The Savannah morning news., 1903-07-12
THE CRITICISED AS CRITICS.
what the People of Far Away
Think of Us and Our Customs.


Think of Us and Our Customs.
From the Washington Star.
"He's just poor, unenlightened saw
oga" says the civilized man when he
,eads in his paper that the Ahkound of
Swat. or some black monarch of Afri-
"a has been making history again by
,rrosing European arms or customs.
Then he launches into a stream Of crit
,c;sm of savage and bartaric races that,
IN say the least, is not fatteri2g. There
&c another side to the story-the saw
oge's opinion of his critic. On the whole,
he disapproves of his critic as much as
the latter disapproves of him. 1t is a
,nistake to suppose that the average
barbarian who visits a big city like
New York or London is overwhelmed
NV what he sees. AS a rule, he is dis
gusted. He goes back to his skin tent
in the desert or his hut in the forest
frIlv convinced that his way of living
is the best, and that "he that increas-
eth knowledge increaseth sorrow"
one of the most acute critics of civ
Uization who ever visited in London
was a Bedouin sheikh named Nicola
Evoub Tams. He was born and
brought up in the Sahara, and the
Gerce, free life of the desert was bred
IN his bones. But as a youth he was
taken to Cairo and educated at a Mo-
bammedan college there, afterward
spending five years at the universities
Of Heidelberg and Oxford. He spoke
Arabic, Turkish, Greek. German,
French, English, Spanish and Persian
huently, and nowhere could a cleverer
or more versatile man be found. Know
ing civilization and barbarism thor
oughly, he chose the latter and returns
ed to his tribe to spend his life in the
Sahara in preference to European cities.
At dinner in London one evening lust
before he returned to Africa, he was
asked
What do you think of European civ
ilization?"
Il am eating your salt and dwelling in
your tents. 1t would be discourteous
to critcise you"
But he was urged to speak
"Oh, go ahead, old fellow, said his
hosts. Tell US of our faults. Don't
mind being candid"
well, then" he began. II came to
Europe with an open mind, expecting
to see much to admire. I have been
bitterly disappointed. Your system of
life is all wrong, in my eyes,
"Hows that?" he was asked, and he
answered:
"Once, according to the legends of
my tribe, there was a wealthy sheikh
who said, I will not live in a tent like
my fathers. l will build me a mighty
palace that all men shall see and adj
mre' Sc he spent his life gathering
marble and stone with vast toll and
cost, and built his palace in the mid
die 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 a
decrepit old man, said, Now ! will
dwell therein, and all men shall do me
honor But Allah caused the sirocco
TO blow, and in the tWinkling of an eye
the man and his palace were buried
forever beneath the sands of the desert.
That is your civilization" proceed
ed the sheikh, after a pause. You toll
and strive and worry and struggle and
lose all the joy and beauty of life
dwelling in smoky cities-for what?
That you may become wealthy or IA
nous. Usually you fail. If you sue
coed you find your success worth
nothing. You are too old to enjoy:
you have wasted all your power of en-
joyment
Your civilization is a marvel of in
genuiV | admit, but it is also a mon-
uHleAI 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 purpose, and it's mechanical
ingenuity is mere incidental.
But your greatest machine-civili-
zation-is different. Its processes are
wonderful, no doubt, but it serves no
useful purpose. 1t is a colossal waste
OF effort and cleverness-as if 1 were
to build steamship in the middle of
the Sahara. The only justification of
civilization would be that it made
mankind happier. 1t does not. So far
as l can judge, the Bedouin is a far
happier man than the Londoner. What
can man know of happiness when
he lives in a tiny garnet, tolls all day
IN a stuffy Office of filthy workshop,
and is afraid to strike bullying fore
man lest he should lose his job? Civ
illzation has made you all slaves to
one another, and therefore civilization
Is failure. If you are not slaves to