The Savannah morning news., 1904-02-14
DoWse B. Rusfin,
Secretary.
sgd. B. Rusfin,
Manager

I an Jew. AS a boy, he forms a strong
attachment for Katia, daughter of the
| provincial judge, who is a Gentle 1t
becomes the ruling passion of his life.
| subsequently when his father is ac-
! cused of numbering a Christian child
| Tor ritual purposes, and after Israel is
an exile from his home, he returns to
/ the girls house as tutor, under an as
| sumed name. Under various names,
he lives the exciting student life in
Russia, involved from time to time in
political plots and visionary race
schemes. An intimate view of the
| Jewish home life is obtained, Israers
| love for Katia never waivers, even
though her father is the author of
much of his family's misfortunes.
Eventually, Israel comes to America,
the sanctuary of the oppressed Jew,
| and in New York he becomes for a time
a part of the Ghetto picture. The raw
immigrant develops into a potential
American citizen, and the story of the
evolution is part of the detail of the
| story. Katia's father, now a political
refugee, comes to New York and the
lovers meet, after series of incidents
as dramatic as they are unexpected.
"A Jews Christian is a story of
\ human interest, in which Gentle am
bition and Jewish cunning are pitted
| against each other. The Gentle is
| grasping, yet not without redeeming
| qualities; the Jew is crafty and vet
i affectionate. Interest in the narrative
is sustained throughout, because it is
story of hesh-and- blood people who
have their struggles, temptations, fail
ures and successes like people we know
personally. In the thread of the story
there is a line of telepathy and oc-
cultism that is fascinating.
Charles Dickens, in one of his
Christmas stories, ponders on the sig
nificance of the phrase "as dead as a
door nail" He asks gravely why a
door nail should be regarded as so par
ticularly lifeless; he suggests that it
would be better to say las dead as a
coffin nail" A philologist of the
Drexel Institute explained, the other
day, the origin and the application Of
'as dead as door nail" He said:
Dickens didn't know that a door
nail and nail in door are different
things. A door nail is a nail with a
short shank and very wide head-a
head two inches across-which used to
to be fixed in the upper and middle
part of the wicket of any large out
ward door, to assist passively in pro-
ducing the loud sound created. as
times changed, with a heavy rapper.
The more active agent in this noise
making was heavy ball of iron, sus-
pended from above by a thong or
string about six or eight inches long;
and the person using this ball ham
mered with all his might on the
broad-headad nail. The nail was
supposed to be dead because, receive
ing so many blows on the head from
an iron hammer, it was, If not pre-
viously defunct. surely defunct now.
after so much i'll usage.
Had Dickens possessed this infor-
nation about the door nail he could
never have written the amusing para
graphs concerning it that begin the
Christmas Carol
IA London paper announces that the
proper pronunciation of Pepys is dis
covered to be 'Pips"J
Let us rejoice when now we read
The work of Samuel Pepys,
That his odd name no longer need
To tremble on our lepys.
Henceforth we shall not blunder
through
The honored name of Pepys,
But speak the words as one does who
Through graceful measures trepys.
Time was, we may as well confess,
When just the sight of Pepys
In print would fill us with distress
And make us think of skepys.
1t is not "Peps," nor "Pepys"ANo,
The proper way is "Pepys."
Let us pronounce it always so
And never lose our grepys.
w. D.. Nesbit, in Life.
The passage in Julian Hawthornes
book about his father. Nathanial Haw-
thorne. entitled Hawthorne and His
Circle because of which Mrs. Sarah
J. Lipplncott, known TO the literary
world as Grace Greenwood, has
brought an action to recover $500
damages from Harper A Bros., the
books publishers, relates 70 q visit