The Making of an AmericanRiis, Jacob A. (Jacob August)
General
The Making of an American
Riis, Jacob A. (Jacob August)
Riis, Jacob A. (Jacob August), 1849-1914
Pfeiffer was a German, but his wife was Irish and so were his
hands, all except a giant Norwegian and myself. The third day was
Sunday, and was devoted to drinking much beer, which Pfeiffer,
with an eye to business, furnished on the premises. When they
were drunk, the tribe turned upon the Norwegian, and threw him out.
It seems that this was a regular weekly occurrence. Me they fired
out at the same time, but afterward paid no attention to me. The
whole crew of them perched on the Norwegian and belabored him with
broomsticks and bale-sticks until they roused the sleeping Berserk
in him. As I was coming to his relief, I saw the human heap heave and
rock. From under it arose the enraged giant, tossed his tormentors
aside as if they were so much chaff, battered down the door of the
house in which they took refuge, and threw them all, Mrs. Pfeiffer
included, through the window. They were not hurt, and within two
hours they were drinking more beer together and swearing at one
another endearingly. I concluded that I had better go on, though
Mr. Pfeiffer regretted that he never paid his hands in the middle
of the month. It appeared afterward that he objected likewise to
paying them at the end of the month, or at the beginning of the
next. He owes me two days' wages yet.
CHAPTER III
I GO TO WAR AT LAST AND SOW THE SEED OF FUTURE CAMPAIGNS
At sunset on the second day after my desertion of Pfeiffer I walked
across a footbridge into a city with many spires, in one of which
a chime of bells rang out a familiar tune. The city was New Brunswick.
I turned down a side street where two stone churches stood side by
side. A gate in the picket fence had been left open, and I went in
looking for a place to sleep. Back in the churchyard I found what
I sought in the brownstone slab covering the tomb of, I know now,
an old pastor of the Dutch Reformed Church, who died full of wisdom
and grace. I am afraid that I was not overburdened with either,
or I might have gone to bed with a full stomach too, instead of
chewing the last of the windfall apples that had been my diet on
my two days' trip; but if he slept as peacefully under the slab
as I slept on it, he was doing well. I had for once a dry bed, and
brownstone keeps warm long after the sun has set. The night dews
and the snakes, and the dogs that kept sniffing and growling half
the night in the near distance, had made me tired of sleeping in
the fields. The dead were much better company. They minded their
own business, and let a fellow alone.
[Illustration: "The dead were much better company"]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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