Albuquerque morning journal. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1903-1926, 1909-03-21

exist among us. | remember a CONVEX
sation on this very subject that | had
with an eX-congressman of the state
Of louisiana. He said that he had
never seen a Jewish beggar in Is life
and he inferred. from that fact, that
the Jews, as a class. must all be
blessed with worldly goods. | told
him that his conclusion was wrong,
and that if he moved in the circles
which We're known to me, Re would
soon find that poverty was at home
among the Jews, as among other
classes. Moreover, there was a time,
and it is not so very long ago, when
the Jews would have considered il a
shame to have one of their own faith
go about as a mendicant and ask aims
from those who were not his core
%ligionists, and it is a fact that the
Jews provided so literally and so gem
erously for the poor and destitute
among them, that they were seldom
or never seen at the doors Of those
who We're strangers to their faith.
Thus we may have, innocently, con
tributed to the Widespread belief that
every Jew,has a goodly share of the
blessings Of this life; nor should l, for
one. be aversc to maintaining it, in
SO far as it. involved the discharge of
our duty toward our unfortunate
brethren.
Generally speaking, however. the
notion that the terms Jew and
rich are synonymous. is a myth, /
regret to say, it is a prejudice which
neither his condition today nor his
past history win bear out
In ancient times the Jews were
shepherds and a~griculturists, and you
will readily see how dearly the ancient
|Tsraclite was welded to the soil, and
how highly he priced the labor OF the
husbandman, when | remind you
that the word in the Hebrew Ian
guage which means TO till thu
ground" signifies also ITO serve Cod
If We needed any additional proof
that the ideals Of the Jews of old,
when unrestricted, did not lie in the
direction of trade and money-making,
We can find it. a~bundantly, in the
bible and post-biblican literature.
The picture of the messiannic age,
which the prophet paints for Israel
n mankind, is taken from the life
OF the hushandman; it forecasts the
day when the whole world shall be
at peace. and everyone shall sit III.
der his own vine and his own fig tree
What a magnificent ideal of domes-
tic peace and bliss the psalmist dis
closes in these words
IF thou eat the toll of thy hands.
happy shalt thou be. and it shall be
well with thee. Thy wife. ike a fruit
full vine, in the innermost b orts of thy
house; thy children. ike olive plants
round thy table. Behold thus shall
the man be bessed, that feareth the
Lord"
Has it ever occurred to those who
seek to traduce the jew, who impute
to him the instinct of money getting,
both by nature n heredity, that the
laws of the Pentateuch, almost with
out exception, are based upon condi-
tons such as we find among a people
engaged in the pursuit of Agricultural
Alexander Won Humboldt, in his
Cosmos speaks of the love f ma
ture which must have inspired the
Hebrews, and which enabled
them to develop the rich and ami
mated conceptions Of its various forms
as we find in their lyrical poetry.
He must be blind. indeed, who fails
to see that. for the old Hebrews the
wisdom and goodness Of God were
reflected in the works OF nature. and
that these thoughts and ,ntiments
came to them. from loving converse
and communion with her unnumbered
wonders.
The merchants OF antiquity were
the Phoenicians and not the Jews,
and though / should consider it not
one Of their least claims to recogni-
ton. II. like their neighbors of Sidon
and Tyre. they had been instrumental
I'M bringing the orient and Occident
into closer relationship. yet. the fact
cannot be disputed that nothing seems
to have been further from the ma
tural tendency Of the ancient He
breNs than trade and commerce. Isa-
iah even goes so far in his condem-
nation of the trading spirit, that he
maintains that God had deserted the
house Of Jacob because. in conse-
quence Of their relations with the
Eastern peoples they had brought
much gold and silver into the land.
Tho author OF the 23rd chapter of
Isaiah. Who lived about the middle Of
the fourth century, regarded the ter
rihIe catastrophe which overlook ST.
don. 1t the hands Of tho Persian king.
Artaxerxcs H. In sfs b. c., as ar act