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Newspaper Page Text
'. 4o V, i I ml DP. GEORGE F0X,D1T0P - SrJJJ VOL. X, NO. 8. FORT WORTH-DALLAS, TEXAS, FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 1920. Price 5 Cents We called him a poor devil, a fail ure, a victim of the pitiless economic system, which seems to take delight in knocking a man when he is down. It was not until the end when we opened our eyes and decided that not Levine but we were th evictims. I shall never forget how he plodded after us that dull Sunday morning when he first looked over his apart ment. He took his duties as superin tendent seriously enough, poor Levine, when they involved showing an empty apartment or collecting the rent. When it came to collecting the gar bage on time or repairing a broken window lock, that was a different mat ter. He was a tall, Blightly stooped son of Israel with a sandy mustache and pathetic eyes. Some thing dog-like about them, you know, which made you afraid of hurting his feelings. The same sort of look which causes some of us sentimental dog lovers to refrain from flinging stone when a mangy cur insists upon following us down the avenue. He followed at our heels very much like a dumb beast, too, pathetically anxious that we rhould like the place. We didn't like it at all the dark bedrooms just a little larger than our wife's best tablecloth, the too highly decorated dining room and the living room which did not seem to have hnd any decoration whatever since the year of the World's Fair. But we thought we would like our superin tendent whom at first in our western ignorance of New York's vocabulary we called our janitor. For he was old, t little lame (he always limped more when you put an txtra job upon his bowed shoulders) and a Jew. With so much rishus in the world, I ask you mustn't we be fond of our fellow Jews! But, Jew or no Jew, it soon grew rather a tax to be fond of Levine. He seldom did what was expected of him; when, by chance, he performed some duty, he always blundered and made matters worse than before. He was most erratic in the business of call ing for slops every morning, and, when he finally did send his musical cry up the area way, seldom failed to berate our maid for not being ready to receive him, which Irritated our maid and filled our hearts with mis givings; we were rather fond of our wife and the children and the family silver; still we might have viewed the loss of them with comparative com posure. But to lose our treasured Elis abeth, who could actually cook little, didn't object to children and was will ing to work for us for only sixteen a week, was a blow too awful to conjec ture. In desperation we sought Levine and bribed him with cigars not to an ger her ladyship. He merely grunted in reply a most unpleasant habit. Another thing, he was always care- POOR DEVIL By E. C. Ehrlich. less about delivering the morning's mail. Since our presecutcd landlord could not raise our rent more than the lawful 25 per cent he thriftily lowered running expenses by sending away our bell boy. Levine, grumbling over the extra work, sometimes brought the mail around; sometimes he sent it up in the dumbwaiter, and it was just as likely as not to land along with the wastepapcrs and slop pail into a neighbors kitchen. The Lord knows how many of our over-due checks from tardy editors have thus been lost for ever. Though it must be confessed, Lcvine's system brought joy to a least one member of the household. Eliza beth, in pawing over our morning's mail, delivered via the kitchen, used to take infinite delight in censoring our postal cards. Most irritating of all, Levine never finished a job. I remember, to recall just one painful example of his inef ficiency, the time one of the kitchen pipes burst We sent for Levine, who looked over the flooded area with his usual philosophic calm. With painful deliberation all of his movements were slow and painful he bent down, turned a faucet, or whatever one calls them, to and fro, then, rising, promis ed to come back shortly with some tools. Minutes passed and dinner time drew near. Elizabeth refused to ven ture into the whirlpool, and starvation seemed imminent. Until, moved to her oism by ever increasing pangs of hunger, I paddled across the floor, damned the stream (in more ways than one), ordered Elizabeth to put on the roast, and stalked to the telephone to tell Levine what I bought of him. He a- -red mildly that he was look ing , tols. An hour after dinner when " ' d children accompan ied us on . Jfc"1 stroll, we glanc ed down inu jAoment windows and saw him sit.'o'-' behind his Yiddish paper. He at us, nodded and smiled. I n. iwi bet ter natured man. "But why don't you complain about him," I demanded of Finkelstein, our next door neighbor. "Even if the agent is a grouch and wont give us any repairs he has to give us decent janitor service.'' Finkelstein agreed. The halls, he said, were never swept, and honest to God, he was ashamed when his wife's relatives came to see him. He knew they pitied Flossie for living in such a bum apartment. "Then complain about him." I urg ed. "You say you're the oldest tenant here and that ought to help a little. And I'll back you up all the tenants will. Finkelstein gave me a withering glance. "All of the tsnants are Jews, I came to this land with Columbus, as an astronomer, in trepreter and physician. I followed the Father of our Country, George Washing ton, in his fight for Liberty, and helped to feed and clothe his army at Valley Forge; some of my brothers gave up their lives tor this land of Liberty. I followed General Robert E. Lee in all his battles ; I as sisted President Jefferson Davis in establishing the South ern Confederacy. I assisted the North in establishing peace. I followed Theodore Roosevelt to Cuba and the Philippine Islands. I followed General Pershing across the seas and many of mine, lie buried under the poppies of Flanders. I gave to the Sciences some of my best. I gave to the Legal Fraternity the first Book of Law. I gave to the Medi cal Fraternity the best that was in me. I gave to the Press, men that were qualified to meet the necessary requirements. I contributed to the Wealthy Class, to the Poor Class, to the learned and to the Unlearned, to the Benevolent and to the Miser. My ancestors gave the Light of the One God. I am good and I am bad no better nor worse than my fellows. I am the spirit of the Jew. , HENRY GERNSBACHER. except the Browns on the third floor," he told me, "and with his looks I bet that his name wasn't Braunsky or something once." "But what's that got to do with Levine?" I demanded. "Ain't he a Jew and should we make trouble for a poor devil like him, neb bich, with a bad leg and everything? If he lost his job her ehe'd oner get another one at his age. And ain't the agent an Iriwher and such rishus pon num that if he was complaining about Levine wouldn't he go and say we Jews was always picking on one anoth er. I tell you it can't be done. WeVe got to put up with it." I protested. "We're not running a home for cripples or aged Jews," I answered hotly. "Only this morning the awning fell down and almost hit the baby. And he's been promising to fix it ever since we moved in. Go ahead and complain. I'll start a peti tion to have him removed, if you're afraid to do anything yourself. And all the rest of the tenants have to do will be to sign it. You'll do that much, won't you?" But my neighbor shook his head. "You don't know my wife," he said sadly. "My Flossie has a good heart and she's so sorry for the poor devil that if I got him in trouble sh'd throw me out of the house. A heart of gold that woman has. The last time I wan ted to go to my lodge I couldn't find) my dress suit. Honest to God, she went and sold it to one of them robber old clothes fellows. She said her Sis terhood was making each member give five dollars to charity they earned themselves and she thought it was the quickest way. And then they sa they've got brains to vote." "I left Finkelstein shaking his head over the follies of womankind in gen eral and his Flossie In particular and made formal calls upon several other tenants. With no better results. Every one agreed with different degrees ef violence that Levine deserved hang ing, or at least deportation. But none of them wanted to complain to the malicious agent. "There's enough rishus as it is,' was the unanimous cry. "Why should we Yehudim get the poor devil in trouble." Now I am a man of many ideas and refused to be beaten so easi'y. For a whole morning my typewritv stood Idle while I walked in Centra. Park devising means of ridding the neigh bors of the inefficient Levl.ie. Tim is money with me, but I was more than willing to devote both to a gaod cause. My motives, I admit, were ws'.f fish. I felt I could never sit down in peace to begin by newest masterpiece until Levine ceased clogging up the wheels of the household machinery. My planning bore fruit Evn our wife who had entirely too tnant ideas of her own agreed that the pln was (Continued on Fage 16).