The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-04-26

lands of Germany and Muscovy, the dangerous
realms of Richard or Philip Augustus. Every
country and city was benefited by the presence
OF these indefatigable laborers. Wherever the
jew came he either brought capital or created
IT. lie was the mOney-lender of Europe before
the FlOrentine and Venetian bankers
engrossed that gainful trade. He supplied
the means with which merchants made their
purchases, mobiles supported their lavish estab-
lishments, and monarchs waged their destructive
wars; and the usuTious interest which be exacted
Tor his loans made him hated and envied by the
less prudent Christians. Jewish communities
grew up in all the European cities, distinguished
from their barbarous neghbors by the regularity
of their habits, the purity of their morals their
learning and scholarship, no less than their com
merclal thrift; and when the Semitic Saracens
had sunk into Incidence and decay, their rela-
tiyes, the Semetic Hebrews, continued to impart
to Saxons and Franks the higher traits of an
ancient civilization. While Greek and Roman
Babylonian ana Carthaginian died out from the
earth, the chosen people still preserved their
mental and moral vigor
Yet the most fatal prosecutions met them in
every land They lived amidst sciences of in
tolerable suffering. To rack and torture a jew
was the tavorite employment of medieval Chris
tians To treat him with insult and contempt
was considered Christian duty. Yet, in spite
of the persecution of their barbarous neghbors
the Jews grew rich and powerful; their patient
industry conquered at length in the. struggle
with feudal cruelty and incidence; their trading
cities on the Rhine and the Moselle became
again centres of intelligence and wealth; Jewish
bankers, merchants, artisans, manufacturers
became the models of those of Italy and Ger
many and the example of Semitic learning and
intelligence probably aided greatly in awakening
the intellect of Europe.
The feudal mobiles looked with an insane
hatred upon the busy cities of the workingmen,
and constantly labored to destroy their benefac
tors. They would have been glad to have swept
them from the earth. Like Commines they
could not understand why God permitted labor
ING communities to exist. Froissart reioiced i'm
the slaughter of 'the low-born peasants" of
Ghent, and lamented that any of them were left
The Dukes of Burgundy loaded the cities with
taxes, which they collected whenever they were
able. They made every excuse for pillaging and
burning them. The good Duke Philip burnt
the rich town of Dinant, and drowned eight hun
dred of its citizens in the river; the bold Charles
made magnificent Liege a fearful solitude. \
warfare almost constant ragged for several centu-
rics between the worEinGmen of Flanders and the
feudal powers around them. in which the men
of labor were more than match for the men of
the swOrd--m which the long pixies of the trades
men often put TO flight great hosts of mail-clad
warriors. and which aided in great degree to
produce the downfall of chvalry. The example
of Ghent and Bruges everywhere awakened
the self-respect of laboring men. Ghent stood at
the front OF European progress. James. and his
son Philip. Van Artcveld awolle a wild enthu-
siasm for self-govenment which was felt in
every land. The Partisan butchers and clothiers
rose against their king, all Flanders obeyed
Philip, and the people, il Is said. adOred him as
a rod: nobility and ROYALTY began to be looked
upon as badges of infamy; the crimes of kings
and mobiles made them hated as murderers and
assassins and the peasantry of France, in the
rising called the Jaquerie, said very truly that.
The mobiles of the kingdom of France, knight
and squire. were disgrace to it,"
The Little Corporal, published by Alfred L.
Shewell. Chicago, is, usual, full of interesting
and instructive articles suited TO the tastes OF
young readers.