The record-union., 1892-04-23

i ing the city Tor change of patrol at the
russian frontier, on arriving at the Cloth
nali on Ihe Market Place was somewhat
annoyed by the frenzied movement of
the peasant marketmen in their efforts to
get out or the way. An officer whose
morse shled from contact with rustic
carrying some fowls slung over his shoul-
oer IN willow cages, drew his saber, and,
Win savage overhead cut, severed two
/ HngerS from the defenSelesS mans hand.
Apparently it would have been quite the
same had the mans head followed his
fingers.
| AS though this were not sufficient in
Ialny, foot soldier standing near, after
an humble salute to the brave officer,
PICKED the discovered fingers from the
SIreet and tossed them, as though they
had been links of sausage, to bevy of
nail-Iafnlshed dogs shrinking and snarl-
ing beneath hungarian gypsy cart
standing near, and these animals de-
Voured them after nearly devouring each
other IN battle over these unusual and
delicious morsels.
The treatment of the Polish Jews is in
uescrlbably dreadful. Truly, majority
OF these here form a loathsome lot. But
lney are victims of misfortune. No Jew
Is by nature slothful or vile. All Jews are
| actlVe, patient, vigorous and brave in all
tnlngs tending to self-sustenance. Those
OF Cracow are mainly helpless victims of
/
thelr way into all avenues of business
that, by very force of numbers and des-
| peratlon OF situation, they swarm like
wolves around every opportunity of the
slightest gain. But thousands upon
thousands exist in condition of such
awful want, starvation and misery, that
III would seem in any place where a God
was owned some touch OF human consid-
Grafton and pity might find expression.
You cannot lind it in Cracow. They are
beaten from before soldiers and officials
with slaves. Police disperse begging
crowds with swords, striking right and
left and wounding promiscuously.
! those OF gentle " blood seem to have
acquired the right to avenge all Poland's
natlonal wrongs on these luckleSS hu-
mans. L have seen little girls, not yet in
thelf Teens, strike them apparently as
mere diversion. The aristocracy from
| highest to lowest consider 1t no crime to
chastise them openly and unresentedly
on any pretext of otfense. The very next
morning after my arrival here saw half
naked Jewish child being carried along
with a broken leg dangling from its body.
IL had amused some lordling or official in
a carriage before which the little one had
| begged, to ride over it. l had some re-
spect for Polish character, gained, l will
admit, from Polish history, before L came
to Cracow.
Whatever the Polish aristocracy have
been in the past they are brutes beyond
the limits of human language to reveal in
| their treatment of interiors, and especially
OF these Jews, wretches OF misfortune
and misery. And, for my part, can see
no altar, or shrine, or crucifiX, or vicar of
COD IN this ancient city without loathing
emblem, place and priest, where such in
human hearts can worse than murder
and adore.
My guide through the CHASTITY shell of
| SpcnrGd i1o nj
dent of iniquitous brutality, trifiing in
deed for Cracow, but still illustrative Of
its genial and kindly atmosphere had
truly been unbearably pestered by a
horde OF Jews, from money changers
down to the most repulsive of beggars,
and finally conceived the plan of arraying
myself i'll the most Polish and least ex-
pensive of attire.
| 1t proved a successful device. In this
raiment l had visited the Tatra mountains
and had returned to Cracow so torn by
brushwood and bespattered by mud of
the highways, that was quite free to en-
JOY the city from the neither side of as
pect. 1t was relief, too, from strain
upon both temper and purse.
In this habllament and attitude I was
standing before bakers window inter.
ested in an odd form of bread which is
fashioned and baked in an excellent inn
ltatlon OF crown of thorns, much used
during the Lenten period in Galicia. An
other still more dolorous object than nv
self stood before the window. 1t was a
Polish Jew, ragged, wasted, wan and old.
L nave seen longing and hunger on as
many faces as has any other one who
lives, but l never before saw both so
pathetic and terrible as in this one White
face.
AT this moment bevy of soldiers
clanked by. Both myself and the ancient
Jew stood at the edge of the pavement,
quite out OF their lordly way. Something
Ill the old mans face attracted the SOL
diers' attention as well as my own.
Some turned, glanced and cursed. One
said, with an oath,
''He will draw the loaves the window
through with that nose."
| 1T the loaf crowd of thorns) was his
! belly therein, it should cut with blood his
paunch through" sneered another.
Zach, Gottp' shouted the brayast of
them all, as he sprang to the old mans
side in seeming frenzy of rage. 1 feared
he would strike him down. But he did
not. He only spat in his face and called
him Jew dog" earth-rot," and
names beastller still. Then they turned
and went merrily away.
And 1t IS true that this poor old man.
for fear OF his life as he afterward told
| me, dare not attempt to remove the froth
foulness from his face until these Chris
tlan soldlery had turned into the mark ct
PidCe' DuI L Hdu uone IL fOr him before
| that.
1 then led him into the bakers. and
| then into cafe, and then into a wine
| shop, and Christian money never did
quicker or more direct missionary work
than on that morning when, God knows,
Tor the first and only time in my life /
longed to be Rothschild.
This poor stranded old human had been
a Jewish teacher in not remote Russian
| village, and had been knouted out OF his
| home by CoSSackS his feeble wife perish
ing IN the flight from fright and fatigue.
He had got as far as Cracow That, as
with thousands upon thousands more.
was TO be his living grave under condi-
| tlons OF misery and outrage more awful
| than those which once made infamous
| the name of religion in Madrid, Neurem-
| berg or Salem-unlesS the little | spared
him could get him to kinfolk in Berlin.
He showed me the appalling scenes
among the Jews in CASHMERE, the jew
lsh quarter. Then, scholar that he was
he told me one by one the legends gray
and dim of the crumbling Zamek; pointed
out the solid silver shrine of st. Stanis-
| laus with its supporting angels, the Elem
iSh brasses above the tomb OF the Cardi-
nal Bishop, son of Casimir, King of Po-
| land, and all the craven treasures and
wonders of the sixteen chapels in the
great cathedral; led the way to the uni
yersity with its statue of Corpernicus
who was once Professor there; and
| brought me to the Schatzkammer to view
the Polish regalia and the dazzling mass
robes of old. But the human graveyard
STILES me. The white face of this one old
man stands between me and Poland,s
ancient city of kings, shutting out all
else but the unspeakable miseries of his
kind. And l leave Cracow with sick
and heavy heart.
| EDGAR L. WAKEMAN.