Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 6.djvu/204

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [ 12 s.vi. MAY 1,1920.

'"Wrekin Tavern

Wright's "York

York 1 York

'Young Devil Tavern "Young Slaughter's . . "Young Man's

Bath

l Bell Tavern "Black Swan /Blackman's Head

'Blossom Inn Buffalo Tavern

Cross Keys Inn Gloucester. . Grand Boyal Hambleton's Harvey's

Broad Court, Bow Street. .

York Street, Covent Garden

New Bridge Street. . 1793

Norris Street, Haymarket 1792

St. James's Street (" Upper 1793 End ")

Thornbury, iii. 274. Thornbury, iii. 285. Roach's L.P.P., pp. 47, 48. Warwick Wroth, p. 221. Roach's L.P.P., pp. 47, 48.

See Slaughter's. Buckingham Court, next to 1738 Tom's Corfee-house

ADDENDA.

.. 1793 .. 1741

.' .' 1730

. . 1793 1730

1708 Cunningham, p. la.

Arlington Street. St. Martin's Lane. St. Martin's Lane. Hedge Lane.

Lawrence Lane Bloomsbury '.

Gracechurch Street. . 1793

Piccadilly 1793

Pall Mall 1793

Prince's Street, Drury Lane 1708

St. John's Gate .. .. 1727

Mother Red Cap Inn Camden Town .,

Besant, p. 311 ; London Daily Post, Feb. 7; MacMichael's ' Charing Cross,' p. 55.

Roach's L.P.P., p. 27.

Daily Advertiser, Nov. 7.

Sala's ' Hogarth,' 1866, p. 86.

Middlesex County Records, Sessions Books,

878-901.

Roach's L.P.P., p. 25. Middlesex County Records, Sessions Books,

878-901.

Roach's L.P.P., p. 25. Roach's L.P.P., p. 27. Roach's L.P.P., p. 27. Paston's 'Mr. Pope,' 1909, i. 26. Middlesex County Records, Sessions Books,

850-77. Thornbury, v. 312.

J. PATH, DE CASTRO.

" STRIKES " IN THE TALMUD.

To persons who take things on hearsay, the Talmud is a pretty tohu-bohu of fairy tales. But it is marvellous how the modern world is mirrored in its pages. Verily, there is nothing new under the sun. Two strikes , at divers dates are recorded in Tractate Yoma 38A. They occurred during the tempestuous era of the second Temple when Simon the Just was High Priest (c. 200 B.C.). Simon held that office for eighty years (ibid. 9A), while another distinguished man Eleazar Ben Choorsous retained office for eleven years. He was a man of substance. Around his name, as around that of Hillel, legend wove garlands of fancy and of ethical potency (ibid. 35 b). I will recur to them later on.

To the " strikes," first of all. For reasons, which call for no discussion here, certain Hebrew families in the priestly caste tenaciously held to their posts, and to " the secret processes " on which they founded a species of "guild." The leaders in that venal age (in which no high priest held office for more than 18 months, on an average) were anxious to stabilize many practices in the Temple services. Accord- ingly, they requested the " Gormies " to accept "apprentices" to the craft of manufacturing "the show bread." The "Abtinas" family, again, were celebrated for compounding incense. Both of these guilds promptly "downed tools," and went

out "on strike." It is not recorded whether they "picketted" the Sanctuary. At all events, "the wise men" sent post haste to Alexandria (to the Temple at On, presumably) and engaged "holy blacklegs " to replace the strikers. But the show- bread turned out too "pappy," and the incense fabricated by substituted labour lacked the secret quality of ascending " in a straight column " from the altar. In the end, the " Chachomeem " were obliged to parley with the strikers. In inducing them to resume their duties, they displayed tact, foresight and courage. They did not advocate paltry "rises in wages." They doubled their salaries straight away.

Let me now briefly narrate two anecdotes. Eleazar Ben Choorsous is held up in the Talmud (Yoma 35B) as a pattern for wealthy men to copy. Though he offi- ciated for upwards of eleven years in the Second Temple, he devoted many hours of the day and night (like Rabbi Jochanon Ben Zakkai) to studying the Torah. Presum- ably he was hurrying from the Temple pre- cincts, home to the privacy of his beloved studies, when his farm labourers and other servants surrounded him in the public square and gave him an ovation. This he mildly resented. "I beg of you," he pleaded, " do let me go home to study the Torah." " But first of all come and see what we have done on the farm," said the foreman.