The Jewish advance., November 22, 1878, Image 1

About The Jewish advance. (Chicago, Ill.) 1878-1881

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Execute the Judgment of Truth and Peace in your Gates.
A WEEKLY JOURNAL DEVOTED TO SOCIAL INTERESTS AND PROGRESSIVE JUDAISM.
Vox,. I.
CHICAGO, NOVEMBER 22. 1878.
No. 24.
A GLIMPSi; OF NAT UK I
Th.ink God for the silver moon in heaven,
And for her track of light
Athwart the ocean’s darken’d breast,
And athwart the hush of night;
Thank God tor the holy sunrise calms.
For the scarlet sunset's glow,
For each tender tint
That doth glance and glint
On the answering sea below.
Thank God for the towers of purple cloud,
As they arch morn’s ruby light.
For that fore-glow, and eve’s after-glow
That wanes into the night.
These lift our hearts above the earth,
Heaven’s gates ajar we see.
And if such the palace door—
Oh, ye that sire “gone before,”
What must the Presence be!
— Mur. May.
.For the Jewish Advance.
ALBEKT COHN.
( Concluded.)
XVI.
There are few examples of such an ac
tive and useful life as that of Albert
Cohn. He has visited four times the
4gws ofjhe East, and three times tlupe
• of Africa. These voyages, which were
of importance enough to raise the life of
another person above the ordinary aver
age, were only small episodes in the life
of Albert Cohn, who was constantly at
work, day and night.
In the morning, letters from all parts
of the world were accumulated on his
table. These were demands either for
help or advice, in all possible languages.
The first work of the day was to write
answers to all these letters. In most
oases he forwarded his help to mendicant
.applications forthwith ; in cases of im
portance, he promised to interfere in be
half of the supplicant at the Bothschilds.
Having finished his correspondence, he
regulated the books and the accounts of
the various societies of which he was
functionary or treasurer ; forwarded or
ders to the hospital or other charitable
institutions of Jerusalem of which he
was the director. He then gave his or
ders to the “Committee of Benevolence”
•of Paris, and went into the reception
room to accept the numerous visitors
coming to see him every day. The af
ternoon was spent in visiting the hospi
tal, the schools, the soup-kitchen; in as
sisting in the ceremonies of poor wed
dings, funerals, and in soliciting aid in
hehalf of the charitable objects he had
•on hand. The evenings again he had to
.attend the meetings of the various socie
ties. His punctuality in taking his place
wherever he was wanted, was one of his
great virtues.
Albert Cohn was endowed by nature
•with remarkable qualities. Physically
somewhat disfigured, like Moses Men
delssohn, he was intellectually amply
compensated for this. He had a fine
face ; his features strongly marked; a
perfectly Oriental and manly expression
ami eyes of a brilliant lustre. When he I
spoke, his features became very animat-1
ed, and his voice was sympathetic and
deep, lie could speak fluently and cor
rectly in several languages. He had
some traits of a great orator ; a brilliant
and vivid imagination ; an excellent
memory; elevated sentiments and a
keen sense of the good. The rapid flow
of ideas and sentiments, while he deliv
ered a discourse, appeared like the erup
tion of a volcano. His speeches never
failed to carry away the hearts of his
hearers in the direction he desired, and
to leave a dee]) impression.
Albert Colin was often apt to yield
himself to illusions. But he had great
mental capacities. His intelligence was
sharp and inventive; his principles were
wise and of great moderation. In gen
eral he never despaired either of men or
of things. His optimism was so great
that lie always became pale and fright
ened when he heard an evil report about
a person, or that the success of the or
ganizations with which he was connected
was not as good as it had been expected.
He sincerely believed , in. the^^uccass-sif
I every good cause, and cheerfully threw
himself at the head of every good move
ment, confiding in the help of Provi
dence and in the assistance of those
whom he called “ his friends.” Of his
charitable disposition, we will only say,
that in the administration of the insti
tutions with which he was connected,
there was not a single functionary who
had not to thank him for an act of kind
ness and benevolence. He spent the
tenth part of his income in charitable
purposes, as an act of religious duty,
and what he distributed beside this—
suffice it to say, that in his enviable po
sition in pecuniary affairs, he left but a
mediocre fortune after him.
His best quality was probably his
strong impulse of activity, by which he
conquered many an obstacle, and became
a powerful motor of all the religious and
benevolent organizations. He could not
become the special leader of any affair,
for he lacked the wisdom of reserving
and managing his resources. In his great
ardor he would soon exhaust all his force;
he would sacrifice everything at the first
opportunity, without reflecting on what
was to come next. Whithersoever he
came he brought life and courage with
him. He was the founder of all the
Jewish institutions of Paris, and many
establishments of charity and industry
of Jerusalem.
Albert Cohn was compensated for all
his works of devotion to Judaism with
an enviable popularity ; his name is one
of the most favorably known all over the
world. On July 10th, 1867, the French
Government has recognized his services
in the cause of humanity, and bestowed
upon him the order of “ Chevalier de la
Legion d’Honeur which mark of dis
tinction he always bore with great satis
faction. lie was naturalized as a French
citizen in the year 1802. The cruel war
of 1870 '71, with its great dangers and
excitements, and the labors which it in
volved upon the charitable institutions,
began to tell upon him—his days were
counted. He had lost the taste for
j work; neglected his beautiful library, and
evinced signs of lassitude withal. In the
spring of 1870 his health became so en
feebled that he was compelled to give
up his functions as professor at the
Seminary. !>ut he held to his functions
in the other .Jewish organizations and
went regularly to the meetings of the
same. On Thursday, March 17th, 1877.
he succumbed to the sickness which had
been gnawing him for the last six years.
Albert Cohn will live in the hearts of
his contemporaries, and Ills name will be
remembered among the greatest bene
factors of Judaism and humanity.
THE END.
CHICAGO SKETCHES,
BY BEN - ADAM.
Y. M. 11. A.
About two years ago, a very warm and
enthusiastic agitation for literary socie
ties commenced to stir up the young
men of the North Side, and they at once
organized a Society under the name of
Y. M. H. A. The success and prosperity
which they enjoyed in the first days of
their existence, prompted some young
people of the West Side to do likewise,
and the Zion Lit. “became an established
fact,” and a short time afterward the Sinai
and Progress, on the South Side, were
organized, and they were followed by the
members of the Standard Club, who in
stituted at their establishment the alma
mater of fashion, an extraordinary
chair of literature and debate, and
called the same “ Literary Society.”
For about a year these Literaries were
all the rage with the young folks, they
became the absorbing topic of the day.
The young men forgot to pay their tai
lors’ bills and the young ladies never felt
their toothaches, and all took to study
ing Kozebue and Shakespeare, Poe’s Ha
ven and Mcauley’s Essays, preparing
recitations and declamations for public
demonstrations. The fervor became
contagious, so that even the school
children commenced to organize Literary
Associations in old barns and empty
chicken coops. But, alas, this did not
last very long, the warm feelings for
elevation and cultivation of the mind
relaxed, subsided, and at last passed away
like a cloud; the young people com
menced to lose interest in the Societies,
and they are now dropping off one by
one like the withered autumn leaves
before the northern wind. The Y. M.
H. A. was the first to give up its ghost,
and on last Wednesday the Sinai Lit.
followed them into the quiet waters of
the Grethe, and both will soon be for
gotten.
SAD EXPERIENCE.
Manv of the members of the late Y.
M. H. A. of the North Side are very bit
ter in their complaints against a certain
individual. They say he was a stranger
here, who succeeded, through his smooth
tongue, to gain their full confidence ;
they entrusted everything to his care
and management, and to their greatest
distress lie turned out to he the wrong
man, totally unfit and undeserving of the
great c mfidence. lie mismanaged their
finances and raised disturbances every
where, <|uaralled with everybody, and
once he so far forgot himself as to call
tin1 President a liar in an open meeting
before a large audience, so that a rough
and tumble fight was only prevented
with great difficulty. Being chairman of
the committee of arrangements, he once
placed upon the platform, to entertain
the Society, a totally drunken person, so
that many turned away in disgust, and
from that time their misfortunes com
menced. which terminated in the total
ruin of the Association. Now all this is
hardly credible. How thinking and prac
tical young men could so carelessly mis
place their confidence in a perfect
stranger, is in itself an unpardonable
mistake and they cannot blame anybody
but themselves. Anyway this is an
earnest lesson, worth the consideration
of other V. M. H. A’s.
At present we have here only three
Literary Associations, the Zion on the
West and the Standard and Progress on
the South Side, and, according to my
judgment, the Zion alone stands to-day.
■ eteretopWporganisation" in full
strength of a promising and useful ex
istence. Their meetings are all very
well attended and the best spirit of peace
and harmony reigns supreme. I wish
them success in all their undertakings ;
we are proud of such a model Society.
ISRAELITES BEFORE THE PUBLIC.
There is not exactly rishus in Chicago.
Our intelligent neighbors know to value
our friendship and to respect our rights.
The Chicago papers very seldom do what
we could call injustice to us. It is true
they are very eager to chronicle every
little wrong perpetrated by a son of
Abraham, but to their credit be it said,
that they do not often suppress the pub
lication of facts which reflect honor on
the name of Israel. That they cannot
abstain from spreading and emphasizing
the word Jew, dragging it in where it
the least belongs, is not a local evil ; it
is the same all over this great republic,
and the English press in this country,
which is of course the leading one, is not
by all means free of prejudice against
our race. To the shame of the entire
American nation be it said that the
press, which is considered all over the
world as the right hand of civilization
and the herald of tolerance and emanci
pation, has in this great country not yet
thrown off the shackles of unjust and
foolish prejudices against an entire race
which has proven to consist of law-abiding
peaceable and enterprising citizens, who
have contributed largely to the prosper
ity of the republic, their adopted home,
which they love with all their heart and
soul. Not long ago I was astonished
to find an item in the local of one
of our dailies’ news column running
in this style: “A boy was arrested on the
West Side for stealing jewelry. His
mother works with a Jewess.” And this
is not the only instance; if we would pay
elose attention to the fact, we could
point out many such foolish and curious
paragraphs. In the face of such preju
diced treatment it is perhaps better for
us that the papers do not mention us as
often as we would perhaps think them
in duty bound to do; the Israelites form
ing a community of nearly over 15,000
citizens, with many prominent business