The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1903-06-27

! tndt hOn SCC duu w
he spent his life gathering marble and
stone with vast toll and cost, and built his
palace in the middle of the desert. 1t was
the work of his whole life, and in order
to finish it he had to sell his slaves and
his camels and waste all his treasure. AT
last it was finished, and he, decrepit old
man. said: Nov | will dwell therein,
aud all men shall do me honor But
Allah caused the sirocco to blow, and in
the twinking of an eye the man and his
palace were buried forever beneaththe sands
of the desert. That is your civilization, -
proceeded the sheikh, after a pause.
"You toll and strive and worry and strug-
Gle and loose all the JOY and beauty of life
dwelling in smoky cities-for what? That
! you may become wealthy or famous.
Usually you fail If you succeed, you
find your success worth nothing. You are
too old to enjoy you have wasted all your
power of enjoyment. Your civilization is
a marvel of ingenuity, | admit, but it
| is also a monument of wasted effort You
| do not make a machine because it will be
a wonderful piece of mechanism you make
it to do something 1t is made to fulfil a
purpose, and its mechanical ingenuity is
merely incidental
But your greatest maehine-civiliza-
tion-is different. Its processes are won
derful, no doubt, but it serves no useful
purpose. IL Is colossal waste of effort
and cleverness-as if | were to build a
steamship in the middle of the Sahara.
The only justification of civilization would
he that it made mankind happier 1t
does not SO far as | can Judge, the
Bedouin is far happier man than the
Iondoner What can a man know Of
happiness when he lives in tiny garret,
tolls all day in stuffy Office or filthy
workshop. and Is afraid To strike a bullying
foreman lest he should lose his job.
SLAVES To ONE ANOTHER.
Civilization has made you all slaves to
one another, and therefore civilization is 3
failure If you are not slaves to an employ
er, you are chained to telephone or a
telegraph wire or stock exchange ticker
Yesterday | was asked to speak at a
meeting of the Antislavery Society, called
to protes, against slavery in Africa. |
could not help laughing. Slavery in Africa
The meanest slave there is freer than your
business man in London. If you want to
see slavery, don't 90 to barbarian lands.
Look around You in your own cities. All
/ the institutions of civilization are nothing
but chains and fetters. Do you remember
the FrenchmAn who said: II faut sayoir
garier Independence dn eouer' A
civilized man can do that | am going
back to my people. | am going to be-
come what you call barbarian again,
/ simply because | want TO be free.
Much the same views were expressed by
King Khama, the famous Christian chief
tain Of South Africa, when he visited Eng
/ land
1T is very wonderful, he said. Il
gaze with awe on your steamships and rail
ways, your cities and your machines. But
/ what is the use Of them? Do they make
| you any happier or any better? | think
not They seem to NE to give you no
time to think or to live | think our
/ simpler way of living is better. At all
events, we are freer than you. We do
no, have to work and worry as you do.
| The moral, social aud legal features of
civilization do not meet with barbarian ap-
pruyal, and the relations that are main
tanned between the sexes are regarded as
ridiculous. An English doctor named
james Alfred Gray, who served for several
/ years in Afghanistan as court surgeon to
/ the late ameer, had an Afghan nobleman
named Amin Ullah, when discussing Eng
( llsh customs with him one day, say:
don't think it is right for Enghshmen to
sell their wives.
But they don't, exclaimed DIR. Gray,
in surprise.
Pardon me, my friend said the
Afghan, reproachfully, ''but you know
they do, and, moreover, it is published in
the newspapers when they do so.
/ What on earth do you mean? asked
( the doctor
/ AN AFuHAN' : VIEW OF DIVORCE
Il mean this. An English woman be-
comes tired Of her husband and prefers
! another to him. The man who Is pre-
ierred is called the correspondent, Straight
way the three Of them 90 before the kasi
/ ma.istratc) and after much discussion
it is decided at what price the co-respon-
dent shall buy the woman. The money
is then paid to the husband, and the shame
/ full story is told in the newspapers. Is
! that not true.
This way of looking at civilized divorce
gave DR. Gray a shock He tried to ex
plain that il was true, but not quite the
whole truth But the Afghan thought
the payment of money for alienation of
affections very improper.
What he cried. Take money as
the price of your wife's dishonor, and let
her 90 to the other mani 1t is abomina-
BILE! People of my race act differently.
If wife prefers another man, the hus-
band kills both of them and washes his
honor clean That is the proper way
When the Sharaza Nasrullah Khan, the
late ameer's second son, visited England
some years years ago King Edward-then
Prince of Wales-took immense pains to
impress him with the wonders of English