Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1885-11-30

proven ny tnelf own cOnScleuce,
give thanks and otherwise mark the
day as a festival.
LIFE IN DAMASCUS.
From the correspondence of the
Lewiston (Me. Journal we copy as
follows:
The public letter-writer is an in
stitution of Damascus as of Jerusa-
lem and Cairo. He is handed down
from great antiquity, and is SOU
venir of public ignorance. His shrine
is under fig-tree, as Nathaniel was
found of Jesus.
There are rude booths, such as the |
people constructed in Jerusalem in
ancient times during the pentecostal
feasts. The booths contain knot |
of women gossiping and smoking the
big water pipe. Sellers of licorice
water, favorite beverage of Damas-
Gus, pass up and down, banging their
brazen saucers together to attract at
tention aud adding a monotonous,
drawling outcry to the advertisement.
Lemonade and rose-wateI in glass
urns with leathern spouts is served
to the thirsty for penny glass.
We saw ragtag and bobtail COM
pany of pilgrims returning from a
religious feast at Jerusalem. They
are firing old guns, beating tom-toms
and drums, and making hideous
noise. They have been week or
ten days foot, and are weary
band, cordially greeted by their
friends. These pilgrimages are sub
stantially what they were in the time
of Christ, and they straggle along in
a most disorderly manner. 1t is very
easy to see how Jesus parents lost
him on their return from Jerusalem
to Nazareth, when the lad was II
years old.
There is not newspaper in Da
mascus Think of a city of zoe, 900
souls without street lights, or a rear
post-ofiice service, OF skating-rink
Probably there are not half dozen
carriages in the whole city.
The boys of Damascus, in little
cotton gowns and red fez, are brought
up to industry. Here is one mortis-
ing a piece of timber; another is
planning a board for the construction
of rude cradle.
Long strips of mutton, with roses
stuck into it, signify market large
ly attended by flies.
The windows along the narrow
streets are without glass, bu: are
protected by iron gratings.
We pass the whitewashed tomb of
Sheikh. A great ungainly boy is
crying, lying PROSTATE by the tomb.
Other mourners are making noise to
order. Lamps of oil are dimly burn
ing in the niche ordained to bags and
divers offerings of love. Arabic in
scriptions give the dead Sheikh di.
vine honors.
Here are rude cafes with stone
floors, and groups of robed sons o.
the Prophet smoking their lives away
and gambling at a game somewha
akin to dominoes in the open air, a
little round tables.
Boys are making baskets ont of pa
pyrus-as did their forefathers. N
j doubt the mother of Moses made al
ark for her baby out of the same ma
4 terial, which you will remember wa
as plenty on the Nile in Moses da,
as it now is by the waters of Mer
mon.
The tensorlal artist of Damascu
is an amusing fellow. He plants hi
little chair anywhere by the waysid
and shaves the top of the patriarch
: head as bare as the shell of an os
: trich's egg.
See that Arab and his latest wife
They are astride the same horse, bu
: the husband has the reins. The wifi
$ sits astrlde as does her liege lord
and perhaps there is baby or tw'
1 lashed to her.
+ See that prophet in the green tul
}. ban jogging along on a iackass. H
: is chewing string beans and waite
) oresses-poorer and less inspiring ra
u tions than John the Baptist's 10
$ Gusts and wild honey.
Il We stop at the Greek Hotel, an
3 the proprietor treats US to cigarette
u and rose water, sickish swee
! drink, which compels one to wish h
u hadn't come, but which the ciyiitie
$ of hospitality require we should com
}. pliment.