The intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1887-1891, 1890-12-13

100, 600 would say Mohammed. Looking
from the window, you see the house
tops, and on the streets Moham-
medans at worship. The muezzin
or the officers of religion, who an
nounce the time of worship. appear
high on the different minarets or tall
towers, and walked around the mineret,
enclosed by a railing and cry in a
sad and mumbling way: God is great.
1 bear witness thai there is no God but
God. l bear witness that Mohammed Is
the apostle of God. Come to prayersl
Come to salvation God is great. There
is no other but God. Prayers are better
than sleep" Five times a day u the
Mohammedan Engage in worship.
There are two or three commendable
things about Mohammedanism. One Is
that its disciples wash before every act
of prayer. and that is five times a day,
and there is a gospel in cleanliness.
Another comm ldable thing is, they
don't care who Is look .ng, and nothing
can stop them in their prayer. Another
thing Is that by the order of Mohammed,
and an order obeyed for 1, 800 years. 10
Mohammedan touches strong drink.
But the polygamy the many-wifehood
OF Mohammedanism has made that re-
ligion the unutterable and everlasting
curse of women, and when oma
sinks, the race sinks,
The spirit of the horrible religion
which pervades the city of Damascus,
along whose streets we walk and out of
whose bazars we make purchases and in
whose mosques we study the wood carv-
ings and bedizenments, was demon
strated as late as 1850, when in this
city it put TO death 6, 900 Christians in
forty-eight hours and put to the torch
8 900 Christian homes, and those streets
we walk to-day were red with the car
mage, and the shriekI and groans Of the
dying and ~dishonored men and women
made this place a hell on earth. This
went on until q Mohammedan, better
han his religion, Abd-el-Kader by
name, q great soldier who in m war
had with 20, 900 troops beat 90, 900 of the
enemy, now protested against this mas
sacre and gathered the Christians of
Damascus into castles and private
houses and filled his own home
with affrighted sufferers. After
awhile the mob came to his door and de-
mauded the 'Chr stan dogs whom he
was sheltering. And Abd-el-Kader
mounted q horse and drew his sword
and with a few of his old soldiers around
him charged on the mob and cried:
"Wretches! Is this the way you honor
the prophet? May his curses be upon
you! Shame on you! Shame! You will
| yet live to repent. You think you may
do as you Please with the Christians,
| - 49, a., 80 ,nt, I,tin. mill oopoa
The Franks will yet turn your mosques
| into churches. Not a Christian will l
give up. They are my brothers. Stand
back or / will give my men the order to
fire." Then by the might Of one great
| soul under God the wave of assassipa.
| ton rolled back.
Although now we Americans and for
eigners pass through the streets Of Da-
| mascus unhindered, there is in many
parts Of the city the subdued kissing
of hatred for Christianity that il it
dared would put TO death every man,
woman and child in Damascus who does
not declare allegiance to Mohammed
But | am glad to say that a wide, hard
splendid turnp he road has within a few
years been constructed from Beyrout on
the shore of the Mediterranean to this
CITY OF Damascus, and, if ever again
that wholesale assassination Is at
tempted, French troops and English
troops would, with juggling bits and
lightning hoofs, dash up the hills and
down on this Damascus plain and leave
the Mohammedan murderers dead on
the floor of their mosques and seraglios.
But 1 must say that this city OF Da-
mascus, as l see it now, is not as abb
sorbing as the Damascus OF olden times.
l turn my back upon the bazars, with
rugs fascinating the merchants from
Bagdad, and the Indian textile fabric
Of incompatible make, and the anu
featured saddles and brides gay enough
for Princes OF the Orient to ride and
pull, and baths where ablution becomes
inspiration, and the homes OF those
bargain makers Of to-day, marbled and
divaned and fountained and upholstered
and mosaiced and arsbesqued and col
onnaded until nothing Ear be added,
and the splendid remains of the great
mosque Of John, originally built with
gates so heavy that it required five men
to turn them, and columns of ~porphyry
and kneeling places framed in diamond
and se~venty-four stained glass windows
and 900 lamps of pure gold, a sim
gle prayer offered in this mosque
said to be worth 80. 600 prayers
offered in any other place. ! turn my
back on all these and see Damascus as
it was when this narrow street, which
the Bible calls Straight, was a great
Wild street, a great thoroughfare cross
ing the city from gate to gate, along
which tramped and rolled the pomp Of
oil nations. There goes Abraham. the
father OF all the faithful He has in
this CITY been purchasing q celebrated
slave. There goes Ben Hadsd Of Bible
times leading thirty-two conquered
monarchs. There goes David, King,
warrior and sacred poet There goes
Tamerlane, the conqueror. There goes
Horoun al Raschid, once the commander
Of an army of ninety-fve thousand
Persians and Arabs,
There ONE a warrior On his way to
the barracks, carrying that kind OF
sword which the world has forgotten
how to make, a Damascus blade with
the interlacings of color changing al
every new turn of the light, many colors
coming and going and int~erjoining, the
blade SO keen it could cut in twain an
object without making the lower partoi
the object tremble, with an elasticity
that could not be broken though you
brought the point of the blade clear
back to the hilt, and having a waJered
appearance which made the blade seem
as though just dipped in a clear fount'
ain, a triumph Of cutlery which Q thou
sand modern foundrymen and chemists
have attempted in vain to initiate. On
the side of this street damasks, named
after this city, figures Of animals, and
fruits, and landscapes here being
first wrought into s~ilk-damasks.
And specimens Of da~maskeeming by
which in this city steel and iron were
first graVed, and then the grooves
filed with wire OF gold-damaskeem
ing. But stand back or be run over, fol
here are at the gates of the city laden
caravans from Aleppo in one direction
and from Jerusalem in another direo
ton, and caravans Of all nations paying
toll to this supremacy. Great 10 Dam
ascusi
But what most stirs my soul is a blind
man passing along the street, small o.
stature and insignificant in personal
appearance. He was one Of that caval
cade coming from Jerusalem to Dsmas
Gus to kill Christians; and we saw hin
and his horse tumble up there on the
road some distance out OF the city, and
he got up blind. Yes, 1t Is Saul oil
Tarsus now going along this street