The record-union., 1892-02-13

A'oI iilC DSOOll1LS no 1OHStT lcdISl
Their filnt-lock muskets are useless
against the repeating rifle, and small par
ties OF the soldiers OF any civilized nation
would be able to preserve intact a line of
railroad against all the Bedouins of the
desert. 1t is not impossible, too, that
railroad and water communication may
have beneficial effect on the wandering
tribes themselves. In Egypt, when quick
transit was instituted across the lsthmuS,
the Bedouins found they could make
more by protecting than by robbing trav-
eiers, and so became the faithful escorts
OF Europeans from one sea to the other.
One OF the most attractive features of the
new route is that it will pass through the
Oldest inhabited part of the world, through
country which once held all the civili-
zatlon, refinement, wealth and education
that Asia possessed. 1t will pass through
country whose monuments are even
now the Oldest history in existence.
A hundred years ago nothing was
known of Chaldea, Mesopotamia and the
contiguous districts save the huge
mounds, which even in the time of Xen-
ophon were as well known TO him as to
our grandtathers. 1t has since been as
certained that every one OF these hillocks
covers hidden records, some of which go
back $500 years before Christ. The
route will pass directly by Babylon, on
the Euphrates, and from thence the trav-
eler is in easy reach of Bagdad, whence
steamers may be taken up the Tigris to
Nlneveh, 800 miles away, or caravans
may proceed to Susa, the former famous
capital of the Persian Empire, or to Ar
bella, or some of the other great battle
fields on which the destiny of the world
was once decided. The Tigris rises on
the south side of the Armenian Mount
aims, the Euphrates on the north, and the
annual foundations of these two streams
fn
weeks apart. The Tigris still rises first.
and being many feet higher than the Eu-
pirates advantage was taken Of the fact
to establish a system of irrigating canals,
and the whole vast plain between the
two rivers was thus watered, made fer
tile and provided the food for an immense
population.
The ruins of over $50 cities have been
discovered in the plains between the
Ilgris and the Euphrates, showing,
| therefore, that not only was the popula
ton numerous, but also wealthy. After
the downfall of the Assyrian and Baby
lonlan Empires and the devastation of
the country by foreign and merciless
enemies, the population decreased to such
a degree that the canals could no longer
be kept in repair; little by little they fell
into disuse, and now only their walls
remain to show the immenSity of a Sys-
tenn of irrigating works which, in it's
prime, must far have exceeded that OF
Egypt. In every direction across the
country run the mounds, now merely
dry ravines, for the driven sand while it
has partly filled the long bitches, has not
been able entirely to obscure the traces
of their Enclosures.
By the Euphrates and Oriental route
the traveller will be in comparatively easy
reach Of many other important and inter-
esting points. From Kaarat Jaber, on
the Euphrates, there is a caravan route to
Palmyra, less than 100 miles away, and
the ruins of this once famous city will,
no doubt, when the road is opened, be
visited by thousands where now not
more than dozen travellers in a season
pitch their tents under the shadow of it's
palaces. 4 hundred miles further to the
south is Damascus, and to this jewel of
the valley the Euphrates system will no
doubt be pushed, while the Palestine line
of roads will in time be extended to meet
the Euphrates at Damascus.
Unquestionably, however, the PaleS-
tine lines will in time cover every inn
portant point in the country, from Dan,
at the source of the Jordan, by way of
Hebron to Beersheba, whence the Arab
ian Desert stretches away in unbroken
continuity to the south. The road from
Jerusalem to Jericho will then no longer
have the dangers to which the traveller in
the Gospels was exposed. Side lines
to the Lake of Tiberius on the north and
to the Dead Sea on the south will be es-
tabliShed, branch lines through Galilee
will be built, and the tamiliarcry of the
brakeman, "Capernaum! twenty min
for dinner" or Nazareth! change cars
for CRsarea, Mount Carmel, Jezreel and
Megiddo," will astonish the ears of the
wandering natives.
1t may seem almost a desecration thus
to associate the modern with the ancient,
to bring together the noisiest convenience
ofthe present day with the most hallowed
associations known to the Christian
world. An eating house at the Jerusalem
Station, a machine shop at Bethlehem,
switch yard in the suburbs Of Nazareth a
round house at Jacobs Well, or a freight
depot in the shadow of the Mount of
Olives appears like sacrilege; but the
present age, while interested in its rever-
ence, not only for the ideas, but also for
the places where those ideas had their
birth, is not disposed to sacrifice con-
venience to sentiment, and any one or all
Of these things is at the present day much
more than a probability.-St. Louis
Globe-Democrat.