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Jews in Gold Rush San Francisco 1851, as observed by Hinton Rowan Helper, an eyewitness to their greed and parasitic nature

submitted by HughBriss to whatever 3.5 yearsOct 16, 2021 13:25:10 ago (+18/-0)     (whatever)

From Helper's book "The Land of Gold: Reality vs Fiction" (1855), pages 52-54, available here:

https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Land_of_Gold.html?id=swQNAAAAIAAJ

He describes the behavior of jews in San Francisco as perfectly as anyone in history. Jews just don't ever change. This is along quote, but well worth the read.

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Most of the buildings in this part of the street are tenanted by those mysterious and avaricious characters whose arrival in this, as well as in other places, is always as inexplicable as that of the flies in summer, and whose exit is equally as unceremonious as that of the swallows in winter -no one knowing whence they came or whither they go—the Jews, those nomades of civilization. These erratic and money-loving descendants of the ancient biblical patriarchs seem to follow in the wake of all adventurous Christians and gentiles who wear those convenient articles of apparel denominated ready-made clothes. Preferring to travel the way after it is once opened, Most of the buildings in this part of the street are tenanted by those mysterious and avaricious characters whose arrival in this, as well as in other places, is always as inexplicable as that of the flies in summer, and whose exit is equally as unceremonious as that of the swallows in winter -no one knowing whence they came or whither they go—the Jews, those nomades of civilization. These erratic and money-loving descendants of the ancient biblical patriarchs seem to follow in the wake of all adventurous Christians and gentiles who wear those convenient articles of apparel denominated ready-made clothes.

*Preferring to travel the way after it is once opened, they are seldom known as the pioneers of a new country; and claiming to be conservative in their principles and opposed to aggression, they profess disinclination to encroach upon foreign territory; but after the battles are fought with the forest, the wild beasts, or the biped enemy, and peace and security established, they are ever ready to come in and partake of whatever advantages may have been attained. So it has been in California, so it is yet, and so it will always be here and every where else, with these homeless and migratory people.*

They do not employ any of their time or means in advancing the permanent and substantial interests of the country. None of them engage in any sort of manual labor, except, perhaps, that which is of the most trivial and unmanly nature, such, for instance, as the manufacturing of jewelry and haberdashery. Mining, the cultivation of the soil, in a word, any occupation that requires exposure to the weather, is too fatiguing and intolerable for them. The law requiring man to get bread by the sweat of his brow, is an injunction with which they refuse to comply. It is a tax they are unwilling to pay-an enigma beyond their comprehension—they will not sweat. Dealing in ready-made clothing appears to be their peculiar forte; and this is about the only thing they follow in San Francisco—as I think it may be said to be their principal pursuit wherever they go, when they have not the means to set themselves up as pawn-brokers or noteshavers.

We observe that they have presumptuously usurped or occupied from four to six feet of the way on either side of the street, by building little wooden racks and projections in front of their stores, for the purpose of making a more conspicuous display of their marketable vestments in dry weather. In any other place than California such unjust appropriations of the streets of a city would not be tolerated; but here, where usurpation, illegality and confusion reign supreme, no attention is paid to it.

It has ever been the misfortune of the Jew to undergo the scorn and contumely of self-styled Christians, and indeed of all nations. Since the destruction of his ancient capital by the Romans, he has been an outcast in the world, the standing butt of the Gentile's scoffs. California is no exception to this general rule. But little respect is shown him there; and he is continually jeered by having applied to him such annoying epithets as Christ-killer, ham-hater and anti-pork-eater. But few of them have signs over their doors, as most men have who transact business upon their honor and reputation. Some of them buy and sell under assumed names; but in general their business is anonymously conducted.


12 comments block

The eternal jew. Great find!