I went out on
the porch and told him what I had done with the clothes, and he nearly
collapsed. He was very angry, and drove off, saying, "You come to the
office and get what's due you in the morning." I went the next morning,
got my money, and bade him good-by. That was the last of my becoming one
of the great engineers of the day.
I was glad, and I went back to school determined to study real hard, and
I did remain in school for a year. Then the old craze for work came on
me again. Father had died in the meantime, and mother was left to do the
best she could, and I got a job with the determination to be a help to
her.
AT WORK AGAIN
I got a position as office boy at 40 Broadway, then one of New York's
largest buildings. The man I worked for was a commission merchant, a
Hebrew, and one of the finest men I ever met in my life. He took me into
his private office and we had a long talk, a sort of fatherly talk, as
he had sons and daughters of his own. I loved that man. I had been
brought up among the Dutch and Irish, and had never associated with the
Jews, and I supposed from what I had heard that they were put on earth
for us to get the best of, fire stones at, and treat as meanly as we
could.
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