RABBI HENRY ILIOWIZI.THROUGH MOROCCO —TO— MINNESOTA. SKETCHES OF LIFE IN THREE CONTINENTS. BY RABBI HENRY ILIOWIZI. COPYRIGHT, 1888.THROUGH MOROCCO TO MINNESOTA. SKETCHES OF LIFE IN THREE CONTINENTS. I. Morocco was not exactly the quarter we should have selected for our missionary work if such selection had depended on our individual choice; for during the preparatory years we had spent in London and Paris we fondly dreamed of strictly Oriental and Asiatic regions, the periphery of the imagined circle reaching as far as Bagdad, embracing Horeb and the Lebanon, but never the sky-bearing, lion-hunted Atlas. But who may fathom the decrees of destiny ? Allah ach-bar / The Queen's Anglo-Saxon being deemed an indispensable acquisition for our ill-fated brethren of the Moorish empire, and we having been anxiously matured for such tuition, the illustrious Comite Central decreed that Tetuan reap the harvest of our legally acquired faculty 3of teaching and speaking that sonorous tongue, which an unaesthetic German scholar had thebad taste of denominating the language of the birds. With true Moslem resignation we exclaimed : " Allah is great, and His prophet had seventeen wives,—no wonder he lost all his good sense at the age of 45"—and we began to prepare for the worst. A long catalogue of things useful and useless was bought and packed, including a six-barreled revolver, a cuisine a deux pieds, and a light, portable bed. We took leave of all our friends, made during a very profitable stay in beautiful Paris ; took leave of that imperial capital of sky-favored France, and with a heart half sad, half glad, hopeful, doubtful, sighing, smiling, proceeded to take the train to Marseilles. Fare thee well, city of cities, fairest of the fair, charming, frivolous, capricious, polite, hospitable, gay, proud, lovely, imperious, enchanting, majestic, but profligate, alas ! like Cleopatra of old ; like that princess, wooed, loved, admired, worshipped, and feared ; such is Paris, the city of revolutions, fashion, and passion. Go wherever you please, a happier people, of words more melodious, an air more sunny, rejoicing in life's present gifts, careless of to-morrow, seeking 4pleasure, loving change, excitement, commotion, hating tyranny, idolizing liberty, enthusiastic, fiery, crazy, unsteady as April's cheerful sky, you will not find. As you love capricious, thoughtless, inconsistent, happy, smiling childhood, so, moving among the French, you cannot help loving them, who appear to live in a perpetual Walhalla,with one corner set apart for Bedlam. Thrice did we see Paris given to intense passion,—for everything there is passion,— at the death of the great patriot, M. Thiers, and during the critical campaign that ended with the election of Gr£vy as President. You should see the deluge of humanity billowing through the boulevards in expectation of the grand funeral cortege, at the sight of which myriads of uncovered heads, faces ghostly pale, sent forth a muffled roar as of thunder ringing through subterranean caverns: Vive la Republique! worthy scion of sires who stormed and razed the Bastile; and that almost insane fury when Marshal MacMahon and Senateur de Broglie were suspected of scheming against republicanism. What fire-deluge of speech, what volleys of invective, and what ecstatic transport when the eve of election brought the welcome news of Gr6vy's triumph ! 5Embrassez-moi, cher ami, je ne me sens pas de joie, and this not from mercenary motives, the race of parasite office-seekers being unknown in France. Love of liberty and love of his mistress are identical passions to the Parisian, who is the Frenchman par excellence. To think of the genial, though somewhat mercurial Parisian first, then of the metaphysically sapient, martially drilled, royally devoted, inhospitably stiff, scientifically dull Berliner, with his atmosphere of Brandenburger dust, the smell of sauerkraut, beer, and fried sausage, his sententious talk and his military walk, is to recall to memory the contrast that distinguished the Athenian from the Spartan. You are unreasonable in expecting Frederick and Voltaire, Cousin and Schopenhauer, Hugo and Goethe, Gam-betta and Bismarck, to understand each other, the Rhine appearing an untraversable barrier to an entente cordiale, politically as well as literary. But having once got a taste of the pure German Gemuethlichkeity you are most likely to give it the preference for French politeness, though the great bulk of the Berliners are greatly in need of this. Especially is this true of the Kutscher, who could stand in an American dime museum as 6a -mammoth specimen of human brutality, a true descendant of the termagant Brunhilde. Neither Fichte's idealism nor Kant's transcendentalism has done aught in humanizing this kind of biped, which is verily the survival of the brute. Try him, try him, and you will never accuse us of exaggeration. II. But we are involuntarily indulging in the apparently inherent method of the typical German savant, who opens every biographical sketch with a lengthy reference to the world's creation in general, winding up with some erudite allusions to Siegfried, Zoroaster, Rameses, Minos, Attila, Gutenberg, Columbus, Luther, and Mohammed; adding a few conspicuous foot-notes to each page fraught with wise elucidation, illumination, contemplation, and illustration; besides the customary appendix that points to a rich glossary supplemented by numerous mythical and mystical hints put in parenthesis. Unfathomably learned as we are, we are not overanxious to display erudition, but to give a plain, unadorned tale of what we have seen and noted on our way to Africa and thence to the United States. Thus 7let us return to our train, that for fully twenty-seven hours was thundering along southward, and rested not until we were duly delivered up to free air and a tolerably good hotel in Marseilles, where unexpected disappointment was in store for us. But one company keeps up commercial intercourse with the Moorish coast, and we arrived one day too late to embark on the last departed steamer that weekly starts for Morocco. This was unwelcome news, and very much against our computations and arrangements,. our wear and gear having been forwarded prior to our departure for Marseilles, and sent off with the vessel we had missed. We furthermore entertained some grave misgivings about La Moselle, the vessel that was to take to sea in about six days or so, a rather sea-worn, uninviting, storm-beaten, and very unsafe looking ship, a tempting kind of conveyance for one tired of life. Cy est tres malheureux, monsieur; que me conseillez-vous de faire? Replies the perfectly contented ticket agent: Monsie2ir, Marseille est une grande ville et on peut y passer une quinzaine sans ennui, je crois. The man had all sound logic on his side. There was nothing wiser to be done but have patience and 8wait. Allah achbar / His will be done. Let us look at Marseilles. III. Historically we are assured that the cornerstone of that city antedates that laid by Romulus for his forever living and flourishing metropolis; the ubiquitous Phoenician having founded it before Greece was heard of, so that Massilia is assumed to be a much later Greek settlement, all of which we are unprepared to prove. Be it, however, as it may, that greatest haven of France and the Mediterranean Sea has an undisputed claim to a venerable age, and must have had an important Jewish population at a very early date, perhaps as early as the Solomonic rule, certainly not later than the era of Moses Maimonides, if we are to judge from his casuistic epistle addressed N^'Dtra "DunS Marseilles is probably the only spot in France where Baal had an altar on the site of which the Greeks built a temple for Diana, which had to make room for an old church, now superseded by a new cathedral of Byzantine style, an immense and costly structure unfinished at the date we are speaking of. But the greatest wonder of that 9sea metropolis is, in our opinion, the superbly constructed canal, ninety-four miles long, which carries an immense volume of water to city and surroundings, changing her atmosphere, and her originally sterile grounds into one luxuriant garden. For miles and miles this artificial Nile rushes through the heart of rocks, pierced at great cost and labor, breaks forth to sweep like a living thing athwart valleys, the aqueduct running like an endless railway bridge high above the grounds, massive walls supported by heavy pillars. As to her treasures of art and natural science, though very considerable, they are of little interest to one who for ten years has had access to the priceless treasures hoarded up in the libraries and museums of Paris, Berlin, and London. Thus our curiosity being satisfied and the mind being in the unpleasant state of suspense, we began to long for the sea, and spent many an unprofitable hour on the broad walls of La Joliette, wistfully measuring the vast, sky-leaping wave we were wishing to traverse ; an Ulysses without a Calypso. Our condition was that of an impatient traveller who, valise in hand, finds himself bound to wait hours for a 10train he has missed. How slow such hours are crawling! It is cheap to advise friends to have patience ; you could as well advise them to have many other good things given the one and denied the other. Besides, we have on record but one Hillel. At last waiting became a perfect ennui, and, rather than be eaten by that insidious peace-breaker, we resolved to embark on the questionable-looking vessel, La Moselle, concluding that the captain and mariners had likewise lives to risk. There was no other passenger on board, but a towering cargo of lumber, carefully piled and fastened with ropes, suggesting the hope of a neighboring life-preserver in case of emergence, say, submergence. A heavy gale was blowing when we took to sea, but the captain found the Gulf of Lyons in such a '' towering frenzy" that, after a struggle of several hours with dashing billows, which made the ship shiver and the heart shudder, he thought it wise to seek the harbor and wait for a better chance, and we were mentally and sentimentally entirely of his opinion. A night and a day passed and we tried again the yet unappeased waters, with the same result, save that-by this time the dread iiof hungry sharks and the unspeakable seasickness made us seriously reflect on the advisability of disembarking and waiting for the larger steamer and kindlier weather ; and so we did. La Moselle had a short lease, anyhow, for shortly after information reached us that she went down, the captain and some of the crew having narrowly escaped the worst. A nobler sea-giant was the next vessel, which a week later left the docks with banners flying and a tremendous roar, that informed the yet boisterous flood of her intention never to yield; and bravely did she breast wave and storm, leaping, like a wounded whale, from wave to wave, dauntless, majestic, doing splendid work in the deep, till all was conquered save the unconquerable nauseous sea affliction, which scorns medical science and brings low the strongest constitution unaccustomed to the rise and fall of the wave. IV. Voila, Mons Calpe! said the captain of the gigantic oak-ribbed, iron-plated leviathan, which, like a fabulous monster, with flapping wings fully outspread and a burning heart throbbing 12like that of Enceladus, who spits fire from the bowels of Etna, has carried us for four days across the Bay of Lyons, along an angry sea, now smoothed by dreamy skies and delicious breezes, since our sailing line runs parallel with the south of sunny Spain, picturesque with dazzling cities laid out on lofty shores, wooded acclivities, in the background surrounded by the sky-towering, snow-capped Sierra Nevada, classical regions all around ; for we are soon, between the Pillars of Hercules, Mons Calpe to our right and Mount Abyla to our left, rocks round which cluster memories olden and dear to many a race, well known to the ancients, the Hebrews, Phoenicians, Greeks, Romans, and Carthaginians. Mutability is writing her story everywhere, it seems, except in the stars and the soul of man. What waves of humanity, since the fabled catastrophe of Atlantis, have swept athwart this narrow strait of Gibraltar! Look at that rock bearing the name of the one-eyed Tarik since 711, and whole races pass before your mental eye, struggling.for supremacy. The worshippers of Baal, those of Jove and Jupiter, those of the Trinity, and those of the Unity have all tried to impress their footprints on the sands 13of magnificent Spain. Those bloody battles that raged between Rome and Carthage, Rome and the dreaded Celtiberi, Rome and the Frank, finally Rome and the barbarian Vandal, formed but a prelude to the yet bitterer combats which, for eight long centuries, raged between Goth and Arab, beginning with the fall of Don Roderick, the last Gothic king, and ending with the fall of Granada and Boabdil, the last Moorish king. Moslem, Christian, and Jew may a tale unfold, an epic of events in Spain, which would out-Homer Homer, while America has to open her history with : " In the beginning there lived a king and a queen in Spain." V. But let us bide a moment on the extremest south rock of old Tarshish, the impregnable rock of which a Granadian poet says, that it is "like a beacon spreading its rays over the seas and rising far above the neighboring mountains. One would say that its face almost reaches the sky and that its eyes are watching the stars in their celestial tracts." Such is Gibraltar. Gibraltar has her own history, having, owing to her commanding position, frequently been the 14contention bone of many nations. Since Tarik-Ibn-Zeyad landed at the foot of that rock it stood many a siege, changed many a master, till Britain laid her clasping grasp around it, and changed it into a dormant, thousand-mouthed Hecla, ready to belch forth a thousandfold thunder, fire, and death. No wonder that Moltke had an exclamation of surprise at the first sight of that impregnable citadel. Iron nerves or stuffed ears alone enable one to endure the deafening burst of cannon, that shakes the very rock to its centre, on Victoria's birthday, roaring forth from lofty hollows mysteriously hidden in galleries of solid granite, furnished with huge piles of shot and shell, stowed away in convenient places ready for use, but carefully screened from an invading foe. Gibraltar honoring royalty gives a vivid picture of Jove shaking the skies and abysses with thunder and lightnings, or quaking Horeb wrapt in smoke, flame, and clouds. Take a commanding view of the fortress, secure admission to its vast excavations, just look at those monstrous guns swallowing and hurling thousand-pound projectiles, yet scarcely discernible from land or sea, and you feel as if no earthly power could hope to ever 15hurt Gibraltar. Yet history tells of the Rock Mortar, the highest of ordnance, about 1400 feet above the sea, having been repeatedly dismounted by Spanish bombards. Spain could not accomplish such miracles now, her glory having departed, and the rock being virtually a fire-spitting, thunder-striking Olympus, obeying, as it were, powers invisible, who are watching over this key to the Mediterranean, dearer to England than the board was to the Nibelungen ; for, with Cyprus at the other end of that precious sea, she is sole mistress of its basin, and need never be afraid about her having free way to India. VI. Gibraltar sustained fourteen sieges, beginning with Alfonso of Castile and ending with the peace of 1783, when Spain appears to have abandoned the hope of recovering what is justly considered one of the most important keys to Europe. As a residence place Gibraltar is anything but agreeable, it being a small promontory of three miles length, about half a mile in breadth, and nearly seven miles in circumference, with a temperature tolerably 16pleasant during the winter—say from December to April—but oppressive and unhealthy during the rest of the year. Penetrating cold is brought by the north wind sweeping over the snows of the Sierra Nevada, while the Levanter comes saturated with that peculiar enervating moisture whose presence paralyzes mind and body, and brings the strongest constitution down to a condition of dull stupor. You feel tired, tired of eating, tired of drinking, talking, walking, tired of everything, save of lying about lazy, drowsy, ill-humored, and somewhat yellow in face. There is a population of about 15,000, among whom far above one thousand souls represent the Hebrew people, mostly immigrants from Barbary, who, were it not for the restrictions of the government, that is compelled to adapt the number of souls to the limitations of the place, would increase enormously. As it is, the Israelites there are averagely prosperous, mainly thriving on commerce, that is largely monopolized by them, the garrison being usually purveyed by a co-religionist. They have four well attended synagogues, all adhering to the Sephardic ritual; they cling to traditional Judaism, chant 17their prayers in the well known nasalizing notes, which are far from being melodious, sternly resist the slightest innovation, living, in a word, under the outward appearance of culture the very primitive life of their brethren in Bar-bary. Beside the unfailing local family jealousies among them, local charity is frequent and munificent, but no symptom of progress,—the most revered persons of the place being aged Talmudists, whose word is law. Preaching is as good as unknown and secular knowledge rare and unexpected. As to religious zeal displayed in observing trifles, it is unbounded. We noticed one custom which is a curiosity of Gibraltar Judaism. At sunset of each departing festival you may see crowds of Israelites congregating near the ramparts surveying the Roy, reading various prayers and concluding with : " Go in peace, Feast of Passover ; come with peace, Feast of Pentecost." All other customs are identical with those current among their friends in Morocco, to which reference will be made in the course of these sketches. Suffice it to remark that, exceptions allowed, religious observances among our Gibraltar brethren are much more a question of form than one of sincere devotion ; iSthey are doing so or otherwise because their sires used to do the like. The prayer and its tune, the reading and the chanting, the greeting and the meeting, the phraseology and the theology, the gossips and the pleasures, all partake of that fortress sameness and languor, that soul-dulling monotony so characteristic of the heavy, sultry, clammy atmosphere of bomb-stuffed, shell-proof Gibraltar. Even the feasts and the joys appeared to us to suffer from that artificial half-life of man, beast, and plant on that frowning, artificially adorned, bare, formidable promontory where half of his life man lives imprisoned, ingress and egress being forbidden from sunset to sunrise, and the dew-drop being as rare as pearl. Yet, compared with all neighboring places, Gibraltar is an oasis of culture, order, and beauty, so much can civilization bring out of Nature ; scantiest gifts, so little can Nature do for man untrained to utilize her bounties. VII. Tangier, we were told, is considered by the Moors the most beautiful city of the Eastern Hemisphere; and they may well be pardoned for 19this silly conceit, considering that very few inhabiting that place went to the trouble of looking at Gibraltar. But on seeing Tangier from a distance. one is almost tempted to agree with the Moors. As we are crossing the Strait, with sunny glories playing around us, on a flood scarcely ruffled by a gentle breeze, we behold at a distance of about ten miles a dazzling, deep agglomeration of human dwellings wrapped in the morning's radiant splendors, spread over a slope running highest toward the narrowing Strait, where Atlantic pours his surplus brine into the song-consecrated, inland sea. The whole ensemble is encompassed by an equally bright wall about ten feet in height, with a tower and a battery here and there, which are evidences of its being a fortress a la Jericho, hardly strong enough to withstand the blast of a trumpet, still less that of powder. Like Gibraltar, Tangier has a history of her own,—is accounted one of the oldest African cities, has been even the capital of a kingdom, but is now a faded relic of glories that are faded, as we shall presently see. As we are drawing nearer the walls, we are filled with a sense of disappointment ; they look the more miserable the 20more we compare them with the perfect forts of Gibraltar, and a man need no more than glance at these two strongholds to know forever the difference between Morocco and Britain, or, say, between barbarism and civilization. This a fortification!—grass growingabove, moss everywhere, walls dilapidated, cannon of the oldest calibre, rusty, useless, unwatched, uncleaned, bearing the indelible marks of decay. If thou art not widowed, fair city, then must thy lord be either drunk or insane. So heaven-favored, and so neglected ! And who are the people yonder, sunburnt, dark-eyed, black-haired, ragged, shabby caps or mufflers on head, barefoot, feet unwashed supporting sinewy calves displayed to the gaze, all eagerness to be serviceable? Sons of Israel they, poor porters on the beach, willing to rush into the water and shoulder traveller and luggage to the shore; for there is no landing-place a vessel could approach. Being on dry land, let us have a look at the city and the inhabitants. We are soon within the first precinct of the Moorish Paris. We perceive that sweeping is a habit little indulged in hereabout, where things clean and unclean, living and dead, decaying or 21sleeping, lie pell-mell, undisturbed. A thoughtful donkey, seemingly indifferent as to what evolution and the world think about him, crosses our pathway, gets a substantial kick from the unarmed heel of our porter, but passes on philosophically resigned, without as much as changing his gait or mien. " We are used to this kind of treatment," he could say, poor creature! who, compared with his master, is certainly the nobler animal. Our trunks are solemnly opened before a high tribunal of four turbaned Moors, with beards and dresses flowing, those reaching down to the girdle, these down to the ankles, bare but partly hidden in a slipper of Moorish make, of course. They are gravely inspecting the contents of the first case, mostly books. One happens to pick up a manual of natural history, and is horrified at the sight of black snakes coiled on the pages, and laughs at the monkeys, and wonders at the dogs, birds, horses, camels, and elephants. Our interpreter assures the Moorish peers that we are the most learned personage that has for a long time reached the empire, which is going to reap the blessings of our wisdom; that we speak all the languages—Arabic excepted, of course—and know 22all the books by heart. New interjections of great wonder. All eyes are riveted on our humble, blushing individuality. No jest to sustain the weight of greatness. We hear el Koran mentioned, and are asked if we know aught of that wonder-work. Of course we know all about it, from the prophet's favorite wife down to el Barek. Astonishment again. The Moslem peers press warmly our hand, make a reverential salaam, and we enter the city in triumph— on a donkey. VIII. Tangier, anciently a great mart of the Phoenicians, has been taken from the Moor by the Portuguese, who presented it to the English, who forsook it as a place unworthy of being held against the Moor, who is now sole ruler, with half a dozen European ambassadors to annoy him, each of those petty grandees wishing to be no more nor less than the barbarous monarch of the barbarously ruled country. A miniature-world diplomacy, with all this artifice-and-lie-factory implies, is carried on in that hole of a city, and this to a degree that makes the stupefied Moslem wonder at the brotherly love and 23cordiality which animate those great plenipotentiaries of great Christian nations, who send out missionaries to convert the heathen, instead ol converting their Christian friends to Christianity. Spain would have something to say; England has the biggest say, to the chagrin of France, who points to broken Moorish citadels thunderstruck by her artillery; Germany has now and then a word or- two not to be forgotten ; and Sweden has a voice; and the United States have a man-of-war or two, which, though laughed at by the big navies, are at least big enough to frighten the degenerate Moor, unless encouraged to resist, in which case America yields. Pleasant residences and delightful spots are numerous in and around Tangier, but oh those crooked lanes!—if paved, so horribly craggy; if unpaved, so bottomlessly muddy, dusty, dirty: cadavers, dunghills here and there, a limbo of nastiness and ill odor, but apparently unnoticed by the stoic denizens of Moslem resignation. The houses are mostly flat-roofed ; shops of all descriptions display all kinds of wares coveted by the dark-eyed,grim and hungry-looking savage, of sinews and a stature not to be trifled with ; priced by the finer pale-faced faithful, who 24never buys without a tedious higgling so characteristic of Oriental dealing and trading. Of course, there is the unfailing bazaar or Soco, with the Babel-clamors of vendor and buyer, and a variegation of things as picturesque as it is singular and unparalleled in Occidental markets. You see the Arab musician, with his pipe and tom-tom, that conveys you an idea of the symphonies Miriam produced east of the Red Sea ; you stop near the story-teller, rapt in his tale, with a crowd sitting cross-legged, or patiently hanging around him, eagerly devouring the marvelous adventures of Aladdin and the genii; the women, like veiled, speechless statues, standing or sitting about as creatures of another world ; you meet the slave of tinged complexion perfectly contented with his unenviable lot ; the fierce savage of the Riff" Coast, a Nimrod every inch, once a pirate who made the mariner pale; you watch the mien and gait of the Moorish warrior, armed with a rusty gun, and distinguished by his blue cloak and red cap; the peasant with his gleaming eyes, his yataghan and enormous antediluvian firelock; you are struck with the appearance of the Jew, cautious, watchful, quick, usually ragged, somewhat timid, never 25sluggish, ever active; finally, strings of donkeys, camels, loaded or unloaded, dogs, horses, beggars, saints—a kind of maniac often strolling about with foam about the mouth, and in Adamic nudity, an awe to the Moorish, a disgust to the European and Jewish women—make up, including the snake-charmer with his grisly play-monsters, the strange ensemble of commercial vivacity in that and all other centres of Moorish dominion. Having had a good sight of the Soco, the Alcazar, the Roman bridge, and the old Roman city, of which there are relics in the shape of dock gates, once used for the galleys in the arsenal; and having ascended the beautiful lighthouse at Cape Spartel, you have seen all that is worthy of seeing in Tangier and suburbs, and you, that is we, are preparing to go to Tetuan by land, an enterprise of no small importance, as you will presently see. As to our brethren in Tangier, surprising as this may appear, they are averagely better educated than those of Gibraltar, this being solely ascribable to the influence of the well-managed Alliance school, subsidized by the London Board of Deputies, since some time working conjointly with the Anglo-Jewish Association. In Tangier, 26as in the other Oriental cities, the Alliance school is the school of the place, the missionary activity notwithstanding. The prominent Israelites have ail seen Europe, and are not foreign to its prevailing tastes, and even luxuries. Protected from abuse by consular influence, they thrive, like an outward polish, a kind of social refinement, are hospitably disposed, and show a remarkable willingness to assimilate whatever they deem fashionable in the stranger, cleaving all the same to religious forms and unaccountable customs with a strictness which is much more mechanic than thoughtful. It is here as elsewhere : " My father has done so, I must do the like. Why ? Because." In their homes the true Jewish simplicity and heartiness prevail, the politeness being a garb put on to favorably impress the strange visitor. Israel can boast of beautiful daughters in Morocco; but the air is too unhealthy therein for the flower of beauty to flourish to exuberance; it fades in the May of life, early marriage contributing to its untimely decay. Let us not mar this pleasant picture by an addition of darker colorings painting the wretchedness of which there is abundance in the Jewish quarter of Tangier. There will be 27chance to survey the general condition of our brethren in that inhospitable, inauspicious land. IX. We are on our way to Tetuan,—we mean on one of the numberless pathways which tempt every donkey to take his choice, every mule to satisfy his fancy. Our escort consists of an all-knowing guide, a Samson of a warrior, to protect us from faithful banditti, for which noble profession, we were assured, there were plenty of recruits supplied by the villages lying between Tangier and Tetuan ; five Hebrew donkey-drivers,and a half-starved specimen of the canine species, who followed us uninvited, hoping, we thought, to receive the second half of the loaf we have given him, moved by his pitifully-imploring eyes. Our hopes were naturally founded on the shoulders of our warrior, who inspired so much confidence by his agility and sociability that we almost forgot the malicious insinuation of a gentleman in Tangier, who hinted that, should aught betide us, we must be prepared to see our heroic guard turn tail and run off. It is, indeed, hard to see how one could expect more loyalty for five francs, paid in advance, by an 28infidel to one of the faithful. We lost no opportunity, however, in strengthening the attachment of our defense, not alone by a few compliments in bad Arabic which no Arab could possibly understand, but by a handful of multangular Moorish coppers liberally offered.which, we could plainly see, did his soul good. It is noon. Tangier disappears behind us ; the weather is rainy ; we are seated on a mule who indulges in all manner of fancies, and enjoys all the liberties he has a liking for, since the donkey-drivers have more than enough to do to make their animals do their will; next to the phenomenal stubbornness of the mule, the obstinacy of the ass fully accounts for Balaam's impatience, especially when there is the tempting inducement of a mouthful of grass. Reason with a donkey ! It is afternoon, the clouds are dense, the rain comes down thick and heavy,the mud is fathomless, the thickets are inextricably perplexing, our mule is unbearably self-willed : we give up all hope of control. Just now he turns on a sudden to the left, rushes like lightning through a wilderness of oleander shrubs; we try to save our silk umbrella, but too late; we are soon 29stretched in the mud, umbrella torn, one of the shoes in the stirrup. Great rush and profound sympathy all around. Our guide is there, the warrior there, the drivers there; indignation, compassion, regret, and shame are painted on every face. We are up, however, unhurt, reclaim our shoe, the muddy foot is pushed into it, the mule is caught, we are again progressing, thinking of the great Bonaparte, who likewise lost one of his boots in the catastrophe of Waterloo,—a sadder accident than that we experienced in our Mud-loo. Incessant rain makes our progress toilsome. Some consolation is afforded by the prospect ol our reaching at nightfall the much-talked-oi Fondak, a caravansary lying somewhat midway between the two cities, one of the wondrous monuments of Sheriffian hospitality, open to all belated wanderers. We are toiling along through puddles of mire, lagoons of slime, pools of water, a Tophet of bad things, gilded by one sweet hope of the much-longed-for Fondak ; but there is no sight of that abode of rest. It is seven P. M., and—oh joy ! there is the precious roof, there the beautiful walls, there the heavenly gate ; there belated, rather unwashed, pilgrims • 3°pass in with camel, horse, mule, ass ; it is truly a haven of refuge from a deluge of rain, a sea of slime. We, too, are within at last, wet to the skin, shuddering with cold, literally dripping with water and liquid dirt. But when were human heart and hope so despondingly disappointed ? That caravansary! A big, gloomy square, roofed around the walls, open in the middle; a spacious, nasty,bottomless, malodorous marsh; a confusion of savage men, refractory beasts, creatures howling, screaming, yelling, swearing, kicking, gesticulating, with none to settle matters. A dollar, two dollars,—an immense sum in that impoverished region,—three dollars, a kingdom for a bed, a clean, warm spot! In vain; it is a rare demand for an unheard-of commodity. Our drivers exchange a cunning smile, as if to say,"That man is insane." We compliment our wisdom, we bless our foresight, to have purchased a portable couch in Paris. It is all wet, it is true, but inestimable at that moment. In a doorless, floorless, dirty, dingy, windowless room,illumined by a fire that filled it with smoke to suftocation, amid a throng of snoring, seemingly contented humanity, stretched on the bare ground with a rag as pillow, we spent that 3imemorable night sighing and praying for sunshine. Early in the morning all are up and stirring. Never did we love the blessed sun more than on that morn, when, on issuing from the unspeakable Fondak, we beheld him rise in glorious radiance, setting all the east on fire, and flooding earth and heaven with splendor and warmth. No wonder we had once sun-worship. The worship of the sun brings man much nearer God than the base worship of Mammon, to be sure. Toward noon we catch sight of another city, surrounded by another brick wall, spread on elevated ground,surmounted by a castle perched on a rock; and this is Tetuan, the place founded in 1492 by refugees from Granada, many of whose descendants are still holding the title-deeds of their sires' estates in Spain, and the keys to the houses of which there is not a trace left. There is no doubt whatever that Jews have been among the founders of Tetuan, where they now live separated by walls from the city proper. Their quarter, called the mellah, is locked at night, guarded from without by soldiers, from within by watchful Israelites, armed with weapons of all sorts to repel aggression. Tetuan is said to be about forty miles distant 32from Tangier,—a rather long distance for one unaccustomed to Moorish ways and mulish means,—but is remarkable for the Biblical primi-tiveness ruling therein. Haran or Ur could not have looked more uncivilized than Tetuan. Here the sight of a European is rare, and, notwithstanding the benignity of the skies and the fertility of the soil, man vegetates in squalor, poverty, and ignorance. Nature is blooming and blossoming in vain. The fig, the cactus, the citron, are growing wild; the orange groves are delicious when in blossom, Hesperian when weighed down with golden fruit; the palm tree is there; but dense ignorance, fanaticism, superstition, and indolence, insecurity of life and property, miserable government and wretched laws, left at the gentle mercies of uxorious pashas, combine to keep one of God's most benignant regions in a state but little short of desolation and anarchy. It seems to be the curse of Mohammedanism, founded by the sword, to decay wherever prosperity is to spring from works of peace and the blessings of Nature's inexhaustible gifis. Given to carnal indulgence here, hoping for carnal pleasures in the beyond, keeping womanhood in abject submission, discouraging 33fraternization with other creeds,averse to labor, disdaining commerce, unskilled in agriculture, antagonistic to art, except poetry, and all international intercourse, literary or other,—like Confucianism, Islamism is doomed. The commerce of Morocco is carried on by her barbarously treated Jews, living under most harassing restrictions. Consular protection made it hopeful for a man in that quarter to embark in some enterprise; its abolition will be the death-rattle of all that is alive and stirring in that land. Helping the Moslem to exterminate the last vestige of civilization, is it not helping Omar to burn the Alexandrian Library? It is flagrantly disingenuous in a diplomatist to assert that Consular protection in Morocco is liable to abuse, or had been abused, when everybody knows that no human rights are respected by that government and its agents; that 300,000 Jews are being treated like outcasts; and that it is sufficient for any subject of that empire to have a desirable thing, say a beautiful horse, a mule, a slave, or anything a covetous, omnipotent pasha has his heart set on, to be arrested, flogged, robbed, and imprisoned. But then modern diplomacy is so strictly and loyally 34Macchiavellian, that, besides having the swallowing capacities of the ostrich, it is blessed with the conscience of man-eating Polyphemus. That the spokes of its wheel have the necessary cascade to run it, is the only care of modern diplomacy ; whether the fluid be water or human blood, it makes no difference whatsoever. At the end of April, 1886, we received a strong appeal from prominent persons of Tangier to do our utmost in frustrating the efforts of a certain Ion Perdicaris, an individual of malodorous notoriety, who, to satisfy a spite, was intriguing against the humane Col. Felix A. Mathews, then our Consul-General at Tangier,—a man whose humanitarian efforts in behalf of the oppressed and friendless, while they did honor to the American flag, created him a number of bitter adversaries in diplomatic quarters. It will be remembered that we sounded the alarm in the Jewish press, and took other measures to draw the President's attention to the benefits springing from the good name and noble zeal of Mr. Mathews. The reply came, bearing the signature of our Secretary of the State Department, '' that the Consulate at Tangier has been investigated ; that the result was satisfactory to the 35Department, and that there is no disposition to displace Mr. Mathews." This statement of Mr. T. T. Bayard was further strengthened by a letter addressed to us by one of our representatives, J. B. Gilfillan, who writes : " I happened in at the Executive Mansion yesterday, and in an interview with the President he voluntarily called up this matter, and said he had read all the papers relating thereto and taken great interest therein, and was very glad to be able to come to the conclusion which was finally reached. I trust the conclusion arrived at will be entirely satisfactory to your people in Morocco." In February, 1887, we receive the following dispatch : " Mathews will be removed if the United States Senate confirms his successor. Your influence is required to be used at Washington. Senate will act this week ; Jewish people in danger at Morocco." Our influence in Washington amounts to a renewed appeal addressed to the President. The reply comes from the Executive Mansion : "The President directs me to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 8th instant, with regard to the displacement of Col. Felix Mathews from the Consulate at Tangier, and to 36inform you of its reference to the Secretary of State." This intimation is finally supplemented by the irrevocable decree coming from the Department of State, and bearing the signature Jos. D. Porter : " Your letter of the 8th instant, touching the removal of Mr. Felix A. Mathews as Consul of the United States at Tangier, has been referred by the President to this Department. In reply, I have to inform you that Mr. Mathews was recalled for public reasons which had no reference to the charges preferred by Mr. Perdicaris." In other words, Diplomacy changed her mind. Perdicaris bought a letter for $500 which proved Mathews to be a good Republican, which letter, shown to them in power, produced the fatal effect. How matters stand in Morocco since, is too well known, to be discussed. The Department of State will have learned by this time that Mathews was the right man in the right place; and so have our poor brethren learned, alas ! who are once more friendless in the land of the foe. Within the walls, Tetuan presents a picture of perfect peace, but it is not the peace of a happy life, the moving bodies appearing in a state of 37half-consciousness. It is a soul-dulling, hope-withering-, monotonous drudgery of an existence, a death-in-life condition of being. Information having reached the elders and school authorities of our being on the way, the elite of the congregation, having astronomically computed the hour of our arrival, were on the spot to extend a hearty welcome to their mud-covered professor de la lingua inglesa. As our majestic train was entering the gate of the sorely dilapidated fortress, one look at things in general was sufficient to convince us that what they call in Russia "administrative exile" must bear a striking resemblance to life spent in Tetuan. We braced up, however, and had to recognize the zeal and hospitality of our friends, who worked indefatigably to make our life bearable. In a place wherein sunrise and sunset are the only new things to be seen, and where saints, dogs, pigs, and dirty children are the only conspicuous creatures who enliven the unutterably broken, crooked, and filthy lanes, a newcomer from a foreign land necessarily becomes the object of much gossip and constant observation ; and if the stranger happens to be young and single, the interest taken in him by parents 38of marriageable daughters naturally deepens. It is quite an ordeal to be conscious of hundreds of eyes—beautiful, dull, stupid, suspicious—resting on you wherever you are moving. We managed to have a spacious room arranged for us in the large school building lying beyond the mellah, and, to the great astonishment of our friends, whose dread of the invisible evil ones is by no means small, we made it our permanent residence, spending for several weeks the nights alone amid a labyrinth of deserted, bat-infested rooms. Soon our colleague, M. Matulon, joined us, and so, the school hours being over, we tried to have a good time,—talked of this and that a hundred and one times, read, fooled about, rode out on horseback to the sea-coast, examined all the nests in the school, made unprofitable calls, yawned in good company, and dreamed of livelier days to come. We had pets, pigeons, canary birds, dogs, and a fish-pond ; a casino was opened to unite all the culture of the place; but alas! the sameness was unchangeable, broken now and then by the drunkenness of the Spanish Consul, a hidalgo of high lineage and deep drinking. We did not spend a year in Tetuan when the cholera broke out, and a 39cordon was drawn around us, depriving us even of the change and pleasure derived from the reception of letters and newspapers. To be threatened with the plague under conditions most unfavorable to the laws of sanitation, is not a state calculated to inspire one with courage. We did not quit our post, however, until we thought a change of our position was in order. The Alliance had no vacancy; we did not care to stay any longer in Tetuan. We offered our resignation and left, this time by sea, direct for Gibraltar, where by way of tuition we secured the means to embark for the United States, the Eldorado of our dreams. Either to the old or to the new Land of Promise, was our motto. But before going farther, we are offering a few interesting sketches of Jewish life in Tetuan as they substantially appeared in the seventh annual report of the Anglo-Jewish Association. They were forwarded in reply to questions sent in by the Rev. A. Lowy, the venerable secretary of that society, a gentleman of whom Emerson would say: "There seemed a pool of honey about his heart which lubricated all his speech and action with fine jets of mead." Like our 40dearest friend, Dr. Baerwald, to know Mr. Lowy means to love him. X. Registers of births, marriages, and deaths are unknown in Tetuan ; it is impossible to obtain trustworthy statistics. Among the computed number of 6000 Jews, 1500 are dependent on charitable relief. Marriages usually take place when the bride and bridegroom have attained the ages of eighteen and twenty ; but in the interior of the Province of Fez, marriages are not uncommon at an earlier age, girls being generally married at fifteen and earlier. The average births are four in a family. Owing to the salubrious climate and the prevailing temperance, medical advice is rarely needed. The only prevailing epidemic is smallpox, which makes great ravages among the young, vaccination being as yet unknown. Both Jews and Mohammedans are very frugal, and many attain the age of threescore and ten. Above one hundred and sixty pupils attend the Alliance school. They are divided into five classes, each having a subdivision. Only 41the first and second classes receive French and English tuition. The lower classes are under the charge of native assistants, who were educated in the same school at a time when the management was not so good as it is now. The teachers at the Alliance school meet with difficulties when they receive pupils who have been taught at private schools in a parrot like manner. The children there are taught nothing but the reading of prayers and the Five Books of Moses, usually without the translation thereof. This mechanical process impairs the natural quickness of the hundreds of children who begin to learn at a tender age. Their faculties are undeveloped when they enter the Alliance school, and they do not easily submit to mental exertion. The tcachers have not only to overcome difficulties made by pupils, but also those interposed by parents. Children attend unpunctually, or play truant, and put forth all sorts of insignificant excuses for their dereliction of duty. Nearly a third or fourth part of the pupils in a class absent themselves every other day. Before the arrival of the present director, French was the only secular subject taught. The Alliance school is the only one deserving 42the name of a school. There are several Tal-mud-Torah schools in Tetuan. One of these schools is held in the same premises wherein the pupils of the Alliance school assemble. Infants two or three years old, merely clad in dirty little shirts, are sent to the Talmud-Torah school, where they become accustomed to the noisy locality in which they have to spend many years. According to common practice, the children are huddled on the ground, which is covered with the rags of old matting. The teacher sits on a wooden plank, and his words are rehearsed amidst a confused echo of many voices. More than three hundred little ones are reared in such institutions. For the last two years the instruction of girls has been discontinued, as no mistress to manage the schools could be found. Children taught in the Talmud-Torah schools are often boarded on the premises. A piece of dry bread and an orange constitute the meal. They appear in tatters and barefooted ; their heads are covered with filthy caps ; and they present a painful sight to any one who is not a native of the country. The poor creatures are, moreover, treated very harshly indeed. A cow's 43tail is the instrument for the infliction of punishment,—a work apparently done with much gusto by the ignorant instructor. The poor children are flogged on their bare soles, and the piercing cries of the tortured are heard far beyond the walls of the school; but nobody cares, it being accepted as the safest method of enforcing discipline. This cruel treatment renders the rising youth callous to pain, and indifferent to the finer discipline of European teachers. The Tetuan Jews follow the occupations of petty traders, tailors, shoemakers, smiths, carpenters, drivers, etc. Although provisions are abundant and exceedingly cheap, poverty weighs heavily upon the unemployed. Whole families of these unfortunates are pent up in single rooms which have no proper flooring, and, instead of windows, have three or four small apertures in the wall. There is no notion of any furniture. A mat spread upon the uneven ground serves as a bed for many persons. The day is passed in search of work or charity. Once a week, bread and money are collected for the poor. They also receive provisions at the approach of every holyday. During weekdays scarcely any peison is 44seen who is not in rags and barefooted ; the Sabbath, however, effects a marvellous transformation. A foreigner can scarcely conceive that the person whom he meets on Sabbath is the same he saw on weekdays. A long, dark, richly bordered garment is the Sabbath attire of the men ; under it they wear short white jackets fastened together with numerous little white studs. This style of dress, though plain, is picturesque and dignified. Women do not content themselves with such an unostentatious appearance. Nothing satisfies them but gaudy display, which not unfrequently has a most comical effect. Aprons glittering with all sorts of baubles are much liked and coveted by the fair sex Such an apron, ponderous with gold embroidery, is the usual favorite bride's gift, and often passes as a precious heirloom from mother to daughter. Their bonnets are tastelessly edged with golden ornaments. Huge and heavy pendants in the shape of horns or branches gratify the wearers, who thus deform their natural grace. You may on Sabbath days see a group of these sylphs sitting speechless, and stupidly gazing at each other's ornaments,—this being, perhaps, the wisest thing for them to do. 45Tetuan has no less than sixteen synagogues. They are located in private houses, and seldom extend beyond an area of ten or twelve square yards. A description of one gives a picture of all. It appears that the Jews in Tetuan never erect special synagogue-buildings, but invariably rent private places of prayer. Attempts to unite the Congregation by the erection of a few appropriate houses of worship have been strenuously resisted by persons pleased with the present state of things ; were a change for the better to take place, many a small president would object to lose his position, many a rabbi his influence and income, and a housekeeper his wages. Some of the so-called Chachamim would also be nominal or material losers ; hence the thousands of worshippers are distributed in rooms which are inconvenient, ill-ventilated, and insufficiently lighted. . It deserves to be noticed that the Russian, Polish, and Roumanian Jews are far more advanced in matters relating to the House of Worship. In every little Russian town, though it be inhabited by only one hundred Jewish families, there are excellent synagogues, with readers, who are mostly assisted by choirs. 46Order reigns in those places of worship. Here, however, all who are in attendance form one discordant mass, all reading aloud at the same time. The Spanish rite prevails here. Persons, after being called up to the Law, make the round of the synagogue, shake hands with their relatives and friends, and kiss each other's hands ; but first of all the children approach and kiss the parent's hand. Similar ceremonies are observed before quitting the synagogue ; also when visits are exchanged. The blessings of the Cohanim are given twice every Sabbath. Women pray separated by a wall or curtain from their lords. The ritual honors at the synagogue, including the opening of the Ark and the calling up to the Law, are bought for a period of six months. Preaching is a thing unheard of, the periodical Urashah being an ingenious, but usually unin-structive, mosaic made up of incoherent quotations from Rabbinical literature. No records are extant to show when the Jews settled in Tetuan. Not a single relic is left of their bygone history, unless it be an old graveyard, which is said to contain the remains of Jews exiled from Castile in 1492. The natives state that before the fall of Granada into the hands of 47Ferdinand and Isabella, Tetuan was a small village inhabited by a few hundred persons. The sudden influx of Jews and Moors made it a town. The Jewish Congregation of Tetuan was once much larger, wealthier, and a good deal more influential, than it is now. There is a tradition, sustained by several poems in Hebrew bearing on the subject, that eighty years ago the Jews of Tetuan were, on one special occasion, severely treated by the Moslems. Sultan Sidi Mohammed, who was then reigning, had married a Christian wife, by whom he had a son named Muley el Ghazi. The son, rebelling against his father, and having to flee, took refuge in a sanctuary not far from Tetuan. Muley, being in want of money, applied to one Solomon Hazan ; but the Hebrew, being justly afraid of the Sultan, who was then marching against Teiuan, refused the loan. Sidi Mohammed, who, after his arrival, had given orders to destroy the hiding-place of his son, suddenly died before his commands could be executed. Muley el Ghazi, succeeding his father, ordered the Tetuan Jews to be exterminated. This decision was opposed by a Mohammedan noble, who declared that the murder of so many men was a sin, and that it would 4«be sufficient if they were plundered. The Mohammedans acted strictly on this opinion ; the Jews were robbed of everything, some even of their shirts. But the fate of Solomon Hazan was terrible. His hair was fastened to the tail of a horse, he was dragged to the encampment of the new Sultan, suspended by one leg, deprived of his eyesight, and then stabbed with iron spikes until he expired. After that the Jewish population markedly decreased, many families emigrating to Algeria, especially since the French had taken possession of that country. The actual position of the Tetuan Jews is far from being satisfactory. Although life and property are more safe here than in the interior, no reliance can be placed on the Moors, who, on the slightest provocation, are prone to commit barbarous excesses, as has been shown by experience. When the war broke out between Spain and Morocco, Moors, former friends of the families, were the first to enter and plunder the Jewish houses. As matters stand now, a Moor would not hesitate, at a favorable opportunity, to deprive the Jew of all his property, which, unfortunately, or rather, fortunately, amounts to very little. 49The Jews of Tetuan lay claim to having produced the following authors : 1. R. Isaac Arobas, son of the Grand Rabbi Channia, wrote ilSepher Emeth-Veemuna," which was translated into Italian. 2. R. Chasdai Almosino—an ancestor of Chacham Almosino, who was Chief Rabbi of the Spanish and Portuguese Congregation in London—wrote " Chesed EV and llMishmereth Hakodesh^hotix of which were printed in London. 3. R. Menahem Attiah wrote " Ner Ha-maarabi," a collection of homiletic expositions extant in manuscript. 4. R. Jacob Benmalca wrote "Sepher Hamaar-abi" which contains a series of responses on theological questions. 5. R. Isaac Bengnalid, who left a manuscript entitled " Vayomer Yitzchakwhich is shortly to appear in print. 6. R. Jacob Chalfon, who composed two works—still in manuscript—'' NegedMelachim'' and " Yanuka Debe Rob" 7. R. J. Marracho, who left six manuscripts, two of which are in Tetuan and four in Gibraltar. He was a Cabbalist, and wrote on the Zohar. It may be stated in this connection that 50indulgence in Cabbalistic lore, so frequent in Russia, is comparatively rare in Morocco, which does not imply that faith in things mystical and superstitious is unknown here. In domestic life, the Jewish woman does not hold the same degraded position which is assigned to the wife of the Moor. In the marriage contract, a clause is inserted by which the bridegroom pledges himself to monogamy, never to move from one place to another without the consent of his wife, and to indulge in the luxury of bigamy with her approval only, which is, naturally, never given or asked. Still, her position is anything but enviable, and rough treatment of Jewish womanhood by a brutal husband is by no means phenomenal; but it is commonly visited with severe punishment by the Chief Rabbi, who is invested with official authority over his flock. At the birth of a girl no signs of rejoicing are made, but when a boy is born the house rings with delight. Superstitious usages are on such occasions put into practice. The happy father rushes through the rooms with a warlike instrument, to subdue the Evil Spirit, and then deposits the weapon at the bedside of the infant. Old women present themselves at 5ithe house and intone most unmelodious, shrill singing ; while every evening prayers are recited at the bedside of the new-born babe. Those same professional women enter each house of mourning, and often make death hideous by their unnatural, monotonous cries,—an unaccountable custom in the life of Israel unknown elsewhere. When funerals take place, all the shops which are passed by the hearse are closed. Those who follow the funeral recite dirges, the relations, close behind the coffin, weeping under the shadow of heavy black covers till the gate of the mellah is passed. Passers-by first touch the dead body, then their eyes, then kiss their hand. The hearse is carried by aged men. The child is carried to the grave by children. Although the Jewish burial-ground adjoins that of the Moors, the Jews are not permitted to carry their dead through the same gates through which their Mohammedan neighbors have to pass. The Jews are obliged to make a long detour. Visits to the tombs of Jewish celebrities are made very frequently. Even Mohammedans seek to be cured in cases of illness by resorting to the graves of Jewish worthies. On Mondays, Thursdays, and Fridays the road leading to the 52graveyard is positively crowded with females. Families often take their principal meal at the tomb of departed relatives. It is held to be a pious act if the night preceding the thirty-third ottheOmeris spent at the resting-place of thedead. Many precautions are used to protect from the evil eye. A horseshoe is often fixed against the entrance of a house. Amulets in Hebrew or Arabic are attached to the necks of horses, donkeys, etc. The messengers from Jerusalem sell iron rings, consecrated in the Holy Land, as charms. Men and women often wear huge pendants to prevent the effect of the evil eye. XI. We are near reality in stating that life in Tetuan is in all essentials identical with life in Barbary, Turkey, Persia, and Arabia ; nor is there striking similarity wanting between the degree of culture and the moral level reached by the Jews of Oriental empires and those of Russia, Rou-mania, Galicia, and elsewhere beyond the civilized lands. Oppression and poverty have their story written on the physiognomy and ingrafted on the character of the sufferers. There are, however, a humor and a frankness about the •53Russian Jew rarely met with amonghis brethren in Oriental lands. Just try to outwit the Polish Jew, and you shall find that you have caught a Tartar, who will have lots of fun at your expense ; but Israel's son hailing from the Orient has a tinge of sadness, caution, seriousness, and timidity about him which has in some way to be accounted for. He seems to have lost all confidence in his non-Jewish fellow-men, and has but an imperfect trust in his brethren of the Occident. He does a good deal to please you, but his heart is not yours. Beyond the endeavor to realize a livelihood, his ambition is not great. Small is his courage, undeveloped his manhood ; his is an historical dejection, deepened by surroundings of historical decay. With Turk or Moor as lordling, effeminacy and corruption everywhere, how in the world can a man's spirit rise high ? It is otherwise in Russia, where the Jew is drafted for the army, manages, despite all Muscovite cunning and restrictions, to accumulate wealth, to support great schools for the diffusion of Jewish literature and ethics, to build hospitals, grand temples, asylum institutions,—in a word, to create an oasis in a desert of barbarism. In cities like Minsk, Mohilev, Tchernigov, 54Krementchug, Odessa, etc., you meet a class of Jews conversant with the three greatest literatures of modern times, and not unacquainted with the amenities of civilized society. Do not think of your Russian co-religionist as one anxious to be helped by you ; he thinks too much of himself to give up the hope of self-help ; he looks to a great future, and ranks not the Nihilist among his foes. The Polish beggar you meet represents not the Russian Jew. The similarity we referred to must, therefore, be confined to certain superstitions current among the bulk of our uncultured brethren around the globe. We could fill a volume with all kinds of wondrous ghost-tales, but one or two will suffice as samples of what the ignorant believe. The following was told to us by a gentleman of sincere heart, who received it of his grandfather. The old custom of rising early a few days before our New Year and sayingselicholh, is of course strictly adhered to, as far as the venerable old machzar is ruling supreme. Now, it happened—thus runs the tale—that a leading elder was aroused by a heavy knock at his window,—the usual summons to those early orisons, 55—and he hastened to dress and went to the prayer-house, which, however, on entering, he found crowded to its uttermost with persons he had never in his life seen before. Looking, somewhat bewildered, around him in the hope of meeting an acquaintance, he heard an unearthly shrill voice ejaculate: 1' Pass him aseliche and a light!" At which order one from the very opposite end of the spacious sanctuary stretched forth an arm about fifty feet long and handed him the book and the taper. It may be imagined that the pious elder did not feel like availing himself of the kind offer, and was in a great hurry to look for his friends of shorter limbs ; but, as he was running homeward, he breathed easier on meeting one of his well-known neighbors. To relieve his breast, he stopped just long enough to tell his neighbor the ghostly story of the longima-nous audience ; at which, to his utter amazement, the well-known neighbor smiled a broad smile, assumed a face which was anything but reassuring, and put forth a sixty-yard tongue, which, like a giant snake, he twisted in heavy coils around his upshooting body. The honest elder had had by this time enough selichoth, we should think ; and it stands open to conjecture that his 56son was the first radical reformer, who, having lost his dear father through things entirely too long to become fashionable, became a sworn enemy of those dangerously long payutim that gave the ghosts a chance. Since that time the curtailing has never ceased. That the dead assemble at midnight in sacred places, to worship and read the Law, is a belief deeply rooted in the mind of thousands of Jews in Slavonic dominions, and far beyond them. Stories are told of persons who happened to pass by the synagogue in the ghostly hour, when they heard their names mentioned by the dead ones, who called them up to the Law. They entered, performed the sacred rite, heard the Torah read by one whom they could not see, went out, reached their home, swooned, and died. So deep is this belief, that the sexton, who opens the synagogue door for early worship, never does so without knocking warningly against it. This recalls to mind tlfe legend of the rabbi of Prague who, seeing his temple overcrowded on the eve oi Yom Kippur, and many of his flock faint to suffocation, ordered the living to take off their talethim, so that the dead, who could not do the like, had to vacate the synagogue. Of meetings 57between the dead and the living in the dead of night, there are more stories than one can tell. Superstitious as all this may appear, it strongly points to the consciousness, even of the ignorant Jew, that the soul is immortal. The other specimen of a fairy story we have from a Moorish lady friend, who gave it to us in the name of her grandmother, if we remember well. Rising one Friday before sunrise, she was engaged in cleaning fish for the approaching Sabbath, when lo ! there emerged from the invisible world a sweet little, wondrously beautiful creature, who in a meek voice begged the lady to present him with a fish. The belief that giving aught to an apparition always bodes evil, and receiving good,—a belief so general in the world of reality,—made the good woman hesitate for a moment ; but the petition of the elf proved irresistible, and he secured the boon. He immediately vanished in the air, only to reappear a little later with the fish changed into gold. Reverently bowing, the 'cute elf presented the golden pescado to the lady, and was no more. There was the piscatory wonder lying before the eyes of the happy woman, alas! a fish of pure gold as long as the dark lasted, but a rotten 58carcass as soon as the Orient's beam sent forth its splendors against the paling west. So fearful are the ghosts, so treacherous the elves. What wonder, then, that rigorous or propitiatory measures are adopted to suitably meet or counteract the evil designs of the invisible foe ? The amulet, the horseshoe, and the Shemang are the most approved of talismans in Morocco, and they work well. The Russian peasant threatens the devil with the cross, of which, we are assured, Satan himself is in wholesome dread. The Moor and Turk adopt the gentler method of keeping off the Evil One by the polite offer of a savory meal, dished up somewhere behind the dwelling invaded by sickness or foreboding nightmares. We heartily approved of this last method of treating the hobgoblin, as it turns out an untold blessing to the canine species, so utterly homeless, unfed, and unclaimed in that and other quarters of Islam's sway; one more illustration of good springing from error. One more remark anent the moral status of our brethren in Morocco. We may criticise them for this or that shortcoming,—for which an equivalent may be easily found among the more favored brethren of happier lands,—but 59we must accord them a considerable degree of the noblest of human qualities at the bottom of all greatness, and that is self-sacrifice, devotion to an ideal, a dream. Theirs is, indeed, a condition to unhinge the piety of a Job : wretched surroundings, ignominious treatment, penury often so real that the bread-petition of the little, hungry one remains unanswered; wives and daughters aged before their time, yet prayerful, scrupulous of ritual observance, keeping the Sabbath holy, eagerly swallowing the living word of instruction, and patiently resigned to a lot unbearable to one lacking in what we are proud to denominate Jewish heroism, amply proved by an epic tale of nineteen centuries. You are proud of Hebrew blood flowing in your veins because some of ours have enriched harmony, some philosophy, some commerce, and some the exchanges of the world ? This is something, to be sure, and we would to heaven the 20,000 American Jewish dudes, each one a perfect DIN toa,—that is, in Sam Jones's classical vocabulary, a jackass,—would know this ; but they should especially note that the glory of Israel, who forever upheld the Jacob's ladder that links the nether to the upper worlds, must 60be referred back to that unparalleled endurance, martyrdom, and contempt of death in a race that, having helped to build Cheops' pyramid, and furnished the basis for the moral and religious worlds to stand upon, is prepared to witness and settle the serious affair of Doomsday. With religion, history, thought, and wealth, or, as a friend of ours forcibly puts it, with God and the devil on the side of the Jew, it is a rather hopeless paper battle to strike at him with a block or two of printed insanities ; as if any Aryan ever had shoulder broad enough to heave and bear the tortoise on which the elephantine monster is planted, the globe on his back ! Poor, hungry devils they, that have no safer stock in trade to rely on for a loaf of bread than the extolling of Aryanism at the expense of Semitism as bodied forth in the Jew ! Oh, we admit it is dreadful to behold the Hebrew in an unaccountable manner become the arbiter of history, not alone in matters religious, wherein he is sole sovereign, but worse, unbearably worse, in matters financial, and in almost all other matters, save that of inventing engines to slay his fellow-man. There lived never a race in nature more problematical than that of Israel. One 61son of the tribes gives the world a rushing December trade and a theology it has yet to decipher ; another one puts Mohammed on el Barek, and teaches him how to get the prophecy from the seventh sky ; comcs a third and puts the crown on Cartesianism ; a fourth, who opens the Pandora-box of Socialism ; besides an un-Aryan host of philosophers, writers, statesmen, and composers, whom Wagner loves not and Frederick dislikes because, as his Royal Highness wisely remarked, "The Christians cut each other's throats, and the Jew supplies the music for the ceremony." This is, verily, not the Jew's fault ; but, take it all in all, Shem looks discouragingly robust for his age, with no indication on his part of retiring from business in favor of his younger brothers Ham and Japhet. No use to be-Shylock and be-Fagin a race that has a mind and a heart, a place and a goal in life. Was Greece conquered by Rome, or Rome by Greece? Read history, and learn that the power divine is not the host and the cannon, not the storm and earthquake, nor the thunder and the cyclone ; but '' a still small voice '' shapes the destiny of mankind,—that Voice which, when first heard throughout the universe, made 62infinity radiant with the grandest fiat: "Let there be light!" Here is thy motto, O Israel! XII. We left Tetuan with no tear in the eye; but an irrepressible melancholy invaded our mind on reflecting that, while before us a wide, free world of golden hopes was open, myriads of our brethren in that unblessed empire had but one prospect of relief from wretchedness, and that was—the grave. Often, while sleepless in the dead of night, we revisit in thought those ghostly scenes wrapped in the splendid glories of a wonder-moon, filled with a sacred stillness that makes one hear the voice and the footsteps of God ; broken, however, at a signal given from the principal mosque, when from a score of minarets comes the stirring cry of La illaha il Allah, Mohammed Ressul Allah! ("There is no God but God ! Mohammed is God's prophet!") Polygamy is an unnatural, beastly thing, and intolerance has always proved the curse of both oppressor and oppressed, else all respect and reverence to Islam, not unworthy—save in its gross notions of Paradise, which are not general—of the nobler mother religion, from which it has, indeed, 63assimilated many an invaluable jewel,—such, for instance, as unflinching faith in God, and perfect resignation to His inscrutable decrees, summed up in Allah Achbar God is great!"). The true Islamite needs very little to be happy,— perfectly contented with the fig and crust of bread to-day, perfectly sure that to-morrow Allah will supply again. Love of man and love of knowledge would make Islam a dangerous, noble rival of Judaism and Unitarian Christianity. As matters stand, the Crescent has no future, but must of necessity succumb to the living, progressive religions, which are working for union below and unity above. Gibraltar we found but little more attractive than Tetuan. After a sojourn of several months, you not only know every nook, corner, building, officer, battery, policeman, and gun of the fortress, but you begin to be familiar with every tree and stone of your very limited environment. Sorry were our friends to see us leave, and one of the leading Jewish families—the Cuby family—were so anxious to see their children educated by us, that, after we had spent a year in their house, and declined to stay longer, Mr. Joseph Cuby resolved to try the expedient of 64establishing by his means an educational institution in London. With this end in view, he proceeded with us to London, accompanied by his father and two boys. Before leaving Gibraltar, we wish to put it on record that the first lecture delivered in the English tongue in that city in a Jewish place of worship, and published as a memento by the Israelites, was that we gave a few weeks before we embarked for Malaga. It was an event in the dull atmosphere of Gibraltar that seventh day of Passover, when the K. K. Nefusot Ye-hudah had their auditorium literally packed, and the audience made superhuman efforts to fathom the depth of what was being said about the alarmed sires on the shores of the Red Sea. Of course, it was a grand success. Kisses, thanks, embraces, and compliments fell thick as autumn leaves ; our eloquence was henceforth an undisputed wonder, especially to those who understood no English, and we had the gratification of being proclaimed the first orator—in Gibraltar. To see a bullfight was a wish we meant to gratify before leaving the confines of Spain. We thus went with a few friends to Algeciras (signifying "Green Island"), about five miles across 65the Bay of Gibraltar,—a place renowned for nothing so much as for its cheap gloves and its bullfights, considered among the best of Spain. The occasion was a kind of fair held in that place. If a nation may be judged by the kind of amusements it fosters,—this criterion being, in our view, one of the best,—Spain holds the lowest level in the scale of civilization. Anything more barbarous, inhuman, hideous, fiendish, and abominably detestable than a bullfight as a recreation, it is impossible to imagine, unless by one capable of writing a second " Inferno." The bull ring is an immense circus of solid brick walls, with a seating capacity of about five thousand, and an arena proportionate to the magnitude of the building. There are, however, much larger colosseums in Spain devoted to that same kind of amusement. The sun shines brilliantly. Dense masses of people flock toward the bull-ring and buy tickets for admission. All is festivity, mirth, and happiness, as if it were an Olympian festival. The mass of humanity is at last crowded into seats,— grandees, hidalgos, gentle ladies, sunny maidens, and small children. A thunderous roar shakes the massive structure. The Spaniard is eager 66for his fun, impatient of waiting. Through a side door the bullfighter, in picturesque attire, rods in hand, enters the arena. "Hurrah!" Several horsemen mounted on blindfolded horses follow. " Hurrah ! " A bull starved to desperation is close at their heels. It rushes in wildly. A tremendous "Hurrah!" frightens the poor beast; he moves his head in an ominous manner and emits sounds by no means reassuring. The sticks in the hand of the bullfighter have sharp iron points, in the shape of a fishing hook, which, once in the flesh, will not come out, and cause excruciating pain. These are skilfully thrust at the by this time very suspicious bull ; they sting desperately, catch hold of skin and flesh, and dangle the more, the more the infuriated brute tries to shake them off. Great rejoicing among the audience, savage laughter and applause. The frenzied bull rushes for his tormentor, who in a trice disappears behind a safe wall prepared for the purpose at a convenient distance. The bull strikes the wall furiously, turns round in an agony of rage and pain,—for about a dozen of those infernal spikes are lacerating his body,—catches sight of horse and rider, who is waving a red flag in a provoking manner. 67One savage rush, and his fearful horns are buried in the entrails of the blindfolded horse. The bowels run out, the torn beast is in agonies. The sons and daughters of noble Spain are delighted ; they clap their hands, the '' Hurrahs!" are heard miles around, the arena of the bullring being under the open sky. The next horse is attacked by the maddened bull with the same fatal effect; the third ; the fourth. Caballos al toro ! roars the passionate multitude. More horses are there to end miserably, filling the arena with dying carcasses. The bullfighter then displays his genius,—first by provoking the bull and cunningly evading his deathful horns, then by killing instantly the almost exhausted brute by a stab dealt through a certain mortal spot in the neck. This is repeated eight or twelve times, often to the untold transport of royalty, nobility, and populace in the largest cities of Spain : a pastime worthy of a people who earned the infamous immortality of being the originator of the Inquisition. Such are the amusements compatible with Catholic Christianity and the humane doctrines of the Vatican. How sweet art thou, dear Judaism ! 68XIII. Accompanied by our friends, we proceeded on board a steamer—that carried a heavy cargo of powder—to Malaga,—a circumstance we learned on our being ordered to keep at a safe distance from that magnificently situated city. That we lost no time in creating a big distance between our little company and the ship is useless to add. Here we had to wait a day for the train to Madrid, and spent our time in sightseeing ; but, except the Gibralfaro, raised on a towering eminence, once thunderstruck by the monstrous lombards of their Catholic Majesties, Malaga has no monuments to speak of. The Malaga of to-day, like everything Spanish, is not the Malaga of yore,—the Tyre she became by the industry of the Spanish Moor. Still a fair city, queenly, noble in look and bearing, her glories are departed, dilapidation and decay telling of what she once must have been ; so that her delicious clime and splendid bay are the only features in which she is said to rival the finest Italian cities. We met co-religionists in Malaga; but there is no organized life among them, Jewish confidence in Spanish toleration being too deeply 69shaken by bitter experience to be steadied by-ministerial, or even royal, verbiage. Decades must pass before the Jew will feel himself at home in a land where even Protestantism has to be careful of open religious exercise. Spain has yet to be humanized. The train that carried us to Madrid had a military escort, banditti having stopped and robbed a train prior to our arrival. The boundless, unpeopled, almost desolate tracts we traversed told more than volumes could of what Spain could be but for her historical guilt, so justly visited on her by a vengeful Nemesis. How great and beautiful once, but oh, how fallen, from what heights ! Once an empire wherein the sun never set, fed by cargoes of gold ; now poor, unfeared, unloved, unadmired, fallen by thine own sin, Hispania ! In Madrid we spent but one night; in Paris, several days ; in London, a week, calling on friends, meeting familiar faces, revisiting well-known places, and sharing, to a certain degree, the disappointment of Mr. Cuby, who soon realized the infeasibility of his plan, and had thus to return to Gibraltar, where the educational chances are poor, very poor. Too proud to 70receive advice and assistance from the Alliance Israelite Universelle, and too impractical and ununited to provide secular tuition forthemselves, the Jews of Gibraltar are as uneducated and superstitious as their brethren in Barbary, and worse. It was not long" ago when, on his oldest son reaching the age of Bar Mitzvah, Mr. Cuby applied to us for an appropriate address, which was duly forwarded, and met with sufficient appreciation,—tested by another demand of the kind when his second son approached the confirmation age, showing the intellectual stagnation there still prevalent. Despite all inducement, we declined to return to Gibraltar, and, bidding farewell to our friends, went on board a small steamer that conveyed passengers across the Channel for " L' Amerique," bound in Havre for the United States ; for we had been assured by a most reliable authority that, as to the nature of accommodation on the several Transatlantic steamers, the French was poor, the English poorer, but the German the poorest of the poor. These pessimistic views are not shared by those who pass their voyage in the state-rooms of any of the steamers, where life is far more enjoyable than in the nethermost 7iregions of a steerage Purgatory: Here a man can form a perfect notion as to what the Black Hole of India must have been; for, but for the prospect of the American Paradise, it is hard to see how any human being could stand such a me-phitic atmosphere for the space of twelve days. On landing in Havre, we had again to wait. At last the hour of departure is come ; black volumes of dense smoke issue forth from the twain chimneys of the stupendous "Amerique," which, like a dormant Jotun, with flame and thunder latent in her giant breast, is lying motionless, covering many a rood, allowing Liliputian throngs to bustle about her. She will soon stir and give such evidence of tempest-buffeting life as shall amaze all who doubted her thunder-loaded, fire-winged enormousness. Homeless humanity, driven in a variety of ways from dearly beloved spots, where the cradle was rocked by dear hands, and the sun's golden beam shone gently on sweet infancy, is here gathering up its humble gear with a hopeful face turned toward the West,—a Babel of tongues, a mixture of races, creeds, and physiognomies, a miniature world with hearts throbbing, thoughts going, souls praying for mild, auspicious winds 72to waft them athwart the gulfy deeps to the land of promise, where life is to bear sweet fruit, and aged parents left weeping behind are to be benefited by the results. Are we welcome there on the other side of our Lord's free, dear earth ? Who can doubt this ? The Bedouin is hospitable, offering you his camel's milk and couch under the roof of his tent; Britain holds her gates ajar for all, though her isles are scarcely larger than one of our smaller States and Territories; but there live people in these lands of boundless, virgin prairies—untilled, unused, wide enough and fertile enough to" give shelter and food to 200,000,000 human beings—who are talking and writing of restricting or checking immigration. Hitherto it was Russia's unenviable distinction to keep off strangers from her unfriendly borders; it begins to look as if a certain species of American philanthropists are aspiring to that accursed eminence of fencing up one of God's free continents against His poor, homeless, unfriended and persecuted children. May no light shine on such a day ! All are aboard. The cannon gives tongue ; the flags are streaming to the wind; the signal is given ; there is a pause, then a mighty shake, 73a stir, a rush; the flood is boiling-, the smoke is spouting forth in black masses ; there is a hissing, a wheezing and a spasmodic roaring of pent-up steam giving fearful voice to a trumpet. The several hundred passengers, many of whom have never seen the ocean, look somewhat stupefied, while the hitherto seemingly inert, huge bulk of a ship is burying her prow in the madly lashed wave, furrowing the deep like a monstrous boar, snorting like a fiery war-steed, every beam, board, plate, screw and nail in stirring action,— an ocean wonder winged with fire. What babes the Mediterranean vessels are in face of such a monster ark, with accommodation for at least a thousand souls! Then look down into her wondrous deep bowels, where iron Titan-arms are doing tremendous execution. Small work that of Thor and Vulcan in comparison with that human genius that bids dead metals do such enormous work in the stormy abysses of a trackless sea. Onward we sweep till land is lost sight of, and as far as eye can see there is naught but crested wave, tumbling billow, a raging surge, skies clouded, a howling water Sahara, with dark night setting in. But "L'Amerique" gives no sign of fatigue or 74fear, and is acting her part so majestically as if to say : " You just go to bed, poor pilgrim, and rely on me for the rest; I'll do my duty." At nightfall there were, indeed, not many on deck, and we soon went the way of all flesh,—that is, dizzy and seasick to our berth, which for nine days appeared the only stable and safe place to rest in, everything else seeming to run riot, as if the law of gravitation had gone out of fashion. Let the sagacious laugh at water-mountains and ships thrown to the clouds; they will grow wiser on trying the Atlantic's heaving breast, and will understand Rabbi Bar Barchanah's tales. On the tenth day after we had left Havre the gales seemed to wear off. There were sunshine, and a balmy atmosphere which brought everybody on deck, many looking pale, but grateful for the milder breeze and the captain's promise that within eighteen hours land would be sighted. All sorts of games are tried to beguile the time. There is a fiddle, with a lean fiddler attached to it who is the Orpheus of the throng ; there is a daring adventurer who, except Morocco, has seen all lands, explored the universe, knows personally the Khans, Czars and Shahs of the 75age, speaks of his friends in Iceland and his acquaintances in Yokohama; a good-humored, corpulent fellow of a happy face adorned with two black eyes and a ponderous copper nose; a man who, judging by his fabulous stories and coarse witticisms, may pass as a lineal descendant of immortal Falstafjf. From the humbler steerage regions comes the touching refrain of a song sung in concert: Wenn die Hojfnung nicht waereauf ein wieder Wiedersehen, the genuine grief of a memory harboring pictures of dear, distant ones sparkling through faithful eyes. Many would not retire that night, hoping to see land, land, land,—not less dear to them than to Christopher and the Pinzons. But the sun rises and no land ; the moon cometh and goeth, no land. "The captain fooled us," they say; "but to-morrow there must be land; we are this the twelfth night on water." Ay, next morn there was a dark, distant streak of dry, sacred land. Dear New World ! All was joy, hope, kindness, and contentment. About five in the afternoon we were towed in by a diminutive steamer and landed in New York. 76XIV. It was on the 18th of July, 1880, when, with a purse as empty as a Scotchman's bagpipe, a hunger inevitable after an emaciating seasickness, with big hopes and slim prospects, we found ourself in the immense, dirty, unfinished-looking, clamorous, restless, uninviting, irregular Empire City of the United States. To us, New York appeared a decided improvement on Tetuan.a deal livelier than Gibraltar, much more interesting than Tangier, less beautiful and picturesque than Malaga, preferable to Madrid ; but it is not an easy matter for the newcomer to share in the glowing enthusiasm of the New Yorker, who fancies himself the happy denizen of a modern Cambulu, when in sheer reality it is but an unfinished, wild Babylon without hanging gardens ; instead of which there are hanging railways, which are a fearful, hanging nuisance, —rattling monsters incessantly thundering above your head before and after sunset and sunrise ; a perpetual, rather conspicuous symbol of "No peace to the wicked." New York holds rank among the world's greatest emporiums, but as a 77residence-place, the farther you are away from it, the better for your body and soul. Amid that rush, whirl, and confusion of living masses, who look as if they believe the sun to be there in order to reduce the gas-bill, and the soul were to be wasted and spent in self-aggrandizement of the very grossest kind, it is next to impossible for a man to think highly of the human race, or taste of the ideal delights that spring from intellectual intercourse of minds linked by a higher affinity. New York is a vast metropolis, supplying the chances for accumulating wealth and wasting it. It is a kind of St. Petersburg of a humane countenance, yet unlovely, unhallowed by a religious and moral looseness, which, if not general, is yet striking enough to cause one to think of Heaven's mercy to sinners, mirrored forth by the rainbow. Having privately computed our cash and fixed the true figure thereof, notwithstanding our unproficiency in mathematics, we began to realize the palpable reality, that, in order to keep ourself above water for any length of time, we ought to look out for some raft, plank, or life-preserver to float us along until a hospitable harbor should be in view. Such a plank 78we found in an advertisement informing the world that in Harrisonburg, Va., an able man was wanted to officiate during the impending "awful days." We applied, assured the good people that we had no" doubt at all about our ability to satisfy them, and had the gratification of an immediate reply inviting us to come and officiate for seventy-five dollars,—a liberal emolument for one who was satisfied—because he had to be—with twenty dollars a month in Africa. The kind people—in all about ten families, in a town of scarcely 3000 inhabitants —gave us a very cordial reception, declared themselves perfectly satisfied with our efforts, and did the extraordinary thing of electing us for one year with a salary of eight hundred dollars, board and lodging free. This was a bonanza, to be sure. On the following Friday eve we entered on our duties as rabbi of Harrisonburg in a spacious hall rented for the purpose, the audience comprising every adult Israelite of the place; happy, honest faces, all of German nativity, we think ; by no means irreligious, but rather lukewarm in matters pertaining to religious principles imposing a sacrifice. After service the President asked why 79there was no lecture that night, and when we spoke of lecturing on the morrow, a smile illumined the healthy countenance of the presiding officer. " To-morrow is our market day,—the best of the week." By this time the little flock had gathered familiarly around their new shepherd, and the most emphatic asseverations were made that even Dr. Wise himself could not change it, never tried to change it; because it were foolish to expect people to do a thing they could not afford to do. This Harrisonburg logic we soon discovered to be the logic of New York, Chicago, Cincinnati, San Francisco, and many other centres of Jewish life,—with some exceptions, of course ; the rabbis themselves, instead of trying to stem the tide of religious degeneration, resorting to all kinds of sophistries to prove black white, some insisting that Sunday was just as good as Saturday ; as if a Judaism without a Decalogue and a history were a thing imaginable! It is Jeroboam once more, with ten tribes on his side, kneeling before the golden fetich. The Sunday apostles are those who are best paid, are most popular, the faithful being disheartened and apparently engaged in filling the barrel of the Dana'ides. It is painful to contemplate that 80teachers in Israel engaged by Jewish congregations to inculcate the rock-founded principles of Judaism, are wasting precious life in the unblessed attempt of proving that a Jew may transgress everything Jewish, sever his connection with the past, desecrate the faith of his sires, and yet be a good Jew. However, our resolution was taken. We resigned our position at a time when we were most in need of it, and left for Chicago. This wonderful city, springing, as it were, Phoenix-like from the ashes, is a phenomenon of American energy and juvenile vigor ; and one, standing among her solid, towering, monumental blocks, owned by a population of 700,000, finds it hard to believe that Montefiore was fifty years old before he heard her name. Chicago is not elegant, but immense,—a youthful giant, a London in many features, a beehive in the truest sense, the pulsating heart of an unbounded empire. Twenty-five thousand Israelites are assumed to live and prosper in Chicago, which is, moreover, acquiring the notoriety of being the focus, say the hotbed, of Jewish radicalism, whatever that be; for Chicago has a little Sinai of her own, with a miniature, rather anti-Mosaic 81lawgiver at the top of it: eloquent, defiant ; a man of somewhat splenetic temperament,intense sensitiveness, with a touch of pungent humor, biting irony, jealous to a fault, manly, resolute, charitable to the poor, generous to friends; exhausting the lawyer's subtlety and the politician's oratory to demonstrate to the perfect satisfaction of a flock as skeptical as the head, that the fox is his tail, and the summit needs no foundation to stand upon; the Buzfuz of American rabbis,— such is Rabbi E. G. Hirsch, omnipotent and almost worshipped in his orbit; the man in his place, yet far from sole-ruling even in the somewhat chaotic sky of radicalism,—a thing lacking definition. His hobby is the plastic term of humanity,—not the humanity of prophecy looking to a future of universal God-worship in unison and harmony,but thehumanity of Thomas Paine and Ingersoll,—a Utopia of carnal comfort and conviviality, devoid of ideal stamina, antagonistic to self-abnegation and loyalty to Jewish law and principle. Brilliant in speech, noble in bearing, fearltss in the arena of thought, in his nature a vein of Disraelian sarcasm, Hirsch is lacking in both depth and originality,—a man much overestimated and overpraised, with an 82ontology summed up in : "I am I." Jefais,je vais, je mange, done je suis. Beautiful Car-tesianism ! Be it, however, emphatically stated that, in our opinion, even this extreme standpoint of an undivine divinity seems preferable to that pseudo-orthodoxy that is sailing under false colors, and cleaving to a name and a claim entirely out of consonance with its too well known practices. Radicalism and reform in general have one healthy quality specious orthodoxy could profitably adopt: we mean candor of heart. Far as we are from endorsing a reform that is but apostasy in disguise, we are verily disgusted with an orthodoxy that will fight for a most unessential trifle and consciously transgress the most essential ; displaying, besides, an intolerance that is worthy of Calvinism. We know instances of persons springing from the highest regions of orthodoxy who will themselves live in Christian houses, appear seldom in a place of worship, break the Sabbath,—in short, live a most godless life,—and yet burst forth in furious declamation against the "reformers," who are practically by far the most active and charitable. Sickening hypocrisy! Drop appellations, 83if substance be dear to you. Talk not of orthodoxy, reform, conservative reform, radicalism, etc. There are only good Jews and bad Jews in this world,—such as do their best to uphold Judaism in its essentiality, and such as are deserters under an assumed name. Having spent a few days in Chicago, and learning of a vacant pulpit in a conservative, small congregation, we interviewed its presiding officer, and secured the chance of addressing the flock. The lecture appeared in print, and we were as sure as man could be of securing the coveted position. But what are all mortal calculations in face of an inscrutable fate? The lecture was unanimously pronounced grand,— they are not satisfied in this quarter with any but superlative terms, a person or a thing being either charming or horrid,—but we read Hebrew a la Portuguese, like a goy, said many of the pious elect, and had the misfortune, so they said, of naming three days Rosh Chodesh,—an evil omen to the mind of the wise. So all went wrong. The genial Dr. Felsenthal laughed on hearing the causes of our discomfiture ; so did we, but not quite so heartily ; for we began to realize the doleful condition of the old Fritz who 84had a seven years' war on hand and no funds. As we had plenty of advice for nothing,—the cheapest and only untaxed article in this land, —we were made to turn our eyes toward Cincinnati, where, we were assured, Rev. Dr. I. M. Wise had lots of positions to give away, he being the recognized omnipotent reformer of the West, whose word was law. Time being precious, living expensive, and money scarce, we lost no time in reflection, but started fc>£ the Western Paris—as some Yankees complacently call it— with the ominous words of the sardonic Mr. Gersoni ringing in our ear : " If you know how to please Wise he will push you ; if not, he will pull you." Arrived at Cincinnati on a Friday, we embraced the first opportunity of introducing ourself to. the great Jewish reformer, author, orator, philosopher, pamphleteer, publicist, politician, and theologian of the West. The opportunity was afforded in the vestry-room of his temple, where we found him next morning,— a somewhat bent, unsteadily walking figure, crowned with a capacious head, of a physiognomy that bespoke a restless mind, a mental vigor seldom found in a man who has passed threescore. " I heard of you," he said, " and there 85is no reason why you should not get a good position in America. Where is the Israelite? Here are three positions advertised ; write to all of them ; do so at once." Upon our remarking that the Sabbath was not a fit time for a Jewish minister to apply in writing, the venerable gentleman unhesitatingly honored us with an emphatic shote. and added that we were unfit for this country,—a revelation which aroused in us some serious doubts about Mohammed being the last prophet. With this the matter ended so far, and our curiosity was not small to hear this "light in Israel" discourse. His lecture was most assuredly a curiosity of homiletics, the stomach being the sacred centre round which all his ideas clustered. With an amazing waste of erudition, copious quotations from various literatures, he succeeded in strengthening his position until it seemed positively impregnable. The effect on the audience was magical. It is true some became drowsy and began to snore; but, then, others did not sleep at all; while only one gentleman before us glanced at his watch now and then. The edifice is one of the most magnificent we have ever seen. When all was over 86we felt sure of one thing : there was a '' stomach'' in the matter. As to the general order prevailing in American synagogues, it must be conceded to be peculiarly American. An external decorum is more or less observed in all except the Polish, and even among these there is progress in the right direction. Punctuality is a principle rarely honored in this land, and the Israelite is too patriotic to disregard this universal tendency. He comes to his place of worship when he pleases, expects to be noticed by the pastor, and to be gently treated in the sermon, or you have seen the last of him till next Yahrzeit, or Yom Kippur. He seldom keeps his prayer-book open for any considerable time, rises automatically to hear the Christian choir sing the She-mang and the Koddosh, listens drowsily to the lecture,—that should not last too long, nor contain too many quotations in Hebrew,—takes a nap now and then in his cushioned pew, looks at his watch when the minister's talk begins to tire him or provokes his half-dormant sensibility, and looks, all in all, like the English gentleman, who, according to Emerson, thinks it no small condescension to bow before God. Mindful of 87the fact that the very existence of the congregation largely depends on his contribution, and the minister's bread on his vote,—we are speaking of the rule, not the exceptions,—he assumes an air of infallible authority, and loses no chance to let the world know and note that he is one of the pillars on which the whole concern is based. " I'll step out of the congregation " is the last dynamite bomb he hurls in the face of a wayward board of trustees who dare to have a mind of their own, or a minister who incidentally makes the shoe fit him,—a sin he never forgives. Faith and recognition of authority are the indispensable requirements of the hour in this free land ; but these qualities being unexacted of the preacher, being unrecognized in the pulpit,where are they to come from ? The question is usually not," What kind of a man is our minister to be ?" but, " Is he a speaker?" In this way alone can we account for the strange circumstance that our most important pulpits are not filled by our most important men. After service we accompanied Rabbi Wise, who led the way to an inn or saloon, where, to our great astonishment, he ordered luncheon served on a bare table,—chicken, beer, etc.,— 88amid a crowd of lower humanity, he talking theology and philosophy all the while. We were not invited to eat, but to listen,—an enjoyment not quite as nutritious as the meal proper. It was easy to see that the reverend gentleman must be a pleasant boon companion when in congenial company,—ever ready to tell a good story, enjoy a joke, have a hearty laugh, drink a glass or two, and have a good time. He is "a good fellow," as the phrase goes ; those he likes he will uphold with might and main, by means allowed or forbidden; for opponents he has "immortal vengeance and hateful ire," and handfuls of mire besides. His influence is kept fresh by two weeklies,—the Deborah, in German, and the Israelite, in English,—both edited in a spirit characteristic of the American politician, not as veracious as George, who would not tell a lie. There is nothing small about the editor and his assistants, each correspondent enjoying a latitude vast enough to embrace all the new-born "bouncingboys," hops and toilets of club and tea-parties,which are simply "grand" or " immense," and license to abuse persons who have sinned against Rabbi I. M. Wise by disobeying his commandments. 89Rabbi Wise's activity is a virtue his friends and his adversaries may well envy. The gentleman travels, dedicates temples, gives lectures, issues pamphlets, sermons, nondescript works, —curiosities of literature ; fights right and left; directs a rabbinical school he founded ; fights for the Decalogue and breaks the Sabbath, writes editorials to defend it, and defends those who break it ; teaches the threefold covenant and argues against circumcision; defends revelation and ridicules miracles. Rabbi Wise is consistent in his inconsistency, yet truly heroic in his defence of Judaism against aggression from without; charitable, all agree, to the poor; an excellent husband of a virtuous, noble wife ; indefatigable in doing what, to his knowledge, is best, but erratic and unjust to fair opponents, among whom are the most prominent Hebrew scholars of the Union. A moral incoherence permeates all his doings, while his besetting sin is nothing so much as want of dignity. A remarkable change has of late taken place in the views of Rabbi Wise, a revulsion of sentiment greatly to his credit. Time was when we heard Dr. Wise declare the era near when Europe shall look for rabbis to America, by which 90must be understood the Cincinnati College. As often as he spoke of American Reformed Judaism, he claimed the big / for himself and the smallest yous for others here and in the Old World, whose Judaism had no future but for the stir, progress, and bustle in this hemisphere. He has changed his mind since, his optimism having somehow been shaken, and his sight cleared of scales. His tone is now decidedly conservative, and, were it not for our dread of his phenomenal inconsistency, we would say: " The Lord hath given thee of His light." We quote this editorial of Rabbi Wise and say "Amen!" to every word of it: " The lack of originality and solid religious conviction of which our age is accused, becomes most visible in the perpetual and persistent repetition, in all possible forms, of Darwinism as pushed to its extremes in German schools,"—and in the pulpits filled by some of your pupils, if you please,—"and the hypotheses and the results of that Bible criticism which upsets and destroys not only the theology of Judaism, but all theology in general, to be replaced by personal and individual speculation, as though the one man's power were more legitimate in the sphere 9iof religion than it is in the sphere of politics. It is not that attempt to reconcile faith and reason, Judaism and modern thought, as it was in the Spanish school, and as laid down in the works of Ibn David, Ibn Gabirol, Maimonides, Gerso-nides, Albo, Abarbanel, and others ; for they yielded nothing to any dominant school or system where it collided with historical Judaism ; it is the attempt to subject and amend historical Judaism, to harmonize it with what is called modern thought. Therefore, it shows a lack of originality as well as of solid religious conviction. All this is done, however, with a zeal bordering on fanaticism, and a persistency as though it were not the duty or intention of those writers or speakers to preserve and to advocate Judaism and to expound its sources objectively, rather as though it were their special duty and vocation to promulgate Darwinism, Comteism, Spencerism, the Dutch and German school of ultra-radicalism in the understanding of the Bible. The question in their teaching of the Bible is not the quiddity, ' What does the Bible teach ?' The whole question in which their souls are engulfed is, ' When and by whom was this or that book written?' This is the limit of 92all wisdom. Could there be any better proof of the dryness, barrenness, contraction of the mind, the entire lack of originality and straight, sound, and pure religious conviction, than that perpetual invitation, repetition, rumination, as it appears in printed or spoken essays, newspaper articles, by priests and laymen, always labeled as the newest of the new? It makes one sick to think of it,—how stale and flat this self-conceited and bombastic age has become, and how high its pretensions and claims run." We had said all this long ago, but not of the "German schools," as represented by Geiger, Graetz, Joel, Zunz, Jellinek, Rosin, Kaufmann, and others. In this editorial, Rabbi Wise gives us a true picture of his own school. Yes, it makes one sick to hear young men, strangers in the vast fields of Jewish golden lore, extol Darwinism above Mosaism. Having sown the wind, Brother Wise, you must not be surprised at seeing the whirlwind spring forth. You have worked bravely, we admit, but erratically, in the vineyard of the Lord ; alas ! instead of blessed seed, you strewed dragons' teeth, and it looks as though you will have to arm yourself against the threatening brood hatched by your paternal care. 93From Cincinnati we received an invitation to come to Minneapolis, where, after a few trial lectures, we were unanimously elected ; and here we are still, at the end of 1888, trying to create an oasis in a waste of Jewish disloyalty. XV. To conclude our sketches with a few general remarks, we wish it most earnestly to be understood that we are as far as the most optimistic of our wiser colleagues from despairing of American Judaism, which, as of yore, will redeem itself, while many of our false prophets will live long enough to see the universal wreckage of their idolatrous stronghold. We wish it, moreover, to be understood that our critical remarks are not intended for our brethren in the East, of whose life, religious as well as social and moral, we are told, a much brighter picture could be drawn. Our experience is strictly confined to Jewish life in the West, and we paint it as we found it. The picture at large, though darkened by many an ominous cloud, is not without a silver lining and a golden border. Our brethren here, as elsewhere, are distinguished for their strenuous efforts made in behalf of poverty, age, and orphanage. Not one 94important city in this Union with Jews therein is without one or more benevolent institutions, and our ladies are sometimes exhausted in the charitable work of assisting the sick and the needy. Our places of worship are averagely costly structures of architectural beauty. We especially like the pleasant fraternization between Jew and Gentile so general with us, and so rare in the Old World. We know scores of Jewish families devoted to home and family life, keeping the religious heritage dear and sacred, and sacrificing much in helping humble relations across the Atlantic. Regrettable, however, is the mistake in Jewish parents who, instead of endowing their children with a substantial education in a land where the chances of the cultured man are without limit, snatch them away from school with scarce knowledge enough to begin with, and put them in a trade-harness that affords not the least opportunity for mental advancement. Our young men are, therefore, as a rule, very poorly equipped for life, and thus doomed to bustle in the lower spheres of trade; while our young ladies are usually better educated, finer in sentiment, but too much addicted to the parading of useless accomplishments and display in general 95to hold out a fair prospect of building up an ideal Jewish home. The ideal home, with'its Jewish heartiness and hospitality, and the God-consecrated synagogue, if not entirely absent, are most certainly infrequent in this land. There remains to indicate a few of the causes that have brought about a state of Jewish life which is anything but cheering to the unbiassed observer, and we shall not apologize for plain speech in our attempt to trace the evil to its origin, bearing in mind that the most unpalatable medicine is the most effective. With Ruskin, we believe that truth-telling is a very delicate affair, nobody liking to see truth turned against his dear self, though very liberal in the matter with regard to others. But we do not know the meaning of manhood if it be not undaunted freedom of word and deed,—controlled, of course, by conscientious adherence to experience and conviction. As one once said of slavery, truth-telling has no two sides. Either say what you know and think, or be mute forever. Be not afraid to scatter healthy seed lest some fall into a puddle ; even there it shall not be lost, the sun's emblematic radiance having the thaumaturgic power of making quagmires blossom. " Mit der Wahrheit 96stosst man an," says the German, who has never yet been afraid to say the Wahrheit. We live for the Wahrheii. It has always been the innate virtue of the Hebrew to subordinate the shows of life to its realities, and the change we perceive in the opposite direction is a matter of profound regret—nay, of sorrow—to the lover of his race, religion, and history. Where is the fault ? With whom ? '' The age," say some, as if there never had been an age as rotten as this. Is not Judaism providentially appointed to stem the corruption of all the ages, instead of being engulfed by it ? We shall gratefully submit to a better definition of the moral function of Judaism ; we know no other. " The pulpit has done all this," say many ; " the congregations," maintain others. We assume that both are responsible for the widespread disloyalty of Israel to his sacred principles, but find it proper to lay stress on the evident fact that the spiritual leaders incur the heavier share of that grave responsibility, they being the custodians of the Law and Prophecy,—the flag-bearers, the priests and prophets of the race in dispersion ; and, if not fearless, daring, fire-breathing, self-sacrificing, what else but traitors, menial souls ? 97Now, what is the pulpit,—the clamorous, high-worded, law-defying, faith-spurning, epicurean, matter-worshipping, misnamed radical,—what is that pulpit doing ? Is it pointing to heaven, the stars, death, retribution, history, the soul, eternity, duty, idealism, and self-sacrifice ? No, nothing of the kind. How can such ideas be reconciled with Darwin's and Kuenen's theories of creation and the Scriptures ? how accepted by flocks buried to the ears in infidelity? The radical pulpit is student of the people's convenience, it is pliant to their whims ; it is the forum of oratorical display, acrobatic gesture, theatrical acting ; of profane talk, infidel insinuation, and blasphemous aggression of things dear and sacred ; it is devoid of all reverence, engaged in stretching religion to fit the conditions of the moment; for money, like corrupted popery, it dispenses indulgences to faithless sinners ; it is the "God-idea," it is "charity," it is "humanity," it claims to promulgate, as if these were unknown to the law-abiding Israelite. But, "We are successful!" the radicals cry; ''see the thousands flocking to our altars, the big salaries we are drawing; then, our popularity!" Ye benighted heads, how can ye forget that Jeroboamwas the most successful, most popular, and best-salaried idolater, the radical of his age ; and Elijah the most unpopular, worst-salaried, and long unsuccessful prophet in his time ? How stands it with these two ? Draw the lesson : the one accursed, going down thundering to the abysms of eternal perdition; the other living with the stars, immortal in glory. Let the false prophets beware! To show how far in their mad career our dashing radicals are beyond all sane reform, we need only quote a few lines from the late David Ein-horn, who for almost a generation was recognized as the most advanced leader of Jewish reform in our States. Concerning the Sabbath he says : " One gem, one precious gem, taken from the crown—that is, the crown of Sinai—must be especially regarded, particularly since it is so sadly neglected : it is the Sabbath, the gem set in the bridal ring.'' Again: '' The violation of the Sabbath was at all times regarded as the most definite evidence of the breaking of the Covenant. The greatest reformation prophets—Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel—regard the salvation of Israel as impossible without the sanctification of the Sabbath ; and as in olden times, so to-day, the 99desecration of the Sabbath, if not the result, is the source of idolatry, perfect atheism, and the deification of sensual pleasure." Who will not agree with this excellent man ? His sons-in-law are prominent in the qualities we have underlined. He continues: "'Change the Sabbath to Sunday,' many exclaim, ' and everything is safe.' But alas ! the patient must needs die by this innovation. Once, at a rabbinical convention at Breslau, I heard the following remark : ' The Sabbath could certainly be buried on Friday evening, but in vain would we look for its resurrection on Sunday.' This is the true state of affairs." Einhorn bitterly denounces those who would bring " about such a rent between old and new Israel," which would " appear to countless Jews who are longing for it only as a renouncement of the God of Israel and a union with Christianity." It is, then, in order for the radicals to declare Einhorn incurably orthodox,—a poor old fogy. It is in the temples where Einhorn spoke those words that we heard his wiser successors—one just hatched—declare the Sunday as good as the Sabbath. This is what they call "progressive Judaism" in this wonderland of preternatural excrescences such as the IOOSalvation Army, Mormonism, and Radical Judaism. XVI. But the bulk of Israel, giving countenance to Baal in preference to Jehovah, cannot shirk responsibility because of disloyal ministers whom they are upholding and encouraging, still less such as have entirely deserted the cause of their sires, denying the mother that nursed them. We assume to be rather above than below the true figure when we set it down as a sad reality that, of the 400,000 Jews in the United States, hardly the half belong to synagogues ; and it is a liberal estimate to allow that thirty-five per cent, of these attend divine worship during the year, and this in a very irregular, indifferent manner. This slim patronage of the synagogue, it must be conceded, is largely, but not entirely, to be ascribed to that unfortunate "reform" that claims to worship Israel's God through the agency of a non-Jewish choir,—a thing phenomenal in our history,—and is at dead variance with Holy Writ and tradition. There are other causes to be considered, prominent among which are the secret orders and the clubs so well patronized by Jewish care and treasure at the expense ot 101everything else Jewish. As we belonged to one of these orders,—of which there are four,—we know what we are speaking about. They are all second-hand imitations of Freemasonry, itself resting on a Jewish basis, and rely for subsistence, existence, and public sympathy on reciprocal insurance, and other convenient provisions binding the brotherhood to take care of each member in need, sickness, and death. These orders are distinguished for mystic symbols, high-sounding initiation addresses, containing allusions to the founders of the Jewish stock and religion ; barbaric titles assumed by the officers, "Grand" and "Great Grand" being the coveted appendix to those who are rising to eminence, which promotion presupposes neither faith norculture,—we metseveral ofthespecies,— many being uncultured, flagrantly irreligious, and shunning all connection with Judaism. The Drders have codes which are phenomena of legislative ingenuity, and a brother well versed In these law-books enjoys more consideration among the fraternity than one conversant with :he best in Jewish literature. Transgression of :hese laws and by-laws is deemed an unpardonable sacrilege, and the reprobate is either duly 102punished or expelled. A brother may never enter a synagogue, never belong to a congregation, may scorn everything Jewish,—have no religion whatever ; so long as he pays his " dues " he is in "good standing," and his prospects of promotion to world-wide renown are simply inspiring. But woe to him who disregards the infallible mandate of the "sovereign lodge "! Hell is not hot enough for him ; he is lost in this world and that to come. The enthusiasm of the members or votaries of these orders may be inferred from the well-known fact that their monthly lodge-meetings are frequently postponed from month to month in default of a quorum. If the " sovereign lodge " would make practical religion a test for admission to membership, her loyal legions would soon dwindle to an alarming extent. But she is too shrewd to venture this ; she is " unsectarian," whatever this implies, for she is sectarian, considering that only Jewish-born applicants are admitted. The lodges hurt Judaism, because the most irreligious of their adherents can count on assistance in hours of need and sickness, on a one-thousand-dollar insurance, and on an honorable burial,—nay, on resolutions and a record spread on the books of 103the lodge, or elsewhere, which the truthful historian ought never to consult. The interest of the members is all the lodges are concerned about ; beyond this they do little, if anything at all, for the race they claim to represent, while their teachings are much inferior to the gems scattered broadcast throughout our ideal, humanitarian, world-embracing and redeeming prophecy. Much ado is made about the Cleveland Orphan Asylum, a noble institution largely supported by the B'nai B'rith, as if our brethren of Britain and France, numerically about one-third of our Jewish population in these States, had no grander institutions to boast of, and a deal more of Judaism besides. Yet the orders are, to a certain extent, brotherly societies, calculated to dry many a tear, to diminish human suffering, and to remind many thousands, otherwise entirely estranged from their sires' faith, at least of their Jewish origin,—without, however, helping the sacred cause. It is possible that the doing away of the orders would not increase the bulk of Jewish worshippers, but it would induce the minority at least to join a congregation, and have their children educated in the monotheistic faith. For some time a monthly has been issued—by the 104encouragement of the B'nai B'rith—which cannot fail to do some good. But all this does not outweigh the damage the orders are inflicting on Judaism, which, in matters of charity and idealism, as well as in all other matters, stands above all known orders. The orders are, however, grand, ideal institutions compared with our clubs of euphonious names,—gambling-houses in disguise, wherein, as in the vortex of Abaddon, every noble sentiment is irretrievably buried. Just enter one ot these clubs while all is alive and astir. You find yourself in an atmosphere dense with smoke, vibrating with confused noise, reverberating with profanities. In a trice banknotes change hands, faces are pale, hands are quivering, eyes are rolling, passion glowing, attention strained : that heap of lucre—whose shall it be ? It is doubled, it is quadrupled, it is yet growing. Looks of greed, eyes of doubt, excitement of suspense. The dice falls: the one has it who needs it not; the other loses who lost all he had, sometimes more than is legitimately his. The young are carried away by the old; wife and children are forgotten ; persons otherwise respectable forget their worth, place and dignity ; the whole scene 105is a Bedlam of grossness, passion, and confusion. A lodge fool is a harmless, vainglorious Quixote; a crazed club knight is a ferocious individual to be shunned ; both in one make a gorilla in a Prince Albert coat. You cannot reason with one whose passion assumes the nature of mania. As a pastime and a recreation, there is certainly no harm in any innocent game, cards included ; but to adopt gambling as the only pastime, means to return to the lowest barbarism. Thousands are squandered in building, furnishing, and sustaining these infernal dens, which are the moral graveyard of many a youth. Radicalism grapples not with this evil epidemic, its policy being to live and let live as long as it pays. It cries, " We are progressing!" without stopping to think which way, heavenward or hell-ward. Yes, you are "successful," are you? One more success of this kind, and the radical prophets will have to go a-peddling, unless they save money enough to buy bread when their office of destroying will find no material to sustain it. Don't smile too early, brother radicals ! We have thus reached the evil's origin, and may, in conclusion, sum up our convictions in a few words. The preservation of Judaism may 106be accounted for by referring it to the Jewish home and the Sabbath, both of which are so closely interwoven that you cannot destroy one without destroying the other ; while by destroying both you are striking a mortal blow at Israel's vitality. What Emerson expects the Sunday to do for Christianity, you have seen the Sabbath do for Judaism : it preserved it, cherished, cemented, ennobled, and idealized it. It is absurd to enter into a discussion of a question that admits of no discussion. The issue is not," Shall we have a Sabbath or shall we have none?" but, " Shall we be Jews with Sinai and Carmel as our eternal pillars, or shall we be Jew-Christians under a false name?" For the Sunday worshipper, in breaking with Judaism, does not compact with Christianity ; to him Sunday is no holy day, but one on which his unbridled lecturer, dressed up like a French maitre, makes desperate efforts to be witty, and is perfectly " successful " in convincing an unbelieving audience that they and he, as regards faith, are in deep sympathy : they believe nothing except in things that tickle the palate. Now, if the Sabbath is a pleasure and a profit to the Jew in the Old World, in the new one it 107is a vital necessity, overwork and the strain on the nervous system being an almost inevitable infliction of American life. What, by the soothing, salutary influence of a Sabbathic, sanctified home-life, the Israelite of the past could morally and intellectually do for self and family, he of the present forfeits by depriving himself of the occasion. We see the consequences, particularly in this land of freedom, where the chances for advancement are open to the Jew, who fails to avail himself of golden opportunities. Do not say that our brethren in this Union have as yet had no time to reach out for laurels in the fields of science, the finer arts, politics, and education. Not before the second half of our century were our German brethren allowed to breathe freely ; nor before that date were the civil restrictions of the Jews removed in England. What Jewish brains have accomplished in those lands, it is needless to discuss. And note that the most prominent Israelites we are thinking of are either themselves Jewish to the core of their heart, or spring from families wherein childhood was sanctified in the pure atmosphere of home, that never fails to leave an indelible impression on the mind of youth. 108It is worthy of notice that leading Anti-Semites plausibly claim that they have not the least aversion to the loyal Jew, but to a certain class of blasphemous individual who is disgracing this name,—a statement which, if not true, should not pass unnoticed ; for it may be asserted that many prejudices extant against the people of the Law are not because they are Jews, but because many of them are none, and are acting accordingly. For, pray, what religion on earth enjoins a higher and nobler conduct of life than that of Israel ? Name any virtue you please, and we are ready to prove that it was known and practiced by our patriarchs, prophets, sages, and forefathers. Eternal laws, like those that rule the moral world, cannot be transgressed with impunity. With the delights and blessings of our Sabbath, those of our family life are vanishing ; thus a fearful void without and within is created, and the youth, unfraught with the noblest, looks for the lowest, seeking intoxicating pleasures, epicurean delights and diversions to idle away his time,—a useless life, sometimes cut short with the revolver. Look for no other explanation of the suicidal tendency of late casting a black veil over many Jewish homes. No God, no principle, 109no hope, no soul, no treasure but the dollar ; and this lost, what is life worth ? In one year we buried three young suicides in this city. Our words are not mere articulated wind; we are speaking of realities, and not without sorrow. That Sabbath observance, implying the most serene enjoyment of home, wife, child, and friend, is the only remedy to this great evil, nobody will deny. How to restore the Sabbath to the Jew, or the Jew to the Sabbath, is the hour's great problem to be solved by American Israel, led by conscientious, prophetically inspired preachers and teachers. We must not fear to take the bull by the horns and bend it to our will. We are painfully surprised, not that there should be a number of charlatans, who from their rat-holes are threatening to overthrow Sinai and overturn the world at large, but that there are so many gentlemen of tried character and scholarship, and devotion to Judaism, who do not make Sabbath transgression their eternal Delenda est Carthago. Ye ask what this will change. In the first place, it will do your conscience good, knowing that you have not been lacking in courage, energy, and loyalty in defending the treasure entrusted to your care. Secondly, your authority, now IIOfeeble indeed, would win infinitely by your rising above the tide-whelmed masses, some of whom will gladly grasp your friendly, outstretched arm of succor; and if you can do no more, you might prove at" least a Stncro fc t^J Remind the erring, greedy brother that by a day of rest religiously observed his strengthened intellect and moral power would more than outbalance the material sacrifice he is so much in dread of. If not to combat evil and speak truth, what is the Jewish pulpit for ? What claim has a rabbi to consideration and respect who has not the moral courage to take his stand on such a safe basis as our Decalogue ? There is record kept somewhere below—and elsewhere—of our doings and omissions, honored friends, and popularity or ease secured at the cost of duty is not an acquisition calculated to console one on his deathbed. Let the prophets be four hundred and fifty: one Elijah armed with heaven's lightning can blast all of them. We have yet more than seven thousand who did not bend before Baal, while the triumphs are by no means on the side of infidelity. Why, then, give up the struggle ? Why not appeal to Jewish manhood, womanhood, sincerity, honor, history, pride, reverence, inconscience, self-sacrifice, and duty? Why not expose the ill-hidden base motives, sophistries, and infidelities of apostate blasphemers? Why not unite in doing a work we are living for ? Why not sound the trumpet of alarm, hoist the flag of danger, ring the tocsin, and order Israel to his tents? Why give up a battle that is not lost, allow a foe to triumph who did not win, and stand irresolute, when there is but one thing to be done—fight for Israel's salvation and the glory of his only One? Why mute, why timid, why sluggish, when action, single and united,—action like that of the Asmoneans,—speech plain and simple, truth unadorned, are the vital wants of the day? Why?