I dreamed of enlisting the interest of a
certain Maecenas, a German-American Jew who financed many a
struggling college student of the Ghetto. Thoughts of a "college
match" would flash through my mind--that is, of becoming
engaged to some girl who earned good wages and was willing to
support me through college. This form of matrimonial
arrangement, which has been mentioned in an earlier chapter, is
not uncommon among our immigrants. Alliances of this sort
naturally tend to widen the intellectual chasm between the two
parties to the contract, and often result in some of the tragedies or
comedies that fill the swift-flowing life of American Ghettos. But
the ambition to be the wife of a doctor, lawyer, or dentist is too
strong in some of our working-girls to be quenched by the dangers
involved
One of the young women I had in mind was Gussie, the
cloak-finisher mentioned above, who saved for a marriage portion
too energetically to make a marriage. She was a good girl, and no
fool, either, and I thought to myself that she would make me a
good wife, even if she was plain and had a washed-out appearance
and was none too young.
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