in england a backwash of the wave left the asmonean society, wherein, for the first time in history, jews gathered with nothing in common save bloodartists, lawyers, writers, doctorsmen who in preemancipation times might have become christians like heine, but who now formed an effective protest against the popular conceptions of the jew, and a valuable antidote to the disproportionate notoriety achieved by less creditable types.at the asmonean society, brilliant freelances, each thinking himself a solitary exception to a race of bigots, met one another in mutual astonishment.raphael alienated several readers by uncompromising approval of this characteristically modern movement.another symptom of the new intensity of national brotherhood was the attempt towards amalgamating the spanish and german communities, but brotherhood broke down under the disparity of revenue, the rich spanish sect displaying once again the exclusiveness which has marked its history.amid these internal problems, the unspeakable immigrant was an added thorn.very often the victim of continental persecution was assisted on to america, but the idea that he was hurtful to native labour rankled in the minds of englishmen, and the jewish leaders were anxious to remove it, all but proving him a boon.in despair it was sought to anglicise him by discourses in yiddish.with the poor alien question was connected the return to palestine.the holy land league still pinned its faith to zion, and the _flag_ was with it to the extent of preferring the ancient fatherland, as the scene of agricultural experiments, to the south american soils selected by other schemes.it was generally felt that the redemption of judaism lay largely in a return to the land, after several centuries of less primitive and more degrading occupations.when south america was chosen, strelitski was the first to counsel the league to cooperate in the experiment, on the principle that half a loaf is better than no bread.but for the orthodox the difficulties of regeneration by the spade were enhanced by the sabbatical year institute of the pentateuch, ordaining that land must lie fallow in the seventh year.it happened that this septennial holiday was just going on, and the faithful palestine farmers were starving in voluntary martyrdom.the _flag_ raised a subscription for their benefit.raphael wished to head the list with twenty pounds, but on the advice of little sampson he broke it up into a variety of small amounts spread over several weeks, and attached to imaginary names and initials.seeing so many other readers contributing, few readers felt called upon to tax themselves.the _flag_ received the ornate thanks of a pleiad of palestine rabbis for its contribution of twentyfive guineas, two of which were from mr.henry goldsmith.gideon, the member for whitechapel, remained callous to the sufferings of his brethren in the holy land.in daily contact with so many diverse interests raphaels mind widened as imperceptibly as the body grows.he learnt the manners of many men and committeesadmired the genuine goodness of some of the jewish philanthropists and the fluent oratory of all, even while he realised the pettiness of their outlook and their reluctance to face facts.they were timorous, with a dread of decisive action and definite speech suggesting the deferential, deprecatory corporeal wrigglings of the mediæval jew.they seemed to keep strict ward over the technical privileges of the different bodies they belonged to, and in their capacity of members of the fiddlededee to quarrel with themselves as members of the fiddlededum, and to pass votes of condolence or congratulation twice over as members of both.but the more he saw of his race the more he marvelled at the omnipresent ability, being tempted at times to allow truth to the view that judaism was a successful sociological experiment, the moral and physical training of a chosen race whose very dietary had been religiously regulated.and even the revelations of the seamy side of human character, which thrust themselves upon the most purblind of editors, were blessings in disguise.the office of the _flag_ was a forcing house for raphael; many latent thoughts developed into extraordinary maturity.a month of the _flag_ was equal to a year of experience in the outside world.and not even little sampson himself was keener to appreciate the humours of the office, when no principle was involved; though what made the subeditor roar with laughter often made the editor miserable for the day.for compensation raphael had felicities from which little sampson was cut off; gladdened by revelations of earnestness and piety in letters that were merely bad english to the subeditor.a thing that set them both laughing occurred on the top of their conversation about the reader who objected to quotations from the old testament.a package of four old _flags_ arrived, accompanied by a letter.this was the letter: dear sir, your man called upon me last night, asking for payment for four advertisements of my passover groceries.but i have changed my mind about them and do not want them, and therefore beg to return the four numbers sent me.you will see i have not opened them or soiled them in any way, so please cancel the claim in your books.yours truly, isaac wollberg.he evidently thinks the vouchers sent him _are_ the advertisements, screamed little sampson.but if he is as ignorant as all that, how could he have written the letter? asked raphael.oh, it was probably written for him for twopence by the shalotten shammos, the beggingletter writer.this is almost as funny as karlkammer, said raphael.karlkammer had sent in a long essay on the sabbatical year question, which raphael had revised and published, with karlkammers title at the head and karlkammers name at the foot.yet, owing to the few rearrangements and inversions of sentences, karlkammer never identified it as his own, and was perpetually calling to inquire when his article would appear.he brought with him fresh manuscripts of the article as originally written.he was not the only caller.raphael was much pestered by visitors on kindly counsel bent or stern exhortation.the sternest were those who had never yet paid their subscriptions.de haan also kept up proprietorial rights of interference.in private life raphael suffered much from pillars of the montagu samuels type, who accused him of flippancy, and no communal crisis invented by little sampson ever equalled the pother and commotion that arose when raphael incautiously allowed him to burlesque the notorious _mordecai josephs_ by comically exaggerating its exaggerations.the community took it seriously as an attack upon the race.mr.and mrs