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!"
REBELS
INTO ANARCHY -
MARIE GANZ
IN
COLLABORATION WITH
NAT
J.
FERBER
WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY
M.
LEONE BRACKER
NEW YORK
DODD,
G*
COPYRIGHT, 1920
BOOK MANUFACTURERS
MAHWAY
NEW JERSEY
INC.
CONTENTS
PAGE
CHAPTER
II
III
IV
V
VI
VII
VIII
IX
X
XI
XII
XIII
XIV
XV
THE TENEMENTS
THE WOLF
THE SWEATSHOP
..
,.
...
.,
.,
20
.,
,.
..
...
......
HATE
A
......
THE WOMEN
THE DEATH
HUNGER
......
MY COUNTRY
.-.,
RIOTS
THE FIRES OF
STORM BREAKS
.,
...
..
..
...
,.,
,.
PRISON
OF THE ABYSS
OF THE DYNAMITERS
.
.,
..,
,.
,.;
,.
,.
36
57
77
96
115
135
154
173
190
208
228
246
264
ILLUSTRATIONS
"
My time
has come
mutter.
"
"
!
My time
heard him
has come
"
Frontispiece
PAGE
"It
the
is
end!"
The
little
lessly
"The
4
30
little
eyes were
upon us
72
124
My studies with
horizon rapidly
In the
coffee
idealists
house,
mental
.....
posing
as
my
182
poets
242
and
274
REBELS
REBELS
CHAPTER
THE TENEMENTS
was
IT clothes
the rear
could be
closet,
more lacking
in sunlight
stuffiest
and
air.
of closets
The
walls
legs across
little
court.
By day
it
my
REBELS
him?
He
how
must be wedged
little
My
in
somehow, no matter
be.
first in
New
the
little
among
moment.
have found
it
so.
I like to
go groping
THE TENEMENTS
Now
Now
Now
memory
my
father,
of bedding
home
REBELS
not conceal.
"
"
a girl's.
am
sure
it
five-year-old child
pity for him, young as I was.
distinct
memories from
is not apt to carry many
life,
have never
forgotten.
When
it
THE TENEMENTS
women and
men,
We
stars.
We
tops to
rooms below or
in the
all
My
Sadie Peshkoff
"
!
for
little girl
the
REBELS
game would go on
until
chance.
"
Ketchin's
is keepin's,
here's a caramel."
You
Sadie.
missed,
so
sort for
the losers.
worries of
my
or to realize
well
off
how
came
THE TENEMENTS
behind that closed door?
might be a collector
with a long-outstanding bill, or, most dreadful of
The rent was due, and we never
all, the landlord.
did manage to have it ready on time.
Another knock. Father pulls himself together,
moves stealthily to the door, opens it slowly and
If he then throws the
cautiously, and peers out.
door open wide, and stands bowing and smiling and
wringing his hands, we know at once, even though
the hallway is too dark to disclose the caller, that
it is
A
Mr.
the landlord,
bull-necked,
Zalkin. He
Mr.
Zalkin.
scowling,
is
It
overbearing person
is
"
only two words,
are profuse with explanations and apologies, but Mr.
Zalkin pays no attention to what they are saying.
He
De
rent."
Mr. Lipsky, on
in the
"
De
house
person
not because he is more likely to have his rent ready
than any of the other tenants, but because he is a
man of courage, resource and independence. I
REBELS
The
him.
Come
knock
in breathless, crying,
in
could be spoken in
Mr. Zalkin rushed
"
at the door,
"
De
rent!
Like
softly.
this a
behave?"
Mr. Zalkin, who had picked out the one chair
having a back and had seated himself on it, looked
bewildered.
"
De
Never mind de
"
What
much milder
tone.
"
rent,"
Mr. Lipsky.
retorted
come
right
'
in
What
'
'
before him.
self to such
He was too slow-witted to adjust himan unusual situation without loss of dig-
THE TENEMENTS
nity,
to
remove
"De
in his
"
Come
in."
his hat.
hittel!
De
hittel!
[The
"
Mr. Zalkin
Mr. Zalkin;
I ain't
got
it."
made
caller
REBELS
io
tions that
revealed.
a regular
to get the
machine was
presented himself at the door. He asked for twentyfive cents, the first instalment on the sewing machine.
called for
month
was a
But he
and
man.
He never propolite
agreeable
tested, never argued. He was always willing to wait
another week for payment. He had the patience of
Job. Years passed; he was still coming for his instalments, and had become an old friend.
Indeed,
it was only two years ago that he
stopped coming;
he had collected every penny at last, though it had
taken him eighteen years to do it. There were tears
THE TENEMENTS
in
his
eyes
when he
inti-
family troubles. There was not an owner of a sewing machine within a wide radius whose joys and
griefs he did not share. If somebody had managed
to exert
enough
street cleaner,
the mat-
yet with
all
fire
he was almost as
It
took
REBELS
12
many
all
the
worry and
all
the
scraping together
of
to run out
now and
later.
who
floor.
all lived
THE TENEMENTS
dollar a
week for
13
sixty weeks.
on
The
strain
on
his
The
pawned
Owing
to
money
on the original loan; owing to pawnbroker, ten dollars, plus interest on the original
loan; owing to watch dealer, forty-nine dollars.
plus interest
Assets:
It
One pawn
ticket.
"
REBELS
14
dren?
Go!
clock!
"
again
chil-
face
in the court-
yard.
all
clever?
American school. It
School.
all,
was plain that any graduate of an American school
knew enough of the ways of the world to find the
And, most of
the
them
in a school.
With
this
aim
in
my
liking.
Other children of my
wanted to do as they
did.
One day
go home
to get his
midday meal
THE TENEMENTS
15
To
"
Can
come along?
asked hopefully.
"Sure, Greeny."
I left the cart to its fate.
Soon
was
at Public School
streets.
What
No.
know now
Rivington
vacation class was in session.
My
from dem."
The teacher laughed. It was a sweet and kindly
laugh, and I was sure it was not given because I was
a greenhorn, so I didn't care.
She told me she was
sure I was a good little girl, and admitted me to
fader has a
full cellar
That day
the class.
in English,
"
other children, and the only thing I needed to bea regular school pupil was a vaccination cer-
come
A
the
me
panted.
"
the ticket?
"For why
REBELS
16
that
among
The
the beginning of my schooling, brought disappointment. I must have a grown person to take me to
the school on the first day, and it turned out that
mother was too sick to go. Father could not leave
his stand, for some competing peddler might usurp
his place in the street. I was in tears.
Mother tried
to comfort me.
"
Chiala, cry not,
is
my
get,
middle name.
and then
my
"
I will to
Chiala
child," she pleaded.
I
not.
will
better
Chiala, cry
school take you."
THE TENEMENTS
17
hall,
floors
above came
in
lives on.
had actually
Also he had been
known
instead
of in
Mrs.
it
son to introduce
me
to an education.
REBELS
18
"
Mr.
My
It
Wait
knew
"
I'll go then."
to-morrow," I said.
a conI
that Abie Schwartz was on strike
dition not unusual in those days
and that, having
no job to go to, he would not fail me. He called
promptly the following morning, and I set off with
him, proud and happy, though my shoes, shrunk
until
from
made
my
studies.
Before long
was
a monitor
time of trouble.
"
was
little
apology for a
THE TENEMENTS
of a tiny, wizened object that represented
19
my new
brother Sammy.
"
He
What
is
at his heart I
CHAPTER
II
THE WOLF
"y^lHIALA,"
1
are too
Run
Some
said
many
my
here.
father
You
gently, "there
are in the way.
must have been waiting outside for me waving her magic wand, for the remainder of that day was to be gilded with the romance of a great adventure. As I reached the
street a big man wearing a cap and a long coat was
standing on the curb beside an empty carriage and
invisible fairy
about him.
He
seemed
was
pretty
have been told, and I had two thick, yellow braids, which fell below my waist and which
child, so I
"
like a
ride?"
20
THE WOLF
"You mean
it?"
returned,
21
almost
sure
help
I
me
up.
stepped
beating
in
fast.
his whip.
of family
life.
Of
arm.
"
REBELS
22
a
man
in
I'll
get you
home
all
right."
He
We
terious, forbidding.
Suddenly from
seen?
will be
We
The
streets
pears
in
and we
is
back,
Great
light.
Mysterious
THE WOLF
pie
are
23
flesh
and
blood.
It is
We
world begins
behind.
the
Familiar sights
magician's paradise
Again we are in the streets I know, the
appear.
streets of the tenements, and the walks are thronged
with people of my own kind. Pushcart torches flare
of
was
how
Cinderella felt
when
REBELS
24
tion,
after
all
miserable our
the splendours I
home was.
had
seen,
was beginning
of
to
how
know
afraid to go nowhere.
You
kids
see nothing."
"
than
knew
the
far
other
more about
children
Though he was
of
Christian,
who
fearlessly
and
many
things.
And what
money-maker he was
for
for
from
Fri-
THE WOLF
25
was
left
was
on Friday
burning all night,
lit
sundown and
by morning it had
just before
until
money owing
to
He
was
Them
And why
shouldn't
it
be busted?
"
said
"
I,
with
"
But three
fellers like
them Schwartzes
is
differ-
ent."
"
It
the firelighter,
REBELS
26
eousin Yusel.
like wh.it they
he w.is
i',oiii^
tin
under
slept
i',ot,
hed so
lu
.1
their
lot,
real quilt
Rudolph
said
eould kiunv
wli.it
uiiJcT
w.is
^t
along about midnight in comes
Rudolph, who'd changed his mind about stayin'
away. There ain't no pleasure with four full-gt o\\
sK\-pii\
along
.1
s.itri'ii
ijuilt
like.
!''K-\
\\
fellers in
.1
lu\l.
w.is
I'lu-y
wed\>\l
in so tis;ht
(hey
This
couldn't sleep. So I chad gets up, and says:
in.iv he .ill ri^ht tor you t\\o i',uys in the in'uUlle,
but
me and Yusel on
the
two edges
is
clingin*
on wul
'
to sleep
pop.ireek.'
it
and your
11
tO pull
st.uul
o* the
was
All of
coKl.
it
their
.itul
stickin'
'em
hustevl.
Then Yusel
a sateen quilt
WOLF
Ill K
But where do
home.
new
hc-ds[)ring (o
buy
27
know
to
Jimmie Casey
in
Surely
we should have
starved
his
clock and
made
better
Often I
boarders must pay cash down every week." Our
own hoarder never failed us. He was scrupulous
in money matters and was never an hour late with
weekly payment. I say he never failed us; I
overlooking the crisis that came in his affairs,
ami which brought a crisis into our own. It was
Schmrcl's ambition that was to blame.
For years
he had aspired to the presidency of his synahis
am
gogue.
In this ambition he
REBELS
28
himself.
all
his
Carmel schnapps
and partly because he was a bit of
short-lived.
During the
festivi-
ties
He
bedroom
He lay
there for weeks, and, as he had spent most of his
savings on his campaign for the presidency, the little
and living-room became
a sick-room also.
We
doctor's
and
my
THE WOLF
tHe future proved, there
be time for play.
29
to
from
his cart
No
one could
fail to notice
that
REBELS
30
"
is
"
My
he said hoarsely.
strength
No
more
shall I be able to go to my cart."
gone.
Mother sat silent for a few moments as if stunned
It is the end,"
Never
shall
we
sat
down
home
to supper.
who took
mother,
IT IS
THE END
THE WOLF
31
He
We
had been
us
now
was
bananas
the
to
money
another peddler.
Fourteen dollars of
me was turned over to the whole-
he paid
and only
twenty-eight cents remained. It was all we had between ourselves and starvation. Schmeel, who took
almost all his meals in restaurants, paid us eight dolsaler to settle father's account with him,
just
heard
my
father's voice
Yes,
Yet
REBELS
32
and
away.
at once,
and
me
speed.
Breathless and almost exhausted, I came at last
I
into the shadow of the high, bleak hospital wall.
day."
u
Now
No, no!
fader, he wants
;t
must be!
"
I cried.
"
Mine
Stubbornly
unyielding as
"
4
me
it
"
I
if
my
word kept
my
Very early
To-morrow
was awakened
THE WOLF
by the wailing of
told
been
what
it
sitting
my
meant.
in
father's voice
mother.
I
33
I did
knew then
not need to be
that while I
had
had heard
my
Already neigh-
There was no
bours were crowding in upon us.
had
I
need of my asking questions;
only to listen to
Father had died a
learn all of the dreadful news.
Evil tidings travel quickly in
little before dawn.
a block
the ghetto, and already the entire block
had
in which at least four thousand persons lived
crowded our
little
REBELS
34
in
the Psalms.
"
Yonuf
At
*
basayser eliom bitzail shadai yisloinon."
to an end.
father's
body
to
the cemetery.
There was only one coach, for our
too
friends were
poor to afford the expense of ac-
and
neighbour
was preparing
the problem of
from
selves
her.
I
I,
knew
too,
to save our-
the day
the evening.
May
knew
the
meaning of
the Almighty."
in the
eviction.
shadow of
THE WOLF
35
What
all
knew now
knew now
why
in the
Many
eyes of
a street orator I
had heard
CHAPTER
III
THE SWEATSHOP
seven
days of shiva my
mourning on a low, wooden
her
feet
clad
box,
only in stockings. Such is
the custom of the ghetto. Many neighbours came
the
THROUGH
mother
sat in
The merest
home.
flour in her
fearfully near.
The
rent!
fearful sound
The
The
What
has
in
36
THE SWEATSHOP
not
in
37
how
would not
listen.
"
she declared.
He
easy.
my
family.
young woman
when he
God!
was only
go back
to school.
shall he live in
thirty-two
died.
You
will
wherewithal."
She
us.
is
"
Marie,
if
the
He
a big
on
Ichael reflected a
came to him.
"
"
In the
you what," he said eagerly.
building from where I work in the shop, upstairs
there is a place where they make skirts.
If you
will go up there they will give you work to take
I will tell
out."
REBELS
38
The
bare
their
their
means of
livelihood.
As
was about
perhaps
I recall
it,
the shop
wide and
Besides
who,
He
noticed me.
THE SWEATSHOP
"
What
It
and
you want?
was too
"
39
he snarled.
late to retreat.
spoke up bravely
to the point.
"
Work.
"
Work
We
the circumstances at
more.
Mr.
Zalkin;
like
this
landlord
should
REBELS
40
behave?
De
money, Mr.
hittel!
De
hittel!
And
here
is
your
at the skirts.
Very
"
The bundle with legs "
as I passed their windows.
was the way they described it, for the legs seemed
to belong to the pack rather than to a human being.
Twice every day I went to the shop to return com-
THE SWEATSHOP
41
in
For
my memory.
week when we
really
Sugar
.$ .14
48
49
35
.49
56
18
.30
Total
How
had
.,
$2.99
know
REBELS
42
that
was known
it
up.
We
times,
So
it
souls
and bodies
together.
Yet, with
all
THE SWEATSHOP
43
lot
us.
prestige,
is
block!
One day
Too many
REBELS
44
Zulinsky managed to get along without much privation or worry, for her soul was above the sordid
She was content to sit
details of money matters.
way
THE SWEATSHOP
45
me
all
about
it.
starved, their
was
home was
Indeed,
Julius began
play on it at that very moment.
Mrs. Zulinsky raised a warning finger.
to
"Hear!
What
My
music!
Julius he
is
Already
my
playing.
heart
Mine kind!
it
is
light
again."
though we had
REBELS
46
"
to
He
me
his little
hoard looked
me.
cannot
live
one morning.
another death.
in
Their
the black hours the prayer for the dead.
of
a
the
clarionet
with
chant mingled
screeching
all
from the
dancing
floor
feet.
In the
Mrs.
Morris, was being celebrated. Down the airshaft
"
"
Mazel tov! Mazel tov!
came the cry
Lucky
of
merrithe
all
sounds
day! Lucky day! Through
bour,
THE SWEATSHOP
ment
47
dead went on
in
dreary monotony.
serious
ever.
one-third,
least a dollar
we could
rent.
Our
from the
in
tears
we want a boarder
Mother fairly rushed at him.
With both hands she clutched him as if to make
!
sure he
away
"
was
real
into nothing.
Sure
we want
boarder
"
!
she cried.
"
You
this
to be impressed.
bad
There
REBELS
48
was
ute.
My
baggage,
He
it
is
here under
small
my
arm."
bundle.
Surely his
very
tapped
I
and
was glad
not
were
bulky,
worldly possessions
it was so, for it would have been awkward to find
room for a trunk or box of any size. I was glad,
too, to observe that he was not so emaciated as
Schmeel had been and that the prospect of another
funeral in our
home seemed
small.
money
at night.
Often
was
hours
to discover
trousers.
THE SWEATSHOP
49
life
coins.
full
to
bursting;
At
last
we learned why
it
seemed
For
two
money.
years he
the hope of having enough some
send for his wife and children,
in Galicia.
Poor, lonely Hersch
his only pleasure
One day on
which
REBELS
50
them
into a pile
on the
floor.
was accustomed
to
me.
us?
"
"
Pay me
!
'
I cried,
"
Pay
me!"
"
I will
"No;
mader
needs
money."
"
Go home
What
had happened
It
was
locked.
Only a
THE SWEATSHOP
dollars and sixty-nine cents
we had
full
"
I cried,
my
of tears.
stared
51
down
at the stone
pavement of the
alley
"
is
It is
gone
*
Yes, he
is
gone with
gone
"
my
And
the boss
seven dollars,
She sat down on the top step and buried her face
her hands. I noticed how white and frail those
was saving up
to
list-
REBELS
52
"
lessly.
there."
I
remember
my back
flattened
was accustomed to. They would have been beauthey had not been so emaciated, so calloused
with work the hands of an artist, long, slender
Perhaps some
expressive.
fingers
wonderfully
aristocrat of generations ago whom she had never
even heard of had bequeathed those hands to her,
tiful if
Chil-
certainly do not
remember them for long. Strangely eloquent hands
they must have been to have impressed me so;
pathetic, appealing hands they must have been, telling vividly of toil and suffering, for to this day I
can scarcely keep back the tears when I think of
details,
them.
What happened
THE SWEATSHOP
53
as she
her broken shoes, her white, tired face
"
Is the
her
in
of
a
eyes,
asked, with just
hope
glint
much thought
ries to give
That
was
though
before me; not
to those of others.
Did he not
job ?
"
Hey
call the
policeman by his
Jim?"
understood
first
it,
first
name,
we
and
all
believed the
like
the rest of us
"
"
hey
was
its
syllable.)
Out
found him,
and
the
with
where, very slowly
dignity of a man
of his importance, he was sweeping the pavement
with his wide, long-handled brush. I was certain he
must know who I was, for did he not know all about
in
everybody
in the
block?
Politicians always
knew
REBELS
54
everybody. Also, owing to his position as streetcleaner, he was able to make a close study of every
family's financial condition from the character of the
He knew that only those
refuse they threw out.
who were
comparatively affluent threw away bedwere not broken beyond the possibility
springs that
of repair.
noted enough prosperity to render the usual economies unnecessary. All this knowledge was of value
to him in his role of politician. I am sure no politia more intimate knowledge of his
Mandel Katzenstein had of his.
So I was not surprised when I found that he knew
already of the hard struggle we were having to get
had
constituents than
had happened.
Anoder one
Dis
is
not de
first
you do
"
"
all
Mr. Katzenstein?
"
THE SWEATSHOP
55
see
go
see,
somet'ing."
Maybe a week!
From
that
window
at last,
in
my
It
was
at
inside the
No. 24
Just
a
was confronted by
REBELS
56
plump, elderly
little
benignly.
"
How
u
"
"
at
me
he inquired.
bundle
give you work for your mader.
and
this
home
take
with
your
day,
you
very
you
mader makes maybe five dollars a week if she's a
I'll
good sewer."
I felt
my
We should be
able to look
CHAPTER
IV
talk
POVERTY!
hasn't
ever
its
me
of
old
Only
any.
tunes talk of
know what
to
brighter side
knew poverty
at
all,
its
it
is!
blessings.
knew
it
It
for-
they
How
they have forgotten its miseries.
hear them try to cheer the unfortunate by prating
of the burdens of wealth and of their envy of the
simple
of the poor.
Go down into the ghetto,
learn
and
there
what poverty means.
man,
life
rich old
All through my childhood I never had a toy except an old rag doll; I never knew the joy of having
a pretty
new
dress; I never
saw
the fields
and woods
how
to play.
home together,
to be quite a big girl, Zal-
when
was getting
mon
REBELS
58
event
gaged to
was
not a steady enough young man to continue a courtship through all the time that had passed since then.
That
The
first
bride
was easy
to
borrow
chairs
the
ZALMONGETSMARRIED
59
all.
demands of
delay of the
mean
had been
which
announced
in
wedding
advance
present,
as ten
dollars.
'
Ten
dollars for a pair of beggars whose huseven got a job is a whole lot of money,"
can wait a
declared one of Sadie's relations.
band
ain't
'
Nothing
is
on
fire
we should
hurry."
kind of a yachsin (important personage)
"
that Chinaman that we should all wait for him?
"
is
We
What
later,
should
for a
man washwoman?
Mrs. Burick
"
flared
up
"
at once.
"
they
LhouM have
REBELS
60
man
such a
what has
wagon
in
five
"
What
By us we got a writer
or
in
the
It's epes
family,
family.
nearly
It's epes
(somewhat) nicer than a laundryman.
a
is
laundryman?
in the
more ungenumen
(genteel) than a
soiled clothes."
The
away and
I'll
not carrying
get five
my
my
is.
down and
I ain't
five
next week."
As
61
woman, in striking
was short and thin.
who
am
sure
At every wedding
in
REBELS
62
disputing, but
gogue was over the fact that the scene of the ensuing
festivities had been set at Mrs. Zulinsky's home under the auspices of the Eckstoffs instead of at Mrs.
Burick's almost precipitated a panic.
According to custom the wedding festival should
have been held at the home of the bride. The unwritten law of orthodox Jewish society gives to the
bride's parents that honour.
But in the ghetto an
honour involving the expenditure of money is someregarded somewhat dubiously. Of course
Mrs. Burick had an explanation ready:
"
A flame carried away mine daughter. I didn't
want the skidach in the first place. A fine ornament,
times
make it."
Mit my mine son no one has
her
"
to
throw themself
will
make
a supper
even a king should be able to eat, and let her make
a supper for her own relations in her own house.
It's all right; the
Above One
I'll
pay us in accordmine
relations won't
Anyhow,
will
Gangs!"
gangs? You
cried
Mrs.
Burick.
"
I'll
"
63
go with
meet
I'll
What
kinda
time
It's
You
got
you stopped already talking about gangs.
You
a wife now.
She's no longer mine daughter.
look after her, mine smart gangster. And now go.
Go
First to
house."
live
up to
Burick home.
And
those presents could not be ignored, for the future of the still unfurnished home
down on
On
these
REBELS
64
little
he couldn't have
a leg
son's
pockets.
more
was offended.
What you
grabbing about?
his
"
65
he asked sharply,
horn-rimmed
spectacles.
you mean grabbing?" returned Mr. Silverman, who looked very much surprised and whose
u
Ain't me and
voice was rising to a shrill tremolo.
"What
Mine
in his
child all
day
mouth, and you talk about
from Rubin, he
re-
meal been spread before me, but even the food did
not interest
me more
Mrs. Becker, good old soul, ever helpful at weddings as well as at funerals, was taking a share in
the work of waiting on the table, and she paused to
speak to Mr. Silverman, who with his wife had been
a neighbour years before of both herself and Mrs.
Eckstoff.
"How
didn't she
come?
"Oho!
proudly
"
your wife?"
is
Mine wife!"
in
Mine wife
she
"
that
voice
is
a semple."
inquired.
cried
Mr.
everybody
Silverman
could
"
"
Mine wife
is
in the hospital."
"Why
hear.
REBELS
66
"
She's sick?'
All the
was
women
looked amazed
wedding while
wife
his
ill.
in a hospital?
"
sick
"
"
but,
You
was
so sick she got such operations that nobody, not even the doctor, thought she should live.
Nu, she got well. They are now keeping her in the
see, she
hospital to
a semple."
are.
She's
moment was
raiding the
fruit plates
and
Everybody was provided for lavishly, and nobody wondered where the money had come from
for such a bountiful meal. They all knew that Mrs.
Eckstoff was poor and that of course she had had
to strip her home almost bare and pawn most of
her possessions to see that her son's wedding was
celebrated properly. There was nothing unusual
67
done the
when
their
How
candidly.
Zalmon told
"Pikers!"
her.
cried
"
Stella.
By
us
you'll
get
more."
Zalmon and
his bride,
tween the
whom
the
squabbling be-
rival families
be present at
provided. Very soon everybody there knew the extent of the couple's sudden wealth.
There were
in to
of doubt
in
her voice,
Any
REBELS
68
gift
it
was
de-
I'm a
shirts
and
ironing
starching
dryman. My
and collars and things. Try me and you'll be glad.
But speeching I leave to my lawyer, Sidney Kohan.
I'm not a speechmaker," he
business
Him
said.
is
speech he
"
She
only a child."
(Mrs. Burick and
is
all
tears.)
"
it,
You
are a man.
and we are
What
all
You were
bum.
You know
later will be
happy you
will be
happy; we
will all be
happy.
If you are to live with your wife like you live with a
ground.
Here
is
all
69
rot in the
ten dollars."
that almost
of
much
was
ex-
it
after
REBELS
70
"
luck
The steady grind of work was more irksome than ever after such an orgy of gaiety, and
our poverty seemed more miserable after all the
the dress suits, the
display of wealth I had seen
ever seen.
tall hats,
all
money
to hire
ZALMON GETSMARRIED
71
earn
never
will I bring
cellar.
mine family?
Or maybe
To
live
should have to
somewhere
in a
for a janitor.
a sick bed by
"
REBELS
72
"
would
ask.
It's a
I should
to be done.
an all-day job. I
that I had learned a great deal in school
enough to
I
use much
life
now
how
to
with.
knew
get through
most of the people of our neighbourhood, and I knew many other things that most
of the grown-ups had never learned. Our expenses
were growing; we were in debt; the sewing-machine
man hadn't been paid for two months; even Mr.
better English than
how many
Oh, yes;
So at
many
I
ting
I
last
tears
found work
Though
mon
in a
I left
school
know
did not
Eckstoff's
day after
wife
were
drawing
very
close
together.
It
was
factory.
We
we kept
at
it
73
among
late
Our work
We
were not permitted to talk to each other. Sometimes some girl, unable to endure the silence any
longer, would begin humming a tune, which would
be taken up by others near her. Marks, the foreman, would question us until he had learned who
began the singing. Then he would deduct three
hours from her pay.
If any girl objected to this
treatment she was told to look for work elsewhere.
It was my first real job and I was afraid of losing
it,
so I tried
hard
to
keep
silent.
But for a
lively
young
It
girl to
seemed
in life
forget
to
me
than to
how
that
make
us girls forget
to smile or laugh.
Surely
if
ever a
man
upon
in his face.
forlorn,
The
fact that
overworked,
we
brow-
REBELS
74
beaten
little
pleasures of
to
girls
life
whom
were denied
the
all
girls
she, a full-grown
woman, coming
to such a slave
shop for a job. I did not see her face at first, but
there was something familiar about her figure. And
then she turned, and I recognized her
the heroine
of that wonderful wedding that had lived
the dreary
memory through
passed, Zalmon Eckstoff's bride!
all
So
this
in
my
wed-
maker
a shock.
It
made me
The
perous could never be safe from disaster. If fortune could take such a turn with Sadie Eckstoff what
75
on the
stairs.
that
in
home.
"
"
"
Isn't he workBut your husband? I asked.
ing?"
"Yes," replied Mrs. Eckstoff bitterly. "He's
been busy ever since our wedding."
"What's he been working at?"
"
Finding jobs for me," she answered sharply.
Weeks went by, and Mrs. Eckstoff and I still
I am
clung to the grind of the button factory.
sure that all the spirit of childhood that was left
in me was driven out in that place and that Zalmon
Eckstoff's wife, who had made such a merry, attrac-
those weeks.
REBELS
76
"You
"
Sure
"
"
It ain't a
last.
What
kind of job?
"
got a
An
anarchist!
presidents
But
murderer!
A man
that kills
Eckstoff's path
CHAPTER V
EMPTY CUPBOARDS
front of the door of a tenement that stood at
alley leading to
our
tyer
home.
Passers-by took but scant notice of either the forlorn young mother or the pitiful display of her
treasures.
It
To
Sometimes a man or a
woman paused
for
moment, moved by
woman
REBELS
78
clutching her
baby to her
breast.
knew
that the
in
our
helter-skelter
passed on,
their
own
affairs to give
bles of others,
much
little
gasp as
if
wholly
As
destitute.
furniture
indeed
street I
saw other
fifty
piles
of
of them
EMPTY CUPBOARDS
in the
and on a few
desperation
plates
79
was the
last resource of
families dispossessed.
In every block at
one home had been destroyed through a landlord's appeal to the law.
The streets were full of
men, women and young girls looking desperately
for work.
Theirs was almost a hopeless search,
for the strikes in the needle trades which at the very
beginning had driven Zalmon Eckstoff's wife to the
so
many
least
The
now
closed shops
more than
supplying
of
our
larder
been
such
problem.
REBELS
8o
some curtains
framed pictures printed in colour
entitled "Love," "The Elopement," "Mar"
"
and Forgiven." The pictures were a wedriage
ding present from the employees of the shop where
the bride was employed at the time of the marriage.
All these things saved from the wreck were a welcome addition to the elder Mrs. Eckstoff's household goods because she had not been prospering of
late and had been obliged to part with a good deal
several kitchen chairs, a kitchen table,
and
and
a set of four
own furniture.
Zalmon and his wife had been living in his
mother's home for only a few days when Mr.
of her
He knew
"
de rent."
where she
EMPTY CUPBOARDS
81
The
cried.
"You
get no rent
to-day."
moved
The
'
out."
recollection of that loss stirred
and he shouted
in
voice
him
to fury,
that could be
heard
REBELS
82
"
What
De rent!
throughout the building:
Lieber
Gott!
is
this?
of business
what people own me
gotta beg.
kind
For money
Mine enemies
tenements
like
you."
Get
"
out,
he roared.
The
in
Zalmon's
"Wait!
back:
marshal
will be
in
To-morrow
by you de city
de house, and de next minute your t'ings
on de
will be
street."
the
street.
"
"A
"
the street he'll put us out!
Zalmon cried.
million dollars expenses I'll make him first!
On
Wait.
He
You'll see."
EMPTY CUPBOARDS
83
Zalmon proudly
show
make
a speech.
Let them put us out now, those cheap marshals,
those murderers from the law who will put a poor
man out on the street for so much a day " he cried.
!
"
me from
REBELS
84
want
it
out so badly
let
To me
he had
to
scratching his
As he
stood there
breathless.
confronting Zalmon.
do you want from my life? Why don't
you move move like a gentleman?"
"
A fit you will take a thousand times before we
cried,
"What
"
Zalmon returned.
move, schnorrer
a
schnorrer
called
(a beggar) was too much
Being
will
for
Mr. Zalkin
to stand, for he
EMPTY CUPBOARDS
85
"
You make
it
Sunday.
'
Make
lived in
it
'
Monday. By
month
a whole
already."
"
make
landlord's
it
mark
for
Mr. Zalkin
couldn't
write
Zalmon' s strategy made him a hero in the neighbourhood, for never had a landlord been outwitted
so cleverly. Indeed his fame spread far and wide,
for Ben Rubin wrote up the incident for his Yiddish
paper, in which he proclaimed Zalmon Eckstoff as
the inspired champion of the poor.
Our own rent day was drawing terribly near and
there was
from.
no
We
earnings.
spent and
telling
to
come
REBELS
86
would pay
ing.
own food
bread and
it
and we have
is
We
salt
and a handful of
Inside were
small packages of
coffee.
went to
EMPTY CUPBOARDS
window where on
the
foods.
How
The
87
why
we were
me know
before
how
close
had
tried to save
Who
destitute.
dollar
from
Hersch
is
We
growing
dissatisfied."
him
again,"
we should go
But what then? Your
last until
another
pay-day."
"
I'm going to look for another job," I said.
REBELS
We
can't live
me."
We
began figuring
how much we
It
How
was
Somehow we
that
had
me
then
in
comfort.
hatred of
that
EMPTY CUPBOARDS
89
me
with
my
youth gone
children have.
and we were
just managing to keep our home tohalf the night thinking of the
awake
gether
evicted woman I had seen with her baby.
I wondered what had become of her. I wondered whether
I lay
the plate.
At a time
lowest ebb
knew
REBELS
90
to announce that he
to solve the
"Mrs. Ganz
I going.
Wherever my
me
there
am
'"
!
less
If
EMPTY CUPBOARDS
so
91
felt
anything.
side-
walk.
'*
The
he announced breath-
lessly.
"What
"
Why,
old
man?"
asked.
the songs."
"
Herman?"
"
That's him.
Come
along.
You want
to see
him?"
Together we crept up the stairs very dark and
and at the very top we came
dirty stairs they were
REBELS
92
when
saw the
widely-known character
in the
ghetto
Herman
by
sleep."
felt as if
have
fifteen minutes to
he would pull up the quilt again. I
another link with my childhood had been
Schindler's yard.
I still
And
fiddler's death.
left the
EMPTY CUPBOARDS
dollars a week, which
was
just twice as
93
much
as the
Almost
Five dollars!
button factory paid me.
after
the
and
to
us
from
save
strikes,
worry,
enough
My
right in saying it was the same kind of a slavedriving place as the one in Centre Street; in fact it
was worse
The
opportunity for making his girls miserable.
abusive words he used in dealing with us some of
and they gave up their
danger of starving.
dress and kimono shop that I
was
in
this
long rows,
the
tached
No
one
to
the
girl
of
part
made an
fell into
the
machines,
wooden
machine
entire garment.
either a sleeve, a
bins at-
facing
us.
Each was
collar or
specialist, making
some other portion. As she completed her part
the garment was passed on to the next girl by
REBELS
94
on to another worker.
Don't you see that the sleevemaker
Hurry
soon will have no work?" he would shout.
This sort of thing created a spirit of competition
hurry
it
"
when
the
One day
was half
a sleeve behind
"
my
"
follow-
concerned.
"
Wait
a minute," he cried,
needle."
u
I'm hurt,"
"
I said.
"
and
I can't
I'll
get another
go back to work."
You
and
down
gritted my
stuck to it for the rest of the day.
teeth
sat
girl
who had
from the
turned
pay-roll.
At
the least
EMPTY CUPBOARDS
effect
week
with the
when
95
And
terrific pace.
that weakest one
who
was myself.
CHAPTER
VI
SCHWARTZ
"
poked
his
head
in
at
ICHAEL
he stepped in to investigate.
"
"
So-o
he exclaimed, looking into my face,
"
You got
which was red and swollen from crying.
!
no job again."
Gifted with quick perceptive faculties was Ichael.
had read the situation at a glance.
"
He
Find
me
;
'
pleaded.
street if
"
we
We
job,
Ichael;
got no money.
find
me
job," I
We'll be out in the
he cried.
job
Why you don't
me I should get by the landlord a
A lot easier
hundred-dollar Christmas present?
For the three
than a job getting would be that.
from us, Abie, Rudolph and me, we ain't one job
got, and yesterday only we hocked it our sateen
And now I'm thinking of being a missis."
quilt.
job
better ask
"A
"
missis!"
96
"Why
man
97
be a missis?"
his
narrow shoul-
no boarder
at all," I argued.
"
How
could a
we can't?"
missis get boarders
"
"
But listen.
You'll see," Ichael said.
man
if
an ad
in a
paper from
I seen
My
imagination began to
street
of
tales I
homes,
its
stir.
What
its
splendid
great hotels, its stores where one could
spend a fortune on a bit of jewelry, on a tiny vase
that the squeeze of a rough hand might shatter into
dust,
in a night;
what
We
REBELS
98
bourhood
as that.
on such extravagance as
So
sight-seeing.
it
was
little
we
"You
I
think
asked doubtfully.
"
Sure," he answered.
"
the
the policemens."
"
Give me the piece out of the paper,"
"
said.
I'm going."
And
so
it
was
that I
thrilling
into
journey
it
How
came
at last, as if
walking
in a
dream, to the
99
was
It
in
in pots at the
its
boss.
Many
as an eagle's.
met
woman
of
You will
giving me a
on me.
"
all
Five cents
REBELS
ioo
for carfare!
quired
such
spending of
me
of
Neither
ways?
if 1
was
ac-
the
money
the
streets.
liveried servants to
filled
me
whom
with wonder.
delivered
The
first
time
my
the
the
parcels
ever met a
bours lived.
What
a contrast
At
last I
had solved
under the low northern stars. No wonhad seemed like some enchanted kingdom
against the dim horizon, for I had found it to be
nights, lay
der
it
in reality
its
palaces,
its
wealth
seemed limitless, its strange, luxurious inhabitants, whose customs, environment and ideas
that
fine clothes,
Was
there
making
we
a living
We
Who
once
who
set his
Of
a bathtub, and his friends doubted his sanity.
ever heard of a bathcourse he never got it.
tub in those tenements, where there was not even a
Who
we
knew from
Avenue
wanted
to be
back among
my own
REBELS
kind.
The
Fifth
from
about the
lot
of a modiste's errand
gown
for a cus-
the evening.
By that time, of course,
half starved and dead tired.
would be
I said,
door.
How
was
103.
block.
On my way home
my shoes were worn
through, and
called
on Berel
wanted
to talk over
my
troubles with
advice.
his
in a
passer-by.
had been
passer-by
'
say.
is
whom
he knew.
is
on
his toes.
By him always
the
Everything what
him
and
he
on
the
book grows.
you buy by
puts
A pound sugar take by him is eight cents. Next
day he will sneak in before the eight a one, and it
sole
is
REBELS
104
is
eighteen.
and we wear
"
rags.
Here he
him from
tell
in the back.
feet takes
his heels.
goes.
can
He
man what
Such a
from nobody.
man.
give
me
such a wife
when
marry again."
as he worked
at his
all
my
life,
lasts.
Sometimes
do?"
The
old
studied
man
my
What
put
can I
face.
silent.
"
last.
bles I
their feet.
I can't
help
105
fix
.them.
Sometimes
they walk off the new soles and come back with
the shoes again to be fixed, and yet a job they ain't
If I was a young person all over again, if to
got.
me
it
to
die,
now
would
work by
better
fixing
people's
heads."
"
How
do you mean
You'd be a doctor?"
He
fixing
people's
heads?
looked up at
"
eyebrows.
tor?" he
doctors, and better shoemakers they could be, on
my honest word. No I mean I would make people
think.
I would fix their heads so they should know
not to do again what I have done with my life.
;
They should
then
ple
in
For
this
"Ah!"
shoulders a head.
would
REBELS
io6
to think.
would
raise
myself out
rut.
work, but that instead of naming my salary in advance he would pay me at the end of the week what
I was not sure I could
he thought I was worth.
trust him to be fair with me in this proposition, but
took the job.
In a small, dingy room I found eight girls working by gaslight. One or two of them glanced at me
indifferently, but the rest did not even look up from
were
as if
my
They
moment
at
such
pace
through
107
thirteen-hour
days.
I
girls
of
its
return to him.
office.
off
If
in
make up
man's was
show
six a
that Minnie
rest
We
were
like
daring to pause
us.
could
REBELS
io8
manage to
for it was
But I could carry out a part of my resolualmost every evening I went to the East
and
tion,
Broadway Library, across the street from the Eduover.
cational Alliance.
All
Russians
as well as
men
me
neighbourhood.
All
knowledge.
they scorned trade. Many of the girls as well as
of the young men were determined to study mediThat seemed to be the most popular profescine.
sion of all among them.
In the evening I would go to Jackson Park, where
groups of them were always to be found. They discussed their favourite authors, Nietzsche, Schopenhauer, Ibsen, Tolstoy, none of whom I had ever
all
of
whom
When
ing on animated discussions they sang their folkThere was nothing apathetic
songs or danced.
introduced
They
109
Rubin worked
for,
with
its
They
violent disapproval.
their spokesman.
people.
"
What do we
There's nothing
in it
life.
it
at once,"
"Right away!"
it
isn't
"
Can
a
"
REBELS
no
he had been.
so longed to see.
Nu,
"
Two
at
last
am
missis,"
he
announced.
boarders
nine dollars a
up the
stairs to holler,
'
de
'
Most
of
my
think the
first
of these anarchists
all
in
government.
with the
met
whomever he chanced
to be associating
that his
work
The world
growing very
had no
The long
The
the
place
hard,
steady grincf and the stifling air were enough to
hours,
REBELS
H2
us.
See what it did to me.
can never get well. None of us were full grown;
some of the girls were little children. The law
down
wonder
if
for
them?
had, except
taught me?
soon began to look upon Lewis, our shop boss,
experience?
I
to which
rights.
on Nathan Postach, who had been reby the girls in the shop since the
garded
day he had refused to lift a heavy bundle, which
He had
the boss had told him to put on a shelf.
he
he
was
afraid
would
strain
the
that
excuse
given
his voice, for during each New Year he sang in
one of the big synagogues, which paid him fifty
called
as a hero
dollars.
I
proposed a
strike to
slip
system at
once.
"
"
You
can strike
let
you want
all
to,"
he shouted.
Then
"
said.
we began
were on picket duty all
and returned for the same pur-
we'll strike
We
girls,
REBELS
ii4
but not one of those
who came
in
answer
to his offer
was
system.
We
all
had been
came back
at
my
when
was
CHAPTER
VII
HEARD
the
wind howling
in the
courtyard as
winter,
it
was
bitter
cold.
brother
"
Sammy was
We
And how
are
we
when we
manded with
from
to
keep us
Sammy
warm and
looked
his
All
come
He
"
guilty.
"
"5
REBELS
n6
"
Haven't
work?
now?
my
it,
"
enough to get
"
he asked reproachfully.
Who finds a job
I been hunting till there's no soles left on
If there's a job there's twenty
shoes.
full
got?
The
men
after
streets are
was
true.
many thousands
of workers.
It
was the
latter part
squalid building,
when
their doors,
He
who
Our
last
lump of
coal
117
fire, and almost the last bit of food was laid out
on the table. I breakfasted on a cup of coffee and
a piece of bread, slipped on a ragged coat, which
mother and I had for months taken turns in wearing, and, still hungry, stepped out into the storm to
join the ever-growing hordes of unemployed who
all day long day after day had been passing drearily
through the ghetto streets looking for work. For
more than a week I had been job hunting, but in my
own trade there seemed to be no chance for me.
Small chance indeed was there for any of us as we
went almost hopelessly from door to door, but I was
a marked girl in those forlorn crowds and wherever
I went I was turned away with a sullen frown or an
angry word. The bosses knew me as a radical, as a
Now, when
We
anarchists."
Many
long stairway
and many a
search, but it was the
a mile I walked,
climbed in
my
nerves.
and
last.
"
What
There's
is
to be-
me and shook my
knew what
it
meant
to starve.
Stepping into
REBELS
n8
a
doorway which
offered a shelter
My
my
whirling up
shoes were
in
full
of holes.
The
cut like a
knife.
Little piles of household goods were beginning
to make their appearance on the sidewalks, and I
knew
of landlords
homeless beside
Standing
their
poor possessions
The fathers and
the children who were old enough to have their
working papers were away going the rounds with
so
many
little
children.
boys and
from want.
Only a few steps from where I stood the furniture of some miserable home had been thrown onto
the walk. There was not much of it
two or three
a
a
clock
and some bedding but it
chairs,
table,
meant a great deal to the poor woman who stood
beside it wiping the tears from her eyes.
Clinging
to her dress were three frightened little children,
suffer
119
I
the largest surely not more than six years old.
scarcely noticed them, for I was accustomed to such
on my own thoughts.
of hatred for the shop
bosses, for the landlords, for every human being
who had riches while so many poor folk were being
sights
I
was
and
my mind was
intent
We
are penniless.
We
"
stone.
her?
What
Who
little
children
from
their
home
into
the storm?
REBELS
120
die.
"
Who
Europe.
"Who
He
know
don't
lives in
"
him.
I cried to
"
I
is
is
"
He
the agent?"
breathless
peace with
"
Do
all
the world.
you know
that a
woman and
her three
little
For
few seconds he
my
face
are happening
now
in
hundreds
dow and
see
what
day
it
121
Oh, yes;
"
annoyance.
But
when they
homes
interI
am
How
it,
this
cuse
though the
streets
were
filled
with
women and
chil-
it
REBELS
122
fire.
It stirred them to
were
made
of going to the
Suggestions
frenzy.
agent's office and attacking him.
"
"
Such talk is foolish," I told them.
There is
to
we
can
do
ourselves
from
except
nothing
keep
I passed the open door of an empty
freezing.
church a moment ago. Why don't you go there and
get warm?
"
What
What
"
good for?
"
church!
declared they would rather freeze than have anything to do with such a place.
So
them
selves.
As
to solve their
the
Unemployed by
cast-off clothing,
of the destitute.
come
Here was
line.
kid gloves.
So the rich people were trying to help at last.
Surely it was time. But what a farce it was. Here
was
problem involving two hundred thousand unemployed people, and these wealthy philanthropists
a
123
it
from despair?
"
The
shivering
rich
line.
"
"
The
Why
going on?
the misery among us?
What do
is
having read
in
my
favourite newspaper
had
recently
to his hoard.
And
cast-off
With
from
this
aimlessly
At the Williamsburg
through the driving snow.
hearse
entrance
a
passed by. Close behind
Bridge
in the middle of the street a man, a woman and
several children were hurrying along on foot trying
to keep up with it.
They were all wringing their
and
tears
were
hands,
streaming down their faces.
REBELS
124
As
were
"
Mein
kind!
Mein kind!"
the
woman
cried,
and the children joined her in loud wails of overwhelming grief. She had followed her dead child
as far as she could, and beyond their means were
the few nickels that would have paid the carfare
of the family to the cemetery.
Everywhere wretchedness and suffering.
long, I asked myself, would the ghetto bear
How
its
bur-
much longer with the sufferers so harmless and uncomplaining, awed by the
shadow of the law. I knew that all around me were
conditions could not last
tens of thousands
would
who,
if
"
The
and began
to
And
"
"
to myself.
The
took my stand on the curb
I cried
my
voice high.
125
The
thrill
ran
me.
through
Scores of them
if
you starve or
if
What do
sessed
law?
they care if our streets are full of disposfamilies, driven from their homes by the
Do
REBELS
126
live.
much
tell
them
to
send the
"
"
You're
Marie,"
right,
We'd
"
Show them we no
came
many
voices.
"
uptown.
"
We're going
Marie," they
called back.
As
watched them
crossed
police.
my
just a fleeting
shadow of doubt
mind.
Some
be.
might
"
Let the trouble begin,"
ter
what happens.
It
is
"
no mattold myself,
better so.
We've got to
I
had spoken
my
,127
convictions, the
schools.
My
emotions
lowers of the red flag of anarchy.
had been stimulated and directed by the sufferings
of sweatshop slavery.
I recalled
Street.
"
us their
cast-off clothes.
If any of
girls
REBELS
128
had picked up
in the
Bowery and
it
him
so.
"
Marie," he protested,
need help why not let them have
help everybody who's down and
"
But,
"
No,"
said.
"
it
It isn't.
if
these people
It's a
it?
time to
It's
most and to
a time to help
let the rest go
Show
vagrants together.
I'll help you get them."
"
my pal by way of
Take him along if you want to."
had heard that name before. Indeed, a good
This
is
introduction.
I
me where
'
He
it
in the
preached the
violence and assassination.
reds
story.
"
Come
on,"
said to Caron.
"
129
show you
I'll
He
had expected
to find
was
employment here
Irish-
year.
as a civil
had not
who were
the thousands
in
to the
"
Oh,
fine
"
there's a riot.
he cried.
And
"
That's the
stuff.
There
it
hope
will be.
The
is
little
in times
REBELS
130
Many
of them
to
me
at once.
Women,
Men
help.
churned into
fro in great
slush.
sympathizing with the wretched throng and unwilling to resort to vigorous methods to clear the
street.
The
situation
social service
in upon them.
For the remainder of the afternoon crowds hung
131
When
made good.
and I knew
that night.
Again
I rallied
but they
once,
blindly.
"
Come
on!
"
them.
were ready
to
follow
me
again
"
I cried.
in rags
and
tatters,
doors to
way
had
us.
To
that place
we marched, and on
the
back to Rivington
Street,
comfort.
We
REBELS
132
after a
who
moment
it
'
am
"
but
don't see
how
plete
still
After a time we
gling to get in from the street.
managed to get the door shut, and, as there was not
for all those who were huddled
some
were persuaded to leave. Old
together inside,
newspapers were spread on the hard, bare floors,
where at least five hundred persons, lying down close
sleeping
space
in,
found
That part of
the problem
133
the
me some money
Give
men
demanded.
"
"
I can't,"
he answered.
filling
*
said.
You
troubles,"
you are supporting this
feed
five
hundred
starving
men.
Make
it
ten
dollars."
He
gave
Then
ness men
me
the ten.
and other East Side busiI went, bulldozing and threatening, and
before long had raised enough money to buy rolls
and coffee for all my hungry five hundred.
On my way home that night I met Arthur Caron.
His clothes were torn, his face cut and bleeding.
"
Look at what you have done," he said with a
"
The police almost killed me. We've had
laugh.
an awful time uptown in those restaurants. I joined
those men you sent, and we went in and charged our
to storekeepers
134
REBELS
CHAPTER
VIII
RIOTS
check the ever-spreading destitution and suffering among the tenements in
effort to
THE
ing
to
that dreadful year 1914 was much like trysweep back the waves of the sea. The
mayor's committee and the rich philanthropists uptown meant well, but they did not accomplish much
Not one
serving unemployed
to
of;
in
the people
who were
willing
homeless wanderers of the streets slept on the Settlement House floors every night and had a free
supper of coffee and
rolls.
raised
but
we
did have
REBELS
136
House crowds
to
may have
faults
as generous
I
was glad
Settlement
and
to be able to give
House every
him
a ticket to the
night; otherwise he
streets or slept
would
Every evening I continued my curbstone speechmaking. I was trying to stir the unemployed to the
point where they would force the public to provide
them with free meals and free sleeping quarters
until
learned to do -their
own
make
were starving.
One
me
RIOTS
face of
my
Mr. Ginsberg,
137
the shoemaker.
my
In a flash
"
ing at him,
"
who
told
me when
moaned
He, Berel Ginsberg, who had always behumble sphere and the hopelessness of
his
a speech.
in all his
was being
upon for
REBELS
138
to
be a leader
his
among
For Rutgers
people.
that night, and a thou-
He
his eyes.
began to speak.
indistinct at first,
rose until
The crowd
square.
fell silent.
it
His
voice,
low and
doubt
if
The
shoemaker's
made
out him.
He
was
invited to speak at
all
sorts of
RIOTS
139
affairs,
He
reputation.
to
was
my own needs
my mother.
and
to
all
make
if I
was
to
Zalmon
"
Eckstoff's wife.
"
I'm working.
I'm a lucky woman/' she said.
What do you think of that when most girls are
wearing their shoes off chasing jobs?"
u
Look at mine," I exclaimed, showing her the
"
holes in my soles.
You can't land a job for me,
can you, Sadie?
That's what
"
''
answered.
'
you're Marie
Ganz or
he'll
blow right up
in the air.
shops on the East Side were closed! An eight-dollar-a-week job, too, and in a shop that wasn't half
bad as such places went. The conditions were better
REBELS
140
than
among them.
him
to fury.
here come
whole week?
closed kept
it
You
can't even
"Here;
say,
look.
It's in
the paper."
Schindler,
unable to discover whether the paper even mentioned the subject, would be reduced to helplessness
by
as
"
What
if
RIOTS
141
am
sure
it
thing of a sensation.
We
didn't see
a week.
In his ab-
distinction
"
loftily,
REBELS
142
it.
We
settled
"
pull
whom
the
Borkin that Schindler did not seem to mind his oppression, which he took as a matter of course.
"
If eleven men were wrong and I was right
jurymen, not grubba yungen" (stupid persons),
"
mind you," Borkin would remind his humble part"
ner in the course of an argument,
how come you to
was while
was working
gan
doing the best
was almost
women. So
movement was
it
RIOTS
143
women
out of
to take ad-
many
bank failed, and all the savings of his employees were swept away.
Scarcely was there a
week when some private bank in the tenement disSiegel's
its doors.
So, day by day, the
burden
of
woe
and
ghetto's
grew
grew.
All the lower East Side, the home of a million
tricts
REBELS
144
was on
its
Often there
broke out from time to time.
the police.
and
idle
street
crowds
were fights between
It was a simple matter during those nerve-wracking
riots
weeks to
The
ning of
stir a
first
March
in
crowd
to violence.
i8th,
when
Cooper Union.
ing
Industrial
Workers of
from
eve-
The
the
anarchists
World
to make
and the
believed
the
were trying
political capithe general misery, and hated them accord-
Socialist leaders
tal
came on the
serious disturbance
ingly.
He was
and
doubt
He
was getting
together, most of them
fiercely.
of
me
caught sight
You're one
Marie.
he
crowd of
I.
W. W.
called
of us.
Socialists
his followers
As
Come
men.
"
out,
Come and
what we
he
on,
help us
think of
them."
I
making trouble
RIOTS
145
for the Socialists just then, but Joe's crowd was made
up largely of my friends, and I joined them. I sup-
O'Carroll's
though we
We
One
was
and
of Joe's friends, a
man named
Wissolsky,
his
when
We
tectives
worse.
off his
REBELS
146
make
ist
a speech.
Julius Gerber, one of the Socialleaders, laid hold of him and tried to drag him
Joe swung
away.
and
landed heavily on
the men on the
Immediately
his
fist,
it
all
Then
the
uni-
all
directions.
Fists
to Joe
When
out.
We
came
hysterical.
The
RIOTS
fist,
tell
whom
14?
he was hitting and
a flash-light picture.
them on and
off
with the
in driving us all
whom
Why
"Why
'
woman,
associate
companions?"
associate
with
them?"
answered hotly.
They are my own people.
Haven't I suffered just as they have? Haven't I
known what poverty and starvation mean? I am
REBELS
I4
no
traitor.
Their cause
circumstances have
is
mine.
made me.
How
pose
And
How could
they have been anything else?
During all this time Emma Goldman, 'the anarchist leader, was away on a lecture tour and out of
what circumstances had made them.
who had
to
assassinate
Henry
C.
in
Frick,
steel
manu-
facturer.
few days after the Cooper Union riot, Berkman, Caron and others determined to take part in a
meeting that had been called by the Central Federated Labour Union, which was to protest in Union
Square against the treatment of the Michigan copper
mine strikers. Berkman and Caron asked me to
come there and speak, and I accepted. Joe O'Carroll was preparing his I. W. W. men for the occasion and advising them to seize the opportunity to
protest against the imprisonment of Frank Tannenbaum, who had been arrested for inciting a riot in
RIOTS
the
Roman
149
Catholic Church of
St.
in
Alphonsus
West Broadway.
When we arrived at the square, early in the afternoon, we found four hundred policemen, many of
them mounted men, on guard. Soon at least seve^n
thousand persons were massed in the northern end of
the park. Joe's men, several hundred strong, wore
in their hatbands red cards on which were printed
"
"
the words,
Tannenbaum
Be Free
They
MUST
"
brothers to prison.
On my way to the speakers' stand I met my pal,
the settlement worker.
He held my hand for a
moment
"
as he wished
me
luck.
know
'*
Whenever I'm in
need of help you're the one I'll come to."
Then I left him, and joined Berkman, Lincoln
Steffens, Caron and O'Carroll. After a few moments
Berkman raised his arms for silence. The crowd
At the conclusion of his remarks
let him speak.
two of our men held aloft two great black flags. On
"
"
one were the words, Tannenbaum Shall Be Free
I
it,"
answered.
On
word,
HUNGER."
was
the single
REBELS
150
As
crowd broke
to surge
westward
then slowly
of Fifth
in the direction
began
Avenue, evidently intent on trouble. Joe had left
us, and was pushing forward at the head of his men.
The
police inspector raised his hand as a signal.
crowd noticed his movement, and jeered and yelled
at him.
For a moment the flags continued to wave
above the moving throng; then they were suddenly
jerked from the hands of the colour bearers, whom
the
police.
They're
too
strong
for
you
to-day."
The crowd
the time.
Almost
who
Come
on,
cried.
"
entitled
We'll move to
RIOTS
Rutgers Square and hold a meeting that won't be
Marie Ganz will speak to you
interfered with.
Come
there.
We
made
on,
Marie
"
!
who
determined to protect
me
in
case of trouble.
mind
with
my mood
pose
in that
myself swept on by
uncontrollable impulses; no cool appeals to reason
would have swerved me or any of us from our purjust then.
I felt
As we
among us
as
we surged onward
at least a score of
men
came
below
mob
into groups.
REBELS
152
"
"
of the capitalists
All around me
I cried.
"
Down
"
my
cries
Three shrieking
above
a run.
he
Nearby
fell.
me
RIOTS
"
all
It's
over,
Come
beaten.
Marie
"
153
he shouted.
danger.
tering,
We're
on."
"
panic-stricken by
me
out of
scat-
and
swinging clubs.
"
The
For God's
police were
continue
the
sake,
come away!"
struggle.
We
It
cried
my
pal.
was hopeless
moved on with
to
the
fugitives.
At
last
we were driven
in
suit,
forced
it
so mercilessly.
CHAPTER
THE
FIRES OF
IX
HATE
battle with the police, the spirit of restronger than ever. Reports of the
in
volt
of hate.
sullen
in
apathy
every open
square.
At the close of each day's work I set out to
harangue the street crowds. And what crowds they
How
were!
fast they
at
utes of speech-making
together.
How
How
selfishness
of the
154
it
was the
Their
was being heard, and
155
at last.
to listen.
The
in
the poor.
a doubt in
my mind
that I
was
and did
as an agitator
everything
the
social
that
against
system
permitted such condiI saw no room for argument of my conviction
tions.
said
right in
that
always
in the
lent speeches
shadow of poverty.
I
made
retract in
might
good deal
Some of
I
I
the vio-
part to-day,
Let
me make
it
plain that I
in those
toward the
was preaching
REBELS
156
the
protection
of
society
against
my
disturbing
undergoing
gamble
few days
later,
pal
had worked
his
way through
157
college,
and
had
oppor-
college
realize the
course,
the
it
knowledge
over
my
my
little
German
He
would look
Schopenhauer,
some of
philosophers,
mated
me
direction
my
But
Mazel
claimed.
"
tov,
Mrs. Ganz
"
!
last
it
REBELS
158
to foot.
By
Goldberg
if
we learned
dollars
by
shidach.
strong.
ried.
am
when
But
didn't
want
to get married, at
How could
berg
that
159
and
begged and
edness of our
could
my
hope
She spoke of
life.
for
how
little
future
we
would
it
with
"
she exclaimed.
Goldberg,
but
To-morrow
the sewing-
And you
off,
"
refuse a
which
"
wouldn't say
I
ning.
When the time came Hersch Ditchik, who considered that a great stroke of fortune was about to
befall me, was on hand to help entertain the guest
who was
do our home honour, and added a handful of bananas from his pushcart to the tea and biscuits that had been prepared.
For this occasion I
had only the dress I wore at all times. A neighbour
to
REBELS
160
offered to lend
me
wedding, but
declined
in borrowed
wooer whom
I didn't
a silk
finery
gown
it.
for the
sake of impressing a
want to marry.
Pincus Goldberg was a short, stout man with very
small, round eyes, a large, thick-lipped mouth, and
very black, wire-like hair, which was cut close to his
scalp except on top of his head, where it stood
straight up like the bristles of a brush. He wore a
brand-new suit, and there was a white flower in his
He was a man of few words but of
button-hole.
large appetite, and he ate all of Hersch's bananas
and most of the biscuits in a surprisingly short time.
When he had apparently satisfied himself with
"
Two seats I
the food, he turned to me and said,
got for the People's Theatre.
Dollar seats
in the
orchestra."
The more
"
Some
*
It's
Well, at
last I
walked away
to the theatre.
ain't
sweeter
that speech.
It
161
man
of few, in fact of only absolutely necessary words, and was not given to sentiment as a rule.
At the theatre door he bought a bag of peanuts.
"
For you," he said again, but this time without a
compliment, though he seemed to be groping in his
was
me
"
about his
affairs.
we
REBELS
162
life
calmly than
had feared.
"
"
if
you please."
And
that
was the
appointed.
So the golden opportunity passed, leaving me to
the toil of the shop and to the old problem of
stretching our income far enough to stave off hunger
and to keep a roof over our heads. The next eve-
ning found
me
his
There
head swathed in
being welcomed as heroes.
who were
In court they
had triumphed over their accusers, for the magistrate had not only discharged them on the ground
that they had been arrested without justification, but
had criticized the police severely for their interference with the right of free speech and for their
brutal attacks upon us.
came back
163
to us after a
few
cried,
wrongs,
it
will
a crime to be penniless?
"
the fringes of
clubs.
it
if
how
closely
I realized
I
could not
REBELS
64
This
trouble,
was intense. Eighteen dollars was conwhich was a very large amount to come
from a ghetto street crowd composed wholly of poor
people, many of them without employment.
At a second meeting at Union Square, which was
held a few days later, the same feeling was apparent.
It was a Saturday afternoon affair, and there were
no Saturday half-holidays in my trade. But I left
Square
riots
tributed,
had
new
just bought
pair of shoes, and felt independent
enough to risk my job rather than miss such an im-
From
I. W. W. orators.
I was on the
ist,
same stand with Caron, Lincoln Steffens, Hutchins
Hapgood and Leonard D. Abbott, President of
the Free Speech League, and I made one of the
The crowd greeted me with a roar of
speeches.
the cry went up, "Sweet Marie!"
It
and
cheers,
was the first time I had ever heard this nickname,
Whenever I apbut it stuck from that day on.
in
it
afterward
was
sure to be heard
peared
public
anarchist and
shouted at
me
other speakers,
sooner or
later.
referred to
the
I,
as well as the
imprisonment of
a collection
165
was taken
to
help
meeting the expenses of appealing his case.
"
"
I want to tell
Fellow workmen," said Abbott,
in
by
and
However,
this
demonstration
resulted
disas-
REBELS
166
"
So-o
"
came
me
I didn't
crying
have by
for
his
partner,
Schindler.
They came
"
Borkin shouting,
Look,
a
what
have
Schindler,
I,
juryman,
got working by
me; a murderer, a anarchister. I want you should
"
fire her, Schindler
fire her quick. Throw her out
rushing back together,
'
You'd
better
pay me
the
money
me
that's
coming to
reminded
Pay
who
in the city.
The
167
columns
to pay.
"
'
to be
some great
dreamed of."
was wildly excited, his head was held high, his
chest thrown out, and his whole body was quivering
He
REBELS
168
but there was another subject then under wide discussion which occupied fully as much of my attention.
arrested,
bail.
He
School.
I told
Some of us formed
was
to speak
my
a committee,
announcing
169
I
should
intention.
war.
With
under my arm,
walked downtown in the noon hour the next day
to the statue, where I expected to find our committee
Not one of them was there, but
waiting for me.
the square was packed with people, who were listening to a man whom I knew, a man who had been born
a Jew, had become an atheist to sell atheist
pamphlets, had become an anarchist with the object
of advancing himself as a public speaker, had joined
a Bible society to sell its tracts, and who was now
talking patriotism under a huge American flag.
a big bundle of the circulars
began
to distribute
my
circulars.
The
speaker,
as if to
me
to pieces.
The speaker was quick to take
of
the
turn
affairs had taken.
With one
advantage
tear
hand pointing
at
me and
shouted:
"
Here
is one of them now, one of those anarShe has come to break up our meeting, a
meeting held under the very flag itself."
chists.
REBELS
170
"
much
as
And
voices.
With
head, and
ing at
my
staggered under
dress, tearing
it
it.
Men
to shreds.
were
I
clutch-
gasped for
breath.
elled hair
mob was
my
171
was swept
trailing
Take my
Then
the detective turned to the doors and threatened the leaders of the mob with arrest unless they
dispersed.
REBELS
172
Becky
CHAPTER X
A STORM BREAKS
were flying out of Rutgers Square
was to be arrested. It was true that
the police were watching me closely, just as
were
watching Berkman, Caron, O'Carroll and
they
all our other leaders; and there was good reason
for their vigilance.
The red flag of anarchy was
RUMOURS
that I
waving
death
in pits as fire
173
REBELS
174
the
appealing
for
justice
in
Congress
against
the
was
labour
tyranny
of
capital.
One
many
a sinister threat in
would surely have been made the scene of bloodshed and widespread destruction, but when it came
to plotting violence there was no centrtal directing
city
In this respect
of one another.
It
members through which they ran danger of imprisonment or the death penalty. This is now, and, I
think, always has been, the understanding in anarchist circles; certainly in those with
which
have
been associated.
In a dark side street a man came out of the black
shadows and stopped me. The glow of a sputtering
street lamp fell across his face, and I saw that he
was Arthur Caron. I had not seen him for several
He
days, and there was a marked change in him.
looked half-starved, his cheeks sunken, his eyes glitWhen he spoke his voice was
tering feverishly.
hoarse and rasping.
STORM BREAKS
A
"What's
asked.
"
the
matter
You look
as
comrade?"
with
if
175
you,
week."
"
"
"To
us to
do?
And
rid the
Have you
got a plan?
if
you
"
groups.
be done.
"
We
ought to wreck the offices of every capiconcern in this city," he said, and there was
a murmur of assent.
"
"
Kill a few millionaires," I cried,
and put the
fear of God into those that are left. Let the workers
talistic
who
know
them
that we,
in action
REBELS
176
humility, yet he
of
is
said
"
is
Who is
life to see
that justice
done?"
Silence
fell.
The
told him,
"
you
will
are
innocent."
u
guilty," he answered.
feeling of dread
came over me as
watched
STORM BREAKS
was
177
certain that
He
And
all
for
that matter.
"
she be
sent
to jail?"
cried
REBELS
178
mother.
"
the
stein.
"
The law
"
!
shudder.
was
me
jail," I said,
Nobody
"
but
will give
me my
move
out.
We
rent,
might
and it
was always
one thing or another. One could never tell. However, luck proved to be with us. In Delancey Street,
in the shadow of the Williamsburg Bridge, we found
a place at the same rent. It was no larger, and no
STORM BREAKS
179
managed
expenditure of a nickel.
very little that mother and
carry between
us,
his
own
to
in a
pocket
handkerchief, helped us with the heavier things.
Our new home was as sunless as the one we had
for the windows looked out upon the great
wall of the bridge; but there was one marked difference, for our view, instead of being confined to
left,
little
below.
The
quiet in
REBELS
i8o
mobbed.
When
the day
heavy
statue,
that
STORM BREAKS
A
suspected
me
appreciation when
"
Men
181
its
said:
who have
the
power
No
Rutgers
to
no chance of
I
hour for
to
his
name,
REBELS
182
fellers,
one
life
of dynamite
accomplish?
"
The
How
The
it!
call
"
thrilled to
it.
The
pleading voices of millions of my fellow-workers, the voices of the homeless, the voices of the women I had seen evicted,
could
ignore it?
urging
urging
and
suffering.
How
could
face
my
before
me
of poverty
people,
how
could I
worth,
sider
it
when
come
to me.
What was my
STORM BREAKS
183
stake?
life in
all
am
But
readers
the troops
and
had been
who were
it
in
charge
not discussing the rights and wrongs of
the question now.
I am merely telling the story of
the
life
of
a
life,
ghetto girl and its development
my
of
it.
am
do?
I
the streets as
if I
were
REBELS
84
dream.
I saw nothing, heard nothing.
walked as if on air.
a
in
"
"
Where
can
get
my hands in my
and did not even know where they were sold.
certainly I had no money to buy one, no matter
life,
And
how
in
My mind
to a decision of
with
it,
as I think
it
remember
meant
to
surely
had no
making
STORM BREAKS
A
But as
found myself
in
185
some
No
tried to collect
kill
"
!
a crumpled newspaper.
My
on
the
latest
headlines
over
the
eyes
report of
in
the
it aloud
and
to
read
I
mines,
killings
began
to the crowd.
It was easy to see that they were
my hand was
In
fell
a speech.
for what has been done out there in the west, and
he must no longer live."
The crowd broke into cheers, and swept toward
me in wild excitement. So close did they press that
was almost swept from the ledge. At that moment a hand reached out to me. It held a pistol.
Not a word was spoken, and who it was that offered
I
the
And
"
I
I
guilty
am
going down
man,"
it.
to
I shouted,
Rockefeller, Jr."
"
REBELS
i86
seemed
to
me
in
my
When
Building.
arrived there
Upton
Sinclair
and
his
those that
found
almost alone.
and
the car,
"
You
I'll
know
lever, threat-
A
peeping from
STORM BREAKS
my
dress, for he
slammed
187
the door
it
followed him.
entered
tall,
slender
"What
can
"
him down
"
like a
dog."
will
deliver
REBELS
i88
crowd
my
the subway.
All around
tell
me
to get into
faces, too,
and
I felt that
with me.
I left
my
friends at
homeward through
Worth
Street,
and trudged
Now
that the
A
"
"
STORM BREAKS
189
finished.
asleep.
fell
CHAPTER
XI
PRISON
AWOKE
with
headache.
splitting
work of
was beginning
street
From
the day.
Grey
the windows,
"Chiala?"
"Yes, Hersch."
"You
"No."
"
He
is
the business
saved.
From him
He
realized that he
knew
PRISON
191
"
"
but
It's very kind of you, Hersch," I said,
It wouldn't save me,
couldn't take your money.
anyway, and what's more, I'm not afraid of going
I
to prison; I
want
to go.
I'll
get a
good
rest there,
up for
Our
"
me
pleaded, looking at
You
if
you
do."
'
Mother
raised her hands in a gesture of helplessit was no use to argue the matter
She knew
with me.
ness.
The
first
Italian district,
them of
not
fail.
enthusiastically.
At
my
was held
in
Union
REBELS
192
who had
were everywhere.
"
If they really
mean
now is their
made no attempt
to arrest me,
them very
my
opinion of
my
speech.
and that
PRISON
193
That night
my thoughts
I wondered where he could be
again and again.
and why I had not heard from him. Surely I should
at
into
me
it
in
me
to
doubt for
unwavering.
abandon
his
Yet
these,
REBELS
194
meant
City.
It
made me
cowardly when
his life while I
I,
too,
had
feel
I
guilty
work
in
New York
thought of
futile
words.
my
life if
Oak
had
scarcely
had
my
PRISON
pedigree taken by the
for
Harold
man
195
at the desk,
when
a clerk
was
Earth
plain that my friends in the office of Mother
were already at work in my behalf. The clerk, on
learning the amount of money demanded, promptly
deposited five hundred dollars at the desk, and I
was released.
in offering to deposit
money
for
my
bail.
It
Very well," he
said.
"
I'll
REBELS
196
as a
of
my
was not
tremor
[<
in
her voice.
:<
No,"
I said.
months."
"Six months!"
months
life was
"
in prison
to
come
You have
"
!
to
The most
six
"Six
tears.
all
is
our dreary
work now,"
"
and with
what Hersch pays you for board you will manage
to get along. Don't worry about me. I am ready to
go.
am
steady
I said,
am
not
I regret
me
can give."
PRISON
"
You
197
"
Unless
do anything," I answered.
in
to
read
books
send me some of your
can't
you want
to
prison."
"
"
But
Yes, I can do that," he said dejectedly.
There
must
think
of
to
I can't
prison.
your going
Haven't
much of
ought
"
to
The
the law to
He
tried to reason
sat
me
down and covered
you
"
are, but
we
Don't talk of
When
man
I
clamouring for
children
who worked
did
in
behalf of
REBELS
198
What
all
that he could
buy, and Louise Berger and her halfbrother, Carl Hanson. Louise Berger and her halfbrother had been little known outside of our own
little group of anarchists, but they were destined to
become notorious in connection with a frightfully
afford
to
disastrous explosion of dynamite in their flat in Lexington Avenue. While all these friends were greet-
me who
a time
all
to
show
ahead of me.
can feel
There's some
it.
dis-
don't think I
live.
PRISON
199
and
was asked if I
rose from my seat, and
wanted
"
office,
who had
tried to persuade
me
to sign a peace
bond
to
Murphy
The evidence of these police officers and the refusal of this defendant to put in a defence tend to
'
show that
It has gone to such an extent that lawand disorder are daily occurrences. I do
mediately.
lessness
She, in
my
woman
opinion,
is
is
and vicious minds. They have urged her to challenge the law, and she has done so. This poor, misguided individual has put the challenge directly up
to the law, and in administering the law I must do
REBELS
200
my
duty.
hard labour
He had
impose a penalty of
the workhouse."
I shall
in
my
arrest there
The
city
was
sixty
days at
and disorder
in a turmoil.
in
many
places.
five
feller, Jr.
was afraid
that
my
imprisonment would
as for myself I didn't care, and the sentence certainly was no shock to me, for I had come to court
My
PRISON
201
moment
much
in
a cell.
My
about
fellow prisoners,
my
ground
"
case.
it
Through
the mysterious
'
a harsh
terrific.
REBELS
202
day,
meant
to start a
strike.
hunger
answered that
and
was
tired out
by
all
My
was hard
and
smelled strongly of disinfectants. The pillow was
full of hard lumps and black with dirt, and I threw
it on the floor.
Without removing my clothes, I lay
down, and, despite the discomfort and the jarring
voices of the other prisoners, soon fell sound asleep.
The heavy rapping of a key on my cell bars awakened me. A matron was standing at the door. She
summoned me out, and led me to the lower floor,
where I was given a large cube of bread and a cup
tried to rest.
cot
as nails,
With
women
we had
PRISON
203
advised to pretend that she was ignorant of everything else. Such advice was not needed by most of
them, for there were very few who had not been in
prison before. One girl stood aside from the rest,
at a tall
enemies.
We
were taken
woman
in nurse's
test
my
turn
We
ous showers.
filled
with numer-
off
had
taken a bath just before going to The Tombs, and
that I didn't want to undress among all those women,
REBELS
204
trusty brought to me my prison garb, a onepiece dress of white and black perpendicular stripes.
were not allowed to wear corsets, but it was
We
woman
vanity.
By
this
laid out
down with
could eat.
'
Again
tried;
but
it
was no
how
use.
I
it.
couldn't under-
much apparent
There was no doubt that they
enjoyment out of
The food
PRISON
205
made
the acquaint-
cell.
It
a large cell
was
and was even larger than our bedroom at home.
Through a solitary, narrow window came a glimmer
of light, and by standing on tiptoe I could look out
through the bars and get a glimpse of the river.
As I lay down on my cot a terrible nausea came
over me. I knocked on the cell door, 2nd a matron
it
came.
"
cup of tea.
"
and
I can't eat
want
your
food."
"
"
Others
are
eating
There's no reason
1
The
why you
human
it,"
is
she
replied
sharply.
can't."
are eating
it
no reason why
eating it
for
it is fit
beings," I said.
Is that the way you feel about it?" she
Well, you'll eat it soon enough."
"Oh!
'
cried.
It
was
either to give me
She gave
doctor.
how
REBELS
206
she went
a
"
"
the doctor
demanded.
u
He
"
ing,
felt
my
She's
pulse
all
She acts as
with
'
he
me from home.
You quit reading
advised,
and
matron.
The
of
my
walls.
all
I was a child
past life.
father on the house-top under
my
went by
in a flash,
and
was
slaving for a living in the sweatshop under the everwatchful, cold, hard eyes of Marks, the foreman.
horses' hoofs
the
PRISON
207
they
my
face with
I fall
my
my
hands.
There
is
cot,
and cover
nothing in
my
CHAPTER
XII
OMEN
V/V
made my
had
among
women
first
tell.
They
filled
me
and
put
my
WOMEN
OF THE ABYSS
209
Before
a large agate-ware bucket, with a cover.
long the door of my cell was unlocked, and I was
onto
my
cot.
was too
to think of breakfast.
sick
An
"What
I
is
told her of
sickening effect
"
my
of the buckets.
"
While
as I learned later,
REBELS
210
I told
"
"
him I was.
"
do you like the prison?
How
"
Why
"
He
he speaks to you
first."
me
running after
she cried.
"
again.
out of here."
I didn't
need to be told
this twice,
though
could
little
ferry.
it
felt to
me
At
be out
down on
WOMEN
OF THE ABYSS
211
Lehman
tice
was
to
Some
Not long
my
arrival there I
'
"
I asked.
are you taking me?
can give no information," the old matron
"
It's against the rules."
Where
We
replied.
But
was soon
After a
The appearance
REBELS
2i2
It
was
like a
me
to
the
top
tier.
(
"
There's
She'll like
lots of air
it
better there.
wants."
Blackwell's
Island.
The door
of
my
cell
was allowed
to
remain open,
The
were
side,
dow
cells
all
high
in the wall.
In
all
that long
row
was
and
My
cot
was
clean, everything
was
sanitary,
to the
island prison.
My
first
WOMEN
OF THE ABYSS
213
sugar or milk, and four stewed prunes. What a surprise it was after the awful meals in the other place
!
And
feeling.
Of
affairs
course
felt that
when
the next
maker
start strikes.
"
was glad
to be alone.
of reading
my
all I
wanted to
think.
could
write
at
letters,
too.
wrote
to
REBELS
214
mother, to
to
my pal,
my friends
quests to
to send me books, for the
charm of Dostoyefsky
Books came to me, and so
did letters.
Berkman wrote often, signing himself
"
Bella," for if he had used his own notorious
name
ered.
Of
course
He
me.
meant.
After
had been
in solitary
been trans-
just
decided change
my
the
fellow-prisoners
the
warden that
me
Commissioner
correctly,
for
told
we should complain to
food was not fit to eat. They
that
as their spokesman.
The warden listened patiently,
admitted that the cook was inefficient, and that he
may have
done,
the
But, whatever he
meals showed no improve-
ment.
With
prison
life
became very
women
in
different for
my
me.
corridor
I
could
WOMEN
OF THE ABYSS
215
to
me
to be
woman, whose
with mine.
cell
She told
me
was
in the
same corridor
a story that
aroused
my
interest
at once.
a waist.
left
it
who would
steal.
At any
rate,
whether innocent or
was with
her.
However, many of
were
the
innocence.
lot
Nellie
always protesting
Ross, for example, who told me that she was a lion
tamer by profession, declared she had been arrested
because a gun had been found on her, though her
REBELS
216
But
intentions
Many
of the
of celebrities.
little
weapon
for
woman was
a certain stout
names
the
"
and the
Goldman."
Our
de-
Barrymore";
zini,"
it
was
"
Ethel
Tetraz-
"
Emma
assigned to
women
cell.
WOMEN
OF THE ABYSS
217
is
required.
the
Then the cigarette travels back along
line, passed
on by hands that reach in spectral fashion through
the bars.
fire
could be pro-
eight of us
got together
in
one
cell,
where we
sat
REBELS
218
on
the
made
paper or
in
women jumped
to
their
feet,
at high
screaming hysterically.
tension, the shock had driven them frantic.
They
rushed down the corridor, and began pounding on
"
What's up? we
"
has happened?
"
"
It's
nothing; nothing at
all,"
"
What
WOMEN
"
OF THE ABYSS
Ethel Barrymore,"
who
219
prided herself on a
the
subdue her.
made
The marks on
us angry.
her frail
little
body
strait-
to the
jacket method v/as
others.
decided that the next time a prisoner
was put to this sort of torture we should call a
We
strike.
We
upon
from
screams
the
of
direction
Ethel
Barry-
"
Her
more's
'They
are putting
me
in
a strait-jacket!"
she
cried.
"
"
'*
manage
Spoons, pot-covers
From
REBELS
220
the time the girl was put into the strait-jacket until
four o'clock in the morning
fully five hours
or keeper, or anybody
else,
maddening time.
Keepers from the men's prison came
ing that
to our side
were
efforts
"Take
"
all their
fruitless.
Murderers!
cry.
far worse abuse than
Cowards!
When
began
shimmer weakly
were still yelling.
to
One by one
tion,
and
fell
onto their
cots,
dropping almost
in-
our mail for one day. Yet this was no light punishment, for we always looked forward eagerly to the
arrival of the mail, which brought the only pleasure
I think that that day
of the day to many of us.
when
of
all.
Never had
was
the
most dreadful
Unusual
so quarrelsome, so easily moved to tears.
excitement prevailed the following morning, when
our letters were delivered to us, and many of the
WOMEN
women were
when
letters
for
answers.
221
OF THE ABYSS
the
One
all
eager to be locked up
in their
aroused.
no
letters
the uproar.
The lights are out; nothing can be
seen; the shrieking voices are like the wails of lost
souls in the black depths of hell.
Then, as the night grows late
and weariness
comes, softer emotions assert themselves. The turmoil dies away. Nerve-shaken bodies are exhausted
and ready for sleep. Quiet brings sobs of repentance and sad memories of years long gone. Out of
the heavy, oppressive silence, that favourite hymn
"
of the prisons rises sweet and clear,
Nearer,
My
God,
begun
To
it
Thee."
is
The
joined by
solitary
others,
voice
that
and soon
all
has
the
REBELS
222
women
the
in
corridor
are
singing
familiar
the
words.
visitor
"
tasted
myself."
"
Whose food
No,
officials
I ate the
lent."
"
put
in.
"
it
The
eat?"
think
it is
excel-
just concluded
Having
"
prisoners.
Prison
life
fretted
me
less as the
WOMEN
OF THE ABYSS
223
ever be
able
pay them?
to
At
the
in jail I
time
Joe
had bor-
Indeed,
think
my
fellow-prisoners took
REBELS
224
more
interest in
sure they
I
was
its
approach than
I did,
for I
am
to leave they
miss
soon to get
such things as
came upon
things that I
it,
my
"
word,
lines
came
to the
"
Never had
seen hardened
women
so shaken by
honest emotions.
That night
the
voices
died
away
earlier
than
me
in the
in the
WOMEN
OF THE ABYSS
225
My
My
troubled me.
1
me.
I
frightened eyes.
"
Something
terrible
is
REBELS
226
she said, for, like
all
prisoners, she
was extremely
superstitious.
"
my
fellow-pris-
terrific.
Some
sang, others
tween
her
teeth
and
whistled
piercing
solo.
harem
veil,
while she
in
hummed Mendelssohn's
Spring Song
accompaniment.
The
noise brought the matrons, who came rushing in and warned us that unless the disturbance
So ended my imprisonment.
As I walked out
welcome sunshine, with the loud farewells
into the
of
in
my
my
face,
nightmare.
Outside the grey prison walls were waiting Joe
227
and
my
and a
me.
little
CHAPTER
XIII
MY
my own
"What
"
angrily.
the telephone.
have
just
you?"
demanded
prison, and
DEATH OF DYNAMITERS
229
"I'm
sorry,
Marie,"
Berkman
replied,
"but
and a
you
this
at
some
You
will
understand what
this
means
for us.
It
Of
first in
all
my
my
com-
affections.
Frantic eagerness to learn more of what had happened sent me rushing to the Mother Earth office.
It
July,
and
firecrackers
were
REBELS
230
and that very morning had not some of my comrades been killed in the struggle ? From a tenement
it,
window
and
the stars
As
hur-
knew
For
believed
moment
Berkman him-
stood staring in
of
face
the
the arch anarshrewd
perplexity into
chist, wondering why he was unwilling to admit the
self
better.
DEATH OF DYNAMITERS
truth.
231
trously.
"
"
Why
don't you
tell
the truth?
"
I cried at
him.
man's
The
had
REBELS
232
"
some
at
is
time, so far as I
"Who
are
"
you?"
asked.
killed in the
Who
is
talking?"
"
Marie Ganz."
"
down and
"
Come
dead men."
came out of prison only two hours ago, and
identify the
a click as he cut
off.
officer
walked
into the
We want
"
you can?
I couldn't understand why they wanted me to do
for the names of all the dead were in the
'that,
newspaper which a comrade had just brought in to
They
us, but I went with them without a protest.
led me to a police station and into a rear room,
us
if
DEATH OF DYNAMITERS
233
was asked.
"
and
faces.
very well.
led
They
to
ghastly,
staggered back.
one of the
For an
mutilated
the
into
me
sheet.
face
figures,
instant I stared
of
Arthur.
dark.
When
came
to
my
"
"
I
lips.
want
She's
all
right;
was making
lift
moaned.
my way
when
to
see
closely, but I
am
sure I convinced
was questioned
him that I was
who was
most
but I
devoted
followers,
my
was too miserable to pay any attention to his inhad
prison
known
as one of
sinuations.
REBELS
234
'What do you
sioner asked.
"
"
intend to do
Do
you mean
paign?
"
him.
now?"
to
the commis-
"
No,"
I told
concerned."
knew
But
there
work.
From
my" arrest
again.
"
I
with
it.
Very
likely I
in
me
DEATH OF DYNAMITERS
are.
They'll never get over suspecting
ever anything like this happens."
me
235
when-
Why
couldn't he let
me
alone for
now
devote
What
my
Some of my
Tarrytown the following day.
friends were arrested, some were beaten, and all of
them were driven from the town. But Berkman
was not one of the sufferers. While this was going
at
REBELS
236
on
in the cause.
Louise Berger
The
men were
and
she
and
Berkman
took
cremated,
possession of
their ashes.
that
the
announced
ashes would
They
bodies of Arthur and the two other
my
last tribute to
my
com-
cloth,
and
all
around
it
were piled
DEATH OF DYNAMITERS
237
tims of murder.
of course.
He
still
with people.
silence
scene.
devised them.
how
knew
that he
knew
as well as I
REBELS
238
bomb might
lives
explosion.
justification for that
no
"
There could be
smiling complacently.
"
he began.
A
I am through with your meetings," I said.
sudden hatred of him came over me, and I turned
away and left him with his mouth gaping open in
I wanted to forget him and all his
astonishment.
Even the cause had for the time lost its
works.
hold on me, and the lurid red pile of flowers, the
pyramid with its challenging hand and the great
placards clamouring for vengeance filled me with
loathing.
Yet
for
in
DEATH OF DYNAMITERS
had
am
stantly.
239
New York
was announced
hundred of them that
their force
eight
it
were
a disturbance would
knew
crowd.
well
All around
the
me were
lines.
at
brutally.
When Berkman
crowds
had found
stirring radical
and often
REBELS
240
myself completely under the spell of his domineerBut now his words no longer
ing personality.
made the slightest impression on me. That very
day
My
flat.
faith in
Berkman was
My
me
might work
wanted time
was going on
be quite the
But
to think.
me, and
in
to Maisel,
that
he
Grand
often
befriended
selling
He
students,
them back
paid
me
knowing
buying
to
good
their
at
no
price for
my
them
DEATH OF DYNAMITERS
241
My
work was
rewarded, for I
found a job in a wrapper shop, which was owned
by an old fellow who seldom read the newspapers
and who had no idea of who I was. This man had
search for
at last
"
with only
thirty years before from Russia,
The
a herring in his pocket," as he often boasted.
come
the
"
had colonized in
New York's ghetto. His employees, many of them
his relations and all of them from the colony that
had followed him from Russia, made scarcely any
seas,
until the
entire population
day for
little
to
of things
REBELS
242
me.
That
You
boss.
is
why
who
is
Go
There
is
man
when he should be
here
getting
to
pany with
"
the boss.
him
to
MY
STUDIES WITH
DEATH OF DYNAMITERS
"Never mind,"
along.
Your
she said.
"
I'll
see that
243
you get
me about
work
among the reds, and whose views of social problems were entirely new to me.
It
was while
was
still
He
He
Here
is
worth while.
You
can do more
now
for your fellowbeings than you and your comrades ever did with
REBELS
244
last overcame
was exhaustion. His nerves gave way under
the strain, and he took to his bed, completely
broken. And it was to his bedside that I felt my
duty calling me. For many days I nursed him, and
him;
it
lost him.
4
work
I've
come
to learn that
it
is
constructive
What
DEATH OF DYNAMITERS
would be gained by
245
who does
We
And
out and
it
only spreads
more when
they, too,
kill.
it.
go
track,
Marie."
"
Perhaps
his emaciated
feel as if I
were coming out of the dark, with a new life opening before me. But the light isn't very clear yet."
CHAPTER XIV
HUNGER
!
HUNGER
had proclaimed
eat.
their
wan
My
tory,
ten dollars a week, earned in a garment facadded to Hersch Ditchik's payments and
my
And
to,
HUNGER
247
When we
means.
It
in
same
the
was
Oh,
thing?
What
had
the
in
to
with
war
do
profiteers.
Europe
us poor ghetto folk, that vague, far-away war to
which we had scarcely given a thought? The only
persons among us who had been following that con"
flict very closely were the
Coffee House Von Hindenburgs," as my pal called them, who would sit
dealer charging far
no;
in the
it
the
it
REBELS
248
sion
German and
it
and
its
to
for
the
cause
of the
How
government we or our
But now this war in which
we had taken such sluggish interest was being
brought close to our own doors, for every store and
peddler was using it as an excuse to send up prices.
More and more every day it was becoming a topic
of conversation, and soon came rumours that this
under whose
fathers
nation, too,
we
paid
It
little
tributed to
our
tyrannous
had suffered?
lives
it
we of
HUNGER
249
their
One morning
of February
Women
as I left
the
home
street
was more
for,
though there
"
"
"
window four
stories up,
upstairs
the phonograph.
I got to go in
to the ghetto.
Now
In Orchard Street
I stopped to
haggling with a peddler.
listen to a
woman
REBELS
250
"
How
How
a onion?
"A
should have
enemies
such
customers.
"
My
Go away
before
I'll
dlers have
With the way you are robbing the public no wonder you are becoming so high-tone."
At this the peddler lost his temper completely.
talk to you.
If
it
woman
man
with eyeglasses are the two most dastardly crimes known to the East Side and are certain to bring heavy punishment he might have laid
But he had another reviolent hands upon her.
or a
want?"
she inquired.
Want May a plague take you
Come down.
I got a lady here what must be beaten up."
"
who proceeded
HUNGER
251
and oppressors.
Onions, potatoes, cabbages flew through the air, and in each instance the
target was a ducking, wailing peddler, whose stock
had been ruined beyond hope of recovery. Policemen came rushing upon the scene, and they, too,
were pelted with whatever was at hand. Surely a
thousand women perhaps twice as many were in
that mad struggle, long-enduring wives and mothers
who had resolved to bear the oppression of the
profiteer no longer.
At the height of the conflict Mrs. Teibel Shimberg, while beating a peddler's head with her shopenemies
"
how
to
Ganz.
Here is Marie
fix them blood-
suckers."
Tell us what to do
"
All right,"
cries
of
me
to
"
!
answered.
"
Come
with
REBELS
252
with as
as before.
and thousands of
thousands
women.
and the
reds,
to listen.
"
Nb
them.
one
"
It
is
is
silent
We
should go
troubles
bring us
"
You lead us, Marie
And choose
they cried.
your own committee."
At that moment there came rushing out of the
!
Forward Building some of the members of the SoIt was an opportunity for them
cialist organization.
HUNGER
253
to circulate
to listen to
"
them
aside,
in the di-
us.
Many
in the
'
the
Mayor," I answered.
Before he could say another word the horde of
women came surging behind us, and swept us both
across the street. On the City Hall steps I turned
to the crowd, and called on them to stop.
We are not here to make a riot," I said. " We
'
orderly fashion.
If you
want me
to speak to the
REBELS
254
I want
for you you must stay right here.
of
result
the
I
shall
tell
one to follow me.
you
Mayor
no
my
interview."
women.
"
;t
I cried
out to them.
hearing."
and
was
We
Our husbands
we have nothing to
our children
night, yet
The
Give us bread!
starving!
Many
hysterical
rose now
Our
"
women were
;<
We
are
many were
and were shrieking wildly. Above the din
and then the loud wails of frightened, ill-
of the
in tears;
HUNGER
jostled against their mothers.
255
doubt
if
there
had
ever been such an uproar in City Hall Park, accustomed as it is to demonstrative crowds. At any
it was the first time in the city's history that
had been the scene of such a demonstration by
women.
When it became evident that the mob was not to
be turned away, the big gates were opened just
enough to allow one person to squeeze through, and
rate,
it
We
We
want
to ask
him
cost of food."
"
The Mayor
we can do
to find a
isn't
means of reducing
here," he said.
But come
in,
and
"
the
He
is
see
what
I'll
at
for you."
liceman
who
to
mine he turned
to a po-
remark,
That's Marie Ganz, the agitator."
The Mayor will see you to-morrow," the lieu"
tenant assured us.
I think I can promise that.
"
'
will
REBELS
256
"If you
will let
"
me
them in
them to be
talk to
their lan-
quiet and
them
to-morrow."
Mayor
So he opened the gate to let us out, and from the
steps I addressed the crowd in Yiddish, telling them
to return to their homes and be patient for a day
But they grew more and more excited as I
longer.
and
the officers must have thought I was tryspoke,
guage,"
I replied,
that the
I will tell
will see
you."
He
led
me
few minutes
HUNGER
"
front
in
peared
Marie
We
of
the
257
building,
want Marie
"
crying
loudly,
in
pared
to
them
to take seats
and
the
room none
me
my
My
seem
to
impress him
sharply
u
In the future
great deal,
for he
said
REBELS
258
The women
bless
them
I will
suspend sen-
to attend a meeting to be held that night in Forward Hall. I refused to accept the invitation. I
didn't care to make votes for any political party
was trying
to
suffering in the
However, that was not the last of their interference, for the next day when we presented ourselves
at City Hall we found that a large number of the
propagandists, with automobiles
Socialist
service,
there.
at
their
They had
in-
women
When
the
women heard
HUNGER
swarmed about
"
Why
the
of the Hall,
shouting,
don't you hear our representatives?
steps
Why
Marie Ganz?
The Mayor must have heard
Lieutenant
wanted
259
to talk to me.
Mayor, who received me kindly, that we represented no political party or faction, that we were
not connected with the Socialists, that we repreto the
He showed
me
that he realized
conditions,
some
take
repeated his
roused to such enthusiasm by the Mayor's assurances that I think they expected to find prices dropping that very day.
A good many days passed, however, without
bringing relief. The Mayor talked over the situation with other city officials.
The Board of Esti-
REBELS
260
know
just what.
In the meantime desperate women in several sections of the city followed the example set by their
heroic sisters of Orchard Street, and proceeded to
upset pushcarts and to attack the peddlers. There
were riotous scenes in Williamsburg, in Brownsville
and
Street
done.
HUNGER
261
invite
me
to one of the
Second Avenue
even
cafes, but
in
diners looked as
came
to
if
it
Leon Trotzky."
big man held out his hand, and said he had
heard of me because of my connection with the food
The
riots.
But
had
"
was
to be
REBELS
262
wearily, as
if
He
Russia.
can politics at
all,
was on
"
he
Russia,"
said,
the way.
awaken
soon
will
the
world?"
"How?"
"
Germany,
The
asked.
revolution
is
too, will
this
but, like
Samson
the temple
He
upon
seemed to
It
coming.
have
in the Bible,
his
down
own head."
would soon be
and remarked that
America
will
soon be
in
this
and the
I
entire
Only through
will
repeat
itself;
after war,
revolution.
HUNGER
Each country
will revolt in
263
proportion to what
it
many
United States
litical
come
Yet here,
system.
a
demand
after this
there will
as elsewhere,
war
to live in
1 *
He
governments.
earns a
little
they
are
all
starving."
It
was easy
it
was
like a
CHAPTER XV
MY COUNTRY
"TTTAR
%/ V/ had
is
better
America
"
said,
and you
to
it.
can't
"
rule,
ginning to gather.
"Listen, Marie," the pal said solemnly; "you've
264
MY COUNTRY
when
the call to
265
arms comes.
to
"
to the Kaiser as
Lusitania?
War!
"
to do with
war?
Was
the
What had
the ghetto
made by
capitalists,
not war
it
or send us into
to
war
it
at will?
at the bidding of
j,
good
was against war, against this war and all wars, and
I
appeals to patriotism would never change me.
was a child of the ghetto, and the ghetto was against
war. The spirit from which could spring the words,
"
My country, right or wrong," was unknown in the
environment from which I had drawn my guiding
u
huThere, where the word
principles of life.
"
manitarian
was on every one's lips, the word
"
"
was rarely heard and naturally would
patriot
REBELS
266
have conveyed
adopted land.
Yet now even the ghetto was talking war, talking
bitterly, and with fierce resentment of the idea that
America should be called to arms. The groups of
young men who stood around us in the square absorbed as usual in animated discussions were now
talking of the reports from Washington, and nothing
else.
There was
Abraham Cahan and his fellow editors were probably at that very moment writing denunciations of
the men who would bring this country into Europe's
And well I knew what must be going on
conflict.
in the office of Mother Earth, where Berkman and
Emma Goldman were working day and night to stir
the opponents of
It
was
all
war
very well,
to violence.
I
to talk glibly of national pride and to declare that the time had come for the nation to save
uptown
March evening
MY COUNTRY
267
forum.
Allies.
What
if
nothing else
u
that the wingained," the pal inquired of me,
ning of Russia's freedom has made Europe's war
"
is
worth while?
It
sians
was
so,
How
My
have thrown
opinion of war
was
right,
had come
REBELS
268
It was certainly
to admit that at last.
going to be
My
war; even
was
pal
all
had
Young and
enthusiasm.
athletic,
to be
ever."
The
nation
was preparing
to arm.
to
The
pal, a
Washington to
war on the
Hun.
"
And
you're
You're
going,
as my
too,
he
Marie,"
said.
Forget your
secretary.
going
Reds, forget your Radicals, your I. W. W.'s, your
soap-box orators. This is no time for them. Come
with
me
to
Washington, and
to have a country."
And to Washington
we
find out
went.
what
What
it
means
a sight the
new
life.
around me.
of a sudden the spirit of national pride
awoke in me. The flag bore a new meaning. Oh,
spirit
And
MY COUNTRY
269
can.
myself
was
my
flag,
And
cause.
my
I cried
out to
"Good-bye, past!
Good-
My
We
his
my
I knew it
You've found yourself.
You're going to do your bit with the rest of us,
whatever the ghetto thinks or does."
!
"
Whatever
"
knew what
And
yet,
among some
I
it
wasn't worry-
was going to
its bit.
And
so
had a
Perhaps it has yet with people swayed by prejudice and ignorant of the facts.
It was supposed to be a hotbed of sedition; but I,
who have seen thousands of its sons going away to
enlist
sons who were breadwinners for hungry
women and children I, who could realize how
great were their sacrifices, knew better. I am sure
there were very few disloyal men and women in
our tenements as compared with the population,
a time.
REBELS
270
was
a bitter
He
tall,
MY COUNTRY
man was
the doctor.
"
Honest Abe
"
271
he was some-
Abraham
Lincoln
the
same
sad,
shrewd
face, the
same
tails.
Though he was going to war now with as
much fervour as anybody, he had always been op-
bitterness
spirit
beliefs
patiently to everybody
who seemed
sincere in his
him or not,
was searchand he believed that the truth was
He
REBELS
272
No
wonder
He
was
the
and
Wolf
all
girls
the
are giving so
much of
through quiet methods and without arousing bitterness and strife. You will find far more satisfaction
in such work than in stirring up your radicals."
"
Honest Abe." A few
It was my last talk with
days later he became infected while attending a
patient who was suffering from a contagious disease.
Very often in poor homes the good doctor had not
only worked as a physician without charge, but had
MY COUNTRY
273
of several war
connected,
and,
was
except
the
everybody
else
we could
mittees.
night to the
Academy of
was going to
Music,
be held for the war service organizations. The pal,
in
a big rally
REBELS
274
as a
member
wish
the radicals
of those agitators
who had
Through
MY COUNTRY
275
me
that they
still
regarded
gade.
"
"
ism
that might be preached to
any new creed or
had
taken
in
all sorts of radical camthem, and
part
paigns. When the draft
tools of such men as
stantly
found.
to resist conscription.
Many
of the
bill
Mother Earth.
"
Just see what that pair are doing," the pal exclaimed hotly.
Those poor boys they have been
are
influencing
going to prison one after another,
while Berkman and Goldman sit in Mother Earth
'*
office
and trying
to play safe.
But
REBELS
276
they can't keep
it
up.
later."
rid of
For
So
this
country
them forever.
Emma Goldman
I felt
from
was
to
qualities in
MY COUNTRY
277
As he stood
the
man
War
Reds
The
sons
fight,
and
never before.
a thing,
than of sorrow.
them
Among
the
first
to
REBELS
278
return
if
who was
to care for
delicatessen shop,
made up
it
until their
Mintz, of the
he
who
wielded
much
so
the
is one of
political power on our block
He
most important persons in the crowd.
set in
know must
MY COUNTRY
"
Good
Good-bye, Jimmie!
He
hand
luck!
279
n
waves
his
to
He
had
though he doesn't deserve such loyalty.
tried to wriggle out of service on the ground that
he was a married man, but his patriotic better-half,
believing it to be her duty to send him out to serve
last,
his country,
our boarder
from
is
He
his cart.
when
is
He
thusiastic patriot.
has never been able to save
to
send
for
his wife and children and
enough money
side
bearded
me
in the
maker, he
little
crowd.
who
old,
appears be-
He
throng, which
fills
REBELS
280
a badge on his coat, for he has become an interpreter in the intelligence service, and no longer has
to beat his brains in the
Yiddish newspaper
office
board.
it
to war.
who
From
centred
interests in the
success of
its
faraway
news of
to
battles
from home
rejoicing followed, and how
won spread
like wildfire
MY COUNTRY
281
We
proud
of.
And my
I look
story has come to an end, too.
back over the long years, and see myself, a child
hear the
My
work
is
But, in the
it is
to run
REBELS
282
My
is
pal
beside me.
shadows are
seemed so
"
life
terrible
the
my
pal, as
he
Think of the
It
We
is
more
I
bitterness or hate."
bow my head
as
my hand
is
gripped
in his.
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GENERAL LIBRARY
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"