How did I happen to become a peddler? Well, I’ll tell you. I came to New York in 1870. The boat docked early in the morning. Two hours later another man and I started to look for jobs. In the evening we came back to our rooming house. He had found a job in a clothing factory. I did not find a job. So my landlady said that I should peddle matches. I peddled as long as I had to earn a living.

To begin with I left Russia and went to Liverpool, England. I got there early in the morning. I found my way to the dock. I was told that the boat for America would leave in the evening. I wanted to see Liverpool, but I was afraid I would get lost. So I sat down on my suit case and waited for the boat to leave. As I was sitting there a young man, about my age, came up to me and said:

“Are you going to America?”

I said yes.

“Maybe you can take me along?” he asked me.

“Have you a ticket?” I asked.

“No”, he said.

“Have you any money,” I asked.

“I have one pound,” he said. “I will give it to you if you will let me carry your suitcase. If I carry a suitcase, it will look like I am going to America. And if you are stopped because you have no suitcase, you can show your ticket.”

I didn’t like such business. But then I was sorry for him; he wanted to go to America as much as I did. So I let him carry my suitcase. But I didn’t take his money.

We went into the boat. He put the suitcase down near me and went down to the lower deck. Before the boat left, everybody had to get in line and show the tickets. Half of the ticket was taken. The other half was to be taken when the boat got to New York. After the boat had left the shore, the man without the ticket came up to me.

“When you go in to eat, bring me a piece of bread,” he said.

Well, I could not let the man starve. I had brought some sausage and cheese from home. I did not eat the food on the boat. It was not kosher. While I was sitting at the table, I put a couple of pieces of bread in my pocket. I gave them to the man with a piece of my sausage. I did this at every meal. But I was worried. What would the man do without a ticket when the boat got to New York? Somebody said in two days we would be in New York. I could not sleep. That night I told the story to the man who slept in the berth above me.

“I’ll tell you what we’ll do,” said the man. “Yesterday I talked to a Jewish man who is an American. He travels between England and America very often. He told me he always goes on this boat. Maybe he knows the captain, and maybe he will ask the captain to fix it.”

In the morning we looked for the American. We told him our story. He said he would talk to the captain. In a couple of hours, he came back.

“Your friend is lucky,” said the American. “The captain said that if the boat was going back to England, he would have to take the man back. But the boat is going to Australia. So when the boat gets to New York, he can leave the boat the same as the people who had tickets.”

When the boat docked in New York, we all got off. No one asked any questions. There was no monkey business. No one asked how much money we had. There was no doctor to see if we were sick or well. Nobody cared what we did. It is different today.

A crowd of people met the boat. They were mostly relatives of the people who came over. I had nobody. The man who slept above me on the boat was met by an uncle. He asked me where I was going. I said I did not know. So he took me and the man who had no ticket along with him. When we came to his house, he told us to go next door. There the woman would take us as roomers. The woman and her husband and eight children were living in two rooms. She was a nice woman. She said she could rent us two cots on the roof.

“And what happens when it rains?” I asked.

“Oh, you can come down and sit in the kitchen,” she said. “Four children sleep in the kitchen. They sleep very good. They will not wake up.”

“Let’s try it,” said the man who was with me. We rented the two cots on the roof.



Next: To Chicago, and beyond

Adaptation c. 2004, Mike Peterson

Copy the Story Link