The Roanoke times. [volume] (Roanoke, Va.) 1890-1895, 1893-10-01
INDUCED IN SHARP WORDS.
Cantankerous Speeches in the
Parliament Of Religions.
Breezy Letter From the Worlds Tair-Red
200 Cook Criticises the Hindoos and
the Hindoos Attacked Christianity.
The shOuters of the Midway PIaisance.

WORLDS FAIR. Sept 80. = The
parliament of religions reached a point
where sharp acerbities develop. The thin
veil of courtesy was maintained, of course,
but behind twas i'll feeling. Rev. Joseph
Cook criticised the Hindoos sharply and was
more sharply criticised in turn. He said
chat to speak of universe that was not
created is almost objectionable nonsense,
and the Asiatics retorted that universe
which had beginning is self evident alb
surdity. Bishop j. p. Newman, firing at
long range from the banks of the Ohio, de-
clared that the orientals have insulted all
the Christians Of the United States by their
misrepresentation of the missionaries, and
the orientals, with their provokingly calm
and supercilious smile, replied that this
was simply the bishops ignorance.
Buddhist Philosophy.
In response to the question direct, three
learned Buddhists gave us in remarkably
plain and beautiful language their bed
rock belief about God, man and matter
The first they ignore, the second they re-
gard rs link in an endless chain, and the
third they consider-well, the only word 1
can think of to fit their idea is unmanape-
able. The common people, they admit, be-
lieve of such philosophy only so much or so
vanced Buddhists hold rs follows, and con-
dense now from the statements of all three:
Good and evil are not from an omnipotent
will, but inhere in matter and are deter
mined solely by results. Happiness and
misery are results, not punishments The
universe has no center or outside, and no
beginning or ending either in time or space
There never was a creation; there never
Will be destruction. Man cannot know
an infinite; his entire duty is to know man
and improve his own character Happiness
Is possible by continued improvement, but
not Mt all certain; and whether happiness
be attainablc or not, the duty of man is
Just the same"
Cantankerous Remarks.
Swami Vivekannnda, the Hindoo monk,
was not so fortunate He was out of hu
NOR, or soon became So apparently. He
wore an orange robe and n pale yellow tur.
ban and dashed ut once into a savage at
tack on Christian nations in these words:
we who have come from the cast have
sat here day after day and have been told
In II patronizing way that we ought to &C.
cept Christianity because Christian nations
are the most prosperous. We look about
us and we see England the most prosper
GUS Christian nation in the world, with
her foot on the neck of $50, GOO, 900 of Asiat-
les we look back into history and see that
the prosperity of Christian Europe began
with Spain. Spain's prosperity began with
the invasion OF Mexico. Christianity wins
its prosperity by cutting the throats of its
Fellow men, AT such price the Hndoo
will not have prosperity"
And SO they went on, each succeeding
speaker getting more cantankerous, as it
were. Even among the most enlightened
ChrlstlanS some very queer things were
said. Thus DIR. Paul Carus of Chicago
said, 1.-THE ancient patrarchs preached the
love of enemies" which astonished MANY
who thought they had read all the Bible.
Dr. H. X. Haweis of London argued that
mans capacity for music is proof or dem
onstration of the Immortality of the soul.
1t Is an odd, perhaps amusing, fact that
most of the peculiar. things were said on
the day when only British Christians
talked. Some ill natured people say there
will be n row yet, but of course there will
not, for Christians, Buddhists, Brahmans
and all the rest are gentlemen. Rev. Jo-
seph Cook said, II am in a condition of
fear and trembling regardingit it's outcome"
and then proceeded to attack the Roman
Catholic church for its position on the
school question. This was Mt the meeting
of Methodist ministers.
Trouble at the Plaisance
While the orientals in the Art institute
gave us Christians divers sly digs in their
provokingly smooth way, their conpeners
on the Midway plaisance are out of one
trouble only to get into another and are
in Il new sort of hot water every week.
Little by little they are being reformed
out Of all resemblance to their original
conditions, and the street is now far more
quiet and conventionally decorous than the
BOworV AlViSQ Ebop Co,ox,
anty and Archague Khan Coroyanty, COM
missioners here for the shah of Persia after
trying all sorts of protests with the mana
gers, sent an ultimatum to Secretary Gresh-
am demanding that the Persian flag and
all Persian emblems be removed from the
SO called Persian theater They allege that
there are no theaters in Persia and that this
thing IS disgrace and n misrepresenta-
ton. Just the same, it has secured an in
junction from the circuit court, and until
that is disposed of the commissioners can
not interfere with it, but it is lar more de-
cent than it was
A general order was then issued for all
the shouters to shut up. They paid no at
tention TO It, and SO patrol wagon and force
OF guards went through the plaisance, and
the visitors had more fun than on any other
day of the fair. "Bismillahr said the wild
Turk, who has made so much noise and fun
for the crowd; mo shout, no showp' He
then invited the crowds In pantomime
Several others did the same, and it was
funnler than the shouting. The Dahomey
touters did not understand the guards and
shouted louder than ever, 30 they were ar
rested. Altogether a dozen arrests were
made, and there were several pretty fights.
Well, the shouters are silenced. the dancers
are reformed, and the wild fakirs are gone