The Hickman courier., 1873-07-05
The Holy Land of To-day.


A meeting in behalf of the Palestine |
in the Central Methodist church, Sew
enth avenue, near Fourteenth street.
Exploration Society was held last week
Rev. Professor Hitchcock was the first
speaker. He said that explorers were
every week identifying new spots near
the Jordan. Rev. DIR. Robinson did
not make very vide exploration. Count
less ruins exist, the exploration OF
which viii produce great results In the
interest of the Bible. In 1865 the Eng
lish began to examine the west side OF
Jordan. They invited the cooperation
of Americans. The result was, the
English concluded to leave to the Amer
lean society the east side of Jordan
while they took the west side. The
English have surveyed 1850 square
miles. The Americans viii use the
same scales, so that uniform map may
be made. Th , English are spending
s25. 900 year, the American society
will keep within $4,000. The whole
work will require five years. A frank
appeal will be made to the Christians
of this countrg to furnish the money
for this enterprise. A number OF Amer
leans are now on the ground, and have
surveyed their base-line of five miles.
The expenses have been met, so far, by
gentlemen Of New York, who have sub
scribed $500 to 81, 900 apiece. The de-
I
If the Bedouins are too troublesome the
.enterprise will be given up. 1t Is de
/ sired that this Bible-loving earnest
a.--.---a.-----a---a.s.s8A Al8stve the first
chance to subscribe The speaker said
/ he would now introduce an explorer,
who is the son of a missionary, and was
born in Palestine.
Rev. ". H. Thompson said that the
longer he stayed in Palestine the more
he realized how little is known about
the country There is no site except
Jerusalem that seems so easy to explore
as Tyre. He had been there some forty
times. Beyrout is now using old Tyre
as a stone-quarry. Ceserea was evi
IDENTIFY built from the stones of an ole
Phunician town. Most modern cities
in that region are built in this way. Al
Arab once took him to see a tesselateC
pavement in Tyre. Near it was a hole
that led to a causeway just discovered
This was evidently the causeway tina
was made of the ruins of most ancien
Tyre, taken by Alexander; by it h,
connected the island on which the cit,
stood with the mainland. 1t was mad,
of a mass of old Phenician columns
All the waters near Tyre are strew1
with the ruins of some of the fines
buildings ever erected. Columns of al
sorts are found and the oldest are tn,
most massive. He thought the explo
ration of such waters was far more i'm
portant work than the search for al
open polar sea. Some peasants of ST
don lately struck upon four leaden box
es full of gold pieces. They quarreled
and the news coming to the governor. b
tortured them until they disgorked tn
whole sum. Such treasures have oftel
been found there, as such burials hav
been going on for five thousand years
He had been much struck by n castl
near Tyre. Found it Saracenic, with
Canaanite base. From the castle h
and his father counted seventy-tw
ruins of towns and castles. In travel
ing through Galilee he found that Jo
sephus was right in saying there wa
], 500 towns there. These ruins stan
so close that they almost touch. Thi
5 land has been conquered, as far as th
= as~ees-sf JORDAN Is concerned, by n
1 great nations. But Jordan valley l 80
feet below the sea, has acted as a bal
rier, and the east side is remarkabl
unchanged from the times of Job. A
= architecture is found there that seen
likely to last as long as the earth. E,
= cry particle of the houses, even to th
ceilings, is of stone. There is a sol
of lava bed there which it cost Meh,
? met Ali 10000 men to capture frol
1000 Druses. In this very place wf
the stronghold of "Og, king of b;
shan" That land has treasures. of in
mense value, because it has been so Ii
tie disturbed, There are Inscription
there which will certainly explain th
original dispersion of the race from Ii
plateaus of Asia, and also why I'll
Egyptians had hieroglyphic while I'll
: Asiatics had a phonetic language.
the close of th~speech the names
5 those who would pay SO year for fy
years were taken.