The Savannah morning news., 1901-06-27
THE STORY OF REBECCA.
The Jewish Maiden in "Ivanhoe" the
Theme of MIR. Adnms' Address

The Jewish Maiden in "Ivanhoe" the
Theme of MIR. Adams Address.
Col. George A. Mercer president of the
| Board of Education, introduced to the
audience Mr.. S. B. Adams, who delivered
the address to the graduates. The speak
er took the character of Rebecca, the Jew
ish maiden in SCOTS novel "Ivanhoe," as
his theme and from it made an eloquent
and inspiring talk to the young men and
women, who marked from last night
their entrance upon the battlefield of life.
In introducing Mr.. Adams, Col Mercer
dwelt for a moment upon their long ac-
quaintance. beginning it's intimacy with
the year that Mr. Adams spent IN Col.
Mercers office soon after he commenced
the practice of the profession in which
he has since attained such eminence and
distinction.
Col. Mercer said he was able to promise
the audience that the address would be
in matter and Substance everything that
It should be. not merely from a feeling of
pleasing hope, from the depths of pro-
found conviction.
1T is one of the comforts of my declin-
ing years" he said, that l am able TO
think that something l said or did dur
ing the year that we spent in intimate
association may nave done something to
mould the mind or shape the character
of the high-minded, distinguished and up-
right citizen whom l have now the pleas
ure to introduce, Hon. Samuel B.
Adams"
Mr. Adams prefaced his former speech
with some words of graceful and grateful
aofa 49, s,,t.. =
been given him by Col Mercer. He then
Continued;
Il recognize, young ladies and young
gentlemen, that the hour and the tenn
perature demand brevity in this address
l shall meet the demand.
Suffer few words of exhortation
about Sir Walter Scott His delightful
novels are being neglected by the young
people. The pages, so familiar to the sew
eral preceding generations,a are now seldom
turned. Sometimes, l fear, that novels,
as abomnable as they are 'Frenchy'
take their place. to the great and perma-
nent disadvantage of the reader 1t has
been justly said of him by one of his
appreciative critics: Be a good man. nv
dear was his last word to Lockhart: it
is the unobtrusive moral of all that he
wrote and was.
In these prosaic and practical DAYS
l wish our young people would read again
and again of the brave and true knight.
Ivanhoe. and of the beautiful, the wo-
manly and the heroic Rebecca. We need
very much the " floiesoTIle dTi5 inspiring
lessons so delightfully."- told in this charm
ing romance.
THE picture drawn of the maiden par
ticularly attracts
She illustrates the cardinal virtue of
genuine modesty. that decorousness of
behavior and speech, that purity and deli
cacy of feeling which characterize the
gentle and typical woman She was not
pert, nor self assertive. She NAV not
have been 'up-,o-date' She was utterly
and hopeessly unlike certain types of
that indescribable and undesirable monde
script sometimes called the new wo-
man."
"At the same time she was without
any mock or false modesty. 1t stood not
in the way of her duty, or the offices OF
q good woman when demanded by suffer-
ing. The wounded knight separated as
he was from her by an impossible wall
erected by racial and religious views held
by both of them, received her devoted
mnistrations. APPLY does Scott say: 'tShe
performed her task with a graceful and
dignitied simplicity and modesty, which
might, even IN more civilized DAYS have
II
seem repugnant to female delicacy. The
idea of so young and beautiful a person
engaged in attendance upon a sick bed
or in dressing the wound of one of a diff
ferent sex, was melted away and lost in
that of benehcent being contributing
her effeotual old to relieve pain and tc
avert the stroke of death
''She was devoted to her home and her
family. was an obedient and dutiful
daughter. In these great virtues she
was Qet II be said to the everlasting
honor of her race thoroughly Jewish. She
belonged to a nation taught of God as Ia
their vital, their supreme importance
Prejudice. persecution, injustice have in
an unhappy past done their worst toward
her people, as they were doing in the so.
called chivalrous age OF Richard the Lion.
hearted. the Black knight whose majestic
form strides through this charming story
But the world will forever remain debt.
! ors 10 the people whose religion and laws
| and lives have stressed these fundamen.
tai, these essential virtues, upon which
all true prosperity in society and govern.
ment must rest Are these virtues en-.
tirely conserved and promoted by pert
self-sufficient. self-conhdent smart
spirit which sometimes is illustrated 10y
Young America" which would reverse
the Fifth Commandment. and demand
that parents obey their children?
THE gentle and modest Rebecca could
when necessary, evince the right kind OF
pride: not the foolish. surface pride shat
runs to dress and mannersms. 20 airs
and petty vanity. not the coarse pride OF
the vulgar rich. but that OF personal
character. and also of race. when the race
was unjustly assailed, when 1t became