St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1870-12-02
Lecture by Carleton.

opened auspiciOusly. on Tuesday evening
The 18th, by lecture from c. C. Coffin
Inc traveller. author and lecturer, His
subject, as announced. was. s.Domesti,
Lie In the Orient" After speaking of the
charm which surrounds the very name.
and that we are indebted to the old Ro-
mans Tor 1t. the lecturer brought up TO
mlnd the many beauties of the Orient. He
thought most of our ideas had been re-
ceived from the tales of the Arabian Nights
that the Orient of Imagination and that
OF reality are as different as LonofeIloW's
Minnehaha, and the dirty Indian girls he
had seen. not many months gone. in north
ern Minnesota picking animated matter
from each others heads.
To understand the Orient one must see
ii; and to see it, one must 90 soon. 1t is
rapidly changing. The telegraph. the
| steam car. and the ever restless Yankee.
are metamorphosing the East Near Bag
dad he saw camels laden with petroleum
from Pennsylvania; aud everywhere the
evidence OF the change which commerce
and trade bring. apparent. The phys
zeal forces OF The East are the elephant the
camel and the donkey. He conrrasted
these forces OF the Orient with those of the
occident-the donkey and the EXPRESS
train; the elephant and the Mississippi
steamer; The reed pen and ink horn of the
letIeI-writer OF the East with the Hoe
lightning press.
The Oriental prays five times day. No
matter how tnll of customers his SHOP NAV
be. or how urgent their demands. the stat
Ell time for prayers is observed; and the
western men, whose prayers are never al
lowed to conflict with business or business
hours. are looked upon by these eastern
people as heather. The lecturer then took
his hearers 10 Damascus. with lis narrow
streets and peculiarly constructed houses
built with each succeeding. story iuttin~
out over the lower ones that those in the
upper stories can shake hands across the
streets, so near together are their dwell
ings.
The letter-writers are in great demand.
especially with the women of western
Asia. as probably hot one woman in a hun
dred thousand knows how to read or write.
The women OF Asia never cross their TIRES
holds without being closely veiled. None
hut their husbands ever see their faces
They can expose their persons without re-
proach. but their faces never. The ply
stefan looks at a wOman's tongue run out
through Il slit in her veil, aud feels her
pulse from an ann thrust out from a close
~ curtained bed. The women never APP
pear in the streets or in public with their
husbands. The lecturer walked through
The streets OF Damascus with his wife ana
created iirst-class sens tion. The old
men gazed at them. the donber-boys boot
ed at them. and women looked with con-
tempt and spat upon them.
The lecturer then spoke more particu-
larry OF domestic lite in the country-in COL
trast with the city-in the East :of their mi .
cradle huts. OF the slavery and abject dec
radiation of the women: OF how little they
have in this lite 10 cheer aud comfort them:
and by their religion nothing hereafter but
misery and rally annihilation-how the
children are atfianced by their parents.
and married at Z tender agc-how the man
is tyrant. and the woman hut a beast of
burden. The lecturer dwell quite al length.
and feclin@ly. upon tie condition in viii cli
iri"Iigion. custom and caste. had placed
Ike women OF the Last. md especially
hose of India. He described the annoy
anceS an! dangers that western traveller
encounters with insects, reptiles and ami
mals-ihe prostitution occasiouei by the
heat, and The disgust felt at the filthy hab-
its Of he Oriental. especially in his culiu-
AIRY department; aud closed with 4 fine
tribute 20 our own America. and he AZ
-lo-SaNon race.
The lecture was Interesting and instruct
we. The audience was lar-c and a'tcn-
tive. Du ChaiIu. TIE great African eN-
plorcr and traveller. gives the next leo
tGre in two weeks. Dec. -.