The Canton advocate. [volume] (Canton, D.T. [S.D.]) 1877-1897, 1881-05-05
shift for himself, and usually at 10

SullI 4OT ulHlSSu, Auu usually ~ Az
years Of age he is able to make out the
sense. At IL he becomes Bar-mitsrah.
or "son of the commandment" and is
then responsible for his own sins,
which, up to that time, the father has
borne. He is expected to expound
some difficult passages of the Talmud
publicly in the synagogue: # a child
cannot repeat the Kodesh in the syna-
gogue, the soul of deceased parent is
supposed to remain in purgatory.
There is no danger that this may be
the case WHEN Master Walter Roth
schild is called upon to 60 through the
performance. He is already consider
ed an excellent Hebrew scholar.
To show how important is the event
of the boys becoming son Of the
commandment his father will COM
memorate it by giving to every child
in the jewish free school, of which he
is president, and of which his son is
nominally a member, refreshments and
theatrical entertainments. Ten tons
of cake and sixty thousand oranges are
said to have been ordered for distribu-
ton among the twenty-five hundred
pupils, !boys and girls, of the institution.
The importance of the Barmitzrch is
derived from a prejudice in the He
brew faith which places man far above
woman. The Jewish prayer book con-
tains the words: Blessed art thou, o
Lord cur God, King of the universe,
who hast not made me woman" The
Rothschilds fully share in the belief of
the superior blessings of male offspring.
Daughters, Anselm, the eldest son Of
the founder, who had been deprived by
providence of male issue, used to say;
daughters are dear to my heart. but
they cannot be bankers, you know"
There is an anecdote told of him to
the effect that he offered his Wife a
million of florins if she would present
him with an heir. "Liberal as the sum
was" a writer remarks, at does not
seem to have been enoug to produce
the desired result
Ansem took his disappointment good
naturedly, remarking that the price of
boy babies must have advanced since
his time, for he would have been will
ing to have been born for half the
money.
When he appointed his nephew,
Mayer, Charles, his successor at Frank
fort, he took the young man in his arms
saying: "Much as 1 love you, I should
have loved you better had you let me
be your father"
Although two female members of the
Rothschild family have married christ
ians, the Rothschilds have always been
devoted to their theological faith, and
are quite strict in observing the forms
of the synagogue. They are not devoid
of superstition in their creed, believing
that much of their good fortune has
come from their answering fidelity to
Judaism.
Heinrich Heine, when asked why he
had become a convert to Christianity,
replied that he did not like to belong to
the same faith as Baron James Roths-
child without being as rich as he; that
he could not be as rich without being
as stupid, and that no other man could
possibly be.
Last year Lord Rosebery was about
marrying Miss Rothschild. His lord
ships mother is married to the old.
fashioned Duke of Cleveland A friend
congratulated his grace on the intended
marriage of his step-son to Miss Han
nah de Rothschild, and highly praised
the amiability and other accomplish,
ments of the young lady. eyes," said
the old lord of Bard castle, "a vely good
girl l believe, a very good girl, and am
given to understand quite rich. Yes, !
am told quite rich" The duke Of
Cleveland spoke in good faith. He is
so wholly wrapped up in his aristocrat-
ic prejudices that the deeds of the no.
blemen Of recent creation or the wealth
of financial kings are seldom alluded to
in hispresence. He hardly knew who
| the ROthschilds were.