Plentywood herald. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1908-current, 1928-01-06
The Street Of Children

had muddled the brains OF the peuuieIS.
Vegetables and a few fruits were on the
carts of those dealing in f~oodstuffs. There
was nothing cooling for sale in the street.
"Poppo," ventured Benny, IF you mao
fl dollars you could buy ice cream ana
clean up"
yah" nodded Mishkin with bitter hui
NOR, land if / had q Rulls Ryce already
with di'monds on de front seat l could
go home and take momm and de 1emly
by Riverside drive and Cooney island
Now, maybe, a week OF dees biznlz ana
we dun't eat. And, so you are so smart.
who would buy de ice cream when we
got 1T? Where from is all de money COM
ing?"
Benny smiled and shook his head in re-
spectful disagreement. He knew every
cobble store in the Street OF Children.
A bordering tenement was his birthplace,
and the street itself had been his nursery
and playground for all his nine years. In
stinctively he knew the psychology OF
the very poor, the human quirk which
leads them to sacrifice necessities TO pur-
chase with their last cent luxuries that
will momentarily increase HEIR happiness
and comfort.
"Get de ice cream and dey'd lap 1t up
even If 1t was O dollar a cone. These peo-
Piles hot. Dey'd do anything to get cool"
His father regarded him with admlra-
ton.
Benny. I wished I was you and you
was me. You got on you a fine bizniz
head. Me? Hah!"
Eyes, poppa." Benny absenty agreed.
He was thinging Of the great Abe Mish-
kin, second cousin of his father and own
err Of a department store on Fourteenth
street. Abe's business rules and axioms
were to the tribe of Mishkin as the laws
of the Modes and Persians.
Business is always good for a good
business man." You can make hard luck
pay taxes if you get behind 1t and grab
it by the tail" Give EN- what they
want and they'll come cryin' for more"
And he ought to know. His store had
grown to it's present proportions from a
hole in the wall.
Benny sighed n silently agreed with
his leg. he was just like Abe. "All the
time thinking" 1t may have been be-
cause of his leg. When you can't run
and Jump and swim with the other boys,
and when you have only one playmate
and she a girl, what is there to do but
think?
Benny, the family knew, would open a
store when he grew big, and m and
poppa would live with him by Riverside
drive. You didn't need two legs to be a
great business man. Your brains weren't
in your feet.
Benny sighed and silently agreed with
his father. He wished he was grown up.
If he could raise fl dollars, maybe he
could swing this himself. All he needed
was about ten years more on his age.
And they were as easy TIC get as the
money.
His white teeth suddenly emerged from
behind his lips as he caught a flash of
vivid color The source Of 1t was a little
girl Of seven, red Of hair, red Of face, red
of legs and feet that were unshod, blue
and blazing of eye, and swift and deadly
of temper. She whirled from an alley in
pursuit of a flying boy of Benny's
tribe who ran oward Benny carrying q
rag doll under his arm.
"Ya -"
The heavy air cracked with her pun
gent resume of the thief's ancestry even
as her lip trembled.
The %grinning fugitive, SPEEDING past the
, Mishkin push cart, dove into the air as
a crutch was inserted deity tween his
legs. Benny snatched the doll from him.
Camel" he sneered. why don't you
pick on some one your size2"
II was just gettin' her goat" he ugi-
tive laughed. rs she your chiska,
Benny?"
The crutch descended again and again
on his squirming body until he got away.
Benny swung his leg deftly around his
crutch and hobbled toward the alley. The
child was crying, her face hidden in her
III ilAo. AIC obOoo OfCi A1ACth5 eoS w
behind him.
whats de matter. you little Mick9'
, he asked.
"G'wanl" she blazed. THAT sheeny
stole me doll. And she was the only one
1 ever had" Her lips trembled. Her
. name is Mary" she walled. I'll kill him
: wit a brickl"
' "Dis Mary, Nora?" he asked softly and
held the d%isreputable thing out to her.
, "Gimmel" She snatched the doll from
: him.
, you amt got no manners" Benny ac-
l cused her.
I'm a lady" she said, drawing herself
l up and swinging her shoulders. And
me mother before me was the same"
: she added, quoting that lady verbatim.
SOS our old man."
HE amt" she denied, trying to keep
the doubt from her voice. She wasn't
S sure. She didn't quite know what a lady
S was.
4 He beats up your ole lady," he said,
u~ttering a manifest untruth. For Mrs
Riley's coloring n temper were identi-
cal with her daughters and 1T was known
in the street that when she was ~irritated
she was liable to throw anything she
could lift. And she could lift anything
! Her daughter now was in the gutter
searching industrtously for a brick. Sh
found a Jagged stone n snatched it up
Her arm drew back.
II was only kiddin', Nora" His eyes
crinkled above his smile. Didn't I gel
}. your old stuffed rag7"
"She amt a stuffed rag. She's Mary
She's me baby"
Gould you told me wherell gonna be
q lucated Mister Finkelstein2"
Benny and Nora gazed upon a rotund
perspiring, and radiantly clad Hebrait
gentleman.
Moses or David or Isadore? Which
one? Dey all live in dis block"
Moses or David or Isadore, / dun
know which is 1T. I'm a beezy man
a Dot was nize wot you hev just did to do
n young shnoirer wot stule de little gull
dolly" He reached his hand down in hi
pocket. Here Is 1t q dime for you"
Make 1t "a dollars, mister. and we spill
ffty-hfty. A good propositionl" Benn.
was very earnest.
The philanthropist drew back and hi
o hand slapped against his wallet pocket
Five dullars?" he sneered, lifting hi
IS eyebrows SO strenuously that his straw
hat wobbled. Five dullars2 You think
: maybe, I'm made Of money? Hail"
4. "Lissen, mister" implored Benny, hob
bling closer. F. dollars buys an ic'
It cream cone outfit. We set up a stant
h and we sell out in fifteen minutes. PEG
d pie here's chokin'."
l. lice creaml' echoed Nora.
l. HUM The radiant stranged gazet
down the crowded, sweltering street
Is "Wot is 1t your namep"
is Benny Mishkin."
"Mishkint Could Won he related bv Alb