The Middleburgh post. [volume] (Middleburgh, Snyder Co., Pa.) 1883-1916, 1890-11-06
S0LOMON'S WORKS.
MONUMENTS OF ANCIENT ART.
The Horticulture and Hydraulics of
Palestine.

Tie goTdehS and orchards, and planted trees
~ mem Of an kinds Of fruits. made nle
pools Of tc0tcr 10 ,cutcr hercnrih The rood
nat bringch forth t,ess." ."--Ecclesiastes
H., as
spring morning and breakfast at Jeru-
salem. = king with robes snowy white in
chariot decked with gold, drawn by eight
horses, high mettled, and housings as bril-
hant ns IL scolloped out OF that very sunrise
and like the winds for speed, followed
by regiment OF archers ON horseback,
with hand on gilded bow and arrows with
steel points flashing i'm the sun, clad from
head % foot in Tyrian purple. and black
hair sprinkcd with gold dust, all dashinr
down the road, the horses Mt full run, the
reins loose on their necks, and the crack of
whips and the halloo OF the reckless cavn,-
cade putting the miles at defiance. Who is
II, and what is it' King Solomon taking an
outing before breakfast from Jerusalem to
his gardens and parks and orchards and res
erNoirs, sS miles down tho road toward
Hebron. What a contrast between that and
myself on that very road one morning last
December going afoot, for our plain vehicle
turned back for Photographic apparatus for
gotten; We on the way to find what is called
solomon's pool, the ancient water works OF
Jerusalem, and the gardens OF king nearly
three thousand years ago. We cross the
aqueduct again and again, and here we arc
nt the three great reservoirs, mob ruins Of
ItotlN'lIrs Iul luf RESERVOIRS themselves.
that Solomon built three millenniums AGO
for the purpose OF catching the mountain
streams and passing them 10 Jerusalem TO
slake the thirst Of the city, and also Co iri.i-
gate the most glorious range of gardens that
ever boomed with all coors or breathed
with all redolence, for Solomon was tho
greatest hOrticulturiSt the greatest bntnnist
the greatest ornithologist. the greatest capi.
talist and tue greatest scientist of his cen.
tury.
Come over the piles Of gray rock. and here
we are ut the frs of the three reservoirs.
which are on three great levels, the base of
the top reservoir higher than the top OF the
second, the base OF the second reservoir
higher than the top Of the third, SO arranged
that the waters gathered from the several
sources above stall descend from basin 70
basin, the sediment of water deposited i'm
each OF the three, 50 that 10y the time IL gets
down TO the aqueduct which is 20 take il 10
Jerusalem it has had three filtarings, and is
MS pure as when the clouds rained It. Won
dertul specimens OF masonry are these three
reservoirs. The white cement fastening the
blocks Of stone together is now Just as when
the truwels three thousand years ago
smoothci the layers. The highest reservoir
$50 feet by go, the second, 4!3 feet bv 100
and the lowest reservoir, $50 feet by 1859 and
deep enough and wide enough and mighty
enough to iuat an ocean steamer.
On that December morning we saw tho
waters rolling down from reservoir to
reservoir ana can well understand how m
this neighborhOod the imperial gardens
Were one great blossom, and the orchard
one great basket OF fruit and that Solo
mon in his palace, writing the Song of
Songs and ECciesiuStCs may have been
drawing illustrations from what he had
seen that very morning in the royal gar
dens when he alluded 10 melons and man
brakes, aud apricots, and grapes, and
tnt ftsfFa null
cinnamon, and calamus, and campfire,
and apple trees among the trees OF tho
wood and the almond tree as 1ourishng,
and TO myrrh aud frankincensa, and repre-
tented Christ rs gone down into his gar
dens, and the beds of spices 60 feed in tho
gardens, and TO gather iilies,n and TO "eyes
like fish POOLS and TO the voice of the
turtle dove as heard in the land. 1 think
! II wac Nhen S0.CEaoY was showing the
Queen OF Sheba through these gardens that
the Bible says OF her: "rhere remained no
more spirit in her" She gave II up
But all this spiendor did not make Solomon
happy One uay, after getting back from
his morning ride and before the horses had
vet been cooled OFF and rubbed down by the
royal equcrry, Solomon wrote the memoir
able words following my text like dirgs
played after grand march, "Behod all was
vanity and veNation Of spirit, and there was
40 profit under tho SUM- In other words.
ut don't pay" Would God that we might
Sll learn the lesson that this world cannot
produce happino,s At Marscilles there is "A
castellotcd house on high ground, crowned
with all that grove and garden can do, aud
the whole place looks out upon as enchanting
n landscape a. tae world holds water and
hill clgspins hands IN a perfect be'yitchmeut
of scenery, but the owner Of that place is
totally blind, and 10 him all thin goes for
nothing, illustrating the truth that whether
one be physically cr morally blind, bgilliancy
of surrounding cannot give satisfaction; but
tradition says that when the 'wfss men Of
the east were being guided 10y the star on
the way 10 Bethlehem they for u little while
lost sight of that star, ana in despair and ex-
haustlon came TO "A well 10 drink when look
ing down into the well they saw the star re-
hectcd in the water and that cheered them
and they resumed their journey; anl | have
the notion that though grandeur and pomp
OF surroundings may not afford peace at tho
well Of Gods consolation, close by, you may
lind happiness, aud the piainest cup OF the
well of salvation may hold the brightest star
that ever shone from the heavens.
Although these Solomonic gardens are IN
ruins, there are now growing there flowers
that are 10 ba found nowhere else in tho
Holy Lald. How do account for that?
Solomon sent out his ships and robbed the
gardens of the whole earth for flowers, and
planted these eXotics here and these par
ticular flowers are direct descen lnnts of the
lorelgn pants ne Imported. Mr. Meshuilam
q Christian lsrae.ite ON the very sight Of
these royal gardens, has in our day by put.
ting IN ms own spade, demonstrated that the
ground Is only waiting for the right call 60
yield Just a. much uXuriance and splenl1r
eighteen hundred years after Christ a, IL
yielded Solomon one THOUSAND years before
Christ. So all Palestine IS waiting TO become
the richest scene OF horticulture, arbaricul-
ture and agriculture.
Recent travellers in the Holy Land
speak of the rocly and stony surface or
nearly all Palestine as an impossible barrier
10 the future cultivation of the soil. But IL
they had examined minutely the rocks and
stones oi tine Holy Land they would lind that
they are being skeletonzed aud are being
melted into the soil and, being for the mosJ
part limestone, they are doing for that land
what the American and English farmer does
when, at great expense and fatigue, he
draws his wagon load of lime and CATERS it
on the fields for their enrichment, The
storms, the winters, the great midsummer
heats OF Palestine by crumbling up and
dissolvng the rocks are gradually preparing
Palestine and Syria 10 yield product like
unto the luxuriant Westchester farms of
New York ana Lancaster County farms OF
Pennsylvania, and Somerset County farms
of New Jersey and the other magnificent
farm fields of Minnesota and Wisconsin, and
the opulent orchards OF Maryland and Cal
ifornia. Let tn Turk be driven out and the
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