The Jews of Turkey, of whom there are about 170,000, are by no means exempt from the sorrows and curses of their race. As if conscious that there is no escape from the contempt of the rest of the world, they are willing to undertake the meanest of earth’s callings, literally to “eat the dirt” of their Moslem masters.

Content to appear like the refuse of humanity, they strive to accumulate the miser’s hoards, and receive the buffetings and cursings of their neighbors as if they were choice blessings—usury of all sorts, whether upon sequins or old clothes, peddling the meanest of wares in the streets, rag-picking, and filth-gathering in general, are their means of earning a livelihood.

The venerated names of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, are almost needless, or seldom heard—for the one comprehensive word Yahoudy (Jew) is the nomenclature of the whole remnant of the chosen people. Yahoudy come, and Yahoudy go, are the summons and dismissal—while the rabble boys mockingly shout Tchefut, and snatch some fragment of their tattered garments.

Public sentiment having stigmatized them as utterly depraved, they have no incentive to honesty, and not daring enough to commit any atrocious crime, they become more expert in petty larcenies and like misdemeanors. They are even accused of stealing a Christian child once a year, in order to mingle its blood in their festivals, as a retaliation upon the Christians in general.

This, of course, refers to the mass, who, victims as they are to misery of all sorts, cannot be expected to practice the kindlier virtues which distinguish those among them to whom a better fate has been allotted.

There was a celebrated Armenian banker, Tcharazly, who, having fallen under the displeasure of a certain Turkish grandee, was suddenly one day seized and hung before the door of his own dwelling; his property confiscated, and his only son cast into prison.

A certain Jewish banker, Shabgee by name, had long been the friend and neighbor of this family; and now, in the time of their trouble, he spared nothing for the liberation of the unfortunate young man, the son of his friend; which, he not only succeeded in obtaining, but reinstated him in all the honors of which he was the lawful heir.

The Jews are to be found in many villages on the Bosphorus, though their principal quarter is at Balat, on the Golden Horn. They live also in other parts of the city, but as may naturally be inferred, in such places as no one else would inhabit.

Their houses are like bee-hives, literally swarming with human life; even one single room serves for the only home of several families—and the streets of their quarters are almost impassable, from the collection of garbage and all sorts of refuse, which are indiscriminately thrown from the windows of their dwellings. Their misery may partly be attributed to their practice of very early marriages, as before a man is twenty-one years of age he is burdened with the care and support of a numerous family, which reduces him to such poverty, that even the meanest economy can scarcely enable him to support his own existence and that of the helpless beings dependent on him. The exactions of the Khakhams or priests, which are very great, help also to impoverish this pitiable people. It is no wonder, then, that they appear in rags and tatters—and herd together in styes—yet it is most amusing to see them on a Jewish Sabbath. The filthy gabardines which they wore in the week, as they exercised their various callings, being laid aside, and bright and gaudy finery substituted, in which they strut about the streets, seeming to be other beings, and to have no relation to the wretches of yesterday. But, of course, in such a population there will be various grades of misery, and a few families of wealth are to be found among them.

They have some of the domestic institutions of the Osmanlis, and the women wear thick white veils, but without concealing the features, as in the case of the Turkish ladies. The young virgins are allowed to wear their hair long and flowing—but after marriage it is carefully concealed beneath a towering and cumbersome headgear, which is a wonderful illustration of the tenacity with which this singular race adheres to ancient usages. It recalls to mind the days of Pharaoh and the people of Israel, for the similarity is perfect between their present head-dress and that of the mummies who have reposed in their tombs ever since the family of Joseph “took their cattle and their goods, which they had gotten in the land of Canaan, and came into Egypt, Jacob and all his seed with him.”

As they were originally from Spain, their language is still a mongrel dialect of that country.

They are very strict in the observance of their religious rites and ceremonies—never transacting any business on the Sabbath, nor performing any domestic duties. Even their lamps on Sabbath evenings must be lighted by some one of their Christian neighbors—and should a conflagration occur on that day, their helplessness is truly pitiable, for they will see all their property consumed without making one effort to save it.