But then I religiously attended Felix Adler's
ethical-culture lectures, at Chickering Hall, on Sunday mornings. I
valued them for their English rather than for anything else, but
their spirit, reinforced by the effect of organ music and the general
atmosphere of the place, would send my soul soaring. These
gatherings and my prospective alma mater appealed to me as being
of the same order of things, of the same world of refined ways,
new thoughts, noble interests
If I came across a street faker and he spoke with a foreign accent I
would pass on; if, however, his English struck me as that of a
"real American," I would pause and listen to his "lecture,"
sometimes for more than an hour.
People who were born to speak English were superior beings.
Even among fallen women I would seek those who were real
Americans
CHAPTER VIII I WAS reading Pendennis. The prospect of
returning to work was a hideous vision. The high wages in store
for me had lost their magnetism. I often wondered whether I
might not be able to secure some pupils in English or Hebrew, and
drop cloak-making at once.
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