The times., 1898-12-24
A Chain of Prayer.

w men sven fteuln WIS trdNtuIiS
through Thibet he founb propped up
against one another in a lonely place a lot
of stones covered with ideographs of Pc
culiar and interesting appearance. He
concluded that these were worth copying,
and set about the job at once, though he
well understood that 1t would take a
number of days of valuable time. On
further investigation however. he dis
covered that the stones were covered all
over on both sides with several thousand
repedtions of one sentence, something like
20 the sacred flower of the lotus"' In
considerable disgust he shut up his note
book and resumed his march.
Somebody in Philipstown, N, Y, seems
to have been trying to rival the Thibe-
tans in foolishness. He. or she .ehas start
ed ain endless chain of prayer. the plan
being to write FIVE copies of a prayer and
mail the copies to five friends with re-
quests to write and forward five~other cop
les, and so on, It-has been computed that
in less than a dozen rounds every man,
woman and child in the United. States
who has ten cents and can write will
have received one of these circular bores.
and in the next round the chain will be
wrapping itself around Porto Rico and
the Philippines. N
il has been supposed by most intelligent
people that the prayer wheels. spit-balls
and other prayer devices common In
Thibet and the adjacent country were pa
gan institutions. such as are referred to
tons which the heather use, thinking
that they shall be heard for their much
speaking. But it seems from this Philips
town maniac's actions that we have some
heather within our own borders, capable
of idiocies as great as anything which
the Thibetans, sodden in superstition and
ignorance, can devise. The endless chain
has veXed most people at one time or an
other into a condition of mind anything
but sanity, but the endless chain prayer
is the last refinement of boredom. 1t is
time to protest, and in this case there is
particularly good excuse. 1t has been
pointed out that in a very short time this
particular chain is likely to tangle the
unsuspecting feet of the Filipino and the
Porto Rican. We have taken upon our
selves great responsibilities in essaying
to protect these strangers. 1t is essential
that above all we begin right In our gov
ernment of them. If we hope ever to
win them from their more or less uncivil-
ized amusements and customs to the
placid enjoyment of the church social
and the roller-skating rink, the Sunday
school and the Ferris wheel, we: must
treat them with -gentleness at first. 1t is
mot right to spring on them an instrument
of torture to which we ourselves are hard
ly yet reconciled. II is not right to pre-
sent to them an endless chain. If they
want the amusement of writing prayers
over and over and over again, after they
have become thoroughly civilized and
have had chance to test our American
institutions, the PhIlipstown missionary
should be allowed to go among them, in
company with Thibetan Grand Lama,
and expound his theory; and the Filipino
and the West Indian can then choose be-
tween the two. If they are wise they
will probably choose the Grand Lama
Ideographs written over and over again
on piece of stone are at least decora-
tive, and lot of old letters In a variety
of handwriting are not in the least pref
ty or useful. If repetitions of this sort
are necessary to civilization, let them be
used, as the Thibetans use them, to dec
crate things. They might be put into
Chinese characters and scribbled all over
wall paper, and handmade wall paper
might be made fashionable In this way.
But for the present this scintillating
genius of Philipstown, Potsdam County,
New York. ought to be mildly. but firmly
suppressed.