The first of these is called 'The Stagnant Pool.' We are introduced here to the world of worms who live in the pool, who regard the green scum as their heaven, and pieces of eggshells that have fallen into it as the stars and the moon upon it. A number of cows stepping into the pool tear their heaven and kill all who are not hidden away in the slime. Only one worm survives to tell the story of the catastrophe, and he suggests to his fellows that that was not the heaven that was destroyed, that there is another heaven which exists eternally. For this the narrator was thought to be insane and was sent to an insane asylum. The second sketch, 'The Sermon of the Lamps,' in which the hanging lamp instructs a small table lamp to send its flame heavenwards and not to flicker in anarchistic fashion, is a fine allegory in which the social order of things is criticised. There are altogether ten such excellent allegories, or fables, in the collection, all of the same value. The last of Perez's articles in the book is a popular discussion of what constitutes property; it is written in the same style as his scientific works spoken of before.
From 1894 to 1896 Perez has been issuing small pamphlets of about thirty octavo pages at irregular intervals. They are called 'Holiday Leaves,' and bear each a special name appropriate for each particular occasion. A certain part of these pamphlets has stories and discussions to suit the occasions for which they are written, but on the whole their contents do not differ from those of his periodicals. Here again Perez has furnished most of the matter. The other writers are David Pinski, J. Goido, Solomon Grossglück, M. J. Freid, who also contributed to his earlier magazines. It is evident that they follow their master in the general manner of composition, though at a respectable distance. Of these, Freid[107] has written some good sketches of animal life. His 'Mursa' is the story of a bitch who has given birth to some puppies:--her love for her offspring, her madness when she finds her young ones drowned and gone, and her death by strangulation. 'Red Caroline, a Novel of Animal Life,' is a similar story from the life of a cow. They are well told and display talent in the author. Of the others, Pinski[108] deserves to be mentioned specially, both on account of the quantity and the quality of his work. Most of his sketches do not rise above the mediocre, but there are several that are as good as those of Spektor. The best of his are those that are entitled 'The Oppressed,' the first of which appeared in 'Literature and Life.' In this he tells of the tyranny exercised by a shopkeeper on his clerk, and of the timidity of his wretched subordinate, who merely ekes out an existence by working for him from daybreak until late at night from one end of the year to the other. The brutal master, the cowardly, downtrodden clerk, his courageous daughter who urges her father to leave the store in spite of the shopkeeper's protest, the scene at home, where his wife has just given birth to a child, where there is no money for a fire or for medicine,--all this is drawn dramatically and naturally. Goido[109] began to issue a aeries of stories in Wilna, in the manner of Perez's 'Holiday Leaves,' and they attracted Perez's attention, who encouraged him in his literary career. Regarding his career in America, we shall find him more especially mentioned in the next chapter.