The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1900-01-03

plement. and as the price is but cent
il is almost impossible for any one IN boS
ton 10 compete against It, tort
About three years ago paper was Sc.
ed in Boston by Winchevsky, the h Eli
eth" or the Truth" a weekly i"'''i''
paper for literature and culture. =.
Mr. Wiener says of it: ut is pity II
was STONED before The year was out Tor
of all the magazines that have seen cay
light in America it was by far the mos
ably edited. While in many of the leauels
the socialistic bias was pronounced ".
most of his articles dealt with SUBJECTS
of general interest" .. =,
Naturally a great deal OF atteht,oh -,
Yiddish America Is centered upon Morris
Resented, the socialstic poet. the singer
of the sweat shop. 1t is said OF MIN
at was left for a Russian Jew at the end
of the nineteenth century to see ana pant
hell in colors not attempted IN the uay
of Dante. Another twenty-five years anu
the language in which he has uttered ms
despair will be understood in America put
by few, used for literary purposes prooaoiy
by none"
Perhaps Yiddish will die out in America.
Certainly the best authenticated state
ments prove that its life must of necessity
be short and yet there are people VINO
believe that Yiddish will survive. Each
new emigration of the Russian Hebrew
has the faculty of absorbing a good deal
of the nationality and personality of the
emigrants
1t is said that it is very difficult to in
duce children to recite Yiddish poetry or
tell Yiddish tales. Unless they have come
over very recently they have forgotten
most of their native tongue, they speak
English in their schools and introduce it
in their homes. Just as the little Italian
boys declare that they are Americans, not
Italians, and are unable to speak more
than a few words of their mother tongue,
so the younger Russian Hebrews nave
become Americanized also.
An amusing story is told of man, in
terested in Yiddish folklore. who tried to
collect It from the Russian Hebrew chill
dren thinking that the tales would be
better remembered by them than by the
older people Almost invariably he would
receive as an answer, ITO hell with Yid-
dish! This is the United States!"
AS the writer has said before, IL is most
unfair to cali this language a jargon. If
such is really the case, and the term may
be justly applied, then English, in the
eleventh century after the Norman con-
quest. was a jargou also. Osmanl has
been formed from the Turkish, modern
Persian from the old, by means of the
Arabic, and if Yiddish is TO be called a
jargon, then the name applies equally 10
the above mentioned tongues.
No language that has a literature of its
own can be called a jargon. and Yiddish
can boast of the names of Gordon. Cold
faden, Rosenfeld Frug, Winchevsky and
Mary Antin of our own city, whose book,
from "Plotsk to Boston," was translated
from the Yiddish and widely read short
time ago.
In the conclusion Of his Introduction to
"Yiddish Literature, Air. Wiener SAYS:
1T is hard to foreteH the future of Judeo-
German. In America 1t is certainly DOOM
ed 10 extinction. Its lease of life is COM
meusurate with the last large immigra-
ton 10 the New World. In the countries
of Europe it will last as long as there are
any disabilities for the Jews. as long as
they are secluded in ghettos and driven
into pales. 1t would be idle to peculale
when these prosecutions will cease"