Stern College for Women - Kochaviah Yearbook (New York, NY)

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THE BARREL-ORGAN TAMAR FROMER, TEL AVIV, ISRAEL On the Rue de Richelieu every day, one can meet a middle-aged gentleman, walking toward the Champs Elysees. In summer he dressed in a wonderful gray suit, from the best tailor, shoes shining like mirrors, and a worn out top-hat. The gentle- man ' s face had a ruddy complexion, grizzled side whiskers, and grayish gentle eyes. He walked bent over, keeping his hands in his pockets. In fine weather, he carried under his armpit a cane; on a cloudy day he bore a silk umbrella. He was alwavs deep in thought, and walked slowly. While walking, he gave the right of way to everybody, with a smiling face. When he noticed a beautiful woman, he put on his eye-glasses in order to admire her. Doing it phlegmatically, he always became disappointed. This gentleman was Monsieur Tomas. Monsieur Tomas had strolled for the past thirty years along the Rue de Richelieu, and sometimes he thought, How many things have changed here. As a young lawyer, he rushed as the wind; he was merry, talkative, straightforward, and had a crop of hair and a big mustache. While young, he was deeply attracted to art, but most of his time he devoted to women, which had been his biggest passion. He was very fortunate with them, but he could not find time to marry, being constantly busy with Fifi, Loulou, Mimi, and other beauties. Getting his Ph.D. as a lawyer, Monsieur Tomas rid himself o f his youthful fever, and his attitude to life became more serious, to the extent that he even considered marrying. He had a fortune, many possessions, and a reputation of an art lover. He even rented an apartment of six rooms, furniture made in the style of Louis XV, decorated the rooms magnificently and he looked for a wife. But it was hard for him to choose the right woman. This one was too young, the other he knew too long, the third was just perfect except that she lacked temperament, the fourth one who waited for Mon- sieur Tomas married someone else . . . Yet Monsieur Tomas did not mind, as he felt there remained a lot of other women in the world. He began to take more and more care of his apartment, changed the furniture, bought paintings, replaced the mirrors. His apartment became famous. Unintentionally, he created in his flat an art gallery, which was visited by his friends and acquaintances. Being a wonderful host, and known as a lover of art and music, he organized in his home concert-evenings, and the elite of the Parisian society gathered in his salon. Monsieur Tomas was at the peak of his social career and he dreamed only of a wife. Once at one of his famous parties a young Aphrodite, admiring the salon, exclaimed, What wonderful paintings! The wife of Monsieur Tomas will be very happy. If happiness for a wife are paintings, answered a friend of the host merrily. The salon vibrated with life. Monsieur Tomas smiled bitterly, and since then, whenever anyone mentioned marriage to him, he carelessly waved his hand, saying, Ahem, no! In this period of his life he shaved his mustache, and grew side burns. He talked respectfully of women, and even of their weaknesses he had much toleration. Not expecting much of life, he abandoned his practice and now he concentrated all his thoughts upon and devoted his tender feelings to art, which became the essence of his life. But as any mortal is not free from idiosyncracies, so Monsieur Tomas had his share. He had a strange hate for the barrel-organ and the organ grinders. When Monsieur Tomas occasionally heard a barrel-organ on the street, he quickened his pace, and lost his temper. He, a level-headed, gentle and quiet man, was driven insane upon the sound of the barrel-organ. He did not keep this weak point secret and explained: Music is the most tender emotion of the spirit and has eternal beauty. In the barrel-organ this subtle art changes into a vulgar technical machine, wirh ordinary sounds. These sounds madden me. I am living only one life and I shall not waste it for hearing his hideous music. Somebody malicious, knowing of this reluctance of the lawyer, played a very unpleasant joke, by sending two organ grinders to play under his window. Monsieur 21

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AMERICA LEA ICZKOVITS, TEL AVIV, ISRAEL I had heard many admiring remarks about America as a country of beauty, of largeness, commercial development, etc. But about the high level of education and art I did not hear anything. When I finally arrived, I was impressed mainly by these aspects. I did not pay much attention to the beautiful places of this big city, because it appeared to be natural after hearing so many enthusiastic descriptions from people who had visited here. It surprised me much more that New York itself is such a big center of education and art. To be honest, I wasn ' t so happy to come here at first as everybody emphasized to me when they heard that I wanted to attend college here: If you want to enjoy your life; go to New York, but if you want to study seriously, go to England. As soon as I arrived here, I realized how much people can be mistaken. Wherever I turned, I saw adults as well as children anxious to study and progress. First, a very interesting thing caught my eye here, particularly because I never before saw anything similar to it, although I passed through many civilized countries. I never saw people who wanted to learn, read, and visit museums and all sorts of educational assemblies as here in New York. In the subways, in buses, people read even in standing position. After watching the material that those people devour like hungry wolves, I found out that many other beliefs of the people were wrong. The greatest percentage of citizens read good readings, and not those cheap stories that were attributed to them. As for musical development I learned that the U. S. A. is not filled only with cheap music. Even in Radio City Music Hall one can hear fine musical pieces played bv an outstanding orchestra. Even television helped me to learn much about the common American citizen ' s educational interest in various fields such as poetry, history, literature, music, paintings, etc. Quickly I destroyed the whole line of challenges about Americans. Another example would be the statement that people who were born here don ' t speak any other language except their own mother tongue. To disprove this, I found out after investigating thoroughly, that one who finished high school has to learn a foreign language at least for two years. Therefore, most people, at least the same percent as in other countries, know one or more foreign languages. When I attended school I was convinced completely that my attitude toward America was wrong. I imagined girls would have no educational interest and, instead, I met intelligent students, well-educated in various fields, who were willing to learn and succeed in their way. Two things I learned from this. First, never again will I take any one ' s word in advance. Second, to form an opinion it is not enough to hear and see from a distance, but one ought to investigate thoroughly and then to form an opinion and criticize. To apologize for my early thoughts I can only say that one can consider herself fortunate to come to the United States, get a balanced education and, have fun, especially at Stern College! The original flavor of the Israeli style has been retained in the writing of both Miss Iczkovits and Miss Fromer (on the following page). COLLECTORS SELMA STILLMAN The world is full of collectors — These things may interest some others, Of clippings and cameras and cars, But I have intangible hies Of miniature ships and old paper clips Of happiness sparks from witty remarks — And historical surgical scars. I ' m a collector of smiles . 20

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Tomas became enraged and invited the one for a duel. The house in which Monsieur Tomas lived changed ownership frequently. Naturally every new owner increased the tax. and the first one who received the raise in rent was Monsieur Tomas. The lawyer paid the taxes under one clear condition — that a barrel-organ would not be played in his backyard. Disregarding this contract, Monsieur Tomas called every new door- keeper and conversed with him: Listen my dear, what is your name. ' ' John, sir. Listen, my dear John, I shall give you one hundred extra francs every month. Do you know why? In order that you should not allow any barrel-organ to play in the back-yard. Such conversations took place with every new superintendent. Four rooms of his six had windows on the street, and two in which the windows opened to the backyard. Every day he sat in his study before his desk and read. Opposite his windows, in the backyard, was a little apartment whose inhabitants changed constantly. Now, there lived two women and a little girl. They earned their livelihood as seamstresses. The younger one was the mother of the girl. The windows of Monsieur Tomas and the new inhabitants had been open all day, so when Monsieur Tomas sar in his chair, he could see excellently what was occurring in his neighbor ' s house. The rooms were furnished poorly; on the chairs and tables everywhere lay pieces of material prepared for sewing. In the morning she cleaned the flat, at noon they had a poor lunch, and none of them left the sewing machine until the evening.. The girl was sitting usually beside the window. She was a child with dark hair and a beautiful pale face, but always sad. Sometimes the girl dressed and undressed her dolly, but she did it very slowly and with a certain amount of difficulty. Sometimes she sat quietly as if she listened to something. Monsieur Tomas had never seen this child singing, or jumping, or running across the room; he did not even notice the slightest smile on the pale lips of the motionless face. Strange child , he said to himself, and he started to watch the girl more carefully. Once he noticed that the mother gave her a bundle of flowers. The girl ' s expression changed a little bit, she smelled the flowers, touched them tenderly and kissed them. Finally, she put them in a glass of water, and said: Mother, how sad it is here. Monsieur Tomas was shocked. How could it be sad in this house, when he constantly was in high sp irits. Once standing at the window in his study, a strange scene appeared before his eyes. Hastily he put on his eye-glasses and he saw this poor little girl standing in her window, and with her eyes wide open, she looked directly to the sun. On her ever motionless face, feelings expressed themselves, something like joy and sorrow. She does not see! whispered the lawyer, and his eyes began to burn — a reaction that the girl should have felt — and he wondered how a person could bear the heat of the sun, which is like a flame of fire. Indeed, the little girl was blind. At the age of six, she had had the measles, and as a result she lost her sight. In the beginning, she and her mother thought it temporary, but as the days passed and no improvement ap- peared, the girl got used to the dark night of her life. Systematically, her memory of seen expression began to be cloudy. Day and night meant for her the same; she lost the dimensions of reality, and entered only into her known world of voices and touch. The face and hands acquired an extreme sensitivity. Distant phenomena reacted upon her only through the sense of hearing. She sensed the slightest rustle, she recognized every voice, every step, the dog barking, the cat meowing, the echo of the street; she loved it and lived in it. But, since she lived in the house of Monsieur Tomas her life was much poorer and monotonous, no happy voices of playing children, no loud talking door-keepers, no backyard-traders with old things, and no heavenly sounds of 2?