THE CHOLERA AND ITS VICTIMS.
A new danger threatened our friends. Scarcely had the fanatical Russian
given the Jews a brief respite from persecution, when Nature seized the
rod and wielded it with relentless hand, smiting Jew and gentile, the
pious and the ungodly, with equal severity. The cholera had broken out
in Central Russia and its devastations were terrible beyond description.
The country from Kief to Odessa was as one vast charnel-house. As has
always been the case during epidemics, the Jews suffered less from the
ravages of the disease than did their gentile neighbors. The strict
dietary laws which excluded everything not absolutely fresh and clean,
the frequent ablutions which the religious rites demanded of the Jews
and their freedom from all enervating excesses, bore excellent results
in a diminished mortality. Nevertheless, many a victim was hurried to an
untimely grave, many a family sat in sackcloth and ashes for a departed
member.
Amid the general consternation caused by the rapid spread of the plague,
the _feldshers_ were unceremoniously relegated to the background. Their
surgery was practically useless and their drugs proved powerless to
stay the disease. The _snakharkas_, on the other hand, prospered
greatly. Superstition flourished; prayers, sacrifices, incantations,
magical rites, exorcisms, were invoked to allay the evil. The _moujiks_
called frantically upon the saints for assistance, and then deliberately
frustrated any relief these might have afforded by committing frightful
excesses. Many a saint fell into temporary disfavor by his apparent
indifference to the sufferings of his devotees.
The priests invented new ceremonials and each village had its own
peculiar method of appeasing divine wrath. In Kief, the disease had
taken a particularly virulent form. The filthy Dnieper, contaminated by
the reeking sewerage of the city, was in a great measure to blame for
the rapid spread of the disorder, but to have advanced such a theory
would have been useless; the ignorant inhabitants ascribed the scourge
to any source but the true one. At one time the _feldshers_ were accused
of having propagated the plague for their own pecuniary benefit, and the
excited populace threw a number of doctors out of the windows of a
hospital and otherwise maltreated the poor practitioners who fell into
their clutches.
In Kanief, the inhabitants, crazed with fear at the progress of the
plague, adopted an original and ingenious method to check it. At
midnight, according to a preconcerted plan, all the maidens of the
village met on the outskirts of the place and formed in picturesque
procession. At the head marched a girl bearing an icon of the Madonna,
gaudily painted and bedecked with jewels. Behind her came her
companions, dragging a rope to which was attached a plow. In this order
they made the circuit of the village, and it was confidently believed
that the cholera would disappear within the magical circle thus
described.[11]
Many and equally ingenious were the devices employed in Kief by the
ignorant peasants. A wonder-working icon was brought from St.
Petersburg, where, according to tradition, it had performed many
miracles. Yet the plague continued, fed by the ignorance and
intemperance of the people.
Surrounded by such dense superstition, it is not strange that the Jews,
too, should resort to absurd rites to rid themselves of the dreaded
guest. The poorer classes, living in the lower portions of the quarter,
were the chief sufferers. There, where a dozen half-starved wretches
were crowded into one small room, the plague was at its height. A
hundred souls had already succumbed and the list of victims was growing
daily. Alas! the misery of the stricken families! Deprived of medical
attendance, of drugs, of fresh air, there appeared little hope for the
denizens of the infected district.
The busiest man during these troublous times was Itzig Maier, the
beadle, whose acquaintance we have already made as the messenger sent by
Bensef to the _bal-shem_ at Tchernigof. The condition of Itzig and his
family had not improved since we last saw him. The little fortune which,
if gossip spoke truly, he had acquired by his adroit manoeuvring at
that time, had been dissipated; his family had grown larger and was a
constant drain upon his meagre resources, while his income appeared to
diminish as his expenses increased. Besides, Itzig had a daughter who
was now of a marriageable age, and he was obliged to toil and save to
provide a dowry. Beile was unattractive and uninteresting, and Itzig did
not conceal from himself the fact that without a dowry it might prove
difficult to bring her under the _chuppe_.
Of late Itzig had had little time to think of his family. In the house
and in the hovel, wherever the cholera had knocked for admittance, there
was Itzig Maier, performing his duties with an unfailing
regularity--preparing the shrouds, attiring the dead and comforting the
mourners--all unmindful that he might be the next victim. His services
were in constant demand and money was actually pouring in upon him.
The first to visit, aid and counsel the stricken community was Rabbi
Jeiteles, whose unselfish devotion to duty led him from house to house,
administering simple remedies to the suffering, closing the eyes of the
dead and consoling the grieving survivors. He knew no fear, no
hesitation. To his wife's anxious words of warning he had but one reply,
"We are all in God's hands."
Earnestly he went about his work, conscious of his danger, yet putting
all thought of self aside until he, too, fell a victim to the dread
destroyer.
One day, while performing the last sad rites over a dead child, he was
stricken, and before he could be removed to his home he had breathed his
last.
Great was the grief in the Jewish community in Kief. From one end of the
quarter to the other the inhabitants mourned for thirty days, bewailing
the death of their beloved Rabbi, as though each household had lost a
revered parent.
The plague continued its ravages, and the people in their wild terror
resorted to the _bal-shem_ for amulets and talismans. On every door
could be read the inscription, "Not at home." But the cholera would not
be put off by so flimsy a device and entered unbidden. Even the death of
a grave-digger did not stay the dread disease, although it had been
prophesied that such an event would end the trouble. The cabalistic
books were ransacked for charms and mystic signs with which to resist
the power of the conqueror, but all in vain.
One morning Itzig ran as fast as his shuffling legs would bear him, up
the dirty lane that led to his abode, and fell rather than walked into
the low door that led into his hut. His wife was engaged in washing a
baby--the seventh--and Beile, an ill-favored, sallow-complexioned girl,
sat at the window sewing.
"Jentele," cried Itzig, sinking into a chair, "God has been good to us!"
"Have you just found that out?" asked his wife, petulantly. "What is the
matter? Have you come into a fortune?"
"Beile, leave the room," said Itzig.
"Why, father?"
"Leave the room! I want to talk to your mother."
Beile put away her work and walked out into the lane.
"Rejoice with me, Jentele," said the delighted husband, as he rubbed his
shrivelled hands. "Beile is a _kalle_; she will marry to-morrow."
"Has anybody fallen in love with her?" asked the mother.
"No; but she will marry all the same."
"Well, speak out, man! You kill one with suspense."
"Do you know Reb Bensef, our _parnas_?"
"Yes; but what has he to do with our Beile?"
"Reb Bensef being very much distressed by the death of Rabbi Jeiteles,
went to Tchernigof to ask counsel of the _bal-shem_ and has just
returned."
"Well, what did the wise man advise?" asked Jentele, burning with
impatience, while her partially washed baby lay kicking in her arms.
"Listen, I am coming to that," answered Itzig, with provoking slowness.
"He said that if a poor man would marry an equally poor girl, under a
_chuppe_ erected in the cemetery between two newly made graves, God's
anger would be appeased and the scourge would end. To-day Bensef sought
me out. 'Itzig,' he said, 'you have a daughter. I know a husband for
her. I will give an outfit to both bride and groom and provide them with
money to last a year, if you will consent to their marrying in the
cemetery.' What do you think of it?"
"Who is the young man?" queried Jentele, her face expressing neither
pleasure nor pain.
"You know the _jeschiva_ student, Kahn?"
"He is poor, very poor, indeed."
"What is that to us? Reb Bensef will provide clothing and money for a
whole year."
"And when that is all gone?" queried his wife, resuming operations upon
the baby.
"Then God will provide. Did we have more when we married?"
"It is an opportunity of a life-time," mused Jentele, looking at her
parched and yellow better-half. "Do as you think best."
Armed with the support of his wife and without consulting his daughter,
whose voice in a matter of such minor importance seemed to him
unnecessary, Itzig hastened to Bensef's house and expressed his consent
to the arrangement. Together the worthies went to the synagogue, where
the unsuspecting Kahn was engaged in prayer. A few words sufficed to
explain the situation. Kahn looked timidly at Bensef, then upon the
ground; finally, he shrugged his shoulders and signified his readiness
to be led to the altar. It mattered not to him what disposition they
made of him. He was poor and without prospects and could never hope to
support a wife by his own exertions. The way was now made easy. Besides,
in thus sacrificing himself for the extinction of the plague he was
doing a _mitzva_ (a good deed) in the sight of the Lord. To refuse was
out of the question. The young man was led in triumph to Itzig's house
and introduced to his future wife, who heard of the arrangement for the
first time and evinced neither pleasure nor dissatisfaction.
The betrothal was duly announced and hasty preparations made for the
coming ceremony, since delay meant new victims to the plague.
Mendel strove with all his eloquence to prevent the carrying out of this
monstrous purpose. Every fibre within him revolted at such folly, and he
hurried from house to house, entreating the most influential members of
the congregation to aid him in opposing it. But the scourge spoke more
eloquently than did the young Rabbi--the people listened to him but
shook their heads. Many who doubted the efficacy of the plan, lacked the
moral courage to oppose an act which met with the approval of the
greater portion of the community.
"Every means should be employed to prevent the disease from doing
further mischief," argued some. "We have vainly tried everything else,
let us try this. God may at last listen to our prayers."
"The _bal-shem_ has commanded it; it is sure to prove successful," said
others.
After a day spent in earnest but ineffectual arguments, Mendel saw that
his endeavors in this direction were futile, and concluding that further
interference would be useless, he sorrowfully wended his way homeward.
The sun shone fiercely on the morrow upon a desolate landscape. All
nature appeared to be under the ban of the plague. The leaves upon the
trees were sere and withered, the brooks were dry and the birds had long
since hushed their melody. The highways were deserted, save where at
intervals a solemn funeral train carried the dead to a final
resting-place.
A strange procession wended its way to the Jewish cemetery. It was not a
funeral, although from the tears and lamentations of those who took part
in it, it might have been mistaken for one. Young and old, men and
women, all in whom superstition still dwelt, followed the cortege to the
field of death and accompanied the bride and bridegroom to the
improvised altar. Thanks to the generosity of Bensef, Beile was richly
attired, and the groom in spite of his poverty was neatly clad. They
walked hand in hand, happy in the consciousness that they were
performing a service to humanity. As the grotesque train entered the
burial-ground the lamentations became louder at the sight of the scores
of newly-made graves. The bride and groom lost their happy look, for a
stern and terrible reality confronted them. The _chuppe_ had been
erected between two freshly-dug graves. The people ceased their wailing
and became as silent as the awful place in which they stood.
Mendel, who had been requested to tie the solemn knot, had refused to do
so and had absented himself. The ceremony was, therefore, performed by
the Rabbi of another congregation, who hurried through the short service
with almost eager haste. Jentele kissed the weeping bride, Itzig
embraced his son-in-law.
Suddenly the father tottered and with a moan fell to the ground. His
face became livid, his eyes sank in their sockets, his blue lips
frothed, and his whole body shook with agony.
"The cholera! the cholera!" shouted those nearest him, and while many
fled for their lives, a dozen willing hands lifted up the prostrate
beadle and endeavored by every means in their power to restore him to
consciousness. In vain were all their ministrations, in vain their
prayers and exhortations. For a short while Itzig suffered intense
agony, then his shrunken form became rigid, his head fell back, his
homely and shrivelled features relaxed into a hideous grin, and the
unfortunate beadle travelled the way of the hundreds he had in his time
borne to this very spot.[12]
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 11: Wallace, p. 78.]