Summary:
A religious man from Ukrania, his scholarly son, and an anarchist from Sicily have the misfortune of entering Baltimore just before the outbreak of the second greatest fire in American history. Below, each of them presents his view on what the story is about.
Moische: How many times have you heard someone say, "If I had to do it allover again, I would have done it this or that way;" or"circumstances prevented me from...;" or simply "I knew better?" I was gone for less than an hour. Who would have thought that in such a short time my home could have been destroyed and my daughter, murdered?
A month or so later my son, David, and I boarded a ship for America, temporarily leaving behind my surviving daughter and my wife. On our very first day aboard the steamship Beethoven, I met none other than Albert Berlin, the Jewish owner of the largest steamship line in all of Germany and, what's more, an advisor to the Kaiser of Germany.He told me his plan to rescue thousands upon thousands of Jews from persecution in Eastern Europe. "Our people," he told me, "would be crossing the ocean in only seven or eight days, not the desert in 40 years, on their way to the new promised land, the land of milk and honey." Later, he told me, I would be his advisor on Jewish immigration. That was how he introduced me to the mayor of Baltimore, an Archbishop, the owner of McCormick Tea and Spice, the daughter of a distinguished Rabbi, the governor's ambassador to Eastern Europe. Never mind, that I could not understand what they were talking about most of the time nor that I could not eat the unkosher food they served. So what happened? His plan, with his partner, none other than J. P. Morgan, went up in smoke.
David: Today will remain yesterday until the rising sun opens your eyes to the All Knowing God," a visiting Rabbi told our congregation just after the Kishinev Pogrom. Months later and thousands of kilometers into the land of the setting sun, my eyes opened to a new world of possibilities - some noble, some illegal and many in violation of Jewish law. Just a day or two after boarding the ship to America, I stopped observing the Sabbath, ate forbidden food, and fell in love with the daughter of an uncircumcised man. I was abandoning the faith of my fathers' fathers. My father would be losing his son not long after the death of his eldest daughter. How many times must I stab my father in his heart!
Eduardo Deported from Italy for my political beliefs; fleeing Baltimore for conspiracy to assassinate McKinley; unwelcomed in Sicily; again a fugitive in Baltimore, and now, a member of the press suspects I started the horrible fire. Who knows? Sooner or later I will be accused of killing the Lord Jesus. A simpleton is punished for a nonexistent crime or one someone else committed. A hero sacrifices himself for a greater good not merely for proper beliefs.
The fire changed my priorities, or should I say distracted me. A hapless fat man selling coffee to drunks gave me shelter. His lovely niece mistook me for her lost love. I joined their family in East Baltimore and befriended a Jewish immigrant, goodness dripping from his sad eyes. How long I will stay with them is anyone's guess. I do know that Roosevelt's big stick cannot block a bullet from my Colt 45.
