In The Fish-Bowl
Mr. Prretrz has been charged with being obscure, and if there be any sketch that he has written more obscure than the following, the adaptor would be pleased to see it. It is evident that he alludes to the Jewish people as the Carp, struggling to escape from their prison. The Pike may be taken as those Jews who are in a better situation, or who have the sagacity to remain in their.prison rather than attempt to escape in a manner which means death. The adaptor has tried to make the meaning as clear as possible, and our readers may cudgel their own brains to solve the riddle. In itself, it is a good specimen of Mr. Peretz’s style. The fish world is a counterpart of the world of men, even as his nature world reflects the struggle which is going on in society —Editors, THE MACCABAEAN.
In honor of the holidays, live fish were purchased. There were pike, placed in a large bowl filled with water, and two little carp not far from them in a dark earthen vessel. It was not so large as their own ocean, but....Even in the little pond there was more room.
The little carp were in their bowl for an hour, and were still trying to guess the nature of their prison. They had time to think. The cook was not to return for a time from the market, and in the interval a clever carp might be able to devise means of escape.
The pike, being in a glass-bowl, rushed ferociously against the walls and struck their heads forcibly against them. A thousand times they rushed against them before they were convinced that they were in a prison. They felt the walls, but their weak eyes could not see them; the glass was green and appeared much like their own pond.
"It's witchcraft!" cried one pike.
"True," admitted another, "our enemies have bewitched us! It must have been a roc or a frog!"
They were prisoners for an hour. When
they smelt the air they fainted dead away. When they recovered they were in a gloomy green prison.
"Night comes early here," they said. The prison was narrow; water was scarce. They were still stupefied from their efforts to breathe. Their thoughts were heated. They dreamt of life in the pond, nothing of their prison. They did not hear their captor, when he opened the bag in which he was carrying them, nor the clamor at the market when he sold them. They did not feel the steel scale in which they were swung to and fro while the fish-woman haggled with the cook. They did not hear the sharp word of agreement which decided their fate. They did not know when the cook threw them in the basket. They were first aroused from their stupor when they were flung into the green bowl and the water was poured over them. Then they spent an hour striking their heads against the walls; then they concluded it was witchcraft.
"What's to be done?"
The carp was also moving about. They felt as if they had spent a long, long night. They too were first aroused by