Richmond Palladium (Daily), Volume 32, Number 85, 7 April 1907 — Page 6

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. Copyright. 1907, by Thomas H. McKee. WHERE am, I? whispered Griselda, sitting up, with a frightened look in her big, beautiful black eyes. " 'Thou art with me, darling an- " swered the happy young Prince, the fluttering yellow rays of the shop candle shining on his mantle of crimson plush, broidered with pearls and, flashing gems. " 'But, whispered Griselda, lower than before, the tender lovelight shining through the wonder in her big, beautiful black eyes, 'I am only a poor maiden and have fallen asleep here in the corner of my father's shop.' " 'I love thee, dearest, pleaded the happy young Prince. 'Through all the world I have sought thee out. Come with me now to my castle and thou shalt wear robes of cloth of gold and an hundred slaves shalt wait thy pleasure. " There will be no need to tell you the rest of this story, for, I am sure, you will guess that the Prince married Griselda and that they lived happily. Clickety-clang cling-clang! The bell on the street door filled the grimy little bakeshop with its shrill Jangle and the startled Rachel sprang up Vom the bread-box on which she had been seated.

j Mm m:-- ' for - '.-V""- "V- A 4. A - HE WAS THE SCHATCHEN THE NEIGHBORHOOD MARRIAGE BROKER. She stood still, big black eyes wide open, red Hps slightly apart, her faded dark blue dress and lusterless. black hair blending almost perceptibly into the purple shadows which made dim the far corners of the low room. It was old Mrs. Czarcowski, from the rear tenement next door not the Prince who advanced to the middle of the shop, her heelless slippers slapping the floor, her squat, bulging figure, in a shapeless red Mother Hubbard, topped by a red and green shawl, pulled tightly about her greasy gray hair. On one fat arm she carried a big, round willow basket. For a moment she peered about the little shop In search of an attendant. Pres ently Fhe made out Rachel, standing exquisitely - poised like a startled nymph in her dark corner. "So," said the old woman, by way of recognition, pointing with a dirty finger to the counter. "How viel for doe stale roll dese abend?" "Dope roll are cot stale. Dey are fresh bake dese morgen," answered Rachel in her low. deep voice, yet. haughtily, as becomes a potential princes?. Mrs. Czarcowski advanced ,to the counter and tlnched the crust of one of the rolls between thumb j and finger. "Pful-I!" she laughed derisively. "You no fool dese child dose rays. "When you sell him a half dutzen for vier cents I kaufe." With a glance of score the Princess Rachel sat down again on the bread-box and resumed her reading. "Prom the far corners of the seven seas - men-. servants and handmaidens were brought together to -wait upon the sweet pleasures of the fair I'rinceps Griselda. Black slaves and " "Maybe so I give finf cent for sieben von dose awful stale roll," the shrill voice of old Mrs. Czarcowski interrupted. Turning, as if to leave the shop, she flung this last Indifferent offer behind her. Rachel sprang up angrily from the box, her finicer still marking the lina she had been reading. She was in no mood to continue the complicated process of bargaining." "Take him," she said sharply. "Take him so kevick you can. Vere 1 de moneys? Now go way an don't bodder me -no more." As th bell jangled behind the retreating customer Rachel heard her father climbing up the lad-' Vr from the bake ovens in the cellar. With a guilty flush in her cheeks she hid the tittle book behind a pile of unleavened loaves and started to arrange the suesskuckea on the end of the counter. "So. You sell somedlngs?" asked the old man, sticking his thin, bearded face through the halfopened door. . ' "I tell sieleu gestern rolls for a nickel to Mrs. Czarcowski," the girl answered. , "Tot! Tot! Tot!" The old man shook his head angrily. "Dat is no goot bitsiniss. I lose monev. me." EXT

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He came slinking into the room and began to poke about the piles of bread on the back counter, while the girl looked on in apprehension. Presently he discovered the fairy book and held it up, accusingly." "Such a business!", he cried. , "You keep , on steal me dese premlums out of de oatmeal. Look vance what he say on de back: A Present for the Baby.' Shame to yourself! Big girls, like yous. olt enor.gh to make married alretty. robbln your poor fader so he can't do no goot bitsiness and sell me dose oatmeals." Rachel lifted up her hands to take the precious little book from his avenging grasp. As she did so hi3 sharp eye caught the light from something which glittered on her finger. With a sudden grip he caught her hand in his and examined it more closely. "Ach. Gott!" he cried again, more sharply than before. "Dis auch! You steal me dese jenu wire chewelry ring out od dose chewin' cums premiums! Comes all from learning dose readings by de public schnle." "Oh, fader, he is so hiny beautiful, I bat to vPar him a little yet. I put him back," pleaded the eirl. Just then Rachel's mother came in through the front door of the shop and. as the bell jangled, the. old man turned to renew his complaint to her. "while his daughter slipped out unnoticed into the back room, taking the book with her. j That nisrht, after the evening meal cleared away, thpre came a strange waller fo the little shop. He was the schatchen the neighborhood marriage broker a tall, thin man, with stooped shoulders anda long gray beard, wearing a black derby bat. mfiny sizes too !arg, and a long, green-faded black coat. Both Rachel's father and mother knew his nrrr.nd without heing told. The girl herself was sont npstairs at his entrance, while the old couple received him in state. Diplomatically he led up to the proposition he had to make, begininng with a long eulogy of the character and disposition of one Ya k oh Stransky. "Tt is he of what bitsiness?". asked the old father finally. "IX is th srun bitsiness," answered the schatchen. "He owns alretty the wagon and pferd. Next year he makes the second wagon. Tt is a goot young man. He makes mooch moneys." The schatchen spread his hands in. a wealthy gesture. It was plain that his hearers were considerably imprsed. "You have here. also, a goot bitsiness." the schatchen went on. striking out on a new lead. The old man shook his head and started to speak, but the caller paid no heed to the interruption. "It is so bad there is no son but one daughter, only. Is it not so?" "Mein Rachel is a goot, smart girl," spoke up the little old mother proudly. "She can also read ot de English." "Yah wohl." said the shateben promptly, rubbing his thin hands together. "Unt vehen she makes married yet, you shall give her mooch moneys, not so?" . . . , The old father, sitting on a low' stool, with "his gaunt figure bent forward, shook his head. "Tt is that T am a poor mans," he said whlnIngly. , "A her, RachVl shall have dose two hundurt. dollar vhen she makes married." declared the old . woman, with a. glance of defiance at her husband. The schatchen rose, kissed the old man on the forehead and went out through the shop. "Morgen I sent Yakob Stransky," he said, at the door. . . . At the sound of the bell the girl came downstairs. Her parents looked at her fondly. "Morgen cpmes yet a man," said "the mother. "He is of name Yakob Stransky. He is' of de arun bitsiness. Maybe so you vill make married by him." . ' ' Rachel bit her full under lip and shook her head

stubbornly. "No, no. mooder," she cried. "I vill not." "What for not? Vhen he is a goot young man? Vhen he is of de arun bitsiness and makes mooch moneys? What for not?" The girl turned away her face, a rosy flush showing through the olive of her cheeks.- "T vait me aviles yet." she said, softly, with downcast eyes. Tn her deepest heart was hidden the image of the happy young Prince, the splendid youth In crimson and gold, who was so surely coming to find her sleeping In the corner of her father's shop. She must wait for him. She would not permit even the thought of another lover. So she shook her head, heavy with its braids of dead black, bit her red lips and answered only, "I vill not. T vill not," to all her old mother's repeated urgings. "Then broke out the old father, finally: "Such a foolitschnlss! Comes all from learning dose readings." He drew himself up "to his full height and pointed a long, thin forefinger at the girl. "Mein tochter shall obey her fader and mooder," he said, solemnly. "It 1st de law." Next morning, early, a green-painted wagon, drawn by a bony white horse, stopped in front of the bakeshop. Rachel's mother, peering through the grimy shop window which was half covered with a Yiddish Inscription looking to the Gentile like a bar of sheet music managed to spell out the tin sign, tacked to the wagon box, the name of "Jacob Stransky. Junk Dealer." and hastemed to call her daughter from the room behind the shop. Rachel came In sulkily just as Yakob opened the front door. He was short and slender, with a curling brown beard and soft brown eyes. When he smiled "he showed flashing white teeth. There was something strange, foreign, almost mystical, about the expression of his face. In spite of his faded yellow clothes jnd black cotton, shirt., he might have been a Jewish shepherd, watching his fiock by night under the white moon of Palestine. He made a low bow to the old woman, then turned smiling to the counter, behind which stood the girl, who turned away her face at his approach. Yakob drew from his trousers pocket an old, brown tobacco bag. heavy and bulging with coins. 66

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"I voudt buy liebkuchen." he said. "How viel ?'" "Finf cent de halb dutzen." Rachel answered shortly, still averting her face. She would give this despised suitor no encouragement. "I vill have a hull dutzen." said Yakob. unabashed, impressively laying a bright silver dollar on the counter. The girl wrapped up the cakes, made the change and laid It on the counter. Then she turned her back. "Morgen abend I come back wance," said Yakob to the old mother, who was vainly making-angry gestures at her daughter. "Maybe so she feel bet- ' ter," he added, with one of his flashing smiles and a sideways nod of the head toward the girl. There was feminine curiosity enough about Rachel to make her follow him to the door as he went out. Through the dusty glass she saw him climb over the wagon wheel and, standing erect in the box. urge the old white horse up the street. As it turned the corner she heard his low-pitched, musical voice, rising and falling in melancholy cadences. "Recks unt olt ar-r-un! Recks olt ar-r-r-un!" That evening, after the shadows had fallen thickly Into the stretches of Bunker Street, the three people in the bake-shop heard again the voice of Yakob. rising by way of serenade to his sweetheart. The old father' slunk to the window and peered out. . . . v.." "Yeh!" he said, presently, with a shake of the head. "He makes de goot bitsiness. him. De vagon Is piles full, alretty, mit arun." Next evening the old couple received Yakob cordially in the little room behind the shop. He wore his black clothes and a white collar bottoned to his black shirt. Rachel was there, too, but she sat apart in a dark corner, frowning moodily aud tak-

' 1 JR." - NEXT EVENING THE OLD COUPLE RECEIVED BEHIND Ing no part In the conversation. Yakob did most of the talking, telling of the old life at home in Posen. of how much better chance a man had here In Chicago and of his own prospects. And all the time his eager eyes were '.watching the dim corner, where, in the purple shadows cast by the shade of the old blackened brass lamp, Rachel sat silently, her plump lips pouting and her big black eyes flashing angrily when she moved slightly in her chair, so that the light fell upon her face. She was very young and childlike In her dark Oriental beauty, and Yakob liked her the better for the high spirit she displayed. Into his ardent face came all the patience and the fiery persistency of his race, and the while he talked he vowed, by the beard of the Prophet, that sooner or later and at whatever cost he .would win Rachel for his wife. When he got up to go the old father walked with him Into the .shop and there he made his formal proposal for the hand of the girl. '"Rachel." said the old man, when he had returned to the back room, "that shall be your husbant. He is of us. He is auch from Poses. He Is like our sohn alretty. You shall make married by him." But Rachel, though she was in great fear or her father, only shook her head and bit her lip the harder and cried, "J vill not," until the old man thundered forth iu rage against her. "You shall go no more by the Krist schule," he cried. "You shall stay by de shop, t vill teach you yet how It is to obey your fader and mooder!"

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An hour later the old mother, carrying her old black iron candlestick, came slipping softly Into the little cioset where her daughter lay at the head of the stairs Hidden under the girl's pillow, was the little fairy book, and her black eyes were fail of dreams, but far from sleep. "Rachel, kleine." said the old woman, softly, "how Is it you make so mean by your fader an4 Yakob Stransky?" "Mooder." Rachel whispered, her hand in her mother's, "maybe so I have anoder feller yet." The mother crushed back the cry of surprise and alarm that rose to her lips. "Vhat is he of name?" she asked cunningly. "T do not know yet." answered the girl. "Vhat is he or looks?" "lie is awful tall, mit golt-colored hairs, and he vears dose red cloaks, mit peal"l3-" "Vere have you seen him?" "I have not seen him yet. mooder. but he comes pooty soon alretty " "Nu " laughed the relieved old woman. "Such a foolitschnfss. Rachel. When you make married rait Yacob Sransky your fader gives you two hunf durd dollar " Now it was Rachel's turn to laugh. "Dat oder feller don't have to need dose monevs." she said. "He is of a richness. He is full of dose golt unt James!" ; The old woman smiled fondly and stroked , the low. white forehead of the girl with her gnarled hand. "Little girls hef dose big treams," she said. "Gnte nacht." '.'Don't you say nodlngs. mooder," Rachel cried, and the old woman promised with a smile. Being taken out of the public school was no hardship to Rachel, in her present frame of mind. Now she could sit almost the whole day on the bread box in the corner of her father's shop, and wait, half dozing, wholly dreaming, for the coming

3 K YAKOB CORDIALLY IN THE LITTLE ROOM THE SHOP. or the happy j-oung Prince. But the Prince seemed strangely slow about making his appearance. On those rare occasions when the shop-bell Jangled to announce the entrance of a strange man, she closed her black eyes quickly and leaned her dusky head back against the wall, that he might find her sleeping, as the story told. But she was always disappointed and it took repeated rereadings of the little fairy book to keep strong her belief that sooner or later he would surely come. Meanwhile Yakob Stransky proved a most persistent and a most tactful suitor. One or two mornings each week he came smiling into the bakeshop to display his sack of coin and recklessly Invest in liebkuchen. Gradually Rachel's resentment gave way to acquiescence and then to a certain pleasure in his regular calls. Ehe even, went so far once or twice as to answer his flashing smile and to exchange bits of banter with him across the counter. He was a handsome young man and he had a pleasant way with him. But alwars, sooner or later, there came into her mind the awful thought that she was thus showing disloyalty to her absent lover. Then, like a flash, she turned into a cold and haughty young princess and sent Yakob away puzzled, bat still determined. Often, fn the evenings, he sat for hours In the little room beind the shop, chatting with the old people and now and then asking a question which Rachel found it on her lips to answer. Into her heart came a growing foadress for the devoted Yakob, and it was harder and more painful to punish thetraitor thought as It deserved. Constantly she prayed that the Prince might come quickly tc save her from such treachery. Late on a Friday evening, when Rachel returned

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"from one of her rare absences from the shop, her smiling mother handed her a bundle, wrapped la pink tissue paper. 'A mans brought him for you. said the old woman. , Rachel's heaf! sank as she took the package. The Prince had come and had not found her dream- ' Ing In the corner of the shop. "What for a looking mans, mooder? she stam mers. "An awful tall mans, mit gold buttons on hlf clothes and golt laces on his hat. Hebchen," th old woman answered. With a bitter cry of disappointment the girl seized the bundle In her arms and ran through th shop to her room upstairs. It was the Prince and Tie had not found her waiting! It was already ; dusk, and there was still a dim light la the little room, and Rachel sat down and beean hurriedly to open the package, heartbroken as she wan. As the paper folded back a little pasteboard hot fell to the floor. She lifted Its cover and disclosed a little gold wire ring, set with three tiny pearls. With an exclamation of delight shepeized the trinket and slinped It on her finger. So much grander was It than any of the chewing gum prem- -fums! Tn the next box was a string of red glass m beads, with a carved Ivory bird pendant. Rachel ; clasped it about her neck." Wranped fn red tissue -was n nair of shining patent leather slippers. Oh. Joy! They fitted the feet of Cinderella to an exactness! And In the largest bundle of all were som red ;IIk ribbons and a piece of thin cotton dress good. These were the rifts of the Prlnce of the Tr!nc "ho bad come and gone nd had not found her!' W'rt he come back aeain? With the white cotton srvread out In her lar nd the other treasures close beside she leaned buck fn bM chair, and Into her dreamr mind eame the, words of th little book: "From the far corners of seven seas, black slave and brown, white and red. 1 men-servants and handmaidens were unmmoned ti the ervtfe rf the great Princess Griselda Tnto the little room over the bake-nhon came H thick drknAs. like a fog. Tt wrapped Itself about the girl, fold on fold. Her heaw head dropped bcl- ae-alnst the cuhlons of her chair. Her handi lav In fcr fan. motionless, with curled, white fin- , gers. Her blir black eves were tightly closed. T . hr ears 'a me the far-off sound of far-off, faint voices She saw strange, distant visions real they Feerrtorf. yet thin snd shadowy. Black men In faded bine shirts, open at th ? r-oat. and black women with red handkerchief i tld about tfcetr heads, worked In the cotton field urder th bUzlne sun. Rhvthmteallv their back arop and foil, as they sng In ttme to their swlfllv !, movfnar flnrere. Down the rows rode a white man. , on a preat white horse. He carried a whip, wfth n curved wooden handle nd many lashes. Over I thofr bent backs he cracVed his whip and cried In a h-ph voice: "Ye are the black slaves of all men. , wbthr princesses, crowned, or poor maiden e-inf rur fn the corners of their fathers shops. wb unknowing band ye pick for wedding eown pnd.shro'id and shift for new-born babe. Hurrv 1 Hurry! For while the world spin you must toll! Tn the ereat mills hure machines clicked and rattled. Tn front ot them stood thin, raunt womn and pale-faced, ragrod little children. , breathing the Unt and dust. Fifteen weary honr J thv tolled, until one of the smallest fell backward to th foor, gasping piteously for breath, wfth thin pumte Hps. - "Tak It from mv sight cried a sharp-faced man. with burnlne. wolfish eves. "The rest of ven must work the harder. "No stopping: no delay. Somewhere a princess mar wait for wedding-gown or coffin cerements. Ye are the bond-elaves of all the world." Over the flat, desolate pampas, stretching nnbro- ! ken to the borjzon. a band of dark men. wearing great, wlde-brlmmed sombreros, bound with rold and silver braid, rode their ponies Into the aettfnx? sun. Before them slowly moved a herd of wild eyd. longhorned cattle. At night they camped a snrlns. snd over the cards arose a quarrel. - Swift rnrepq followed hot words. - Then a knife flashed, and sideways. Into the rrass. fell a ahtidderfnr. lifePc tMnr. "all pwkward lee and arms. With the, r jsac,h from the waist of the leader they tied the n!m of the murderer nd fastened him to the back: of the same rony which bore the corpse of the man he bad killed. "Come." sMd the chief vaqnero. at the first break: of dawn. "We must saddle and start-'We are not freemen. We. too. are bound to (the wheel. Tf we ton for this dead thing here some princes mar ; p-o forth from palace or hovel unshod to her ired(Mt" or to her funeral." Thro'ich dene African forest black men and women boneiesslv plodded, heaw yoke abotit their . r.cks. barln; the tusk of elephants. Some of , them drorred and died along the trail, bnt Porturnese slave driver relentlessly whipped on the ,et. errlnr: "Hasten! Ye also are cauvM. In the fnneW web of thing. .Te serve .a million un- ; known mistresses, waiting over aeaa for 'the spoil ; ye bar." i A flat boat, wfth a snuare sail of tnattlor. rose,' and fell In the lone, slow swell from the China ; Ka. Over Its side dropped an almost naked man. ; r,js ft on a big rock. h' hand clntchlner the rope fo which ft was tied. HI queue was tfghtly fasfeped about the top of his head and fn his mouth he carried an open clasp knife. In front of him hung a basket, supported bv rones abotit his shoulder.1 Down he sank Into the steel bine ; watr. down and down, nntil his feet rested on the sand of the bottom There with. Ion r yellow tin- ; rers he swfftlv pulled and cut the creat shell-fish from their bed, until hi basket was filled. Bnd- ( deply he elanced upward and caught sfrht of the hnge black bodv of a great flsh. approaching noise- f Tesslv. Instantly he "released his hold on the rope and shot upward like a cork. But before he gained the surface the shark had reached him. Only a few -air bubbles rose through the clear blue water, discolored now wfth a bloody etafn. "One yellow slave the less, ssld the captain of the boat carelesslr "Overboard with another. The little Princess Rachel wishes pearls for her wedding . ring." . .. As the gfrl sat un In her chair and opened her eyes she saw, first of all, the cotton dress roods In her lap, the slippers and the slender rlistenin thread of the ring. They were real. Then her still drowsv eves canrht the gleam of something, white on the floor. She picked It ut and ran to the window, through whfch came a last faint gleam of light. It was a little card, which had slipped unnoticed from the opened bundle, and across ft was written in a labored scrawl: "For RacheL Ich Hebe dlch. Yakob." A sudden rush of Jor filled her as she read. Out of her dim dream she had broueht an Instinct or a nreaee of the truth that the Prince Is he who rule In the finer realms of the spirit that the Princess Is she to whom the heritage of all the earth rlghtfullv belonrs. ' "Recks unt olt ar-r-run! Recks nnt olt ar-r-rnn! The old familiar sound was coming closer down the street. With a beating heart and feet to which, realized love lent wings, the girl ran down the stairs and through the shop. Jnst as the old white horse reached the front of the bake-shop she threw open the door. - "Yakob, come In here vance yet!" she called. And he, without waiting to tie his horse, leaped over the elde of the wagon-box and rushed Into the bake-shop. , . r- i -. "Yah wohl, Rachel, mein princess. I come!" he cried.

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