The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1901-07-26
THE WANDERING JEW.

against the popular prejudices which
have followed them through ages. The
title OF his lecture IS Facts and Fictions
Concerning Jews" and the following Is
a short extract from the address:
NO page in the records Of the world S
career is so fun OF heroism and so fuu
! Of blood as that which traces the fates
and fortunes OF the wandering Jew. When
! history begins the Jew makes his bow
( upon the stage Of time. he mas ouIliyed
all his enemies The parthenOn and pyr-
/ anids speak of days that are not. But
The Jew was present when the founda-
! tons of the pyramids were laid. and
! the Jew is stiIl on ting stage, and he IS
I still a problem that has not lost its fresh
ness after Goo years.
To deal with Jews We must confront
| living issues. IN Russia the Jews enc
| mics have resorted to violence In Ger
| many the Jew is d stranger, and TO eX-
/ tend TO him equal opportunities is thought
/ 10 be a mistake. IN France we observe
/ the same phenomenon, and in France
/ first OF all European lands the Jaw had
! found his Welcome. In Europe there is
/ out one little oasis for the Jew, and that
I IS the United Kingdom. Nor have we
/ in America the right 10 call the Jewish
/ kettle black. Here the Jewish problem
struts about in the attire of social pre-
/ lenses. An apostle OF the Bible, were he
J to come back today, would not be ad-
mitted to one OF the hotels in the Odiron-
| dacks. Many Of those who bar out the
Jews, trace their lineage from worthy
Irish huckster three generations back.
And that explains their present lofty Pc
sition.
There is three reasons why the Jew is
held in suspicion. First, because the Jew
has always been an aristccrat of a higher
purity than that Of other races. he re-
fuses to intermarry. He IS held to be
distinct in race, and insists upon the dis
tinction. Is he Of a distinct race? If we
consult the facts as science, we find the
theory Of the peculiar distinctness Of race
Of the Jew is unsustained. AnthropOlO-
gists have discovered there is no distinc-
tive Jewish racial type. The Aryans are
the pure Semites. Abraham was much
like them. The Jew is broad-headed,
though 1 cannot deny that the Jew is in
a sense long-headed also. The belief that
Jews all have dark hair and eyes is
merely a prejudice. A census has shown
that in some countries the majority OF
Jewish children in the schools were light
haired.
When the Jews left the Holy Land, they
were accompanied by many non-Jews
Intermarriage continued as a general Gus
tom down to the third Christian century.
From that time to the beginning Of the
nineteenth century this practice ceased.
from other religions to the Jewish are
not nearly so rare as commonly believed.
Jesus censured the Pharisees for making
converts to Judaism. Russian Jews of
today &c largely descendants Of those
ccr.,erts OF the time Of Christ There
fore they are not pure Jews.
The second reason why the Jew IS dis
trusted is because he IS regarded as con
shutting q distinct political body. This
is wrong. During the middle ages the
Jews constituted an empire within an en-
pire They were regarded as strangers.
No wonder, then, they prayed for the
restoration TO Palestine. In the French
revolution and in America at the time OF
the Declaration of Independence, the Jew
ceased to be a distinct political body. The
German Jew thinks German thoughts and
drinks German beer. The French Jews
are loyal Frenchmen. II England their
prayer is God save the King. There are
Jews in the English and Boer armies in |
South Africa; fewer among the oers be- 1
cause the Jews were oppressed in that /
country. Certainly in America the Jew
calls the Star-Spangled Banner his flag 1
without reserve and without after /
thought. In the war with Spain there !
was not one American regiment of vol !
unteers or regulars but had Jewish sol /
diers. In the Illinois Seventh regiment, |
which is an Irish regiment, there were /
over twenty jewish sOlo1erS-
In Russia the Jews are not patriotic /
Russians. There the Jews are oppressed. |
They are forced to exc out a miserable 4
existence by the meanest of occupations. /
They are ground under the iron heel of l
despotsrn The FLORISTS IN Russia are /
now trying TO buy back Palestine from /
Turkey. Wherever the Jew has been
given the rights OF citizenship he has
given UP thought Of political distinctive
ness.
"A third reason for the distrust of the
Jew is his genius for commerce. But the
Jew IS not by birth remarkable for his
commercial ability. The down-eastern
Yankee beats :he Jew, the Armenian
beats the YANKEES, the Chinaman beats the
Armenian. The funny stories of the Jews
business ability are funny, but they are
not taken from life. In Bible times the
Jews wero farmers. not traders. In the
bird Christian century the crisis came.
The Jews were not allowed TO own land, |
out we're forced into the Ghetto. and into
he money-lending business. The nom
Jews found this arrangement was cOnve-
lient for 500 years. The baron and
bishop demanded money. The Jew had
% give It or be driven from the country.
Then the borrower refused to pay the in
crest because It was against his pTin-
'iple, and refused to pay the principle be-
,ause il was against his interest
''Shylock IS Tot a typical Jew. Shake
ipcare never saw q Jew. The Jews had
eft England before Shakespeare tine.
rhs story upon which ShyIOck is founded
8 Que OF the wandering Stories which
anne down through the centuries. Shy
ock's contract was contrary to Jewish /
principles. X was wrong eyea to cut
lesh from q living animal among the /
ews. Such contracts as Shyiock's we're
oumon under the Roman law Shake
peare painted Shyloclg for q type Of the I
,ersecuted people. The Jewish Jaw de-
lares usUry bl2sphemous. If ShElock I
we're q Jew. tho Jews stiI could claim
esus Of Nazarcch SIS their own Jesus
vas the Messiah the liberator OF the !
ews from political bondage. The Ro-
mans crucided Jesus, not The Jews Christ
vas the lover OF the people. A hired
mob insttgared by the priests set Up
he CRY. Cruelty Him And for that one &
re the world demanded OF the Jews g :
thousand. forgetting the teachings q
'hrist. who said. An eye for al ere and s
tooth for a tooth, a life FOR a life Z
md Il the Jews committed a crime Il has q
cen expurgated and expauated q thous-
nd times
The Jews live to teach tEe world the i
,sson that not by might but by the :
-irit the world is 10 be redeemed. The I
ew has no quarrel with the Christian
hurCh. The jew awaits Tor the final dag
hen q second Christmas tine shan sing 2
VI new anthem Of peace. ard hs sAzn :
ear once more she angelic song. Peace =
q earth. good VIII among men-' q"
Kansas Philosophy.
from the Atclisoa Giohe)
There IS usually something the matter I
i'm q man Who carries q Ucman's watch
Sr-,s -----,an --or1f rather listen 70