Nicolaus Amati Cremonensis Faciebai Anno 1670.
"Now turn it over," Morris said; and Abe described on the reverse side a familiar oval mark bearing the following inscription:
Allied Printers Trades Council, Union Label, New York City.
"What is the use talking, Mawruss?" Abe Potash protested. "The feller couldn't even talk ten words English at all."
"Sure, I know," Morris Perlmutter admitted; "but he would quick learn."
"Quick learn!" Abe exclaimed. "What d'ye mean, quick learn? Nowadays I never seen the like! A greenhorn comes over here from Russland which he is such an iggeramus he don't know his own name, understand me; and he expects right away to get a job in a cloak-and-suit concern uptown, where they would learn him how he should talk English and at the same time pay him ten dollars a week. Actually, Mawruss, them fellers thinks they are doing you a favour if they ruin ten garments a day on you in exchange for learning 'em English. Me, when I come over from Russland, I wasosersogrossartig. I was glad to got a job learning on shirts in a subcellar and the boss boards me for wages. I got an elegant bill of fare, too, I bet yer, Mawruss. Every day for dinner is salt herring and potatoes, except Sundays is onions extra. And did that feller learn me English, Mawruss?Oserastück. I must got to go to night school to learn English, Mawruss, and I did, Mawruss—and they learned me good there, Mawruss; and so this here feller you are talking about should do the same."
"We wouldn't got to learn him English, Abe," Morris declared. "The feller is a bright, smart feller, and he could pick it up quick enough."
"Sure, I know," Abe rejoined; "and pick up a whole lot of other things, too, Mawruss. Silks and velvets and buttons them fellers picks up."
"Not this feller, Abe," Morris said. "He is from decent, respectable people in the old country. He is studying for a doctor already when he comes over here, but he gets into trouble on account he belongs to a politics society over there; so he must got to run away. The feller is a bright feller, Abe."
"I know them bright fellers, Mawruss—sit up till all hours of the night in Canal Street coffee houses killing off grand dukes. Grand dukes is got to make a living the same like anybody else, Mawruss; and anyhow, Mawruss, when a feller comes over here from Russland, Mawruss, he ain't got no business bothering his head about grand dukes. The way things is nowadays in the cloak-and-suit trade, Mawruss, a feller's got all he could attend to holding on to his job."
Morris shrugged.
"Let's give the feller a show anyhow, Abe," he rejoined; "and if he don't soon make good we could quick fire him, y 'understand."
"That's what you said about that feller Harkavy, which we give him a job in our cutting room, Mawruss. All the time he works for us he acts sodummlike a ten-year-old child; and so soon as we fire him, Mawruss, he goes to work by Kleiman & Elenbogen and turns out a couple of styles, which the least them highwaymen makes out of 'em is five thousand dollars."
"How should I know what Harkavy could do with Kleiman & Elenbogen, Abe?" Morris cried. "You are the prophet of this here concern, Abe. Always you are predicting to me to-morrow what is going to happen yesterday."
"Well, what'svorbeiisvorbei, Mawruss," Abe retorted; "and if I would got to stand here all day andschmooeswith you, Mawruss, go ahead and hire the feller. Only one thing I am saying to you, Mawruss: Don't tell me afterward that I was in favour of the feller from the start; because I ain't."
With this ultimatum, Abe glanced toward the cutting room, where sat a tall, stooping figure, holding in his two hands a peaked cap.
"Only to look at the feller gives me akrank, Mawruss," Abe continued; "so, if you are going to hire him, Mawruss, do me the favour and give him a couple dollars out of the safe so he should get a shave and a haircut and a new hat."
Morris nodded and started for the cutting room, when Abe called him back.
"For my part, Mawruss, I don't care what people says, y'understand," he declared; "but if we got a couple of them Thirty-fourth Street buyers around here and they sees our workpeople is got such shoes which their toes is sticking out already, Mawruss, what do they think of us? Am I right or wrong?"
"Sure, I know," Morris said; "but—"
"But nothing, Mawruss," Abe concluded. "For three dollars we should make suckers out of ourselves! Don't stand there like a fool, Mawruss. Give the feller five dollars; he should buy himself a pair of shoes andfertig."
The transformation begun in Cesar Kovalenko by a haircut and a shave was made complete when Morris, accompanied by Kovalenko's cousin, went with him to a retail clothing establishment. There Cesar discarded forever his cap, top boots and frogged overcoat and emerged—but for his vocabulary—a naturalized citizen of the cloak-and-suit trade.
"Now all he's got to do," Morris said, "is to work hard and he would quick be making good wages."
"Sure, sure!" the cousin replied. "At first, maybe he would be a littledummon account he is got a whole lot of experiences lately."
"Experiences?" Morris asked. "What for experiences?"
"Well, in the first place," the cousin proceeded, "two years ago he is studying for a doctor in the University of Harkav, and next door to him one house by the other lives a feller which I ain't got nothing to say against him, y'understand, only he goes to work and sends a package to the chief of police, Mr. Perlmutter, which when they open the package, y'understand, inside is something g'fixed. Mind you, Mr. Perlmutter, I wouldn't say nothing if it would be really the chief of police which would open the package, but always it is some poorSchnorrerwhich the chief of police calls in from the street. This time it was a feller by the name Levin, a decent, respectable, young feller—his father was aRav. The old man is coming over here this week, I understand, Mr. Perlmutter—but when the chief of police sends out Levin in the backyard he should open the package, understand me, that's the last any one sees either from the package or either from Levin."
Morris clicked his tongue sympathetically.
"And what did they done to the feller which sends the package?" he asked.
"Him, they didn't done nothing, Mr. Perlmutter," the cousin replied; "but Cesar, here, they put it all on to him. First they are making him arrested, and the police pretty near kill him and the Cossacks take him from Harkav to Odessa he should get tried, and then they pretty near kill him there; and if it wouldn't be that we are sending over to give to a judge there a couple thousand rubles they would right away shoot him. Anyhow, Mr. Perlmutter, one year my cousin sits in prison there; and then we are sending over a couple thousand rubles more which we give the feller what runs the prison, and so my cousin sneaks out of there and he comes over here to this country."
Morris gazed at the neatly clad figure who walked quietly along beside him.
"You wouldn't think it to look at him," he said; "but, anyhow, I would do my best to see he gets a good show; and he would quick learn, I bet yer."
By this time they had reached Potash & Perlmutter's premises and the cousin shook hands warmly with Morris.
"You got a good heart, Mr. Perlmutter," he declared fervently; "and you wouldn't lose money supposing you did pay him eight dollars a week to start."
Morris paused before passing indoors.
"Listen here to me," he said. "Maybe I got a good heart and maybe I ain't, but your cousin starts on five dollars a week, understand me; and if he gets six dollars inside of a month he would got to earn it."
Despite this assertion, however, it was barely three weeks before Cesar Kovalenko was earning and receiving eight dollars a week, for never in their business experience had Abe and Morris employed a more intelligent workman. Not only did he exhibit great promise as an assistant cutter but he had acquired a knowledge of English sufficient for his needs.
"If the feller keeps on, Abe," Morris said, "we would soon got to give him another raise. He's a wonder!"
Abe nodded gloomily.
"You could get all the wonders you want, Mawruss, to learn cutting at eight dollars a week," he said; "and supposing he does pick up English quick, Mawruss—a feller could be a regular Henry Shakespeare, y'understand, and he wouldn't be any better as a garment cutter on that account. Am I right or wrong?"
"Well, certainly it don't do no harm that Kovalenko understands a little English," Morris commented.
"Sure not," Abe agreed satirically, "because the quicker he learns English, Mawruss, the quicker he would copy our styles and find a job with a competitor. Take this here Harkavy, for instance. Only this morning I seen Felix Geigermann in the subway and he says that Kleiman & Elenbogen is showing, at a dollar less on the garment, a ringer for our Style 4022 which we sold him, Mawruss. Now, who tells them suckers how they could cut down on the buttons and the lining, Mawruss, and put one pleat less in the skirt, Mawruss? I suppose you did or I did, Mawruss—ain't it?"
He paused for a reply, but none came.
"And yet, Mawruss," he concluded, "that feller Harkavy was a wonder too; and I suppose, Mawruss, the way he picked up English would be a big consolation to us, Mawruss, if a good customer like Geigermann leaves us and goes over to Kleiman & Elenbogen."
Morris grunted scornfully.
"You are all the time looking for trouble, Abe," he said. "If we would lose as many customers as you are talking about, Abe, we wouldn't got a decent concern left on our books at all. You got to give Geigermann credit for knowing a good garment when he sees it."
"Sure, I know, Mawruss," Abe replied. "Geigermann knows a good garment when he sees it, but his customers don't; and if Geigermann could get, for a dollar less than ours, garments which looks like ours and is like ours, all but the buttons and the pleats in the skirt, we could kiss ourselves good-by with the business, no matter how many bright greenhorns we got it in our cutting room."
"Geh weg!" Morris exclaimed. "You don't know what you are talking about, Abe."
Nevertheless, when Felix Geigermann, the well-known Harlem dry-goods merchant and violin dilettante, entered Potash & Perlmutter's showroom the next morning Morris greeted him with some misgiving.
"Hello, Felix!" he said. "Are you giving us a repeat order so soon already on them 4022's?"
Felix shook his head.
"I got a few words to say to Abe, Mawruss," he replied. "Is he in now?"
Morris smiled amiably, although he was convinced that Felix's visit boded a cancellation of the 4022's.
"He ain't in now," he answered, "but if you wait a few minutes he'll be right back."
He returned hastily to the office, for he knew that if Abe found them in conversation on his return he would impute the cancellation of the order to something Morris had said. Thus Felix was left alone in the showroom, save for Cesar Kovalenko, who plied a feather duster industriously among the sample-racks. As he worked, Cesar whistled a Russian melody, half sad, half cheerful, and Felix paused midway in the lighting of his cigar. It was the opening theme in the second movement of Tschaikovsky's Fourth Symphony; and Cesar's rendition of it was not only true to pitch but he managed to introduce certain nuances that to Felix proclaimed the born musician.
"What's that you are whistling?" he inquired; and Cesar smiled.
"Tschaikovsky's Fourt' Symphony," he replied, and then he reached around to his hip-pocket. "See; I am got music."
He handed a paper-covered miniature score to Geigermann, who opened it at random.
"Ha!" Felix exclaimed as his eye lit on a familiar phrase in the last movement. He hummed it over and Cesar joined him in a clear, musical barytone. They were thus engaged when a tall, broad-shouldered individual entered the showroom.
"Sorry to interrupt you, gentlemen," he said, "but is the boss in?"
"In the office back there," Felix replied.
"Will you tell him Mr. Gunther would like to see him?" the newcomer continued.
"I will if you want me to," Felix said; "but I am here only a customer."
"Excuse me," Mr. Gunther apologized. "I was talking about the other feller. However—"
He proceeded to the office and engaged Morris in earnest conversation for several minutes. They returned to the showroom just as Cesar was replacing the score in his hip-pocket. The motion was too much for Mr. Gunther, whose occupation made him nervous; and he plunged his hand into his overcoat and brought out a shining metallic object. There was a sharp struggle and Cesar Kovalenko leaned against the partition with his wrists encircled by a pair of handcuffs.
"Come along quiet," said Mr. Gunther calmly, "or I'll knock yer block awff."
At this juncture the elevator door banged open and Abe came into the showroom.
"What is the matter here?" he cried.
Mr. Gunther smiled.
"I'm a United States deputy marshal," he proclaimed, "and I'm arresting this guy under a warrant duly issued in the Southern District of New York. I've got a taxicab downstairs and if any of you gentlemen is a friend of the prisoner youse can come along to the marshal's office."
Morris darted into the office and reappeared with his hat and coat.
"Abe," he said, "you stay here in the store. I would go down with him."
Abe frowned.
"One moment, Mawruss," he cried. "It don't go so quick as all that. First, we would find out what he makes this young feller arrested for."
The deputy marshal nodded.
"That's all right," he said. "You're entitled to know it. He's arrested on the complaint of the Russian Consulate for something he did in Russia two years ago."
"In Russia!" Abe exclaimed. "Two years ago! Mawruss, do me a favour. You stay in the store and I would go with him."
Felix Geigermann placed his hand on Abe's arm.
"Say, lookyhere, Abe," he said. "I'll tell you the truth. I am pretty busy to-day here to cancel them 4022's; but now I don't care at all. You could ship them goods if you want to, Abe; but one thing I ask you as a favour—let me go with him. I don't care what the other feller says. I am just now talking to this here young feller and if he done anything in Russia, understand me, I would eat it. So you stay here and tend to business and I would go with him."
Morris drew on his overcoat with force sufficient to rip the sleeve-lining. "Nathan, the shipping clerk, could tend the store, Abe," he declared, "and we'll all go with him."
"In the first place, Mawruss," Abe said, after they had returned from the United States Commissioner's office, where Cesar Kovalenko had been arraigned and committed without bail to the Tombs—"in the first place what are we bothering our heads about this young feller? Of course, when I was down there, Mawruss, and see that feller from the Russian counsellor's office, which he is got a face, Mawruss, hard like iron, y'understand, I didn't say nothing; but the way you are going to work and telephoning to Henry D. Feldman and everything, Mawruss—before we would get through with him it would cost us anyhow a couple hundred dollars."
"Geigermann says he would go half," Morris said.
"Sure, I know, Mawruss; but just because Geigermann acts like a sucker, Mawruss, why should we get ourselves into it too? Furthermore, Mawruss, how do we know Geigermann would go half? He's that kind of feller, Mawruss, that when he says something he don't take it so particular he should stick to it, Mawruss. One day he gives us an order and the next day cancels it, Mawruss—and that's the kind of a man he is."
"He didn't cancel it, Abe," Morris cried. "He was going to cancel it, but he changed his mind."
"Sure, he changed his mind," Abe interrupted; "and what is going to hinder him changing his mind on this other proposition, Mawruss? You could take it from me, Mawruss, when the time comes he should pay up, understand me, it'll be a case ofnix wissen—and don't you forget it."
Morris shrugged impatiently.
"Nu, Abe," he said; "what could we do? Once in a while we couldn't help ourselves, y'understand. Should we let this poor greenhorn be sent back to Russland, which he ain't got a relative in the world, understand me, except his cousin, which he is just as poor as Kovalenko?"
"That's all right, Mawruss," Abe declared. "I ain't kicking we shouldn't help the feller. All I am saying is there's lots of our people which they got more dollars as we got dimes. Take Moses M. Steuermann, for instance; there's a feller which he is such a big charity feller, understand me, why shouldn't he help Kovalenko?"
"Well, in the first place, no one tells him about it, Abe," Morris said, "and in the second place—"
"But why don't we tell him about it, Mawruss?" Abe interrupted. "Why don't you go down to see him, Mawruss, and tell him all about it?"
"Me go down to see him, Abe!" Morris cried. "Why, the feller is a multimillionaire. With such people like that I couldn't open my mouth at all. Why don't you go down to see him?"
"Why should I go down?" Abe asked. "You are the lodge brother here, Mawruss—ain't it? You are the one which you are always sitting up till all hours of the night making motions. I couldn't make a motion to save my life, Mawruss, and you know it."
"Sure, I know," Morris protested; "but lodge meetings is something else again. A feller could talk at a lodge meeting—and what is it? A couple young lawyers which they couldn't even pay their laundry bills, y'understand, and a dozen other fellers, insurance brokersodercigar dealers, and most of 'em old-timers at that—why should I be afraid to say a little something to 'em? But with a feller like Moses M. Steuermann, which his folks was bankers in Frankfort-on-the-Main when Carnegie and Vanderbilt and all them othergoyimwas new beginners yet, Abe—that's a different proposition entirely."
Abe nodded and remained silent for a few minutes.
"Might Felix Geigermann would go down and see him, Mawruss," he suggested finally. "It wouldn't do no harm we should ring him up anyhow."
"Go as far as you like, Abe," Morris said, and Abe started immediately for the telephone.
"I spoke to Felix, Mawruss," he announced a few minutes later, "and Felix said he would go right down and see him. He ain't so stuck on paying Feldman a couple hundred dollars neither."
Morris snorted indignantly.
"If you was going to be charitable, Abe," he said, "why don't you be a sport? We could easy stand a couple hundred dollars."
"That's all right, Mawruss," Abe declared. "Business is business and charity is charity, y'understand; but even in charity, Mawruss, it don't do no harm to keep the expenses down."
Two hours afterward Felix Geigermann entered the showroom, his face glistening with perspiration.
"Well, boys," he almost shouted, "I seen him, and he says he would call in here on his way uptown."
"Who would call in?" Morris asked.
"Moses M. Steuermann," Felix replied. "It was the Tschaikovsky Fourth that fixed him, Mawruss. I told him that young feller carries round with him an orchestral score, and right away he says he would come up. For years I seen Mr. Steuermann at the Philharmonics and the Boston Symphonies, Mawruss, and I didn't know who he was at all. I always thought he was something to do with a music-publishing concern."
"Steuermann got something to do with a music-publishing concern!" Morris exclaimed. "I'm surprised to hear you, you should talk that way, Felix."
"Well, when you are seeing year in and year out a feller goes to every concert what is, Abe," Felix explained, "naturally you get an idee he is in the music business—ain't it?"
"That's what you think, Felix," Abe said, taking up the cudgels in defence of Steuermann; "but you could take it from me, Felix, if a feller like Steuermann seemingly fools away his time at concerts, understand me, he ain't doing it for nothing. He probably gets some business out of it the same like a lot of fellers you would think is making suckers of themselves going to lodge meetings, Felix. Most of 'em sells many a big bill of goods that way."
"That ain't here nor there, Abe," Felix rejoined. "The point is, Steuermann would be up here at five o'clock; so, what are you going to tell him when he calls?"
"Me tell him!" Abe cried. "Why, I wouldn't be here at all. I got to—now—see—a—now—customer at the Prince Clarence."
"You ain't got to do nothing of the kind, Abe," Morris retorted angrily. "You are going to stay right here and talk to that feller when he comes. What do you think—I am going to be the goat every time?"
"What's the matter, Abe?" Felix asked. "Are you afraid of the feller? He couldn't eat you up, Abe."
"What d'ye mean, afraid of him?" Abe exclaimed. "I am seeing big merchants every day, Felix, and I could talk right up to them too. But this here is my partner's affair. He hired Kovalenko in the first place; and—"
"What's the use talking, Abe?" Morris interrupted. "If you go home I go home; so you got to stay and we would both see the feller. What is the difference, supposing the feller does got a couple million dollars?"
"A couple million dollars!" Felix said. "Why, I bet yer, if the feller's got a cent he is worth twenty million dollars."
Abe drew pale.
"Say, lookyhere, why should I talk to Mr. Steuermann?" he besought. "You could do this without me, Mawruss."
"Don't be a baby, Abe," Morris retorted. "Felix would stay here with us and—"
"Not me, boys," Felix said. "I guess you got to excuse me. I done enough already and if I don't get right home and change my underclothes, which they are dripping wet with perspiration, I would sure catch a bad cold."
He shook Abe and Morris warmly by the hand; and hardly had the elevator door closed behind him when the showroom became a scene of nervous activity.
"Nathan," Abe yelled to the shipping clerk, "fetch the broom. The place looks like a pigsty here!"
He turned to Morris with excited gesture.
"Do me the favour, Mawruss," he said; "tell a couple of them young fellers from the cutting room to come in here. Them sample-racks ain't been straightened up for a week. I am going round to the barber shop, Mawruss, and I would be right back."
It lacked one minute of five and Abe and Morris sat at their respective desks in the firm's office, when Miss Cohen, the bookkeeper, knocked timidly at the door.
"A gentleman wants to see you, Mr. Potash," she said. "He wouldn't give his name."
Abe cleared his throat with an effort.
"Tell him he should come right in," he croaked; and a moment later a tall personage, clad in a fur overcoat and wearing a freshly ironed silk hat, appeared in the doorway.
"Is this Mr. Potash?" he asked in rounded, oratorical tones.
Abe nodded. For a moment he was bereft of speech and he jerked his head sideways in the direction of his partner.
"This is Mr. Perlmutter," he said at length—"my partner."
"How do you do, sir?" the visitor replied as he seized Morris's clammy palm in a warm embrace.
"Take a seat," Morris murmured, dragging forth a chair; and the stranger sat down deliberately.
"Well, sir," Abe asked, "what could we do for you?"
"Mr. Potash," the visitor began, "every merchant is at tames confronted with a situation which demands a few appropriate remarks."
Abe nodded and mopped tentatively at his dewy forehead.
"But how many are there," the visitor continued, "who can do justice to the occasion? For instance, Mr. Perlmutter, you are asked at a charitable meeting to discuss the question of restricting immigration. I ask you candidly, Mr. Perlmutter, would you feel competent to stand upon your feet and—"
Suddenly Abe jumped to his feet.
"Excuse me, my dear sir," he cried. "Wouldn't you smoke a cigar?"
Morris was nearest the safe and he, too, leaped from his chair.
"Never mind the safe, Mawruss," Abe said, flapping his right hand excitedly. "I bought some while I was out just now."
Illustration:"Mr. Potash," the visitor began, "every merchant is at times confrontedwith a situation which demands a few appropriate remarks"
He handed a gold-banded, Bismarck-size cigar to the visitor, who nodded a dignified acknowledgment and immediately struck a match.
"Yes, Mr. Perlmutter," he went on, "as I was saying, such a topic as the restriction of immigration would embarrass even an experienced speaker." He paused and cleared his throat impressively. "Now, I have here," he said, exploring the capacious pockets of his overcoat, "a work entitled 'A Quarter of a Century in Congress,' by the Honourable Lucius J. Howell, which, gentlemen, is issued upon subscription only, in half morocco or crushed levant at a hitherto unheard-of price."
Abe ceased mopping his brow and turned a terrible glare upon the book canvasser.
"What!" he roared. "A book agent?"
Once more he jumped to his feet. "Out!" he bellowed. "Out from my office, you dirty loafer!"
The book agent scowled and replaced the bound dummy in his pocket.
"With a high-grade selling proposition like this, Mr. Potash," he said, "you should be careful of your language."
"Mawruss," Abe cried, "what the devil do you mean letting in a feller like this?"
"What d'ye mean, letting him in?" Morris retorted. "Did I tell Miss Cohen she should show him in?"
"Don't quarrel on my account, gentlemen," the canvasser said as he puffed at his cigar. "I shall call again when you're not so busy."
He passed out of the office with a graceful gesture of farewell, and once more Abe and Morris sat down on the edge of their chairs. It was not for long, however; and this time, without any announcement, a thick-set gentleman with carefully trimmed beard and moustache stood in the doorway.
"Good afternoon, gentlemen," he said—and Abe and Morris literally sprang into the middle of the office floor.
"Mr. Steuermann?" Abe gasped, extending his hand.
"My name is Mr. Goldstein," the visitor replied, "and I represent the Lilywhite Dress Shield Company."
He proceeded no further, however, for Morris led him by the shoulder to the elevator shaft and pointed to a notice reading:
HOURS FOR SALESMEN8 to 9:30
Morris returned to the office and hardly was he seated in his chair when, for the third time, the doorway framed a visitor.
"Mr. Potash?" the newcomer asked timidly. He was a short, slender man, past middle age, clad in a shabby overcoat, half threadbare, and a soft felt hat of a dingy, weatherbeaten appearance.
"Nu!" Abe growled. "What is it now?"
"Mr. Potash," the stranger continued, "I called to see you at the request of Mr. Geigermann. My name is Steuermann." Abe essayed to rise, but his knees would not support him and he waved his hand feebly to a chair that Morris dragged forward.
"Mr. Steuermann," Morris said, "you are coming up here to see us when we could much better afford it if we would go down and see you."
"Why, gentlemen, it was no inconvenience for me," Steuermann replied. "I am on my way home."
"God would bless you for it, anyway!" Abe declared fervently; and Steuermann blushed.
"Now, Mr. Potash," he protested, "I am not here for compliments. I've come to see what we can all do for this poor fellow. I'm a little late, because I was waiting for a report from my lawyers."
"Your lawyers!" Abe exclaimed. "Why, we already hired Henry D. Feldman."
"So I believe," Steuermann replied; "and he has consented to act in conjunction with my lawyers—Chitty, Schwarzstein & Munjoy. I shall relieve you gentlemen of all responsibility in the matter."
"Do you mean by responsibility, Mr. Steuermann, that you would pay Feldman?" Abe asked.
Mr. Steuermann smiled.
"Well, we won't discuss that just now," he said.
"Because," Abe continued, "we wouldn't consent to nothing of the kind, Mr. Steuermann; the young feller works for us and we would got to do our share."
"That part will come later," Steuermann insisted; "and now let's see what is to be done."
For more than half an hour Steuermann disclosed to Abe and Morris the result of his lawyers' investigation.
"Mr. Munjoy has seen Kovalenko," Steuermann said, "and he asserts that, so far as proof is concerned, no murder was ever committed."
"But, Mr. Steuermann," Morris said, "the feller which he opened the package, y'understand, was blown up so his own father couldn't recognize him even."
"That's just the point, Mr. Perlmutter," Steuermann declared; "and Mr. Munjoy says that on this circumstance hinges the Russian Consulate's whole case. They are obliged to prove that a definite person was killed; and it seems that the consulate paid the passage of the victim's father to this country, so that he might testify before the United States Commissioner. I understand that the old man, who by the way is a Rabbi, arrived last week. Mr. Munjoy says that, if the father is unable to testify to the identity of the victim it may so complicate matters that more evidence will be necessary and the consulate may drop the affair on account of the expense involved."
Morris nodded sadly.
"Lawyers could always make expenses, Mr. Steuermann," he said, "for the Russian counsellor and for us also."
"Never mind about expense, Mawruss," Abe interrupted. "What does it matter a few hundred dollars, Mawruss, so long as we get this young feller free? In fact, Mr. Steuermann, I am willing we should go half if we could see this here Rabbi andschmierhim a thousand dollars he should swear that no one was killed at all."
Mr. Steuermann shook his head. "That would be in effect suborning perjury, Mr. Potash," he said—and Morris glared at Abe.
"I'm surprised at you, you should suggest such a thing, Abe!" he exclaimed. "Seemingly you got no conscience at all. A thousand dollars we should pay the feller! I bet yer he would lie himself black in the face for a twenty-dollar bill."
"It isn't a matter of money, Mr. Perlmutter," Steuermann said; "but why not see the old man to-night? I have his address here, and if you approached him in the right way perhaps he might testify that he did not recognize the murdered man. That would only be the simple truth and it would be just what we want. As it is, I'm afraid the Russian Consulate will intimidate him into swearing that he knew the body to be that of his son."
He handed Morris a card bearing a Madison Street address.
"Well, gentlemen," he concluded, "I've taken up your time long enough. I hope to see you in my office to-morrow, Mr. Perlmutter."
Morris nodded and was about to shake hands with his visitor when Abe slapped his thigh in a sudden realization of his inhospitality.
"Mr. Steuermann," he exclaimed, "wouldn't you smoke something?"
He jumped to his feet and thrust a huge gold-banded cigar at Mr. Steuermann, who shook his head.
"Thank you very much," Mr. Steuermann said, "but I'm afraid it's rather near dinner-time."
"Put it in your pocket and smoke it after dinner," Abe insisted, and Mr. Steuermann smilingly obliged.
Together the two partners escorted him into the elevator; and when the door closed behind him Morris turned to Abe with an ironical smile.
"You got a whole lot of manners, Abe, I must say," he commented bitterly.
"Whatd'ye mean, manners?" Abe asked. "What did I done?"
"Tell a millionaire like Mr. Steuermann he should smoke the cigar after dinner!" Morris replied.
"Don't you suppose he's got plenty cigars of his own?"
"Maybe he did got 'em and maybe he didn't," Abe retorted; "but, in the first place, Mawruss, I noticed he took the cigar, y'understand; and, in the second place, Mawruss, them cigars cost thirty-five cents apiece, Mawruss, and there's few millionaires, Mawruss, which is too proud to smoke a thirty-five-cent cigar."
When Morris Perlmutter entered the subway that evening en route for the lower East Side, he was in none too cheerful mood; for, in the excitement attending Steuermann's visit, he had forgotten to telephone Mrs. Perlmutter that he would be late for dinner. Consequently there had been a painful scene upon his arrival home that evening, nor had Mrs. Perlmutter's wrath been appeased when he informed her that he was obliged to go right downtown again.
Indeed, his sympathy for Cesar Kovalenko had well-nigh evaporated as he entered the subway, and he reflected bitterly upon the circumstance that first led him to hire that unfortunate young man. Thus there was something doubly irritating in the coincidence which seated him next to Louis Kleiman in the crowded express train he had boarded, and he had made up his mind to ignore his competitor's presence when Louis caught sight of him.
"So, Perlmutter," Louis commented, without any introductory greeting, "you are trying to do us again!"
Morris turned and stared icily at Kleiman.
"I don't want to talk to you at all, Kleiman," he replied; "and, anyhow, Kleiman, I don't know what you mean—we are trying to do you! The shoe pinches on the other foot, Kleiman, when you just stop to consider you are stealing away from us that feller Harkavy, which all he knows we taught him."
Louis Kleiman emitted a short, raucous guffaw.
"Well, what are you kicking about?" he said. "You stole him back again—ain't it?"
"Stole him back again!" Morris repeated. "What are you talking nonsense, Kleiman? We wouldn't take that feller back in our store, not if we could get him to come to work for two dollars a week."
"Yow!" Kleiman exclaimed skeptically. "I don't suppose you know the feller left us at all?"
"I did not," Morris replied promptly; "and if he did, Kleiman, I couldn't blame him. A feller doesn't want to work all his life for ten dollars a week."
"What d'ye mean, ten dollars a week? We paid Harkavy fifteen and we offered him twenty-five; but the feller wouldn't stay with us at all. For two weeks now he acts uneasy and yesterday he leaves us."
"That's all right, Kleiman," Morris said as the train drew into Ninety-sixth Street. "You could easy steal somebody else from another concern." Kleiman glared at Morris and was about to utter a particularly incisive retort when the train stopped.
"I got to change here," he announced; "but when I see you again, Perlmutter, I would tell you what you are."
"I don't got to tell you what you are, Kleiman," Morris concluded as he opened his evening paper. "You know only too well."
"Rosher!" Kleiman hissed as he hurled himself into the mob of passengers that blocked the exit.
Morris nodded sardonically and commenced to read his paper. He desisted immediately, however, when his eye fell upon a cut accompanying Felix Geigermann's display advertisement. It was a beaded marquisette costume, made in obvious imitation of one of Potash & Perlmutter's leaders; and the retail price quoted by Geigermann was precisely one dollar less than Potash & Perlmutter's lowest wholesale figure.
"That's some of Harkavy's work," Morris muttered; and for the remainder of the journey he was once more plunged in the gloomiest cogitation. Almost automatically he alighted at the Brooklyn Bridge and boarded a Madison Street Car; and it was not until the jolting, old-fashioned vehicle had nearly reached its eastern terminus that he discerned the house number furnished to him by Steuermann. He hurried to the rear platform and jumped to the street, where he collided violently with a short, bearded person.
"Excuse me!" Morris cried; then he recognized his victim. "Harkavy!" he exclaimed. "What are you doing here?"
"I am coming to say good-by to a friend," Harkavy replied with some show of confusion. "I got to go to Chicago to-morrow."
"Chicago!" Morris repeated. "Why, what are you doing in Chicago, Harkavy?"
"I am—now—going to got a job out there," Harkavy replied—"a very good job."
Morris drew his former assistant cutter to the sidewalk. He had temporarily forgotten the object of his visit to the lower East Side in the sudden conception of an idea, which was no less than the rehiring of Harkavy.
"What for a good job?" Morris asked. "Twenty dollars a week?"
Harkavy nodded.
"A little more," he said—"twenty-five."
"Schon gut," Morris declared; "then you wouldn't got to go at all, because we ourselves would give you thirty."
"I moost go," Harkavy said, shaking his head; "my fare is paid."
"Pay 'em back the fare," Morris insisted—"we would see you wouldn't lose it."
Again Harkavy shook his head.
"I got a bonus too," he declared—"a thousand rubles."
"What are you talking about, rubles?" Morris said impatiently. "You ain't a greenhorn no longer. Do you mean a thousand dollars?"
"Six hundred dollars—about," Harkavy replied.
Morris whistled.
"Well," he said after a pause of some seconds, "put off going until to-morrow anyhow. Maybe we could fix up to give you the six hundred dollars anyhow."
Harkavy remained silent and Morris clapped him on the shoulder.
"If people is so anxious to get you that they pay you a big lot of money like that, Harkavy, you could keep 'em waiting anyhow one day. Come round and see us to-morrow morning at nine o'clock, wouldn't you?"
Harkavy pondered the question for some minutes.
"If you wish it, Mr. Perlmutter," he said, "I would do so; but I must got to go away by eleven o'clock sure."
"Good!" Morris exclaimed. "Then I'll see you to-morrow morning at nine o'clock."
They shook hands on the appointment and Morris turned away and ascended the high stoop of an old-fashioned tenement. In the vestibule he encountered a boy whose right cheek was apparently distorted by a severe toothache.
"Do a family by the name Levin live here?" Morris asked.
The boy nodded and disgorged a huge lump of toffee, whereat the toothache disappeared.
"Dat's me fader," he said. "Fourt' floor front east. He ain't in, dough."
"Your father!" Morris cried. "Why, the people I am coming to see they are greenhorns."
"Oh, yeh," the youngster replied; "dat's me fader's uncle. He lives wid us."
"All right," Morris said. "Take me up there."
The youngster resumed his swollen cheek and escorted Morris up three flights of slippery brassbound stairs. Without the formality of knocking, they entered an apartment on the fourth floor where a woman stood washing dishes.
"Mrs. Levin?" Morris said.
The woman nodded.
"I want to see your man's uncle," Morris continued. Without looking up the woman cried in stentorian tones: "Mees-taire!"
In response a bent figure, clad in an alpaca caftan, appeared from an interior bedroom. He wore a velvet skullcap, and a thin gray beard straggled from his chin; his nose was surmounted by a pair of steel spectacles.
"Sholom alaicham!" Morris cried, according the Rabbi that greeting, as ancient as the Hebrew tongue itself—"Peace be with you."
"Alaicham sholom!" the Rabbi answered, and then he resorted to the Yiddish jargon: "Do you look for me?"
"I look for theRavElkan Levin," Morris said in a tongue to which he had long been unaccustomed. "I am the servant of the philanthropist Steuermann."
"Steuermann?" theRavLevin repeated. "I do not know him."
"In America," Morris said, "his name is honored over the governor's. He sends me to you to speak for the unfortunateTzweeKovalenko."
"TzweeKovalenko," the old man cried, and his beard stood out as his invisible lips tightened, while his nose became sharp and hawk-like. "Amishna meshunato him, the same as he sent to my son."
"No," Morris declared; "he did not send it to your son. It was another that did it."
The old man sank trembling into a nearby chair and clutched the edge of the table.
"You tell this to me who saw with my own eyes his body!" he said in shaking tones. "Yes,Baron; I saw my own child like a slaughtered beast, all blood—not a face, but a piece of flesh. I saw him, and you tell me this!"
"None the less," Morris went on, "if your son did die it was akaporanot meant for him. It was intended for the chief of police."
TheRavshook his head.
"It stands in theGemera" he said, in the singsong tone of the Talmudical reader: "If one flings a stone for pleasure and it strikes another so that he dies, the one also shall die."
He rose to his feet and waved one hand with a flapping motion. "An eye for an eye!" he cried in shrill tones. "A tooth for a tooth!"
Morris shrank back and turned to the woman, who had not raised her head from the dishwashing.
"You tell him," he said, "that the philanthropist Steuermann invites him to come to the address I shall give you—to-morrow at ten o'clock. Tell him you know that when Steuermann commands, governors obey."
"What is it my business?" Mrs. Levin replied. "Tell him yourself."
"Your man should go with him," Morris insisted. "He and you will not lose by it."
Morris wrote the address on the back of one of Potash & Perlmutter's business cards and handed it to her.
"Put on it the table," she said.
"Tell your man," Morris continued, "if he does take this old man to Steuermann I myself will pay him twenty-five dollars."
Once more he faced theRav, who had sunk again into the chair.
"Will it bring back your son to you ifTzweeKovalenko dies?" he asked.
The old man plucked at his beard.
"He was my son, my only son," he said; "myKaddish. A good son he was."
Mrs. Levin, still at her dishwashing, raised her head and snorted impatiently.
"Yow—a good son!" she commented in English, "A dirty, lowlife bum he was. If it wouldn't be that heganvereda couple bottles wine from a store he wouldn't of been in the police office at all. He brought it on himself, mister—believe me."
Morris nodded.
"What isvorbeiisvorbei," he said. "Tell your man he should bring his uncle to Steuermann and I would pay him sure twenty-five dollars cash."
He bowed to theRavand with a final "Sholom alaicham!" passed downstairs to the street.
As he waited at the corner for a west-bound car he thought he discerned a familiar figure in the shadow of the house he had just quitted. He walked slowly up the block and Harkavy stole out of the basement area and slunk hurriedly past him.
"Harkavy!" Morris called, but the assistant cutter only hastened his steps and it seemed to Morris that a sound like a sob was borne backward.
"What is the trouble, Harkavy?" Morris cried; but in response Harkavy broke into a run, and with a mystified shake of his head Morris commenced his tedious journey uptown.
When Morris, in company with his partner, entered the showroom at eight o'clock the following morning he had already enumerated to Abe the events of the preceding evening, not omitting his encounter with Harkavy.
"I bet yer he would be waiting for us, Mawruss," Abe said; "and if I ain't mistaken here he is now."
Their visitor, however, proved to be a stranger, who bore only a slight resemblance to their former cutter.
"Mr. Perlmutter," he said—"ain't it?"
"My name is Mr. Perlmutter," Morris said. "What do you want from us?"
For answer the visitor drew from his pocket a card and handed it to Morris.
"Me, I am Pincus Levin, and you are leaving this by my wife last night," he said; "so I am coming to tell you I am agreeable to take Mr. Levin to Steuermann's place."
"All right," Morris replied. "You can go ahead."
Pincus Levin shuffled his feet uneasily, but made no attempt to depart.
"Well?" Morris cried.
"Sure, I know," Pincus said; "but if I would take uncle, Mr. Levin, to Steuermann, y' understand and then, maybe—I am only saying, Mr. Perlmutter, you might forget the other part—ain't it?"
"You mean you want your twenty-five dollars in advance?" Morris asked.
"Why not?" Pincus replied. "If I wouldn't took Mr. Levin to-day yet to this here Steuermann's office, Mr. Perlmutter, you could stop the check—"
Abe shrugged his shoulders expressively.
"An idee!" he cried. "You ain't never seen this feller before, Mawruss—ain't it?"
Morris admitted it.
"Well, then, what's the use talking?" Abe continued. "How do we know he's this here Levin's nephew?"
"Why, Mr. Potash," Levin cried, "I ain't no crook! I got the old man in a coffee house round the corner right now."
"Bring him up here then," Abe said, "and we'll give you your money."
Pincus Levin nodded and shuffled off toward the back stairs, while Abe turned and gazed after him.
"I couldn't make it out at all, Mawruss," he said. "The more I look at that feller, Mawruss, the more he makes me think of this here—"
"Good morning, Mr. Potash!" a familiar voice interrupted. It was Harkavy.
"Hello there!" Morris cried cheerfully. "I thought you would be here."
Hakavy smiled sadly. His face was white and drawn and his shoes and trousers were covered with mud as though he had walked the streets all night.
"I am keeping my word anyhow," he said; "but I am only coming to tell you I got to go to Chicago."
"Why must you got to go?" Abe insisted.
"Well, there's certain reasons, Mr. Potash," Harkavy replied. "There's certain—rea—"
He struggled to control his speech as his eyes rested on the rear stairway, but his words became more and more inarticulate until, with a shudder and a gasp, he fell heavily to the floor.
"Oi gewoldt!" Abe exclaimed. He rushed to the office for a glass of water, but even before he had reached the cooler he stopped suddenly. A great wailing cry came from the showroom and when he ran back with the water a bearded old man lay prostrate across Harkavy's body.
Only Miss Cohen, the bookkeeper, kept a clear head during the confusion that followed. She despatched Nathan, the shipping clerk, for a doctor and directed her frightened employers to loosen the shirt-bands of the unconscious men.
"Some whiskey!" Morris shouted—and one of the cutters produced it bashfully from his hip-pocket.
"Never try to force whiskey on a fainting person," Miss Cohen cried. "It might get into their lungs and suffocate 'em."
"I wasn't going to," Morris said hastily, as he took a yeoman's pull at the bottle. "I am feeling faint myself."
"Mir auch," Abe said, taking the bottle from his partner's grasp. After a refreshing draught he passed it on to Pincus, who returned it empty to the crestfallen cutter just as a physician dashed out of the elevator.
"What caused this trouble?" he asked Abe as he knelt down by the side of Harkavy.
Abe looked helplessly at Morris and turned to Pincus Levin, who commenced to tremble violently.
"Hold on there!" Morris shouted. "He's going to faint too."
Abe seized the glass of ice-water and flung its contents into Pincus Levin's face. He gasped and sat down suddenly.
"The old man," he murmured, "he's Yosel's father."
"Yosel who?" Morris shouted. "The old man's only got one son—and he's dead."
"Yes, I know," Pincus answered; "he is and he ain't. I always thought so too, Mr. Perlmutter, but this feller here is Yosel Levin which he got blew up in Harkav two years ago."
"What d'ye mean got blew up?" Abe asked as the doctor worked steadily over the two prostrate men. "How could he be blew up if he is here now?"
Pincus shrugged his shoulders.
"How should I know?" he said weakly. "I ain't lying to you. This feller here is Yosel Levin and my uncle there is his father."
"Do you mean to told me that the old man's son ain't dead at all?" Morris demanded.
"Seemingly," Pincus said; "aberthis is the first time I heard it and I guess it's the first time the old man heard it too."
Harkavy moaned and tried to sit up.
"Easy there!" the doctor commanded. "Two of you take him inside and put him on a lounge if you have one."
Abe and Morris followed Pincus and the head cutter as they supported the half-conscious Harkavy into the firm's office. Ten minutes later the old man was restored to consciousness.
"Wo ist er?" he murmured. "Mein kind!"
"It's all right," the doctor replied, and then he turned to the office. "Come out here, you, and talk to the old man."
Pincus came running from the office and reassured his uncle, who, under the ministrations of the doctor, grew rapidly stronger until he was sufficiently recovered to be placed on a chair.
"Keep him quiet while I attend to the other fellow," said the doctor; "and don't let him talk."
He went at once to the office, where Harkavy sat on the edge of the lounge.
"Here! What are you doing?" he cried. "You shouldn't let that fellow do any talking."
"That's all right, doctor," Abe said calmly. "He should go on talking now if it would kill him even. Go ahead, Harkavy."
"And so," Harkavy continued, "after I am stealing the wine they took me to the police office. There was a place! But, anyhow, Mr. Potash, I could tell you all about it afterward. Inside the backyard was a dead moujik which he is got run over by a train. His face is all damaged so you couldn't tell who he was at all."
He faltered and waved his hand.
"Give me, please, a glass water," he said, and the doctor seized his hand.
"Never mind!" Abe cried inexorably. "Leave him alone, doctor. He should finish what he's got to say."
Harkavy nodded and sipped some water.
"Then comes the package for the chief of police," he went on; "and they put it first in a pail of water. Then they open it, Mr. Potash, and it don't harm nobody; but themrosherswant to put it on to somebody, so they make me a proposition they would give me a couple hundred rubles and a ticket to America—and I took 'em up. For stealing that wine I could get five years yet; so what should I do? They give me the money and I run away; and the dead moujik they are telling everybody is me, which I am blew up to pieces by the package."
"And you let the old man bury the moujik and think it was you?" Morris asked.
Harkavy nodded.
"Over and over again he is telling me I am no good and he wishes I was dead," he said. "I wish I was, Mr. Perlmutter—I wish I was!"
He commenced to cry weakly and Morris handed him the water.
"But when I hear last week the old man, my father, is here," he continued, "I couldn't help myself—I am hanging around Madison Street trying I should get one look at him only. I didn't see him till just now."
He struggled to raise himself from the lounge.
"Let me go to him," he wailed; "let me go!"
Abe looked inquiringly at the doctor, who nodded in reply.
"Let him go," he said. "Happiness never harmed anybody yet."
"Gentlemen," said the United States Commissioner as he sat behind his shabby desk in the Post-office Building, "the prisoner is in the marshal's office. Shall he be brought in?"
He addressed his question to Mr. Munjoy, who was seated between Henry D. Feldman and Steuermann at one side of a huge table. Opposite them were the clerk of the Russian Consulate and his counsel, who was obviously nervous at the formidable appearance presented by the lawyer, Henry D. Feldman.
The latter was about to pull off—as in his colloquial moments he himself would have expressed it—a rotten trick on his fellow counsel; for Abe and Morris had not informed either Mr. Munjoy or Mr. Steuermann of the stirring scene in their showroom that morning. Instead, they had called on Feldman, who, with the dramatic intuition of the effective jury lawyer, saw an opportunity for a coup that would at once gain the admiration and respect, if not the legal business, of Moses M. Steuermann and procure Feldman a column and a half of publicity in next day's paper. Hence he had sworn Abe and Morris to secrecy in consideration of making no charge for his services, since he deemed the accruing benefit to be worth at least two hundred dollars.
"Shall he be brought in, gentlemen?" the commissioner asked.
Counsel for the Russian Consulate bowed, as did Mr. Munjoy; but Henry D. Feldman cleared his throat with a great rasping noise that penetrated to the corridor without. This was the signal, and Abe and Morris entered the room supporting the old Rabbi, who was followed by Pincus Levin.
"One moment, sir," Feldman said. "I have a preliminary objection to make. Will you hear the offer, sir?"
The commissioner nodded and Steuermann and his counsel Mr. Munjoy, turned to Feldman in amazement.
"What's all this, Feldman?" Munjoy cried.
Feldman waved his hand impressively.
"My objection is, sir, that a gross fraud has been practised on this court. It has come to my attention that somebody connected with this proceeding has furnished a material witness for the defense with a ticket for Chicago and one thousand rubles as a bribe to stay away from the hearing."
Counsel for the complainant jumped to his feet.
"This is preposterous!" he declared.
"By no means," Feldman continued. "Will you direct counsel not to interrupt me, sir, if you please?"
"I so direct," the commissioner replied, whereat Feldman again cleared his throat and coughed twice, and, in answer to this cue, Yosel Levin, alias Joseph Harkavy, entered the room.
"The person so bribed, Mr. Commissioner, is named in the petition as thecorpus delictiof the crime alleged to have been committed," Feldman said.
"What!" Munjoy and opposing counsel cried in unison, and the clerk to the consulate reached for his hat and started for the door. His counsel leaped after him, however, and succeeded in catching his coat-tails just as he was about to disappear into the hall.
With one hand still grasping the consular clerk, counsel for the complainant turned to the commissioner.
"I think my client wants to consult me outside for one minute," he said. "Have I your consent to withdraw?"
The commissioner nodded and Munjoy turned to Feldman.
"What the deuce are you trying to do, Feldman?" he asked as complainant's counsel returned.
"If the commissioner pleases," Feldman said, "we consent to a dismissal of the extradition proceedings and to a discharge of the prisoner."
The imperturbable commissioner bowed and rose to his feet.
"Submit the necessary papers for the prisoner's discharge, gentlemen," he said. "The hearing is closed."
"Five dollars for doing what that feller done is like picking it up in the street, Mawruss!" Abe declared to Mawruss when they received the doctor's bill a month later.
"How could we be small about it, Abe?" Morris rejoined. "Look at what Steuermann done! Not only he is paying his lawyers for getting this Kovalenko out of prison but he is taking that young feller and paying for him he should go on with his studying for a doctor."
"Well, the way doctors soak you, Mawruss," Abe said, looking at the bill which he held in his hand, "it wouldn't be long before Kovalenko pays him back with interest, I bet yer."
"But, anyhow, Abe," Morris continued, "now we got Yosel Levin working for us as cutter, it would be a better feeling all around supposing we pay the bill and say nothing about it."
"I am agreeable we should say nothing more about it, Mawruss," Abe retorted, "because we already wasted more time and trouble than the whole thing is worth; but one thing I would like to know, Mawruss, before I shut up my mouth: Why did this here feller, Yosel Levin, call himself Harkavy?"
"Say!" Morris said, using three inflections to the monosyllable: "he's got just so much right to call himself Harkavy as all them other guys has to call themselves Breslauer, Hamburger, LeipzigeroderBerliner. He anyhow does come from Harkav, Abe—which you could take it from me, Abe, there's many a feller calls himself Hamburger which he don't come from no nearer Hamburg than VilnaoderKovno."
Abe shrugged his shoulders expressively in reply.
"My worries where them fellers comes from, Mawruss!" he commented. "Because, when it comes right down to it, Mawruss, if a feller attends to his own business, Mawruss, and don't monkey with politics, y'understand, where could he make a better living than right here in New York, N. Y.?"