and... he's got these

papers from Bluefield.

I didn't leave my Colt like this.

You spying little bastard!

What'd you hear, huh?

What did you hear?

- Nothin'.

- Horseshit!

Hit him, Bill!

See this medal?

You know how I won this,

preacher boy, huh?

I was sitting alone in

a ditch in France and this Kraut

jumps in right next to me

and I took my bayonet

and I stuck him

right in the face.

And then another jumps in

and I stick him too.

And another, and another

and another... They just

kept coming one at a time

all night long.

And, a little bit,

I got to worried

that they weren't all dead,

so I stuck them all again

a couple times just to make sure.

And in the morning

they said that I was a war hero.

Well, I'm gonna stay close to

you tonight, preacher boy.

And you let one wrong word fly

and I'm gonna put

one in your skull

and I'll do the same

for your pretty mama.

You know I ain't lying,

don't ya, boy?

Yes, sir.

Man who draws the short straw

gets to do the job,

and word don't travel beyond

this room about who it is.

The rest of us

will want a good alibi.

I figure in that

prayer meeting tonight,

right under the preacher's nose.

Welcome to the union, son.

What's the story?

Ludie heard that the Baldwins

was coming after you tonight

and I'm supposed to stick by you.

You got the sh*t detail again,

huh?

You all right, Danny?

- You got your sermon memorized?

I bet he don't know anymore

scripture than I do.

And that ain't a whole hell

of a lot, is it, Griggsy?

- You know any?

I never got no further then,

"In the beginning was the word..."

Guess we both doomed

to the hot place.

Lord relies on little shits like

this one to spread His word,

I don't want no truck with heaven.

And, as for hell, well

we been to West Virginia!

Ahhh!

- What in god's name you doin', son?

I just got your leaks

all stopped and here your

trying to bust them open again.

I got to get down there,

they got to know.

You ain't goin' nowheres

unless it's in a pine box.

Where's your sense?

I got to...

- I wish those fellas'd get here.

Huh?

If they're comin'

I wish they'd hurry up.

I don't want any more

shootin' in the woods.

You ever use one of those?

10th Cavalry,

in Cuba, back in '98.

San Juan Hill.

Pretty rough down there?

Did what I had to.

Is it true you're a red?

Yeah, I suppose it is.

Then how come you

don't carry a gun?

Well, we carry little round bombs.

Don't you read the papers?

I want to tell you tonight

about the blackness

in the heart of man.

Gonna warn you about the many

and devious ways in which satan

will hide from you the truth

of who your real friends are.

I'm going to do it with a

story from the Patriarchs.

Now, we all know about Joseph

and how out of all Jacob's

12 children he was the smartest

and the smoothest and how

his brothers got so jealous they

pulled off his coat of many colors

and whooped on him

and left him out

to be sold into slavery.

But Joseph was not your ordinary

fella even for biblical times,

he had a special way with him.

A way of looking at the grand

scheme of things.

So when this fella Potiphar

bought him for a slave

Joseph just smiled and vowed he

was going to be a good one,

Making the best

of a bad situation

he put his heart to his work and

was honest and friendly in his

dealings and before you knew it

he was just about running

Potiphar's households and fields

and all his business' for him.

The only trouble

was Potiphar's wife.

Now she was what you might call

a loose woman

When I was in Leavenworth there

was a bunch of Mennonites,

mainly because they wouldn't

fight in the war,

it's against their religion.

It's also against their religion

to shave their beards or

wear buttons on their clothes

and they was being forced

to do both by the prison guards.

So, they refused to work

and they went on a strike right

there in Hell's Half Acre.

They was handcuffed to the bars

of a cell house

8 hours a day for two full weeks.

They were put with their arms up,

like this,

so's they had to stand

on their toes or those cuffs

would cut into their wrists.

Can't nobody stay on their toes

8 hours,

so pretty soon

their fingers would

start to swell up.

They turned blue and then

they'd crack open.

Blood would run down their arms,

8 hours a day,

day after day.

Still they wouldn't work.

Still they tore the buttons off

their uniforms every time they

were sewed back on.

They tore them with their teeth

because they're hands

wouldn't close no more.

So now I don't

claim a thing for myself.

But them fellas they ain't

never lifted a gun in their lives

and you couldn't find

any braver in my book.

- I wish them fellas

would get here.

Also in Potiphar's employ at this

time were a couple of

spies from one of his enemies.

Fellas that wanted to bring him

down in the world and get their

hands on his fields and houses.

They seen the want and lust in

Mrs. Potiphar,

and seen it would be good for

their purposes to get shed of

the young Joseph.

So they come to Potiphar's wife

She calls Joseph in and

she asks him one more time,

Joseph will you lie with me?

And he says, no ma'am I won't.

And she sets up a ruckus and grabs

a hold of his garment he's wearing

and rends it in two

before he can get clear.

Potiphar runs in with his guards

and she's a-bawling her eyes out

and shaking like a leaf.

Your servant Joseph, she says

He come in here and tried to

make me lie with him.

Only when I called out he fled

leaving this here garment

as evidence.

And not only that, she says,

he's been spying and plotting

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