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“...he would rec-
ognize this and step aside and give place to number one!
How painful this subject really was to him may be seen
from the following story.
After one of the N. E. C. meetings, when we had gone
through an unusually hard siege of aspiring Es or A.E.s,
as we used to call them for short, my brother wrote De Leon
a formal application for the assistant editorship. As reference
of his ability, he stated the fact that for a whole year he had
been the editor in chief of the Swedish Bazar Nisse (a bazar
program, issued once a year, containing, besides the program,
some advertisements, a few jokes, and perhaps a foolish tale or
two). To demonstrate his literary ability he wrote, in very
halting English, a joke on De Leon himself which had taken
place a few days previously at a Cooper Union meeting. With
a properly suppliant mien, I handed this application to Com-
rade De Leon. De Leon read it, and, instead of roaring, as I
had expected, the A. E. martyrdom expression spread over
his features...”
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