Calman Jacoby - thrifty, industrious, honest-in one sense understood the times in which he was living: Poland was emerging from the Middle Ages and all over the country railroads, highways, and modern cities were being built. The timber on Count Jampolski's land which Calman sold for railway ties became the basis of his fortune. But in another sense Calman belonged to the world which was passing away. Calman's innate conversatism made him suspicious of the new revolutionary ideas rising everywhere around him.
