The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1892-04-03


neither one nor the other. Over and over
again, in the course of a journey through
Upper Hungary and Pennsylvania, IL was
to the Jew had to turn for information
or for direction about the road ana notes.
And the funny part of 1T was that ne was
aiways there to give it and to get lnforma-
ton from me in return. 1t seemed as II l
could not stop for a moment, even IN Inc
loneIiest mountain pass, without curis ana
caftan suddenly appearing, from, never
knew where, at my side. cannot oeny
that there was something peculiarly obi
GUS to me in the catechism through which
l was as invariably put. As soon as saw
the familiar ringlets l knew | must be
ready to explain where l came from, where
I was going, what / was doing, that l
wasn't drummer, and to answer dozen
and more questions. But the very ag-
gressiveness of the Jews curiosity has its
good points. 1t has been because of his
desire and determination to know and to
use his knowledge to his greater profit
that he has met with success in Hungary.
These are the qualities which will make
him, to certain extent, good citizen in
every country to which he goes. 1t is no
wonder that he has got the better of the
far more attractive peasant who, if he can
secure his daily allowance of food and
brandy. is quite willing to let the future
take care of itself, and to whom the credit
system means blessed, if temporary, es-
cape from the old habits of enforced econ
omy. But to make capital of the peasants
weakness and shortsightedness is not Pc
culiar to the Jew. What OF the local mer-
chant in Hebridean towns? Or what, for
example, of the Indian agent in the West?
If in the struggle for existence the Hun
garian or Wailachian peasant goes to the
wall 1.-THE Saxon, they say, is as good
a match for the wiles of Israel as the
Yankee), it is simply because the Jew
from over the border is more industrious,
or it may be more clever. The popular
idea, of course, is that he is chiefly clever
in cheating his customers or clients, that
it is to ways which are not quite open and
straightforward that he owes his financial
success. But it is only fair to say that in
Ma-amaros Sziget and in all Pennsylvania
l never suffered from this special side of
his cleverness. In all his dealings with
me he was always honest and above board.
Often, for the experience, stopped to eat
and drink in his repulsive little inns, and
almost invariably his wine and bread-I
was careful to try nothing more elaborate
were good, though once or twice l saw
him buying from Jewish butcher offal
which gypsy would have scorned, and
his measure was fair. Nor did he ever
oyercharge me.
But there is another reason for the pop
ular feeling against the Jews, which, re-
greet to say, is far more justifable this is
their manner of life. That when the Jews
came from Russia to Maramaros Sziget
they should all have settled together in
one quarter. as indeed they have in every
Hungarian town in which they are to be
found, is not surprising If they always
endeavor to live together and apart from
other men and thus aggravate their posi-
ton as separate people, it is the fault of
the Christians, who for centuries shut
them up in their ghettos. Nor would this
be an argument against them in Hungary.
Saxons, Slavs, Wallachians and Ruthe-
mans, who have been in the mountains of
Maramaros Sziget and of Transylvania
far longer than the Jews, still do all
they can, each race, to keep its own viii
lage or quarter of the town just as scrupu-
lousy as each preserves its language, cos
tune and, in many cases, dances and
music. But it is their habits and customs,
probably the survival of old ghetto condi-
tons, which make the Jews here so re-
pulsive-to use a milder word would be
Misrepresentation. Again, the Christians
of the past must be held responsible for
the want of cleanliness which has become
habitual with but too many, a fact, how
ever, which does not make their dirt of to-
day less unpleasant to the Christians of the
present. At Maramaros Sziget you will
find the peasants living in a long, wide
street, in tolerably decent, well-kept cot
tages, each with the great pole of it's well
slanting into the road, and each within its
own enclosure. But probably four or five
times as many Jews are huddled together
in far less space in street that is more
like the slum of large metropolis than
thoroughfare in a country town. The
dirt of the Wallachian is made reproach
against him, but he, at least, puts on
clean shirt and drawers (all he wears
under his sheepskin) once week, and his
is the comparat vcly clean dirt of the
g. e Al Al. q
in the open air. The gypsy is still dirtier,
but even he, in his picturesque second
hand rags, is clean compared to the Jew
who herds with his fellows in ill-venti-
lated, unclean rooms and closets and Gel
lars, and who apparently never changed
his greasy clothes in his life except, as he
grew up, to add an extra length to his coat.
l do not believe that | have seen a worse
state of things in Drury Lane or Clare
Market than in the Jewish quarter of
Maramaros Sziget; while the near little
roadside or village inns kept by the Jews,
with the unspeakable bed and baby's
cradle, each member of the family rocking
it as he passes, for principal furniture in
the one room, are filthy beyond descrip-
ton. Nor are his cabs and shops a bit
better. And yet those who know declare
that the Jew of Maramaros Sziget is
cleanliness itself compared to his brother
in Galicia, of whom tales are told which I
hesitate to repeat 1t is no wonder that
the children brought up in such surround
ings, in such an atmosphere of dirt are
sickly and diseased, that the men all look
physically weak and wretched, so that /
fancy they need not go far to seek an ex-
cuse for not serving their term in the
army.
1t must be remembered that for this I'M
cleanliness and saualor there is no tyran-
meal government, there are no unjust re-
StriptipOs he held raSpnnSibia Tho
Jews are dirty OF their own free choice,
and just because an enforced poverty
leaves them no alternative. In Hungary
''pale of Jewish sentiment" does not
exist; the Jews can go where they choose
and live as they please. And at Mara
maros Sziget, though poor, they are to be
found among them, many in the Jewish
quarter have enough money 10 live as well
as the better class of Christian citizens.
and all but the very few could at least
manage to secure for themselves quarters
as comfortable as the cottage of the peas
ant That they prefer to perpetuate old
ghetto traditions is the more inexcusable
in hungary, where the people, or the
Hungarlans at least, are naturally clean.
with far more decent habits of life than
men OF the Latin and Slavic races.
No matter what ones sympathy for the
sutterings of the Jews in Russia. no mat
ter how strong ones righteous indipna-
ton against Christian blgotry. which has
made them what they are, it must not be
forgotten that in endeavoring to solve
their problem by establishing them in
colonies in the United States or England
another may be added to already too nu-
merous home problems. To remedy the
causes of the evil is beyond the power of
the would-be physicians; all they can deal
with are the results of the persecution
and oppression which they Justly con-