Rensselaer Republican, Volume 24, Number 10, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 November 1891 — MARRIAGE IN ASSYRIA. [ARTICLE]

MARRIAGE IN ASSYRIA.

Rather jttore a Matter of ' Barter j-~ There Than in the Band of — th® Free.- - Chicago Herald. Men live on six cents a day in Assyria. Assyrian women are bought and sold, are made to work with oxen at the plough, and have as liHle liberty as in the days of Cadmus. Men who pay $6 a day to liye, and ladies whp ride to shops invictorias, though Cover these wings as they left the Lincoln Park Church, Sunday night. Amen Rasi, born on Mount Lebanon, told these things in broken English. - Amen Rasi is a tall, handsome Assyrian, with a skin as rich as the cinnamon silks made at the foot of the mountain on which he was bora. He looked into the curious, bright eyes of girls and told them that had they been born Assyrians in Assyria they Could not go upon the streets unless their faces were concealed; that they could neither receive nor makeacall among ivomen without Their husband's consent, and that if at any time, even by accident, they were seen by any man or in any way recognized no one would marry them. He said that once two couples—a tall man and a short woman, and a short man and a tall woman —stood before a priest to be wed. The priest placed the tall man and the tall woman and the short man and the short woman together, and none of the four knew whether it was right or not, neither of them knowing the other. But the parents hastily objected, and placed the tall man by the short woman and the short man by the tall woman, as that was the way of the con tracts. Then Mr. Rasi showed how these contracts were made. He left the pulpit, and presently a man wrapped up in rich Assyrian raiment went up came back and squatted beside him. “I would very much like,” he said, “for a girl who is yours to be wife to my son Isaac.” —.. “I would be honored,” returned the man\ v?ith a very unmistakable American accent. “How many have you?” “Three.” , “How much years have they?” “One is 45, one 20, andtone 25.” “Don’t talk to me about the 25 nor the 20; they are never fit to marry. How much do you charge for the little one?” “Five camels, four horses, three sheep and SSO. ” “Bah! I can buy 100 women for so much." “But no little one.” “Oh, I think so.” “Well, you can’t have mine for a cent less.” “I pay.” But even then Isaac did not get the little one, because a few minutes later Mr. Rasi returned as another man, and by doubling the price secured the girl for his son Jacob. Then Amen Rasi looked at the young men, whose patent leathers cost them $7, and told them that people in Assyria paid 50 cents for a suit of clothes. The common people, he said, paid 25 cents a day for house rent, 3 cents for twenty-five pounds of cabbage, and 4 cents for five pounds of turnips. Fifty loaves of bread were turned out at a baking, and men sometimes ate four and five loaves at a meal. He waited for a moment, and then, turning to a black boybehind him, said, “They are so big,” and he drew a circle that would enclose a thanksgiving platter.