Part 6 (2/2)
”And that's just the reason why you wouldn't get one,” s.h.i.+mko declared.
”A small stock of piece goods you couldn't help, Zamp; but if you let that feller come into your store and find you ain't got no cutters or customers, that's your own fault.”
”What d'ye mean, Mr. s.h.i.+mko?” Zamp demanded.
”I mean this,” s.h.i.+mko explained. ”If I would got a store like you got it here, Zamp, and a friend offers to bring me a feller with a couple thousand dollars for a partner, understand me, I would go to work, y'understand, and get a couple cutters and engage 'em for the afternoon. Then I would turn around, y'understand, and go up and see such a feller like Klinkowitz, which he is manager of that theayter on Rivington Street, and I would get him to fix up for me a half a dozen young fellers from his theayter, which they would come down to my store for the day, and some of 'em acts like customers, and others acts like clerks. Then, when my friend brings in the feller with two thousand dollars, understand me, what do they see? The place is full of customers and salesmen, and in the rear is a couple of cutters chalking lines on pattern papers and cutting it up with shears. You yourself are so busy, understand me, you could hardly talk a word to us. You don't want to know anything about getting a partner at all. What is a partner with two thousand dollars in a rus.h.i.+ng business like you are doing it?
I beg of you you should take the matter under consideration, but you pretty near throw me out of the store, on account you got so much to do. At last you say you would take a cup coffee with me at six o'clock, and I go away with the two-thousand dollar feller, and when we meet again at six o'clock, he's pretty near crazy to invest his money with you. Do you get the idee?”
”Might you could even get the feller to pay for the coffee, maybe,”
Zamp suggested, completely carried away by s.h.i.+mko's enthusiasm.
”If the deal goes through,” s.h.i.+mko declared, in a burst of generosity, ”I would even pay for the coffee myself!”
”And when would you bring the feller here?” Zamp asked.
”I would see him this afternoon yet,” s.h.i.+mko replied, as he opened the store door, ”and I would telephone you sure, by Dachtel's place, at four o'clock.”
Zamp, full of grat.i.tude, shook hands with his landlord.
”If I would got such a head like you got it to think out schemes, Mr.
s.h.i.+mko,” he said fervently, ”I would be a millionaire, I bet yer!”
”The thinking out part is nothing,” s.h.i.+mko said, as he turned to leave.
”Any blame fool could think out a scheme, y'understand, but it takes a pretty bright feller to make it work!”
”If a feller wouldn't be in business for himself,” s.h.i.+mko said to Isaac Meiselson, as they sat in Wa.s.serbauer's Cafe that afternoon, ”he might just as well never come over from Russland at all.”
”I told you before, Mr. s.h.i.+mko,” Meiselson retorted, ”I am from Lemberg _geborn_.”
”_Oestreich oder Russland_, what is the difference?” s.h.i.+mko asked. ”If a feller is working for somebody else, n.o.body cares who he is or what he is; while if he's got a business of his own, understand me, everybody would respect him, even if he would be born in, we would say for example, China.”
”Sure, I know, Mr. s.h.i.+mko,” Meiselson rejoined; ”but there is businesses and businesses, and what for a business is a small retail clothing store on Ca.n.a.l Street?”
”Small the store may be, I ain't denying it,” s.h.i.+mko said; ”but ain't it better a feller does a big business in a small store as a small business in a big store?”
”_If_ he does a big business, yes,” Meiselson admitted; ”but if a feller does a big business, why should he want to got a partner?”
”Ain't I just telling you he _don't_ want no partner?” s.h.i.+mko interrupted.
”And as for doing a big business, I bet yer we could drop in on the feller any time, and we would find the store full of people.”
”_Gewiss_,” Meiselson commented, ”three people playing auction pinochle in a small store is a big crowd!”
”No auction pinochle gets played in that store, Meiselson. The feller has working by him two cutters and three salesmen, and he makes 'em earn their money. Only yesterday I am in the store, and if you would believe me, Meiselson, his own landlord he wouldn't talk to at all, so busy he is.”
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