weeping: 'My children are perishing for a morsel of bread. I can
no longer look upon their sufferings.' And the Board answered: 'After
_Yomtov_ we will send you back to Russia.' 'But meanwhile,' I
answered, 'the children want food.' Whereupon one of the Board struck
a bell, and in came a stalwart Angel of Death, who seized me by the
arm so that it ached all day, and thrust me through the door. I went
out, my eyes blinded with tears, so that I could not see where I went.
It was long before I found my way back to Ship Alley. My wife and
daughters already thought I had drowned myself for trouble. Such was
our plight the Eve of the Day of Atonement, and not a morsel of bread
to 'take in' the fast with! But just at the worst a woman from next
door came in, and engaged one of my daughters to look after a little
child during the fast (while she was in the synagogue) at a wage of
tenpence, paid in advance. With joy we expended it all on bread, and
then we prayed that the Day of Atonement should endure long, so that
we could fast long, and have no need to buy food; for as the moujik
says, 'If one had no mouth, one could wear a golden coat.'

I went to the Jews' Free School, which was turned into a synagogue,
and passed the whole day in tearful supplication. When I came home at
night my wife sat and wept. I asked her why she wept. She answered:
'Why have you led me to such a land, where even prayer costs money--at
least, for women? The whole day I went from one _Shool_ to another,
but they would not let me in. At last I went to the _Shool_ of the
"Sons of the Soul," where pray the pious Jews, with beards and
ear-locks, and even there I was not allowed in. The heathen policeman
begged for me, and said to them: "Shame on you not to let the poor
woman in." The _Gabbai_ (treasurer) answered: "If one hasn't money,
one sits at home."' And my wife said to him, weeping: 'My tears be on
your head,' and went home, and remained home the whole day weeping.
With a woman _Yom Kippur_ is a wonder-working day. She thought that
her prayers might be heard, that God would consider her plight if she
wept out her heart to Him in the _Shool_. But she was frustrated, and
this was perhaps the greatest blow of all to her. Moreover, she was
oppressed by her own brethren, and this was indeed bitter. If it had
been the Gentile, she would have consoled herself with the thought,
'We are in exile.' When the fast was over, we had nothing but a little
bread lef