Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1882-07-19
A HORRIBLE STORY.
A Beautiful Young Hungarian Girl Said
to Have Fallen a Victim to Religious
Fanatieism.
The Young Sons OF a Jewish Rabbi Con
TESS to Have Witnessed the Blood.
Curdling Crime.

The Paris correspondent of the New York
Times begins recent letter with the ques-
ton: What las become of Esther Soly-
mcsy ? Has she gone away with some bold
soldier boy, or she a victim TO the re-
ligious fanancism OF the Jews OF 1iza-
Eszlar? You will be pleased to notice that
i express no personal opinion on this mat
ter, that / simply retail the strange story oil
her mysterious disappearance as related OH
cially BY the police authorities, who are at
loss themselves about coming to conclu-
sion. Esther was very beautiful peasant
girl, with an unblemished character. About
three months ago she vanished from her
native village, no one could imagine why or
wherefore; the police was appealed TO and
an investigation ordered, but with no results;
she had no suitors, or if she had they were
also peasants who would not have dreamed
OF clipping with her, and there was no
noble seducer in the neighborhood who
might have decoyed the poor thing from her
home. The mystery seemed impenetrable, yet
no one suspected foul play, no one thought
of accusing the Jews, who, il very numer-
Gus in the district, where they have emf
grated from Poland and Gallicia, have al
WAYS lived in harmony with the Magyar
population, and from the 4th OF April until
about three weeks ago not clew was
discoverable Suddenly, Esther's mother
appeared at the office of the local magis-
trate "She had been looking for her daugh-
ter" she said, "and she had met the Rabbi
Scharf, who had hidden her to be OF good
cheer, for suddenly the earth had not swal-
lowed her up, wherefore she would return
some day, and | thanked him for his kind
sympathy, when, as be was leaving me, he
added, there is a fable current among the
ignorant and superstitious that we lsraeltes
make use of christian blood in the CONNECTION
OF our Passover bread. But it is lying
tale, and L advise you to pay no attention to
1t, should it be told in this instance, as may
ha PIPER -, ,.. =, .,. % ,h;,.;,r .hs
brooded over the rabbits words, she commu-
nicated her suspicious to her neighbors, and
as the rabbits son, boy OF six, had spoken
to his playmates about a ceremony with
closed doors, at which the lost girl was pres
ent, the police was peutioned TO look in that
direction. The police did SO; the boy was
questioned, and the whole Scharf family was
arrested. Mr.. and Mrs. Scharf denied indig-
nantly, SO did their eldest son, a youth Of
sixteen-at frst-but the younger one per-
sisted in his original avowal: "The Hunga-
rian girl was sacrificed by my father on the
afternoon OF Easter eve"
You may imagine the excitement caused
in the community-in Russia it would have
been m anifested by Semitic massacre--at
Tisza-Eszlar it took different form, for its
covites, yet threats were uttered there, not
against the entire Jew community, but SIM
ply against the Scarf family. A detachment
OF troops was dispatched from Buda Pesth TO
defend the Jail, and the governor was in
structed from headquarters TO spare no effort
to get at the truth; the declaration of Jo-
hannes was categorical, but it was not
enough; could not Benjamin be persuaded 10
say what he knew about it? Benjamin for
dav Ifra nj hl1f at las he
too made clean breast waking up in the
night and exclaiming that his conscience
could not bear the load any longer-that he
wanted to make full confession. The ex-
aiming judge vas sent for, and was informed
that at o'clock on the eve of the Passover,
at the conclusion OF the ordinary religious
ceremonies, his father, several of the Jew
residents OF Eszlar, three foreign rabbis, and
Hebrew beggar from Gallicia remained in
the synagogue after the departure OF the
congregation. / will give the rest of his
deposition textually: my father sent my
brother and me away. But We remained in
the courtyard, and we saw him call in
Esther Solymosy and shut the door on
her. / was curious TO know what they
were going to do, and peeped through the
keynote, and saw one of the foreign rsbbis
and the beggar throw her on table, tied
hands and feet, while another rabbi cut her
throat with long knife. My father did not
kill the girl, but he held a basin for the
blood, 10 make which run freely the beggar
raised her body up by the feet" Such is the
evidence of Benjamin Scharf, by whom the
confession is signed. Immediately after all
the actors in the tragedy were thrown into
prison, with the exception of the Gallician
mendicant and the rabbi, whose name Benia-
min had forgotten. Since then Benjamin
persists in his statement, which never varies,
while the replies Of the accused parties to
their judicial examiner are marked by nu
merous contradictions. The mystery OF the
affair is not confined, however, to the alleged
crime of which Esther was the victim. On
the l4th of June the body of a female dressed
in the clothes worn by her on the Sd of April
was found floating in the Thesis. Naturally,
the rumor spread it was she; but upon ex-
animation it was ascertained that, if the
clothes belonged to that unfortunate, it was
not her corpse, but that OF some one entirely
unknown in the village, and which had not
been In the water more than six or seven
days. Esther had been missing for nearly
three months. Naturally, also, the popular
mind jumped at the conclusion that a
second crime had been committed to
conceal the first one, and here again
the authorities are puzzled, having no
light by which 10 direct their researches, ex-
cept a rumor that one Of the bodies depos-
tied in the dissecting-room of an Austrian
medical practitioner was sold by his assist
ant on or about the 18th of June. This in
dividual has likewise been arrested, but the
results OF his interrogatory have not been
divulged, as NJ. Tizsca, the Hungarian pre-
mier, replied 10 question put by M. Istoczy
in the Chamber, sin order not TO compromise
the success of the investigation" 1 suppose
that this horrible secret will be cleared up
some day, and if, as l tear, it should be
proved that Esther was killed by the Jews
for the sake of her blood, you may expect
such an explosion of peasant Indignation
against the coreligionaries OF the criminals
as has not been witnessed in Europe since its
dark ages. The belief of the Christian
children are inundated by the Jsraelites has
always been prevalent among the lower
classes in Poland, Russia, and Turkey, and
this one act of few fanatics will be 30
turned to account by the anti-Semitic
sgitators as to become evidence, all-suficient
with the ignorant mob, of the universally
of a custom