"No harm done. G.o.d bless you, I know the styles of all our chief speakers--ahem--ha!--pauperization of the East End, ha!--I would emphatically say that this scheme--ahem!--his lordship"s untiring zeal for hum!--the welfare of--and so on. Ta dee dum da, ta, ra, rum dee.
They always send on the agenda beforehand. That"s all I want, and I"ll lay you twenty to one I"ll turn out as good a report as any of our rivals. You rely on me for _that_! I know exactly how debates go. At the worst I can always swop with another reporter--a prize distribution for an obituary, or a funeral for a concert."
"And do you really think we two between us can fill up the paper every week?" said Raphael doubtfully.
Little Sampson broke into a shriek of laughter, dropped his eyegla.s.s and collapsed helplessly into the coal-scuttle. The Committeemen looked up from their confabulations in astonishment.
"Fill up the paper! Ho! Ho! Ho!" roared little Sampson, still doubled up. "Evidently _you"ve_ never had anything to do with papers. Why, the reports of London and provincial sermons alone would fill three papers a week."
"Yes, but how are we to get these reports, especially from the provinces?"
"How? Ho! Ho! Ho!" And for some time little Sampson was physically incapable of speech. "Don"t you know," he gasped, "that the ministers always send up their own sermons, pages upon pages of foolscap?"
"Indeed?" murmured Raphael.
"What, haven"t you noticed all Jewish sermons are eloquent?".
"They write that themselves?"
"Of course; sometimes they put "able," and sometimes "learned," but, as a rule, they prefer to be "eloquent." The run on that epithet is tremendous. Ta dee dum da. In holiday seasons they are also very fond of "enthralling the audience," and of "melting them to tears," but this is chiefly during the Ten Days of Repentance, or when a boy is _Barmitzvah_. Then, think of the people who send in accounts of the oranges they gave away to distressed widows, or of the prizes won by their children at fourth-rate schools, or of the silver pointers they present to the synagogue. Whenever a reader sends a letter to an evening paper, he will want you to quote it; and, if he writes a paragraph in the obscurest leaflet, he will want you to note it as "Literary Intelligence." Why, my dear fellow, your chief task will be to cut down.
Ta, ra, ra, ta! Any Jewish paper could be entirely supported by voluntary contributions--as, for the matter of that, could any newspaper in the world." He got up and shook the coal-dust languidly from his cloak.
"Besides, we shall all be helping you with articles," said De Haan, encouragingly.
"Yes, we shall all be helping you," said Ebenezer.
"I vill give you from the Pierian spring--bucketsful," said Pinchas in a flush of generosity.
"Thank you, I shall be much obliged," said Raphael, heartily, "for I don"t quite see the use of a paper filled up as Mr. Sampson suggests."
He flung his arms out and drew them in again. It was a way he had when in earnest. "Then, I should like to have some foreign news. Where"s that to come from?"
"You rely on me for _that_," said little Sampson, cheerfully. "I will write at once to all the chief Jewish papers in the world, French, German, Dutch, Italian, Hebrew, and American, asking them to exchange with us. There is never any dearth of foreign news. I translate a thing from the Italian _Vessillo Israelitico_, and the _Israelitische Nieuwsbode_ copies it from us; _Der Israelit_ then translates it into German, whence it gets into Hebrew, in _Hamagid_, thence into _L"Univers Israelite_, of Paris, and thence into the _American Hebrew_. When I see it in American, not having to translate it, it strikes me as fresh, and so I transfer it bodily to our columns, whence it gets translated into Italian, and so the merry-go-round goes eternally on. Ta dee rum day.
You rely on me for your foreign news. Why, I can get you foreign telegrams if you"ll only allow me to stick "Trieste, December 21," or things of that sort at the top. Ti, tum, tee ti." He went on humming a sprightly air, then, suddenly interrupting himself, he said, "but have you got an advertis.e.m.e.nt canva.s.ser, Mr. De Haan?"
"No, not yet," said De Haan, turning around. The committee had resolved itself into animated groups, dotted about the office, each group marked by a smoke-drift. The clerks were still writing the ten thousand wrappers, swearing inaudibly.
"Well, when are you going to get him?"
"Oh, we shall have advertis.e.m.e.nts rolling in of themselves," said De Haan, with a magnificent sweep of the arm. "And we shall all a.s.sist in that department! Help yourself to another cigar, Sampson." And he pa.s.sed Schlesinger"s box. Raphael and Karlkammer were the only two men in the room not smoking cigars--Raphael, because he preferred his pipe, and Karlkammer for some more mystic reason.
"We must not ignore Cabalah," the zealot"s voice was heard to observe.
"You can"t get advertis.e.m.e.nts by Cabalah," drily interrupted Guedalyah, the greengrocer, a practical man, as everybody knew.
"No, indeed," protested Sampson. "The advertis.e.m.e.nt canva.s.ser is a more important man than the editor."
Ebenezer p.r.i.c.ked up his ears.
"I thought _you_ undertook to do some canva.s.sing for your money," said De Haan.
"So I will, so I will; rely on me for that. I shouldn"t be surprised if I get the capitalists who are backing up my opera to give you the advertis.e.m.e.nts of the tour, and I"ll do all I can in my spare time. But I feel sure you"ll want another man--only, you must pay him well and give him a good commission. It"ll pay best in the long run to have a good man, there are so many seedy duffers about," said little Sampson, drawing his faded cloak loftily around him. "You want an eloquent, persuasive man, with a gift of the gab--"
"Didn"t I tell you so?" interrupted Pinchas, putting his finger to his nose. "I vill go to the advertisers and speak burning words to them. I vill--"
"Garn! They"d kick you out!" croaked Ebenezer. "They"ll only listen to an Englishman." His coa.r.s.e-featured face glistened with spite.
"My Ebenezer has a good appearance," said old Sugarman, "and his English is fine, and dat is half de battle."
Schlesinger, appealed to, intimated that Ebenezer might try, but that they could not well spare him any percentage at the start. After much haggling, Ebenezer consented to waive his commission, if the committee would consent to allow an original tale of his to appear in the paper.
The stipulation having been agreed to, he capered joyously about the office and winked periodically at Pinchas from behind the battery of his blue spectacles. The poet was, however, rapt in a discussion as to the best printer. The Committee were for having Gluck, who had done odd jobs for most of them, but Pinchas launched into a narrative of how, when he edited a great organ in Buda-Pesth, he had effected vast economies by starting a little printing-office of his own in connection with the paper.
"You vill set up a little establishment," he said. "I vill manage it for a few pounds a veek. Then I vill not only print your paper, I vill get you large profits from extra printing. Vith a man of great business talent at the head of it--"
De Haan made a threatening movement, and Pinchas edged away from the proximity of the coal-scuttle.
"Gluck"s our printer!" said De Haan peremptorily. "He has Hebrew type.
We shall want a lot of that. We must have a lot of Hebrew quotations--not spell Hebrew words in English like the other papers. And the Hebrew date must come before the English. The public must see at once that our principles are superior. Besides, Gluck"s a Jew, which will save us from the danger of having any of the printing done on Sat.u.r.days."
"But shan"t we want a publisher?" asked Sampson.
"That"s vat I say," cried Pinchas. "If I set up this office, I can be your publisher too. Ve must do things business-like."
"Nonsense, nonsense! We are our own publishers," said De Haan. "Our clerks will send out the invoices and the subscription copies, and an extra office-boy can sell the papers across the counter."
Sampson smiled in his sleeve.
"All right. That will do--for the first number," he said cordially. "Ta ra ra ta."
"Now then, Mr. Leon, everything is settled," said De Haan, stroking his beard briskly. "I think I"ll ask you to help us to draw up the posters.
We shall cover all London, sir, all London."
"But wouldn"t that be wasting money?" said Raphael.
"Oh, we"re going to do the thing properly. I don"t believe in meanness."
"It"ll be enough if we cover the East End," said Schlesinger, drily.
"Quite so. The East End _is_ London as far as we"re concerned," said De Haan readily.
Raphael took the pen and the paper which De Haan tendered him and wrote _The Flag of Judah_, the t.i.tle having been fixed at their first interview.
"The only orthodox paper!" dictated De Haan. "Largest circulation of any Jewish paper in the world!"
"No, how can we say that?" said Raphael, pausing.
"No, of course not," said De Haan. "I was thinking of the subsequent posters. Look out for the first number--on Friday, January 1st. The best Jewish writers! The truest Jewish teachings! Latest Jewish news and finest Jewish stories. Every Friday. Twopence."
"Twopence?" echoed Raphael, looking up. "I thought you wanted to appeal to the ma.s.ses. I should say it must be a penny."