Dan Barry: MADISON, Wis.
Here was a tall man wearing a Viking helmet and a look that said, Ask me about my Viking helmet. Here was a shirtless man, wearing a beaded skirt and a debutante’s smile. Here was a young woman with her face painted like a cat, and a thin man on his cellphone and his Segway.
In the museumlike halls of the state Capitol, the granite gem of Wisconsin that for two weeks now has served as an elegant sleepover camp for a resilient band of protesters, the indoor street theater was continuing into another Monday morning. People danced, slept or meditated on marble floors, while drumbeats and chants rose into the inverted cup of this landmark’s dome.
Here was a man dressed as Uncle Sam, his mouth taped shut; he was holding a small skull. And here was a man pushing two wheeled garbage cans; he was just working. Emptying the trash baskets. Tossing black bags into a Dumpster outside. Just working, again, until early in the morning, for an hourly pay of 10 dollars and change.
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