San Marcos free press. [volume] (San Marcos, Tex.) 1877-1892, 1879-02-22
SOtlOm and GonaOrrah.

The Nile Is q sacred river, and tia
Tiber is famous, but the most sac,as
and most famous river in the world !.
the Jordan. From the beginning 10
the end, it has that mystical characte,
which BELTS such lofty pretensions: IT,
life is tie most vivid and complete and.
its death the most sudden and myster
Gus that can be imagined. 1t is torren
tial, and it leaves the TANKS of HermoD
and the many fountains of its tributo.
ries with IN eager precipitation, as il Il
bore a mission. From itsgreatest height
some hundred feet above the sea level
it leaps downward till it disappears in
the Dead sea, some thirteen hundred
feet below it. 1t hides itself amono
oleander, tamarisk and willow, and manv
an unfamiliar oriental tree, as if wishing
to keep from profane eyes the secret Of
its Grand. 1t does not stop long to
overflow its banks and fertilize the val.
ley; for it has purpose too mystical to
waste itself even upon acts of bene6.
cence. 1t is only willing to become a
living barrier between the desert tribes
and the favored nation who loved Il
No boat lives on its bosom. No fisher.
man dwells by its margin; but it moves
one headlong column of sacred waves
from its cradle of snow and cloud, high
in heaven, till it dies in fatal lake
marked by the finger of God, and for.
ever a subject for mans curiosity and
reverence. Itwould seem a thing apart
and not to be COMPOUNDED with vulgar
waters, which lose their personality in
that mighty sea, but exhaling to heav.
en- like some holy messenger, who per-
ished in the fulfllment of his duty. It's
birth and its death alike separate it from
its sister rivers of earth, and only the
voiceless mounds Of persisted and name.
less cities, tribes stationary as if hidden
to halt by some supreme destiny of the
past, or the awed and questioning stran.
ger from the many christian lands whose
baptism drew its authority from the first
sprinkling of its waters, as seen uponits
banks. And then we wandered through
many whispering reeds, through kind
of jungle where sterility and the river
had fought for mastery, and which
showed traces of both; tangle of
bushes as it were fighting their way up,
and great spaces of barrenness which
the summer would scorch to lifelessness.
And at last the Dead Sea. Though we
know that it is of volcanic origin, and
fed by mines of salt, the imagination,
now, as ever, is content to see in tia
thing accursed. There was fresh
breeze; and a reluctant lift and heavy
tumblers of it's tiny breakers made them
unlike other waves, but rather like those
Of Dante's Internal sea. There was
breath heavy with doom in the air, and
we were fortunate it was not sitting.
Was it the breath of those lost or tor.
tured there? And beneath that saline
sheet did we not see, as in the picture
of Delacroix, the agonizing and twist
ed figures of the condemned? We did
not battle in the Dead sea. Others
have done so, and report Of its buoyan'
cy the same tales that are told of our
own Salt lake. There is sort of whinl-
steal coincidence in the geographical
relation of the Dead sea, and the home
OF the earlier prophets. and Mr.. Brig
ham Young's personal continuation OF
the old dispensation, with private
Dead sea of his own in his immediate
The poorest swimmer
keeps his head above the water; and
persons have said that their legs seemed
to fly from under them. All speak OF
its waters as refreshing after the great
heat of that tropical valley. Birds are
said never to fly over it, which is the
merest superstition, for they are real!
often seen to do so. This lake certain
ly has brand upon it, as of Divine ven
geance. The waters are heavy with SILL
the shores around blasted, and the vel!
site of destroyed cities upon its banks
unknown. And here are still seen the
apples of Sodom, smooth and pretty "
the eye and touch, of a pale yellow nA'