Pages from My Life · Abraham Cahan · Volume Five (New York, 1931)
In Two Parts
❧
Front Matter
Title, List of Illustrations & Contents
About this section: the title page, list of illustrations, and table of contents of Volume Five. Each entry links to the place in the text where that page begins.
Pages from My Life
by Abraham Cahan
Volume Five
(in two parts)
Part One: Up to the World War
Part Two: The Frank Drama
(illustrated)
Part Two: The Frank Drama
(illustrated)
Published by the "Forverts" Association · New York, 1931
Steven Spielberg Digital Yiddish Library · No. 00130
(frontispiece of Volume Five)
Illustrations in Volume Five
16The Triangle-fire victims' monument
17Victor Berger
22B. Vladeck
64Jean Jaurès
72Alfred Dreyfus
94Fritz Adler
230Carl Legien
242J. Keir Hardie
292J. Adler
364Mary Phagan
366Leo Frank
386Jim Conley
476Judge Roan
476Solicitor General Dorsey
558Governor Slaton
562Henry A. Alexander
Contents
Part One — Up to the World War
Chapter One — In 1911
11The Triangle fire.
17Victor Berger in Congress.
19"One may now sit at a seder" — Baranov's sally against the article. — My reply.
22B. Vladeck's speeches and correspondence.
23Sergei Schevitsch dies in Germany.
25I meet Arnold Bennett.
25At last we lay the foundation of the ten-story "Forverts" building. — The ceremony on the 25th of November, 1911.
27Socialist victories. — My visit to Schenectady. — Our joy at the socialist movement of Germany.
28Further growth of the "Forverts." — A couple of light "features." — The "Titanic" tragedy. — The Beilis trial.
31"Freethinkers and free thinkers." — An apikoyres (heretic) from the old enemy. — Two conversations. — Theater criticism.
35Nomberg in America. — Good belles-lettres in the "Forverts."
36The death of Alexander Jonas. — The funeral.
41The fifteenth-anniversary jubilee of the "Forverts."
45I travel to Europe.
47A few dates.
Chapter Two — Again in Europe
50A difference of nineteen years. — A few general words about my visit to Europe in 1912.
53On the ship. — Paris. — Nineteen years have passed, but the city is the same. — The "Select" Hotel. — Automobiles.
59Anton Gnatowski. — Vladimir Burtsev.
61I become acquainted with Jean Jaurès. — His anti-Marxism.
68I Visit Captain Dreyfus. (By Then Already a Colonel.)
74Abraham Frumkin. — A Lecture
76Again in the Louvre Museum.
78Stuttgart. — The German military. — A contradiction.
82Heidelberg, Dresden
83Nuremberg
84Two Days in Prague
Chapter Three — Again in Europe (continued)
92In Vienna after an absence of 19 years. — I see Victor Adler again. — Austerlitz.
95Fritz Adler — August Bebel.
97In the Austrian parliament. — The Social-Democratic club. — Otto Bauer. — Seitz. Ignacy Daszyński.
100Hermann Diamand. — A recollection of 1882.
103Scenes at socialist assemblies in Vienna. — Ellenbogen. — Winarsky. — Leitner.
109A few days in Budapest.
111Back in Vienna. — R. Abramovitch. — A. Litvak. — Vladimir Medem.
113The conference of the Territorialists. — Israel Zangwill. — S. Yatzkan. — Doctor Rotner.
115At a famous doctor's.
116The theater in Austria and in America.
118From my Viennese notebook. — The famous St. Stephen's Church. — A scene in a streetcar.
120Impressions of Cracow. — A mother with a son. — Intelligent Jews with payes (sidelocks). — The main market. — The Wawel. — The Jewish quarter. — S. Ehrlich. — In a kloyz (small prayer-house). — A melamed (teacher). — A yeshiva. — Ladies. — Payes. — An old church. — Afternoon in the park.
129My meeting with Lenin.
133A group of intelligent Jewish Socialists
134Impressions of Lemberg. — The center of the city. — Karl-Ludwig Street. — The theater. — The Jewish market. — The old Lemberg synagogue. — Scenes.
144Further impressions of Lemberg. — Jewishness. — Jewish gymnasium pupils. — Again in the old synagogue. — A stroll through the Jewish streets on a Friday night. Poverty. — Singing. — Cafés. — The market around the magistracy. — Ruthenians and Poles.
151The tramway that goes to the railway station. — A recollection.
152A mass meeting in Lemberg.
Chapter Four — Again in Europe (second continuation)
156If not Vilna, then let it at least be Brod. — The ruins are gone, the tall hats are gone. — Jewish gymnasium pupils.
162I search for my lodging of thirty years ago. — Gold Street. — A muddle. — But my former landlady too young. — Sorele. — At last I find the lodging. — The dead years dear as dear graves.
171I travel to the Belzer Rebbe. — Two Hasidim. — A fellow traveler. — An inn.
177The town of Belz. — Acquaintances in the street. — I present myself before the rebbe's gabbai.
183In the rebbe's house. — The rebbe's suite. — The rebbe. — Our conversation.
189Conversations with Hasidim in the street.
193Impressions of Przemysl. — Hills. — A market day. — Raspberries. — Officers. — Jews.
200With the socialist deputy Hermann Lieberman.
Chapter Five — Again in Europe (third continuation)
202In Carlsbad. — Scenes, types. — The various waters.
207I chase after a mistake. — Lenin's "Pravda" gets me an acquaintance, but only for one evening. — As the wagon, so the tune. — A Jew from Montreal. — A beauty contest.
212Dr. Sieff. — Max Nordau. — Carlsbad revolutionary springs.
214A visit to the Chortkover Rebbe in Marienbad.
221September weather brings old aches.
222Berlin. — Warenhäuser (department stores).
225The Berlin "Gewerkschafts-Haus" (trade-union house). — A difference in 19 years.
229A revolution. — Carl Legien. — A greeting to our "Forward." — A quiet but important split. — Socialism of tomorrow and socialism of today. — Guests from England.
233The two factions. — A quiet revolution. — The Martin Luther of socialist thought.
238Karl Liebknecht.
Chapter Six — Back in New York
240The "Forverts" (Forward) building.
241Keir Hardie.
244A sensational murder trial.
245Meyer London, candidate for Congressman. — Milwaukee elects a socialist mayor.
247Fratricidal war in our unions. — In the great tailors' strike of 1913. — Also a leaf of personal history.
253Friday night, February 28. — A visit from Max Pine and Benjamin Schweitzer. — Ike Goldstein and Louis Hollander.
258They smash windows in the "Forverts."
266A "revolution."
272A stormy Sunday.
276A committee of twenty-five. — A committee of five. — Meyer London. — Peace in the strike.
278A jubilee for the poet Morris Rosenfeld. — A chairman must be changed.
280Dr. Blake. — In the hospital.
282The fingernails of a hen dipped in blood.
285Out of the hospital.
286The foundation of "David Levinsky."
288J. Adler (B. Kovner).
292Al Jolson.
Chapter Seven — In the "Forverts"
295"With Pen and Pencil"
299The Death of August Bebel
299The Beilis Trial
301Thoughts at a Concert of Ignacy Paderewski. — The Death of Mayor Gaynor
302The Death of Eliakum Zunser
303A Visit to Canada. — Montreal and Toronto. — The French and the English
308Fratricidal War in the "International" (Cloakmakers' Union). — Isaac Aaron Hourwich, Leader of the Struggle. — Resemblance to the Story of the Tailors' Strike.
313The Struggle Grows Sharper.
316A Saturday of mass meetings. — Rubinism. — The role of the "Forverts."
321"It Will Press Out."
326Benjamin Schlesinger and Morris Sigman unanimously elected as president and secretary-treasurer of the cloakmakers' union.
327The People's College.
328Sigmund Mogulesco, the actor, tells his life story in the "Forverts."
330Maria Shkolnik in the "Forverts."
330The death of Daniel De Leon.
332A murder libel against the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union. — A Sabbath-observers' movement. — A scab-agency. — Bail. — Morris Sigman at the Cleveland convention.
337The trial (proceedings).
339The journal "Tsukunft" (The Future).
339Meyer London elected to Congress.
Part Two — The Frank Drama
Part Two — The Frank Drama
347The Beilis trial in Kiev and the Frank case in Atlanta, Georgia.
352Jews and Christians in the Southern states.
354Atlanta. — The city and the people.
358The murdered girl. — The night watchman. — Leo Frank.
368Pity and thirst for vengeance. — Mob*) psychology. — Lost grandeur. — Ladies' rights.
374Frank is arrested.
384A Negro named Jim Conley washes his shirt.
387A surprise.
389The preliminary proofs against Frank.
397Conley "confesses" five times, each time differently.
408Conley relates in court how the murder took place.
416Testimony in support of Conley's assertion that Frank led an immoral life.
419Frank's morals. — Saturday afternoon in his office. — Especially repulsive scenes described by Conley.
423Can one imagine that Frank composed the notes and dictated them to Conley?
433Did the murder take place on the second floor, and was the body afterward carried down into the basement?
436Various points.
444When did Frank "murder" the girl? — Where was he five minutes past twelve? — Where was he until twenty minutes past two?
451How, then, did it actually happen?
453Frank's four-hour speech in court.
457The crowd in the courtroom and in the city. — The face of guilt. — The whole city is the court.
462Antisemitism. — A rumor about a Jewish fund to save Frank. — "Hang the Jew!"
463"Doctor Jekyll and Mister Hyde." — Dorsey's testimony to the jury that within Frank dwell two different people.
464Scenes while Dorsey was delivering his closing speech.
468There is fear of an assault on Frank and of a bloody pogrom against all the Jews.
472Scenes after the verdict. — How Frank learned of it.
475The judge doubts that Frank is the murderer, yet sentences him to death.
476Frank appeals, and his appeal is rejected by four votes against two. — Jim Conley is sentenced to one year.
478Frank is sentenced to die on his birthday. — His speech on that occasion. — He issues a written statement to the public.
482I travel to Atlanta. — I visit Frank. — The sheriff.
484What sort of impression Frank made.
488What Frank told me about the question of antisemitism in his case. — What other Atlanta Jews recounted. — Frank points to the difference between his case and the Beilis trial.
492A rumor that Jews are collecting a fund to save Frank. — "Hang the Jew!" — Frank's lawyers are threatened.
495Important new evidence. — The seven hairs. — A surprising discovery. — Lemmie Quinn. — The young Jewish lawyer Henry A. Alexander.
502An upheaval. — Now the truth may be told. — People confess back and forth. — A mishmash of truth and lies. — Publicity.
506In the camp of Frank's enemies. — Local patriotism. — Are all Jews united against the Christians of the South? — A characteristic editorial.
509The New York detective William J. Burns comes to investigate the Frank case.
511Some of those who confessed to false testimony. — Some of the new Frank witnesses.
522Cheerful signs. — A strong editorial in an Atlanta newspaper demands a new trial for Frank. — Interesting visitors to Frank.
527I have a long conversation with Dorsey.
533New voices for justice. — A second newspaper demands a new trial for Frank.
536I take my leave of Frank.
537"Mister, give me a cigarette; on Friday they're going to hang me." — I see Conley.
538Frank's lawyers make two new attempts to obtain a new trial.
540Frank receives warm greetings for his birthday. — His telegram to the "Forward" readers.
540Frank again elected president at a local convention of the order "B'nai B'rith."
541Eugene Debs and Jane Addams demand justice for Frank.
543Louis Marshall. — The Frank case and the highest court in the land. — Seven justices against a new trial, two for it. — Their opinions.
549The judge who sentenced Frank to death pleads that he not be hanged.
552The vice-president of the United States pleads for Frank. — Letters and dispatches from other important persons. — A movement for Frank across the entire country. — Dr. Wilmer.
556Bloodthirsty assemblies and prayers while the governor is deliberating over Frank's fate.
558Governor Slaton saves Frank's life and puts his own life at stake. — Stormy scenes.
565Slaton Explains Why He Pardoned Frank
574"Judge Roan's Voice from the Other World."
576The Impression That Governor Slaton's Decision Made in the Country.—Louis Marshall's Statement in the Press.
576A Boycott of the Jews Is Called.—A Jew Is Wounded.—The End of Slaton's Term as Governor.
578Tom Watson.—A Prisoner Wounds Frank.
581A Tragic End.
585Too Late.
589Cavaliers.
590In the Jewish "Year Book."
590Fifteen Years Later.
593Frank's Widow.—Other Persons of the Frank Drama.
❦