The Denver Jewish news., 1922-01-25

READ me your translhtioh she
commanded. the hand which pushed
aside her unfinished meal trembled
little. her eyes had grown wide with
something very much like terror TAX
ing the place of the melancholy which
habitually darkened them.
He smiled at her eagerness and
smoothed out the wrinkled page. dot
ted with erasures and corrections. 81
think I've got something of the spirit
ct the thing" he said with the satis-
faction of the Woodworking craftsman;
then began to read:
Prom steel and iron-cold and hard
and dumb
Forge thou for thee heart, o man
and come.
Come, follow me into the dreadful
town.
The girl leaned toward him, eyes
desolated her work-room fingers
clenching and unclenching themselves.
as she listened to the Hebrews poets
word-picture of the horror wrought
upon helpless Jews by the maddened
mob-a picture of broken bodies
strewn amid the ruins of broken
homes on which the spring sunshine
shone in its mild cruelty.
Behold, your God with His mild
hand 1ofl,
A two-fold blessing. Massacre and
Spring."
Massacre and Spring." repeated
Bessie and the horror in her eyes
deepened.
But Ralph did not hear her; he
swept on, thrilled by the sccne he had
never witnessed. shaken hy horrors
which by the grace of Eod he would
never know His voice sympathetic
with the generous sympathy of youth,
trembled with the burden OF n SORROW
net his own the sorrow of his people
It lr,ko VT. - poet f;,rt:d nj
peal:
Rise, God, for the slaughtered inno-
cent,
For the martyred rise and for the
faithful aged,
For the poor sucklings, for the little
children. -"
"Stop-please," begged Bessie in Il
low voice. but he no longer heard her.
He had followed the master singer
of the woes of Israel into the blood
| dciiled street Of the "City of Slaugh-
ter"
-. \ market with living broken
ware,
Men like worms, beaten. crushed, half
dead.
Broken and twisted backs.
Skin and bones. wrapped in rags,
With children, dark, foriorn,
And bony women. weary unto death,
And beggar-learned. reach out their
hands,
Crooked hands on which the wounds
are bare.
And each of thein cries out his rag
ged wares.
Looking Mt the shining windows meek
ly,
Like slaves, like soulless. cringing,
beaten slaves"
His voice broke. lie laid the paper
side. and. looking up. met Bessie's
| eye which seemed to mirror all the
vile tortures the ringing lines had
pictures. Then truth flashed over him
and he understood.
"You-you have seen it all aud
know how true il is" he said when he
found his voice.
She nodded. ".All of us in one po-
grom," she said duly, except my
brother and they took him in the army
afterwards. / never heard from him
again" Her lips curl scornfully. You
know the Hebrew well and You choose
the right words when you put in Eng
lish-but what do you know of the
things Bialik writes about-the things
I saw with my own eyes?'
There is such a thing as the blood
tie which binds all Israel" he remind
ed gently. Il cannot feel it as you
do, but still l have suffered little
III the suffering of my people,
Suffer You suffer-" Her laugh rose
strained and hysterical. What can
you in America know of suffering?
You are all too well fed and comfort
able you don't know what it is to suf-
fer here" and her clenchcd hand
StIIl1.I- nj Lon, Lrnn Il ..It l.. itlhnni.tilI