The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1891-10-30


after building fourteen hundred
mosques and destroying four thousand
temples and thirty-five thousand vii
lagos and castles, yet riding in on a
camel with sack of corn, a sack of
figs and wooden plate, all that he had
kept for himself, and the diet TO which
he had limited himself for most Of the
time was bread and water Was there
ever in any other man a commingling
of elements SO strange, SO weird, so
generous, so cruel, so mighty, so weak,
so religious, so fanaticall
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 time-although if
her pictures are correct | have seen n
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 a slow pen. But down
it all went under the torch Of besicgers,
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 We're heated
with those volumes, the fuel lasting six
months, and were ever fires kindled at
such fearful cost2 What holocausts of
the worlds literature3 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 Tes-
lament An unarmed Old Testament.
Yet invulnerable and triumphant.
There must be something supernatural
about it. Conqueror of booksl 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 a 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 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 u.s. 1t is
the novelty of wretchedness and a
scene of picturesque rags. For thou
sands of years this land has been under
a very dannaton 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
Then 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.
| -, So L. 4
ed, the French for days fishing out the
dead bodies of the Mamelukes to get
the valuables upon their bodies. Ma
poleon, at the daring of these Name
lukes exclaimed, Gould have united
the Mameluke 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 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 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
my Bible it was Thanksgiving day
morning, Nov. %, 1899, that with my
family and friends we stepped aboard
the steamer on the Nile. The NOLAN
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. | bear wit
ness that Mohammed is the apostle o.
God Come to prayers. Come to sal
walton. God is great. There is ne
other but God. Prayers are better thar
sleep"
The sky and the palm groves anG
river shipping were bathed in the light
1t was not much of craft that W.
boarded 1t would not be hailed OF
any Of our rivers with any rapture o
admiration. 1t fortunately had but lit
| ~ T.