Baltimore’s Forgotten History: The Setting of “Dutch and Annie”
Baltimore in the 1930s was a city filled with both promise and peril. The docks, railroads, and backroom gambling halls played a crucial role in shaping the lives of its residents.…
DUTCH AND ANNIE
By
GEORGE STUMP
They chase their destiny over green felt tables in the dark and timeless hours of Baltimore when streets lie empty and barren, and drunks and panhandlers have found shelter for the night in some empty building or dark doorstep. Outside, a solitary moon has risen like a luminous anomaly in a dark and cloudless night while inside some airless smoked-filled room, these men sit transfixed under one hundred-watt bulbs and study the face of playing cards to chase their dreams. This is the time they feel most alive and, for some, the only time they feel alive. The next card is everything—their fortune, their fate, their state of grace.
