'The only orthodox paper!' dictated De Haan. 'Largest circulation of
any Jewish paper in the world!'
'No, how can we say that?' said Raphael, pausing.
'No, of course not,' said De Haan. 'I was thinking of the subsequent
posters. Look out for the first number--on Friday, January 1st! The
best Jewish writers! The truest Jewish teachings! Latest Jewish news,
and finest Jewish stories! Every Friday, twopence.'
'Twopence?' echoed Raphael, looking up. 'I thought you wanted to
appeal to the masses. I should say it must be a penny.'
'It _will_ be a penny,' said De Haan oracularly.
'We have thought it all over,' interposed Gradkoski. 'The first number
will be bought up out of curiosity whether at a penny or at twopence.
The second will go almost as well, for people will be anxious to see
how it compares with the first. In that number we shall announce that,
owing to the enormous success, we have been able to reduce it to a
penny. Meantime, we make all the extra pennies.'
'I see,' said Raphael dubiously.
'We must have _Chochmah_,' said De Haan. 'Our sages recommend that.'
Raphael still had his doubts, but he had also a painful sense of his
lack of the 'practical wisdom' recommended by the sages cited. He
thought these men were probably in the right. Even religion could not
be pushed on the masses without business methods--and so long as they
were in earnest about the doctrines to be preached, he could even feel
a dim admiration for their superior shrewdness in executing a task in
which he himself would have hopelessly broken down. Raphael's mind was
large, and larger by being conscious of its cloistral limitations. And
the men were in earnest; not even their most intimate friends could
call this into question.
'We are going to save London,' De Haan put it in one of his
dithyrambic moments. 'Orthodoxy has too long been voiceless, and yet
it is five-sixths of Judea. A small minority has had all the say. We
must redress the balance. We must plead the cause of the People
against the Few.'
Raphael's breast throbbed with similar hopes. His Messianic emotions
resurged. Sugarman's solicitous request that he should buy a Hamburg
lottery ticket scarcely penetrated his consciousness. Carrying the
copy of the poster, he accompanied De Haan to Gluck's. It was a small
shop in a back street, with Jargon papers and handbills in the window,
and a pervasive heavy oleaginous odour. A hand-press occupied the
centre of the interior, the back of which was partitioned off, and
marked 'private.' Gluck came forward, grinning welcome. He wore an
unkempt beard and a dusky apron.
'Can you undertake to print an eight-page paper?' inquired De Haan.
'If I can print at all, I can print anything,' responded Gluck
reproachfully. 'How many shall you want?'
'It's the orthodox paper we've been planning so long,' said De Haan
evasively.
Gluck nodded his head.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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