The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1903-02-15
THEIR Only
HOPE BURIED
Pathetic Case of Prosecuted
Romanian Jews.
SENT BACK TO HADES
Sight of Heavenly Freedom
Denied Their Hungry Eyes.
SENT BACK TO HADES

The squat, brown ferryboat strained a,
its creaking ropes, drew clear of its
chains, and padded away through the
rain, like a huge water animal, on its
hourly trip to Ellis Island. The decks
grimy with the uncleaned boots of many
nations. the cabins except where the
rain leaked through persistently on the
seats and floor. Were filled with immi-
| grants friends sacrificing time and work
| to take the new arrivals out of Gov
! eminent pawn.
As soon as the boat reached the Island
| where every immigrant must halt, the
crowd swarmed out like bees, motley
array of half-made Americans with only
a thin veneer of difference between them
and the new raw foreigners they were
| to meet. Some of them would have to wait
three. four and five solid hours before
| the ship they wanted would land its hui
man freight. These were sent to the left
| by the mighty voice Of burly official.
The others struggled along the walk by
the great red building. and a few made
answering signals, to the men massed
at four of the open windows on the sec
ond floor. Then the doorway swallowed
them up, and the mormalities for meet
ing their friends began.
With it's floating population Of Hebrew
and Gentle, Russian, German, French.
Hungarian, Italian, Portuguese, and all
of the other nations in the geography.
our immigrant station seems to be the
clearing house Of the world. the center
of humanitys hope and despair.
1t has been both for the little group Of
refugees from Rumania that drifted in
with the immigrant tide week or more
ago. They are the pathetic survivors of
a persecution began long centuries ago,
when their Jewish ancestors were driven
out of Spain in the reign of Ferdinand
and Isabella. Thousands of them went
to Turkey, set up their religion in a new
land, and lived according to their faith.
in the world but not of it, intermarry-
ing keeping to the rites and customs of
their forefathers. In the course of the
years their number grew small, and fin
ally they went to Roumania and set
tied at Crajova These Spanish Jews have
never returned to the land of their an
cestors. but through all the five centur-
les the customs and the language have
been passed from generation to genera
ton as a sacred heritage. In the syna-
gogue at Crajova they worship as their
ne ople worshipped in Spain, and in the
family circle they speak pure, uncorrupt-
ed Spanish. Once more persecution has
fallen upon this people. Once more
remnant is making protest against the
wanton injustice of the Rumanians, and
asking refuge from the land that their
countrymen, Columbus discovered. But it
is Only a forlorn remnant Of heroism that
can survive the machinery of our i'm
migration system. At the end of long
corridor is the excluded room for the men,
blue with the smoke of many pipes. reek-
ing with the composite odors of the steer
sge The attendant thrust his head in
at the door and called two names. A man
came shuffling out with a boy at his heels
and behind him another man, holding by
the hand tiny scrap of masculine hui
mainly in coat and trousers, with a plush
cap pulled down to his big black eyes, and
mouth that had not lost its babyish
curves.
No, they surely were not heroic figures
these four, but they had about them a
kind of patient dignity that set them
apart from the hoi polloi of their compan-
ions. 1 wanted to find out the dramatic
events that lay behind that look of en-
durance in their eyes, to know the in
innate workings of their thoughts. But
speech was a great barrier as If we had
all been dumb. The Spanish interpreter
was absent for the moment, but the faith.
er of the older boy was Rumanian by
birth. He understood a little Yiddish,
get some fragments OF his history
why did you come to America"
The question brought forth flood Of
gutturals and a story in vigorous ges-
lures.
" I have profession. he says" my
guide explained q found afterwards he !
was a carpenter), land 1 will send my son |
to school. -
The boys bright face beamed during |
the dialogue and his father glowed with |
honest pride. He says the boy went !
through four classes the guide went on,
and they wouldn't let him into the |
fifth. He draws very well now. and he
wants to be mining engineer"
Again the man broke out:
'Ah-merica," my guide translated liter /
ally. "a free country it is to live in and |
to work in. Everything is free. In Ru-
mania you cannot sit. you cannot stand; /
no. they drive you out
II looked at the doorway and a solid |
bank of faces confronted me. and at the 4
mention of Ah-merica 1 saw them all /
light up As never before / realized, how 4
the battle our ancestors had fought had /
given TO the oppressed of the earth the
hope OF freedom. If not its fulhllment. 1
These people in the excluded room. even
in sight of the Promised Land. were
10 be sent back. eXiled from its privi-
leges. Justice and sympathy may not /.
always run in parallel lines. For the .
larger good of the country the individual
welfare of these men had 30 be sacrificed.
Yet even they had their dream OF free /
dom.
How did you hear OF American" was 4
the next question. and in its answer was /
one OF the explanations OF that endless I
ch3iu OF foreigners that comes to US con- /!
tinuslly.
read about Ah-me-ica IN a paper
from New York. which friend. a Rou-
manian prints. read Ah-merica vas
free" could not understand the words. +
but the tones were as reverent as If he 4
had been praying. Il come" he fin /
ishcd, that here. my boy. he may be !.
free. Perhaps. greater love hath no 4
man than this.
The Spanish Jew. only half compre- /
bending. had the WEAKNESS of centuries I
n his heavy eyes. His cheeks were .
hollow. and his long mustache trailed /
downward in 8 discouraged droop. But /
even he was fired with enthusiasm when /
an interpreter asked him in his own 1