shoes, so she hung them on the telegraph wire.
A way-worn foot traveller coming along soon after took down the new
shoes and put them on, and hung his old ones in their place. The next
day the old lady returned and finding the old shoes, said, "Mashallah,
Mohammed has received his new shoes and sent back his old ones to be
repaired."

The telegraph has taught all the world useful lessons, and the Syrians
have learned one lesson from it which is of great value. When they write
letters they use long titles, and flowery salutations, so that a whole
page will be taken up with these empty formalities, leaving only a few
lines at the end, or in a postscript, for the important business. But
when they send a telegram and have to pay for every word, they leave out
the flowery salutations and send only what is necessary.

The following is a very common way of beginning an Arabic letter:

"To the presence of the affectionate and the most distinguished, the
honorable and most ingenuous Khowadja, the honored, may his continuance
be prolonged!"

"After presenting the precious pearls of affection, the aromatic
blossoms of love, and the increase of excessive longing, after the
intimate presence of the light of your rising in prosperity, we would
say that in a most blessed and propitious hour your precious letter
honored us," etc.

That would cost too much to be sent by telegraph. Precious pearls and
aromatic blossoms would become expensive luxuries at two cents a word.
So they have to be reserved for letters, if any one has time to write
them.

Here we come to the famous Dog River. You will read in books about this
river and its old inscriptions. If you have not forgotten your Latin,
you can read a lesson in Latin which was written here nearly two
thousand years ago. There you can see the words.

Imp. Caes. M. Aurelius
Antoninus Pius Felix Augustus
Par. Max. Brit. Max. Germ. Maximus
Pontifex Maximus
Montibus Imminentibus
etc. etc.

This Emperor Marcus Aurelius, must have cut this road through the rocks
about the year 173 A.D. But there is another inscription higher up, with
arrow-headed characters and several other tablets. They are Assyrian and
Egyptian. One of the Assyrian tablets was cut by Sennacherib 2500 years
ago, and one of the Egyptian by Sesostris, king of Egypt, 3100 years
ago. Don't you feel very young and small in looking at such ancient
monuments? All of those men b