Thread: O'Henry "Between rounds"

The May moon shone bright upon the private boarding-house of Mrs.
Murphy. By reference to the almanac a large amount of territory will
be discovered upon which its rays also fell. Spring was in its
heydey, with hay fever soon to follow.

"I heard ye," came the oral substitutes for kitchenware. "Ye can
apollygise to riff-raff of the streets for settin' yer unhandy feet
on the tails of their frocks, but ye'd walk on the neck of yer wife
the length of a clothes-line without so much as a 'Kiss me fut,' and
I'm sure it's that long from rubberin' out the windy for ye and the
victuals cold such as there's money to buy after drinkin' up yer
wages at Gallegher's every Saturday evenin', and the gas man here
twice to-day for his."

I can't decipher the meaning of the phrases in bold.

Okay. This is really difficult to interpret. I'm impressed you made progress in this work at all, being a non-native speaker.

" By reference to the almanac a large amount of territory will
be discovered upon which its rays also fell."

- I really don't know exactly what this means. He refers to an almanac, which could contain information about territories, and it mentions that the moonlight that hits the boarding house will also hit this newly discovered territory. This can't be all it is saying, but I don't have enough context to make a better answer. 'Kiss me fut,' and
I'm sure it's that long from rubberin' out the windy for ye and the
victuals cold such as there's money to buy after drinkin' up yer
wages at Gallegher's every Saturday evenin'

- "Kiss me fut" is "Kiss my foot," and it's saying that the man apologizes to trash on the street for stepping on their coats, but not to his wife, who he proverbially stomps on and won't bother to even hide his intentions by saying "Kiss my foot." The person, or it may be him himself, I can't tell, speaking is criticizing the man for being a jerk to his wife. I have no idea what "rubberin' out the windy" means, and the rest seems to be saying that the wife is miserable and leaves the "victuals cold," not bothering to make costly hot meals, so she can have the rest of the money to drink with. Again, I can't be sure, but that's my attempt. Don't beat yourself up for not getting a lot from this work, it seems quite tough.

The 4 Million - Story 4

By reference to the almanac a large amount of territory will
be discovered upon which its rays also fell.

по-моему, эту фразу можно интерпретировать и так: просматривая в справочниках, можно найти еще большое количество территории, на которое луна тоже светила.
Так что, возможно, дело в том, что автор не считает важным тщательно определить расположение пенсиона.

"I heard ye," came the oral substitutes for kitchenware. "Ye can
apollygise to riff-raff of the streets for settin' yer unhandy feet
on the tails of their frocks, but ye'd walk on the neck of yer wife
the length of a clothes-line without so much as a 'Kiss me fut,' and
I'm sure it's that long from rubberin' out the windy for ye and the
victuals cold such as there's money to buy after drinkin' up yer
wages at Gallegher's every Saturday evenin', and the gas man here
twice to-day for his."

Judging by the storyline

In one of the second-floor front windows Mrs. McCaskey awaited her husband.

I'd guess rubberin out the windy meant 'looking out the window'. Maybe it's related to rubbernecking or something.

Of course it's pretty hard to understand, but if I had to take a guess I'd interpret the sentence roughly as follows:

-"I heard ye," came the oral substitutes for kitchenware. "Ye can apollygise to riff-raff of the streets for settin' yer unhandy feet on the tails of their frocks, but ye'd walk on the neck of yer wife the length of a clothes-line without so much as a 'Kiss me fut,'
.....agree with kybarry

and I'm sure it's that long
.... that the walk he'd make on his wife's neck would be that long ???

from rubberin' out the windy for ye
... from having had to wait so long (by the window) for him to come home

and the victuals cold such as there's money to buy after drinkin' up yer
wages at Gallegher's every Saturday evenin',
...and what with the food - or at least what passes for food in a household where the husband spends most of his money in the pub - going cold

and the gas man here twice to-day for his."
...and what with me having had to fend off the gasman who turned up twice today demanding payment.

So, basically, Mrs. McCaskey is just complaining about her husband making life difficult for her.