Mr. Monday and other tales of Jewish Amsterdam

WAGE EARNERS 39

"How are you, sir, beautiful display, don't you think? I believe I know you, aren't you a certain Zadoks?"

"Indeed, my name is Zadoks. So what?"

"I've heard a lot about you, Mr.Zadoks," Joseph says.

Later he tells at home "Oy, just when I'm saying I've heard a lot about you, this fellow turns red. Sour he looks, sour! With two hands you wouldn't be able to describe how sour that man looks. He snarls at me 'So, you have heard talk about me, you say? Well, they'll have to prove it first. I'm good for any amount of money, you remember that!'

Oy, how was I to know that this fellow has gone bankrupt and that they don't trust his bookkeeping. It was in the newspapers but I hadn't read about it. I couldn't earn a cent from him."

A good tout has his own secret intelligence service. When there will be a Bar Mitzvah soon, the news will be brought to him. The thirteen year-old boy, who will have to recite a chapter from the Book in Hebrew before the whole congregation in the synagogue, will have to sweat at that solemn occasion in a traditional costume. It is an old man's costume. On his head, which of course has to be covered, he wears a round hat, the Bar Mitzvah hat. For reasons unknown, that hat is usually bought before the costume is purchased.

The shop assistant of The Flying Pot in the Rapenburg district is hand in glove with the tout telling him, "Listen, the Venetiaander family have been here with their little son to buy the Bar Mitzvah hat."