W I T H I N T H E P A L E
WITHIN
THE PALE
The True Story of Anti-Semitic
Persecution in Russia
BY
M I C H A E L D A V I T T
AUTHOR OF “LEAVES FROM A PRISON DIARY,”
“LIFE AND PROGRESS IN AUSTRALASIA,”
“THE BOER FIGHT FOR
FREEDOM,” ETC.
SPECIAL EDITION
Philadelphia
THE JEWISH PUBLICATION
SOCIETY OF AMERICA
NEW YORK
A. S. BARNES & CO.
1903
{iv}
Copyright, 1903,
By A. S. BARNES & CO.,
Published, October.
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PREFACE
It is deemed necessary, for the twofold aim of this book,—to arousepublic feeling against a murder-making legend, and to put forward a pleafor the objects of the Zionist movement,—to tell the story of theRussian Jew, apropos of recent massacres. This task could only bepartially done in my despatches from Kishineff to Mr. William R.Hearst’s American papers. Moreover, all the despatches were notpublished, for reasons which govern the exigencies of journals that areconcerned much more with a record of daily events in the United Statesthan with history.
While in Russia I tried to find both sides of the anti-Semitic Question,so as to give expression to all views which could throw light uponcrimes that had shocked the public mind in America and in Europe nomore{vi} than they had pained and scandalised all right-thinking Russians.
To several of the minor representatives of the Tsar’s Government I owean acknowledgment for uniform courtesies, and for valuable assistance inmy investigations, and I endeavour, in the chapter on “Russia’sAttitude,” to let the voice of such exponents of official Russian ideasand purposes be heard alongside of counter Jewish accusations.
The unwarranted attempts that have been made in some quarters to use theKishineff crimes as means of creating an unfriendly feeling between thetwo greatest powers in the world to-day—the United States Republic andthe Empire of Russia—are reprehensible. There are very unworthy motivesbehind this mischievous endeavour that are not calculated to serve thecause of the Russian Jew. The writer of these pages can have no sympathywith nor lend encouragement of any kind to these sinister efforts.
Russia cannot, for her own sake, allow the{vii} present state of things tocontinue within the Pale of Settlement. Reform or revolution must dealwith an absolutely impossible condition of social and economic life.
I follow Russian, and not Jewish, guidance in the brief sketch I give ofthe history of the Russian Jew and of his long and persistentpersecution. The clear and unbiassed opinions, and statement of historicfacts, so courageously and clearly expressed in Prince Demidoff SanDonato’s book, have been the chief source of information from which thematerials for that sketch have been derived.
The Jew, as he is ruled and oppressed by Russian officials, is a fargreater danger to Russian autocracy than anti-Semitism i