Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1878-04-03
Iniidel Attack on the Family.

The foxes have holes and the bids OF the
air have nests, but the free lover has no
home. Great nature seems to be domestic
i'll her purposes for even the brute races
have quiet, secluded spots, of which AL
mighty Providence, by the most powerful
instincts in the brutes themselves. and bv
great arrangements running through the
whole domain of life, preserves the sacred-
ness. The swallow twittering under the
caves builds itself home. From far Africa,
or the Brazils, passing overnumberessri rivers
and cities, the best of the birds bring the
domestic impulse. The wren no less than
the eagle, and the eagle no less than the
wren mates herself. Each cares for her
young The love of children is but part
of the love of home. The unrelenting tigress,
when her whelps are injured, has a ten-fod
greater ferocity than at other times. The
mother bird, we know, broods its young
with a tenderness which Almighty God has
used as symbol OF his own kindness toward
the human race. For the cradle of the hu-
man species however, we are told that ma
ture provides no safeguard. Science, we
are assured, protects the nests and airs of
brutes, but not the sanctity of the homes of
men Five days in Constantinople sought
in vain to find among the polygamistic popu-
There rides the emperor into his mosque
from his seraglio which contains two thou
sand people; and at forty he is a gray-beard
and haccid The next day he Sits his veins
with scissors and goes hence by suicide
Undoubtedly the Turkish peasant is often
too poor to have many wives. No doubt
Mohammed advised monogamy, although
he practised polygamy. But there are special
polygamistic clauses in the Koran, and what
is their effect sailed up the Danube and
looked at the villages that are Mohamme-
dan and at the villages that are Christian.
Here is a Nlohammedan town, in which there
are no homes, in the strict sense and the
dogs in it are the only scavengers The
first object that salutes the eyes and nostrils
in Mohammedan town in the East is usu-
ally the heap of refuse at the city gate; the
next thing crowd of dogs, over which you
stumble; and then the cobweb tessellation
of filthy booths and windows. In Hebron
have been on the edge of being mobbed in
the foul streets because of the suspicion and
wildness of fouler populace; while i'll
Bethlehem, a Christian town, saw no rub
blsh; even on obscure streets, everything
was neat. You sail up the Danube. and as
the minarets fade out of sight the filthy viii
lagos fade out also. The spires come into
view, and with them the usual sights of
Christian towns. Although poverty stricken,
the villages exhibit a certain amount of en-
terprise and neatness. You find children
that do not look as if they had been un-
washed from birth. passed through the
hon Gates of the Danube in steamboat,
and on the deck were an English lord,
German professor and an American politi-
clan. As we moved from the land of nina
rets into the land of steeples, | said, We
are leaving the domain of the Koran and are
coming into that of the old-fashioned book
called the Scriptures. Il know it" said
the Massachusetts politician. "Not more
than half the people of Christian popula-
tion go to church, but they rule the other
half. We are more indebted to the Bible
and its ideas of marriage, than to all Rome,
Greek or English law. | never appreciated
the fact before" Said the German student,
in his earnestness, mistaking me- " You
should II OF be humorous upon a theme so
grave, for have been thinking how, through
all modern history, the Biblical ideas of
marriage move as the sweet waters of Jordan
through the Dead Sea-" The English lord
said {" know what Britain has inherited
from Rome | know what came to us out
of Greece. But if we are to express our
opinions as TO the dictates of experience on
this theme, if we are to take science and his
tory for our guides as we contrast minarets
for experience on one side, and spires for
experience on the other, we shall fall on our
knees ON the deck of this vessel and thank
God that We were brought up in homes of
the Biblical species"