The Competitive Nephew Part 6

CHAPTER TWO

OPPORTUNITY

"What is brokers?" Mr. Marcus s.h.i.+mko asked. "A broker is no good, otherwise he wouldn't be a broker. Brokers is fellers which they couldn't make a success of their own affairs, Mr. Zamp, so they b.u.t.t into everybody else's. Particularly business brokers, Mr. Zamp.

Real-estate brokers is bad enough, and insurings brokers is a lot of sharks also; but for a cutthroat, a low-life b.u.m, understand me, the worst is a business broker!"

"That's all right, too, Mr. s.h.i.+mko," Harry Zamp said timidly; "but if I would get a partner with say, for example, five hundred dollars, I could make a go of this here business."

Mr. s.h.i.+mko nodded skeptically.

"I ain't saying you couldn't," he agreed, "but where would you find such a partner? Nowadays a feller with five hundred dollars don't think of going into retail business no more. The least he expects is he should go right away into manufacturing. Jobbing and retailing is nix for such a feller, understand me--especially clothing, Mr. Zamp, which nowadays even drug stores carries retail clothing as a side line, so cut up the business is."

Harry Zamp nodded gloomily.

"And, furthermore," s.h.i.+mko added, "business brokers could no more get you a partner with money as they could do miracles, Mr. Zamp. Them days is past, Mr. Zamp, and all a business broker could do nowadays is to bring you a feller with experience, and you don't need a business broker for _that_, Mr. Zamp. Experience in the retail clothing business is like the measles. Everybody has had it."

"Then what should I do, Mr. s.h.i.+mko?" Zamp asked helplessly. "I must got to get a partner with money somewhere, ain't it? And if I wouldn't go to a business broker, who then would I go to? A bartender?"

"Never mind!" Mr. s.h.i.+mko exclaimed. "Some people got an idee all bartenders is b.u.ms, but wunst in a while a feller could get from a bartender an advice also. I got working for me wunst in my place down on Park Row a feller by the name Klinkowitz, which he is now manager of the Olympic Gardens on Rivington Street; and if I would have took that feller's advice, Mr. Zamp, instead I am worth now my tens of thousands I would got hundreds of thousands already. 'When you see a feller is going down and out, Mr. s.h.i.+mko,' he always says to me, 'don't show him no mercy at all. If you set 'em up for a live one, Mr. s.h.i.+mko,' he says, 'he would anyhow buy a couple of rounds; but a dead one, Mr.

s.h.i.+mko,' he says, 'if you show him the least little encouragement, understand me, the least that happens you is he gets away with the whole lunch-counter.' Am I right or wrong?"

Mr. Zamp nodded. He resented the imputation that he was a dead one, but he felt bound to agree with Mr. s.h.i.+mko, in view of the circ.u.mstance that on the following day he would owe a month's rent with small prospect of being able to pay it. Indeed, he wondered at Mr. s.h.i.+mko's amiability, for as owner of the Ca.n.a.l Street premises s.h.i.+mko had the reputation of being a harsh landlord. Had Zamp but known it, however, store property on Ca.n.a.l Street was not in active demand of late, by reason of the new bridge improvements, and s.h.i.+mko's amiability proceeded from a desire to retain Zamp as a tenant if the latter's solvency could be preserved.

"But I couldn't help myself, Mr. Zamp," s.h.i.+mko went on. "I got no business keeping a restaurant at all."

As a matter of fact, Mr. s.h.i.+mko's late restaurant was of the variety popularly designated as a "barrel-house," and he had only retired from the business after his license had been revoked.

"Yes, Mr. Zamp," s.h.i.+mko continued; "in a business like that a feller shouldn't got a heart at all. But I am very funny that way. I couldn't bear to see n.o.body suffer, understand me, and everybody takes advantage of me on account of it. So I tell you what I would do. My wife got a sort of a relation by the name Miss Babette Schick, which she works for years by a big cloak and suit concern as a designer. She ain't so young no longer, but she got put away in savings bank a couple of thousand dollars, and she is engaged to be married to a young feller by the name Isaac Meiselson, which n.o.body could tell what he does for a living at all. One thing is certain--with the money this Meiselson gets with Miss Schick he could go as partners together with you, and pull you out of the hole, ain't it?"

Mr. Zamp nodded again, without enthusiasm.

"Sure, I know, Mr. s.h.i.+mko," he said; "but if a young feller would got two thousand dollars to invest in a business, y'understand, why should he come to me? If he would only got five hundred dollars, Mr. s.h.i.+mko, that would be something else again. But with so much as two thousand dollars a feller could get lots of clothing businesses which they run a big store with a couple of cutters, a half a dozen salesmen, and a bookkeeper. What have I got to offer him for two thousand dollars? Me, I am salesman, cutter, bookkeeper, and everything; and if this feller comes in here and sees me alone in the place, with no customers nor nothing, he gets an idee it's a dead proposition. Ain't it?"

s.h.i.+mko pulled out a full cigar-case, whereat Zamp's eye kindled, and he licked his lips in antic.i.p.ation; but after s.h.i.+mko had selected a dark perfecto, he closed the case deliberately and replaced it in his breast-pocket.

"A business man must got to got gumption," he said to the disappointed Zamp; "and if you think you could got a partner just by bringing him into the store here, and showing him the stock and fixtures which you got it, you are making a big mistake."

"Well, of course I am expecting I should blow him to dinner maybe,"

Zamp protested, "with a theayter also."

s.h.i.+mko evidenced his disgust by puffing vigorously at his cigar.

"You are just like a whole lot of other people, Zamp," he said. "You are always willing to spend money before you make it. Meiselson comes in here and sees you only got a small stock of piece goods, understand me, and you couldn't afford to keep no help, and then, on the top of that yet, you would take him out and blow him. Naturally he right away gets the idee you are spending your money foolishly, instead of putting it into your business, and the whole thing is off."

Zamp shrugged impotently.

"What could I do, Mr. s.h.i.+mko?" he asked. "I got here a small stock of goods, I know, but that's just the reason why I want a partner."

"And that's just the reason why you wouldn't get one," s.h.i.+mko declared.

"A small stock of piece goods you couldn't help, Zamp; but if you let that feller come into your store and find you ain't got no cutters or customers, that's your own fault."

"What d'ye mean, Mr. s.h.i.+mko?" Zamp demanded.

"I mean this," s.h.i.+mko explained. "If I would got a store like you got it here, Zamp, and a friend offers to bring me a feller with a couple thousand dollars for a partner, understand me, I would go to work, y'understand, and get a couple cutters and engage 'em for the afternoon. Then I would turn around, y'understand, and go up and see such a feller like Klinkowitz, which he is manager of that theayter on Rivington Street, and I would get him to fix up for me a half a dozen young fellers from his theayter, which they would come down to my store for the day, and some of 'em acts like customers, and others acts like clerks. Then, when my friend brings in the feller with two thousand dollars, understand me, what do they see? The place is full of customers and salesmen, and in the rear is a couple of cutters chalking lines on pattern papers and cutting it up with shears. You yourself are so busy, understand me, you could hardly talk a word to us. You don't want to know anything about getting a partner at all. What is a partner with two thousand dollars in a rus.h.i.+ng business like you are doing it?

I beg of you you should take the matter under consideration, but you pretty near throw me out of the store, on account you got so much to do. At last you say you would take a cup coffee with me at six o'clock, and I go away with the two-thousand dollar feller, and when we meet again at six o'clock, he's pretty near crazy to invest his money with you. Do you get the idee?"

"Might you could even get the feller to pay for the coffee, maybe,"

Zamp suggested, completely carried away by s.h.i.+mko's enthusiasm.

"If the deal goes through," s.h.i.+mko declared, in a burst of generosity, "I would even pay for the coffee myself!"

"And when would you bring the feller here?" Zamp asked.

"I would see him this afternoon yet," s.h.i.+mko replied, as he opened the store door, "and I would telephone you sure, by Dachtel's place, at four o'clock."

Zamp, full of grat.i.tude, shook hands with his landlord.

"If I would got such a head like you got it to think out schemes, Mr.

s.h.i.+mko," he said fervently, "I would be a millionaire, I bet yer!"

"The thinking out part is nothing," s.h.i.+mko said, as he turned to leave.

"Any blame fool could think out a scheme, y'understand, but it takes a pretty bright feller to make it work!"

"If a feller wouldn't be in business for himself," s.h.i.+mko said to Isaac Meiselson, as they sat in Wa.s.serbauer's Cafe that afternoon, "he might just as well never come over from Russland at all."

"I told you before, Mr. s.h.i.+mko," Meiselson retorted, "I am from Lemberg _geborn_."

"_Oestreich oder Russland_, what is the difference?" s.h.i.+mko asked. "If a feller is working for somebody else, n.o.body cares who he is or what he is; while if he's got a business of his own, understand me, everybody would respect him, even if he would be born in, we would say for example, China."

"Sure, I know, Mr. s.h.i.+mko," Meiselson rejoined; "but there is businesses and businesses, and what for a business is a small retail clothing store on Ca.n.a.l Street?"

"Small the store may be, I ain't denying it," s.h.i.+mko said; "but ain't it better a feller does a big business in a small store as a small business in a big store?"

"_If_ he does a big business, yes," Meiselson admitted; "but if a feller does a big business, why should he want to got a partner?"

"Ain't I just telling you he _don't_ want no partner?" s.h.i.+mko interrupted.

"And as for doing a big business, I bet yer we could drop in on the feller any time, and we would find the store full of people."

"_Gewiss_," Meiselson commented, "three people playing auction pinochle in a small store is a big crowd!"

"No auction pinochle gets played in that store, Meiselson. The feller has working by him two cutters and three salesmen, and he makes 'em earn their money. Only yesterday I am in the store, and if you would believe me, Meiselson, his own landlord he wouldn't talk to at all, so busy he is."