shed from a
tragedy by its happy ending. Dante's Hell and Purgatory could thus
appertain to a 'comedy.' This is a crude conception of the distinction
between Tragedy and Comedy, which I have ventured to disregard,
particularly in the last of these otherwise unassuming stories.

I.Z.

SHOTTERMILL,
_April, 1907._

CONTENTS

PAGE

THE MODEL OF SORROWS 1

ANGLICIZATION 49

THE JEWISH TRINITY 89

THE SABBATH QUESTION IN SUDMINSTER 119

THE RED MARK 173

THE BEARER OF BURDENS 193

THE LUFTMENSCH 225

THE TUG OF LOVE 249

THE YIDDISH 'HAMLET' 259

THE CONVERTS 293

HOLY WEDLOCK 313

ELIJAH'S GOBLET 335

THE HIRELINGS 351

SAMOOBORONA 375

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

AT LAST I SAID 'GOOD MORNING' _Frontispiece_

_To face page_

'I WORK ON--ON _SHABBOS_' 142

'YOU COMPARE MY WIFE TO A KANGAROO!' 276

THE JEWS SCATTERED BEFORE HIM LIKE DOGS 408

THE MODEL OF SORROWS

THE MODEL OF SORROWS

CHAPTER I

HOW I FOUND THE MODEL

I cannot pretend that my ambition to paint the Man of Sorrows had any
religious inspiration, though I fear my dear old dad at the Parsonage
at first took it as a sign of awakening grace. And yet, as an artist,
I have always been loath to draw a line between the spiritual and the
beautiful; for I have ever held that the beautiful has in it the same
infinite element as forms the essence of religion. But I cannot
explain very intelligibly what I mean, for my brush is the only
instrument through which I can speak. And if I am here paradoxically
proposing to us