t display the proverbial silver lining of
hope and comfort. This was a period of great activity for Mikail; never
before had he found such congenial employment. After making a series of
one-sided investigations, in which he interrogated principally those who
had real or imaginary cause for complaint against the Hebrews, the
priest embodied his conclusions in a book, entitled "The Annihilation of
the Jews." Unquenchable hatred breathed in every page. With a cunning
hand, he subverted facts to suit his fancy. He drew a vivid picture of
the great dissatisfaction existing because the Hebrews were achieving
success in various branches of enterprise to the exclusion of the
gentiles. With peculiar logic he argued that sooner or later quarrels
must ensue between the races, that if there were no Jews there could be
no trouble, and that they should therefore be driven out of the country.
His work accused the Jews of thriving almost entirely upon usury and
gross dishonesty, in spite of the fact that many of the chief industries
of Russia were in the hands of thrifty and honorable Israelites. It
purposed to forbid the Jews from keeping inns, on the ground that they
fostered intemperance, in the face of statistics which showed
drunkenness to be most prevalent in provinces where no Jews are allowed
to reside. It finally advised the confiscation of all property belonging
to the Jews and the summary expulsion of the despised race from the
Empire.

Such a book, at a time when rulers and people were alike eager for
sensation, acted like a firebrand. The newspapers, knowing that the
author was a member of the commission appointed by the Czar to
investigate the conduct of the Jews and that his work would receive the
imperial sanction, published extracts from its pages and commented
editorially upon its arguments. Mikail's conclusions were accepted, and
the cry rang throughout Russia, "Down with the Jews!" In all the land
there was not a man who dared raise his voice in defence of the
unfortunate people.

That Minsk, the would-be slayer of Melikoff, had once been a Jew, served
to increase the outcry against the race. Of the scores of Nihilists who
had already been executed not one was alluded to as a Catholic, although
that church claimed them as her own; but the newspapers added the word
"Jew" every time they had occasion to mention his name.

There were as yet no open hostilities in Russia. The great majority of
laborers and _moujiks_