Transcriber's Note: Inconsistent hyphenation and spelling in the original document have been preserved. Obvious typographical errors have been corrected. Italic text is denoted by _underscores_. On page 70, "enlightment" should possibly be "enlightenment". _The_ Spirit _of the_ Ghetto THE SPIRIT of THE GHETTO STUDIES OF THE JEWISH QUARTER IN NEW YORK By HUTCHINS HAPGOOD _With Drawings from Life by JACOB EPSTEIN_ NEW YORK AND LONDON FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY _NINETEEN HUNDRED AND TWO_ Copyright, 1902 by Funk & Wagnalls Company Printed in the United States of America Published November, 1902 NOTE A number of these chapters have appeared as separate articles in "The Atlantic Monthly," "The Critic," "The Bookman," "The World's Work," "The Boston Transcript," and "The Evening Post" and "The Commercial Advertiser" of New York. To the editors of these publications thanks for permission to republish are gratefully tendered by THE AUTHOR. PREFACE The Jewish quarter of New York is generally supposed to be a place of poverty, dirt, ignorance and immorality--the seat of the sweat-shop, the tenement house, where "red-lights" sparkle at night, where the people are queer and repulsive. Well-to-do persons visit the "Ghetto" merely from motives of curiosity or philanthropy; writers treat of it "sociologically," as of a place in crying need of improvement. That the Ghetto has an unpleasant aspect is as true as it is trite. But the unpleasant aspect is not the subject of the following sketches. I was led to spend much time in certain poor resorts of Yiddish New York not through motives either philanthropic or sociological, but simply by virtue of the charm I felt in men and things there. East Canal Street and the Bowery have interested me more than Broadway and Fifth Avenue. Why, the reader may learn from the present volume--which is an attempt made by a "Gentile" to report sympathetically on the character, lives and pursuits of certain east-side Jews with whom he has been in relations of considerable intimacy. THE AUTHOR. CONTENTS Chapter I Page The Old and the New 9 The Old Man The Boy The "Intellectuals" Chapter II Prophets without Honor 44 Submerged Scholars: A Man of God--A Bitter Prophet--A Calm Student The Poor Rabbis: Their Grievances--The "Genuine" Article--A Down-Town Specimen--The Neglected Type Chapter III The Old and New Woman 71 The Orthodox Jewess: Devotion and Customs The Modern Type: Passionate Socialists--Confirmed Blue-Stockings Place of Woman in Ghetto Literature