Port Tobacco times, and Charles County advertiser. (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1845-1898, 1857-08-06

daylight, when eyes and intellects are wide
awake, the shades are as clouds dark with
memories of crime and wrong; shapes OF
hideous deeds, blackening the very name OF
humanity.
In night time and the moonlight, when
we do not see these, there will be shapes
like halos around the fallen minarets OF
| Heliopores and. the unchanging memories
Of simple but grand faith in the hearts OF
old men that worshipped God, and died in
every year and month of all the thousands
that have shone upon these stones shadows
that will forever haunt the, places that are
sanctifed by mans holiest emotions sin
cere and prayful trust in God, though it
were in false god: shadows that are change
full but always there long shapes and forms
cast on the walls by the altar-fames, that
remain and appear, and fit here and there
on pavement and wall, though altar-ires
be long extinguished and the wall lie in
dust on the broken pavement of the tenn
pie.
But is this so, and is the end approach
ing?
[ asked myself the question in the city of
Victory, seated at my open window in the
night time, the moon shining gloriousl "a
dazzling moon-my table drawn to the win
dow, and the fame of my candle rising steadi-
ly and without flicker, in the profound 81
lent air. Two hundred thousand people
were lying around me, and [ asked who
and what they were, and what part they
formed in the grand sum of human yalua-
ton ? Literally nothing. They are not
worth the counting among the races of men.
They are the curse Of one of the fairest lands
on this earth's surface.
had been conversing that same day with
intelligent Mussulmen, who not only ex-
pressed their belief but added their anxious
hope, that the advance of English power in
the east would soon make Egypt an Eng
lish possession L heard this everywhere
among them.
If they knew anything about 1.-THE
Turks ought to know more of itthan Ameri-
cans-they would see that it is their mani
fest destiny. England begins to see it, as
before she has only wished it. zss z s
tf.fessioTl, Z es, the end is
not far distant. The mosque
ditional metre of the duration Of the faith,
is falling I saw with my own eyes huge
piece of its wall 60 crashing down into the
dusty court, where the still sunshine fell on
it as if it had been waiting for it; and no
one will ever disturb its ruin.
Just before the break of day, from the
mosque of Mohammed Ali at the citadel,
the morning call to prayers sounds over the
city The Sultan Hassan old Tooloon, and
another AMI another take it up, and three
hundred voices are filling the air with a
rich, soft chant that reaches the ear of the
Mussulman in his profoundest slumber, and
calls him up to pray. Does he obey :
There was time when, at that call, the
city of Salah-e-deen had no closed eye, no
unbent knee in all its walls But the Mus
sulman is changed now. He heard the call
in his half-drunken sleep, stupefed with
hashish, and he damned the muezzin, and
turned over to deeper slumber. He heard
it in his profound repose, after counting
over the gains he had made by cheating his
neighbors, and he did not feel like praying:
He heard it in the perfumed couch of his
slave, and he forgot the prophet in the pre-
sent heaven. He heard it-yes, there were
few old men who remember the glory of
the Mamelukes; who heard their fierce
shouts when the Christian invaders met
them at the pyramids; and who, wearied
with long life, look now for youth ands rest
in heaven, and they, when they heard the
call, obeyed it, and theirs were the only
prayers wasted on the dawning light in all
of Cairo, and when they cease there will be
none to pray.
This is no fancy picture Mark the pro-
phecy. Our days may be few, but there
are men living now who will see the cres-
cent disappear from the valley of the Nile,
and who will build their houses from the
sacred stones of the mightiest mosques in
Grand Cairo. The beginning Of this END
is visible already, but who can foresee what
is to follow
George Smith, do you recollect the story
Of David and Goliah?
Yes sir; David was a tavern-keeper, ano
Goliah was an Incorporate man.
II