CHAPTER V
CHAIKIN made up half a dozen sample garments. I took them to the department store to which the Manheimer Brothers catered, but the buyer of the cloak department would not so much as let me untie my bundle. He was a middle-aged man (women buyers were rare in those days), an Irish-American of commanding figure. After sweeping me with a glance of cold curiosity, he waved me aside. My Russian name and my appearance were evidently against me. I tried the other department stores --with the same result. The larger business world of the city had not yet learned to take the Russian Jew seriously as a factor in advanced commerce. The buyer of the cloak department in the last store I visited was an American Jew, a fair-complexioned little fellow, all aglitter with neatness. At first he took an amused interest in me. When I had unpacked my goods and was about to show him one of Chaikin"s jackets he checked me
"Suppose we gave you an order for five hundred," he said, with a smile; "five hundred jackets to be delivered at a certain date."
"I would deliver it," I answered, boldly. "Why not?"
"I don"t know why. Maybe you would, maybe you wouldn"t. How can we be sure you would?" Before I had time to answer he asked me how long I had been in the country.
When I told him, he complimented me on my English. I was sure it meant business. I was thrilled
"Have you got a shop?" he further questioned. "How many hands do you employ?"
"Seventy-five."
He sized me up. "Where is your place?"
"On Division Street."
"Well, well! What is your rating?" I did not know what he meant.
So, for an answer, I made a new attempt to submit the contents of my bundle for his inspection. At this he made a gesture of disgust and withdrew. A cold sweat broke out on my forehead
I had heard of the existence of small department stores in various sections of the city, so I went in search of them
I found myself in the vicinity of the City College. As I pa.s.sed that corner I studiously looked away. I felt like a convert Jew pa.s.sing a synagogue
It was a warm day. My pack seemed to grow heavier with every block I walked, and so did my heart. I was perspiring freely; my collar wilted. All of which did anything but make me look as "a man who paid his bills in checks." At last, walking up Third Avenue I came across a place where there was quite a large display of jackets in the windows. Upon my opening the door and announcing my mission, two jaunty young fellows invited me in with elaborate courtesy, almost with anxiety. My heart leaped for joy. I fell to opening my bundle. The two young men inspected every jacket, went into ecstasies over each of them, and then asked me all sorts of irrelevant questions until it dawned upon me that I was being made game of. It appeared that the father of the two young men, the proprietor of the store, manufactured his own goods, for wholesale as well as for retail trade
I received much better treatment in a store on Avenue B, but my goods proved too high for that neighborhood. As if to atone for this, the proprietor of this store, a kindly Galician Jew, gave me a list of the minor department stores I was looking for, and some valuable suggestions in addition
My dinner that day consisted of two ring-shaped rolls which I bought in a Jewish grocery-store and which I ate on a bench in Tompkins Square
The day pa.s.sed most discouragingly. It was about 7 o"clock when, disheartened to the point of despair, I dragged my wearied limbs in the direction of my "factory." When I got there I found my partner waiting for me--not alone, but in the company of his wife
"Well?" she shrieked, jumping to meet me
"Splendid!" I replied, with enthusiasm. "It looks even better than I expected. I could have got good orders at once, but a fellow must not be too hasty. You have got to look around first--find out who is who, you know."
Mrs. Chaikin looked crestfallen. "So you did not get any orders at all?"
"What"s your hurry?" her husband said, pleadingly. "Levinsky is right. You can"t sell goods unless you know who you deal with."
The following two days were as barren of results as the first. Mrs.
Chaikin had lost all confidence in the venture. She was becoming rather hard to handle
"I don"t want Ansel to bother any more," she said, peevishly. "You know what the Americans say, "Time is money." Pay Ansel for his work and let us be "friends at a distance.""
"Very well," I said, and, producing my check-book, I asked, "How much is it?"
The sight of my check-book acted like a charm. The situation suddenly a.s.sumed brighter colors in Mrs. Cbaikin"s eyes
"Look at him! He thought I really meant it," she grinned, sheepishly
Every night I would go to bed sick at heart and with my mind half made up to drop it all, only to wake in the morning more resolute and hopeful than ever. Hopeful and defiant. It was as though somebody--the whole world--were jeering at my brazen-faced, piteous efforts, and I was bound to make good, "just for spite."
I learned of the existence of "purchasing offices" where the buyers of several department stores, from so many cities, made their headquarters in New York. Also, I discovered that in order to keep track of the arrivals of these buyers I must follow a daily paper called Hotel Reporter (the ordinary newspapers did not furnish information of this character in those days). A man who manufactured neckties in the same ramshackle building in which I hoped to manufacture cloaks volunteered to let me look at his Reporter every day. This man was naturally inclined to be neighborly, but I had found that an occasional quotation or two from the Talmud was particularly helpful in obtaining a small favor from him
I knocked about among the purchasing offices with bulldog tenacity, but during the first few days my efforts in this direction were as futile as in the case of the New York stores. Meanwhile, time was pressing. So far as out-of-town buyers were concerned, the "winter season" was drawing to a close. All I could see were some belated stragglers. One of these was a man from the Middle West, a stout, fleshy American with quick, nervous movements which contradicted his well-fed, languid-looking face
He shot a few glances at my samples, just to get rid of me, but he liked the designs, and I could see that he found my prices tempting
"How soon will you be able to deliver five hundred?" he snarled
"In three weeks."
"Very well--go ahead!" And speaking in his jerky, impatient way, he went on to specify how many cloaks he wanted of each kind
I left him with my heart divided between unutterable triumph and black despair. Five hundred cloaks! How would I raise the money for so much raw material? It almost looked like another practical joke
By this time I was more than sure that the Chaikins had a considerable little pile, but to turn to them for funds was impossible. It would have let my cat out of the bag. I sought credit at Claflin"s and at half a dozen smaller places, but all in vain. I could not help thinking of Nodelman"s "credit face." Ah, if that kind of a face had fallen to my lot! But it had not, it seemed. It looked as if there were no hope for me
Finally I took the necktie man into my confidence, the result being that he unburdened himself of his own financial straits to me
One afternoon I was moping around some of the side-streets off lower Broadway in quest of some new place where I might try to beg for credit, when I noticed the small sign-board of a commission merchant. Upon entering the place I found a fine-looking elderly American dictating something to a stenographer. When the man had heard my plea be looked me over from head to foot.
I felt like a prisoner facing the jury which is about to announce its verdict
At last he said: "Well, you look pretty reliable. I guess I"ll trust you the goods for thirty days."
It was all I could do to restrain myself from invoking benedictions on his head and kissing his hands as my mother would have done under similar circ.u.mstances
"So I do have a "credit face"!" I exclaimed to myself, gleefully
When I found myself in the street again I looked at my reflection in store windows, scanning my "credit face."
The Chaikins took it for granted that I had paid for the goods on the spot
Things brightened up at our "factory." I ordered an additional sewing-machine of the instalment agent and hired two operators--poor fellows who were willing to work fourteen or fifteen hours a day for twelve dollars a week. (The union had again been revived, but it was weak, and my employees did not belong to it.) As for myself, I toiled at my machine literally day and night, s.n.a.t.c.hing two or three hours" sleep at dawn, with some bundles of cut goods or half-finished cloaks for a bed. Chaikin spent every night, from 7 to 2, with me, cutting the goods and doing the better part of the other work. Mrs. Chaikin, too, lent a hand. Leaving Maxie in the care of her mother, she would spend several hours a day in the factory, finishing the cloaks
The five hundred cloaks were shipped on time. I was bursting with consciousness of the fact that I was a manufacturer--that a big firm out West (a firm of Gentiles, mind you!) was recognizing my claim to the t.i.tle.
I was American enough to be alive to the special glamour of the words, "out West."
Goods in our line of business usually sold "for cash," which meant ten days.
Ten days more, then, and I should receive a big check from that firm. That would enable me to start new operations. Accordingly, I went out to look for more orders