The Wyandot pioneer. (Upper Sandusky, Ohio) 1853-1868, 1867-12-12
From Mark Twain's 'First Day in Palestine"
The People The Disciples Knew.

This morning, during breakfast,
the usual assemblage of squaiid hu-
manity sat patiently without the
charmed circle Of the camp, and
waited for such crumbs as pity
might bestow upon Their misery.
There were old and young, brown
skinned and yellow. Some OF. the
men were tall and stalwart for
one sees nowhere such splendid
looking men as here in the East,
but all the women and children
looked worn and sad, and distressed
by hunger. They reminded me much
of Indians, did these people. They
had but little clothing, but such as
they had was fanciful in character
and fantastic in its arrangement,
ANY absurd little gewgaw or Jim
crack thav disposed in such way
as to make it attract attention most
readily. They sat in silence, and
with tireless patience watched our
every motioh with thet vile, uncom-
planning impoliteness which is so
truly Indian, and which makes a
white man so nervous and uncom-
Portable and savage that he wants
to exterminate the whole tribe.
These people about ua had other
peculiaritics, which / have noticed
in the noble red men, too; they car
ried passengers in tlreir hair; they
were infested with feas. and the dirt
had caked on them till it amounted
to bark.
The little children were in pit
liable condition-tfey all had sore
eyes, and were otherwise afflicted
in various ways. They say that
hardly a native child in all the East
is free from sore eyes, and that
thousands Of them go blind of one
eye or both every year. ! think this
must be so, for / see plenty ofblind
men every day, and don't remem-
her seeing any children that hadn't
sore eyes. And, would you sup
pose that an American mother could
sit for an hour, with her child in hel
arms, and let a thousand flies roost
upon its eyes all that time undisturb-
ed? I see that every day. II
makes my flesh creep. Yesterday
we met woman riding on little
Ijackass, and she had child in hel
arms honestly, thought the child
had goggles on as we approached
and / wondered how it's mother
could afford so much style. But
when we drew near, we saw that the
goggles were nothing but camp
meeting Of flies assembled around
each ofthe child's eyes. and at the
same time there was a detachlnen
prospecting its nose. The flie1
were happy, the child was content
ed. and so the mother did not in
terfere.
| AS soon IS the tribe found out
that we had doctor in the crowd
they begun to flock in from all quar-
ters. Dr. B., in the charity of hi:
heart, had taken a child from wo
man that sat near by, and put some
sort Of a wash upon its diseased
eyes. That woman went off anG
started the whole nation, and yo,
ought to have seen them swarm
The lame, the halt. the blind. th'
leprous-all the distempers that ar
bred of dirt and iniquity, were rep
resented in the Congress in ten min
utes, and still they came. Every
woman that had a sick baby brough
ii along, and every woman tha
hadn't borrowed one. What rever
ent and what worshipping look'
they bent upon that dread, myste
rious Power, the Doctor! They
watched him take the phials out
they watched him measure the par
ticles of white powder; they watch
ed him add drops of one precious
liquid, and drops Of another; they
lost not the slightest movement
their eyes were riveted upon hin
with a fascination that nothing
could distract I believe they
thought he was gifted like a god
When each individual got his por
ton Of medicine, his eyes were ra
diant with joy-notwithstanding b,
nature they are a thankless and i'm
passive race-and upon his face
was written the unquestioning faitI
that nothing in the world coulC
prevent the patient from gsttins
well now.
Christ knew how to preach tt
these simple, childish, ignorant, su
perstitious, direase- tortured vaga
gonds, he healed the sick. The,
fiocked to our poor human docto
this morning when the fame Of wha
he had done to the sick child wen
abroad in the land, and they wor
shipped him with their eyes while
they did not know as yet whethe
there was any virtue in his simple
or not. The ancestors Of these -
people, precisely like them in color
dress, manners, customs, ignorance
simplicity-focked in vast multi
tudes after Christ, and when the7
saw him make the afflicted Who'll,
with word, it is no wonder the,
worshipped him. No wonder his
no wonder his deeds were the tall
ofthe nation; no wonder the multi
tudes that followed Him were 81
great that at one time-30 mile:
from here-they mad to let hin
down through the roof because NJ
approach could be made to the doc
no wonder his audiences were 81
great at GalIillee that He had tt
preach from ship, removed a little
distance from the shore; no won
der that even in the desert places
about Bethsaida 5000 invaded Hi
SOlituda and IJa ho6 to food +bo,