Democratic Sentinel, Volume 5, Number 26, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 August 1881 — Jews in Spain. [ARTICLE]

Jews in Spain.

The return of Jews into Spain brings out onq of those strong and significant contrasts in which the history of modern Europe so much abounds. From about the earliest times subsequent to the conquest of their own country by the Romans, down to the decree of expulsion near the close of the fifteenth century, their history in Spain was a pait of the history of the nation itself. It has been maintained that they were first introduced by the fleets of Solomon and the arms of Nebuchadnezzar, but in recorded history there is no trusted evidence of an earlier occupation than the time of Hadrian. It is known that under this Emperor 10,000 families of the tribe of Benjamin were taken into Spain, and 40,000 of the trilie of Judah. Under the Gothic rule, from early in the seventh century until the time of the Moorish conquest in the eighth, they were cruelly persecuted. “The wealth which they accumulated by trade,” says Gibbon, “and the management of the finances invited the pious avarice of their masters, and they might be oppressed without danger, as they had lost the use and remembrance of arms.” Gibbon estimates that 90,000 were compelled to receive the sacrament of baptism. New force, it is believed, was brought to bear against them in a decree forbidding them to leave the country, so that the stern alternative was to surrender their faith or receive the lash and lose their fortunes ; flight was out of the question. When the Saracen conquerors appeared in North Africa, they found in these persecuted Jews of Spain ready allies, and became afterward indebted to them for their most important acquisitions. Thus, in the eighth century was formed that alliance between Jews and the followers of Mohammed which endured in Spain until the final expulsion of both races under the rule of Ferdinand and Isabella. Various estimates have been made of the number of Jews whom the Inquisition in that age drove from Spain, the lowest being 100,000 and the highest 800.000. Among the number were the ancestors of Lord Beaconsfield, who fled to Venice and there established themselves in prosperous trades. Jews expelled from Russia will now go to Spain under specific royal sanction.— New York Times.

[From the Sheboygan Falla (Sheboygan Co.) News.] We never saw any one joyous when suffering from pain—neuralgia for instance. In relation to this malady Mr. George Guy-' ett, Prop. Guyett House, thus informed our representative; I have used St. Jacobs Oii for neuralgia, and can confidently recommend it to any one similarly affected.