In 1885, America had not jet won its Indian Wars and the world was divided between East and West. Vidin, a little Bulgarian city on the banks of the Danube not far from Romanian border lay in the middle. It was here on March 31 that Julius Mordecai Pincas came into the world, the seventh of nine children born to Sophie Pincas nee Russo and Marcus Pincas. His father was rich grain merchant, and both parents were descendants of Sephradic Jews who have lfed the 15th century persecutions of the pious Qyueen Isabella's Spanish Inquisition.