The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1882-02-23
The Russian disabilities.

| The cities of the east are preparing to
| give the exile Jews from Russia cordial
welcome. and arrange for their employ
ment so that they may lot feel that they
are the subjects of charity or treated as
mendicants. But few Jew beggars have
! been known in the history of the world,
and especially in this country. and nothing
| would CRATE upon their consc seriousness more
| harshly than to be placed in the position
of receiving aims. They are proud, self
reliant race, and have given 10 civilization
| the highest capacities in science. literature.
art and commerce. Wherever they are
found, the evidence of thrift and enterprise
are seen. and it Is only when they have
been driven from their possessions and
| their homes desolated, that they appear be-
fore the country in the surroundings of
want. A public meeting was held in Phila-
delphia on the 18th, to make provisions for
the Jewish refugees from Russia. expected
there on the 22d. The mayor of the city
presided. Mr.. Dropsie, in stating the OBJ
iect for which they had assembled, said
that those who had read the newspapers
were aware that the Russian people, not the
Russian government,h had heaped upon these
Jews indignities and outrages which could
not be borne. One hundred thousand had
been despoiled If their homes, women
had been outraged, and other barbarities.
which ignorance and bigotry only could
devise, had been perpretrated. In order to
save their lives great many had fled 20
foreign shores. Up to the present time
about $500 have arrived in New York.
Philadelphia has agreed to take one-tenth
of this number. Hon. Horatio Gates Jones
said that before May there would be 10000
more of the refugees arriving in this land
of the free. The Jews" he said, had
been the cause OF prosperity wherever they
went. More than $50, 900 900 of their prop
ertv had been swept away, and more than
10000 outrages committed within the past
month" Rev. r. d. Harper said he wished
to speak for himself and the Christian min
istry for these down-trodden and oppressed
people. He thought it was time for this
government to say to the Russian gov
eminent that these outrages must stop.
Throughout the country the same sympa-
thy will be extended and every encourage
ment given them to cast their lot with the
American people, where they will soon be-
come useful citizens. contributing their in
dustry, skill and learning to the advance
ment of the prosperity of our country
There is no darker page in the history of the
times than that which records the cruel
prosecutions of the Russian Israelites. and
no more inetfaceable stigma fastened upon
people than that which will attach to the gov
eminent of the Gar, in the cruel outrages
VIII ich have been and are being inflicted
upon this unotfending race. We glance
back over the centuries to bring up the
trials and triumphs of this peculiar people.
and are touched with the tenderest sympa-
thy in the membrance of the wonderful
events which are associated with the race,
and the pathos and beauty of song and
story wherein their legends are written. The
American people will do themselves credit |
and respond to the christian sentiment of
the world by holding out the open palm
and offering the genuine heart welcome to |
the afflicted refugees who have sought IAN |
asylum from Russian despotism and cruelty |
In this American Republic, dedicated to re-
Iigious and political freedom and federation.