Sharp County record., 1890-11-13


River. 1t takes the tree branches anu
logs iloated into it by the Jordan and
pitches them on Che banks OF bitumen
to decay there.
The hot springs near its banks, by the
name of Callirhoe, where King Herod
came to bathe off his illnesses, no soon
er pour into this sea than they are pol
soned. Not a fish scale swims it. Not
an insect walks it, 1t hates life, and II
you attempt to swim there it lifts you
by an unnatural buoyancy to the sur
face, as much as to say: 1--WE want no
life here, but death is our preference,
death" Those who attempt to wade
into this lake and submerge them
selves, come out almost maddened, as
with the sting of hundred wasps
and hornets and with lips and
eyelids swollen with tho strange
ablution. The sparkle of its waters
is not like the sparkle OF
beauty on other lakes but metallic
luster like unto the flash of a sword
that would thrust you. The gazelles
and the ibexes that live on the hills be-
side it, and the cranes and wild ducks
that fly across-for, contrary to the old
belief, birds do safely wing their way
over it-and the Arab horses you have
been riding, though thirsty enough
will not drink out of this dreadful MKT
ure. A mist hovers over parts OF it
almost continually, which, though nat
ural evaporation, seems like a wing OF
doom spread over liquid desolation. 1t
is the rinsings of abomination. 1t is an
aqueous monster coiled among the hills,
or creeping with ripples, and stenchtul
with nauseating malodors.
In these regions once stood four great
cities of Assyria: Sodom, Gomorrah,
Adma and Zeboim. The Bible says
they were destroyed by a tempest of
fire and brim stone after these cities had
filled up with wickedness. mo, that
is absurd" cries some one. sit is evil
dent that this was a region of salt and
birthstone and pitch, long before that. !"
And so it was. The Bible says it was
region of sulphur long before the
great catastrophe. "Well, now," says
some one, wanting to raise a quarrel
between science and revelation, 'you
have no right to say the 'Cities of the
Plain were destroyed by tempest of
fire and sulphur and birthstone,
because this region had these char
acteristics long before these cities
were destroyed" Volcanic action, is
my reply. These cities had been built
out of very combustible materials. The
mortar was of bitumen easily ignited,
and the walls dripped with pitch most
infammable. They sat, I think, on a
ridge of hills. They stood high up and
conspicuous, radiant in their sins,
ostentatious in their debaucheries, four
hels on earth. One day there was a
rumbling in the earth, and quaking.
whats up?" cry the affrighted in,
habtants. whats that?" The founda'
tions of the earth were giving away. A
volcano, whose fires had been burning
for ages. at GODS command burst
forth, easily setting every thing afame,
and first lifting these cities high in the
air, and then dashing them down in
chasms fathomless. The fires of that
eruption intershot the dense smoke and
rolled unto the heavens, only to descend
again. And all the confguration Of
that country was changed, and where
there was hill there came valley
and where there had been the pomp o!
unclcanness came widespread desola
ton. The red hot spade of volcanic ac
tion had shoveled under the cities of
the plain. Before the catastrophe the
cities stood on the top OF the salt and
sulphur. After the catastrophe they
were under the saltand sulphur. Science
right. Revelation right. "llo touched
the hills and they smoke"
But the dragoman was reioiced wher
we had seen enough Of this volcanic
region of Palestine, and he gladly
tightens the girths for another marcf
around tho horses which are prancin&
and neighing for departure. We are of
for tho Jordan, only two hours away
We pass Bodouins whose stern features
melt into a smile as we give them thu
salutation, "Salaam Aloikoum," =" "Peac,
be with YOU" their smile sometimes
leaving us in doubt as TO whethe
it is caused by their gladness tt
SEQ us or by our poor pronuncia
tion Of tho Arabic. Oh, they arr
o strange race, those Bedouins. Sucl
commingling Of ruillanism ant
honor, OF cowardice and courage, o.
cruelty and kindnessl Whom band o
them came down upon party In which
Miss Whately was travelling, and wer,
about to tako pocket-books, and per
haps lifo, this lady sitting upon her
horse took out her note book and pencil
and began to sketch those brigands, ant
seeing this composuW, tho bandit
thought II something supernatural ant
fed, Christian womanllnoss or manli
ness Is all.conQuerlng When Martil
Luther was told that Duke George
would kill him II ho won't to Loipsic
Luther roplicd; ~ would 60 TO Loipsit
II 1t rained Duke Georges nino days"
Now wo como through regions whore
there are hills cut into tho shape o
cathodrols, with oltars, and column, On,