perfect order, were following their savage
leader El Capitan, or "El Diablo," as the
people of the haciendas named him. He
chose a route rising to a higher level than
that over which Dario had come. It was
more circuitous, but at least passable.
They rode at break-neck speed.

Don Emilio, the disobedient, pressed
through the valleys he had traveled a
half hour since. He carried in front of
him the girl Dolores, who was still half-
insensible. He had reached the place of
the former rendezvous, and he was look-
ing towards a precipitous path leading to
the great heights, when the immense horse
of El Capitan, bearing its mighty rider,
sprang on a rock thirty feet above him.
The animal, urged by master with word
and rein, braced its feet and slid down
the steep sides, landing not a yard from
the astounded lieutenant. El Capitan's
men closed in from every side. Had they
rained down from the sky, Emilio would
not have marveled more.

El Capitan spoke to his horse and tight-
ened the bridle rein. The great beast



THE DISOBEDIENCE OF DON EMILIO.



319



sounded the terrible screaming neigh of
the stallion and sprang against Don Emi-
lio'? mount, which lost its footing by the
force of the impact. The strong arm of
the hirsute giant reached the girl and
drew her to him as horse and rider fell.
Ernilio freed himself in a trice from his
struggling animal, grasped El Capitan's
stirrup-strap, and with the litheness of
the mountain lion, sprang to the back of
the stallion, behind his adversary.

The lieutenant's eyes gleamed like a
wo]f s at bay, and his teeth showed cruelly
through his heavy mustachios, as his
knife flashed in the sunlight and drove
straight at the jugular of El Capitan be-
fore him. El Capitan's left arm was hold-
ing the fainting girl; his right hand
dropped the bridle rein and caught the
descending arm of Don Emilio. Emilio's
unusual strength wrenched his arm free
even from the iron grasp of the giant
leader. Leaning far over he struck again,
this time at the form of the girl. Before
the blow could descend, the half-breed
Dario's lariat came hurtling through the
air and looped over the shoulders of the
desperate lieutenant. As an arrow leaves
the bow, so was he hurled from the back
of the stallion when Dario's horse, rush-
ing under the spur, drew man and lariat
with it.

El Capitan's right hand again caught
the rein and he spoke to his horse. The
great beast, again sounding the terrible
screaming neigh, sprang on the prostrate
Don Emilio and its hoofs trampled out
his life.

El Senor Escandear, lord of the haci-
enda Aguas Calientes, rallied his fighting
men. At the head of those who could
secure horses he dashed hot-foot to the
rescue of the beautiful Dolores.

Prom the mouth of trie little valley, he
saw El Capitan, the bandit chieftain,
drive his horse down the almost perpen-
dicular rock-side and snatch Dolores from
the discomfited Emilio. Life almost left
Don Escandear's own body as he saw the
knife flash above his niece and her de-
fender.

When his flying horse brought him to
the scene he saw Dolores on the ground,
partly reclining against a boulder and
E] Capitan bathing her forehead and
hands with aguadiente from his pocket-



flask. A mother's touch could not be
more tender than was the hand of the
outlaw chief on the fainting girl. The
great bay stallion circled round his
master, his heavy hoofs pawing the earth;
while his raucous challenge, bidding de-
fiance to the newcomers, echoed through
the valley.

Senor Escandear sprang from his horse
to the side of Dolores. The chieftain,
straightening to his full height, faced the
Spaniard.

"God of my soul!" cried the startled
Don. "El Diablo!"

"If, according to your custom, I say f at
your service!' I would belie myself, for I
serve no man," returned the other, smil-
ing grimly.

"You speak truly," replied Escandear.
"You serve neither God nor man, for by
your dailv thefts you outrage the laws of
both."

The outlaw chieftain restrained the
fierce passion within his breast, and spoke
with forced calmness.

"Most upright Spaniard," he said, "the
vast domain from hill to -sea is yours, you
claim. How came it so? The padres res-
cued it from the wilderness and the sav-
age. You and your law stripped tha
padres of their lands. You were strong,
the padres weak. Who, then, is more de-
serving of blame, you, who in your
strength, rob the weaker of their all, or I,
who take from your countless herds a
paltry few you never miss? Answer me
that, lordly Spaniard."

Don Escandear's eyes struck fire. Wild
words rushed to his tongue, but the chok-
ing rage within forbade all utterance for
the moment. Five score desperadoes,
fierce as timber wolves, were back of El
Capitan, their sworn leader. Let him give
the sign and they would fall on and rend
Escandear and his fighibing peons. These
peons, trained in the martial spirit of
their valiant master, looked on the bandits
with eager, hungry gaze. At his word they
would spring forward like unleashed
hounds, ready and savage for the fray.

Senorita Dolores struggled to her feet
and threw herself into Escandear's arms.

"Oh, uncle, uncle!" she said. "He
saved me from that terrible man, and we
mu?t thank him."

"I thank you for reminding me," he



320



OVERLAND MONTHLY.



replied to the girl. Then with perfect
courtesy he spoke to El Capitan :

"May I have the honor of knowing
your name?"

"Coach O'Donnell is my name, though
I am seldom called so here," was the re-

p!y-

"Senor O'Donnell, I, Don Jesus Maria
y Jose Escandear, thank you in Senorita
Dolores's name and in mine for your
brave defense and rescue of her."

Every sombrero was "doffed in deference
to the names of the Holy Family in Naza-
reth of Galilee. El Capitan's great bay
stallion was standing near him, watching
his every move with almost human intelli-
gence. The moving sombreros seemed to
anger it. It gave the loud, unearthly
neigh, and, with eyes Hashing, ears laid
back against its head, and its teeth bared,
rushed at Don Escandear.

"Peace, peace, Drumlummon !" said
the outlaw in his words of South Ireland
brogue, and the horse, quieted by the mas-
ter's voice, came to his side, fawning like
a house dog.

With one hand, lightly resting on the
mane of the horse, El Capitan vaulted to
his saddle apparently as deftly as a bird
springs from ground to tree-branch.
Wheeling his horse he faced Escandear,
and said:

"In the years gone by, far across the seas
1 knew a girl, slender and. pretty as is she
your arms now hold. Her memory
though she may be unworthy, I know not
has restrained me from many a deed
wilder than those that I have done. I
would risk my life a hundred times
to save your niece, or any like her, from
death or harm."

He waved his hand to the waiting band
and they filed along the precipitous path



leading past the "Great Slide" up to the
high mountains beyond.

"I go, Don Escandear, because I wish
to go. Did I so wish, I could remain,"
he said, pointing to his hundred desper-
adoes.

He followed his men. At a short dis-
tance he halted, turned in his saddle, and
added :

"1 return, too, when I please, noble Es-
candear. Adi os, fellow robber, brother
mine." El Capitan's loud, mocking laugh
followed the words.

Senor Escandear stood with arm around
Senorita Dolores. He looked first at the
bandit, then at his own fighting peons,
then back to the bandit. A word from
him and his men would fall on their ene-
mies, and path and valley would echo the
sounds of fierce battle. The honor of a
hidalgo of Old Spain held back that word.
Gratitude to the rescuer of the lady Do-
lores was the talisman.

Finally, Don Escandear called out
"Adelante !" and waved his hand in the
direction of the hacienda. He carried his
niece homeward, as the false Emilio,
whose body would be prey to vulture and
coyote, had borne her away.

On the brow of the declivity whence he
overlooked his domain, vast as many a
European principality, the Don spoke
musingly :

"El Diablo is well named. He is a
devil. Moreover, he is a liar."

Then, as if to silence some dispute with-
in, he repeated :

"I say he is a liar."

"Uncle mine, he is my rescuer!"

"Yes," child of my heart, but he is a
liar."

However, in spite of the stirring events
of the day, Don Escandear seemed more
pensive than was his wont.




MY CONCEPTION OF ZIONISM

BY N. MOSSESSOHN, D. D. L,.L,. D.,
Editor of The Jewish Tribune

I. ITS ORIGIN



ZIONISM as an ideal is undefin-
able. Its aim, however, may be
determined in a few short
phrases : The awakening of the
national feeling in the hearts of those
Jews who, willingly or unwillingly, de-
nationalized themselves, a return to Juda-
ism, the revival of Jewish consciousness,
the re-instating of the Hebrew language,
the rejuvenating of the knowledge of Jew-
ish history and literature and restoration
of the Jewish nation to the land of their
ancestors.

As an historical movement, it takes its
inception from the very moment when
the Jewish commonwealth was invaded
and the Jewish land conquered by Nebu-
chadnezzar. The everlasting longing of
Israel for the re-possession of their coun-
try is expressed by the Jewish prophets
and bards. The Disapore is known in
Hebrew literature as 8hvu$h" captiv-
ity. (Jeremiah XXXII :25; Ezekiel
XXXIX: 25; Zephania 111:20, and
many other places), generally "Shvuth
Am" the captivity of the people (Jere-
miah XXX :3; Hosea VI:11; Amos
IX:14; Psalms XIV :7; LIII:6; and
many more places in the Bible.) Note-
worthy is the fact that Israel has always
been so bound with his country that cap-
tive Israel is called "the captivity of
Zion" (Psalms CXXVI:!). He" who
reads the Jewish Bible cannot but notice
that each of its writers craves for Zion,
that love for that country penetrates his
whole self. This love and craving for
Zion has not been dimmed in later genera-
tions : on the contrary, with every new
generation it has been reimbued with more
zeal. It is a love which neither space nor
time could weaken.



The first real scattering of the Jews to
North, East, West and South took place
after the destruction of the Temple by
Titus and Vespasian (70 C. E.), and
brought forth a warrior, Bar Kochbah,
and a Eabbi Akibah (118 C. E.), who
flooded the Palestinian soil with the blood
of tens of thousands of their co-religionists
in the attempt to regain their country
from the hands of the Komans. This
calamity changed the Jews' policy for re-
gaining Palestine to that of first regain-
ing independence, even in another section
of the world, as a road to the original en-
deavor of regaining Palestine. And his-
tory tells us that Joseph Nassi, in the mid-
dle of the sixteenth century, strove to ob-
tain from the Eepublic of Venice an
island for the Portuguese Jews, and at the
same time asked the Jews of the Eoman
Campagna to emigrate to Palestine.

A similar attempt was made in 1540 by
an Augsburg Jew, and later by the false
Messiah, Sabbatai Zevi (1626-76). Many
Christians, touched with pity for our suf-
fering people, tried to secure for them a
country where they might escape the per-
secution of the nations. A project of this
kind was started in England about 1654,
the details of which may be learned by
reading a pamphlet, entitled "Privileges
Granted to the People of the Hebrew
Nation that are to Goe to the Wilde
Oust," in manuscript in the British Mu-
seum. Colonies of this kind, with many
administrative rights under the authority
of the Dutch West India Company, were
established in 1652 in Curacao, and in
1659 in Cayenne, by the French West In-
dia Company ("Tr. Jew. Hist. Soc. Eng.
111:82), Maurice I)e Saxe, a natural son
of August of Poland in 1749 projected to



322



OVERL'AND MONTHLY.



make himself king of a Jewish State to be
founded in South America (M. Kohler, in
"Menordh" June, 1892). The "Monitor
Universelle" No. 243, published a docu-
ment from Napoleon, in which he invited
the Jews of Asia and Africa to settle in
Jerusalem under the aegis. In 1819, W.
I). Robinson proposed a Jewish settlement
in the upper Mississippi and Missouri ter-
ritory. In 1850 Varden Cresson, Consul
to Jerusalem, who, when converted to
Judaism, took the name of Michael C.
Boaz Israel, established a Jewish agri-
cultural colony near Jerusalem, enlisting
the support of the late Rabbi Isaac Lee-
ser, of Philadelphia, and L. Philippson
of Magdeburg (M. Kohler in "Publ. Am.
Jew. Hist. Soc." No. VIII, p. 80). As
early as 18.18, Mordecai Noah made prop-
aganda for the restoration of Israel to
Palestine, and on January 20, 1820, his
memorial to the New York Legislature,
praying that Grand Island be sold to him,
was presented.

Joseph Salvador in 1830 believed in
the possibility that a Congress of Euro-
pean powers might restore Palestine to Is-
rael. Even the Alliance Israelite Univer-
selle under Albert Cohn and Charles Net-
ter, believing in this idea, began to colon-
ize Jews in Palestine, and founded the
agricultural school, Mikveh Israel, near
Jaffa. In 1852, Hollingsworth, an Eng-
lishman, urged the establishment of a
Jewish State. In 1864, in Geneva, ap-
peared a pamphlet under the title "Devoir
cfes Nation de Rendre au Peuple Juif Sa
Nationalite" the authorship of which was
ascribed to Abraham Petavel, a Christian
clergyman, a member of the Alliance Is-
raelite Universelle, whose great ambition
was to convert Jews to Christianity. His
denial of this supposition was not accepted
because of his long poem, "La Fille de
Sion ou la re Retablissement d'Israel"
(Paris, 1864) which pursues the same
purpose. Though this plan was opposed
by the "Archive" yet Lazar Levy-Binga,
banker of Nancy and later a member of
the Legislature, defended Jewish national-
ism and expressed his hope that Jerusalem
will become the ideal center of the world.
In 1868, J. Frankel, of Strassburg, pub-
lished a pamphlet with the title ''Retab-
lissement de la Nationalite Juive," in
which he pleaded for the re-establishment



of the Jewish State in Palestine by pur-
chase of that country from Turkey. How-
ever, if Palestine be unattainable, he pro-
posed to seek and find another country
where the Jews could find a fixed home.
This revival of Jewish nationalism was
also advocated by Moritz Steinschneider
(between 1835-1840), who founded a stu-
dent society in Prague for the purpose
of propagating a Jewish state in Pales-
tine. One vear later an anonymous
writer in the "Orient" (No. 26, p. 200)
published an appeal to Israel to procure
Syria for the Jews under Turkish sover-
eignty. In 1847, Bartholemy published
a lengthy poem in "Le Siecle" urging the
Rothschilds to restore the kingdom of
Judah to its former glory. Judah ben
Solomon Alkalai, Rabbi of Semlin, Croa-
tia, published his "Goral Ladonai a
Lott to the Eternal*' (Vienna, 1857), in
which he advocated the formation of a
stock company for the purpose of inducing
the Sultan to cede Palestine to the Jews
as a tributary State. "Palestine must be
colonized and worked by the Jews in or-
der that it may live again commercially
and agriculturally/' wrote Luzatto from
Padua to Albert Cohn in Paris in 1854.

The founder of the Geneva Conven-
tion, Henry Dunant, tried to interest in
this project the Alliance Israelite Univer-
selle (1863), the Anglo-Jewish Associa-
tion in London, and the Jews of Berlin
(1866), founding two societies for that
purpose: The International Palestine
Society, and in 1876 the Syrian and Pal-
estine Colonization Society.

Sir Moses Montefiore laid before Mo-
hammed AH a plan to colonize Jews in
Palestine (1840), and Lord Shaftesbury,
a member of the Society for the Relief of
Persecuted Jews assisted in this plan. In
1879, Benedetto Musoline and Laurence
Oliphant advocated the same plan. Among
the" writers who, during the past few cen-
turies, advocated Zionism in their books,
are David ben Dob Gordon (1826-1886),
Zebi Hirsch Kalischer (1795-1874) ; Eli-
jah Guttmacher; Moses Hess; Heinrich
Graetz, the historian; Peter Smolenskin,
editor "Hashachar ;" Levi Levanda ; Dis-
raeli ; George Eliot ; Gustav Cohen ; Emma
Lazarus and others. (The Jewish Ency-
clopedia, Vol. XII, p. 666-686.)

Though this agitation in favor of Zion-




N. Mossessohn, D. D. LL. D.



324:



OVERLAND MONTHLY.



ism was pursued by the Jews soon after
Bar Cochba's lost battle, yet practical
work for reaching the goal of Zionism was
commenced by the Chovevei Zion, started
in Odessa, Russia, under the leadership of
Dr. Lev Pinsker (1821-1891), and the
first Jewish colony in Palestine was
founded in 1874. What Zionism has ac-
complished from that time until our own
day will be the subject of another chap-
ter.

II. ITS CAUSE.

From the cradle, the Jew is a truth-
seeker. From childhood he is a reasoner.
To him, truth means such an idea which
can stand reason. Abraham, tihe first
Hebrew, who broke his father's idols and
chose Jehovah for his God, was not afraid
to reason even with Jehovah and call His
attention to the highest ethical principle,
"Justice." "Wilt thou also destroy the
righteous with the wicked?" "Shall not
the judge of all the earth do right?"
(Gen. ^111:23, 25.) Howsoever the
convers Jpm between Abraham and Jeho-
vah ma;f%)e interpreted, no one can deny
that it convevs the idea of the Jews' seek-
ing after right, which is always in accord
with reason. This Bible which is filled
with' "thfu shalt" and "thou shalt not,"
does not contain any commandment or or-
der to believe in God, because blind belief
cannot stand the application of reason.
ISTotwithsfanding the many books printed
on Jewish theology, the truth of the mat-
ter is, that the Jew has no theology at
all."

"Mysterious things belong to Jehovah"
is a rule given in Deutoronomy XXIX:
28 ; and therefore the Jewish Bible does
not contain any hint about the future
world or resurrection of the dead which
cannot reasonably be proven. Upon these
principles the Jews have been raised, and
these principles they cherish and practice.
As reason and right demand that other
people be judged from their own stand-
point and not from the standpoint of the
judge, the Jews have not tried to impose
their beliefs and principles upon others.
"Lot all the people walk each in the name
of his god," is the rule of the Jews. Rea-
son dictates to the Jews that when "the
earth will be full of the knowledge of Je-



hovah, as the waters cover the sea" (Isa-
iah XI :9) then "Jehovah will be the king
of all the world, in that day shall Jeho^
vah be one and his name one" (Zacharia
XIV:9). This is the policy of the Jews,
and therefore there are no Jewish mission-
aries for the purpose of converting the
world to Judaism.

As much as we would like to omit all
theological controversies, we cannot but
involve some in this case, taking into
consideration that, while Judaism is a
passive religion, Christianity is an active
one. While Judaism awaits wisdom,
Christianity demands belief; while the
number of the wise is small, the number
the believers is legion; while the Jews
have no power whatever, the Christians
have obtained a world-wide power; it is
no wonder that Christianity succeeded in
its conversion business. But this success
did not include the Jews. This handful of
people kept to its faith; nay, its very ex-
istence is a living protest against Christ-
ianity. While conquering the religions of
millions of Romans, Christians could not
conquer the little countryless nation the
Jews.

Because of this failure, as also the ever-
lasting rule that any sect sprung from a
religious body is inimical to its originator,
Christianity became the enemy of Juda-
ism. The Romans conquered the country
of Israel: Christianity strove to conquer
Israel's conscience. The means taken for
the enlightenment of the Jews by the
Christians in the name of Christianity,
supported by the just or unjust interpre-
tation of the teaching of Jesus, the Jew,
are recorded with the life-blood of millions
of Jewish men, women and children upon
the annals of history.

It was Germany, France and other
nations which reaped the fruit of the
Jews' ingenuity, but the originator, the
real producer of that ingenuity was al-
ways forgotten. It was not Mendelssohn,
the Jewish philosopher; not Mendelssohn
the Jewish musician and composer, but
Mendelssohn, the German philosopher,
the German musician. It was not Dis-
raeli, the Jewish statesman, but Disraeli
the English statesman, and so on. Be-
sides, the mock conversion of talented
Jews deprived the Jews of many of its
best and wisest men. True, they did not



TO AN EGYPTIAN SCARAB.



325



accept Christianity because of belief there-
in; they were always Jews in spirit to the
very last breath, yet were they no longer
Jews; no longer did they belong to their
nation. By conversion they became os-
tracised individuals; they did not belong
to the Christians and were separated from
the Jews. This is a pain in Israel's heart
which cannot be cured by any other means
than by obtaining a country of their own,
where Jewish genius shall be recognized
as Jewish; where Jewish attainments
should not be usurped by countries which
considered him an alien. The Jews can no
longer live among the nations of the world
as aliens. The fact that no nation can
absorb the Jews, on the one hand, and
that the Jews resist absorption in the
other, prove the Jews to be a people
which "shall dwell alone, and shall not be
reckoned among the nations," and this
Israel cannot accomplish without a coun-
try of his own. No country is adaptable
to Israel's philosophy, beliefs, thoughts
and religion. Not Russian persecution, nor
murderous attacks of the middle ages up-
on Israel originated Zionism. No. The
demand for the preservation of Israel's
individuality, of his religion, the reten-
tion of the teachings of his sires as he un-
derstands them, which are threatened in
the countries of the nations, these are the



causes of Zionism. Zionism is the effect
of the enumerated causes, which cannot
be remedied otherwise than by the segre-
gation of Israel in a land of his own,
where he may enjoy an environment of his
own.

Zionism is not a sign of cowardice, but
the proof of bravery. It is the remedy
against assimilation, which means loss of
the Jews' individuality. Israel is to-day
as proud of his faith, of his philosophy, of
his thoughts and of his world-wide teach-
ers as he was when upon his own soil. And
this pride he does not want to lose by
assimilation. Zionism is not brought
forth through fear of physical destruction,
but for the purpose of rebuilding and re-
constructing that Jewish consciousness
which has never yet ceased to be cherished
in the hearts of the majority of Israel
since the fall of the second temple. Yes.
the assimilation scare is of very great
moment.

Zionism has done yet something else.
It has returned to Judaism those descend-
ants of the "reformers" of Judaism who
found their "religious" inception in the
Mendelssohnian era when a minority of
German rabbis, for the sake of gaming
equal rights with the native Germans, did
not hesitate to give up their nationality
and desert their religion.



TO AN EGYPTIAN SCARAB



BY CHARLES ELMER JENNEY



A tiny beetle, round and smooth and black,
Young Khepra spied, while playing by the Nile,
With curious interest watched it for a while

Toiling, Sisyphus-like, along its track.

Then, happy thought, hid it within his plaque,
And back to court he scampered with a smile,
And while Marc Antony did her beguile,

Dropped Coleoptera down Cleopatra's back.

Now Cleopatra, in imperious pride,
A royal edict had spread far and wide,
Whatever came beneath her royal touch
Became thus sacred and remained as such.
Hence thou to-day adorn my lady's bonnet,
Thou tumble-bug, and also hence this sonnet.



A LETTER FROM BARBARY



BY L,. L. M. B.



FOR TWO DAYS a terrific storm
had lashed the Mediterranean
with fury, and the open decks
were deep in melting snow and
hail, when they told us we had reached
Algiers. With the accustomed confidence
of travelers, we crawled down the gang-
way and jumped into a little rowboat,
committing ourselves to the care of an
Arab whose face, seen but for a moment in
the flash of a ships' lantern, had little in
it to reassure us. Having left the shadow
of the great ship the night shut out all
vision except a few feet of tossing water
against which was silhouetted the moving
fez, head and shoulders of the African
oarsman. Then, two lights and the shrill