My Family is driven into Misery, and an old Servant loses by his great
Faithfulness a Christian Burial.
My father, who, as already mentioned, traded with Königsberg in Prussia,
had once shipped in a vessel of Prince Radzivil's some barrels of salt
and herrings which he had bought there. When he came home and was going
to fetch his goods, the agent, Schachna, absolutely refused to let him
take them. My father then showed the bill of lading, which he had got on
the shipment of the goods; but the agent tore it out of his hands, and
threw it into the fire. My father found himself therefore compelled to
carry on a long and costly suit, which he had to delay till the
following year, when he would again make a journey to Königsberg. Here
he obtained a certificate from the custom-house, showing that he had
shipped the said goods in a vessel of Prince Radzivil's under the
direction of Herr Schachna. On this certificate the agent was summoned
before the court, but found it convenient not to make an appearance; and
my father gained the suit in the first, second, and third instances. In
spite of this, however, as a consequence of the wretched administration
of justice in Poland at the time, my father had no power to execute
this decision, and therefore from this successful suit he did not even
recover the costs.
To this was added the further result, that by this suit he made Herr
Schachna an enemy who persecuted him now in every possible way. This the
cunning scoundrel could accomplish very well, as by all sorts of
intrigues he had been appointed by Prince Radzivil steward of all his
estates situated in the district of Mir. He resolved therefore on my
father's ruin, and only waited for a convenient opportunity to carry out
his revenge.
This he found soon; and indeed a Jew, who was named after his farm
Schwersen, and was known as the biggest scoundrel in the whole
neighbourhood, offered him a hand. This fellow was an ignoramus, did not
even understand the Jewish language, and made use therefore of Russian.
He occupied himself mainly in examining the farms in the neighbourhood,
and he knew how to get possession of the most lucrative among them by
offering a higher rent and bribing the steward. Without troubling
himself in the least about the laws of the _Chazakah_,[18] he drove the
old legal farmers from their possessions, and enriched himself by this
means. He thus lived in wealth and fortune, and in this state reached an
advanced age.
The scoundrel had already for a long time had his eye on my
grandfather's farm, and waited merely for a favourable opportunity and a
plausible pretext to get possession of it himself. Unfortunately my
granduncle Jacob, who lived in another village belonging to my
grandfather's farm, had been obliged to become a debtor of the scoundrel
to the amount of about fifty rix-dollars. As he could not clear off the
debt at the time when it was due, his creditor came with some servants
of the manor, and threatened to seize the cauldron, in which my
granduncle's whole wealth consisted. In consternation he loaded a waggon
secretly with the cauldron, drove with all haste to my grandfather's,
and, without letting any of us know, hid it in the adjoining marsh
behind the house. His creditor, however, who followed on his heels, came
to my grandfather's, and made search all over, but could find the
cauldron nowhere. Irritated at this unsuccessful stroke, and breathing
vengeance against my grandfather who, he believed, had prevented his
success, he rode to the town, carried to the steward an imposing
present, and offered for my grandfather's farm double the rent, besides
an annual voluntary present to the steward.
This gentleman, joyous over such an offer, and mindful of the disgrace
which my father, a Jew, had brought upon him, a Polish noble, by the
above-mentioned suit, made on the spot a contract with the scoundrel, by
which he not only gave over to him this farm with all the rights
pertaining to it even before the end of my grandfather's lease, but
also robbed my grandfather of all he had,--his barns full of grain, his
cattle, etc.,--and shared the plunder with the new farmer.
My grandfather was therefore obliged with his whole family to quit his
dwelling-place in mid-winter, and, without knowing where he should
settle again, to wander about from place to place. Our departure from
this place was very affecting. The whole neighbourhood lamented our
fate. An old and faithful servant of eighty years, named Gabriel, who
had carried in his arms even my grandfather as a child, insisted on
going with us. Representations were made to him on the severity of the
season, our unfortunate situation, and the uncertainty in which we
ourselves were placed as to our future destiny. But it was of no avail.
He placed himself on the road before the gate, by which our waggons had
to pass, and lamented so long that we were obliged to take him up. He
did not however travel with us long: his advanced age, his grief over
our misery, and the severe season gave him soon the finishing stroke. He
died when we had gone scarcely two or three miles; and as no Catholic or
Russian community would allow him burial in their churchyard--he was a
Prussian and a Lutheran--he was buried at our expense in the open
field.