Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1856-01-19
EVENING STAR.
THE AMERICAN ALADDIN.

When we 60 out on Saturday afternoon 10
moralize and see new houses, We usually take
our young ones by Aladdin's palace Aladdin
was Yankee. He started life by swapping
Jack knives, then putting the halves Of broken
marbles together and passing them of as whole
ones. When he had gathered some brass, be
went to school all the summer to learn the
golden rule Of STANDARDIZATION for him.
self and subtraction for his neighbor.
At an early age Aladdin was considered to
be good at a bargain-which meant that he
could always succeed in changing a worse for
the better-always keeping the blind side of
a horse to the wall when he had to sell il; and
the village said that certainly Aladdin would
| succeed. When he left, ''he will be rich'
said the village, with more approval than it
would say ''he will be generous and true ;"
To Aladdin the world was but a market in
| which TO buy cheap and sell dear. For him
| there was no beauty, no history, no piety, no
| heroism Vainly the stars shone over him;
vainly the south wind blew. In the wake of
the great ship Arago, in which Jason and his
companions sailed for the Golden Fleece, over
the cleaning Mediterranean-wheret the ships
| of Tyre, Rome, and the Crusaders had been
before him-through the Pillars of Hercules.
through which Columbus sailed to find fame
| in new world-nOw sails Aladdin 10 End for
tune. To him all lands are alike. No Homer
sang for him in the Ggesn; he only curses the
WlHu Will DlOW HlLQ INTO OQeSSa. No
syrens sing for him, but he loves the huge oath
of the lively boatswain.
With the Rible in his hand and a ouid of
tobacco IN his mouth, he goes about the holy
places in Jerusalem, and calculates" their
exact site. He sees the land of the Rameses
and Ptolemies; and the reverend echoes of the
Lybian desert, whose echoes have slumbered
since they were tramped over by Alexander s
army, are now awakened by the shrill whistle
M Ha IL
Lima, hObnobs with the Grand Mogul, turns
his back upon emperors, and takes a pinch
out of the POpe's snuff-boX. He chews with
the Arabs, smokes opium with the Turks, and
rides for bride with the Calmuck Tartars.
Aladdin comes home again, and the admir-
ing village points him out to the younger gen.
GRAFTON as a successful man. "My son, look
at him; he began with nothing-now see."
" My son" does see, and behOlds him owning
million of dOllars-of all societies of which
he is not president director. His name is
as good as gold-he has bought pictures and
statues-he has also bought Mrs. Aladdin
and housed her in luxury but he picks his
mouth with silver fork. He has home for
poet, but he makes it his boast that he reads
nothing but bis newspaper. lie goes to church
twice on Sundays, and only wakes up when
the preacher denounces the sinner of Sodom
and GOmOrrah, and those " tough old Jews
of Jerusalem. His head is bald and SHINY
with the sermons which have hit it and glanced
off. He clasps his hands in prayer, but for
gets to open them when the poor box is passed
around; and he goes home like a successful
man, thanking God that he is not as other men
are. And after dinner he sets before the fire
in his easy chair, lights a large cigar, and
looks languidly at Mrs. Aladdin through the
thick smoke
BY and by old Aladdin dies. The cOnyep-
tional virtues are told over as the mourning
carriages are called out. The papers regret
they are called upon to deplore the loss Of
revered parent, generous friend, public -spir-
tied citizen, and pious man and the preco-
eious swapper of jackknives, and the model
set up to the young generation, is laid in the
dust. Above his grave the stars he never saw
now burn with a soft lustre which no lamps
about kings tomb can emulate; and the
south wind, for whose breath upon his brow
he was never grateful strews his lonely last
bed with anemones and violets that his heel
crushed when living; and we who are to be
formed upon that model, carelessly remark, |
as we stir our tOddies; $50 old Aladdin is gone
at last; and, by the way, how much did he |
leave nc. w. Curtis 4