The Portland daily press., 1872-03-19

fLoWERS.-W nile We await the advent oil
spring, it is pleasant to anticipate the vernal
season, and wander for awhile, when we can,
among shrubs and flowers; to improve such an
opportunity as Mr.. Dirwanger offers at his
greenhouses on Congress street, near Dow. 1t
is delightful place for morning hour. Here
are heaths in full flower beds of modest
pansies, groups of hyacinths of every conciev-
able hue, running roses, fragrant callas, with
magnificent camelias and azalias, growing Or
anges and budding speciosas; and at the end of
one gallery rustic fountain, surrounded with
moses, ferns and beds of violets-a bit of smil-
ing summer in the midst of frowning winter
Mr.. Dnwanger is preparing for the Easter de-
mand, and no doubt he will receive an alum
dance of orders. Visitors during this and the
following week receive a premium on the pay
ment of the small admission fee,
MANUFACTURES Wells, esq.,, writes
from Boston:
If the citizens of Portland will go forward
with the conversion of the Sugar House into a
cotton mill, or an enterprise equivalent thereto
as to number of spindles, a business house here
will take $125, 900 stock to secure the sale of the
goods.
To be prepared for any such contingency of
cO-OperaIlOn, TIE DOdru OF Nlauu1acCureS pro-
cured from the Legislature, last winter, through
Representative Milliken a charter for the Gas
co Manufacturing Company, capital $3.50, 600.
PERsoNAL.-Among the passengers blythe
Samaritan, for Liverpool, on Saturday, was
Mrs Fred Locke of this city, who goes to join
her husband at Madrid, where he is pursuing
his profession as dentist. DR.. Locke was of the
firm of A. j. Locke s, Son, and left Portland
for the Spanish capital in November last, and
is meeting with good success.
BELsHAzzAR's FEAST, OR THE FALL OF
BABYLoN.-ThiS cantata, to be produced this
week by the Ancient Harmony Society, in City
Hall, rehearses the well-knOwn facts given in
Scripture relating to that event We find the
record principally in the Book of Daniel; but
the antecedents are in the older prophets,
Isaiah and jeremiah. 1t had been foretold for
two hundred years, and the Divine instrument
for bringing it about, Cyrus, the Persian, men
toned by name, Is. Xiv, 49, 4gt |~
In the third year of Jehoiakm, King of Jul
dab, came Northumberland, King of Babylon,
to Jerusalem and besieged it. And the Lord
having delivered it into his hand, he carried
away the King and people as prisoners, with
all the golden and silver vessels of the House
OF Cne LOru. 1nuSs began the DdDylOIllSn cap
tivity, which, according to the prophecy, was
to last seventy years. Daniel was then about
IL years old, being among the captives they
carried away. Arriving at Babylon, he was
one of the four ''well-favored'' youths chosen
to "stand before the king and to be educated
by appropriate masters in all the learning and
wisdom of the Chaldeans. r XII t
Seventy years passed away, Daniel had be-
come venerable in age, and learned both in
Chaldean and Hebrew literature. From the
liam ba aY1f-
ed as the time when the Holy city should be re-
built and the Sanctuary restored. He began to
look therefore for the overthrow of the doomed
cGy, whose destruction had been so fully fore
told by the Hebrew prophets.
Then comes the Feast. BelshaZzar made a
feast to a thousand of his lords, and drank wine
before the thousand. Giving a loose rein to his
impiety and idolatry, he committed the profani-
ty of drinking wine out of the golden and silver
vessels that had been taken out of the Sanctu-
ary of the Lord, at Jerusalem; at the same time
praising the Babylonish daities, the gods Of
gold, silver wood and stone.
In the midst of this festive scene, came the
the handwriting on the wall. Even then Cyrus
was forming his camp around the city, in the
darkness outside the walls.
The Cantata supposes the feast to continue
two days. On the evening of the I'd day the
writing comes. Daniel is called in to interpret
it. In the meantime Cyrus enters the city Sc
cretly. 'And the same night was Belshazzar
the King of the Chaldeans, slain.
The Cantata continues until the going forth
Of the decree of Cyrus for the rebuilding of
Jerusalem; Ezra, /; 4, A. NJ. 346S; and B. G.
536. ~ e.
The first scene is laid in the palace hall at
Babylon the feast beginning with the swelling
forth of the national anthem of the Chaldeans.
Then follows the Queens apartment where
Nitocrs is represented as bewailingsthe revelr-
les of the Court.
The third scene is the Jewish place of wor-
ship, in another part of the city, where the
Jews, convened in their Synagogue, are chant
ing the praises of Jehovah. Then follow the
walls Of Babylon; where Daniel and his three
companions, expecting to be summoned to read
the writing, are passing the night in prayer, in
voking the Divine aid. .sse..-.........
Scene fifth is renewal of the feast with
solos from the impious king and the high priest
of Baal, with choruses by the banqueting host.
The sixth and seventha scenes carry US back
to the evening devotions of the Hebrews on
the I'd day. ..te
Scene eighth presents the elimination. The
handwriting appearing on the wall. throws the
banqueting host into CONSERVATION, and after
the soothsayers and lastrologers failed, Daniel
is called in and makes known the interpreta-
ton. Scenes nine and ten are the camp of
Cyrus: LIST, without the walls and then within.
The words are to considerable extent taken
from aDnroDriate partS of scripture, w.