Pulp Fiction, 1938 · page 43 of 64
10 Story Book, August 1938 — page 43: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Page Analysis This is a text-only story page (page 46) from a pulp magazine titled "INTRIGUING STORIES, SPICED WITH PRETTY GIRLS!" The visible prose depicts a violent domestic scene involving characters named Zingare, Meeka, and Sarras. A man named Zingare beats a woman named Meeka, forcing her to make religious oaths and kiss a crucifix while making degrading references to Jewish people and Jesus. The passage contains graphic violence, religious coercion, and antisemitic content. A character named Sarras intervenes, attacking Zingare with a poker and throwing him against a wall. The scene escalates into chaos involving brandy and a kitchen fire, with continued abuse and religious manipulation throughout.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
46 INTRIGUING STORIES, SPICED WITH PRETTY GIRLS! man; it simply maddened Zingare. He fell upon her and beat her savagely, un- mercifully. “Yes,” he cried, his purple lips flecked with foam, “you’d kiss a dog of a Jew when all hell couldn’t make you kiss me, your lord and master! I’ve begged you, threatened you, but you just laughed at me, you jade—you’d have seen me dead, yourself dead, and both of us in hell be- fore giving me, of your own accord, the kiss that his Jew mouth was waiting to swallow! Death is too good for a hussy like you. J’ll keep you alive and take it out of your hide.” And he began beating her again. Meanwhile Sarras, who had recovered consciousness, rose, seized the poker and stole up behind Zingare. The latter saw him. Throwing Meeka to the floor, where she lay -like oné:- dead, he sprang at the youth, wrenched the poker from him, then picked him up bodily and hurled him against the wall. Then he got a jug of brandy and sitting down in the midst of the havoc, celebrated his victory, the crushed Meeka on one side of him, the crumpled Sarras on the other. He drank himself to sleep. When he awoke, Meeka was setting the kitchen to rights. She was limping and moaning with pain. “Where’s the Jew?r” he growled, look- ing around. “Gone,” she gasped. He brought down his fist hard on the table. “Call me master, hussy!” “Yes, master.” “Did you kiss him?” “No, master.” “He’s gone forever?” “Yes, master, forever.” Zingare grunted and regarded her sus- piciously. “Bring the crucifix here.” Meeka went to the shelf and brought back the image. Zingare took hold of it with gingerly fingers; he had always been an unbeliever. “Down on your knees, jade.” “Now swear to your Jesus you’ll never kiss another man as long as you live. If you do, I'll beat you again; and the next time I beat you I'll beat you to death. Now swear—with those false lips that you would have let a Jew kiss—a Jew! —a Jew of the Jews that crucified your Jesus!” Pale, trembling, Meeka made the whis- pered vow. “There’s one man I’ll let you kiss!” cried Zingare with a laugh. “Kiss your Jesus! Kiss his feet!” He pressed the crucifix against her bruised and swollen lips, jthen suddenly with a wild, triumphant cry kissed it him- self. Meeka was dumbfounded. Had he gone mad? “No,” he said, divining her thoughts, “I’m not mad. I’ve not even turned Christian.” He chuckled. “A wonderful thought came to me, that’s all. God— or maybe the devil— what matter? — told me how to make you do penance for your sin. This penance is closely connected with your Jesus, and it’s such a fine sort of penance I just couldn’t help kissing his feet myself in gratitude to God or the devil—whichever it was—that planted the thought in my brain.” He threw the crucifix on the table, the face of Jesus downward. Meeka was still kneeling. He gazed at her fixedly, a smile playing on his lips. “Get up,” he said. “Call me master.” “Yes, master.” “There’s a new priest at the church, isn’t there?” “Yes, master.” “What’s his name?” “Father Gordnik.” “Father Gordnik! Good! I’m _ going to see him.” He took his hat and went to the door. ‘‘Meeka!” Comicboolk<s C@