hen I guess they must pay 'em by piecework--ain't it?" Elkan asked.

"They pay 'em so much a night," Milton explained.

"Well, in that case, Mr. Jassy," Elkan continued, "all I could say is if
I would got working in my place half a dozen fellers which I am paying
by the day, understand me, and the foreman couldn't keep 'em busy only
half the time, _verstehst du_, he would quick look for another job."

Elkan's neighbour on the right had been growing steadily more crimson,
and at last he hurriedly seized his hat and passed out into the aisle.

"That's a pretty friendly feller," Elkan said as he gazed after him. "Do
you happen to know his name?"

"I ain't never heard his name," Milton replied; "but he is seemingly
crazy about music. I seen him here every time I come."

"Well, I don't blame him none," Elkan commented; "because you take the
Harlem Winter Garden, for instance, and though the music is rotten,
understand me, they got the nerve to charge you yet for a lot of food
which half the time you don't want at all; whereas here they didn't even
ask us we should buy so much as a glass beer."

At this juncture the short, stout person returned and proceeded to
entertain Elkan and Yetta by pointing out among the audience the figures
of local and international millionaires.

"And all them fellers is crazy about music too?" Elkan asked.

"So crazy," his neighbour said, "that the little man over there, with
the white beard, spends almost twenty thousand a year on it!"

"And yet," Milton said bitterly, "there's plenty fellers in the city
which year in and year out composes chamber music and symphonic music
which they couldn't themselves make ten dollars a week; and, when it
comes right down to it, none of them millionaires would loosen up to
such new beginners for even five hundred dollars to help them get a
hearing."

The short person received Milton's outburst with a faint smile.

"I've heard that before," he commented, "but I never had the pleasure of
meeting any of those great unknown composers."

"That's because most of 'em is so bashful they ain't got sense enough to
push themselves forward," Milton replied; "_aber_ if you really want to
meet one I could take you to-night yet to a cafe on Delancey Street
where there is playing a trio which the pianist is something you could
really call a genius."

"You don't tell me!" Elkan's neighbour cried. "Why, I should be
delighted to go with you."

"How about it, Mr.