The age-herald., 1898-11-09
ISRAEL ZANGWILL
 IN BIRMINGHAM The Jewish Author Heard on "The
 Ghetto" BY A CULTURED AUDIENCE Entertained by Rabbi NeVii0ld and
 Shown Much Attention. WILL VIEW THE DISTRICT TODAY Much Interested in the Race Problem and Expresses Desire to See the Negroes at Work Banqueted
 at Morris Last Night
WILL VIEW THE DISTRICT TODAY

at Morris Last Night. Seals hall was filled to overfowing last evening with cultured audience to hear Israel Zangwill, the great English writer and critic, tell the story of the Ghetto It was not an audience that was thor oughy in sympathy with the subject, yet under MT Zangwills charming delneation an interest was elicited that did not fail to stir his listeners to a keen appreciation | of his art-and of the subject. l MT. Zangwill Is striking in his grotesque- ness extending to his characteristic Jew l ish features as well as to his general ap- l pearance, yet above 1t all the stamp Of genius is clearly discernible. He is by no means an orator, but oratory is lost sight | of in his pleasing delivery, his fine sensi- bilities, his epigramatic expression and his brilliant flashes of wit and humor, which | are in no wise prejudiced to any particular phase of his subject, but seem rather to be l the deductions of a philosophical applica- l tion savoring not of the punster's type. His Eccentricities noticeable peculiarity of the lecturer was his fixed position on the stage. He took his position in the center, planted his | feet firmly and scarcely moved out of his tracks during the entire discourse. This was in harmony with his easy manner of delivery, as well as his easy expression of thought. There is an air of awkwardness about him which is confined more especially to his hands, which by reason of their rel ative position were kept hid the better part of the time underneath the tail of his claw hammer coat.
 A number of prominent gentlemen were seated on the stage, and Bertram Jacobs, who was instrumental in bringing Mr. Zangwill to the city, introduced him as "a dreamer of the Ghetto, who will speak on the Ghetto,''
 Of the Middle Ages
 Mr. Zangwill elucidated his subject by stating that he would speak not of the Ghetto that has been formed in the large towns or cities of the present time, but of the Ghetto of the middle ages, which were sections within cities where the Jews were confined, outside of which they were not allowed to pass.
 To the listener his lecture was not more than an interesting historical narrative of a people and time, which proved a revela- tion to many who were unfamiliar with the environments, yet beneath it all was hidden the careful research of the speaker.
 His explanation of the Ghetto was clear and lucid the narrative being interwoven with well told stories that relieved the monotony of purely historical discourse.
 His Epigrams
 sv His epigrams were strong and bold, bursting forth without any apparent effort. He said in part:
 "A spiritual country is unassailable by material might"
 He confessed that Shylock was quite saint beside the pictured type of medieval Jew, but of the type presented in the Jew of Malta, he said that it was cross be- tween Jack the Ripper and Mephistopheles. The origin of the word ghetto he found in the location of the first Jewish quarter close to a cannon factory, for which there is an Italian word the root of the term now used for Jewish settlements.
 "The dark ages of Judaism" he went on were in the sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. They were the only centuries when the Jewish intellect did not dominate the world. Yet the Jew financed his own prosecutions even now he some- times finances ant-Semitic notes. He saw everything, went everywhere, became everything but pope of Rome, and came near being that
 "He furnished lion tanners to Spain even as now he has given lion tanners of Spa n, for Colonel Roosevelt told me the Jews in his regiment were of the bravest. The Jew was really kind of sponge used by kings and emperors to mop up Christian wealth and then be squeezed out. The Jew when given in bond by his masters was IS good as United States bond, except that a United States bond may be con verted, and if a Jew be converted he loses his value. Because Shakespeare made Shy ock rich and Jessica beautiful, every Jew s rich and every Jewess beautiful. I wish 1t were so."
 Speaking of the prevalence of Yiddish as
 tongue he said that he recently witnessed a play in a Jewish theater in London ounded on the Dreyfus case, and where Yiddish was spoken. The character of Els !crhazy was taken by one of the actors. md he was h ssed so loudly that he stopped 0 explain that he was not really Esterha- Y. and that he thought the latter ought be shot.
 He reviewed the history of the Ghetto in he crusades at the time of the blood-accu- ation and the black death:
 .'When thousands of Jews were killed for not dying of the black death.'
 Jews of the Ghetto" he said, "were not 7ermitted epitaphs on the tombstones, and his saved at least great deal of lying. n carnival times at Rome, the law forbade iaything being thrown at Jews but fruit. ne nobleman therefore selected pin ap- les and cocoanuts as his missiles. Only -e eldest sons in Jewish families could rarry Hence many Jews came to this auctry. although that is not the reason
 :, .a called the United States.
 Little Joke on Pharaoh
 Israel is dead said Pharaoah. I
 1ght of these words when l bent over
 : ,l,ummy in Egypt.
 @Tn home and family life the Jews have
 ] TO superors. The Ghetto was no such i,reeon as pictured by sensational writers,
 it's dreadest the Ghetto was a well of cetry almost dream world"