vernment in a
mild, Siberia-fearing manner. To keep them from brooding on their
oppressed condition, visions of glory and conquest were to be opened to
them by a foreign war. As the patriotic enthusiasm and military fervor
increased, the praises of Nicholas were sounded throughout the vast
dominion. "The coming war was regarded by many as a kind of crusade, and
the most exaggerated expectations were entertained of its results. The
old Eastern question was at last to be solved in accordance with Russian
ideals, and Nicholas was about to realize Catherine's grand scheme of
driving the Turks out of Europe. That the enemy could prevent the
accomplishment of these schemes was regarded as impossible. 'We have
only to throw our hats at them,' became a favorite expression."[10]

The greater portion of the army was concentrated at the Southern
extremity of Russia, for it was here that the fleets of the allied
powers would be encountered. Like devastating swarms of locusts the
semi-barbarous warriors descended upon the fertile fields, destroying
all that lay in their path. Great was the misery of the peasantry in
that section of the Empire; greater still the hardships endured by the
Jews, who were despoiled of their possessions and driven from their
homes.

In the village of Togarog the Jewish quarter was exactly as we last saw
it--poverty-stricken and dilapidated. Nothing appeared to be changed in
it except the miserable inhabitants. The Governor of Alexandrovsk
continued to persecute the Jews with relentless ferocity, and the
kidnapping of their children was followed by other acts almost as cruel.
If a Jew was suspected of possessing money, he was forced by the gentle
persuasion of the Governor's men to disgorge. Broken in fortune and in
spirits, the Israelites were indeed in a pitiable plight.

Mordecai Winenki was reduced to dire want. Deprived of the means of
livelihood by the removal of his former pupils, despoiled of his meagre
savings, the reward of years of toil, there was no occupation open to
him but to peddle, the meagre income from which, added to the earnings
of his wife by knitting and sewing for the neighboring peasantry, gave
them a scanty subsistence.

For six days of each week they toiled patiently, saving and scraping to
provide for the holy Sabbath, the celebration of which alone compensated
for days of misfortune and privation. On the Sabbath all work was laid
aside; the dreary room blazed with the light