The Tacoma times. [volume] (Tacoma, Wash.) 1903-1949, 1909-01-22
ACTS PART
Of TRAGIC
. HEROINE
Strange Story of Chicago
Girl Novelist Who Gre
ated a Heroine of
Tragedy, then En-
acted the Part.

CHICAGO, Jan. 22.-''My whole
life has been the travail of a soul.
My birth brought death to my
mother. To my father my life
brought woe. to me misery. Now
that 1 have assassinated the mon-
stcr Of modern Russia and brought
liberty to my prosecuted race
shall die happily"
In this speech, Karina Levin
sky, the heroine of an unfinished
novel translated the intense em-
otionality of Anna Rabinovitch,
its 2O-year-Old author, univers-
ity student, and the "Queen of
Group 13 of the Chicago Anar-
chists." Karina's life was the
ideal of Miss RObinovitch. The
fictitious character shot and killed
the car and then died, riddled by
the bullets of file of soldiers
after she had been cruelty tor
tured.
While shaving all day in Chi
cago sweatshops, studying phil
osophy at night and composing
the novel Miss Rabinovitch's own
destiny turned into as tragic a
crisis as that which befell her
heroine. She was a pretty young
Jewish exile, who had fled from
Russia to escape the prosecutions
of Slav Jew haters. With her
came her "soul sister," Bertha va
blonsky, another dark, young Jew
ish beauty, who feared to remain
where she might be the victim of
brutal soldiers.
The girls studied philosophy,
socialism, science, anarchism and
the classics. Their minds wers
fed on the protests of the mas
ter minds of the world against the
cruelty of men to men. Miss Ra-
binovitch conceived the idea of
making Bertha Yablonsky her
"Karina Levinsky," sending her
to Russia to execute the plot of
the novel in reality.
In a tiny, dark rom paid for out
of their wages of 81 a week as
sweatshop slaves the girls had a
store of literary masterpieces over
which they nightly pored as long
as their tired eyes would permit.
Once a week Miss Rabinovitch
called a meeting of Group 49,"
The enthusiastic young anarchists,
most of whom are of the same race
and nationality as the girls, Joined
in approval Of Annals plans. She
was styled second Emma Gold
man, but greater than Goldman,
because Goldman is only a phil
osophical anarchist, while Anna
RabinOvitch is militant"
What are the things of life?"
this morbid girl once asked. "I
believe as Schiller that Whatever
lives, lives to die in sorrow. We
engage our hearts after the things
of this world only to undergo the
pang of losing them
The first real shadow that came
over these girls. basking in the
light of their philosophy, was
when Barnard Kamenetzky, a
handsome young Jewish immi-
grant, joined them. He first be-
gan a "platonic" friendship with
the girl political dreamer and nov
elist.
They were intellectual affinities,
their companions declared. There
is another influence in affinities,
and Anna's fellow girl anarchists
say she showed the first weak
ness when she began to love Kam-
enetzky. An attraction stronger
than intellectual power drew the
young mans nature towards her
soul sister," Bertha Yablonsky.
Soon the two were much in each
others company. Their conf
dences excluded Anna. The SEN
sitive soul of the abnormal young
woman was stung to the quick.
She quickly reached a desperate
resolve.
The night after the discovery
Anna Rabinovitch bought a revol-
yer. She spent an hour In a shoot
ing gallery studying its use. True
to her acquired tastes she select
ed reading as the means to the
greater pleasure just before her
death.
Three books were found on the
bed where she lay and read from
dark till daybreak ON her last
night. The books were "Ham.
let," Schiller's "The Robbers" ant
"Sappho." Passages containing
bitter philosophy were marked IL
all three.
In the morning when Sunday
bells were ringing the young WON
an started out on her mission
She fastened to the room of hel
"soul sister," expecting to find