Browse:Red Handkerchief (Volume 1, entries 579)
Red Handkerchief
Volume 1, entries 579. Source context: THE DOCTORS AT WORK: REPORTS FROM LAYMEN → DIAGNOSIS. Entries listed under this heading in the source volume.
Entries
Entry 579
Ah has been told that if he has an enemy in the town that he's living in seeking to take his life. An' so he has in mind of taking a red handkerchief, using a red handkerchief as a flag or as, we might say, a protection to himself, an' he attaches it to a standing boxcar but is ready, of course, to be pulled off by an engine. An' he attaches it there an' waits until the train pulls off an' [he] stands an' looks toward that train as long as he can see it, an' if that flag that he attached to the boxcar is on there at his last sight, as long as he can see it, why that's a sign that he will have a chance to get out of the town an' he leaves. See, but, if this flag drops off beforetime, why it's a warning to him that he's to be cut off befo' evah he'll have a chance to git out of the town.
(In other words, he uses this flag to find out what's going to happen to him.)
If it's safe fo' him to stay in the town or to leave. An' if the flag stays on, why he has a chance to leave town an' will leave, but if the flag drops off, yo' see, he conceives the idea that he has no chance.