Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1883-08-09
MEMPHIS APPEAL
The HUNsAKIAN BLOOD ACCUSE.

THE HUNGARIAS BLOOD ACCUsA'
TON.
How despotism and ignorance are linked
together, both engendering crime, is clearly
exempli6ed in Russia to-day in the psrsecu-
tons of the Jew there. Ia Hungary, where
the imperial insolencs Of Austria aroused
the patriotic zeal of Kossutb, The same proof.
is furnished in the Gaze just decided there, in
which ten Jews were charged with being
concerned in numbering a Christian girl to
procure blood to mingle with their passover
bread. The early Christians used to be &C
cused of numbering children TO use their
blood in the sacrament; and this charge
against the Jews has endured for generations,
spite Of its evident falsehood. The Jewish
law permits the eating Of no blood, much
less OF that Of human beings. The law and
the prophets abound in prohibitions az to
eating blood: "But the 1ssh with the blood
thereof, which is the life thereof, ye shall not
eat" is found, often in the strongest possible
terms, Gen. il, 4; Levitt. vii, rs, q and xvii,
14-l7i Deut. xii, 1, 6, %; 1 Sam. xiv, 1884;
Eek. xxxiii, %, and other places. With
all this before them, what sort Of teaching
do these Hungarian Christians receive from
their priests, to have believed go impossible
an accusation? An examination of a Jewish
slaughterhouse would at once dispel any
such absurd belief. The whole affair has
been q tissue Of e~xiravagances; it reads like
a record of the dark ages when monks made
the popular religion, and the acquisition
manifested the apostacy of the CAurch from
the teachings Of its founder. Ia the town OF
~Nyireghyhsza the trial was held. In a
neighboring villsge, in April, 1882, Esther
Solymosi, a Christian girl, was sent by her
mistress on an errand TO another adjoining
village. Her sister reported meeting her
on her way back, and she was not seen
again. A month afterward rumor ascribed
her disappearance to the Jews, and at length
Moritz Scharf, a Jewish boy of twelve, said
he saw her killed. She was passing their
door, his father ordered him 10 call her 10,
and she was induced to enter the synagogue.
Soon sitter he heard cries, looked through the
keyhole Of the synagogue door, saw Esther's
throat cut and the blood caught 10 a basic.
AfterwArd he saw men clothe the body. He
tOAo IL PaAChISI Oub hACJ OAO1iCu hAm " W
silent. A younger brother Of five told a Elm
liar story, with the addition that he and
Moritz were pre- INT and held basins to catch
the blood, The following June q girls body
was found in the river near by; the clothes
were Esther's but the body showed no evil
dence of violence, and EstheI's mother did
not recognize il, but some others ssru II was
her. Some of the doctors decided the body
10 be that of a girl Of nineteen, while a COM
mission Of university professors decided
that the age was fourteen, which la.-
ter wSs Eslher's age. Then came some
raftamen who confessed that SONS
persons, apparently Jews, had paid
them to tie the body to the raft, keep it so
some days, then say they had found 1t float
ing all Of which they did. Ten Jew were
put upon trial, but vehemently protested
their innocence. The mother depossd that
the Jews had killed her child, for "God had
so enlightened her" There was reslly no
proof that the girl was dead, she had disap.
peared and her body had not been found.
The whole body from the river and a body
with a cut throat could not be the same, and
Esther may yet turn out TO be living. Under
examination the boy Moritz chung to his
story with wonderful ~tenacity and consistency,
young az he was, and although his father and
his mother were among the accused. To
their adjurations he answered: 81 hate Ju-
daism. 1 want to be a Christian" He said
it was part Of the Jewish religion TO sacrifice
Christian children, and the Christian priests
had told him 90. He told hon the blood
spouted from E.ther's wound; such a
f~poutipg the medical experts showed 10 be
impossible. Women testified that they had
heard the outcries in the synagogue, but they
disagreed widely as to the time when. Then
came the r aftsmen and declared the confes-
sion they had made was because they we're
put to the torture until they made it. They
were put to the water torture, splinters were
forced beneath their nails, and other cruel
ties. The committing magistrate proved TO
be a "Jew-baiter" and a church fanatic who
engaged busily in hunting up testimony
sgainst the Jews, aud the public prosecutor
found that brides, threats and torture had
been used 10 wiring confessions from the wit.
nesses. Ga this discovery he gave up the
case and declared the innocence OF the ac-
cused, and they we're found not guilty. But
for the discovery Of what religious fanatics
were doing to produce perjured testimony,
conviction and death would have been
the result. Examination has shown
that, through tie keyhole of the
synagogue door, only a very narrow
space OF the interior can be seen, certainly
nothing like the scene ard number of per-
sold told of by young MoriIz, and other in.
constituencies and contradictions were clearly
before the court. Yet the priests are relent-
Less, and the people are still demanding the
death Of the jews, who appear TO be in dan
ger, for already they have been assaulted
and mobbed. The whole proceeding is worthy
OF the middle ages, and shows what false re-
ligion and gross Ignorance and fansticism
will do to-day, as it did in inquisition times,
if it be allowed opportunity. As fsnaticism
shed the blood of the innocent in Judea 1900
years ago, SO the same spirit would willingly
perpetrate the same crimes to-day and think
it did God service. More than Ingersoll
these men are the practical enemies OF Chris
tianity.