A Very Happy New Year to Our Many Jewish Friends
B.A. SERVICE STATION
S. W. JEFFEEISON
"A Complete Automotive Service" Cm. 15th Ave. & Oak St. BAy. 1262
A Soldier of Czar Nicholas
New Year Greetings
imPERIflL OIL LTD.
QUALITY PRODUCTS — Best Service
A
HAPPY
NEW YEAR
Love s < Lare
"INTERNATIONALLY KNOWN"
Quality Foods 24-Hour Service
779 GRANVILLE ST. MArine 6645
NEW YEAR GREETINGS
from the
Sterling Food Markets Ltd.
Look for the Sterling in your district.
ENDORSATIONS GRANTED
Sub-Senior
Vancouver Perefz School Vancouver I&dassah Org. Vancouver Hadassah Org. Federated Jewish Women Itarive
Baffle September Drive Sept. 15 - Oct. 15-$8,500 Store Raffle
Bazaar Nov. 26 & 27
November
NEW YEAR GREETINGS
INSURANCE
510 W. Hastings St.
REAL
MAr. 8164
By
Robert Seelav
Author of "My Exodux," "1,000^0001" I came within a hair's breadth of being drafted into the famous Bri-grade of the Soldiers of Czar Nicho-lar. That was a notable military group serving the great ^*White" Czar Nicholas the First. I suppose you have never heard of it or the adventures of any of its members. Suob is the brief life of Fame that, only a few generations aWay, and their memory is as ancient and archaic as the arguebuse.
The soldiery I speaSk of was a noted institution. It was — but let me present the story in my own person way.
I was a mere child, barely eight years old, residing in the xai-known, small township of Wasil-kov. No one but the tax collector had any idea of its location, the irailroad was many miles away and the whistle of the locomotives was an indistinct soimd in our ears.
We lived hxunbly and poor. None of the few publications of' the outside world ever reached us. But we all knew one another; each family claimed kinship to its neighbors, for lall or almost all of the residents were descendants of the noted lumber merchant that first laid its fotmdation there. Tradition was that the first settlers came from Spain after the expulsion by the Inquisition and that someone, now unidentifie'd, had Letters of Desient to verify it. But tradition and gossip have no defined line. In any event all this mattered little. The township was like one large family. Everyone attended the festive affairs, followed to the grave every deceased person, entered any home without a fctfmai aimoxmcement and settled all their differences tvithout garbed judges.
There were no sharp socJial lines in Wasilkov. T^e only persons of distinction were these of greater learning, be thej'' artisans, workers or men of affairs. The ignorant lout was not respected. Aristocracy v/as limited to those who propovmded wisely the words of the Sages or translated into common Yiddish the sophistries of ilie Talmud.
We laid away our dead on sini!J>le graves, the rich and poor alike one next to another without distinction ■ and v/ith no special or decorative markers. In the synagogue a few had the privilege to stand nearer the Ark. of itihe Covenant but in general all mingled freely.
My little friends land I sat on rough wooden benches at school, rags and velvets together; we sblared our meals often and after awhile this became a "right" ^d not a "charity;" we played our "games" and lannoyed the Rabbi,
as have all the generations back for untold years.
The school hours were long and we knew from infancy the hardships of life. In the winter, at a tender age, we made our way to the school through diarknees and on the return one could not see a step ahead in the total blacOmess. Food was brought to us so that we do not lose a moment of study —never mmd the wasxed bodies.
On this occasion the summer was at its peak and we reached our homes eiarlier.
"Mother," I asked, "may I go over and play with my cousins?"
"Oh, no, child. There. is real danger. Two towering men havt been seen lurking near the -bridge, just outside of the town. This forebodes eviL"
"And what woxild they do to mt, mother? My walk is only across the alley. If they called to me I would run, fast. And its is not dark yet."
'Ask grandfather. He will tell you aU about it."
I turned to grandfather, who was seated in his lasual place. To me it seemed-as if he never moved an inch from his steady position, in the same place. He smolked his pipe occasionally, but more often he drew in his snuff, a bit loudly, and evry hair in his beard showed colorful evidence of his indulgence.
On ihis lap was a large tome of the Talmud but he appeared to always concentrate on only one page for a full day. I never saw him tarn the page and I marvelled. I stared at grandfather, preetuning that he had heiajpd the reference to him. He retiffned my gaze and I suffered with impatience, silently. He had heard thte directive but he had not fully awakened to the task before him;-
. "Jacob," he finally uttered, "mother is right, absolutely right. We live in a land where customs, after thousands of years, are stUl foreign to vs. But we must observe, in order to know what to expect, and avoid trouble, so far as possible."
"Czar Nicholas believes that all Russia and all the RusSans b^ong to him. The Russian people do not deny this idea and therefore Czar Nicholas is fully convinced of it. And if the Russians are serfs and property it should follow that our people are still lower in esteem. But that is where our grasp of the mind of a Czar fails us. He extends to us certain privileges which the serfs do not have. Do not try to imderstand this perplexing situation. Just accept it as a phe -nomenon without brains."
Grandfather paxised, staring at (Continued on Page 41)
20
JEWISH WESTERN BULLETIN