News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1891-10-29

| so religious, so fanatlcalE
In this city was the greatest female
lecturer the world ever saw-Hypatia.
But the lesson of virtue that she taught
was obnoxious, and so they dragged
her through the streets and scraped
her flesh from her bones with sharp
oyster shells and then burned the frag-
ments of the massacred body. And
here dwelt Cleopatra, pronounced to
be the beauty of all although if
her pictures are correct L have seen a
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 for
the world if she had not been able to
speak any. Julius Caesar conquered
the world, yet she conquered Julius
| Caesar.
| CoNQUEROR OF BOOKS.
But Alexandria, fascinating for this
or that thing, according to the taste of
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 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 kindled at
such fearful costa What holocausts of
the worlds literature? What martyr
dom of books! How many of them
have gone down under the rage of ma
| TONS
Only one book has been able to with
stand the bombardment, and that has
gone through without smell of fire on
its lids. No sword or spear or musket
for its defense. An unarmed New les
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 outshone 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 Nilel Look
out of the window and see those cam
| els kneeling for the imposition of their
| load And I 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 Indebtedness and u |
scene of picturesque rags. For thou
sands of years this land has been under
very damnation of taxes. Nothing
but Christian civilization will roll back
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 Mamelukes, who are the finest
horsemen in all the world came like a
hurricane upon Napoleon's army, but
they were beaten back by the French
In one of the fiercest battles of all time.
Chen the Mamelukes turned their
horses heads the other way, and in des- !
peration backed them against the |
French troops, hoping the horses would |
kick the life out of the French regi- |
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 valuables upon their bodies. Ma
poIeon, at the daring of these Name
lukes, exclaimed, could I have united
the Mameluke horse to the French in
fantry, would have reckoned myself
master of the world"
SOLEMN AND IMPRESSIVE RIDE.
This ride along the Nile is one Of the
most solemn and impressive rides of all
my lifetime, and our emotions deepen
as the curtains of the night fall upon
all surroundings. But we shall not be
satisfied until we can take a ship and
pass right out upon these Wondrous
waters and between the banks crowded
with the story of empires.
According to the lead pencil mark in
any Bible it was Thanksgiving day
morning, Nov 2S, 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
Muezzins, from the four hundred
mosques of Cairo as the cry went out
"God is great. | bear witness that
there is no God but God. l 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 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
only name, the villages thronged
with population. Both banks crowded
with historical deeds of forty or sixty
centuries Oh. what book the Bible
is when read on the Nile!
As we slowly move up the majestic
river | 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, 1.-THE land whittier thou 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