Page 99 - The Legacy of Abraham Rothstein - text

Smuggling
to bring over the rest of our family before the great disaster befell
them, how much happier would we have been!
Only a few months before I was called to the draft Mr. Herskovitz
himself was caught red-handed. Somebody denounced him and the
border police raided his house and found silk hidden there. He went
out on bail and put me up as a false witness. I was supposed to go
before the prosecutor and make a statement that I had been in Mr.
Herskovitz’s house just before the detectives arrived, and had seen a
strange man come in, ask for Herskovitz, leave a bundle, and walk
out. The trial was set to come before the high court several months
later. It would have been a great misfortune for me, as I could not
speak Polish well and would have gotten tangled up in my false
testimony. It happened that my time to be recruited came up the
same year, and I had to flee the country. A few weeks after I came to
the United States, I was walking on Broadway in New York City
when I met my old boss Herskovitz. He had been forced to escape
from Warsaw because of that trial.
I kept my job with the smugglers after we moved back to
Pelcovizna, right up until my time was due for military service in
nineteen hundred and three. At the risk of losing my freedom and
being a disgrace in the community, I earned three rubles a week,
which I contributed to the household expenses. My recompense was
seven kopeks a day for transportation one way and a small loaf of
bread which I consumed in the city for lunch. I had tea with the
bread, given to me by the leader of the ring; the smugglers made their
headquarters at his dwelling, not risking their own homes. Often I
went on foot in the morning to Warsaw, and returned on foot, six
miles each way, to save the two and a half kopeks fare. With that
money I would buy a Polish or Hebrew newspaper and read it—or a
book—on my way home, walking slowly, holding it in two hands
with my bamboo cane hanging over my left arm, never looking up at
those neighbors who passed by me on the road in their wagons,
although some would have liked to give me a lift.
I was very interested in European politics, which my father used
to tell to me about. When walking and reading the daily paper I never
noticed the distance or got tired. Those papers were not like
American newspapers, which are filled with ads and society news, but

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