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diff --git a/41028-8.txt b/41028-8.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 5331931..0000000 --- a/41028-8.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,6708 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Spirit of the Ghetto, by Hutchins Hapgood - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with -almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or -re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included -with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org - - -Title: The Spirit of the Ghetto - Studies of the Jewish Quarter in New York - -Author: Hutchins Hapgood - -Illustrator: Jacob Epstein - -Release Date: October 11, 2012 [EBook #41028] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SPIRIT OF THE GHETTO *** - - - - -Produced by Jana Srna, Melissa McDaniel, and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This -file was produced from images generously made available -by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) - - - - - - - -Transcriber's Note: - - Inconsistent hyphenation and spelling in the original document have - been preserved. Obvious typographical errors have been corrected. - - Italic text is denoted by _underscores_. - - On page 70, "enlightment" should possibly be "enlightenment". - - - - - _The_ - Spirit - _of the_ - Ghetto - - - - - THE SPIRIT of - THE GHETTO - - STUDIES OF THE JEWISH - QUARTER IN NEW YORK - - By - HUTCHINS HAPGOOD - - _With Drawings from Life by - JACOB EPSTEIN_ - - NEW YORK AND LONDON - FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY - - _NINETEEN HUNDRED AND TWO_ - - - - - Copyright, 1902 - by - Funk & Wagnalls - Company - - Printed in the - United States of America - - Published - November, 1902 - - - - -NOTE - - -A number of these chapters have appeared as separate articles in "The -Atlantic Monthly," "The Critic," "The Bookman," "The World's Work," -"The Boston Transcript," and "The Evening Post" and "The Commercial -Advertiser" of New York. To the editors of these publications thanks -for permission to republish are gratefully tendered by - - THE AUTHOR. - - - - -PREFACE - - -The Jewish quarter of New York is generally supposed to be a place of -poverty, dirt, ignorance and immorality--the seat of the sweat-shop, -the tenement house, where "red-lights" sparkle at night, where the -people are queer and repulsive. Well-to-do persons visit the "Ghetto" -merely from motives of curiosity or philanthropy; writers treat of it -"sociologically," as of a place in crying need of improvement. - -That the Ghetto has an unpleasant aspect is as true as it is trite. -But the unpleasant aspect is not the subject of the following -sketches. I was led to spend much time in certain poor resorts of -Yiddish New York not through motives either philanthropic or -sociological, but simply by virtue of the charm I felt in men and -things there. East Canal Street and the Bowery have interested me more -than Broadway and Fifth Avenue. Why, the reader may learn from the -present volume--which is an attempt made by a "Gentile" to report -sympathetically on the character, lives and pursuits of certain -east-side Jews with whom he has been in relations of considerable -intimacy. - - THE AUTHOR. - - - - -CONTENTS - - - Chapter I Page - The Old and the New 9 - - The Old Man - The Boy - The "Intellectuals" - - - Chapter II - Prophets without Honor 44 - - Submerged Scholars: A Man of God--A Bitter - Prophet--A Calm Student - The Poor Rabbis: Their Grievances--The "Genuine" - Article--A Down-Town Specimen--The Neglected - Type - - - Chapter III - The Old and New Woman 71 - - The Orthodox Jewess: Devotion and Customs - The Modern Type: Passionate Socialists--Confirmed - Blue-Stockings - Place of Woman in Ghetto Literature - - - Chapter IV - Four Poets 90 - - A Wedding Bard - A Champion of Race - A Singer of Labor - A Dreamer of Brotherhood - - - Chapter V - The Stage 113 - - Theatres, Actors, and Audience - Realism, the Spirit of the Ghetto Theatre - The History of the Yiddish Stage - - - Chapter VI - The Newspapers 177 - - The Conservative Journals - The Socialist Papers - The Anarchist Papers - Some Picturesque Contributors - - - Chapter VII - The Sketch-Writers 199 - - Some Realists - A Cultivated Literary Man - American Life Through Russian Eyes - A Satirist of Tenement Society - - - Chapter VIII - A Novelist 230 - - - Chapter IX - The Young Art and its Exponents 254 - - - Chapter X - Odd Characters 272 - - An Out-of-date Story-Writer - A Cynical Inventor - An Impassioned Critic - The Poet of Zionism - An Intellectual Debauchee - - - - -Chapter One - -The Old and the New - - -THE OLD MAN - - [Illustration] - -No part of New York has a more intense and varied life than the colony -of Russian and Galician Jews who live on the east side and who form -the largest Jewish city in the world. The old and the new come here -into close contact and throw each other into high relief. The -traditions and customs of the orthodox Jew are maintained almost in -their purity, and opposed to these are forms and ideas of modern life -of the most extreme kind. The Jews are at once tenacious of their -character and susceptible to their Gentile environment, when that -environment is of a high order of civilization. Accordingly, in -enlightened America they undergo rapid transformation tho retaining -much that is distinctive; while in Russia, surrounded by an ignorant -peasantry, they remain by themselves, do not so commonly learn the -Gentile language, and prefer their own forms of culture. There their -life centres about religion. Prayer and the study of "the Law" -constitute practically the whole life of the religious Jew. - -When the Jew comes to America he remains, if he is old, essentially -the same as he was in Russia. His deeply rooted habits and the "worry -of daily bread" make him but little sensitive to the conditions of his -new home. His imagination lives in the old country and he gets his -consolation in the old religion. He picks up only about a hundred -English words and phrases, which he pronounces in his own way. Some of -his most common acquisitions are "vinda" (window), "zieling" -(ceiling), "never mind," "alle right," "that'll do," "politzman" -(policeman); "_ein schön kind_, ein reg'lar pitze!" (a pretty child, a -regular picture). Of this modest vocabulary he is very proud, for it -takes him out of the category of the "greenhorn," a term of contempt -to which the satirical Jew is very sensitive. The man who has been -only three weeks in this country hates few things so much as to be -called a "greenhorn." Under this fear he learns the small vocabulary -to which in many years he adds very little. His dress receives rather -greater modification than his language. In the old country he never -appeared in a short coat; that would be enough to stamp him as a -"freethinker." But when he comes to New York and his coat is worn out -he is unable to find any garment long enough. The best he can do is to -buy a "cut-away" or a "Prince Albert," which he often calls a "Prince -Isaac." As soon as he imbibes the fear of being called a "greenhorn" -he assumes the "Prince Isaac" with less regret. Many of the old women, -without diminution of piety, discard their wigs, which are strictly -required by the orthodox in Russia, and go even to the synagogue with -nothing on their heads but their natural locks. - -The old Jew on arriving in New York usually becomes a sweat-shop -tailor or push-cart peddler. There are few more pathetic sights than -an old man with a long beard, a little black cap on his head and a -venerable face--a man who had been perhaps a Hebraic or Talmudic -scholar in the old country, carrying or pressing piles of coats in the -melancholy sweat-shop; or standing for sixteen hours a day by his -push-cart in one of the dozen crowded streets of the Ghetto, where -the great markets are, selling among many other things apples, garden -stuff, fish and second-hand shirts. - -This man also becomes a member of one of the many hundred lodges which -exist on the east side. These societies curiously express at once the -old Jewish customs and the conditions of the new world. They are -mutual insurance companies formed to support sick members. When a -brother is ill the President appoints a committee to visit him. Mutual -insurance societies and committees are American enough, and visiting -the sick is prescribed by the Talmud. This is a striking instance of -the adaptation of the "old" to the "new." The committee not only -condoles with the decrepit member, but gives him a sum of money. - - [Illustration] - -Another way in which the life of the old Jew is affected by his New -York environment, perhaps the most important way as far as -intellectual and educative influences are concerned, is through the -Yiddish newspapers, which exist nowhere except in this country. They -keep him in touch with the world's happenings in a way quite -impossible in Europe. At the Yiddish theatres, too, he sees American -customs portrayed, although grotesquely, and the old orthodox things -often satirized to a degree; the "greenhorn" laughed to scorn and the -rabbi held up to derision. - -Nevertheless these influences leave the man pretty much as he was when -he landed here. He remains the patriarchal Jew devoted to the law and -to prayer. He never does anything that is not prescribed, and worships -most of the time that he is not at work. He has only one point of -view, that of the Talmud; and his aesthetic as well as his religious -criteria are determined by it. "This is a beautiful letter you have -written me"; wrote an old man to his son, "it smells of Isaiah." He -makes of his house a synagogue, and prays three times a day; when he -prays his head is covered, he wears the black and white praying-shawl, -and the cubes of the phylactery are attached to his forehead and left -arm. To the cubes are fastened two straps of goat-skin, black and -white; those on the forehead hang down, and those attached to the -other cube are wound seven times about the left arm. Inside each cube -is a white parchment on which is written the Hebrew word for God, -which must never be spoken by a Jew. The strength of this prohibition -is so great that even the Jews who have lost their faith are unwilling -to pronounce the word. - - [Illustration] - -Besides the home prayers there are daily visits to the synagogue, -fasts and holidays to observe. When there is a death in the family he -does not go to the synagogue, but prays at home. The ten men necessary -for the funeral ceremony, who are partly supplied by the Bereavement -Committee of the Lodge, sit seven days in their stocking-feet on -foot-stools and read Job all the time. On the Day of Atonement the old -Jew stands much of the day in the synagogue, wrapped in a white gown, -and seems to be one of a meeting of the dead. The Day of Rejoicing of -the Law and the Day of Purim are the only two days in the year when an -orthodox Jew may be intoxicated. It is virtuous on these days to drink -too much, but the sobriety of the Jew is so great that he sometimes -cheats his friends and himself by shamming drunkenness. On the first -and second evenings of the Passover the father dresses in a big white -robe, the family gather about him, and the youngest male child asks -the father the reason why the day is celebrated; whereupon the old -man relates the whole history, and they all talk it over and eat, and -drink wine, but in no vessel which has been used before during the -year, for everything must be fresh and clean on this day. The night -before the Passover the remaining leavened bread is gathered together, -just enough for breakfast, for only unleavened bread can be eaten -during the next eight days. The head of the family goes around with a -candle, gathers up the crumbs with a quill or a spoon and burns them. -A custom which has almost died out in New York is for the -congregation to go out of the synagogue on the night of the full moon, -and chant a prayer in the moonlight. - -In addition to daily religious observances in his home and in the -synagogues, to fasts and holidays, the orthodox Jew must give much -thought to his diet. One great law is the line drawn between milk -things and meat things. The Bible forbids boiling a kid in the milk of -its mother. Consequently the hair-splitting Talmud prescribes the most -far-fetched discrimination. For instance, a plate in which meat is -cooked is called a meat vessel, the knife with which it is cut is -called a meat knife, the spoon with which one eats the soup that was -cooked in a meat pot, though there is no meat in the soup, is a meat -spoon, and to use that spoon for a milk thing is prohibited. All these -regulations, of course, seem privileges to the orthodox Jew. The -sweat-shops are full of religious fanatics, who, in addition to their -ceremonies at home, form Talmudic clubs and gather in tenement-house -rooms, which they convert into synagogues. - -In several of the cafés of the quarter these old fellows gather. With -their long beards, long black coats, and serious demeanor, they sit -about little tables and drink honey-cider, eat lima beans and -jealously exclude from their society the socialists and freethinkers -of the colony who, not unwillingly, have cafés of their own. They all -look poor, and many of them are, in fact, peddlers, shop-keepers or -tailors; but some, not distinguishable in appearance from the -proletarians, have "made their pile." Some are Hebrew scholars, some -of the older class of Yiddish journalists. There are no young people -there, for the young bring irreverence and the American spirit, and -these cafés are strictly orthodox. - - [Illustration] - -In spite, therefore, of his American environment, the old Jew of the -Ghetto remains patriarchal, highly trained and educated in a narrow -sectarian direction, but entirely ignorant of modern culture; -medieval, in effect, submerged in old tradition and outworn forms. - - -THE BOY - -The shrewd-faced boy with the melancholy eyes that one sees everywhere -in the streets of New York's Ghetto, occupies a peculiar position in -our society. If we could penetrate into his soul, we should see a -mixture of almost unprecedented hope and excitement on the one hand, -and of doubt, confusion, and self-distrust on the other hand. Led in -many contrary directions, the fact that he does not grow to be an -intellectual anarchist is due to his serious racial characteristics. - -Three groups of influences are at work on him--the orthodox Jewish, -the American, and the Socialist; and he experiences them in this -order. He has either been born in America of Russian, Austrian, or -Roumanian Jewish parents, or has immigrated with them when a very -young child. The first of the three forces at work on his character is -religious and moral; the second is practical, diversified, -non-religious; and the third is reactionary from the other two and -hostile to them. - - [Illustration: THE MORNING PRAYER] - -Whether born in this country or in Russia, the son of orthodox parents -passes his earliest years in a family atmosphere where the whole duty -of man is to observe the religious law. He learns to say his prayers -every morning and evening, either at home or at the synagogue. At the -age of five, he is taken to the Hebrew private school, the "chaider," -where, in Russia, he spends most of his time from early morning till -late at night. The ceremony accompanying his first appearance in -"chaider" is significant of his whole orthodox life. Wrapped in a -"talith," or praying shawl, he is carried by his father to the school -and received there by the "melamed," or teacher, who holds out before -him the Hebrew alphabet on a large chart. Before beginning to learn -the first letter of the alphabet, he is given a taste of honey, and -when he declares it to be sweet, he is told that the study of the -Holy Law, upon which he is about to enter, is sweeter than honey. -Shortly afterwards a coin falls from the ceiling, and the boy is told -that an angel dropped it from heaven as a reward for learning the -first lesson. - -In the Russian "chaider" the boy proceeds with a further study of the -alphabet, then of the prayer-book, the Pentateuch, other portions of -the Bible, and finally begins with the complicated Talmud. Confirmed -at thirteen years of age, he enters the Hebrew academy and continues -the study of the Talmud, to which, if he is successful, he will devote -himself all his life. For his parents desire him to be a rabbi, or -Talmudical scholar, and to give himself entirely to a learned -interpretation of the sweet law. - - [Illustration: GOING TO THE SYNAGOGUE] - -The boy's life at home, in Russia, conforms with the religious -education received at the "chaider." On Friday afternoon, when the -Sabbath begins, and on Saturday morning, when it continues, he is free -from school, and on Friday does errands for his mother or helps in the -preparation for the Sabbath. In the afternoon he commonly bathes, -dresses freshly in Sabbath raiment, and goes to "chaider" in the -evening. Returning from school, he finds his mother and sisters -dressed in their best, ready to "greet the Sabbath." The lights are -glowing in the candlesticks, the father enters with "Good Shabbas" on -his lips, and is received by the grandparents, who occupy the seats of -honor. They bless him and the children in turn. The father then chants -the hymn of praise and salutation; a cup of wine or cider is passed -from one to the other; every one washes his hands; all arrange -themselves at table in the order of age, the youngest sitting at the -father's right hand. After the meal they sing a song dedicated to the -Sabbath, and say grace. The same ceremony is repeated on Saturday -morning, and afterwards the children are examined in what they have -learned of the Holy Law during the week. The numerous religious -holidays are observed in the same way, with special ceremonies of -their own in addition. The important thing to notice is, that the -boy's whole training and education bear directly on ethics and -religion, in the study of which he is encouraged to spend his whole -life. - -In a simple Jewish community in Russia, where the "chaider" is the -only school, where the government is hostile, and the Jews are -therefore thrown back upon their own customs, the boy loves his -religion, he loves and honors his parents, his highest ambition is to -be a great scholar--to know the Bible in all its glorious meaning, to -know the Talmudical comments upon it, and to serve God. Above every -one else he respects the aged, the Hebrew scholar, the rabbi, the -teacher. Piety and wisdom count more than riches, talent and power. -The "law" outweighs all else in value. Abraham and Moses, David and -Solomon, the prophet Elijah, are the kind of great men to whom his -imagination soars. - -But in America, even before he begins to go to our public schools, the -little Jewish boy finds himself in contact with a new world which -stands in violent contrast with the orthodox environment of his first -few years. Insensibly--at the beginning--from his playmates in the -streets, from his older brother or sister, he picks up a little -English, a little American slang, hears older boys boast of -prize-fighter Bernstein, and learns vaguely to feel that there is a -strange and fascinating life on the street. At this tender age he may -even begin to black boots, gamble in pennies, and be filled with a -"wild surmise" about American dollars. - -With his entrance into the public school the little fellow runs plump -against a system of education and a set of influences which are at -total variance with those traditional to his race and with his home -life. The religious element is entirely lacking. The educational -system of the public schools is heterogeneous and worldly. The boy -becomes acquainted in the school reader with fragments of writings on -all subjects, with a little mathematics, a little history. His -instruction, in the interests of a liberal non-sectarianism, is -entirely secular. English becomes his most familiar language. He -achieves a growing comprehension and sympathy with the independent, -free, rather sceptical spirit of the American boy; he rapidly imbibes -ideas about social equality and contempt for authority, and tends to -prefer Sherlock Holmes to Abraham as a hero. - -The orthodox Jewish influences, still at work upon him, are rapidly -weakened. He grows to look upon the ceremonial life at home as rather -ridiculous. His old parents, who speak no English, he regards as -"greenhorns." English becomes his habitual tongue, even at home, and -Yiddish he begins to forget. He still goes to "chaider," but under -conditions exceedingly different from those obtaining in Russia, where -there are no public schools, and where the boy is consequently shut up -within the confines of Hebraic education. In America, the "chaider" -assumes a position entirely subordinate. Compelled by law to go to the -American public school, the boy can attend "chaider" only before the -public school opens in the morning or after it closes in the -afternoon. At such times the Hebrew teacher, who dresses in a long -black coat, outlandish tall hat, and commonly speaks no English, -visits the boy at home, or the boy goes to a neighboring "chaider." - -Contempt for the "chaider's" teaching comes the more easily because -the boy rarely understands his Hebrew lessons to the full. His real -language is English, the teacher's is commonly the Yiddish jargon, and -the language to be learned is Hebrew. The problem before him is -consequently the strangely difficult one of learning Hebrew, a tongue -unknown to him, through a translation into Yiddish, a language of -growing unfamiliarity, which, on account of its poor dialectic -character, is an inadequate vehicle of thought. - -The orthodox parents begin to see that the boy, in order to "get -along" in the New World, must receive a Gentile training. Instead of -hoping to make a rabbi of him, they reluctantly consent to his -becoming an American business man, or, still better, an American -doctor or lawyer. The Hebrew teacher, less convinced of the usefulness -and importance of his work, is in this country more simply commercial -and less disinterested than abroad; a man generally, too, of less -scholarship as well as of less devotion. - - [Illustration: THE "CHAIDER"] - -The growing sense of superiority on the part of the boy to the Hebraic -part of his environment extends itself soon to the home. He learns to -feel that his parents, too, are "greenhorns." In the struggle between -the two sets of influences that of the home becomes less and less -effective. He runs away from the supper table to join his gang on the -Bowery, where he is quick to pick up the very latest slang; where his -talent for caricature is developed often at the expense of his -parents, his race, and all "foreigners"; for he is an American, he is -"the people," and like his glorious countrymen in general, he is quick -to ridicule the stranger. He laughs at the foreign Jew with as much -heartiness as at the "dago"; for he feels that he himself is almost as -remote from the one as from the other. - -"Why don't you say your evening prayer, my son?" asks his mother in -Yiddish. - -"Ah, what yer givin' us!" replies, in English, the little -American-Israelite as he makes a bee-line for the street. - -The boys not only talk together of picnics, of the crimes of which -they read in the English newspapers, of prize-fights, of budding -business propositions, but they gradually quit going to synagogue, -give up "chaider" promptly when they are thirteen years old, avoid the -Yiddish theatres, seek the up-town places of amusement, dress in the -latest American fashion, and have a keen eye for the right thing in -neckties. They even refuse sometimes to be present at supper on Friday -evenings. Then, indeed, the sway of the old people is broken. - -"Amerikane Kinder, Amerikane Kinder!" wails the old father, shaking -his head. The trend of things is indeed too strong for the old man of -the eternal Talmud and ceremony. - -An important circumstance in helping to determine the boy's attitude -toward his father is the tendency to reverse the ordinary and normal -educational and economical relations existing between father and son. -In Russia the father gives the son an education and supports him until -his marriage, and often afterward, until the young man is able to take -care of his wife and children. The father is, therefore, the head of -the house in reality. But in the New World the boy contributes very -early to the family's support. The father is in this country less able -to make an economic place for himself than is the son. The little -fellow sells papers, blacks boots, and becomes a street merchant on a -small scale. As he speaks English, and his parents do not, he is -commonly the interpreter in business transactions, and tends generally -to take things into his own hands. There is a tendency, therefore, for -the father to respect the son. - -There is many a huge building on Broadway which is the external sign -(with the Hebrew name of the tenant emblazoned on some extended -surface) of the energy and independence of some ignorant little -Russian Jew, the son of a push-cart peddler or sweat-shop worker, who -began his business career on the sidewalks, selling newspapers, -blacking boots, dealing in candles, shoe-strings, fruit, etc., and -continued it by peddling in New Jersey or on Long Island until he -could open a small basement store on Hester Street, then a more -extensive establishment on Canal Street--ending perhaps as a rich -merchant on Broadway. The little fellow who starts out on this -laborious climb is a model of industry and temperance. His only -recreation, outside of business, which for him is a pleasure in -itself, is to indulge in some simple pastime which generally is -calculated to teach him something. On Friday or Saturday afternoon he -is likely, for instance, to take a long walk to the park, where he is -seen keenly inspecting the animals and perhaps boasting of his -knowledge about them. He is an acquisitive little fellow, and seldom -enjoys himself unless he feels that he is adding to his figurative or -literal stock. - -The cloak and umbrella business in New York is rapidly becoming -monopolized by the Jews who began in the Ghetto; and they are also -very large clothing merchants. Higher, however, than a considerable -merchant in the world of business, the little Ghetto boy, born in a -patriarchal Jewish home, has not yet attained. The Jews who as -bankers, brokers, and speculators on Wall Street control millions -never have been Ghetto Jews. They came from Germany, where conditions -are very different from those in Russia, Galicia, and Roumania, and -where, through the comparatively liberal education of a secular -character which they were able to obtain, they were already beginning -to have a national life outside of the Jewish traditions. Then, too, -these Jews who are now prominent in Wall Street have been in this -country much longer than their Russian brethren. They are frequently -the sons of Germans who in the last generation attained commercial -rank. If they were born abroad, they came many years before the -Russian immigration began and before the American Ghetto existed, and -have consequently become thoroughly identified with American life. -Some of them began, indeed, as peddlers on a very small scale; -travelled, as was more the habit with them then than now, all over the -country; and rose by small degrees to the position of great financial -operators. But they became so only by growing to feel very intimately -the spirit of American enterprise which enables a man to carry on the -boldest operation in a calm spirit. - -To this boldness the son of the orthodox parents of our Ghetto has not -yet attained. Coming from the cramped "quarter," with still a tinge of -the patriarchal Jew in his blood, not yet thoroughly at home in the -atmosphere of the American "plunger," he is a little hesitant, though -very keen, in business affairs. The conservatism instilled in him by -the pious old "greenhorn," his father, is a limitation to his American -"nerve." He likes to deal in ponderable goods, to be able to touch and -handle his wares, to have them before his eyes. In the next -generation, when in business matters also he will be an instinctive -American, he will become as big a financial speculator as any of them, -but at present he is pretty well content with his growing business on -Broadway and his fine residence up-town. - - [Illustration: FRIDAY NIGHT PRAYER] - -Altho as compared with the American or German-Jew financier who does -not turn a hair at the gain or loss of a million, and who in personal -manner maintains a phlegmatic, Napoleonic calm which is almost the -most impressive thing in the world to an ordinary man, the young -fellow of the Ghetto seems a hesitant little "dickerer," yet, of -course, he is a rising business man, and, as compared to the world -from which he has emerged, a very tremendous entity indeed. It is not -strange, therefore, that this progressive merchant, while yet a child, -acquires a self-sufficiency, an independence, and sometimes an -arrogance which not unnaturally, at least in form, is extended even -toward his parents. - -If this boy were able entirely to forget his origin, to cast off the -ethical and religious influences which are his birthright, there would -be no serious struggle in his soul, and he would not represent a -peculiar element in our society. He would be like any other practical, -ambitious, rather worldly American boy. The struggle is strong because -the boy's nature, at once religious and susceptible, is strongly -appealed to by both the old and new. At the same time that he is -keenly sensitive to the charm of his American environment, with its -practical and national opportunities, he has still a deep love for his -race and the old things. He is aware, and rather ashamed, of the -limitations of his parents. He feels that the trend and weight of -things are against them, that they are in a minority; but yet in a -real way the old people remain his conscience, the visible -representatives of a moral and religious tradition by which the boy -may regulate his inner life. - -The attitude of such a boy toward his father and mother is -sympathetically described by Dr. Blaustein, principal of the -Educational Alliance: - - "Not knowing that I speak Yiddish, the boy often acts as - interpreter between me and his exclusively Yiddish-speaking - father and mother. He always shows a great fear that I - should be ashamed of his parents and tries to show them in - the best light. When he translates, he expresses, in his - manner, great affection and tenderness toward these people - whom he feels he is protecting; he not merely turns their - Yiddish into good English, but modifies the substance of - what they say in order to make them appear presentable, less - outlandish and queer. He also manifests cleverness in - translating for his parents what I say in English. When he - finds that I can speak Yiddish and therefore can converse - heart to heart with the old people, he is delighted. His - face beams, and he expresses in every way that deep pleasure - which a person takes in the satisfaction of honored - protégés." - -The third considerable influence in the life of the Ghetto boy is that -of the socialists. I am inclined to think that this is the least -important and the least desirable of the three in its effect on his -character. - -Socialism as it is agitated in the Jewish quarter consists in a -wholesale rejection, often founded on a misunderstanding, of both -American and Hebraic ideals. The socialists harp monotonously on the -relations between capital and labor, the injustice of classes, and -assume literature to comprise one school alone, the Russian, at the -bottom of which there is a strongly anarchistic and reactionary -impulse. The son of a socialist laborer lives in a home where the main -doctrines are two: that the old religion is rubbish and that American -institutions were invented to exploit the workingman. The natural -effects on such a boy are two: a tendency to look with distrust at the -genuinely American life about him, and to reject the old implicit -piety. - -The ideal situation for this young Jew would be that where he could -become an integral part of American life without losing the -seriousness of nature developed by Hebraic tradition and education. At -present he feels a conflict between these two influences: his youthful -ardor and ambition lead him to prefer the progressive, if chaotic and -uncentred, American life; but his conscience does not allow him entire -peace in a situation which involves a chasm between him and his -parents and their ideals. If he could find along the line of his more -exciting interests--the American--something that would fill the -deeper need of his nature, his problem would receive a happy solution. - -At present, however, the powers that make for the desired synthesis of -the old and the new are fragmentary and unimportant. They consist -largely in more or less charitable institutions such as the University -Settlement, the Educational Alliance, and those free Hebrew schools -which are carried on with definite reference to the boy as an American -citizen. The latter differ from the "chaiders" in several respects. -The important difference is that these schools are better organized, -have better teachers, and have as a conscious end the supplementing of -the boy's common school education. The attempt is to add to the boy's -secular training an ethical and religious training through the -intelligent study of the Bible. It is thought that an acquaintance -with the old literature of the Jews is calculated to deepen and -spiritualize the boy's nature. - -The Educational Alliance is a still better organized and more -intelligent institution, having much more the same purpose in view as -the best Hebrew schools. Its avowed purpose is to combine the American -and Hebrew elements, reconcile fathers and sons by making the former -more American and the latter more Hebraic, and in that way improve -the home life of the quarter. With the character of the University -Settlement nearly everybody is familiar. It falls in line with -Anglo-Saxon charitable institutions, forms classes, improves the -condition of the poor, and acts as an ethical agent. But, tho such -institutions as the above may do a great deal of good, they are yet -too fragmentary and external, are too little a vital growth from the -conditions, to supply the demand for a serious life which at the same -time shall be American. - -But the Ghetto boy is making use of his heterogeneous opportunities -with the greatest energy and ambition. The public schools are filled -with little Jews; the night schools of the east side are practically -used by no other race. City College, New York University, and Columbia -University are graduating Russian Jews in numbers rapidly increasing. -Many lawyers, indeed, children of patriarchal Jews, have very large -practices already, and some of them belong to solid firms on Wall -Street; although as to business and financial matters they have not -yet attained to the most spectacular height. Then there are -innumerable boys' debating clubs, ethical clubs, and literary clubs in -the east side; altogether there is an excitement in ideas and an -enthusiastic energy for acquiring knowledge which has interesting -analogy to the hopefulness and acquisitive desire of the early -Renaissance. It is a mistake to think that the young Hebrew turns -naturally to trade. He turns his energy to whatever offers the best -opportunities for broader life and success. Other things besides -business are open to him in this country, and he is improving his -chance for the higher education as devotedly as he has improved his -opportunities for success in business. - -It is easy to see that the Ghetto boy's growing Americanism will be -easily triumphant at once over the old traditions and the new -socialism. Whether or not he will be able to retain his moral -earnestness and native idealism will depend not so much upon him as -upon the development of American life as a whole. What we need at the -present time more than anything else is a spiritual unity such as, -perhaps, will only be the distant result of our present special -activities. We need something similar to the spirit underlying the -national and religious unity of the orthodox Jewish culture. - -Altho the young men of the Ghetto who represent at once the most -intelligent and the most progressively American are, for the most -part, floundering about without being able to find the social growths -upon which they can rest as true Americans while retaining their -spiritual and religious earnestness, there are yet a small number of -them who have already attained a synthesis not lacking in the ideal. I -know a young artist, a boy born in the Ghetto, who began his conscious -American life with contempt for the old things, but who with growing -culture has learned to perceive the beauty of the traditions and faith -of his race. He puts into his paintings of the types of Hester Street -an imaginative, almost religious, idealism, and his artistic sympathy -seems to extend particularly to the old people. He, for one, has -become reconciled to the spirit of his father without ceasing to be an -American. And he is not alone. There are other young Jews, of American -university education, of strong ethical and spiritual character, who -are devoting themselves to the work of forming, among the boys of the -Ghetto, an ideal at once American and consistent with the spirit at -the heart of the Hebraic tradition. - - -THE "INTELLECTUALS" - -Between the old people, with their religion, their traditions, the -life pointing to the past, and the boy with his young life eagerly -absorbent of the new tendencies, is a third class which may be called -the "Intellectuals" of the Ghetto. This is the most picturesque and -interesting, altho not the most permanently significant, of all. The -members of this class are interesting for what they are rather than -for what they have been or for what they may become. They are the -anarchists, the socialists, the editors, the writers; some of the -scholars, poets, playwrights and actors of the quarter. They are the -"enlightened" ones who are at once neither orthodox Jews nor -Americans. Coming from Russia, they are reactionary in their political -opinions, and in matters of taste and literary ideals are Europeans -rather than Americans. When they die they will leave nothing behind -them; but while they live they include the most educated, forcible, -and talented personalities of the quarter. Most of them are -socialists, and, as I pointed out in the last section, socialism is -not a permanently nutritive element in the life of the Ghetto, for as -yet the Ghetto has not learned to know the conditions necessary to -American life, and can not, therefore, effectively react against them. - -It is this class which contains, however, the many men of "ideas" who -bring about in certain circles a veritable intellectual fermentation; -and are therefore most interesting from what might be called a -literary point of view, as well as of great importance in the -education of the people. Gifted Russian Jews hold forth passionately -to crowds of working men; devoted writers exploit in the Yiddish -newspapers the principles of their creed and take violent part in the -labor agitation of the east side; or produce realistic sketches of the -life in the quarter, underlying which can be felt the same kind of -revolt which is apparent in the analogous literature of Russia. The -intellectual excitement in the air causes many "splits" among the -socialists. They gather in hostile camps, run rival organs, each -prominent man has his "patriots," or faithful adherents who support -him right or wrong. Intense personal abuse and the most violent -denunciation of opposing principles are the rule. Mellowness, -complacency, geniality, and calmness are qualities practically unknown -to the intellectual Russian Jews, who, driven from the old country, -now possess the first opportunity to express themselves. On the other -hand they are free of the stupid Philistinism of content and are not -primarily interested in the dollar. Their poets sing pathetically of -the sweat-shops, of universal brotherhood, of the abstract rights of -man. Their enthusiastic young men gather every evening in cafés of the -quarter and become habitually intoxicated with the excitement of -ideas. In their restless and feverish eyes shines the intense idealism -of the combined Jew and Russian--the moral earnestness of the Hebrew -united with the passionate, rebellious mental activity of the modern -Muscovite. In these cafés they meet after the theatre or an evening -lecture and talk into the morning hours. The ideal, indeed, is alive -within them. The defect of their intellectual ideas is that they are -not founded on historical knowledge, or on knowledge of the conditions -with which they have to cope. In their excitement and extremeness they -resemble the spirit of the French "intellectuals" of 1789 rather than -that more conservative feeling which has always directed the -development of Anglo-Saxon communities. - - [Illustration: IN THESE CAFÉS THEY MEET AFTER THE THEATRE OR AN - EVENING LECTURE] - -Among the "intellectuals" may be classed a certain number of poets, -dramatists, musicians, and writers, who are neither socialists nor -anarchists, constituting what might roughly be called the literary -"Bohemia" of the quarter; men who pursue their art for the love of it -simply, or who are thereto impelled by the necessity of making a -precarious living; men really without ideas in the definite, -belligerent sense, often uneducated, but often of considerable native -talent. There are also many men of brains who form a large -professional class--doctors, lawyers, and dentists--and who yet are -too old when they come to America to be thoroughly identified with the -life. They are, however, a useful part of the Jewish community, and, -like others of the "intellectual" class, are often men of great -devotion, who have left comparative honor and comfort in the old -country in order to live and work with the persecuted or otherwise -less fortunate brethren. - -The greater number of the following chapters deal with the men of this -"intellectual" class, their personalities, their literary work and the -light it throws upon the life of the people in the New York Ghetto. - - - - -Chapter Two - -Prophets without Honor - - -SUBMERGED SCHOLARS - -A ragged man, who looks like a peddler or a beggar, picking his way -through the crowded misery of Hester Street, or ascending the stairs -of one of the dingy tenement-houses full of sweat-shops that line that -busy mart of the poor Ghetto Jew, may be a great Hebrew scholar. He -may be able to speak and write the ancient tongue with the facility of -a modern language--as fluently as the ordinary Jew makes use of the -"jargon," the Yiddish of the people; he may be a manifold author with -a deep and pious love for the beautiful poetry in his literature; and -in character an enthusiast, a dreamer, or a good and reverend old man. -But no matter what his attainments and his quality he is unknown and -unhonored, for he has pinned his faith to a declining cause, writes -his passionate accents in a tongue more and more unknown even to the -cultivated Jew; and consequently amid the crowding and material -interests of the new world he is submerged--poor in physical estate -and his moral capital unrecognized by the people among whom he lives. - - [Illustration: HE IS UNKNOWN AND UNHONORED] - -Not only unrecognized by the ignorant and the busy and their teachers -the rabbis, who in New York are frequently nearly as ignorant as the -people, he is also (as his learning is limited largely to the -literature of his race) looked down upon by the influential and -intellectual element of the Ghetto--an element socialistic, in -literary sympathy Russian rather than Hebraic, intolerant of -everything not violently modern, wedded to "movements" and scornful of -the past. The "maskil," therefore, or "man of wisdom"--the Hebrew -scholar--is called "old fogy," or "dilettante," by the up-to-date -socialists. - -Of such men there are several in the humble corners of the New York -Ghetto. One peddles for a living, another has a small printing-office -in a basement on Canal Street, a third occasionally tutors in some one -of many languages and sells a patent medicine, and a fourth is the -principal of the Talmud-Thora, a Hebrew school in the Harlem Ghetto, -where he teaches the children to read, write, and pray in the Hebrew -language. - -Moses Reicherson is the name of the principal. "Man of wisdom" of the -purest kind, probably the finest Hebrew grammarian in New York, and -one of the finest in the world, his income from his position at the -head of the school is $5 a week. He is seventy-three years old, wears -a thick gray beard, a little cap on his head, and a long black coat. -His wife is old and bent. They are alone in their miserable little -apartment on East One Hundred and Sixth Street. Their son died a year -or two ago, and to cover the funeral expenses Mr. Reicherson tried in -vain to sell his "Encyclopćdia Britannica." But, nevertheless, the -old scholar, who had been bending over his closely written manuscript, -received the visitor with almost cheerful politeness, and told the -story of his work and of his ambitions. Of his difficulties and -privations he said little, but they shone through his words and in the -character of the room in which he lived. - -Born in Vilna, sometimes called the Jerusalem of Lithuania or the -Athens of modern Judća because of the number of enlightened Jews who -have been born there, many of whom now live in the Russian Jewish -quarter of New York, he has retained the faith of his orthodox -parents, a faith, however, springing from the pure origin of Judaism -rather than holding to the hair-splitting distinctions later embodied -in the Talmud. He was a teacher of Hebrew in his native town for many -years, where he stayed until he came to New York some years ago to be -near his son. His two great intellectual interests, subordinated -indeed to the love of the old literature and religion, have been -Hebrew grammar and the moral fables of several languages. On the -former he has written an important work, and of the latter has -translated much of Lessing's and Gellert's work into pure Hebrew. He -has also translated into his favorite tongue the Russian fable-writer -Krilow; has written fables of his own, and a Hebrew commentary on the -Bible in twenty-four volumes. He loves the fables "because they teach -the people and are real criticism; they are profound and combine fancy -and thought." Many of these are still in manuscript, which is -characteristic of much of the work of these scholars, for they have no -money, and publishers do not run after Hebrew books. Also unpublished, -written in lovingly minute characters, he has a Hebrew prayer-book in -many volumes. He has written hundreds of articles for the Hebrew -weeklies and monthlies, which are fairly numerous in this country, but -which seldom can afford to pay their contributors. At present he -writes exclusively for a Hebrew weekly published in Chicago, -_Regeneration_, the object of which is to promote "the knowledge of -the ancient Hebrew language and literature, and to regenerate the -spirit of the nation." For this he receives no pay, the editor being -almost as poor as himself. But he writes willingly for the love of the -cause, "for universal good"; for Reicherson, in common with the other -neglected scholars, is deeply interested in revivifying what is now -among American Jews a dead language. He believes that in this way only -can the Jewish people be taught the good and the true. - - [Illustration: MOSES REICHERSON] - -"When the national language and literature live," he said, "the -nation lives; when dead, so is the nation. The holy tongue in which -the Bible was written must not die. If it should, much of the truth of -the Bible, many of its spiritual secrets, much of its beautiful -poetry, would be lost. I have gone deep into the Bible, that greatest -book, all my life, and I know many of its secrets." He beamed with -pride as he said these words, and his sense of the beauty of the -Hebrew spirit and the Hebrew literature led him to speak wonderingly -of Anti-Semitism. This cause seemed to him to be founded on ignorance -of the Bible. "If the Anti-Semites would only study the Bible, would -go deep into the knowledge of Hebrew and the teaching of Christ, then -everything would be sweet and well. If they would spend a little of -that money in supporting the Hebrew language and literature and -explaining the sacred books which they now use against our race, they -would see that they are Anti-Christians rather than Anti-Semites." - -The scholar here bethought himself of an old fable he had translated -into Hebrew. Cold and Warmth make a wager that the traveller will -unwrap his cloak sooner to one than to the other. The fierce wind -tries its best, but at every cold blast the traveller only wraps his -cloak the closer. But when the sun throws its rays the wayfarer -gratefully opens his breast to the warming beams. "Love solves all -things," said the old man, "and hate closes up the channels to -knowledge and virtue." Believing the Pope to be a good man with a -knowledge of the Bible, he wanted to write him about the Anti-Semites, -but desisted on the reflection that the Pope was very old and -overburdened, and that the letter would probably fall into the hands -of the cardinals. - -All this was sweetly said, for about him there was nothing of the -attitude of complaint. His wife once or twice during the interview -touched upon their personal condition, but her husband severely kept -his mind on the universal truths, and only when questioned admitted -that he would like a little more money, in order to publish his books -and to enable him to think with more concentration about the Hebrew -language and literature. There was no bitterness in his reference to -the neglect of Hebrew scholarship in the Ghetto. His interest was -impersonal and detached, and his regret at the decadence of the -language seemed noble and disinterested; and, unlike some of the other -scholars, the touch of warm humanity was in everything he said. -Indeed, he is rather the learned teacher of the people with deep -religious and ethical sense than the scholar who cares only for -learning. "In the name of God, adieu!" he said, with quiet intensity -when the visitor withdrew. - -Contrasting sharply in many respects with this beautiful old teacher -is the man who peddles from tenement-house to tenement-house in the -down-town Ghetto, to support himself and his three young children. -S. B. Schwartzberg, unlike most of the "submerged" scholars, is still a -young man, only thirty-seven years old, but he is already discouraged, -bitter, and discontented. He feels himself the apostle of a lost -cause--the regeneration in New York of the old Hebrew language and -literature. His great enterprise in life has failed. He has now given -it up, and the natural vividness and intensity of his nature get -satisfaction in the strenuous abuse of the Jews of the Ghetto. - -He was born in Warsaw, Poland, the son of a distinguished rabbi. In -common with many Russian and Polish Jews, he early obtained a living -knowledge of the Hebrew language, and a great love of the literature, -which he knows thoroughly, altho, unlike Reicherson and a scholar who -is to be mentioned, Rosenberg, he has not contributed to the -literature in a scientific sense. He is slightly bald, with burning -black eyes, an enthusiastic and excited manner, and talks with almost -painful earnestness. - -Three years ago Schwartzberg came to this country with a great idea in -his head. "In this free country," he thought to himself, "where there -are so many Russian and Polish Jews, it is a pity that our tongue is -dying, is falling into decay, and that the literature and traditions -that hold our race together are being undermined by materialism and -ethical skepticism." He had a little money, and he decided he would -establish a journal in the interests of the Hebrew language and -literature. No laws would prevent him here from speaking his mind in -his beloved tongue. He would bring into vivid being again the national -spirit of his people, make them love with the old fervor their ancient -traditions and language. It was the race's spirit of humanity and -feeling for the ethical beauty, not the special creed of Judaism, for -which he and the other scholars care little, that filled him with the -enthusiasm of an apostle. In his monthly magazine, the _Western -Light_, he put his best efforts, his best thoughts about ethical -truths and literature. The poet Dolitzki contributed in purest Hebrew -verse, as did many other Ghetto lights. But it received no support, -few bought it, and it lasted only a year. Then he gave it up, bankrupt -in money and hope. That was several years ago, and since then he has -peddled for a living. - -The failure has left in Schwartzberg's soul a passionate hatred of -what he calls the materialism of the Jews in America. Only in Europe, -he thinks, does the love of the spiritual remain with them. Of the -rabbis of the Ghetto he spoke with bitterness. "They," he said, "are -the natural teachers of the people. They could do much for the Hebrew -literature and language. Why don't they? Because they know no Hebrew -and have no culture. In Russia the Jews demand that their rabbis -should be learned and spiritual, but here they are ignorant and -materialistic." So Mr. Schwartzberg wrote a pamphlet which is now -famous in the Ghetto. "I wrote it with my heart's blood," he said, his -eyes snapping. "In it I painted the spiritual condition of the Jews in -New York in the gloomiest of colors." - -"It is terrible," he proceeded vehemently. "Not one Hebrew magazine -can exist in this country. They all fail, and yet there are many -beautiful Hebrew writers to-day. When Dolitzki was twenty years old -in Russia he was looked up to as a great poet. But what do the Jews -care about him here? For he writes in Hebrew! Why, Hebrew scholars are -regarded by the Jews as tramps, as useless beings. Driven from Russia -because we are Jews, we are despised in New York because we are Hebrew -scholars! The rabbis, too, despise the learned Hebrew, and they have a -fearful influence on the ignorant people. If they can dress well and -speak English it is all they want. It is a shame how low-minded these -teachers of the people are. I was born of a rabbi, and brought up by -him, but in Russia they are for literature and the spirit, while in -America it is just the other way." - -The discouraged apostle of Hebrew literature now sees no immediate -hope for the cause. What seems to him the most beautiful lyric poetry -in the world he thinks doomed to the imperfect understanding of -generations for whom the language does not live. The only ultimate -hope is in the New Jerusalem. Consequently the fiery scholar, altho -not a Zionist, thinks well of the movement as tending to bring the -Jews again into a nation which shall revive the old tongue and -traditions. Mr. Schwartzberg referred to some of the other submerged -scholars of the Ghetto. His eyes burned with indignation when he -spoke of Moses Reicherson. He could hardly control himself at the -thought that the greatest Hebrew grammarian living, "an old man, too, -a reverend old man," should be brought to such a pass. In the same -strain of outrage he referred to another old man, a scholar who would -be as poor as Reicherson and himself were it not for his wife, who is -a dressmaker. It is she who keeps him out of the category of -"submerged" scholars. - - [Illustration: REV. H. ROSENBERG] - -But the Rev. H. Rosenberg, of whose condition Schwartzberg also -bitterly complained, is indeed submerged. He runs a printing-office in -a Canal Street basement, where he sits in the damp all day long -waiting for an opportunity to publish his _magnum opus_, a cyclopedia -of Biblical literature, containing an historical and geographical -description of the persons, places, and objects mentioned in the -Bible. All the Ghetto scholars speak of this work with bated breath, -as a tremendously learned affair. Only two volumes of it have been -published. To give the remainder to the world, Mr. Rosenberg is -waiting for his children, who are nearly self-supporting, to -contribute their mite. He is a man of sixty-two, with the high, bald -forehead of a scholar. For twenty years he was a rabbi in Russia, and -has preached in thirteen synagogues. He has been nine years in New -York, and, in addition to the great cyclopedia, has written, but not -published, a cyclopedia of Talmudical literature. A "History of the -Jews," in the Russian language, and a Russian novel, "The Jew of -Trient," are among his published works. He is one of the most learned -of all of these men who have a living, as well as an exact, knowledge -of what is generally regarded as a dead language and literature. - -Altho he is waiting to publish the great cyclopedia, he is patient and -cold. He has not the sweet enthusiasm of Reicherson, and not the -vehement and partisan passion of Schwartzberg. He has the coldness of -old age, without its spiritual glow, and scholarship is the only idea -that moves him. Against the rabbis he has no complaint to make; with -them, he said, he had nothing to do. He thinks that Schwartzberg is -extreme and unfair, and that there are good and bad rabbis in New -York. He is reserved and undemonstrative, and speaks only in reply. -When the rather puzzled visitor asked him if there was anything in -which he was interested, he replied, "Yes, in my cyclopedia." The only -point at which he betrayed feeling was when he quoted proudly the -words of a reviewer of the cyclopedia, who had wondered where Dr. -Rosenberg had obtained all his learning. He stated indifferently that -the Hebrew language and literature is dead and cannot be revived. "I -know," he said, "that Hebrew literature does not pay, but I cannot -stop." With no indignation, he remarked that the Jews in New York have -no ideals. It was a fact objectively to be deplored, but for which he -personally had no emotion, all of that being reserved for his -cyclopedia. - - [Illustration: "SUBMERGED SCHOLARS"] - -These three men are perfect types of the "submerged Hebrew scholar" of -the New York Ghetto. Reicherson is the typical religious teacher; -Schwartzberg, the enthusiast, who loves the language like a mistress, -and Rosenberg, the cool "man of wisdom," who only cares for the -perfection of knowledge. Altho there are several others on the east -side who approach the type, they fall more or less short of it. Either -they are not really scholars in the old tongue, altho reading and -even writing it, or through business or otherwise they have raised -themselves above the pathetic point. Thus Dr. Benedict Ben-Zion, one -of the poorest of all, being reduced to occasional tutoring, and the -sale of a patent medicine for a living, is not specifically a scholar. -He writes and reads Hebrew, to be sure, but is also a playwright in -the "jargon;" has been a Christian missionary to his own people in -Egypt, Constantinople, and Rumania, a doctor for many years, a teacher -in several languages, one who has turned his hand to everything, and -whose heart and mind are not so purely Hebraic as those of the men I -have mentioned. He even is seen, more or less, with Ghetto _literati_ -who are essentially hostile to what the true Hebrew scholar holds -by--a body of Russian Jewish socialists of education, who in their -Grand and Canal Street cafés express every night in impassioned -language their contempt for whatever is old and historical. - -Then, there are J. D. Eisenstein, the youngest and one of the most -learned, but perhaps the least "submerged" of them all; Gerson -Rosenschweig, a wit, who has collected the epigrams of the Hebrew -literature, added many of his own, and written in Hebrew a humorous -treatise on America--a very up-to-date Jew, who, like Schwartzberg, -tried to run a Hebrew weekly, but when he failed, was not discouraged, -and turned to business and politics instead; and Joseph Low Sossnitz, -a very learned scholar, of dry and sarcastic tendency, who only -recently has risen above the submerged point. Among the latter's most -notable published books are a philosophical attack on materialism, a -treatise on the sun, and a work on the philosophy of religion. - -It is the wrench between the past and the present which has placed -these few scholars in their present pathetic condition. Most of them -are old, and when they die the "maskil" as a type will have vanished -from New York. In the meantime, tho they starve, they must devote -themselves to the old language, the old ideas and traditions of -culture. Their poet, the austere Dolitzki, famous in Russia at the -time of the revival of Hebrew twenty years ago, is the only man in New -York who symbolizes in living verse the spirit in which these old men -live, the spirit of love for the race as most purely expressed in the -Hebrew literature. This disinterested love for the remote, this -pathetic passion to keep the dead alive, is what lends to the lives of -these "submerged" scholars a nobler quality than what is generally -associated with the east side. - - -THE POOR RABBIS - -The rabbis, as well as the scholars, of the east side of New York have -their grievances. They, too, are "submerged," like so much in humanity -that is at once intelligent, poor, and out-of-date. As a lot, they are -old, reverend men, with long gray beards, long black coats and little -black caps on their heads. They are mainly very poor, live in the -barest of the tenement houses and pursue a calling which no longer -involves much honor or standing. In the old country, in Russia--for -most of the poor ones are Russian--the rabbi is a great person. He is -made rabbi by the state and is rabbi all his life, and the only rabbi -in the town, for all the Jews in every city form one congregation, of -which there is but one rabbi and one cantor. He is a man always full -of learning and piety, and is respected and supported comfortably by -the congregation, a tax being laid on meat, salt, and other foodstuffs -for his special benefit. - -But in New York it is very different. Here there are hundreds of -congregations, one in almost every street, for the Jews come from many -different cities and towns in the old country, and the New York -representatives of every little place in Russia must have their -congregation here. Consequently, the congregations are for the most -part small, poor and unimportant. Few can pay the rabbi more than $3 -or $4 a week, and often, instead of having a regular salary, he is -reduced to occasional fees for his services at weddings, births and -holy festivals generally. Some very poor congregations get along -without a rabbi at all, hiring one for special occasions, but these -are congregations which are falling off somewhat from their orthodox -strictness. - - [Illustration] - -The result of this state of affairs is a pretty general falling off in -the character of the rabbis. In Russia they are learned men--know the -Talmud and all the commentaries upon it by heart--and have degrees -from the rabbinical colleges, but here they are often without degrees, -frequently know comparatively little about the Talmud, and are -sometimes actuated by worldly motives. A few Jews coming to New York -from some small Russian town, will often select for a rabbi the man -among them who knows a little more of the Talmud than the others, -whether he has ever studied for the calling or not. Then, again, some -mere adventurers get into the position--men good for nothing, looking -for a position. They clap a high hat on their heads, impose on a poor -congregation with their up-to-dateness and become rabbis without -learning or piety. These "fake" rabbis--"rabbis for business -only"--are often satirized in the Yiddish plays given at the Bowery -theatres. On the stage they are ridiculous figures, ape American -manners in bad accents, and have a keen eye for gain. - -The genuine, pious rabbis in the New York Ghetto feel, consequently, -that they have their grievances. They, the accomplished interpreters -of the Jewish law, are well-nigh submerged by the frauds that flood -the city. But this is not the only sorrow of the "real" rabbi of the -Ghetto. The rabbis uptown, the rich rabbis, pay little attention to -the sufferings, moral and physical, of their downtown brethren. For -the most part the uptown rabbi is of the German, the downtown rabbi of -the Russian branch of the Jewish race, and these two divisions of the -Hebrews hate one another like poison. Last winter when Zangwill's -dramatized _Children of the Ghetto_ was produced in New York the -organs of the swell uptown German-Jew protested that it was a pity to -represent faithfully in art the sordidness as well as the beauty of -the poor Russian Ghetto Jew. It seemed particularly baneful that the -religious customs of the Jews should be thus detailed upon the stage. -The uptown Jew felt a little ashamed that the proletarians of his -people should be made the subject of literature. The downtown Jews, -the Russian Jews, however, received play and stories with delight, as -expressing truthfully their life and character, of which they are not -ashamed. - -Another cause of irritation between the downtown and uptown rabbis is -a difference of religion. The uptown rabbi, representing congregations -larger in this country and more American in comfort and tendency, -generally is of the "reformed" complexion, a hateful thought to the -orthodox downtown rabbi, who is loath to admit that the term rabbi -fits these swell German preachers. He maintains that, since the uptown -rabbi is, as a rule, not only "reformed" in faith, but in preaching as -well, he is in reality no rabbi, for, properly speaking, a rabbi is -simply an interpreter of the law, one with whom the Talmudical wisdom -rests, and who alone can give it out; not one who exhorts, but who, on -application, can untie knotty points of the law. The uptown rabbis -they call "preachers," with some disdain. - -So that the poor, downtrodden rabbis--those among them who look upon -themselves as the only genuine--have many annoyances to bear. Despised -and neglected by their rich brethren, without honor or support in -their own poor communities, and surrounded by a rabble of unworthy -rivals, the "real" interpreter of the "law" in New York is something -of an object of pity. - -Just who the most genuine downtown rabbis are is, no doubt, a matter -of dispute. I will not attempt to determine, but will quote in -substance a statement of Rabbi Weiss as to genuine rabbis, which will -include a curious section of the history of the Ghetto. He is a jolly -old man, and smokes his pipe in a tenement-house room containing 200 -books of the Talmud and allied writings. - -"A genuine rabbi," he said, "knows the law, and sits most of the time -in his room, ready to impart it. If an old woman comes in with a goose -that has been killed, the rabbi can tell her, after she has explained -how the animal met its death, whether or not it is _koshur_, whether -it may be eaten or not. And on any other point of diet or general -moral or physical hygiene the rabbi is ready to explain the law of the -Hebrews from the time of Adam until to-day. It is he who settles many -of the quarrels of the neighborhood. The poor sweat-shop Jew comes to -complain of his "boss," the old woman to tell him her dreams and get -his interpretation of them, the young girl to weigh with him questions -of amorous etiquette. Our children do not need to go to the Yiddish -theatres to learn about "greenhorn" types. They see all sorts of -Ghetto Jews in the house of the rabbi, their father. - -"I myself was the first genuine rabbi on the east side of New York. I -am now sixty-two years old, and came here sixteen years ago--came for -pleasure, but my wife followed me, and so I had to stay." - -Here the old rabbi smiled cheerfully. "When I came to New York," he -proceeded, "I found the Jews here in a very bad way--eating meat that -was "thrapho," not allowed, because killed improperly; literally, -killed by a brute. The slaughter-houses at that time had no rabbi to -see that the meat was properly killed, was _koshur_--all right. - -"You can imagine my horror. The slaughter-houses had been employing an -orthodox Jew, who, however, was not a rabbi, to see that the meat was -properly killed, and he had been doing things all wrong, and the -chosen people had been living abominably. I immediately explained the -proper way of killing meat, and since then I have regulated several -slaughter-houses and make my living in that way. I am also rabbi of a -congregation, but it is so small that it doesn't pay. The -slaughter-houses are more profitable." - - [Illustration: THE RABBI CAN TELL WHETHER OR NOT IT IS KOSHUR] - -These "submerged" rabbis are not always quite fair to one another. -Some east side authorities maintain that the "orthodox Jew" of whom -Rabbi Weiss spoke thus contemptuously, was one of the finest rabbis -who ever came to New York, one of the most erudite of Talmudic -scholars. Many congregations united to call him to America in 1887, so -great was his renown in Russia. But when he reached New York the -general fate of the intelligent adult immigrant overtook him. Even the -"orthodox" in New York looked upon him as a "greenhorn" and deemed his -sermons out-of-date. He was inclined, too, to insist upon a stricter -observance of the law than suited their lax American ideas. So he, -too, famous in Russia, rapidly became one of the "submerged." - -One of the most learned, dignified and impressive rabbis of the east -side is Rabbi Vidrovitch. He was a rabbi for forty years in Russia, -and for nine years in New York. Like all true rabbis he does not -preach, but merely sits in his home and expounds the "law." He employs -the Socratic method of instruction, and is very keen in his indirect -mode of argument. Keenness, indeed, seems to be the general result of -the hair-splitting Rabbinical education. The uptown rabbis, -"preachers," as the down-town rabbi contemptuously calls them, send -many letters to Rabbi Vidrovitch seeking his help in the untying of -knotty points of the "law." It was from him that Israel Zangwill, when -the _Children of the Ghetto_ was produced on the New York stage, -obtained a minute description of the orthodox marriage ceremonies. -Zangwill caused to be taken several flash-light photographs of the old -rabbi, surrounded by his books and dressed in his official garments. - -There are many congregations in the New York Ghetto which have no -rabbis and many rabbis who have no congregations. Two rabbis who have -no congregations are Rabbi Beinush and Rabbi, or rather, Cantor, -Weiss. Rabbi Weiss would say of Beinush that he is a man who knows the -Talmud, but has no diploma. Rabbi Beinush is an extremely poor rabbi -with neither congregation nor slaughter-houses, who sits in his poor -room and occasionally sells his wisdom to a fishwife who wants to know -if some piece of meat is _koshur_ or not. He is down on the rich -up-town rabbis, who care nothing for the law, as he puts it, and who -leave the poor down-town rabbi to starve. - -Cantor Weiss is also without a job. The duty of the cantor is to sing -the prayer in the congregation, but Cantor Weiss sings only on -holidays, for he is not paid enough, he says, to work regularly, the -cantor sharing in this country a fate similar to that of the rabbi. -The famous comedian of the Ghetto, Mogolesco, was, as a boy, one of -the most noted cantors in Russia. As an actor in the New York Ghetto -he makes twenty times as much money as the most accomplished cantor -here. Cantor Weiss is very bitter against the up-town cantors: "They -shorten the prayer," he said. "They are not orthodox. It is too hot in -the synagogue for the comfortable up-town cantors to pray." - -Comfortable Philistinism, progress and enlightment up town; and -poverty, orthodoxy and patriotic and religious sentiment, with a touch -of the material also, down town. Such seems to be the difference -between the German and the Russian Jew in this country, and in -particular between the German and Russian Jewish rabbi. - - - - -Chapter Three - -The Old and the New Woman - - -The women present in many respects a marked contrast to their American -sisters. Substance as opposed to form, simplicity of mood as opposed -to capriciousness, seem to be in broad lines their relative qualities. -They have comparatively few _états d'ame_; but those few are revealed -with directness and passion. They lack the subtle charm of the -American woman, who is full of feminine devices, complicated -flirtatiousness; who in her dress and personal appearance seeks the -plastic epigram, and in her talk and relation to the world an indirect -suggestive delicacy. They are poor in physical estate; many work or -have worked; even the comparatively educated among them, in the -sweat-shops, are undernourished and lack the physical well-being and -consequent temperamental buoyancy which are comforting qualities of -the well-bred American woman. Unhappy in circumstances, they are -predominatingly serious in nature, and, if they lack alertness to the -social _nuance_, have yet a compelling appeal which consists in -headlong devotion to a duty, a principle or a person. As their men do -not treat them with the scrupulous deference given their American -sisters, they do not so delightfully abound in their own sense, do not -so complexedly work out their own natures, and lack variety and grace. -On the other hand, they are more apt to abound in the sense of -something outside of themselves, and carry to their love affairs the -same devoted warmth that they put into principle. - - -THE ORTHODOX JEWESS - -The first of the two well-marked classes of women in the Ghetto is -that of the ignorant orthodox Russian Jewess. She has no language but -Yiddish, no learning but the Talmudic law, no practical authority but -that of her husband and her rabbi. She is even more of a Hausfrau than -the German wife. She can own no property, and the precepts of the -Talmud as applied to her conduct are largely limited to the relations -with her husband. Her life is absorbed in observing the religious law -and in taking care of her numerous children. She is drab and plain in -appearance, with a thick waist, a wig, and as far as is possible for a -woman a contempt for ornament. She is, however, with the noticeable -assimilative sensitiveness of the Jew, beginning to pick up some of -the ways of the American woman. If she is young when she comes to -America, she soon lays aside her wig, and sometimes assumes the rakish -American hat, prides herself on her bad English, and grows slack in -the observance of Jewish holidays and the dietary regulations of the -Talmud. Altho it is against the law of this religion to go to the -theatre, large audiences, mainly drawn from the ignorant workers of -the sweat-shops and the fishwives and pedlers of the push-cart -markets, flock to the Bowery houses. It is this class which forms the -large background of the community, the masses from which more -cultivated types are developing. - - [Illustration: HER LIFE IS ABSORBED IN OBSERVING THE RELIGIOUS LAW] - -Many a literary sketch in the newspapers of the quarter portrays these -ignorant, simple, devout, housewifely creatures in comic or pathetic, -more often, after the satiric manner of the Jewish writers, in -serio-comic vein. The authors, altho they are much more educated, yet -write of these women, even when they write in comic fashion, with -fundamental sympathy. They picture them working devotedly in the shop -or at home for their husbands and families, they represent the sorrow -and simple jealousy of the wife whose husband's imagination, perhaps, -is carried away by the piquant manner and dress of a Jewess who is -beginning to ape American ways; they tell of the comic adventures in -America of the newly-arrived Jewess: how she goes to the theatre, -perhaps, and enacts the part of Partridge at the play. More -fundamentally, they relate how the poor woman is deeply shocked, at -her arrival, by the change which a few years have made in the -character of her husband, who had come to America before her in order -to make a fortune. She finds his beard shaved off, and his manners in -regard to religious holidays very slack. She is sometimes so deeply -affected that she does not recover. More often she grows to feel the -reason and eloquence of the change and becomes partly accustomed to -the situation; but all through her life she continues to be dismayed -by the precocity, irreligion and Americanism of her children. Many -sketches and many scenes in the Ghetto plays present her as a pathetic -"greenhorn" who, while she is loved by her children, is yet rather -patronized and pitied by them. - -In "Gott, Mensch und Teufel," a Yiddish adaptation of the Faust idea, -one of these simple religious souls is dramatically portrayed. The -restless Jewish Faust, his soul corrupted by the love of money, puts -aside his faithful wife in order to marry another woman who has -pleased his eye. He uses as an excuse the fact that his marriage is -childless, and as such rendered void in accordance with the precepts -of the religious law. His poor old wife submits almost with reverence -to the double authority of husband and Talmud, and with humble -demeanor and tears streaming from her eyes begs the privilege of -taking care of the children of her successor. - -In "The Slaughter" there is a scene which picturesquely portrays the -love of the poor Jew and the poor Jewess for their children. The wife -is married to a brute, whom she hates, and between the members of the -two families there is no relation but that of ugly sordidness. But -when it is known that a child is to be born they are all filled with -the greatest joy. The husband is ecstatic and they have a great feast, -drink, sing and dance, and the young wife is lyrically happy for the -first time since her marriage. - -Many little newspaper sketches portray the simple sweat-shop Jewess of -the ordinary affectionate type, who is exclusively minded so far as -her husband's growing interest in the showy American Jewess is -concerned. Cahan's novel, "Yekel," is the Ghetto masterpiece in the -portrayal of these two types of women--the wronged "greenhorn" who has -just come from Russia, and she who, with a rakish hat and bad English, -is becoming an American girl with strange power to alienate the -husband's affections. - - -THE MODERN TYPE - -The other, the educated class of Ghetto women, is, of course, in a -great minority; and this division includes the women even the most -slightly affected by modern ideas as well as those who from an -intellectual point of view are highly cultivated. Among the least -educated are a large number of women who would be entirely ignorant -were it not for the ideas which they have received through the -Socialistic propaganda of the quarter. Like the men who are otherwise -ignorant, they are trained to a certain familiarity with economic -ideas, read and think a good deal about labor and capital, and take an -active part in speaking, in "house to house" distribution of -socialistic literature and in strike agitation. Many of these women, -so long as they are unmarried, lead lives thoroughly devoted to "the -cause," and afterwards become good wives and fruitful mothers, and -urge on their husbands and sons to active work in the "movement." They -have in personal character many virtues called masculine, are simple -and straightforward and intensely serious, and do not "bank" in any -way on the fact that they are women! Such a woman would feel insulted -if her escort were to pick up her handkerchief or in any way suggest a -politeness growing out of the difference in sex. It is from this class -of women, from those who are merely tinged, so to speak, with ideas, -and who consequently are apt to throw the whole strength of their -primitive natures into the narrow intellectual channels that are open -to them, that a number of Ghetto heroines come who are willing to lay -down their lives for an idea, or to live for one. It was only recently -that the thinking Socialists were stirred by the suicide of a young -girl for which several causes were given. Some say it was for love, -but what seems a partial cause at least for the tragedy was the girl's -devotion to anarchistic ideas. She had worked for some time in the -quarter and was filled with enthusiastic Tolstoian convictions about -freedom and non-resistance to evil, and all the other idealistic -doctrines for which these Anarchists are remarkable. Some of the -people of the quarter believe that it was temporary despair of any -satisfactory outcome to her work that brought about her death. But -since the splits in the Socialistic party and the rise among them of -many insincere agitators, the enthusiasm for the cause has diminished, -and particularly among the women, who demand perfect integrity or -nothing; tho there is still a large class of poor sweat-shop women who -carry on active propaganda work, make speeches, distribute literature, -and go from house to house in a social effort to make converts. - - [Illustration: INTENSELY SERIOUS] - -As we ascend in the scale of education in the Ghetto we find women who -derive their culture and ideas from a double source--from Socialism -and from advanced Russian ideals of literature and life. They have -lost faith completely in the orthodox religion, have substituted no -other, know Russian better than Yiddish, read Tolstoi, Turgenef and -Chekhov, and often put into practice the most radical theories of the -"new woman," particularly those which say that woman should be -economically independent of man. There are successful female dentists, -physicians, writers, and even lawyers by the score in East Broadway -who have attained financial independence through industry and -intelligence. They are ambitious to a degree and often direct the -careers of their husbands or force their lovers to become doctors or -lawyers--the great social desiderata in the match-making of the -Ghetto. There is more than one case on record where a girl has -compelled her recalcitrant lover to learn law, medicine or dentistry, -or submit to being jilted by her. An actor devoted to the stage is now -on the point of leaving it to become a dentist at the command of his -ambitious wife. "I always do what she tells me," he said -pathetically. - -The career of a certain woman now practising dentistry in the Ghetto -is one of the most interesting cases, and is also quite typical. She -was born of poor Jewish parents in a town near St. Petersburg, and -began early to read the socialist propaganda and the Russian -literature which contains so much implicit revolutionary doctrine. -When she was seventeen years old she wrote a novel in Yiddish, called -"Mrs. Goldna, the Usurer," in which she covertly advocated the -anarchistic teachings. The title and the sub-theme of the book was -directed against the usurer class among the Jews, and were mainly -intended to hide from the Government her real purpose. The book was -afterwards published in New York, and had a fairly wide circulation. A -year or two later her imagination was irresistibly enthralled by the -remarkable wave of "new woman" enthusiasm which swept over Russia in -the early eighties, and resulted in so many suicides of young girls -whom poverty or injustice to the Jew thwarted in their scientific and -intellectual ambition. She went alone to St. Petersburg with sixty -five cents in her pocket, in order to obtain a professional education, -which, after years of practical starvation, she succeeded in securing. -With several degrees she came to America twelve years ago and fought -out an independent professional position for herself. She believes -that all women should have the means by which they may support -themselves, and that marriage under these conditions would be happier -than at present. Her husband is a doctor, and her idea is that they -are happier than if she were a woman of the old type, "merely a wife -and mother," as she put it. She maintains that no emotional interest -is lost under the new régime, while many practical advantages are -gained. Since she has been in America she has furthered the Socialist -cause by literary sketches published in the Yiddish newspapers, altho -she has been too busy to take any direct part in the movement. - - [Illustration: A RUSSIAN GIRL-STUDENT] - -The description of this type of woman seems rather cold and forbidding -in the telling; but such an impression is misleading. There is no -commoner reproach made by the women of the Ghetto against their -American sister than that she is unemotional and "practical." They -come to America, like the men, because they cannot stand the -political conditions in Russia, which they describe as "fierce," but -they never cease loving the land of their birth; and the reason they -give is that the ideal still lives in Muscovite civilization, while in -America it is trampled out by the cult of the dollar. They think -Americans are dry and cold, unpoetic, uninterested in great -principles, and essentially frivolous, incapable of devotion to -persons or to "movements," reading books only for amusement, and -caring nothing for real literature. One day an American dined with -four Russian Jews of distinction. Two were Nihilists who had been in -the "big movement" in Russia and were merely visiting New York. The -other two were a married couple of uncommon education. The Nihilists -were gentle, cultivated men, with feeling for literature, and deeply -admired, because of their connection with the great movement, by the -two New Yorkers. The talk turned on Byron, for whom the Russians had a -warm enthusiasm. The Americans made rather light of Byron and incurred -thereby the great scorn of the Russians, who felt deeply the -"tendency" character of the poet without being able to understand his -ćsthetic and imaginative limitations. After the Nihilists had left, -the misguided American used the words "interesting" and "amusing" in -connection with them; whereupon the Russian lady was almost indignant, -and dilated on the frivolity of a race that could not take serious -people seriously, but wanted always to be entertained; that cared only -for what was "pretty" and "charming" and "sensible" and "practical," -and cared nothing for poetry and beauty and essential humanity. - -The woman referred to, as well as many others of the most educated -class in the quarter, some of them the wives of socialists, doctors, -lawyers or literary men, are strongly interesting because of their -warm temperaments, and genuine, if limited, ideas about art, but most -of them are lacking in grace, and sense of humor, and of proportion. -They are stiff and unyielding, have little free play of imagination, -little alertness of ideas, and their sense of literature is limited -largely to realism. Japanese art, for instance, as any art which -depends on the exquisiteness of its form, is lost on these stern -realists. They no more understand the latest subtle literary -consciousness than they do the interest and eloquence of a creature -who makes of herself a perfect social product such as the clever -French woman of history. - - [Illustration: WORKING GIRLS RETURNING HOME] - -But the charm of sincere feeling they have; and, in an intellectual -race, that feeling shapes itself into definite criticism of society. -Emotionally strong and attached by Russian tradition to a rebellious -doctrine, they are deeply unconventional in theory and sometimes in -practice; altho the national morality of the Jewish race very -definitely limits the extent to which they realize some of their -ideas. The passionate feeling at the bottom of most of their -"tendency" beliefs is that woman should stand on the same social basis -as man, and should be weighed in the same scales. This ruling creed is -held by all classes of the educated women of the Ghetto, from the poor -sweat shop worker, who has recently felt the influence of Socialism, -to the thoroughly trained "new woman" with her developed literary -taste; and all its variations find expression in the literature of the -quarter. - - -PLACE OF WOMAN IN GHETTO LITERATURE - -Ibsen's "Doll's House" has been translated and produced at a Yiddish -theatre; and an original play called "Minna" registers a protest by -the Jewish woman against that law of marriage which binds her to an -inferior man. Married to an ignorant laborer, Minna falls in love (for -his advanced ideas) with the boarder--every poor family, to pay the -rent, must saddle themselves with a boarder, often at the expense of -domestic happiness--and finally kills herself, when the laws of -society press her too hard. Another drama called "East Broadway" -presents the case of a Russian Jewess devoted to Russia, to idealism -and Nihilism, and to a man who shared her faith until they came to New -York, when he became a business man pure and simple, and lost his -ideals and his love for her. In a popular play called "The Beggar of -Odessa," lines openly advocating the freest love between the sexes -accompany other extreme anarchistic views put into the loosest and -most popular form. "Broken Chains" is a drama which criticises the -relative freedom of action given to the man in matters of love. The -heroine reads Ibsen at night while her husband amuses himself in the -quarter. A young bookkeeper is there who serves to make concrete her -growing theories. But her sense of duty to her child restrains her -from the final step, and she dies in despair. Suicides in sketches and -plays abound, and as often as not result simply from intellectual -despondency. "Vain Sacrifice" is the fierce outcry of a woman against -the poverty which makes her marry a man she loathes for the sake of -her father. In the newspaper sketches there are many pictures of -sordid homes and conditions from the midst of which fierce protests -by wives and mothers are implicitly given. - - [Illustration: A RUSSIAN TYPE] - -An appealing characteristic of the "new woman" of the Ghetto is the -consideration which she manifests towards the orthodox "greenhorn" who -may be her aunt, her mother, her mother-in-law or her grandmother. The -sense of infinite form prescribed by the Talmud is dead to her, but -extraordinary love for the family bond is not, and, moved by that, she -observes the complicated formulć on all the holidays in order to -please the dear old "greenhorn" who lives with her; eats unleavened -bread, weeps on Atonement Day in the synagogue, and goes through the -whole long list. Her conduct in this respect is in striking contrast -to the off-hand treatment of parents by their American daughters, and -to that of the Orthodox Jewish woman in relation to the theatre. The -law forbids the theatre, but even the slightly disillusioned ladies of -the quarter will go on the Sabbath; and it is said that they sometimes -hypocritically relieve their consciences by hissing the actor who, -even in his rôle, dares to smoke on that day. This is on a par with -the hypocrisy which leads many Orthodox Jewish families to have a -Gentile as their servant, so that they can drink the tea, and warm -themselves by the fire, made by him, without technically violating -"the law." - -Love in the Ghetto is, no doubt, very much the same as it is -elsewhere; and this in spite of the fact that among the Orthodox -marriage is arranged by the parents, a custom which is condemned in -"The Slaughter," for instance, where the terrible results of a -loveless union are portrayed. The system of matrimonial agents in the -quarter does not seem to have any important bearing on the question of -love. In this respect the free thinking of the people grows apace, and -love-marriages in the quarter are on the increase. In matters of taste -and inclination between the sexes, however, there are some qualities -quite startling to the American. The most popular actor with the girls -of the Ghetto is a very fat, heavy, pompous hero who would provoke -only a smile from the trim American girl; and the more popular -actresses are also very stout ladies. From an American point of view -the prettiest actresses of the Ghetto are admired by the minority of -Jews who have been taken by the rakish hat, the slim form, and the -indefinite charm to which the Ghetto is being educated. It is alleged -that at an up-town theatre, where a large proportion of the audience -is Jewish, the leading lady must always be of very generous build; and -this in spite of the fact that the well-to-do Jews up-town have been -in America a long time, and have had ample opportunity to become -smitten with the charms of the slender American girl. - - - - -Chapter Four - -Four Poets - - -In East Canal Street, in the heart of the east side, are many of the -little Russian Jewish cafés, already mentioned, where excellent coffee -and tea are sold, where everything is clean and good, and where the -conversation is often of the best. The talk is good, for there -assemble, in the late afternoon and evening, the chosen crowd of -"intellectuals." The best that is Russian to-day is intensely serious. -What is distinctively Jewish has always been serious. The man hunted -from his country is apt to have a serious tone in thought and feeling. - -It is this combination--Russian, Jewish, and exile--that is -represented at these little Canal Street cafés. The sombre and earnest -qualities of the race, emphasized by the special conditions, receive -here expression in the mouths of actors, socialists, musicians, -journalists, and poets. Here they get together and talk by the hour, -over their coffee and cake, about politics and society, poetry and -ethics, literature and life. The café-keepers themselves are -thoughtful and often join in the discussion,--a discussion never -light but sometimes lighted up by bitter wit and gloomy irony. - -There are many poets among them, four of whom stand out as men of -great talent. One of the four, Morris Rosenfeld, is already well known -to the English-speaking world through a translation of some of his -poems. Two of the other three are equally well known, but only to the -Jewish people. One is famous throughout Jewish Russia. - - -A WEDDING BARD - -The oldest of the four poets is Eliakim Zunser. It is he that is known -to millions of people in Russia and to the whole New York Ghetto. He -is the poet of the common people, the beloved of all, the poet of the -housewife, of the Jew who is so ignorant that he does not even know -his own family name. To still more ignorant people, if such are -possible, he is known by what, after all, is his distinctive title, -Eliakim the _Badchen_, or the Wedding Bard. He writes in Yiddish, the -universal language of the Jew, dubbed "jargon" by the Hebrew -aristocrat. - -Zunser is now a printer in Rutger's Square, and has largely given up -his duties as _Badchen_, but at one time he was so famous in that -capacity that he went to a wedding once or twice every day, and made -in that way a large income. His part at the ceremony was to address -the bride and bridegroom in verse so solemn that it would bring tears -to their eyes, and then entertain the guests with burlesque lines. He -composed the music as well as the verses, and did both extempore. When -he left his home to attend the wedding there was no idea in his head -as to what he would say. He left that to the result of a hurried talk -before the ceremony with the wedding guests and the relatives of the -couple. - -Zunser's wedding verses died as soon as they were born, but there are -sixty-five collections of his poems, hundreds of which are sung every -day to young and old throughout Russia. Many others have never been -published, for Zunser is a poet who composes as he breathes, whose -every feeling and idea quivers into poetic expression, and who -preserves only an accidental part of what he does. - - [Illustration: ELIAKIM ZUNSER] - -He is a man of about seventy years of age, with kind little eyes, a -gray beard, and spare, short figure. As he sits in his printing -office in the far east side he wears a small black cap on his head. -Adjoining the office is another room, in which he lives with his wife -and several children. The stove, the dining-table, the beds, are all -in the same room, which is bare and chill. But the poet is hospitable, -and to the guests he offered cake and a bottle of sarsaparilla. Far -more delightful, however, the old man read some of his poems aloud. As -he read in a chanting tone he swayed gently backwards and forwards, -unconscious of his visitors, absorbed in the rhythm and feeling of the -song. There was great sweetness and tenderness in his eyes, facility -and spontaneity in the metre, and simple pathos and philosophy in the -meaning of what he said. He was apparently not conscious of the -possession of unusual power. Famous as he is, there was no sense of it -in his bearing. He is absolutely of the people, childlike and simple. -So far removed is he from the pride of his distinction that he has -largely given up poetry now. - -"I don't write much any more," he said in his careless Yiddish; "I -have not much time." - -His poetry seemed to him only a detail of his life. Along with the -simplicity of old age he has the maturity and aloofness of it. The -feeling for his position as an individual, if he ever had it, has -gone, and left the mind and heart interested only in God, race, and -impersonal beauty. - -So as he chanted his poems he seemed to gather up into himself the -dignity and pathos of his serious and suffering race, but as one who -had gone beyond the suffering and lived only with the eternities. His -wife and children bent over him as he recited, and their bodies kept -time with his rhythm. One of the two visitors was a Jew, whose -childhood had been spent in Russia, and when Zunser read a dirge which -he had composed in Russia twenty-five years ago at the death by -cholera of his first wife and children--a dirge which is now chanted -daily in thousands of Jewish homes in Russia--the visitor joined in, -altho he had not heard it for many years. Tears came to his eyes as -memories of his childhood were brought up by Zunser's famous lines; -his body swayed to and fro in sympathy with that of Zunser and those -of the poet's second wife and her children; and to the Anglo-Saxon -present this little group of Jewish exiles moved by rhythm, pathos, -and the memory of a far-away land conveyed a strange emotion. - -Zunser's dirge is in a vein of reflective melancholy. "The Mail Wagon" -is its title. The mail wagon brings joy and sorrow, hope and despair, -and it was this awful mechanism that brought Zunser's grief home to -him. "But earth, too, is a machine, a machine that crushes the bones -of the philosopher into dust, digests them, that crushes and digests -all things. From it all comes. Into it all goes. Why may I not -therefore be chewing at this moment the marrow of my children?" - -Another song the old man read aloud was composed in his early -childhood, and is representative in subject and mood of much of his -later work. "The Song of the Bird" it is called, and it typifies the -Jewish race. The bird's wing is broken, and the bird reflects in -tender melancholy over his misfortunes. "Take me away from Roumania" -has the same melancholy, but also a humorous pathos in the title, for -the poet meant he would like to be taken away from Russia, but was -afraid to say so for political reasons. But the sadness of Zunser's -poetry is lightened by its spontaneity and by the felicity of verse -and music, and the naďve idea in each poem is never too solemnly -insisted upon for popular poetry. - -The dirge, which touched upon an episode of his life, led the poet to -tell in his simple way the other events of a life history at once -typical and peculiar. - -He was born in Vilna, the capital of ancient Lithuania, and became -apprentice to a weaver of gold lace at the age of six. His general -education was consequently slight, tho he picked up a little of the -Talmud and sang Isaiah and Jeremiah while at work. At the end of six -years, when he was supposed to know his trade, his master was to give -him twenty roubles as total wage. But the master refused to pay, and -young Zunser took to the road with no money. He went to Bysk in the -Ostsee province, and there worked at his trade during the day and at -night studied the Talmud under the local rabbi. He also began to read -books in pure Hebrew for the love of the noble poetry in that tongue. -Before long he received word from home that his little brother had -died. He went back and helped his mother cry, as he expressed it. Away -he went again from home to a place called Bobroysk, where he obtained -a position to teach Hebrew in the family of an innkeeper, who promised -to pay him twenty-five roubles at the end of six months. When the time -came his employer said he would pay at the end of the year. Ingenuous -Zunser agreed, but the innkeeper, just before the end of the year, -went to a government official and reported that there was a boy at his -house who was fit to be a soldier. Young Zunser was pressed into the -service. He was then thirteen. It was in the barracks that he composed -his first three songs. In these songs he poured out his heart, told -all his woe, but did not print them, "for," he said, "it was my own -case." - -On being released from the service, Zunser went to Vilna and continued -his trade as a gold-lace maker. He also wrote many poems and songs. -They were not printed at first, but circulated in written copies. -Zunser is said to be the first man to write songs in Yiddish, and soon -he became famous. "It was 'the lacemaker boy' everywhere," as the poet -expressed it. Now that he could make money by his songs he gave up his -trade and devoted himself to art. In 1861 he returned to his native -town a great man. There he first saw his work in print. Then came a -period when he wrote a great deal and performed every day his function -as wedding bard. For ten years things prospered with him, but in 1871 -his wife and four children died of cholera. Zunser composed the famous -dirge, left Vilna, which appeared to him unlucky, and went to Minsk. -Here he continued to get a living with his pen, and married again. Ten -years ago he came to New York with his family and kept up his -occupation as wedding bard for some time. - -The character of Zunser's poetry is what might be expected from his -popularity, slight education, and humble position in the Jewish world. -His melancholy is common to all Jewish poets. There is a constant -reference to his race, too, a love for it, and a sort of humble pride. -More than any of the four poets whom we are to mention, with the -possible exception of Morris Rosenfeld, Zunser has a fresh lyric -quality which has gone far to endear him to the people. Yet in spite -of his sweet bird-like speed of expression, Zunser's is a poetry of -ideas, altho the ideas are simple, fragmentary, and fanciful, and are -seldom sustained beyond what is admissible to the lyric touch. The -pale cast of thought, less marked in Zunser's work than in that of the -other three poets, is also a common characteristic of Jewish poetry. -Melancholy, patriotic, and thoughtful, what is lacking in Zunser is -what all modern Jewish poetry lacks and what forms a sweet part of -Anglo-Saxon literature--the distinctively sensuous element. A Keats is -a Hebrew impossibility. The poetry of simple presentation, of the -qualities of mere physical nature, is strikingly absent in the -imaginative work of this serious and moral people. The intellectual -element is always noticeable, even in simple Zunser, the poet of the -people. - - -A CHAMPION OF RACE - -A striking contrast to the popular wedding bard is Menahem Dolitzki, -called the Hebrew poet because he has the distinction of writing in -the old Hebrew language. - -His learning is limited to the old literature of his race. He is not a -generally well educated man, not knowing or caring anything about -modern life or ideas. The poet of the holy tongue, he is what the Jews -call _maskil_, fellow of wisdom. The aloof dignity of his position -fills him with a mild contempt for the "jargon," the Yiddish of -Rosenfeld and Zunser, and makes him distrustful of what the fourth -poet, Wald, represents--the modern socialistic spirit. - -Singularly enough, he is called by the socialists of the Ghetto the -poet of the dilettanti. An Anglo-Saxon American employs the term to -mean those persons superficially interested in much, deeply interested -in nothing; but these socialistic spirits stigmatize as dilettante -whatever is not immersed in the spirit of the modern world. The man of -form, the lover of the old, the cool man with scholastic tinge has no -place in the sympathetic imagination of the Ghetto intellectuals. They -leave him to the learned among old fogies. And it is true that -Dolitzki's appeal is a limited one, both as a man and as a poet. He is -a handsome man of about forty-five years, with a fine profile, an -unenthusiastic manner, a native reserve very evident in his way of -reading his poetry. He has nothing of the buoyant spontaneity, the -impersonal feeling of Zunser. The poet of the people was a part of his -verse as he read. He threw himself into it, identified himself with -his musical and fanciful creation. But Dolitzki, who has been recently -a travelling agent for a Yiddish newspaper on the east side, and has a -little home suggesting greater cleanliness and comfort than that of -Zunser, held his manuscript at arm's length and read his verses with -no apparent sign of emotion. About his poetry and life he talked with -comparative reserve, in the former evidently caring most for the form -and the language, and in the latter for the ideas which determined his -intellectual life rather than for picturesque details and events. - - [Illustration: MENAHEM DOLITZKI] - -Dolitzki's life and work are identified with the revival of Hebrew -literature of fifty years ago, and, more narrowly, of twenty years -ago. He is one of the great poets of that revival, and wherever it is -felt in the Jewish world, there Dolitzki is known and admired. He was -born in Byelostock, but spent his early manhood in Moscow, whence he -was expelled. That event partly determined the character of his first -writings--patriotic poems of culture, reasoned outcries against the -religious prejudice of the orthodox Jews, the Jews who take their -stand on the Talmud, led by the hair-splitting rabbi, upholders of the -narrow Jewish theology. Just as the revival of learning in Europe -brought doubt of orthodoxy along with it, so the revival of the pure -Hebrew literature brought doubt of the religion of the established -rabbi, founded on a minute interpretation of the Talmud. The Hebrew -scholars who went back to the sources of Jewish literature for their -inspiration were worse than infidels to the orthodox. And Dolitzki was -the poet of these "infidels." - -When, however, the Jews were expelled from Moscow, Dolitzki's interest -broadened to love of his race. It is not so much interest in human -nature that these noble and austere poems manifest, as an epic love -for the race as a whole, a lofty and abstract emotion. The -intellectual and moral element characteristic of Jewish poetry is -particularly marked in Dolitzki's work. His first poems, those of -culture inspired by hatred of Talmudic prejudice, and his later ones, -filled with the abstract love of his race, are poems of idealism -expressed largely in complicated symbolical language, lacking, as -compared with Zunser's poetry, spontaneity, wholly wanting in sensuous -imagery, but written in musical and finished verse. - -A poem illustrating Dolitzki's first period tells how a cherub bore -the poet, symbolizing the Jewish people, aloft where he could see pure -and beautiful things, but soon the earth appeared, in the shape of a -round loaf of bread symbolizing need and poverty and prejudice; and to -this the aspiring Jew must return and from this he could not escape. -One of the poems in which Dolitzki's love of his race is expressed -describes a man and a maiden (the Jewish race) who, driven by love of -one another and fear of oppression, are sitting upon a lofty rock. -Below them on the plain they see their family murdered by the -invaders. Then they voluntarily die, declaring that they will yet live -forever in the race. - -Dolitzki's remote idealism represents a nobler kind of thing than what -is generally associated with the east side. A dignified and epic -poet, he is filled with moral rather than enthusiastic love of the -old language and the old race. - - -A SINGER OF LABOR - -Morris Rosenfeld, poet and former tailor, strikes in his personality -and writings the weary minor. Full of tears are the man and his song. -Zunser, Dolitzki, and Wald, altho in their verse runs the eternal -melancholy of poetry and of the Jews, have yet physical buoyancy and a -robust spirit. But Rosenfeld, small, dark, and fragile in body, with -fine eyes and drooping eyelashes, and a plaintive, childlike voice, is -weary and sick--a simple poet, a sensitive child, a bearer of burdens, -an east side tailor. Zunser and Dolitzki have shown themselves able to -cope with their hard conditions, but the sad little Rosenfeld, -unpractical and incapable in all but his songs, has had the hardest -time of all. His life has been typical of that of many a delicate -poet--a life of privation, of struggle borne by weak shoulders, and a -spirit and temperament not fitted to meet the world. - - [Illustration: MORRIS ROSENFELD] - -Much younger than Zunser or Dolitzki, Morris Rosenfeld was born -thirty-eight years ago in a small village in the province of Subalk, -in Russian Poland, at the end of the last Polish revolution. The very -night he was born the world began to oppress him, for insurgents threw -rocks through the window. His grandfather was rich, but his father -lost the money in business, and Morris received very little -education--only the Talmud and a little German, which he got at a -school in Warsaw. He married when he was sixteen, "because my father -told me to," as the poet expressed it. He ran away from Poland to -avoid being pressed into the army. "I would like to serve my -country," he said, "if there had been any freedom for the Jew." Then -he went to Holland and learned the trade of diamond-cutting; then to -London, where he took up tailoring. - -Hearing that the tailors had won a strike in America, he came to New -York, thinking he would need to work here only ten hours a day. "But -what I heard," he said, "was a lie. I found the sweat-shops in New -York just as bad as they were in London." - -In those places he worked for many years, worked away his health and -strength, but at the same time composed many a sweetly sad song. "I -worked in the sweat-shop in the daytime," he said to me, "and at night -I worked at my poems. I could not help writing them. My heart was full -of bitterness. If my poems are sad and plaintive, it is because I -expressed my own feelings, and because my surroundings were sad." - -Next to Zunser, Rosenfeld is the most popular of the four Jewish -poets. Zunser is most popular in Russia, Rosenfeld in this country. -Both write in the universal Yiddish or "jargon," both are simple and -spontaneous, musical and untutored. But, unlike Zunser, Rosenfeld is a -thorough representative, one might say victim, of the modern spirit. -Zunser sings to an older and more buoyant Jewish world, to the -Russian Hebrew village and the country at large. Rosenfeld in weary -accents sings to the maimed spirit of the Jewish slums. It is a fresh, -naďve note, the pathetic cry of the bright spirit crushed in the -poisonous air of the Ghetto. The first song that Rosenfeld printed in -English is this: - - "I lift mine eyes against the sky, - The clouds are weeping, so am I; - I lift mine eyes again on high, - The sun is smiling, so am I. - Why do I smile? Why do I weep? - I do not know; it lies too deep. - - "I hear the winds of autumn sigh, - They break my heart, they make me cry; - I hear the birds of lovely spring, - My hopes revive, I help them sing. - Why do I sing? Why do I cry? - It lies so deep, I know not why." - - -A DREAMER OF BROTHERHOOD - -Abraham Wald, whose _nom de plume_ is Lessin, is only twenty-eight -years old, the youngest and least known of the four poets, yet in some -respects the most interesting. He is the only one who is on a level -with the intellectual alertness of the day. His education is broad and -in some directions thorough. He is the only one of the four poets whom -we are discussing who knows Russian, which language he often writes. -He is an imaginative critic, a violent socialist, and an excitable -lover of nature. - -One of his friends called the poet on one occasion an intellectual -_débauché_. It was in a Canal Street café, where Wald was talking in -an excited tone to several other intellectuals. He is a short, stocky -man, with a suggestion of physical power. His eyes are brilliant, and -there seems to be going on in him a sort of intellectual consumption. -He is restlessly intense in manner, speaks in images, and is always -passionately convinced of the truth of what he sees so clearly but -seldom expresses in cold logic. His fevered idealism meets you in his -frank, quick gaze and impulsive and rapid speech. - - [Illustration: ABRAHAM WALD] - -Lacking in repose, balance, and sobriety of thought, Wald is well -described by his friend's phrase. Equally well he may be called the -Jewish bohemian. He is not dissipated in the ordinary sense. Coffee -and tea are the drinks he finds in his little cafés. But in these -places he practically lives, disputing, arguing, expounding, with -whomsoever he may find. He has no fixed home, but sleeps wherever -inevitable weariness finds him. He prefers to sleep not at all. Like -all his talented tribe he is poor, and makes an occasional dollar by -writing a poem or an article for an east side newspaper. When he has -collected three or four dollars he quits the newspaper office and -seeks again his beloved café, violently to impart his quick-coming -thoughts and impulses. Only after his money is gone--and it lasts him -many days--does he return to his work on the paper, the editor of -which must be an uncommonly good-natured fellow. - -Impelled by political reasons, Wald left Russia three years ago, but -before that time, which was in his twenty-fifth year, he had passed -through eight mental and moral crises. Perhaps the number was a -poetical exaggeration, for when I asked the poet to enumerate he gave -only five. As a boy he revolted from the hair-splitting Talmudic -orthodoxy, and was cursed in consequence; then he lost his Jewish -faith altogether; then his whole _Cultur-Anschauung_ changed, on -account of the influence of Russian literature. He became an atheist -and then a socialist and perhaps a pantheist: at least he has written -poems in which breathes the personified spirit of nature. Without the -peace of nature, however, is the man and his work. He dislikes America -because it lacks the ebullient activity of moral, imaginative life. -Wald likes Russia better than America because Russia, to use the -poet's words, is idealism, hope, and America is realization. - -"Before I came to America," he said, "I thought it would not be as -interesting as Russia, and when I got here I saw that I was right. -America seemed all worked out to me, as if mighty things had already -been done, but it seemed lifeless at the core. Russia, on the other -hand, with no external form of national prosperity, is all activity at -heart, restless longing. Russia is nothing to see, but alive and -bubbling at the core. The American wants a legal wife, something there -and sure, but the Russian wants a wife behind a mountain, through -which he cannot penetrate, but can only dream and strive for her." - -These four poets have what is distinctive of Jewish poetry--the pulse -of desire and hope, in which there is strain and reproach, constant -effort. The Russian Jew's lack of appreciation of completed beauty or -of merely sensuous nature is strikingly illustrated by the fact that -there has never been a great expression of plastic art in his history. -Painting, sculpture, and architecture are nothing to the Jew in -comparison with the literature and music of ideas. In nearly all the -Jews of talent I have met there is the same intellectual consumption, -the excitement of beauty, but no enjoyment of pure beauty of form. The -race is still too unhappy, too unsatisfied, has too much to gain, to -express a complacent sense of the beauty of what is. - -Wald's is the poetry of socialism and of nature, and one form is as -turbulent as the other. He writes, for instance, of the prisoner in -Siberia, his verses filled with passionate rebellion. Then he tells -how he dreamed beside the gleaming river, and of the fancies that -passed through his brain--not merely pretty fancies, but passionately -moral images in which rebellion, longing, wonder, are by turns -expressed; never peaceful enjoyment of nature, never simply the humble -eye that sees and questions not, but always the moral storm and -stress. - -Wald and Rosenfeld represent at once things similar and unlike. Both -are associated with the modern spirit of socialism, both are -identified with the heart of big cities, both are very civilized, yet -in temperament and quality no two poets could be more widely -separated. Rosenfeld is the finer spirit, the more narrow, too. He is -eminently the Ghetto Jew. But Wald, as one sees him talking in the -café, his whole body alive with emotion, with his youthful, open face, -his constant energy, and the modernity and freshness of his ideas, -seems the Russian rather than the Jew, and suggests the vivid spirit -of Tolstoi. - -In comparison with Wald and Rosenfeld the older men, Dolitzki and -Zunser, seem remote. Dolitzki has the remoteness of culture and Zunser -that of old age and relative peace of spirit. But compared among -themselves the poets of the four are Zunser and Rosenfeld, the -spontaneous lyric singers. Wald, however, is making his way rapidly -into the sympathetic intelligence of the socialists--a growing -class--but has not as yet the same wide appeal as the two poets who -sing only in the tongue of the people. - - - - -Chapter Five - -The Stage - - -THEATRES, ACTORS AND AUDIENCE - -In the three Yiddish theatres on the Bowery is expressed the world of -the Ghetto--that New York City of Russian Jews, large, complex, with a -full life and civilization. In the midst of the frivolous Bowery, -devoted to tinsel variety shows, "dive" music-halls, fake museums, -trivial amusement booths of all sorts, cheap lodging-houses, ten-cent -shops and Irish-American tough saloons, the theatres of the chosen -people alone present the serious as well as the trivial interests of -an entire community. Into these three buildings crowd the Jews of all -the Ghetto classes--the sweat-shop woman with her baby, the -day-laborer, the small Hester Street shopkeeper, the Russian-Jewish -anarchist and socialist, the Ghetto rabbi and scholar, the poet, the -journalist. The poor and ignorant are in the great majority, but the -learned, the intellectual and the progressive are also represented, -and here, as elsewhere, exert a more than numerically proportionate -influence on the character of the theatrical productions, which, -nevertheless, remain essentially popular. The socialists and the -literati create the demand that forces into the mass of vaudeville, -light opera, historical and melodramatic plays a more serious art -element, a simple transcript from life or the theatric presentation of -a Ghetto problem. But this more serious element is so saturated with -the simple manners, humor and pathos of the life of the poor Jew, that -it is seldom above the heartfelt understanding of the crowd. - -The audiences vary in character from night to night rather more than -in an up-town theatre. On the evenings of the first four week-days the -theatre is let to a guild or club, many hundred of which exist among -the working people of the east side. Many are labor organizations -representing the different trades, many are purely social, and others -are in the nature of secret societies. Some of these clubs are formed -on the basis of a common home in Russia. The people, for instance, who -came from Vilna, a city in the old country, have organized a Vilna -Club in the Ghetto. Then, too, the anarchists have a society; there -are many socialistic orders; the newspapers of the Ghetto have their -constituency, which sometimes hires the theatre. Two or three hundred -dollars is paid to the theatre by the guild, which then sells the -tickets among the faithful for a good price. Every member of the -society is forced to buy, whether he wants to see the play or not, and -the money made over and above the expenses of hiring the theatre is -for the benefit of the guild. These performances are therefore called -"benefits." The widespread existence of such a custom is a striking -indication of the growing sense of corporate interests among the -laboring classes of the Jewish east side. It is an expression of the -socialistic spirit which is marked everywhere in the Ghetto. - -On Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights the theatre is not let, for -these are the Jewish holidays, and the house is always completely sold -out, altho prices range from twenty-five cents to a dollar. Friday -night is, properly speaking, the gala occasion of the week. That is -the legitimate Jewish holiday, the night before the Sabbath. Orthodox -Jews, as well as others, may then amuse themselves. Saturday, altho -the day of worship, is also of holiday character in the Ghetto. This -is due to the Christian influences, to which the Jews are more and -more sensitive. Through economic necessity Jewish workingmen are -compelled to work on Saturday, and, like other workingmen, look upon -Saturday night as a holiday, in spite of the frown of the orthodox. -Into Sunday, too, they extend their freedom, and so in the Ghetto -there are now three popularly recognized nights on which to go with -all the world to the theatre. - -On those nights the theatre presents a peculiarly picturesque sight. -Poor workingmen and women with their babies of all ages fill the -theatre. Great enthusiasm is manifested, sincere laughter and tears -accompany the sincere acting on the stage. Pedlers of soda-water, -candy, of fantastic gewgaws of many kinds, mix freely with the -audience between the acts. Conversation during the play is received -with strenuous hisses, but the falling of the curtain is the signal -for groups of friends to get together and gossip about the play or the -affairs of the week. Introductions are not necessary, and the Yiddish -community can then be seen and approached with great freedom. On the -stage curtain are advertisements of the wares of Hester Street or -portraits of the "star" actors. On the programmes and circulars -distributed in the audience are sometimes amusing announcements of -coming attractions or lyric praise of the "stars." Poetry is not -infrequent, an example of which, literally translated, is: - - Labor, ye stars, as ye will, - Ye cannot equal the artist; - In the garden of art ye shall not flourish; - Ye can never achieve his fame. - Can you play _Hamlet_ like him? - The _Wild King_, or the _Huguenots_? - Are you gifted with feeling - So much as to imitate him like a shadow? - Your fame rests on the pen; - On the show-cards your flight is high; - But on the stage every one can see - How your greatness turns to ashes, - Tomashevsky! Artist great! - No praise is good enough for you; - Every one remains your ardent friend. - Of all the stars you remain the king. - You seek no tricks, no false quibbles; - One sees Truth itself playing. - Your appearance is godly to us; - Every movement is full of grace; - Pleasing is your every gesture; - Sugar-sweet your every turn; - You remain the King of the Stage; - Everything falls to your feet. - -On the playboards outside the theatre, containing usually the portrait -of a star, are also lyric and enthusiastic announcements. Thus, on the -return of the great Adler, who had been ill, it was announced on the -boards that "the splendid eagle has spread his wings again." - -The Yiddish actors, as may be inferred from the verses quoted, take -themselves with peculiar seriousness, justified by the enthusiasm, -almost worship, with which they are regarded by the people. Many a -poor Jew, man or girl, who makes no more than $10 a week in the -sweat-shop, will spend $5 of it on the theatre, which is practically -the only amusement of the Ghetto Jew. He has not the loafing and -sporting instincts of the poor Christian, and spends his money for the -theatre rather than for drink. It is not only to see the play that the -poor Jew goes to the theatre. It is to see his friends and the actors. -With these latter he, and more frequently she, try in every way to -make acquaintance, but commonly are compelled to adore at a distance. -They love the songs that are heard on the stage, and for these the -demand is so great that a certain bookshop on the east side makes a -specialty of publishing them. - -The actor responds to this popular enthusiasm with sovereign contempt. -He struts about in the cafés on Canal and Grand Streets, conscious of -his greatness. He refers to the crowd as "Moses" with superior -condescension or humorous vituperation. Like thieves, the actors have -a jargon of their own, which is esoteric and jealously guarded. Their -pride gave rise a year or two ago to an amusing strike at the People's -Theatre. The actors of the three Yiddish companies in New York are -normally paid on the share rather than the salary system. In the case -of the company now at the People's Theatre, this system proved very -profitable. The star actors, Jacob Adler and Boris Thomashevsky, and -their wives, who are actresses--Mrs. Adler being the heavy realistic -tragedienne and Mrs. Thomashevsky the star soubrette--have probably -received on an average during that time as much as $125 a week for -each couple. But they, with Mr. Edelstein, the business man, are -lessees of the theatre, run the risk and pay the expenses, which are -not small. The rent of the theatre is $20,000 a year, and the weekly -expenses, besides, amount to about $1,100. The subordinate actors, who -risk nothing, since they do not share the expenses, have made amounts -during this favorable period ranging from $14 a week on the average -for the poorest actors to $75 for those just beneath the "stars." But, -in spite of what is exceedingly good pay in the Bowery, the actors of -this theatre formed a union, and struck for wages instead of shares. -This however, was only an incidental feature. The real cause was that -the management of the theatre, with the energetic Thomashevsky at the -head, insisted that the actors should be prompt at rehearsals, and if -they were not, indulged in unseemly epithets. The actors' pride was -aroused, and the union was formed to insure their ease and dignity -and to protect them from harsh words. The management imported actors -from Chicago. Several of the actors here stood by their employers, -notably Miss Weinblatt, a popular young ingénue, who, on account of -her great memory is called the "Yiddish Encyclopedia," and Miss -Gudinski, an actress of commanding presence. Miss Weinblatt forced her -father, once an actor, now a farmer, into the service of the -management. But the actors easily triumphed. Misses Gudinski and -Weinblatt were forced to join the union, Mr. Weinblatt returned to his -farm, the "scabs" were packed off to Philadelphia, and the wages -system introduced. A delegation was sent to Philadelphia to throw -cabbages at the new actors, who appeared in the Yiddish performances -in that city. The triumphant actors now receive on the average -probably $10 to $15 a week less than under the old system. Mr. Conrad, -who began the disaffection, receives a salary of $29 a week, fully $10 -less than he received for months before the strike. But the dignity of -the Yiddish actor is now placed beyond assault. As one of them -recently said: "We shall no longer be spat upon nor called 'dog.'" - -The Yiddish actor is so supreme that until recently a regular system -of hazing playwrights was in vogue. Joseph Latteiner and Professor M. -Horowitz were long recognized as the only legitimate Ghetto -playwrights. When a new writer came to the theatre with a manuscript, -various were the pranks the actors would play. They would induce him -to try, one after another, all the costumes in the house, in order to -help him conceive the characters; or they would make him spout the -play from the middle of the stage, they themselves retiring to the -gallery to "see how it sounded." In the midst of his exertions they -would slip away, and he would find himself shouting to the empty -boards. Or, in the midst of a mock rehearsal, some actor would shout, -"He is coming, the great Professor Horowitz, and he will eat you"; and -they would rush from the theatre with the panic-stricken playwright -following close at their heels. - -The supremacy of the Yiddish actor has, however, its humorous -limitations. The orthodox Jews who go to the theatre on Friday night, -the beginning of Sabbath, are commonly somewhat ashamed of themselves -and try to quiet their consciences by a vociferous condemnation of the -actions on the stage. The actor, who through the exigencies of his -rôle, is compelled to appear on Friday night with a cigar in his -mouth, is frequently greeted with hisses and strenuous cries of -"Shame, shame, smoke on the Sabbath!" from the proletarian hypocrites -in the gallery. - - [Illustration: MR. MOSHKOVITZ] - -The plays at these theatres vary in a general way with the varying -audiences of which I have spoken above. The thinking socialists -naturally select a less violent play than the comparatively illogical -anarchists. Societies of relatively conservative Jews desire a -historical play in which the religious Hebrew in relation to the -persecuting Christian is put in pathetic and melodramatic situations. -There are a very large number of "culture" pieces produced, which, -roughly speaking, are plays in which the difference between the Jew of -one generation and the next is dramatically portrayed. The pathos or -tragedy involved in differences of faith and "point of view" between -the old rabbi and his more enlightened children is expressed in many -historical plays of the general character of _Uriel Acosta_, tho in -less lasting form. Such plays, however, are called "historical -plunder" by that very up-to-date element of the intellectual Ghetto -which is dominated by the Russian spirit of realism. It is the demand -of these fierce realists that of late years has produced a supply of -theatrical productions attempting to present a faithful picture of the -actual conditions of life. Permeating all these kinds of plays is the -amusement instinct pure and simple. For the benefit of the crowd of -ignorant people grotesque humor, popular songs, vaudeville tricks, are -inserted everywhere. - -Of these plays the realistic are of the most value,[1] for they often -give the actual Ghetto life with surprising strength and fidelity. The -past three years have been their great seasons, and have developed a -large crop of new playwrights, mainly journalists who write -miscellaneous articles for the east side newspapers. Jacob Gordin, of -whom we shall have frequent occasion to speak, has been writing plays -for several years, and was the first realistic playwright; he remains -the strongest and most prominent in this kind of play. Professor -Horowitz, who is now the lessee of the Windsor Theatre, situated on -the Bowery, between Grand and Canal Streets, represents, along with -Joseph Latteiner, the conservative and traditional aspects of the -stage. He is an interesting man, fifty-six years of age, and has been -connected with the Yiddish stage practically since its origin. His -father was a teacher in a Hebrew school, and he himself is a man of -uncommon learning. He has made a great study of the stage, has written -one hundred and sixty-seven plays, and claims to be an authority on -_dramaturgie_. Latteiner is equally productive, but few of their plays -are anything more than Yiddish adaptations of old operas and -melodramas in other languages. Long runs are impossible on the Yiddish -stage and consequently the playwrights produce many plays and are not -very scrupulous in their methods. The absence of dramatic criticism -and the ignorance of the audience enable them to "crib" with impunity. -As one of the actors said, Latteiner and Horowitz and their class took -their first plays from some foreign source and since then have been -repeating themselves. The actor said that when he is cast in a -Latteiner play he does not need to learn his part. He needs only to -understand the general situation; the character and the words he -already knows from having appeared in many other Latteiner plays. - - [Illustration: YIDDISH PLAYWRIGHTS DISCUSSING THE DRAMA] - -The professor, nevertheless, naturally regards himself and Latteiner -as the "real" Yiddish playwrights. For many years after the first -bands of actors reached the New York Ghetto these two men held -undisputed sway. Latteiner leaned to "romantic," Horowitz to -"culture," plays, and both used material which was mainly historical. -The professor regards that as the bright period of the Ghetto stage. -Since then there has been, in his opinion, a decadence which began -with the translation of the classics into Yiddish. _Hamlet_, -_Othello_, _King Lear_, and plays of Schiller, were put upon the stage -and are still being performed. Sometimes they are almost literally -translated, sometimes adapted until they are realistic representations -of Jewish life. Gordin's _Yiddish King Lear_, for instance, represents -Shakespeare's idea only in the most general way, and weaves about it a -sordid story of Jewish character and life. Of _Hamlet_ there are two -versions, one adapted, in which Shakespeare's idea is reduced to a -ludicrous shadow, the interest lying entirely in the presentation of -Jewish customs. - -The first act of the Yiddish version represents the wedding feast of -Hamlet's mother and uncle. In the Yiddish play the uncle is a rabbi in -a small village in Russia. He did not poison Hamlet's father but broke -the latter's heart by wooing and winning his queen. Hamlet is off -somewhere getting educated as a rabbi. While he is gone his father -dies. Six weeks afterwards the son returns in the midst of the wedding -feast, and turns the feast into a funeral. Scenes of rant follow -between mother and son, Ophelia and Hamlet, interspersed with jokes -and sneers at the sect of rabbis who think they communicate with the -angels. The wicked rabbi conspires against Hamlet, trying to make him -out a nihilist. The plot is discovered and the wicked rabbi is sent to -Siberia. The last act is the graveyard scene. It is snowing violently. -The grave is near a huge windmill. Ophelia is brought in on the bier. -Hamlet mourns by her side and is married, according to the Jewish -custom, to the dead woman. Then he dies of a broken heart. The other -version is almost a literal translation. To these translations of the -classics, Professor Horowitz objects on the ground that the ignorant -Yiddish public cannot understand them, because what learning they have -is limited to distinctively Yiddish subjects and traditions. - -Another important step in what the professor calls the degeneration of -the stage was the introduction a few years ago of the American -"pistol" play--meaning the fierce melodrama which has been for so long -a characteristic of the English plays produced on the Bowery. - -But what has contributed more than anything else to what the good man -calls the present deplorable condition of the theatre was the advent -of realism. "It was then," said the professor one day with calm -indignation, "that the genuine Yiddish play was persecuted. Young -writers came from Russia and swamped the Ghetto with scurrilous -attacks on me and Latteiner. No number of the newspaper appeared that -did not contain a scathing criticism. They did not object to the -actors, who in reality were very bad, but it was the play they aimed -at. These writers knew nothing about _dramaturgie_, but their heads -were filled with senseless realism. Anything historical and -distinctively Yiddish they thought bad. For a long time Latteiner and -I were able to keep their realistic plays off the boards, but for the -last few years there has been an open field for everybody. The result -is that horrors under the mask of realism have been put upon the -stage. This year is the worst of all--characters butchered on the -stage, the coarsest language, the most revolting situations, without -ideas, with no real material. It cannot last, however. Latteiner and I -continue with our real Yiddish plays, and we shall yet regain entire -possession of the field." - -At least this much may fairly be conceded to Professor Horowitz--that -the realistic writers in what is in reality an excellent attempt often -go to excess, and are often unskilful as far as stage construction is -concerned. In the reaction from plays with "pleasant" endings, they -tend to prefer equally unreal "unpleasant" endings, "onion" plays, as -the opponents of the realists call them. They, however, have written a -number of plays which are distinctively of the New York Ghetto, and -which attempt an unsentimental presentation of truth. A rather -extended description of these plays is given in the next section. -Professor Horowitz's plays, on the contrary, are largely based upon -the sentimental representation of inexact Jewish history. They herald -the glory and wrongs of the Hebrew people, and are badly constructed -melodramas of conventional character. Another class of plays written -by Professor Horowitz, and which have occasionally great but temporary -prosperity, are what he calls _Zeitstucke_. Some American newspaper -sensation is rapidly dramatized and put hot on the boards, such as -_Marie Barberi_, _Dr. Buchanan_ and _Dr. Harris_. - -The three theatres--the People's, the Windsor and the Thalia, which is -on the Bowery opposite the Windsor--are in a general way very similar -in the character of the plays produced, in the standard of acting and -in the character of the audience. There are, however, some minor -differences. The People's is the "swellest" and probably the least -characteristic of the three. It panders to the "uptown" element of the -Ghetto, to the downtown tradesman who is beginning to climb a little. -The baleful influence in art of the _nouveaux riches_ has at this -house its Ghetto expression. There is a tendency there to imitate the -showy qualities of the Broadway theatres--melodrama, farce, scenery, -etc. No babies are admitted, and the house is exceedingly clean in -comparison with the theatres farther down the Bowery. Three years ago -this company were at the Windsor Theatre, and made so much money that -they hired the People's, that old home of Irish-American melodrama, -and this atmosphere seems slightly to have affected the Yiddish -productions. Magnificent performances quite out of the line of the -best Ghetto drama have been attempted, notably Yiddish dramatizations -of successful up-town productions. Hauptman's _Versunkene Glocke_, -_Sapho_, _Quo Vadis_, and other popular Broadway plays in flimsy -adaptations were tried with little success, as the Yiddish audiences -hardly felt themselves at home in these unfamiliar scenes and -settings. - -The best trained of the three companies is at present that of the -Thalia Theatre. Here many excellent realistic plays are given. Of late -years, the great playwright of the colony, Jacob Gordin, has written -mainly for this theatre. There, too, is the best of the younger -actresses, Mrs. Bertha Kalisch. She is the prettiest woman on the -Ghetto stage and was at one time the leading lady of the Imperial -Theatre at Bucharest. She takes the leading woman parts in plays like -_Fedora_, _Magda_ and _The Jewish Zaza_. The principal actor at this -theatre is David Kessler, who is one of the best of the Ghetto actors -in realistic parts, and one of the worst when cast, as he often is, as -the romantic lover. The actor of most prominence among the younger men -is Mr. Moshkovitch, who hopes to be a "star" and one of the -management. When the union was formed he was in a quandary. Should he -join or should he not? He feared it might be a bad precedent, which -the actors would use against him when he became a star. And yet he did -not want to get them down on him. So before he joined he entered -solemn protests at all the cafés on Canal Street. The strike, he -maintained, was unnecessary. The actors were well paid and well -treated. Discipline should be maintained. But he would join because of -his universal sympathy with actors and with the poor--as a matter of -sentiment merely, against his better judgment. - - [Illustration: DAVID KESSLER] - -The company at the Windsor is the weakest, so far as acting is -concerned, of the three. Very few "realistic" plays are given there, -for Professor Horowitz is the lessee, and he prefers the historical -Jewish opera and "culture" plays. Besides, the company is not strong -enough to undertake successfully many new productions, altho it -includes some good actors. Here Mrs. Prager vies as a prima-donna with -Mrs. Karb of the People's and Mrs. Kalisch of the Thalia. Professor -Horowitz thinks she is far better than the other two. As he puts it, -there are two and a half prima-donnas in the Ghetto--at the Windsor -Theatre there is a complete one, leaving one and a half between the -People's and the Thalia. Jacob Adler of the People's, the professor -thinks, is no actor, only a remarkable caricaturist. As Adler is the -most noteworthy representative of the realistic actors of the Ghetto, -the professor's opinion shows what the traditional Yiddish playwright -thinks of realism. The strong realistic playwright, Jacob Gordin, the -professor admits, has a "biting" dialogue, and "unconsciously writes -good cultural plays which he calls realistic, but his realistic plays, -properly speaking, are bad caricatures of life." - -The managers and actors of the three theatres criticise one another -indeed with charming directness, and they all have their followers in -the Ghetto and their special cafés on Grand or Canal Streets, where -their particular prejudices are sympathetically expressed. The actors -and lessees of the People's are proud of their fine theatre, proud -that no babies are brought there. There is a great dispute between the -supporters of this theatre and those of the Thalia as to which is the -stronger company and which produces the most realistic plays. The -manager of the Thalia maintains that the People's is sensational, and -that his theatre alone represents true realism; while the supporter of -the People's points scornfully to the large number of operas produced -at the Thalia. They both unite in condemning the Windsor, Professor -Horowitz's theatre, as producing no new plays and as hopelessly behind -the times, "full of historical plunder." An episode in _The Ragpicker -of Paris_, played at the Windsor when the present People's company -were there, amusingly illustrates the jealousy which exists between -the companies. An old beggar is picking over a heap of moth-eaten, -coverless books, some of which he keeps and some rejects. He comes -across two versions of a play, _The Two Vagrants_, one of which was -used at the Thalia and the other at the Windsor. The version used at -the Windsor receives the beggar's commendation, and the other is -thrown in a contemptuous manner into a dust-heap. - - -REALISM, THE SPIRIT OF THE GHETTO THEATRE - -The distinctive thing about the intellectual and artistic life of the -Russian Jews of the New York Ghetto, the spirit of realism, is -noticeable even on the popular stage. The most interesting plays are -those in which the realistic spirit predominates, and the best among -the actors and playwrights are the realists. The realistic element, -too, is the latest one in the history of the Yiddish stage. The Jewish -theatres in other parts of the world, which, compared with the three -in New York, are unorganized, present only anachronistic and fantastic -historical and Biblical plays, or comic opera with vaudeville -specialties attached. These things, as we have said in the last -section, are, to be sure, given in the Yiddish theatres on the Bowery -too, but there are also plays which in part at least portray the -customs and problems of the Ghetto community, and are of comparatively -recent origin. - - [Illustration: JACOB ADLER] - -There are two men connected with the Ghetto stage who particularly -express the distinctive realism of the intellectual east side--Jacob -Adler, one of the two best actors, and Jacob Gordin, the playwright. -Adler, a man of great energy, tried for many years to make a theatre -succeed on the Bowery which should give only what he called good -plays. Gordin's dramas, with a few exceptions, were the only plays on -contemporary life which Adler thought worthy of presentation. The -attempt to give exclusively realistic art, which is the only art on -the Bowery, failed. There, in spite of the widespread feeling for -realism, the mass of the people desire to be amused and are bored by -anything with the form of art. So now Adler is connected with the -People's Theatre, which gives all sorts of shows, from Gordin's plays -to ludicrous history, frivolous comic opera, and conventional -melodrama. But Adler acts for the most part only in the better sort. -He is an actor of unusual power and vividness. Indeed, in his case, as -in that of some other Bowery actors, it is only the Yiddish dialect -which stands between him and the distinction of a wide reputation. - -In almost every play given on the Bowery all the elements are -represented. Vaudeville, history, realism, comic opera, are generally -mixed together. Even in the plays of Gordin there are clownish and -operatic intrusions, inserted as a conscious condition of success. On -the other hand, even in the distinctively formless plays, in comic -opera and melodrama, there are striking illustrations of the popular -feeling for realism,--bits of dialogue, happy strokes of -characterization of well-known Ghetto types, sordid scenes faithful to -the life of the people. - -It is the acting which gives even to the plays having no intrinsic -relation to reality a frequent quality of naturalness. The Yiddish -players, even the poorer among them, act with remarkable sincerity. -Entirely lacking in self-consciousness, they attain almost from the -outset to a direct and forcible expressiveness. They, like the -audience, rejoice in what they deem the truth. In the general lack of -really good plays they yet succeed in introducing the note of realism. -To be true to nature is their strongest passion, and even in a -conventional melodrama their sincerity, or their characterization in -the comic episodes, often redeems the play from utter barrenness. - -And the little touches of truth to the life of the people are -thoroughly appreciated by the audience, much more generally so than in -the case of the better plays to be described later, where there is -more or less strictness of form and intellectual intention, difficult -for the untutored crowd to understand. In the "easy" plays, it is the -realistic touches which tell most. The spectators laugh at the exact -reproduction by the actor of a tattered type which they know well. A -scene of perfect sordidness will arouse the sympathetic laughter or -tears of the people. "It is so natural," they say to one another, "so -true." The word "natural" indeed is the favorite term of praise in the -Ghetto. What hits home to them, to their sense of humor or of sad -fact, is sure to move, altho sometimes in a manner surprising to a -visitor. To what seems to him very sordid and sad they will frequently -respond with laughter. - -One of the most beloved actors in the Ghetto is Zelig Mogalesco, now -at the People's Theatre, a comedian of natural talent and of the most -felicitous instinct for characterization. Unlike the strenuous Adler, -he has no ideas about realism or anything else. He acts in any kind of -play, and could not tell the difference between truth and burlesque -caricature. And yet he is remarkable for his naturalness, and popular -because of it. Adler with his ideas is sometimes too serious for the -people, but Mogalesco's naďve fidelity to reality always meets with -the sympathy of a simple audience loving the homely and unpretentious -truth. About Adler, strong actor that he is, and also about the -talented Gordin, there is something of the doctrinaire. - -But, altho the best actors of the three Yiddish theatres in the Ghetto -are realists by instinct and training, the thoroughly frivolous -element in the plays has its prominent interpreters. Joseph Latteiner -is the most popular playwright in the Bowery, and Boris Thomashevsky -perhaps the most popular actor. Latteiner has written over a hundred -plays, no one of which has form or ideas. He calls them _Volksstücke_ -(plays of the people), and naďvely admits that he writes directly to -the demand. They are mainly mixed melodrama, broad burlesque, and -comic opera. His heroes are all intended for Boris Thomashevsky, a -young man, fat, with curling black hair, languorous eyes, and a rather -effeminate voice, who is thought very beautiful by the girls of the -Ghetto. Thomashevsky has a face with no mimic capacity, and a -temperament absolutely impervious to mood or feeling. But he -picturesquely stands in the middle of the stage and declaims -phlegmatically the rôle of the hero, and satisfies the "romantic" -demand of the audience. Nothing could show more clearly how much more -genuine the feeling of the Ghetto is for fidelity to life than for -romantic fancy. How small a part of the grace and charm of life the -Yiddish audiences enjoy may be judged by the fact that the romantic -appeal of a Thomashevsky is eminently satisfying to them. Girls and -men from the sweat-shops, a large part of such an audience, are moved -by a very crude attempt at beauty. On the other hand they are so -familiar with sordid fact, that the theatrical representation of it -must be relatively excellent. Therefore the art of the Ghetto, -theatrical and other, is deeply and painfully realistic. - - [Illustration: JACOB GORDIN] - -When we turn to Jacob Gordin's plays, to other plays of similar -character and to the audiences to which they specifically appeal, we -have realism worked out consciously in art, the desire to express life -as it is, and at the same time the frequent expression of revolt -against the reality of things, and particularly against the actual -system of society. Consequently the "problem" play has its -representation in the Ghetto. It presents the hideous conditions of -life in the Ghetto--the poverty, the sordid constant reference to -money, the immediate sensuality, the jocular callousness--and -underlying the mere statement of the facts an intellectual and -passionate revolt. - -The thinking element of the Ghetto is largely Socialistic, and the -Socialists flock to the theatre the nights when the Gordin type of -play is produced. They discuss the meaning and justice of the play -between the acts, and after the performance repair to the Canal Street -cafés to continue their serious discourse. The unthinking Nihilists -are also represented, but not so frequently at the best plays as at -productions in which are found crude and screaming condemnation of -existing conditions. The Anarchistic propaganda hired the Windsor -Theatre for the establishment of a fund to start the _Freie Arbeiter -Stimme_, an anarchistic newspaper. The _Beggar of Odessa_ was the play -selected,--an adaptation of the _Ragpicker of Paris_, a play by Felix -Piot, the Anarchistic agitator of the French Commune in 1871. The -features of the play particularly interesting to the audience were -those emphasizing the clashing of social classes. The old ragpicker, a -model man, clever, brilliant, and good, is a philosopher too, and says -many things warmly welcomed by the audience. As he picks up his rags -he sings about how even the clothing of the great comes but to dust. -His adopted daughter is poor, and consequently noble and sweet. The -villains are all rich; all the very poor characters are good. Another -play, _Vogele_, is partly a satire of the rich Jew by the poor Jew. -"The rich Jews," sang the comedian, "toil not, neither do they spin. -They work not, they suffer not, why then do they live on this earth?" -This unthinking revolt is the opposite pole to the unthinking -vaudeville and melodrama. In many of the plays referred to roughly as -of the Gordin-Adler type--altho they were not all written by Gordin -nor played by Adler--we find a realism more true in feeling and cast -in stronger dramatic form. In some of these plays there is no problem -element; in few is that element so prominent as essentially to -interfere with the character of the play as a presentation of life. - -One of the plays most characteristic, as at once presenting the life -of the Ghetto and suggesting its problems, is _Minna_, or the Yiddish -Nora. Altho the general idea of Ibsen's _Doll's House_ is taken, the -atmosphere and life are original. The first scene represents the house -of a poor Jewish laborer on the east side. His wife and daughter are -dressing to go to see _A Doll's House_ with the boarder,--a young man -whom they have been forced to take into the house because of their -poverty. He is full of ideas and philosophy, and the two women fall in -love with him, and give him all the good things to eat. When the -laborer returns from his hard day's work, he finds that there is -nothing to eat, and that his wife and daughter are going to the play -with the boarder. The women despise the poor man, who is fit only to -work, eat, and sleep. The wife philosophizes on the atrocity of -marrying a man without intellectual interests, and finally drinks -carbolic acid. This Ibsen idea is set in a picture rich with realistic -detail: the dialect, the poverty, the types of character, the humor of -Yiddish New York. Jacob Adler plays the husband, and displays a vivid -imagination for details calculated to bring out the man's beseeching -bestiality: his filthy manners, his physical ailments, his greed, the -quickness of his anger and of resulting pacification. Like most of the -realistic plays of the Ghetto, _Minna_ is a genuine play of manners. It -has a general idea, and presents also the setting and characters of -reality. - -_The Slaughter_, written by Gordin, and with the main masculine -character taken by David Kessler, an actor of occasionally great -realistic strength, is the story of the symbolic murder of a fragile -young girl by her parents, who force her to marry a rich man who has -all the vices and whom she hates. The picture of the poor house, of -the old mother and father and half-witted stepson with whom the girl -is unconsciously in love, in its faithfulness to life is typical of -scenes in many of these plays. It is rich in character and _milieu_ -drawing. There is another scene of miserable life in the second act. -The girl is married and living with the rich brute. In the same house -is his mistress, curt and cold, and two children by a former wife. The -old parents come to see the wife; she meets them with the joy of -starved affection. But the husband enters and changes the scene to one -of hate and violence. The old mother tells him, however, of the heir -that is to come. Then there is a superb scene of naďve joy in the -midst of all the sordid gloom. There is rapturous delight of the old -people, turbulent triumph of the husband, and satisfaction of the -young wife. They make a holiday of it. Wine is brought. They all love -one another for the time. The scene is representative of the way the -poor Jews welcome their offspring. But indescribable violence and -abuse follow, and the wife finally kills her husband, in a scene where -realism riots into burlesque, as it frequently does on the Yiddish -stage. - -But for absolute, intense realism Gordin's _Wild Man_, unrelieved by a -problem idea, is unrivaled. An idiot boy falls in love with his -stepmother without knowing what love is. He is abused by his father -and brother, beaten on account of his ineptitudes. His sister and -another brother take his side, and the two camps revile each other in -unmistakable language. The father marries again; his new wife is a -heartless, faithless woman, and she and the daughter quarrel. After -repeated scenes of brutality to the idiot, the daughter is driven out -to make her own living. Adler's portraiture of the idiot is a great -bit of technical acting. The poor fellow is filled with the mysterious -wonderings of an incapable mind. His shadow terrifies and interests -him. He philosophizes about life and death. He is puzzled and worried -by everything; the slightest sound preys on him. Physically alert, his -senses serve only to trouble and terrify the mind which cannot -interpret what they present. The burlesque which Mr. Adler puts into -the part was inserted to please the crowd, but increases the horror of -it, as when Lear went mad; for the Elizabethan audiences laughed, and -had their souls wrung at the same time. The idiot ludicrously -describes his growing love. In pantomime he tells a long story. It is -evident, even without words, that he is constructing a complicated -symbolism to express what he does not know. He falls into epilepsy and -joins stiffly in the riotous dance. The play ends so fearfully that it -shades into mere burlesque. - -This horrible element in so many of these plays marks the point where -realism passes into fantastic sensationalism. The facts of life in the -Ghetto are in themselves unpleasant, and consequently it is natural -that a dramatic exaggeration of them results in something poignantly -disagreeable. The intense seriousness of the Russian Jew, which -accounts for what is excellent in these plays, explains also the -rasping falseness of the extreme situations. It is a curious fact that -idiots, often introduced in the Yiddish plays, amuse the Jewish -audience as much as they used to the Elizabethan mob. - -One of the most skillful of Gordin's Yiddish adaptations is _The -Oath_, founded on Hauptman's _Fuhrmann Henschel_. In the first act a -dying peasant is exhibited on the stage. In Hauptman's play it is a -woman; in Gordin's it is a man. He is racked with coughing. A servant -clatters over the floor with her heavy boots. Another servant feeds -the sick man from a coarse bowl and the steward works at the -household accounts. The dying man's wife, and their little boy, enter -and it is apparent that something has been going on between her and -the steward. They and the servants dine realistically and coarsely and -neglect the dying man. When they leave, the dying man teaches his son -how to say "Kaddish" for his soul when he is dead. When he dies he -makes his wife swear that she will never marry again. In the second -act she is about to marry the steward, and the Jewish customs are here -used, as is often the case with the Yiddish playwright, to intensify -the dramatic effect of a scene. It is just a year from the time of her -husband's death, and the candles are burning, therefore, on the table. -According to the orthodox belief the soul of the dead is present when -the candles burn. The little boy, feeling that his mother is about to -marry again, blows out the candles. The mother, horror-stricken, -rushes to him and asks him why he did it. "I did not want my father to -see that you are going to marry again," says the little fellow. It was -an affecting scene and left few dry eyes in the audience. - -At the beginning of the third act the wife and servant are living -together, married. He comes on the stage, sleepy, brutal, calling -loudly for a drink, abuses the little boy and quarrels with his wife; -he is a crude, dishonorable, coarse brute. He drives away a faithful -servant and returns to his swinish slumber. An old couple, the woman -being the sister of the dead man, who are always torturing the wife -with having broken her vow, hint to her that her new husband is too -attentive to the maid-servant. She is angry and incredulous, and calls -the maid to her, but when she sees her in the doorway, before a word -is spoken, she realizes it is true, and sends her away. The husband -enters and she passionately taxes him. He admits it, but justifies -himself: he is young, a high-liver, etc., why shouldn't he? Just then -the child is brought in, drowned in the river nearby. - -In the beginning of the fourth and last act the husband again appears -as a riotous, jovial fellow. He has played a joke and turned a driver -out of his cart, and he nearly splits his sides with merriment. Drunk, -he admirably sings a song and dances. His wife enters. She hears her -vow repeated by the winds, by the trees, everywhere. Her dead child -haunts her. Her husband has stolen and misspent their money. She talks -with the faithful servant about the maid's baby. She wanders about at -night, unable to sleep. Her brute husband calls to her from the house, -saying he is afraid to sleep alone. Another talk ensues between them. -He asks her why she is old so soon. She burns the house and herself, -the neighbors rush in, and the play is over. - -Some of the more striking of the realistic plays on the Ghetto stage -have been partly described, but realism in the details of character -and setting appears in all of them, even in comic opera and melodrama. -In many the element of revolt, even if it is not the basis of the -play, is expressed in occasional dialogues. Burlesque runs through -them all, but burlesque, after all, is a comment on the facts of life. -And all these points are emphasized and driven home by sincere and -forcible acting. - -Crude in form as these plays are, and unpleasant as they often are in -subject and in the life portrayed, they are yet refreshing to persons -who have been bored by the empty farce and inane cheerfulness of the -uptown theatres. - - -THE HISTORY OF THE YIDDISH STAGE - -The Yiddish stage, founded in Roumania in 1876 by Abraham Goldfaden, -has reached its highest development in the city of New York, where -there are seventy or eighty professional actors; not far from a dozen -playwrights, of whom three have written collectively more than three -hundred plays; dramas on almost every subject, produced on the -inspiration of various schools of dramatic art; and an enormous -Russian Jewish colony, which fills the theatres and creates so strong -a demand that the stage responds with a distinctive, complete, and -interesting popular art. - -The best actor now in the Ghetto, with one exception, was in the -original company. That exception, with the help of a realistic -playwright, introduced an important element in the development of the -stage. With the lives of these three men the history of the Yiddish -stage is intimately connected. The first actor was a singer in the -synagogue of Bucharest, the first playwright a composer of Yiddish -songs. The foundation of the Yiddish stage might therefore be said to -lie in the Bucharest synagogue and the popular music-hall performance. - -Zelig Mogalesco, the best comedian in the New York Ghetto, has seen, -altho not quite forty years of age, the birth of the Yiddish stage, -and may survive its death. He was born in Koloraush, a town in the -province of Bessarabia, near Roumania. His father was a poor -shop-keeper, and Mogalesco never went to school. But he was endowed by -nature with a remarkable voice and ear, and composed music with easy -felicity. The population of the town was orthodox Jewish, and -consequently no theatre was allowed. It was therefore in the synagogue -that the musical appetite of the Jews found satisfaction. It was the -habit of the poor people to hire as inexpensive a cantor as possible, -and this cantor might very well be ignorant of everything except -singing. Yet these cantors were so popular that the famous ones -travelled from town to town, in much the same way that the visiting -German actor--_Gast_--does to-day, and sometimes charged admission -fees. - -When Mogalesco was nine years old, Nissy of the town of Bells, the -most famous cantor in the south of Russia, visited Mogalesco's town. -The boy's friends urged him to visit the great man and display his -voice. Little Mogalesco, with his mezzo-soprano, went to the inn, and -Nissy was astounded. "My dear boy," he said, "go home and fetch your -parents." With them the cantor signed a contract by which Zelig was -bound to him as a kind of musical apprentice for three years. The boy -was to receive his board and clothing, five rubles, the first year, -ten the second, and fifteen the third--fifteen dollars for the three -years. - -Soon Mogalesco became widely known among the cantors of South Russia. -In six months he could read music so well that they called him "Little -Zelig, the music-eater." At the end of the first year the leading -cantor of Bucharest, Israel Kupfer, who, by the way, has been cantor -in a New York synagogue of the east side, went to Russia to secure the -services of Mogalesco. To avoid the penalties of a broken contract, -Kupfer hurried with little Zelig to Roumania, and the boy remained in -Bucharest for several years. At the age of fourteen he conducted a -choir of twenty men under Kupfer. He also became director of the -chorus in the Gentile opera. While there he began "to burn," as he -expressed it, with a desire to go on the stage, but the Gentiles would -not admit the talented Jew. - -It was when Mogalesco was about twenty years old that the Yiddish -stage was born. In 1876 or 1877, Abraham Goldfaden went to Bucharest. -This man had formerly been a successful merchant in Russia, but had -failed. He was a poet, and to make a living he called that art into -play. In Russia he had written many Yiddish songs, set them to music, -and sung them in private. In the society in which he lived he deemed -that beneath his dignity, but when he lost his money he went to -Bucharest and there on the stage sang his own poems, the music for -which he took from many sources. He became a kind of music-hall -performer, but did not long remain satisfied with this modest art. His -dissatisfaction led him to create what later developed into the -present Yiddish theatre. The Talmud prohibited the stage, but at the -time when Goldfaden was casting about for something to do worthy of -his genius, the gymnasia were thrown open to the Jews, and the result -was a more tolerant spirit. Therefore, Goldfaden decided to found a -Yiddish theatre. He went to Kupfer, the cantor, and Kupfer recommended -Mogalesco as an actor for the new company. Goldfaden saw the young man -act, and the comedy genius of Mogalesco helped in the initial idea of -a Yiddish play. Mogalesco at first refused to enter into the scheme. A -Yiddish drama seemed too narrow to him, for he aspired to the -Christian stage. But when Goldfaden offered to adopt him and teach him -the Gentile languages Mogalesco agreed and became the first Yiddish -actor. Other singers in Kupfer's choir also joined Goldfaden's -company. - -Thus the foundation of the Yiddish stage lay in the Bucharest -synagogue. The beginnings, of course, were small. Several other actors -were secured, among them Moses Silbermann, who is still acting on the -New York Ghetto stage. No girls could at that time be obtained for -the stage, for it is against the Talmudic law for a man even to hear a -girl sing, and men consequently played female rôles, as in Elizabethan -times in England. The first play that Goldfaden wrote was _The -Grandmother and her Grandchild_; the second was _The Shwendrick_ and -Mogalesco played the grandmother in one and a little spoiled boy in -the other. His success in both was enormous, and he still enacts on -the Bowery the part of the little boy. The first performances of -Goldfaden's play were given in Bucharest, at the time of the -Russian-Turkish war, and the city was filled with Russian contractors -and workmen. They overcrowded the theatre, and applauded Mogalesco to -the echo. From that time the success of the Yiddish stage was assured. -Goldfaden tried to get a permit to act in Russia, without success at -first; but he played in Odessa without a license, in a secret way, and -in the end a permit was secured. Other Yiddish companies sprang up. -Girls were admitted to the chorus, and women began to play female -rôles. The first woman on the Yiddish stage was a girl who is now Mrs. -Karb, and who may be seen in the Yiddish company at present in the -People's Theatre on the Bowery. She is the best liked of all the -Ghetto's actresses, has been a sweet singer, and is now an actress of -considerable distinction. In Bucharest, before she went on the stage, -she was a tailor-girl, and used to sing in the shop. She appeared in -1878 in _The Evil Eye_, and made an immediate hit. That was the third -Yiddish play, and, in the absence of Goldfaden, it was written by the -prompter, Joseph Latteiner, who, with the possible exception of -Professor Horowitz, who began to write about the same time, was for -many years the most popular playwright in the New York Ghetto. - -In 1884 the Yiddish theatre was forbidden in Russia. It was supposed -by the Government to be a hotbed of political plots, but some of the -Yiddish actors think that the jealousy of Gentile actors was -responsible for this idea. Two years before there had been a -transmigration of Russian and Roumanian Jews to America on a large -scale. Therefore the players banished from Russia had a refuge and an -audience in New York. In 1884 the first Yiddish company came to this -country. It was not Goldfaden's or Mogalesco's company, but one formed -after them. In it were actors who still act in New York--Moses Heine, -Moses Silbermann, Mrs. Karb, and Latteiner the playwright. - -The first Yiddish theatre was called the Oriental. It was a music-hall -on the Bowery, transformed for the purpose. A year later Mogalesco, -Kessler, Professor Horowitz, and their company came to New York and -opened the Roumania Theatre. From that time they changed theatres -frequently. It is worthy of note that with one exception the actors -identified with the beginnings of the Yiddish stage are still the -best. - -That exception is Jacob Adler, who, not counting Mogalesco, is the -best actor in the Ghetto. They are both character actors, but -Mogalesco is essentially a comedian, while Adler plays rôles ranging -from burlesque to tragedy. Mogalesco is a natural genius, with a -spontaneity superior to that of Adler, but he has no general education -nor intellectual life. But the forcible Adler, a man of great energy, -a fighter, is filled with one great idea, which is almost a passion -with him, and which has marked a development in the Yiddish theatre. -To be natural, to be real, to express the actual life of the people, -with serious intent, is what Jacob Adler stands for. Up to the time -when he appeared on the scene in New York there had been no serious -plays acted on the Yiddish stage. Comic opera, lurid melodrama, -adaptations and translations, historical plays representing the -traditions of the Jews, were exclusively the thing. Through the -acting, indeed, which on the Yiddish stage is constantly animated by -the desire for sincerity and naturalness, the real life of the people -was constantly suggested in some part of the play. When Mogalesco took -a comic part, he would interpolate phrases and actions, suggesting -that life, which he instinctively and spontaneously knew, and it was -so with the other actors also. But this element was accidental and -fragmentary previous to the coming of Jacob Adler. - -Until then Latteiner and Professor Horowitz, the authors of the first -historical plays of the Yiddish stage, and still the most popular -playwrights in the Ghetto, held almost undisputed sway. - -Joseph Latteiner, of whom brief mention has already been made, -represents thoroughly the strong commercial spirit of the Yiddish -stage. He writes with but one thought, to please the mass of the -people, writes "easy plays," to quote his own words. His plays, -therefore, are the very spirit of formlessness--burlesque, popularly -vulgar jokes, flat heroism combined about the flimsiest dramatic -structure. He is the type of the business man of the Ghetto. Altho -successful, he lives in an unpleasant tenement, and seems much poorer -than he really is. He has an unemphatic, conciliatory manner of -talking, and everything he says is discouragingly practical. He is a -Roumanian Jew, forty-six years of age. His parents intended him for a -rabbi, but he was too poor to reach the goal, altho he learned several -languages. These afterwards stood him in good stead, for he often -translates and adapts plays for the Bowery stage. Unable to be a -rabbi, Latteiner cast about for a means of making his living. As a boy -he was not interested in the stage, but one day he saw a German play -in one act and thought he could adapt it with music to the Yiddish -stage. It was successful, and Latteiner, as he put it, "discovered -himself." He has since written over a hundred plays, and is engaged by -the company at the Thalia Theatre as the regular playwright. He calls -himself _Volksdichter_, and maintains that his plays improve with the -taste of the people, but this statement is open to considerable doubt. - -In speaking of the popular playwright, and the purely commercial -character and consequent formlessness of the plays before the -appearance of Adler, important mention should be made of Boris -Thomashevsky, already briefly referred to as the idol of the Jewish -matinée girls. He is the most popular actor on the Yiddish stage, and -for him Latteiner particularly writes. Thomashevsky is a large fat -man, with expressionless features and curly black hair, which he -arranges in leonine forms. He generally appears as the hero, and is a -successful tho a rather listless barnstormer. The more intelligent of -his audience are inclined to smile at Mr. Thomashevsky's talent in -romantic parts, of the reality of which, however, he, with a large -section of the community, is very firmly convinced. In fairness, -however, it should be said that when Mr. Thomashevsky occasionally -leaves the rôle of hero for an unsentimental character, particularly -one which expresses supercilious superiority, he is excellent. As time -goes on he will probably take less and less the romantic lead and grow -more and more satisfactory. He is the youngest of the prominent actors -of the Bowery. Before the coming of Heine's company in 1884, he was a -pretty little boy in the Ghetto, who used to play female rôles in -amateur theatricals. But when the professionals came he was eclipsed, -and went out of sight for some time. He grew to be a handsome man, -however; his voice changed, and, with the help of a very different -man, Jacob Adler, Thomashevsky found an important place on the Yiddish -stage. He and Adler are now the leading actors of the People's -Theatre, but they never appear together, Thomashevsky being the main -interpreter of the plays which appeal distinctively to the rabble, -and Adler of those which form the really original Yiddish drama of a -serious nature. - -Jacob Adler was born in Odessa, Russia, in 1855, of middle-class -parents. He went to the public school, but was very slow to learn, and -was treated roughly by his teachers, whose favorite weapon was a ruler -of thorns. School, therefore, as he says, "made a bad impression" on -him, and he left it for business, but got along equally badly there, -not being able to brook the brutally expressed authority of his -masters. But while he passed rapidly from one firm to another, through -the kindness of a wealthy uncle he was able to cut a swell figure in -Odessa, and became a dandy and something of a lady-killer. He was then -only eighteen, but the serious ideas which at a later time he -strenuously sought to bring into prominence in New York already began -to assert themselves. Then there was no Yiddish theatre, but of the -Gentile Russian theatre in Odessa he was very fond. The serious -realistic Russian play was what particularly took his fancy. The -Russian tragedians Kozelski and Miloslowski especially helped to form -his taste, and he soon became a critic well known in the galleries. It -was the habit of Russian audiences to express their ideas and -impressions on the spot. The galleries were divided into parties, with -opposing artistic principles. One party hissed while the other -applauded, and then and there they held debates, between the acts and -even during the performance. Adler soon became one of the fiercest -leaders of such a party that Odessa had ever known. He stood for -realism, for the direct expression of the life of the people. All else -he hissed down, and did it so effectively that the actors tried to -conciliate him. One season two actresses of talent, but of different -schools, were playing in Odessa--Glebowa, whom Adler supported because -of her naturalness, and Kozlowski, whose style was affected and -artificial from Adler's point of view. After the strife between the -rival parties had waged for some time very fiercely, one night -Kozlowski sent for Adler, and asked him what she could do to get the -great critic to join her party. Adler replied that so long as Glebowa -played with such wonderful naturalness he should remain faithful to -her colors, and advised Kozlowski, who was a kind of Russian -Bernhardt, to change her style. - -Adler's lack of education always weighed on his spirit, and his high -ideals of the stage seemed to shut that art away from him. Yet his -friends who heard him recite the speeches of his favorites, which he -easily remembered, told him he had talent. "I wanted to believe them," -Adler said, "but I always thought that the actor ought to know -everything in order to interpret humanity." - -But just about that time, when Adler was twenty-three years old, he -heard that a theatre had been started in Roumania by a Russian Jew -named Goldfaden, and that the actors spoke Yiddish. - -"I was astonished," he said. "How could they act a play in a language -without literature, in the jargon of our race, and who could be the -actors?" - -Soon Adler heard that the Jewish singers of hymns who sometimes -visited Odessa, and who moved him so, because "they sang so -pitifully," were the actors of the first Yiddish company, and his -astonishment grew. In 1879 Goldfaden went to Odessa with his company, -and his theatre was crowded with Gentiles as well as Jews; and Adler -saw with his eyes what he had hardly believed possible--a Jewish -company in a Yiddish play. The plays, however, seemed to Adler very -poor--mainly light opera with vaudeville accompaniment--and the acting -was also poor; but Israel Rosenberg, whom Adler describes as a -long-faced Jew with protruding teeth, enormous eyes, and a mouth as -wide as a saucer, amused Adler with the wit which he interpolated as -he acted. Rosenberg, "more ignorant than I," says Adler, "was yet -very successful." The two became intimate, and Rosenberg and Fräulein -Oberländer urged Adler to go on the stage; Rosenberg because Adler at -that time was comparatively rich, and the Fräulein because she loved -(and afterwards married) the vigorous young man from Odessa. And Adler -felt his education to be superior to that of these successful actors, -and decided to make the experiment. To choose the stage, however, was -to choose poverty, as he had begun to succeed in business, but he did -not hesitate and, leaving his friends and family, he went on a tour -with the company. - -In the first performance he was so frightened that he did not hear his -own words. He lost all his critical faculty, and played merely -instinctively. It was a long time before he acted better than the -average, which was at that time very low; but, finally, in a small -town named Elizabetgrad, Adler learned his lesson. A critic visited -the theatre every night, and wrote long articles upon it, but Adler -never found his name mentioned therein. He used to get up in the -morning very early, before any one else, to buy the newspaper, but was -always chagrined to find that the great man had overlooked him. At -first he thought that the critic must have a personal spite against -him, then that he was not noticed because he had only small rôles. At -last he was cast for a very long and emotional rôle. He thought that -this part would surely fetch the critic, and the next morning eagerly -bought a paper, but there was no criticism of the play at all. -Rosenberg went to the critic and asked the reason. - -"Adler spoiled the whole thing," was the reply. "His acting was -unnatural and loud. I advise him to leave the stage." - -"Then," said Adler, "I began to think. I cut my hair, which I had -allowed to grow long after the fashion of actors, and was at first -much discouraged. But thereafter I studied every rôle with great care, -and read the classic plays, and never played a part until I understood -it. Before that it was play with me; but after that it was serious -work." - -For a number of years Adler continued to act in the cities of Russia, -and became the head of a company. In 1883, when Russia was closed to -the Jewish stage, Adler took his company to London, where he nearly -starved. There was no Ghetto there, and the company gave occasional -performances at various Yiddish clubs scattered through the city. -Adler lost all his money, and got into debt. His wife and child died, -and at one time in despair he thought of leaving the stage. But it was -too late to go back to Odessa, for he had once for all cut himself off -from his family and friends. He was falsely informed by a Jew who had -been to America that to succeed there he would have to sing, dance, -and speak German. So he stayed some time longer in London. The -Rothschilds, Dr. Felix Adler, and others, took an interest in him, and -told him that as the Jewish theatre could have no future, since -Yiddish must ultimately be forgotten, he had better give it up. - -It was in 1887 that Adler came to New York, where he found two Yiddish -companies already well started. To avoid conflict with them, he went -to Chicago, where, however, a Yiddish theatre could get no foothold. -Some rich Chicago people tried to induce Adler to learn English and go -on the American stage; but Adler, always distrustful of his education -and ability to learn, declined their offers, now much to his regret. -He returned to New York, where Mogalesco and Kessler urged him to -stay, but the Ghetto actors in general were hostile to him, and he -went back to London. The next year, however, he was visited by four of -the managers of the New York Ghetto companies (among them Mogalesco), -vying with one another to secure Adler, whose reputation in the -Jewish community was rapidly growing. He went back to New York in -1889, where he appeared first at the Germania Theatre. He was -advertised in advance as a Salvini, a Barrett, a Booth, as all stars -combined. When he found how extravagantly he had been announced he was -angry, and wanted to go back to London, feeling that it was impossible -to live up to what his foolish managers had led the people to expect. -He consented to stay, but refused to appear in _Uriel Acosta_ for -which he was billed, preferring to begin in comedy, in order not to -appear to compete with the reputation of Salvini. The play, which was -called _The Ragpicker_, can still be seen in the Ghetto. In it Adler -tried to score as a character actor. But the people, expecting a -tragedy, took _The Ragpicker_ seriously, and did not laugh at all. The -play fell flat, and the managers rushed before the curtain and told -the audience that Adler was a poor actor, and that they had been -deceived in him. Through the influence of the management, the whole -company treated him with coldness and contempt, except the wife of one -of the directors. She is now Mrs. Adler, and is one of the capable -serious actresses at present at the People's Theatre. Finally, the -lease of the theatre passed into Adler's hands, and he dismissed the -whole company and formed a new one. Soon after began the struggle -which brought about the latest development of the Yiddish stage. - -For some time Adler was successful, but he grew more and more -dissatisfied with his repertory. He could find no plays which -seriously portrayed the life of the people or contained any serious -ideas. Only the translated plays were good from his point of view; he -wished something original, and looked about for a playwright. One -night in a restaurant he was introduced to Jacob Gordin, who -afterwards wrote the greater part of the only serious original Yiddish -plays which exist. - -Gordin at that time had written no plays, but he was a man of varied -literary activity, of a rarely good education, a thorough Russian -schooling, and of uncommon intelligence and strength of character. He -is Russian in appearance, a large broad-headed man with thick black -hair and beard. As he told me in his little home in Brooklyn, the -history of his life, he omitted all picturesque details, and -emphasized only his intellectual development. He was born in the same -town as Gogol, Ubigovrod in southern Russia, of rich parents. As a boy -he frequented the theatre, and like Adler, became a local critic and -hissed down what he did not approve. Like Adler, too, he was often -carried off to the police station and fined. He married early, became -a school-teacher and then a journalist (in Russian), writing every -sort of article, except political, and often sketches and short -stories for newspapers and periodicals in Odessa, where he finally -controlled a newspaper--the _Odessakianovosti_. He was a great admirer -of Tolstoi, and desiring to live on a farm to put into practice the -Count's ideas, he came to America in 1891, and nearly starved. He -became an editor of a Russian newspaper in New York and contributed to -other journals. In his own paper he wrote violent articles against the -Russian Government, as well as literary sketches. In Russia, Gordin -had never been in a Yiddish theatre, and when he met Adler in the New -York restaurant he knew little of the conventional Yiddish play. So he -wrote his first play in a fresh spirit, with only the character of the -people and his own ideals to work from. _Siberia_, produced in 1892, -was a success with the critics and actors, and may fairly be called -the first original Yiddish play of the better type. - -The play struck a new note. It fell into line with the Russian spirit -of realism now so marked in intellectual circles in the Ghetto. Life -and types are what Gordin tried for, and Jacob Adler had found his -playwright. Since then Gordin has written about fifty plays, some of -which have been successful, and many have been marked by literary and -dramatic power. Some of the better ones are _Siberia_, the _Jewish -King Lear_, _The Wild Man_, _The Jewish Priest_, _Solomon Kaus_, _The -Slaughter_, and the _Jewish Queen Lear_. Jacob Adler has been until -recently his chief interpreter, altho Mogalesco, Kessler, and -Thomashevsky take his plays. - - [Illustration: MADAM LIPTZEN] - -For several years an actress, Mrs. Liptzen, was the main interpreter -of Gordin's plays. She is one of the most individual, if not one of -the most skillful, actresses on the stage of New York's Ghetto, and is -sometimes spoken of in the quarter as the Yiddish Duse. She is the -only actress of the east side who is thus compared, by a sub-title, -with a famous Gentile artist, altho in many directions there is a -great tendency in the Ghetto to adopt foreign names and ideas. As a -matter of fact, her art is exceedingly limited, but she has the -unusual distinction of appearing only in the best plays, steadfastly -refusing to take part in performances which she deems to be -dramatically unworthy. She consequently appears very seldom, usually -only in connection with the production of a new play by Jacob Gordin, -who at present writes many of his plays with the "Yiddish Duse" in -mind. - -Mrs. Liptzen was born in Zitomir, South Russia, and was interested -exclusively in the stage from her childhood. The founder of the -Yiddish stage, Abraham Goldfaden, and Jacob Adler, played in her town -for a few nights when she was about eighteen years old. Her parents -were orthodox Jews, and to go to the theatre she was forced to resort -to subterfuge. She became acquainted with Goldfaden and Adler, and ran -away from home in order to accompany them as an actress. At first she -sang and acted in such popular operatic plays as _Der Schmendrik_, and -continued for three years in Russia, until the Yiddish theatre was -forbidden there. Then she went with a new company to Berlin, where the -whole aggregation nearly starved. They were reduced to selling all -their stage properties, the proceeds of which were made away with by a -dishonest agent. During the time their performances in Berlin -continued Mrs. Liptzen received, it is said, the sum of ten pfennige -(two and one-half cents) a day, on which she lived. She paid five -pfennige for lodging and five pfennige for bread and coffee; and there -is left in her now a correspondingly amazing impression of the -cheapness with which she could live in Germany in those days. - -Jacob Adler was at that time in London with a company, eking out a -miserable existence. He wrote to Mrs. Liptzen's husband, an invalid in -Odessa, to send his wife to London to play in his company. About 1886 -Mrs. Liptzen went to London and played in _Esther von Engedi_ (the -Yiddish _Othello_), _Leah the Forsaken_, _Rachel_, _The Jews_, etc. In -London she stayed three years, when, the theatre burning down, she -went with Adler to Chicago. They tried to find a place in New York, -but the Yiddish company, with Kessler and Mogalesco at its head, -already in New York, froze them out, and they tried to get a foothold -in Chicago. A little later Mrs. Liptzen left Chicago for New York, -called by the Yiddish company there to play leading parts. She began -in New York with _Leah the Forsaken_, and received only $10 for the -first three performances. It is said that she now receives from $100 -to $200 for every performance, a fact indicating not only her growth -in popularity but also the great financial success of the Yiddish -theatres in New York. - -Twelve years ago Mrs. Liptzen retired for a time from the stage, the -reason being that there were no new plays in which she desired to -appear, since the demand was entirely supplied by the romantic and -historical operatic playwrights, Prof. Horowitz and Mr. Latteiner. - -It was not until Jacob Gordin came into prominence as a realistic -playwright, that Mrs. Liptzen came out of her dignified retirement. -Jacob Adler was the first to play Gordin's pieces; but he played many -others, too, trying in a practical way gradually to make the cause of -realism triumphant. Mrs. Liptzen, however, made no compromise, and -kept quiet until she was able to get the plays she wanted, which soon -were written by Gordin. - -Mrs. Liptzen's first success with a Gordin play was in _Medea_, for -which Gordin received, it is said, the enormous sum of $85--having -sold plays previous to that time for the well-fixed price of $35. -_Medea's Youth_, written by Gordin for Mrs. Liptzen, was a failure, -altho the author thought so well of it as a literary production that -he had it translated into English. The next of Mrs. Liptzen's -successes was the _Jewish Queen Lear_, for which Gordin received -$200--an enormous sum for a Yiddish playwright in those days. _The -Slaughter_ was produced two years ago, and last year Mrs. Liptzen -appeared in Gordin's _The Oath_, a Yiddish production of _Fuhrmann -Henschel_. Of late Mr. Gordin's plays have been produced by a younger -actress of more varied talent than Mrs. Liptzen--Mrs. Bertha Kalisch, -on the whole a much worthier interpreter than the older woman. - -It is Adler, however, who has been the belligerent promoter of the -original and serious Yiddish drama. In 1893 he tried to introduce -Gordin's plays and the new spirit of realism and literature into his -company at the Windsor Theatre. But the old style is still strong in -popular affection, and Adler's company rebelled. Whereupon Adler went -to Russia to form a new company which would be more amenable to his -ideas. He came back with the new troupe, and ordered a new play from -Gordin, who produced _The Jewish King Lear_. At the first reading of -the play the company protested, but Adler begged for a trial, telling -them that they did not know what a good play was. The play proved a -great and deserved success, and is now frequently repeated. It -contains several scenes of great power, and portrays with faithful art -the life of the Russian Jew. In 1894 Adler tried the experiment of -leasing a small theatre, the Roumania, in which nothing but plays -which expressed his ideas should be presented. A number of Gordin's -plays were given, but the theatre had much the same fate that would -befall a theatre up town which should play only the ideally best. It -failed completely. After that both Adler and Gordin were compelled to -compromise. Adler is now associated with a company which presents -every kind of play known to the Ghetto, and Gordin has had to -introduce horseplay and occasional vaudeville and comic opera into his -plays. Even the best of the Yiddish plays contain these excrescences. - -But both Adler and Gordin, while remaining practical men, with an eye -to the box-office receipts, are working to eliminate more and more -what is distasteful to them and impertinent to art. A year ago last -autumn Gordin succeeded in having his latest play, _The Slaughter_, -performed without any vaudeville accompaniment. He deemed it a -triumph, particularly as it was successful, and felt a debt of -gratitude to Mrs. Liptzen, who produced the play without insisting on -unworthy interpolations. - -Gordin now hopes that the days of compromise for him are past, and -Adler expects to secure, some day, a theatre in which he can -successfully produce only the serious plays of Jewish life. But both -these men are pessimistic about the future of dramatic art in the -Ghetto. They feel not only the weight of the commercial spirit, but -also the imminent death of their stage. For the Jews of the Ghetto as -they become Americanized are liable to lose their instinctive Yiddish, -and then there will be no more drama in that tongue. The only Yiddish -stage, worthy of the name, in the world will probably soon be no more. -Jacob Adler consequently regrets that his "jargon" confines him to the -Bowery stage, and Jacob Gordin longs to have his plays translated and -produced on the English stage. - -Mogalesco, the actor, who has, perhaps, the greatest talent of them -all, whose dramatic art was born with the Yiddish stage, and who is -equally happy in a comedietta by Latteiner or a character-play by -Gordin, is, like the true actor, without ideas, but always felicitous -in interpretation, and enthusiastically loved by the Jewish -play-goers. He and Adler, if they had been fortunate enough to have -received a training consistently good, and had acted in a language of -wider appeal, would easily have taken their places among those -artistically honored by the world. Even as it is they have, with -Gordin, with Kessler, with Mrs. Liptzen, Mrs. Kalisch and the rest, -the distinction of being prominent figures in the short career of the -Yiddish stage, which, founded by Goldfaden in 1876, in Roumania, has -received to-day, in New York, its highest and almost exclusive -development. - -FOOTNOTE: - -[1] See text, section on "Realism." - - - - -Chapter Six - -The Newspapers - - -Yiddish newspapers have, as compared with their contemporaries in the -English language, the strong interest of great freedom of expression. -They are controlled rather by passion than by capital. It is their joy -to pounce on controlling wealth, and to take the side of the laborer -against the employer. A large proportion of the articles are signed, a -custom in striking contrast with that of the American newspaper; the -prevalence of the unsigned article in the latter is held by the -Yiddish journals to illustrate the employer's tendency to arrogate -everything to himself, and to make the paper a mere organ of his own -policy and opinions. The remark of one of the Jewish editors, that the -"Yiddish newspaper's freedom of expression is limited by the Penal -Code alone," has its relative truth. It is, of course, equally true -that the new freedom of the Jews, who in Russia had no journal in the -common Yiddish, runs in these New York papers into an emotional -extreme, a license which is apt to distort the news and to give over -the editorial pages to virulent party disputes. - -Nevertheless, the Yiddish press, particularly the Socialistic branch -of it, is an educative element of great value in the Ghetto. It has -helped essentially to extend the intellectual horizon of the Jew -beyond the boundaries of the Talmud, and has largely displaced the -rabbi in the position of teacher of the people. Not only do these -papers constitute a forum of discussion, but they publish frequent -translations of the Russian, French, and German modern classics, and -for the first time lay the news of the world before the poor Jewish -people. An event of moment to the Jews, such as a riot in Russia, -comes to New York in private letters, and is printed in the papers -here often before the version "prepared" by the Russian Government -appears in the Russian newspapers. Thus a Jew on the east side -received a letter from his father in Russia asking why the reserves -there had been called out, and the son's reply gave him the first -information about the war in China. - -The make-up of the Yiddish newspaper is in a general way similar to -that of its American contemporary. The former is much smaller, however, -containing only about as much reading matter as would fill six or -eight columns of a "down-town" newspaper. The sporting department is -entirely lacking, the Jew being utterly indifferent to exercise of any -kind. They are all afternoon newspapers, and draw largely for the news -upon the morning editions of the American papers. The staff is very -limited, consisting of a few editors and, usually, only one reporter -for the local news of the quarter. They give more space proportionately -than any American paper to pure literature--chiefly translations, tho -there are some stories founded on the life of the east side--and to -scientific articles of popular character. The interesting feature of -these newspapers, however, consists in their rivalries and their -differences in principle. This can be presented most simply in a short -sketch of their history. - - -THE CONSERVATIVE JOURNALS - -Yiddish journalism in New York began about thirty years ago, and -continued in unimportant and unrepresentative newspapers until about -twelve years ago, when the _Tageblatt_, the first daily newspaper, and -the _Arbeiterzeitung_, an important Socialistic weekly, now defunct, -but from which developed the present Socialist dailies, came into -existence. The _Tageblatt_, which has maintained its general character -from the beginning, is the most conservative, as well as the oldest, -of the daily newspapers of the Ghetto. It is national and orthodox, -and fights tooth and nail for whatever is distinctively Jewish in -customs, literature, language, and religion. It hates the reform sects -in religion and the Socialistic tendencies in politics and economics. -It is called a "capitalist" paper by its opponents, and is so in the -sense that it is more dependent upon its advertisements than the -Socialistic papers, which are partly supported by frequent -entertainments and balls, to which all their friends go. And yet how -little capitalistic is even this paper is shown by the fact that while -it takes a non-committal attitude towards strikes in the Ghetto it -supports those which occur outside. - -Sympathetic with workingmen and not antagonistic to the employers of -the Ghetto, the _Tageblatt_ conventionally unites all the Jewish -interests it consistently can, and has admittedly the largest -circulation of any daily paper in the Ghetto. The Socialists call it -"bourgeois" as well as "capitalistic" (which is the most horrid of all -words in the quarter). Some call it chauvinistic because of its strong -Nationalist tendency, and fanatic because it upholds the religion of -the Jews; the Jew who wants first of all to be an American and -up-to-date hates the _Tageblatt_ as tending to strengthen the -distinction between Jew and Gentile. This paper goes so far in its -conservatism that, according to its enemies, it condemns all rabbis -who mention the name of Christ in their sermons, and holds to a strict -interpretation of Talmudic law in regard to habits of life. "It is -only the old-fashioned greenhorns," said the editor of one of the -other papers, "coming from the old country, who will stand for it." - - -THE SOCIALIST PAPERS - -The Socialist weekly, the _Arbeiterzeitung_, marked the beginning of -the most vital journalism of the east side, and stood in striking -contrast to the _Tageblatt_. In the circumstances attending its -development into the two existing rival Socialistic papers, the -_Vorwärts_ and the _Abendblatt_,[2] a picture of the progressive and -passionate character of the Russian-Jewish Socialists of the Ghetto is -presented, and some of the most important and picturesque personages. -The most educated and intelligent among the Jews of the east side -speak Russian, and are reactionary in politics and religion. Coming -from Russia, as they do, they have a fierce hatred of government and -capitalism, and a more or less Tolstoian love for the peasant and the -workingman. The purpose of the organizers of the _Arbeiterzeitung_ -Publishing Association was to educate the people, promulgate the -doctrines of Socialism, and be altogether the organ of the workman -against the employer. From the outset, beginning in 1890, the -_Arbeiterzeitung_ was a popular and influential paper. - -All the older journals had affected a Germanized Yiddish, which the -people did not understand; but the new paper, aiming at the modern -heart of the Ghetto, carried on its propaganda in the common jargon of -the Jew, the pure Yiddish; and, growing enormously in circulation, -forced the language down the throats of the conservative journals. In -this popular tongue, the _Arbeiterzeitung_ carried on for five years a -most energetic campaign for a broad Socialism, admitting all allied -movements in favor of common ownership, directing and encouraging -strikes, printing popular scientific articles, realistic stories, -dramatic criticisms, and expressing and leading generally the best -intelligence of the Yiddish community. With the constituency of which -this journal was the organ, Socialism had almost the force and passion -of a religious movement. An example of the paper's power was in -connection with the Bakers' Union. That organization imposed a label -on all bread made in the Ghetto, and insisted that all the bakers -should handle only bread of that brand. The _Arbeiterzeitung_ -supported the Union so effectively that no other bread could possibly -be obtained in the quarter. At the first _Yahresfest_ of the journal, -Cooper Union overflowed with enthusiastic workingmen, and long lines -of the excluded stretched out down the Bowery to Houston Street. - - [Illustration: IN THE OFFICE OF THE "VÖRWARTS"] - -The man whose name is most intimately connected with the -_Arbeiterzeitung_ is its former editor, Abraham Cahan, now known -outside of the Ghetto as a writer in English of novels and short -stories of Jewish life. He is of the best type of the ethical -agitator; a convincing and impassioned speaker; he has held hundreds -of workingmen by his clear and strongly expressed ideas, whether -written in his paper or spoken at nightly meetings in some poor hall -on the east side, where the men gathered after the labors of the day. -Twice he went abroad to speak at international labor conferences. At -the same time that he supported the definite cause of the Social -Democracy, he put the same energy and passion into the education of -the people in scientific and literary directions. He spoke and wrote -for directness, simplicity, and humanity. In art, therefore, the -realistic school of Russian writers, of whom in our generation there -have been so many great men, received his fighting allegiance. For -five years Cahan put all his intelligence and devotion into this work, -and the power of the _Arbeiterzeitung_ was partly his power. To-day, -in the Ghetto, where fierce jealousies are rampant, Cahan is admitted -to be the man, among many men of energy, intelligence, and devotion, -who has wielded most influence in the community. - -A literary and dramatic event happened in 1892 which showed the power -of Cahan and his Socialist associates in influencing the taste of the -Ghetto. It was the production of Gordin's drama _Siberia_. Up to that -time, nothing but conventional opera, melodrama, and historical plays -had been given on the Bowery, but the day after the performance of -_Siberia_ the _Arbeiterzeitung_ contained a long review of the play by -Cahan, welcoming it enthusiastically as an event breaking the way for -realistic art in the colony. Since then this type of play has taken a -prominent place in the repertory at the Yiddish theatres. For five -years the _Arbeiterzeitung_ continued its influence, but then came a -split among the Socialists, which resulted in two daily papers--the -_Abendblatt_ and the _Vorwärts_. - - [Illustration: BUYING A NEWSPAPER] - -Cahan, Miller and others of the men who had started the -_Arbeiterzeitung_ gradually lost control through the share system -which had been inaugurated. They desired to maintain a liberal policy -towards all labor movements, and to allow the literary and Socialistic -societies to be represented in the paper, but the other faction wanted -the newspaper to be exclusively an organ of Socialism in its narrow -sense. The result was that, soon after the publication of the -_Arbeiterzeitung_ as the _Daily Abendblatt_, Cahan resigned the -editorship and turned disgusted to English newspapers and to realistic -fiction, in which he was absorbed until recently. A few months ago he -resumed the editorship of the _Vorwärts_ after an absence of several -years from participation in Yiddish journalism. Louis Miller, a witty -and energetic Socialist and writer, who had from the first been active -in the management of the weekly, was one of the most prominent of the -men who continued the fight against the narrower Socialistic -element--a fight which resulted in the establishment in 1897 of the -other Socialist daily now existing, the _Vorwärts_. - -These two papers were, until recently, when the _Abendblatt_ died, -bitter rivals. The _Abendblatt_ was devoted to the interests of the -Socialist Labor Party while the _Vorwärts_ supports in a general way -the Social Democracy; altho it is not so distinctively a party paper -as was the _Abendblatt_. The adherents of the latter paper looked upon -the _Vorwärts_ as unreliable and the _Vorwärts_ people thought the -_Abendblatt_ intolerant. The _Abendblatt_ prided itself on its -uncompromising character, and the _Vorwärts_ is content to adapt -itself to what it deems the present needs of the Jewish community. -Thus the _Vorwärts_ is willing to join hands with reform movements in -general, with trades unions, etc., while the _Abendblatt_ stiffly -demanded that allied organizations should enter the socialist camp. -The triumph of the _Vorwärts_ was therefore a triumph of the more -liberal spirits. - -Two other daily publications are more distinctively mere newspapers -than the two Socialistic organs, and make no consistent attempt to -influence public opinion, at least in the definite direction of a -"movement." The _Abend-Post_ seems to have no very distinctive policy -or character; it is neither Socialistic nor conservative Jewish; the -distinction it aims at is to be a newspaper simply, to reflect events -and not to determine opinion. In the editor's words, the _Abend-Post_ -"is not chauvinistic, like the _Tageblatt_; the Jew does not resound -in it. It aims to Americanize the Ghetto, and diminish or ignore the -chasm between Jew and Gentile." The editor of one of the Socialist -papers calls this sort of thing by another name. "The _Abend-Post_," -he said, "is an imitation of American yellow journalism." A fifth -daily, the _Herald_, is even less distinctive than the _Abend-Post_. -It has no party and is not as sensational as the other. It might, -perhaps, be called the Jewish "mugwump." - -Recently a sixth daily, _The Jewish World_, has been organized under -favorable auspices. Its avowed policy is to bridge the chasm which -exists between sons and fathers in the Ghetto; to make the sons more -Hebraic and the fathers more American; the sons more conservative and -the fathers more progressive. Connected with its management is H. -Masliansky, one of the most impassioned orators of the Ghetto. - -The question of the circulation figures of these five dailies is a -difficult one. About the only thing that seems certain is that the -_Tageblatt_ leads in this respect. Even the editors of the other -papers admit that, altho they differ as to the absolute figures. The -editor of the _Tageblatt_ places his paper's circulation at 40,000, -the _Abend-Post_ at 14,000, the _Herald_ next, and the two Socialistic -papers last, which ending is a felicitous consummation for the editor -of the most conservative newspaper in the Ghetto. The editor of the -_Abend-Post_ says the _Tageblatt_ leads with a daily issue of about -30,000, the _Abend-Post_ coming next with 23,700, the _Herald_ and the -Socialist papers stringing out in the rear. The editors of the -Socialist sheets naturally give a somewhat different order. Mr. Miller -of the _Vorwärts_ puts the actual circulation of the _Tageblatt_ at -about 17,000; his own paper, the _Vorwärts_, next, with about 14,000 -daily except on Saturday, the Jewish Sunday, when the number ranges -between 20,000 and 25,000, owing to the fact that the conservative -newspapers (_i. e._, those that are not Socialistic) do not appear on -that day. The circulation of the rival Socialistic paper, the -_Abendblatt_, he puts at about 8,000. In these figures there is no -attempt at entire accuracy. - - -THE ANARCHIST PAPERS - -There are several Yiddish weekly and monthly journals published in New -York. The _Tageblatt_, _Abend-Post_ and _Herald_ have weekly editions, -but by far the most interesting of the papers which are not dailies -are the two Anarchistic sheets, the _Freie Arbeiter-stimme_, a weekly, -and the _Freie Gesellschaft_, a monthly. - - [Illustration: A "GHETTO" NEWSPAPER OFFICE] - -Contrary to the general impression of the character of these people, -in which bombs play a large part, the Anarchists of the Ghetto are a -gentle and idealistic body of men. The abnormal activity of the -Russian Jews in this country is expressed by the Socialists rather -than the Anarchists. The latter are largely theorists and aim rather -at the education of the people by a journalistic exploitation of their -general principles than by a warlike attitude towards specific events -of the time. Their attitude is not so partisan as that of the -Socialists. They quarrel less among themselves, and are characterized -by dreamy eyes and an unpractical scheme of things. They believe in -non-resistance and the power of abstract right, and are trying to work -out a peaceful revolution, maintaining that the violence often -accompanying the movement in Europe is due to the fact that many -Anarchists are passionate individuals who in their indignation do not -live up to their essentially gentle principles. The Socialists aim at -a more strictly centralized government, even than any one existing, -since they desire the whole machinery of production and distribution -to be in the hands of the community; the Anarchists desire no -government whatever, believing that law works against the native -dignity of the individual, and trusting to man's natural goodness to -maintain order under free conditions. A man's own conscience only can -punish him sufficiently, they think. The Socialists go in vividly for -politics, while the Anarchists have nothing to do with them. The point -on which these two parties agree is the common hatred of private -property. - - [Illustration: S. JANOWSKY] - -The weekly Anarchistic paper, the _Freie Arbeiter-stimme_, prints -about 7,000 copies. Out of this circulation, with the assistance of -balls, entertainments, and benefits at the theatres, the paper is -able to exist. It pays a salary to only one man, the editor, S. -Janowsky, who receives the sum of $13 a week. He is a little -dark-haired man, with beautiful eyes, and soft, persuasive voice. He -thinks that government is so corrupt that the Anarchists need do -little to achieve their ends; that silent forces are at work which -will bring about the great day of Anarchistic communism. In his -newspaper he tries to educate the common people in the principles of -anarchy. The aim is popular, and the more intelligent exploitation of -the cause is left to the monthly. The _Freigesellschaft_, with the -same principles as the _Freie Arbeiter-stimme_, has a higher literary -and philosophical character. The editors and contributors are men of -culture and education, and work without any pay. It is still gentler -and more pacific in its character than the weekly, of whose -comparatively contemporaneous and agitatory method it disapproves -calmly; believing, as the editors of the monthly do, that a weekly -paper cannot exist without giving the people something other than the -ideally best. With reference to the ideally best, a number of -serious, contemplative men gather in a basement opposite the Hebrew -Institute, the headquarters of the monthly, and there talk about the -subjects often discussed within its pages, such as Slavery and -Freedom, Darwinism and Communism, Man and Government, the Purpose of -Education, etc.,--any broad economic subject admitting of abstract -treatment. - - [Illustration: KATZ] - -The talk of these Anarchists is distinguished by a high idealism, and -the unpractical and devoted attitude. One of the foremost among them -(they say they have no leaders, as that would be against individual -liberty) is Katz, literary editor of the _Vorwärts_, a contributor to -the Anarchistic monthly, a former editor of the Anarchistic weekly, -and a recently successful playwright in the Ghetto. His play, the -_Yiddish Don Quixote_, was produced at the Thalia Theatre on the -Bowery. Not since Gordin's _Siberia_ has a play aroused such -intelligent interest. The hero is a Quixotic Jew, full of kindness, -devotion, and love for his race and for humankind. - - -SOME PICTURESQUE CONTRIBUTORS - -There are many other picturesque and interesting men connected with -these Yiddish journals, either as editors or contributors. Morris -Rosenfeld, the sweat-shop poet, writes articles and occasionally poems -for the Socialistic papers; Abraham Wald, the vigorous and stormy -young poet, contributes literary and Socialistic articles three times -a week to _Vorwärts_; the editor of one of the conservative papers, -distinguished for his logic and his clever business management, is -interesting because of the facility with which he adapts his -principles to the commercial needs of the moment. At one time he was a -Socialist, then became a Christian, then a Jew again simply, and now -is a conservative Jew. Another editor remarked that he was a man of -sense and logic. One of the Jews who writes for the Ghetto papers is -A. Frumkin, who has the rare distinction of having been born and -educated in Jerusalem. There he lived until he was eighteen, when he -went to Constantinople and studied Turkish law; afterwards he -journeyed to Paris, where he married, and then to New York, where he -writes many articles in Yiddish about Jerusalem and Palestine, which -are published largely in the _Vorwärts_. He is a young man of about -thirty, with a fresh, rosy look and a buoyant manner. He is an -Anarchist, and his energetic bearing is in strong contrast to the pale -cast of thought that marks his fellows, the intellectuals among the -Anarchists of New York. Other occasional or constant writers are the -Hebrew poet Dolitzki, who is characterized in another chapter; and the -poets Morris Winchevsky and Abraham Sharkansky. - - [Illustration: A. FRUMKIN] - -These two men are in a class quite different from that of the four -poets to whom a separate paper has been devoted. They are, as opposed -to Rosenfeld, Zunser, Dolitzki and Wald, interesting rather for form -than for substance. They are men with some lyric gift and a talent for -verse, but are strong neither in thought nor feeling. Winchevsky is a -Socialist, a man who has edited more than one Yiddish publication with -success, of uncommon learning and cultivation. In literary attempt he -is more nearly like the ordinary American or English writer than the -Jewish. Most of the Ghetto poets portray the dark and sordid aspect of -their lives. Most of them do it with unhappy strength, certainly one -of them, Rosenfeld, does it with genius. But Winchevsky attempts to -give a bright picture of things. He tries to be entertaining, and -heartfelt, sentimental and sweet. Truth is not so much what he attains -as a little vein of sentimental verse which is sometimes touched with -a true lyric quality. - -Sharkansky can not be put in any intellectual category. He is a man of -considerable poetic talent, but he seems to have little feeling and -fewer ideas. There is no "movement" or tendency for which he cares. In -character he is a business man, with a detached talent unrelated to -the remainder of his personality. - -Philip Kranz and A. Feigenbaum, editors and writers of political -editorials, are two of the most prominent men connected with the -history of Yiddish journalism. They are men of energy and force and -represent a large class of Jews interested in social science and -political economy. A. Tannenbaum occupies a peculiar and interesting -position as a writer for the newspapers. He writes very long novels, -the plots of which are drawn from books in French, German or Russian. -About these plots he weaves incidents and characters from American -history, and inserts popular ideas of science and philosophy. His aim -is to educate the Ghetto by dishing up science and philosophy in a -palatable form. D. Hermalin's distinctive character is that of a -translator of foreign books into Yiddish. Swift, Tolstoi, de -Maupassant, have been in part translated by him into the Ghetto's -dialect. He, like some of the other men best known for more -unpretentious work, is an author of very poor plays. David Pinsky, a -writer for the _Abendblatt_, is very interesting not only as a writer -of short sketches of literary value, in which capacity he is mentioned -in another chapter, but also as a dramatic critic and as one of the -more wide-awake and distinctively modern of the young men of Yiddish -New York. He is so keen with the times that he looks even on realism -with distrust. Even the great philosopher, the second Spinoza, a man -highly respected in a professional way by eminent scientists of the -day, Silverstein, is an occasional contributor to these interesting -newspapers. - -FOOTNOTE: - -[2] Recently defunct--June, 1901. - - - - -Chapter Seven - -The Sketch-Writers - - -The Russian Jews of the east side of New York are, in proportion as -they are educated, as I have said, realists in literary faith. Is it -natural? Is it true to life? they are inclined to ask of every piece -of writing that comes under their eyes. As their lives are -circumscribed and more or less unfortunate, their ideas of what -constitutes the truth are limited and gloomy. Their criteria of art -are formed on the basis of the narrow but intense work of modern -Russian fiction. They look up to Tolstoi and Chekhov, and reject all -principles founded upon more romantic and more genial models. The -simplicity of their critical ideals lends, however, to their -intellectual lives a certainty which is striking enough when compared -with the varied, wavering, ungrounded literary norms and judgments of -the ordinary intelligent Anglo-Saxon. The lack of authoritative -literary criticism in America is partly due to the multiplicity of our -classic models. With a simpler literature in mind the Russian is more -constantly able to apply a decisive test. - - [Illustration: A TYPE OF LABORING MAN] - -The Russian Jew of culture when he comes to New York carries with him -Russian ideals of literature. The best Yiddish work produced in -America is Russian in principle. Many of the writers who publish -literary sketches in the newspapers of the Ghetto have written -originally in the Russian language, and know the Russian Jewish life -better than the life of the Yiddish east side; and even now they write -mainly about conditions in Russia. Moreover, those who know their New -York and its special Jewish life thoroughly and mirror it in their -work are in method, tho not in material, Russian; are close, faithful, -unhappy realists. - -Whatever its form, however, a considerable body of fiction is -published more or less regularly in the daily and weekly periodicals -of the quarter which represents faithfully the life of the poor -Russian Jew in the great American city. A "Gentile" who knew nothing -of the New York Ghetto, but could read the Yiddish language, might get -a good picture of something more than the superficial aspects of the -quarter through the sketches of half a dozen of the more talented men -who write for the Socialist newspapers. The conditions under which the -children of Israel live in New York, their manners, problems and -ideals, appear, if not with completeness, at least with -suggestiveness, in these short articles, usually in fiction form, the -best of them direct, simple and unpretentious, true to life in general -and to the life of the Russian Jew in America in particular. The sad -aspect of life predominates, but not through conventional -sentimentality on the part of the writers, who are not aware that they -are objects of possible pity. They merely tell without comment the -facts they know. For the most part, those facts are gloomy and -sordid, often lightened, however, by the sense of the ridiculous, -which seldom entirely deserts the Jew; and as likely as not rendered -attractive by feeling and by beauty of characterization. - - -SOME REALISTS - - [Illustration: S. LIBIN] - -S. Libin holds the place among prose writers that Morris Rosenfeld -does among poets. Like Rosenfeld, he has been a sweat-shop worker, -and, like him, writes about the sordid conditions of the life. The -shop, the push-cart pedler and the tenement-house mark the range of -his subjects; but into these unsightly things he puts constant feeling -and an unfailing pathos and humor. As in the case of Rosenfeld, there -are tears in everything he writes; but, unlike Rosenfeld, he also -smiles. He is a dark, thin, little man, as ragged as a tramp, with -plaintive eyes and a deprecatory smile when he speaks. He is -uncommonly poor, and at present sells newspapers for a living and -writes an occasional sketch, for which he is paid at the rate of $1.50 -or $2.00 a column by the Yiddish newspapers. He is able to produce -these little articles only on impulse; and, consequently, altho he is -one of the more prolific of the sketch-writers of the quarter, writes -for relief rather than for income. Some of his contemporaries, with -greater constancy to commercial ideals, have partly given up -unremunerative literature for the position of newspaper hacks; but -Libin, remembering his sweat-shop days, does not like a "boss," and is -under the constant necessity of relieving his feelings by his work. - -Libin lives with his wife and child in a tenement-house in Harlem, -where he has continually before his eyes the home conditions which -form the subject of so many of his sketches. This little man, who -looks like the commonest kind of a sweat-shop "sheeny," has the -simplest and sincerest interest in domestic things. With great pride -he pointed out to the visitor his one-year-old baby, who lay asleep on -a miserable sofa, and talked of it and of his wife, who has also been -a worker in the shops, with greater pleasure even than of his -sketches, which, however, he writes with joy and solace. He wept when -he spoke of his child that died, and he has written poems in prose -about it which weep, too. In the story of his life which he told, a -common, ignorant Jew was revealed, a thorough product of the -sweat-shop--a man distinguished from the proletarian crowd only by a -capacity for feeling and by a genuine talent. He was born in Russia -twenty-nine years ago, and came to New York when he was twenty-two -years old. For four years he worked as a cap-maker in shops which were -then more wretched than they are now, from sixteen to seventeen hours -a day. While at his task he would steal a few minutes to devote to his -sketches, which he sent to the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_. Cahan recognized in -Libin's misspelled, illiterate, almost illegible manuscript a quality -which worthily ranked it with good realistic literature. Since then -Libin has written extensively for the _Zukunft_, a monthly now -defunct; the _Truth_, published at one time by the poet Winchevsky in -Boston, and for the New York daily _Vorwärts_, to which he still -contributes. - - [Illustration: HE IS TIRED, DISTRESSED AND IRRITATED] - -One of his sketches, the "New Law," about a column and a half long, -expresses one aspect of the life led by a sweat-shop family. A tailor, -going to the shop one morning, as usual, finds the boss and the other -workers in a state of excitement. They have just heard about the new -law limiting the day in the shop to ten hours and forbidding the men -to do any work at home. This to them is a serious proposition, for, -as they are paid by the piece, they need many hours to make enough to -pay their expenses. The tailor goes home earlier than usual that -night, about ten o'clock, with the customary bundle of clothes for his -wife and children to work over. He is tired, distressed and irritated -at the thought of the law. He finds his wife and ten-year-old daughter -half asleep, as usual, but yet sewing busily. They, too, are pale and -tired, and near them on the lounge is a sleeping baby; on the floor -another. The little girl tries to hide her drowsiness from her father, -and works more busily than ever. - -"Why are you back so early?" asks his wife. - -"Pretty soon," he replies morosely, "I'll be back still earlier." - -"Is work slack again?" she asks, her cheek growing paler. - -"It's another trouble, not that," he says. "It's a new law, a bitter -law." To his little daughter he adds: "Sleep, child, you will soon -have time to sleep all day." - -His ignorant wife does not understand. - -"A new law? What is that? What does it mean?" she asks. - -"It means that I can work only ten hours a day." - -Then they calculate how much money he can make in ten hours. Now he -works nineteen hours, and they have nothing to spare. Under the new -law he will be idle seven or eight hours a day. What will they do? She -thinks the boss must be responsible for the terrible arrangement, for -does not all trouble come from the boss? He is irritated by her -simplicity, and she begins to weep. The little girl is overjoyed at -the thought that she will no longer have to work, but tries to conceal -her pleasure. The laborer, moved by his wife's tears, endeavors to -comfort her. - -"Ah," he says, "it's only a law! Two years ago there was one like it, -but the work went on just the same." But she continues to weep until -their evening meal is ready, when the children are aroused from their -sleep to obey "the supper law," Libin concludes in a spirit of -tragi-comedy. - - [Illustration: HE WAS BEWITCHED BY MATHEMATICS] - -"She Got Her Prize" is the title of a sketch in which unexhilarating -comedy predominates. A laborer borrows some clothes to go to a party. -In his absence his wife sells a number of rags to the old-clothes man, -who innocently takes off her husband's only suit, carelessly put near -the bundle he was to carry away. The husband does not notice the loss -until the next day, when he has nothing to wear, cannot go to the -shop, and so loses his job. "Betty" is the story of a girl who falls -sick just before the day set for her wedding, and is taken to the -hospital. The sketch pictures her in bed, reading a farewell letter -from her lover who has deserted her. "Misery" is a prose poem, written -by Libin when his child died. It has no plot, is merely the outcry of -a simple, wounded heart, telling of pain, longing and wonder at the -sad mystery of the world. A pleasing rhythm runs through the Yiddish, -and as the author read it aloud it seemed, indeed, like a "human -document." "A Child of the Ghetto," one of the longest and most -detailed of all, is full of the sad, tho gently satiric, quality of -Libin's art. The author meets a pedler on Ludlow Street, who -recognizes him as the man who once saved his life by attracting to -himself the snow-balls of a number of urchins who had been plaguing -the pedler one cold winter day. They have a chat, and the author asks -the ragged push-cart man how he is getting on in the world. The -pedler replies that all of his class have their troubles--the fruit -quickly spoils, and the "bees" (policemen) come around regularly for -some of the "honey." But he has a sorrow all to himself. His oldest -son is a mathematician, and no good. When in the Jewish school in -Russia the little fellow had learned to figure, and had been figuring -ever since. His father had found, much to his disappointment, that in -America also the boy would have to spend some time in school. The -"monkey business" of learning had ruined the child. He was bewitched -by mathematics and studied all day long. Sent successively to a -sweat-shop, a grocery, to tend a push-cart, he proved thoroughly -incapable of learning any trade; was absent-minded and constantly -calculating, and always lost his job. And his old father bemoaned the -misfortune all day long as he sold his bananas on Ludlow Street. - -Younger than Libin, less mature and less devoted to his art, with a -very limited amount of work done; simpler and more naďve, if possible, -than the older man, is Levin, a typesetter in the office of -_Vorwärts_. His sketches are swifter and shorter than those of Libin, -more effective and dramatic in form, with greater conventional relief -of surprises and antitheses, but they have not so much feeling and do -not manifest so high a degree of realistic art. In contrast with -Libin, who aims only for the quiet picture of ordinary life, Levin -seeks the poignant moment in the flow of daily events. With more of a -commercial attitude toward his work, Levin is, consequently, in more -comfortable circumstances. Like Libin, he has worked in the shops, is -uneducated and has married a tailor girl. Like Libin, again, he takes -his subjects from the sweat-shop, the tenement house and the street. -He is a handsome, ingenuous young fellow of twenty-two years. Only -eight of these have been spent in America, yet in this short time he -has worked himself into the life of Hester and Suffolk streets to such -an extent that his short sketches give most faithful glimpses of -various little points of human nature as it shapes itself on the east -side. - - [Illustration: HE LEAVES HER WITH THE CART AND RUNS TO THE - TENEMENT-HOUSE] - -"Where Is She?" is a striking and typical incident in the career of a -push-cart pedler. The itinerant seller of fruit is doing some hard -thinking one day in Hester Street. He is worried about something, and -does not display the activity necessary for a successful merchant of -his class. A vivid picture of the street is given--the passers-by, the -tenement-houses, the heat. He knows that his business is suffering, -but his thoughts dwell, in spite of himself, with his wife, who is -about to be confined, perhaps that very day. Yesterday she had done -the washing, but on this day, for the first time, remained in bed. But -he must go to the street, as usual. Otherwise, his bananas would -spoil. He worries, too, about the condition of his children, left -without the care of their mother. A woman crosses the street to -inspect his bananas. Perhaps a buyer, he thinks, and concentrates his -attention. She selects the best bananas, those that will keep the -longest, and asks the price. "Two for a cent," he says. "Too much," -she replied. "I will give you two cents for five." That is less than -they cost him, and he refuses, and she goes away, and then he is sorry -he had not sold. Just then his little daughter runs hatless, -breathless up to him. "Mamma," she says, and weeps. She can say no -more. He leaves her with the cart and runs to the tenement-house, -finds his little boy playing on the floor, but his wife gone. He -rushes distractedly out, looks up the stairs, and sees clothes hanging -on a line on the roof, where he goes and finds his wife. She had left -the bed in order to dry the wash of the day before, and was unable to -return. He carries her back to bed and returns to his push-cart. - -"Put Off Again" is the story of a man and a girl who try to save -enough money from their work in the sweat-shop to marry. They need -only a couple of hundred dollars for clothes and furniture, and have -saved almost that sum when a letter comes from the girl's mother in -Russia: her husband is dead after a long illness, and she needs money. -The girl sends her $70, and the wedding is put off. The next time it -is the girl's brother who arrives in New York and borrows $50 to make -a start in business. When they are again ready for the wedding, and -the day set, the young fellow quarrels with the sweat-shop boss, and -is discharged. That is the evening before the day set for the wedding, -and the young man calls on the girl and tells her. "We must put it off -again, Jake," she says, "till you get another job." They cling to each -other and are silent and sad. - -A sketch so simple that it seems almost childish is called "The Bride -Weeps." It is a hot evening, and the people in the quarter are all out -on their stoops. There are swarms of children about, and a bride and -groom are embracing each other and watching the crowd. "Poor people," -says the bride reflectively, "ought not to have children." "What do -you know about it?" asks the groom, rather piqued. Their pleasure is -dampened, and she goes to bed and wets her pillow with tears. - -"Fooled," one of the most interesting of Levin's sketches, is the tale -of an umbrella pedler. It is very hot in the Ghetto, and everybody is -uncomfortable, but the umbrella pedler is more uncomfortable than any -one else. He hates the bright sun that interferes with his business. -It has not rained for weeks, and his stock in trade is all tied up in -the house. He has no money, and wishes he were back in Russia, where -it sometimes rains. He goes back to his apartment and sits brooding -with his wife. "When are you going to buy us some candy, papa?" ask -the children. Suddenly his wife sees a cloud in the sky, and they all -rush joyfully to the window. The sun disappears, and the clouds -continue to gather. The wife goes out to buy some food, the children -say, "Papa is going to the street now, and will bring us some candy"; -and the pedler unpacks his stock of umbrellas and puts on his rubber -boots. But the clouds roll away, and the hated sun comes out again, -and the pedler takes off his boots and puts his pack away. "Ain't you -going to the street, papa?" ask the children sorrowfully. "No," -replies the pedler, "God has played a joke on me." - -Libin and Levin, altho they differ in the way described, are yet to be -classed together in essentials. They are both simple, uneducated men -who write unpretentious sketches about a life they intimately know. -They picture the conditions almost naďvely without comment and without -subtlety. Libin, in a way to draw tears, Levin with the buoyant -optimism of healthy youth, notice the quiet things in the every-day -life of the Yiddish quarter that are touching and effective. - - -A CULTIVATED LITERARY MAN - -Contrasting definitely with the sketches of Libin and Levin are those -of Jacob Gordin, who, altho he is best known in the Ghetto as a -playwright, has yet written voluminously for the newspapers. Unlike -the other two, Gordin is a well-educated man, knowing thoroughly -several languages and literatures, including Greek, Russian and -German. His greater resources of culture and his sharper natural wit -have made of him by far the most practised writer of the lot. With -many literary examples before him, he knows the tricks of the trade, -is skilful and effective, has a wide range of subjects and is full of -"ideas" in the semi-philosophical sense. The innocent Libin and Levin -are children in comparison, and yet their sketches show greater -fidelity to the facts than do those of the talented Gordin, who is too -apt to employ the ordinary literary devices wherever he can find them, -caring primarily for the effect rather than for the truth, and almost -always heightening the color to an unnatural and pretentious pitch. In -the drama Gordin's tendency toward the sensational is more in place. -He has the sense of character and theatrical circumstance, and works -along the broad lines demanded by the stage; but these qualities when -transferred to stories from the life result in what is sometimes -called in the Ghetto "onion literature." So definitely theatrical, -indeed, are many of his sketches that they are sometimes read aloud by -the actors to crowded Jewish audiences. Another point that takes from -Gordin's interest to us as a sketch-writer is that his best stories -have Russia rather than New York as a background; that his sketches -from New York life are comparatively unconvincing. He has a great -contempt for America, which he satirizes in some of his sketches, -particularly the political aspect, and intends some day to return to -Russia, where he had a considerable career as a short-story writer in -the Russian language. He is forty-nine years old, and, compared with -the other men, is in comfortable circumstances, as he now makes a -good income from his plays, which grow in popularity in the quarter. -Before coming to America he taught school and wrote for several -newspapers in Russia, where he was known as "Ivan der Beissende," on -account of the sharp character of his feuilletons. He came to this -country in 1891, and shortly after, his first play, _Siberia_, was -produced and made a great hit among the "intellectuals" and Socialists -of the quarter. He began immediately to write for the Socialist -newspapers, and also established a short-lived weekly periodical in -the Russian language, which he wrote almost entirely himself. - -"A Nipped Romance" is a story of two children who are collecting coals -on a railway track. The boy of thirteen and the girl of eleven talk -about their respective families, laying bare the sordidness, misery -and vice in which their young lives are encompassed. They know more -than children ought to know, and insensibly develop a sentimental -interest in each other, when a train comes along and kills them. -"Without a Pass," sometimes recited in the theatre by the actor -Moshkovitch, pictures with gruesome detail a girl working in the -sweat-shop. The brutal doorkeeper refuses to let her go out for relief -without a pass, and she dies of weakness, hunger and cold. "A Tear," -one of the best, is the tale of an old Jewish woman who has come to -New York to visit her son. He is married to a Gentile, and the old -lady is so much abused by her daughter-in-law that she goes back to -Russia. The sketch represents her alone at the pier, about to embark. -She sees the friends of the other passengers crowding the landing, but -no one is there to say good-by to her; and as the ship moves away a -tear rolls down her cheek to the deck. "Who Laughs?" satirizes the -Americans who laugh at Russian Jews because of their beards, dress and -accent. Another sketch denounces the "new woman"--she who apes -American manners, lays aside her Jewish wig, becomes flippant and -interested in "movements." Still another is a highly colored contrast -between woman's love and that of less-devoted man. A story -illustrating how the author's desire to make an effect sometimes -results in the ludicrous is the would-be pathetic wail of a calf which -is about to be slaughtered. - - -AMERICAN LIFE THROUGH RUSSIAN EYES - -In connection with Gordin, two other writers of talent who work on the -Yiddish newspapers may be briefly mentioned, altho one of them has -written as yet nothing and the other comparatively little that is -based on the life of New York. They are, as is Gordin in his best -sketches, Russian not only in form, but also in material. David -Pinsky, who did general translating and critical work on the -_Abendblatt_ until a few months ago, when that newspaper died, has -been in New York only a little more than a year, and has written very -little about the local quarter. He has not even as yet approached near -enough to the New York life to realize that there are any special -conditions to portray. He is the author, however, of good sketches in -German and is somewhat different in the character of his inspiration -from the other men. They are close adherents of the tradition of -Russian realism, while he is under the influence of the more recent -European faith that disclaims all "schools" in literature. His -stories, altho they remain faithful to the sad life portrayed, yet -show greater sentimentality and some desire to bring forward the -attractive side. - -The other of these two writers, B. Gorin, knew his Russian-Jewish life -so intimately before he came to New York, seven years ago, that he has -continued to draw from that source the material of his best stories; -altho he has written a good deal about Yiddish New York. His sketches -have the ordinary Russian merit of fidelity in detail and -unpretentiousness of style. Compared with the other writers in New -York, he is more elaborate in his workmanship. More mature than Libin, -he is free from Gordin's artistic insincerity. He has been the editor -of several Yiddish papers in the quarter, and has contributed to -nearly all of them. - -Of Gorin's stories which touch the Russian-Jewish conditions in New -York, "Yom Kippur" is one of the most notable. It is the tale of a -pious Jewish woman who joins her husband in America after he has been -there several years. The details of the way in which she left the old -country, how she had to pass herself off on the steamer as the wife of -another man, her difficulties with the inspecting officers, etc., give -the impression of a life strange to the Gentile world. On arriving in -America, she finds her husband and his friends fallen away from the -old faith. He had shaved off his beard, had grown to be slack about -the "kosher" preparation of food and the observance of the religious -holidays, no longer was careful about the morning ablutions, worked on -the Sabbath and compelled her to take off the wig which every orthodox -Jewish woman must wear. She soon fell under the new influence and felt -herself drifting generally into the ungodly ways of the New World. On -the day of the great "White Feast" she found herself eating when she -should have fasted. On Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, the sense of -her sins overpowered her quite. - -"Yom Kippur! Now the children of Israel are all massed together in -every corner of the globe. They are congregated in synagogues and -prayer-houses, their eyes swollen with crying, their voices hoarse -from wailing and supplicating, their broken hearts full of repentance. -They all stand now in their funeral togas, like a throng of newly -arisen dead." - -She grows delirious and imagines that her father and mother come to -her successively and reproach her for her degeneracy. In a series of -frightful dreams, all bearing on her repentance, the atmosphere of the -story is rendered so intense that her death, which follows, seems -entirely natural. - -The theme of one of Gorin's longer stories on Jewish-American life is -of a young Jew who had married in the old country and had come to New -York alone to make his fortune. If he had remained in Russia, he would -have lived happily with his wife, but in America he acquired new ideas -of life and new ideals of women; and, therefore, felt alienated from -her when she joined him in the New World. Many children came to them, -his wages as a tailor diminished and his wife grew constantly less -congenial. He remained with her, however, from a sense of duty for -eleven years, when, after insuring his life, he committed suicide. - - -A SATIRIST OF TENEMENT SOCIETY - -Leon Kobrin stands midway between Libin and Levin, on the one hand, -and Gordin on the other. He carries his Russian traditions more -intimately with him than do Libin and Levin, but more nearly -approaches to a saturated exposition in fiction form of the life of -Yiddish New York than does Gordin. Unlike the latter, he has the -pretence rather than the reality of learning, and the reality rather -than the pretence of realistic art. Yet he never quite attains to the -untutored fidelity of Libin. Many of his sketches are satirical, some -are rather burlesque descriptions of Ghetto types, and some suggest -the sad "problem" element which runs through Russian literature. He -was born in Russia in 1872 of poor parents, orthodox Jews, who sent -him to the Hebrew school, of which the boy was never very fond, but -preferred to read Russian at night surreptitiously. He found some -good friends, who, as he put it, "helped me to the light through -Ghetto darkness." Incidentally, it may be pointed out that the -intellectual element of the Ghetto--the realists and Socialists--think -that progress is possible only in the line of Russian culture, and -that to remain steadfast to Jewish traditions is to remain immersed in -darkness. So Kobrin struggled from a very early age to master the -Russian language, and even wrote sketches in that tongue. He, like -Gordin, refers to the fact of his being a writer in Yiddish -apologetically as something forced upon him by circumstances. Unlike -Gorin, however, he believes in the literary capacity of the language, -with which he was first impressed when he came to America in 1892 and -found stories by Chekhov translated by Abraham Cahan and others into -Yiddish and published in the _Arbeiterzeitung_. It was a long time, -however, before Kobrin definitely identified himself with the literary -calling. He first went through a course somewhat similar to that of -the boy mathematician in the sketch by Libin, described above. He -tried the sweat-shop, but he was a bungler with the machines; then he -turned his hand with equal awkwardness to the occupation of making -cigars; failed as distinctly as a baker, and finally, in 1894, was -forced into literature, and began writing for the _Arbeiterzeitung_. - -One of Kobrin's sketches deals with a vulgar tailor of the east side, -who is painted in the ugliest of colors and is as disagreeable an -individual as the hottest anti-Semite could imagine. The man, who is -the "boss" of a sweat-shop, meets the author in a suburban train, -scrapes his acquaintance, fawns upon him, offers him a cigar and tells -about how well he is doing in New York. In Russia, where he had made -clothes for rich people, no young girl would have spoken to him -because of his low social position; but in the new country young women -of good family abroad seek employment in his shop, and are often -dependent on him not only for a living, but in more indescribable -ways. Mr. Kobrin and his wife refer to this sketch as the "pig story." -A subtler tale is the picture of a domestic scene. Jake has returned -from his work and sits reading a Yiddish newspaper. His wife, a -passionate brunette, is working about the room, and every now and then -glances at the apathetic Jake with a sigh. She remembers how it was a -year ago, when Jake hung over her, devoted, attentive; and now he goes -out almost every evening to the "circle" and returns late. She tries -to engage him in conversation, but he answers in monosyllables and -finally says he is going out, whereupon she weeps and makes a scene. -"He is not the same Jake," she cries bitterly. After some words -intended to comfort her, but really rubbing in the wound, her husband -goes to the "circle," and the wife burns the old love-letters one by -one; they are from another man, she feels, and are a torture to her -now. As she burns the letters the tears fall and sizzle on the hot -stove. It is a simple scene, but moving: what Mr. Kobrin calls "a -small slice out of life." An amusing couple of sketches, in which -satire approaches burlesque, represent the infelicities of an old -woman from Russia who had recently arrived in New York. One day, -shocked at her children's neglect of a religious holiday and at their -general unholiness, she goes to visit an old neighbor, at whose house -she is sure to have everything "kosher" and right. She has been -accustomed to find the way to her friend by means of a wooden Indian, -called by her a "Turk," which stood before a tobacco shop. The Indian -has been removed, however, and she, consequently, loses her way. -Seeing a Jew with big whiskers, who must, therefore, she thinks, be -orthodox, she asks him where the "Turk" is, and repeats the question -in vain to many others, among them to a policeman, whom she addresses -in Polish, for she thinks that all Gentiles speak that language, just -as all Jews speak Yiddish. On another occasion the old lady goes to -the theatre, where her experiences are a Yiddish counterpart to those -of Partridge at the play. - -Some of the best sketches from the life form portions of the plays -which are produced at the Yiddish theatres on the Bowery. In the -dramas of Gordin there are many scenes which far more faithfully than -his newspaper sketches mirror the sordid life and unhappy problems of -the poor Russian Jew in America; and the ability of the actors to -enforce the theme and language by realistic dress, manner and -intonation makes these scenes frequently a genuine revelation to the -Gentile of a new world of social conditions. Kobrin and Libin, too, -have written plays, very few and undramatic as compared with those of -Gordin, but abounding in the "sketch" element, in scenes which give -the setting and the _milieu_ of a large and important section of -humanity. Some of the plays of Gordin have been considered in a -previous chapter, and those of Kobrin and Libin merely add more -material to the same quality which runs through their newspaper -sketches. Libin is the author of two plays, _The Belated Wedding_ and -_A Vain Sacrifice_, for which he was paid $50 apiece. They are each a -series of pictures from the miserable Jewish life in the New York -Ghetto. The latter play is the story of a girl who marries a man she -hates in order to get money for her consumptive father. The theme of -_The Belated Wedding_ is too sordid to relate. Both plays are -unrelieved gloom and lack any compensating dramatic quality. In -Kobrin's plays--_The East Side Ghetto_, _East Broadway_ and the -_Broken Chains_--the problem element is more decided and the dramatic -structure is more pronounced than in those of Libin. In _East -Broadway_ a young man and girl have been devoted to each other and to -the cause of Nihilism in Russia, but in New York the husband catches -the spirit of the American "business man" and demands from his -father-in-law the money promised as a _dot_. The eloquence of the new -point of view is opposed to that of the old in a manner not entirely -undramatic. - -The fact that there are a number of writers for the Yiddish newspapers -of New York who are animated with a desire to give genuine glimpses of -the real life of the people is particularly interesting, perhaps, -because of the light which it throws on the character of their Jewish -readers and the breadth of culture which it implies. Certainly, there -are many Russian Jews on the east side who like to read anything which -seems to them to be "natural," a word which is often on their lips. It -would be misleading, however, to reach conclusions very optimistic in -regard to the Ghetto Jews as a whole; for the demand which makes these -sketches possible is practically limited to the Socialists, and grows -less as that political and intellectual movement falls off, under -American influences, in vitality. To-day there are fewer good sketches -published in the Yiddish newspapers than formerly, when the -_Arbeiterzeitung_ was a power for social and literary improvement. -Quarrels among the Socialists, resulting in many weakening splits, and -the growth of a more constant commercial attitude on the part of the -newspapers than formerly are partly responsible for the change. The -few men of talent who, under the stimulus of an editorial demand for -sincere art, wrote in the early days with a full heart and entire -conviction have now partly lost interest. Levin has given up writing -altogether for the more remunerative work of a typesetter, Gorin has -become largely a translator and literary hack on the regular newspaper -staff, and Gordin and Kobrin have turned their attention to the -writing of plays, for which there is a vital, if crude, demand. Libin -alone, the most interesting and in a genuine way the most talented of -them all, remains the poorest in worldly goods and the most devoted to -his art. - - - - -Chapter Eight - -A Novelist - - -Altho Abraham Cahan began his literary career as a Yiddish writer for -the Ghetto newspapers his important work has been written and -published in English. His work as a Yiddish writer was of an almost -exclusively educational character. This at once establishes an -important distinction between him and the Yiddish sketch-writers -considered in the foregoing chapter. A still more vital distinction is -that arising from the relative quality of his work, which as opposed -to that of the Yiddish writers, is more of the order of the story or -of the novel than of the sketch. Cahan's work is more developed and -more mature as art than that of the other men, who remain essentially -sketch-writers. Even in their longer stories what is good is the -occasional flash of life, the occasional picture, and this does not -imply characters and theme developed sufficiently to put them in the -category of the novel. Rather than for the art they reveal they are -interesting for the sincere way in which they present a life -intimately known. In fact the literary talent of the Ghetto consists -almost exclusively in the short sketch. To this general rule Abraham -Cahan comes the nearest to forming an exception. Even in his work the -sketch element predominates; but in one long story at least something -more is successfully achieved; in his short stories there is often -much circumstance and development; and he has now finished the first -draft of a long novel. His stories have appeared from time to time in -the leading English magazines, and there are two volumes with which -the discriminating American and English public is familiar, _Yekl_ and -_The Imported Bridegroom and Other Stories_. As well as his work -Cahan's life too is of unusual interest. He had a picturesque career -as a Socialist and an editor in the Ghetto. - -Abraham Cahan was born in Vilna, the capital of Lithuania, Russia, in -1860. He went as a boy to the Jewish "chaider," but took an early and -overpowering interest in the Russian language and ideas. He graduated -from the _Teacher's Institute_ at Vilna, and was appointed government -teacher in the town of Velizh, Province of Vitebsk. Here he became -interested, altho not active, in the anarchistic doctrines which -filled the intellectual atmosphere of the day; and, feeling that his -liberty and activity were endangered by a longer sojourn in Russia, he -came to America in 1882, when a time of severe poverty and struggle -ensued. - -From the first he, like most Russian Jews of intelligence, was -identified with the Socialist movement in the New York Ghetto; he -threw himself into it with extraordinary activity and soon became a -leader in the quarter. He was an eloquent and impassioned speaker, -went twice abroad as the American-Jewish delegate to Socialist -congresses, and was the most influential man connected with the weekly -_Arbeiterzeitung_, of which he became editor in 1893. This paper, as -has been explained in a former chapter, for several years carried on -an aggressive warfare in the cause of labor and Socialism, and -attempted also to educate the people to an appreciation of the best -realistic Russian writers, such as Tolstoi, Turgenieff and Chekhov. It -was under Cahan's editorship of this weekly, and also of the monthly -_Zukunft_, a journal of literature and social science, that some of -the realistic sketch-writers of the quarter discovered their talent; -and for a time both literature and Socialism were as vigorous as they -were young in the colony. - -Literature, however, was at that time to Cahan only the handmaiden of -education. His career as an east side writer was that primarily of the -teacher. He wished not merely to educate the ignorant masses of the -people in the doctrines of Socialism, but to teach them the rudiments -of science and literature. For that reason he wrote in the popular -"jargon," popularized science, wrote Socialistic articles, exhorted -generally. Occasionally he published humorous sketches, intended, -however, always to point a moral or convey some needed information. In -literature, as such, he was not at that time interested as an author. -It was only several years later, when he took up his English pen, that -he attempted to put into practice the ideas about what constitutes -real literature to which he had been trying to educate the Ghetto. - -The fierce individualism which in spite of Socialistic doctrine is a -characteristic of the intellectual element in the Ghetto soon brought -about its weakening effects. The inevitable occurred. Quarrels grew -among the Socialists, the party was split, each faction organized a -Socialist newspaper, and the movement consequently lost in -significance and general popularity. In 1896 Cahan resigned his -editorship, and retired disgusted from the work. - -From that time on his interest in Socialism waned, altho he still -ranges himself under that banner; and his other absorbing interest, -realistic literature, grew apace, until it now absorbs everything -else. As is the case with many imaginative and emotional men he is -predominantly of one intellectual passion. When he was an active -Socialist he wanted to be nothing else. He gave up his law studies, -and devoted himself to an unremunerative public work. When the fierce -but small personal quarrels began which brought about the present -confused condition of Socialism in the Ghetto, Cahan's always strong -admiration for the Russian writers of genius and their literary school -led him to experiment in the English language, which gave a field much -larger than the "jargon." Always a reformer, always filled with some -idea which he wished to propagate through the length and breadth of -the land, Cahan took up the cause of realism in English fiction with -the same passion and energy with which he had gone in for Socialism. -He became a partisan in literature just as he had been a partisan in -active life. He admired among Americans W. D. Howells, who seemed to -him to write in the proper spirit, but he felt that Americans as a -class were hopelessly "romantic," "unreal," and undeveloped in their -literary tastes and standards. He set himself to writing stories and -books in English which should at least be genuine artistic transcripts -from life, and he succeeded admirably in keeping out of his work any -obvious doctrinaire element--which points to great artistic -self-restraint when one considers how full of his doctrine the man is. - -Love of truth, indeed, is the quality which seems to a stranger in the -Ghetto the great virtue of that section of the city. Truth, pleasant -or unpleasant, is what the best of them desire. It is true that, in -the reaction from the usual "affable" literature of the American -book-market, these realists rather prefer the unpleasant. That, -however, is a sign of energy and youth. A vigorous youthful literature -is always more apt to breathe the spirit of tragedy than a literature -more mature and less fresh. And after all, the great passion of the -intellectual quarter results in the consciously held and warmly felt -principle that literature should be a transcript from life. Cahan -represents this feeling in its purest aspect; and is therefore highly -interesting not only as a man but as a type. This passion for truth is -deeply infused into his literary work. - -The aspects of the Ghetto's life which would naturally hold the -interest of the artistic observer are predominatingly its -characteristic features--those qualities of character and conditions -of social life which are different from the corresponding ones in the -old country. Cahan came to America a mature man with the life of one -community already a familiar thing to him. It was inevitable therefore -that his literary work in New York should have consisted largely in -fiction emphasizing the changed character and habits of the Russian -Jew in New York; describing the conditions of immigration and -depicting the clash between the old and the new Ghetto and the way the -former insensibly changes into the latter. In this respect Cahan -presents a great contrast to the simple Libin, who merely tells in -heartfelt passionate way the life of the poor sweat-shop Jew in the -city, without consciously taking into account the relative nature of -the phenomena. His is absolute work as far as it goes, as straight and -true as an arrow, and implies no knowledge of other conditions. Cahan -presents an equally striking contrast to the work of men like Gordin -and Gorin, the best part of which deals with Russian rather than New -York life. - -If Cahan's work were merely the transcribing in fiction form of a -great number of suggestive and curious "points" about the life of the -poor Russian Jew in New York, it would not of course have any great -interest to even the cultivated Anglo-Saxon reader, who, tho he might -find the stories curious and amusing for a time, would recognize -nothing in them sufficiently familiar to be of deep importance to him. -If, in other words, the stories had lacked the universal element -always present in true literature they would have been of very little -value to anyone except the student of queer corners. When however the -universal element of art is present, when the special conditions are -rendered sympathetic by the touch of common human nature, the result -is pleasing in spite of the foreign element; it is even pleasing -because of that element; for then the pleasure of easily understanding -what is unfamiliar is added to the charm of recognizing the old -objects of the heart and the imagination. - -Cahan's stories may be divided into two general classes: those -presenting primarily the special conditions of the Ghetto to which the -story and characters are subordinate; and those in which the special -conditions and the story fuse together and mutually help and explain -one another. These two--the "information" element and the "human -nature" element--struggle for the mastery throughout his work. In the -most successful part of the stories the "human nature" element -masters, without suppressing, that of special information. - -The substance of Cahan's stories, what they have deliberately to tell -us about the New York Ghetto, is, considering the limited volume of -his work, rich and varied. It includes the description of much that is -common to the Jews of Russia and the Jews of New York--the picture of -the orthodox Jew, the pious rabbi, the marriage customs, the religious -holidays, etc. But the orthodox foreign element is treated more as a -background on which are painted in contrasting lights the moral and -physical forms resulting from the particular colonial conditions. The -falling away of the children in filial respect and in religious faith, -the consequent despair of the parents, who are influenced only in -superficial ways by their new environment; the alienation of -"progressive" husbands from "old-fashioned" wives; the institution of -"the boarder," a source of frequent domestic trouble; the tendency of -the "new" daughters of Israel to select husbands for themselves in -spite of ancient authority and the "Vermittler," and their ambition to -marry doctors and lawyers instead of Talmudical scholars; the -professional letter-writers through whom ignorant people in the old -country and their ignorant relatives here correspond; the falling-off -in respect for the Hebrew scholar and the rabbi, the tendency to read -in the Astor library and do other dreadful things implying interest in -American life, to eat _treife_ food, talk American slang, and hate -being called a "greenhorn," _i. e._, an old-fashioned Jew; how a -"Mister" in Russia becomes a "Shister" (shoemaker) in New York, and a -"Shister" in Russia becomes a "Mister" in New York; how women lay -aside their wigs and men shave their beards and ride in horse-cars on -Saturday: all these things and more are told in more or less detail in -Cahan's English stories. Anyone who followed the long series of Barge -Office sketches which during the last few years Cahan has published -anonymously in the _Commercial Advertiser_, would be familiar in a -general way with the different types of Jews who come to this country, -with the reasons for their immigration and the conditions which -confront them when they arrive. Many of these hastily conceived and -written newspaper reports have plenty of life--are quick, rather -formless, flashes of humor and pathos, and contain a great deal of -implicit literature. But the salient quality of this division of -Cahan's work is the amount of strange and picturesque information -which it conveys. - -Many of his more carefully executed stories which have appeared from -time to time in the magazines are loaded down with a like quantity of -information, and while all of them have marked vitality, many are less -intrinsically interesting, from the point of view of human nature, -than even the Barge Office sketches. A marked instance of a story in -which the information element overpoweringly predominates is "The -Daughter of Reb Avrom Leib," published in the _Cosmopolitan Magazine_ -for May, 1900. The tale opens with a picture of Aaron Zalkin, who is -lonely. It is Friday evening, and for the first time since he left his -native town he enters a synagogue. Then we have a succession of -minutely described customs and objects which are interesting in -themselves and convey no end of "local color." We learn that orthodox -Jewish women have wigs, we read of the Holy Ark, the golden shield of -David, the illuminated _omud_, the reading platform in the centre, the -faces of the worshippers as they hum the Song of Songs, and then the -cantor and the cantor's daughter. We follow the cantor in his -ceremonies and prayers. Zalkin is thrilled by the ceremony and -thrilled by the girl. But only a word is given to him before the story -goes back to picturing the scene, Reb Avrom Leib's song and the -actions of the congregation. In the second division of the story -Zalkin goes again the next Friday night to the synagogue, and the -result is that he wants to marry the girl. So he sends a "marriage -agent" to the cantor, the girl's father. Then he goes to "view the -bride," and incidentally we learn that the cantor has two sons who are -"American boys," and "will not turn their tongues to a Hebrew word." -When the old man finds that Zalkin is a Talmudic scholar he is -startled and delighted and wants him for a son-in-law. They try to -outquote one another, shouting and gesticulating "in true Talmudic -fashion." There is a short scene between the two young people, the -wedding-day is deferred till the "Nine Days" are over, for "who would -marry while one was mourning the Fall of the Temple?" And it is -suggested that Sophie is not quite content. Then there is a scene -where Zalkin chants the Prophets, where the betrothal articles, "a -mixture of Chaldaic and Hebrew," are read and a plate is thrown on the -floor to make a severance of the ceremony "as unlikely as would be the -reunion of the broken plate." Then there are more quotations from the -cantor, a detailed picture of the services of the Day of Atonement, of -the Rejoicing of the Law, blessing the Dedication Lights, The Days of -Awe, and the Rejoicing of the Law again. The old man's character is -made very vivid, and the dramatic situation--that of a Jewish girl -who, after the death of her father, marries in compliance with his -desire--is picturesquely handled. But the theme is very slight. Most -of the detail is devoted to making a picture, not of the changing -emotions in the characters and the development of the human story, but -of the religious customs of the Jews. The emphasis is put on -information rather than on the theme, and consequently the story does -not hold the interest strongly. - -Many of Cahan's other short stories suffer because of the learned -intention of the author. We derive a great deal of information and we -generally get the "picture," but it often requires an effort to keep -the attention fixed on what is unfamiliar and at the same time so -apart from the substance of the story that it is merely subordinate -detail. - -In these very stories, however, there is much that is vigorous and -fresh in the treatment and characterization; and a vein of lyric -poetry is frequent, as in the delightful _Ghetto Wedding_, the story -of how a poor young Jewish couple spend their last cent on an -elaborate wedding-feast, expecting to be repaid by the presents, and -thus enabled to furnish their apartment. The gifts don't turn up, -only a few guests are present, and the young people, after the -ceremony, go home with nothing but their enthusiastic love. The -_naďveté_ and simplicity of the lovers, the implicit sympathy with -them, and a kind of gentle satire, make this little story a gem for -the poet. - -_The Imported Bridegroom_ is a remarkable character sketch and -contains several very strong and interesting descriptions. Asriel -Stroon is the central figure and lives before the mind of the reader. -He is an old Jew who has made a business success in New York, and -retired, when he has a religious awakening and at the same time a -great longing for his old Russian home Pravly. He goes back to Pravly -on a visit, and the description of his sensations the day he returns -to his home is one of the best examples of the essential vitality of -Cahan's work. This long story contains also a most amusing scene where -Asriel outbids a famous rich man of the town for a section in the -synagogue and triumphs over him, too, in the question of a son-in-law. -There is in Pravly a "prodigy" of holiness and Talmudic learning, -Shaya, whom Reb Lippe wants for his daughter, but Asriel wants him -too, and being enormously rich, carries him off in triumph to his -daughter in America. But Flora at first spurns him. He is a -"greenhorn," a scholar, not a smart American doctor such as she has -dreamed of. Soon, however, Shaya, who is a great student, learns -English and mathematics, and promises Flora to become a doctor. The -first thing he knows he is a freethinker and an American, and Flora -now loves him. They keep the terrible secret from the old man, but he -ultimately sees Shaya going into the Astor Library and eating food in -a _treife_ restaurant. His resentment is pathetic and intense, but the -children marry, and the old man goes to Jerusalem with his faithful -servant. - -The book, however, in which there is a perfect adaptation of -"atmosphere" and information to the dramatic story is _Yekl_. In this -strong, fresh work, full of buoyant life, the Ghetto characters and -environment form an integral part. - -_Yekl_ indeed ought to be well known to the English reading public. It -is a book written and conceived in the English language, is -essentially idiomatic and consequently presents no linguistic -difficulties. It gives a great deal of information about what seems to -me by far the most interesting section of foreign New York. But what -ought to count more than anything else is that it is a genuine piece -of literature; picturing characters that live in art, in an -environment that is made real, and by means of a story that is vital -and significant and that never flags in interest. In its quality of -freshness and buoyancy it recalls the work of Turgenieff. None of -Cahan's later work, tho most of it has vital elements, stands in the -same class with this fundamentally sweet piece of literature. It takes -a worthy place with the best Russian fiction, with that school of -writers who make life actual by the sincere handling of detail in -which the simple everyday emotions of unspoiled human nature are -portrayed. The English classic novel, greatly superior in the rounded -and contemplative view of life, has yet nothing since Fielding -comparable to Russian fiction in vivid presentation of the details of -life. This whole school of literature can, I believe, be compared in -quality more fittingly with Elizabethan drama than anything which has -intervened in English literature; not of course with those maturer -dramas in which there is a great philosophical treatment of human -life, but in the lyric freshness and imaginative vitality which were -common to the whole lot of Elizabethan writers. - -_Yekl_ is alive from beginning to end. The virtuosity in description -which in Cahan's work sometimes takes the place of literature, is here -quite subordinate. Yekl is a sweat-shop Jew in New York who has left a -wife and child in Russia in order to make a little home for them and -himself in the new world. In the early part of the book he is becoming -an "American" Jew, making a little money and taking a great fancy to -the smart Jewish girl who wears a "rakish" hat, no wig, talks "United -States," and has a profound contempt for the benighted pious -"greenhorns" who have just arrived. A sweat-shop girl named Mamie -moves his fancy deeply, so that when the faithful wife Gitl and the -little boy Yossele arrive at the Barge Office there is evidently -trouble at hand. At that place Yekl meets them in a vividly told -scene--ill-concealed disquiet on his part and naďve alarm at the -situation on hers. Gitl's wig and her subdued, old-fashioned demeanor -tell terribly on Yekl's nerves, and she is shocked by everything that -happens to her in America. Their domestic unhappiness develops through -a number of characteristic and simple incidents until it results in a -divorce. But by that time Gitl is becoming "American" and it is -obvious that she is to be taken care of by a young man in the quarter -more appreciative than Yekl. The latter finds himself bound to Mamie, -the pert "American" girl, and as the book closes is in a fair way to -regret the necessity of giving up his newly acquired freedom. This -simple, strong theme is treated consistently in a vital presentative -way. The idea is developed by natural and constant incident, -psychological or physical, rather than by talk. Every detail of the -book grows naturally out of the situation. - - [Illustration: A SWEAT-SHOP GIRL MOVES HIS FANCY DEEPLY] - -"Unpleasant" is a word which many an American would give to _Yekl_ on -account of its subject. Strong compensating qualities are necessary to -induce a publisher or editor to print anything which they think is in -subject disagreeable to the big body of American readers, most of whom -are women. Without attempting to criticise the "voice of the people," -it may be pointed out that there are at least two ways in which a book -may be "unpleasant." It may be so in the formal theme, the characters, -the result--things may come out unhappily, vice triumphant, and the -section of life portrayed may be a sordid one. This is the kind of -unpleasantness which publishers particularly object to; and in this -sense _Yekl_ may fairly be called "unpleasant." Turgenieff's _Torrents -of Spring_ is also in this sense "unpleasant," for it tells how a -young man's sincere and poetic first love is turned to failure and -misery by the illegitimate temporary attraction of a fascinating woman -of the world. But Turgenieff's novel is nevertheless full of buoyant -vitality, full of freshness and charm, of youth and grace, full of -life-giving qualities; because of it we all may live more abundantly. -The same may be said of many another book. When there is sweetness, -strength and early vigor in a book the reader is refreshed -notwithstanding the theme. And it is noticeable that youth is not -afraid of "subjects." - -Another way in which a book may be "unpleasant" is in the quality of -deadness. Many books with pleasant and moral themes and endings are -unpoetic and unpleasantly mature. Even a book great in subject, with -much philosophy in it, may show a lack of sensitiveness to the vital -qualities, to the effects of spring, to the joy in mere physical life, -which are so marked and so genuinely invigorating in the best Russian -fiction. The extreme of this kind of unpleasantness is shown in the -case of some modern Frenchmen and Italians; not primarily in the -theme, but in the lack of poetry and vigor, of hope; in a sodden -maturity, often indeed combined with great qualities of intellect and -workmanship, but dead to the little things of life, dead to the -feeling of spring in the blood, to naďve readiness for experience. An -American who is the antithesis of this kind of thing is Walt Whitman. -His quality put into prose is what we have in the best Russian novels. -In the latter acceptation of the word unpleasant, too, it cannot be -applied to _Yekl_; for _Yekl_ is youthful and vital. There is buoyant -spring in the lines and robust joy in truth whatever it may be. - - [Illustration: GITL] - -_Apropos_ of Cahan's love of truth, and that word "unpleasant," a -discussion which took place a few years ago on the appearance of -Zangwill's play, _The Children of the Ghetto_, is illuminative. That -poetic drama represented the life of the poor Ghetto Jew with sympathy -and truth; but for that very reason it was severely criticised by some -uptown Israelites. Many of these, no doubt, had religious objections -to a display on the stage of those customs and observances of their -race which touched upon the "holy law." But some of the rich German -Jews, practically identified with American life, and desiring for -practical and social purposes to make little of their racial -distinction, deprecated literature which portrayed the life of those -Jews who still have distinctively national traits and customs. Then, -too, there is a tendency among the well-to-do American Jews to look -down upon their Ghetto brethren, to regard the old customs as -benighted and to treat them with a certain contempt; altho they spend -a great deal of charitable money in the quarter. Feeling a little -ashamed of the poor Russian east side Jew, they object to a serious -literary portrayal of him. They want no attention called to what they -deem the less attractive aspects of their race. An uptown Jewish lady, -on the appearance in a newspaper of a story about east side Jewish -life, wrote a protesting letter to the editor. She told the writer of -the sketch, when he was sent to see her, that she could not see why he -didn't write about uptown Jews instead of sordid east side Jews. The -scribe replied that he wrote of the Ghetto Jew because he found him -interesting, while he couldn't see anything attractive or picturesque -about the comfortable Israelite uptown. - -Abraham Cahan's stories have been subjected to criticism inspired by -the same spirit. Feeling the charm of his people he has attempted to -picture them as they are, in shadow and light; and has consequently -been accused of betraying his race to the Gentiles. - -The attitude of the east side Jews towards writers like Zangwill and -Cahan is in refreshing contrast. The Yiddish newspapers were -enthusiastic about _Children of the Ghetto_, in which they felt the -Jews were truthfully and therefore sympathetically portrayed. In the -literary sketches and plays now produced in considerable numbers in -the "jargon," a great pride of race is manifest. The writers have not -lost their self-respect, still abound in their own sense and are -consequently vitally interesting. They are full of ideals and -enthusiasm and do not object to what is "unpleasant" so strenuously as -do their uptown brethren. - - - - -Chapter Nine - -The Young Art and its Exponents - - -On Hester Street, east of the Bowery, the poor Jew is revealed in many -a characteristic way. It is the home of the sweat-shop, of the crowded -tenement-house. Old pedlers, as ragged as the poorest beggars, stand on -street corners. In long uninterrupted lines are the carts--containing -fruit, cake, dry goods, fish, everything that the proletarian Jew -requires. Behind these tower the crowded tenement-houses, with -fire-escapes for balconies. Through the middle of the street -constantly moves a mass of people. No vehicle can go rapidly there, -for the thoroughfare is literally alive. In the least crowded part of -the day, however, tattered little girls may sometimes be seen dancing -with natural grace to the music of a hand-organ, the Italian owner of -which for some strange reason has embedded himself in the very heart -of poverty. Between the lumbering wagons which infest the street at -the less busy part of the day these little children wonderfully sway -and glide and constitute the only gladsome feature of the scene. Just -as Canal Street, with its cafés where the poets, Socialists, scholars -and journalists meet, is the mind of the Ghetto, so Hester Street -represents its heart. This picturesque street has recently become the -study of several young Jewish artists. - -The last few years have brought the earliest indications of what may -develop into a characteristic Ghetto art. In the course of their long -civilization the Jews have never developed a national plastic art. -Devoted to the things of the spirit, in an important period of their -history in conflict with the sensuous art of the Greeks, they have -never put into external forms the heart of their life. There have been -occasional painters and sculptors among them, but these have worked in -line with the Gentiles, and have in no way contributed to a typical or -national art. With the slackening of the Hebraic religion, however, -which prohibits images in the temple--that fertile source of -inspiration in Christian art--the conditions have been more favorable, -and the beginning of a distinctive Ghetto art has already made its -appearance in New York. - -On the corner of Hester and Forsyth streets is a tumble-down rickety -building. The stairs that ascend to the garret are pestiferous and -dingy. In what is more like a shed than a room, with the wooden ribs -of the slanting roof curtailing the space, is the studio of an east -side artist. A miserable iron bedstead occupies the narrow strip of -floor beneath the descending ceiling. There is one window, which -commands a good view of the pushcart market in Hester Street. Near the -window is a diminutive oil-stove, on which the artist prepares his tea -and eggs. On a peg on the door hang an old mackintosh and an extra -coat--his only additional wardrobe. About the narrow walls on the -three available sides are easels, and sketches and paintings of Ghetto -types. - -Jacob Epstein, the name of the artist, has a melancholy wistful face. -He was born in the Ghetto twenty years ago, of poor Jews, who were at -first tailors and afterwards small tradespeople, and who had emigrated -from Poland. He went to the public schools until he was thirteen years -old. Since then he has worked at various jobs. Until recently he was -an instructor in the boys' out-door gymnasium near the corner of -Hester and Essex streets. For one summer, in order to get a vacation, -he became a farm laborer. His art education as well as his education -in general is slight, consisting of two terms at the Art Students' -League. But for so young a man his intellectual, as well as his -artistic activity has been considerable. He belongs to a number of -debating societies, and is now hesitating in his mind whether to -become a Socialist or an Anarchist, altho he is tending towards a -humane socialism. - -Two things, however, he seems definitely to have settled--that he will -devote himself to his art, and that that art shall be the plastic -picturing of the life of his people in the Ghetto. He seems to rejoice -at having lost his various pot-boiling positions. - -"I was not a gymnast," he said cheerfully, explaining why he left the -last one, "and now they have a gymnast." - -Now he lives alone on his beloved Hester Street and the studio, where -he sleeps and eats. For that modest room he pays $4 a month, and as he -cooks his own meals, $12 a month is quite sufficient to satisfy all -his needs. This amount he can usually manage to make through the sale -of his sketches; but when he does not he "goes to bed," as he puts it, -and lies low until one of his various little art enterprises brings -him in a small check. Withal, he is very happy, altho serious, like -his race in general; and full of idealism and ambition. On one -occasion the idea occurred to him and to his friend, Bernard Gussow, -that men ought to live closer to nature than they can in the Ghetto. -It was in the winter time that they were filled with this conviction, -but they nevertheless packed off and hired a farmhouse at Greenwood -Lake, and stayed there the whole winter. When their money gave out -they cut ice in the river to pay the rent. - -"We enjoyed it very much," said Epstein, "but there were no artistic -results. The country, much as I love it, is not stimulating. Clouds -and trees are not satisfying. It is only in the Ghetto, where there is -human nature, that I have ideas for sketches." - -With a kind of regret the artist spoke of the beauty of Winslow -Homer's landscape. He called it "epic," and was filled with sorrow -that such an art could not be in the Ghetto. - -"There is no nature in the sweat-shop," he said, "and yet it is there -and in the crowded street that my love and my imagination call me. It -is only the minds and souls of my people that fill me with a desire to -work." - -It is this ambition which makes Jacob Epstein and the other young -artists to be mentioned of uncommon representative interest. Epstein -is filled with a melancholy love of his race, and his constant desire -is to paint his people just as they are: to show them in their -suffering picturesqueness. So he goes into the sweat-shop and -sketches, induces the old pedlers of Hester Street to pose in his -studio, and draws from his window the push-carts and the old women in -the street. It is thus a characteristic Ghetto art, an art dealing -with the peculiar types of that Jewish community, that Epstein's -interest leads to; a national plastic art, as it were, on a small -scale. - -In the studio and at an exhibition at the Hebrew Institute Epstein had -two years ago a number of sketches and a few paintings--the latter -very crude as far as the technique of color is concerned, and the -sketches in charcoal rough and showing comparatively slight mastery of -the craft. But, particularly in the sketches, there is character in -every one, and at once a sympathetic and a realistic imagination. He -tells the truth about the Ghetto as he sees it, but into the dark -reality of the external life he puts frequently a melancholy beauty of -spirit. Portraits of old pedlers, roughly successful as Ghetto types, -in order to retain whom as models the artist was frequently forced to -sing a song, for the pedlers have a Jewish horror of the image, and -it is difficult to get them to pose; one of them with an irregular, -blunted nose and eyes sad and plaintive, but very gentle; an old Jew -in the synagogue, praying "Holy," "Holy"; many sweat-shop scenes, -gaunt figures half-dressed, with enormously long arms and bony -figures; mothers working in the shops with babies in their arms; one -woman, tired, watching for a moment her lean husband working the -machine--that machine of which Morris Rosenfeld sings so powerfully in -"The Sweat-Shop"; a woman with her head leaning heavily on her hands; -Hester Street market scenes, with dreary tenement-houses--a kind of -prison wall--as background; one pedler with a sensitive face--a man -the artist had to catch at odd times, surreptitiously, for, religious -to an extreme, the old fellow would hastily trundle off whenever he -saw Epstein. - - [Illustration: A LITTLE GIRL OF HESTER STREET] - -A characteristic of this young artist's work is the seriousness with -which he tries to get the type as it is; the manifest love involved in -the way it takes his imagination. With his whole soul he hates -caricature of his race. Most of the magazine illustrations of Ghetto -characters he finds distorted and untrue, many of them, however, done -with a finish of technique that he envies. A big and ugly nose is not -the enthusiastic artist's idea of what constitutes a downtown Jew. The -Jew, to him, is recognized rather by the peculiar melancholy of the -eyes. In the nose he sees nothing particularly typical of the race. It -is a forcible illustration of how, while really remaining faithful to -the external type, his love for the race leads him to emphasize the -spiritual and humane expressiveness of the faces about him; and so -paves the way to an art imaginative as well as typical, not lacking -even in a certain ideal beauty. - -Bernard Gussow, Epstein's friend and fellow-worker in the attempt to -found a distinctive Ghetto art, is in a still earlier stage of -development. His essays in the plastic reproduction of Hester Street -types are not yet as humanly interesting as those of the younger man, -who, however, has been working longer and more assiduously. It is only -for the past year or two that Gussow has definitely espoused this -cause. - -Unlike Epstein he was not born in New York. The town of Slutzk, in the -government of Ulinsk, Russia, is his birthplace, where he stayed until -he was eleven years old. His father is a teacher of Hebrew, and young -Gussow consequently received a much better education than Epstein; -and also became much more familiar with the religious life of the -Orthodox Jews. For that reason Epstein urges his friend to take the -New York Orthodox synagogue and the domestic life of the religious Jew -as his distinctive field in the great work in hand. For this, too, -Gussow hopes, but in the present condition of his technique he limits -himself to Hester Street scenes. - -In New York Gussow continued to build up an education uncommonly good -in the Ghetto. He went through the High School, entered the City -College, which he left for the Art School, and spent one season at the -League and two at the Academy of Design. He has for many years given -lessons in English; to which occupation he, unlike his more emotional -friend, prudently holds on. But Gussow, also, is deeply if not -emotionally interested in the life of the Ghetto, and in a broader if -less intense form than is Epstein. With the contemporary Yiddish -literature and journalism of New York he is well acquainted. His mind -is more conservative and judicial than that of Epstein; but his -sketches lack, at present at least, the touch of strong sympathy and -imagination which is marked in the art of the younger man. - - [Illustration: THE PUSH-CARTS OF HESTER STREET AND THEIR GUARD AT - NIGHT] - -Gussow lives with his father's family, where he keeps his -sketches--but to work, he goes to a room on the corner of Hester and -Essex streets occupied by a poor Jewish family. Here the artist sits -by the window and watches the poor and picturesque scenes in the big -push-cart market directly beneath him. The subjects of his sketches -are roughly the same as those of Epstein, altho he draws rather more -from the street and Epstein from the sweat-shop. Groups standing about -the push-carts, examining goods and bargaining; an old woman with a -cheese in her hand, and an enormous nose (which Epstein reproachfully -calls a caricature); several sketches representing men or women -holding eggs to the sun, as a test preliminary to buying; carpenters -waiting on the corner near the market for a job; an old Jew critically -examining apples; a roughly indicated, rather attractive Jewish girl; -a woman standing by a push-cart counting her money; a confused Hester -Street crowd, walled in by the lofty tenement-houses; a wall-painter -with an interesting face, who peddles horse-radish when not occupied -with painting; a pedler out of work, just from the hospital, his beard -straggling in again, with the characteristic sad eyes of his race; -this rather small list comprises the greater part of Gussow's work, -and most of it is of a distinctly sketchy nature. - -"You see," said Epstein sympathetically, "Bernard has until recently -been working for the tenement-house committee, and has only just got -away from his job." Both of these young men seem to think it a piece -of good luck when they are discharged by their employers. - -These artists both recognize that the distinctive Ghetto art is in its -earliest stage; and that whatever has yet been done in that direction -is technically very imperfect. But they call attention even to the -crayon art stores of the Ghetto as crudely pointing in the right -direction. In those chromos, which contain absolutely no artistic -quality, is represented, nevertheless, the religious and domestic life -of the Jews and their physical types. And whatever art there is at -present is supported by the popularity with the people of this crayon -work. On the basis of that the artist proper may work out the type -into more truly interpretative forms. - -For this young art, the object of which is to give a realistic picture -of the life of the Ghetto, it is easy to conceive an unduly -sentimental interest. It is not unnatural in this time of great -attention to east side charitable work to give greater value than it -deserves to an art which represents the sordidness and the pathos of -that part of the city. Against this attitude, which they also call -sentimental, Epstein and Gussow earnestly protest, and maintain that -unless the Ghetto art becomes some day technically excellent it will -have no legitimate value. They want it judged on the same basis that -any other art is judged; and they are filled with the faith, or at -least the enthusiastic Epstein is, that the time will come when the -artists of the Ghetto will paint typical Jewish life, and paint it -technically well. - -It is true, of course, that the ultimate value of this little art -movement in the Ghetto will depend upon how well the attempt to paint -the life is eventually carried out. But, nevertheless, even if nothing -comes of it, it is important as suggesting an interesting departure -from what is the prevailing limitation of American art. In Epstein's -work something of the typical life of a community is expressed; of -what American painter from among the Gentiles can this be said? Where -is the typical, the nationally characteristic, in our art? Our best -painters experiment with all kinds of subjects; they put talent, -sometimes genius, into their work, but at the basis of it there is no -simple presentation of well-recognized and deeply felt national or -even sectional life; merely essays in art, of more or less skill, -showing no warm interest in any one kind of life. - -There are many other artists, besides these two, in the Ghetto, some -of whom also occasionally paint a distinctive Ghetto type. But for the -most part, trained as they have been in the uptown art schools, they -experiment with all sorts of subjects in the approved American style. -They paint girls in white and girls in blue, etc., as Epstein -expressed it scornfully; and put no general Ghetto quality into their -work. They do not seem deeply interested in anything except painting. -Many of them are technically better educated than Epstein and Gussow; -tho it is probably safe to say that no one of them has the sympathetic -imagination of Epstein. It is to this eclectic, experimental tendency -of the artists in the Ghetto in general that Epstein and Gussow -present a contrast--in their love of their people and their desire to -paint them as they are. - -A typical representative of this less centred art is Samuel Kalisch, -twenty-six years old, who came to this country from Austria twelve -years ago. Older than the two young enthusiasts, Kalisch has had more -experience and has developed a more efficient technique. He works in -oils to a greater extent than the others and has a number of -comparatively finished pictures; but his studio resembles that of any -rather undistinguished uptown artist in point of diversity of subject -and artistic impulse. There is an Oriental scene of conventional -character; a portrait of himself taken from the mirror; a number of -examples of still-life, apples, flowers, a "cute" scene of children -playing on the beach; a landscape, etc. Of distinctive Ghetto things -there are two old men, one just from the synagogue, with pensive eyes, -a long beard and a Derby hat; the other, ninety-four years old, who -sits in the synagogue, with a long white beard, a black cap on his -head, a cane in one hand and the Talmud in the other. These two -portraits show considerable technical skill, but are faithful rather -than interpretative, and indicate that the artist's sympathy is not -absorbed in the life of the Ghetto. They are merely subjects, like any -other, which might come to his hand. - -Now in full sympathy with what may be called the "movement" is -Nathaniel Loewenberg, a little, black-haired, sad-eyed, sensitive and -appealing Russian Jew of twenty-one years of age. It is only recently, -however, that he has turned from landscape to city types, of which he -has a few sketches, very incomplete with one exception, that also -unfinished but unusually promising; it is in oil and represents a Jew -fish pedler of attractive countenance and shabby clothes trying to -sell a fine fish to three Ghetto women; these latter cleverly -distinguished, one who will probably buy, another who apparently would -like to if she could reduce the price, and the third indifferent. - -Loewenberg was born in Moscow, of parents who were then and are now in -business. He is enthusiastic at present over two things: Russian -literature and the life of the Jews. On his table are two books--one a -history of the Hebrews, the other Tolstoi's "Awakening," in Russian. -His newest interest is the Ghetto; "for," he said, "the Ghetto is full -of character. There the people's life is more exposed than anywhere -else, and the artist can easily penetrate into it." - -The type Loewenberg hopes to delineate is of different character from -that of Hester Street, where Gussow and Epstein work. His field is -mainly at the corner of Rivington and Attorney streets, where the Jews -are Hungarians and Poles and have a distinctive type. That is the -location of another push-cart market, and altho the human types are -different from those of Hester Street, the peddling occupations are -identical. Loewenberg's fancy runs largely to the young Jewish girl of -this quarter, and she is represented in several half done sketches. - -The New York Ghetto is constantly changing. It shifts from one part of -town to another, and the time is not so very far distant when it will -cease to exist altogether. The sweat-shop will happily disappear with -advancing civilization in New York. The tenement-houses will change in -character, the children will learn English and partly forget their -Yiddish language and peculiar customs. In spite of the fact that the -Jews have been at all times and in all countries tenacious of their -domestic peculiarities and their religion, the special character of -the Ghetto will pass away in favorably conditioned America. The -picturesqueness it now possesses will disappear. Perhaps, however, by -that time an art will have been developed which will preserve for -future generations the character of the present life; which may thus -have historical value, and artistic beauty in addition. Epstein and -Gussow, devoted to this result as they are, are yet quite eager to see -present conditions pass away. To them the art they have selected seems -of trifling importance in comparison with a general improvement of the -people they seem genuinely to love. They would be glad to have the -present picturesqueness of the Ghetto give place to conditions more -analogous to those of happier sections of New York. - -But in the meantime these few young artists, two or three particularly -interested in Ghetto types, five or six others, perhaps more, who -occasionally contribute a sketch of the Ghetto, are in a fair way to -get together a considerable body of pictures which shall have the -distinction of portraying the Jewish community of the east side with -fair adequacy. Certainly the interest of that Hester Street life, and -of the tenement-houses that line it, is deep enough to inspire some -serious man of plastic genius. And then it is not improbable that some -great sombre pictures will be painted. The conditions for such a -significant art are ripe, and it may find its master in one or another -of the young men who are passionately "doing" Hester Street. - - - - -Chapter Ten - -Odd Characters - - -No matter how "queer" are the numerous persons whom one can meet in -the cafés of the quarter they are mainly redeemed by a genuinely -intellectual vein. It is reserved for this final chapter to tell of -some men who do not well fit into the preceding categories, but whose -lives or works are, in one way or another, quite worthy of record. - - -AN OUT-OF-DATE STORY-WRITER - -Shaikevitch is the author of interminable, unsigned novels, which are -published in daily installments in the east side newspapers. He is so -prolific that he makes a good living. There was a time, however, when -he gladly signed his name to what he wrote. That time is over, and the -reason for it is best brought out by a sketch of his history. - -He was born in Minsk, Russia, of orthodox Jewish parents. He began to -write when he was twenty years old, at first in pure Hebrew, -scientific and historical articles. He also wrote a Hebrew novel, -called the _Victim of the Inquisition_, to which the Russian censor -objected on the ground that it dealt with religious subjects. - -Compelled to make his own living, young Shaikevitch, whose _nom de -plume_ has always been "Schomer," began to write popular novels in the -common jargon, in Yiddish. At that time the Jews in Russia were, even -more than now, shut up in their own communities, knew nothing of -European culture, had an education, if any, exclusively Hebraic and -medićval and were outlandish to an extreme. The educated read only -Hebrew, and the uneducated did not read at all. Up to that time, or -until shortly before it, the Jew thought that nothing but holy -teaching could be printed in Hebrew type. A man named Dick, however, a -kind of forerunner of Shaikevitch, had begun to write secular stories -in Yiddish. They were popular in form, intended for the ignorant -populace who never read at all. Shaikevitch followed in Dick's lines, -and made a great success. - -He has written over 160 stories, and for many years he was the great -popular Yiddish writer in Russia. The people would read nothing but -"Schomer's" works. The ignorant masses eagerly devoured the latest -novel of Schomer's. It goes without saying that, under the -circumstances, these books could be of very slight literary value. -They were long, sentimental effusions, tales of bad Christians and -good Jews, with a monotonous repetition of stock characters and -situations; and with a melodramatic and sensational element. They -probably corresponded pretty closely to our "nickel" novels, published -in some of our cheapest periodicals, and intended for the most -ignorant element of our population. Some of their titles are _A -Shameful Error_, _An Unexpected Happiness_, _The Princess in the -Wood_, _Convicted_, _Rebecca_. - -"Schomer" was so successful that he had many imitators, who never, -however, succeeded so well. The publishers sometimes tried to deceive -the ignorant people into thinking that a new novel of Schomer's had -appeared. On the cover of the book they put the title and the new -author's name in very small letters, and then in very large letters: -"In the style of Schomer." But it did not work. The people remained -faithful to the books of the man whom they had first read. - -When Shaikevitch, or "Schomer" himself, describes the purpose and -characters of his work he talks as follows: - -"My works are partly pictures of the life of the Jews in the Russian -villages of fifty years ago, and partly novels about the old history -of the Jews. Fifty years ago the Jews were more fanatical than they -are now. They did nothing but study the Talmud, pray and fast, wear -long beards and wigs and look like monkeys. I satirized all this in my -novels. I tried to teach the ignorant Jews that they were ridiculous, -that they ought to take hold of modern, practical life and give up all -that was merely formal and absurd in the old customs. I taught them -that a pious man might be a hypocrite, and that it is better to do -good than to pray. My works had a great effect in modernizing and -educating the ignorant Jews. In my stories I pictured how the Jewish -boy might go out from his little village into the wide, Gentile world, -and make something of himself. In the last twenty-five years, the -Jews, owing to my books, have lost a great deal of their fanaticism. -At that time they had nothing but my books to read, and so my satire -had a great effect." - -Shaikevitch is not entirely alone in this good opinion of his work. -Dr. Blaustein, superintendent of the Educational Alliance, said that -he owed his position as an educated and modern man to reading novels -when he was a boy. Dr. Blaustein lived in a small Russian village, and -one day he read a story of "Schomer's" which represented a Jewish boy -going out into the world and criticizing his Hebraic surroundings. -That was the beginning of Dr. Blaustein's "awakening." Other -intelligent Russian Jews probably had this same experience, altho now -as mature men they would all, no doubt, grant only a very small, if -any, artistic quality to the famous Yiddish writer. - -A few years after Shaikevitch's great popularity two men began to -write in Yiddish stories which really had value for the intelligent -and educated--Abramovitch and, particularly, his pupil Rabinovitch. It -was this work which, in some sort of form, did intelligently for the -more educated Jews what Shaikevitch had done for the lowest stratum. -Rabinovitch published a book in which he brought Shaikevitch to trial. -He literally "tore him up the back" as far as literature is -concerned--pointed out the tasteless, cheap, sensational character of -his work, and held him up generally to ridicule. - - [Illustration: N. M. SHAIKEVITCH] - -As the Jews became better educated this critical feeling about -Shaikevitch's work grew more general. It is significant of the -progress towards modern things made by the Jews that even the very -ignorant no longer admire Shaikevitch's work as much as formerly. He -is "out of date," so much so that he now does not sign the stories -he publishes in the Yiddish newspapers, which, nevertheless, are still -popular among the most ignorant. - -The intellectual Socialists of the Jewish quarter in New York also had -their fling at the popular writer, and helped to put him into -obscurity. Now it is a common thing in the Ghetto to hear a Socialist -say that Shaikevitch wielded a more disintegrating and unfavorable -influence on the Jews than any other writer. But, nevertheless, the -calm old man, who has a wife and several grown children, who are -making their way in the new world, still sits quietly at his desk, -drinking Russian tea and doing his daily "stunt" of several thousand -words for the Yiddish newspapers. - -The reason given by Mr. Shaikevitch for coming to America is that he -began to be interested in play writing, when the Yiddish stage was -prohibited in Russia. The actors left Russia then and came to America, -and some of them later wrote Shaikevitch, who was one of the earliest -Yiddish playwrights, to join them in New York. He did so, and has -written twelve plays, which have been produced in this city. Some of -the better known of them are: _The Jewish Count_, _Hamann the Second_, -_Rebecca_ and _Dreyfus_. Shaikevitch is interesting mainly as -representing in his work an early stage of the popular Yiddish -consciousness. - - -A CYNICAL INVENTOR - -The "intellectuals" who gather in the Russian cafés delight in -expressing the ideas for which they were persecuted abroad. Enthusiasm -for progress and love of ideas is the characteristic tone of these -gatherings and an entire lack of practical sense. - -Very striking, therefore, was the attitude of a Russian-Jewish -inventor, who took his lunch the other day at one of the most literary -of these cafés. Near him were a trio of enthusiasts, gesticulating -over their tea, but he sat aloof, alone. He listened with a cold, -superior smile. He neither smoked nor drank, but sat, with his thin, -shrewd face, chillily thinking. - -It is common report in the community of the intellectual Ghetto that -Mr. Okun made a great invention connected with the electric arc lamp. -It resulted in lengthening the time before the carbon is burnt out -from four or five hours to 150 hours or thereabouts. He might have -been a millionaire to-day, both he and his acquaintances maintain, -but, with the usual unpractical nature of the Russian Jew, he was -cheated by unscrupulous lawyers. He was a shirt maker, and for six -years saved from his $10 a week to buy the apparatus necessary for the -task. At last it was completed, but he was robbed of the fortune, of -the fame, of the prestige to which his great idea entitled him. As it -is, he gets only $1,250 a year for the great deed, spends much of his -time silently in the cafés, and dreams of other inventions when not -engaged with criticizing his kind. - -An American, who sometimes visited the place for "color" and for the -unpractical enthusiasm which he missed among his own people, sat down -by the inventor, whose face interested him, and entered into -conversation. He spoke of a Yiddish playwright whom he admired. - -"I do not know much about him," said the inventor. "I am not a genius, -like the others." - -He sneered, but it was so nearly imperceptible that it did not seem -ill-natured. - -"But I am told," said the American, "that you are a great inventor. -And that is a kind of genius." - -"Yes, perhaps," he replied, carelessly. "It takes talent, too, to do -what I have done. But I am not a genius, like these people." - -Again he smiled, sarcastically. - -"I find," said the American, "a great many interesting people in these -cafés." - -"Yes, they are what you call characters, I suppose," he said, -dispassionately; "but I find them interesting only for one reason--no, -no, I won't tell you what that reason is." - -"You don't seem to be as enthusiastic about the people as I am," said -the American, "but whenever I come into a café down here I find -serious men who will talk seriously. They are different from the -Americans who amuse themselves in bars, at horse races and farces." - -The inventor smiled coldly. - -"I do not call serious, what you call serious," he said. "It is not -necessary to talk seriously to be serious. Serious men do things. The -Russians don't do things. If they were gay and did things, they would -be more serious than they are. But they are solemn and don't do -anything." - -"I don't agree with you," said the American, warmly. "Doesn't Blank, -who writes so many excellent novels, do anything? Don't the actors, -who act so truthfully, without self-consciousness, do anything? Don't -the journalists, who spread excellent ideas, do anything?" - -The inventor nodded judicially and remarked that there were some -exceptions. - -"But," he added, "you are deceived by the surface. There are many men -in our colony who seem to be stronger intellectually than they really -are. In Russia a few men, really cultivated and intellectual, give the -tone, and everybody follows them. In America, however, the public -gives the tone, and the playwright, the literary man, simply expresses -the public. So that really intellectual Americans do not express as -good ideas as less intellectual Russians. The Russians all imitate the -best. The Americans imitate what the mass of the people want. But an -intellectual American is more intellectual than these geniuses around -here whom you like. Of course, they have some good things in them, as -everybody has." - -"What is it that you find to like in this Russian colony?" asked the -American. - -"I find," replied the inventor, "that when they come over here they -lose what is best in the Russian character and acquire what is worst -in the American character." - -"And what do you deem best in the Russian character?" - -"Well, in Russia they are warm hearted and friendly. They are envious -even there, but not nearly so envious as they are here." - -"And what do you find that is worst in the American character?" - -"Oh, you know; they do everything for money. But yet there is more -greatness in the American character. They are mechanical. They are -practical. They don't get cheated by unscrupulous lawyers. - -"Are you married?" asked the American, sympathetically. - -"No, thank God!" he replied, with more energy than he had yet shown. - -"But you have no friends?" - -"No." - -"Some men," commented the American, "find a friend in a wife." - -"That depends on a man's character. It increases the loneliness of -some men," replied the inventor, smiling in spite of what he was -saying. - -"You seem to me to be rather pessimistic," remarked the American. - -"No, I am not pessimistic. I understand that a pessimist thinks life -is worse than it is, but I see things just as they are; that is all. -When I came to New York I was enthusiastic, too; I was an optimist. I -saw life as it is not. But the mists have passed from before my eyes, -and I see things just as they are." - - -AN IMPASSIONED CRITIC - -He loves literature with an absorbing love, and is pained constantly -by what he deems the chaos of art in the United States. The Americans -seem to him to be trivial and immature in their art, lacking in -serious purpose. - -"It is a vast and fruitful land," he will say, "but there is no order -and little sincerity as far as art is concerned. Your writers try to -amuse the readers, to entertain them merely, rather than to give them -serious and vital truth. Why is it that a race which is clever and -progressive in all mechanical and industrial matters, which in such -things has no overpowering respect for the past, is weighed down in -art by a regard for all the literary ghosts of bygone times? Look at -the books put forth in any one year in the United States! What a -senseless hodgepodge it is! Variety of all kinds, historical novels, -short stories, social plays, costume plays, bindings, illustrations, -_editions de luxe_, new editions of books written in all ages -alongside of the latest productions of the day. The Americans have -great tact in most things. They are the cleverest people in the world, -and yet they are very backward in literature. - -"Indeed the whole Anglo-Saxon race, great economically and practically -as it is, is curiously at sea and chaotic in all that pertains to -literary art. There are men of genius, great artists among them, but -they are artists only in part, fragmentarily, artists without being -aware of it, with no consistent and clear understanding of what art -is. Your great men are hindered by their environment. America and -England are the most difficult countries in the world for real art to -get a hearing, for all the people insist on being amused by their -authors. They treat them as they do their actors, merely as public -servants whose duty it is to amuse the public when it is tired. But -art is a serious thing, instinct with sincerity, and should never be -lightly approached either by the artist or the reader. - -"Another indication of what I mean is the way you all talk about style -over here, as if the style had anything to do with art. Some of the -great Russian realists have no style, but they are great artists. -There was a time when to write well was an exception, and people who -did it were supposed to be great. Now so many write well that it -constitutes no longer any particular distinction. Real art consists in -the presentation of ideas in images, and in the power of seeing in -images, and of reproducing imaginatively; what is thus seen is wholly -independent of style. And, more, words often stand in the way of art. -A man writes a pretty style. There may be no idea or image beneath it, -but you Anglo-Saxons say: 'Ha! Here is a man with a style, a great -artist!' But he is no artist. He is a mere decorator, trivial and -empty. He doesn't seize earnestly upon life and tell the truth about -it. Now and then, indeed, I see indications of real art in your -writers--great images, great characters, great truth, but all merely -in suggestion. You don't know when you do anything good, and most of -you don't like it when you see it. You prefer an exciting plot to a -great delineation of character. Sometimes you throw off, often in -newspapers, something that indicates great talent, real art, but you -cover it up with an indistinguishable mass of rubbish. You don't know -what you are after. You have no method. Every writer goes his single -way, confused, at cross purposes. There is no school of literature. -Consequently, there is great loss of energy, great waste of material; -great richness, but what carelessness, what deplorable carelessness, -about the deepest and noblest and most serious things in life! I love -you; I love you all; you are clever, good fellows, but you are -children, talented, to be sure, but wayward and vagrant children, in -the fields of art. Sincerity, realism, purpose and unity are what as a -race you need, if you wish ever to have a consistent and genuine art. - -"The Russian, the Frenchman, the German, knows what he wants. He is -after the truth. He is serious about life. He doesn't try to dodge the -facts for the sake of a little false cheerfulness and optimistic -inanity." - -Thus talks the Russian prophet. He is a robust, earnest man, who is -trying to make head and tail out of contemporary English literature. -He finds no great mainspring of impulse or principle behind it, but an -infinite pandering to an infinitely diversified public taste. He -thinks it is a kind of vaudeville of art, full of compromises, vulgar -in its lack of principle. It makes him sad in much the same way that -skepticism and profanity sadden a deeply religious person. Wisdom and -truth he wants, and doesn't find them. What he finds is haste, greed, -incompleteness and waste, and his soul abhors anything which takes -away from the deepest nature of the soul. He is really a religious -man, profound and sincere, sad at the wasteful, foolish lightness in -art of the Anglo-Saxon world. Like his great countryman, Tolstoy, he -writes stories, and, again like Tolstoy, as he grows older the more he -sees in art and life which he would like to reform and deepen. Economy -of the heart, soul and brain, the direction of them to a constant -end--the feeling of the necessity of this is now an altruistic passion -with this man. Like all reformers, he is sad, but, again like all -reformers, he is robust and calm, self-sufficient. - - -THE POET OF ZIONISM - -Naptali Herz Imber is known to all Jews of any education as the man -who has written in the old Hebrew language the poems that best express -the hope of Zion and that best serve as an inspiring battle cry in the -struggle for a new Jerusalem. Zangwill has translated into English the -Hebrew "Wacht Am Rhein," the most popular of Imber's poems, which is -called _The Watch on the Jordan_. It is in four stanzas, the first of -which is: - - Like the crash of the thunder - Which splitteth asunder - The flame of the cloud, - On our ears ever falling, - A voice is heard calling - From Zion aloud; - "Let your spirits' desires - For the land of your sires - Eternally burn - From the foe to deliver - Our own holy river, - To Jordan return." - Where the soft flowing stream - Murmurs low as in dream, - There set we our watch. - Our watchword, "The sword, - Of our land and our Lord," - By the Jordan then set we our watch. - -Mr. Imber is a peculiar character and is said to be the original of -the poet Pinchas in Zangwill's _Children of the Ghetto_. - -At a Russian-Jewish café on Canal Street he may often be found. Not -long ago I met him there and discovered that the dignified Hebrew poet -had as a man many of the more humorous and less impressive -peculiarities of the character in Mr. Zangwill's book. It is difficult -to take him seriously. He was sitting opposite an old "magid," or -wandering preacher, whose specialty is to attack America, and he -consented to tell about his work and to confide some of his ideas. - -"I am the origin of the Zionistic movement," he said. "It is not -generally known, but I am. Many years ago I went to Jerusalem, saw the -misery of the people, felt the spirit of the place and determined to -bring my scattered people again together. For twelve years I struggled -to put the Zionistic movement on foot, and now that I have started it -I will let others carry it on and get the glory. For long I was not -recognized, but when my Hebrew poems were published our whole race -were made enthusiastic for Zion. - -"If you wish to know what the spirit and purpose of my Hebrew poems is -I will tell you. For two thousand years Hebrew poetry has been -nothing but lamentations--nothing but literature expressing the spirit -of Jeremiah. There have been no love songs, no wine songs, no songs of -joy, nothing pagan. There have been no poets, only critics in rhyme. -Now what I did in my Hebrew verses was to do away with lamentations. -We have had enough of lamentations. I introduced the spirit of love -and wine, the pagan spirit. My theme, indeed, is Zion. I am an -individualist. It is the only 'ist' I believe in, and I want my nation -to be individual, too. I want them to be joyously themselves, and so I -am a Zionist. Therefore I did away with critical poetry and with -lamentations and led my people on to an individual and a joyous life." - -Altho Mr. Imber's best work is in Hebrew poetry, he is yet a very -voluminous writer on science, economics, medicine, mysticism, history -and many other subjects. - -"I have written on everything," said the poet, "everything. I know -almost nothing about the subjects on which I write. I don't believe in -reading. I believe in knowing myself. In that way we learn to know -others. Psychology is the only science. All others are fakes, and I -can fake as well as anybody. Why read, or why seek amusement in the -theatres or elsewhere, when one can sit in a café and talk to a man -like that?" - -He pointed in the old "magid" opposite him. - -"Whenever I want to amuse myself," he said, "I talk to a man like -that, and I cannot amuse myself without learning more about -psychology." - -With the exception of his poems most of the poet's work was written in -the English language. - -"I began to write English late in life," he said. "Israel Zangwill -helped me to begin. He said he would correct what I wrote, but I wrote -so much that Mr. Zangwill stopped reading it and told me to go ahead -on my own hook. So I did. I have written infinitely in English, some -of which has been published--_Music of the Psalms_; _Education and the -Talmud_, which was issued by the United States government in the -report of the commissioner of education; many articles on mysticism -and other subjects in the magazine _Ariel_; _The Mystery of the Golden -Calf_, _The Music of the Ghetto_, and many other works on the -cabalistic mysticism. I have also written, _Who Was Crucified?_ -wherein I prove that it was not Jesus. If I kept on all day I could -not tell you the names of all I have written. I have published many -articles in the Jewish-American papers satirizing the rabbis, who -consequently hate me. Much of my work, indeed, is satirical. The -world needs cleaning up a little, particularly the rabbis. Put the -reformed and orthodox rabbis together and some good might come of -them. I am not afraid of these people, whom I call silk-chimney -rabbis, because they wear tall hats instead of knowing the Talmud. It -was my own invention--'silk-chimney rabbis.'" - -Mr. Imber is evidently very fond of this phrase, for he repeated it -many times. Indeed, he does not seem to be a very pious Jew. He -himself admits it, for he said: - -"I do not think they will say 'Kaddish' for my soul when I am dead. -And yet I am not a skeptic, exactly. I have a principle, Zionism. And -beyond Zionism I have another great interest. I have now perfected -Zionism, so I am free to pass on to Mysticism, in which I am deeply at -work. The mystics are all bluffers. I am a mystic, but my mysticism is -simple and plain. My aim is to present a perfectly simple view of -occultism. It is difficult to persuade Americans to become mystics. -They care nothing for Hegel and Kant. Their philosophy I call -Barnumism." - - [Illustration: NAPTALI HERZ IMBER] - -Mr. Imber has largely given up writing Hebrew now, but lately he wrote -a Hebrew poem comprising 200 closely printed pages. He did it, he -said, to spite a man who said the poet had forgotten Hebrew because of -his penchant for English. - -Not long ago Mr. Imber wrote a _Last Confession_ in Hebrew. He was -very sick in a St. Louis hospital with blood poisoning, and thought he -was going to die. They wanted him to confess his sins. So he did it, -in Hebrew verse, which he translated to me, evidently on the spur of -the moment, thus: - - When my day will come - To wander in distress, - Call the priest to my room, - My sins to confess. - - The sins which I have committed - With deliberation, - They will by the Lord be omitted, - Who promised us salvation. - - The evils I have done, - Not conscious of the action, - Have passed away and gone - Without satisfaction. - - I see near me the green table: - The gamblers play aloud, - And I am sick and unable - To mix up with the crowd. - - There are still beautiful roses, - With aroma blessed; - There are still handsome maidens, - Whose lips I have not pressed. - - This has me affected, - I am full of remorse, - That of late I have neglected - The girl and the roses. - -Written on what the poet thought was his deathbed, this satirical poem -is almost as heroic as _The Watch on the Jordan_. - -Mr. Imber has also written many original poems in English, which, -however, he fears will not live. Many of them are satirical poems -about American life and politics. When in Denver before the Spanish -war he wrote some verses beginning: - - Our flag will soon be planted - In a land where we do not want it. - -It was, the poet said, through the simple, clear character of his -mystical attainments that he was able to predict the results of the -war with Spain. - -Mr. Imber looks upon America as the "land of the bluff" and as such -admires it. But he disapproves of our reform movements. He thinks the -recent attempt to reform the east side was due to the desire of the -rich to divert attention from their own vices. He doesn't approve of -reform any way. - -"We have been trying to reform human nature," he said, "for 2,000 -years, and have not done it yet. The only way to make a man good is -to remove his stomach, for so long as he is hungry he will steal, and -so long as he has other desires he will commit other wicked actions. -Moses and Jesus were smart men and knew that evil could not be rooted -out, and so they tolerated it." - -Mr. Imber has recently made his last will and testament. It is in -Hebrew prose and runs thus in English: - -"To the rabbis I leave what I don't know; it will help them to a -longer life. To my enemies I leave my rheumatism. Between the -Republican and Democratic parties I divide the boodle which they have -not yet touched. To the Jewish editors I leave my broken pen, so that -they can write slowly and avoid mistakes. My books--those intended for -beginners--I leave to the eight professors, so that they can learn to -read. As an executor there shall be appointed a man who knows Barnum's -philosophy through and through. Written on my deathbed. Witness, Mr. -Pluto of the Underground and his Famulus, the doctor. As an -afterthought I leave to my publishers the last bill unpaid by me. They -can frame it and keep it as an amulet to ward away that class of -authors." - -"Is it sarcastic?" asked Mr. Imber, chuckling delightedly. - -Some time ago Mr. Imber sent the news of his own death to the various -Hebrew and Yiddish publications. Many long obituaries--"very fine -ones," said the poet--appeared. - -"In that way," said Mr. Imber, "I learned who were my enemies. It had -one evil consequence, however. When I afterward asked the editor to -publish one of my articles he said: - -"'You are officially dead, and as such cannot rush into print.' - -"That reply really gave me a grievous moment," said the poet, with a -shrewd, Voltairian smile. - - -AN INTELLECTUAL DEBAUCHEE - -Four men sat excitedly talking in the little café on Grand Street -where the Socialists and Anarchists of the Russian quarter were wont -to meet late at night and stay until the small hours. An American, who -might by chance have happened there, would have wondered what -important event had occurred to rasp these men's voices, to cause them -to gesticulate so wildly, to give their dark, intelligent faces so -fateful, so ominous an expression. In reality, however, nothing out of -the ordinary had happened. It was the usual course of human affairs -which kept these men in a constant glow of unhappy emotion; an -emotion which they deeply preferred to trivial optimism and the -content founded on Philistine well-being. They were always excited -about life, for life as it is constituted seemed to them very unjust. - -It was nearly midnight, and the men in the café, altho they had drunk -nothing stronger than Russian tea, talked on, seemingly intoxicated -with ideas. One was the editor of a Yiddish newspaper in the quarter -and a contributor to the Anarchistic monthly. He was a man of about -forty years of age, lighter in complexion than his companions, but yet -dark. Like them he was dressed carelessly and poorly. In his -melancholy eyes shone a gentle idealism. He spoke in a voice lower and -softer than those of his fellows. He was deeply liked by them, for he -was capable of sweet and beautiful ideas about the perfect humanity, -some of which he had put into a play which had a short life on the -Bowery, but lived in the hearts of these warm intellectuals. -Non-resistance to evil was the favorite principle of this gentle -Anarchist, whose name was Blanofsky. - -His companions were younger and more heated and violent in speech, tho -their attenuated bodies and thoughtful and sensitive faces did not -suggest reliance on physical force. On the Bowery the Irish tough -fights after a word, but an all day dispute between two Jews on Canal -or Hester Street is unaccompanied by the clenching of a fist. A dark, -thin young man, whose closely shaven face seemed somehow to fit his -spirit, given over entirely to the "movement," sat at Blanofsky's -right hand. At almost any hour of the day or night Hermann Samarovitch -could be found at the Anarchist headquarters on Essex Street, poring -over the books of the propaganda and engaging in talk with other -bright spirits of the "movement." Now, as he talked or listened in the -café on Grand Street, his pale, smooth face seemed dead to all the -ordinary interests of youth. The spirit of life was represented in him -only by the passion for the cause, which burned in his black eyes. He -had no other function than to worship at the shrine. How he lived, -therefore, was a mystery. - -Of the other two men, one, Jacob Hessler, a labor leader in the -Ghetto, an eloquent speaker, of more commanding presence, but less -sensitive and impressive at short range than either Blanofsky or -Samarovitch, was silent, for the most part. He talked only to crowds, -partly because it was exciting, but mainly because his limited -intelligence put him at a disadvantage in intimate talk with men of -concentrated intellectual character. The fourth man in the café, -Abraham Gudinsky, was a simple admirer of Blanofsky. He was born in -Jerusalem, had studied law in Constantinople, had lived in Paris as a -bohemian, and, after a few years passed in the commonplace, dissipated -gayety of youth, had come to New York, where his sympathetic and -idealistic character had come under the influence of the quiet charm -of Blanofsky. He had small, live, eyes and a high forehead, and his -body perpetually moved nervously. - -"I do not believe," said Blanofsky, in Russian, "that anything can be -accomplished by force. Our cause is too sacred to tarnish it with -blood, and it is too strong in logic and justice not to conquer -peaceably in the end; and that, too, without leaving behind it the -ill-breeding weeds of a violent course. I have nothing but pity for -the misguided wretch who took the life of King Humbert, thinking he -was acting for the cause. It is the acts of such madmen as he that -make us appear to the public as merely irrational monsters." - -"Nevertheless," said Samarovitch, his dark eyes glowing, "it is -natural that the crimes of society against the individual should -irritate us sometimes into violent acts. I am not sure but that it is -good that it should be so. Those devoted men, in the great movement -in Russia, at the time the Czar was killed, were as clearheaded as -they were devoted; and they felt that the governmental evil pressing -in Russia could be relieved only by a kind of terrorism. And they were -right," he concluded, with gloomy emphasis. - - [Illustration: A YOUNG MAN AND A YOUNG WOMAN JUST ENTERED THE CAFÉ] - -Blanofsky shook his head, and was about to speak of Tolstoy, whom he -regarded as the great interpreter of genuine anarchy, when he was -interrupted by the approach of a young man and a young woman who had -just entered the café. Sabina, as she was familiarly known to the -faithful, dark and slender, with very large, emotional eyes and a -mobile mouth, had just come from her lecture to a crowd of workingmen, -to whom she had spoken eloquently of their right to lead a life with -greater light and beauty in it. The emotions expressed by her -eloquence, and stirred by it, still lay in her deep eyes as she -entered the café. Her companion, who had walked with her from the -lecture, was a young poet, whose words followed one another with -turbulent energy. His head was set uncommonly close to his compact, -stout shoulders, seeming to have a firmer rest than usual on the -trunk, and thus better to support the strain of his thick-coming -fancies. His habitual attitude was to hold his closed fist even with -his shoulder, and punctuate with it the transitions of his thought. -Even in winter the perspiration rolled down his face as he spoke, for -thought with him was intense to the point of pain. He was the perfect -type of the intellectual debauchee of the Russian-Jewish colony. He -drank nothing but tea and coffee, but within him burned his ideas. He -made his living by writing an occasional poem or article for a Yiddish -paper, and when he had gathered together a few dollars he repaired -again to the cafés, seeking companions to whom he could confide his -exuberant thoughts, which were always expressed in poetic images. He -slept whenever and wherever he was tired, but he slept seldom, and -unwillingly. Unrest was his quest and unhappiness his dearest -consolation. The type of his mind was as Russian as his name, which -was Levitzky. The girl looked and listened to him, fascinated. They -sat down at the table with the others, and while the waiter was -bringing their tea and lemon, Levitzky continued his discourse: - -"No, I do not like America. The people here are satisfied. Things seem -frozen here--finished. Great deeds have been done, great things have -been created. Wall Street and Broadway fill me with wonder. The -outside is great, showing energy that has been. But at the core, all -is dead. The imagination and the heart are extinguished. Content and -comfort eat up the nation. New York seems to me an active city of the -dead, where there is much movement, but no soul. Russia, which I love, -is just the opposite. There nothing is done, nothing finished. One -sees nothing, but feels warmth and vitality at the heart. In love it -is the same way. The American wants a legal wife and a comfortable -home, but the Russian wants a mistress behind a mountain to whom he -can not penetrate but towards whom he can strive, for whom he can long -and dream. It is better to hope than to attain." - -Sabina looked at him, her bosom heaving. His last words seemed to -trouble her, but she sat in silence and appeared to listen to the -conversation, which turned on a recent strike in the Ghetto. Finally -she got up to go home, refusing Levitzky's offer to accompany her. -Leaving the Anarchists still engaged in talk, she went into the -street, which, altho it was after one o'clock, was still far from -deserted. - -Instead of going to her poor room in the tenement-house on Hester -Street she walked slowly along Grand Street, towards the Bowery, deep -in reflection. She was thinking of Levitzky and of her life. Ten -years before, as a child of twelve, she had come to New York from -Russia, with her father, a tailor, who had worked for several years in -the sweat-shops. He had died two years before, and since then Sabina -had worked in the sweat-shops in the day time and in the evening had -devoted herself to the cause. At first she had gone to the Socialistic -and Anarchistic meetings merely because they were attended by the only -society in the east side which at all satisfied her growing -intellectual activity. These rough workingmen sometimes seemed to her -inspired, and her ardor and youth were soon deeply interested in the -cause of Socialism, partly because of the pity inspired by the sordid -poverty about her, but mainly because of the strong attraction any -earnest movement has for a young and emotionally intellectual person. -As was quite inevitable, she went from an unreserved love for the -group of ideas called Socialistic to the quite contrary ones of -Anarchy. And this change was not founded on intellectual conviction, -but was due to the simple fact that the Anarchistic cause was more -extreme and gave greater apparent opportunity for self-sacrifice; and -for the reason, too, that the most interesting man she had met, -Levitzky, was at that time an Anarchist. These two made, very often, -passionate speeches on the same evening to a crowd of attentive -laborers, and after the meeting walked the street together or sat over -their tea in the café discussing high ideals, not only Anarchy, but -all noble subjects that detach the soul from the sordid business of -life. - -Of course, Sabina loved Levitzky. His robust intellect and exuberant, -poetical nature, a nature constant to passion, but inconstant to -persons, made her beloved ideas seem real, gave a concrete seal to the -creations of her imagination. - -Neither Levitzky nor Sabina were conscious of the strong feeling that -he was arousing in the girl's soul. He poured his mind out to her. His -rich nature unfolded in her sympathetic presence. She loved him for -the mental crises he had passed; and he loved merely the mental images -his words aroused in him when she was present. - -It was not until the evening of the scene in the café that she had -fully understood that she was eternally in love with Levitzky. On the -walk from the lecture to the Grand Street café they had for the first -time spoken of love between man and woman, and Levitzky had launched -forth into an eloquent tirade against satisfied desire, a speech which -was concluded in the café, with the remark about how a Russian loves -an inaccessible mistress, a beautiful creature separated from her -lover by a mountain, while the despised American wants a legal wife -whom he can enjoy and be sure of. - -The sentiment fitted in beautifully with Sabina's habitually -enthusiastic habit of mind. But to-night she was ashamed of herself -because his words filled her with fear and pain. Irrational emotion -drove her theories from her head, and struck her dumb with grief for -what she looked upon as a betrayed ideal. She, who had devoted herself -to the "movement"; she, who had chosen an intellectual career, a life -devoted to the cause of humanity; she, who had been proud of her -independence and had confidently looked forward to a life of celibacy; -this superior person was in love, and loved as passionately and as -personally as any commonplace woman. She devoutly believed in the -worth of Levitzky's ideas against human love between the sexes, and -the fact that her nerves and imagination went against her head -overwhelmed her with remorse. She was unfaithful not only to her own -ideals, but to the ideals of the man she loved. She knew that Levitzky -felt no love for her. If he had, she would not have loved him. She -longed to tear this feeling, which she felt to be unworthy of her and -in the nature of an insult to him, from her heart; but she knew she -could not. - -After leaving Levitzky and the Anarchists in the café, Sabina walked -slowly towards the Bowery, suffering with love and humiliation, -thinking of Levitzky and of the past, the devoted past which now -seemed deeply wronged. Her despair can perhaps be understood by the -fanatical nun whose years of devotion to her vows are rendered vain by -a sudden impulse of the heart which is yielded to; or by the ambitious -man of affairs who betrays a governmental trust because of the -repeated frenzy of an emotion which wears out his resistance and leads -him to the woman who has charmed and deceived him. - -As Sabina passed through the street her attention was mechanically -caught by the notice in a shop window, which was still dimly lighted, -of an important labor meeting, to take place in a couple of days, at -which a famous German Anarchist was to speak--a man who was coming -from Europe to join the "Movement" in New York, whose books she had -read and loved. Such notices always arrested her eager attention, and -even now habit led her to stop by the window and dully read the entire -poster. The thought of the coming event, which would once have been of -palpitating interest to her, increased her remorse and despair. Of -such great activity as this she had rendered herself incapable. To go -to any such meeting now would be hypocrisy, she felt. The cause she -wanted to love and serve and still did love she could yet never again -be wholehearted about. She bore with her a burden. She seemed to -herself to be a sinful creature, and the devoted life she had led -seemed poisoned by this terrible passion which controlled her. She -felt she never again could look Levitzky in the face; for a terrible -impulse in her was about to drag her from the pedestal where he had -helped to place her; and to drag with her the man she loved from the -impersonal height at which he stood. - -Her passionate nature rebelled at the thought of any compromise with -the ideal. She could not endure life otherwise than as her imagination -dictated--and here was a passion which threatened the existence of all -she approved. What in a colder nature would have been a mere -intellectual phase was with her an unbearably emotional upheaval; and -on the spot she made a resolution conceived in despair but carried out -with logical coolness. As the rebellious thought surged over her and -filled her being with hot emotion she became aware that the shop was -that of an apothecary on East Broadway, whither she had unconsciously -wandered. With set lips she entered, aroused the sleeping clerk, a -Socialist whom she knew, and bought that which soon allayed her -problem without solving it. Early the next morning the clerk found her -lying near the doorway, with an expression of impulsive energy on her -dark face. - -About three days later Blanofsky and his three friends were sitting in -the café on Grand Street, drinking their eternal Russian tea and -talking about Levitzky. - -"I never saw a man so broken," said Blanofsky in his soft voice, "as -Levitzky was by the death of that girl. For a week I feared for his -life, he was so desperate. It seems he met Lefeitkin's clerk, who told -him. He disappeared from the quarter for several days, and no one knew -where he went. Four days ago he came to my room looking like a madman. -His hair was full of mud and his clothes torn and filthy. His eyes -burned in his pale face, and his speech, more voluminous than ever, -was broken and incoherent. He stayed all day, refused to eat, but -talked all the time of Sabina, of her mind, of her rare personality, -of her devotion to the cause. He was interrupted by fits of sobbing. I -did not know that this man of intellect was capable of so great -personal feeling." - -"Levitzky is weak," said Herman Samarovitch, "and inconstant. He has -vivid ideas, and imagination, but he never really cared for the cause. -He was a Socialist before he was an Anarchist. Before that he was an -atheist, which followed a period of religious mysticism. At one time -he was a conventional capitalist in principle, with the English -government as his model. He is easily moved by an idea or an emotion, -but he easily passes to another. He will soon forget this girl's -death, to which he should have been superior. He has no steadfastness, -and is not one of us." - -At this point, Levitzky entered the café. With him was the new -arrival, the German Anarchist. To him Levitzky was talking with great -animation. His words rolled over one another with enthusiasm. - -"Do you know," he said eagerly, his face beaming, to Blanofsky and his -companions, "that our distinguished friend here has consented to -debate to-morrow night with our Socialist friend, Jacob Matz, that -mistaken but able man, on the nature of individual right as -interpreted by the Anarchist on one side and the Socialist on the -other. I have written a poem on liberty which I intend to read at the -meeting. Do you wish to hear it?" - -He drew a manuscript from his pocket and read enthusiastically a poem -in which a turbulent love for man and nature, for social equality and -foaming cataracts was expressed in rich imagery. His face glowed and -he seemed transported. He had forgotten Sabina. - - [Illustration] - - - - -_Charles Dana Gibson says_: "It is like a trip to Paris." - -THE REAL LATIN QUARTER OF PARIS - -By F. Berkeley Smith - - -Racy sketches of the innermost life and characters of the famous -Bohemia of Paris--its grisettes, students, models, balls, studios, -cafes, etc. - -_John W. Alexander_: "It is the real thing." - -_Frederick Remington_: "You have left nothing undone." - -_Ernest Thompson Seton_: "A true picture of the Latin Quarter as I -knew it." - -_Frederick Dielman_, President National Academy of Design: "Makes the -Latin Quarter very real and still invests it with interest and charm." - -_Evening Telegraph_, Philadelphia: "A captivating book." - -_Boston Times_: "A genuine treat." - -_The Argonaut_, San Francisco: "A charming volume. Mr. Smith does not -fail to get at the intimate secrets, the subtle charm of the real -Latin Quarter made famous by Henry Murger and Du Maurier." - -_The Mail and Express_, New York: "When you have read this book you -know the 'Real Latin Quarter' as well as you will ever come to know it -without living there yourself." - -_Boston Herald_: "It pictures the Latin Quarter in its true light." - - -_Water-Color Frontispiece by F. Hopkinson Smith. About 100 original -drawings and camera snap shots by the Author, and two caricatures in -color by the celebrated French caricaturist Sancha. Ornamental Covers. -12mo, Cloth, Price, $1.20, net. Postage, 13 Cents._ - - - - -LOVE AND THE SOUL HUNTERS - -By John Oliver Hobbes - -_Author of "The Gods, Some Morals, and Lord Wickenham," "The Herb -Moon," "Schools for Saints," "Robert Grange," etc., etc._ - - -In this new novel Mrs. Craigie (John Oliver Hobbes) has made, -according to her own statement, the great effort of her life. It is -the most brilliant creation of an author whose talent and versatility -have surprised readers and critics in both Europe and America for -several years. It treats of unique examples of human nature as they -are, and not merely as they ought to be. Swayed by complex motives, -they are always attractive, but often do what is least expected of -them. The story is graphically told, and is full of action. Each -personage is distinctively drawn to the life. - -"There is much that is worth remembering in her writings."--_Mail and -Express_, New York. - -"More than any other woman who is now writing, Mrs. Craigie is, in the -true manly sense, a woman of letters. She is not a woman with a few -personal emotions to express: she is what a woman so rarely is--an -artist."--_The Star_, London. - -"Few English writers have so lapidarian a style of writing as Mrs. -Craigie, and few such a capacity for writing epigrams."--_The Toronto -Globe._ - - _12mo, Cloth._ _$1.50_ - - - - -_A ROMANCE OF A STRANGE COUNTRY_ - -THE INSANE ROOT - -By Mrs. Campbell Praed - -_Author of "Nadine"; "The Scourge Stick"; "As a Watch in the Night," -etc._ - - -This story has the same _motif_ as Stevenson's Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, -and a weird treatment resembling that of Bulwer's "Strange Story." It -will compare favorably in strength and literary quality with either of -these great productions. Isadas Pacha, Ambassador at the Court of St. -James's from Abdullulah Zobeir, Emperor of Abaria, dying at last after -a long life of mixed good and evil, leaves to his physician, Dr. -Marillier, "the insane root," a mandragora root, enclosed in a small -box. Marillier, a suitor of Rachel, the beautiful ward of the Pacha, -envies Ruel Bey, his favored rival. Learning from the papers left by -the Pacha that the mandrake root has marvelous powers, Marillier -succeeds in assuming the body of Ruel who has been accidentally -killed. On this change of identities the fascinating story turns. -After marrying Rachel the problem of consummating the marriage can not -be solved by Marillier, the wraith of the real Ruel preventing. A bolt -of lightning solves the problem. There is a mystery about Rachel, who -turns out to be the Emperor's own daughter. The scenery is partly that -of the Algerian mountains, very graphically and beautifully described. -The supernatural elements are handled in a way to make them seem -actually credible. The storm climax reminds the reader of Hawthorne's -best work in the Marble Fawn. - - _12mo, Cloth._ _380 Pages._ _$1.50_ - - - - -THE NEEDLE'S EYE - -By Florence Morse Kingsley - -_Author of "The Transfiguration of Miss Philura," "Titus," "Prisoners -of the Sea," "Stephen," etc._ - - -"The Needle's Eye" is a remarkable story of modern American life,--not -of one phase, but of many phases, widely different and in startling -contrast. The scenes alternate between country and city. The pure, -free air of the hills, and the foul, stifling atmosphere of the slums; -the sweet breath of the clover fields, and the stench of crowded -tenements are equally familiar to the hero in this novel. The other -characters are found in vine-covered cottages, in humble farmhouses, -in city palaces, and in the poorest tenements of the slums. Immanuel, -the hero, begins life as a foundling, and the chapters telling of his -unhappy infancy and happy boyhood are written with a tenderness, a -pathos, and an intimacy of knowledge and description that touch the -deepest sympathies of the reader. Later, Immanuel finds himself the -heir of a vast fortune. His struggle to use the wealth in relieving -the miseries of the slums demonstrates the truth of the declaration of -Jesus: "It is easier for a camel to go through a needle's eye than for -a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God." - -Many of the situations in the novel are exceedingly dramatic. Others -sparkle with genuine humor. This is a story to make people laugh, and -cry, and think. - - _Illustrations by F. E. Mears._ _12mo, Cloth._ _$1.50_ - - - - -_St. Louis Globe-Democrat_: "It is a simple, gentle, quietly-humorous -narrative, with several love affairs in it." - -UNDER MY OWN ROOF - -By Adelaide L. Rouse - -_Author of "The Deane Girls," "Westover House," etc._ - - -A story of a "nesting impulse" and what came of it. A newspaper woman -determines to build a home for herself in a Jersey suburb. The story -of its planning is delightfully told, simply and with a -literary-humorous flavor that will appeal to lovers of books and of -the fireside. - -Before the house-building details are allowed to tire the reader, a -love story is begun, and catches the interest. It concerns the -home-builder, an old flame, and an old friend, the third of whom has -become a next-door neighbor. With this romance are entwined a number -of heart affairs as well as warm friendships. - -The style is bright, and the humor genial and pervasive. The "literary -worker" and the "suburbanite" particularly will enjoy the book. Women -of culture everywhere should appreciate its delicate style. - - Illustrations by Harrie A. Stoner. 12mo, Cloth. - Price, $1.20, net; postage, 13 cents. - - - - -JESUS THE JEW - -_AND OTHER ADDRESSES_ - -By Harris Weinstock - -Introduction by Prof. David Starr Jordan - - -Ten straightforward talks by a broad-minded student of the Jewish -Race, explaining alike to Jew and Christian the fundamental and -highest conceptions of liberal Judaism and its relationship in -Christianity. - - -_HIGH PRAISE FROM THE NON-JEWISH PRESS_ - -_Herald and Presbyter_, St. Louis, Mo.: "The author is a man of force -and of large liberality, and goes far beyond what the ordinary -orthodox Jew would be willing to concede." - -_The Outlook_, New York: "It will justify a wide attention from both -Jews and Christians, and in many respects will be of peculiar -helpfulness to some who have no conscious religious faith." - -_News-Letter_, San Francisco: "A very interesting volume, well -written, broad in its tendencies, and one that will be helpful to any -one who reads it, regardless of race or creed." - - -_COMMENDED BY LEADING JEWISH PAPERS_ - -_The Jewish Spectator_, New Orleans: "Its tendency is to remove -prejudices from the minds of non-Jews and to strengthen the faith of -the Jew. Every Israelite in the land should obtain two copies, read -one for his own benefit and comfort, and give the other to a Christian -friend who entertains yet a few prejudices and is desirous of -divesting himself of them." - -_Jewish Ledger_, New Orleans, La.: "It deserves a conspicuous place in -the homes of intelligent people.... Always couched in respectful and -courteous language, and refreshing in logical consideration of the -question." - - _12mo, Cloth, 229 pp._ _$1.00, net; by Mail, $1.07_ - - FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY, Publishers - NEW YORK & LONDON - - - - - - -End of Project Gutenberg's The Spirit of the Ghetto, by Hutchins Hapgood - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SPIRIT OF THE GHETTO *** - -***** This file should be named 41028-8.txt or 41028-8.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/4/1/0/2/41028/ - -Produced by Jana Srna, Melissa McDaniel, and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This -file was produced from images generously made available -by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) - - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions -will be renamed. - -Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no -one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation -(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without -permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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