Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1888-03-23
a mosLEM HOUSE or WORSHIP.
Scenes of SpIender in Mosque-Glimpses
of the WorShipers,

You enter this mosque through bronze
door, having of course, previously shod your
profane feet with protecting babooches; and
then YOU are free to examine and admire
The first feature that strikes you is four enor-
nous pillars. which might be compared to
four fiuted towers, and which support the
weight of the principal cupola. The capitals
of these pillars are carved into the form OF a
mass of stalactites, a style of ornament
which may be observed in many fine Persian
monuments; and halfway up they are enclr-
cled by a band covered with inscriptions III
Turkish characters. The strength and sim
plicity of these four pillars, which at once
explain to the eye the constructive system of
the building, give a striking impression OF
robust majesty and imperishable stability.
Sourates, Or verses from the Koran, form
bands of running ornament around the
great cupola and the minor domes and the
cornices.
From the roof are suspended to within
eight or ten feet of the ground innumerable
busters, composed Of glass cups full of tai
low, set in circular iron frame and dec
GRATED with balls of crystal, ostrich eggs and
silk tassels, as in st. Sophia and all the other
mosques. The mihrab, which designates the
direction of Mecca-the niche where rests
the sacred book the Koran, the 'noble book
taken from a prototype kept in heaven
is inlaid with lapis lazuli, agate and jasper.
Then there is the usual member, surmounted
by conical sound board; the mastaches, or
platforms supported by colonettes, where the
muezzins and other clergy sit. As in all the
mosques, the side aisles are incumbered with
trunks and bales of merchandise, deposited
by pious Mussulmans under divine safe
guard; and finally, the floor is covered with
fine mating in summer and carpets in win
ter.
While I was lost in wonderment at the
splendor of this mosque sexeral Moslems
came in to pray, with the usual prostrations
and beard stroking and yawling. Two or
three women also came to pray, clad in
feridjis of brilliantly striped silks-rose and
white, azure and white, yellow and red-and
they, too, kneeled on the mating and bowed
and touched the ground with their brows;
and their little baby girls, with their fine
eyes and white wells wrapped round their
heads, stood patient and motionless beside
them, not being yet old enough to pray or
perhaps not strong enough on their legs to
PROSTATE themselves without irremediably
losing their balances. Atlantic Monthly.
Meu VINO OeG SIDE tracked
Perhaps the most numerous class Of men
who get side tracked are those who start in
life in an occupation for which they have no
natural aptitude. There are thousands of
farmer boys who never should remain on the
farm-the loud protestations of the agricult-
ural press to the contrary notwithstanding.
There are, doubtless, men who make life
business of stirring the soil when they
ought to be stirring the senate; and, on the
contrary, perhaps, there are men who are
trying to stir the senate who ought to be
stirring the soil. Good business men are
frequently spoiled to make poor preachers;
and there are many large and heavy lawyers
who would make ideal blacksmiths; and
there are some slender and unsuccessful
blacksmiths with the keen logical brain and
the shrewd masterful mind of the lawyer.
Such men are side tracked for life, unless
there is some great event crosses their track,
such as crossed the track of Grant the team
ster, or Cromwell the country squire. But
no doubt there are many Grants who always
team, and many Cromwells who never leave
the farm. There are many men who start
out in life, like hunters, on the wrong trail.
They never bring down their game because
their game has gone in another direction.
They are like fishermen who bob for cod in
trout brook or start a-whaling on an in
land pond.
There are some men who are side tracked
for life at their very birth. They are born
into mesh of circumstances from which
there is no eXtrication, OF course it is easy
enough to say that a man, like water. will
always find his level; but its hard for water
to rise plumb with its fountain head when
confined in an underground pipe. 1t would
have been difficult for Shakespeare to assert
his claim to Immortality if he had been born
in Patagonia, and we would never have heard
Of Plato if he had first seen the light in
Scythia. To say nothing of the hereditary
influences that mold tie unborn man, the
environment of the young humans infancy
usually shapes and directs his destiny, so irrev-
ocably that only men of the strongest will
and the toughest mental and physical fiber
can ever counterfeit the impetus that is given
them in childhood. Blade.