Many of the leading writers of Europe have lived in America for shorter or longer periods but have remained distinctly Euro pean writers for the most part. None of the sketches or poems which Reisin, for instance, has written in America are equal to his best European work. Asch, who is indubitably one of the two or three greatest living Yiddish writers, is the author of two novels of American life : Uncle Moses and Lederer. His fame, however, will rest on Motke Ganef, Kidush Hashem, Gott fun Nekomah and Dos Shtetel—all written in the old country.
Next to the press the stage has been the most potent cultural influence in the life of the Jewish immigrants. Long under the domination of Shomer, Lateiner and "Professor" Hurwich, it was devoted to the presentation of vapid musical comedies, operettas and blood-curdling melodramas. Jacob Gordin, and after him Libin, Kobrin, Asch, Pinski, Sackler, Gottesfeld and Leiwick, rescued the stage from the doldrums. Asch's God of Vengeance, though dealing with life in Warsaw, was first produced in New York and is perhaps the greatest single Jewish drama of modern times. Of plays dealing essentially with American conditions, Leiwick's Shmattess (Rags) ranks near the top. In recent years Gottesfeld has written delightful comedies of American life.
Peretz Hirschbein's idyllic plays (Dos Fervorfen Winkel, Grinne Felder, etc.) have been extremely successful and have vastly en riched the repertoire of the American Yiddish stage. There are approximately 20 Yiddish theatres in the country, fully half of them in greater New York. Second avenue in New York is the
Yiddish "Great White Way." (N. Z.) (Cananga odorata), a medium-sized tree of the custard-apple family (Anonaceae), found in southern India, Java and the Philippines and planted in warm regions for its ex ceedingly fragrant flowers, which yield the widely-prized perfume of the Pacific islands, known as ylang-ylang among the Malays.
The tree has somewhat drooping branches ; large, ovate, sharp pointed leaves ; numerous greenish or yellowish flowers, about 2 in. long, and oblong, greenish fruits about i in. long. It has been sparingly cultivated in southern Florida.
a city in the Chinese province of Hunan standing on high ground east of the outlet of Tung-Ting lake. Pop ulation about 20,000. The actual settlement is at Chinling-Ki, a village 51 m. below Yo-Chow and 1 m. from the Yangtze. From Yo-Chow the cities of Chang Sha and Chang Teh are accessible, for steam vessels drawing 4 to 5 ft. of water, by means of the Tung-Ting lake and its affluents the Siang and Yuan rivers. The district in which Yo-Chow-Fu stands is the ancient habitat of the aboriginal San Miao tribes who were deported into south-west China. The city, which was built in 1371 is about 3 m. in cir cumference, and is surrounded by a wall. The city was entered by the T'aip'ing rebels in 1853. Yo-Chow-Fu is a collecting centre for native export products and for foreign goods on their way inland. It was opened to foreign trade in 1899.