In response to the call of their brethren across the sea for aid in their hour of distress, the Jews of Chicago, from the boulevard mansion to the squalid hovel of the ghetto district, are giving of their substance to relieve the suffering and misery which has come to the Jews of Russia through the inhuman atrocities which have been reported to the press during the past week.

All over the west side yesterday meetings were held under the direction of the committee of the central relief body of the Hebrew Charities organization, and large sums of money were raised at each meeting for the benefit of the sufferers.

The largest meeting of the day was held at Congregation Anshe Kanesses Israel, corner of Clinton Street and Twelfth Place. Fully 2,500 persons, men, women, and children, crowded the aisles, and leaned from the balcony. The men filled the main floor of the auditorium and the women occupied the balcony. Mothers with shawls over their heads and two or three little children clinging to their skirts stood on the seats and gazed earnestly down at the speakers, almost all of whom spoke in Yiddish.

Alderman Harris addressed the meeting in English and his remarks were received with much feeling. He spoke in part as follows:

"During the past week the daily press of the country has been filled with accounts of the most curdling outrages visited upon the poor, defenseless peasantry of the Russian Jews of Odessa and other cities and towns in the Russian dominion. These atrocities are of such a character as to sicken the hearts of civilized humanity and make those who are fortunate enough to have secured a refuge in this country from these awful conditions wish to aid their less fortunate brethren who are still subject to torture and death in the land of the czar.

"It is reported that 2,500 persons have been killed in the massacres. These people are beyond our help, but what of the 100,000 persons who are said to have been maimed and rendered helpless for life? These people are homeless and helpless, they have not clothing or food and a hard Russian winter is staring them in the face. The gaunt wolves of poverty and distress are sitting upon their haunches and waiting, hungry-eyed, for the prey which will surely be theirs unless the Jews of America and other parts of the world raise funds for relief of the victims."

Rabbi L. Epstein addressed the people in Yiddish. During the remarks he showed much emotion and his descriptions of the sufferings of the people of Russia were answered by sobs and moans from the women in the balcony.

B. Horwich of thecentral relief committee and Rabbi A. Brady also addressed the meeting. In the foyer of the tabernacle a table was placed and upon it a plate for the contributions, which was filled to overflowing with greenbacks and coins of all denominations. Poorly dressed men could be seen to step to the table and empty all the money from their pockets into the plate.

The collection from this meeting alone reached several hundred dollars and the total amount raised during the day reached thousands of dollars.

(Reports were made at the meeting of sums raised in other cities.)