Children of the Ghetto: A Study of a Peculiar People

E-text prepared by Charles Aldarondo and Project Gutenberg Distributed
Proofreaders
A Study of a Peculiar People
Author of The Master, The King of Schnorrers Dreamers of the Ghetto, Without Prejudice, etc.
1914
Preface to the Third Edition.
The issue of a one-volume edition gives me the opportunity of thanking the public and the critics for their kindly reception of this chart of a terra incognita , and of restoring the original sub-title, which is a reply to some criticisms upon its artistic form. The book is intended as a study, through typical figures, of a race whose persistence is the most remarkable fact in the history of the world, the faith and morals of which it has so largely moulded. At the request of numerous readers I have reluctantly added a glossary of 'Yiddish' words and phrases, based on one supplied to the American edition by another hand. I have omitted only those words which occur but once and are then explained in the text; and to each word I have added an indication of the language from which it was drawn. This may please those who share Mr. Andrew Lang's and Miss Rosa Dartle's desire for information. It will be seen that most of these despised words are pure Hebrew; a language which never died off the lips of men, and which is the medium in which books are written all the world over even unto this day.
London, March, 1893.
Proem I. The Bread of Affliction II. The Sweater III. Malka IV. The Redemption of the Son and the Daughter V. The Pauper Alien VI. Reb Shemuel VII. The Neo-Hebrew Poet VIII. Esther and her Children IX. Dutch Debby X. A Silent Family XI. The Purim Ball XII. The Sons of the Covenant XIII. Sugarman's Barmitzvah Party XIV. The Hope of the Family XV. The Holy Land League XVI. The Courtship of Shosshi Shmendrik XVII. The Hyams's Honeymoon XVIII. The Hebrew's Friday Night XIX. With the Strikers XX. The Hope Extinct XXI. The Jargon Players XXII. For Auld Lang Syne, My Dear XXIII. The Dead Monkey XXIV. The Shadow of Religion XXV. Seder Night