The Portland daily press., 1880-10-14
The Wandering Jew.
M. D. Conway's Account OF that and Like
Legends.

AsA. ~. OouWdy . account OF LnaL ana Like
Legends.
AT a recent lecture in Cincinnati Nj. d. Con
way recounted number of legends of legenda-
ry survival like that of Barbarossa the seven
sleepers, ETC., and then spoke of the Wander
ing Jew, who when Christ staggered under
the cross in the stony street struck him and
told him to go faster. In the 18th century a
venerable man appeared in Germany claiming
to be the Wandering Jew. He denied that he
had struck Jesus, but had said to him, $50
on faster, Jesus; why dost theu linger?" The
answer was, II am going, but thou shalt re-
main until RETURN He was visited by the
doctors of divinity, and all the learned men of
the ination hocked around him. He gave ac-
counts of interviews that he had had with Mo
hammed, and claimed that he had been bap.
tiled with nanias. He told new stories of
the crusade and seemed withal
learned man. He travelled from city
to city in the empire, and the myth
took a powerful hold in the minds of
those of that day and generation. The man
claimed that every hundred years new life
would be infused into his veins, and he then
began to feel young again.
In the southern regions of Europe the Wan
dsring jew became mixed up with Pontius Pi-
late. In the apostles creed he suffers stigma
though lauded in another. 1t is said that PLATE
threw himself iuto the lake at the top of the
mountain now known as Mt. PLATE (cloud
capped) and to this day there are people who
claim that they or their fathers or their grand
fathers, have seen some man come out of the
mist and wash his hands in this Internal lake,
and he, they say, is PLATE. The circumstance
of Judas death is clearly described in the BIZ
BILE. Christian animosity fell upon the race of
which Judas was member, and in the Wan
dering Jew was preserved all the terrible feel
ings about him. 1t was believed that he was
destined agent of Satan, regarding him as
simply diabolical being, to be hated as SUCH
1t is said that Judas's mother had dream
Judas would kill his father. She told
her dream to her husband and at
the child's birth he was shut up in chest and
cast upon the sea. only to be picked up by
king and queen. They proposed to keep him,
though they had a son of their own. Judas
was of a fiery temper, and over game Of
chess he killed the boy Of his benefactor. He
escaped and was taken into Pilates service,
but it claimed that he was familiar with every
crime in the code. AT last he was led to see
faults. He fell at the feet of Jesus, and Jesus
seeing in him his destined betrayer ac-
cept ed him as follower. Fiend incarnate as
he was, it is known that he felt remorse for
his final crime and brought down death upon
his own head In all this is depicted the su-
perstitions which have made the Jews the cru
CITED race For thousands of years ii appears
that no man ever considered a Jew a man.
When one was punished it was said they were
not torturing men, but only devils in human
form.
Shylock was the first to arouse even a sus-
picion that Jew was a man as well as Chris
tian. AS Mohammed said, "they are q nation
OF book" Strange as it may appear, through
all the years OF existence, they have never de-
veloped in cunning. never heard of but one
instance where Jew tried to escape by cum
ming. That was years ago when one of them
laughed at new revelation of the Virgin
Mary. He was led off by the enraged follow
ers OF Catholicism to be hanged, but on the
way to his doom he asked to be taken to the
fountain he had reviled. This was granted,
and he kissed the waters. He began to dance
and cry out that his rheumatism had been
cured and to sing out praises of the new dis
covery. He was led to the priest, the miracle
portrayed, and he was pardoned. 1t was in
tended to send him out t. ell of the wonder
full occurrence, but during The night he man
aged to escape.
The idea that the Jews are an ayaricious
race is a mistaken one. 1t is because they had
no country that they accumulated all the
wealth they could. 1t was considered at one
time they got all their money from Satan to
set up kingdom of anti-Christ in the world
They &C ,umulated wealth because they did not
care to spend 1t on society hostile to them.
They did not care for the baubles or pomps of
gentle life. Shylock refused many times the
amount OF his money for the pound of flesh
u hich represented to him a great blow at
Christianity. Wealth was the only means of
their survival They hoped, too, at one time,
to have country OF their own. Indeed they
would have been utterly destroyed in several
nations had itnot been for their wealth.
They were there protected by needy princes,
who knewtwhere they could find favor. The
tale of Shylock is that he wagered a pound of
flesh with Christian. He lost but refused to
pay it. The matter was brought before the
pope, and Shylock was fined 1900 scudis for
not paying the debt, and the other the same
amount for risking his life! The cruelty upon
the Jews was not visited by kings and princes.
The only real danger was from popular fanati-
cism. There swere times when Christianity
would have failed had 1t not been for the
Jews. Their contributions during the reigu of
Henry II. enabled him to follow up the cru
SADIE to the Holy Land. Some people used to
think that all the jew would have to do to get
gold would be to turn over his hand. They
used to think that this had got into their
blood. 1t was simply the Christian intoler-
ance which forbade the race to own land that
made them incline toward that kind of proper
ty which they could take with them.
In Turkey, where the Jews are treated best,
they number 10000. In Syria, there are 10000
of them; in England, 10000; in France, $4,000;
in Germany, 100000; and .in Austria, 10000
In Roumania the population.reaches 100000;
but of this number 100000 are Jews. and in
Russia, the country they hate most, there are
1000 900 of them. They always seem better
off in stronger nations, and it is a significant
fact in history that they gave nearly a million
of dollars to have Charles II. restored to his
throne. Somewhere in synagogue in Prague
it is said that God had traced his name. For
centuries the church has not been cleaned, in
the fear that the name will be rubbed out.
They explore it with torches as they would
the Mammoth cave, and by this incident
was remind ded of some of our Christian church.
es, where, for fear of rubbing .out something
this little error and that is left, until life itsef
would not be worth living,
In England there was law which did not
permit jew to prosecute Christian. One
of the former sued Christian Tor bill he
owed him. The Christian claimed before
rights in his court The Judge thundered out
"Pay him the money; you're 1more of a Jew
than he is!'' The Jews introduced coffee into
England, and before they came there lthe bev-
erage was unknown. A part of the religion OF
Nathan Rothschild, whose successors the world
all know, was cever to loan Spain farthing,
and he never did anything for the country that
banished his people 1t is said that on one oc-
casion Rothschild secured a position in the
market by trickery. During the battle of Wa
terloo he appeared with decidedly long face.