The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-10-25
/ prossiveness any assemblago Of. The present

pressiveness any assemblage of the present
century.
In the midst of so many diadems and
sceptres, it is not likely that the turban and
the scymetar of the Sultan of Zanzibar will
cut very gorgeous figure. But that poten-
tate has been invited and he has written
letter in reply. 1t is an oriental epistle, full
of tropes and graceful circumlocution, and,
though it omits to state whether he will come
or not, it is a literary treasure which should
be embalmed and preserved. SIN the name
of God the merciful, it begins, 'the most
agreeable news that the soul desires and the
most acceptable of mysteries which rejoice
the heart is the offer of a greeting more deli
cate than the zephyr of morning and sweeter
than the dew which falls on the fields and
the groves on the part Of one who unites
generosity and perfection. possesses glory
and greatness. and who has true ideas and
iron thoughts -
And so on.
This sort of epistolary glow and lustre is
rather dazzling to the occidental. We are
accustomed to bleaker and briefer methods of
communication. NJ. De Lesseps must have
noted as great a difference in color so to
speak, between the missives which he has
received from the East and from the West as
there is between the cold azure of the Medi-
terranean and the sanguine warmth of the
Red Sea. We are by no means certain that
are the best. Perhaps, as civilization ripens
at the West, new theories of epistolary cere-
mony will prevail, and kings and ministers of
state and mitred bishops, as we'll as lawyers
duns, and lovers, will so entangle their COM
munications with the hyperboles of courtesy
and the rhapsodies of compliment as to
forget what they are writing about,
as the Sultan of Zanzibar forgot to
say whether he would come or not At
present, society favors the briefer and clearer
methods of discourse; and we therefore sup
pose that there is no chance that the Presi-
dent will take lesson from the Sultan, and
send M. De Lesseps reply to the invitation
doubtless extended to him of such gorgeous
hue and intricate texture rs that portion of
which we have quoted. If Mr.. Seward were
still in the Department of State, he would
hardly allow such an opportunity of length
and eloquence to escape him. He would meet
the Sultan of Zanzibar upon his own episto-
latory' domain, and, while he exceeded him
in length, would outshine him in color and
outgrin his widest rhetorical grimace. His
retirement into private life, however, forbids
us to hope for this national triumph, for we
do not know of any one else who could sue
cessfully compete with the pious and imagina-
tive African.
1t is to be hoped that the Eastern poten-
tates do not accompany their personal saluta-
uonS with the same cIrcumambl blent ceremony
as their letters exhibit. If they do, the time
of the great engineer will be exclusively occu-
pied in listening to long orations in Arabic,
Persian, and Abyssinian, and all the other
dialects of the thronging East, his back
will be broken with salaams and his head be-
wildered with profound kotows, and his life
embittered by incessaut genuflexion. 1t is
reported that, after marrying the deeps which
have been calling to each other for ages
across the narrow rim of sand which. like the
heavy parent in the drama, has hitherto op-
posed their union, the great engineer, himself
of the ripe age of sixty, is going to lead to
the altar blusing bride of sixteen. If the
courteous Africans and Arabians, and Other
prolix personages whom he has invited to
grace his triumph, could be made aware Of
this interesting prospect, they would assu
redly refrain from thus, with much palaver
wounding his spirit and obfuscating his un
derstandino