Part 19 (1/2)
”I am here now going on half an hour already.”
”Well, why didn't you talk to my partner?” Abe asked. ”He could fix you up just as well as me.”
”I did talk to him,” the newcomer replied, ”but he is too stuck up to talk to me at all.”
”Stuck up!” Abe exclaimed, with a note of real anguish in his tones.
”Stuck up! Why, you don't know my partner at all, Mister--er--excuse me, do you got a card?”
The stranger drew a card from his waistcoat pocket and with a proud gesture handed it to Abe. It read as follows:
Z. KATZBERG I. SCHAPP KATZBERG & SCHAPP FINE PANTS 530 WEST WAs.h.i.+NGTON PLACE NEW YORK
”I am taking your advice, Mr. Potash,” he said. ”I am taking your advice all round. I cut 'em off.”
”You cut what off?” Abe asked.
”The whiskers, Mr. Potash. Also I am making short the name. In Russland Shapolnik is all right, Mr. Potash; but if a feller wants to make a success in business he should be a little up to date, ain't it?”
The cordial smile faded from Abe's face as he recognized his visitor.
”There's such a thing as being too much up to date, Shapolnik,” he said.
”You ain't got no right to fool my partner like that. Me, you couldn't fool for a minute. Right away I says to myself, 'Here is a feller which he wants to ask us something we should do him for a favour.' So, spit it out, Shapolnik. What is it you want from us?”
”Well, it's like this, Mr. Potash,” Shapolnik began. ”Me and my partner we are wanting to take on somebody for a drummer, y'understand. We must got it some one which he is already got a trade. _Aber_ he couldn't ask for too much money at the start on account we are going slow. If you know some young feller which he wants the job me and my partner would be much obliged, Mr. Potash.”
”What d'ye think we are running here anyway, Shapolnik,” Abe retorted--”an employment agency?”
”I am just taking chances might you would know somebody, maybe,”
Shapolnik murmured as he rose to his feet. He seemed much relieved at Abe's refusal. ”And I hope you don't think I am doing something out of the way. You know, Mr. Potash, me and my partner we think a whole lot of your judgment, and if you would give us an advice we are willing we should follow it.”
”Well, I ain't mad at you, Shapolnik,” Abe said more mildly; ”but all the same, if you want to get a drummer you got a right to advertise for one.”
”We would do so,” Shapolnik replied, ”and if you would be in our _Nachbarschaft_ oncet in a while, Mr. Potash, me and my partner would consider it an honour if you are dropping in to see us. We only got a small place, Mr. Potash.” He paused and fingered the texture of his waistcoat. ”But everything will be up to date, Mr. Potash,” he concluded, ”just like you advised us to.”
Abe watched his late skirt-cutter disappear into the elevator, and then he returned to the office where Morris impatiently awaited him.
”_Nu_, Abe,” Morris cried as he entered.
”Yes, Mawruss,” Abe said with cutting emphasis: ”good cigars don't care who smokes 'em. I suppose if Nathan, the s.h.i.+pping clerk, would come in here with a collar and tie on and a clean shave, you would want to blow him to a bottle of tchampanyer wine yet. Just because a feller shaves off his beard and buys himself a new suit of clothes you couldn't recognize him at all. That was Shapolnik which just went out of here.”
”Shapolnik!” Morris exclaimed. ”That dude was Shapolnik? Well, what d'ye think for a crook like that!”
”Crooked Shapolnik ain't exactly,” Abe interrupted; ”but it should be a lesson to you, Mawruss, that you wouldn't be so free with our cigars.
All the feller wants from us is we should recommend him a drummer.”
”The nerve the feller got it!” Morris cried. ”He comes around here throwing bluffs he needs a drummer yet. A new beginner like him ain't going to hire no drummer, Abe. I bet yer he takes his pants under his arms and sees them Fourteenth Street buyers on his way downtown in the morning. He ain't got no more use for a drummer than I got it for an airs.h.i.+p.”
”My _tzuris_ if he has or he hasn't!” Abe exclaimed. ”I anyhow told him he should advertise for one, as we are not running an employment agency here, Mawruss; and so, Mawruss, let's get busy on that order for Griesman. I want to get away from here sure at five o'clock to-day. What is the good I am staying down at Riesenberger's if I never get a show to take oncet in a while a sea bath, maybe?”