{"product_id":"2940015884074","title":"RABBI AND PRIEST","description":"PREFACE.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTowards the end of 1882, there arrived at the old Pennsylvania Railroad\u003cbr\u003eDepot in Philadelphia, several hundred Russian refugees, driven from\u003cbr\u003etheir native land by the inhuman treatment of the Muscovite Government.\u003cbr\u003eAmong them were many intelligent people, who had been prosperous in\u003cbr\u003etheir native land, but who were now reduced to dire want. One couple, in\u003cbr\u003eparticular, attracted the attention of the visitors, by their\u003cbr\u003eintellectual appearance and air of gentility, in marked contrast to the\u003cbr\u003eabject condition of many of their associates. Joseph Kierson was the\u003cbr\u003ename of the man, and the story of his sufferings aroused the sympathy of\u003cbr\u003ehis hearers. The man and his wife were assisted by the Relief Committee,\u003cbr\u003eand in a short time were in a condition to provide for themselves.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe writer had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Kierson a few years later,\u003cbr\u003eand elicited from him a complete recital of his trials and an account of\u003cbr\u003ethe causes of the terrible persecution which compelled such large\u003cbr\u003enumbers of his countrymen to flee from their once happy homes.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHis story forms the nucleus of the novel I now present to my readers.\u003cbr\u003eWhile adhering as closely as possible to actual names, dates and events,\u003cbr\u003eit does not pretend to be historically accurate. In following the\u003cbr\u003efortunes of Mendel Winenki, from boyhood to old age, it endeavors to\u003cbr\u003epresent a series of pictures portraying the character, life, and\u003cbr\u003esufferings of the misunderstood and much-maligned Russian Jew.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn the description of Russia's customs and characteristics, the\u003cbr\u003ebarbarous cruelty of her criminal code and the nihilistic tendency of\u003cbr\u003ethe times, the author has followed such eminent writers as Wallace,\u003cbr\u003eFoulke, Stepniak, Tolstoi and Herzberg-Fraenkel. The accounts of the\u003cbr\u003eriots of 1882 will be found to agree in historic details with the\u003cbr\u003ereports which were published at the time.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWith this introduction, I respectfully submit the work to the\u003cbr\u003econsideration of an indulgent public.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e                                                 MILTON GOLDSMITH.\u003cbr\u003e  PHILADELPHIA, April, 1891.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCHAPTER I.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eRECRUITS FOR SIBERIA.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWe are in Russia.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOn the high road from Tscherkask to Togarog, and not far from the latter\u003cbr\u003evillage, there stood, in the year 1850, a large and inhospitable-looking\u003cbr\u003einn. Its shingled walls, whose rough surface no paint-brush had touched\u003cbr\u003efor long generations, seemed decaying from sheer old age. Its tiled roof\u003cbr\u003ewas in a most dilapidated state, displaying large gaps imperfectly\u003cbr\u003estuffed with straw, and serving rather to collect the rain and snow for\u003cbr\u003ethe more thorough inundation of the rooms below than to protect them\u003cbr\u003efrom the elements. The grounds about the house were in keeping with it\u003cbr\u003ein point of picturesque neglect, and were as innocent of cultivation as\u003cbr\u003ethe building was of paint. A roughly paved path led from the highway to\u003cbr\u003ethe tavern door. Two old and sickly poplar trees cast a poor and\u003cbr\u003ehalf-hearted shade upon the parched ground, and mournfully shook their\u003cbr\u003eleaves over the scene of desolation. The herbage grew in isolated\u003cbr\u003epatches on a black and uncultivated soil. Nature might have originally\u003cbr\u003ebeen friendly to the place, but generations of poverty and neglect had\u003cbr\u003ereduced it to a condition of wretched misery.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAs was this particular spot, so was the entire village. Slavery had\u003cbr\u003ewound its chains about the inhabitants, stifling whatever energy they\u003cbr\u003epossessed, entailing upon them constant toil to satisfy the exorbitant\u003cbr\u003edemands of their task-masters. Hence, even with a genial sun and a\u003cbr\u003esouthern climate, the fields were barren, the crops poor and the people\u003cbr\u003esunk in abject poverty.","brand":"SAP","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47069766811888,"sku":"2940015884074","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940015884074","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}