New-York tribune., 1902-08-17
THE JEWS DAUGHTER.
A GREwSoME BALLAD AND lIs VA
Ts-sIGNIFICANCE OF A
LITTLE pITTY SUNG BY
MISS ANNIE RUSSELL.

In NJ Clyde Fitch's play The Girl ana 'he
Judge" which was performed at the Lyceum
Theatre in this city last winter. Miss Annie
Russell sang a stanza or two of little song
beginning 1T rained a mist 1t seemed
childish little ditty. and to the thousands VINO
heard 1t in the course Of the season it had no
greater significance than a gracious little cpl
sode which added TO the gentieness and natural
ness of the scene in which il occurred Not
so TO the folklorist and student Of old English
ballads. To him ii meant an echo that has
been reverberating in the chambers Of the
human mind for centuries. and relic OF cruel
and wicked superstition at least two thousand
years old superstition. moreover. that seems
20 be ineradicable. It is. indeed, probab bic that
not a generation has passed during the last
thousand years in which in some form or an
other It has not entered into the criminal
nails Of people who boast Of being the leaders
OF civilization In scientific phrase it is called
Ritual Murder" Bishop Percy describes it
''the supposed practice OF the Jews in
cifying otherwise numbering Christian
children, out Of hatred to the religion of their
parents-a practice which hath been always
alleged in excuse for the cruelties exercised
upon that wretched people, but which probably
never happened in a single instance. For if we
consider. the hand, the ignorance and
superstition Of the times when such stories
took their rise. the virulent prejudices of the
monks. who record them. and the eagerness
with which they would be catched up by the
barbarous populace as a pretence for plunder:
on the other hand, the great danger incurred
by the perpetrators. and the inadequate mo-
tves they could have to excite them to q crime
of much horror. we may reasonably conclude
the whole charge to be groundless and ma
liciouS''
This sufficed the right reverend and admira
ble Editor Of the ''Reliques Of Ancient English
Poetry for an explanation Of one of the most
singular and inexplicabIe phenomena in re-
ligious history, and was a faithful reflex Of the
knowledge Of the subject which obtained CEN
tury and quarter ago. Modern research and
modern experiences, however, have demon
strated that the whole case is not summed up
in Bishop Percy's words The belief that re-
ligious hatred led the professors Of one system
of belief to murder the children Of their op-
ponents is much older than the medieval per-
secutiens Of the Jews. The charge made
by Christian sects against each other in the
first centuries Of Christianity and by pagan
sects before the advent of Christ There can be
doubt. however, that the causes specified
were chiefly operative at the time when the su-
perstition in its present form entered English
literature and became what was long looked
i
present form" advisedly. for the superstition is
not dead. 1t is only twenty years ago that the
civilized world was Mortified by the story of the
arrest and trial of the sexton Of synagogue in
the Hungarian town Of Tizla-Eslar on the
charge Of having murdered a Christian girl for
the purpose Of mixing her blood IN the Passover
bread. Twenty Jews were implicated in the
trial. at which the sections son the prin-
cipal witress for the prosecution and the case
broke down at the eleventh hour only because
the boy added many embellishments to his
tale with each reiteration that the tribunal had
at last to throw the case out of court. Never
theless, the belief in the guilt of the men from
whom confessions were sought TO wrung by
something little less than medieval torture is
shared by thousands to-day, and the existence
Of ritual murder solemnly proclaimed by q
reactionist on the floor of the Austrian Reichs-
rath in the course Of the memorable struggle a
few years ago over the so-called "Ausgleich"
More than this, 1t is less than six months ago
that Hungarian lad was discovered in New
York and returned to his native country TO
prove that he had not been the victim of sucb
a murder
Stories Of the murder Of Christian children by
Jews in despite Of Christ appear in English lit
erature early as the thirteenth century. The
annals Of Waverly. In the reign of Henry III
lad named Hugh Of Lincoln was said to have
been crucifed. Matthew Paris refers If specifi-
caliy to the year 1855. Such an incident is also
the subject Of the Prioress's Tale in Chaucer
Here the victim was
This gemme Of chastite. this er,,e-aude
And eek Of martirdom the ruby bright
whose throat was cut by false Jewes' He was
then cast into a pit, but from its depth there
came his chant in honor of
This welle Of mercy. Christes moder sweet
The burden of the ballad versions of the stor,,
is the victims longing for Christian burial
Sought for by his mother. the murdered hoy
calls out from the pit or well into which his
body has been thrown. asks for winding sheet
candles. prayer books. etc. which being brought
next morning the funeral rites are properly per
formed and the child is at rest The third poem
in Percy's "Reliques" is Scottish ballad. en-
titled The Jews Daughter the first stanza Of
which. together with the old melody to which
It Used TO be sung. is as follows:
&#Isa5s8E#sss,,sfs8. a5s8E#es,sfs8.
The rims 6oune through Nirry-l and ouneSae