Every Soul Hath Its Song | Page 7

bigger you get in business the
littler on the outside you get, Simon. Always you been the last to do
things."
"And, papa, everybody--"
"Everybody makes no difference with me. I don't work for the
steamship company. For two thousand dollars what such a trip costs I
can do better as Europe."
"I--I just wish I hadn't ever been born."
A sudden tear found its way down Mrs. Binswanger's billowy cheek.
"You hear, Simon, your own daughter has to wish she had never got
born."
She drew her daughter upward to her wide bosom, and through the
loose basque percolated the warm tears.
"'Sh-h-h-h, Miriam, don't you cry."
"Ach, now, Carrie--"
"I tell you, Simon, I 'ain't been a wife that has made such demands on
you, but I guess you think it's a comfort that a mother should hear that
in society her daughter has to take a back seat."
"When she 'ain't got a front seat she should take a second seat. I don't

need no seat. I know worse young men as Sollie Spitz and Eddie
Greenbaum what comes here to see her."
"Just the same you--you said to me the other night, papa, that I never
seem to meet young men like Adolph Gans, fellows who are in
business for themselves."
"Ja, but I--"
"Well, where do you think Elsa Bergenthal met Adolph, but on the
ship?"
"You hear, Simon: Moe Bergenthal, who sells shirtwaists for you right
this minute, can afford to send his daughter to Europe."
"Ja, I guess that's why he sells shirtwaists for me instead of for
himself."
"See, papa, she--"
"That's right, get him cornered, ma! Go to it, Miriam!"
"Du, du good-for-nothings dude, du!"
"Be a sport, pa!"
"Ach, Simon--"
"Ach, you women make me sick! In the old country, I tell you, I got no
business. All the Eyetalians what I want to see I can see down on
Cherry Street--for less as two thousand dollar too."
"Why--why, that's no way to learn about 'em, papa. You just ought to
see me take a back seat when Lilly Lillianthal gets out her post-cards
and begins telling about the real ones."
Mrs. Binswanger took on a private tone, peering close into her
husband's face. "You hear that, Simon? Mark Lillianthal, what failed
regular like clockwork before he moved up-town, his daughter can

make our Miriam feel small. You hear that, Simon?"
His daughter's arms were soft about his neck, tight, tighter. "Papa,
please! For a couple of thousand we can take that beau-tiful trip I
showed you in the booklet. Card-rooms on the steamer, papa. Hannah
told me all summer her father played pinochle in Germany, father, right
outdoors where they drink beer and eat rye-bread sandwiches all day.
In Germany we can even stop at Dusseldorf where you were born,
papa--just think, papa, where you were born! In Italy we can make Ray
look at the pictures and statues, and all day you can sit outdoors
and--and play cards, papa. Just think, papa, by the time you have to buy
us swell clothes for Arverne I tell you it will cost you more. All Lilly
Lillianthal needed for Europe, mamma, was a new blue suit."
"Go way--go way with such nonsense, I tell you!" "And how you and
papa can rest up, mamma." "She's right, Simon; such a trip won't hurt
us. I tell you we don't get younger each day."
He regarded his wife with eyes rolled backward. "That's what I need
yet, Carrie, all of a sudden you take sides away from me. Always round
your little finger your children could always wind themselves."
"Na, Simon, when I see a thing I see it. With Izzy out on his trip these
next two months it won't hurt us. So crazy for Europe you know I ain't,
but when you got children you got to make sacrifice for them."
"I--"
"For ten weeks, Simon, you can stand it, and me too."
"I--"
"For ten weeks, Simon, if we go on that boat she wants that sails away
on June twentieth--it's a fine boat, she says."
"June twentieth I don't go. July twentieth I got to be back when my men
go out on the road--"

"Then shoot 'em over this month, pa. Max can--"
"There's a boat two weeks from to-day, pa, see here in the booklet, the
same boat, the _Roumania,_ only on this month's sailing. We can get
ready easy, papa, we--oh, we can get ready easy."
"Ach, Miriam, in two weeks how can we get together our things for a
trip like that?"
"Easy, mamma, I tell you I--I'll do all the shopping and packing and
everything."
"'Sh-h-h-h, I 'ain't promised yet. I tell you if anybody would tell me two
days ago to Europe I got to