The times., 1898-05-01
"Thc Imported bridegroom"

The Imported Bridegroom
There have been many Jewish authors,
some of them brilliant. all of them clever;
some of them deyoting their time to the
Portrayal of their own people, some rang
ing in other fields of art; but Abraham
Cahan is probably the first to give an
accurate description OF the New York
immigrant Jew. He himself is a Russian
Hebrew, and knows the life of the East
Side thoroughly and he has written of
this life 4 series of short stories, five in
number, which are gathered together un-
der the name of The Imported Bride
groom. and Other Stories" The first and
longest, which gives its title to the whole,
is also the most noteworthy. There is a
contrast between the Russian and the
Americanized Hebrew which is brought
ont with great force, and the influence
OF racial tendencies on the one hand and
of environment on the other are, as
here shown, extremely interesting TO any
student of human nature. The most
poetical passage in the story, which is
rather realistic than poetical as a whole.
is the description of the visit which the
prosperous American Jew, Asriel Stroon,
makes TO his fatherland:
On a serene afternoon in MAY Asriel drove rp
TO Pravly in a peasants wagon. He sat list
lessly gazing at the unbroken line of waffle
fences. and running an imaginary stick along
the endless zigzag of their tops. The activity
Of his senses seemed suspended.
Presently Whit Of May aroma awakened his
eye 10 4 many-colored waving eXpanse, and his
car to the languorous whisper of birds He reCGg-
nized the plush clover knobs in that vast array
Of placid magnifcencc and the dandelions and
the golden buttcrcups, although his poor mother
tongue could not afford special name for each
flower. and he now addressed them collectively
tzatzkes-a word he had not used for thirty
five years. He looked at the tzatzkes, as they
we're swaying thoughtfully hither and thithor, and
il somehow seemed TO him that il was not the birds
but the clover blossoms which did the chiTping.
The whole scene appealed to his soul a nod
ding, murmuring congregation, engrossed in the
solemnIty Of worship. He felt though there
were no such flowers in America and that he had
not seen any since he left his native place.
Echoes Of many, many years ago called 10
! Asriel from amid the whispering host His soul
/ burst into song He felt like shutting his eyes
and trusting himself 10 the csressing breath of
the air, that it might watt him whithersoeTer il
: chose. His senses were in confusion; he beheld
OF fragrance; he inhaled heavenly music; he
1 listened 10 a symphony of hucs.
What treat 10 breathe! What a paradise"
I he exclaimed in his heart The cholera take it,
+ how delicious, Do you deserve it. you old sinner.
( you5 Ten plaques you do. But hush! the field
With a wistfil. babyish look he became alb
the clear sky, and then in the landscape it over
/ hung. The woody mass darkling IN the distance
was at once racing about and standing still:
: Fleecy clouds crawled over 4 haZy hilltop. And
yonder-beholdi a long, broad streak OF silver
cleaning the horizon Is il a lake2 Asriels
eyes are riveted and memories stir in his breast.
He recalls not the place itself, but he can re-
/ member his "reminiscences Of 1t. During his first
years in America, at times when he would sur
render himself TO the sweet pangs OF homesiek-
ness and dwell. among other things, on the view
that had seen him of TO the unknown land, his
mind would conjure up something like the effect
now before his eyes. As dream does it come
back 10 him now The very shadows OF thirty
five years ago are yeiied.
At one moment he felt as if he had strayed
into the other world: at another he sized
with doubt as 10 his own identity. "Who are you:
he almost asked himself closing and reopening
his hand experimentally. Who or what Is that
business which you call life? Are you alive.
AsrielE' Whereupon he somehow remembered
Flora'5 photograph. and taking it out Of his
bosom pocket, fell 10 contemplating it.
Half an hour later he made his entry into his
native town. Here he had expected his agita-
tou 20 pass the bounds OF his physical strength;
but it did not. At this moment he was sol
The town had changed little, and he recognized
it at once. Every spot greeted him and his
return Of the s9lutation was a speechless deyo-
tional pathos. He found several things which had
faded out OF his enshrined picture OF the place,
and the sight OF these moved his soul even more
powerfully than those he had looked forward to.
Only in one instance was he taken ab2ck. Sure
enough this IS Synagogue Lane, full Of puddles
as ever; but what has come over him7 He well
remembers that little alley in the rear and yet 1t
runs quite the other way Length has turned
into width
And here is Leizer Poisner's inn 'But how
Tickety il has become!" Asriel's heart eXclaims
with q pang. as though at sight OF a friend
prematuTely aged and run to seed He can al
most smell the stable occupying the entire length
Of the little building. and he remembers every
room-Helo The market place. the same
church with the bailif's Office by its side! The
sparse Of huts the river bank the raft
bridge the tannery-everythng the same as
he had left 1t; and yet ii all had odd, mys-
terious, far-away air-lile things seen in cy-
clorama. II Praviy, and at the time
IL not; rather, il certainly the
same dear old PTayly, but added TO il was
something else, through which il gazed at
Asriel. Thirty-fve years lay wrapped about the
town
StiH. Stroon feels like AsrieIke Thirteen Hairs,
IS his nickname had been here. Then he re.
lapses into the Mott Street landlord, and for q
moment he Is utter stranger in his birthplace
Why. he could buy II all up, now, He could
discount all the rich men in town put together;
and yet there time when he was OF the
meauest hereabout. An oveTpOweTlng sense OIL
triumph surged ints his breast. Hey, there
Where are our bigbugs-ZoTach Latozky, Rel
Lippe Reb Nochum2 Are they alivc2 Thirty
five years ago Asrid considered il an honor tC
, shake their palm branches on the Feast Of Tab
, eIEacles. while now-out with your purses yo'
proud magnates, measure fortunes with Asrielke
the heckler, If YOU dare, His heart swells viii
eNultatIOr. And yef-the black year take It!-i
yearnS and aches. does Asriel's heart. lie look
81 Pravly. and bis soul is pinng for Pravly-iol
Inc one Ci thirty five years ago, OF which this Il
only ToAectioH-for the in which he wa
known as a crack Drained rowdy oi a mechanic,
poor devil living oatmeal and herring.
There is but little humor in these sto
Ties and what they do contain is Of q
grim and saturnine sort. Mr.. Cahar
takes no special pains to place his subject
IN a favorable light. The everlasting
forces of ambition. greed, jealousy, love
and piety, seem 10 be at work in the
sweat-shop and the tenement just In,
p same as anywhere else That seems to b'
] his teaching, so far as he has any; he i
e not didactic: he never moralZcs. Th'
nearest approach 10 humor IS in the Stor.
Of A Ghetto Wedding. in which tn,
/ bride who. with the pretty vanity of
/ ! pigeon preening its feathers, longs fo
q "a respectable wedding with all he
e thrifty little soul. is finally made tn,
> victim Of one OF fate's ironical tricks
and takes II with a resignation whicl
z reminds one Of some of Dickens robin
like heroines. Goldy-that IS her name
4 is however, a true Jewish maiden ant
+ her pride her love and her philosoph.
e are all as quantity foreign as a dish 0
! Russian tea. If there Is such a thini
as the poetry Of squalor, Mr.. Cahan ha
found it IN this comic, yet touching lttl
! / story The other three stories "A ProVi
J Dental Match, "A Sweat-Shop Ro
nance" and circumstances" are al
J individual and all fairly artistic, the las
. named being rather in the style of Tol
stoi. For the most part, however, thes
= I tales OF the Ghetto are written in a styl
all their own with none Of the mystica
= glamour of Zangwill. They are no
. quotable or easily to be described
Ian