the "exploitation" of the Jews. There were many instances of these
anti-Jewish political manifestations in the law-courts.]

The Jews of Balta were soon to learn that their humility was
ill-requited by the highly-placed promoters of the riots. In the
beginning of August, Governor-General Drenteln came to Balta. He was
exceedingly irritated, not only on account of the recent circular of
Tolstoi which implied a personal threat against him as one who had
connived at a number of pogroms within his dominions, but also because
of the steps taken by the representatives of the Balta Jewish community
at St. Petersburg in the direction of exposing the spiritual fathers of
the local riots. Having arrived in the sorely stricken city, the head of
the province, who _ex officio_ should have conveyed his expression of
sympathy to the sufferers, summoned the rabbi and the leaders of the
Jewish community, and, in the presence of his official staff, treated
them to a speech full of venomous hatred. He told them that by their
actions the Jews had "armed everybody against themselves," that they
were universally hated, that "they lived nowhere as happily as in
Russia," and that the deputation they had sent to St. Petersburg for the
purpose of presenting their complaints and "slandering the city
authorities and representatives as if they had incited the tumultuous
mob against the Jews" had been of no avail. In conclusion, he branded
the petition of the Balta community for a commutation of the death
sentence passed upon the rioters as an act of hypocrisy, adding
impressively that "these persons have been pardoned irrespective of the
requests of the Jews."

The speech of the bureaucratic Jew-baiter, whose proper place was in the
dock, side by side with the convicted murderers, produced a terrible
panic in the whole region of Kiev. The militant organ of the Jewish
press, the _Voskhod_, properly remarked:

After the speech of General-Adjutant Drenteln, our confidence in the
impossibility of a repetition of the pogroms has been decidedly
shaken. Of what avail can ministerial circulars be when the highest
administrators on the spot paralyze their actions in public by the
living word?

The apprehensions voiced by the Jewish organ were fortunately unfounded.
True, the Minister Tolstoi was not able to punish the criminal harangue
of the savage governor-general who had powerful connections at the
Russian court. But the firm resolution of