'Garn! They'd kick you out!' croaked Ebenezer. 'They'll only listen to
an Englishman.' His coarse-featured face glistened with spite.
'My Ebenezer has a good appearance,' said old Sugarman, 'and his
English is fine, and dat is half de battle.'
Schlesinger, appealed to, intimated that Ebenezer might try, but that
they could not well spare him any percentage at the start. After much
haggling, Ebenezer consented to waive his commission if the committee
would consent to allow an original tale of his to appear in the paper.
The stipulation having been agreed to, he capered joyously about the
office, and winked periodically at Pinchas from behind the battery of
his blue spectacles. The poet was, however, rapt in a discussion as to
the best printer. The committee were for having Gluck, who had done
odd jobs for most of them; but Pinchas launched into a narrative of
how, when he edited a great organ in Buda-Pesth, he had effected vast
economies by starting a little printing office of his own in
connection with the paper.
'You vill set up a little establishment,' he said. 'I vill manage it
for a few pounds a veek. Then I vill not only print your paper--I vill
get you large profits from extra printing. Vith a man of great
business talent at the head of it----'
De Haan made a threatening movement, and Pinchas edged away from the
proximity of the coal-scuttle.
'Gluck's our printer!' said De Haan peremptorily. 'He has Hebrew type.
We shall want a lot of that. We must have a lot of Hebrew
quotations--not spell Hebrew words in English like the other papers.
And the Hebrew date must come before the English. The public must see
at once that our principles are superior. Besides, Gluck's a Jew,
which will save us from the danger of having any of the printing done
on Saturdays.'
'But shan't we want a publisher?' asked Sampson.
'That's vat I say,' cried Pinchas. 'If I set up this office, I can be
your publisher, too. Ve must do things business-like.'
'Nonsense, nonsense! We are our own publishers,' said De Haan. 'Our
clerks will send out the invoices and the subscription copies, and an
extra office-boy can sell the papers across the counter.'
Sampson smiled in his sleeve.
'All right. That will do--for the first number,' he said cordially.
'Ta-ra-ra-ta.'
'Now then, Mr. Leon, everything is settled,' said De Haan, stroking
his beard briskly. 'I think I'll ask you to help us to draw up the
posters. We shall cover all London, sir--all London.'
'But wouldn't that be wasting money?' said Raphael.
'Oh, we're going to do the thing properly. I don't believe in
meanness.'
'It'll be enough if we cover the East End,' said Schlesinger dryly.
'Quite so. The East End _is_ London, as far as we are concerned,' said
De Haan readily.
Raphael took the pen and the paper which De Haan tendered him, and
wrote '_The Flag of Judah_,' the title having been fixed at their
first interview.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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