She said these were America's
own vanquished and vanished Trojans, and that one got a lump in the
throat remembering how
Fallen are those walls that were so good,
And corn grows now where Troy town stood.
Schmetz brought us our upholsterer, Riedriech the cabinet-maker,
most cunning of craftsmen, who knew all there is to know about old
furniture and just what should and shouldn't be done to it. In
addition he was a grizzled, bearded, shambling old angel who clung
to a reeking pipe and Utopian notions, a pestilent and whole-hearted
socialist who would call the President of the United States or the
president of the Plumbers' Union "Comrade" equally, and who put
propagandist literature in everything but our hair.
"Mr. Riedriech," you would say reproachfully, "yesterday I
discovered Karl Marx and Jean Jaures lurking behind my coffee-pot
and Fourier under the butter-dish. To-day I find Karl Kautsky in
ambush behind the cream-jug and Frederick Engels under the rolls."
Riedriech would regard you paternally, placidly, benevolently,
through his large, brass-rimmed spectacles:
"So? Little by little the drop of water the granite wears away.
Pages:
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93