THE HUNGARIAN HORROR.

Auckland Star, Volume XXI, Issue 4126, 24 September 1883, Page 4

THE HUNGARIAN HORROR.

Acquittal of the Accused.

You may remember that I sent yoi'i a few mails, ago an account of the trial of sotco Hungarian Jews for the murder of a young girl, prophesying at the same time their acquittal. This has now eventuated, but the unfortunate Hebrews are—thanks to the scandalous cruelty and injustice with which they have from the first been treated —not much better off than if found guilty. Their names are blasted, their businesses (owing to long imprisonment) don't even exist, and all the consolation they get for a twelvemonths' persecution of the grossest description is an exhortation from the Judge who tried the case not to bear malice against their enemies. I don't know whether you recollect the details of the affair.

What occurred was this: Esther Soly. mossi, a young girl of fourteen years of age, a drudge in the service of one Frau Huri, suddenly disappeared. No one seemed to know what had become of the child, nor was it possible satisfactorily to account for her absence from home. Some persons in the neighbourhood imagined that, tired if her hard life, she might possibly have committed suicide, yet a rigorous search failed to discover any traces of such an act, or any clue to her supposed fate. The mysterious disappearance gave rise to all kinds of conjectures ; but not until a full month had elapsed, and the Israelitish Feast of the Passover came round, was any attempt made to couple the Jewish community with the unfortunate affair. And this is the crucial point of the transaction which has not be»n, and probably never will be, cleared up. Local public opinion was in a ferment at tfis time, and the ignorant and excited populace were ready to accept any theory which might seem to satisfy their worst fears. Given, then, the currency of a legend connecting ritual murder with the Feast of the Passover ; given an active, ingenious, and unscrupulous anti - Semitic faction, and we find the most probable origin of that vile and wicked conspiracy. Judging from the evidence, it is made to appear as if the enemy set to work by poisoning the minds of the younger branchej of the family of the principal intended victim, the aforesaid custodian of the Jewish Tabernacle at Tiaza-Esslar. The rumemr once set on foot that the girl had bt«n murdered by the Jews, her mother naturally demanded an inquiry, and then for th« first time we find two of Joseph Scharf's children pretending to a knowledge of transactions which have since been proved could not possibly have taken place. Moritz Scharf s account that he looked through the keyhol* of the door of the synagogue and caw hit father and a couple of Jewish butch«rt kill Esther, and catch thi blood in a basin as it fell from her neck, is shown to be a tissue of dreadful lies. And what is the logical deduction from that probably prompted false evidence? It ib part of the record of the Temple sacrificial service, as we have already remarked, that the blood of the slaughtered animal was caught in a basin held for the purpose; and, since It la proved todemonstration that no such murder was done, and that the miserable lad could not have seen what he described as having taken place, it is no more than reasonable to assume that the story in all its particulars may have been furnished to him by the anti-Semitic faction, . well versed in Jewish ceremonies, ancient and modern. A glance at the evidence will be sufficient to satisfy the most sceptical that the perverted moral sense of" Moritz Scharf arises either from criminal i lunacy or from the most monstrous inherent wickedness. At length a body was found in the river Theiss, and though it proved to be that of a young woman of twenty, whereas Esther was but fourteen years of age, the prosecution founded their case on the assumption that it must be Esther's corpse. Everything th»t happened thereafter, the lying and contrai dietary evidence, the torture of witnesses, the miseries of the accused, must be laid at the door of the administration of Hungarian I jurtice perverted and disgraced. But for i the cry of " Shame I" which went up from every city in Europe, but for the able and eloquent advocacy of their cause with tongue and pen, the righteous indignation of every creed and class, of every sect and every section of society, those fifteen prisoners, instead of being honourably acquitted, might have perished on the scaffold, innocent victims of an odious spirit of persecution, alike unchristian and inhuman. The "Jewish Chronicle" publishes the following as the true story of Esther Solymossi's death : Now that the result of the Tisza-Eazlar trial has removed the possibility of a«murder of any kind having been committed in the case of Esther Solymossi, room is open to conjecture as to the ca ise of her mysterious disapperance. It can only be attributed to suicide, brought about by the ill-treatment of her mistress, Frau Huri, whose interest it has thuß clearly been to cast suspicion on the Jews. With a little trouble one can piece together the movements of the poor girl on the day of her death from the snbjoinedreport; Abouttwelveo'clockon April 1, ISB2, Esther Solymosei, a girl of fourteen, about 4ft lOin high, -with dork eyes, left her mistress's homo to obtain some whitewash in the neighbouring village of Tisza-Eszlar. The poor girl, clad in a dark skirt, with red apron and neckerchief, walked slowly, as she had been recently wounded in the right foot by the tread of a cow. On her way to the shop she was met by Gabriel Tauugi, at he alleges at eleven, but Herman Rosenberg also saw her, and he was positive it was twelve, while his daughter Rosa, who saw her with her sister Sophia Solymossi, was confident it was one o'clock, as she had ! had dinner. Similar evidence was given by ! Julia Vamosi. In conversation with Esther's sister, Roea heard that the girl wm ill-treated by her mistress. She probably returned with^the whitewash to Frau Hurt, who was dissatisfied, and sent her back without her dinner. On the poor drudge remonstrating, the mistrera was heard by the coachman Hatalwsky saying, " You can (? shall) go and com* back three times before evening." This wa* at three o'clock, and Esther went back faint and despairing, probably after having uttered some threat of self -destruction. For an hour afterwords Frau Hun was anxiously searching for Esther in th« village There she met Samuel Fraukh to whom she owned she had sent the girl twice fur some whitewash. After tnis, about five o'clock, she met Leon Grossberg, who had heard of her cruelty from Esther* sister, and with whom she held the following conversation :—Huri: I sent Jhaj in the morning for some colours, and she has not come back.—Grossberg : She will come.—Huri: I am so frightened at. her remaining away so long. -^ Grossberg: Why ? Have you beaten ner' —Huri: No; but I have scolded her well for cleaning some dirty crockery in tns bread trough.—Meanwhile, the rumour of Esther's disappearance had reached her relatives, and it is significant that the first place where her uncle sought for her waa down the nearest wells. Her mother, Frau SolymoEsi, met Joseph Scharf that evening, and informed him of Esthers disappearance. He attempted to console her with the following words : " Esther will surely come to light again. I recall to mind a similar incident which eccnrred in my early youth, when a girl disappeared from Hajdu-Vanas. _ Not only was the girl given up for lost, but it was even whispered that she had been murdered by the Jews. She, however, turned up not long afterwards, alive and well. The same will be the case with your daughter. These words, as Frau Solymossi confessed in Court, were the first that aroused her suspicions. When on the Monday she reported her daughter's disappearance to the police, not a word was said about any Jew. It was only on Tuesday, April 4, that she informed tho police that the Jews were ■ suspected of having caused Esther's death. What hand Frau Huri had in fanning that \ suspicion tho world will never know; dub the laws of evidence lead us to look to tne quarter where the greatest motive exists, and there can be no doubt that Frau Huri a conscience was ill at oase at her treatmeni of the poor drudge. ~