Mr. Monday and other tales of Jewish Amsterdam

116 Air. Monday and Other Tales of Jewish Amsterdam

You cannot stand the sight of my corpse, so what do you do to get rid of that terrible vision? You jump into the water...From egoism, simple and pure, because you want to erase that vision from your mind.You do it for yourself, not for me."

The little fellow answers "You are making a mistake there, and not a little one either. If you'll pardon me, I will follow your thoughts for a while. You say I am walking happily along the street? Right, I am strolling along happily, thinking of the chicken-soup I will be eating this evening because today is Friday. So far, so good. Suddenly I hear shouting and I see you lying in the water. You are a terrible thing to see, you are telling me? Fine, nobody knows that better than yourself. So far I agree with you. But then you say that in order to escape from the terrible sight of you, I jump into the water? Why should I do that, why on Earth would I jump into the water? Either you are meshugga or you don't know me. Why should I try to save you, I can't swim, can I? You know what I will really do, I will hurry away as quick as I can. In that way I can escape from the terrible sight of your corpse. Do you know what else? I'll call out to other people 'Who can swim? There's someone in the water'.'That's what I'll do. Even if I am an egoist, I'm not crazv."

׳״

Says the apostle of Stirner "You are twisting my example around. In my example you do jump into the water and you do it out of egoism."

Says the little man "Then you will have to find yourself another example. I know how I am, better than you.You are trying to talk me into being an egoist and I won't accept that!" Looking insulted he pushes through the