The Portland daily press., 1869-05-03
miscellany.
nae azEdzie Ages.
TIL. ARAss, rzn MOBILES, THE wot

rHR ARABs. TIE MOBILES, THE WORKERS.
The Industrious arabs revived those useful
arts which the barsarians OF Europe seemed
ANXIOUS So forget. Thsy woye the richest
fabrits OF ssool, cotton OF silk; they manufac-
turec esesh cf EolG and carpets of Hnequaled
splendor; si.eir diTans were covered with sat
in cushions sud felvat hangings; and mus
Inns anu lacts Of fairy-iike texture adorned
the MaslSll BRIDE. In metals the Arabs were
also eEcslsen5 workmen. They forged huge
chains and bars of iron; the steel OF Damas-
Gus wa5 renowned in the cities OF Europe.
Their jeEelEy WIS the iairest aud costllest OF
the age; shey lEvishcd gold and silver in dec
orating thGir Eaosques and their palaces; and
their tnints produced coinage that was the
model of tIic EGropean werld, As architects
they invented strangely graceful style OF
building, ia which the fancy of the artist
seemed TO reyel in new creations, ana Oh
which the lovely ruins OF the AlhamDra lorIn
living example; in their private houses Iney
gathered the richest marbles, bne costlless
mosaics, fountains OF dancing "aeeiS' anu
gardena of perpetual beauty
THE Arab workman WAS usually temperate
o,y,ost ~ er,efFrisy. Mohammed had en-
forced the doctrines Of total abstinence with
a rigor unsurpassed by the most austere OF
modern rcforIners. He denounced temporal
and eternal woes against the Mussulman who
himself set IN example of perfect abstinence,
and ia their pures age his followers obeyed
the precept sf their prophet. 1t was only in
the decline OF the nation that the Moham-
medans learned to initiate the drunkenness
and license OF tho Europeans. Temperate in
their diet, frugal in theiI mode of life, the
Arabs possessed sound intellects in sound
bodies; thsy soon began to display an intel
lectu&l fshor that raised them to the front OF
civilization. They eagerly sought for know-
edge amidst the ruins of Grecian literature,
and the Foets aud philosophers of Athens
and OF R1saE we're translated for the Denent
of the st&lcnis af Bagdad and CordoVa. The
college1 and selools OF the ARAB cities were
throneed 9th attentive scholars when the
great no5i6a of France and England could
neither rond nor write; they produced emf
nent poets and graceful writers while Europe
had neither q literature nor language, their
libraries numbered thousands OF volumes
when Oxfotd possessed only few imperfect
manuscripts chained to the walls; and the
poorest merchant of Bagdad lived with more
comfort and was far better informed than the
proud knight who came at the head OF his
barbarous squadrons to die on the burning
plains of Syria in an Intellectual crusade.
The feudal mobiles looked with an insane
hatred upon the busy cities of the working
men, and constantly labored to destroy their
benetactors. They would have been glad to
have swept them from the earth. Like Com
mines, shey could not understand why God
permitted laboring communities to exist
Froissart rejoiced in the slaughter OF the
Glow born peasants of Ghent, and lament
ed that any OF them were left. The Dukes
of Burgundy loaded the cities with taxes,
which they collected whenever they were
able. They made every excuse for pillaging
and burning them. The "good" Duke Philip
burned the rich town of Dinant, and drown
ed eight hundred of its citizens in the river;
the bold Charles made magnificent Liege a
fearful solitude. A warfare almost constant
ragged for several centuries between the work
men of Flanders and the feudal powers
around them, in which the men of labor
were often more than a match for the men
of the sword, in which the long pixies of the
tradesmen often put to flight great hosts of
mail. clad warriors, and which aided in a
great degree to produce the downfall of chiv-
airy. The example of Ghent and Bruges
everywhere awakened the selt-respect of la
boring men. Ghent stood at the front of
European progress. James and his son Philip
van Arteveld aWoke wild enthusiasm for
selEgoVenment which was felt in every land.
The Partisan butchers and clothiers rose
against their king, all Flanders obeytd Philip,
and the people, it is said, adored him as
god; nobility and royalty began to be looked
upon as badges of iniamy; the crimes OF
kings and MOBILES made them hated as muir
derers and assassinS; and the peasants of
France, in the rising called the Jacquerie,
said very truly that, "the mobiles of the King
dom Of France, Knight and Squire, were
disgrace to it."-EUGENE LAWRENCE in
Hdrper'S MGgGzine