Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1891-10-26

IAtiftS VI OilS tL1ttS1tiCiCd OOO AI1O
here dwelt Cleopatra, pronounced t.
be the beauty of ali time-alt...}.. II i
her pictures are correct | have seen
thousand women in Brooklyn more at
tractive-and she was as bad As she
was said to be handsome. Queen, con
queress, and spoke seven languages, al
though it would have been better fol-
the world if she had not been able tt
speak any. Julius Caesar conquered
the world yet she conquered Julius
Cesar.
CONQUEROR OF BOOKS.
But Alexandria, fascinating for this
or that thing, according to the taste Oh
the visitor, was to me most entertain
ing because it had been the site of the
greatest library that the world ever
saw, considering the fact that the art
of printing had not been invented
Seven hundred thousand volumes, and
all the work Of a slow pen. But down
it all went under the torch of besiegers
Built again and destroyed again. Built
again, but the Arabs came along for
its final demolition. and the four thou
sand baths of the city were heated
with those Volumes the fuel lasting six
months, and were ever fires kindIed at
such fearful cost? What holocausts of
the worlds literature? What martyr
dom of books! How many of them
have gone down under the rage of ma
tions.
Only one book has been able to with
stand the bombardment, and that has
| fhro11c Of
its lids. No sword or spear or musket
for its defense An unarmed New Tes-
lament. An unarmed Old Testament
Yet invulnerable and triumphant.
There must be something supernatural
about it. COnquerOr of books! Mon
arch of books! All the books Of the
ages in all the libraries ontshone by
this one book which you and | can
carry to church in pocket, So me
thought amid the ashes of AleXandrian
libraries.
But all aboard the Egyptian rail train
going up the banks Of the Nile. Look
out Of the window and see those cam
els kneeling for the imposition of their
load. And | think we might take from
them a lesson, and, instead of trying to
stand upright in our own strength, be
come conscious of our weakness and
need of divine help before we take
upon us the heavy duties of the year
or the week or the day, and so kneel
for the burden. We meet professions
| Of men and beasts on the way from
| their days work, but alas for the
homes to which the poor inhabitants
are going, for the most part novels Of
mud. But there is something in the
scene that thoroughly enlists us. 1t is
the novelty of wretchedness and Il
scene of picturesque rags. For thou
sands OF years this land has been under
a very damnation of taxes. Nothing
| but Christian civilization will roll Lack
the influences which are spelling the
| Egyptians" There are gardens and
palaces but they belong to the rulers.
About here, under The valiant Murad
| Bey, the Mameiukes. who are the finest
| hOrsemen in all the world, came like =
hurricane upon NapoIeon's army, but
they were beaten back by the French
In one of the iiercest battles OF all time
Then the AIalnelukes turned their
horses heads the other way, and in Ges-
peratiOn backed them against the
French troops, hoping the horses would
kick the life out of the French rel
ments. The Mamelukes failing again,
plunged into this Nile and were drown
ed, the French for days fishing out the
dead bodies of the Mamelukes TO get
the valuabes upon their bodies Ma
IL i ~, y
lukes, exclaimed. Gould have united
the Mamelulze horse to the French in
fantry, would have reckoned myself
master Of the world. "
a SOLEMN AND IMPRESSIVE RIDE.
This ride along the Nile is one OF the
most solemn and impressive rides of al
my lifetime, and our emotions deepen
as the curtains of the night fail upon
all surroundings. But we shall not be
satisfied until we can take ship and
pass right out upon these wonirous
waters and between the banks crowded
with the story of empires.
According to the lead pencil mark in
my Bible it was Thanksgiving day
morning, Nov %, 1889, that with my
family and friends we stepped aboard
the steamer on the Nile The Moham-
medan call TO prayers had been sound
ed by the priests of that religion. the
Muezzns, from the four hundred
mosques of Cairo as the cry went out
"God is great | bear witness that
there is no God but God. | bear wit
ness that Mohammed is the apostle of
God. Come to prayers. Come to sal
walton. God is great. There is no
other but God. Prayers are better than
sleep"
The sky and the palm groves and
river shipping were bathed in the light.
1t was not much of Il craft that we
boarded. 1t would not be hailed on
any of our rivers with any rapture of
admiration. 1t fortunately had but lit
tie speed, for twice we ran aground
and the sailors jumped into the water
and on their shoulders pushed her out.
But what yacht of gayest sportsman,
what deck of swiftest ocean queen
could give such thrill of rapture as a
sail on the Nile? The pyramids in
sight, the remains Of cities that are now
with population. Both banks crowded
with historical deeds of forty or sixty
centuries. Oh, what a book the Bible
is when read on the Nile!
AS we slowly move up the majestic
river I see on each bank the wheels,
the pumps, the buckets for irrigation,
and see a man with his foot on the
treadle of a wheel that fetches up the
water for a garden, and then for the
first time [ understand that passage in
Deuteronomy which says of the Israel
ties after they had got back from
Egypt, THE land whittier t.lou goest |
in to possess it is not as the land of |
Egypt from whence We came out where
thou sowedst thy seed and wateredst
it with thy foot
Then [ understood how the land |
could be watered with the foot How |
do you suppose felt when on the deck
of that steamer on the Nile looked off |
upon the canals and bitches and sluices |
through which the fields are irrigated |
DV that river and then raaH in Isaiah