se conditions were weak, sick, half
crippled people; impoverished figures with crooked
legs, large heads and weak arms crept through the
streets.

"And in spite of everything the inhabitants never left
their grave (Grube) and made no attempt to find a
better, more healthy home. A sort of sick love bound
them to their unfortunate homes, and like a curse it
rested on each who was born in the valley--that he
could not free himself from it and that until the end
of his days he must eke out his sad existence there."

After the massacre Mischa walks through the Grube:

"The murmur of prayers re-echoed to his ears. From the
little windows of the synagogue came the soft gleam of
candles. He entered. Deep as in a cellar, as miserable
and abandoned as themselves, lay the little house of
prayer of the wretched inhabitants of the Grube. The
walls were bare. The Ark of the Covenant was hung with
only a piece of coarse linen. In front of the broken
'altar' stood an old man in a torn prayer shawl and
prayed before the small penny candles. The room was
full of worshippers, all inhabitants of the Grube.
Their prayer was a groaning, and sighing, and
screaming, out of tormented hearts. It rose up to the
low ceiling and hung over them all like a heavy black
cloud."

And then Mischa knew his people:

"He felt his strength to bear everything; sorrow and
misery and persecution. He saw his people doing the
work of servants through the centuries, from the
farthest past to the present day. He saw the bare
walls of the synagogue, the wretched Ark of the
Covenant, he heard the sad melody of their prayers
which grew to despairing screams. . . . He had the
feeling that he was with his people in a large ship.
For eternities this ship was on a voyage of searching.
It landed at harbors always new and strange: Egypt,
Palestine, Babylon, Arabia, Spain, at Turkey, at
Holland and Russia. And to-day is also a test day for
the Jews. And also this day will end, and many, many,
but the ship will always sail on, will carry them all
to new harbors into the farthest future."

* * * * *

BEFORE leaving _Die Juengst