958 



REVIEW OF REVIEWS. 



Decemh'"r 1, 1913. 



line. He has never been in the least 

 timid about making them, nor has he 

 had any notable cause to repent of them. 

 Well aware as he must be, cynically 

 aware if you like, that the whole Mar- 

 coni affair was one of those things which 

 had better not have happened but which 

 lack every sort of grave importance, he 

 will not thwart the development of a 

 great career for fear that party journal- 

 ists will call him a scoundrel on this ac- 

 count instead of calling him an equal 

 scoundrel on some other. 



So much for the subject that has latel)- 

 brought Sir Rufus Isaac's name into the 

 papers. Fortunately, there are other 

 things about the man which promise a 

 greater interest. Politicians follow a 

 type, and evolve after an orthodox 

 fashion with regularity so noticeable 

 that we ought to be very thankful for 

 some variation. A Cabinet Minister who 

 can be called an adventurer, not an ad- 

 venturer in politics but an adventurer in 

 life itself, owing all to his grit and dar- 

 ing, often in tight places and always the 

 master of his luck, capable of staking 

 everything in the most imprudent man- 

 ner upon one bold leap across his diffi- 

 culties — this, in the days when politics 

 are becoming ever more of a profession, 

 is a subject to l3e welcomed. 



Whatever may be wrong about a ]&\\\ 

 he is seldom lacking in personal interest. 

 He may excite the utmost animosity, he 

 may have the bad points of his race in 

 greater perfection than the good, but he 

 is very seldom a man to discuss with a 

 shrug of the shoulders. Wheresoever the 

 seed of Abraham has wandered, it has 

 impressed itself upon the imagination. 



The romance of money-making, of 

 course, is a very preserve of the chosen 

 people. The wealth of a Scot is not 

 romantic, but the wealth of a Jew is. We 

 know not why this is so, but the truth is 

 apparent. Again, in music and the arts, 

 though Jews do not stand at the very 

 highest places, they commonly make 

 marvellous play with the talents they 

 possess. Such ability as the Jew may 

 have he can manipulate with singular 

 effect, for romance, at the least provoca- 

 tion, seems to hover round his doings. 



ANOTHER DISRAELI. 



When a young Jew, like Disraeli, 

 frankly pits himself against the world, 

 asking just for glory and success, he can 

 cut an extraordinarily delightful figure. 

 Without fear and without sickliness, not 

 complaining of the injustice of life, tak- 

 ing rebuffs with a smile and success with 

 open delight, clever up to a point where 

 it is fascinating to see the play of his 

 brain, he disarms criticism by the buoy- 

 ancy of his romantic temperament. Dis- 

 raeli, indeed, may not have a counterpart 

 in our time. But Sir Rufus Isaacs has 

 come so near to playing his part that 

 the comparison cannot escape being 

 made. 



There is no adventurer like a Jew. 

 Born in i860, the son of a London mer- 

 chant, Sir Rufus was educated partly at 

 the University College school and partly 

 abroad, after which he proceeded to do 

 just what all good boys should avoid — 

 he went to sea. One can imagine the 

 lamentation of those who had spent 

 money on giving him an excellent educa- 

 tion. 



For he did not go to sea in a manner 

 at all agreeable to nice ideas. He went 

 as a ship's boy. For two years he lived 

 this roughest of lives. When it ceased 

 to amuse him, or became too hot for him, 

 the ungracious boy ran away. He was 

 caught and brought back. After this, 

 we learn, he was set to w^ork at discharg- 

 ing coal. 



Above all else, young people should 

 avoid becoming rolling stones. This, 

 however, our unpromising hero did be- 

 come. Tiring of the sea, he came back 

 to his father, and was sent to Germany 

 as a representative of his firm. So an- 

 other two years passed. 



Excellent commercial opportunities 

 were then recklessly abandoned by the 

 adventurous and restless youth, and he 

 broke loose and tried his fortune on the 

 Stock Exchange at home. At first he 

 was a stockbroker's clerk, then a stock- 

 broker on his own account. But he did 

 not flourish, and relieved himself during 

 slack periods by indulging in boxing. 



Sir Rufus was wholly unsuccessful in 

 the city. He had not, indeed, up to this 

 time, shown promise of even tolerable 

 success in life. He was twenty-seven 



