The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1875-11-06
JERUSALEM.

/
all sides you ascend to what is, indeed a
mountain fastness, breathing a mountain
air, constituting in her days of glory a
mountain throne, bearing on high the
mountain sanctuary of Jehovah. Solo.
mons Temple is imagined as having been
distinguished by size, grace, and splendor /;
but its chief pre- eminence was that it stood
upon lofty summit, and upon platform
rising above that; so that nothing shut it
out from view, and it gave a character to
the scene over which spread the wings of
Divine protection.
| Next to the elevation of this s'mountain
of the Lord is its manifest antiquity
| There are many ancient places which are
all modernized but, though Jerusalem has
been seventeen times destroyed, its battle
mented walls show many stone with
ancient carvings the blocks of the Temple
enclosure, at the depth of eighty feet below
of the Knights of St. John, near the Holy
Sepulchre, is undoubtedly an antique :;
while Herod's Tower was actually the work
of that king. The general aspect is that of
city which has been destroyed by re-
peated contlagrations.
| One cannot but be struck by the silence
embosomlng community supposed to
number thirty thousand inhabitants. Pal.
estine has no roads, Jerusalem no factories,
the Jew no gaieties and SO a graveyard
stiffness broods around Mount Zion. On
| fine days the solitude folding itself around
the city is really wonderful. Among those
of nearly all nations you may look long at
MONDAY for moving thing, for stray
horse, for child at play. AS vast num-
bers are buried where the resurrection is
expected to begin, in the Valley of Jehos
haphat, it is no exaggeration to state that
every inch of ground along the entire east
ern slope is covered with Turk and Greek,
Armenian and Catholic, Jew and Gentle
| tombstones. The most interesting, of
course, are those that profess to honor pro-
phets, apostles, and kings, the graves
being cut into the live rock, some of them
many chambered and beautifully orna-
mented on the front, though not to COM
pare with the immense sepulchres of the
Egyptian Thebes.
| The finest view Of the city is undou5t-
edly that which the travelsr gets last from
the east-upon that grand road from Beth
any which Pompey took, rather than that
ancient mule path which the Saviour often
trod. Here you have full in view the Grand
Mosque Of Omar, towering over the entire
scene, fairy-like building, that lies to the
west On the south is the high pile of the
| Armenian Convent and the dome over
| David's Tomb. At the southwest corner
stands Herod's Tower, stately relic, sim
pie and grand; next to this are seen the
two domes over the Holy Sepulchre, and
the long mass of the Latin Convent stretch
ing to the northwest.
| The Dome of the Rock, which marks
Rome, has no rival for beauty, hardly for
sanctity. Believers in three great religions
revere the spot where Solomon's Temple
once stood: the Mohammedan, who only
who has no other actual sanctuary, and
who expects to meet a reconcled Jehovah
at that accepted shrine; and the Christian,
who held it through the Crusaders valor,
and is quietly coming in possession of it
| again. The blue and white Temple seems
as a cloud resting for moment over the
altar so many thousand years sacrifice, by
| and by to melt away in the serene heavens.
The recent explorations of English en-
gineers, besides mapping out the whole
area belonging to the ancient Court of the
| Gentiles-an area of one thousand by fit
teen hundred feet-have proved all that
was conjectured about the antiquity of the
beveled stones forming the outer wall.
| They certainly GO back to Solomon, and
are remarkable stone work for that early
day, though far inferior to the Egyptian
masterpieces, where thousands of artisans
spent their lives in decorating single
tomb.
The explanation Of the compact condi-
ton of Jerusalem, shut in by battlemented
walls, is that exposure to Bedouin assault
which keeps all Palestine ON perpetual
guard, suffers no man to plough his field
unarmed, and forbids entirely that stray
Cling life which marks our peaceful villages
in America. Except the cave-dwellers in
Sloan, who are too poor to be robbed and
too filthy to be visited, nobody sleeps out
side of the city; the gates are guarded all
| I'd
walls were erected by Selim, the conqueror
of Egypt, and though no defense against
modern artillery, they defy any Arab as
sault.
Among the places of touching memory,
is the Pool OF Bethesda. 1t it a reservoir
of three hundred and sixty feet by one
hundred and thirty, cemented on the sides
so to hold water, crossed over by some
| lofty arches which sustain street, and
seventy feet below the level Oh which you
stand. But ancently it could not have
been more than half that depth, because
recent eng ineering excavations show that
at least thirty feet of rubbish have
accumulated over the remains of ancient
Jerusalem. The pool has had no water for
centuries; few wild trees flourish in its
damp soil, and, like every thing else in the
city, it has terribly desolate look.
No DIFFERENCE TO HIM.-Going up
Abbott street, yesterday, man saw boy
about eleven years of age seated on the
sidewalk, bare headed, in the full blaze of
the scorching sun.
But, you ought not to sit there"' said
the man.
"Why?"
because you'll get all tanned up
"Makes no difference to me whether
sit in the sun or the shade" sadly answered
the boy, "mother tans me up three or four
times day any howl
IS Peter Cooper designed the first loco.
motive that was ever turned out i'll this
continent, and was the first to roll wrought