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The Southern Israelite
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From the Frying Pan into the Fire
A Story in whieli Love and Laughter Meet
Adapted from the German
( ill Riuht. Raterved )
liy OSCAR LEONARD
Chapter 2.
The following morning Reb Ben-
yaojx acted as if a transfiguration had
taken place in him during the night.
Sleep seemed to have erased the hap
penings of the past day from his
memory. As usual he called Esterka
to his room and instructed her about
the day’s correspondence and told her
about a number of things that were
to be entered in the books. He re
minded her that he would soon start
on his extended and important busi
ness trip. In fact, he tried to be
pleasant to her, something which had
not happened for a rather long time.
At the dinner table while taking his
meal with Esterka and her mother,
ht* brought up the subject of her
marriage and spoke in a tone which
surprised them.
‘*1 had different plans for you, Es
terka,” he said, “but what can I do?
The children want to he wiser than the
parents in these days, and I cannot
put my own head on you. After all
1 must admit that this Sigmund, as
far as I know him, is a nice young
man, but he is somewhat to inde
pendent to suit me. Of course, 1 would
have preferred the son of a wealthy
family as husband for my daughter,
even if he did not know anything
about business. You know how the
saying is: Money Talks. As far
as business is concerned one can learn
in time .... Rut you insist on know
ing better than I what the best course
is. Let it be as you wish. I submit
to it because, as I said, I have really
nothing against this Sigmund. As
you know, I am going to start on my
business journey this week. 1 shall
be in Odessa, where he is now in
charge of a branch for his Berlin em
ployer. I shall make inquiries there
about his financial situation, his con
duct, and if the information I get is
favorable, I shall bring him here with
me and we shall celebrate Esterka’s
betrothal. Well, are you satisfied,
both of you, now?”
Mrs. Gerdhaber approved this plan
with pleasure, and Esterka fell on her
father’s neck and thanked him with
tears of joy in her eyes, for his father
ly love, in which he was going to
bring fulfillment to her heart’s de
sire.
A few days later Reb Benzion start
ed on his yearly business trip, ac
companied by the good wishes of his
wife and daughter, who were made
happy by this sudden turn of fortune
which pictured the future full of
bright promises.
Horn that day on the town saw-
something which it had never had the
pleasure of seeing before. The two
antipodes of the town, namely, "Piety”
and "Wisdom”, who were never seen
happy or well disposed in the same
time, as the joy of one meant the sor
row of the other, these two walked the
streets of the town holding their heads
as if each triumphed over the other.
Itzik Hersh’s red beard encircled his
face like a fan of fire, while Benjamin
Hoeker raised his hunch so high that
it seemed to grow over his head.
All this caused many members of
the Jewish community to look with
questioning eyes, which seemed to
ask: “What does it all mean?”
*****
Chapter 3
That the reader may better under
stand the spirit of the time during
which this story develops, it is neces
sary for us to say that in those days
the telegraph and the railroad were
not know-n to the inhabitants of our
little Galician town. A journey from
Galicia to Germany, or especially to
the heart of Russia, meant then as
much as a journey to the North
Pole means to us now. From city
to city one had to drag along on
rented vehicles and be delayed by
thousands of incidents and accidents,
now an axle broke while travel
ing through a lonely field, there
the horse fell and was injured,
in another place a wheel broke,
again showers kept the traveler
from continuing his journey, and
innumerable unforseen difficulties
came up to keep one from progressing
for days at a time. No wonder the
days and weeks grew long. No won-
der few merchants dared to make busi
ness journeys and that those who did
dare to face difficulties came home
laden with gold. They dealt with
people on their own basis for they had
hardly any competition. If travel was
in a deplorable condition, the postal
system was even worse. It used to
be in the hands of unscrupulous con
tractors, who did not hesitate to open
letters or even sell letters to any one
who might pay for them.
Under these circumstances Esterka
and her mother could hardly be sur
prised at not hearing from Reb Ben
zion in spite of the fact that he had
been away from home for two months.
They also knew that it was one of
his habits not to write letters when
he was away, except in case his busi
ness required it. He used to say, if
asked why he did not write:
“What is the use of writing? 1
know for myself that wherever I am
1 am in good health and I presume
that is the case with my family. If
anything bad should happen to me or
my family, what is the use of writing
about it? What good does it do?
Such knowledge can only trouble ami
disturb one. And on top of it all,
the confounded postage stamps are
not given away in this country. This
writing back and forth is nothing but
expensive luxury, nothing else.”
From a man with such philosophic
principles the family could hardly ex
pect to receive a letter, as it was not
likely that he would change his views
on his journey. But it was rather
remarkable that Deborah the widow,
mother of Sigmund, who always re
ceived letters from her son regularly,
had not heard from him for nearl>
two months. She consoled herself
and Esterka who asked her daily f° r
news from Sigmund, that he was prob
ably too busy to write. Suddenly ru-
mors spread about town which maoe
the absence of letters appear in a
peculiar light. Sigmund had become