Litchfield enquirer., 1867-01-03
PALESTINE.

'The Telegraph notices the curious fact
 that the ship Hetty Helen, from New York, 1 brought over to Jaffasa whole assorted car go of Yankee emigrants, who of all places
 in the world, had pitched upon the plains
 of Sharon for settlement. There is really
 something very odd and striking in this
 importation of the newest people into one
 of the most ancient localities and popula- l tlons of history. A greater contrast than
 that between New York and Jafa could
 not be found in all the world. Everybody knows what the American city is; that of Syria is gray Arab town perched upon a
 little hill with no harbor, no life, no hustle
 nothing to care about, nothing to take up
 the attention save coffee and pipes, and
 the occasional swindling of Nazarine dogs
 who land there on the way to Jerusalem.
 Jaifa sits blinking in the sun atop of it's
 hlllock with the Mediterranean waves fus-
 sing into froth against its tumble-down
 quay, just as if it were dreaming of the an
 tlque times, when it was in the language
 of these new visitors quite place. For
 only to remember what used to be, makes
 these Yankees, as Javists would say, sons
 of yesterday
 "Let no one, however, doubt that these
 cute New Englanders know what they are
 doing. JaHa Is of little account for busi-
 ness, beauty, ,or anything else except melons
 and ancient history; but outside and be-
 hind the city lies plain unsurpassed for
 richness. It is the plain of Sharon, whose
 roses blossom and shed fragrance through
 the religious literature of half the world
 and which boasts the very finest orange and
 lemon gardens in all the earth, The soil
 that can produce such fruit ought, with
 Yankee culture: to do almost anything;
 and. indeed the plain of Sharon never wan
 much more than water, and little scratch
 with the crooked stick called the Syrian plough, to produce whatever is wanted
 Our Transatlantic friends always had 8 sharp eye forswater privileges and salmigh- ty fine locations; but what scent they must have had for them to find out this fat and likely place from the other side of the globe! Doubtless they will prospect the country now they are there; and should they go north to the plain of Esdraelon, Jun der the hills of Nazareth, they will see still more promising site for enterprising Yankees, if they can only manage the Be- douins and bribe the Turks. The fattest and richest corn ground in the world, flat as billiard table, aad close to the sea. is to be found by the hundreds of thousands of acres; but it is untitled, and yields only the mandrake, the great Syrian thistle, and the Palestine lilies, for the Turks have no power or will to keep Arabs from turning their mares into the barley of the peasants when it comes up. The Yankee and the roses of Sharon or the lilies of Jezreel come oddly enough together; but we should not grudge the contrast if it could do some thing for sad and fair Syria
 FALLEN GREATNESS DRAMATICALLY RE ALrzED.-I sat in the Senate Gallery on Wednesday and witnessed an incident full of meaning, and to me pregnant with sig niticance. It may be that in my letter of that date alluded to 1t. At any rate did no more, and the incident will bear com ment, It was during the discussion of Senator Chandler's motion to pass without a committee reference the bill sent from the House repeating the 18th section of the act of July. 1862, by which the powers of general amnesty to untried rebels was granted to the Executive, that the central door swung open, and a marked figure and man stole into the chamber | use the right word in the sense of com ing in mysteriously. The presence was al- most wraith-like, ghostly and shadowy. The memories which cluster around 1t of former potential speech and presence in days forever gone and almost obliterated i from the minds of men, have certainly be- come spectral and dim in their fading away before the glare of later treachery l Something too in the presence, as we'll as the memories, let additional force to this impression. The figure so slight and fec ble, with its dark garb, the shrunken face, ! marked features where the scars recall terrible tragedy, of which (how pitiful it is to say it) there are some who cannot help l it were well if the curtain had i fallen on this career-the gray and strag- | ging hair and whiskers, with the subtle, | crafty, yet furtiye expression that strikes you as predominant in the intellectual out look;- ;-all these combined to fill up the l strange impression the person entering made on my imagination. It was the whis- ] pered name of '' Steward" which first arous- ed attention.
 If such was the impression made by his appearance, his reception in the chamber did not tend to decrease it. As he entered there was slight stir on the right (Repub- ican). Not a Senator arose to greet the Secretary of State. On the contrary, it was distinctly noticed that several of the senators swung their chairs around as if purposely to avoid recognizing the premi- 0f. I10 StOOU lOT COuplo O1 MluuGcS uodf | the door, and then sending page to MT. Fessenden, disappeared in the cloak room with that Senator, leaving the feeling be- hind him one would have if visitant from beyond Life's portals had crossed the vis- ion.- Washington Correspondent of he Wor- cester Spy. 4Q
 DoN MIGUEL OF PoRTUaAL.-Th recent death of the former claimant of the Portu- guese throne whose obstinacy once filled the newspapers, has attracted but little no- tice. In May 1884, he signed the eapitula- tion of Evora, stipulating for pension of 5000 per annum, and his private proper ty. He afterwards lived at Rome and Vii enna, and finally at the castle of Bronnbach near Werthim, in the Grand Duchy of Ba- den. In 1851 he married German Prin- cess, and became the father of six daugh- ters and son. These were all born on Portuguese ground, brought from Portu- gal; but it is not likely they will ever have an opportunity of vindicating their preten- sions to the Portuguese, crown, founded on a precaution so trivial and yet so charaete- ristic
 ANSWERING FooL AccoRDINa TO HIS Fol- LY.-A few Sabbaths ago, in the midst of some remarks on the authenticity of the .ks- AI E