Ragtime Chapter 11 Summary

  • We're told America is "one big farting country." Many of the rich are fat and drink and eat great amounts of food. When William Howard Taft is elected President of the United States (weighing 332 pounds), his great girth weighs the country down. People don't want to look like him, and from now on the rich will begin trying to be slim rather than fat.
  • Evelyn Nesbit is thin, and so is her new lover, Mother's Younger Brother. She can't resist his attraction to her, and they spend most of their time making love to each other. When they're not making love, they're looking for Tateh and his little girl, though they can't find them.
  • At Harry K. Thaw's trial, Evelyn testifies as she's been paid to do.
  • Evelyn realizes that Harry might indeed love her. Emma tells her not to overestimate her role in the relationship between Stanford and Harry.
  • The trial has a hung jury and the case goes to court again, after which Harry is sent to a hospital for the criminally insane. Evelyn tries to negotiate a divorce settlement of one million bucks, a lot of money back then, but pictures of Evelyn and Mother's Younger Brother surface and she only gets twenty-five thousand. Oops.
  • Evelyn becomes bored with Mother's Younger Brother. She gives money to Emma's magazine, called Mother Earth, supports various radical causes, and misses what her life was like when she was around men like Stanford White.