RUSSIAN JEWS AS STUDENTS 383 



Moreover, in addition to keeping up with his own studies he was 

 teaching at night a class of young Russians so that they too 

 might grasp an education. Some money was given him with the 

 injunction that every cent should be spent for nourishment. 

 The answer came, " Upon these terms I cannot accept it. I give 

 to my family half of all I get." Of course he was made to take 

 the money and for some time was carefully looked after. At last 

 he disappeared, but, having his address, Mr. Shaler went to look 

 him up. The old man who opened the door insisted in broken 

 English that no such person dwelt in the tenement. His stolid 

 negation indeed was so persistent that the visitor was about to 

 leave the house when a little girl who had loitered in the back- 

 ground exclaimed, "Why, grandpa, what do you mean? You 

 know he does live here. Come, mister," she said, "I'll show you 

 the way." Following his guide through a labyrinth of dark en- 

 tries, he finally reached a small, badly ventilated room where 

 the sick student was lying upon his squalid bed. After a few 

 minutes' talk, encouraged and cheered by the presence which 

 always brought hope and comfort into the sick room, the 

 young man began talking of his life in America. He said: 

 "Hard as it is in many respects, it is a paradisiacal life com- 

 pared with existence in Russia." And when asked the meaning 

 of the old man's denial, "Ah," he answered, his face flushing, 

 "you can have no idea of the tyranny we lived under. My fa- 

 ther could not conceive of a stranger coming to see me without 

 some evil purpose. He undoubtedly thought you were a spy, 

 or a policeman in disguise. He has not been long enough in 

 America to get rid of his torturing fears, or to have the faintest 

 idea of what freedom means. My little niece, now, was born in 

 this country and is as fearless as an eaglet." 



Another Russian student was asked to find out, if possible, 

 why it was his young countrymen stood so well at school. He 

 returned after a few days with the answer: "The Russian Jew 

 needs no amusement, he does n't waste his time with games, 

 they're nothing to him, his studies and his manual labor furnish 



