Ghetto Comedies
tating its luridly romantic phraseology. Such counter-plots, coils, treasons, and stratagems in so simple a matter! How Quarriar could even
tiplying excuses for Quarriar, figuring him as misled by his neighbours, more skilled than he in playing upon philanthropic heart-strings; he had been told, doubtless, that two daughters made no impression upon the flinty heart of bureaucratic charity, that in order to soften it one must 'increase and multiply.' He had got himself into a network of falsehood from which, though his better nature recoiled, he had been unable to disentangle himself. But then I remembered how even in Russia he had pursued an illegal calling, how he had helped a friend to evade military service, and again I took up my knife. But the face preserved its reproachful dignity, seemed almost to turn the other cheek. Il
e had indeed been there, though I had eliminated them in my confident misrepresentation. Now that I had exaggerated them, I had idealized, so to speak, in the reverse direction. And the more I pondered upon this new face, the more I saw that this return to a truer homeliness and a more real realism did but enable me to achieve a subtl
y, but an heroic epic, even as the prophet Isaiah had prefigured. The true tragedy, the saddest sorrow, lay in the martyrdom of an Israel u
ICIZ
CIZAT
English, tha
l Rh
of concealing from the Briton your shame in being related through a pedigree of three thousand years to Aaron, the High Priest of Israel, and Cohn is one of the simplest and most effective. Once, taken to task by a pietist, Solomon defended himself by the quibble that Hebrew has no vowels. But even this would not acc
stanch adherence to his ancient faith, evidenced so tangibly by his Sabbath shutters: even the Christian clothiers bore him goodwill, not suspecting that S. Cohn's Saturday losses were more than coun
such lucrative business. The synagogue, not the sea, was the poetry of these eager traffickers: here they wore phylacteries and waved palm-branches and did other picturesque things, which in their utter ignorance of Catholic or other ritual they deemed unintelligible to the heathe
essed. Her work was manifold and unceasing, for besides her domestic and shop-womanly duties she was necessarily a philanthropist, fettered with Jewish charities as the Gabbai's wife, tangled with Christian charities as the consort of the Town Councillor. In speech she was literally his echo, catching up h
assertive personality than poor Hannah's. The mere danger of slipping back unconsciously to the banned Yiddish put a curb upon her tongue. He
ably produce ecstasy in his son and heir. And when Simon was discovered reading 'The Pirates of Pechili,' dexterously concealed in his prayer-book, the boy received a strapping that made his mother wince. Simon's breakfast lay only at the end of a long volume of prayers; and, having ascertained by careful experiment the minimum of time his father would accept for t
I
the sterner sex. When the eldest, Deborah, was married, her husband received, by way of compensation, the goodwill of the Sudminster business, while S. Cohn
nd especially his wife. One would almost have thought from their deportment that they considered themselves the superiors instead of the slaves of the congregation. S. Cohn had been accustomed to a series of clergymen, who must needs be taught painfully to parrot 'Our Sovereign Lady Queen Victoria, the Prince of Wales, the Princess of Wales, and all the Roy
impressed on Simon with a strap. 'We are not in Pol
s of Anglicization! He, who employed a host of Anglo-Saxon clerks, counter-j
rse. Dread rumours came of a younger generation that craved almost openly for organs in the synagogue and women's voices in the choir, nay, of even more flagitious spirits-devotional dynamit
' S. Cohn was wont to complain, 'that do
siness was as inevitable as that the bu
n him a peculiar and extensive acquaintance with the ways of the world. Carefully curtained away in a secret compartment, lay his elementary Hebrew lore. It did not enter into his conception of the perfect Englishman. Ah, how he rejoiced in this wider horizon of London, so thickly starred with music-halls, billiard-rooms, and resta
Covenant-this young Englishman lurked beneath his praying-shawl, e
vative. For her, indeed, London had proved narrowing rather than widening. She became part of a parish instead of part of a town, and of a Ghetto in a parish at that! The vast background of London was practically a mirage-the London suburb was farther from London than the provincial town. No longer did the currents of civic life tingle through
were ensconced in plush parlours of their own. Home and shop became his only realm, and his autocratic tendencies grew the stronger by compression. He read 'the
ried S. Cohn furiously. 'The
rs. Cohn. 'This comes of our k
g the destinies of Britain.
,' said S. Cohn, c
as pudding which had invaded so many Anglo-Jewish homes, the festival, with its shop-window flamboyance, entered far
radually S. Cohn became aware that the military fever of which he read in both his organs was infecting his clothing emporium-that his own counter-jumpers were in heats of adventurous resolve. The military microbes must have lain thick in the khaki they handled. At any rate, S. Cohn, always quick to catch the contagion of the correct thing, announced that he would present a bonus to all who went out to fight for their country, and that he would keep their places open for their return. The Saturday this patriotic offer was recorded in his news
a drop of vine
wife, as she came down the gallery stairs to meet her lo
ed Mrs. Cohn, flush
house he said h
w you were to
king of our country, not of our pleasures.' And he drew her angrily without, where the brightly-dressed worshippers, lin
robate appeared,
. Cohn, who, never growing older,
a walk-it was
ere did
on't b
bother. Where
t doesn't matter-t
n't hav
War O
' broke fro
oked blankly from
e the enlisting and all that
tacles and was polishing them with his
en going on behind my back,' he
Simon's madcap ideas,' Hannah murmure
to be choked off. It's all stuff what the doctor says. I'm as strong as
this Meshuggas (madness) is?' cried S
the front, just lik
. 'Enlist! You, that I b
t's going-the City
s! But that's
tlemen among them.
ot ric
several chaps
ah eagerly, 'grateful to the noble people who h
quotation from the war-sermon of the morning. 'Ye
fight,' s
'd shoot yourself with your own gun!' He had not been so ups
And Simon pursed his li
bath. And you'd be stuck on your o
d left the tabl
e servant. 'There!' she said. 'And n
But his stomach always surrenders.' He resumed his meal with a wronged a
ran through him, born of the Russian persecution, and he had a vague nightmare sense of the Chappers, the Jewish man-gatherers who collected the tribute of young Jews for the L
osephus-Simon's prize for Hebrew, you know-that
ht for themselves-f
,' said Simon. 'Didn't you
he had no retort, only anger. And this made him angrier, and
she said imploringly. 'The War Office h
y at 'em again, and if I don't get into the Mounte
puzzled father. 'Hannah, you must have known
mured. 'The child amuses himself. H
I'll stop h
ily, 'the Government
w black. 'But remember-you may g
can you utter su
r. He's bound to take me back. Isn'
t from blac
I
uld not reconsider his. Ignorant of his boy's graceless existence, he fumed at th
upon an idealism, choked, rather than fed, by a misunderstood Judaism. Anglicization had done its work; from his schooldays he had felt himself a descendant, not of Judas Maccab?us, but of Nelson and Wellington; and now that his brethren were being mowed down by a kopje-guarded foe, his whole soul rose in venomo
his khaki uniform and his great slouch
l, for which each volunteer had two tickets. Simon sent his to his father. 'The Lord M
n next,' said S. Cohn, t
em together. It was the la
I
s. This January night, the Sabbath arriving early in the afternoon, he was snoring before seven, and Mrs. Cohn slipped out, risking his wrath. Her religion forced her to make the long journey on foot; but, hurrying, she arrived at St. Paul's before the doors were opened. And throughout the long walk w
of alien things-how little she was Anglicized, she thought, after all those years! And when she was borne forward into the Cathedral, her heart beat with a sense of dim, remote glories. To have lived so long in London and never to have entered here! Sh
rd Mayor and the Aldermen passed along the aisle, preceded by mace-bearers; and mingled with this dazzle of gilded grandeur and robes, was a regretful memory of the days when, as a Town Councillor's consort, she had at least touched the hem of this unknown historic English life. The skirl of bagpipes shrilled from without-that exotic, ha
Ah! at last, there was her Simon-manlier, handsomer than them all! But he did not see her: he marched on stiffly; he was already sucked up into this strange life. Her heart grew heavy. But it lightened again when the organ pe
od fight with
Strength and C
first Psalm! Did they, then, pray the Jewish prayers in Christian churches? 'For He shall give
echoing, vaulted space, she studied the hymns and verses, with their
o shine upon you and be gracious unto you. The Lord lift u
re had she felt its beauty: she had never even understood its words till she read the English of them in the gilt-edged Prayer-Book that marked rising wealth. Surely there had been some mon
even over backs of chairs in the general mellay. This time Simon saw her. He stretched out his martial
s and points of vantage, and hurrahing hordes that fused themselves with the procession and became part of its marching. She yearned forwards to vague glories, aware of a poor p
isfied with his sufferings on the voyage. Not only had the sea been rough, but he had suffered diabolically from the inoculation
s what a fool he's been, and h
would be d
t mind desertin
of grumbling at that, his one grievance was that the regiment was not getting to the front. Heat and frost, hurricane and dust-storm-n
e was full of war-knowledge acquired with painful eagerness, prattled of Basuto ponies and Mauser bullets
soldiers slain by their own protective cannon as they lay behind ant-heaps facing the enemy, and British officers culled under the very eyes of the polo-match; tales of hospital and camp, of shirts turned sable and putties worn to rags, and all the hidden miseries of uncleanliness and insanitation that underlie the glories of war. There were tales, too, of quarter-rations; but these she did not read to her husband, lest the m
being Gabbai
singer and devil-dodger, he has no civilization worth the name, and his customs are filthy. Since the great trek he has acquired, from long intercourse
without going there. But hear further! "Is it to be wondered at that the Boer farmer, hidden in the vast undulations of the endless veldt, with his w
as reading a description of himself-nay, of herself, of her whole race, hidden in the great world, awaiting s
ave Dutch blood at the back of them, and a profound contempt for us. Their whole life has been spent on the open veldt (we are always fighting them on somebody's farm, who knows every inch of the ground), and they never risk anything except in the trap sort of man?uvres. The brave rush
ame morning paper. 'Intermarriage! In a generation or two there will be one fine Anglo-African race. That'
the solution,' Mrs. Cohn wrote obediently. '
ndividuals we have to deal with come from a Boer mother and a
was because there were two Governments-he forg
ch the proud reader was persuaded by the lobby to forward to the communal organ. The organ a
istributed printed copies to the staff of
to get him safe back to camp-Heaven knows how!-and they made me a lance-corporal, and the beggar says I saved his life; but it was really through carrying a fat letter from his sister-not even his sweetheart. We chaff him at missing such a romantic chance. He got off with a flesh wound, but there is a great blot of red ink on the letter. You may imagine we were not anxious to let our comrades go unavenged. My superiors being sick or otherwise occupied, I was allowed to make a night-march with thirty-five men on a farm nine miles away-just to get square. It was a n
his wife had got used to the firing-line, now that neither shot nor shell could harm her boy. 'For He shall give H
displayed them in his window, and the crowd and the business they brought him put him more and more in sympathy with Simon
d with bunting from roof to basement, and a great illumina
, she was not deceived; and, the time drawing nigh for Simon's ret
s what the irony of fate brought to pass. In the unending campaign which death wages with life, S
an when dodging his father's eye. His only absences from home he accounted for as visits to Winstay, his pal of the campaign, with whom he had got chummier than ever since the affair of the cattle-guard. Winstay, he said, was of good English family, with an old house in Harrow-fortunately on the London and North Western Railway, so that he co
t of Chanukah-the commemoration of the heroic days of Judas Maccab?us-and the Jewish C.I.V.'s were among the s
exciting day, Mrs. Cohn said suddenly:
knows,'
.' And she sm
repeated S
-the matrim
Before your year
became one flame. 'Not
heek!' And Simon's flus
re long; and naturally,' she added, her voice growing bolder, 'I should like to see you settled before I follow your f
. 'What a ghastly idea, that your wife would just as s
me came to complicate her emotions further. She remembered how she had been exported from Poland to marry the unseen S. Co
her. And it's not likely to be one of
of which Jewish g
. They don't
glad your father isn't alive
rmarriage is the solu
was thinking how to make the Bo
ay the Jews must
wish girls who are English
bout the old customs? Then where'
e, and Simon went off to don his khaki re
it was she who had steadied his life; hers were those 'fat letters,' faintly aromatic. It must be very wonderful, this strange passion, luring her son from his people with its forbidden glamour. How Highbury would be scandalized, robbed of so eligible a bridegroom! The sons-in-law she
e could be found. He should have love-this strange English thing-but could he not find a Jewess? Ah, happy inspiration! he should m
ould never be happy with her! No, no
nd what men! Everywhere the scarlet and grey of uniforms, the glister of gold lace-the familiar decorous lines of devout top-hats broken by glittering helmets, bear-skins, white nodding plumes, busbies, red caps a-cock, glengarries, all the colour of the British army, mixed with the feathered jauntiness of the Colonies and the khaki sombreros of the
h white resplendence. The pulpit-yes, the pulpit-was swathed in the Union Jack; and looking towards the box of the Parnass and Gabbai, she saw it was occupied by officers with gold sashes. Somebody whispered that he with the medalled
hant on the steps of the Ark, lit the great many-branched Chan
t and white gown (military, too, she imagined in her ignorance), and-oh, even rarer sight!-he w
weetness through her blood. An organ! An organ in
ging, and hovering meekly on the borders of the service-she read afterwards that it was only a harmonium-yet it brought a strange exaltation, and there was an
zens than the children of Israel who had settled under her flag. They had been gratified, but not surprised, to see in the Jewish press the names of more than seven hundred Jews serving Queen and country. Many more had gone unrecorded, so that they had proportionally
the hushed air of the synagogue. It went on and on, this list, reeking with each bloody historic field, recalling every regiment, British or colonial; on and on in the reverent silence, till a black pall
ds Simon and seized his hand for an instant, whispering pa
that she had said th
I
es, though the only aid to his eloquence was the photograph of a plump little blonde with bewitching dimples. The time was not ripe yet for bringin
ou be married?'
registrar,' he
her a proselyte?'
absurd to suddenly start
knows you
r, so why shouldn't she know? But her father's
k? Abou
or the war-and that they leave the fighting to the English. It's rather sicke
lity. 'But how can he say that, whe
think of me as a Jew. It's a bit illogical, I know.' And he smil
as she recalled the photograph of the white-haire
a dear old boy. That's why I d
ven hundred at least to the war?' she persiste
u suppose he reads the Jewish what's-a-nam
ght to show
. 'That would only prove to him th
ontent. But apparently it only shadowed her own hor
rned from Harrow earlier than his wont, and Hannah's dog-
d a quarrel?
th the o
what
some League of Londoners for the
there should be decentralization,' said Mrs
composed the "Appeal to the Briton," and gloated over it so conceit
his mother be
be admitted unless they produce a certificate of industrial capacity, and in the same breath they accuse them of taking the work away from the British workman. Now this isn't
his mother
sertion passed into
She knows the old boy's vanity. Of cou
appen? Will you
to his brow. 'Oh,
ved him the trouble o
ly Old Si
self admit there is a grievance of congestion and high rents in the East End. And it is only natural-isn't it?-that aft
ian slums-Flower and Dean Street?' And his handsome Oriental
clock, in the Pompeian Room. I have got an aunt at Sydenham, and I can go in to tea
I
and pictures, it was delicious to make their own atmosphere, untroubled by the flippancy of the brother or the earnestness of the father. In the presence of Lucy's artistic knowledge Simon was at once abashed and sti
ts to Harrow, but the longer he delayed the
d him. 'He has joined the committee, and the prospectus
the son of an alien,
ill you can forget your remote genealogy. You see, even now father doesn't quite realize you are a Jew
' cried Sim
e by side with my brothe
But, Lucy, you don't t
Merely Shem?'
w I never could believe in the Trinity and all that
he Church of England-I feel myself a member. Really, Sim,
atingly; for somehow he felt a shiver of cold at the wo
ve-smitten eyes, her suggestion that the girl be brought to see her received with equal postponement, began to fret for the great thing to come to pass. One canno
me when she returned from the sea
r father is dragging
married the mome
re. Still, you are not wrong, mother. It's high time we ca
Mrs. Cohn. 'Are
se. But we've never sa
emark that the definiteness of the Sugarman method was not withou
d the faint perfume that always stirred her own wistful sense of lost romance-something far-off and delicious, with the sw
d for the last post. When at length a step was heard crunching on the gravel, he rushed from the room, and Mrs. Cohn heard the hall-door open. Her ear, disappointed of the rat-tat, morbidly
face was white. 'She cannot marry me,
this must not be! I will go to the father; I will
, it's herself. Now that I won't let her drift any longer, she can't bring herself to
nk herself above you!' Her dog-lik
held yourself aloof from the others long enough, God k
f Pechili.' And, again, as in the days when his boyish treasures were changed to ashes, she stole towards him, with an involuntary furtive look to see if S. Cohn's back was turned, and laid her hands upon his heaving s
WISH T
ISH TRI
s fortunate young man who seemed to shed a blonde radiance all around him. The factories of Middleton, which had manufactured Sir Asher Aaronsberg, ex-M.P., and nearly all his wealthy guests, were to his artistic eye an outrage upon a beautiful planet, and he was still in that crude phase of juvenile revolt in which one speaks one's thoughts of the mess humanity has made of its world. But, unfortunately, the Mayoress of Middleton was deafish, so that he could not even shock her with his epigrams. It was extremely disconcerting to have his bland blasphemies met with an equally bland smile. On his other hand sat Mrs. Samuels, the buxom and highly charitable relict of 'The People's Clot
on of poetry and purity. Lady Aaronsberg, who might have supplied the missing link, was dead-before even arriving at ladyship, alas!-and when she was alive Barstein had not enjoyed the pri
ke in suddenly upon his reflections; 'he
ecalled to the sculptor, who, in so far as the patriarchs ever crossed his mind, conceived the
ssented the
tch nor the proposition seemed suitable to the dinner-table. The Mayoress added ecstat
-even to the northerly burr-was so vividly stamped upon Barstein's mind that he wondered the more that the Mayoress could see him as anything but the prosy, provincial, whilom Member of Parliame
sher was soon heard over the clatter of conversation protesting vehemen
sionately. 'Oh, my dear Mr. Fuller, it woul
to govern themselves as we have!
t minority,' cried Sir Asher, becoming almost epigrammatic in his ex
nt no victory for Judaism, but he stayed his tongue with a salted almond. Let the
e for India? There's no
wel in the British crown! And let the Russian bear come and swallow it up! No, no! A thousand times no!
e was amused, too, at the completeness with which the lion of Judah had endued himself with the skin of the British lion. To a cosmopolitan ar
y, on his forehead. It said much for his character that these fellow-citizens of his had once elected him as their Member, despite his unpopular creed and race, and were now willing to sit at his table under this tedious benediction. Sir Asher did not even let them off with the shorter form of grace invented by a wise Rabbi for these difficult occasions, yet so far as was visible it was only the Jewish guests-comically distinguished by serviettes shamefacedly dabbed on their heads-who fidgeted under the pious torrent. These were no doubt fearful of boring the Christians whose precious society the Jew enjoyed on a parlous tenure. In the host's son Julius a superadded intellectual impatience was traceable. He had brought back from Oxford a contempt for his father's
ion of meals! But to-night, after so long an interval, he could look at it without prejudi
hers a desirable, good, and ample land, and because Thou didst bring us forth, O Lo
her was thankful because over three thousand years ago his ancestors had obtained-not without hard fighting for it
ess, indeed, the House of Commons (from which he had been delivered by the Radical reaction) might be so regarded, and his own house was, as he was fond of sayi
er was stil
erusalem Thy city, upon Zion the abiding place of Thy glory
rases from the environment. To his deepest self he was not even a Briton. 'Have mercy, O Lord, upon Israel Thy people.' Despite all his outward pomp and prosperity, he felt himself one of that dispersed and maltreated band of brothers who had for eighteen centuries resisted alike the
but a very citadel of the spirit. A new respect for his host began to steal upon him. Involuntarily he sought the face of the daught
ve artist, the Rembrandtesque figure prayed on: 'And rebu
ers or his own people. All his imagination was inflamed. He conjured up a Zion built up by such virile hands as Sir Asher's, and peopled by such beautiful mothers as his daughter: the great Empire that would spring from the unity and liberty of a race which even under dispersion and oppression wa
uller murmured to him as he returned to the t
tein replied, a little jarr
nal views. 'So much time for digestion would enable any race to survive in this age of qui
stein rebukingly. 'The glamour of
' said Tom, with a
replied with a dignity
taken you for one!'
f instantly. 'To feel complimented at not being taken for a Jew-what does it mean?
ciate the picturesqueness of it all-hearing the very language of the Bible
t upon both, and directing the artist's attention in particular to the pictures that hung around the s
id. His cap was back in his coat-tail, and he
the Italians at all
he Palestinian patriarch. Sir Asher never discussed theology except with those who agreed with him. Nor did he ever, whether in private or in public, breathe an unfriendly word against his Christian fellow-citiz
mand witheringly of his cronies. The question was in his eye now as he summed up Italian art to the sculptor, and a faint smile twitching about his lips invited hi
the pedestal. 'Surely the Madonna was
' he remembered. 'You think only of the beautiful outs
in a low scornful tone: 'Neither confoundi
I
modern consciousness depolarized page upon page that had never in boyhood been anything to him but a series of syllables to be gabbled off as rapidly as possible, when their meaning was not still further overlaid by being sung slowly to a tune. 'I might as well have turned a prayer-wheel,' he said regretf
eepening insight drove him to interpret the tragedy also, and he sought out from the slums and small synagogues of the East End strange forlorn figures, with ragged curls and wistful eyes. It was from
their knowledge of how to run their local organization was naturally superior. But throughout all the mean surroundings, the petty wrangles, and the grotesque jealousies that tarnished the movement he retained his inner exaltation. He had at last found himself and found his art. He fell to work upon a great Michel-angelesque figure of the awakening genius of his people, blowing the trum
xhibitions supplied a sort of answer, and the few who chanced to meet him reported dolefully that he was a changed man. Gone was the light-hearted and light-footed dancer of the Paris pavement
town for the season in charge of an aunt, and the meeting occurred in one of the galleries of the newer art, in front of Mabel's own self in marble. She praised the P
and Barstein was reduced to getting himself invited to that Jewish Bayswater, his loathing for which had not been overcome even by his new-found nationalism. Her
did not look at all like a Jew, so it didn't sound so horrible in his mouth. His lithe figure stood out almost Anglo-Saxon amid the crowds of hulking undersized young men, and though his manners were not so good as a Christian's-she never forgot his blunder at her father's dinner-party-still, he looked up to one with almost a Christian's adoration, instead of sizing one up with an Oriental's calculation. These ot
garlanded niche at a great Jewish Charity Ball, lapped a
so wicked as I
n the Sabbath, L
your brother Juli
ulius wants to smoke on Friday even
t smoke in y
tell him. You'r
tell him-unle
won't ask you-he'l
re not very encouraging, dea
orts of queer notions. And you're not so'
rs. 'Yes, I am; I'm
ps, though they went on: 'But you told me
shall economize dre
. But he continued to laugh away her fears. She was so beautiful and he was so strong-what could stand between them? Ce
the supper champagne. They had secured a little table
ope to Palestine,' he sa
Live entirely amon
rust the knife she was wielding through his heart. Her silent recep
of shoes. Since Barstein had brought Zionism to her consciousness, she had noted that distinguished Christians were quite sympathetic, but this was the one subject on
ive entirely among Jews
rowing off a suffocating weight. 'O
living amo
s as background as well as foreground. A great
tinct would be shared by every Jew in that festive aggregation around him. His heart sank. Never-even in those East End back-rooms where the pitiful disproportion of his consumptive-looking collaborators to their great task was sometimes borne in dismally upon
another,' Mabel explained
ion of the prevailing point of view was quickened by the fact that the Jewish firstcomers were always aware of an existence on sufferance, with their slowly-won privileges jeopardized if too many other Jews came in their wake. He consulted his own pre-Zionist psychology. 'Yes,' he decided. 'Every Jew who moves into our country, our city, our watering-place, our street even, seems to us an invader or an interloper. He draws attention to us, he accentuates our difference from the normal, he increases the chance of the renewal of Rishus (malice). And
ced from him a
Henry-never going to smile agai
ed, his smile fading into sombreness. 'Neit
had felt her hold over him slipping, and her own appre
ps of bacon. And presently we shall be having water ices to simulate cream. We can't even preserve our dietary individuality. Truly s
eal could so interrupt the rhapsodies due to her admissions of affection, was
as she not Sir Asher's daughter? She must surely have inherited some of his love for Palestine and his people. It was this Philis
me almond-pudding?'
offer me almond-pudding. Oh, I should like to go t
Palestine,' he
. 'All roads lea
thout Palestine our past is a shi
'But what should we do there?
h in the Arts and Crafts School. Bezalel, it's called; isn't that a beautiful name? It's from Bezalel, the f
nicated. The Palestine Rabbis always e
at do you know
d boxes and paper-knives-a perennial shower. The letters are generally in the most killing English. And he w
n. 'We'll send all th
ey'll send you, you maker of graven images
ones is just one of the arts which God says He had inspired Bez
stition and squalor, and I'm sorry to say father
up the eventual Renaissance. Your father and his kind
ver her marmoreal brow. But her face lightened with a sudden
e answered as cheerfully. 'But, all the sam
f Christians do that. There was a Cook's par
moon to analyse the terms in which it was given. He looked into her eyes
ir fates to a letter, whether from herself or her lover. A plump negative would be so difficult to fight against. A personal interview permitted one
nal contempt for Sir Asher had been exchanged for sincere respect, and that the bluff Briton was a
Briton, and a Briton no longer
rfectly i
or not rich enough, too artistic or too low-born? Or did Sir Asher conside
work-it confers honour on our community. The Mayor alluded to it only yesterday.' He spo
lk advanced th
e match.' Sir Asher caressed his l
quious clerks and attendants through whom Barstein had had to penetrate, the factory buildings stretching around, with their sense of throbbing machinery and disciplined workers, all gave the burly Briton a background again
ak your daughter's hear
hoed Sir Asher in amaze. It was
uffer dreadfully?' Barstein we
out of his discreet reticence. 'I'd sooner bre
s the sculptor'
hat?' h
ean to deny you're a Zioni
zed at him
't suppose I don't read the Jewish pap
e. 'But-but,' he stammered
't presume to force t
sn't want to? Surely it is through human agency that Prov
mies. Perhaps you thin
hole Jewish people is its own M
tions you expect to marry my daughter! You must excuse me if I wish to hear no f
hall ever get to Palestine?'
s to the ceiling. 'In Go
n will t
r our present sphere. To-day we are too ne
t si
on will be split by an ear
gesture. 'But why can't we go to Jerusalem
nations. We must live dispersed. W
red your voice when you denounced the Trini
r example. Merely by keeping our o
Sunday-keeping peoples makes our ver
'Indeed, the growth of the Saturday half-holiday sinc
dispersed to promote
h,' Sir Asher corrected shar
. Five millions are herded in
has long been scatter
sand in one square mile
hey go to the Argentine too. I he
reaching the Unit
h a mocker. We are in exile by
es of Sir Asher's exile, but he forbore to be personal. 'Then if we must
ntance with his generosity. 'That I might suffe
ewish patriot,' r
ish face grew
British patriots. You talk trea
he young man l
ndermine all the rights we have
really a British patr
ir, that I equipped a corps of
volunteers for Zion-that is
n Palestine as men of peace. There is neither coal nor iron-hence no manufactures. Agriculture? It's largely stones and swamps. Not to mention it's too hot for Jews to work in the fields. They
redly. His array of arguments see
. As for quarrelling, weren't you in Parliament? Party gov
lifetime of laying down the law
hould make of Gover
Ministers to every C
s we're under others. Sir Ashe
against whom you equipped volunteers fought frenziedly for three years not to be under others! And we-the thought of Je
ave of the hand. 'This is all a waste of breath. For
ay for it-"speedily
red at the bo
waste of breath,'
sher severely. 'It is a Divine event I
Yes, you're an anti-Semite too-like your daughter, li
nt,' he said, recovering his magisterial note. 'I was once in love myself. But when it comes to calling me an anti-Semite, it i
a man; somebody some day will have to win your bel
good-humouredly. 'Three
th a flash of angry intuition.
ow quite sure of the
and the anti-Semite-thre
he electric bells with a j
here, and a Jew everywhere and an anti-Semite everywhere. Passionate Hungarians, and true-born Italians, eagle-waving Americans, and loyal Frenchmen, imperial Germans, and double Dutchmen, we are dispersed to preach the Un
'Neither confounding the persons nor d
QUESTION I
QUESTION IN
ared in their hive of industry-an alien immigrant, without roots or even relatives at Sudminster. And Simeon Samuels was equipped not only with capital and enterprise-the sho
ountry-struggling at every sacrifice to keep the Holy Day despite the supplementary burden of Sunday closing, and the God of their fathers had not left unperformed His part of the contract. For 'the harvests' of profit were abundant, and if 'the latter and the former rain' of their unchanging supplication were mere dried metaphors to a people divorced from Palestine and the soil for eighteen centuries, the wine and the oil came in casks, and the corn in cakes. T
stoned to death,' whispered the squat Solomon Barzi
sighed Ephraim Mendel, hitching his praying-shawl more over h
ment for his-Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Hosts; the whole earth is full of His glory.' The last phrase Solomon suddenly shouted in Hebrew, in antiphonal respo
who had taken over S. Cohn's business, together with his daughter Deborah, 'and h
int Simeon Samuels stalked into
ommunity. Escorted by the obsequious and unruffled beadle to the seat he seemed already to have engaged-that high-priced seat facing the presidential pew that had remained vacant since the death of Tevele the pawnbroker-Simeon Samuels wrap
n those whose own eyes had seen him behind his counter when he should have been consecrating t
congratulation upon the holy privilege, all the congregants who found themselves upon his line of return shot forth their arms with remorseful eagerness, and thus was Simeon Samuels switched on to the brotherhood of Sudminsterian Israel. Yet as his now trusting co-religionists passed his shop on their homeward walk-and many a pair of legs went considerably out of its way to do so-their eyes bec
e game. The Parnass, though at heart as outraged as they by the new departure, felt it always incumbent upon him to display his presidential impartiality and his dry humour. His authority, mainly based on his being the only retired shopkeeper in the com
od,' Mendel rep
kly!' said Solomon Barzinsky,
Parnass weightily. 'He has paid it, and therefore if I
'Can't we prove he has
his cards placidly. 'Do we want to wash ou
Barzinsky. 'We should become a l
to the Christian courts,' the
is shop open on Sabbath is capable of anything,' sai
s, he may have a Christian partner who kee
orbidden,' said Barzinsk
e reminded him, 'sells his groce
le to destroy hundreds of pounds of leaven.
has never been raise
an (pundit) to answer
a specialist,' re
is cards. 'You can go
' said his wife. 'Do
shame is on a Parnass to talk
stands in the Talmud: "For vain swearing no
errupted: '"The Law of Thy mouth is better
oined severely, 'that the wise man does n
' Barzinsky shrieked, 'that for t
n in his long figure, 'that one must not even offer a nut to allure
storm. 'But Simeon Samuels hasn't a
an embarra
. 'I know, because I went to the shop Friday mo
s's wife timidly. It was her first contribution to the conve
d the Parnass. 'That was just
did have one,' Mrs. Mendel confessed;
s a gene
it,' snarled Solomon Barzinsky
sell clocks,' s
retence of selling them something else. The Talmudi
t in the Parnass's wife, f
n. 'More than I've done, for she wasn't in synagogue. Perhaps she is the Christi
eassuringly. 'I caught sight of
s passed unquestioned, and
Mr. Mendel, 'she served in the
of the synagogue he served in the sho
judicially. 'If a man breaks one commandm
miting the green cloth with his fist; 'for he
k my plates,' said the P
've taken away
fore I know that he is truly a sinner in Israel. As it is written, "Thou shalt inquire and make search an
ted to eat a ham-sandwich-just fo
ed you a dog,' th
ss hurriedly. 'After all, it's t
business,' Sol
Parnass drily; 'it
I
tained its flaunting seductiveness, assisted, people observed, by Simeon Samuels' habit of lounging at his sh
uences did not at all correspond with their deep if undefined forebodings. It is true a horse and carriage dashed into Peleg, the pawnbroker's, window down the street, frightened, Peleg maintained, by the oilskins fluttering outside Simeon Samuels' shop; but as the suffering was entirely limited to the nerves of Mrs. Pele
The Lord is merciful and long-suffering, a
is pay-day, and the heathen haven't patience to wait till the three stars are out and
e, he was treated as their servant, his duties rigidly prescribed, his religious ideas curbed and corrected by theirs. What wonder if he could not suddenly rise to dictatorship? Even at home Mrs. Gabriel was a congregation in herself. But as the week went by he f
e,' they said unanimously, 'and
or minister would protest. 'You had
te. 'I would not lower myself. He'd
land and aloof, he pursued his own affairs, meeting the congreg
a presidential command to prea
ble just yet,' he pleaded.
, 'any text can be twisted to point an
portion) about Joseph. How are you go
the-earth. But what's the use of a preacher i
e hidden meaning and the plain meaning. But Joseph is merely historical narrative. The
bout Potiph
nth Commandment,
o you mean to say you can't jump
The ministe
favoured. And it came to pass that his m
n. There were things in the Bible that should be left in the obscurity of the Hebrew, especially when one'
seph re
a protesting trumpet. The congregation's eyes returned from the b
reacher impressively, 'tem
n proceeded from many nostrils.
the Almighty, we are free from almost every form of wrong-doing, there is yet one temptation w
became now the focus of every eye. His face was turned towards the pr
could always be said of
, now the cosmos was righting itself; Heaven
is stature grew, his eloquence poured forth, polysyllabic. As he ended, the con
Simeon Samuels, that gentleman whipped out his hand and grasped the man of God's, and his
n; rather, was it a day of unrest. The plate-glass window still flashed in ini
exclaimed to Peleg the pawnbroker, as they passed the blasp
keeping open if you didn't tak
mpatiently. 'Don't you know it's forb
that. But if you
stomers the things they need, as it is written, "Open thy
f they drank their money a
couldn't they p
in ad
sum of money with you,
sum of money with them. I don't suppose they'd bring their pledges on Friday night, and wait till Saturd
gainst their names in your register. A pin could be stuck in to represent a pound, or a stamp stuck on to i
hands cannot perform their enterprise." Have a little of Job's patience, and trust the
rogue! I'd like t
mean. Leave h
s has caught us up. Good Shabbos (Sabbath), Parnass. This is a
ped the Parnass, hurled
retorted Barzinsky. 'A fat l
tead of Rochinsky,' the Parnass rem
ant foreigners, d
,' chuckled the Parnass, in whose breast the de
egarding his naturalization papers as retrospective. 'We are just passing the Reverend Gabriel's ho
waiting for Kiddush' (ho
eleg junior, who with various Barzinsky b
her-- Ah, here comes the minister. Good Shabbos (Sabbath), Mr.
apt into the ministe
d scathingly. 'I doubt if he'll even
ined open in a fishy gasp,
stronger language, Mr. Gabrie
s not there
ky. He'll be there right eno
leg, who had lingered, though his son h
ed the minister. 'It is written in the Talmud that
zinsky. 'A stranger would imagine we we
any stranger,' s
your sermon against Sabbath-breaking made him fancy he was just
h against Sabbath-breakin
ath-breaker,' cor
Barzinsky; 'you didn't even make
person and well-favoured,' r
ff, and his sneeze s
more kindly, 'you must
h every Saturday,' grumbled
s keeps open, you can't s
between you,'
xultantly. '"And took from them Simeon, and bound him before their eyes." There's you
n and bound him,' added the Parnass.
said the minister sullenly. 'I still can't see
bath-breaking as Potiphar's wi
Me have ye bereaved. Joseph is not, and S
ble thrill passed through the synagogue. Even Simeon Samuels seemed
Land is lost. Simeon is not-our Holy Temple is razed to the ground. One thing only is left us-one blessing with which the almighty father has blessed us-our Holy Sabba
hairs with sorrow to the grave.' Yes, it would be the destruction of Israel, he urged, if the Sabbath decayed. Woe to those sons of Israel who dared to endanger Benjamin. 'From Reuben and Simeon down to Gad and Asher, his life shall be required at their hands.' Oh, it was a red-hot-cannon-ball-firing serm
Yankele, the poor glazier's boy, who said that he kept looking from face to face, as if to mark the effect on the congregation, stroking his beard placidly the while. But as to his behaviour after the guns were still,
I
'that he went straight from Shool (synagogue) to his shop.' Solomon had rushed out the first thing
ult,' said the pre
to my text. But no! You must set
get in Simeon,
did you call him? The Holy Temp
analogy,' stammered
u apologized to him, t
mean a co
ed me to the Holy Temple. And I
ise,' murmured
'd remember my place and who I owed it to. But fo
sky is
Samuels shuts up shop or you do. That's final. Don't forget you
minister later in the str
terribly wrought up. There may even be a riot. If Simeon Samuels keeps op
will break
wait till the
busy opening t
ou must preach
d the Reverend G
'd be where I am now if I hadn't had the courage to buy a bankrupt stock that I
' impatiently cried the minis
. 'His name must not be blotted out-it
shame a man is equivalent to m
y wise rebuke thy neighbour, and not suffer sin up
I
their assembly be not thou united: in t
dyke against the waves of heathendom. Nor did his complacency diminish when his intuition proved correct, and the preacher thundered against the self-will-ay, and the self-seeking-that undermined Israel's last fortification.
sed the synagogue; a little
d a sermon so much,' said th
id the Parnass, still sw
ound an excited gentleman waiting him in the lobby. It was Lazarus Levy, whom his wi
riel goes, Mr. Parnass, o
r. Levy-what i
ough Saturday is so good for the clothing business, I've
course; everybo
with that Simeon Samuels. Simeon and Levy are brothers in their i
an air-ball at a pin-prick. 'Oh, nonsen
at all surprised to get a letter from my father-in-law in London-you know how pious old Cohn is! As for Simeon, he kept looking at me as if I was
sermon.' He stroked his beard. 'I quite agree with you. To dig down a public wall is indefensible. Nobody has the right to make more than a private hole in it, wher
aid the Gabbai (treasurer)
I'm that man's brothe
actful inspiration. 'You shall read the Ha
mean me,' he stipulated, mollified by th
argain,' grumbled the Parnass. 'T
it till we come to the text: "Wherefore Levi ha
el,' ejaculated S. Cohn's son-
r splendid sermon,' added the Gabbai, 'yo
wry face. 'But that'
o call upon the afflicted and the bereaved. And Simeon Sa
sn't want c
the Parnass. 'Go to him instead, then
Samuels,' said th
arlour armchair towards his reverend guest. 'My wife will be so sorry to
ng?' said the minist
ted a pastoral vis
' murmured the minister,
ls heartily, as he produced a bottle from th
all. I am only s
ed his beard.
' said the Rev.
on S
for secretarial work,
y to myself. But you have to work Saturd
the minis
know you must wor
s!' The minister flu
each and pray and sing and recite the Law for nothing so that Heaven might pe
n-on Shab
rn my wages for the rest of my work-the
e is not worthy of you. But far be
sabre-point gave him vigour for the lunge. 'You-y
I couldn't break the
ha
me break the Fou
ot unde
days shalt thou labour and do all thy work"? If I were to close on Saturday I should only
Commandment,' said the bewildered minist
d once, if you will have it so, the first time I shifted the Sabbath
' said the minister, c
y admit the first sin, for let me ask you, sir, which is nearer to the spirit of the Commandment-to work six days and k
necessity of earning one's bread. He was prepared to prove that even from a material point of view you really gained more in the long
ls pursued h
working half of it. I do my best to meet their views-as you say, one should not dig down a wall-by attending their Sabbath
ail there would be an end of Ju
y to put the opposition doctrine as strongly as possible from the pulpit.' Then, as the
of sin. And if you show yourself nex
rive away the rest of the congregation, sick of always hearing the same sermon. As for me,
became ungrammatica
and all professions, just go outside it altogether, and think themselves outside the gates of Judaism. If my father-pea
evil's advocate now,'
beard. 'Thank you. And I
s (Epicurean), and I
mine
nto the shop. At the
ist in setting
on? Considering every other shop in the town is o
aware, sir, that every other Jew in Sudm
re I settled here,' said
inner-hour was chosen as the slackest. A babble of suggestions filled the Parnass's parlour. Solomon
ether,' said Mendel. 'As it is written: "A
ered the Parnass. 'You might as well talk
liament,' said Mendel. 'We c
a torture. No, no, the only w
for us all!' interrupt
to destroy religion,'
riel had done that
nister. He has n
you go?' said S
tles. Besides, there wouldn't be me left to appeal to. The congregation must keep some trump up its sleeve. No, a mer
as all that. I'm in the same line, an
eleg mu
be the Sheliach Tzibbur!' (
his merits. 'The congregation
't leave m
e grown-up daughter
w them-I will
resident, tapping his snuffbox incongruously at the '
rter of an hour,' grumbled va
regational esteem. He returned without even h
gogue, gentlemen,' he said. 'It
only one left in c
rometer!'
y good to me,' ret
you buy it?' c
est article I cou
go to buy,' sa
takes you for a customer-he looks so dignified; he
ass. 'And then you come to
o I want with
when the chimney-pots are blowing do
-you'll make a profit
g them cheaper, as with his Sabbath
o his Sabbath profit, did
g miserably. 'I couldn't manage to wo
he table. 'I'll go-let him suspect my motive
plause. Several marine-dealers shot out their
tlemen,' he said impo
I
r. Samuels,' said
, sir. What can
know me? I am
in as the nose
rzinsky! I had the rolling-up of the Scro
cely notice people. But I am very glad to f
arometer,' said S
my last. But in the way of waterproofs,
dn't come for
oilsk
come to bu
h to sell me
is, I've come to beg of y
els. 'Oh, Lord, I ought to have recogn
. 'Me, Solomon Barzinsky, whose shop stood in Sudm
Simeon Samuels laughed mirthlessly. 'Well, you've come to
own account only,'
the Passover Cake Fund. My time is preciou
r money. I represen
e of office. Well, it's very good of you all, especially as I'm such a recent addition. But I r
arzinsky, leaping
one of you carries his handkerchief tied round his loins like my poor old fa
rchief round your waist!' cr
ver had a cold; it
hed Barzinsky's mouth agape. 'But you
dmitted Simeon Samuels blandly. 'Altogether, you w
fence with crude thwacks. 'Do you think a God-fearing
hop on Saturday? No, Mr. Barzinsky. Go back and tell those who sent you that Simeon Samuels scorns stipulations, and that when you offer to make
f his reference to the atheist of the Talmud, Barzinsky rushed o
I
in reserve, he still insisted. But perhaps, he admitted, Simeon Samu
ogue strode into the notorious shop on the Sab
han that gentleman's 'Good Sh
our shop,' said th
ll I pay you
nd all the honours for nothin
e a goodly su
ave e
ho was satisfied with his balance-sheet. Is it your ex
I mean we have five or six
undly inves
English Railwa
ed his beard. 'And so your whole congregatio
do you
-fires, keeps porters and signal-me
o d
Sabbath business-ay, and opening on the Day of Atonement itself? And it is you who have the audacity to complain of me! I, at least, do my own dirty work, not hide my
I
others of tactlessness, and shirk the exhibition of his own tact. He exhibited it m
ds the shop. He lingered without, waiting to be invited within. Thus all appearance of hi
the window, pas
of his web, issued from its centre, as the Parnass tur
n Samuels, addressing the back. 'Our waterproofs-
bout. I seem to have stumb
y for
. I never knew you had
e inside, and
ack home. And besides, as you s
even sell you one cheap. Come
catching the spider, the
hrough the web of conversation the spider wove round him. Simeon Samuels' conception of a marine-dealer's stock startled him
gland, home, and beauty, and will have neglected to buy foreign presents for his womenkind.
won't tell you
'If they stole my idea, they'd not be able to
a honeyed rascal,'
are especially fond of having brought back to them from India. And yet it's t
none,' said the Parnass, s
e been i
inspiration, 'and I brought back to my wif
dee
ack Jews, who, surrounded by all those mil
Then you've been ha
tes. And it was most touching, wherever I went, to find everywhe
days, of course,'
all! On th
ay changes with every move east or west. W
to cloud the pr
make black white
rking on Saturday I escape profaning my native Australian Sabbath, while you, who have been all round the world, and have either lost or ga
whether east or west. He tried to clear it by a pin
so you're the saint and I'm the
e, not for the lands of the Exile, where another day of rest rules. When you were in India you probably noted that the Mohammedans kee
eternal!' said the Parnas
his reward belongs to all the first five Commandments-not only to the Fifth-else an orphan would have no cha
at that rate in England you needn
if you haven't got a land, you can't keep its Sabbath. Perh
'It has nothing to do with countries. Before we got to
na on the Friday. Do you mean to say He
rospered well enough before you
regation away. I am glad of it. You do them mu
wa
him!-would have been scandalized to s
rden do
snuf
t dropped it. 'Th
y there is no great and no small. One who stands in such a high place in
ssary for me-I can
written in Jeremiah: "And the wild asses did stan
h you to know your place, sir.' He turned his b
snuff-box,' said Simeon Samuels
ncil a notice of motion stood upon the a
mmitted weekly by a member of the congregation, and calls upon him either to resign his seat,
an amendment that weekly be altered into 'twice a week,' si
was only one Sabbath a week, though it had two peri
n Samuels a loophole of escape. It was also, he said, the duty o
the President accepted the amendment, but produced a gre
style, and had even changed his name to John because Ja
ded almost jocose, he argued. 'Buy!
se amid excitement, and asked if
roughly. 'It's no matter how the reso
isted the stylist, '"Committed bi-week
s angrily. 'Those who are in fa
sneered the sty
poor Reverend-of-all-work-'you need not re
said the sty
t mention the member's name?' suddenly inquired E
e Sabbath-breaker,'
t to-morrow ther
w,' said the stylist. 'For t
'Mr. President, are we here
s-I am here for religion,' r
osed monkey, wh
gentlemen,' s
on Barzinsky excitedly. 'I did
that must apologize, you illiterate i
was that worthy's ruling. 'I
h the combatants
r!' from a d
ls' name must be put
fore-the resolution is carr
new him as well as I, if you had my barometer to read him by, you'd
ed it is a kind of Ch
. 'He will be frightened to th
a sudden death,' put i
ied among Jews,' wo
able. All felt that Simeon Samuels was cornered at las
V
jority, and he regrets that in a free country like England they should have imported the tyranny of the lands of persecution from which they came. Fortunately such procedure is illegal. By the act of Charles I. the Sabbath is defined as the Sunday, and as a British subject Mr. Samuels takes his stand upon the British Constitution. Mr. Samuels has done his best to compromise with the c
d Barzinsky fervently, when th
I don't believe in his Jerusalem gr
e,' said Barzinsky gloomily, 'a
long at this rate,'
aid the Gabbai impatiently
aughter, to the Gabbai
letter how right I was? The rascal threatens to drag us to the Christian Cour
,' murmured
s a dangerou
,' correcte
ared, but took
' said Straumann, encouraged. 'Bi
eamed. 'Will you throw that la
e of dignity. 'Let any ani
' said Ephraim Mendel in conciliatory tones. 'Th
n he offers his new subscription we re
'These formal resolutions "Buy! buy!" put his back up. We'll go to him
he Parnass mysteriously. 'He'll simply tr
d idea,' said Ephraim. 'There you have hit it!' said Solomon. Their simult
the Parnass, befo
up his stock, me and the other marine-de
t reasonably,
the Sabbath,' said the Parnass. 'Besides, divided
my barometer with th
Barzinsky, disregarding him. 'We could say to th
marine-dealers!' m
uy out the Sabbath-
you'd only thought of that sor
er!' said t
ittee to deal with the question. I'm sick of it. And surely we as a Synagogue
the synagogue decided to wash its hands of responsibility, and give over to a sub-committee of t
nd Peleg the pawnbroker were elected
V
ad had to load themselves with chutney and other unheard-of and unsaleable stock. But they would get back their losses, it was felt, by the removal of his rival
n Samuels was seen to get into the London train. The demon that troubled their sanctity had been exorcise
' said Solomon Barzinsky to his wife, as h
h,' said Lazarus Levy, 'that we no lo
late, and those who hastened to confirm them stood
FOR RE-
ONED STOCK OF
SOLD OFF T
ON S
G THE OP
E BEST AND M
D CONTINE
S CUST
OVELTIES IN EV
SATURD
V
ting of the Executive S
paper signed by him merely undertakes to shut up his
he town,' wailed Peleg, '
him,' said Mendel. 'We paid hi
rbed?' shrieked Barzinsky. 'His
There is such a thing as obtain
hing-stock of the heathen,' said Peleg
Solomon tartly. 'We've got to bear it. Yo
ed? What about
Ephraim Mendel. 'I'll have the
the cost, then,' said Peleg
member of the Sub-Committee you ca
'm to be dragged in
law is slow, and not even sure. The time has come for desperat
id the rest of t
I
olomon Barzinsky, Ephraim Mendel, and Peleg the pawnbroker were all rapt in equal piety, while the rest o
ass arrested Solomon Barzinsky's exit,
placidly. 'The Executive Sub-Com
bbath!' interrup
ney; there was nothing left but t
what
f his Sabbath profits depend on the marine-dealers closi
to stop a congregation
he same stuff, to make sure
s,' said Mendel, who, with Peleg,
imed the Parnass. 'And
,' urged Peleg. 'When h
n him. 'You are not even a ma
the rest of the Sub-Committee?' inqu
d the Parnass, forgetting even to take snu
ve the Committee full power to deal with
ine-dealers will open a
ky fervently. 'Two of us are e
efficacious. Oh, this is the destruction of
ur customers, and keep our accounts without pen or ink. We have invented a most ingenious system, which gives us far more
, your system will break down. No, n
in our motives
o explanation. This
're not speaking to a Schnorrer, mind you. My banking account is e
' said the Parna
than sitting playing solo on Sund
ls has been talki
Samuels' wisdom. I'm
marine-dealers hastened to associate themselves with the plan of campai
ue-spot left the other marine-stores still infected. The epidemic spread from them till it had overtaken half the shops of the congreg
d that while in so many other orthodox synagogues the poor minister preaches on the Sabbath to empty benches, the Sudminster congregation still remains at the happy point of compromise acutely disc
RED
ED MA
tion of the reporters, though in the world of the Board-schools it is a vivid memory. But even the teachers and the comm
instead of inside them, we must go back a little and ex
ad always been spelt 'Bloomah' in the school register, for even Board
ad-faced child, and even in her tenth year showed deep, dark circles round her eyes.
these qualities in her youngest born, who se
ty first, your parents next, and school last. Now it's all
at nine o'clock to the stroke. A moment after nine, and only the black mark was attainable. Twenty to ten, and the duck's egg
t on the school horizon, intensifying Blo
tein iterated; 'no prize, no medal-
tself in Mrs. Beckenstein's young days, nor even in th
ere's been Benjy Beckenstein, there's been Ada Beckenstein, there's been Becky Beckenstein, God bless their hearts! and they all
es of Russian, Polish, and Roumanian Jews flying from persecution, who were sweeping away the good old English families, o
tuality. It might be said metaphorically to be made
on the classroom wall, amid the dull, drab maps-a glorious sight with its oaken frame and its rich-coloured design in silk. Life moved to
alas! some mischance would occur to one or other, and it passed, in its purple and gold, to some strenuous and luckier class in an
owflake compared with the black frown on all those childish foreheads. As for the absent
ophy, and that was largely through a yel
ep with the black marks. Perhaps those great rings round her eyes were the black
for if Bloomah's desk was vacant, it was only because Bloomah w
kshop second, and school nowhere,' Blo
washing and sweeping; in the shop above, whenever a hand fell sick or work fel
e portress of goods to and from S. Cohn's Emporium in Holloway, a
ded for that course. 'My things are much too valuable to be locked up.
ntly-Bloomah would be summoned in hot haste to the new scene of
r Mo
Send B
ri
messages were mo
r Mo
is gone. Send Blooma
ec
e post-card wen
r Be
back B
oving m
he had to keep an eye on his street sports and comrades, for since he had shocked his parents
, he had attended the evening classes of the Meshummodim, those converted Jews who try to
from the lions' den, and must be the object of their vengeful purs
ome lessons by night. She did not murmur against her mother, though she often pleaded. She recognised t
ing over her school books, and in the morning it was a fierce rush to get through her share of the housework in time for t
served by her mother was a terrible hindrance; and if that good woman's head was turned, Bloomah would sneak towards the improvised sink-which consisted of two dirty buckets, t
and ran through rain, or snow, or fog, or scorching sunshine! Yet often she lost her breath without gaining her mark, an
all her unpunctuality, she kept a high position in the
nd self-sufficient, and it looked as if the Banner might once again adorn
f the previous week, returned on the Thursday, explaining that her parents had decided
, don't
he peremptory comman
be reckoned one of absence. And they were right. Sarah red
ay was reached before their hopes were dashed. This time the break-down was even cru
's mother, who, ignoring the teacher, and pointi
eckenstein
s of humiliation and distress dripped down her cheeks over the dark rings. If she were thus haul
ed the teacher sharply, and the girls sat up rig
do you want me to pull
't come here like that!' said the t
ddin' last night, and comin' home at four in the mornin', and pourin' cats and dogs. If you go to our house, please, teacher, you'll see my Benjy in bed; he's given up his day's work; he must have his
not dishonour their children. With hanging head she moved to the
eeks with the limb cased in plaster-of-Paris. That finished the chances of the Banner for a lo
lack ciphers; they stretched on and on to infinity-in vain did she turn page after page in the hope of a red mark; the little black eggs became larger and larger, till at last
School Board officer hovered and b
scowl of the room was changed to a sigh of relief; extremes meet, and
t. But the other classes were no less keen; a fifth standard, in particular, kept the Banner fo
and black marks, medals and prizes, all was luck and lottery. The pride of the fifth standard was laid low; one of its girls was attacked, two others were kept at home through parenta
to began to talk of special p
orning with all hands on deck, so to speak; they sailed round Tuesday and Wednesday without a black mark in the school-log. The Thu
lier. School did not break up between the two attendances; there was a mere dinner-interval in the p
wondering anxiously if any of her classmates would oversleep herself, yet at heart confident that all were as eager as she. Still t
s heart was in her mouth when Mrs. Beckenstein clucked her tongue in reading it.
nded her the
r Mo
euraljia. Send Bloo
ec
ite; this was sca
said her hee
after school,'
your own sister eat hot fish. Be off at once to her, you unnatural brat, or I'll bang the frying-pan about your head. That'll giv
l "neuralgia,"' said
enough to feel it. Wait till you have babies and neu
"racked" either
heringly. 'She didn't go to
nly picked up
. Beckenstein wrested it away from her, and dashed it on th
school for the aft
Have you no feelings? Don't let me se
y street in which the red-brick school-building rose in dreary importance. The sight of the great iron gate and
ied fish in lieu of cold, but Becky's Sabbath altogether devoid o
Visions and odours of her mother frying plaice and soles-at worst, cod or mackerel-were inwoven with he
k, hurrying as if to esca
Where are
te. Bloomah took to her heels, her
ey, stood cooling on the great blue willow-pattern dish, and Becky'
lowed to scamper off to school in the desper
its aspect struck her. People stood at the doors gossiping and excited, as though no Sabbath pots were a-cooking; straggling groups possessed the roadway
against her, and for the first time allowing herself time to speculate on what was up. A
as she could tell by the pious wigs hiding their tresses. Those in the front were presse
ght-as became a scion of an old English family-
murde
me my
ur daughters as Pharao
hildren, and I'll
than the Russian
, how shall I liv
al-were clamouring equally, shouting, weeping, trying to get to their mot
ied, 'the red marks
rain. Evidently the School Board had su
lump golden-haired girl.
under her black wig, wrung her hands. 'I hear her talk-always, always about
ght,' said Bloomah testily. '
, vaccinate!' she repeated. Then, relapsing into jargon and
in search of a wigless wom
r that the doctors mean
this!' She flourished a handbill, Eng
nglish version, no
otting to inject filthy vaccine into their innocent veins. Keep
ng might happen-believed they had fallen from the frying-pan into the fire; if the rumour that executioners with instruments
head-shawled woman fainted,
y, and I'm all right,' murmured
nd another pupil flew fra
dull roar of rage, and hurled the
ss appeared, shouting alternately at the children and the parents; but she w
id-childles
men were battling with the besiegers, trying to push themselves between them and the ga
oomah pleaded. 'They think thei
't they stop in their own country? I've just been vaccinated m
red marks, and tha
policeman! It would destroy all th
Mine are old and not very showy, but perhaps they'll d
ed her on his burly shoulder. The apparent arre
Yiddish. 'Your children are safe. Ich bin vaccinated. Look!' She rolled up
ie!' The polic
ales, yes, even the Teachers themselves. There are no devils inside there. This
e Law of Moses,' reto
oses!' echoed th
aw of Moses! Pooh! Don't you know
indeed, the handbill was written by apost
And then, veering round towards the children behind the bars: 'Shut up, you squalling sillies!' she cr
omen, assisted by husbands hastily summoned from stall and barrow, who were battering at a side gate. And at this very
dows, and Bloomah was hastily set down in the seething throng and carried with it in t
The law could not prevent mothers and fathers from snatching their offspring to their bosoms and making off overjoyed. The children who had
ed to cancel the attendance for the day. Red marks, black marks-all fell into equality; the very
er desk, happiest of a radiant siste
RER OF
ER OF BU
ughter of twenty-three, almost past the marrying age, any wedding would be a profitable transaction. But when a husband actually presented himself, all the old dealer's cri
ies as bookkeeper of S. Cohn's Clothing Emporium prevented him from going to the race
se young men with check suits and flowers in their buttonholes bet and gamble and go
back on thee,' Fan
appearance of the venerable grandmother she was now to become, save that her hair, being only a pious wig, remained rigidly young and black. Life had always gone hard with her. Since her husband's death, when Fanny was a child, she had s
ver and copper from a grimy leather bag she wore hidden in her bosom; then, cramming the goods hastily into the maw of her sack, she would stagger joyously away. The men's garments she would modestly sell to a second-hand shop, but the women's she cleaned and turned and transmogrif
ar of forced intercourse with English folk after her husband's death she learn
r mistrust of her son-in-law made her prefer the humble Ghetto garret. Against all reasoning, she continued to feel something antipathetic in Henry's clothes and even in his occupation-perhaps it was really the subconscious antagonism of the old clo' and the new, subtly symbolic of the old generation and the smart new world springing up to tread it down. Henry himself was secretly pleased at her refusal. In the first ardours of courtship he had conse
thing Emporium enabled Henry to come home for lunch. But, alas! Fanny was not allowed many years of enjoyment of these grandeurs and comforts. The one-roomed grave took her, leaving the four-roomed house incredibly large and empty. Even Natalya's Ghetto garret, which Fanny had not shared for seven years, seemed cold and vacant to the poor mother. A new loneliness fe
ering distrust of Henry Elkman
nd married-villainy upon villainy, horror upon horror-to a Christian girl, a heathen abomination. Natalya was wrestling with her over-full sack when she got the news fr
d from admiration of British ways into entire abandonment of Jewish. She was spared, too, the knowledge that latterly her own Fanny had slid with him into the facile paths of impiety; that they had ridden for a breath of country air on Sabbath afternoons. They had been considerate enough to hide t
esh and his flesh from his bones! May my Fanny's outraged soul plead against him at the Judgment Bar! And she-this heathe
gossip, revolted; 'and what would
athen in the house. All their Judaism will become corr
es. At the best there would be no kosher food in the house any more. How could this stran
miliar door. It was lunch-time, and unfamiliar culinary smells seemed wafted along the passage. Her morbid imagination scented ba
h blue eyes and fresh-colo
atalya's eyes, so tha
she said m
seemed smeared with seductive paint. In the background glistened the dual crockery of the erst pious kitchen which the new-comer profaned. And between Natalya
man at home
said the young woma
eal.' The old woman's sardonic
is nothing this
a pair of
N
's--? Are you, then
the crone's eyes blazed so weirdly, that
!' she
from the living-room, but c
want here?'
shoes!' s
his wife's
ity,' he gestured back. And he put her inside th
d poppet,' hissed his m
She's just as natural as a rosy apple. She's
think it's new. But I know what it's come from-a battered thing that has rolled in the gutter.
se you; but, after all, it's
my Fanny, and she slaved for
er children that
stian for the sake of Fanny's
Poland now,'
n Israel. My Fanny has been taken for
off cursing, I sha
-instead of your shame. Let
come here and frighten Madge-my wife.
ll of us! I have the right to
ave no
he children. My bloo
t. The children a
phetess, while the other supported her bag over her shoulder. 'The children
opose?' he said, wi
u go your own godless way, free of burdens-you and your Christian popp
ly. 'You have been drinki
f affliction. Giv
with you. They love
ood warm in their veins, with the memory of t
t you come, Madge, darling. It's all right. The
ths greasy, but the rest of their persons unfamiliarly speckless and tidy. They stood sti
her sweetest but harsh tones
advanced courageously and surrend
ranny?' she sai
not replying. 'My heart and
ld Joseph stood dubiously,
ell him I want you and him
us shoulders. 'He may. I wo
her. 'Do you want to stay here
. 'She's dea
atches over you. Come, Joseph,
literally carried away therein, set up a terrific howl. Thereupon the pretty young woman emerged h
mamma,'
e old woman with a
ung. The word summed up all the blasphemous foreignness of the new domesticity. 'Mamma' was redolent of cold Christian houses in whose doorways the old clo'-woman sometimes
n't forget me,' Natalya hissed. 'I'll
alf pushing her outside: 'Certa
n price-ah, I see them co
and Henry clasped his wife tremblingly to his bosom
lo'-woman was known to the children, as to
I
ic mask, the dainty figure lay in statuesque severity, and a screaming, bald-headed atom of human
, except that one was the omission of the wife to throw into the fire the lump of dough from the Sabbath bread. But these neglects cou
ore the news penetra
d with solemn satisfaction. 'No
r the dead woman's old clo'. She was simply content-an unrighteous universe had been set straight again like a
r evil eye!' cried Henry as h
n by a chaos of emotions. So
decencies of adequate delay. And this wife was a Jewess, as of yore. Henry had reverted matrimonially to the fold. Was it conscience, was it terror? Nobody knew. But everybody knew that the third Mrs. Elkman was a bouncing beauty o
And the memory of Fanny was still outraged by this burying of her, so to speak, under layers of successive wives. On the other hand, the children would revert to Judaism, and they would have a Jewish mother, not a mamma, to care for them and to love them. The thought conso
o her-was picked up by Natalya on her rounds. Henry's third wife was, it transpired, a melancholy failure. Her temper was frig
atalya, horrified. Her brain began plotting
e. The wicked wife and the innocent brats had the four-roomed home to themselves. The Clothing Emporium knew him no more. Some whispered suicide, others America. Benjam
and passing over the other angel. And she embroidered the theme. How indeed could a man who had known the
hat the saying implied fl
d blackguard like that would do-leave the children at the mercy of th
ured her. 'He gave her good money, you know, fifty pounds and the bedding. A
said the old woman, sh
went to spy out the land, she would now have to face the virago in possession. But no! on second thoughts it was this other woman whom Henry's flight had
e tramping, a little more mending, and a little less gorging and gormandising! They would be at school during the day, so would not interfere with her rounds, and in the evening she could have them with her as she sat refurbishing the purchases of the
to keep the little ones by her and revenge upon them their father's desertion, or hold them hostages for his return? Why, then, Natalya would use cunning-ay, and force, too-she w
g off the children at the same time! The house was actually on her homeward route. The economy of it tickled her, made her overestimate the chances of capture. As she packed the motley, far-spreading heap into the symmetry of her
f the old Jewish crone, but would read their papers in contemptuous indifference. But gradually, as they remained idly on the rank, the endless stream of persuasion would begin to percolate, and at last one would relent, half out of pity, and would end by bearing the sack gratuitously on his shoulder from the
cumbrous sack was hoisted into the cab. Natalya sprang in beside it, and
developed in body as in mind. There was something unintentionally insolent in her precocity, in her habitual treatment of adults as equa
mamma.' Tears ran down the old woman's cheeks
wail came from within
r, my poor angel?' Nataly
r face became a woman's again. 'One o'clock t
mstance was favouring her project. 'A Jewish woman! Yo
ky. 'We have nice scenes, I can tell you. The only conso
ail rang out m
lated, but she moved mechanically wit
s and untidiness. To Natalya everything looked and smelt like the things in he
cupied brain. Its pipings had been like an unheeded wail of wind round some centre of tragic experience.
nd perpetuation of that brief but shameful episode. 'Grow dumb like your mother,' she murmured resentfully. What a
little Joseph?'
somewhere in
ught to be weeping like this child
you want
out of this misery. You'd like to
hing's bette
t her to her
quick, quick, before the pu
nd fatigue. The baby in the cradle beside her howled more vigorously, an
ittle bab
r shall b
hall bring t
on thy lit
dle-song full of inappropriate phrases. She withdrew her foot as though the rocker had grown suddenly red-hot. The yells broke ou
readjusting it. The baby opened its eyes and shot a smile at her, a wonderful, trustful smile from great blue eyes. Natalya trembled; those were
. She might as well have been a Christian.' Then a remembrance that the Christian woman had seemingly been an unimpeachable step-mother confuse
's eagerness. Probably he felt the domestic position less. But he surrendered himself to
y,' Becky broke in petul
releasing the boy, Natalya partly un
ically. 'She neglects even to see to that. Ah, it wil
e said sullenly, reminded of past in
id Becky. 'You are go
b?' he crie
nd you will never
contemptuously. 'She hasn't ev
take our thin
't have any excuse for taking you back. I'll
ittle
ther will look after that. She
b, where, with the sack and herself,
ain for extras inside
id Natalya, with confused legal recol
nder if we'll pass Mrs. Elkman,' she said, amused. Joseph
he did it a mischief? At the best the besotted creature would not take cordially to the task of bringing it up. It was no child of hers-had not even the appeal of pure Jewish blood. And there it lay, smiling, with its beautiful blue eyes. It had smiled trustfully on herself, not knowing she was to leave it t
window. 'Turn back! Turn bac
D'ye think you've t
e extra. D
ent horse got a stinging flip o
grandmother?' said Becky.
a looked round nervously, sprang ou
d the inaccessible baby too
said Becky. 'Jus
, but sleeping peacefully. Natalya snatched it up frenzie
ried Becky. 'But
a silencing bang, and the veh
ep-mother's family made no effort to regain them, and, indeed, the woman herself shortly went the
grandchildren, who began to grumble on the first night at the poverty and pokiness of the garret, and were thenceforward never without a lament for the good old times. They had, indeed, been thoroughly spoilt by the father and the irregular ménage. Th
to be the love of little Daisy, who grew
y did seemed to her perfect. For instant obedience a
told the grandmother that in her momentar
tell tales,' Nataly
ey's hair,' Daisy corr
ces, Natalya was too old to give up. This was not the only subject of dispute between Becky and the grandmother, whom she roundly accused of favouritism of Daisy, and she had not reached fifteen when, with an
ard, Joseph joined her. And thus, by the unforeseen turns of Fortune's whee
alya took an absorbing interest in these nursery tales, heard for the first time in her second childhood. 'Jack the Giant-killer,' 'Aladdin,' 'Cinderella,' they were all delightful novelties. The favourite story of both was 'Little Red Riding-Hood,' with its refrain of 'Grandmother, what lar
sk announced the advent of the holy day, and they shed their pious illumination on her dish of fish and the ritually-twisted loaves. And after supper Natalya would sing the Hebrew grace at much leisurely length and with great unction. Then she would tell stories of her youth in Poland
n of Becky and Joseph, a secret fear entered her heart. Would she be taken away before Daisy became self-supporting? Nay, would she even be able to endure the burden till the end? What made things w
roning class-room. Daisy was to go, was to have a fortnight with a cottager in Kent; but towards the expenses the child's parent or guardian was expected to contribute four shillings. Daisy might have gone free had she pleaded absolute poverty, but that would have meant investigation. From such humiliation Natalya shrank. She shrank even more fr
ves, Natalya raised the four shillings, and the unconscious Daisy glided off in the happy,
t decay and collapse seemed removed. But the next day a joyous postcard came from Daisy, which the greengrocer
lady, very kind and rich, who took her for drives in a chaise, and asked her many questions. This o
ght Natalya, for the task of going down and up the stairs to get this l
sisted, despite all advice and warning, in being up and dressed. She sent everybody away, and lay on her bed till she heard Daisy's footsteps, then she started to her feet, and drew herself up in pretentious good health. But the sound of
eyes you've got!' And Daisy
repartee w
reproachfully, and began dusting a chair for
you for all you have d
?' Natalya fell
certain. Daisy was even called after me. I a
ght as years of bending
to take her from
s seemed to her the sign of
e.' She bowed her silver head till her form seemed as bent as Natalya's. 'What can I do to repair-to atone? Will you
. 'I am a Jewess. I co
old her, grandmother,
main with you at my exp
the country so--
aisy laid her ruddied cheek to the with
er," not me,' said the ol
d her mother dead
and rocked to and fro, holding Daisy
her flamed and blazed with her ancie
epeated in a strange, crooning voice. Gradually a vacant look crept over her face, and sh
ll!' Dais
ly her obstinacy in leaving her bed. Natalya lived till near noon of the next day, and Daisy
spread a white tablecloth on the old wooden table, placed the copper candlesticks upon it, drew it t
er dried-up lips mumbled the Hebrew prayer, welcomin
randmother, 'say th
are heavy laden,"' sobbed the child o
LUFT
UFTME
ooding blackly over his dead illusions, when the postman brought him a
. But he turned over the page to see the name of the Orientally effusive scribe. It was 'Nehemiah Silvermann, Dentist and Restaurateur.' His laughter changed to a more genial note; his sense of humour
e Minor
el o
means and dental practice, and my restaurant is impeded with lack of a few frivolous pounds. I do not know really what to do in my actual very disgraceful mischief. I heard the people saying Your propitious magnanimous beneficent charities are everywhere exceedingly well renowned and consider
nt servant r
ah Silv
and Resta
; he saw his imagined statue showering adjectives from its cornucopia. 'It is the
circumstances and sorrows. Had he applied to the Russo-Jewish Fund, which existed to help suc
c inexhaustible debater in the small back room, and the voluble little man
ion descended upon the studio fr
e Minor
and Angelical Mr.
restaurant, then I were rescued. I do not earn anything, and I must despond at last, I perish here, in Russia I was ruined, please to aid me in Your merciful humanity by something, if I had £15 I could start off from here to go somewhere to look for my daily bread, and if I had £30 so I shall go to Jerusalem because I am convinced by my bitter and sour troubles and shocking tribulations here is nothing to do any more for me. I have not been in the Russo-Jewish fund and do not know it
nt Servant r
ah Silv
and Resta
unds would be a very present help; he could continue his London career. With fifteen pounds he was ready to start off anywhither. With thirty pounds he would end all his troubles in Jerusalem. Such nebulousness appeared to necessitate a personal visit, and the next day, finding himself in bad form, Barstein angrily bashed in a clay visage, clapped on his hat, and repaired t
Barstein. 'I
the landlady severely. 'He h
it. But Mr. Silvermann was not at home, the small, faded, bewigged creature told him apologetically. Barstein looked curiously round the room, half expecting indications of dentistry or dining. But he saw only a minimum of broken-down furniture, bottomless cane chairs, a wooden table and a cracked mirror, a hanging shelf heaped with ragged books,
k of the restaur
I not enough cooking to do for my own family? An
murmured Barstein, a
ar he heard smacks, loud whispers and whimperings. Then the poor woman reappeared, bearing what seemed a scrubbing-board. She placed it over one of the c
tistry?' Barstein inquired, seating
, he comes in.' At this moment, to Barst
erated by a rusty top-hat of the tallest possible chimneypot, and a threadbare frockcoat of the longest possible tails. At his advent his wife, vastly relieved, shepherded her
brutally: 'Where do
ally. 'Let me look on you!' And a more pas
d, replied sternly: 'Where
s rapt brain, but at last he replied pathetically: 'And where shall I
as his fount of inspiration. Without it Niagara was reduced to a trickle. He
live here for ten years
miah rejoined eagerly. 'Never once
you done?' in
reproach came int
the Almighty ha
lose one's character as a holy angel. 'But
is h
Barstein, stari
ds of Greeners lodging all around-poor young men with only a bed or a corner of a room to
r restaurant i
unsel that I ha
nd tablecloths? Can you afford to buy th
sed his hand
en! With a fam
miah's outspread hands-they might well have wielded the forceps. 'Yes, I dare say that is what will happ
in Sicily which consisted entirely of one upper room.
When I have read them these likewise are a waste. Therefore have I given myself a counsel, if I would make here a reading-room they should come in the evenings, many young men who have only a bed or a room-corner to go to, and when once they have learnt to come here it will then be easy to make them to eat and drink. First I will
hundred pounds,' interr
ll afford that,' said Nehemiah rea
ur idea of building up from small foundations is most sensible-some of the young men ma
. It is enough for me that your holy feet have stood in my homestead. I thought you might send mone
you will need a larger table
all hat. 'It is only gas th
onished. 'Then you propose to
emiah. 'Unless there shall be a cheerful shining here the
ts only a penny-
cost of the burners.' He calculated that four pounds would convert the room into
fter all Nehemiah had sustained his surprise visit fairly well-he was obviously no Cr?sus-and if
ch-chain. It contained only three pounds ten. He rummag
ven't quite got
ully, and as he lifted his long coat-tails to trouser-
forgotten the episode, he received another lette
al Illustrious Authority and Universal Cele
e Minor
ar
n my total ruination by the cruel cynical Russia, therein is every day a daily tyrannous massacre and assassinate, here is nothing to do any more for me previously, I shall rather go to Bursia than to Russia. I received from Your dear kind amiable amicable goodness recently £4 the same was for me a momental recreateing aid in my actual very indigent paltry miserable calamitous situation wherein I gain now nothing and I only
nt Servant r
ah Silv
Professor o
not a restaurant. Anyhow the dictionary was in distre
Silvermann and her overflowing progeny do in Persia? Nehemiah's original suggestion of Jerusalem had been much more intelligible. Perhaps it persist
sity of finding time to journey to the Minories. But he had an absorbing piece of work, and
e Minor
in another country even Bursia to get my livelihood by my dental practice or by my other scientifick and philological knowledge. The great competition is here in anything very vigorous. I have here no dental employment, no dental practice, no relations, no relief, no gain, no earning, no introduction, no protection, no recommendation, no money, no good friends, no good connecting acquaintance, in Russia I am ruined and I perish here, I am already desperate and despond entirely. I do not know what to do and
nt Servant r
ah Silv
Professor o
his studio, Barstein summoned a
I
eless chair, reading a newspaper by the twinkle of a rushlight. Nehemiah sprang up with a bark of joy, making his gigantic shadow
k his own coat-tail f
he gas?' he
ompany remov
e gas-b
e to eat?' said
t a fragment of gaspipe certainly came through it. He could not
men would not
they read, and they ate.
ve made it a r
and astonishment crossed hi
r-in-Israel? Where had those
reputation imperilled. He hast
want to go to
to go to Bursia?
Barstein showed
than to Russia. Always Sir Asher Aaronsb
arstein grimly. 'B
ccah was drawing a map thereof; she won a prize of five pounds
lmighty did send
h fervently. 'Otherwise, burdened down
rden,' Barstein could
miah had caught sight of feet of cl
th,"' Nehemiah quoted in Hebrew. 'Is not th
rkey,' said the sculptor evasivel
there to work for Palestine. Are not many of the Sultan's own
estial figure he cut in Nehemiah's mental mirror. Yet he could not suspect the man of a glozing tongue, for of the leaders of Zionism Nehemiah spoke with, if possible, greater veneration, with an awe trembling on te
nfluential contact with Ottoman officials, and that the real question at issue was, how Nehemiah, h
us in Turkey as well as in England?' he asked. 'Yes, ev
r the blue, never had he lost his radiant outlook. His very pessimism was merely optimism in disguise, since it was only a personal pessimism to be remedied by 'a few frivolous pounds,' by a new crumb from the hand of Providence, not that impersonal despair of the scheme of things which gave the thinker such black moments. How had Nehemiah lived during those first ten years in England? Who should say? But he had had the wild daring to uproot himself from his childhood's home and adventure himself upon an unknown shore, a
hat airy courage in his mundane affairs, what invincible resilience! He had once been a dentist, and he still considered himself one. Before he owned a tablecloth he deemed himself the proprietor of a restaurant. He enjoyed alike the pleasures of anticipation and of memo
. 'Thirteen people cannot possibly get there for fifteen pounds or even tw
y man raised his eyes to heaven, and uttered a Hebrew voluntary in which references to th
iently till the pio
ss do you think
to the angel?' asked Nehe
ind something in which your children c
lome!' he cried. The di
s Moshelé?
ember he was twelv
n). What will it be? Where is my Chumash (Pentateuch)?' Mrs. Silvermann drew it down from the row of ragged boo
wife. 'What business do you thin
ntist?' she inq
to the busy pe
ke to be a de
w shall I f
up by the front door, especially if you take an extra room. I will buy you the instruments, furnish the room attr
id I not say he was a genteel a
with Rozenoffski, the Russo-Jewish pianist, and Schneemann
tly. So when the man appeared, he seized with avidity upon the envelope in his hand. But the scrawling superscripti
' his friends protest
ine, he felt out of sympathy with the gaunt godly Nehemiah, who had doubtless lapsed again into his tr
iful?' quizze
ate mood was broken up. Nehemiah as a
ead the lett
, no, that would be ungentlemanly-y
eruption of adjectives from 'the dictionary in distress.' Rozenoffski and Schneemann rolled in similar spasms of mirth, and the Italians at the n
e Minor
e Angelical Mr.
mployment, and then the competition is here very violent. I was ruined by Russia, and I have nothing for the celebration of our Jewish new year. Consequentially upon your merciful archangelical donative I was able to make my livelihood by my dental practice even very difficult, but still I had my vital subsistence by it till up now, but not further for the l
nt servant r
ah Silv
Professor o
s finished, Schneemann'
nah so near
y tried to work out the date of the Jewish New Year, that
other with rueful humour. Why, the Ghetto could not even realize such indiffere
ss. 'Here's a happy new
men clinke
rew out a hun
the poor dev
arity delivers from death!" Well, I must be saved
if an old superstitious thrill lay behind Schnee
nce,' he said, as he gathered up the New Year gifts. 'Again will he declare that
t he?' laugh
said Rozenoffski m
UG OF
G OF L
of the machinists, the Ghetto blessed the match, always excepting Sugarman the Shadchan (whom lo
r a rich man's wife,' insisted Gold
Fanny is rich,
get a bride,"' quoted
age-broker, he remonstrat
a negotiated marria
so have arranged for you,'
hand with an engagement-ring, a month's wages had not seemed disproportionate, and Fanny flashed the diamond bewitchingly. It lit up t
man's hand-in fact, it was a man's hand. Elias espied it groping for Fanny's in the dim space between the two machines. As Fanny's fingers fluttered towards it, her other hand still guid
ves were right. He snapped the sci
st thou?' he ga
med; her guilty
st on the other si
rted incr
of the engagement he flew to Elias, his
ble article. However, Heaven has given you a second helping. A well-built
ok upon a woman aga
of Tabernacles. The Almighty, blessed be He, who created both light and darkness, has made obedie
t return me my rin
'Then she considers herse
She laughs
iven you back
e-yes. The
what g
I gave i
if we had followed our old custom, and the ma
rably, 'she flashes it in my eyes. Ev
ld summ
e more. Is it not tru
ult. No maiden had ever refused to return his client's
!' he cried sternly. 'Next time
fford a new ring? Fanny was ruinous in cups of
fee down!' said
shoulders. 'If you
owever, as you are a customer--' and crying 'Five per cent. on the greengroce
oughed his way up the dark staircase to their room. His attir
d. 'I have come on beha
er misconception, wilful or not, scattered all Sugarman's prepared dip
mockingly on it. Then she turned away giggling. 'But look at this
yes back. She stared at the sheepish
Sugarman, pursuing this advantage. 'A good old English family; Benjami
e flicked the photograph floorwa
t-ring?' pleaded Sugarman, s
an, a new ring!' And F
a jewellery shop?' the baffled Sha
to Elias, br
querie
nd Sugarman shook them aw
she wo
re to escape from that daughter of Sa
e matches. I ris
ou one on the
mai
ongue! A ring
e head. 'No. I must ha
ry her to get it back. Stay! Why s
ace! Heaven has
an. 'A maiden who sticks to a ring like that i
ffed monkeys,"' said Elias grimly.
elf a counsel.' And Sugarman looked a consc
ow
the next disposal o
yes. G
teal loving glances all day long when s
won't be
When she catches y
ush at will,' E
l, look foolish. That w
hall I loo
you are in love w
ook foolish
g follow her, and as she passes the cake-shop, sigh and ask her if she w
she w
She is sti
onkeys,' said E
you,
uite easily. 'H
r man, and she slamme
ed--' Elias st
t stake), you must walk on by her side, and when you come to a dark corner, take her hand and say "My treasure" or "My angel," or whatever nonsense you modern young men b
iration. 'You are as craf
ains,' replied Sugarman modestly. '
s followed the sc
whenever his sheep's-eyes met Fanny's. He was so surprised to
mon up courage for the final feint. He would get a good
d chocolate cups, and smil
t Elias hotly. 'She will make
th, biting recklessly into the cake, made him itch to slap her rosy cheek. Confectionery palled at last, and
and thither he peered-nobody was about. But-was he on the right side of her? 'The right is the left,' he told himself, trying to smile, but his pulses thumped, and in the tumult of
ous thrill pierced every vein. Fool that he had been to doubt that dear hand! And i
angel!' he murm
DDISH
DISH 'H
d arrived in New York only that very March, and already a crowd of votaries hung upon his lips and paid for all that entered them. Again had the saying been verified that a prophet is nowhere without honour save in his own country. The play that had vainly plucked at the stage-doors of
evening imbibing chocolate. 'It will be translated into every tongue.' He had passed with a characteristic bound from satis
y, the socialist leader, who found himself almost desert
r in Israel,"' contemptuously repl
ds, a politician with a delusion that he swayed Presidential elections by his prest
e, if dingy, face flushing spiritedly. 'You call
gh, and Benjami
and for everyt
nius had picked up the local slang. 'But as our pious lunatics think there are many meanings in every letter of the Torah,' went on the plea
a low-down barnstormer like Shak
eriously, and with unexpected modesty. 'I discovered it for myself in writing thi
itberg, the young violinist, who was never sure whe
me to make the Yiddish translation, as one great poet translating another-and some of those almond-cakes, Witberg! Well, I started on the job, and then of course the discovery was inevitable. The play, which I had not read si
murmured a
affect a modern audience which
souls of these refugees from the old Ghettos like a trumpet; unbelief, if only in ghosts, was oxygen to the prisoners of a traditio
host vanished-Hamlet's tragedy remained only the internal i
tion pricked
ity, you mean,' c
uch, 'has no value till it
large ranching and mining interests out West, and, with his florid
t disrespectfully. 'Acts are only
much use thinking about pl
ay them or not-and independently of your false notes. But you performers are all alike-I have no doubt the leading ma
sneered Ostrovs
ed him in fire and bore him in agony; since-even the cream of this tart is sour-since I carr
Heathen Journalist, who haunted the East Sid
have laid him. He cannot walk on the modern stage." Eselmann tore his hair. "But it is for the Ghost I had him translated. Our Yiddish audiences love a ghost
bitz, who in Poland had been a Badchan (mar
the donkey-men! But I am glad Eselmann gave me my "Hamlet" back, for before giving it to Goldwater I made it even more subtle. No vulgar nonsense of fencing and pois
igestion,' laughed the ex-Badchan; 'you'd b
ughter. 'Strikes me, Pin-cuss, you're givin
down his throat in great ugly mouthfuls; 'that is how he is usually played. In my version
Hebrew?' cried Mieses
ng to the nation of thinkers,' said Pinchas. 'I
e Heathen Journalist, producing his notebook,
y, therefore, should I not treat Shakespeare as it suits me. The cat eats the rat, and the dog bites the cat.' He laughed his sniggering laugh. 'If
not sustain the comparison,' said B
dedness of Shakespeare's ideas-which, incidentally, is the cause of the muddle of Hamlet's character-has given way to the clear vi
m the remotest corners eyes strayed and ears were pricked up. Pinchas was indeed a figure of mark, with somebody else's frock-coat on his
?' said Grunbitz. 'You don't expect truth f
nking never grows old. I shall die young, like all whom th
ut I don't c
u will pain Witberg,'
ink of the eternal dollar; while here, serenely smoking and sipping, ruffled only by the breezes of argument, leisurely as the philosophers in the colonnades of Athens, the talkers of the Ghetto, earnest as their forefathers before the great folios of the Talmud, made an Or
timidly exhibited his new verses. Pinchas read the
' He indicated with flawless taste the good lines, not knowing they were one and all unconscious reproductions from the English masterpieces Mieses had borrowed from the library in the
a play one day,' he said. '
estined to wear my mantle
untarily at the ill
lk to the manager about rehearsals. One must superintend the actors one's self-t
t prolific of Ghetto dramatists, his big, furrowed forehea
water plays "Ha
ussed it yet,' sa
ll pull through-so long as Mrs.
eam of such a thing. She is a saucy s
. I have w
s really a danger!' Pinc
and wives, unfortunately, live and play
I let her play my "Ophelia,
lders and dropped into Amer
air. 'But I'll manage her. If the worst
e seedy poet and the piquant actress in her frills and furbelows set the whole café rocking with laughter. Pin
play coming on?'
his frock-coat against the outer cold. If only to ous
er given you
has proudly. 'Parchments are for Phili
ouldn't slip out of. I've never yet met the playwright that the manager couldn't dodge.' Radsikoff, indeed, divided his time between devising plays and devising
aid Pinchas. 'I am thinking that if I had one of these aroma
sphemy, for the Sabbath, with its pri
ed the playwright, pushing forward his
u see my play-you must all come-I will send you all boxes. Then you will learn tha
ough was, like nearly all the side streets of the great city, an abomination of desolation, a tempestuous sea of frozen, dirty snow, impassable by all save pedestrians, and scarcely by them. Pinchas was glad of his cane; an alpenstock would not have been superfluous. But the theatre with its brilliantly-lighted lobby and flamboyant posters restored his spiri
t him in a b
room,' sai
s head. 'I am the a
here was the author himself! All the instinctive snobbery of the Ghetto toward the grand world was excited. And yet this seedy
man in a comfortable fauteuil had been asked to acc
llar-what fo
the author
is as go
doesn'
ve my good seat
side came expostulations in Yiddish and American. This was a free republic; the author of '
nstructed for publicity, not privacy, but the other dozen occupants bulked between him and the house.
Russian tyrant. But comedy and fantasy alike were subordinated to horror and tragedy: these refugees from the brutality of Russia and Rumania, these inheritors of the wailing melodies of a persecuted synagogue, craved morbidly for gruesomeness and gore. The 'happy endings' of Broadway would have spelled bankruptcy here. Players and audience made a large family party-the unfailing result of a stable stock company with the parts always cast in the same mould. And it was almost an impromptu performance. Pinchas, from his proximity to the stage, could hear every word from the prompter's box, whic
e must be engraved upon their hearts, or I forbid the curtain to go up. Not that
w's the boss?' 'Good-bye.' 'Not a cent.' 'Take the elevated.' 'Yup.' 'Nup.' 'That's one on you!' 'Rubber-neck!' A continuous fusillade of such phrases stimulated and flattered the audience, pleased to find themselves on such
the perspiring principals, on whom the curtain was rising and re-rising in a continuous roar. At last he found himself in the little bureau and dressing-room in which Goldwater wa
disturb all my house. What d
lk to you abo
d let you know whe
got to take
t know where
s gets drinks from all
ealth of "Hamlet,"'
s gotten your addr
ill it be?
ay. There's plenty of m
bah! Bu
re as jealous
see giraffes-and tortoises too. Central Park
bigger peacock than he
rehearsals,' said Kloo
lecturing. The great continent calls
said Goldwater. 'We
ou will make of it! I must te
ater could hardly
m the accent-the gesture. I'm a great stage-manager as
w he was pencilling. 'And how are you
e-a month's
apoplectic hue dee
s very good of you to give us
. 'A month!' he gasped at last. 'I co
t a melodrama!' sai
cenery. It's the scenery that take
'You would profane my divine work by gabbl
ot, though only nineteen and at a few dollars a week, had a fine, careless equality not only with
not talking to Radsikoff. I am
lent from sh
ghts?' he observed more mildly. 'You've had
s for the masterpiece of
you shall have twenty-one dol
fifty-first century even. Poets never die-though, alas! they have to live. Twent
ter grimly. 'Give them b
ater-I must not disappoint my printer. I have promised him the
and give me my money,' s
the printer's letter.' He dragged from a tail-pocket a mass of motley manuscripts
aved a repu
was laid on his nose. 'I and you are the only two people in New
is head, albeit a whit
manuscript shall be returned
ater." Klostermann-bah! He produces not so badly, but act? My grandmother's hen has a better stage presence. And there is Davidoff-a voice like a frog and a walk like a spider. And these cha
il it all?' asked th
shall not be disappointed in
so earl
bird catches
' grinned Kloot. 'We keep our
paling. He saw Mrs. Goldwater
ur talent to one play,'
' said Pinchas, wit
vide our forces. With myself as Hamlet you wil
nes, leaving all the others to be read by the prompter, the hou
er, 'you couldn't expect to h
wo such tragic geniuses would confuse and distr
Ophelia is really a sm
only be displayed in "Hamlet" if, like another equally celebra
herself!' said Goldwater. 'A decent Jew
assented Pinchas. 'And there is no o
y wife to a Ka
acrifice herself,' sai
ask her to sacrifice herself
Ophelia,' Kloot obser
e will not sacrifice Ophelia by leaving her to a minor pla
d,' pleaded the poet despe
ever spare
. 'But she might spar
wife will honour you by playing Ophelia. That i
Pinchas desperately. 'Your
mitted she w
inchas, burning his boats. 'She skips and jumps. Ra
o the poet's face. 'You compare my wife to a kangaroo! Take
ther funny as Ophelia,'
Ophelia,' added Pinchas eagerly, 'you
mlets. Any scribbler ca
hakespeare? Who can make him in
d the call-boy, with
ging legs, dominating the situation. In idle curiosity and with the simplicity of perfectly bad manners, he took up the p
oot,' he pleaded at last.
his impertinent inquisition. 'Rely
still worse,' said
do you know? You'v
spoil my play, you will get me a maidenly Ophelia? I and you ar
' said Kloot; 'I hav
shrieked
She's just the age for the part. M
make the au
egular onion
her rehearse, th
cour
me in the café when
s without
ning. 'But don't yo
uldn't have worried the boss. We'll call
at Kloot's han
u will see that they do not mutilate my play; you wi
ll be cut,' sai
and you are the only two men in New Yo
atched his hand
u will see it is not adulterated with American. In
,' said Kloo
might lend me a n
rture cheap at five ce
door reopened and his head reappeared, th
mise me
t I pro
wear t
u go-if
inchas, airin
ome back till re
up
my father's and
fully, not knowing th
I
er's paradise. The yellow glow illumined his prophetic and unshaven countenance, agitated by grimaces and sniffs, as he critically perused the paragraphs whose Hebrew letters served as the channel for the mongrel Yiddish and America
s Theatre. The author was the world-renowned poet Melchitsedek Pinch
d who wants his music? The tragedy of a thinker needs no caterwauling of violins. Does Goldwater imagine I
had been vouchsafed to him. He had been true to his promise; he had kept away from the theatre. But Goldwater! But Kloot! Ah, the godless gambler with his parents' lives! With such ghouls hovering around the Heb
sure in the placards of the Yiddish 'Hamlet.' He gave but a moment to absorbing the great capital letters of his name; a dash at a swinging-door, and he faced a glowing, crowded stage
s sweeper in his path was herself swept aside. But her fallen broom tripped up the runner. He fell with an echoing
you sweep quietly?' he thunde
ped his baton, and
inchas, struggling up through
inky as his cloak. '
repeated Pinchas
p, emerged from the win
. 'I've just been round to the café
first rehearsal,' stammer
'We don't trouble authors with the rough work. They strol
s shins at almost every step. Arrived at the orchestra, he found himself confronted by a cha
r's got stuck. You must com
himself a palpitating pause before the lobby posters. His blood chilled. Not only wa
.. .. Fanny
-door. He pushed it open, but a gruff voice inquir
r,' he said wit
admitted,' was
awaits me,' the
c melody, and reduced Pinchas's brain to chaos. A despairing sense of strange plots and treasons swept over him. He ran back to the lobby. The doors had
ght-and the third act-of the Yiddish 'Hamlet.' He had reconciled himself to
oiding that haunt of the invited cost him several meals. But that he himself should be refused when he tried to pass in 'on his face'-that authors sh
water and Kloot! Pigs! Pigs! Pigs! I have indeed cast my pearls be
man, adding recklessly: 'Get a move on
Hebrew. It was like the maledictions in Deuteronomy, only brought up to date by dynamite explosions and automobile accidents. Wearying of the waste of an extensive vocabulary upon a blank door, Pinchas returned to the front. The lobby was deserted save for a few strangers; his play had be
the nearest drug-store, and entering t
me the voice of Kl
cap, sitting on the table by the telephone, swinging his legs;
ater's on
returned to the bureau, ejaculating complacently: 'They're l
, but all Kloot replied was:
called
oice. 'May a sudden death smite you! May
aid Goldwater.
f in your dirty dollar-factory. I spit on you!' He spat viciously into the
ction. Pinchas finished for his own
ing the front of the theatre again, or leaning on his cane as on a sword, he was warm
in hand. At sight of the author he shied. 'Must skedaddle, Pin-cuss,' he said apologetically, 'if we're to get anything into to-
h an inspiration Pinchas gave chase. He c
eatre ticket
at
e it
him a crumpled fragment. 'What in thunder--' he began. A
not occurred to him. He smoothed out the magic scrap, and was inside the suffocating, close-packed theatre before the disconcerted janitor could meet the n
Pinchas. 'I stay here! Let me
er. 'Sit down there! Turn him out!' The
its peppering of the phrases of Hester Street. 'You have too many dead flies on you,' Hamlet's mother told him. 'You'll get left.' But the nightmare thickened. Hamlet and his mother opened their mouths and sang. Their songs were light and gay, and held encore verses to reward the enthusiastic. The
e palm-branch of the Feast of Tabernacles-and shook it piously toward every corner of the compass. At each shake the audience rolled about in spasms of merriment. A moment later a white gliding f
d laid forever, the Ghost that made melodrama of this t
seeing scarlet, bounded through the iron door and made for the stage. But a hand was exte
r call yet,' said t
They think me, Melchitsedek Pinchas, guilty of this tohu-bohu! My
u are interrupt
and quartered m
it for the stage,' s
gasped
he only two men who under
hissed the poet. 'You conspire to keep m
t. Suppose Shakespeare had tur
ld have been onl
e boss is
ng. Pinchas made a wild plunge forward, but Kloo
oot frowned angrily from under his p
promised me your
a smile. 'Sure! The first
th. Goldwater's voice r
e a car-fare,' sai
de with his cane. 'Why does Ham
that it is a tradition to have musical plays on Passover. Our audiences wouldn't stand for any o
" isn't a mu
songs? That was what decided us.
is a tragedy!'
Our audiences would go away miserable if they didn't. Y
all, for y
erstand stage technique. Oh, I'm not grumbling; we're quite satisfied. The idea of a
a Goldwater positively wallowing in admiration, while he, the mighty poet, had been cast into outer darkness and his work mocked and crucified! He put forth all his
et's right cheek near the right eye. 'Perverter of poe
th a yell of pain and fear, and the ever-ready
abbles. Besides, a clever lawyer might prove the exclusion illegal. What was done was done. The dignity of the hero of a hundred dramas was best served by private beefsteaks and a rumoured version, irrefutable save in a court of law. It was bad enough that th
of shiners,' Pinchas prophesied early
mpagne. He had carried out his promise of assisting at
ght Goldwater hasn't mana
ction is greater than Thought. Actio
CONV
ONVER
range fate that had again brought him into connection, however remote, with stageland. For even to Elkan Mandle, with his Ghetto purview, Yvonne Rupert's fame, both as a 'Parisian' star and the queen of American advertisers, had penetrated. Ever sinc
belonged rather to the genus than the individual. But as the great Yvonne's highly-coloured charms went on repeating themselves from every box-cover he manipulated (at s
nt master-tailor receiving the highest class work from S. Cohn's in the Hol
ributed to the home, a piquant, dark-eyed, yet golden-haired, mite of eleven,
s are here I will sit on them; when the table is laid I will draw to; wh
and the best wife in the world? Did he not pray every day to be delivered from the Satan Mekatrig? Had he not meant it for the best when he took her into his workshop? It was only when, at the age of sixteen, Gittel Goldstein lef
ppeared. And now, here he was-after nigh seven apathetic years, in which the need of getting a living was the only spur to living on-glad to take a woman's place when female labour struck for five cents more a hundred. The old bitter tears came up
down after the cigars were in. He fell to recalling what he had read of her-the convent education that had kept her chaste and distinguished beneath all her stage deviltry, the long Lenten fasts she endured (as brought to light by the fishmonger's bill she disputed in open court), the crucifix concealed upon her otherwise not too reticent person, the adorable French accent with which she enraptured the dudes, the
ly to the surface of his mind. That aureole of golden hair, those piquant dark eyes! The Yvonne the cheap ill
ing celebrity h
omed out since the days of his hired hall in Spitalfields, but
the London Ghetto Theatre have blazed
d munched Passover cake at his table in the far-off happy da
-marked, spectacled young woman, who, as record-breaker of the establish
, and deftly scraped at a rough hinge as she replied: 'No, but I gue
olically clever, unscrupulously ambitious! Who could put bounds to her achievement? She had used him and thrown him away-without a word, without a regret. She had washed her hands of him as light-hearted
on credited her-had not Gittel possessed it a
m, insubstantial as the smoke-wr
I
stories nearer the sky-he warmed himself with Gittel's image, smiling, light-darting, voluptuous. Night and sleep surrendered him to
renoon at the pasting-desk brought back the haunting thought. At noon he morbidly expended his lunch-dime on an 'Yvonne
driving machine was seated on a stack of Mexican cedar-wood, eating from a pac
s Yvonne Rupert?'
ked her cigar!' grumbled the
gallery at Webs
u-
o some day, jus
, was flaming in her provincia
ere the young Russian bloods assembled who wrote for the Yiddish Labour papers, and 'knew it all.' He would draw them out about Yvonne Ru
lboy to protest against the master's injustice to one o
had illuminated the plain Pentateuch with imaginative vignettes, and transfiguring the dry abstractions of Socialism with the same passionate personalizatio
had met his death. One of them had seen her on
pert?' he ventu
ad such a snap!' cried Melchitsedek Pinchas. 'To have ji
en on the bill,'
y thought Yvonn
re's nothing to her
'I dare say she would play my Ophelia as wel
Yiddish accent,' E
eard of Yiddish-Deutsch,' cried Pi
ent he knew that he had been hoping to meet
remote seat he could afford-for it would not do to spend a week's wage on the mere chance-would be too far off for precise identification, especially as she would probably be
mell intensified by the shovings and writhings of damp passengers getting in and out, or by the desperate wriggling of the poor patient collector of fares boring his way through the very thick of the soldered mass. Elkan alighted with a headache, glad even of the cold rain that sprinkled his forehead. The shining carriages at the door of the theatre filled him for once with a bitt
heats followed by chills. The performers came and went, mostly on foot, and s
smart brougham drove up, a smart groom opened an umbrella,
incredibl
the aureole of hair, gleamed the p
m his pigeon-hole, handed her some letters. Yes, he knew every trick of the shoulders, every turn of the neck. She stood
cried choking
he read consciousness if not recognition. The reek of her old cherry-bloss
me not?' he cr
e, doubly veiled,
asked the doorkeeper in h
rted to
an, your
near, so near again! The same warm seductive w
hrust open the door that led to th
eared with that delicious shrug of the s
dash after her; the doorkeeper darted from his little room, but was hurled aside in a swift, mad tussle, and Elkan, after a blind, blood-red instant, found himself blinking and dripping in the centre of the stage, facing a great roaring audience, tier upon tie
nse was brief. In a twinkling the doorkeeper's
ked Elkan struggling. 'She is
as hauled off, to be handed over to a policeman on
, the false Catholic, the she-cat! A pretty convert! Another man would have preferred to blackmail her, he told himself with righteous indignation, especially
t of law and order. All the strength born of bitterness oozed out as he stood before the magistrate rigidly and heard the c
x factory,' he
make ciga
exactly.
te w
tures of Yvonne Ru
s the "Yvonne
ture had unhinged his brain. From that moment a hardness came over his heart. He shut his lips grimly. What was the use of talking? Whatever he said
of the Stars and Stripes. A fortnight's more confinement was all that was meted out to him, but he had already had time enough to reflect that he had given Yvonne Rupert one of the best advertisements of her life. It would have enhanced the prisoner's bitt
y grasped at the break in the monotony. Several of the prisoners who posed as Jews with this same motive were detected and reprimanded; but Elkan felt, with the new grim sense of humour that meditation on Yvonne Rupert and the world she fooled wa
tor who had landed himself in an unforeseen deprivation of rations during the whole fast day. The passionate outcries of the old-fashioned Chazan, the solemn peals and tremolo notes of the cornet, which had o
how he ha
one for us now!' he cried, smiting
orning and find him gone! As terrible as for him to wake up one morning and find
n. God could never forgive sins till the sinn
n again life would have a meaning and an aim. Poor, poor Haigitcha! How he would weep over her and cherish her. And his children! Th
eagues of ocean. But now it started up in all the colours of daylight, warm, appealing. Yes, he would go back to his dear ones w
pardon us now,
uld get back
ce from his wife and children that had driven him to drink, lust of gold that had spurred him across t
I
tears and memories. Ah, there was the butcher's shop still underneath the old apartment, with the tin labels stuck in the kosher meat, and there was Gideon, the fat, genial butcher, flourishing hi
ive here?' he asked with
loor,' said G
d cry 'Yankely' the young fellow was gone. He heard the whirr of machines. Yes, she had kept on the workshop, the wonderful creature, though crippled by his loss and the want of capital. Doubtless S. Cohn's kind-hearted firm had helped her to tide over the crisis. Ah, what a blackguard he had been
door. Haigitcha
gitcha; this was a new creature, cold, stern, tragic, prematurely aged, framed in the
it?' sh
n; don't y
heaving of the flat breasts. Then s
' he muttered ho
el?' she answered
g through his brain. So London knew that Gittel had
h her one year,
thy dung-heap!' S
t banged to. 'Haigitcha!' he shrieked.
rised 'hands' stopping their machines, of a beautiful, startled girl
cha, her shoulders still straining against t
eed, had he to force himself upon this woman, upon these children, to whom he was dead? So might a suicide hope to win back his place in the old life
had felt himself the sinned against. But before this wife-widow, this dutiful, hard-working, tragic creature, he had nothing but self-contempt. He tottere
I
refuge for the failures of the Ghetto, and Elkan's easy experience with the
t.' Exeter Hall's exposition of the Jewish prophecies has opened his eyes, and though his foes have been those of his own household, yet, remember
ual interest should discover his true past-through this tale-bearer or
l world their unchangeable irreversible consequence
arkness, Yvonne prays in her chape
WED
WEDLO
nchback, and sometimes even offered the unshapely septuagenarian her snuffbox as he passed the door of her cottage. More than one village censor managed to acquaint the artist with the flirtation ere he had found energy to walk the muddy mile to her dwelling. Even his own mother came out strongly
have its way,'
ng blood's,' said Frau Schneemann, unsmiling. 'Yo
he artist with a twinkle. How all this would amuse his bach
time you, too, should lead
are few so forwar
y tresses she spoke as if I were a brazen Epicurean, but I had rather have
they are
ossel! May his nam
h Yossel? Moses Mendels
Have you forgotten we
ad forgotten so much of this na?ve life
the psalm-droners and prayer-shriekers in the little synagogue,
off his father, the innkeeper,' said Frau Schneemann hotly. 'If I were in your
nking of old m
young-she is eighty-four,
't be married l
n laid her han
ied. ''Tis bringing a Bilbul (sc
r end of the village towards the cottage where the lively old lady lived in self-sufficient solitude, he was full of the contra
was surely the very virgin of senility. What a fine picture she made too! Why had he never thought of painting her? Yes, such a picture of 'The Spinster' would be distinctly interesting. And he would put in the Kesubah
Abend,'
of horn spectacles
end,' she
old childish diminutive of Abraham, though he
k back almost to childish dimensions. Her hands seemed trembling as much with decay as with emotion. She hastened to produce from the well-k
build many houses in Rome.' Her notion that he was a house-painter he hardly cared t
Rome,' he said evasively.
d through the big spectacles. 'You
as far as
earth to put in my grave.' The fire died out of her spect
essness, not even this shrivelled ancient who was meditating on her latter end. Suddenly he became aware of a shadow darkening the doorway. At the sam
it-seemed to have died of age and hopelessness. He used crutches, too, to help himself along with, so that he seemed less the hunchback of yore than the conventional contortion of time, and but for the familiar earlocks pende
ering black-covered book from under his greasy caftan. '
nk that the name of Yossel's volume signified 'the duties of the heart.' The Bube Yenta received the book with thanks, and a moment of embarrassment ensued, only slightly mitigated by the offer of the snuffbox. Yossel took a pinch, but his eyes seemed roving in amaze, less over the stranger than over the bespread table
en a more sightly object of devotion. Not that there was much to be said for Yossel's taste either. When after seventy-five years of celibacy the fascinations of the other sex began to tell upon hi
ng. Twenty years ago she could have had her pick of a dozen well-to-do widowers, yet now that she h
ather left him his i
long ago paying too much attention to the Talmud i
on to the Talmud? That is a stran
lected what the wise King said, and so now he comes trying to wheedle your poor grandmother out of
her son. 'Do you suppose, by the way, that King Solomon
oly things,' replie
m the charge of forwardness, since if she wished to contract another marriage it could have been arranged legitimately by the Shadchan
med to justify the popular supposition. There could be no doubt, for example, that when at the conclusion of the synagogue service the feminine stream from the women's gallery poured out to mingle with the issuing males, these two atoms drifted together with unnatural celerity. It appeared to be established beyond question that on the preceding Feast of Tabernacles the Bube had lent and practically abandoned to the hunchback's use the ritual palm-branch he was too poor to afford. Of course this might only have been gratitude, inasmuch as a fortnight earlier on the solemn New Year Day when, by an untimely decree, the grandmother lay ill abe
cel at Yossel's lodgings. The postman was not a Child of the Covenant, but Yossel's landlady was, and within an hour all Jewry knew that Y
I
Yossel was ultimately run to earth, or rather to Heaven, in the Beth Hamedrash, where he was shaking himself studiously over a Babylonian folio, in company with a motley assemblage of youths and greybeards equally carele
vined, with what seemed a lover's inac
d Schneemann hastily, adding in
s not about you
compromise his grandmother and, incidentally, her family. Yet, on the other hand, he longed to know what lay behind all this philandering, which in any case had been compr
of convention-scenes in which they were even bought off and started in new lands. Would not Yoss
Yossel, have you not?' he said, wh
ll a man live?'
sity to see other parts? Would yo
nholy place-but Prague! Prague where there is a great Rabbi and the old, o
and see it?' sug
for that you tore me
eing you glued to it gave me the idea what a pity it was tha
o them? My crutches canno
e money to ride,' sa
uld never
You can give me a little bit
riting letters for people to their relatives in America; in Prague everybody is very learned; they
ed the artist with a new burst of hope. '
great flame of joy. 'I shall die i
ill pay your fare the w
e continued on Yossel's face, the
e your money? I am
seemed to show that there was no reason for packing him off. However, he told himself that one must make assurance
ration, 'but there is every reason why I should buy to myself the Mitzvah (good d
el placidly. 'A very wicked lif
said the arti
ond Commandment by making representatio
admitted as much,'
which is not forbidden. But I don't undeceive her-it would pain her
be ready to s
in Palestine,' he said. 'I cannot be certain that God wo
sel should live in Palestine, especially if he were an unconscionably long time a-
at is c
udents as you that these sums are sent from all the world over. The prayers and studies of our
erly; 'and life is very cheap
unwarily from the artist's ton
for ever and for ever, and by the merit of my
and laughter, no undesirable lover had ever thus been got rid of by
ure was not the least interesting ingredient in the cup of gossip. It was even whispered that the grandmother herself had been tapped. Her skittish advances had been taken seriously by Yossel. He had boldly proposed to lead her under the Canopy, but at this point, it was said, the old lady had drawn back-she who had led him so far was not to be thus le
and even packages for their kinsfolk. And conversely, there was scarcely a Jewish inhabitant who had not begged for clods of Palestine earth or bottles of Jordan w
see how the Bube was taking her hero's desertion. As he lifted the latch he heard her voice giving orders, and the door opened, not on the peaceful scene he expected of the spinster at her ingle nook, but of a bustling and apparently rejuvenated old lady supervising a packing menial. The greatest shock of all was that this menia
d, 'I see you too are send
easily. 'Yes, it is going to
hous heaps on the floor-Yossel and his bundle-he
the spinning-wh
he widow Rubenstein-I
ully. Then a white patch in the darkened wood over the mantelpie
ave taken
the widow
s grandmother seriously
ing it away t
with trembling fingers blinked downwards at the bundle. Yossel
oes with me,' he ex
the arti
; they had drawn fire from Yossel's. 'And wh
u are s
I am to be luckier than Moses our Master
journey i
he way while alive as easily as ot
e you get there,' sai
let me die before I
ie in Palestine?' cr
for seventy years and more have I prayed the prayer that my eyes should behold the return of the Divine Glory to Zion. That mercy I no longer expect in my own days, inasmuch as the Sultan h
on his crutches. The grandson turned upon the
said Yoss
looking after such an old woman; it seemed too absurd to talk
rmitted to land? They say the Sultan's soldiers stand at the landing-place like the angels at the gates of Paradise with swords that turn every w
you off as
as Abraham our Father said of Sarah. But that was a sin i
o be married,' Y
choed the ar
s afternoon,' Yossel continued calmly. 'Dov
glass of brandy,' chuckled the grandmother. 'Bu
epart publicly for Triest
' the artist broke in. '
the tone of the far-away years came into her voice. 'Silence, Vroomkely, o
torted, turning upon the heroic hunchback. 'Do you
l. 'Is there a greater lov
urned to her grandson. 'Don't be angry with Yossel-all the fault is mine
at you asked hi
en had there been any other woman here who wanted to die in Palestine! But t
ou asked Yossel
Atonement Day. For two years I pra
-?' began
proud. It is
d Yossel flushing, 'I
iquity is like your ugliness-some people have it scattered all o
the artist impatiently. 'Why
y sent an angel into the world instead of a man, but seeing His mistake at the last moment, the All-High broke his wings short and left him a hunchback. But when Yossel's father made a match for him with Leah, the rich corn-factor's daughter, the si
that, Yenta?' Yos
ed him to go to Palestine with me. But obstinate as a pig he keeps grunting "I can't-I
So this was all his Machiavellian scheming had achieved-to bring about the very marriage it was meant to avert! He had
how Yossel longed to go with me to die in Jerusalem. And at last the All-High
lling silence to him. As if, forsooth, one published one's good dee
a fortune?' he as
sly cut through the situation. 'A wicked man gave it to
ed the artist. '
of knowing him,' ambiguously int
name,' added the Bube.
Yossel urged. 'The sin of that is e
r such an Epicurean much praying will be necessary. It will be a long work. And your first prayer,
ver's clasp. 'Be at peace, Yenta! He will be re
H'S G
'S GOB
egg (representative of the ancient festival-offering in the Temple), and while his wife and children held up the dish, which now contained o
are hungry come in and eat; let all who require come in and celebrate the Passover. This
e robe and a white skullcap, and throned on white pillows, he made rather a royal figure
ting board. Her heart was full of a whispering fear that not all the brave melodies of the father nor all the quaint family choruses could drown. All very well for the littl
nd the peasants behind their high palings, alike sulked under the burden of debts. Indeed, had not the Passover Market hummed with the old, old story of a lost Christian child? Not murdered yet, thank God, nor even a co
d by annual repetition, over the horseradish that typified the bitterness of the Egyptian bondage, and ecstatic grimaces over the soft, sweet mixture of almonds, raisins, apples, and cinnamon, vaguely suggestive of the bondsmen's mortar; they relished the eggs
ent of Passover cake under Aaron's pillow, morsels of which, distributed to each as the final food to
p-drinking came round, the children had glanced at the great silver goblet placed for t
-the moment of the third cup, when, mother throwing open the door, father wou
, a vague resentment as at a spurned hospitality had stirred in each youthful breast. But many reasons could be found to exculpate Elijah-not omitting the
in the kitchen, had recalled all her alarms, and she merely threw open the door of the room. But Ben Amram was not absent-minded enough to b
d laziness. 'O
en the str
It would have been too bad of mot
him. 'It is too heavy; he cou
rred it?' Be
on you know how the heathe
y will not
eard about the los
any a Christian
not remem
r the ritual.' And
Aaron!
towards the front of the house. He shrugged hi
ade for the door. 'For t
childish yours
not childi
ly. 'The door
that are childish. You know no Prophet o
venerable bear
emer of Israel, who will come. Listen!
mob was approaching, mingled with
Zhits! Death to
with a gesture as of seeking to gather them all in her arms. Then, hea
ile his right upheld Elijah's goblet, and over the ululation of the unseen mob and
ing figure in a rich furred coat dashed round the cor
anted the refugee, and fell h
f the chase-lurched past. The mother, who had sprung forward at the sound of the fall, frenziedly sho
it to the dregs, the clustered children looking on dazedly. As the head fell back, it caught the light
the mother, shuddering back.
humour twitched his lips, and he smoothed his white beard. 'Maimon is the only Je
David and his brothers and sisters were secretl
I
wn, turreted quadrangle drew free breath, and sent it out in great shouts of rhythmic prayer, as they swayed in their fringed shawls, with quivering hands of supplication. The Ark of the Law at one end of the great building, overbrooded by the Ten Commandme
e complex clatter of cavalry, the curt ring of military orders. The swaying figures turned suddenly as under another wind, the women's eyes grew astare and ablaze with terror. The great doors flew open, and-oh, awful, incredible sight-a squadron of Cossacks rode slowly in, two abreast, with a heavy thud of hoofs on the sacred floor, and a rattle of ponderous sabres. Their black conical
latform, blocking the aisle, and the courtyard echoed with the clanging hoofs of its rear, which back
llency intrude upon
petrified; the elders of the Kahal stood dumb. Ben Amram himself, their spokesman to the Government, whose praying-shawl was embroider
l, for the b
er's horse pawed clangorously, as if impatient for the ch
they moaned
lood?' said the S
You know well that a Christ
ted by the Shamash, upl
with bitter sarcasm. 'And surely your Excellency cannot require the b
end to, old fox. The boy's blood is here-it is ke
hed explosively.
caught the contagion of glad reli
cellency,' said the Rabbi, his eyes a-tw
oduce that bottle
indecorously. 'That is the Consecra
ynagogue in a happy buzz, and from the women's gall
-faintness, fraught with an almost incredulous apprehension of some devilish treachery, some mock discover
one leave the synagogue-man, woman, or c
g the aisle that led to the Ark; its noisy hoofs trampled over every heart. Springing from his
wine, eh?' h
stoutly replied the Shama
rom the officer's lips
every eye strained painfully towards him, save in the women's gallery,
a horrible distortion overcame his smile, his hands flew heavenwards. Dropping the bottle, and with a hoar
ather! The Jew-haters had worked their fiendish trick. Now the men were become as the women, shrieking, wringing t
at last, and was stoopin
blood, Excellency!' the
ace relaxed int
And, indeed, the spicy reek of the Consecrati
nto a fit,' said the physician, raising
hudding and rearing and clanking, but ere the congregation had finished rubbing their eyes, the last conical hat and leaded knout had vanished, and only the tar
rothing lips of the stricken creature, and his face had the fiery gloom of a seer
and ever!' The Rabbi began the phrase, and
opened the door for Elijah, there entered Maim
rumble of
lijah!' cri
w the spread Passover table, his child-soul came back to him, and in a burst of tears he confessed the diabolical plot against our community, hatched through his instrumentality by some desperate debtors; how, having raised the cry of a lost child,
awe traversed
ithout night-prayer, neither slumbers nor sleeps. Maimon had bribed the
en thousand tigers. Some even precipita
Ben Amram. 'The Almi
saith the Lord,"' quo
d female voice, and 'Hallelujah
lief in the God of Israel
ent for us all!' int
wled the co
the repentant sinner had confessed all to me, and explained how the Cossacks were to be sent to catch all the community assembled helpless in synagogue, I deemed it best merely to get the bottles changed back again. The false bottle contained only bullock's blood, but it would have sufficed to madden the multitude. Since it is I who hav
or He is good,' sang t
for ever,' replied the c
t when the Epikouros (atheist) put the bottle to his lips, expecting to taste blood, and found instead good red wine, doubtles
ian's hand, while the synagogue resounded with cries of 'May thy strength inc
he ghastly head, with its pious ringlets writhing like red sna
and the choristers cried 'Pom!' and a breath of jubilant hope passed through the synagogue. The mighty hand and the outstretched arm which had red
HIRE
IRELI
as a pianist. The name, casually seen on the passengers' list, conveyed nothing but a strong Russian and a vaguer Semitic flavour, and
dinner-it was a blessing to escape from the perpetual adulation of music-sick matrons and scho
ceptionable ladies from irresistible personalities-a German Grand Duke, a Bulgarian Ambassador, Countesses, both French and Italian, and even a Belgian princess. But to his boundless amazement-for he had always heard that Americans were wax before titles-not one of the social leaders had been of the faintest assistance to him, not even the owner of the Chicago Palace, to who
hey imagine he wore phylacteries or earlocks, or what? His few childish years in the Russian Pale-what were they to the long years of European art and European culture? And even if in Rome or Paris he had foregathered with Jews like Schn
mystery of the night. And these jocose, heavy-jowled, smoke-soused gamblers were the Americans whose drawing-rooms he would contaminate! He recalled the only party to which he had been asked-'To meet the Bright Lights'-and which to his amazement turned out to be a quasi-public entertainment with the guests seated in rows in a hall, and himself-with the other Bright Lights-planted on a platform and made to perform without a fee. The mean vulgarians! But pe
of wares in a dentist's showcase? But as the teeth came nearer and the great rubicund face bore down upon him, the prominence of the notorious incisors affected him less than their carnivorous capacity-he felt himself almost swallowed up by this monstrous beast of prey, so admirably equated to our small day of large things, to that environment in which he, poor degenerate artist, was but a little singing-bird. The long-forgotten word Rishus came suddenly into his mind-was not the man's anti-Semitism as obtruded as his teeth?-Rishus, that wicked malice, which to a persecuted people had become
roduction which was to open to him all doors and all ears? Was it not in her marvellous marble music-room-one of the boasts of Chicago-that he had mentally seen himself enthroned as the lord of the feast? And instead of these Olym
but a girl-nay, unless his instinct was at fault, a Jewish girl-a glorious young Jewess, of that radiant red-haired type which the Russian Pale occasionally flowered with. What was she doing with this Christian Colossus? He tried vainl
nd. She was still there, but had moved under the same electric light which had illuminated Wilhammer's face, and she was reading a letter. As his walk carried him past her, he was startled to see tears rolling down those radiant cheeks. A slight exclamation came involuntarily from him; the girl, even more startled to be caught thus, relaxed her grip of the letter-a pu
onic-touched American gave him the
e help you mo
Germanic, so was her German like the Yiddish of his remote youth, and this, adding to the sweetness of her voice,
iced too,' he v
back towards her cabin. 'With us Jews,' she
assed to his face by a stranger. But perhaps he had misinterpreted her
red uneasily. But he only opened wi
priest-ridden, paralysed people, a cringing, cowering, contorted people-I shall never forget the panic in our synagogue when a troop of Cossacks rode in with a bogus blood-accusation. Now it is a people alive with ideas and volitions; the young generation dreams noble dreams
ded suddenly. The musician, fascinated,
he cried, half-incredu
rn, so as to give the besiegers an impression of a large defensive force. At last his cartridges were exhausted-to procure cartridges is the greatest difficulty of our self-defence corps-they began battering in the big front-door. David, seeing further resistance was useless, calmly drew back the bolts, to the mob's amaze, and, as it poured in, he cried: 'Back! back! They have bombs!' and rushed into the street, as if to escape the explosion. The others followed wildly, and in the panic David ran down a dark alley, and disappeared in search of a new post of defence. Though the door stood open, and the cowering inhabitants were at their mercy, the assailants, afraid to enter, remained for over an hour at a safe distance fi
back to Russi
een as remote to him as the squabbles of savages in Central Africa, became suddenly vi
such a moment?' she answered quietly
acred!' he crie
y. 'To live and die
to crying, 'Thy people shall be my people,' but all he found himself
sharply fr
mistress. Gute
den ashes. Only Mrs.
I
p while the water was still calm. Not that he suffered physically from the sea; he was merely afraid of it. The shuddering and groaning of the ship found an echo in his soul. He could not shake off the conviction that he was doom
ockery. 'When I am safe on shore again,
from America. In the afternoon this restlessness drove him to the piano in the deserted dining-hall, and his fever sought to work itself off in a fury of practice. But the inner turbulence persisted, and the new thoughts clung round the old music. He was playing Schumann's Fantasiestücke, but through the stormy passion of In der Nacht he saw the red hair of the heroic Jewess, and into the wistful, questioning Warum ins
his music; and as he played on, with swift side-peeps, other fellow-passengers entered into his consciousness, some standing about, others hov
e haughty heathen-draw them by the magic of his finger-touch on pieces of ivory. Lo, they were coming, more and more of th
bition of technique. As he stopped, there was a storm of hand-clapping. Rozenoffski gave a masterly start of surprise, and turned his leonine head in dazed bewilderment. Wa
ery soon, lo! the Christian rats were pattering back again, only more wisely and cautiously. They came crawling from every part of the ship's compass. Newcomers were warned whisperingly to keep from applause. In vain. An enraptured greenhorn shouted 'Encore!' T
ance upon the piano in an empty hall, and the word was passed to the little army of music-lovers. Silently the rats gathered, scurrying in on noiseless paws, stealing into the chairs, swarming about the doo
complacent Christendom which took so much from the Jew and gave so little. 'Shy
He had soon recovered from her menial office; indeed, the paradox of her position in so anti-Semitic a household quickened hi
. He had started his nocturnal pacing much earlier than usual, for the inevitable concert on behalf of marine charities had sucked the loungers from their steamer-chairs. He had himself, of course, been approached by the programme-organizer, a bouncing actress from 'Frisco, with an irresistible air, but he had defeated her hopelessly with the mysterious sarcasm: 'To meet the Bright Lights?' And his rewa
asn't been keeping you t
'Not so close as N
th a shade of mali
he limitations of Cr?sus,' she replied. 'B
me for
t you
een rending the air throughout, but they had scarcel
an it is s
ploits the globe. There isn't a sensation or an emotion she denies herself-unless it is painful. It was to escape the concert that she has left her cou
oncert,' he said eagerly. 'Won't you come outs
a word, with the si
ght,' she said, 'and very
n?' he asked, with a sudden thought, wonder
have to work my passage, you see, and Providence, on
se was going back to her social pedestal. 'But
hed cheerfully. 'Why mo
ered again on
?' he echoe
rse of starvation and medicine at Berne University,
doctor?' he
eculiarly servicea
could only attend the night medical school. I lived by lining cloaks with fur; my bed was the corner of a room inhabited by a whole family. A would-be graduate could not be seen with bundles; for fetching and carrying the wo
,' he recal
'And you ask me if it is humiliating t
. His heart was full o
rejoined laughingly. 'Why are
I be prejudiced? From all I hear it's she that's prejud
the Southerners have negro
ed. 'You compare
at least Liberia. There is a black President,
ural. But he still instinctiv
aid everything. Every gift of genius tha
ey belong to every other people. The world absorbs our sap, and damns us for our putrid remains. Our best must pipe alien tunes and dance to the measures of the heathen. They build an
e. Thank God he had kept himself free for her. But ere he could pour out his soul, the bouncing San Franciscan actress appeared suddenly at his elbow, risking a last desperate assault, discharging a pathetic tale of a
heir people. He was no longer afraid of the sea. He was afraid of nothing-not even of the pogroms that awaited them in Russia. Russia its
found vent in a rhapsody of synagogue melody to which he abandoned himself, for once forgetting his audience. When gradually he became aware of the incongruity,
e of Psalm-singers in darkening Sabbath twilights, the rustle of palm-branches and sobbings of penitence, the long-drawn notes of the ram's horn pealing through the Terrible Days, the passionate proclamation of the Unity, storming the gates of heaven. And fused with these merely physical memories
as swallowed up in utter sincerity. He did not shut the piano; he sat brooding a moment or two in tender reverie. Suddenly he perceived his red-haired muse at his side. Ah, she had discovered him at last, knew him simultaneously for the genius and the patriot, was come to pour out
he girl, who remained
what I was playi
replied quietly. 'They publish
of his triumphant genius, her matter-of-fact acceptance of his racial affinity, her refusal to be impressed by the heroism of a Hebrew pianoforte sol
arcely seeing the worshippers he plodded through; presently he became aware that he was
sensation that his touch on the handle had launched upon him, as by some elaborate electric contrivance, a tall
enius are farouches-it was awfully insolent of me
e, gracious lady,' h
ur name-only your genius. Every afternoon I have lain here, lapped in your music, but I might never have had the courage to thank you had you not played that marvellous t
Nothing so good, I fear-a
ewelled hands in girlish deli
shed her down, and replied uneasily: 'You can't get it. It
y this fecundity and riotous extravagance of g
e-it was j
oods I seem to have missed! Why
ning up all his courage, he threw down his name 'Rozenoffski' like a bomb, and the red of his cheeks changed to the pallor of apprehe
k in the fall, give me the glory of launching you.' And, seeing the cloud on his
etween rapture and anxiety
she persisted humbly; 'but positively eve
ail and feverish behind all her brilliant beauty. Or had she not even seen his letter? had her secretary presumed to guard her from Semitic invaders? Or was she deliberately choosing to
had a real musical sensat
l not permit me to return this
him his cup, she smiled archly into his eyes. 'You can't shake me
xpanding. He had burst the coils of this narrow tribalism that had suddenly retwined itself round him; he had got back again from the fusty conventicles and the sunless Ghettos-back to spacious salons and radiant hoste
OOB
OBOR
o seethe with political activity, and even to publish a newspaper, so that it was necessary to show by a first-class massacre that true Russian men were still loyal to God and the Czar. Milovka lay off the pogrom route, and had not of itself caught the contagion; careful injection of the virus was necessary. Moreover, the town was two-thirds Jewish, and consequently harder to fever
as just beginning, but mildly. The sun shone over the broad plains, and as David's train carried him towards Milovka, his heart swelled with thoughts of the Maccabean deeds to be wrought there by a regenerated Young Israel. But the journey was long. Towards t
at your lord's pleasur
,' retorted the pe
a nobleman's rod; any moujik, any hooligan, could wield it. But, thank Heaven, t
nn. Seated astride the old-fashioned bench of the vehicle, and grasping his violin-case like a lov
hat Milovka would not be easy to arouse. As every man thought every other man mortal, so Milovka regarded the massacres as a terrible reality-for other towns. It wa
ord shook
rooms a
ed tablecloth on the long table, and at the host's brats playing on the
long?'
shoulders like the drive
the younger generation that he was a man of the world, in touch with the times; to the old its material and h
ooms have you?'
I have but one?' pro
river. 'And you said this was the best i
if it is?' answered the drive
did you
s no room anywhe
David
ng. The young men have flocked here from all the neighbouring villages to draw their numbers
s had been packed off to their regiments or the lucky ones back to their villages. He would have time, therefore, to organize his
anka,' said the host,
nd his violin in such very public quarters would be the safest way of diverting police attention. 'Conspirators, please copy,' he thoug
luggage,' he s
host, hovering o
ou a drop
ds of horror. 'Monopolka
t any Jewish lice
ed Benjamin,' said the landlord with grim humour. He added hasti
lf-warmed remains. However, hunger and hope gave sauce to the miserable meal, and h
ry-books, but is it likely he will risk their falling in love with a young man whose hair and clothes are cut like a Christian's? Not that I share his
sons in music,' said David
r pardon.' His voice had suddenly taken on the same ring as when he addr
the man's bemused visage. 'Don't you think, considering what has b
the room for a possible spy. 'Guard yo
ou, my friend, shall
must beg you to f
decisive step, began to think he had gone too far. 'You will take the advice of a man who knows the world,' he said in a tone of compromise, 'and throw all those crazy notions int
w do you know I
dly. Come, let me take you in hand; my commis
regular Shadchan'
stay here from all towns around; I get to know a great circle of marriagea
o link' (ir
ry grows with them.' Mine host had q
en thought. 'But if you care to introduce me to Tinowitz, yo
his hands. 'Now yo
I
ingly. And disapproval did not improve his face-a face in whose grotesque f
actor said. 'Nor is it possible to give you my youn
ch. Am I a Talmud-sage that I should thus aspir
-perhaps-with a
ord who turned my head with false hopes. I came here
ctor gasped
m is thr
o Satan!' reprimanded
e and slaughter--' sa
mpossibl
as in the six hundred and
been bad blood; here Jew and Rus
e many peaceful years while Cain tilled
ore convincing to Tinowitz t
propose?' came fr
oborona. You must first summo
at
committee-and f
hold a meeting
the syn
the syn
s fly to the synagogue
but to
pray by
your
your da
most will
em through you. For the last time I ask you, will you
se. I thank Heaven you wi
time to think it over. Dav
ouse, he found it barred and shuttered. The neighbours reported that Tinowitz had go
nsation was to find in the remaining bed a strapping young Jew named Ezekiel Leven, who had come up from an outlying village for the military lottery, and who proved to be a carl after his own heart. Half the night the young heroes planned the deeds of derringdo they might do for their people. Ezekiel Leven was indeed an ideal lieutenant, for he belonged
nd volunteered to stand sentinel. Accordingly, he was posted at the ragged window-curtain, where, with excess of caution, he signalled whenever he saw a Christian, in uniform or no. At every signal David's oratory ceased as suddenly as if it had been turned off at the main, and the gaberdined figures, distributed over the two beds and the one chair, gripped one another nervously. But Dav
ambles. Too long, when smitten, had he turned the other cheek, only to get it smitten too. They must defend themselves. He was there to form a branch of the Samooborona. Brow
ages. Each man felt warm blood trickling down his limbs. To what end, then, had he escaped the conscription?
out, 'this is a Haman in disguise. To hold
our young men who must defend the town. But the Kahal (congregatio
w pistols!' cried Mendel the h
we get safely into the town. But one revolver may save te
hem!' persisted the timber-merchan
sent burst fr
y you has already been hatched; the question is, ar
taxes; but we have always sent Shtadlonim (ambassadors). We will make a collection, and the president of the Kahal shall
is in the plot
t out,' said the
drily. 'Let us rather prepare bombs.' A fresh shudder traver
instruments. We are in the hands of the Holy One-blessed be He!
t (slaughterer) of Israe
this grim jest; for the Shomer and the Shoch
tide was turning, added, 'B
fasting and prayer,' conc
i,' said Gütels the grocer, 'will supply the synagogue with c
e universal gratitude, and the landlord at t
dvice is also good. God is, of course, our only protection. But there can be no
d the faces grew
lies your only salvation. Give the money to us, not to the
gasped the Rabbi. 'Given o
id grimly. 'Don't you see it is the safest place for us
t: an old man scalped with a sharp ladle; a white-hot poker driven through a woman's eye; a baby's skull ground under a True Russian's heel. 'Bourgeois
n a panic, and held him hand-gag
instant in which all gave themselves up for lost. Their grip on David
d David, jumping to his feet. 'You
'I drew a low number-I
oses should be summarily shot. And so, when the Shtadlonim arrived with the fifteen thousand roubles, the Governor was able to point out severely that if a pogrom did occur they would have only themselves to blame. The Jews of Milovka had begun to carry pistols like revolutionaries; they planned illegal assemblies in halls; was it to be wondered at if the League of True
nn, and his original audience would have called as a deputation upon David to beg him to withdraw from the town, but th
ve already ordered
is sti
e-or anybody who massers (info
ssador s
rother-in-Israel!' added
ft alone; they wear fuses under their waistcoats instead of Tsitsith (r
the landlor
stel. But his blood was up, and he took a malicious pleasure
h the thought that the population was best tackled by units. One
and approached Erbstein the Banker. Erbstein held up his hands. '
nor. Give me only a hun
end. We can only get them gradually. Full rights now are nonsense-impossible. It is bad
rights, but of our live
e invariably replied. His success in finance had
tobrists,' he
trust our
cigar fell fr
t! like my n
difficult than to get cheques from their pockets. Still, there was that promising scapegrace Simon! He hurried out on his sc
eois! Every idea that makes no money he calls anarchy. As a matter of fact, I'm the exact opposite o
,' said David. 'I don't even know
ooked pityingly
Revolutionists; I belong to t
sion. 'And I belong to the Jewish Party of
utting back the clock of history. The non-isolation of the Jew is an unconditional
u agree with
we are Poles of the Mosaic Fait
are murdering b
ctuals equally,'
id passionately, 'and then both will trample on the Jews. Didn't the
d David smilingly as a Ghetto reactionary. The young women-sobe
Simon's wife murm
stand by and see ou
set back. The unconditional historic necessity will
' cried Simon's sister. 'I object to your hi
Simon interrupte
'Not a P.P.S. like
I was a P.P.S.?' inquir
onary does not understand modern politi
Social Democrats!' sa
re a bourgeois party-risking nothing, waiting pass
d to those who include the landed peasants am
differences would be immaterial if you joined the Samooborona. I
ly. 'Our place is shoulder to s
of ambulances had awakened sympathy in her S.R. soul
Pa
Territorialists, Itoists, or whate
here?' cried
rtunately, when the police found they weren't really e
rly recommended two young men, Grodsky and Ler
is own panacea. 'Only the S.S.'
S.S.'s?' D
stes Sio
re be Socialis
c necessity is for a land, but not for a particular land. Our Minsk
oligans,' David reminded him. 'Simon Rubensky though
Never will I associate w
n't jo
consult my fellow-members. I
avel very quickly
line is everythin
unted up Lerkoff, who
borona branch,' he explained. '
in disgust. 'We can have nothing
y traitors?'
ously guard the sacred flame of Socialism and Nationality,
lestine?' inqui
wish State elsewhere can only result in failure and disappointment. Do you not see how the f
thousand to America. How
ourgeois. I see you are a
' said David tartly, adding with a smil
rvently. 'It is these miserable Zioni-Zionists, w
ew incongruous telephones, and one of these now
's and the Mizrachi. He also imagines he has a throat disease due to swallowing flecks of the furs he d
disease, then
xcept too much vanit
I should like to try my hand at
oduce you, if
your medical services would be i
cried Lerkoff. 'Our fu
nt. Do let me appoin
usalem!' replied
ssionally. There was an Ark with scrolls of the Law in the room, betiding a
t you, you infamou
ave to
a baptized police spy, posing as a P.P.S. I sup
all undec
u were the young man he was telling me of. I must fly.' The P. Z shook David's hand. 'Don't forget he's
he living present. Won't you
in expression; but his 'Be seated, sir-be seated; what can I do fo
to do for you,' he said blu
, it is in deadly danger. An excellent physician, but you know the Talmudical saying: "Hell awaits even the best of phy
zealous for Zion,'
sertions instead of the grand old laws. As if any human arrangement could equal
to restore them?'
of our Exile except a vision of the High Priest in his jewelled breastplate officiating again at the altar of our Holy Temple? Now at last the vision begins to
t see clearly!' he broke off. 'False prophets, colossally vain-may their names be blotted out!-confuse the foolish crowd. But the wheat is beit demanded, he resumed: 'Territorialist traitors mislead the masses, but in
ing?' put in David impatient
ople with fever and famine on some savage shore. Bu
David aske
ever be realized, that only in its old home can Israel agai
from Denmark. And th
pplies to us. As the dove returned to the ark, as the swallow returns to
; 'but where is there room in
or the millions who came up at Passov
interposed, offerin
' the owl explained
he bravest revolutionary party in Russia he co
. Not that he behaves as such, opposing our candidate for the Duma! Three hundred and thirteen roubles,' he told the telephone
o do with the Parliament in R
'Three hundred and fifteen! What! Do you wa
tting at the waste of his day. 'I sha
to enlist him. The shopkeeper proved, however, so corpulent and bovine
said the f
with me; I'm a fighter myself.' He le
t!' cried th
told me that you were a Bundist,' he explained to the shopkeeper. 'And I came to me
' And as the corpulent man retired with an improbable alacrity, he continued gra
. 'You are t
I study Talmud and eat Kest (fr
er-in-law,' said David evasive
t smile. 'When he deals with that bourgeois at the telephone, I always egg him on to stand out for more and more, and m
embarrassment in explaining that headquarters to him meant Sam
temptuously. 'What have we to d
xclusively Jew
to help our fellow-working-men. But we are a Labour party, not a Jewish party. We have the whole Russian Revolution on our shoulders; how can we throw away our lives for the capitalists of t
third disconnected, but on their heels. With f
gressive Pole. He mistook David for a Zi
ellow-Poles-nay, we shall be allowed to become Poles ourselves. But you Zioni
pted the disconnected man. 'Why d
nalists! They are anti-Semites. I'd as s
tell you, Nathan, that only in the Progressive Democratic P
i-Semites,' David intervened despe
st, not unkindly. He added with a sneer: 'These gentlemen of
of the P.P.P. 'We are joining even the Clerical Parties of the Right for t
t.' Of the four great Labour Parties, he proceeded to recommend the P.S.D. as the most promising for David's purposes. 'No
lemen, since you must all see that the defence of our own lives
ere speaking. All explained elaborately that they had their own Party Funds, and wha
hance lies with the men of no Party, who
uch?' asked
augh greeted
dy told him. 'Our people
individualists?' cr
proprietor, encouraged by
he murmured to D
e me a subscription for
y so at first?' He put his hand in his pocket. 'That's my Party
o, he doesn't mean he's a J.E
w took his hand
. 'Why did you interfere? Perhaps my way ma
r shook his head. 'I belong also to the Promotion of E
ived,' said
pt aloof from Polish politics-a bourgeois cousin of his, Belchevsk
ist. David imprudently told him he had seen his fe
amer!' he screamed. 'He's worse than the hysterical
en more do we ne
e is to leave Russia
m Odessa for the south-sailed away every week, each bearing two thousand passengers, it would
rialist loo
uld receive us at the rate of two hundred thousa
onditional historic necessity which has created the I.T.O. may drive at what pace it will; enough
this lan
ution. No Socialism as that idiot Grodsky imagines.
t land i
ere are vi
out a lord and master, it would probably be a very ugly and sickly virgin. And, any
t-but merely to s
m asking for,' s
alled upon a tea-merchant quite unknown to him,
such materialistic measures. Let them put their trust in Cultur! To talk Hebrew-therein lay Israel's real
the Holy Land?' asked
e studied in the tongue of the Psalmist. All the rest is bourgeois Zionism. Polit
e with the Cho
d. We want Culture-not Agriculture; we want the evolu
red that Zionism was a caricature of true Nationalism, a
the Self-Defence of ou
soil. Your corps is a mere mo
that only in the League for the Advancement of Equal Rights lay the Jew's true security. It was
nd to the headache these innumerable Parties caused him. For, going into a chemist's shop for a powder, he was served by a
the old order. The reign of love is at hand, the brotherhood of man is beginning, and
er the powder. Even a partisan would be e
m is planned
see the protest even in the Australian Parliament? Look on your calendar; we h
ed hopelessl
great stove. Before even ordering dinner, he ma
The burly Jew laughed loud and he
as he was, the hereditary horror a
ughed. 'I've taken the cold-water cur
ther pious zanies. After all, you're an enlightened young man-a violinist, they tell me; you
n't inform?'
nt. If my own skin is safe, that doesn't mean I'm made of stone like th
mered the landlord. '
in Russia,' said the
rtively produce
nce!' chuckled the burly Jew. 'You might as well
rst really sympathetic hea
I
ish, Lockschen for soup, and Zrazy for joint) brought
with stalls and a grey, kaftaned crowd, amid which gleamed the blue blouses of the ungodly younger
ew religious charm or a witch's incantation. Crude political conversations broke out am
new hammer stayed to
rust in the Consti
Cadets? Give m
zar.' (This came from the Rabbi's wife, w
zin! Put not your
own the text-quoter-a f
neered. 'We Jews will have no
upted a girl with a laundry basket. 'W
only--' interrupted
rights to all nationalities?' interrupted a
k how the Bundists have betrayed us. First they were bone of our b
n the stall. 'There is only one party to t
y hissed the Republican yo
dle). 'Violence leads to naught. Even the Viborg Manifesto was
blacksmith. 'A Jew ally himself wit
efore him like dogs. The member of the P.P.R. crawled under a barrow. Even t
Regeneration for you till you have the courage to lea
Maximalist,' s
. I merely want the minimum
r, at least, Holy Russia. Crushed by such an excess of Christianity, David wandered round the market-place, looking into
to you,' c
ays,' rejoined th
seen their like torn limb from limb. 'But have
we Chassidim have no fear. Our wonder-rabbi, who has
red before him
n the last pogrom,' said David brutall
Go for a soldier! When the Rebbe
sia, but to save us from Russi
ler in horror. 'Never will I join with
ct afresh. The lounger shook his head. 'You may persuade that foolish Chassid,' said he, 'but you cannot expect the rest of us t
f-Defence was unnecessary in his case, as his sect was scarcely regarded by the authorities as Jewish. There were other motley Jews living round the market-place-a Lithuanian, who refused to co-operate with the Polish 'sweet-tooths,' and who was in turn st
I
the multiplex chatter which accompanies the exodus of cramped and muted pupils, the normal elements of joyousness, of horse-play, of individual freakishness, were absent. It was a common agitation that loosed all these little tongu
the lad's tirade against the 'autocracy of the school director' and the 'bureaucratic method
an!' he crie
!' replied the
lutionary, eh?' s
to the Junior Bund,' r
not so peac
him. He blushed furiously, and hung hi
boy, slapping his shoulder consolingly. 'We
a single figure, a bulging-headed lad who had sprung into a sudden position of eminence-upon an egg-box. He was clothed in t
of yours, but even in those old days there was the same brutal autocracy. Y
mbers of the Junior Bund waved their satchels frenzie
ree with him,
Comrade Berl. But this fellow is popular because he
the only way of impressing the proletarian psychology. You must
hildish treble. But the frown on the b
a lesson to your elders, too. Only by applying the Marxian ph
ood beside the agitator. 'Marx is an old fogey!' he shouted. 'What's the good
red the orator. 'Comrade
yme. 'You know Schmerl's a mere milk
even beyond the Five Freedoms the boyco
shrieked, 'it will be neither by the Fivefold Formula of Freedom nor by the Fourfold Suffrage, but by the Integralists, who alon
l ignominy. But the storm was now launched. A score of the schoolboys burst into passionate
t, prodigies of eloquence and holy learning, so it now had its precocious politicians and its premature sociologists. He was tempted for a moment to try his recruiting spells upon the juvenile Integral
e. He sat down, and began to write a melancholy Report to Headquarters, but a mysterious and persistent knocking prevented any con
ed at the footsteps
ly I,' s
a cellar strewn with iron bars, instrumen
vodka,' said Dav
fortifying the cellar-als
rona?' s
e effective form than yo
the little Bundist had an extra chance. After all, he had achieved something, he would save some li
rim smile that the Octobrists had excluded Jews from their meetings. That reminded him of Erbstein the Banker, who had bidden him put his trust in them. Would the Banker be more susceptib
f the owlish Mizrachi, his visit
epaired again to the house w
's door it opened suddenly
enter this house again.' And he banged the d
ur pardon
David politely. 'I was just
endish temper. He cannot
not had a serio
cannot understand that Zionism
kno
hen you can understand how I have su
ou now, if
elf-respecting Jew can b
husiasm for Russian politics and world politics he was n
, soothed by the prospect of airing his theories. 'We will go to Friedman's inn-
ruits. 'But before we talk of your Party I want to ask
n's face gre
not join any o
sn't a Part
a P
N
have a Co
but o
Branc
ly, but
Party
ney is
onfere
se, but
read Re
unl
you are
no. I want a
sider anything else. Our Party-Day falls next
avid desperatel
rely impromptu in the debate. Our Referat-speakers need at least two hours apiece. We did n
is there t
uestion of Jewish autonomy in the Russian Parliament-that is our great principle. Moreover, as a comparatively new Party, we have yet to thresh out our relations to all the existing Parties. With which shall we form blocs
' David ins
the Resurrectionists-our work is an unconditional hi
in a cloud of cigarette-smoke near the stove. In one of the four David recognised the tea-merchant of the morning, but the tea-merchant seemed to have no recollection of David. He wa
the dream
xed to be derided before his new acquaintance
ad-Haam's philosophy. Then they would understand that their strivings are bound to lead t
ial-proletariat practice you Sejmists have altogether lost the theory. Conversely the S.S.'s have sacrificed territorial pr
you speak for?'
mocratic Artisan Party of Ru
ewest?' inquir
scene of our social regeneration, it is bec
ee that our Conference will have to
on. Have we not of ourselves severed our relations with t
ctacled neighbour. 'Or perhaps you misconceive the genetic moments of your own progra
say--' began
ecessities? We subsume the Conservative elements of the Spojnia Narodowa National League and of the Party of
Polish Party--
king at once. Through the chaos a thin piping voice penetrated clearly. It came from the fou
me to tell you, friend Witsky, that your programme needs unification: it sta
vid, 'if you sympathize with all Parties, you
phic critic equally dis
ay sit and make smoke-rings till the Messiah comes, but I assure you ther
ndeed, the Resurrectionist had forgot
rkening streets, his every nerve quivering, it seemed to him as if the alphabet had only to be thrown about like dice to give always the name of some Party or other. He had a nightmare vision of bristling sects and pullulating factions, each with its Councils, Federations, Funds, Conferences, P
ural that each man should grope towards his separate ray of light. The Russian, too, was equally bewildered, and per
em to-day as co-workers would not reject them when the cause was won? Perhaps there was no hope outside preserving their own fullest identity. Poor bewil
l? He might offend one by omitting or miscalling it; they formed and re-formed like clouds on the blue. A new Party, too, might spring up overnight. He might give deadly affront by ignoring this Jonah's gourd. Even as he thus mused
cated a people for so primitive and savage a function; too set in the moulds of an ancient scholastic civilization, so that, even when Action was attempted, it was turned and frozen into Philosophy? Or was it rather that eighteen centuries of poring over the Talmud had unfitted them for Action, not merely because the habit of applying the whole brain-force to religious minuti? led to a similar intellectualizat
y remained standing. The men of to-day had merely substituted for the world of the past the world of the future, and so there had arisen logically-perfect structures of Zionism without Zion, Jewish Socialism without a Jewish social order, Labour Parti
ke a child to the familiar study-house of his youth, to the Beth Hamedrash where the greybeards pored over the great worm-eaten folios, and the youths rocked in their expository incantations. There lay the magic world of fantasy and legend that had been his people's true home, that had kept them sane and cheerful through eighteen centuries of tragedy-a watertight world into which no drop of outer reality could
for the Holy Law; the world had been created merely that the Law might be studied; new lights upon its words and letters were the only things that could matter to a sensible soul. Time and again he had raged against the artificiality of this quietist cosmos, accusing it of his people's paralysis, but to-night every fibre of him yearned for this respite from the harsh reality. He rummaged his memory for 'news'-for theological i
you of?' they c
overnor, Self-Defence was made ridiculous. No Machiavellian paraphernalia of agents provocateurs, no hooligans with false grey beards, masqu
ses, David felt grimly that an economic Providence had
e preferred to climb to the roof, from which with the aid of a small glass, he had a clear view of the cordon drawn round the doomed quarter. A ricoch
reamed of Maccabean deeds. The new conscript, in the uniform of
ll! But have you forgotten there is still one form of Samooborona
triots and the lovers of Zion and the lovers of mankind; silent the bourgeois and the philosophers, the timber-merchants and the horse-dealers, the bankers and the Bundists; silent the Socialists and the Democrats; sil
l historic necessity
E
NS, LTD., PRIN
errors corre
lngs replaced
r other' replaced wit
ratulate yon' replaced with '
congregation' replaced with 'He mus
led replaced
nark replaced
ed inte' replaced w
chael replac
grous replaced
mement replaced
omes Poles' replaced with
phant replaced
seves replaced