California, Southern -- Fiction; Motion picture industry -- Fiction; Petroleum industry and trade -- Fiction; Political fiction
Rachel admitted that; she had meant to get a position as a social
worker—she had come to this university because there were special
courses which would make such a career possible. Bunny pleaded, why not
take Dad’s money, with no strings to it whatever, and pay him back ten
or twenty dollars a month out of her future salary. But Rachel was
stubborn—some strange impulse born of her “class-consciousness.” He
felt so keenly about it that without saying anything to her, he got into
his car and drove to the home of the Menzies family. He had the address
in his notebook, and it did not occur to him that she or her family
might be embarrassed to have him see the way they lived—in a wretched
slum district, crowded into a little three-room house on the back of a
lot, without a shred of a green thing in sight. It was a rented place,
Papa Menzies having put his money into Socialism, instead of into real
estate and shrubbery. Bunny found him in a crowded front room, with
furniture and books, and a job of sewing, and the remains of a meal of
bread and herring, and the proofs of an article which he was getting
ready for a strike bulletin, and a fat old Jewish lady rushing about in
a panic, trying to put things away from the sight of this alarmingly
fashionable visitor.
None of that bothered the old man; he was used to confusion, and all
wrapped up in the strike. He told Bunny about it, and read his article,
a bitter statement of the grievances of the clothing workers. And then
Bunny got down to the question of Rachel and her education, insisting
that Chaim Menzies should persuade his daughter not to give up her
career. Mrs. Menzies sat, staring with her large dark eyes, trying to
understand; and suddenly she broke into a torrent of excited Yiddish, of
which it was just as well that Bunny could not make out a word. For
Mamma Menzies placed no trust in this handsome young goy, and put the
worst possible construction upon his visit; he was trying to lure their
daughter into sin, and maybe he had already done so—who could tell what
sort of life she was living, with all these atheist and Socialist ideas
in her head, and going to a college run by a lot of Krists!
Papa Menzies bade her sternly to hold her tongue, which according to the
Hebrew law she was supposed to do; but apparently she took her Hebrew
law with as many allowances as the Krists took theirs. In the middle of
her torrents of Yiddish, Chaim thanked Bunny for his kindness, and
explained that what was worrying Rachel was the hard time the family
would have during the strike. If Bunny would help the family, then it
would be easy for Rachel to help herself. So they shook hands, and Bunny
went home to report to Dad that he had acquired the responsibility of
supporting half a dozen Jewish clothing workers!
VIII
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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