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The Southern Israelite
fense of the Hebrew people. As I was
horn to deliver up to eternal mockery
the evil and decrepit, the absurd and
the false and the ludicrous, so it is also
characteristic of me to feel the exalted,
to admire the magnificent, and to praise
the vital.”
Heine had grown thoughtful. These
last words had been heart-felt and sin
cere. But now, as if to bring back to
its accustomed place about his lips the
smile which for a moment had disap
peared, he added, jestingly:
“When little Weill comes here again
one of these days, my friend, you will
see another proof of my filial affection
for the ancient faith of Moses. Weill
was formerly a cantor in a synagogue.
He possesses a metallic tenor voice
and renders the old desert songs of
Judah with all the pristine purity of
tradition, going from the unmitigated
monotony of simplicity to the highest
peak of Old-Testament coloratura. My
good wife, who has no suspicion of
my being a Jew, is not a little amazed
when her ear is assailed by this un
believable musical lamentation, this
piercing tremolo. When Weill sang for
us the first time Minko, the poodle,
hid under the sofa, and Cocotte, the
parrot, tried to hang herself on the
bars of her cage. ‘Monsier Weill! Mon
sieur Weill!’ Mathilde cried, frightened.
’Please don’t carry the joke too far!’
Weill went right on singing. Then the
poor woman turned to me and tensely
asked: ‘Tell me, Henri, what kind of
songs are those?’ I replied: ‘They arc
our German folk songs.’ And to this
explanation I have adhered stub
bornly.’’
* * *
It was early in 1856 that Heine’s ac
customed, regular suffering was aggra
vated by a violent illness. As some
English physician has said, people die
not of the disease that afflicts them,
but of their physical inability to fight
the disease. It was neither his nervous
malady nor his spinal disease which
caused Heine’s dieasc, but an attack of
indigestion which under other circum
stances would have been of minor im
portance. The enormous doses of mor
phine he used to take had caused such
illness before, but this time the attack
was unusually violent and lasted for
three days. He, however, remained de
fiant and continued to hope for victory
in his battle. He started to draw up
a new will, but did not go beyond the
first paragraph ; he remained fully con
scious to the end. Even his wit re
mained active. A few hours before
Heine’s death a friend rushed into his
room to sec him for the last time. The
moment he entered he asked the dying
man whether he had made his peace
with God; and Heine, smiling, replied:
“Don’t worry I God will forgive me—
that’s his business.” When—on that last
night, the night of February 16th—the
physician came in, Heine asked whether
he was really dying. Dr. Gruby felt it
his duty to tell his patient the truth;
Heine received it with perfect equa
nimity. At four o’clock the next morn
ing he breathed his last.
In death he was more beautiful than
any one had ever seen him in life; his
physician declared that he had never
seen death transfigure even youthful
faces to such a degree. This beauty is
preserved faithfully and forever in the
death mask that was taken.
The daily press recorded the death of
the greatest poet of our time briefly
ami soberly, like any other event. This
taciturnity, however, was due, not to
indifference, but to a momentary
specchlessness.
In accordance with Heine’s wishes,
no word was said at his grave. He had
forbidden the saying of mass or the re
cital of the Kaddish for him. With
curious consistency, even a literary eu
logy was omitted. The emotion that
dwelt in hundreds of thousands of
hearts was not given vocal utterance.
As his bodily remains so, symboli
cally, did his poetic genius fare. But
this will change. The clouds that tem
porarily obscure his fame will pass, and
his name will soon he recognized as
one of the glories of German litera
ture. Heinrich Heine’s death will mark
the beginning of his apotheosis.
(Copyright, 1931, by S.A.F.S.)
4 f
The Scarlet Trail
(Continued from Pnge 7)
of Russia—Nicholas I., commenting on
the verdict of acquittal for the Jews
who had been unjustly imprisoned for
twelve years in the blood libel case of
Velizh—to write, though not for pub
lication : “I deem it, however, neces
sary to add that I do not have, and,
indeed, cannot have the inner convic
tion that the murder has not been com
mitted by Jews. Numerous examples of
similar murders ... go to show that
among the Jews there probably exist
fanatics or sectarians who consider
Christian blood necessary for their
rites ... I do not for a moment think
that this custom is common to all Jews,
but I do not deny the possibility that
there may be among them fanatics just
as horrible among us Christians.”
F. Wade Vaughn
Fire Insurance
PALMER BLDG. JA. 2572
Old Nicholas did not str nd alone..
The judges in the Tisza-Eszlar case,
which occurred in Austria in 1883, as
well as the court in the Beilis case—
and this was in the twentieth century!
—also stated that while the accused
Jews appeared innocent of the charges
there was no doubt in their minds that
a ritual murder had been committed.
Indeed, the blood libel has proved a
very efficient instrument in the hands
of rulers who want to provide an out
let for the resentment of oppressed and
ignorant masses. It was much more
convenient for tyrannical governments,
if the downtrodden peasants, instead
of directing their well-founded ire
against the wealthy ruling castes, could
find savage intoxication in murderous
pogroms upon poor, defenseless Jews.
And this, of course, is the reasoning
that was followed by the effendis of
Palestine when, a few weeks ago they
permitted one of their newspapers to
publish what is, to the best of our
knowledge, the most recent link in the
long chain that threads its way through
our history a the scarlet trail of the
blood libel.
(Copyright, 1931, S.A.F.S.)
Renj. J. Scckingcr Hubert B. Seckinger
SECKINGER
BROS. CO.
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