The Portland daily press., 1898-01-11

/ COk-lIdThtl-p hUUL.-d JuuSc
| Jetdb-a male outer AdOol-a notary.
garment. Uf1dnd-.a revenue Of
| ficer.
The present attitude of the great powers
of Europe towards Morocco, the Sultan
of Morocco and the Moors, is perhaps one
story of the dog in the manger. While
Spain, France, and Git must be confessed
| England also, stand at guard over a
country which all desire and none can
suffer another to possess, the most wicked
| Indifference is shown towards the efforts
of the people to be master in their own
land. More than one. Moorish hero lies In
| the prisons of Marakeish. But if right is
right Morocco is for the Moors, and not
| for the Spanish, the French, or the Eng
lish. To describe the efforts of an OPP
pressed people to be free, and to show that
mon like. Hamed, the betrayed chief OF
the recent rising, are not brutal savages
outside our ssympathy, but enlightened
leaders struggling to shake off a cruel
| yoke, this short tale, 1.-THE Mahdi," has
been written, as romance and perhaps
also as prophecy.
Glove is strong, but race is stronger.
1t was Jewish woman who destroyed
the Captain of the Assyrians, and smote
off his head with his own fauchion.
FIRST PART.
Chapter L
| Isaac Laredo was Jew of Fee, but he
did not live in the Jewish quarter. He
had peen born in the Mellah, and up to
twenty years of age he had been COM
PEELED to take off his slippers and walk
barefoot in the streets as often as he went
| by the mosques Of the Muslims. But at
forty he had bought up the largest house
| in the market place, and was holding the
proudest OF the Moors in the palm of his
hand. At sixty he was the richest man
| in the city. and was living under the
| protection of the Minister for France.
His worldly success had brought its
spiritual penalties. He had passed out of
| communion with his own people. His
brethren distrusted him and despised
him, and he repaid them hate for hate
and scorn for scorn. The ostracism OF
| the Jews made his way the easier with
the Moors. They never forgot that he
was an Israelite; but the worst barriers
| were broken down. Tt was known that
the best Of them freQuented his house
without conjunction, and walked with
! him in the streets without shame.
| Nevertheless. as he grew old, the Jew
in his heart grew strong. He began to
think tenderly of his poor, despised, per-
secuted people, of the old faith of his
fathers, and of the graves of his parents.
Sometimes he thought he would go back
| to them after all. Occasionally he told
himself that it might have been better if
he had begged his bread from door to
| door.
His wife had died early, but he had a
daughter, who had lived all her life
among the Muslims. She knew nothing
OF the synagogue, nothing of the Thorah,
and nothing of the Mellah, save what she
saw of 1t from the housetops and over the
walls Her servants were negroes; her
friends were the friends of her father; she
had no companions and no intimates.
But she was rich and she was beautiful,
and rumor told Of certain Moorish gentle
men who were trying to forget that she
was Jew. One of these was young
Omar Benani, the hare Drained son of a
former Basha. Another was very
different type of man, Mohammed Alb der
Rahman, a student, devotee, a reform
er, but also one of Isaac Laredo's many
partners in his many businesses.
CHAPTER II.
1t was late in the year and late in the
day, and Isaao was in his room at home
casting up accounts in his private ledger.
He was seated on low stool by a stove;
the we'll thumbed book was rested on his
knee, and his daughter stood behind sort
ing papers in bureau. A warm shaft
open archway of the Moorish chamber,
and fell on the bearded old man in his
sBull-cap and on the slim girl with the
jet black ringlets.
''Pahi these Moorish spendthrifts,
they'll ruin me- said Isaac. "Here's
that Omar Benani, now. The
pigeon hole to the left. Rachel. look for
his paper"
Rachel took paper from the bureau,
glanced AZ the endorsement, and read:
" Benani-Omar.
"That's it,; read it, Rachel, read it,.
The girl opened the document and read
aloud:
"On or before June LIST, I, Omar
Benani, hereby undertake and covenant,
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS