e demanding whence he had obtained his knowledge. It
sufficed them to know that they now possessed a tangible weapon with
which to fight their dreaded enemy, and they were ready to follow their
leader wherever he chose to conduct them.

The great work was begun without delay. Before undertaking it, however,
it was necessary to obtain the Governor's consent to the improvements,
and to Mendel fell the task of calling upon the mighty man at his
palace.

When Alexander II. ascended his father's throne, his first important act
was to appoint new Governors of the various provinces, for it was a
notorious fact that the heads of these departments were as a rule
totally unfit to direct the affairs with which they were entrusted. He
replaced the old and corrupt Governors by young and vigorous men,
heartily in accord with his ideas of reform. General Pomeroff, a friend
and stanch admirer of the Emperor while he was still Czarewitch, was
selected to govern the influential province of Kief. Pomeroff was a
strikingly handsome man, progressive in his views, humane in the
treatment of his subordinates, quick to perceive merit where it existed
and anxious to assist in any work which promised to redound to the
credit of his province. With this man Mendel sought an interview. It was
with difficulty that he gained admittance to the presence of the august
ruler, into whose sanctum no Jew had yet entered, but after a long delay
he succeeded in meeting the Governor face to face.

"Your excellency," said Mendel, in a quiet and dignified manner,
speaking in perfect Russian, "I come to seek your assistance in a matter
of great importance to a large class of your subjects."

The Governor, surprised as much by the purity of language as by the
temerity of the Jew, looked at the young man, scrutinizingly, for some
moments.

"What do you wish?" he asked, at length. "Make your application short,
for I have much to do."

Mendel unfolded his views briefly to the astonished Governor. He
expressed his desire to rid the Jewish quarter as far as practicable
from the effects of the plague.

"The cholera has almost run its course," he said, "and while our efforts
might have been impotent to check its ravages during its early course,
they may serve to prevent its further spread and to diminish the number
of its victims. We are amply provided with willing hands and with the
necessary money, but we desire your excellency's sanction, and your
permission