Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1885-08-20
THE TRUE BELIEVER.

utHu tHdt eau never De erad1Cated. '-
N. 7. Commercial Advertiser.
THE TRUE BELIEVER.
Why the Mahdis Fanatical Followers Ars
So Reckless In Battle.
The Mahdi's recent proclamation to
his followers was an unique production.
Perhaps he could not better encourage
the sinking spirits of men encamped
with but scanty shelter. and still
more scanty commissar at, out upon
the burning. eye-scorching deserts OF
the Soudan, overswept with dust
storms. driven along by the fierce kam-
sin, the sitting harmattan, dry gran
their food, alkaline water their drink.
and dreary marching and wounds and
death their only service. THAT prophet
ilI-sustains his holy call who finds not
heavens to suit the taste of all. - And
Mahomet and "Mohammed Achmed,
his servant" it must be confessed, have
found one very suitable, indeed, to the
tastes of Arab folk Their songs and
their speech are filed with phrases
significant of the yearning of these
wild sons of a sterile land for the pleas
ures of green trees, understanding
flowers and bubbling water.
Religion offers them, these men of
hard lives and stern work-as the one
supreme delight of the after world
the luxury of idleness. They are not
even to take the trouble to turn upon
their beds of roses to eat and drink;
for exquis tie beings, blessed with
perpetual girlhood, will always be
at their side to offer them all
they want before they can even ask for
it. The fruit Will bend down to their
lips, the fountains of exquisite sherbets
rise to them. They are never to grow
older than the PRIME of manhood, and,
if they choose, need never, no, never,
all through the cycles of immortality,
stir an inch from the spot where an
gelic arms. carrying each from the bat
tlefield, have lain him down on the per-
fumed sward under the tooba tree. No
more camels to drive. No more in
fidels to shoot them. Peace and plenty,
perpetual youth and sacred laziness.
The birds even, in the boughs, are only
to sing in murmurous fashion. No ear
splitting clamorous song will be heard
there. The arboreal choir will all be
beautiful n ghtingales, singing through
wells, as it were, the softest whisper
ings of melody, that shall never be the
same long enough for the listener to
recognize a tune twice. The perfumes.
in the same way, will glide impercepti-
bly, from one fragrance to another, and
each in turn will be new and exquisite.
The sherbets will be nectareous blend
ings of all the hydromels, somas and
meads that poets have devised for hap
by heroes in the ''Clties of Rest and
'Elysian Fields" and are to pass by
subtle transmutations from rose to
pomegranate, and from citron to date,
from orange to grape. and SO on
through all the pippins and berries
of paradisaic orchards, favored with
such fruits as saints have worked
miracles with. such as tempted Eve,
such as the champions of Christendom
knew of, as the pilgrims found in the
Masters garden, as heroes and god
desses have strlven for-the apples OF
bliss and immortality. The houris,
too-'the dark-eyed maids above
even they are not to weary the eye by
monotony. Sixty is the smallest al
lowance. the ',half-rations," as it were.
of common. ordinary sort of true be-
lever. In exceptional cases they are
to be in number beyond counting, and
at the wish of their possessor they will
change their age, their features and
their voice. 1t is not enough that they
shall each be perfect in her own way.
Then, to think of it, superadded to all
this. the perpetual GOODNESS of thick
foliage overhead and gentle breezes,
and, above all, utter and inviolable
laziness.
1t is no wonder then that the Mahdi' s
soldiers. released from the drudgery
of beasts of burden only to march and
fight in the desperate Soudan, escaped
from the tyranny of petty masters to
fall under the unrelaxing despotism of
fanatic leader, should go to their
deaths lightly. They believe, with a
stern faith, every iota of the promises of
future pleasures held out to them, and
on that belief gladly stake the wretch
edness of their life and risk the brief
agony of death on the battlefield.
Faith. frenzied faith. once welded
firm and fast to some dear falsehood,
hugs it to the last and those who
We're in the Soudan bore ample testi-
mony to the amazing. bewildering
recklessness and disregard of pain with
which these soldiers of the Mahdi came
charging on to their fate.
The truth is, they looked beyond the
British squares at the green groves OF
parad Sc. The gil tier of the grim bayo-
nets before them was as nothing to the
radiance of the great gates they could
see opening for them. In front the
flash of rifles and the low rolling smoke
of the cannon, dull masses of men in
gray, and camels in tumultuous mo-
ton. But further off and visible only
to the eyes of those on-rushing fanatics
were the fiuttering of robes OF green
silk, the simmer of golden ornaments.
Here, close at hand, were the furious
roar of the artillery, the pitiless fusil-
lade, the fierce clamor of men giving
and receiving death; but, above it all,
the ears of the true believer, quickened
by his mortal wound. caught the sweet
fittings of heavens singing birds, the
murmur of the breeze in the leaves, the
babblings of the fountains of Zem-zem.
the whispered caresses of those hidden
pearls 1.-The maids"
So they came on in rush all to-
gether, or in small parties, or even
sngly, to meet the death (which leads
to paradise" Out from the bush and
from behind rocks they came on. one
against hundred, dancing and shout
ing. What if they fell? 1t was an inf
dePs hand that laid them low. Their
end was achieved. Or, if they reached
the unbeliever's line. and drove their
spears home before they went down
before the bullets. all the greater was
the gain, all the larger was the fullness
of eternal bliss.
The leaders OF Islam have always