620
PARTISAN REVIEW
sential to
him,
not just metaphorical right hand but virtually arms
and legs. Einhorn was a cripple who didn't have the use of either,
not even partial; only his hands still functioned, and they weren't
strong enough to drive a wheel-chair. He had to be rolled and drawn
around the house by his wife, brother, relations, or one of the people
he usually had on call, either employed by or connected with him.
Whether they worked for him or were merely around his house or of–
fice, he had a talent for making supernumeraries of them, and there
were always plenty of people hoping to become rich, or more rich,
if
already well-to-do, through the Einhorns. They were the most
important real-estate brokers in the district and owned and controlled
much property, including the enormous forty-flat building where they
lived. The poolroom in the comer store of it was owned outright
by them and called
Einhorn's Billiards.
There were six other stores,
hardware, fruit, a tin-shop, a restaurant, barber-shop and a funeral
parlor belonging to Kinsman whose son it was that ran away with
my cousin Howard Coblin to join the Marines against Sandino. The
restaurant was the one in which Tambow, the Republican's vote–
getter, played cards. The Einhorns were his ex-wife's relatives ; they
however had never taken sides in the divorce. It wouldn't have be–
come Einhorn Senior, the old Commissioner, who had had four
wives himself, two getting alimony still, to be strict with somebody
on that account. The Commissioner had never held office, that
title was just people's fun. He was an old galliard yet, with white
Buffalo Bill Vandyke and he swanked around, still healthy of flesh,
in white suits, looking things over with big sex-amused eyes. He had
a lot of respect from everyone for his shrewdness and when he
opened his grand old mouth to say something about a chattel
mortgage or the location of a lot, in his laconic, single-syllabled way,
the whole hefty, serious crowd of businessmen in the office stopped
their talk. He gave out considerable advice, and Coblin and Five–
Properties got him to invest some of their money. Kreines, who did
a job for him once in a while, thought he was as wise as a god.
"The son is smart," he said, "but the Commissioner . .. that's really
a man you have to give way to on earth." I disagreed then and do
still, though when the Commissioner was up to something he stole the
show. One of my responsibilities in summer was to go with him to the
beach where he swam daily until the second week in September. I was
