Page 170 - The Legacy of Abraham Rothstein - text

At the secondhand shop

working, and at that time, instead of taking Hilda with me early in the
morning to the store, I took her to kindergarten on Stanford Avenue
and Ninth Street. I then called for her at twelve o’clock when the
school was out for lunch, fed her at home, and took her with me to
the store.
One day I came ten minutes late to the school, and most of the
little ones had gone home, as they only spent half a day in school. I
did not find Hilda. The teachers and the other children there did not
know where she had gone. With fear and anxiety, and heart
throbbing, I began to run down the streets where I thought the
children waked to their homes. I found some of them who were
lagging on their way, and they told me that Hilda had gone home
with Susan. I ran back to school, learned where Susan lived, and
finally found Hilda. I could not do anything to her; she was a child,
and it was very natural for children to chum and walk together, but I
told her many times after that to wait for me on the steps of the
school in case I am late.
After that we lived on Court Street above the tunnel across from
the old Times building. To get there, we either walked up a goat track
on the side of Hill Street, which was pretty steep, or took the Angels
Flight cable car, paying a fare of one cent—cheaper with a book of
tickets. It took me five minutes to go home. While we lived there the
Times building was dynamited by the McNamaras. About twenty
people were killed in that terrible explosion. Hilda enjoyed the cable
car ride, and so did her French poodle dog. That was a smart dog,
and Hilda’s delight. She liked dogs, and a poodle was just the thing
for her. He used to come down to the store on First Street and Main,
and wait for me until I went up for lunch on Angels Flight; then he
would always run up first and sit down on a seat before me. One day
I went out before noon on business, and when it became twelve
o’clock and the dog did not see me, he left the store and went down
North Broadway to the Flight and got in and sat down. The
motorman on top of the hill saw the dog get in, so he thought I was
in there, too. He pulled up the car, the dog got out, and there was no
fare to collect!
When I came back and did not find the dog in the store, the
whole business was upset. Ben ran down the street asking all the
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