Mr. Monday and other tales of Jewish Amsterdam

118 Air. Monday and Other Tales of Jewish Amsterdam

"Everything in Nature is normal. Only the secret desires are the natural desires!"

One bi-sexual red cabbage can convince humanity quicker than a thousand words. Therefore, Cohennetje searches everywhere for singular cabbages. He is a dauber by profession, but the main part of his small income he spends at the green-grocers. Standing amidst his auditors he shrieks in his falsetto voice "Sir, will you please look at this cabbage for a moment. This one is normal, it is a female white cabbage. You can tell by the way the heart has grown, those things over there are the female organs. And this red cabbage is male, just look, the organs are in the same place but now they are masculine. Beautiful, those lines, don't you agree? Now look at this cabbage, there, male and female both together. And this cabbage is again different."

The bystanders study the vegetables with solemn faces, what their eyes see their minds must believe. Cohennetje shrieks hysterically "And because I lead my life according to Nature's truth, just like the red and white cabbages, that's why class-justice throws me in the clink! A human being is worth less than a vegetable."

The discussion now moves quickly away from sexual problems and turns into a heated debate on the class-character of the judiciary. The debates on Amstelveld are kept strictly within the boundaries of hazy speculation.

Genuine contemporary politics are more the business of the New Market on Saturday nights. A dark sky arches over the blackest neighbourhood of Amsterdam. The wavering white light of carbide lanterns casts an imitation moonlight over the pickled herrings, cigars and steel-wares. In the