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14 THE HOUSE THAT SHADOWS BUILT
he just crowded past the mark that designated failure. So life went placidly until at the age of thirteen Adolph was graduated from the grade school and stood ready to go on to the Gymnase, equivalent to our high school, whither the brilliant Arthur had preceded him two years before. Adolph was small for his age; a healthy, active, energetic boy, but silent and thoughtful.
One person seems to have perceived some unusual quality underlying Adolph’s reserved exterior. Samuel Rosenberg, the head master, had won his shy confidence. As Adolph packed up his books for the last time, he came suddenly out of his shell and told this sympathetic teacher the thought of his heart. In the way he seemed destined to go, he saw no promise; for he was not especially religious and he lacked the essential gift for speaking. If he passed on to the Gymnase and to some higher school, life offered only one alternative : he could become a country notary, keeping up appearances on the income of a minor clerk. Medicine, that traditional second choice of the Liebermanns, was impossible in his case; the estate could not support the long years in college and professional school. He wanted to do something else • — he didn’t know exactly what, but something practical, something active.
This is the substance of the conversation as Adolph Zukor remembered it forty years later. One can only imagine its boyish exaggerations and despairs. The fact that neither he nor his teacher conceived of any career