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Introduction
My good friends were after me this summer to take a vacation. So on the morning of September 1, 1929, with a company of four, we took a boat trip on beautiful Lake Michigan.
It was a real hot day and I felt the wonderful change — away from the cage-like office in Chicago; inhaling the pure, fresh air instead of the city’s dust-mixed smoke and hospital ether; listening to the gentle murmur of the waters as they constantly splashed against the boat, instead of the moans of the sick or the eloquent arguments of a persisting salesman; gazing at the turquoise waters of the great lake with the delightful coastline of Illinois, and the white-green hills of Michigan, instead of jammed sidewalks and overwhelming traffic.
While the vacationers, mostly young men and girls, were passing the time in all kinds of merrymaking, I remained in my chair and hardly moved, meditating all day long and absorbing all I could get of nature’s own beauty and charm.
After the sun had set, the air turned chilly and penetrating, the lake became rather rough, and passengers gradually began to retire, some to their staterooms and others to the boat’s drawing-rooms.
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My companions urged that I should retire, too, but I excused myself and remained alone on the deck and stayed up all night.
Aside from the rhythmic humming of the engine, the murmur of the waters, and the occasional passing of a sailor, there was no sound. Suddenly I found myself submerged in a sea of thought, the door and windows of the house of my imagination were wide open, and I began to look through the eyes of visualization.
Soon the sea of thought became stormy; and larger and larger grew its waves. One wave carried me to the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea, where I could see the shorelines of the European and African continents. Another wave came and took my memory by storm to invade the land of Egypt and the vast Libyan Desert. Having a naturally active mind and a restless soul, I was thrilled by these past recollections, and deeper and deeper I plunged into these old memories.
Then another wave of thought took my mind to Palestine, Transjordania, Arabia, and Syria — my native land, bringing before my eyes the beauty and sanctity of the holy cities, lifting up my soul to the charming atmosphere and most inspiring center of light.
As I was deeply absorbed in meditation, the bird of my
soul snatched me across the vast Arabian desert, and romantic Baghdad — my parents’ home, after a flying trip through
Transjordania and Hijjaz. I then landed on Persian soil,
— Persia, the Land of the Sun, the lion, roses and the
nightingales.
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I felt as if I had been lifted on “Ala ud-Din’s magic carpet, and his mysterious lamp was transforming my evening into one of the Arabian Nights. Finally, I reached the heart of central Asia, saw a glimpse of colorful India, then drifted to the new and old capitals of Turkey, and after that I was lost in the untraversed mysteries of the shores of sunrise.
As the night hours were swiftly passing by, I began to wander on the deck. The twinkling stars were disappearing one by one, and the dark horizon was brightened by the first faint light of the dawn. When the great skyscrapers of Chicago and their imposing tall towers had loomed from afar, the wheel of imagination turned its course, and my storm-tossed mind was whirled back into the atmosphere of American life.
I began to think of the sick and the despondent, the laborer and the harassed business man, the tired office girl and the professional man who never has time for recreation, the hard working housewife, and the monotonous life of the farmer, the student who is hungry for knowledge and the youthful soul that seeks romantic thrills and adventure, the lover whose eyes are separated from refreshing sleep, and the lonesome heart that yearns for the fellowship of the ideal companion.
With such soul-inspiring, pleasant old memories and such a dramatic picture in mind, the ““Treasures of the East” was written as an entertainment for the adult and the youth, and a helpful companion for one who intends to go on such an extensive journey to the near and far East.
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