The despised family of Rothschild, once compelled by the haughty citizens to confine themselves to one quarter of the city, is now its boast. The Frankforter takes more pride to-day in the fact that the city was the home of the Rothschilds, than it does in the fact that it was for centuries the seat of government of the German Empire. The Jew in Europe, while yet under something of a ban, is not the despised creature he was. The world has learned to respect him.
SOMETHING ABOUT JEWS.
There is not a calling in Europe that a Jew is not at the very head and front of. He has composed all the great operas, the sons and daughters of Judea are the great actors and singers of the world; in law and divinity, and learning of all kinds, they stand at the head, and in finance they are the world’s creditors. A convention of Jew bankers could be called together who could shake every throne in Europe.
Kings and nobles don’t pull the teeth of Jews any more to extract loans. On the contrary, they come into the presence of these great financiers with hat in hand and humble step. The Jew holds the forceps now, and it is the noble’s teeth that are pulled. How, in the absence of all law, hated, despised and contemned, and persecuted, they could amass wealth, is a mystery, but they did it.
When persecution in one State got too warm for them they always had enough wealth to get away to another, and they always found a prince who needed money badly enough to give them protection, for a time, at least, and these same princes were wont to become silent partners with the Jews in the work of eating up their own subjects with usury, which held until the Jews got the upper hand, when the prince always made a raid upon them, paying his debts to them in this way, and they flitted.
Finally they got some measure of rights, when they made themselves felt. The hatred of Jews continues in Germany and Russia, for the reason that their superior energy and acuteness has made them the masters of the trade of those countries. There is no business that they do not control. A great people are the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. They live where all others die, they wax rich where others starve. It is so in Europe, it is so in America, it is so everywhere. There is no village so small that it has not its Jew, precisely as in America. The Jew with his goods is the first man in a new town—he progresses a little faster than progress. He was in the front or in the rear of the armies going southward; he was at the western end of every rail laid on the Pacific Road; he is essentially the pioneer in money and trade. They are a wonderful people.
The Jew of the fifteenth century and the Jew of to-day are practically the same. They use different methods, but the underlying principle that moves them remains unchanged. We had two of them in the cars coming to Frankfort, an elderly Israelite with the regular nose, and his nephew, who was the exact picture of his uncle. The old man was giving the boy sage counsel:
“Vot is necessary for a peesnis man, Abram, is berseverance more ash anyting else. Berseverance is vot vins, every dime. Ven I livet in Shalesfille, shust back mit Vicksberg, (I vas in clodink), der vash Cohen and Lilienthal both in groceries. Cohen vas doin der besht peesness and it made Lilienthal mat. Lilienthal mate a special ding oof mackarel and Cohen unterselt him. Den Lilienthal put down sugar but Cohen unterselt him. Lilienthal put rice down mit almosht nottin, unt Cohen almosht gif it avay. Cohen het de peesnis, and no matter how much Lilienthal sanded hees sugar and vatered hees vishkey Cohen alvays beet him. Dot Cohen vas a goot peesnis man.
“But Lilienthal vash de most berseverin’ man ash ever vash, and he vash pound to beat Cohen anyhow, and so vun day he notist dot Cohen het a fery fine delivery mule. So Lilienthal he sait to Cohen:
“ ‘Shake, dit you efer dink dot oof dot mule oof yours hed dot wart off his hint leg he wood pring you more ash dwice vot he vood now?’