The record-union., 1893-04-08

Publish it not in the streets of Asca-
lon" was the despairing cry of David as
he mourned with Israel over the tragic
fall of King Saul and Jonathan at Gill
bon. That wall of woe introduces US in
imagination to the then ancient Philistine
town of the eleventh century, B. C. a
truer picture of the Ascalon of to-day is
contained in the dire prophecy of the
Hebrew Zephaniah, "Gaza shall be for
saken and Ascalon desolation." OF all
the ruins of ancient life and pomp that
strew the aged orient that of this fair city
of the pentapolis is the most utterly desc
late. 1t is strewn with the broken relics
of thirty centuries, but not a single
human habitation is found within its
lovely bounds.
Yet this renowned old town enjoyed
one of the most beautiful sites along the
coast. 1t was the only port of the Philis-
tines, yet it hardly deserves this title, for
the coast of the great sea extends in one
uubrOken line, with not the slightest Sug-
gestion of a cove to foster the commercial
spirit. Roman engineering skill carved
port out of the open sea, which gave a
little shelter to the smaller craft, but
when Saladin captured the town from the
Crusaders in llS7 he filled it with stone.
Thus cut off from living connection with
that sea, which touches it, the town has
remained deserted ruin ever since.
The bold line of bluffs fifty or sixty
feet high which extends along the shore
Of the Mediterranean, few yards from
the rolling breakers, suddenly leaves the
coast line and turns inland in the form of
deep bent bow, almost i perfect semi
circle. Within this crescent, whose points
touched the sea, lay the town of Ascalon.
Like all Oriental cities the area thus in
closed was small-tve-eighths of mile in
diameter from north TO south and three
elghths from east to west. On the
encircling bluffs were built the huge city
walls. Nature and art, thus cOnspiring,
made the town well nigh impregnable.
Huge jagged masses of the old Crusaders
walls still remain. Some are twenty-five
feet in hight. The large, rectangular
bricks of sandstone were bound together
by peculiar kind of mortar, made from
the ground seashells, which is far more
durable than the stone of which the walls
were made. The Crusaders, true to the
traditions of the land, employed the old
pillars of Egyptian granite to strengthen
their walls. To-day their ends, rounded
by time, project from the walls, and at a
distance remind one forcibly OF mounted
cannon.
Beyond the walls and encroaching upon
the inclosed precincts extend the acres of
yellow drifting sand. Thus the ruins are
shut in between seas of water and seas OF
sand, each equally uninviting. But
within is a paradise-an emerald set in
gold" As we stood on the hill beside a
shattered block of the city wall, which
rose fifteen or twenty feet above US, we
realized why this was called 1.-The Bride
of Syria"
1t was a most striking picture of fertil-
ity and ruin. Luxurious gardens, in
closed by cactus hedges, fair. vine-in-
closed arbors, near some huge ancient
cistern, suggest the haunts of The Syrian
Venus. while her doves still coo amid the
tangled branches.
In this fair bay of land flourishes pro-
fusion of tropical trees-the fig, sycamore,
Johannisbrod, lemon, almond, and with :
out the walls groves OF the twisted olive.
Here, too, the apple tree grows, and pro-
duces fruit comparable with that which
grows on the west-side hills of New y ork
state. The climate is sub-tropical, and
fruit ripens here fully a month earlier
than in the rest of Palestine. Cisterns,
thirty or forty in number, furnish a
never-failing supply of fairly good water,
although II is not eXpedient TO examine
the interior of the cistern before drink
ing. Thus within their little world the
inhabitants of old Ascalon had a mine of
agricultural wealth calculated to provide
for the needs of a long siege. Hence it
proved such stubborn stronghold for
the arms of the Crusaders, and when cap
tured a worthy capital for the sturdy
King Richard.
Nature concentrated all her beauties
upon this little spot. Within the scene is
so fair, and from the battlements one
catches charming glimpses of the purple
Judean hills. which bound the eastern
horizon, while like a vast amphitheater
the town opens toward the blue Mediter-
ranean, in olden times dotted with
PhUnician and Roman crafts. The an
clients surely must have had a taste for
the beautiful, if the choice of their city
sites is an index. From this Eden the
stalwart Philistines streamed out to
measure their arms with the Hebrews,
and here in some of these gardens Herod
the Great played as a boy and developed
his ungoVerned passions.
Broken columns of black basalt, mar
bic and syenite rise in the midst of the
groves and gardens. Corinthian, Ionic
and the peculiar composite Roman bases
and capitals lie scattered about in the
greatest confusion. Marble is the most
common stone. Here the petty speculat-
ors from the neighborlng towns find
their stones already quarried, and from
thence they are continually bearing them
away by camel and donkey back to find
an inglorious resting place in some
stumbling native dwelling. In these
chiseled stones one can plainly read the
history of the old town. Plain, una
dorned black basalt columns, simpler
than the doric, point to those Philistine
times which extend back before the He
brew conquest. Perhaps some Of them
witnessed the capture of the city by the
Egyptian warrior king, Rameses, who
proudly records the event on the walls of
the famous temple by the Nile
In the deliberately carved capitals one
readily recognizes the index of the late
Roman and early Christian period. Down
by the sea we studied the huge black col
umns sunk in the rock, in which are
worn deep grooves by the ropes with
which the Romans fastened their galleys.
Altogether Ascalon is a most glorious,
most inviting ruin. There is an attract
iveness about its rough exterior, fur
rowed with centuries and bearing the
traces of hundreds of sieges. Possibly it
is the associations, possibly it is because
there is so much on the surface which
suggests ruins below, but it is one of the
few places where even a lazy man feels an
Irresistible impulse TO seize a spade and
delve for antique treasures. Already the
little work OF excavation has been richly
rewarded by treasures of ancient Roman
art-a foretaste OF what old Ascalon may
yet yield.
After taking a drink at one of the old
cisterns connected with the holy tomb of
some noted sheik we were OIL along the
sea, keeping near to the curling breakers
where the sand was hard, packed by the
never-ending blows which the petulant
waters rain upon the land. The inhabit-
ants of two or three neighboring towns
had turned out en- maSse TO guide us
through the ruins. Now they followed
us chanting in disunion the national song
of Palestine, the sad refrain, Back
sheesh, backsheesh.' Gradually as we
progressed the grand chorus merged into