Johnsons - good men to do business with

ON WHAT IT MEANS TO BE A JOHNSON


William S. Burroughs, in My Own Business writes of 'the old hop-smoking rod-riding underworld' and the characters that survive and keep a sense of decency and honour.

They are he says 'members of the Johnson family':

Men who 'wouldn't rush to the law if they smelled hop in the hall, don't care what fags in the back room are doing, and who stand by their word. Good men to do business with'.

They are found in all walks of life.

The cop who slipped me a joint in a New Orleans jail, for instance.

Or when I was pushing junk in New York back in 1948, the hotel clerk who stopped me in the lobby: "I don't know how to say this, but there is something wrong about the people who come to your room." (Something wrong is putting it softly; ratty junkies with no socks, dressed in three boosted suits puffing out, carrying radios torn from the living car, trailing wires like entrails.

"This isn't a hock shop!" I scream. "Get this shit out of here!" Regaining my composure I say severely, "You are lowering the entire tone of my establishment.")

"So I just wanted to warn you to be careful and tell those people to watch what they say over the phone… if someone else had been at the switchboard…"

And a hotel clerk in Tunis; I handed him some money to put in the safe. He put the money away and looked at me: "You do not need a receipt Monsieur." I looked at him and saw that he was a Johnson, and knew that I didn't need a receipt.

Yes, this world would be a pretty easy and pleasant place to live in if everybody could just mind his own business and let others do the same. But a wise old black faggot said to me years ago: 'Some people are shits, darling.' I was never able to forget it…

Most of the trouble in this world has been caused by folks who can't mind their own business, because they have no business of their own to mind, any more than a smallpox virus has…

And in The Place of Dead Roads, Burroughs writes:

A Johnson honors his obligations. His word is good and he is a good man to do business with. A Johnson minds his own business. He is not a snoopy, self-righteous, trouble-making person. A Johnson will give help when help is needed. He will not stand by while someone is drowning or trapped under a burning car.