Page 149 - The Legacy of Abraham Rothstein - text

Marriage and departure

years old, and Jewish at that, so I suffered and grieved but hoped to
win back my girl.
Now, what happened to my dreams of love when they turned to
ashes? I could not exist much longer not only in the house of the girl,
but in the same city. I used to have dinner, or as we then called it,
supper, with the Cohens, and it was very unpleasant for me to sit at
the same table with Fannie, and hardly look at her or talk to her. I
was trying to get away from myself, and I thought about California to
forget my sufferings. This was old advice from the Roman poet Ovid
to the lovesick, to travel. I kept corresponding with my brother Ben.
He had no job, no money, and was not educated in English, and all
he could advise me was, come and you will find something. This was
the period of the Theodore Roosevelt depression, and work was
scarce in California—scrip was being used for money. Ben was in
distress, hungry and miserable, and he needed a companion, so he
was urging me to come. I told my hostess that I was leaving for
California in a month or so, and brought home books from the
library about California.
The stories about the fruit trees and orange groves were
captivating, and it was California for me. Those orange blossoms,
those aromatic flowers, penetrated my olfactory nervous system, that
warm climate appealed to one who lived in cold places, and, living in
a crowded city like New York, cooped up in an alcove on the fourth
or fifth floor where the sunshine never smiles through the windows
on its tenant, the wonderful descriptions of California enchanted me
and suggested an avenue of escape. I figured on working until
December, saving a few more dollars, leaving New York, and
forgetting. Benjamin was still a boy, about eighteen years of age, and
times were very bad. Los Angeles was just a small town—or, rather,
an agricultural center—and he was struggling for his life, to use the
right expression. It was simply starvation for anyone with no trade
or money, as I found out myself afterward when I came. He had
written me letters often, not telling me half the struggle he was
having, since he knew I had a few hundred dollars in the bank and he
thought that I would come and start some business which would
benefit him, too.

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