UNIVERSITY COURIER.
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the Book of Job; guarding for humanity that strict moral code upon which our justice is founded.
From a nation of farmers they were soon to be changed to a nation of traders and money changers. The rapacity of Rome taking advantage of the sins of the Hebrews, scattered them abroad over the face of the earth. They slew the Christ who had softened their stern moral decalogue by his golden rule of love for fellowman. They bore the unjust curse of a second Cain, yet Prometheus-like, they outlive the Pharaohs and the Philistines, the Babylonians and the Persians, the Greeks and the Romans, the Goths and the Huns.
The Papal Church arose and all Christendom turned to crush the Israelite. "Thou shalt not kill," and "Thou shalt not steal," were blotted from the decalogue by the Crusaders, and the cultured, prosperous colonies of Jews throughout all Europe were pillaged and the inhabitants slain by thousands. The Wandering Jew of the legend became the type of the race. A Jew could not even live in England, France, or Spain, and in Germany the streets often ran red with Jewish blood. Our own Shakespeare, borrowing an old-time story, changed its Christian Shylock to Shylock the Jew, and all the world laughed loud.
The Reformation came, and Christian charity slowly, very slowly, granted to the Jew the natural right of men to live on the same earth unmolested by each other. America was discovered. The United Colonies became the United States, and for the first time since that dark day on Calvary, was a peaceful and happy home granted to this persecuted people. And to our honor let it be said, no Jew has here been persecuted. They have become our citizens, aided in developing our resources, supported our common schools, obeyed our laws, and, though wealthy, they have not formed monopolies nor produced Jay Goulds and Vanderbilts. Their clannishness does not harm us, for they so blend with other men in commerce, that the most and best of them pass unnoticed.
They are a race of traders and money loaners, but this trait was formed by their persecutions. They were not allowed to hold land, and their capital was, of necessity, one that could be easily moved and concealed. In Canaan they were not misers and usurers. They have been forced to engage in commerce. And like the Plebeians of Rome, or the Commoners of England, they could rise to distinction only by wealth. Their thrift is now proverbial, and unlike other men, they flourish in every clime.
From the age of Solomon to the present the Jews have cherished knowledge. They can say with just pride that each of their children has received an education and a useful trade. Learned Jews were the first to found medical schools in Italy, colleges in Spain, and Hebrew lecture rooms at Oxford. They were the only race that remained educated during the dark ages. The terrors of the Inquisition did not tear this from them. Nor have they been without their reward. "The school master has saved them from the fate of Babylon and of Tyre." They have given us Mendelssohn, the philosopher; young Mendelssohn, the musician; Heine, the weird poet; Meyerbeer, the composer; Rachel, the actress; Beaconsfield, Premier of England; and the Rothschilds.
Their moral code, as modified by Christ, has roused the Greek and Roman from his sensual apathy, and subdued the rude Teuton and Celt. The more civilized a nation becomes the better it treats the Jews." "It is Jewish culture, rather than Greek and Roman, that controls the conduct of modern families and nations."
We owe too much to the Jews to reject them. The wrath of Heaven may have been upon them, but it is not ours to avenge their sin to humanity. He who made of one blood all nations of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, has said, "Vengeance is mine, I will repay." Shall we as Christians not include the Jews among the "others" of our golden rule, when Christ, its author, in that awful death agony, prayed: "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do"? Shall we ostracize those through whom we received our law and our creed, our Christ and our God?
THE TICKET SCRATCHER
The most auspicious phase which characterizes our latter-day politics is the appearance of the independent voter, who takes his ballot home and alters it at his leisure, or takes that of the opposing party and casts that in the ballot-box despite the scowling of politicians, whose faces are much like a chopped sea—angry with short waves—whenever they see a political brother voting any other than "the straight ticket." The truth is—and it is a truth that is becoming everywhere recognized—that independence of the intelligent American voter is asserting itself in a way sufficient to make thousands of buried politicians turn over in their coffins; and it is a grand thing for our politics, a grand thing for our country, and a grand thing for the independent voter that it is so. God be thanked for this healthful autumn breeze in our politics! And if it shall lift some trading politicians off their feet and land them in some terra incognita, will it not be a gain?—will it not be a grand move ahead?—Christian at Work.
SCIENTIFIC NOTES.
Additions to cabinets in Department of Natural History since our last issue:
A collection of small mammals in alcohol from Ellis county, Kas., contributed by Dr. Watson.
A box of fossil dicotyledenous leaves, collected by S. C. Mason, at Delphos, Ottawa, Kas. The collection was submitted to Prof. Leo Lesquereux (the great authority in this and all countries on fossil botany), of Columbus, O., for determination. Examination of the specimens revealed the fact that there were about a dozen species new to science and as yet undescribed.
The many rare and new species of both living and fossil forms of animal and plant life, which Prof. Snow is almost daily collecting and securing for the University Museum, makes it one of the most interesting as well as valuable collections in the United States. The collections are always subject to the judicious use of students, and their great value can scarcely be estimated. Access to these collections not only makes the study of such subjects as botany, geology, and zoology vastly more interesting but at the same time makes it possible for the student to obtain a good sound practical knowledge of the subject under pursuit, which otherwise would be mere theory. However well text-books of natural history may be studied, unless the student has