CITY OF SHIA MOSLEM.
Xedjiff the Mecca of One Sect of the
Mohammedans.
Mystic, buried in the exclusive
sands of the desert, almost unknown
by the white man, the Arab city of
Ned jiff, mecca of the Shia .Mohammedans,
born of and for a religion,
contains within its walls of sundried
brick a treasure house rich beyond
fable, into which a stream of gold
and jewels has poured for centuries,
and over the looting of which many
an empire-building soldier has sweetened
his dreams while sleeping on
the battlefields of India and elsewhere
in Asia. Xedjiff has become
hostile land, and the wonderful
mosque of gold and precious stones
is exposed as a possible objective of
invaders. Frederick Simpich, one of
the few white men of anv race to
have made a visit to hidden Nedji.T.
has transmitted an account of this
strangest of cities to the National
s Geographical society. He wnr.es:
"It is five days by male or cainel
caravan from Bagdad to Xedjiff. and
in the eveptful centuries since the
Shias founded Xedjiff?on the spot
where a nephew of the Prophet Mohammed
was slain?it is estimated
that over 25,000,000 Moslems have
V? y* nllorimocro t rv this; mVStftl'i
"ittuc hie jiusiiuiubv -v .. .
ous desert city of golden domes, fabulous
treasures, and weird rites.
Thousands of devotees from the Shia
hordes of India, Persia and South
Russia flock through Bagdad each
year, bringing with them their muni:fled
dead, salted and dried?for
burial in the holy ground about the
mystic city."
Each member of the Shia sect
must make the pilgrimage to this
holliest of his shrines, the city toward
which throughout life he bows
in worship, the unnatural city bound
up in the desert's spell, into which
the treasures of all his fellows in
faith are flowing for their spiritual
welfare. Each member of the Shia
sect expects to be buried in the sacred
earth without the city's walls, where
millions upon millions of past Shias
tnrnprt thp sands to clay. This
enormous graveyard about the city
is not the least part of its weird fascination.
The desert trail to the
sacred city is empty, barren and dead.
It is an unattractive trail whose silence
is only broken by fanatic pilgrims
and by caravans transporting
corpses to the Shia Mecca of the
dead. Of the city, Mr. Simpich says:
"Xedjiff is a freak city. Not a
green thing?a plant, shrub, or tree
?lives within its dry, hot limits. It
is. built on a high plain of soft sandstone.
The narrow, crooked streets,
in -many places mere passages 3 or
4 feet wide, wind like jungle paths.
One of the strange features of this
strange city is its cellars. In summer
the fierce heat drives the panting
people deep down into the earth,
like rats in a hole. Beneath every
house is a cellar, burrowed mine-like
to amazing depths; one I explored
reached an astoundinglv low level,
being more than 100 feet below the
street. Down into these damp, dark
holes the Shias flee when the scorch
ing desert air sizzies auove auu miported
German thermometers stand
at 130 Fahrenheit. Some of the cellars
are arranged in a tier of cells
or rooms, one below the other; the
upper room is used in the first hot
months, the family going lower down
as the heat increases. Many of these
cellars are connected by underground
corridors, and the criminals,
who swarm in Xedjiff, easily elude
capture by passing through these
tunnels from house to house."
The mosque, Mr. Simpich describes
as covered with great gold
tile which run to its very base. . For
ages, he says, the rich of Shia faith
have made precious presents to this
temple until its vaults are bursting
with pent-up treasure. The city has
no industry, no commerce?nothing
that is apart from its religious pur'
pose. It supports itself upon the
money of the pilgrims, lodges them,
feeds them, robs them, sells them
prayer-brick made from the graveyard
clay, and even marries them for
the period of their visit to perenial
brides, brides kept in stock, who le.gallv
have many husbands in their
lives. As a war significance of this
city, the explorer tells:
"A British Indian army officer told
me that the looting of the Xedjiff
mosque was a favorite dream of the
soldiers in the middle-east, who looked
forward to the day when war maysweep
an army of Invasion into XedCCA?
J1U.
Wluit He Prayed For.
"Bobby, I suppose you say your
prayers every night."
"Yes'm." '
"And what are the things you
pray for?"
"Mostly that pop won't find out
what I've been doin' through the
day."?Boston Transcript.
Xo Limit.
Mrs. Newly wed?I want a cook,
but she must be capable.
Head of .the Employment Agency
?Madam, I have several on my
books capable of anything.?Judge.
BROUGHTOX IS BACK.
t Former Atlanta Pastor Goes to Knovville.
Knoxville, Tenn., Feb. 4.?Dr. Len
G. Broughton, formerly of Atlanta,
who yesterday resigned the pastorate
of Christ church, London. Eng., has
accepted a call to the pastorate of the
First Baptist church here. His acceptance
came by cable today.
Half a Year of World War.
Six months after the outbreak of
the world war the outstanding fact
was that peace seemed as distant,
almost more distant than- it did in
September. Yet if the close of the
conflict remained still a subject for
speculation, it was now plain that
the issue had been determined in
September and that all that had happened
since the battle of the Marne
had in fact been the natural consequence
of one more decisive battle
of the world. On fields and hills but
little distant from the plain where
Roman civilization turned back Attila,
the German bid for world supremacy,
the kaiser's chance to play
Napoleon were abolished.
In the opening month of the war
there was a chance, a real chance
that Germany might destroy France
before Russia was up, force Russia
to make terms oerore mngiana was
ready and then, master of the continent
as the France of Napoleon,
renew the duel with the British empire
that France had abandoned precisely
a century before. After the
battle of the Marne the chance had
vanished. Week by week, month by
month, Russian, British, French
military power, developed. On January
20 Germany held less of France
than on September 1; instead of a
100,000 British troops, the advance
guard of a fresh million were already
in Flanders; French troops
were breaking out in Alsace.
In the period between the battle
of the Marne and January, 1915, Germany
had made three great campaigns.
On the Yser the very flower
of her troops had gone down under
the eyes of the kaiser in a frantic
attempt to gain the French coast]
cities, to grasp the eastern shore of|
the Straits of Dover, to get within j
reach of the hated Englishman's
I hom?. A first attempt to seize War-,
J saw, to crush Russia, France being!
I indestructible, had failed before the
I Polish capital. A second offensive
I into Poland, after great victories and
terrible losses had come to a halt
before the Bzura.
Six months after war had begun
Germany was still faced by three
great nations, their military force
wholly unshaken, their armies still
gaining in numbers, their deficien-!
cies in artillery, in machinery all but
made good. Such advantage as her
prepardness had given her, the j
credit balance in her favor, was now
exhausted.
In the same period her Austrian
ally had three times been beaten almost
to her knees by Russian vie-!
tories, was now facing an invasion
I across the Carpathians into Hungary,
i ?on thp Hansbure emperor
j had seen splendid armies ignominiously
routed, destroyed by the hated
Serbs, who in their turn were preparing
to flow over the Danube into
Hungary.
Around the world the German
hopes had equally proven vain. The,
Turk had suffered disaster, the holy
war had fallen to empty nothing, the
South African revolution had flickered
out as an abortive revolt, with no
other permanent consequence than
to insure the' loss of German Southwest
Africa. In Asia her colony had
disappeared into Japanese hands, in
the Pacific her islands were lost irrevocably,
in Africa her remaining
colonies were being slowly but steadily
consumed by her enemies as one
eats an artichoke, leaf by leaf.
To balance this, Germans could
still point to conquered lands and
provinces. In Poland, in Flanders,
in Champagne her lines held, her
counter-attacks regained the lost
trenches regularly. In Alsace, along
the Aisne, in Artols and Belgium,
Anglo-French attacks, ambitious offensive.
were speedily beaten down.
East and west Germany was still a
match for her enemies, but east and
west the moment for victory had
passed, irrevocably passed, east and
west German operations more and
more tended toward the defensive.
What Gettysburg had been to the
South, the Marne was now proving
to have been to Germany. Xowhere
in January was there the slightest
sign of new promise for German victory
and what was true in January
had been true in the earlier months.
Half a year of war had given history
one more decisive battle, for Europe
conceivably the greatest in permonnfnf
shiro Waterloo. Tn
j that battle it bad iteen decided that
j Europe should still be European and
i not Frussian. At the Marne. France
had saved herself and Europe: after
the Marne the problem was how Ions?
it would take Europe to conquer
Germany, and in January it was unmistakable
that as vet Europe had
made no progress.
Early in the war Lord Kitchener
had said that the struggle might last
three years. What seemed a mere
rough estimate becomes far more
I significant examined by the few stat!
istics yet available which show the
wastage of war.
Thus it seems fair to estimate that
Germany has now in the field 3,000.000
men. France 2,000,000, Austria
, 1,000,000, Russia 3.00O.000, England
| at no distant date will have 1.000,-1
; 000 on the continent. Servia and j
Belgium may be reckoned to have
250,000.
Now as far as Russia is concerned
; her supply of men is for any ordi-' I
nary calculation inexhaustible. That.K
| she can keep her European force at j I
j 3.000,000 for three years, despite bat- j I
I tie losses is hardly debatable. As to | B
j England, her ability to maintain an | ?
i army 01 i,uuu,uuu on me luimucui
I indefinitely and despite losses is;
equally to be accepted. It is differ-1
ent with France. Her available mili-j
tary population may be reckoned at.
4,000,000. Of this she has already
lost 1,000,000 by death, capture, dis-:
ease or wounds. Half of this number
may be reckoned as permanent- j
lv lost. At this rate, France will be
reduced at the opening of the third j
j year of the war to 2,000,000. Withher
allies she will then have 6.000,-'
000 men. But her losses in this year
: cannot be made good, save by the
I new class coming to the colors in
1917 and levies from her colonies.
Now Germany may be reckoned
to have had 6,000,D00 men available
for service in July, 1914; 600,000
more will be supplied by the combined
classes of 1916 and 1917. Gerj
man losses in the first six months
may be estimated at 1,800,000. At
| this rate, 1,800,000 will be removed
j permanently from the German lines
in each of the first two years of war.
I Thus, at the opening of the third,
| Germany will still have 3,000,000
men to draw on. But her losses
j thereafter will be definite, because
! she will have exhausted her reserve.
As to Austria, she has lost more than
! 1,000,000 already in her many disasters.
She may still have 1,000,000
j in the field, but a year hence, two
years hence, she can hope for no
more and her resources, too, will be
completely exhausted.
Thus as the third year of the war
opens not more than 4,U0U,U'JU auri
tro-Germans, the last line, will con|
front 6.000,000 Russians, British and
j French, helped by some hundreds of
thousands of Slavs and Belgians, behind
whom will stand Russian and
British reserves of at least 4,000,000.'
This means, with every discount for;
the roughness of the estimate, that
sometime in the third year, while
Russian and Britain are stiil able to
keep their armies at their present
point, Austro-German forces will begin
to decline rapidly and a tremen-.
dous advantage of numbers will be-j
long to the enemies of Germany,
j Such is the statement of what may'
j be called the mathematics of mur-i
der.?From "Half a Year of World j
War," by Frank H. Simonds, in the j
American,,Review of Reviews for:
February.'
?-?
ASYLUM IXYKSTKJATIOA.
I (Continued from page 2, column 4.)
Z
side, but there is need lr>r a new
! building for convalescent women. A
! part of this building could be used |
, as a sewing room for the women, j
Here the women would engage, un- j
j der the direction of a competent
teacher, in diversional occupations.
| Play as well as work would be made
I an important part of their hospital
life. In this building most of the
i things could be made for the pai
tients, and all of the repair work on
! the clothing done, and a great many
j things especially interesting and atj
tractive to women would be carried
| on in this building.
Xurses' Home.
"The Dix cottage, which is a frame
i building, and is now used for the
convalescent women, would make an
| ideal nurses' home. At the present
; time there is practically no satisfacj
tory accomodations for the nurses,
some, of them sleeping in the wards
with the patients, while others have
rooms on the top floor of the new
| building, which is an attic that has
[ been converted into sleeping quar- I
| ters. So much for the general ar- I
j rangement of the present buildings. I
"In addition to tlie improvements
already suggested there should be I
erected a centrar kitchen and congre- I
gate dining rooms. The present sys- *
! tern of numerous kitchens and din- I
ing rooms is unsatisfactory in every
way. and there should be an up-todate
laundry. The present building
could be utilized by enlarging it
somewhat and installing modern
equipment. A central heating plant
would also he necessary and this
would probably be the most expenj
sive item in the entire plan of reconi
struction.
i "A number of small buildings II
I about the place would naturally bell
I done away with in the general clean-J g
up. A new ice house, a new bakery, ft
refrigerating plant, etc.. will all be I
' included in the plans for the central
j kitchen." JI
I ll
?? I i
Ymif frnnKlpc anrl flip War I
A. vui U VMK#?V^w %* ?%? V v
by reading up-to-date literature.
We have just added I
to our large line of Stationery,
Office and School Sup- |
plies a large line of all the ' :|
? I
V *5*?
Latest New 1
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Anrl hereafter vou can sret
any Magazine you want here. |j|
If there is some special one fl!
you want that we haven't in I
stock let us know what it is i||
and we will get it for you. J||
Also, if there is any new book |
- LL. 11
just out that you want "tell
it to us" and we will get it ||
for you. Come to see us. fjl
Tnnc0 Npw 1
RIIUUV 1 WM
Steel Pais 1
??? ' M
We have added still another Jj
line to our ever growing as- ||
sortment. We now have a |
full line of the National Pen 1
Co.'s new Write well Special I [
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Itl_ u?1 j d??i, I i
me neiaiu duua jiuicii i
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