All the King’s Men, Two (part one), Pages 76-120, Stephanie Pace

1. 77.1-2 - Jesus Christ scouring the money-changers

Mark 11:15 “and Jesus went into the temple, and began to cast out them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves”

2. 77.2 - shinplaster

Low denomination paper money

3. 78.15 - pot-likker

liquid left behind after boiling greens.

4. 79.12 - rale

a rattling sound while breathing caused by disease or congestion.

5. 79.20 - quid

A portion of chewing tobacco

6. 79.25 - ambeer

saliva colored with chewed tobacco.

7. 83.13 - web galluses

woven suspenders.

8. 89.6 - marcelled

setting hair in deep waves with hot curling tongs.

9. 94.27 - the boy upon the burning deck

A reference to the poem Casabianca by Felicia Hemans. The poem tells the story of Giocante Casabianca, a young boy who refused to abandon his post on his father’s ship without permission and perished when a magazine below deck caught fire and the ship exploded.

10. 94.28-29 - the boy who replies “I can,” when duty whispers

Taken from a poem by Ralph Waldo Emerson.

“So nigh is grandeur to our dust,

So near is God to man.

When Duty whispers low, Thou must,

The youth replies, I can.”

11. 96.4 - Droopy-Drawers

slang used to describe a toddler’s sagging diaper.

12. 98.12 - He was running in the democratic primary. . . The same as running for Governor

At the time Warren wrote All the King’s Men Louisiana had not had a Republican governor since 1877.

13. 98.26 - He had played pretty smart with the cocklebur vote

Cockleburs are a genus of flowering plants. They are best known by the spiny burs that often stick to clothes and fur. Here it appears to be a slang term, perhaps refering to poor, uneducated country voters. Another way of saying the “hick vote.”

14. 100.29-30 - Quotations from. . . Macaulay

“The measure of a man’s character is what he would do if he knew he would never be found out” - Thomas Macaulay. This quote by Macaulay isn’t specified as being written in Willie’s ledger but it does have a connection to the events in the novel, and is certainly relates to Willie’s belief that dirt can be dug up on any man.

15. 101.13 - it didn’t take any master mind to pass the bar examination

Today the Lousiana bar exam is the longest in the United States, taking over 20 hours and spanning three days.

16. 109.26 - Sen sen

A brand of mint advertised especially to conceal tobacco on the breath.

17. 113.2 - coal pocket

A storage area for a coal mine.