140 THE KING OF SCHNORRERS.
day from Sephardic celebrities, pointing out that now a foreign Jew — Yankele" to wit — had been admitted to their communion, it behoved them to show themselves at their best. What a bad effect it would have on Yankele" if a Sephardi was seen to vow with impunity ! First impres- sions were everything, and they could not be too careful. It would not do for Yankele to circulate contumelious reports of them among his kin. Those who remonstrated with him over his extravagance he reminded that he had only one daughter, and he drew their attention to the favourable influence his example had had on the Saturday receipts. Not a man of those who came after him in the Reading had ventured to offer half-crowns. He had fixed the standard in gold for that day at least, and who knew what noble emulation he had fired for the future ?
Every man who yielded to Manasseh's eloquence was a step to reach the next, for Manasseh made a list of donors, and paraded it reproachfully before those who had yet to give. Withal, the most obstinate resistance met him in some quarters. One man — a certain Rodriques, inhabiting a mansion in Finsbury Circus — was positively rude.
" If I came in a carriage, you'd soon pull out your ten- pound note for the Synagogue," sneered Manasseh, his blood boiling.
" Certainly I would," admitted Rodriques laughing. And Manasseh shook off the dust of his threshold in dis- dain.
By reason of such rebuffs, his collection for the day only reached about thirty pounds, inclusive of the value of some depreciated Portuguese bonds which he good-naturedly accepted as though at par.
Disgusted with the meanness of mankind, da Costa's genius devised more drastic measures. Having carefully
