THE KING OF SCHNORRERS _Illustrated by_ GEORGE HUTCHINSON. THE SEMI-SENTIMENTAL DRAGON _Illustrated by_ PHIL MAY. AN HONEST LOG-ROLLER _Illustrated by_ F. H. TOWNSEND. A TRAGI-COMEDY OF CREEDS THE MEMORY CLEARING HOUSE _Illustrated by_ A. J. FINBERG. MATED BY A WAITER _Illustrated by_ MARK ZANGWILL. THE PRINCIPAL BOY _Illustrated by_ F. H. TOWNSEND _and_ MARK ZANGWILL. AN ODD LIFE _Illustrated by_ F. H. TOWNSEND. CHEATING THE GALLOWS _Illustrated by_ GEORGE HUTCHINSON. SANTA CLAUS _Illustrated by_ MARK ZANGWILL. A ROSE OF THE GHETTO _Illustrated by_ A. J. FINBERG. A DOUBLE-BARRELLED GHOST _Illustrated by_ PHIL MAY. VAGARIES OF A VISCOUNT _Illustrated by_ F. H. TOWNSEND. THE QUEEN'S TRIPLETS _Illustrated by_ IRVING MONTAGU. A SUCCESSFUL OPERATION FLUTTER-DUCK: A GHETTO GROTESQUE _Illustrated by_ MARK ZANGWILL. THE KING OF SCHNORRERS. CHAPTER I. SHOWING HOW THE WICKED PHILANTHROPIST WAS TURNED INTO A FISH-PORTER. In the days when Lord George Gordon became a Jew, and was suspected of insanity; when, out of respect for the prophecies, England denied her Jews every civic right except that of paying taxes; when the _Gentleman's Magazine_ had ill words for the infidel alien; when Jewish marriages were invalid and bequests for Hebrew colleges void; when a prophet prophesying Primrose Day would have been set in the stocks, though Pitt inclined his private ear to Benjamin Goldsmid's views on the foreign loans--in those days, when Tevele Schiff was Rabbi in Israel, and Dr. de Falk, the Master of the Tetragrammaton, saint and Cabbalistic conjuror, flourished in Wellclose Square, and the composer of "The Death of Nelson" was a choir-boy in the Great Synagogue; Joseph Grobstock, pillar of the same, emerged one afternoon into the spring sunshine at the fag-end of the departing stream of worshippers. In his hand was a large canvas bag, and in his eye a twinkle. There had been a special service of prayer and thanksgiving for the happy restoration of his Majesty's health, and the cantor had interceded tunefully with Providence on behalf of Royal George and "our most amiable Queen, Charlotte." The congregation was large and fashionable--far more so than when only a heavenly sovereign was concerned--and so the courtyard was thronged with a string of _Schnorrers_ (beggars), awaiting the exit of the audience, much as the vestibule of the opera-house is lined by footmen.