The New York herald., 1921-01-16

Behind the Scenes

Behind the Scenes
UNCLE MOSES. BY sholom Asch.
Translated from the Yiddish by Isaac
Goldberg, e. p. Dutton & Co.
Reviewed by
MILDRED l.. BLUMENTHAL.
No preconceived notions of racial
sympathy have prevented Sholom
Asch from courageously portraying
the weaknesses of the immigrant
Jews, and the hideous abuses
that they practise upon each other
within the sacred precincts Of the
Ghetto. That Uncle Noses" how
ever, Is a labor of love no critic can
deny. and It Is doubtless the ali-per-
vading and all-seeing quality of the
author's love of his people that forces
him into a realism which. though
highly poetic in spots. Is usually so
stark that 1t chasteneth always in
stead of betimes. But Mr.. Aseh has
achieved something far greater in this
book than an extraordinarily vivid
and masterful Interpretation of the life
of the Ghetto Jew In New York. He
has lifted the curtain on the drama Of
Americanization.
Leroy Beaulieu has. called attention
to the potential power Of metamor-
phosis in the Jew. to the ease with
which he transforms himself, to the
nimbleness Of his mind beneath an
exterior that often seems dull, and he
emphasizes the fact that only one or
two generations are necessary to
Transform the most abject Oriental
Jew into an Occidental. a Partisan.
America, however, Is the setting OF
far greater transformation, and this
despite Remains bigwigism that "a Jew
will never be citizen; he will simply
live in the cities of others" In the
American Jew we have Jew with a
State, Jew with country, Jew
with a nationality. But the price OF
this transformation must be paid In a
whole generation. sometimes two, and
1t is with the gropings and stumblings
of those generations that Mr.. Asch
concerns himself.
The scene opens in that section OF
New York and Brooklyn which hovers
and ,seethes about the Williamsburg
Bridge, that living giant of iror
that stretches across the East River
clutching at either bank with his
hands and feet. while over his back, ir
unending succession, fly wild iror
creatures packed with human cargo.
And. on that part Of the giants back
reserved for pedestrians, we are intro
duced to Masha Melnick goading de-
serting. shrinking, jobless father bach
to an ignorant, caustic mother, and
houseful of hungry children in Hop
kins street, with lashings like this
Shame on you, papa. You didn't
come home for two days. We didn't
know where to hunt for you. Mamma
was crying, and the children were
crying. We all thought you were lost
shame, papa!" Masha had red cheeks
black eyes, long black braids, and rec
hands that stuck way out of the short
sleeves of an outgrown dress. She hae
s-B to her credit. had lived fourteen
years, and was $50 we'll acquainted
with all the family. affairs and secrets
that she was not ashamed to mentor
them to her parent"
At Masha's appeal. her father re
solved to return to Uncle Moses's shor
on the Bowery and thread himself
once again into the needle"
It never occurred to him that Uncl'
Moses. in his quiet hours, compare
himself to that selfsarne thread In tina
seIfsame needle. The American
Moses Melnick, the Bowery manufac
turer. president Of the Congregation
Anshi- Kuzmin, who gave employment
to half of his native town, and who's
employees trembled before him; Mose
Melnick. who owned tenements AM
who had endowed beds where sick Kuz
minites could be harbored; Moses Mel
nick. whose name was inscribed Owe
the gate of the cemetery where hu
manly frail Kuzminites would go Il
their last rest; he, too, was begin
ming to question what life had yielded.
Moses was to be seen In his shof
daily. standing coatless among dust,
mass of trousers, veAts. sack coats ant
coats laid out and piled half way II
the ceiling on rows of long broad
tables. Sometimes he would be par
ing hfs nails with pair OF hug
tailor's shears" sometimes he woult
be splitting on his hands and glossint
his hair, but always he would be whip
ping I'D his workers. In the summer
he sweltered, puffed and painted rather
than leave the shop, and In the win
ter he would be out early enough or
cold mornings to be on hand "the nrst
and see whether the workmen came
on time" With one hand he GROUND
them down, with the other hand h
lifted
Somewhere along the line he had
once had a wife. "she had looked up to
him as god" had respected his bulk
and his powerful. manly neck, had
feared his serious, careworn face, and
had wondered at his vitality and ac-
tivity. But he did not see her.
for she had borne him no children
ITO him she was thing" Neverthe-
less she anguished and languished'
while he snored dreamlessly, or was