Uimi K9iUK m^i 1 POET AND MERCHANT B./\dEF\B/^d|< /I-K Sl.IhVE-BAN. FREYTAG, Q. INGO. INGRAHAN. GAUTIER. T Captain Fracasse. Illus. GIFT. THEO. PRI 1 TY miss HELI.MW. maid i: 1.1 ice. A MAITER-OH-FACT C.IRL. GOETHE. J. "W Von Elective affinities. TivE People. HARDY. THOMAS. Under the Greenwood Tree. A Pair of Blue Eyes. Desperate remedif.s. Far from the madding Crowd. Illus. Hand of Ethelberta. return of the Native. THE trumpet-Major. A Laodicean. With lUtutr Two on a tower. HEINE, HEINRICH. scintillations. HENKEL, FR. THE MISTRESS OF IBICH- STEI.N. HOLLISTER, G. H. KlNl.EY HOlI.OW. HOPPUS, M.A.M. A STORY or CARNU-AU HUNT. Mrs. A. W^. THE Leaden Casket. JENKIN, Mr». O. Who breaks -pays. SKIRMISHING. A PSYCHE OK TO-DAY. MADAME DE BEAUPRK. JUPITER'S DAUGHTERS. WITHIN AN ACE. JOHNSON. Ro««lter. Pl.AV-DAY POEMS. LAFFAN. MAY. the hon mlssfhrrard. Christy Cakew. LUCY, HENRY W. GIDEON I'l.FVCE. McGRATH. T. PICTURES FROM IRELAND. MAJENDIE,La «» y y ^ t yg K y «1I Miyi lT LEISURE-HOUR SERIES. NrRRIS. "W E Matrimony. HKAI'S ur MONF.V No Nuw TuiNi;. OLIPHANT, Mr«. WHITEI-ADH'S. PALORAVE W. Q HKkMANN AGHA. PARR, LOUISA. Hfro CAinHJW. ROMN. PLAYS FOR PRI VATE ACTIKQ. POYNTER. E. F. My L.ITTI-K I.AUY Ersh.ia. Among the Hii.i-s. RICHARDSON. 8 Clarissa Hari.owh, (to»<- RICHTER. J. P. F. Fl.OWEK.FklUT.AND THORN Pieces, a vols. Campankr 1 HAL, etc. Titan. 2 vols. HESPHRI'S. 2 vols. The iNvisibi.E Lodge. (Ooiil inuecl.t ROBERTS MisB. I Noblesse <.tBi.i<;R. } t»N 1 UK i'.IK.E OK S IORM. ! In TUI'l Ol.HKN riMR. ; SCHMID. H THE IIAKEKMEISIRR. SERGEANT, ADEL. j HEVOM) KrCALL. SLIP in the FENS. A | SMITH. H and J 1 J Reiecteu apprksshs. ' ; SPARHAWK, P. C. — j A l,AZY Man's work. SPIELHAOEM, F. What THE Swallow sang, SPOFFORD. H. P. The Amuer c.qus. Azarian. ; STEVENSON. R. L. j New ak.miian Nights. STURGIS JULIAN. MV FRIl-NUS A.ND I. ^T THACKERAY .^V. M Early and Late Papers. TYTLER, O. O. F. Mistress Judith Jonathan. TURQENIEFF. I FAI HHRS AND SONS. SMOKR. LIZA. ON THE KVH. DlMITRI KOl'DINK. Siring Floods; Lear Virgin Soil. VERS DE SOCXETB. VXLLARI, LINDA. IN Change Unchanged. WALFORD. L. B. Mr. Smith. Pauline. Cousins. troublesome Da. giithms. Dick Nether iiy. TH E .B.VIi V'S G K ANDMOTH ER WINTHROP. THEO. CECIL DREEME, If .Portrait Canoe and Saddle. John Brent. Kdwin Brothertoft. Like in the open Air. WYLDE, Katharino. A Dreamer. YESTERDAY. " Tt is ndmiri(bly wriitoii, its sce!ir.= arr i>owcrful jiml thrilling, its pk't show? n v;or\- derful imaji: niti'-n, not running wild. Ihh, trained to suntaiiied work: it is intonsily interesting, and no one c:in say that the peculiar nieniiil or spiritual experiences related are iiupoB.->ible." — Bosioii. Advtitinn'. " It is something in the.se day- of exhausted invention to hit upon the plot for » pti;ry which, relatively speaking, may be called original, and Hugh Conway in his novel Called Back, has succeded in doing this ♦ * the story has a vivid intere.st." — Literarj/ World. CALLED BACK. A fasciuatiug Novel. By Hugh Conway. 16rao. Leisure Hour Series, $1. Leisure Moment Series, 25c. FREEMAN'S IMPRESSIONS OF THE UNITED STATES. By Edwahd A. Freeman. 12mo. $1,50. PORTER'S OUTLINES OF THE CONSTITU- TIONAL HISTORY OF THE U. S. By LuTnER Henry Porter. 12mo. |1.50. CLASSIC MYTHOLOCY. Translated from Prof. C. Witts' Griechische Gcitter und Heldkn- geschichten. Supplemented with a Glossary of Etymologies »nd Related Myths. 12mo. $1.25. HEI\fRY HOLT d CO., Publishers, New York. LEISURE HOUR SERIES— No. Sg POET AND MERCHANT A PICTURE OF LIFE FROM THE TIMES OF MOSES MENDELSSOHN BY BERTHOLD AUERBACH Author of "On the Heights," "The Villa on the Rhine," etc. TRANSLATED BY CHARLES T. BROOKS NEW YORK HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY 1877 Copyright, 1877, by HENRY HOLT. Hermon Smith, Stcreotypcr, Ithaca N. Y. Press of J. J. Llttlo & Co., N08. 10 to 20 Astor I'lace, Now York. MP ■ ' ^ sxifoe:^ v CONTENTS. PAGE. 1— The Guests, 1 2— The Sabbath, 19 3 — Rabbi Chanaxel, - - - - _ _ 37 4 — All for tite Bcst, ------ 56 5 — The Caligrapher, ------ 7G C — Book-Keeping by Double Entry and Joseph in Egypt, -- 87 7 — Exodus from Egypt, - - - - - 97 8 — Division and Dispersion, - - - - 111 9 — New Acquaintance, ------ 123 10— Violet, -------- 136 11— Woman's Life, ------- 153 12 — The Practical Head, ----- 170 13 — The Unpractical Head, ----- 179 14— On New Paths, 194 15— De Amicitia, - - - - - - - 209 16— De Amore, ------- 232 17— Poor Souls, 251 18 — An Evening with Moses Mendelssohn, - • 260 19— Suicide, -289 iv CONTENTS. 20 — Demoralization and Departure, - - - 302 21 — Dame Adventure, ------ 324 22 — Sentimental Journeys and the Prophet, - 341 23— The Vagrant, - 358 24 — Return Home, ------ 375 25 — Sorroavs of Werther, ----- 383 26— The Old Bachelor, 397 27 — Hither and Thither, ----- 412 28— He IS Mad, 436 29— Release, - - - - - - _ 449 POET AND MERCHANT. 1.— THE GUESTS. « TJE shall he sioallowed up like Korah!^^ O " All the plagues of Pharaoh shall light upon him!'' Such and still more bitter were the curses that issued from a group of beggars, wending their way on Friday afternoon toward the so-called " sleeping- place" (or lodging-house) in Breslau. These beg- gars, with their wives and children, had just come from the Jewish church-warden, who had been dis- tributing among them meat-tickets for the next Sabbath. The endless banishments and persecutions which their race had suffered had driven many Jewish families to the necessity of leading, in the midst of civilized Europe, like their forefathers in the Ara- bian desert, a nomadic life ; they had neither home 1 2 POE T AND MER CHA NT. nor fixed abode, but went their way begging from city to city, from village to village, wherever they found a settlement of their fellow-believers. Many there were who, for generations back, could trace their ancestors to no definite dwelling-place ; their marriages were consummated on the country roads by the simple transfer of a ring and the presence of two witnesses. Such a marriage was perfectly lawful according to the original principles of the Jewish religion, for marriage, as a purely civil contract, needed no clergyman, and even by the clergy was not consecrated in the synagogues, but outside under a canopy stretched for the purpose. It was a rare case for scions of those beggar-fam- ilies to work their way out from the gypsy life; habit held them firmly fixed there, and their main- tenance was a perfectly organized thing in the churches. These vagrant people were designated by the honorable title of "Guests;" not till later was this mild expression made to convey or cover an ignominious meaning. In every place the settled families were obliged to entertain during the Sab- bath a greater or smaller, number of " guests," ac- cording to their ability, and on Sunday morning pro- vide them with traveling money. On week days their support was left more or less to private charity. The most thankless ofiice in connection with this Sabbath-quartering fell to the church-warden, who distributed the tickets; he could not suit anybody; the beggars cursed and reviled him, — for it Avas none other than the unhappy almoner who was the object of the above-quoted imprecations. THE GUESTS. 8 The Jewish poor-house-of -entertainment at Bres- lau was situated on Charles Street in the so-called fencing-school, a sort of barracks enclosing a large area like a market-place, in the middle of which was a kind of store-house of goods, with a small tower and a striking-clock; in the circumjacent houses, of which one row abutted against the ramparts, lived forty or fifty Jewish families; and in one of the court-yards stood the so-called Lissa Synagogue, into a dirty room opposite which the beggars above mentioned now entered. " With whom do you dine, Schnauzcrle * ? " asked a burly fellow with a rattling in his throat. " With whom do I dine ? with whom do I starve ? — you'd better say ! Once more I say, let him be swallowed up alive, if he sends me to Lamray Biir, who looks like a time of famine, and his wife like a smoked herring, such a great long-legged, raw-boned, sixteen-hand-high old cook." Such was the answer of the party spoken to, a man with a desperate face, who was further distin- guished from his companions by wearing leather breeches with broad red stripes on the sides and a row of brass buttons; the silver ear-rings, which peeped out from under the black frizzly hair might have served as a special mark of his individuality. " I'll tell you what ! " said a little man with a peaked beard, whom they called Mendel Felluhzer — • " I'll tell you what ! If you'll give me two good * Or, literally, Snoutv, in allusion to a protruding moustache giving his face the look of a dog's nose. — 7>. 4 POET AND MERCHANT. grosclien to boot, I'll swap with you, and give you my billet to the rich widow of Aaron Wolf, who haa the richest dried-meat in all Breslau, and every Sab- bath a smoked tongue with a sauce that tastes like pure Malmsey." "I'll give you a groschen and a half," replied Schnauzerle; and his wife howled and scolded and beat her children for having such a spendthrift of a father, till they all yelled in chorus. " One and a half ? " smiled Mendel, " well, I don't care; you see I hate long hagglings; but you must pay first." '■' I ha'n't a bloody penny, and if Amalek, the poll- tax-gatherer should come and should say: Victor, [or Schnauzerle, for all I care], you may put my eyes out with a red farthing — (Lord knows I'd be glad enough to do it) — I should have to let the Titus run. You're all witnesses, that till Sunday morning I owe one and a half good groschen." Mendel shook his head negatively, and Schnauzerle went on : " You may cut off my right ear, ear-ring and all, if I don't pay you honestly." Mendel again shook his head, and Victor laid himself on the bench behind the table, stretched his legs out and whistled the Dessau march. "A good fat billet, And a soft bed at night, And a cozy bench, And a buxom wench To help me fill it, — Is my delight " — ^- declaimed a sly little man out of a corner of the ajjartment. THE GUEST. Mr,' " Stop your clack, you ninny-haTnm^';^^nerl Lo1)g1 Schackern, interrupting tlie rhymer, for he had been obliged to laugli at those verses, and that made him cut a piece out of his chin, as he was just at that moment in the act of twitching out before a broken looking-glass some of the hairs of his beard with a pair of scissors. The unlucky poet, Israel Possenmacher of Dorz- bach in Franconia, answered promptly: "Howl of dogs and tom-cats' din At the gate of Heaven will never get in." "Whereupon, like a marksman, he drew his eyelids down over his (always half-hidden) little gray eyes, took out of his mouth the quid of tobacco which he was chewing and threw it in his reviewer's face, who in return flung at him the scissors, which un- fortunately, however, hit a little maiden, w^ho, hold- ing a violin in her lap, sat cuddled up in a corner. The child screamed, blood ran from her forehead, and Schnauzerle sprang up in a fury, and leaping down from the table away over them all to his little daughter, boiling w^ith rage, he lifted the deathly- pale child with one hand in the air, while with the other he shook his fist at the by-standers, then ho pressed the bleeding face of his child to his lips, and perceiving no longer any breath, he yelled and raved and cursed again aloud, and swore to massacre every one of them. " My best child ! my best child ! Wait, Lobel, I'll bite your throat in two with my teeth ! She waa as gentle as a lamb, every farthing she earned by 6 POET AND MERCHANT. singing she brought to me," cried Schnauzerle, and his voice began to quiver. Meanwhile several had gone to find an old beggar- woman, called tall Voffel, who came, snatched the child from Schnauzerle's arms, breathed softly three times into the wound on the forehead, the blood ceased running, she took a flask from her pocket, sprinkled a few drops on mouth and temples, the child opened her eyes, Schnauzerle gave a scream of joy and gave Lobel a kick, nobody could tell whether from rapture or revenge; the latter, however, took off his yellow neck-handkerchief and gave it to the old man as a bandage for the child ; he also unfast- ened his little gold ear-rings and put them on to the sleeping child, and to make all good, he gave Schnauzerle his better meat-ticket and took his poor one instead. All at once an altered tone, a certain tenderness of mood, seemed to have come over the whole company; of all the curses and bitter jests there was no longer any sound or sign. The sense of having just escaped a calamity excites even in the most hardened natures a slight shudder of awe, and who can tell how much of pardonable selfishness may not on such occasions be awakened in the soul? Every one could now with undisturbed contentment surrender himself to the pleasure of the coming Sab- bath, a great part of which would have been utterly spoiled if a little corpse had been lying on the boards of the lodging-house. All united in the praise of the little ten-year-old Mattie (Matilda); they ex- tolled her cleverness, her gentle good-nature, and THE GUESTS. *] her talent in singing and violin-playing, and pro- nounced Schnauzerle happy in having such a daugh- ter. The child woke up; all caressed her; she stood smiling before the broken looking-glass and feasted her eyes upon the yellow fillet and the golden ear- rings; the pale face and the delicately formed little mouth seemed as if they had seldom been lighted up with a gleam of pleasure. The child bound the handkerchief more neatly around her forehead, the bandage became an ornament, and with a graceful fling and flourish she skipped out of the door to show her pretty things to the other children. "That Schnauzerle is a speculating head," said Elias Rossnitzer, " that child may yet make a rich man of him some day. It doesn't look as if it were your child; I believe you stole her." " When you were born they must have fired a salute — you did) lH invent gimpowder,^'^ Ye\:)\ied Schnauzerle; " you can get you a dog to eat your ideas for you. When one hasn't enough for himself, will he go to stealing children for a luxury ? " "Some other folks are speculative too," began •Mendel; "if you'll keep still, I'll show a little ar- rangement of mine." He pulled a dirty little book out of his pocket, and the curious by-standers formed a ring round him, and thrusting their thumbs on both sides into the arm- holes of their waistcoats, looked at the speaker with distorted features. " You know," continued the subject of this honor, "everybody is acquainted with me where two roads 8 POET AND MERCHANT. meet, so I have laid out my brokerage-business on an extensive scale. See here ! On the left hand side of the first page are the fellows, and on the right the girls, of marriageable age ; we'll leave them side by side; I'll introduce to you presently the second set; on these leaves you find the sons and daughters of families; they are marked with only one star, they are of middle standing, say from two to three thou- sand dollars; down below are the honeysweet chil- dren ; I should be sorry to have to choose, if I must choose one of them. But the worst of them are the middling sort, checked off in the margin down here ; they belong neither exactly above nor below — they're too small for the cart and too large for the wagon ; it's a troublesome piece of business till one gets them fairly harnessed in. But now, dear children, look out! here come my goldfish, my pearls, my sugar-plums, my rose-buds ; for two hundred miles round there's not a young lad or lass that I havn't in my sack. Brothers, this runs up high, to the seventh heaven, even to twelve thousand thalers ! higher than that nobody ever got. There is the daughter of Meyer de Castro in Hamburg, only fifteen years old, but a golden child^ eia:hteen carats fine, who looks so fresh and healthv one could almost take a bite of her, and she has a pair of eyes in her head, coal-black and with a fire in them — the great diamond of the King of Portugal (I wish I had it) can't have a brighter lustre; a mouth and a chin, and in fact her whole person — one can't paint anytliing finer; and, brothers, twelve thou- sand thalers! Dear Lord! if I liad twelve thousand THE GUESTS. 9 thalers, I'd ask if Breslau were for sale. I should be the greatest merchant in the world; I should be better off than the King of Prussia ! I must say, I pity the young creature; her father has wanted with all his might to get a scholar for his son- in-law. I have ordered such a dried-up little Rabbi from Fiirth; I make a nice bit of money by the op- eration, and while we are talking here, perhaps the match is already concluded. — The double-under- scored one here — that is the daughter of Raphael Lobell of Treves; her name is Taiibchen; she is one of those who find many electors and no purchaser — one of those market-day jades, that everybody has trotted out, inspects them and then goes away ; she is half-and-half new-fashioned ; she parley-vous' High- Gei-man like a countess, and is a somewhat consid- erable pei-son withal, only she has a bit of cock-a- doodle-doo in her head. Na ! Well, before twice twenty-four hours, she's provided for." He held up for a moment, and took in with a smile the tribute of approval from the surrounding com- pany, and then proceeded: " Brothers, now attend! here on these three leaves I have marked such articles as are spotted, and what one commonly calls Bavel ; * and there is the most profit on them, for the very reason that such things are not what everybody will buy. There is the daughter of Maier Karp of Cologne; she has lost a shoe, because she has served in the cavalry. I've given her father a promise to get her a clever young * Damaged or unsalable goods. 10 POET AND MERCHANT. fellow, and if he has nothing but the shirt on hig body, he'll get her, and a thousand dollars, cash down, and a share of the business, besides inheriting some day a handsome little property, and what more can one wish ? There is the daughter of the holy Kabbi, Aaron Eftringen of Strasburg. The daugh- ters of the Eabbis are none of them worth a grosehen ; their parents, from sheer piety, have no time to look after them; she is no more valued than sour beer, but still I've a husband for her already; she gets a cattle-dealer from Speier. — See, here are the hump- backed ones whom one can look at only in front, and next to them those that have a wen on the neck or some such superfluity; here are such as only look at one side-wise; here those whom, like a gift-hoi'se, one must not look in the mouth ; but here at last comes a capital person; this one can do a feat that no one can come within a thousand miles of imitating." *' What's that ? " eagerly cried all the bystanders. " 'WJiat''8 thatf^'' replied Mendel, smirkhig, while he held his peaked chin in his left hand for some time in silence, "why, she can kiss her elbow, so beautifully are her arms set into her body. Against every married man I mark a star here in my regis- ter; why not? I have been already cursed more times than there are days in the year, but what of that? all I say is: marriages are made in heaven, and it is also written: at the very same hour when one is born, it is proclaimed in heaven: such and such a man gets such and such a woman — how can I help that? — A propos! Don't any one of you THE GUESTS. 11 know a widow or a half old maid, — but she must ba baited by all the dogs and have hair on her teeth ;— Veitel Ephraim in Berlin is now happily a widower, and I should be glad to hang another domestic devil on his neck." " Mon cher cousin ! " cried Schnauzerle, " this day fortnight I was at my dear cousin's. I'll soon pluck a feather or two out of the gold-pheasant, that'll make him leave off mousing." " There, you've got the right pig by the ear," said Elias Rossnitzer; "you see by Veitel how things go when the beggar gets on horseback; he can't carry his crest high enough, but towards whom ? towards us ! — towards the gentry he can bow and duck, as if his joints were all fish-bone. I guess we all know his hens and his geese; his father was not a bit more or less than one of us; he has always taken what has been given him, and what has not been given him. " There was his sister Sara that's dead now — the wife of the rich Moses Daniel Kuh near by here, — she hadn't a drop of shabby blood in her veins; that was the best ticket in all Breslau; she was a real lady, such a one as the Thora [Holy Scripture] speaks of: ichoever goes into her hoicse hungry, conies out well-filledr "I wish such a woman would die every day," growled David Schmalznudel. "I happened to be here just as she was buried; a good deal of money was distributed among the poor in the good-place [church-yard], every one, I think, got a dollar and 1 2 POE T AND MER CHANT. two or three good groschen over; she had had thirty gokl ducats lying with her grave-clothes, witli di- rections that, at her funeral, they should be dis- tributed among the poor." **When her last-born in the cradle lay, Did I not sing to the child and say : He must not shed too many tears If sorrow should come in after years. Believe me, brothers, a rarer sport Was never seen at King Arthur's court, Nor finer songs went round the board, Nor ever a nobler wine was poured. But oh, that Veitel, the scape-grace. He always wore a sour face, And yet I do not hate him — oh no ! Only you see I love him so, I wish I had so?nething that would be As good for him as it would for me " — declaimed again the sly little man from the corner of the room. "What is that youVl like?" all with one voice in- terrupted the happy improvisator of rhymes. "A keg of powder — that would be As good a joke for him as for me." " Far too expensive a luxury," remarked Schnau- zerle, yawning, " but, brothers, Mendel has set me upon a speculative track; you shall hear presently what I have in hand." At that moment, a blow with a wooden hammer, four times repeated on the house-door, gave the sig- nal that it was time to go to the synagogue. Tlie beggars started, but at the door a Pole encountered them, who was just in the act of making a hasty en- THE GUESTS. 13 trance. Schnauzerle turned round and seizing the stranger by the coat, asked liim: " Kabbi, can't you get me a copy of the Sixth Book of JNIoses ? A treasure-digger has promised me twenty dollars for one; you shall be paid for your trouble, if you can procure me the Sixth Book of Moses." " Are not five enough for you ? " answered the Pole, angrily, and immediately departed, so soon as the matron of the shelter had insured him a night's lodging. " You see, Sary," said the matron to her daughter, a girl of eighteen, who had been scouring the room and now stood at the window, her eyes red with weeping, and gazed out into the snow-flurry, — " you see, the proverb says: ' 'Twixt guests and servants, bewildrin'. Small chance for the poor children.' And now you have heard a proof of its truth." Sary turned round and wiped a tear from her eye with her apron. Mattie, the wounded child, came in and played on the violin; the matron took the in- strument out of the child's hands and struck her. " Don't you know it is the Sabbath now, and no music is allowed on the Sabbath ? " said she. The two girls went silently out of the door; the old mother spread white linen on the table, and lighted, praying the while, her seven Sabbath-lights, and spreading out her two hands pronounced a blessing upon the candles. 14 POET AND MERCHANT. Quiet and friendly neatness reigned now in the sabbatically-illuminated apartment. Scbnauzerle and his comrades, meanwliile, were standing in the synagogue, not far from the entrance; they kept up an incessant chattering during the prayer, criticising the members of the holy congre- gation of Breslau, as, with profound bows and a low murmuring, they betook themselves to their seats. " Do you see," said Schnauzerle to Mendel Fel- luhzer, " that tall Meier Lammle dawdling along ? he does well to hide his thievish hands in a fox-skin muff. Couldn't find anything else to steal, so he stole himself away from Warsaw. Ha! that Moses Ganz bends down right bravely; is it your gallows crooks you over so, which is branded upon your back? Sacre noon de iJieu ! there comes Levi Wolf; he steps off as if he had pinchbeck feet, in- stead of four pinchbeck watches in his pocket, which he is going to sell for gold ones; see, out of each pocket hangs a seal: I believe, if ever our Lord God should no longer know what time it is, that Levi Wolf would sell him a watch and gabble Plim into taking pinchbeck for gold eighteen carats fine. The best trade after all is that of a Rabbin; to soldier and pray, that is all a very easy business; it is true Rab- bin Tobias is a fine man, but the devil may thank hira for that; a great art, forsooth, to sit at table all the year round with enough to eat and drink and a hand- some wife! — heart! Avhat more do you want ? If that were my case, I'd be as pious as the prophet Elias himself." THE GUESTS^^ 15 " Hold your scurrilous jaw, will >'^i^jotr arc a great hand for sticking nicknames on to every&ody," cried Maier Schmalznudel, and Schnauzerle kept still awhile, for many others as well as the Pole, hissed Silence ! The Pole stood aside in a corner, far from the other beggars. The blazing brass lamps, which hung down in long chains from the ceiling of the syna- gogue, but faintly illuminated the form of the singu- lar stranger. He maintained during the whole prayer a bending attitude, keeping the upper part of liis body the while in a steady and measured oscillation. When the schema (Deut. VI, 4-10 and XI, 13—21) was chanted, he raised himself high on his toes, clasped his hands spasmodically over his head, com- pressed his lips tightly, drew down his eyelids, and with a long deep inspiration sought to excite himself to an intense ecstasy. It was as if, challenged by this acknowledgment to the only God, a whole host of thoughts, doubts, sorrows and hopes contended together in a mingling throng upon his face. He stroked himself slowly with his left hand from brow to chin, and a cleared and calm, almost radiant, ex- pression again came to the front upon his counte- nance; he played carelessly with his rich, black beard, which, flowing down in neatly curled locks from the temples, formed a setting to the contour of his fresh and manly face. The small mouth was all enclosed with coal-black hair, which covered even the chin; a finely chiseled aquiline nose, somewhat prominently projecting, imparted to the physiognomy a peculiar 16 POET AND MERCHANT. and characteristic foreign and oriental expression: the dark-glowing eye, shaded with long lashes, and the fine sweep of the rich brows that darkly arched over them, betrayed an intense, but repressed and sul- lenly silent, passion; the broad bonnet sat more on his neck than on his head, and exposed the high lily- white forehead, copiously marked with the scars of thought, to full view; not in open battle, in the face of nations, did these honorable scars seem to have been won; the thorny crown of a solitary and out- lawed warfare had with its shaii? spines torn these wounds. The precentor had complacently drawled off his songs, Avhich were an odd compound of sacred mel- odies and street-ballads; he troubled himself very little about the assembled hearers, who, in perpetual motion, trotted to and fro before their desks, and blew into their hands to keep them warm. And now, swinging backward and forward before his pulpit, and with an unrestrained familiarity smooth- ing out his rumpled felt-cap, he sang the closing strain. The congregation meanwhile was already in full motion, only holding in at the door of the syn- agogue to seal the conclusion of the prayer with a general Amen; the children must say the Amen par- ticularly loud, for the Talmud significantly teaches: Upon the Amen of little children the world rests. At this moment a large, stout man, leading a boy by the hand, left his place, which was immediately beside that of the precentor, and walked toward the door. All anticipated him with the salutation, " A THE GUESTS. 1 V good Schabbes," (Sabbath) and with a friendly good- will he immediately returned the greeting; at the door there was a great crowding; all reverentially made way for the great man and even the Pole gave him a lowly greeting. " Have you already received your invitation ? " the great man said to him. " I only arrived this Sabbath, and so have not yet had time," answered the Pole, in bad German, somewhat disfigured with Hebrew phrases. " Well ! then come with me," the other replied. " There are no two ways about it, I mean to be a Pole," cried Schnauzerle, when the crowd had melted away; " the goat's beard is sure to get the best crib ! Don't you know him then ? that is the rich Moses Daniel Kuh, who has got him by the halter. I once heard say, that at the creation, our Lord God pickled the leviathan, as a delicacy for the saints in the next world; I believe, if we ever get there, the Poles will contrive to eat the flesh and leave us all the bones." " I would gladly have stopped at Moses Daniel's," said Mendel Felluhzer; " I should then have had a fine chance to intimate to him that I have a grand match for his eldest son." The crooked Meierle, w^ho, as sexton, came out last and shut up the synagogue, stirred up still more the envy of the beggars and inwardly feasted himself upon their curses and imprecations which they ex- ploded upon the Poles, as " God's body-guard." The Polish tramps had, by specious and real learn- ing and piety, contracted in some measure the aspect; 2 18 POET AND MERCHANT. of mendicant monks, and were by their lay-brothers in the German Empire envied and hated in manifold ways. To this was added, that in tlie Jewish district also, a gradation according to nationality of honors had become established; as the more eminent Por- tuguese Jews looked with contempt upon the Ger- mans, the Germans, in turn, held toward the Polish Jews the same attitude. Under the common yoke are still the degrees of higher and lower. And as, according to the legend, even the damned in hell have rest on the Sabbath, so seemed, at last, the envious and calumnious spirits in the beggars silenced, as they betook themselves to their several homes. 2.— THE SABBATH. THE Pole, answering as he went along the usual questions about his adventures and his antece- dents, had gone with his entertainer to the latter's house. The nature of these questions had already- convinced the Pole that he had a layman to deal with; for from the old time when God with his angels came to be a guest to Abraham, the pious principle has continued that not till after the guest has eaten and drunk to his satisfaction, is one allowed to ask his name and lineage; and for these modern times, when miracles have ceased, it is further specially added that one shall exercise benevolence without asking questions, in order that its purity may not be impaired by his knowing whether he is harboring or not an enemy or a transgressor. The handsomely built house of Moses Daniel stood close by the so-called fencing-school; the keeping- room was sabbatically adorned ; the savory smell of the viands cooking in the stove-pans, which diffused itself through the whole apartment, might if possible have redoubled the Pole's appetite. 20 POET AND MERCHANT. " Two demons accompany man on Friday evening home from the synagogue. If they find the table spread, the lights burning and all well arranged, then the good demon says: God grant that all may be so again on the next Sabbath; and the evil demon, against his will, has to say Amen to it. But if it is otherwise, then the good demon must in like man- ner say Amen to the wish of the bad one." Such is the teaching of the Talmud. Rubbing his hands together complacently, Moses Daniel, with his four sons, paced round the table, and sang to a cheerful and solemn melody the Hebrew prayer of acknowledgment: "Welcome, ye Spirits, Sent by your Master, King of all Kings, Lord and Maker of all." The Pole sat down on the wooden bench which stood before the hot stove, and hummed, in like man- ner, his prayer to himself in a low tone; and now he had leisure the while to examine attentively his en- vironment. Exactly over the middle of the table hung a brass lamp, provided with many ornamental appendages, and seven lights burned in its circularly projecting sockets; and beside these stood two silver candle-sticks, with lighted wax candles, on the table ; brightly glistened the pewter platters on the red- flower-embroidered linen, and before every plate stood a huge goblet. The Pole observed that no mention was made, in any quarter, of him, nor any preparation for seating him at the table. Already THE SABBATH. 21 in silence he began to murmur at the prospect of being left in the background, perliaps of liaving to eat at a side table, or even, according to a new fash- ion fast prevailing, in the kitchen. He knew not that here it was an old hereditary usage of the house every Sabbath to keep two covers open for any friends or poor persons who might happen in. How joyful, therefore, was his astonishment, when, after the washing of hands, he was, by silent gestures (for no one, from this time forward until the blessing was pronounced over the bread and wine, was allowed to speak a profane word) motioned to his place, imme- diately beside tliat of the master of the house. Now all the goblets were filled, each grasped the one set before him and held it in the hollow of his hand, enclosing it with his fingers claw-wise, so as to form a mystical sign. All now solemnly arose; the master of the house pronounced aloud the consecrating bless- ing, which all present in a low tone repeated after him; then they sat down again, and after another blessing each drank some drops out of his goblet. Thereupon the master of the house laid aside the napkin placed before him, and lifted in the air the two uncovered loaves, which were twisted length- wise and strewed with poppy grains; choosing the goodlier one, he cut off a piece of it, once more said a blessing, and broke a bit for himself and one for each of the company. Now, at length, they could speak again and sit down with content. The maid, sitting at the table, rose up to take the soup out of the oven, pour it out into a dish on the w^ooden bench 22 POET AND MERCHANT. and place it smoking on the table, so that the lights in the lamps only dimly glimmered through the as- cending cloud of steam. The master of the house had also stood up to take off his heavy three-cor- nered hat, retaining on his head only the peaked cap, which it had half hidden; the long-skirted, reddish frock coat was exchanged for a quilted waistcoat; the great buckled shoes gave place to green slippers. Now at last one could sit down contentedly at table. Dumpling-soup, sour fishes with almonds and raisins, meat, sausages and sweetly seasoned onions were consumed amidst familiar conversation. The " Schabbes-maid," an old wrinkled Christian woman, had sat cowering behind the stove, eating of the dishes which were brought to her; only sometimes she crept forth from behind the stove and came un- bidden to the table to trim the lights. The meagre, wasted form of the old Crescentia contrasted singu- larly with the comfortable and cheerfully lighted as- pect of the whole surrounding. None present seemed, however, to think of that, for when the dinner was over, washing water was handed round, and the whole family sang several festive songs to old airs; the master of the house forthwith said the long grace with a loud voice, during which he held the goblet up in the hollow of his hand, then drank again of the wine, spake in a low tone one more closing bene- diction, and finally all rose from the table. " One must not betray to any out of the fold what a blessedness such a Friday night is. Even if the Christian has everything else," said his host to the THE SABBATH. 23 Pole, " even if he wants nothing wliich can make life agreeable this side of Heaven, one thing he lacks, which I would not exchange with him for all his en- joyments, and that one thing is: such a Sabbath and such a Friday evening; when one has fagged himself out the whole week, so that he hardly knows where his head is, then comes Friday evening; all cares and torments are gone, one is an entirely fresh man ; and not only with me is it so: the poor among the poor, who has hardly salt for an ^g^^ who the whole week through has dragged himself round in wind and weather, almost bent double, and must let himself be kicked and spit upon by every boor so that he may earn a couple of farthings, who all the week long has not a warm bit, nothing but dry bread and a glass of schnaps, in a better case only roast potatoes or at the very best a cup of coffee; — how could he stand it without a Sabbath ? But Friday evening comes, and he sits at home in his keeping-room, makes himself comfortable, and refreshes himself again till Sunday morning, then takes his staff in hand, and his bundle on his back, kisses the holy law which is written on the door-posts,* the wife stands on the threshold and prays softly the ' God bless thee and keep thee,' but he goes on his way, takes his prayer-book out of his pocket, hums to himself the pious traveler's-songs, and so enters again upon his painful pilgrimage." The Pole shrewdly calculated: "Whoever with such reflecting self-consciousness surveys the neces- *The Jews have, attached to all their doors, in little capsules, various pas- sages of Scripture written on parchment 24 POET AND MERCHANT. sity and relations of things, must know a point of view beyond and above them, or j^erhaps have sucli within himself; to him an outlook into a larger life must already have been opened." With cau- tious Hebrew turns he responded how delightful it was to find that the individual man and whole classes always grow into their conditions; at first the shoe often jjinched, but gradually the toes crooked and crippled themselves to it, and in this way one learned by degrees to run well and even to dance. The cunning Rabbi had, however, reckoned falsely, for Moses Daniel shook his head with a dissatisfied air, whether because he understood not, or because he disapproved the words, was uncertain. " A second soul enters into the body on the Sab- bath, — that is a striking sentence of our wise men," (church fathers) the host resumed. The Pole fell in with his assent in a tone of solemn pathos, and remembering his traditionary duty, as learned guest, to speak out of God's word for the edification of the house, he quickly quoted, with a reference to the page, a variety of proof -texts from the Talmud, particularly that memorable saying from the Tractate on the Sabbath, Fol. 73: "If Israel should only hallow one Sabbath with all its observ- ances, the Messiah must needs come." lie ex- plained this to mean, that if men could bring them- selves for a single day to put away all worldly anxiety and all confusion of heart, to be of one mind and to feel themselves purely in God, the Messiah would already have come and must also come out- THE SABBATH. 25 "warclly. — Again, however, it was unmistakable tliat the much extolled ingenuity of Talmudic exposition here also missed the mark; he only added further how, according to the interpretation of the wise men the Sabbath was an emblem of, as well as preparation for, the eternal rest in the kingdom of blessedness, and began thereupon to relate some wonderful ex- amples of the inexplicable magic power of the Sab- bath. " In Spain the monks had in old times a tribunal called the Inquisition; by which all Jews were com- pelled either to be baptized or to languish for years in prison, and finally to be burned. Once a holy Rabbi was immured in a subterranean hole, where not a ray of light could reach him, so that he knew not when it was day or when it was night. Nothing tormented him so much as the thought that he Avas now hindered from celebrating the Sabbath with song and prayer, as he had been wont to do from his youth up; beside this an almost unconquerable longing for his cigarettes caused him much heart- felt pain. To breathe in and out tobacco smoke was to him almost as necessary as air is to men in gen- eral; he worried and reproached himself that lie could not conquer this passion, when, all at once, he perceived that it suddenly vanished; a voice said within him: ' Now it is Friday evening ! for this was always the hour when my longing for a thing for- bidden at this season regularly left me.' Joyfully he rose up and with loud voice thanked God and blessed the Sabbath day. So it went on from week to week; the longing for tobacco regularly tormented him and 26 . POET AND MERCHANT. regularly vanished at the coming in of the Sab- bath. — In our days, however, as great miracles hap- pen. I myself knew a miser in Cracow — he is dead now — who all through the week had a heart like Amalek, but on the Sabbath he was mercy and gen- erosity itself." " Thank you for nothing ! " cried the boy, named Ephraim, who had been attentively listening, "any- body can be as good as that, for on the Sabbath one is not permitted to give or even bind himself by a promise to give anything to anybody." The father reproved the pert boy's forwardness, but the Pole pinched his cheek good-naturedly after the manner of the Rabbins, and after a short pause continued: " In Posen, I have heard tell, there still lives an old woman who, as soon as the Sabbath comes in, and as long as it lasts, can dispute with the Rabbins upon the most mysterious teachings of the Talmud and the Cabbala, but at the expiration of the Sabbath becomes again the simple ignorant woman of yesterday. It is well known that the river Sambatjon, which all the week throws out fiery stones, on the Sabbath is quiet. Having just spoken of Posen reminds me, have you heard yet of the resurrection affair said to have occurred there last atonement day ? " " No, what was it ? " " You know that v/hen the dead are laid in the grave, they are clad in a white linen death-robe, and the Tallis * spread over the head; for so they must ap- * A white woolen prayer-mantle edged at the bottom with blue stripes. THE SABBATir. 27 v.- ., J. pear before the juclgment seat of GfojJ* ^oa ilic