The News-Herald. [volume] (Hillsboro, Highland Co., Ohio) 1886-1973, 1891-12-03
LIFE In ASSYRIA.
Quantity Described by Native
Of That Land


Girls bought and sold for Cameis and
shcep- --Cheapness Of the Prod
nets Of Nature and
s Labor.
Men live on six cents day in Assy-
ria. Assyrian women, after one hum
dred years Of Christian labor, are
bought and sold; are made to work
with oxen at the plow, and have rs
little liberty as in the days of Cadmus.
Men who pay six dollars day to live
and the ladies who ride to shops in
victorins thought over these things as
they left the Lincoln Park Congrega-
tional church the other night, says the
Chicago Herald. Amen Rasi, born on
Mount Lebanon, told these things in
broken English. Amen Rasi Is a tall,
handsome Assyrian with skin as rich
us tho cinnamon silks made at the foot
of the mountain on which he was born.
He looked into the curious, bright eyes Of
girls and toli them that. had they been
born Assyrians, in Assyria, they could
not 60 upon the streets unless their
faces were concealed: that they could
neither receive nor make call among
women without their husbands con-
sent, and that If ut any time, even by
accident. they were seen by any man
or in any way recognized one, no one
would marry them. He said that once
two couples, q tall man and tall
woman and short man and a short
woman, stood before priest to be wed.
The priest placed the tall man and the
tall woman and tho short man and the
short woman together and none OF tho
four knew whether IT was right or not,
neither Of them knowing the other.
But the parents hastily objected and
placed the tall man by the short woman
and the short man by tho tall woman.
as that was the way Of the contracts.
Then Mr.. Rasi showed how these con-
tracts were made. He left the pulpit
and presently q man wrapped up in
rich Assyrian raiment went up and sat
upon the floor. Mr.. Rasi came back
and squatted beside him. II would
very much like" he said, .'for girl
who is yours to be wife to my son
Isaac" IL would be honored," re-
turned the man, with very unnis-
/ taxable American accent. How many
have you?" "Threc." "flow much
years have thcy?" ''One is fifteen, one
twenty and one twenty Eve" Don't
talk to me about the twenty-five, nor
the twenty; they are never ft to mar
little one?" "Five camcls, four horses,
three sheep and fifty dollars" bah!
buy one hundred women for SO much"
''But not little ones "Oh, think
So" well, you can't have mine for q
cent less" Il pay" But even then
Isaac did not get the little one, because
few minutes later Mr. Rasi returned
as another man, and by doubling the
price secured the girl for his son Jacob.
Then Amen Rasi looked at young
men whose patent feathers cost them
seven dollars and told them that people
in Assyria paid fifty cents for suit Of
clothes. The common people, he said,
paid twenty-five cents day for house
rent, three cents for twenty-five pounds
of cabbage and four cents for fifty
pounds Of turnips. Fifty loaves Of bread
were turned out ut a baking and men
sometimes ate four and Eve at meal.
| He waited for q moment, and then turn
ing to blackboard behind him said:
"They are so big" and he drew cir
| Gle that would inclose Thanksgiving
platter.
Speaking Of Assyrian, cities he said
that when in the gardens Of Sidon the
rain fell upon the orange and lemon
trees and knocked the fruit upon the
ground hundred could he purchased
for FIVE cents. He said that in Damascus
there are one hundred and thirty thou
sand Mohammedans, one hundred and
fifty thousand Christians and five thou
sand Jews. In the city there is build
ing haunted by John the Daptist's
! ghost Tho door Of the room in which
he is said to have been beheaded is
never opened. The Mohammedans
say that once long ago some one opened
it and the Baptist's blood flowed out
over the city to depth of five
inches. 1t was the custom for worship
ers to leave their shoes outside the
temple. There were sometimes three
or four hundred pairs standing in arow,
and the poorer people hurried through
their prayers first and then carefully
selected the finest footwear in the row
thereby illustrating tie great clever
ness of the Assyrians.