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Gazette & Courier - Monday, April 12, 1875
The Holy Land at present
During this season of sacred festivals the latest information from the Holy Land, conveying, as it does, much relating to the region as a field for residence and immigration, reads very curiously. It was elicited by Sir Moses Montefiore, the wealthy London Jew [an excellent article about him at Wikipedia], who desired to benefit the people of his nation who have settled, or might wish to, round about Jerusalem.
/ Our writer states that there is some extensive, fertile and well watered land on the roadway between Jerusalem and Hebron, and he says that this could be adapted for the reception of poor families, and the water could be made available for working mills and factories. Another affirms that there is a similar fruitful territory at Rama, the birthplace of Samuel, and he adds that at Hebron there is land which is already producing corn, wine, oil, silk and cotton, mineral waters, salt and actually coal. We also learn that there are many fertile and irrigated regions in Galilee.
/ The trouble however, in the agricultural development of the Holy Land, lies in the fact that among the natives, there is not one man in a hundred knows how to plow or plant, for they are for the most part artisans. There is great need of capital, which, if it could be supplied at a rate of 5 per cent, would give very satisfactory returns. A proper system of apprenticeship for the boys of Jerusalem - who are said to be quite precocious - is also recommended, and an effort to this end is now actually being made on the Joppa farm [Joppa is now Jaffa]. The Bedouins are troublesome in some sections, but the requisite assistance can be obtained from the Turkish government. Thus we see that the Holy Land begins to be talked about and prospected very much like the newly opened regions of our own Great West.
Gazette & Courier - Monday, February 22, 1875
New York's new Democratic mayor has his own ideas about the 'eternal fitness of things', and don't propose to have them subverted if he can help it, 15th amendment or no 15th amendment. The other
New York’s new Democratic mayor has his own ideas about the ’eternal fitness of things’, and don’t propose to have them subverted if he can help it, 15th amendment or no 15th amendment. The other afternoon a spruce, well dressed colored man and a young white woman, whose peculiar cast of countenance betrayed her Hebrew origin, visited the city hall, and asked to be united in marriage by the chief magistrate of the city. Unable to find any legal obstacle, the clerk sought the mayor and told him of the desire of the waiting couple. The mayor hesitated not a moment, but said "No sir, it can’t be done. While I am mayor of this city, I shall never marry a black man to a white woman, or a black woman to a white man". To a bystander who suggested that perhaps he had not read the 15th amendment and the civil rights bill, the mayor replied "I know all about those laws, but you can rest assured that notwithstanding them, no marriage between whites and blacks can take place in this hall, while I am mayor of the city".
Gazette & Courier - Monday, February 1, 1875
Jewish passover
Jewish passover - the observance of this festival is prescribed in Exodus xxiii...It occurs in the Jewish month of Abib...They close their shops everywhere; dwellers in the country, where there are no Jewish communities, repair to the city and put up with their friends, or at Jewish inns until the week is over, travelers return to their homes, and in fine every stray orthodox lamb puts in an appearance. An unusual amount of friendliness and benevolence are prevalent and the enjoyment is general. But after all, these are not the distinguishing features of the Passover. All the festivities are more or less marked in this way; its real characteristic is its unleavened food, and the operation which this peculiar diet has upon Jewish tables. All leavened food and fermented drink are prohibited and everything containing any admixture of either, such matter being known by its Hebrew name, http://www.chabad.or...ometz.asp?aid=111191 chometz [i.e. http://www.uniquejewishgifts.com/holiday.asp?id=8 chametz ]. With respect to this the festival is observed with extraordinary strictness. By noon the day before the Passover sets in, every http://www.jewfaq.org/holidaya.htm house is completely cleaned . All table and kitchen utensils, dishes of every description, knives, forks, table covers, wine glasses - everything in fine that has even the remotest connection with the preparation or consumption of food or drink, besides, of course, all unconsumed groceries, are removed to the attic, or some other distant and unoccupied quarter of the house. In place of all this houseware, an equally complete array, which has never been used except for the unleavened food of this festival, is brought down from the attic, and arrayed for a week's brief service. Each little Israelitish lamb has probably its own private Passover mug, the gift, perhaps, of some friend or relative, and how the youngsters rejoice over their familiar favorites as they are taken from their year's confinement. While these dishes are used the greatest care is taken to prevent their contact with http://homecooking.a...weekly/aa040201a.htm chametz . Should such collision accidentally happen, the contaminated utensil, in thoroughly orthodox households, is sundered from the rest of the Passover ware, and thereafter is doomed to perpetual association with the plebeian crockery upstairs (the Galaxy for November).
Gazette & Courier - Monday, January 4, 1875
Smuggling
Smuggling http://www.sahistory...k-future-builton.htm diamonds - The Boston Commercial Bulletin, in an article on smuggling at this port relates the following story: "There is a very important traffic carried on in diamonds over the various European lines to this country, and as the duty upon them is 10% ad valorum, the sharpest watch is kept upon those suspected to be engaged in it. By means of agents abroad, the Collector's office has often information by cable of the departure from the various ports of suspected diamond smugglers, and is prepared to intercept them. In 9 cases out of 10 the stones are concealed upon the persons of the passengers. When this becomes a certainty, the passenger is arrested and taken to the Searcher's bureau in the Custom House. Here if found necessary, the party is stripped to the skin, and his clothes examined inch by inch and seam by seam; the heels are taken from his boots, his hair and beard is combed, and every means taken to discover the hiding place of the secreted treasures. Once this mode of search used to be tolerably successful, but now it rarely serves any purpose except in the case of raw recruits to the smuggling ranks. An old bird is caught with chaff but once. A New York Jew, who was reputed to be in the business of smuggling diamonds, used to cross the water on the Canard Line from 3 to 4 times a season. Two years ago, in the early part of the season, he was seized upon his arrival and taken to the searcher's room. Nearly a thousand dollars worth of precious stones were found secreted in the linings of his boots. He returned to Liverpool by the same steamer, and four weeks afterwards again landed upon the company's wharf on North river. He was again seized and subjected to the same rigorous search, but with no success. The Jew took it smilingly and philosophically. When he took his leave he said "Better luck next time, gentlemen. I shall go back by the same steamer on business, and when I return you can try it again. The officers mentally determined if he did they would try it again. Upon inquiry it was found that he really had engage a return passage, having held his stateroom for that purpose. Two hours before the sailing of the steamer he was driven down to the pier in his carriage, his wife and daughter with him to see him off. When they returned they carried with them over 10 thousand dollars worth of diamonds, which had been secreted in his stateroom during the while the steamer had remained in port. Before his return to New York the collector was notified by one of the revenue agents abroad that ' http://www.diamondregistry.com/rev1997.htm Max Fischer would return by the ---, which would leave Liverpool Oct. 25th, with several thousand dollars worth of diamonds'. In due time the http://www.hbvl.be/d...uw/1997/1997_17.html Jew arrived, and for the third time was escorted before the searchers. He was evidently not prepared for such persistent attention. He seemed nervous and agitated, and finally attempted to compromise. He was politely informed that that was out of the question. He was again put through the searching process. The pocketbook which was first investigated, revealed a memorandum showing the purchase of 18 diamonds of various sizes and prices, amounting in all to about $12,000. When this came to light the Jew begged with tears to be allowed to compromise. A deaf ear was turned to his entreaties. His coat was removed and the lining examined. Nothing there. Then the waistcoat. As the searcher passed his practical [might mean practiced] fingers along the lining his heart gave a tremendous thump as he recognized the feel of something pebbly, like little rows of buttons. The garment was hastily ripped, a strip of chamois skin withdrawn and unrolled, and there lay 1,2,3,- 18! all there. 'You can put on your coat and waistcoat again, Mr. Fischer', said the searcher blandly. 'Good day'. Without a word the Jew departed, took a horse car home, kissed his family, ate a rousing supper, repaired to the bath room, and after soaking a rather capacious plaster across the small of his back for a few minutes in warm water, peeled it off, and with it 18 diamonds of various costs and prices. What the search and collector may have said or thought, when they found their seizure to be nothing but clever glass imitations, worth from 10 to 30 cents each, nobody knows, for although the seizure was loudly heralded the finale was never made known publicly. A lady in this city, moving in fashionable circles, wears a valuable diamond which was imported in the cavity of a double tooth, said tooth being in the mouth of an Israelitish gentleman of New York. It was placed in its rather unromantic hiding place in London, and safely covered with bone filling, which was displaced after the arrival in New York".
Gazette & Courier - Monday, December 28, 1874
History of the Dusinberry Family, which if established by evidence will secure to them the fortune of 20 millions [If at all true, the name is most probably Dusenberry]
History of the Dusinberry Family, which if established by evidence will secure to them the fortune of 20 millions [If at all true, the name is most probably Dusenberry] - After the time of the Revolution in England during the reign of Queen Anne, three brothers Dusinberry emigrated from Holland to America; two were farmers, and the other had received a medical education. Soon after their arrival in New York, one brother settled on Long Island. Another went up the Hudson and settled at Peekskill. The Doctor, however, not liking the country, went back to Holland, where soon after his return his father died, leaving considerable property. The Doctor, whose name was Moses, along with a sister in Holland, took possession of the property. Moses continued to practice medicine as a profession in Amsterdam, then the greatest commercial city in the world, and died at middle age unmarried, leaving a fortune of $185,000 to his sister Christine, under certain conditions. Before his death Christine had married one Brant by whom she had two sons; the marriage being distasteful to the Doctor, as Brant was a Jew. Accordingly Dr. Dusinberry had a clause inserted in his will that Brant should not receive any portion of his inheritance, nor his two sons who were also Jews, but at the death of the two sons the money should go to their children, if any were born to them when they became of age, provided they embraced the faith of the Lutheran Church. Failing issue, the money was to go back to his sister Christine if she were alive, but if dead, or at her death, was to go to the Dusinberrys in America. One of the Brants soon died without issue; the older brother left one child, a daughter who died at the age of 9 years. Consequently Christine obtained the property according to the terms of the will at the time of her death, which occurred in 1787, the heirs in America were advertised for. The Dusinberrys in America however, ahd become quite comfortable in circumstances and took no further notice of the matter. So things remained until about the year 1840, except that the fortune was often talked about in the family. About this time David Oliver of Cayuga Co., N.Y. married a daughter of William Dusinberry who was grandson of the brother Dusinberry, who setled at Peekskill on his arrival from Holland, commenced proceedings to obtain the money. His father-in-law was still living, who furnished him with valuable information. Mr. Oliver however, died 3 years after, and the matter was allowed to drop. The papers are in the possession of Elias Dusinberry of New York. In 1853 a suit was commenced by the descendents of the Brant family in Holland, to obtain possession of the property, but the courts decided that the Brants had no right to the money, and that the Dusinberrys were the rightful heirs. Later a connection of the family, Mr. Clinton Vantyle, a retired, wealthy New York merchant, began to interest himself in the matter, and proceeded himself to Holland to make inquiries. He returned in 1869 and engaged Mr. Humphreys, a claim searcher living at 202 Broadway, New York, to proceed to Holland to search up and investigate all the papers. Mr. Humphreys was engaged in this search 5 years, returning to New York last spring. A meeting of the heirs held June 18th, 1874, at which time Mr. Humphreys stated that the result of his 5 years labor would secure to them the money. At that time Mr. Humphreys, with Elias Dusinberry, one of the heirs, were appointed to go back to Holland in the month of August 1874 and take possession of the claim. Intelligence has been received, and heirs notified, that they will return in Dec. 1874, after which a meeting will be held, and heirs take possession of their claims. The grandfather of the heir who is a resident of this town was a grandson of the two brothers Dusinberry who settled in this country, the son of one of the emigrants having married a daughter of the other.
Gazette & Courier - Monday, February 17, 1873
(Greenfield) The Library Fair
(Greenfield) The Library Fair - As everyone anticipated, it was a grand success. Our people have never taken hold of any enterprise with greater harmony or better zeal. Liberal contributions of refreshments and saleable articles were sent in from every source. The most magnificent gift, however, was the draft of $1000, forwarded by George B. Grennell, Esq. of New York, a son of http://www.kingkong.demon.co.uk/ngcoba/gr1.htm Hon. George Grennell of this town. His Excellency, the Governor, sent to the Chairman of the Committee a check of $100, while Mrs. Anna Judah gave $25, making Anna Judah Pierce a life member of the Association; N.E. Russell, by paying the same amount, made Miss Martha Farand a life member; http://www.massreports.com/directory/214ma608.htm Hon. Charles Allen of Boston gave a life membership to his nephew, Charles Allen, of this town; and George Dickinson of Boston conferred a like favor upon Annie, daughter of W.N. Potter of this town. Smaller sums, amounting to $20 or $30, were received from other persons. The hall was very tastefully arranged. The large tables, loaded with fancy and useful articles, which had been most generously furnished, were in a charming bower beneath the stars and stripes and floral decorations. The Post Office occupied one corner and yielded its literary treasures and sweet and tender http://www.scrapalbum.com/svcomic/svc_p9.htm valentines to the anxious swains and maidens who thronged about the place of delivery. The antiquarian table was located upon the stage and set with ancient service and adornments that had done duty for our good progenitors 50 or 100 years ago. Presiding over this were young ladies in mutton-legged sleeves and huge caps, with hair done up a la grand-mother, a style, by the way, which knocks the lollies and absurdities of the present day entirely into the shade. On the floor of the hall Messrs. Snow & Schlatte had arranged a floral arbor, exceedingly tasteful and appropriate, where a profusion of flowers from their greenhouse and from Springfield were offered for sale. The well set supper tables occupied a good portion of the hall. The attendance Thurs. eve. was very good, and everybody seemed to come for the express purpose of spending their money and having a good time. The supper tables were well patronized, and a very fine repast was furnished. The capacious grab-bag yielded its hidden secrets to the juveniles. The ice cream and the refreshments were in constant demand, while the numerous raffles drew out the stamps from the willing pockets. Among the articles disposed of in this way was a nice easy chair from the warehouse of J.L. Lyons, worth $35, which fell to the lot of C.R. Lowell, Half a dozen oak dining chairs, presented by Gov. Washburn, were drawn by W.I. Jenkins, who gave them back, and being put up at auction were knocked down to J.C. Newton for $9, who in turn gave them up. They were now disposed of to Col. W.S.B. Hopkins for $8.10, netting in all the transactions $27.10. One of Park & Axtell's patent swing cradles was drawn in raffle by T.V. Hall. A splendidly bound volume of Dante's Inferno, illustrated by Dore, presented to the fair by E.D. Merriam, and valued at $25, was drawn by Judge Conant. A beautiful fruit cake, profusely ornamented, made by H. Handforth, weighing about 15 lbs. and warranted to keep for 15 years [;-)], was assigned to W.N. Potter. A beautiful sofa pillow, contributed by Mrs. J.P. Rust of New York, was drawn by Mrs. Ella L. Ripley, and a gold watch, worth $35, fell to the lot of Bela Kellogg, our worthy County Treasurer. Several other items were disposed of by auction, including a set of cutlery, presented by Matthew Chapman. The receipts of the eve. exceeded $700. Equally successful was the entertainment of Fri. eve. Every available seat in Washington Hall was filled; in fact, it was the largest audience that has been assembled here for some years. The play presented, "Helping Hands" we think one of the best efforts by our local amateurs. The cast was perfect, and every character was sustained...Mr. Moody could not have made a better Jew if he had been born an Israelite...Afterwards a grand social dance was held. On Sat. a donation of $100 was received from George Ripley, Esq. of Lowell. The following, as near as can be estimated at present, are the receipts of the fair: Contributions including life memberships, $1285.00; From fancy articles and kitchen furniture, $14.99; from soap, $26.05; from the Post Office, $22,05; from the grab bag, $38,00; from raffles, $76.75; from refreshments, $239,18; from admission tickets, $260.50; from dancing, $31.50; from flowers, $22.00, for a grand total of $2327.02. At the drawing of a supplementary raffle on Sat. eve., a fine picture of Beethoven came into the possession of George Willard [possibly http://www.willardge...afp/pafg33.htm#39511 George M. Willard ]; a large engraving "Highland Bridge" came to E.S. Seaver; a Rogers' Group of Statuary, "Rip Van Winkle" to G.D. Williams; another "Uncle Ned's School" to Joseph W. Stevens; and a chromo "Blessed are They that Mourn" to Col. W.S.B. Hopkins. The General Committee wish to publicly express their thanks to the members of the several subcommittees who have worked so willingly and efficiently, to those who took part in the play, which added so much to the pleasure and profit of the entertainment, and for the generous cooperation met with from all...All outstanding bills should be sent to J.W. Stevens, Treasurer.
Gazette & Courier - Monday, August 24, 1874
30 years ago a young Jew named Seligman was engaged in painting at Eaton Pa. at 62 cents per day, and his brother was employed by Asa Packe
30 years ago a young Jew named http://libraries.ou.edu/etc/bass/seligman.asp Seligman was engaged in painting at Eaton Pa. at 62 cents per day, and his brother was employed by Asa Packer, one of the railroad kings of Pennsylvania, at $100 per year. Tiring of low wages and salaries, the two young men went to California, where there was then a wide and profitable field for energy and enterprise, just such as they possessed, and used it to great advantage, which secured to them a large amount of wealth. In due time they returned to New York, which gave them a more suitable field for employing their large capital for a time in mercantile pursuits, and there they became prominent bankers in large financial operations on their own account, and agents for the Rothschilds. Just now the name of the firm, the Seligmans, is prominently connected with the negotiation of the $179,000,000 of 5% bond.
Gazette & Courier - Monday, August 24, 1874
Seduction at Indianapolis and its tragical end
Seduction at Indianapolis and its tragical end - A sad tragedy growing out of a case of seduction occurred at Indianapolis on Thurs. The story is something as follows: http://www.pairlist....2-August/033960.html George C. Harding , editor and proprietor of the Herald, and Sol Maritz, a prominent merchant, have for a long time been warm friends and very intimate in their social relations. Maritz, who is a Hebrew, aged about 40, and married, took advantage of this intimacy, and succeeded in seducing Harding's daughter, aged about 18. This was accomplished last March, and improper relations have been maintained by the parties since. The young lady confessed these facts to her father Wed. eve., and overwhelmed with remorse, attempted suicide by taking opium; it is thought she repeated the dose Thurs. morning. About 1 o'clock in the aft., Harding, while in search of a physician, met Maritz on the street and immediately drawing a revolver began firing at him, shooting 5 times, and then passed down the street. One of the shots shattered Maritz's left elbow, and another passed through his lung and it was thought would prove fatal. Miss Harding died about 3 o'clock in the aft. Harding is under $10,000 bail to await the results of Maritz's wounds. The public sympathy is very strongly in sympathy with Harding. Since the shooting Mrs. Harding, step mother of the dead daughter, has stated that Maritz also made an improper proposal to her. Maritz denies the charges made by Miss Harding on her death bed, and says as soon as he is able he will prove his innocence.
Gazette & Courier - Monday, August 3, 1874
The Jews as merchants and money lenders
The Jews as merchants and money lenders - In one instance only have the Jews consented to change their habits of life, and in that we discover anew the marks of their perpetual suffering. From active and successful husbandmen and tillers of the soil, they have been transformed into merchants and money lenders. They seem to have wholly lost that love for nature and that agricultural skill that made Palestine a land of plenty. In Babylonia and Persia, under a comparatively gentle rule, they were rather farmers than traders. Even late in the Roman period, and probably until near the sixth century, they were chiefly an agricultural people. The Talmud abounds in allusions to the cultivation of fields and gardens of oil, wine and wheat, fruit and flowers. Its nice and varied rules of conduct relate chiefly to the people of rural districts rather than of cities. When the grat schools of Babylon and http://www.sacred-texts.com/jud/t10/ht112.htm Pumbeditha were flourishing, and the vivid intellect of the Israelites was expanding into a literature of commentators and professors, the race was marked by an intense love for the Oriental lands they cultivated. But when the universal persecution fell upon them, when they were hunted from Babylonia and Persia, and began that remarkable series of wanderings from city to city, and from realm to realm, that has lasted for more than a thousand years, the manners of the race changed. They became a nation of traders. Industry, thrift, learning and rare acuteness they never lost, but they were never again to become peaceful tillers of the soil. They were forced to snatch opportunities of gain from the midst of their wanderings. They became the most acute and untiring of traders. Their wages and their profits were such as could be most easily handled and secured. They supplied the barbarous princes of Germany with the most costly drugs and spices of the East. They dealt in jewels that they could easily swallow or conceal, and in Oriental cloths that were of priceless value. They were the most active slave traders of the Middle Ages, and the church vainly heaped its maledictions on the Jew who should dare to purchase Christian slaves. Their capital in money probably grew from age to age. They were the common moneylenders of the early period. The Jews seem to have concentrated the wealth of the Middle Ages among themselves; they lent their money at an enormous interest and upon ample security; they accumulated immense fortunes, which they were obliged to hide from their persecutors in an aspect of extreme poverty. But their home was never again to be amidst the soft landscapes of Babylonia and Persia; and crowded together into a miserable Ghetto, living apart, accursed and forsaken in the walled, fortified and secure cities of Western Europe, they counted their secret gains, and sometimes displayed in their obscure dwellings a suspicious and Oriental splendor. Their daughters were clad in the rich silks of Persia, and shone with the gold and gems of the East (Harper’s Magazine).
Gazette & Courier - Monday, July 20, 1874
Another great fire at Chicago
Another http://www.disasterr...s/001009chicagofire/ great fire at Chicago - ...the course of the fire was mainly northward, and it ended very near where the great fire of 1871 began, overlapping a little of the district burned over then and since rebuilt. The fire originated in a paint manufactory at the corner of 12th and Clark Streets, where some workmen were mixing paint. An explosion occurred by some mishap in mixing the chemicals, and the building was enveloped in flame almost instantly. The adjoining buildings caught fire and the flames were at first blown southward by a stiff breeze, but the wind soon shifted to the southwest, and by sunset it blew a gale, sending the fire toward the central part of the city...At one point the fire dept. began blowing up buildings with gunpowder, but they were small wooden affairs and only had the effect of spreading the fire...The west side of Wabash Avenue was soon in flames, taking many a stately building in its course, which offered a haven of refuge in the winter of 1871...The post office building took fire...Gen. MacArthur, the postmaster, had the mails removed, getting out the last just before the fire reached the structure...For two hours longer the flames continued their carnival, when they yielded to the almost supernatural efforts of the firemen, who had disputed their progress inch by inch. Three firemen were killed on Van buren Street by falling walls. Many others wre badly burned, and three steamers were destroyed, the men not being able to save them on account of the swift progress of the fire. It is reported that several children were burned to death in the tenement houses. The scenes in the streets were of the most harrowing kind. Every place within a mile of the conflagration was crowded with teams of all descriptions, and loaded to their utmost capacity with household goods. Storekeepers so fortunate as to secure a team were endeavoring to save their most valuable stock. Wherever a vacant space north of the fire could be found, it was at once filled with http://www.chicagohs.org/fire/queen/pic0025.html goods of all kinds. The losses in destruction and removals of goods and furniture are probably as great as the actual loss in buildings destroyed...Considering the area burnt over, the losses to http://www.publicsafety.net/prevention.htm insurance companies are very light, although hundreds of families lost their all, and have been rendered homeless. The business portion of the city is mainly untouched. Most of the people burned out are of the kind who do not insure. The relief and aid society, fortunately, have on hand nearly $1,000,000, and their organization still exists and is in working order. Among the buildings destroyed on the east side of Wabash Avenue was the church formerly occupied by Robert Laird Collyer's congegation, and a dozen handsome blocks between Eldridge court and Harrison Street...The notable structures consumed are the http://www.logansqua...boulevardhistory.htm Michigan Avenue House, The St. James and Continental hotels, the http://www.emich.edu...hi_calendar/bibl.htm Adelphi Theater and post office building. The principle lines of the Western Union Telegraph Company, some 40 in number, running east through State Street, were all destroyed, but communication with the outside world was kept up through the lines on Canal Street, which being on the west side of the river, were out of all possible danger. The residence of http://www.leaonline...B6rwMhme?cookieSet=1 Horace White , editor of the Chicago Tribune, was destroyed, but his books and furniture were saved. The First Methodist church, two Jewish Synagogues, St. Mary's Catholic Church, Davis Sewing Machine building, the Aiken Theater, Wood's Hotel, and the Michigan Avenue House were also destroyed. It appears that it originated not in a paint shop, but in a low wooden hovel on Clark Street near 12th Street, occupied as a rag shop of some http://www.bh.org.il.../Archive/chicago.asp Polish Jews , who are suspected, not without reason, of having set the fire to get the insurance, as the same building was fired a week ago. The loss is variously estimated, the general figure being about $4,750,000 and will not be over $6,000,000...During the search among the ruins of Tuesday night's fire, the bodies of two men and a child were discovered near 461 South Clark Street, making 7 lives known to be lost.
Gazette & Courier - Monday, July 13, 1874
Medieval persecution of the Jews
Medieval persecution of the Jews - From the friendly shelter of the Moslem caliphates and their native East the Jews, apparently possessed by a strong taste for wandering, or an insatiable love of gain, planted their unsteady colonies in all the Western nations, and sought humbly a hospitality that was never shown. Everywhere they were received with aversion and disgust. The dark-skinned and alien race, speaking an Oriental language that no European could master, and governed by customs of neatness and propriety that seemed to Goth and Hun an excess of fastidiousness, unwarlike, and highly educated, were met everywhere by an unvarying cruelty and scorn.
In Germany they were reduced to a peculiar form of slavery. A Jew was not a person but a thing, a chattel, and a waif. The emperor took possession of the Oriental strangers as his own peculiar heritage. They were his bondsmen. He protected them when he was able, and plundered them when he wanted money. Yet they soon grew numerous and wealthy in the cities along the Rhine, and aroused the envy of their Christian neighbors by an opulence which they sometimes incautiously displayed. They were forced, or probably preferred, to live apart in a quarter of the city by themselves.
They founded their synagogues and built their schoolhouses amidst ceaseless dangers. The ignorant priests followed them with maledictions, and the still more ignorant populace pelted them with stones, and beat and pummeled them with will. Accomplished and gifted rabbins were often looked upon as magicians. The Jews’ quarters seemed to the barbarous Germans a centre of mysterious and fearful deeds. It was believed that the Jews were in the habit of stealing the Host from the altar in order to mock once more at the crucifixion with secret rites, or that they enticed away Christian children to stab them with sharp knives and sacrifice them in a frightful ceremony.
When a child strayed away in the German or Italian cities, the Christian mother at once fancied that it had been lured into the Jewish quarter to be put to death. The Jews were all supposed to be acquainted with magic, and capable of weaving dark spells that brought disease and decay, misfortune and shame, to Christian households. Yet they were wonderfully prosperous and might have outlived their early unpopularity had not a suden wave of fanaticism swept away what little humanity and intelligence had yet sprung up among the European nations.
The preaching of the Crusades turned back the course of human progress for 300 years. The passion for bloodshed and for barbarous cruelty revived under the fanatical eloquence of popes and prelates. The Roman Church taught that it was no more crime to kill a heretic or an infidel, and it had never paused to exclude the Jew from its inhuman inculcations. "Thou shalt not kill", "Thou shalt not steal", were erased from the Decalogue, and the wild and cruel throngs, dissolute and infamous, that gathered under the banners of the cross made their first essays in robbery and bloodshed among the wealthy and cultivted Jewish colonies on the banks of the Moelle and Rhine.
They burst into the Jewish quarters; they sacked the rich households, and drove their wretched inmates to suicide and death. Fair women stabbed themselves in Mentz and Treves. Husbands first killed their wives and then themselves. The Rhine floated thick with the corpses of murdered Jews. Rich with spoil and drunken with license, the Crusaders swept on, carrying devastation to all the Jewish settlements through which they passed in Hungary and Austria, and at last perished themselves in countless numbers, in unutterable numbers of thirst and hunger, disease, labor, by the darts of the Saracens, and the hatred of mankind.
Nor as the second army, under Baldwin, the chivalry of age, more merciful. When Jerusalem fell they massacred all the Jews - men, women, and children - whom they found in the city, and with tears of joy knelt before the Holy Sepulchre. Yet they might have heard, in the lull of their fanaticism, the thunders of Sinai, and their own condemnation uttered from the flaming mount (Harper’s Magazine).
Gazette & Courier - Monday, July 13, 1874
The old Blue Laws
The old http://www.bartleby.com/65/bl/bluelaws.html Blue Laws - The territory now comprising the State of Connecticut was formerly two colonies, Connecticut and New Haven. The colony of connecticut was planted by emigrants from Massachusetts and Windsor, in 1633, and Hartfield and Weathersfield, in 1635-1636. The other colony, styled by its founders the dominion of New Haven, was founded by emigrants from England, 1665.
The statutes copied below from an ancient volume relating the history of the American colonies, were enacted by the people of the " http://personal.pitn...ources/bluelaws.html Dominion of New Haven ", and being printed on blue paper, came to be known as the blue laws: The Governor and Magistrate convened in General Assembly, are the Supreme power, under God, of this independent dominion...Conspiracy against the dominion shall be punishable by death...No one shall be a freeman or give a vote unless he is converted and a member of one of the churches allowed in the dominion. Each freeman shall swear by the blessed God to bear true allegiance to this dominion and that Jesus is the only King.
No http://www.geocities.com/jswortham/bluelaws.html Quaker , no dissenter from the established worship of the dominion, shall be allowed to give a vote for the election of magistrates or any other officer. No food or lodging shall be offered a Quaker, Adamit [i.e. http://www.atheistcoalition.org/docs/activism.html Adamite ] or heretict [sic]. If any person turns Quaker he shall be banished, and not suffered to return but on pain of death. No priest shall abide in the dominion; he shall be banished and suffer death on his return. Priests may be seized by anyone without a warrant. No one to cross a river but an authorized clergyman. No one shall run on the Sabbath day or walk in his garden, or elsewhere, except, reverently, to and from meeting.
No one shall travel, cook victuals, make beds, sweep house, cut hair or shave on the Sabbath day. No one shall http://40.1911encyclopedia.org/N/NE/NEW_HAVEN.htm kiss her children on the Sabbath or fasting days [Why on earth did they object to this? And all of a sudden it’s "her"! P.S. One site says this is a spurious law]. The Sabbath shall begin at sunset on Saturday.
To pick an ear of corn growing in a neighbor’s garden shall be deemed theft. A person accused of trespass in the night shall be judged guilty, unless he clears himself on his oath. When it appears that the accused has confederates, and he refuses to discover them he may be racked. None shall buy or sell land, without permission of the selectmen. A drunkard shall have a master appointed by the selectmen, who are to bar him from the liberty of buying and selling.
Whoever publishes a lie to the prejudice of his neighbor, shall be set in the stock or be http://scorpius.spac...ious/chapter-10.html whipped ten stripes . No minister shall keep a school. Every ratable person who refuses to pay his portion to support the minister of the town or parish, shall be fined by court $511.1s every quarter until he or she pay the rate to the minister. Men stealers shall suffer death. Whoever wears clothes trimmed with gold, silver or bone lace above 1s per yard shall be presented by the grand jurors, and the selectman shall tax the offender $300 estate. A debtor in prison, swearing he has no estate, shall be let out and said to make satisfaction.
Whosoever sets fire in the woods, and it burns a house shall suffer death, and persons suspected of this crime shall be imprisoned without benefit or bail. Whosoever brings cards or dice into this dominion, shall pay a fine of $5. No one shall read common prayer books, keep Christmas or set days, eat mince pies, dance, play cards, or play on any instrument of music except the drum, trumpet and jew’s harp. No gospel minister shall join people in marriage. The magistrate only shall join them in marriage, as he may do it with less scandal to Christ’s church.
When parents refuse their children convenient marriages, magistrates shall determine the point. The selectmen on finding children ignorant may take them away from their parents, and put them in better hands at the expense of their parents. Fornication shall be punished by compelling marriage, or as the court shall think proper. Adultery shall be punished with death. A man that strikes his wife shall pay a fine of $10.
A woman that strikes her husband shall be punished as the law directs. A wife shall be deemed good evidence against her husband. No man shall court a maid in person or by letter, without first obtaining the consent of her parents, $5 penalty for the first offense, $10 for the second, and for the third, imprisonment during the pleasure of the court. Married persons shall live together or be imprisoned. Every male must have his hair cut round according to his cap.
Gazette & Courier - Monday, July 6, 1874
The town of Berdicher [most probably Berdichev in Russian Poland, inhabited mostly by Jews, has sufered from one of the most destructi
The town of Berdicher [most probably http://motlc.wiesenthal.com/pages/t007/t00718.html Berdichev in Russian Poland, inhabited mostly by Jews, has sufered from one of the most destructive and remarkable series of fires. The first day 600 houses were destroyed. The next day there was another conflagration involving a loss of nearly as many more buildings. The two succeeding days the town was again visited by fires, by which whole streets were laid in ashes, and thousands of persons were made homeless. [The remarkable thing is that this http://www.berdichev.org/holocaust.html town survived fires and murders of Jews for hundreds of years. It eventually was the site of an "extermination unit" during World War II, where 28,000+ Jews lost their lives].
Gazette & Courier - Monday, March 23, 1874
The temperance reform
The temperance reform - the "heart of the Commonwealth", so far as the woman's temperance union is concerned, beats warmly. "Progress" was reported at the Mon. eve. meeting. The personal pledges have met with great success. All the homeopathic doctors have signed the physician's pledge, but they of the "regular" school have not been so obliging. The druggists object to the pledge offered them, insisting that they should be allowed to sell medicine without always requiring a physician's prescription. A " http://www.one-lord.org/Poetry/Poetry5.htm Macedonian cry " has come up from Ayer, and a large band of women will probably go there next Tues. The movement is about to begin in some shape at Providence R.I. At a conference of the pastors and delegates of the churches at Providence, it was resolved to exhort the churches of the State to prayer and supplication in their public assemblies and private devotions, that God would abate and destroy the evil; also to memorialize the State and city governments in favor of prohibitory legislation; to appoint committees to wait upon the owners of buildings where liquor is sold, and upon dealers and urge the abandonment of the traffic. The temperance people of New Haven, Ct. are urging Dio Lewis to pay them a visit. The symptoms of a decided campaign increases in Bangor, Oldtown and other Main [i.e. Maine] towns. The "cause" advances in Vermont. All the liquor shops in Sheldon closed Sat. At Montpelier, men's and women's prayer meetings are held daily; all the churches, except the Episcopal and the Roman Catholic, taking part. In the latter, however, a strong total abstinence revival has been for some time under way. Mr. Stratton, the principal saloon keeper, has closed his bar, and Charles Clark of the American Hotel never sells any liquor and bids the women Godspeed. The druggists of St. Albans have voluntarily signed a pledge to sell no liquor for any purpose whatever, so long as the sale of liquors is conducted by some person not connected with the drug trade in this place". The methods of the temperance reforms are felt to be applicable to other evils. At Syracuse NY, the pious women are praying out the houses of ill fame, and in West Virginia they make snuff dippers the objects of their applications. In St. Paul, Minn., a notorious women has been so "pestered", she says, by the visits of good women who wanted to pray with her, that she has offered her house and grounds rent free for 5 years, asking only that they will help her sell her furniture for at least half its value, to the trustees of the Magdalen home. The women's movement is attracting interest and discussion in the English newspapers. The London Times couples the two phenomena of the Massachusetts constabulary and the Ohio praying movement, and thinks that although it is unlikely either should be paralleled in England, it is, however, very certain that large and influential classes among us would gladly see the publican's trade reduced, and that many persons would compass the desired end even by means inconsistent with our ideas of freedom. The telegraph thinks it quite possible the war may do good in Ohio, and perhaps reach New York, which may join London and Liverpool as "the three most drunken cities in the world". The Cincinnati distillers admit that their business has decreased fully 75%, solely on account of the woman's movement. They consider the movement a fanaticism, which will die out as soon as warm weather approaches. The Germans of Cincinnati held an "anti" meeting Wed. night, at which Rabbi Wise, http://www.one-lord.org/Poetry/Poetry5.htm Rev. Mr. Eisenlohr and other clergy spoke vehemently against the women's impertinent movement. Several speakers claimed that the women were really tools in the hands of the men, their secret purpose being to revive the prejudices of native Americans against citizens of foreign birth. The resolutions asserted that it is the duty of all to see that their fellow citizens are protected in their vocation; that it is the duty of the State to protect its citizens against interference with their business, and that it is contrary to the spirit of liberty and justice for women, in the name of religion, to interfere with the rights and liberties of citizens. A committee of women waited upon Mayor Colvin [ http://www.chipublib...eeches/colvin73.html Mayor Harvey Doolittle Colvin ] of Chicago Wed., and endeavored to persuade him to veto the ordinance passed by the city council Mon. night allowing saloons to be kept open Sun., but the mayor firmly declined. The Ohio women are finding new obstacles. The farmers of Warren County raise barley, and object that if the people can't sell and buy beer their business will be ruined; and the husbands of the same neighborhood say they have done more spanking in the last two weeks than in all their lives before, and both they and the babies would like a change. The Worcester women, all of a sudden, have reconsidered their decision about praying in the saloons, and inaugurated a campaign of that sort Thurs.
Gazette & Courier - Monday, August 29, 1870
Koschner [i.e. kosher] meat under the Levitical law
Koschner [i.e. kosher] meat under the Levitical law - A mode of butchering - ancient, unique, supported by a large class, is in vogue in http://www.dispatch....00/may00/269453.html Cincinnati and in most great cities. Some of our readers have seen hanging out in front of meat stores a card on which are Hebrew letters. It announces koschner [sic], which is meat butchered and inspected after the manner first presented by Moses, then modified to the present mode nearly 2000 years ago...This kind of meat is used almost exclusively by the Israelitish people of the present day. It is a sanitary measure, pure and simple. [article goes on to explain the duties of a http://www.jewishgates.com/file.asp?File_ID=796 Shochet , a man set aside with the exclusive duty of butchering meat].
Gazette & Courier - Monday, February 23, 1874
The Rothschilds
The http://www.mega.nu:8080/ampp/rothschild2.html Rothschilds - There is a romance clustering round the name of Rothschild which makes the death of one of the family a matter of more than common interest. Between 40 and 50 years ago, there was a humble house on the http://www.jewishenc...p?artid=210&letter=G Ghetto of Frankfort , whose windows was [sic] always seen on one particular night within the annual circle to wear a glitter of light, which, as it was cast from the old Jewish lamps, threw a ghastly glimmer on the decayed and dust-eaten dwellings around it. On this night, the eve of the Jewish New Year, the 5 members of the house of Rothschilds - the sons of Frankfort, Vienna, Paris, and Naples - came, no matter from what end of the earth, to gather with filial devotion round a weired [sic], withered old lady, who still clung to the old spot from which the family had started. The house, we believe, stands, but its stairs are silent. The mother is of course dead. The 5 sons have departed. The death of the last, http://www.winelover...uotes/modiq.cgi?q=50 Baron James , some few years since, excited great regret in Paris, where his Oriental splendor of living and sumptuousness of hospitality made him a feature of its life. In momentary genius, and in elevation of character and mind, he was the star of the house of Rothschild. Indeed, his courtly bearing and polished cultivation of mind made his relations with the leading sovereigns of Europe more the character of a diplomatist than of a financier. The elder branch has fallen. And now death has begun to knock at the door of the younger branches. Some years since, prior to the father's death, the eldest son of Baron James, who will be remembered in social circles as a visitor for some time in New York about 15 years ago, died, having merely passed into manhood. And the other day we published the news of the death of http://www.dalmeny.co.uk/history/roth.htm Baron Meyer De Rothschild , a member of the house of the London Rothschilds. Meyer was the second son of Nathan, the founder of the London house, a man of remarkable craft, energy, and intensity of purpose. During Napoleon's blockade, while carrying on business at Manchester, he amassed an enormous fortune through smuggled trade. He knew of the victory of Waterloo some hours before it reached the British Government. What gold may not have arisen at the touch of this enchanted wand! There was no wires in those days to carry a breathing from Brussels to Exchange. The energetic enterprise of http://www.cyber-nat...child_sirnathan.html Nathan in this instance created the greatness of the London house, as did John Walter's create that of the London Times. There is no question that with the death of Baron James, the genius of the house of Rothschild has departed. Constant intermarriage with cousins, and the absence of that intellectual vigor which the infusion of fresh new blood imparts, has its effects on men, as on animals, and that the younger branches of the family are far inferior to the elder. They are prudent - a rose-colored phrase for men - and like old http://www.biblioman...1668/1/frameset.html Isaac of York , can higgle for a price; but the money genius, the insight into the financial future, and the boldness to back that insight which belonged to the elder, is nowhere to be found among the junior members of the house, and the same spirit permeates their representatives in New York, New Orleans, San Francisco, and all over the European continent. In 1847, the period of the Irish famine, though the Corn bills of both continents passed through their hands, giving them ample opportunities for preparations, they were unable to brest the financial storm, but flew before it, selling all their securities, and causing the great fall in consols of that year. Their transactions, too, are of an inferior character. Except with Austria, they are not, as in the days of old Nathan and his sons, the props of thrones. Most of the great government transactions of this country, which offer the vastest field for the future, have been conducted of late years through the house of http://www.t-bird.ed.../baring_brothers.htm Baring Brothers of London, and http://www.riggsbank..._Riggs/timeline.html Corcoran & Riggs of Washington. Meyer Rothschild, just dead, always contented himself with holding a second position to his brother Lionel, both in business and society, and never came to the foreground. He generally confined himself to the office of the firm, in New court, and governed from the desk. He resided with his brother in Piccadilly, close to Apsley House, the town palace of "the duke", where their ordinary life, like those of all wealthy Jews, was surrounded with every appliance of luxury, and where they entertained always with a graceful, often with a splendid hospitality. The turf and field are their favorite pastime. Their stable, which had been the special care of Meyer Rothschild, is at http://www.leatherhead-chamber.co.uk/ Leatherhead - John Scott's - where now for upward of 20 years they have cultivated what Disraeli describes as "England's noblest pastime". http://www.jewish-hi...sep1847/english.html Lionel Rothschild has been rewarded by that "blue ribbon of the turf", for which http://www.gwb.com.au/2000/myers/100300.htm Lord George Bentinck , at moments in his brief but excited political life, longed for beyond the highest reward which politics could bestow. Lionel might have won it even far earlier with Orestes, in 1835, had not a foul grain or two been introduced into the horse's oats the night before the race. His hunting box has been at http://www.touruk.co.uk/houses/housebucks_ment.htm Mentmore , some 40 miles from London, on the northwestern rail, where are kept up a splendid stud and a noble park - these also having been entirely under the mastership of Meyer Rothschild. Both Lionel and Meyer were in Parliament. They never, however, took an active interest in politics. They entered the political arena to assist in crowning the temple of freedom by the emancipation of their race, and wiping away the last prosecuting spot from the statute book of England. They are now both removed from the scene, Lionel having lost his election in London. http://dspace.dial.p...3/polspeech/suez.htm Mr. Disraeli , whom they look to naturally with pride and for whom they entertain very warm friendship, was frequently, when chancellor of the Exchequer, in the habit of consulting them on questions of finance. But they belonged to the silent benches. The Jews were once regarded as a race who lived exclusively among themselves, and the terror of Shylock, when he heard that his child had run off with a young Venetian Christian, was regarded as a true picture of their thought. But all this has passed away. The beautiful saying of the Hebrew woman who, when the prophet to whom she had been kind and hospitable on his way to Jerusalem, said: "What is to be done for thee? Wouldst thou be spoken for to the King or the Captain of the host?" answered "I dwell among my own people" is forgotten. The sister of Lionel and Meyer Rothschild was married to http://worldroots.cl...yfitzroydesc1663.htm Hon. Henry Fitzroy , of the ducal house of Grafton, and a child of Sir Anthony was recently wedded by a member of another noble house. Jews sit on the Bench, and in every profession in England they may be found in the first places. And we should not wonder if, under the rule of the incoming first minister Disraeli, in the elevation of Lionel Rothschild to the peerage, the coronet symbolically will take the place of the yellow cap of the Ghetto.
Gazette & Courier - Monday, February 23, 1874
Mr. Gladstone [William Ewart Gladstone] was received by the Queen at Windsor Tues. aft., when he formally tendered his resignation and those
Mr. Gladstone [ http://65.107.211.206/history/wegchron.html William Ewart Gladstone ] was received by the Queen at Windsor Tues. aft., when he formally tendered his resignation and those of his colleagues. Mr. Disraeli [ http://65.107.211.206/history/bdchron.html Benjamin Disraeli ] has been summoned, and will go to Windsor tomorrow. He conferred today with several members of the last conservative ministry. The new government is already partially constructed and will probably be completed within a week. All the members of Parliament for Ireland have been elected and are classified as follows: Liberals 15, conservatives, 30; home rulers, nearly all of whom can be considered liberals, 58.
Gazette & Courier - Monday, February 23, 1874
(Greenfield) Three Jews for the last 3 days have been doing an extensive business in Greenfield and vicinity by peddling eye glasses, which they claimed were manufactured of South American pebble, bu
(Greenfield) Three Jews for the last 3 days have been doing an extensive business in Greenfield and vicinity by peddling eye glasses, which they claimed were manufactured of South American pebble, but which were really made of a common inferior glass. Their method of operation was to go to the different houses, and by telling a very fine story, forcing their glasses upon those who would permit, and giving a receipt for the money paid, which they said could be presented at any bank and the money paid back any time in 4 weeks if the parties were dissatisfied after trial with their purchase. A great many people, principally ladies, were imposed upon in this way. But finally the game became known to our officers. On Fri. Capt. Charley Phillips came up from Deerfield, and informed Officer Kimball of their whereabouts, and the three, who gave their names as J.H. Stork of 337 Columbus Avenue, Boston, and Beck and Robert from some other place, were taken into custody, and were compelled to refund the money to Justice Davis as far as known that had been taken in this vicinity. After being liberated Office Bryant, on complaint of Officer Phelps, arrested them for peddling without a license, and Beck and Robert were fined $30 each, and for want of funds committed to jail. Stork, claiming to be a manufacturer, was discharged.
Gazette & Courier - Monday, February 23, 1874
The diamonds worn in a Jewish wedding in Boston on Wed. were worth $300,000, and the other precious stones and pearls at least $200,000. One sapphire in a locket cost $12,500 in Ceylon.
The diamonds worn in a Jewish wedding in Boston on Wed. were worth $300,000, and the other precious stones and pearls at least $200,000. One sapphire in a locket cost $12,500 in Ceylon.
Gazette & Courier - Monday, April 3, 1871
The Turkish harem and Salamlik
The Turkish harem and Salamlik - Turkish houses are always divided into 2 distinct habitations, one called the " http://www.victorian...RY/pix/sotoncd_w.htm Salamlik ", where the men reside & receive their male visitors, & the other the harem, where the mistress or mistresses of the house with their female attendants reside, & receive their lady-visitors. The rich have their eunuchs to guard these wives in that part of the building. No other man ever enters there. The sons of the house, if above 13, cannot come there as long as the other wives of their father reside there. The husband equally may not enter his wives’ room when a pair of yellow slippers outside the door indicates the presence of a strange woman. In consequence of the rigorous custom neither Christians nor Jews are allowed to reside in the regular Turkish quarters, as it is not expected they would turn their heads another way, if by chance they should meet the unveiled face of one of their Turkish wives. When in the week of mourning for one of their relatives they receive, sitting on the ground, visits of condolence, the sexes are then separated, although delicacies are frequently handed around in the shape of mocha coffee and cigarettes, which in itself would look strange and irreconcilable with our Western Jewish notions of mourning visits. It is Turkish custom that a visitor, once admitted within the door curtain, without further ceremony, saluting or noticing anybody, he enters the room, and jumps at once on the immense long sofa, then, spreading himself out in a cross-legged sitting posture, he makes his salam, or salutation, to the master of the house; next, he repeats the same to everyone separately in his turn. It is a rather ludicrous scene to see all this mimicking and waving of hands going on for some minutes, & to be repeated fresh for each visitor. It is notable that the Turks have a more rational way of greeting than we do. Our way is certainly an unmeaning fashion, to show our curls or bare craniums for our friends. The Turk, or Arab, never uncover their head, not even for the Sultan. In fact, there is nothing more insulting then when a Turk in his anger bares his head, & throws his turban to the ground. They salute generally by moving their right hand to their heart; then they touch the forehead, and afterward their lips, indicating therewith that their hearts and brains are cheerfully at your service.
Gazette & Courier - Monday, June 17, 1872
A visit to the howling dervishes of Cairo
A visit to the http://sircasaray.tu...u/sufism/dervis.html howling dervishes of Cairo - We entered a garden like court, planted with palm and plane trees and surrounded by ancient Roman columns. The background was a wall painted with broad red and white stripes, the middle part of which retreated niche-like, and was cut off by the few European spectators by a wooden grating. The floor was covered with fine mats, and a simple lamp hung in the center. The wall was partly covered with inscription from the Koran in Arabic letter. Their conductor, if I can call him so, was kneeling in a praying niche, surrounded by perhaps a dozen of his followers, squatting on their heels, who were chanting a prayer in a low, monotonous rhythm. With the courtesy which distinguishes the Orientals, so greatly to their credit, they offered us seats and coffee, and a stately man with long hair and beard, and characteristic intelligent features, came towards us. He was the sheik of the http://resurgence.gn.apc.org/issues/pearson207.htm howling dervishes , and we little anticipated that he was to play the main part in the dismal drama that was so soon to be performed before us. He exhibited to us photographic portraits of himself and of his son, a vigorous 10 year old boy. While we, through our companion, who was thoroughly versed in the Arabic language, were engaged in an easy conversation with the chief of the dervishes, the singing of the first part came to an end, and a new set of performers came upon the scene. These were better clothed, and among them 4 boys of between ten and twelve years of age. The sheik...began in a slow tone the words "La Raha illa Hah" (There is no God but God). This sentence was repeated hundreds and hundreds of times by them all, in ever more rapid tempo, and resembled the Jewish exercises...The singing became constantly more rapid, and ever more shrieking, shrill and penetrating, while single wild cries like "Huhu!" and "Ah!" were heard at intervals, so that at last the whole song of the company resembled a yelling scream of anguish, in the midst of which they suddenly, all at the same time, fell prostrate on the ground, which they kissed, and the second part of the ceremony was over...These people weekly undergo this http://www.exploretu...ead.com/mevlana.html inexpressible torture , taking no money for their performance. It must be part of the highest grade of religious fanaticism. Now the singers...divested themselves of their head gear and of their upper garments, the former being sort of a knit cap or turban, like what the Doges of Venice used to wear, under which a long mane of flowing hair descended upon their shoulders. A flute was heard in shrill, plaintive tones, accompanied by the wild beating of tambourines and of drums. A monotonous melody of penetrating, doleful tones resounds shrilly through the hall. The singer distorts his face into an expression of the deepest sorrow...The rest of the company then set up a howl so unnatural, so terrible beyond all description, that I can compare it only to the roaring of wild beasts or the scream of a locomotive. "HI,Hi,Hi! Hu, Hu, Hu!"...Their bodies as if moved by some invisible power http://www.mevlana.net/sema.htm performed every possible motion ; their wild manes hung round them like slimy snakes; with distorted gestures they touched the ground, the upper parts of their body like a machine, swayed up and down, as if it would separate from the limbs; the howl grew ever madder and wilder, and the writhing of their bodies increased, while, to the beating of drums and the piercing shriek of the flute, these fanatics reeled around with foaming mouths, as if they were insane or very drunk. They looked to me like poisoned creatures - like men who have lost all hope and are in the last stages of despair. Never in my life have I witnessed anything more terrible than this act of divine worship. One black man with staring glassy eyes with white foam on his half opened mouth, seemed as though he would break in two in the middle...For more than an hour this mad witches' Sabbath lasted, and the maddest of the mad, the craziest of the crazy, the most delirious of the maniacs, was our friend the sheik...The howlers tore the clothes from their bodies, while the audible gasping of their tortured lungs and the reeling cramplike motions...combined to make up a hideous mixture, which ended in a piercing scream of frightful dissonance. Then, in a conversational tone, the master, suddenly calm again, spoke a few words to his followers, where upon they reverently kissed his hands; and, before we left the garden, the whole company was engaged in quiet easy conversation, and in listening to the teachings of the coffee sipping sheik. I, however, overcome with excitement, hastened home, and could not rid myself of the horror that possessed me until I had committed this description to paper (from Appleton's Journal).
Gazette & Courier - Monday, November 10, 1873
Bible in the schools
Bible in the schools - Rev. Dr. http://freepages.gen...treets/H.Street.html Henry Martyn Scudder delivered a discourse on the question "Is it best to retain the Bible in the public schools?" at the Central Congregational Church, Brooklyn, last Sun. night. There were about 4000 persons present, and as the speaker, on fire with his theme, swayed them, their enthusiasm became irrepressible, and he was repeatedly interrupted by applause. He spoke of the care of the Fathers of the Republic that it should be founded on intelligence and virtue, that they had considered morality without the Bible as the light of a tallow candle to sunlight. They adopted the Bible as the foundation stone, and built the common schools upon it. Had their policy been a success? Hospitable to every race and creed, tolerant to all, this Christian land was free in everything to everybody. There was a demand to curtail this freedom, to exclude the bible from the schools - a demand of the Papal authorities. Do they love this country, its institutions, its freedom? With regard to the charge that the reading of the Bible is sectarian, he showed that the Bible might be excluded from the teaching of Catholics or Jews if they preferred, or they might read the http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/05140a.htm Douay version of the Old Testament; to that as read in the schools there was neither printed note nor verbal comment; it is sworn on by President, Cabinet, Legislature, the Judiciary, and in the army, navy, the courts - everywhere. The Lord's Prayer, which the Papists object to having read is the Paternoster they most frequently repeat of all other prayers. Why should it be excluded from the public schools? Imported criminals said the laws didn't suit them. The priests, with their ideas of Divine right, thought the same. If they did not like them, let them go back again. The exclusion of the Bible would be the funeral of American Republicanism. Referring to the report of the meeting of Irish priests and prelates in St. Louis, Dr. Scudder said, to yield an inch would be national folly, an infamy. The Bible is the charter of our liberties, its retention the question for the next ten years. [And isn't this an eye opener? The first objection to the Bible in public schools comes from the Catholic church...].
- Mon, Dec 1, 2008
