Page 136 - The Legacy of Abraham Rothstein - text

Immigration and sweatshops

Witmark music publishing company—which is still in existence—and
was going to night school studying German and French. Pliskin and I
always read books: although we knew very little English, we were
trying to learn more from reading. Fannie, who was a bookworm,
told us what kind of books to read and explained all the words we did
not understand. One cannot learn a language easily from its serious
literature; light books, history and novels, are best. She told Pliskin
and me to read Dickens, Irving, and Cooper, stories that hold the
reader, who is anxious to know the ending and does not tire. In the
ordinary novel, when one understands the plot, he can learn the
words by applying himself.
She helped us in the evening with our reading, and I was also
reading Hebrew books. Fannie’s parents were orthodox people, and
they sent their two little girls, Hannah and Rose, to Hebrew school in
the Educational Alliance. Fannie wished to learn Hebrew also, so we
agreed to exchange Hebrew for English. At the time I was really
thinking of my room partner Pliskin. He was better suited than I was:
he knew Hebrew better and had taught it in the old country. But he
was older, and had a girlfriend he intended to marry who he visited in
the evenings, so he didn’t have the time or the interest to teach
Fannie. So the lot fell on my shoulders.
I used to read a few pages in English and be corrected, and then I
would teach her some Hebrew from the first reader. It was an even
bargain, because it was at least as important for me to learn to
converse in English. I did not make any close friends in New York,
and stayed home every evening reading books or newspapers in
English, understanding part of what I read. It was the best way to
learn, after working ten hours every day in a shop and spending
hours walking to and from work; during the day I did not progress
much in the language, I was just swimming in it to learn its use.
Fannie herself was working in an office helping the family with living
expenses. Her father, like most of the newcomers, did garment work
at low wages. Most of the people who lived on the lower East Side
rolled on their own power to the shops or offices. They marched like
the armies of old, before the mechanized period. Fannie was walking
and working, too, and remained at home every evening.

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