r warm, white, naked arms, and the Porush trembles more and more, and
begs, "Not here, not here! It is a holy place, there are holy books
lying about." Then she whispers into his ear that she is the Queen of
Sheba, that she lives not far from the house-of-study, by the river,
among the tall reeds, in a palace of crystal, given her by King Solomon.
And she draws him along, she wants him to go with her to her palace.

And he hesitates and resists--and he goes.

Next day, there was no turkey, and no Porush, either!

They went to Reb Chayyim Vital, who told them to look for him along the
bank of the river, and they found him in a swamp among the tall reeds,
more dead than alive.

They rescued him and brought him round, but from that day he took to
drink.

And Reb Chayyim Vital said, it all came from his great longing for the
Queen of Sheba, that when he drank, he saw her; and they were to let him
drink, only not at Purim, because at that time she would have great
power over him.

Hence the proverb, "Drunk all the year round, sober at Purim."

MORDECAI SPEKTOR

Born, 1859, in Uman, Government of Kieff, Little Russia; education
Hasidic; entered business in 1878; wrote first sketch, A Roman ohn
Liebe, in 1882; contributor to Zedernbaum's Juedisches Volksblatt,
1884-1887; founded, in 1888, and edited Der Hausfreund, at Warsaw;
editor of Warsaw daily papers, Unser Leben, and (at present, 1912) Dos
neie Leben; writer of novels, historical romances, and sketches in
Yiddish; contributor to numerous periodicals; compiled a volume of more
than two thousand Jewish proverbs.

AN ORIGINAL STRIKE

I was invited to a wedding.

Not a wedding at which ladies wore low dress, and scattered powder as
they walked, and the men were in frock-coats and white gloves, and had
waxed moustaches.

Not a wedding where you ate of dishes with outlandish names, according
to a printed card, and drank wine dating, according to the label, from
the reign of King Sobieski, out of bottles dingy with the dust of
yesterday.

No, but a Jewish wedding, where the men, women, and girls wore the
Sabbath and holiday garments in which they went to Shool; a wedding
where you whet your appetite with sweet-cakes and apple-tart, and sit
down to Sabbath fish, with fresh rolls, golden soup, stuffed fowl, and
roast duck, and the wine is in large, clear, white bottles; a wedding
with a calling to the Reading of the Torah of the bridegroom, a part