414 



LAZARUS, EMMA. 



the municipality and investing it in the Governor of 

 the State. We now have a police force with an im- 

 pulse behind it. which means a faithful performance 

 of duty in respect to this law as well as to others. In 

 cousequence of this change, there are 633 fewer places 

 licensed in Boston this year than there were last, and 

 those who have received licenses are held to a more 

 strict compliance with the law which permits them to 

 carry on this business. 



At the close of 1887 the number of leagues 

 was estimated at between 700 and 800, with 

 a membership of 100,000 or more, distributed 

 through nearly every State and Territory and 

 in Canada. There are 13 State organizations. 

 Massachusetts leads with 95 societies; Illinois 

 and New York have about 50 each, Pennsyl- 

 vania about 30, Maine, Michigan, Ohio, Con- 

 necticut, and others, from 10 to 20 each. 

 Branches are found in all the large cities, North 

 and South. The present officers of the League 

 are : President, Hon. Charles 0. Bonney, Chi- 

 cago, 111 ; Secretary, L. Edwin Dudley, 28 

 School Street, Boston, Mass. ; Treasurer, John 

 H. Perry; General Agent, Andrew Paxton, 

 Chicago, 111. The last three meetings of the 

 league have been held in Cincinnati, Albany, 

 and Philadelphia. 



LAZARUS, EMMA, an American poet, born in 

 New York city, July 22, 1849; died there, 

 Nov. 19, 1887. She was the daughter of a Jew- 

 ish merchant. While a mere child, she wrote 

 verses of decided promise, and, still in her 

 teens, she gave to the public a volume (now 

 rare) of original poems and translations from 

 Schiller, Heine, Dumas, and Hugo. In 1871 



EMMA LAZARUS. 



appeared her " Admetns and Other Poems," 

 dedicated to Ralph Waldo Emerson, who took 

 a warm interest in her literary career. What- 

 ever may have been the influence of this friend- 

 ship, it did not affect the style of the young 

 writer. Indeed, at this time she seems rather 

 to have assimilated, in such poems in the vol- 

 ume as " Lohengrin " and " Tannbauser," some- 

 thing of the sonorous, limpid rhythm of Tenny- 

 son in his Arthurian legends, although she 

 shows a subtlety of thought and vigor of ex- 

 pression, particularly in descriptive passages, 



that are quite her own. In the poem that gives 

 its name to the collection, Emma Lazarus may 

 be said to have established her reputation as a 

 writer of originality and power; and to have 

 done this with a theme already successfully 

 treated by some of the most famous of her con- 

 temporaries, may well have called forth such 

 eulogiums as were showered on her "Admetus " 

 by English critics. The " Westminster Re- 

 view " declared that in some points the poem 

 would bear comparison with " Balaustion's Ad- 

 venture." The "Illustrated London News" 

 considered her " far happier than Mr. Brown- 

 ing in her half adaptation of ' Euripides,' " and 

 that " the conflict between Hercules and Death, 

 and the return to life of Alcestis, are repre- 

 sented with more force as well as grace in this 

 poem than in that of Mr. Browning." The true 

 artist is shown in her withdrawing into the 

 darkness of the night the contending figures in 

 Alcides's awful struggle, which is followed by 

 a gentle calm, thus exquisitely expressed: 



" Through the open casement poured 

 Bright floods of sunny light; the air was sort, 

 Clear, delicate, as though a summer storm 

 Had passed away, and those there standing saw, 

 Afar upon the plain, Death fleeing thence, 

 And at the door-way, weary, well-nigh spent, 

 Alcides, flushed with victory." 



These lines, together with the following 

 pretty picture from the same poem, give a fair 

 idea of Miss Lazarus's style at this time : 



" To river pastures of his flocks and herds 

 Admetus rode, where sweet-breathed cattle grazed, 

 Heifers and goats and kids and foolish sheep, 

 Dotted cool, spacious meadows with bent heads, 

 And necks' soft wool broken in yellow flakes, 

 Nibbling sharp-toothed the rich, thick growing 



blades." 



" Alide," a prose romance founded on the 

 story of Goethe's love for Frederika Brion, ap- 

 peared in 1874, and won for the writer the 

 praise of Tourgeneff. "Lo Spagnoletto," a 

 tragedy, was printed privately in 1876. In 

 1881 she brought out ''Poems and Ballads of 

 Heine," translations that easily surpass previ- 

 ous attempts to put into English the verses of 

 that difficult poet. The rendering of " Donna 

 Clara " is particularly happy, retaining the 

 musical flow of the refrain of the original. 



In 1882, when the civilized world stood 

 aghast at the relentless persecutions of the 

 Jews in Russia and Roumania, and thousands 

 of the fugitives were driven to our shores, 

 Emma Lazarus's passive Judaism, fired by this 

 fanatical outburst against her race, found in- 

 dignant expression in such an indictment as 

 " The Crowing of the Red Cock " : 



" When the long roll of Christian guilt 



Against his sires and kin is known, 



The flood of tears, the life-blood spilt, 



The agony of ages shown, 

 What oceans can the stain remove 

 From Christian law and Christian love? " 



and in such stirring lines as the following from 

 "TbQ- Banner of. the Jew," in which the poet 

 calls to mind the time when 



