An Original Strike
: MORDECAI SPEKTORI was invited to a wedding.
Not a wedding at which ladies wore low dress, and scattered powder as
they walked, and the men were in frock-coats and white gloves, and had
waxed moustaches.
Not a wedding where you ate of dishes with outlandish names, according
to a printed card, and drank wine dating, according to the label, from
the reign of King Sobieski, out of bottles dingy with the dust of
yesterday.
No, but a Jewish wedding, where the men, women, and girls wore the
Sabbath and holiday garments in which they went to Shool; a wedding
where you whet your appetite with sweet-cakes and apple-tart, and sit
down to Sabbath fish, with fresh rolls, golden soup, stuffed fowl, and
roast duck, and the wine is in large, clear, white bottles; a wedding
with a calling to the Reading of the Torah of the bridegroom, a party on
the Sabbath preceding the wedding, a good-night-play performed by the
musicians, and a bridegroom's-dinner in his native town, with a table
spread for the poor.
Reb Yitzchok-Aizik Berkover had made a feast for the poor at the wedding
of each of his children, and now, on the occasion of the marriage of his
youngest daughter, he had invited all the poor of the little town
Lipovietz to his village home, where he had spent all his life.
It is the day of the ceremony under the canopy, two o'clock in the
afternoon, and the poor, sent for early in the morning by a messenger,
with the three great wagons, are not there. Lipovietz is not more than
five versts away--what can have happened? The parents of the bridal
couple and the assembled guests wait to proceed with the ceremony.
At last the messenger comes riding on a horse unharnessed from his
vehicle, but no poor.
"Why have you come back alone?" demands Reb Yitzchok-Aizik.
"They won't come!" replies the messenger.
"What do you mean by 'they won't come'?" asked everyone in surprise.
"They say that unless they are given a kerbel apiece, they won't come to
the wedding."
All laugh, and the messenger goes on:
"There was a wedding with a dinner to the poor in Lipovietz to-day, too,
and they have eaten and drunk all they can, and now they've gone on
strike, and declare that unless they are promised a kerbel a head, they
won't move from the spot. The strike leaders are the Crooked Man with
two crutches, Mekabbel the Long, Feitel the Stammerer, and Yainkel
Fonfatch; the others would perhaps have come, but these won't let them.
So I didn't know what to do. I argued a whole hour, and got nothing by
it, so then I unharnessed a horse, and came at full speed to know what
was to be done."
We of the company could not stop laughing, but Reb Yitzchok-Aizik was
very angry.
"Well, and you bargained with them? Won't they come for less?" he asked
the messenger.
"Yes, I bargained, and they won't take a kopek less."
"Have their prices gone up so high as all that?" exclaimed Reb
Yitzchok-Aizik, with a satirical laugh. "Why did you leave the wagons?
We shall do without the tramps, that's all!"
"How could I tell? I didn't know what to do. I was afraid you would be
displeased. Now I'll go and fetch the wagons back."
"Wait! Don't be in such a hurry, take time!"
Reb Yitzchok-Aizik began consulting with the company and with himself.
"What an idea! Who ever heard of such a thing? Poor people telling me
what to do, haggling with me over my wanting to give them a good dinner
and a nice present each, and saying they must be paid in rubles,
otherwise it's no bargain, ha! ha! For two guldens each it's not worth
their while? It cost them too much to stock the ware? Thirty kopeks
wouldn't pay them? I like their impertinence! Mischief take them, I
shall do without them!
"Let the musicians play! Where is the beadle? They can begin putting the
veil on the bride."
But directly afterwards he waved his hands.
"Wait a little longer. It is still early. Why should it happen to me,
why should my pleasure be spoilt? Now I've got to marry my youngest
daughter without a dinner to the poor! I would have given them half a
ruble each, it's not the money I mind, but fancy bargaining with me!
Well, there, I have done my part, and if they won't come, I'm sure
they're not wanted; afterwards they'll be sorry; they don't get a
wedding like this every day. We shall do without them."
"Well, can they put the veil on the bride?" the beadle came and
inquired.
"Yes, they can.... No, tell them to wait a little longer!"
Nearly all the guests, who were tired of waiting, cried out that the
tramps could very well be missed.
Reb Yitzchok-Aizik's face suddenly assumed another expression, the anger
vanished, and he turned to me and a couple, of other friends, and asked
if we would drive to the town, and parley with the revolted
almsgatherers.
"He has no brains, one can't depend on him," he said, referring to the
messenger.
A horse was harnessed to a conveyance, and we drove off, followed by the
mounted messenger.
"A revolt--a strike of almsgatherers, how do you like that?" we asked
one another all the way. We had heard of workmen striking, refusing to
work except for a higher wage, and so forth, but a strike of
paupers--paupers insisting on larger alms as pay for eating a free
dinner, such a thing had never been known.
In twenty minutes time we drove into Lipovietz.
In the market-place, in the centre of the town, stood the three great
peasant wagons, furnished with fresh straw. The small horses were
standing unharnessed, eating out of their nose-bags; round the wagons
were a hundred poor folk, some dumb, others lame, the greater part
blind, and half the town urchins with as many men.
All of them were shouting and making a commotion.
The Crooked One sat on a wagon, and banged it with his crutches; Long
Mekabbel, with a red plaster on his neck, stood beside him.
These two leaders of the revolt were addressing the people, the meek of
the earth.
"Ha, ha!" exclaimed Long Mekabbel, as he caught sight of us and the
messenger, "they have come to beg our acceptance!"
"To beg our acceptance!" shouted the Crooked One, and banged his crutch.
"Why won't you come to the wedding, to the dinner?" we inquired.
"Everyone will be given alms."
"How much?" they asked all together.
"We don't know, but you will take what they offer."
"Will they give it us in kerblech? Because, if not, we don't go."
"There will be a hole in the sky if you don't go," cried some of the
urchins present.
The almsgatherers threw themselves on the urchins with their sticks, and
there was a bit of a row.
Mekabbel the Long, standing on the cart, drew himself to his full
height, and began to shout:
"Hush, hush, hush! Quiet, you crazy cripples! One can't hear oneself
speak! Let us hear what those have to say who are worth listening to!"
and he turned to us with the words:
"You must know, dear Jews, that unless they distribute kerblech among
us, we shall not budge. Never you fear! Reb Yitzchok-Aizik won't marry
his youngest daughter without us, and where is he to get others of us
now? To send to Lunetz would cost him more in conveyances, and he would
have to put off the marriage."
"What do they suppose? That because we are poor people they can do what
they please with us?" and a new striker hitched himself up by the
wheel, blind of one eye, with a tied-up jaw. "No one can oblige us to
go, even the chief of police and the governor cannot force us--either
it's kerblech, or we stay where we are."
"K-ke-kkerb-kkerb-lech!!" came from Feitel the Stammerer.
"Nienblech!" put in Yainkel Fonfatch, speaking through his small nose.
"No, more!" called out a couple of merry paupers.
"Kerblech, kerblech!" shouted the rest in concert.
And through their shouting and their speeches sounded such a note of
anger and of triumph, it seemed as though they were pouring out all the
bitterness of soul collected in the course of their sad and luckless
lives.
They had always kept silence, had had to keep silence, had to
swallow the insults offered them along with the farthings, and the dry
bread, and the scraped bones, and this was the first time they had been
able to retaliate, the first time they had known how it felt to be
entreated by the fortunate in all things, and they were determined to
use their opportunity of asserting themselves to the full, to take their
revenge. In the word kerblech lay the whole sting of their resentment.
And while we talked and reasoned with them, came a second messenger from
Reb Yitzchok-Aizik, to say that the paupers were to come at once, and
they would be given a ruble each.
There was a great noise and scrambling, the three wagons filled with
almsgatherers, one crying out, "O my bad hand!" another, "O my foot!"
and a third, "O my poor bones!" The merry ones made antics, and sang in
their places, while the horses were put in, and the procession started
at a cheerful trot. The urchins gave a great hurrah, and threw little
stones after it, with squeals and whistles.
The poor folks must have fancied they were being pelted with flowers and
sent off with songs, they looked so happy in the consciousness of their
victory.
For the first and perhaps the last time in their lives, they had spoken
out, and got their own way.
After the "canopy" and the chicken soup, that is, at "supper," tables
were spread for the friends of the family and separate ones for the
almsgatherers.
Reb Yitzchok-Aizik and the members of his own household served the poor
with their own hands, pressing them to eat and drink.
"Le-Chayyim to you, Reb Yitzchok-Aizik! May you have pleasure in your
children, and be a great man, a great rich man!" desired the poor.
"Long life, long life to all of you, brethren! Drink in health, God help
All-Israel, and you among them!" replied Reb Yitzchok-Aizik.
After supper the band played, and the almsgatherers, with Reb
Yitzchok-Aizik, danced merrily in a ring round the bridegroom.
Then who was so happy as Reb Yitzchok-Aizik? He danced in the ring, the
silk skirts of his long coat flapped and flew like eagles' wings, tears
of joy fell from his shining eyes, and his spirits rose to the seventh
heaven.
He laughed and cried like a child, and exchanged embraces with the
almsgatherers.
"Brothers!" he exclaimed as he danced, "let us be merry, let us be Jews!
Musicians, give us something cheerful--something gayer, livelier,
louder!"
"This is what you call a Jewish wedding!"
"This is how a Jew makes merry!"
So the guests and the almsgatherers clapped their hands in time to the
music.
Yes, dear readers, it was what I call a Jewish Wedding!
More
-
A Gloomy Wedding
They handed Gittel a letter that had come by post, she put on her spectacles, sat down by the window, and began to read. She read, and her face began to shine, and the wrinkled skin took on a little color. It was plain that what she read delight... A Jewish Child
The mother came out of the bride's chamber, and cast a piercing look at her husband, who was sitting beside a finished meal, and was making pellets of bread crumbs previous to saying grace. "You go and talk to her! I haven't a bit of strength le... A Livelihood
The two young fellows Maxim Klopatzel and Israel Friedman were natives of the same town in New Bessarabia, and there was an old link existing between them: a mutual detestation inherited from their respective parents. Maxim's father was the chief ... A Picnic
Ask Shmuel, the capmaker, just for a joke, if he would like to come for a picnic! He'll fly out at you as if you had invited him to a swing on the gallows. The fact is, he and his Sarah once went for a picnic, and the poor man will remember it all... A Scholar's Mother
The market lies foursquare, surrounded on every side by low, whitewashed little houses. From the chimney of the one-storied house opposite the well and inhabited by the baker, issues thick smoke, which spreads low over the market-place. Beneath th... A Simple Story
Feigele, like all young girls, is fond of dressing and decking herself out. She has no time for these frivolities during the week, there is work in plenty, no evil eye! and sewing to do; rent is high, and times are bad. The father earns but lit... A Woman's Wrath
The small room is dingy as the poverty that clings to its walls. There is a hook fastened to the crumbling ceiling, relic of a departed hanging lamp. The old, peeling stove is girded about with a coarse sack, and leans sideways toward its gloomy n... Abraham Raisin
Born, 1876, in Kaidanov, Government of Minsk (Lithuania), White Russia; traditional Jewish education; self-taught in Russian language; teacher at fifteen, first in Kaidanov, then in Minsk; first poem published in Perez's Juedische Bibliothek, in 1... An Easy Fast
That which Doctor Tanner failed to accomplish, was effectually carried out by Chayyim Chaikin, a simple Jew in a small town in Poland. Doctor Tanner wished to show that a man can fast forty days, and he only managed to get through twenty-eight, ... An Original Strike
I was invited to a wedding. Not a wedding at which ladies wore low dress, and scattered powder as they walked, and the men were in frock-coats and white gloves, and had waxed moustaches. Not a wedding where you ate of dishes with outlandish n... As The Years Roll On
Rosalie laid down the cloth with which she had been dusting the furniture in her front parlor, and began tapping the velvet covering of the sofa with her fingers. The velvet had worn threadbare in places, and there was a great rent in the middle. ... At The Matzes
It was quite early in the morning, when Sossye, the scribe's daughter, a girl of seventeen, awoke laughing; a sunbeam had broken through the rusty window, made its way to her underneath the counterpane, and there opened her eyes. It woke her ou... Avrohom The Orchard-keeper
When he first came to the place, as a boy, and went straight to the house-of-study, and people, having greeted him, asked "Where do you come from?" and he answered, not without pride, "From the Government of Wilna"--from that day until the day he ... Bertzi Wasserfuehrer
I The first night of Passover. It is already about ten o'clock. Outside it is dark, wet, cold as the grave. A fine, close, sleety rain is driving down, a light, sharp, fitful wind blows, whistles, sighs, and whines, and wanders round on every s... Country Folk
Feivke was a wild little villager, about seven years old, who had tumbled up from babyhood among Gentile urchins, the only Jewish boy in the place, just as his father Mattes, the Kozlov smith, was the only Jewish householder there. Feivke had hard... David Frischmann
Born, 1863, in Lodz, Russian Poland, of a family of merchants; education, Jewish and secular, the latter with special attention to foreign languages and literatures; has spent most of his life in Warsaw; Hebrew critic, editor, poet, satirist, and ... David Pinski
Born, 1872, in Mohileff (Lithuania), White Russia; refused admission to Gymnasium in Moscow under percentage restrictions; 1889-1891, secretary to Bene Zion in Vitebsk; 1891-1893, student in Vienna; 1893, co-editor of Spektor's Hausfreund and Pere... Earth Of Palestine
As my readers know, I wanted to do a little stroke of business--to sell the world-to-come. I must tell you that I came out of it very badly, and might have fallen into some misfortune, if I had had the ware in stock. It fell on this wise: Nowadays... Eliezer David Rosenthal
Born, 1861, in Chotin, Bessarabia; went to Breslau, Germany, in 1880, and pursued studies at the University; returned to Bessarabia in 1882; co-editor of the Bibliothek Dos Leben, published at Odessa, 1904, and Kishineff, 1905; writer of stories. ... Ezrielk The Scribe
Forty days before Ezrielk descended upon this sinful world, his life-partner was proclaimed in Heaven, and the Heavenly Council decided that he was to transcribe the books of the Law, prayers, and Mezuzehs for the Kabtzonivke Jews, and thereby mak... Fishel The Teacher
Twice a year, as sure as the clock, on the first day of Nisan and the first of Ellul--for Passover and Tabernacles--Fishel the teacher travelled from Balta to Chaschtschevate, home to his wife and children. It was decreed that nearly all his life ... Forlorn And Forsaken
Forlorn and forsaken she was in her last years. Even when she lay on the bed of sickness where she died, not one of her relations or friends came to look after her; they did not even come to mourn for her or accompany her to the grave. There was n... Gymnasiye
A man's worst enemy, I tell you, will never do him the harm he does himself, especially when a woman interferes, that is, a wife. Whom do you think I have in mind when I say that? My own self! Look at me and think. What would you take me for? Just... Hirsh David Naumberg
Born, 1876, in Msczczonow, Government of Warsaw, Russian Poland, of Hasidic parentage; traditional Jewish education in the house of his grandfather; went to Warsaw in 1898; at present (1912) in America; first literary work appeared in 1900; writer... If It Was A Dream
Yes, it was a terrible dream! But when one is only nine years old, one soon forgets, and Meyerl was nine a few weeks before it came to pass. Yes, and things had happened in the house every now and then to remind one of it, but then Meyerl lived ... Isaac Dob Berkowitz
Born, 1885, in Slutzk, Government of Minsk (Lithuania), White Russia; was in America for a short time in 1908; contributor to Die Zukunft; co-editor of Ha-Olam, Wilna; Hebrew and Yiddish writer; collected works: Yiddish, Gesammelte Schriften, Wars... Isaac Loeb Perez
Born, 1851, in Samoscz, Government of Lublin, Russian Poland; Jewish, philosophical, and general literary education; practiced law in Samoscz, a Hasidic town; clerk to the Jewish congregation in Warsaw and as such collector of statistics on Jewish... Isaiah Berschadski
Pen name of Isaiah Domaschewitski; born, 1871, near Derechin, Government of Grodno (Lithuania), White Russia; died, 1909, in Warsaw; education, Jewish and secular; teacher of Hebrew in Ekaterinoslav, Southern Russia; in business, in Ekaterinoslav ... Isaiah Lerner
Born, 1861, in Zwoniec, Podolia, Southwestern Russia; co-editor of die Bibliothek Dos Leben, published at Odessa, 1904, and Kishineff, 1905. ... It Is Well
You ask how it is that I remained a Jew? Whose merit it is? Not through my own merits nor those of my ancestors. I was a six-year-old Cheder boy, my father a countryman outside Wilna, a householder in a small way. No, I remained a Jew thanks ... Jehalel
Pen name of Judah Loeb Lewin; born, 1845, in Minsk (Lithuania), White Russia; tutor; treasurer to the Brodski flour mills and their sugar refinery, at Tomaschpol, Podolia, later in Kieff; began to write in 1860; translator of Beaconsfield's Tancred ... Judah Steinberg
Born, 1863, in Lipkany, Bessarabia; died, 1907, in Odessa; education Hasidic; entered business in a small Roumanian village for a short time; teacher, from 1889 in Jedency and from 1896 in Leowo, Bessarabia; removed to Odessa, in 1905, to become c... Late
It was in sad and hopeless mood that Antosh watched the autumn making its way into his peasant's hut. The days began to shorten and the evenings to lengthen, and there was no more petroleum in the hut to fill his humble lamp; his wife complained t... Loeb Schapiro
Born, about 1880, in the Government of Kieff, Little Russia; came to Chicago in 1906, and to New York for a short time in 1907-1908; now (1912) in business in Switzerland; contributor to Die Zukunft, New York; collected works, Novellen, 1 vol., Wars... Lost His Voice
It was in the large synagogue in Klemenke. The week-day service had come to an end. The town cantor who sings all the prayers, even when he prays alone, and who is longer over them than other people, had already folded his prayer-scarf, and was hu... Manasseh
It was a stifling summer evening. I had just come home from work, taken off my coat, unbuttoned my waistcoat, and sat down panting by the window of my little room. There was a knock at the door, and without waiting for my reply, in came a woman... Meyer Blinkin
Born, 1879, in a village near Pereyaslav, Government of Poltava, Little Russia, of Hasidic parentage; educated in Kieff, where he acquired the trade of carpenter in order to win the right of residence; studied medicine; began to write in 1906; cam... Micha Joseph Berdyczewski
Born, 1865, in Berschad, Podolia, Southwestern Russia; educated in Yeshibah of Volozhin; studied also modern literatures in his youth; has been living alternately in Berlin and Breslau; Hebrew, Yiddish, and German writer, on philosophy, aesthetics... Military Service
"They look as if they'd enough of me!" So I think to myself, as I give a glance at my two great top-boots, my wide trousers, and my shabby green uniform, in which there is no whole part left. I take a bit of looking-glass out of my box, and l... Mordecai Spektor
Born, 1859, in Uman, Government of Kieff, Little Russia; education Hasidic; entered business in 1878; wrote first sketch, A Roman ohn Liebe, in 1882; contributor to Zedernbaum's Juedisches Volksblatt, 1884-1887; founded, in 1888, and edited Der Haus... Poverty
I was living in Mezkez at the time, and Seinwill Bookbinder lived there too. But Heaven only knows where he is now! Even then his continual pallor augured no long residence in Mezkez, and he was a Yadeschlever Jew with a wife and six small chil... Reb Shloimeh
The seventy-year-old Reb Shloimeh's son, whose home was in the country, sent his two boys to live with their grandfather and acquire town, that is, Gentile, learning. "Times have changed," considered Reb Shloimeh; "it can't be helped!" and he e... Reuben Asher Braudes
Born, 1851, in Wilna (Lithuania), White Russia; went to Roumania after the anti-Jewish riots of 1882, and published a Yiddish weekly, Yehudit, in the interest of Zionism; expelled from Roumania; published a Hebrew weekly, Ha-Zeman, in Cracow, in 189... S Libin
Pen name of Israel Hurewitz; born, 1872, in Gori-Gorki, Government of Mohileff (Lithuania), White Russia; assistant to a druggist at thirteen; went to London at twenty, and, after seven months there, to New York (1893); worked as capmaker; first s... Sabbath
Friday evening! The room has been tidied, the table laid. Two Sabbath loaves have been placed upon it, and covered with a red napkin. At the two ends are two metal candlesticks, and between them two more of earthenware, with candles in them rea...