He was rather disappointed to find no other pilgrim even on the ship.
True, there was one Jew, but the business Paradise of New York was his
goal across this waste of waters, and of Noah's Ark he had never
heard. Peloni's panegyric of Grand Island was rendered ineffective by
his own nebulous conception of its commercial possibilities. He passed
the slow days in the sailing-vessel polishing up his English, the
literature of which he had long studied.
In New York Peloni's hopes revived. Major Noah--for it appeared he
was an officer of militia likewise--was in everybody's mouth. Editor
of the _National Advocate_, the leading organ of the Bucktails, or
Tammany party, a journalist whose clever sallies and humorous
paragraphs were widely enjoyed, an author of excellent "Travels," a
playwright of the first distinction, whose patriotic dramas were
always given on the Fourth of July, a critic regarded as Sir Oracle, a
politician, lawyer, and man of the world, a wit, the gay centre of
every gathering--surely in this lion of New York, who was also the
Lion of David, Israel had at last found a deliverer. They called him
madman down in Frankfort, did they? Well, let them come here and see.
He wrote home to the scoffers of the _Judengasse_ all the information
about the great man that was in the very air of the American city,
though the man himself he had only as yet corresponded with. He told
the famous story of how when Noah was canvassing for the office of
High Sheriff of New York, it was urged that no Jew should be put into
an office where he might have to hang a Christian, to which Noah had
retorted wittily, "Pretty Christian, to have to be hanged!" "And you
all fancied 'Father Noah' would fall to pieces before the
_Possemacher's_ wit!" Peloni commented with vengeful satisfaction. "I
rejoice to say that Noah will never have anything to do with a
_Possemacher_, for he is President of the Old Bachelors' Club, the
members of which are pledged never to marry." He told of Noah's
adventurous career: of how when he was a mere boy clerk in the
auditor's office of his native Philadelphia, Congress had voted him a
hundred dollars for his precocious preparation of the actuary tables
for the eight-per-cent loan; of the three duels at Charleston, in
which he had vindicated at once the courage of the Jew and the policy
of American resistance to Great Britain; of his consulate in Tunis,
his capture at sea by the British fleet during the war, his release on
parole that enabled him to travel about England; of his genius for
letters--a very David in Israel; of his generosity to hundreds of
strugglers; of his quixotic disdain of money; of his impoverishing
himself by paying two hundred thousand dollars of other people's debts
as the price of his impulsive shrieval action in throwing open the
doors of the Debtor's Jail when the yellow fever broke out within.
"Yes," wrote Peloni exultantly, "in New York they talk no more of
Shylock. And with all the temptations to Christian fellowship or Pagan
free-living, a pillar of the synagogue,--nay, Israel's one hope in all
the world!"
It was a wonderful moment when Peloni, at last invited to call on the
Judge of Israel, palpitated on the threshold of his study and gazed
blinkingly at the great man enthroned before his writing-table amid
elegant vistas of books and paintings. What a noble poetic vision it
seemed to him: the broad brow, with the tumbled hair; the long,
delicate-featured face tapering to a narrow chin environed with
whiskers, but clean of beard or even of mustache, so that the mobile,
sensitive mouth was laid bare. Peloni's glance also took in a handsome
black coat, with a decoration on the lapel, a high-peaked collar, a
black puffy bow, a frilled shirt, and a very broad jewelled cuff over
a white, long-fingered hand, that held a tall quill with a great
breadth of feather.
"Ah, come in," said the Governor of Israel, waving his quill. "You are
Peloni of Frankfort."
"Come three thousand miles to kiss the hem of your garment."
Noah permitted the attention. "I am obliged to you for your Hebrew
poem in honour of my project," he said urbanely. "I approve of
Hebrew--it is a link that binds us to our forefathers. I am myself
editing a translation of the Book of Jasher."
"You will have found my verses a very poor expression of your divine
ideas."
"You use a difficult Hebrew. But the general drift seemed to show you
had caught the greatness of my conception."
"Ah, yes! I have lived in _Judengasse_, oppressed and derided."
"But there is worse than oppression--there is inward stagnation of the
spiritual life. My idea came to me in Tunis, where the Jews are little
oppressed. You know President Madison appointed me consul of the
United States for the city and kingdom of Tunis, one of the most
respectable and interesting stations in the regencies of Barbary. I
had long desired to visit the country of Dido and Hannibal, to trace
the field of Zama, and seek out the ruins of Utica,--whose sites I
believe I have now successfully established,--but it was my main
design to investigate the condition of the Barbary Jews, of whom, you
will remember, we have no account later than Benjamin of Tudela's in
the thirteenth century. But do not stand--take a chair. Well, I found
our brethren--to the number of seven hundred thousand--controlling
everything in Barbary, farming the revenue, regulating the coinage,
keeping the Dey's jewels and almost his person,--in short, anything
but persecuted, though, of course, the majority were miserably poor.
They did not know I was a Jew--though Secretary Monroe recalled me
because I was, and it was Monroe's doctrine that Judaism would be an
obstacle to the discharge of my functions. Absurd! The Catholic priest
was allowed to sprinkle the Consulate with holy water: the barefooted
Franciscan received an alms, nor did I fail to acknowledge by a
donation the decorated branch sent on Palm Sunday by the Greek Bishop.
And as for the slaves, I assure you they were not backward in coming
to ask favours. The only people who never came to me were precisely
the Jews. I went about among them incognito, so to speak, like Haroun
Alraschid among his subjects; hence I was able to see all the evils
that will never be eliminated till Israel is again a nation."
"Ah! your words are the words of wisdom. You touch the root of the
evil. It is what I have always told them."
Noah rose to his feet, displaying a royal stature in harmony with his
broad shoulders. "Yes, I resolved it should be mine to elevate my
people, to make them hold up their heads worthily in this century of
freedom and enlightenment."
"It is the Ark of the Convenant, as well as of the Deluge, which will
rest on Ararat!"
"True--and like the first Noah, I may become the progenitor of a new
world. I have communications from the four corners of the earth. You
are the type of thousands who will flee from the rotting tyrannies of
Europe into the great free republic which I shall direct."
He began to pace the room. Peloni had visions of great black lines of
pilgrims converging from every quarter of the compass.
"But this Grand Island--is it yours?" he inquired timidly.
"I have bought thousands of acres of it--I and a few others who
believe in the great future of our people."
"Jews?"
"No, not Jews--capitalists who know that we shall become the
commercial centre of the new world,--that is, of the world of the
future."
Peloni groaned. "And Jews will not believe? We must go to the
Gentiles. Jews will only put their money into Gentile schemes; will
build always for others, never for themselves. It is the same
everywhere. Alas for Israel!"
"It is what I preach. Why administer Barbary for a savage Dey when you
can administer Grand Island for yourself? Seven hundred thousand Jews
in savage Barbary, and throughout these vast free States not seven
thousand. Ah, but they will come; they will come. Ararat will gather
its millions."
"But will there be room?"
"The State of New York," replied Noah, impressively, "is the largest
in the Union, containing forty-three thousand two hundred and fourteen
square miles divided into fifty-five counties and having six thousand
and eighty-seven post-towns and cities together with six million acres
of cultivated land. The constitution is founded on equality of rights.
We recognize no religious differences. In our seven thousand free
schools and gymnasia, four hundred thousand children of every religion
are being educated. Here in this great and progressive State the long
wandering of my beloved people shall end."
"But Grand Island itself?" murmured Peloni feebly.
"Come here," and Noah unrolled a great map. "See, how nobly it is
situated in the Niagara River, near the world-famed Falls, which will
supply water-power for our machinery. It is twelve miles long and from
three to seven broad, and contains seventeen thousand acres. Lake Erie
is two hundred and seventy miles long and borders New York,
Pennsylvania, and Ohio, as well as Canada. And see! by navigable
streams this great lake is connected with all that wonderful chain of
lakes. By short canals we shall connect with the Illinois and
Mississippi, and trade with New Orleans and the Gulf of Mexico.
Through the Ontario--see here!--we traffic with Quebec, Montreal, and
touch the great Atlantic. The Niagara Falls, as I said, turn our
machinery. The fur trade, the lumber trade, all is ours. Our cattle
multiply, our lands wave with harvests. We are the centre of the
world, the capital of the future. And look! See what the _Albany
Gazette_ says: 'Here the Hebrews can have their Jerusalem without
fearing the legions of Titus. Here they can erect their Temple without
dreading the torches of frenzied soldiers. Here they can lay their
heads on their pillows at night without fear of mobs, of bigotry and
persecution.'"
Peloni drew a long breath, enraptured by this holy El Dorado,
sparkling on the map, amid its tributary lakes and rivers.
"You will see the eighteenth chapter of Isaiah fulfilled," Noah went
on. "For what is the 'land shadowing with wings, which is beyond the
rivers of Ethiopia,' which shall send messengers to a nation scattered
and peeled? What but America, shadowing us with the wings of its
eagle? As it is written elsewhere, 'I will bear thee on eagle's
wings.' It is true the English Bible translates 'Woe to the land,' but
this is a mistranslation. It should be 'Hail to the land!' Also the
word '_goumey_' they translate 'bulrushes'--'that sendeth messengers
in vessels of bulrushes!' But does not '_goumey_' also mean 'rush,
impetus?' And is it not therefore a prophecy of those new
steam-vessels that are beginning to creep up, one of which has just
crossed from England to India? Erelong they will be running between
America and all the world. It is the Lord making ready for the easy
ingathering of His people. Ay, and along these lakes"--the Prophet's
finger swept the map--"will be heard the panting of mighty
steam-monsters, all making for Ararat. By the way, Ararat lies here,"
and he indicated a spot of the island opposite Tonawanda on the
mainland.
Peloni bent down and poetically pressed his lips to the spot, like
Jehuda Halevi kissing the holy soil.
"There is no one in possession there?" he inquired anxiously.
"Maybe a few Iroquois Indians," said Noah. "But they will not have to
be turned out like the Hittites and Amorites and Jebusites by our
ancestors."
"No?" murmured Peloni.
"Of course not. They are our own brothers, carried away by the King of
Assyria. There can be not the slightest doubt that the Red Indians are
the Lost Ten Tribes of Israel."
"What?" cried Peloni, vastly excited.
"I shall publish a book on the subject. Yes, in worship, dialect,
language, sacrifices, marriages, divorces, burials, fastings,
purifications, punishments, cities of refuge, divisions of tribes,
High-Priests, wars, triumphs--'tis our very tradition."
"Then I suppose one could lodge with them. I am anxious to settle in
Ararat at once."
"You can scarcely settle there till the forest is cleared," said the
great man, arching his eyebrows.
"The forest!" repeated Peloni, taken aback.
"Ah, you are dismayed. You are a European, accustomed to ready-made
cities. We Americans, we change continents while you wait, build up
Aladdin's palaces over-night. As soon as I can manage to go over the
ground I will plan out the city."
"You haven't been there yet?" gasped Peloni.
"Ah, my dear Peloni. When should I find time to travel all the way to
Buffalo,--a busy editor, lawyer, playwright, what not? True, the time
that other men give to domestic happiness the President of the Old
Bachelors' Club is able to give to his fellow-men. But the slow canal
voyage--"
At this moment there was a knock at the door, and a servant inquired
if Major Noah could see his tailor.
"Ah, a good augury!" cried the major. "Here is the tailor come to try
on my Robe of Governor and Judge of Israel."
The man bore an elaborate robe of crimson silk trimmed with ermine,
which he arranged about Noah's portly person, making marks with pins
and chalk where it could be made to fit better.
"Do you like it?" said Noah, puffing himself out regally.
Peloni's uneasiness vanished. Doubt was impossible before these
magnificent realities. Ah! the Americans were wonderful.
"I had to go through our annals," Noah explained, "to find which
period of our government we could revive. Kingship was opposed to the
sentiment of these States: in the epoch of the Judges I found my
ideal. Indeed, what is the President of the United States but a
_Shophet_, a Judge of Israel? Ah, you are looking at that painting of
me--I shall have to be done again in my new robes. That elegant
creature who hangs beside me is Miss Leesugg, the Hebe of English
actresses, as she appeared in my 'She would be a Soldier, or the
Plains of Chippewa.' There is a caricature of my uncle, Aaron J.
Phillips, as the Turkish Commander in my 'Grecian Captive.' Dear me,
shall I ever forget how he tumbled off that elephant! Ha! ha! ha!
That is Miss Johnson, in my 'Yusef Carmatti, or the Siege of Tripoli.'
The black and white is a fancy sketch of 'Marion, or the Hero of Lake
George,' a play I wrote for the reopening of the Park Theatre and to
celebrate the evacuation of New York by the British in 1783."
"Ah, I was there, Major," said the tailor. "It was bully. But the
house was so full of generals and colonels you could hardly hear a
word."
"Fortunately for me," laughed Noah. "Yes, I asked them to come in full
uniform for the _eclat_ of the occasion. Which reminds me--here is a
ticket for you."
"For the play?" murmured Peloni, as he took it.
Noah started and looked at him keenly. But his flush of anger faded
before Peloni's innocent eyes. "No, no," he explained; "for the
opening ceremony of the foundation of Ararat."
Peloni's black eyes shone.
"There will be a great crush and only ticket-holders can be admitted
into the church."
"Into the church!" echoed Peloni, paling.
"Yes," said the Judge of Israel impressively, as he stood before a
glass to adjust the graceful folds of his crimson robe. "Our
fellow-citizens in Buffalo have been good enough to lend us the
Episcopal Church for the ceremony."
"What ceremony?" he faltered, as horrid images swept before him, and
he heard all the way from Frankfort the taunting cry of "Missionary!"
"The laying of the foundation-stone of Ararat."
"Laying the foundation-stone in a church!" Peloni was puzzled.
"Ah," said the Major, misunderstanding him; "it seems strange to you,
nursed in the musty lap of Europe. But here in this land of freedom
and this century of enlightenment all men are brothers."
"But surely the foundation-stone should be laid on Grand Island."
"It would have been desirable. But so many will wish to be present at
this great celebration. Buffalo alone has some thirteen hundred
inhabitants. How should we get them across? There are scarcely any
boats to be had--and Ararat is twelve miles away. No, no, it is better
to hold our ceremony in Buffalo. It is, after all, only a symbolism.
The corner-stone is already being inscribed in Hebrew and English.
'Hear, O Israel, the Lord is our God. Ararat, a City of Refuge for the
Jews, founded by Mordecai M. Noah in the month Tishri, corresponding
with September, 1825, in the fiftieth year of American Independence.'"
The sonorous recitation by the _Shophet_ in his crimson and ermine
robe somewhat restored Peloni's equanimity.
"But when will the actual city be begun?" he asked.