The Nordic Jubilee.

You will find the story in the old chronicles of Speyer-on-the-Rhine. Nowadays it is a dusty neighborhood of coal and iron and French soldiers in sloppy pantaloons. But six centuries ago it was the convention city par excellence of the old Holy Roman Empire, which was just about as holy and as Roman as the present National Republican Convention is national and republican. It happened during the latter half of the fifteenth century when the reputation of the Papacy was not exactly as good as it might have been. Instead of one Pope, there were three or four. Instead of merely ruling the Realm of the Spirit, the Holy See had become an active participant in very worldly brawls. And as for the morals of the officials connected with the Lateran Palace, the least said the better. All this the good burghers of Speyer's Ghetto knew. Wherefore the decision of their shepherd failed to fill them with that dismay which overtakes a congregation when the minister is convicted of backslidiug or bootlegging.