1952's 'The Altar at Midnight' is set in a future that's pretty much as things were in the 20th century, except we have regular space travel - at least to the moon, Mars, and Venus.

Our narrator is unnamed until the end. He's in a bar when he sees a young man disfigured by 'redlines' on his skin and hard radiation scars on his eyes. He's a spacer. They talk and drink. The narrator takes the spacer to 'Gandytown,' the place where the disabled railroad workers hang out. We meet them and learn what disabled them, as we also learn what disfigures spacers. The spacer gets lucky with one woman. The narrator and spacer take a walk. The spaceman calls out a speaker in the park. They part. The narrator sees to it that the young man gets safely to the Y.M.C.A. We learn what wrecked the narrator's life.

For such a brief story, Mr. Kornbluth managed to convey quite a bit about some of those to whom Life Has Not Been Kind.
Notes:

1. A rum blossom is a big red nose with large pores and widened blood vessals. People thought it comes from drinking alcohol too much, but rhinophyma (the medical term) can happen to people who don't drink alcohol.

2. Skid Row is the run-down part of a town or city. Alcoholics, drug addicts, and persons down on their luck (don't have much money or are in a bad situation) live there. Skid Row can be violent and dangerous.

3. In this case, a 'Boxcar Bertha' is a female hobo, not the union organizer.

4. To be on a soap box or be a soap-boxer is someone who talks to crowds in public, standing on something to raise them up.

5. To be mush-mouthed (also spelled 'mushmouthed) is to speak with a voice so low it's hard to hear or mumbling.

6. 'Miz' is Southern dialect for what we now spell as 'Ms.'

7. To be in the doghouse means to be in trouble with one's spouse or boss. ( )

The Nov 1952 issue of 'Galaxy Science Fiction' must of been a heck of a pleasant surprise for it's subscribers - Asimov's 'The Martian Way' and this short story both in the same issue.

I don't know if it was deliberate, but even though both are about the early days of space travel and it's effect on people involved, everything else is polar opposites - from the settings and the characters, to the tone and plot lines.

The Martian Way is a must read, and this one isn't half bad either. Read them both, and marvel at the different styles. ( )

I saw him on IRC. ( )