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

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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?

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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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barrel-organs were heard. She sar quietly in the room; she was not allowed to play in the backyard, and she could not hear birds chirping. Her only pleasure was being touched by the sun. Her wide open eyes expressed a well of sadness. The girl grew thinner and thinner, and her face expressed deep yearning and longing. It happened that Monsieur Tomas took the defense of a very famous murder case, as a hobby naturally, and a new era began in his life. Every morning he submerged himself in the depth of the case, and an absolute quietness ruled his house. One afternoon, while Monsieur Tomas meditated, an extremely strange accident happened. In the backyard, under his windows, a barrel-organ was playing. The impression was mighty. Monsieur Tomas was dumbfounded, he did not know what to think or to do. His face became white as snow, his body began to tremble. For a moment he thought it was an hallucination. But the vulgar, vivacious, like circus rope dancers ' sounds of the barrel- organ revived him. This very moment his tender and tolerant heart gave birth to primitive instincts. He wanted to shout, beat, kill, to destroy this barrel-grinder. Like a tiger, he jumped to the window, he opened his mouth to shout, then suddenly he heard from across a child ' s voice. The little blind girl danced, singing happily. Her always pale face became reddish colored, her lips became full and smiling, from her poor eyes a rain of tears streamed. In this quiet house, she did not experience such a storm of feeling. What wonderful phenomena were the false tones of the barrel-organ. How magnificent the roar of the trumpet, the same which nearly brought Monsieur Tomas to an apoplexy. Especially, since the organ-grinder saw the girl ' s happiness, he began to stamp with his heels and whistle joyfully. In this moment, the faithful servant of the lawyer broke into the latter ' s study dragging the new door-keeper. I just told him, the servant explained, to throw out the organ-grinder, sir. I told him we have a contract. The organ-grinder was playing already the third tune, loudly and falsely. The blind girl was drunk with happiness. Monsieur Tomas, removing his eyes from the girl, turned phlegmatically to the new doorkeeper: Listen, my dear sir, what is your name? Andre, sir. Listen, my Andre. I shall pay you one hundred francs, every month, do you know why? No, sir. You should never let any barrel-organ in the back yard. hastened to explain the servant. No, said Monsieur Tomas, smiling sadly. On the contrary, you should let the barrel-organ play, twice a day. 23