The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1891-11-27

and chisel, and canvas have not pre-
sented has come up at the call O
arch@ologists' powder blast and crow
bar.
But have now to unveil the chic
wonder of this chiefest of cities. Ii
1868. under the patronage of the En-
glish government, Mr.. Wood, the ex
plorer, began at Ephesus to feel along
under the ground at great depths fol
roads, for walls, for towns, for towers
and here it is-that for which Ephesul
was more celebrated than all else be
side-the temple of the goddess Diana
called the sixth wonder of the world
and in 1889 we stood amid the ruins o.
that temple, measuring its pillars
transfxed by its sculpture and con
founded at what was the greatest
temple of idolatry in all time. There
have been seven temples of Diana, the
ruins of each contributing something
for the splendor of all its architectural
successors. Two hundred and twenty
years was this last temple in construc
tion. Twice as long as the United
| States has stood was that temple In
building. 1t was nearly twice as large
as st. Paul's cathedral, London.
Lest it should be disturbed by earth
quakes, which have always been fond
of making those regions their play
ground, the temple was built on a
marsh, which was made firm by layers
of charcoal covered by feeces of wool
The stone came from the quarry near
by. After it was decreed to build the
temple, it was thought it would be
necessary to bring the building stone
from other lands, but one day a shep-
herd by the name of Pixodorus, while
watching his hocks, saw two rams
fighting, and as they missed the inter-
locking of their horns and one fell, his
horn knocked splinter from the rock
and showed by that splinter the lus-
trous whiteness of the rock. The shep-
herd ran to the city with a piece of
that stone, which revealed a quarry
from which place the temple was built
and every month in all ages since, the
mayor of Ephesus goes to that quarry
to offer sacrifices to the memory of that
shepherd who disc covered this source of
splendor and wealth for the cities of
Asia Minor. In removing the great
stones from the quarry to their destined
places in the temple it was necessary,
in order to keep the wheels, which
were twelve feet in diameter, from
sinking deep into the earth under the
unparalleled heft, that frame of tim
bers be arranged over which the wheels
rolled. The temple of Diana was 425
feet long by 22O feet wide. All Asia
was taxed to pay for it 1t had 1877
pillars, each 60 feet high, and each the
gift of a king and inscribed with the
name of the donor.
Now you see the meaning of that
passage in Revelation, just as a king
presenting one of these pillars to the
temple of Diana had his own
name chiseled on it and the
name of his own country, so says
Christ: Him that overcometh will
make pillar in the temple of my God,
and l will write upon him the name of
my God aud the name of the city of
my God, which is New Jerusalem, and
l will write upon him my new name"
How suggestive and beautiful
In addition to those pillars that l
climbed over while amid the ruins of
Diana's temple, saw afterward eight
of those pillars at Constantinople, to
which city they had been removed and
are now a part of the mosque of st.
Sophia Those eight columns are all
green jasper, but some of those which
stood in Diana's temple at Ephesus
were fairly drenched with brilliant
colors. Costly metal stood up in va
rious parts of the temple. where they
could catch the fullest flush of the sun.
A fight of stairs were carved out of
one grapevine. Doors of cypress wood,
which had been kept in glue for years
and bordered with bronze in bas relief,
swung against pillars of brass, and re-
sounded with echo upon echo. caught
up and sent on and hurled back
through the corridors. In that building
stood an image of Diana, the goddess.
The impression was abroad, as the
Bible records, that that image had
dropped plumb out of Heaven into that
temple, and the sculptors who really
made the statue or image were put to
death, so that they could not testify to
its human manufacture and so deny its
celestial origin. 1t was thought by in
telligent people that the material from
which this idol was formed might have
dropped out of the heavens as an aero
lite.
The material out of which the image
of Diana was fashioned contradicts
that notion. This image was carved
out of ebony and punctured here and
there with openings kept full of spike
nard SO as to hinder the statue from
decaying and make it aromatic, but
this ebony was covered with bronze
and alabaster A necklace of acorns
coiled gracefully around her. There
were four lions on each arm, typical of
strength Her head was coroneted.
Around this figure stood statues which
by wonderful invention shed tears.
The air by strange machinery was
damp by descending perfumes. The
walls multiplied the scene by concaved
mirrors Fountains tossed in sheaves
Of light and fell in showers of dia-
nonds- Praxiteles, the sculptor, and
the painter, filed the place
with their triumphs- Cresus, the
of the ancients, put here
and there in the temple golden heifers.
The paintings were SO vivid and life
like that Alexander, who was moved
at nothing of terror, shuddered at one
battle scene on these walls, and so true
Lo l;fa ,.-or q ,,oipfiurof q borca 4ho+
when Alexander's horse was led up to
It. he began to neigh, as one horse is
accustomed to greet another. One
painting in that temple cost S19S. $50.
The treasures of all nations and the
spoils of kingdoms were kept here for
Safe denosit Criminals from all lands