The Jew Part 41

"To rise again," said a country gentleman, "we must have several chiefs, several guides in whom we can place confidence, as in you, Monsieur le Comte."

"You could not have a better chief than Count Andre Zamoyski, whose name is on every lip. Virtue, reason, grandeur of soul, patriotism, all these qualities he possesses."

"Certainly Count Andre is the right man, he is honourable and worthy; but let us talk no more of politics just now," said Boakoam.

"G.o.d preserve us from this mania of politics, unreasonable and inopportune! We can gain nothing by it, and it has already been the cause of many evils. True politics are agriculture, science, economy, and the amelioration of morals."

"You are right, Monsieur le Comte," said a listener. "But what is to be done when, in spite of ourselves, the youth and the city rise in arms and draw us in?"

"Youth has courage and action. Imitate them. If you do not wish a revolution, proclaim it loudly; not in any half way. I understand perfectly the blind but heroic ardour of these young men who offer their blood for their country. It is necessary that we have equal energy to arrest this patriotic uprising, that we do not give them encouragement by our inertia, our weakness."

"Then we are lost," cried a voice.

"Oh, not when we have just concluded an alliance with the Jews!"

replied Boakoam. "The Jews will certainly save us."

This pleasantry caused a ripple of laughter.

"That which is certain," gravely replied the invalid, "is that they have more sense than we. They have proved it."

"They will not lend us their good sense as they have loaned us their money," remarked Boakoam. "They know that it is a capital which we lack, and on which we could not pay them interest."

"Where is the time when we did not know the Jews save as stewards and brokers! One could then pluck the extortioner by the beard."

"Those times, alas! will never return," said one of the company in a sad voice.

"The world is degenerating," added another.

"Have you remarked, gentlemen," said a solemn personage with black hair and the Oriental type, "that everything is being gradually monopolized by the Israelites? They are the masters of the Bourse. Now the Bourse directs the world and governs the State. Without it, no loans and no wars. They manage public opinion through the press, the princ.i.p.al organs of which belong to them. In Prussia, in the rest of Germany, and in Belgium, journalism is in their hands. In France every newspaper has one or more Jews connected with it. Many have seats in Parliament and the German Reichstag. Some are ministers or amba.s.sadors."

"The reason is easily to be seen," replied Boakoam. "The Polish n.o.bles could not exist without Jewish factors, and took them everywhere with them on their travels. Europe is like us, morally and physically declined; the governments are in decadence, and the factors do as they like."

"French masonry," added the country gentleman, "and democracy have the Jews for their firm supporters."

"But that does not agree with the Bourse, whose princ.i.p.als are far from revolutionary," objected some one.

"They are," replied the gentleman, "both liberals and conservatives, but only in a measure. Liberals when they wish to undermine Catholicism, and conservatives when they have other ends to serve; but when it is a question of war, they are always conservatives, for they do not wish war at any price."

"Never," said Boakoam, "shall we be able to get rid of the Jews, and they will yet ruin us."

"If one is ruined it is usually his own fault," replied his friend.

"True. But how can we change now? We, who are accustomed to a life of ease and to liberty of action, is it possible for us to become tradesmen? The Jews understand business, have money, skill, and avarice. And we? Nothing!"

"Let us try to acquire these qualities."

"How can we? The government oppresses us and seeks to crush us out of existence. We are weakened by this cruel oppression; where can we find strength for the struggle?"

"In a sentiment of duty."

"Too late to lift the burden now. I know not if the _Finis Poloniae_ will be accomplished, but the end of the Polish n.o.bility is certain. I am afraid that we are doomed."

"Listen to me, messieurs," said the master of the house solemnly. "I have not long to live. Every day death draws nearer to me, as you perceive. As the time to leave the world approaches, a man does not lie. Well, on the border of the tomb I adjure you not to lose faith in yourselves, for you who prophesy your own fall are the ones who hasten it. What have the n.o.bles done since 1791? Where are their labours, their efforts, their sacrifices? Behold them unbalanced, their fortunes, activity, existence, entirely and foolishly dissipated in libertinage and idleness. Immutable laws regulate everything in nature.

Once withered, the leaf falls; once unfaithful to its mission, every cla.s.s of society is condemned to disappear. If, as you predict, the Jews are destined to supersede us, it will be owing to our improvidence and their superior virtue."

"Frightful perspective!" cried the country gentleman piteously. "Do you say that my son may perhaps become steward for a Kronenberg or a Rosen?"

"Perhaps he would be lucky to get that position. If I were a Kronenberg or a Rosen I would not think of employing so incapable a steward as your son."

Boakoam put an end to the conversation by this sally, which was a little brutal. Jacob, unable to contain himself longer, believed it a duty to reveal his ident.i.ty.

"Messieurs," said he, "pardon me for interrupting this discussion, but I feel it my duty to confess that I am a Jew."

All eyes were turned toward him in astonishment. The least surprised was Boakoam and their host. The former burst out laughing, and cried:--

"In that case, my dear sir, you have heard many curious things about your race."

"Very curious, and I shall profit by them. As for your pleasantries, they have not wounded me. I could form some idea of how you spoke of us, by the way that we speak of you at our meetings. For compensation, you have finished by praising our qualities in such a manner as to make me very grateful. But your praises are more than we deserve. If we possess some good qualities, we have also many faults, and I ought to acknowledge them. This alliance with us seems repugnant to you; but, believe me, it will be for your advantage in the end. It is repugnant to you because, as some one here has said, we smell of garlic and old clothes; but just now you cannot have too many friends and allies."

"As true as I love G.o.d," cried Boakoam, "your morals are golden. But I do not believe that we can trust in your friendship. You will be with us as long as we are standing, but you will go over to the enemy when we fall. You will then feel only contempt for us, and the thirst for vengeance will awaken in your hearts."

"Never! I promise it in my name, and in the names of those who think as I do. We will remain united in misfortune as in fortune."

"So as to profit equally by our success or our misfortunes? I am frank, and now that we are on this subject, permit me to finish. I am ready to acknowledge my fault, to avow all the vices and all the errors imputed to the n.o.bles, but I cannot see that your rich men are any better. You accuse us of foolish vanity and aristocratic pride; your bankers have as much. The Count Andre, who comes from a long line of ill.u.s.trious ancestors, is much more polite, more affable, more simple, than"--

"I do not deny it. Money often renders men impertinent. I have only one excuse to offer for my co-religionists: it is, that repulsed by the elegant society, overwhelmed with sarcasm, we have not had the opportunity to profit by the same schooling as yourselves. You must civilize us by your good examples."

"Hear! Hear!" cried Boakoam. "We will teach you our refined manners in return for your practical spirit."

"I consent," replied Jacob smiling. "One word more: you have alluded to some of us as rude and having repulsive manners. Very well; even among these men, vain, proud, and gross, there are some who are benevolent; though their appearance does not indicate it. I have not finished. In the presence of the representatives of the past I know not whether I shall be permitted to express my ideas. Behold them, if you will be kind enough to listen. Humanity will not retrograde. She has ceased to be led by a privileged cla.s.s; she feels her strength and will walk alone. The feudal privileges are dead, very dead."

"You avow, however," said the dark man with Oriental features, "that society, freed from privileges and belonging to itself, will still admit a certain division of cla.s.ses."

"Yes; but admittance to these cla.s.ses will be given by personal merit, and not by birth."

"Then we shall all be in the same boat," cried Boakoam laughing,--"peasants, Jews, gypsies, bourgeoisie, pell-mell with us the fine flower of the aristocracy."

"Modern theories, fatal doctrines born of revolutionary folly,"

remarked a pupil of the Jesuits, fresh from Belgium. "I believe neither in progress nor a new order of things. All that I see in this accursed age is the hand of G.o.d, which chastises us and plunges us into confusion and chaos."

Saying this the disciple of Loyola took his departure, furious. Many followed his example, while Jacob was making his final remarks thus:--

"We are new citizens, but rest a.s.sured that in recovering our rights of citizenship after so long ostracism we will not refuse the accompanying duties. If until the present the Jew has not considered himself a Pole, the fault has not been with him nor with Poland herself, but with the barbarity of past ages, to the shadows of a prolonged epoch of darkness. 'Light, light, still more light!' as said the dying Goethe, and the world will move on in the sight of G.o.d."

"As true as I love G.o.d," said Boakoam, "these are holy words. And I must save myself, for my confessor would refuse absolution because I had dealings with the Old Testament, in the absence of the New.

Good-evening."