[question] He had four hundred and twelve dollars in a cigar box under his bed, from his room, he had a room on Allen Street, they gave me that after the fire. The landlady saved it from anyone stealing and she gave me the cigar box. It was all he had, but some clothes.

[question] I don’t keep the cigar box anymore. It was just a cigar box. What would you get from seeing it?

[question] I don’t know about primary sources, but I can tell you, it had in it the money, the four hundred and twelve dollars, and also inside that cigar box—okay, you interrupt and I tell you, my fiancé didn’t smoke cigars, but he had worked in a cigar factory, so maybe that is where the box came from, I don’t remember the brand on it. What was I saying about? Oh, yes, inside this box there was also the letter from his mother’s sister to tell him his mother died of her sickness, that was just before my sister and I met Sam, and also in there was the engagement photograph he kept with him to look at in his room, they spent good money on that just to celebrate.

[question] It was Sam who spent the money so foolish, just for a photograph of the two of us. What did I say? My sister, she egged him on and she went with us to that photographer on Union Square and I make a mistake, you confuse me and get me tired and mixed up. Forgive an old lady who gets mixed up sometimes. You know how I live so long? I have a good attitude, and I always try to be looking for the good side of things. That’s how I keep going every day. You should try it, don’t always have your head stuck in the past. The past is past. Why think about it so much?

[question] That was all there was that he had for personal possessions in his room that anybody gave to me. Somebody could take his clothing, what he had there, I don’t know. You are a regular ragpicker, wanting to know about this, wanting to know about that. I am away for so many weeks after the fire, I only get the box when I am back in the city.

[question] I don’t know anything about how he kept his things, he shared the room with one of the cutters who died also in the fire, Ellis Grossman, so he didn’t have too much personal that was there, sharing just a little room. Maybe that landlady put the photograph and the letter in with the money into the cigar box to keep it all safe because she already rented out the room while I’m still in the hospital, and then I don’t see her until I get back from the country where they sent me after that for a month.

[question] No, I was never in Sam’s room, I never seen it.