The citizen-Republican. (Scotland, Bon Homme County, S.D.) 1???-19??, 1912-11-28
BY Elias Tobenkln.

By Elias Tobenkin.
If Jozef Kobtze could speak in fine,
learned phrases, he could tell you
volumes about Thanksgiving day, much
Of which would detract from its glory
and justify Jozef's apathy towards the
day which is a day of pleasure to mil
lions.
Jozef could tell you also a great deal
about women and how untrustworthy
they are on Thanksgiving day. The
grudge of Adam against Eve would
have appeared Insignificant beside his
own grudge against Mariana-Mash-
etzka he called her when he considered
her as his-and Thanksgiving day. AS
1t is, however, since Jozef cannot speak,
and has no n to speak to, all that
anger and shame which Mariana caused
him is silently eating away his soul
In these long M lonely winter eve
nings.
Nothing-not even the jeers of
kruszka, the star boarder at Mrs.
Ezelpinsky's boarding house and the
Polish wit back of the yards-can in
might have BEEN" For hours Jozef
will sit in a corner Of the room, which
he shares with seven other men.
hruszka included, at the rate of $50
month, smoke away his little cigarets
by the dozen, n not hear or see what
IS said or what is going on about him.
His landlady, Mrs. Szelpinsky, a Polish
woman of As, is sometimes moved to
pity at the sight Of Ibis eating him
SELF alive" as h expresses it. But
this does not help matters. Evening
aIter evening, upon returning from the
yards, Jozef moves his chair to a cor
ner of the room and gazes s~peechlessly
through the curtainless window till late
into the night.
In spite of the two years which have
elapsed since Mariana broke her en-
gasement to him and married the
butcher, Tadewitz, he has not yet been
able to reconcile himself to the thought
that all this actually happened. The
puIcner boy, as Jozef contemptuously
ne does not blame. No one will let a
good thing slip between his fingers if
ne can prevent 1t. But Mariana and
thanksgiving day he blames.
II 1T We're not for that holiday he
frequently muses., sit would have been
! n not the sly butcher boy who
would have beer the father Of that
plump 9 months old babe which Is
Mariana's son.
AT times. however. he does not know
Whom or what to blame, and in his own
way he reflects bitterly on the tickle
ness OF women. and ven speaks 1t out
before the seven boarders. who nod
1880 AASoAo 0PpAONA1kly III MS sensible
utterances.
When Jozef escaped to Chicago from
the Russian army at the opening OF the
war between Russia and Japan. he
landed at the house Of a friend in the
stock yards district. On the morning
% the day of his arrival he
stood. bewildered, in the Office OF one
Of the packing houses, listening to his
friends strange chatter with another
man who a a pencil behind his ear.
Then he was told by his friend that
he was lucky and had already got q
job at $1.50 a day.
In n evening, when he came home,
ne was determined not to go to work
again under any circumstances. He
would write home to Russia; they
should send him money with which ia
get back. He would serve in the army,
he would even go to war, only be q
man anon men and not q dumb beast
friends counseled moderation. Return
to Russia, they said, would mean to
Jump into the arms OF death. He would
be shot down at the frontier as a de-
serter. 4
The next day he went back, Enashfns
his teeth and clinching HIS fists. A few
weeks later he became a boarder in
one Of the many boarding houses a 1T
tie west of Ashland avenue and within
q stones throw Of the packing houses
Like thousands Of others, who pro-
tested at first mi were ready ia ro
back "on foot" whose minds were ab-
sorbed with wild schemes for the pa
turn to their native land, he soon he
came quiet-resigned. He decided n
make the best of It. But he would live
differently; heswould live like a man
And evening after evening Tor owe,
two years he planned how Their
the how flownlsd upon him. Al few let
4 4n~n xryAAA = E1ET