Daily independent. [volume] (Elko, Nev.) 188?-1915, 1891-12-15
LIFE IN ASSYRIA.
Quantity Described by q Native
Of That Land
Girls Bought and Sold for Camels and
Sheep-Cheapness of the Prod
uctG OF Nature and
Labor.

Men live on six cents n day in Assy-
rio. Assyrian women, after one hum
drcd years of Christian labor, are
bought and sold; are made to work
with oxen ut the plow, and have as
little liberty as in the days of Cadmus.
Men who pay six dollars Il day to live
and the ladies who ride to shops in
victorias 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 ElN-lis Amen Rasi is a tall,
handsome Assyrian with skin as rich
as the cinnamon silks made at the foot
of the mountain on which he was born.
He looked into the curious, bright eyes of
girls and toll them that. had they been
born Assyrians, in Assyria, they could
not go upon the streets unless their
faces were concealed; that they could
neither receive nor make n call among
women without their husbands con-
sent, and that if at any time, even by
accident. they were sen by any man
or in any way recognized one, no one
would marry them. lie said that once
two couples, a tall man and tall
woman and n short man and a short
woman, stood before priest to be we'd.
The priest placed the tall man and the
tall woman and the short man and the
short woman together and none of the
four knew whether 1T was right or not,
neither of them knowing the other.
But the parents hastily objected and
placed the tall man 10y the short woman
and the short man by the tall woman,
US that was the way of the contracts.
Then Mr.. Rasi showed how these con-
tracts were made. He left the pulpit
and presently man wrapped up in
rich AsSyrian raimcnt went mp and sat
upon the floor. Mr.. Rasi came back
and sQuattcd beside him. 81 would
very much like" he said "for girl
who is yours to be wife to my son
Isaac" 81 would be honored," re-
turned the man, with II very unmis-
taxable American accent. slow many
have you?" ''Three." "IIow much
years have they?' "One is fifteen, one
twenty and one twenty five" Don't
talk to me about the twenty five, nor
the twenty; they are never fit to mar
ry. How much do you charge for the
little once" Give camcls, four horses,
three sheep and fifty dollars" Bah!
buy one hundred women for so much"
"But not little ones" "Oh, I think
So "Wcll, you can't have mine for a
cent less" Il pay" But even zen
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 hssyria paid fifty cents for suit of
clothes. The common people, he said,
paid twenty-ti cents Ii day tor house
rent, three cents for twenty-five pounds
VI cabbage md four cents for fifty
pounds of turnips. Fifty loavcs of bread
we're turned out at n baking and men
sometimes ate four and five at meal
lie waited for a moment, and then turn.
ing to n blackboard behind him said
>"rhey are SO big" and he drew cir
Gle that would inclosc a Thanksgiving
platter.
Speaking Of Assyrian cities nc saii
that when in the gardens of Sidon thu
rain fell upon the orange and lemon
trees and knocked the fruit upon tn,
;rround n hundred could be purchaser
Tor five cents. He said that in Damascu
there are one hundred and thirty thou
sand Mohammedans, one hundred an
afty thousand Christians and five thou
sand Jews. In the city there Is build
ing haunted by John the Baptist
ghost. The door of the room in whic
he is said to have been bcheaded i
never opened. The Mohammcdun
say that once long ago some one openc
it and the Baptist's blood flowed on
over the city to- n depth Of fiv
inches. IT was the custom for WORSHIP
ors to leave their shoes outside TIL
temple, There were sometimes tire
W four hundred pnirs standing in arrow
and the poorer people hurried throug
thcir prayers FIRST and then CAREFUL
selected the finest footwear in the ROY
shnrol,,, ;lI,,t-,4;,,c. A., 1890. Il