ces, all with the high-bridged,
curving noses, and the black, animal-like eyes. I was as definitely
separated from them as though tangible iron bars were between us. We
seemed to be looking at each other across a great gulf. "They are human
beings," I said to myself. "I am one with them." But their isolation was
complete. I could not even begin to conceive the persecution and
suffering of ages that separated us. "All people are born free and
equal," indeed! I turned away.

"This camp is run on communistic principles," Mme. C---- was explaining.
"The Jewish Ladies' Benevolent Society provides a certain amount of meat
and vegetables and bread, which is cooked and served by the Jews
themselves. Here is the kitchen." We spoke French among ourselves, which
seemed to put us farther away from the dumb, watchful Jews behind us.
"If it wasn't for us, they would starve. The Government allows them
eight kopecks a day. But who could live on that? Besides, most of the
Jews here pay the eight kopecks to the overseer to avoid his
displeasure. He makes a good revenue out of the blood money."

Two rooms in one of the houses had been converted into a kitchen. A
dozen or so Jewish women were paring and cutting up potatoes and
cabbages and meat into huge soup-boilers. They were stripped to their
shirts, and their bodies were drenched with sweat. They curtsied to us
and went on preparing dinner.

A blast of scorching heat puffed out from an open oven. Two women, with
long wooden handles pulled out big round loaves of black bread and laid
them on a shelf to cool.

The warm fragrance of cooking attracted some white-faced Jewish
children. They edged into the kitchen and looked up at the food, their
eyes impenetrable and glittering like mica. A woman cut up some bread
and gave them each a piece, and they slunk outdoors again, sucking their
bread.

"The food is scientifically proportioned to give the greatest possible
nutriment," Mme. C---- said.

We went out. After the kitchen heat the air of the courtyard was cool.

"This is the laundry. A certain number of the Jews here wash and iron
the others' clothes. They are kept as clean as possible."

The laundry was gray with steam. A dozen or so women were bending over
wash tubs. Like the women in the kitchen, they were stripped to their
shirts. The wet cloth stuck to their sweating bodies and outlined their
ribs and the stretch of muscles as they scrubbed and wrung out the
clothes. When th