The Portland daily press., 1893-06-21
BETTER THAN SCHOOLS.
The Many Lessons Taught by the
Worlds Fair.
Gath Writes of Mans Wonderful Prog
ress Seen at the Columbian EXPOSE
tion-The Distinctive Exhibits of
Each Country.
lCoPYRTGHT, 1881

thought that when we go to the worlds
fair we see about all that man is
proud of. He has been on the planet
more thousands of years than Moses
thought to be in eternity, but after
all he has very little to show.
Whatever he tries to do some spiritual.
istic reformer dooms to destruction.
Whatever he painted before the sixth
century after Jesus Mahomet declared
to be an abomination, and said it was
profanity for any man to copy what
God had made. Mahomets supposition
was that everything had been made
just as we see it, and therefore he was
an orthodox man. This set the Arabs.
and their proselytes by the sword, to
making circles and squares, and thus
constructed geometrical lines on which
the earths are worked, or rather work
each other So Mahomet beat him
self; he thought to have every living
being rejoice only in his wisdom, and
behold, the Moorish doctors put Arts.
totle, Thales and Maimonides away
above him. ''This Mahomet," said the
doctors of his own sect, s1did not know
how to turn around he was worse than
a mule that you have to blind and back
into conveyance"
When the Moors had carefully writ
ten down all which they had found out
about algebra, astronomy and the an
clients, the church men of Ferdinand
and Isabella collected all that know
ledge and burnt it in the fire, not to be
revenged upon the Moslems who had
burnt the Alexandrian library, which
Gibbon denies, but from sheer hatred of
knowledge and of a fellow race. Mr.
Webb, who has come back from Ceylon
to preach Mahomet, is only one of the
Influences which will make man revolt
at himself when he sees how much
knowledge has been destroyed by dog
matism. The rise of the various schools
of African conquerors which invaded
Europe sounds to those who read in the
present day like what has taken, place
in contemporary theology. A man went
into city, now persisted, on the bor-
ders of the desert Sahara, and saw sit
ting in school a person of grave and
impressive aspect, who addressed him:
Friend, whence come you?" IT come
from Cordova, in the land of the west
ern caliphs." HAS not destruction vet
come upon the rulers there?" asked
the banished teacher. ssIf it has not
come. come it will. They drove wis
dom from them. Me they banished
from the land of my fathers to this sol.
itude, because I was pupil of that
wise. great man, Ibn Roshd; oh, God"
exclaimed the banished teacher,
throw down that kingdom and punish
them who drove away the learned and
the pure"
The stranger went away, and in an
age of miracles he thought of himself:
Perhaps [ can be the agent to accom-
plish that revolution, which must, no
doubt, take place, for I perceived by
that teachers countenance that he
was sincere" Thinking much about
the matter, the stranger kept his eve
on the boys wherever he went, until
he found one who seemed to be bold,
gentle and strong, as well as beautiful.
This boy he took back into the Atlas
and trained him like an
other Mahomet, to overthrow the
dynasty which ruled Spain. Then
came the Almo Ladies, who utterly de-
stroyed the bigoted caliph, and they
set to work all through the conquered
empires to find the few remaining
books of wisdom which had been so
burnt by their forerunners.
In this exhibition are shown the YES
tiges of vanished civilizations, the
arches in the mosques, the temples of
Egyptian Thebes, what the Assyrians
have left over, and the finger rings and
lamps of the kings. In the arts man is
not doing much more than the persisted
races. Every nation shows it's vases,
painted by pictures in outlines or in
colors, and fashionings in clay. such as
busts, images of gods no longer wor-
SHIPPED, and the playful deities made
between mans fancies and fears. The
lares which we are now making all
over, without knowing it, to decorate
our homes.
Mans improvements has been made in |
the elements, of which there were only
four in the time of Columbus. and
every element, like Artemus Wards |
animals, is found to have beautiful |
moral. By separating earth, water
and fire man has set lessons for himself |
for many year to come. Not single |
fact appears to have been learned by |
man OF benefit to his living existence |
except what was material. We should |
know nothing about astronomy but |
that man made lenses, which he |
ground SO that thoy magnifed, and |
Calico got one of these and saw sat |
elites to other worlds, and reasoned |
that we had satellites, too, and finally |
that we revolve and that mechan- !
les was very interesting theology. |
This exhibition is in much repetition, !
very nation taking in hand that task
light before it. In this country our
business was to annihilate distance,
Ind therefore we are strong in all |
Kings of inland transporta ton, in
Biography and the electrical devices
# all sorts. In machinery we gather
extensive crops, and to weave and |
make up what the fields have pro-
11oad F7,rona 6ivida6 into ,oopu no,