Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1851-06-12


RAILROAD THRouen THE AFRICAN
DEsER1.-The Vceroy of Egypt has sane
toned the project Of a railroad from Alex
andrla by way of Caro- to the Isthmus Of
Suez, and the work viii be commenced
without delay. With the most skilliul Eu-
ropean engineers at his command, and able
at any time to summon one hundred thou
sand Arabs and Copts TO the labor, the en-
argetic aud enterprsing Ibrahim Pasha will
not allow long time to elapse before the
whistle Of the locomotive will wake the SOL
itudes Of Petra and Mount Sinai, scare
the marauding BeGouin out of his wits, and
render the Journey from Alexandra to the
Holy Land as easy and as rapid as the pas
sage from Buffalo to New York The tray-
eler will statt from the base of Cleopatra's
Needle, reach Caro- in six hours, refresh
himself At a mammoth depot in the midst of
the waste bowling wilderness" aud stand
upon the ancient shores of the Red Sea in
two days after leaving the Delta oft Nile.
A railroad through the scene of IsraePs
flight aud Pharaoh's keen pursuit through
the regions, where the silence of death has
relgned ever since, amid thunderngs and
loud elemental strife, the law was given from
Mount lloreb-now for the first time in
thousands of years to be disturbed BY the
canking and roar of modern machinery
Here Job drove his numerous ilocks to the
great marts of the South Moses led the
murmuring and mulinous Hebrews to the
Land of Promise In this now drear soli-
tude, the hand Of cultivated architectural
science scooped magnificent palaces out of
ia 4 Il B.
aud temples, and mighty cities rise at its
mandate
This was the path Of the multitudnous
hosts of Amru, the successor of Mahomet,
when be led his fanatical aud victorious
thousands irem Syria to Cairo aud Alexan-
dria, poured his dense dark masses upon
Southern Europe, and AIMED to subject the
/ Cross to the Crescent These vast aud arid
deserts, over which the bald aud rocky ST.
mai frowns in stern grandeur long after
wards trembling beneath the tread of armed
millions, Whirlng like some horrible tenn
pest through the scene of lsraePs trial and
punishment. He who, from the position of
an humple subatern, reached the throne Of
the Bourbons, by a series of usurpatlons the
most wonderful on record, would rival the
fame and miracles of the Hebrew awgver.
He eyes the same waters that closed over
the enguled chariot and horsemen Of Pha-
raoh, aud exhibits the temerity Of attempting
to pass dry-shod through the stormy wa
ters of the Arabian sea.
But what was this dissertation, in COM
parlson with the painting aud coughing of
the iron horse, within view of the spot
where the burning bush exhibited lis mys-
ferrous sign 10 iho trembling Moses, ssheso
tables OF the law were broken into frag-
ments, and over which the pillar of cloud
by day, aud of fire by night, lowered, and
guided the people OF Israel to the lovely re-
gion of the Phllstines and Canaanites.
The tour OF the Holy Land, which in the
days of the Crusaders, was a pilgrimage Of
lamlnent peril, and accompanied by priya-
ions and suerlngs little short Of martyr
dom, will soon be accomplished by party
from New York or ST. Louis, within the
limit of single season. The tomb of Aar-
on, the site Of Calvary, the Mount of Olives,
and the shores Of the beautiful Sea of Cali
lee, will soon be as accessible as the tower
of London or the Lake of Como are now
and all the scenes of Scripture history be-
come familiar to the eye, aud commonplace
in the mind Of almost every TRANSATLANTIC
tourist.