The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1884-11-05
An HOnOred Centenarian.

ing editorial account of notable event
and sketch of noble life: "It is
a significant mark of the advancing
liberalism of our time, and of the spread
ing of the feeling of brotherhood among
all races and sects, that one of the most
famous of Christian ministers should
stand in Jewish synagogue to do
honor to the hundreth birthday of the
noble Hebrew philanthropist, Sir Moses
Montefiore. In his remarks at the
Temple Emanuel, in this city, last
Sunday, Mr.. Beecher well said that the
distinguished man in whose honor
special services of festivity were being
held in all parts of the world had, by
his long life and his services so splendid
to humanity, himself become the text
from which both Jew and Christian
might alike receive instruction; that it
was a grand sign of civilization when
people of all sects and of all nationalities
bowed their heads to honor this great
man; and that man so good as
Monteliore took his title from the no.
bility, not to accept honor from, but
rather to reflect honor upon, them. Of
the four Ms that the Hebrew had
cause to revere, said another orator
Moses, the law-giver: Moses Maimon-
ides, the Jewish Luther; Moses Men
delssohn, the philosopher; and Moses
Montefiore, the philanthropist - the
first three appeal to us only by the
qualities of the brain, while Sir Moses
Montefore has earned his place in
Jewish annals by the qualities and
greatness of his heart And Just as
there is no more unlovely and repulsive
thing in all nature than the old age
which follows life of vice, ignorance,
and selfishness, so conversely, there is
nothing more beautiful than the quiet
and serene old age of one who has
passed pure and unselfish existence,
devoted to his race, his religion, and
his fellow-man, attended by that which
should accompany old age, as honor,
love, obedience, troops of friends.
1t is interesting, also, to reflect that
here, peacefully and quietly passing his
old age among the men of our time, is
one who as child might have seen
Burke or the younger Pitt, whose life
is almost co-eval with the national ex-
istence of this country, who was living
when Washington was elected first presi-
dent of the United States, who was old
enough to remember and be impressed
by the closing scenes of the French
revolution, who had already passed the
allotted age of three score and ten when
the Crimean war broke out, and who
was already an experienced man of
business and member of a great bank
ing firm when the fate of Europe was
decided by Waterloo. 1t might even
have been possible, as the st. James
Gazette points out, for Montefore, as a
boy four years old, to have seen con-
victed coiner burned at the stake before
Newgate. He has seen the map of
Europe entirely reconstructed, two
great empires formed from petty states,
and has watched with intelligent inter-
est, and not infrequently as an active
participant, the progress of religious
and civil liberty, and the gradual extern
sion of civilization throughout the
world
Though the charity of Montefiore
has been broad and liberal, unre-
strained by race or creed limits, he will
be best remembered for his earnest
efforts, continued through half-cen-
fury, to gain for the distressed people
of his nationality, in all parts of the
world, independence and freedom from
persecution. He has not been content
with giving literally of his great wealth,
but has undertaken pilgrimage after
pilgrimage to Palestine, to Hungary, to
Italy, and to Russia, pleading with min
listers and crowned heads, and employ
ing all the arts of diplomacy and argu-
ment to procure relief and honorable
treatment for his co-religionists. No
wonder that thousands of Hebrew
temples throughout the world united in
congratulation and thanksgiving on the
centennial anniversary of his birth.
Though the events of the past few
years in Hungary and Russia and Ger
many have proved that the ignorant
and bigoted still cling to their old
hatred and distrust, yet the general
condition of the race throughout the
world has greatly improved; and to no
one man, perhaps, is this due so much
as to Sir Moses Montefiore. AS long
ago as 1927 he undertook his first Jour
ney to Palestine, and at his second pill
grimage it has been said that the
story of his tour almost recalls one of
David's triumphal entries to city with
the music of harp and psalter. Wher-
ever he went he endowed hospitals,
planted gardens, constructed aqueducts,
built synagogues, and repaired the
tombs of men whose names are now
historical both i'm sacred and SecIlar