Children _of_ Loneliness BY ANZIA YEZIERSKA Author of “Hungry Hearts,” “Salome of the Tenements,” etc. [Illustration] CASSELL AND COMPANY, LTD London, New York, Toronto and Melbourne First published 1923 Copyright, 1923, by FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY _Printed in Great Britain_ To Mrs. HENRY OLLESHEIMER and Mr. R. J. CUDDIHY CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE 1. MOSTLY ABOUT MYSELF 1 2. CHILDREN OF LONELINESS 29 3. BROTHERS 57 4. TO THE STARS 98 5. AN IMMIGRANT AMONG THE EDITORS 134 6. AMERICA AND I 151 7. A BED FOR THE NIGHT 172 8. DREAMS AND DOLLARS 192 9. THE SONG TRIUMPHANT 222 10. THE LORD GIVETH 256 CHILDREN OF LONELINESS MOSTLY ABOUT MYSELF I feel like a starved man who is so bewildered by the first sight of food that he wants to grab and devour the ice-cream, the roast and the entrée all in one gulp. For ages and ages, my people in Russia had no more voice than the broomstick in the corner. The poor had no more chance to say what they thought or felt than the dirt under the feet. And here, in America, a miracle has happened to me. I can lift up my head like a person. After centuries of suppression I am allowed to speak. Is it a wonder that I am too excited to know where to begin? All the starved, unlived years crowd into my throat and choke me. I don’t know whether it is joy or sorrow that hurts me so. I only feel my release is wrung with the pain of all those back of me who lived and died, their dumbness pressing down on them like stories on the heart.