Alas! alas! It is making the
wealthy Jews forsake the synagogue for the opera-house, or the
gentility chapel, in which a disciple of Mr. Platitude, in a white
surplice, preaches a sermon at noon-day from a desk, on each side
of which is a flaming taper. It is making them abandon their
ancient literature, their "Mischna," their "Gemara," their "Zohar,"
for gentility novels, "The Young Duke," the most unexceptionably
genteel book ever written, being the principal favourite. It makes
the young Jew ashamed of the young Jewess, it makes her ashamed of
the young Jew. The young Jew marries an opera-dancer, or if the
dancer will not have him, as is frequently the case, the cast-off
Miss of the Honourable Spencer So-and-so. It makes the young
Jewess accept the honourable offer of a cashiered lieutenant of the
Bengal Native Infantry; or, if such a person does not come forward,
the dishonourable offer of a cornet of a regiment of crack hussars.
It makes poor Jews, male and female, forsake the synagogue for the
sixpenny theatre or penny hop; the Jew to take up with an Irish
female of loose character, and the Jewess with a musician of the
Guards, or the Tipperary servant of Captain Mulligan. With respect
to the gypsies, it is making the women what they never were before-
-harlots; and the men what they never were before--careless fathers
and husbands.
Pages:
527
528
529
530
531
532
533
534
535
536
537
538
539
540
541
542
543
544
545
546
547
548
549
550
551