THE NORTH RIDING PROJECT

Out of work adventurers from all over the world hear word of Donogoo-Tonka and its gold fields.

1.  In Marseilles: A street in the old port, in front of a sailors’ cabaret.  At the edge of the roadway, standing amid fruit peelings, three individuals engage in an animated discussion.  One of them holds a paper whose text, obviously, provides the material for his eloquence.   A girl in a green shirt leans over his shoulder.  We make out along with her the Donogoo-Tonka prospectus and Yves le Trouhadec’s article.

2. In Naples: The merchants’ port, near the Immacolatella Vecchia.  Cargo is being unloaded.  A cart, harnessed to a donkey, a horse, and an ox, waits to be filled.  Several dockers have interrupted their work to listen to a little rascal, skinny and dark-skinned, speak of a magnificent country where all you have to do is kiss the ground to gather fistfuls of gold.

3. In London:  One of the smokiest pubs on Commercial Road, two stops from Stepney Station.  Around a rectangular table, a dozen men, very diverse in appearance, shout, argue.  On the table, with a bit of charcoal, they trace plans, maps, itineraries.  They compute on their fingers and start complicated calculations over again.

Romains/Donogoo