The Republican journal., 1900-05-31


Address Dr. R. V. Pierce, Buffalo, N. Y.
tluence and authority. like Joseph and
Mordeca's administering the offices of
an alien government, to the advantage
of the rulers and of the people-and
always, with characteristic thrift, to
their own enrichment.
AS we know, the MOOrs held SWAY $50
years-Toledo' golden age of substan-
tial building and enlightened govern
ment, which left an indelible impression
upon all future generations. During
the first years of Castilian supremacy,
the Jews were eqally fortunate in Tole-
do, owing to the conciliatory policy that
at first prevailed among the conquerors
though prejudice limited them to a
distinctive costume and confined their
dwellings and curious Synagogues to a
certain quarter of the city. But the
Christians soon broke faith with Moors
and Jews and everybody else The terms
of the capitulation were violated; mos
ques We're turned into churches, and the
property of the Moors. which had been
secured to them by treaty, was taken
from them. Worse vet Jared the poor
Hebrews, whom to despoil seemed doing
God service. A heavy tax was set upon
every Jewish head. and they We're per
mitted to retain their synagogues only
on the plea that they had not consented
to the murder of Christ. When the
Saviour was brought to Judgment they
said, the votes of the tribes were taken
and one tribe had voted for his acquit-
tal-and from this particular tribe the
Jews of Toledo We're descended Never
theless every Christians hand was
against the unhappy race-perhapS as
much on account of their faculty for
acquiring money as from religious feel
ing. An example of this was Levi, the
treasurer of Pedro the Cruel. The
jew served his royal master faithfully
but he was frugal and at the same time
prospered himself: and SO the roval mis-
creant had him tortured until he sur
rendered all his worldly goods and then
put him to death. Ferdinand and Isa-
belle, not content with eXpelling the
MOors, next turned against the Jews
and issued an edict that no one of that
ancient people who was unbaptiZed
should be permitted to live in Spain; a
decree as foolish as it was cruel, as it
offered premium for hypocracy, since
unscrupulous ones would not hesitate
at baptism or any other test, while the
true and honest Israelites, who clung to
the faith of their fathers, We're driven
out without mercy. BY this expulsion
Spain lost upwards of 10000 of her
best population, who carried with them
large part of the industry and wealth
of the kingdom. This banishment bore
with special severity upon Toledo; for
the Jews were its richest inhabitants
and many historians date the decline of
the city from this suicidal decree. At
the beginning of the seventeenth cen
tury it had a population of 25O,OOO 1t
was the Sheffield and the Birmingham of
the Middle Ages, and Toledo blade"
was as famous throughout the world as
one of Damascus. Now the city's en-
tire population does not exceed $1,000
discouraged souls. Its streets are silent
and deserted, its houses crumbling to
decay. Its manufactures are almost
extinct-even the celebrated Fabrica d
.Armas offers but a shadow of its for
mer Importance and prosperity; and the
tendency is ever downward. deeper and
deeper into the slough of poverty.
1t is difficult to describe place which
cannot be compared to any other. The
general view of Toledo has no beauty,
but is solemn and melancholy beyond
degree, huge and historical, thing of
the past, girdled in from the living
world by the solitude of it's desolate
hills without trace of any vegetation
whatever. Fancy if you can, an enor-
nous rock, or rather a group of them,
rising abruptly 1,S00 above the barren
plain and completely covered with ir-
regular lines of towers, battlemented
walls, grim old castles and somber
Monasteries, with stupendous palace
the great misunderstanding all; the
whole encircled by the rapid Tagus,
boiling through rent of the granite
mountains, leaving just one approach
to the city by the land side, and that so
strongly defended by ancient Moorish
fortifications as to appear utterly umas-
sailable. All around it rises black, pre-
cipitious rocks, backed by rugged hills,
scorched by the tropic sun into every
shade of orange and brown, but with
never a hint of living green. Guard
ing the entrance to the town stands the