Samson the Second
HE was called Samson, not because of his strength or daring, nor because of his activity against anti-Semites as his namesake was against the Philistines; for all his power was concentrated in his facile tongue, and it was with that instrument he undertook to rescue suffering humanity, and incidentally the Jews from their deplorable condition. He was called Samson because he was sold by a woman, because all his strength left him after she had operated upon him, and because he thus was transformed into an ordinary everyday mortal.
It was indeed a powerful tongue Samson wagged. With the jawbone of an ass Samson the First slew thousands of the Philistines; but with his own jaw Samson the Second intended to slay thousands upon thousands of Cossacks, Dragoons, Zouaves, and Janissaries, great armies and formidable legions of cavalry, infantry, artillery, and what not. He was very active in spreading anarchism, a leader of those who in imagination destroy and build up worlds. He was the center of a large circle of admirers who gave heed to his oracular wisdom and looked up to him as one of superior intellect. Especially so, the female contingent of the anarchist forces.
Samson was a sweat-shop operator and whenever his work became irksome to him, which was often enough, or whenever he saw his boss sit down to a game of pinochle with another boss, which was also often in “slack” time, he was filled with wrath and indignation and he would swear vengeance against all hard bosses, especially his own. In time, all those who were dissatisfied with their condition, or with the affairs of this world, joined his standard of revolt, and he stood up as their leader.
Samson had a wife and her name was Delilah . . .
It is a curious fact in the history of mankind that almost all great men had little wives who were quite unlike their husbands in character and mental powers. To quote a few instances : Our father Abraham, who was given many supernatural promises by the Lord, believed all of them ; but Sarah was given but one, and she disbelieved it, nay, she almost laughed in her informer's face. When Moses and the children of Israel sang the great song unto the Lord, Zip-
porah did not sing or even take up the cymbal and play in order that all the women might follow her and dance; she more likely ensconced herself in her tent absorbed in some domestic work, or gossiped with some neighbor's wife; she left her task to be performed by her dear sister-in-law, Miriam. Xantippe is as well known as Socrates; he as the mildest of men, she as the most violent of termagants. Mathilde, the wife of Heine, could neither endure nor understand poetry, not even her husband's. It is a curious anomaly and so will remain as long as there are men and women in the world.
Therefore, we are not surprised to know that Delilah was as far removed from her husband— in disposition, that is — as is the east from the west in direction. He did not believe in God and mocked every thing holy; she was a deeply religious woman, who scrupulously fulfilled every commandment, rule and regulation of the Jewish religion. He did not pray on the Day of Atonement, but instead attended the Yom Kippur Ball which was the anarchists’ chief function ; she prayed daily, and on the Sabbath, when she had nothing to do, she read the Sidur from cover to cover. He heaped verbal indignities upon the devoted heads of rulers of nations and of men, and characterized them as thieves, robbers, and murderers ; she had the greatest respect even for the drunken policeman, Patrick, who used to patrol the neighborhood.
Needless to state, Samson and his wife quarrelled continuously. She would not permit him to eat before he had washed his hands, nor would she allow him to smoke a cigarette on the Sabbath, and to aggravate matters, she closed her doors against Samson's female anarchist admirers. As Delilah tormented Samson the First with her ceaseless talk, so also did Delilah the Second. He almost prayed for death ; but the anarchistic hope that there would be a time some day when husbands and wives would be no more, invigorated and strengthened him to endure his domestic troubles.
It may as well be stated here, why the anarchist girls followed him. It was not his high-flown language, nor his wild and irresponsible theories as to the rights of men and as to the order of things, for truth to tell, his hearers compre-