They offered
to advance us the money we needed for fifty per cent of the gross
receipts, while we were to meet the running expenses out of our fifty
per cent, receiving no compensation whatever for our services in taking
care of the business.
I was astonished, and naturally did not accept. The episode was a great
blow to my father. I frequently came face to face with one of our
friends at a later date, but I never bowed to him. He was offended. I
was tempted to approach him and say: "The reason that I do not bow to
you is because I know you are a rascal."
If either of these friends of ours were alive, I should proceed to
mention their names, but, as they are dead, it will serve no useful
purpose.
INDUSTRY AND DEMOCRACY
The bakery has been brandished against me in literature.
When I first wrote, it was said:
"This Baroja is a crusty fellow; naturally, he is a baker."
A certain picturesque academician, who was also a dramatist, and given
to composing stupendous _quintillas_ and _cuartetas_ in his
day, which, despite their flatness, were received with applause, had the
inspiration to add:
"All this modernism has been cooked up in Baroja's oven."
Even the Catalans lost no time in throwing the fact of my being a baker
in my face, although they are a commercial, manufacturing people.
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