Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1883-11-12
Aanrastfr fntelIigsnrer.
MONDAY EVENING. NOV. IL, 1883.


A HIe, Inc span OF whose years EN-
braces century, is In itself a subject o
strange interest but life like that o
Sir Moses Mont-6ore whose ninety nintl
birthday was honored in Ramsgate, tn,
English Atlantic city, last week, is a
suggestive as the hundred years of con
temporary history. A tower among tn
chiefs of the chosen people, patriarc
hale in years far beyond the allotted sur
of human life, Sir Moses, honored b
Christian kings and Hebrew plutocrats
revives all that is noble and inspiring il
the annals of the House of David. Borl
In the decade that saw the work Of Vol
taire embody itself in the great revoIu
tion, the patriarch reading the felici
tations of royalty to day, came to her
itage of persecution, vicisstude and
ignominy. The writings of the cyclopHi'
lists had brought about the first
steps of tolerance for all creeds, but the
Hebrew. In Italy, the land of his birth,
the rack and the inquisition were still
the ordeal of everything opposing papal
rule. England alone offered security to
the hunted race, though the statutes of
the Stuarts were still in force. When the
young Moses Mon efiore came with his
father to London, from LsghOrn, in the
closing years OF the last century, the
"Jew" was still hated, bated, robbed
aud pillaged by the dissoute no
bles, who mortgagei To them their
patrimony and paid them in per.
centage of cruelty and rapine.
The House of Hanover reiyned, but the
spirit of the SJuar ruled The Hebrew
was the Gibeonite of reckless and
heartless hierarchy. But though beaten,
imprisoned, robbed, scourged, the He
brew ruled the argosies of every sea and
handled the moneys of every market
London was the RialtO of Christendom,
aud while the Hebrew in every city in
Europe was ground down by inSOlent
aud restrictive laws, in London he WAS
t,citly equal before the affairs of Nam
mon, if no where else.
Suppose the printing press aud the art
OF printing unknown, imagine the story
this veteran, meekly receiving the
worlds honOrs, might tell He was a
lad of three when Mrabeau stood
undaunted in the Tennis court of Yer
sailles, facing the kings captain ana
dehantly pr0claiming the iuvlOabilty OF
the sovereign people in congress rs
sembled he was lad of niue
when the Helots of France, man
united from slavery that had begun
before Christ, led the descendant of a
thousand years of kings tC the block and
threw down the gage to the monarchs of
Europe with the first glimps IS of the
wonders Of the history of his race, were
the awful e1nyulsDnS that
swept "a proud aristocrdcy from the face
Of Europe; simultaneous with the chap
ters of his race that revealed the pun
i3hment of Israel iu having kiugs, he
read, as We read the news of 10 day, the
story of Mary AntOiuette, dragged to the
block, in the very spirit that sent the
faithless monarchs of Judah to destruc
tion. \ la1 OF ten he saw the ragged
hordes of the Republic sweep Rhineward
to the destruction Of the armies of Fred
eric and the House Of Austria. Playing
in the park of st. James, his wondering
eyes must have often marked the reeling
groups that came from nights Of debauCh
on Carleton terrace, to take up the
hn ainpga nF 1tnta in ~ AtarhanS
which the world has come 20 marvel at,
as the statesmen, Pitt, Fox, Sheridan
and Burke.
What retrospect \ hundred years
of history, embracing the consolidation
of the American union, the advent of the
Corsicau B)saparte, the stupendous
of Marengo, Jena, Austerlitz,
Moscow, Waterloo When he was
boy, playing at marbles the first Of the
house Of Rothschlld was q frightened
money lender, trembling in his iron
grated house in the Frankfort Ghetto,
and burying the ducal jewels entrusted
him in the cellar of his squald home.
Endowed to day with every right of the
insolent Christian, the veteran can
remember when the twilight bell was
The signal for his race TO retire to their
,wn quarter, not to be seen in the city,
under penalty Of rack and screw. Nor
heed he cast 50 far back to recall
hat in free and liberal England
lis race We're hardly above the plane
" the African, possessing no civil
lights that the dominant race were
'ound to respect. He had reached man.
'ood long before u Hebrew could sit in |
'arliament, and he was passing into the |
tage OF the patriarch before the aris |
ocracy opened its ranks to honor the |
onspicuous men Of the House of Israel. |
lie was a benefactOr and phhnthropist, |
,nown wherever the wrongs OF his race |
ound tongue, when .his friend, the |
'anker Rothschld, sat under the gal. |
cries of the House Of Commons, denied |
or years the seat to which popular
uffrage had elected him. He was a
nan OF mature years and power when
'lr Walter Scott's matchless romance of
lvanhoe gave the world the touch
ng tale OF the Jewish maiden's beauty
md fidelity.
1t is a wonderful story this centena-
ian could tell, if he were minded, like
he vlzler III the Arabian tale, to sit
lown and rehearse the maryels that |
,ayp coma IN n,u, Sin,, A., ..,- 49,,