The Toledo chronicle. [volume] (Toledo, Tama County, Iowa) 1873-1924, 1877-03-22

from the casual ward Of q work
house supporting such an appliances
Of advanced civilization to exist in
the Ottoman Empire. There were some
eighteen in number, braWny, unwashed,
ragged vagabonds Of all compilations,
fr0ff q pestywhite % deep chocolate
hue; and among them noticed one negro
OF colossal stature, and Of deep, shiny
black. His unfiawed ebony was most A.
tisticAlly set off by his apparel, which con-
yisted solely Of smock and short pair
Of drawers Of Write linen, grit about his
waist.by faded red rag, and leaving his
broad chest and muscular arms and legs
bare. l fancy that he was Nubian, not
yefy long caught Anyway, he was the
life and soul Of the Howlers, who stood up
in a row against the wall IN the place
where the Mithrab was, or should nave
been, and, following the i..ugiemanshlp OF
the Sheik, Jecited the Lab. 'uian, Whicn
was pronounced, by the way, Lol anu
+. ollah!' The principal move. men. on
their parts seemed to be violent stamP
on the ground; and, as they went Up anu
down, waggifg their preposterous heso>.
waving their bony arms, and bringing
down their huge feet in alternate thuds
on the ground, / could moi help musing
upon the benefit they might derive from
say half an hours exercise every morning
Cd HE tfeadmill of an English county jail,
with taste of the cato -nine-tails after
ward, just to equalize the circulation.
The negro and his seventeen associates
continued to tramp and to intone their
psalmody for about twenty-five minutes;
and then they began to howl, not by any
means in unison, but every one on his own
account. There were those who bawled
bass and those who gr0wled treble. Some
grunted like swine, some barked ike
dogs, some lowed like kline, some bel
lowed like bulls. some squalled like cats,
while others merely yelled and shrleked
like the human Bedlamitcs they seemed
to have been temporarily turned into. In
this screeching, wailing, snarling, gurg-
ling, gasping din, the voice OF the NuDian
was always predominant. He was the
first to begin and the last to leave of this
-diabolieal clatter, but showed no signs OF
sswooninga on the contrary, the rogue
looked as though he derived intense en-
joyment from the performance. =
81 should be ashamed to record-werea
not idle to blush for any action that IS
which I encountered during his mad
orgie of caterwauling was to refrA in my
self from taking an active part In the. per-
Torrance. There came over me twenty
times fierce and well nigh irrepressibie
desire to howl. There was something
more than seductive, more than tempting
there was that which was absolutely
fascinating and enthralling in the oppor-
tunity Offered for proclaiming ones indi-
viduality in barbaric yawp,' as Walt
Whitman puts it. The occasion is
fleeing Hippocrates tells us. When
might such another present itself as that
offered by the Howling Place OF the Agia
Yanni? Who was to say me nay If l
elected to yelp9 I had been told by a
friend. well yersed in the mysteries of
Islam, that the believing bulls of Bashan
against the wall were not protested Der
wishes. They were not even holy men,
but merely penitents who, in atonement
for some crime committed, had come here
to Join in the devotional exercises of the
Roofai, and so howl themselves into a
state of grace. There may have been,
perchance, some penitent Bashi-B a-
zouks. some remorseless Zaptiens, some
reclaimed Kaimakams among the screet.h-
ing. stamping gang; and the doleful
| wells of Hoo! yah! hoon may have i'm
piled an expression OF sorrow Tor the
| howler's participation in the Bulgarian
atrocities. l hope that it was SO with all
my heart. Ihave good many sins OF my
own to account for, and, why, thought,
should not essay to howl few OF them
out? We are fond enough at home
of talking of sitting in sackcloth and
ashes, of rcnding our garments, OF beat
ing our breasts, and of lifting up
our voices and weeping; but, Task, do we
ever actually do any one OF these things
Is there any abnormal demand for clnders
on Ash Wednesday? Did you ever see
out of mad house, anybody tearing ms
or her hair? You talk about wriGglne
your hands. Did you ever do SO, save
perhaps, after washing those extremitie'
at hotel, and finding that the chamber.
maid had forgotten to bring you towel
Among the Roofai facilities are provided
for converting mere rhetoric into logic,
and you may wall yourself out OF breath
without scandalizing your nelghbors.
There is, apprehend, another and more
deeply seated cause which might account
for the temptation, which ostensibly civ
ilized and apparently rational beings often
experience, to make fools OF themselves
in the way of shrieking? Wise physicians
will discourse to you very learnedly abou,
the proneness of the nervous system to
hysterical affections, and the contagious
ness of hysteria itself; but all l know is
that when one wild beast begins to howl
another follows suit; that the lion roar
ing in the jungle is answered by the gar
rulous jackal and the derisively -humol'-
Gus hyena; and that African chiefs and
their savage taborers will, when elevated
by patriotism, piety and trade rum, shout
by the hour together. was fortunately
enabled to subdue my savage instincts
among the Roofai; but, had howled my
loudest in unison with the rapscallions
around me, should have been ceding, l
am afraid, only TO thoroughly natural
intuition. Baby is quite a natural char
acter, and does not he howl from morning
until nights"