Mr. Monday and other tales of Jewish Amsterdam

32 Adr. Monday and Other Tales of Jewish Amsterdam

"Visschraper" (Fishscraper), "Kuit" (Spawn), "Uienkruier" (Onionbarrowman), "Augurkiesman" (Gherkinman), "Aardewerk" (Crockery), "Porcelein" (Porcelain).

In the long row of people who registered there was a considerable number of clowns.

"And what are you?"

"Seldom at home."

So the clerk wrote down the name he had to carry the rest of his life: "Zeldenthuis" (seldom at home).

"And who are you?"

"Me? I am the good..."

The clerk wrote down "De Goeie" (The Good).

They thought they were fooling that stupid looking civil servant, but in point of fact they really burdened themselves and their descendants right up to the seventy-seventh generation with impossibly sounding names. But look it up, the name "Voddeman" (Rag dealer) was not included, nor "Beneman" (Bone man), so we can conclude that in Napoleon's time business was so bad that even a rag-and-bone dealer could not make a living.

Anyway, rag-and-bone dealer is not really a profession. No boy would ever tell his dad and mum "When I am grown up, I will become a rag-and-bone man." This is because rag-and-bone dealers are made, not born. When there is no work available in the normal professions, the unemployed look for earnings elsewhere. In wintertime they clear away the snow and in summertime they push a cart and sell wares. In no other profession is there so much unemployment as in the diamond trade, so most of the incidental rag-and-bone dealers are really diamond workers.