The Burlington weekly hawk-eye. [volume] (Burlington [Iowa]) 1860-1876, 1862-08-02
PETROLEUM, New and O,d.

The era Of the first use of bitumen dates
back several hundred years before the record
Of its existence in the vale of Siddim. The
builders of the Tower of Babel used bricks
made of clay and slime for mortar A little
below the heap of ruins supposed to be those
Of the half built tower, upon the right bank Of
the Euphrates, are the celebrated fountains of
Is. Here the Petroleum has dubbed up, brown
and oily, from the time of the food to the pres
ent day, cooling as it leaves the fountain, till
it congesls into asphaltum. Alexander and
Trsj.n and Julian, in turn wondered at this
marvel Of nature. 1t was from this source,
without . doubt, that the builders Of Babel
gathered their Shiny mortar and the Babylon
ians made from it an imperishable cement, with
which all their amazing works were built
The walls of Babylon were made with it, those
mighty walls, which enclosed two hundred and
twenty five square miles of land and the popu-
iation Of little planet; they were nearly q
hundred feet thick atthe base, so broad on the
top that eight horses abreast could run there,
and as tall as two Niagara Falls.
Nebuchadnezzar was the great builder king
Of ancient history; his skill designed and car
ried out the marvellous temple Of Belus; he
hemmed in the encroaching waters of the Tigris
and Euphrates with dykes Of solid masonry he
built reservoir one hundred and forty miles
in circumference and made q vast canal broad
and deep as river and Eve hundred miles
long, which stretched from the Euphrates to
the Persian Gulf. All these were laid and
1cemented with the imperishable asphaltum
With this, too, he built the royal palace, indulge
ing his kingly fancy with house six miles in
circumference, and enclosed by three walls. It
was an extravsgant fancy, even for king and
the royal husband had hardly satisfied it, when
the royal wife took fancy too. Queen Amytis
wanted garden; she was tired Of the dull
plain of Shinar; her homesick heart went back
to Ecbatana, the mountain home of her child.
hood and she longel for something that resem-
BLEED it, something Highland verdurous, . pleas
ure ground upon . hill. y!re9s s-3l .od
Petted women will have expensive fancies ct
times. Cieopatras pickle Of pearls Vac On
acrid folly and GATHERINGS ice palace o frigid
sbsurdity, but the caprice Of Queen Amytis
was only good impulse carried little too far.
The unperverted heart turns as naturally to .
garden a. the heliotrope turns to the sun.
Occasionally one finds in q city stony .hearted
wretch calling himself man, who admires the
intricacies Of q Belgian pavement, especially
ct the corners more than the mosaic Of the
most radiant parterre. Such smonster should
not be suffered to run at lsrgein an unsuspect.
ing community; he should be drowned in
gutter, or hung from derrick, or sent into
quarantine, for he is foe to civilization, to
morality and to religion. When the work Of
creation was done, did not the Lord God himself
plant . garden and place therein two guileless
souls, to delight in its beauty and to guide its
growth? And when through disobedience
punishment became necessary, was it not part
OF that punishment that the erring ones were
sent out ofthe garden into land that brought
forth thorns and thistles!
Queen Amytis wanted garden, and the king
eAd sne should have one. 1t was built within
the palace walls. There was never seen such
Spleasure ground % this; vast numbers of pil-
Lars arched and vaulted, cemented with the
lndestructible asphaltum, which made whole
columns ike one stone for strength. sustained
terrace after terrace. each higher than the one
before 1t, till the last stood four hundred feet
from the ground. Upon these yarlous plat
forms we're planted exquisite oriental shrubs.
fragrant flowers and waving palms. = oreat
pyramid of verdure, which looked a. d;stsn ocs
like symetrical mountain in the lat s~cs,.
lsnoe Of culture. Artificial irrigation vss .
pet science with the ancients, and water scr ~
garden Was raised BY machinery from the En-
pirates four hundred feet below. Amytis n.
content with her mountain garden; people came
from distant nations to see them. and even The
self-sstishsd Greeks, who always thought
wisdom would die with them, acknowledges
them to be worthy Of place among the wond.
srs Of the worll
When Belshaszar had succeeded to the king.
dom OF his grandfather and was Teasing q
thousand Of his mobiles in the very palace that
Nebuchadnezzar had built by the might of his
power for the glory Of bis majesty, while they
drank wine and praised the gods Of gold and
silver in the same hour came forth fingers of q