The New York herald., 1868-03-10
Superintendent Kennedy and the Puril
Festival.

Superintendent Kennedy and the Purim
Festival.
| The order for the arrest of the maskers en-
| gagged in the celebration of the Jewish festival
| Purim is the latest attempt Of Superintendent
| Kennedy to make grand parade of authority.
| As too often happens with this functionary,
power is again used, not to any good purpose,
but only in making pitiful invasion upon pri
vate and peaceful pleasures. From the state
ments given in another column 1t will be seen
that some Jewish citizen had had an under
standing with the authorities-as far as certain
of the authorities can be said to understand
anything-and the outrage was committed in
violation of permission given. This act is
characterized by that small spirit and pitifully
ingenious effort to seem efficient that appears
to distinguish all the acts of the Superin-
tendent.
The Purm festival is a religious rite. One
day rather more than two thousand years ago
the heart of Ahasuerus ''was merry with
wine" This Ahasuerus ''reigned from India
even unto Ethiopia, over hundred and seven
and twenty provinces" and who should dispute
the royal pleasure of such a mighty fellow,
especially when the fiery spirit of the
grape was filling his brain with whim and
extravaganza? Nobody should have done
it; but vasht did. vashti was the Queen
and she may have been tipsy, too. She was
beauty, and the King sent for her to come
into his presence ''that the people and the
princes" might be gladdened with the sight of
her charms. She stood upon her prerogative
and refused to go-positively, obstinately, con-
tumaciously, foolishy refused. Therefore
was the King very wroth, and his anger
burned in him." and Shushan, the palace, was
a stormy place. His Majesty sent for his con-
stitutional advisers, the wise men Of his Cabi-
net, (which knew the times, and, asking their
opinions on this unprecedented event, they
were found to be Of one mind, and that mind
was that the King must assert the dignity Of
his position, and that the safety Of all the
provinces required an example--required a
decree of divorce. So Vashti was sent home
to her father.
| Then the question was as TO her SUCCESSOR
and the new Queen was chosen on pretty
principle. Officers were appointed ''in all the
provinces of the kingdom, that they might
gather together all the fair young virgins !"
and from such an assemblage the King was to
choose the one he liked best of all. His choice
fell upon Esther, the niece of Mordecai the
Jew but II was not known who she was, ''and
the King loved Esther above all the women,
and set the royal crown upon her head In
those same days the Jews were having hard
time of il generally, and the Kings ministers
and his absurd old superintendents Of police
were doing what they might in the way of little
persecutions and had arranged the destruction
generally of all the sons of Abraham in the
realm. But Esther, the favored woman, saved
her race by little plot Of her own, and it fell
out that the Jews, instead of being destroyed,
'smote all their enemies with the stroke Of the
sword and then rested and made the time
one of ''fcasting and gladness' And as their
enemies chad cast Pur-that Is the Lotto
consume them and to destroy them, therefore
s'they called those days Purim, after the name
of Pur;" and they were made days to 'be
remembered and kept throughout every gener-
alton !" days of ''feastng and JOY and Of send
ing portions one to another and gifts to the
poor
In keeping this festival now in our great free
city the Jews were mindful of the fact that we
have law forbidding masquerading in public
but they could not fall to notice that this law
had become a dead letter. Several societies OF
; even foreign nationality have annual masked
balls and no one interfcres, and it was under
stood that In the celebration of this social fcs-
tival and in passing from house to house in
carriages the maskers would not be disturbed
But this understanding was violated and the
brilliant first policeman chose TO revive an ex
pired law against class Of our citizens leas
likely to abuse their privileges. Shall VIZ
never have done with this pitiful spirit at head
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