Omaha Daily Bee Newspaper, October 18, 1903, Page 34

14 erance, but with distinet reverence. As & matter of fact, the Salvation army does pa- rade the streets of Constantinople and no- bedy objects It is a striking fact, say the Moham- medan apologists, that, though the Turks and Kurds do massacre and persccute Christians for reasons not connected with religion, théy never insuit the Christian faith or commit sacrilege in Christian churches. The Mohammedan, like all Kasterns, has a wonderful tolerance for people who do not think as he thinks. s standard of right and wrong is a personal one, #nd he starts out with the idea that what may be wrong for him may be right for outsiders. He admits frankly that he has no standard by which to judge the Christians, Westerns are prone (o say, in consider- ing Eastern institutions, ] hat is noi Weste ern, therefore it must be wrong.”” The con- verse would be a criticism impo sibtle to any Eastern mind, A Mohammedan would never cay: “‘“That is not Eas ern, therefore it must bhe wrong.” The Koran com- mards that the “ahl kitab” who have never embraced Lalam must be judged und treaied on their own merits, if they have to be Judged at all. They are (¢ be kindly treatcd and cheristed. “We admire many of your missionar- les,’” says the Mohammedan, "“Of course, we think them mistaken, but we see that they are good men who follow their lights, Many Mohammedans help them in their educational work by gifts of money, land and builcings.” “Before you are judged at all by Mo- hammedans, much less condemned, many things will there be to be says a Kuropenn who has spent almost a lfetime among Mohammedans you an eastern? ‘If you are not,’ says the eastern, ‘I have no standard at all by which to measure you. 1If you are, what cluss or caste of eastern are you? |If you are not of my particular community, equally are you without my orbit. If you are, and you have sinned, my condemna tion extends to the exclusion of you from “bread and water.” That rale our religion, which is greater than cither of us, has made, But T will buy with you, sell with you and talk with you.' Generous and cheerful, indeed, is this tolerance among a people, who still will die of thirst rather than drink water from the hands of an out- sider.” Religion, =ays the true follower of the Prophet, {8 woven throughout the entire fabric of Mohammedan civilization. 1t is not a mere decoration, it is part of the plece, and every man's daily conduct is gulded and regulated by the ceremonial duties as well as by the principles of his faith. Nobody is ashamed of practicing his religion. In Mehammedan countries it is a common sight to see people praying at the corners of streets or by the wayside. They spread their mats and pray because it is the hour of prayer, and they dare not negleet it, even though it catches them un- awares upon a public road. They do not expect to gain a reputation for sanctity by such conduet, just as certainly they would not accord it to others who did the same. And they expect Christians who dwell among them to be as devout and attached to their religion as they are themselves, If the Christian is lax, the Mohammedan has no respect for him, Similarly, they are rigid in their fasts, Even the children cannot be tempted to break “hunger-stricken Ramuzan,” or any other of the numerous fasts of Islam, An Anglo-Indian woman, who has spent years studying the Mohammedan temperas ment, tells a striking story on this head, inguired of," Sirst, are then of Which (Copyright, 1863, hy Sarah Comstock.) HICH bachelor would you rather be-the bachelor man or the bachelor maid? Maybe you would rather not be a bachelor at all. In that case you are barred out of the discussion. If you, monsieur, have just been scanning trays of diamond solitaires or dining and drinking your fare- well to single blessedness, you won't be interested in the economics of the single man. You have other economics to look after. If you, mademoiselle, are counting your effects after the linen shower or ex- changing cut-glass rose bowls, you don't care how much it costs your fancy free sister to remain fancy free, It is for the bachelors of both genders to decide—which gets the more comfort and enjoyment out of life for the same amount of money? All bachelors are young nowadays, so they want all there is coming to them in the way of a good time. Old bachelors and spinsters are of the past. The modern bachelor wants to be young, whether it be on $15 a week or on $500. “Can a man live in a city like New York, Chicago or Philadeiphia on $0 a week?" & very young bachelor was asked. “He might exist—he couldn't live,” was the scornful reply, It was not for several weeks that his questioner learned he was a $l5-a-week clerk, and that his landlady was several week's board to the bad, and that she s now holding & dress suit, a watch con- THE ILLUSTRATED BEE. which iliustrates the Mohammedan spirit: “I remember a dear, #mall boy, the son of our night watchman. His small soul loved mangoes, and one day, as he fol- lowed me about the garden, 1 offered him one. take it.’ “‘But why? " ‘Does the Miss Bahib not know it is my fast? The giant of darkness strives to overcome the sun, and not even water must P my lips for 8o many hours! “The duty, in the case of this young- ster, was gelf-imposed, for he was only 6 years of age, and so not yet within the pale of orthodox Moslem rigidity.” This story, fays the Mohammedan, ex- plains the fighting strength of Moham- medanism, the absolute subordipation of its devotees. Men trained as this boy was training himeself will kill for the faith just as readily as will they die for the faith, but there i8 nothing petty about them. They can appreciate and tolerate other faiihs so long as the adherents of those faiths do not insult Mohammedanism. Half the out- breaks at places like Beyroot are caused if Mohammedans may be believed, by Christians committing, either intentionally or accidentally, what a Mohammedan deems to be For a Moslem the world is divided by tradition into two parts—"“Dar al-Islam (the abode of Islam) and “Dar al-harb" (the abode of war). That would seem to imply that the Moslem’s hand is against all unbelievers; but Mohammedan canon law, if the best Ezyptian Jawyers are to be believed, degrees that ‘‘jihad”: (holy war) must never be magle unprovoked upon “Dar al-harb.” Everyone knows that the whole system of Mohammedan clvilization bears hardly on Christians who live under it. It has been said that personal rights ‘“‘exist only for Mohammedans in Isiam.” Christians cannot give evidence in Mohammedan law courts, they may not bear arms and they have to pay a capitation tax., "“The Koran makes these decrees,’” says the Mohamme- in defense “‘and we cannot go back of it.” “These are religious dogmas,” says a United States vice consul in Turkey, in one of his official reports, “which wiil never alter unless the whoie fabric of their religion passes away and another insti- tution is planted in Its stead. I have opened the subject before the doctors of the law, and they assert: ‘These are reli- gious dogmas based on religious principles and if his majesty, the sultan, wishes to order anything contrary, the Mohammedan population collectively will not obey him.' And they might have added, ‘that such a step might bring on an insurrection.’” What ‘‘the faith” prescribes must be obeyed. Outside of thpt, the Moham- medans claim they are remarkably tolerant especlally in the Turkish dominions. Copts and Maronites, Druses and Greek Chris- tians are ail allowed the free exercise of their different religions and no Moham- medan would dream of molesting them or insulting them while they were assembled to worship their God in their own way. His mental attitude toward “infidels” is curious, If a “jihad” (holy war) were pro- claimed, he would be ready encugh to slay them, but if, in his path of massacre he came upon a Christian at prayer he would hold his hand until his destined victim had finished the act of worship. His in- stinctive reverence for any kind of reli- gious manifestation would check hs lust for blood. It is usually assumed by western s.ates- men and western newspapers that the sul- he said, wistfully; ‘I may mnot sacrilege tan of Turkey is an autocrat who can rule as he wishes, whose fiat means the slaughter or the sparing of Christian vil- Jages and Christian peoples within his do- main. Nothing is further from the fact, says the Mohammedan. In theory, the sultan may be despotic, though even that is doubtful in the light of Moslem civil and religious law. In prac- tice, he is even more hampered by ecclesi- astical bureaucracy than the czar of Rus- sia is. And public opinon is a more power- ful force in Turkey and other Mohamme- dan countries than it is in the western clvilizations. The sultan dare not move a step without the sanction of his myriad coreligionists and his fellow rulers of the Mohammedan world. He may be the ca- liph of Islam, the theoretical head of the faith, but he only holds that position while he pleases Islam. The Momammedan conception of an ac- ceptable ruler is very different from that of ihe westerns. The ‘“articles of belief”’ composed by the B8Sheikh Najm Ad-Din Abu Hafs Umar ibn Mohammed ibn Ah- mad an-Nasnfii, a famous Mohammedan theologian, say that the Moslems must have a leader “who shall occupy himself with the enforcing of their dccisions.”’ “It is not a condition,” says the gentle- man with the long name, *“‘that he should be protected by God from sin, nor that he should be the most excellent of the people of his time, but it is a condition that he should have administrative ability, should be a good governor and be able to carry out decrees and to guard the re- strictive ordinances of Islam and to pro- tect the wronged against him who wrongs him. And he is not to be deposed from the leadership on account of immorality or tyranny." The ‘“restrictive ordinances” are those which deny civil rights to the Christian. If the sultan does not enforce them, he is liable to be deposed. The Sultan Abdul Hamid is in constant correspondence with the ameer of Af- ghanistan, the shah of Persia, the sultan of Wadai, and other great Mohammedan rulers. Their opinions influence his dealings with Christian nations at crises like the present. But, beyond and above these tem- poral princes, he is forced to consider two gpiitual monarchs—the sheikh-ul-Islam and the mysterfous head of the great se- cret order of the Senussiyah. The sheikh-ul-Islam, who lives in Cairo, is practically the supreme religious au- thority of the orthodox Mohammedans. In effect, he is the pope of the Mohammedan world, holding somewhat the same position toward the sultan as that which the popes of Rome held toward Christian monarchs in the middle ages. If the sultan were to extend real reforms, in the western sense of the word, to the Christian people under his rule; if he were to give them personal rights, remove their civil disabilities, and make them equal with Mohammedans before the law, he would violate the cardinal principles upon which the Mohammedan civilization is based. The sheikh-ul-Islam probably would feel obliged to release his subjects from their allegiance In the name of religion. “The faith” is far stronger than either sultan or sheikh, and neither can afford to play with it. If they combined to im- prove the status of the sultan's non-Mo- hummedan subjects they would probably beth fall. The Senussiyah, which stands for orthodox Mohammedanism, stands for orthodox Mohammedanism of the old- fashioned puritannical type, would attend to that. Mohammedans do mot admit the superi- ority of western civilization, even when Octtober 18, 1908 ° they have lived under it. They prefer thelp own system and think it is the better one. Here 18 the rationale of Moslem civilizae tion, as it was expounded to an Anglo= Indian woman by an aged Hindoo followee of the prophet. The old man had known some of the glories of the last mogul before the English had riveted their hold upon India. The woman tried to convince him that thosc old days of bloodshed and brig- andage were bad days when compared with the present era of peace and liberty under British rule. “Nowadays,"”” she said, ‘“you can reap that which you have sown. You can gather your wheat into your garners, You do not fear that your wife will be stolen from you, or your children slain while you work in your fields. Your homes and occupa= tions are secure now.” “Yes,” he replied, “there is all that.” “And what is there not? What is lost which you regret?” “There i8 no longer a chance for a man," said the old Mohammedan, heaving a re- gretful sigh “In olden days, before the Christians came to rule over us, the beggar by the wayside might become grand vizier if the king did but smile upon him.” “And equally,” she replied, *“his hcad might be cut off if he failed to laugh at the king's last joke. “We liked to take that chance,” said the Mohammedan. There is the secret of the hold which the Moslem political system has upon its ad- herents. It is an enormous gamble. The career is open to the lucky and the talented as it is under no other social organization. Americans are fond of dweiling upon the rise of poor boys to pozitions of affluence and dignity in the American common- wealth by sheer force of native merit. There are a thousand stories in Moham- medan lands which parallel the progress of Lincoln “from log cabin to White House." But the possibilities of advancement in a Mohammedan civilization immeasurably surpass those in America or any other western country. Here the truckman may become a millionaire, but there the base- born slave may become an emperor wield- ing sway over millions of subjects The spirit of ‘“The Thousand and One Nights'" dominates the Mohammedan world today. As if by the rubbing of Aladdin’'s lamp a man's fortune may be changed in the twinkling of an eye. Take the case of Rabah, “the Black Na- poleon of the Soudan.’” He started life asa slave of Zebehr Pagha, the great Central African warrior. He imbibed the spirit of Mohammedan fanaticism so thoroughly that when his master died he was able te take his place and wield absolute sovers eignty over millions of warlike tribesmen. Nobody thought of saying, “Why should this slave rule over us He was the strongest man in sight, and he naturally ruled in a democracy of physical force, until eventually his power was broken by the French in West Africa. t Mohammedan feels that what Rabah and a dozen men like him have done, he may do. There is the chance. In the con- ditions under which he lives he may al- ways have the luck to fight his way to tha top, if he is not summarily extinguished before he gets there It is “up to him."” He likes the gamble, and would not ex- change it for the stolid security of Chris- tian government. There may be a million chances to one that he will never be any- thing except a peasant, subject to the rapacity of the sultan and the valli and the mutaseriff and the tax collector; but he en- dorses the social system under which he has one chance in a million of becoming a sultan. Bachelor Would You Rather Be? taining the girl's picture, and three faver- ite pipes. “l can rent a dress suit if it comes to the worst, the town is over-run with pub- e clocks, and I'm very comfortable with- out the girl's picture, but I've got to have those pipes,” he confided in a heart to heart. He has not solved the problem of living on $15. But there are plenty who have and who pay their bills. “They are the best pay in the world, these young people on small incomes,” the trades people say. “They pay as they go along and they never reckon their income without substracting the bills. It's the rich that have to be dunned."” But the $15 man sweeps all the luxuries of life off the board if he determines to pay his way. He has to eat. This Is one of the needs that goes with being a man. Eating is a secondary consideration with the girl who economizes. What she must have is a chiffon parasol. The man says: “I won't wear a rented dress suit. I never did such a thing while the old man paid the bills. Even if I did, I couldn't keep up. 1 can't be invited all the time when I can’'t invite. I've got to cut it out.” The girl says: “l can take that old silk parasol and clean it up with gasoline and ruffie it my- self with chiffon; and there's that white neck ribbon that I can clean and press and use for the handle's trimming. Organdies are cheap, and I can make my own. There's no reason why I can't spend Sunday at the Alken's country home.” The man slaps himself sympathetically on the shoulder and says: “Of course, you can't pay less than 75 cents a day for your meals, old chap.” The girl, when she has footed what the vards of chiffon will come to and reflected on how much dressier the organdie will be with velvet ribbon trimming, says: “I can just as well do without breakfast for awhile. A great many up-to-date think- ers are protesting against the breakfast habit, anyway." A man is willing to do with something very modest in the way of a room. He is never in it much. Even when he cannot afford to go at a swift pace he contrives to find some way to pass his time away from home. 8So he can house himself within some sort of four walls for $1.50, or take a hall bedroom in a comfortable house for 2 a week. He probably will get an inartistic wall paper at that price and the chair Is likely to be black walnut uphostered in peacock blue plush, but the man doesn't care. He can cut out the $1 a week extra that the gas costs, too, for he doesn't need a fire to dress and go to bed by, and the rest of the time he's asleep. But when it comes to the question of table the Inner Man sits up and takes no- tice. A $ table makes the actual Hving— that is, mere board and lodging—come to at least half of his Income; yet $15 men are found at $ tables. The §5 table 1s apt to be furnished with poor cuts of meat, with cheap fruit and vegetables. 'The Sunday chicken sneaks, in disguise, into the latter end of the week. The Inner Man protests, Restaurants are better, It is at the cheap, business man's restau- rant that the genuine economist solves his problem best. He eats meat three times a day. He allows himself dessert at dinner, but not a lunch. He drinks coffee twice. Breakfast costs 25 cents, lunch 15 and din- ner 35. The $15 girl, on the other hand, pays more for her room and less for her board. She is at home more of the time, she says. As a matter of fact, she is not thinking so much of her own comfort, for she is too self-denying in the matter of that, as she is thinking of the appearance her home will make. There wiil be callers. If possible, she secures a room in some house where the privilege of the parlor is included, or she clubs with three other girls and tukes a $40 apartment in a pleasant location. Her share in this apartment will cost $2.50 a week, and it has to be furnished in the bhe- ginning, which will make it impossible, un- less somebody can rummage at home for old bits of furniture that busy hands can re-cover. Occasionally savings will add to the furnishings from time to time. “You may as well have a decently com- fortable room-—board costs so little,” she says. “Can you be satisfied with a $5 table?* one of these economists was asked. “Five dollars?" she exclaimed. “Two and (Continued on Page Fifteen.) 4 P S P R Py Ak R