ound the waist,--crowds of them, moving slowly up the
steps, crossing themselves again and again, till they were swallowed
by the black doorway, and only the beggars were left squatting on the
steps. _Boom, boom!_ What are the people doing in the dark, with the
waxen images and the horrid crucifixes? _Boom, boom, boom!_ They are
ringing the bell for me. Is it in the church they will torture me,
when I refuse to kiss the cross?

They ought not to have told me those dreadful stories. They were long
past; we were living under the blessed "New Regime." Alexander III was
no friend of the Jews; still he did not order little boys to be taken
from their mothers, to be made into soldiers and Christians. Every man
had to serve in the army for four years, and a Jewish recruit was
likely to be treated with severity, no matter if his behavior were
perfect; but that was little compared to the dreadful conditions of
the old regime.

The thing that really mattered was the necessity of breaking the
Jewish laws of daily life while in the service. A soldier often had to
eat trefah and work on Sabbath. He had to shave his beard and do
reverence to Christian things. He could not attend daily services at
the synagogue; his private devotions were disturbed by the jeers and
insults of his coarse Gentile comrades. He might resort to all sorts
of tricks and shams, still he was obliged to violate Jewish law. When
he returned home, at the end of his term of service, he could not rid
himself of the stigma of those enforced sins. For four years he had
led the life of a Gentile.

Piety alone was enough to make the Jews dread military service, but
there were other things that made it a serious burden. Most men of
twenty-one--the age of conscription--were already married and had
children. During their absence their families suffered, their business
often was ruined. At the end of their term they were beggars. As
beggars, too, they were sent home from their military post. If they
happened to have a good uniform at the time of their dismissal, it was
stripped from them, and replaced by a shabby one. They received a free
ticket for the return journey, and a few kopecks a day for expenses.
In this fashion they were hurried back into the Pale, like escaped
prisoners. The Czar was done with them. If within a limited time they
were found outside the Pale, they would be seized and sent home in
chains.

There were certain exceptions to the rule of compulso