ADDRESSES 197 



traveler in the highway, the artisan in his shop, the mer- 

 chant in the bazaar, the lounger in the cafe, when the hour 

 for prayer arrives, hastens to spread his little carpet on the 

 ground and goes through the required formula. But he is 

 keenly alive all the time to whatever is going on about him, 

 and when his pious ejaculations are ended, will be found to 

 have lost not an iota of anything that may have been said 

 during his temporary fit of piety. If a professional story- 

 teller has been amusing the crowd with some entertaining 

 tale while he was praying, he will be found not to have lost 

 the point of the story, or the pith of any joke. 



The writer of the article entitled "Baron Hirsch's Rail- 

 way in Turkey/' tells the following story: A peasant one 

 day sent in all haste for an American missionary to come 

 and pray for him. Not a little surprised at the unusual re- 

 quest, the missionary went, and the peasant remarked, 

 "Your prayers are more efficacious than those of our 

 priests.'' The missionary was somewhat surprised at this, 

 and after modestly murmuring something concerning faith, 

 was preparing to comply with the request, when the man 

 continued, "I have taken a ticket in the Vienna lottery. 

 If I win through your prayers, you shall have one-half." 



It was apparently a perfectly natural thing, this copart- 

 nership of earth and heaven, and the peasant could see no 

 impropriety in invoking the prayers of those he considered 

 more potent than he. He put up the money, the missionary 

 furnished the prayers, and they went divvys on the result. 

 What harm? 



But to turn from the moral side to the customs of every- 

 day life. The barber, for example, pushes the razor from 

 him; ours draws it to him. The carpenter draws the saw 



