Amazi Chronicles Series

Amazi Book 1 Excerpt: Automations for Peace

Chapter 2: First Days in New York City

Back to Table of Contents

After an uneventful twenty minute ride, we made it to my new home in New York, right off of A Avenue. This new home consisted of a building of six levels, which later I learned it was called a tenement building. Many large extended families lived together in these dark, unappealing buildings. My host Isaac and his family lived on the 6th floor. The bathrooms were outdoors, lighting was based on gas lamps, and as I would learn that winter – a coal stove was used for heating.

Isaac’s living quarters consisted of four rooms. There was a Front Room for socializing during the day and sleeping for the men at night. It had some beds that converted to chairs during the day, some pictures of Saint Petersburg, and a small closet overstuffed with clothes. At one end of this room there was an entrance to the kitchen. The kitchen had a small stove, shelves for a few pots, pans, and dishes, a sink, an icemaker which Tomas the iceman kept filled, and a small table for eating. Through the kitchen there were two backrooms: one for Isaac and his wife Annie, and the other room for the girls. It was crowded but manageable. Isaac and Annie had two girls Jennie and Fanny. They also had a boarder named Matilda, nicknamed Tilly. Tilly with her green eyes, flowing red hair, and deep voice immediately caught my attention.  In Russia, I had no time for women since I was too busy spending hours with my current or would-be friends. Isaac and Annie also had three boys – Morris, Louis, and Herman. I would be sharing a bed next to Herman. Exhausted I fell asleep. The next day, Annie woke me up from sound asleep. I had breakfast which was some sort of stew and was then sent to work.

I was expected to work at a clothing factory as a sewing machine operator for five dollars a week. Out of these meager wages, I would give one dollar a week to Isaac and Annie to pay for my rent, food, and clothes washing. Herman and Tilly also worked in the same factory. We worked from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. with a forty minute break for lunch. This went on every day, Monday through Saturday.

From the start, the factory was an unwelcomed and unpleasant work environment for me. One walked into a room where two hundred people – male and female, healthy or sick, sat in close proximity to each other, squished like sardines. The room had little light coming from multiple broken windows high above the ground. The factory floor had an overpowering ever-present musty smell. The little ventilation allowed temperatures to soar and the unrelenting heat felt muggy and oppressive.

When at the point of exhaustion, the lunch bell rang. I bought an apple for five cents at the pushcart outside the factory. I then started looking for someone to eat with. I tried to find Herman but he had disappeared. So I just listened. I overheard some men talking about “sweatshop conditions “ and “the need to form a union.” I stopped listening -- I didn’t need any new trouble in my life.

Someone tapped gently on my shoulder and said: “So your first day here and already oppressed -- such a sad fate for someone so young, tall, and handsome.”  I turned around and saw Tilly in a friendly mood.  She then started to tell me the story of her life.  She had been here for two years and stayed with the Taroffs (Isaac and Annie) because they had been friends with her mother in Saint Petersburg. “I never knew much about my father other than he wasn’t Russian and had been visiting for a few days. Momma had forgotten his name and had no way to contact him.” We talked a little bit more and then went back in. Before she headed back to work, she told me that she was 21.

At closing time, Herman was already gone but Tilly was waiting for me. “Do you want to walk back together? It isn’t always safe walking around here alone especially for single women. You look like a strong, well-built young man and I would feel safer with you. Herman is always rushing somewhere so I rarely walk back with him.” I said yes and we walked together. She continued her story about how Russia was pressuring woman to marry early to make more soldiers. Tilly would have nothing to do with that. “I choose those I wish to love – not the State. I do not wish to bring children in the world only to see them injured or killed. I had read Tolstoy and the American named Thoreau’s thoughts on how to resist the state’s attempt at war. I do not want to see any more unnecessary deaths. Have you read Thoreau?” I said no and had read Bakunin and others preaching violent resistance instead. She gave an understanding look and pulled out of her bag a copy of Thoreau in Russian. “I’m always re-reading it. Please read it and let me know what you think.”  I said that I would. Tillie also said that she would teach me English.  I gathered that she didn’t make friends easily for some reason and was kind of lonely. Maybe it was because she looked physically different from the other ladies.  She also seemed unbeaten by the circumstances of life.