The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1892-08-01
FROM WEALTH TO POVERTY
And Samuel Szatzkin Regards the
Change as a Blessing.
HE Is ONE OF THE EXILES FROM
THE LAND OF THE GEAR.

l. Last Year lie w as MercnanG ana MICH
Man-Now He Is Content to Lay His
Head in New York Tenement-Scenes
as Thousands of Jews Tried to Leave
Russia-Hundreds Frozen to Death.
NEW YORK, July 30.-Samuel Szatzkin,
who last year was prominent
cloth importer in Moscow, Russia,
doing business which Melted him pro-
fit of from 100000 to $4,000 per an
mum, is now living on the top floor of
the tenement No. 418 East Hath street.
Though he is very poor he is happy.
SIT is hard for a man Of my years to
start anew in life,' he said, ''yet bless
the hour stepped on the shores of this
country, for here j know that my life is
safe and that my wife and children are
considered human beings. In Russia,
where l was wealthy, they were not con-
sidered worth as much as dogs.
''To tell you what we suffered there
would teke years. can only mention
Moscow Is years. I paid my taxes and
The Gear Became Convinced
that the holy city was being desecrated
by the Hebrews presence. We were all
ordered to leave the city within one year.
AS soon as the ukase had been issued
the customers of all Hebrew merchants
stopped paying their debts.
ut was declared by the authorities
| tbat avn1v HaIYoxu found in tho citu af
ter January IA, 1892, would be considered
an outcast and vagrant, and while a po-
liceman would receive three rubles for
every thief he caught, he would receive
five for every Hebrew he found. Ipaid
1000 rubles to the government officials
to prolong my time; but every police
man who saw me considered me a good
COW to milk, and / had to pay him any
thing he asked to avoid being arrested
and driven out of the city before could
raise enough money to emigrate.
IT will never forget January IA last.
The 5000 families ordered to be out of
the city by the evening waited to the last
minute. Itwas the
Coolest Ever Experienced.
The government had given orders to the
eab-drivers to keep their horses well
blanketed and not to stand them in the
street longer than five minutes to prevent
them from freezing to death. Now lis
ten to what was done for human beings.
For the 5000 exiles, however, who had
been driven to the railroad station there
has no shelter, and the one train on
which they were to depart was not to
leave until midnight Members of the
nobility, wrapped in their costly furs,
were driven past the station and calmly
looked on while women and children by
the dozen were frozen to death. They
heard the wailing and the crying, but did
not as much as give plying look.
''When the train arrived there were
only five cars, and into them the $1,000
people tried to crowd. That scene beg
gars description. People were crushed
and trampled to death. Ten per cent Of
the crowd managed to get into the train.
The others were forced to remain, and at
least five hundred froze to death that
night. By paying outrageous sums to
the policemen the others were allowed to
stay until the next day, when two trains
arrived and took away 5000. 1t took I'M
til the 18th for all to get out of the city.
Only $4,000 left the city; 1000 had died.
81 could recount many other instances
of the inhumanity to the Hebrews, but
not now"