Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-12-29
SINCE THE TINE OF TRADITION.
THE PERSECUTION OF THE HEBREWS
lwR1rrEN FOR THE DISPATCH. ]


direction stop at the other side, like the ele-
waited road trains in New York. But the
station at old York has characteristic of
its own. The road makes great bend here,
and the station-a great rooted structure of
glass and iron-is built around the bend.
You so out OF the station, aud the first thing
which YOU come to is wall, the old wall;
built by the Romans, many tunes battered
down and reconstructed since then, the last
time in the fourteenth century. The rail-
way and the wall, the new and the old,
stand close together.
You cross the handsome Lendal bridge and
pass the fine building of the Yorkshire Club,
and Just across the street are the ruins of an
old monastery, and close by is an ancient
mullangular tower erected by Roman
soldiers. One is constantly impressedin York
by this conjunction of old and new. Out of
wide streets, well-paved and lined with
substantial modern shops and houses, you
may turn into little old, crooked by-streets
and alleys, where everybody walks in the
middle of the road, and where the
gables of the medieval dwellings
nearly meet over the heads of the
passers-bv. People can almost shake hands
across the streets out of the upstairs win
dows The ancient and the modern seem
TO be forever shaking hands across the streets
OF York.
A Place of Historical Interest.
The Island of Great Britain has suffered
three great conquests. 1t has been conquered
by the Romans, by the Saxons, by tha Nor
mans. In each OF three great revolutions,
York has had a place. York has been a
town of some Importance for nearly 20
centuries. The Romans, when they came,
found some kind OF savage settlementupon
the banks of the River Ouse, and proceeded
at once to set a colony of their own in the
place of it. Agricola made York fortified
camp, and built walls about it. The Sixth
Legion, surnamed THE Conquering," was
sent to be its garrison. Presently, the town
became the pleasant residence of wealthy
Roman families. There was good society
there, the brilliant young officers making
q bright and agreeable feature of it Peo-
pie like to live there. Along the banks of
the river, and amid the shade of the great
trees, handsome residences were built and
furnished with ali the elaborate and beauti-
full Furnishings and garnishings of rich Rome
That was seventeen centuries ago. To-day
YOU can see the mosaic of the old floors and
broken pieces of the old frescoes and the
jewels which the ladies wore, and the
daggers which the gentlemen carried, and
the stone coffins in which they were buried.
l especially remember little broken altar
dedicated TO Fortune. What significant
and pathetic memorial That was the only
god they had in those strange times
The old religions had been'discredited and
abandoned, and survived only in the SUPER
stitions of the people. They had an idea
that prayer and sacrifice might somehow be
connected with good luck. And so they set
up altars to the deity which more than all
others represented their idea of the AL
mighty Father-the god, Good Luck But
bad luck seems to have oYertaken them for
all that: the little altar is battered and
broken. But seventeen centuries ago all was
prosperity in York. Roman emperors
came up to visit the prosperous colony.
Constantine lived and died here. And here
1t was that Constantine, his son, the first
Christian Emperor, was invested with the
imperial purple. Little by little the new
religion found hearers in the barracks and
in the ball rooms, and in the year three
Notwithstanding a Bishop from York
attended a council in the South of France.
Temporary Defeat of Christianity.
Then came the second conquest. The bar
barians descended upon the empire, and all
the legions had to be called home to fight.
York was left without a garrison. Down
came the Picts and Scots, and all that fair
civilization came to an untImelv end. From
across the water came the Angles and Saxons,
Christianity perished in the struggle. What
ever churches had been created fell with the
fail of the villas and palaces. Gradually
things settled down. York became bar
barian capital, the chief city OF Northum-
bria. 1t was from Yorkshire that the En-
glish captives came whom Gregory looked
at with eyes of curiosity and pity in the
market place of Rome. And when he sent
Augustine and the Christian mission was
preached in the South, in Kent, in Ethel
bertS Kingdom, it happened that Ethel
bert's daughter married Northumbria's
King. And when the bride arrived in
York she brought her chaplain with her,
Bishop Paulinus; and so Christianity came
into York second time.
Years went by, and Edward the Confessor
was King over all United England; and
after him came Harold. But Northumbria
objected. The union of all England was a
new thing, and up In York they were all
eager for home rule, if not for independent
sovereignty: and Harold had to 60 up there
with a stout army TO reason with his re-
luctant subjects, and to persuade them by
dlnt of vigorous arguments with sharp
points and sharp edges. And he had Just
succeeded, and had said his devout thanks
givings in the cathedral, and was sitting at
a splendid banquet in the castle, celebrating
his victory, when in came a messenger.
bearing evil tidings. William the Norman
had landed in the South. Everybody
knows the rest of that story. Harold met
defeat and death at Hastings. William be-
came King OF England. The third conquest
was effected. But Northumbria was re-
bellious still. William visited York and
brought his soldiers with him. But. once
his back was turned, the men of the proud
town shook their fists in his direction,
Finally William took decisive step. He
laid all NorthUmbria in ruins, and turned
the country into a wilderness. For wears.
from York TO Durham, the land lay waste
without inhabitant. But the city came to
life again. Its houses were rebuilded; the
new cathedral crowned the hill in the old
place; and to-day round tower remains of
the new castle which William built, as a
reminder of the third conquest.
The Most Prominent Feature.
The castle and the cathedral are the two
most prominent buildings in York. They
both have shared In some singular and
characteristic episodes in the history of tine
town. One OF these was about the time OF
the coronation OF Richard OF the Lion Heart.
First In London and then in a score OF other
towns, the Hebrews were plundered of their
goods, and were lucky if they escaped with
their heads. The Hebrews of York fed to
the castle, carrying their families with them,
and whatever money and gems they could
crowd into their pockets, and barred
the great gates against the mob. Every
Hebrew who fingered on the wrong side of
the castle wall was at once hurried out of
existence. And the multitude of rioters
battered against the solid stones. They laid