The Fargo forum and daily republican., 1909-06-19
Gotham News Letter 80.

New York, June 1s.-This week
Sothern and Marlowe-beg pardon
Marlowe and Sothern-stalked across
the stage of the Academy of Music in
presentation of The Merchant OF
Venice. Following the miserable mess
of tepid tragedy, mild melodrama and
puerile pruriency, qualities sperabund-
ant in the past seasons dramatic Of
ferings, the Shakesperian revival by
these worthy artists came as a well
come relief. 1t may also be utilized
to point moral which is that times
have changed nightly since Shakes
peare created the immortal character
of Shylock.
Time was, and not so long ago
when Shylock was a synonym for ava
rice and heartless. grasping greed. To-
day he has changed his aspect. We
see him as the representative of a race
that was bounded through Europe, per-
secuted relentlessly in every nation in
which he sought refuge despoiled of his
property by due process of law. con-
stantly outraged in all his susceptible
ties, at times put to torture and death
without other cause than that he was
Jew, and at times the object of the
dominant peoples. Shylock was 8
usuer-a monster, If you will-but ne
was human, and hh brain was filled
with the teeming memories of all the
insults that had been heaped upon him
and his family. The blood of all his
ancestors for centuries back swept hot
through his tortured veins and every
pulsation of his Heart called loud fol
| revenge. A pound of flesh, torn bleed
ing and palpitating from the quivering
pain wracked body of his arch enemy
perhaps, after ALL that were little
payment for Ill that he had suffered
Looking backward, in the light of larg-
er experience and a wider human
charity, there are some among us who
believe that justice slipped cog ir
the trial of Shylock.
Zionist Congress.
Those who entertain the theory tha,
the Jewish people are incapable OF
seeing beyond dollar, and that their
ideals never soar beyond the hope Of
amassing wealth, convict themselves
of a narrowness of knowledge lament
able in this day and age. There are
Shylocks yet among us, but for the
most part they are those whose backs
yet feel the sting of Russian knout
or the subtler sting of the scorn heaped
upon them in other European nations
Freedom for them means the liberty tc
return with u3uary the ill-treatment
which their race has known for cen
turies. But even for these the social
philosopher can find apology
That the leaders of the Jewish race
in this country are idealists beyond
the average of men is sufficiently
proven by the presence in New York
today Of nearly a thousand delegates
come to attend the annual gathering
of the Federation of American Zion
lists Their aim is to establish Jew
ish statet in Palestine, the land OF
their fathers made immortal in sacred
writ Such a project is of a certainty
not in keeping with the belief that
cupidity is the chief handspring OF
Jewish motive. To abandon position
and wealth in America and Europe for
the sake of a home in barren land
rendered desirable only by sentiment
and the instincts of the heart-to
carry always in the brain this splendid
vision of a nation of Jewish people
ruled by Jewish kings-to toll and save
by day in order that the dreams that
fill the happy night may some time