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MINE GRANDFAHDER HE WAS A MAN
I'll tell you de troot, I don't feel like talking. Nutting nutting: I
got myself so deep in de horse -races I'm already a horse. I'm running: I'm
running in hell. What shall I do, I'm an ehrlicker Yid, voos zull ick toorn?
Alright, from de ole times what? I came here when I was a kid of fourteen,
so kindly ya know I was very solid kid, so I went right away in de shop. I
worked den for one presser, you knew de long hours was den, still for him wasn't
enough. If he left tree o'clock in de night, five o'clock he was already back
in de shop. Seddits (sets) we worked den ya know/ So you can imagine.
worked for a dollar -fifty a week. But I wanted he should press enought I could
make something. So I said, "Listen, -what are you making so slow, like dis I'll
make twenty cents a day?" So he says, "Listen here kid, ya can't talk to me
like dot," an he takes a knife and he trays at mei I don't know, I was lucky,
or what, I bent my head, so he -braved over me. Ya know we had dot time bums ya
couldn't pass dem in de street, so dey useta teach ya trawin de knife. De boss
himself was afraid from dis, he seen me with dis presser so he takes me aside,
he says listen, if ya want to work here ya can't have no fights wit dis feller, he's
a terrible feller. I said leave it to me, I didn't was scared from nobody, like
mine grandfander 1 wouldn't give in. So sure enough dis presser You wanna
know who was mine grandfander? Mine grandfander he was a man. Yeah, he was a
man: I'll tell you de troot, he died for de workin-class. In de ole country
dot time Rockefeller came down an bought up de oil -wells in mine town, so you
know Rockefeller, so soon he bought dem he took two cents down right away from
de miners. So dere was a whole gaddering, an mine grandfander he said you
shouldn't go down to wort: Jewish miners? Sure dere was, plenty. Mine fander
was workin in it, dey was workin dere togedder So listen what I'm telling.
So overnight de cavalry came down, de Captain give de order: shoot tree times
in de air: So dey still stayed dere, an mine grandfander tole dem, you shouldn't
50 down to works So annudder time de Captain tole dem, shoot in de crowd, but
-2-
dey woulden do it. So he said wiladdeya mean, an dey picked out from de soldiers
one, and dey gave him onbenick, dey tied him up from top to bottom he shouldn't
touch de ground still dey didn't go down to work till he gave dam back de two
cents. Mine grandfander he was a nanl