The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1906-12-16

handle down, and the machine and
Sammy Silverstein simultaneously
started in:
Coax me. oh, won't you coax me?
I'll be your tootsey wootsey if you
do. ~
Or words TO that effect. But the widow
| MandeIbaum snorted and started of.
Il see it," she gleefully assured her
self II understand it, 1t is not that
! Flanagan he cares for. 1t ISIS not she
| 1t is the music. Before that she had
| that there music box. Meyer did not
ever go there. Now, where there is
music, there is Meyer She groaned.
! "And such music!" she walled. oh,
Meyer, Meyer. If could only be rich
instead of fat and so good lookin', I
could show you music 1 would make
music, LENA Mandelbaum. 1 would
| have no music box, what ISIS wound
| up and goes. 1 would make music
with my hands. and my voice, and you.
| Meyer, should hear me, and oh,
Meyer. Meyer, Meyer, l should
coax you, should 1 not?'
! The next morning the widow Man
delbaum unlocked a trunk that stood
in a corner of her room, and from it
drew forth an envelope. Upon the en-
I velope were Endorsed the words, Man
delbaum estate" Meyer had made the
Endorsement at the request of the
widow Mandelbaum on the occasion Of
! his first call. He had not been i'm
pressed by it, particularly. The en-
veIope was sealed, but he had felt of 1t
carefully. cit aindt likely old army
papers, naturalization stifficuts and
such. It aind't likely that there should
be money. 1t don't feel like money
| However, there was money in it, and
money that Mandelbaum had left at
that. 1t consisted of a single five-dol-
lar bill. The widow Mandelbaum had
kept it sealed up all these years against
some crisis that might arise. The crisis
had arisen, to be sure.
It's worth five dollars should I get
me Meyer" she assured herself.
Over on the avenue was a wonderful
store-The Young Peoples Home and
Supply Company. In that store one
might get anything for nothing down
and nothing a week. That was in the
store. When one got his or her pur-
chases home, the situation changed
considerably. Furniture wore out and
broke down; carpets turned to rags
but the weekly payment merrily kept
up; nothing a week became everything
However, there was the Supply Com
pany, the parlor; and there was Mr..
Silsberger, proprietor, the spider and
1t was there that Mrs. Mandelbaum,
the fly. betook herself, and walked
boldly in.
I should like to look me at some
pianos she volunteered. She kept
tight hold of her five-dollar bill The
salesman sized up Mrs. Mandelbaum,
and showed her the kind of a piano he
concluded that she'd like to buy. Mrs
Mandelbaum shifted.
My husband dies she said, land I |
come into a little property"-here she
clutched the fve-dollar bill with a. |
death grip-"and I wants me a goot
piano. can play and I can sing, and |
should get me something goot''
She selected the best instrument in |
the store, which is saying a good deal, !
when it is understood that the Supply |
Company pianos ranged from $50 up !
TO $lI5. She ordered it sent home.
Twenty dollars down." the proprie- |
tor remarked, "and two dollars a week. !
How's that?"
Mrs. Mandelbaum shifted. Twenty
dollars down-nothings," she ventured. |
what do you give me? Suppose it is |
no good, this piano. Suppose 1t breaks
down on the way. You have my TWEEN
~. L have nothing. Five dollars I |
snail pay down, and five dollars you
VIII take, and two dollars week 7 !
The spider bowed low. eff YOU can
give us reference" he suggested: "a
good one
Mrs. Mandelbaum took a stem for,
ward. Her heart leaped. Her spis
surls uncurled themselves for a mo.
ment and then curled I'D once more.
She recognized joyfully that she was in
the arms of fate.
"a reference?" she replied haughti-
ly. Sure! Why not? You 20 to
Constable Meyer, Of the Fifteenth Mu-
nicipal Courthouse Building. ON the
corner. You go down there. You ask
II 1t should be that Court Constable
Meyer should be there. He comes out.
He is my reference. You ask him-you
say to him: Constable Meyer, it is so
that young widow, a Mrs. MandeI.
baum, has bought of US our best piano
she is to pay so much. Is she goode
Can she do it? What do You think?
See what he says. You tell him that
already you have sent the piano, and
that 1t is good one, and that I can
play and sing. Reference? Sure. He
Is my reference. Good day
And have that there piano to my home
as quick, as quick could be. So long"
That evening Mrs. Mandelbaum did
not glance once out of the window. She
sat in the middle of her room, she and
her piano. Outside on the landings
there were small groups of the neigh
borhood youth.
It's Mrs Mandelbaum,'' they told
each other; INIT piano-a good music
hall piano. Good music. But it don't
play no singing tunes"
In the midst of it all there was a
knock on her door, and Marshall Meyer
His hair was well plastered
over his temples; his cigar was clench,
ed tightly in his teeth, and in his but
tonhole there was a blood red dahlia.
Mrs. Mandelbaum glanced at him over
her shoulder and stopped playing.
Constable Meyeri" she exclaimed;
"what-so soon again, some more? All