Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1906-01-05
|COURT|NGIN
OLDEN DAYS.
How They Die II Three Thousand
Years Ago.
THE SAME old WAY.

love story ever embodied in the
form Of a literary narrative.
Though written about the time of
the return from the Babylonish
captivity, the scene is laid in the
age of the Judges, a period
antedating by many centuries the
actual publication. Like so many
other of the Old Testament books,
the authorship is wholly un-
known, nor is it by any means
certain that it deals with historical
personages. Most probably, 1t is
what we now call a historical novel
or a story with a purpose. How
ever this may be. we have before
US in Ruth one of the tenderest and
most affecting love stories ever
told among men. All the charac-
ters are farmers, or the wives and
daughters of farmers. From it we
may learn how they courted and
married, how they carried on ag-
ricultural operations .and some
thing of the social customs pre-
vailing about the twelfth century
before the Christian era. Alto
gether, by perusal of this bucolic
narrative we getan idyllic glimpse
into the domestic affairs and home
life of ancient Israel.
A farmer and his wife, who
lived at Bethlehem, discouraged
by prevailing famine, determined
to seek a better fortune in the
Land of Moab. This country lay
southwest Of, Palestine and was in
habited by a people speaking a
somewhat different language and
processing religion entirely dis
tinct from that of the Hebrews.
They worshipped a god called
Chesosh and their relations to-
wards the people north of them
we're unfriendly and not infre-
quently warlike. The migrating
Bethlemites, however, soon man.
aged to ingratitate themselves
with their new neighborS and in
course of time their two sons
married an equal number Of
Moabite girls. Eventually, the
old farmer and his two SONS died,
leaving his wife and the daughters
in-law with but scanty means Of
support. Naomi, the bereaved
widow, determined to return to
her old home but advised the girls
to remain in their native land
and seek new husbands among their
own people. The older accepted
this advice, but Ruth the youngest
declared that she would follow hel
mother-in-law until death do Us
part" So they jOurneyed to.
gether to the land across the
Jordan where Naomi hoped to re
habilitate herself among the PEG
pie where her husband and herself
had spent their earlier and happier
years.
Naomi was evidently what il
these days would be called .,
managing mamma" and she KEEP
a sharp look out for a good matri
monial catch for her faithful
daughter-in-l aw. She had her ey,
especially on a distant relative O.
her husband, named Boaz, a pros
porous farmer who had extensive
land holdings in the neigbOrhooC
of Bethlehem. The methods useC
by Ruth to capture the heart O
Boaz were hardly such as to b,
commended in twentieth century
damsel, but they seem to hay,
been in keeping with the customs
then prevailing. At any rate, IN
der the astute guidance of Naomi
she landed her man," and in tim,
the poor Moabite girl became tn,
wife of the richest farmer in tn,
community. Curious were til,
marriage customs prevailing in
those distant days and somewha
indicate the manner in which
they carried on their courtships
Strange, too, the privilege granted