IGNIFICANC
Some Interesting Side Lights on the
Beiliss Case, the Most Recent of
the Events Which Brought
the Gity of the Dnieper
Into Prominence.
'
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sMsWsstl
.
(Copyright by The New York Times
Company.)
By Kurt Aram
SEVENTH ARTICLE
ARRIVING at Kiev by rail and
walking for a good half hour
."toward the center of the town
you would imagine yourself in
some busy American city. Here
i you may see many storied shops, not
(lUte tose of Russila, covered wit -glar-tlng
advertisements, crowds of people
! not natives hurrying along. In their
faces and movements the press and
i straln'of work are noticeable. There
is an extraordinary amount of noise,
dust and hurly-burly.
Approaching Kiev from the banks of
the Dnieper, however, you see nothing
but soft, undulating hills, covered with
trees, among which lie white churches
and convents, broad based and mass
ively built as if destined to last for
eternity, and ornamented with huge
golden domes. This is the other Kiev
the sacred Kiev, "the mother of
towns," as the Russian calls it, a
mother already 1000 years old.
Near by and about the railway sta
tion, you are conscious of being in the
centre of the trade and commerce of
southern Russia. Everywhere are
banks and business houses, the huge
offices of the sugar factories, for the
entire Russian sugar industry is cen
tred at Kiev, and countless larger and
mailer business houses that
guide the products .of Moscow, Tula,
the' Caucasus, and Siberia Into the
north and west of the empire.
But along the banks of the Dnieper,
the - golden-roofed convents and
churches lie in brooding silence one
beside the other, a silence broken only
when their bells begin to peal, some
deep and sonorous like cathredal
chimes, shrill, and tumultous
like heathen bells, rising above the
noise and bustle of the modern town.
A Splendid Shrine
Walking along the broad Krescht
chatlk, the main street of Kiev, you
feel that you are in a large business
capital, with the usual surroundings
of banks, shops, Town Hall, Stock
Exchange. But only a slight turn off
this thoroughfare brings you into a
strange and typically Russian world.
You are on the road to Lavra. Rus
sia's most famous (' monastery, ' to
which Russian faith offers l,000,ff&0
rubles every year. No king possesses
a more .beautiful dwelling place than
the Igumen of this monastery. Pass
ing through the broad sacred gate, you
DISCHARGING
WHILE obtaining a satisfactory ,
servant Is an increasingly dif
ficult matter generally, especi
ally if one has certain standards of ef
ficiency, getting rid of an unsatisfac
tory one is not Infrequently attended
with much embarrassment on the part
of the mistress of a household.
William was a satisfactory butler,
as butlers go nowadays, but his man
ners In the servants hall of a well
known New York woman were much
criticised by. those who were beneath
him in rank. When one day he blacked
the eye of a housemaid it provoked
such a storm below stairs that his mis
tress decided he must go.
On the day appointed for the butler
to depart he was called in; and paid
off. He asked the. lady of the house
to write a reference for him, and this
she did: r :
After, be had carefully pocketed the
envelope containing it the butler said,
his manner changing: ; '
There is a small bill you owe me.
It Is for, money have paid out for ,
. fnessengers and parcels. It amounts to
... 118.75.' r -. -' '':sv;V ; v -;'
.. The lady of the house could not jre
. member any occasion when she had not
personally met any smalt bill of the
THE
E OF
paniniim
mt rr
1 :
. f-f-C W HIT'S
enter the courtyard. In which, during
ths times of high festivals, 150,000 pil
grims can be accommodated. To the
right and left of the entrance are one
storied, whitewashed houses, in which
the monks cells are situated. The win
dows are hung with embroidered cur
tains of the very best Russian crafts
manship, and If a breeze stirs these
curtains and you get a glimpse into
the cells, you notice that these long
bearded saints, in their black cowls,
are not at all bereft of material com
forts. In the background stands the
Cathredal of the Ascension of the
Virgin, ornamented with seven golden
cupolas Beside It two other gor
geous chapels. Near the Chapel of
ths Raising of the Crucifix Is the en
trance to the tomb of St. Anthony.
Here, 1,000 years ago, the monk An
thony and his disciples dug their cells
out of the loamy ground. You are
given a wax taper, and a monk guides
you into these dark and narrow caves,'
where seventy-three safnts lie In their
open coffins, mummies clad In the
richest garments.- There also, straight
from the ground, rises the mummified
head crowned with the mitre of John
the Sorrowful. This man burled him
self up to his neck in the ground and
lived thus for thirty years so legend
and the guiding monk will tell you.
In this position he died, and In this
position the corpse has remained up to
the present day.
Mummies and Cannon
There is a smell of Incense down
here, of mummies and of wax, the
scent of ' Byzantine-Russian ortho
doxy, which shuts out sunlight and
reason. It Is oppressive. Here is the
sacred spot of faith and superstition,
especially protected by absolutism,
for opposite to the monastery of Lavra
stands the military arsenal, spiked
about with its cannon.
Thus the life of Kiev flows along
In two different streams, fed from
totally different sources. The one
comes from the monastery of Lavra,
the other from modern life, with the
university and th'e polytechnic school
for its center. These two currents of
life cross each other sharply and the
result Is perpetual disturbance of the
waters.
The town's intellectual life is divid
ed, havipg on one side orthodoxy and
' absolutism, on the other constitution
and. democracy. The first party is com
posed of the priesthood, police and
.'. military authorities; . the second of
THE BUTLER
kind. However, rather than provoke
a dispute, she silently counted out
that sum from her purse and handed it
to him. '
Still be did not go.
"I have anofher small bill." he an
nounced, still more boldly. "In the
fire that burned down your country
house I lost all, my effects. I have
made out a bill for them.''
' The woman looked at him aghast.
She knew he had saved everything he
had. "What Is the amount?" she fin
ally found voice to say. '
"Fifteen hundred dollars, he re
plied coolly.
The two were alone In the room.
Fearing violence, the .woman made an
excuse of going upstairs to get her
checkbook. Once in her own room she
called up her lawyer and laid the case
before him. .?V
"It looks like an "attempt at black
mail," he said. "He has absolutely no
claim upon you."
Summoning her maid, the lady hur
ried downstairs again, went' bravely up
to they butler, and quietly told him to
leave" the house immediately. He
went. -Then the woman fell back lntc
her maid's arms.
OREGON SUNDAY JOURNAL, PORTLAND. SUNDAY
KIEY
v
CO
professors, students, workmen : and a
large part of the commercial world.
No wonder that quarrels on . account
of the Jews are continually fomented
there. These quarrels have raged for
100 years, found utterance in the. po
grom of the year 1905, when 81 Jews
were killed and 300 wounded, and still
continue to rage. .
Up to a century ago, sacred Kiev
was the "Jerusalem of Russia," a town -absolutely
forbidden to the Jews.-. At
'that time there was a courtyard" In
the PodoL the - commercial part of
Kiev, where Jews were permitted to
stop. Wlien more Jews came to Kiev
they were allowed to live in the sur
roundings of this old court, and for
this permission had to pay 8000 rubles
annually, to the town. When under
Alexander II, the Jews' right of domi
cile was changed, and the privileged
Jews could live, at Kiev as well as
anywhere else, the town lost this an
nuity of 8000 rubles, and strove with
all Its might to obtain a substitute for
this loss.
Kiev received permission from St.
Petersburg to do this and, in conse
quence, the Jews, although they were
privileged, had to resume paying the
annuity of 8000 rubles. But who was
to raise this sum, and by what means
was It to be raised? It became a sort
of Jewish tax In Kiev as tax collect
ors, the Russian authorities chose pli
able Jews whose business it was to
obtain the annuity as best they might.
Then came the limitations of Jewish
' legislation, and the interpretative
"elucidation" this ever-flowing source
of unlawful income to the police. Si
multaneously Kiev became more and
more the center of commerce for
southwestern Russia, and more and
more Jews were driven out of the ra
dlus of domicile In which Kiev is sit
uated. The three neighboring govern
, ments, Kiev, Podolia and Wolhynia,
contained in the year 1897 over 1,000,
003 Jews. They did not settle there
of their own free will, but were' crowd-;
ed together whether they would or not.
Kiev became more and more the
business center for all these three
governments, ' and toward this center
all classes streamed who lived, or pro
posed to live, by trade and commerce.
As the Jews desired to live thus, they,
too, poured Into- Kiev, not only the
privileged, but also the non-privileged
classes, for these wished to live thus
also, and at Kiev there was the best
chance of doing so.
This Jewish community at Kiev In
creased, but according to the law of
the ' privilege of domicile, consisted
chiefly of merchants of the first' guild
and manual laborers. Other Jews, not
possessing the privilege i of ; domicile,
were not 'allowed to remain longer, at
Kiev than three days at the outside. -But
the commercially rising town of
Kiev required ever more commercial
recruits, and this requirement was ful
filled by the, Jews as satisfactorily as -
. by the Russians. ' The Jews,' therefore, .
poared Into Kiev, no matter whether
they were privileged : or not. For a
while the police shut their - eyes , to .
this and did not interfere.: Then, sud
denly, they tightened the legal thumb
screws, ' and out of the pockets; of
-frightened non-privileged Jews flowed
the rubles Into the pockets of the po
lice. The screws ' were relaxed and
si
1
It
IN
REGENT
V
new crowds of non-privileged Jews
streamedjtp Kiev.
Almost every . inhabitant' of, Podolia
or Wolhynia who was not a farmer
had eorne business at Kiev from time
to time, : either with the authorities,
the banks, . or . the law courts. It
seemed natural to settle down, at Kiev
and; try one's luck. Thus, around
the - PpdoV. -many . houses were ' built,
whose .owners let them only to non
privileged Jews. Their number is to
day . still estimated at , 5000 to .10,
000. These house owners bribe , th
police, and the police and landlords
make a good r business out -of It.,. .But
If ' the police happen to be In, a -bad
humor, or suffer- a pressure from
higher quarters, or - require an extra
sum of money, -then' they simply raise
a hue and cry against non-privileged
Jews, - In-. the. same .way as In . other
countries a dangerous criminal would
be hunted. -
Whoever has saved anything' may
now be sure of getting relieved of
his savings. Whoever is unable to
pay the ransom is driven from the
town with his wife and children, and
.deported with the next colony of crim
inals. Then there Is peace for a while,
till the police think it worth the
trouble to start another "razzia," or If
this is desired from higher quarters;
"to-enforce respect for the law." The
fox In the chase enjoys more peace
than these people.
"Justice" in Kiev
After a' time the town administra
tion grew jealous of this revenue the
police derived. Could it not profit by
the Jews as well? So one day the
annuity of 8000 rubles was raised to
12,000 rubles, and latterly to 15,000
rubles. As the Jews are outcasts In
Russia, they had to bear this as best
they might. The Jewish community
was forced to become as firm an or
ganization as possible within itself.
For long it had covered its expenses
by a tax upon kosher meat, as is the
custom In many Jewish parishes that
sell this meat to members of the par
ish - and others.- As the community
increased it farmed out this privilege,
receiving a suitable rent for it. With
this sum the community pays its offi
cials, schools, hospitals, -etc., and also
the 15,000 rubles to the town, which,
if it" chooses, can use this money for
purposes .directed against the very
community from which It is derived.
The police bleed the non-privileged
Jews, the town squeezes the privileged
Jews. One cannot expect the Jews to
love 'such "Justice."' No wonder
that, so far as they think at all, they
Join -constitutional or radical groups.
It Is at Kiev that Russian and Jewish
Intelligence stand side by side: ,. and
absolutism is well aware that It will
! WJ
' f . i u . "
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NICHOLAS KTJASOV3KY
.Fo'v'mCil GTvtefvof'Pol'lCO
MORNING, JULY 1 19 4914.
RUS
ft
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clash with lntelligense when it strikes
at the Jews.
This happened when the October
manifesto was announced. Then thou
sands of people, professors, students,
workmen, tradespeople, marched Joy
ously through the town thinking that
new and better times were coming.
Nowhere did they meet with resist
ance or enmity; even part of the army
Joined In the cheers. The crowds be
fore the1 town hall grew even larger;
enthusiastic speeches were made, caps
and hats thrown Into the air. Already
the constitutionalists were considered
victors in the battle for liberty.
Then suddenly the Cossacks forced
themselves among the defenseless
crowds, the first shots were fired,
fighting screams and wild confusion
followed. The students were treated
especially severely, but suddenly,, as
If by a silent command, the fight was
directed against the Jews only. This
suppression of - a so called revolt
turned "into a pogrom at . Kiev, wh4ch .
lasted three days, and left nothing to
which the sworn testimony of Russian
professors before the law courts gives
sufficient evidence. Absolutism had
conquered once more and cooled Its
hot head at the expense of the Jews.
-When I came into Kiev last summet
the town was in a state of consider
able excitement. - First, .an agricultural
exhibition had been opened. Secondly..
Stolypln's monument was to be un
veiled In a few days. Stolypin had
been born at Kiev, and had been killed
In a Kiev theatre in the Czar's pres
ence by a Jewish lawyer, and burled
at-the -monastery of Lavra. Thirdly,
the Beiliss case was pending.
The first impression of general ex
citement was borne in on the stranger
by the doubling of the usual hotel
rates a cup of coffee now cost one
ruble 60 kopeks Instead of only 20
kopeks. This was more absurd than
tragic, but it was a foretaste of what
would eventually happen.
Pogroms in the Air
I visited the agricultural exhibition,
and saw some specimens . of work
which interested me. I examined them
closely and was instantly surrounded
by policemen, with and without offi
cial uniforms, who plied me-with ques
tions, although- I had committed no
other crime, than that of " looking 'at
.' an object set up in a public' exhibition.
I was lucky that my passport was sat
isfactory; It was also lucky that I had
my wife with me. Even the Russian
police considered it unlikely that any
one planning, a national crime would
take hl wife along. So they let roe
go, but only with considerable distrust.
The police were nervous, saw revolu
tionaries end criminals everywhere,
and wanted a victim at any price. If
my passport had not been' in order, I
should have been Imprisoned and not a
soul would have interfered, for once
locked up. one must necessarily be a
criminal if only so as not to make
the police look ridiculous. They let
me go. but they kept their eye on me.
I could neither telephone nor. pay any.
calls without being watched, and when
one evening a-foreign consul came, to
see me, and I took, him to my room,
the hotel manager came to me after- '
ward' and threatened to throw me out,
as It was strictly forbidden to admit
strangers to - one's, room at night.
Kiev was really ' extremely nervous
then. ' . ; ",
I scented . pogroms in the air. The "
President Minister Stolypin had been
shot by a Jew; now a monument was
raised : to . his memory. The Beilips
trial .was approaching , a most dis
agreeable one to the authorities,' for
already wo public attorneys, after -examining
the. material, had with
drawn, and It had been necessary to
resort to a gentleman from St, Peters- ;
burg, who was-keen to make a career,
in order to carry on the affair at all.
All .this,, so it seemed to me, must .-
create an atmosphere which was
aulte. conducive to what the dragoon
17
if
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Where Life Flows in Two Different
Streams, One Rising from Modern '
Life, the Other from Outworn V
Superstition Backed by
Russian Cannon.
' 1 J I
S53XBKI ",, t vt, .rf a A
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grpm. But, strange to say, whom
ever I questioned, whether Christian
or Jew. he replied that there would bo
no pogcom this time. Too many eyes
from foreign countries were directed
toward Kiev Just then. Also, he ar
gued, experience had taught that there
never was a pogrom when there were
reasons that there shoflld be one.
This proved to be the case. Neither
during the unveiling of Stolypln's
monument nor during the Beiliss trial,
nor after the man's exoneration, was
there any sort of disturbance directed
against the Jews on the part of the
local population. The pogrom gov
ernment has its people well in hand,
as one can see; it did not wish to
nave a pogrom at that moment and -
therefore, there was n? ?EtZ
raci tne conclusion- may be drawn
that, if a pogrom is desired, then it
will doubtless take place. To that ef
fect the police officer Kommlssarov
expressed himself to his chief. Lo
puchin. Kiev's Unenviable Fame
was remarkable that during that
time not one of my acquaintances at
Kiev doubted for one moment that
that really most uninteresting man,
Befiiss, whom the government had
made into a martyr, would be set at
liberty. But, then", why did the gov
ernment concern itself with the affair
at all? Whether Christian or Jew.
the answer is invariably the same;
because, whatever the outcome of th:
trial, the government can turn it
against the Jews. If Beiliss had been
condemned, one would have said that
the court acknowledge! the existence
of ritual murders. But with Beiliss
set free, the absolutist press coulJ
continue to stir up rancor, even lp
circles that were friendly to the Jews,
or at least indifferent to them.
It Is not exactly an enviable fame
that Kiev has obtained through this
ritual murder case, and educted Rus
sians feel this acutely. From this
feeling, which one might describe as
a combination of offense and shame,
the Russian involuntarily seeks to free
himself by some pretext. The natural
tendency in such a situation Is to
compare cause and effect, and In this
case the Russian has come to regard
the Jews as responsible for the un
pleasant effect, this feeling of shame.
In this trial may be observed the
: same psychological reaction as that",
' which follows on a pogrom. A pogTom
always has upon the town In question
the effect of a blow in the face, a deep
Insult to the better elements of its
population. But as one is unable to
levenge one's self upon those who give
the insulting blow, one attacks those
on whose account it was administered.
A's a result of the pogroms, one can
always observe, after the first wave
of pity has subsided, a growing dislike
of the Jews. Their mere presence is
sufficient to invite another blow, and
by that a renewed sense of shame.
Consequently, the Jew becomes more
and more an object of irritation to
others. The Inference of Russians is
Justified; only the discontent toward
the Jews Is not the cause of the po-
OUR FOREIGN STUDENTS
THE number of foreign students at
American universities Is greatly
Increasing, so the National board
of education at Washington has found.
The figures of the foreign enrollment
for 1913 were recently announced,
which show that 4282 students from
other countries' studied last year at
the universities, - colleges, and techno
logical schools Of ' the United States.
This was an Increase of 577 over 1911.
It Is pointed out that the meaning of
this enrollment may be better under
stood when It Is recalled that the figure
of 4222 is a larger enrollment than that
of all the students at either Tale,
Princeton, Ohio State, Minnesota, or
Northwestern.
By far the largest group of the for
eign students, namely 1700, was en
rolled in the undergraduate and grad
uate courses in arts and sciences. The.
next largest group, 801, was in the en
gineering courses. Medicine ollowed.
with. 889; dentistry,- 20t; agriculture,
275, and theology, 25 .; The relatively
new prof esional courses In commerce
and business . administration have a
foreign enrollment of 96.
' Canada .led the foreign contingent
with a representation of tit. China be
HISIORY
groms, but their natural and very
human consequence. Then, too, the
pogrom has proved to be a most" suc
cessful means of turning the, local
population for a while away from
constitutionalist ideas and such like
dangers. If a person who is absorbed
by one Important idea gets an unex
pected slap in the face, he will at first
be startled, and it will take him soma
time to find his way back to his former
Ideas.
When In the year 1905 the feelings
of the entire educated Russian world
had risen to boiling point over the
problem of a constitution, -the po
groms acted like unexpected blows.
"UBH,aJl woria nas not ye
"covered from the shock, a fact evi
no ui Russian world has not yet
dent enough in the years 1905 to 1907.
ADsomium raged, attended by 'execu
tions, penal servitude, imprisonment,
and banishment out of ail reason, as
U had never done before .
And I do not doubt for one moment
that as soon as nationalism once more
gets back to work upon Its old prob
lem, tllfi result will tu mmr m
- - - " VIII.,
new blows. And those that administer
thera will be punished Just as-llttla
as In the year 1905. Instead they. will
,be rewarded, as the true saviors of
their country. During the eight years
that have passed since the manifesto
of October, absolutism has not altered
In. the least. Who has eyes to see.
can observe this from the fact that,
just a the governors who suffered
the pogroms to take place were re
warded, so also are those men re
warded who in the Beiliss case de
fended a man who had committed a
ritual murder. One can only be sur
prised at humanity's short memory.
The irony of History
It Is the .Irony of history that the
Jew from Kiev who was accused of
ritual murder suffered the same fate
as Czar Nicholas himself. In whose
name he wes accused and imprisoned.
When, in Japan, an attempt was made
upon the life of Czar Nicholas II.
then heir apparent, the Japanese news
papers at Toklo remarked that' it
served the future sovereign of a Chris
tian nation right, sine, as was uni
versally known, the Christians mur
dered Japanese children for ritual pur
poses. When the Christian world read
this, which it has long since forgotten,
it smiled. But if the Japanese govern
ment had accepted this opinion of the
Japanese people, and had arrested and
imprisoned a Christian for ritual mur
der; the Christian world would prob
ably not have simply smiled.
And on the banks of the Dnieper,
round the gloomy tombs of pious men
long since dead, brood the churches
and monasteries beneath the protec
tion of Russian cannon looking forth
upon madness and superstitions of all
kinds In unruffled, undisturbed con
templation. The eighth article of this
series will appear in next
Sunday's Journal.
ing a good second with 594, and Japan
coming third with 336. Mexico was1 "
fourth with 223. followed by Great Brit
ain and Ireland with 212. Cuba, sent
209, India 12. Finland 124, Germany
12. Every Latin-American country was
represented except French Guiana
Brazil sent 113 students, while the
Argentine delegation wes 43. .
This total foreign enrollment - st
American universities does not com
pare badly with the foreign enrollment
at the German universities. Consul
General T. St. John Gaf f ney reports
from Munich that the foreign enroll
ment in Germany for the winter term
1913-14 was' 6015 students. This was'
8.4 per cent of the total enrollment of
German universities, as against 8.8 p .
cent during the same term of the pre
vlous year, and aginst 7 per cent io
the similar term 20 years ago. -, .- '.
One half of the Increase for the last
five years, according to Mr. Gaff ney,
may - be attributed to foreign female
students, whose attendance has only
been permitted since the f all f ;19eavj
The United States topped all foreign
contingents with a representation of
361, of whom 328 came from northers
states and 28 from the south. ? ' ;
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