The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1903-04-19
Bill Apps Letter.

good lady, a neighbor and friend,
tougbt one of my books and expressed
her pleasure at it's perusal, but found
one fault that did not harmonic with her
Hebrew feelings, for she is Jewess. In
two places she found a spOrtive anecdote
that reflected upon some of her people,
hut they we're too good to be suppressed,
and would have been told on Gentiles as
well. Ny respect for the Jews has been
too often expressed in my letters to be
questioned 1t is not mere respect, but
IL is wonder and admiration. l rejoice
with them that the ages of persecution
have passed, and that they can now wor
ship God according to their conscience
and the faith of their fathers. Their
ancestors appeared at the very dawn OF
creation. They have been broken up and
scattered time and again, but have pre-
served their sacred literature and GUS
tens and religion, and have outlived
every nation that oppressed them. They
have had no king nor ruler nor political
head and have been scattered among all
chimes and peoples, but have never lost
their nationality nor mixed their blood
with any other people. They have for
tians, Syrians and Romans, and survived
them all. They were in later centuries
prescribed by the Catholics of SPAIN the
Protestants of Norway, while their per-
secutors sang the songs of the Psalmists
and taught the wisdom of their prophets.
We rejoice that their deliverance from
persecution came along with that of our
own when we proclaimed religious lib
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America their home. 1 have long admir- |
ed that people, who have excelled in !
domestic virtue, in obedience to law |
whose children honor and obey their !
parents Rarely among them are found |
convicts or criminals or drunkards or |
suicides, or divorced men or women. |
Their names seldom appear on the dock
cts of the courts. And yet they are pa
triots when patriots are wanted. Kos
ciusko had no Drawer troops than the
Polish Jews who followed his banner, and |
If l had to name the most faithful sol
dier / ever saw in our civil war / would |
name Jonas of our town of Rome, Jew |
who never shirked a duty or avoided
battle or loitered on a march. We have |
not forgotten how he came to time after |
a long days march from the Chicahominy |
"Mr. Jonas, where is your company" the |
tired soldier came to a salute and said |
81 ish der komp'ny." That Jonas was an
uncle of Israel Jonas, whom all Atlanta |
knows, and who is now prominent in New
York commercial circles.
With great reverence do 1 recall our
own Judah p. Benjamin, our Secretary
of war, and on whom Mr. Davis leaned |
f,w.
of his cabinet. He was a very great |
man, or he could not have gone to Eng |
land and worked his way, unaided, to !
the very top of the English bar. and !
within eight years be appointed queens |
counsel over the most learned members |
of the profession. 1 have not forgotten |
the perfect loneliness of the Jewess Re
becca in Seott's story of Ivanhoe. You |
may find broken vows and separations
and elopements in fact and in fiction, but
not among the Jews. They are in every
town and city and are more of an ex-
ample than menace to our people and
our institutions. Their names are found !
to every charity, and 1 no
ticed that the University fund was ma I
terially aided by their liberality, and 1
could not help wondering how much our
CnFlSlidn people would nave given TO ala 1
some great Jewish school or charity.
| would like to write more about these
Hebrews, for, as st. Paul said to the
Romans, with them was committed the !
oracles of God" But l am not well to-
day, and must defer to a more propitious
season.
In my last letter I made a mistake
that must be corrected. / said that /
there were but ten months until Julius
Caesar and Augustus Caesar put in two
more and named them July and August
Somehow | have had that impression all |
my mature life, and strange to say, |
was corrected a few days ago by my good |
friend Gassett, a mulatto merchant of |
our town. who is well educated and a |
student of ancient history. He wrote me |
a respectful letter and said that Numa |
Roman emperor, who regned two |
hundred and fifty years before the Gaze
sars, put in January and February for |
the two months, and the Caesars only |
changed the name of Quantities. and |
Sixties (the fifth and SIXTH ito July and !
August. So l made the correction with |
pleasure and give the credit to friend |
Gassett. BILL ARP.