Israel Zangwill

“ One fine morning Israel appeared transfigured with happiness.
"When does man rejoice most?" he cried. "When he loses and finds again."
"Ah, then you have got your bedding at last?" I cried, now accustomed to his methods of expression. I hope you slept well."
"We could not sleep for blessing you," he replied unexpectedly. "As the psalmist says, 'All my bones praise the Lord!'"
Not that the matter had gone smoothly even now. The Kazelia gang at Rotterdam denied all knowledge of the luggage, and sent the girl to the railway, where the dues had now mounted to £10 6s. ”

“ The family set to work at once; but I am sure my wife washed the things less with water than with tears. Oh, Kazelia! We washed the whole week, the landlord each day bringing bread and washing. At the end of the week he said, 'You have worked out your rent, and have nothing to pay.' I should think not indeed!
"My eldest daughter was fortunate enough to get a place at a tailor's for four shillings a week, and the others sought washing and scrubbing. So each day we had bread, and at the end of the week, rent. Bread and water alone formed our sustenance. ”

“ I went to Samson: he said that Quarriar, challenged by Conn to produce these children, had refused to do so, or to answer any further questions. I found myself approving of his conduct. "A man ought not to be insulted by such absurd charges," I said. Mr. Samson merely smiled, and took up his usual unshakable position behind his impregnable wall of official distrust and pessimism. ”

“ So we tried to sleep, but hunger would not permit it, but demanded his due. Hunger, you old fool, why don't you let us sleep? But he refused to be talked over. So we passed the night. When day came, the little children began to cry: 'Father, let us go. We will beg bread in the streets. We die of hunger. ”

“ But of course he didn't see why the new partner should benefit by this. He discoursed to me in moved terms (Quarriar only putting in a word now and then when appealed to) , of the sorrows and privations of his tenants in their two tiny rooms upstairs.
He produced a goblet of rum and shrub for the benefit of the high-born visitor, and we all clinked glasses, the landlord beaming at me unctuously as he set down his glass.
"I love company," he cried, with no apparent consciousness of impudent familiarity. ”

“ He took no further notice of me, but left me standing.
"So I understood he was no better than Elzas Kazelia. And this was a Rabbi! As I saw I might as well have talked to the wall, I left the room without a word from him. As the moujik would say: 'Sad and bitter is the poor man's lot. It is better to lie in the dark tomb and not to see the sun-lit world than to be a poor man and be compelled to beg for money.'
"I came home, where my family was waiting patiently for my return with bread. ”

“ For surely here at last was the true tragedy of the people of Christ: to have persisted sublimely, and to be as sordidly perverted; to be king and knave in one; to survive for two thousand years the loss of a fatherland and the pressure of persecution, only to wear on its soul the yellow badge which had defaced its garments. ”

“ One of the Kazelia conspirators—for his arm reaches over Europe—called us into his office and said, 'How much money have you?' I shook out the money from the envelopes on to the table. Said he, 'The amount is twelve marks short.' He had had advices, he said, from Kazelia that I would bring a certain amount, and I didn't have it. 'Here you can stay to-night. To-morrow you go back.' So he played on my ignorance, for I was paying at every stage in excess of the legal fares. But I knew not what powers he had. Every official was a possible disaster. We hardly lived till the day. ”

“ To such men as you, one can't do a favour. Do you think there are a sea of Kazelias in the world? You are all thick-headed. You can't read a letter. I only took fifty-four roubles on the luggage. I had to recoup myself because I lost money through sending you to London. I calculated my loss, and took only what was due to me.' I showed the letter to Grunbach, and he sent again to Rotterdam, and they answered they knew nothing of a Kazelia,—I must pay the £8 13s. Well, what was to be done? The weather grew colder. Hunger we had become inured to. ”

“ I left the studio and telephoned to Samson at his office.
"That!" His contempt penetrated even through the wires. "Smashed up long ago. Just as I expected." And the sneer of the professional philanthropist vibrated triumphantly.
I was much upset, but ere I could recover my composure Mr. Samson was cut off. In the evening I received a note saying Quarriar was a rogue, who had had to flee from Russia for illicit sale of spirits. He had only two, at most three, elderly daughters; the three younger girls were a myth. For a moment I was staggered, then all my faith in Israel returned. ”

“ Such is Russian humanity, to starve innocent people. The little provender we had in a bag scarcely kept us from fainting with hunger. On the second day Kazelia sent two Jews with beards. Suddenly I heard the door unlock, and they appeared saying: 'We have come to do you a favour, but not for nothing. If your life and the lives of your family are dear to you, we advise you to give the police seventy roubles, and we want ten roubles for our kindness, and you must employ Kazelia to take you over the frontier for eighty roubles, otherwise the police will not be bribed. ”

“ As a piece-sorter Quarriar would be able to employ his daughters too. The family would carefully sort out their purchases, and each quality, and size would be readily saleable, as raw material to be woven again into the cheaper woollen fabrics. Through the recommendation of his countrymen there were several tailors who had readily promised to give him the preference. His own landlord in particular had promised to befriend him, and even now was allowing his cuttings to accumulate at some inconvenience, since he might have had ready money for them. ”

“ He helps only those he likes to. So I will not call, and wish you, my dear gentleman, not to trouble to come. Therefore if you wish to assist me in somehow is very good, and I will certainly gratify you, and if not I will have to do without it, and will have to trust the Almighty. So kindly do not trouble about it, as I do not wish to enter a risk. "I remain, "Your humble and grateful servant,
"Israel Quarriar.
Last Wednesday a man called on my landlord and asked him some secrets about me, and told him at last that I shall have to state according I will be commanded to and not as I wish. ”

“ THE MODEL S STORY.
"I came here because Russia had grown intolerable to me. All my life and during the lives of my parents we Quarriars had been innkeepers, and thereby earned our bread. But Russia took away our livelihood for itself and created a monopoly. Thus we were left destitute. So what could I do with a large family? Of London and America I had long heard as places where they have compassion on foreigners. ”

“ They are not countries like Russia, where truth exists not. Secondly, my children also worried me greatly. They are all six females, and a female in Russia, however beautiful, good and clever she be, if she have no dowry, has to accept any offer of marriage, however uncongenial the man may be. These things conspired to drive me from Russia. So I turned everything into money, and realised 350 roubles. People had told me that the whole journey to London should cost me 200 roubles, so I concluded I should have 150 roubles with which to begin life in the new country. ”

“ To take only the one point of the children, it would seem a very simple matter to determine whether a man had six daughters or three; and yet, the more I looked into it, the more I saw the complexity Even if three little girls were produced for my inspection, it was utterly impossible for me to tell whether they really were the model's. Nor was the experience of Solomon open to me—to have them hacked in two to see whose heart would be moved.
And then, if Israel's story were false here, what of the rest? Was Kazelia also a myth? Did the second daughter ever go to Rotterdam? ”

“ I soon elicited that Quarriar and his friends were rather sorry Conn had been introduced into the matter. He was alleged to favour some people at the expense of others, and not at all to be popular among the people amid whom he worked. And altogether it was abundantly clear that Quarriar would rather have gone on with the scheme in his own way without official interference.
Later, Samson wrote me direct that the partner put forward by the Quarriar faction was a shady customer: Conn had selected his own man; but even so there was little hope that Quarriar's future would thus be provided for. ”

“ When I want my portrait painted I don't go to an amateur. By the way, here are the five pounds; but please don't tell Conn I gave them. I don't believe they'll do any good."
My interest in piece-sorting had grown abnormally, and I went into the figures and quantities—so many hundredweight purchased at fifteen shillings, sorted into lots and sold at various prices—with as thorough-going an eagerness as if my own livelihood were to depend upon it. ”

“ There is nothing to be earned. Now what should I do? I had no means of living. The children cried for bread and something to sleep on. Still we lived somehow till Rosh Hashanah (New Year) , hoping it would be indeed a New Year.
"It was Erv Yomtav (the Day before the Holiday) , and no washing was to be had. We struggled as before death. The landlord of the house came in. He said to me, 'Aren't you ashamed? Can't you see your children have scarcely strength to live? Why have you not compassion on your little ones? ”

“ It was very bitter to me to leave my fatherland, but the moujik says, 'Necessity brings everything.' So we parted from our friends with many tears: little had we thought we should be so broken up in our old age. ”

“ If you go out into the street you will find a Jew without a beard who will charge you more, and even take all your money away. I swear to you, as I should wish to see Messhiach Ben David, that I want to earn no money. I only desire your good, and so to lay up a little Mitzvah in Heaven.'
"Thereupon I changed my money with him. Afterwards I found that he had swindled me to the extent of fifteen roubles. Elzas Kazelia is like to the Russian forest robber.
"We began to talk further about the frontier. ”

“ It is just as at the frontier—you wouldn't give eighty roubles, and it cost you double. You want the same again. One daren't do a Jew a favour.'
"So I held my peace and accepted his terms. But I saw I should be twenty-five roubles short of what was required to finish the journey. Said Kazelia, 'I can do you a favour: I can borrow twenty-five roubles on your luggage at the railway, and when you get to London you can repay.' And he took the bundle and conveyed it to the railway. ”

“ I do not know if the lay reader understands how momentous to the artist is his model, how dependent he is on the accident of finding his creation already anticipated, or at least shadowed forth, in Nature. To me, as a realist, it was particularly necessary to find in Nature the original, without which one could never produce those subtle nuances which give the full sense of life. ”

“ The scheme was certainly a novel and surprising one to me, but it showed how the art of forcing a livelihood amid impossible circumstances had been cultivated among these people, compelled for centuries to exist under impossible conditions. ”

“ This promising scheme took an incubus off my mind; and I hastened, somewhat revengefully, to acquaint the professional philanthropist, who had been so barren of ideas, with my intention to set up Quarriar as a piece-sorter.
"Ah," he replied, unmoved, "then you had better employ my man, Conn, to find him a partner. He does a good deal of this sort of work for me."
"But I told you they have already found a partner."
"The partner will cheat him. Twenty pounds is ridiculous. Five pounds is quite enough. Take my advice and let it all go through Conn. ”

“ On the other hand, I felt that, whether the partnership was to cost five pounds or twelve, Quarriar's future would be safer from Kazelias under the auspices of Samson and his Conn. So I handed the latter the five pounds. ”