Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1895-03-27
Cost of the Temple,

COSt OF the Tempie.
The cost of SolOmon's temple and its
interior decorations and other para
phernalia was one of the wonders of
olden times. According to Villal-
p0ndus, the talents" OF gold, silver
and brass used in it's construction were
valued at the enormous snm of So $40,
822 600. The worth of the jewels is
generally placed at Il figure equally as
high. The vessels of gold, according
to Josephus, were valued at 100000
talents. which, reduced to English
money las has been shown by Chapel's
reduction tables), equal to f575. 296, 203.
The vessels of silver, according to the
same authorities, were still more valua
Bile being set down AZ worth f64O.3 44,-
900. Priests vestments and robes Of
singers, f2,O10,000. Trumpeters, $780,
600.
To this add the expense of building
materials, labor, etc, and we get some
wonderful figures. Ten thousand men
hewing cedars. 10000 bearers of bur
dens, $4,000 hewers of stone, $500 over
seers. all of which were employed for
seven years, aud upon whom, besides
their wages, Solomon bestowed f6, 1885,
997.
If their daily food was worth two
shillings each the sum total for all was
f63. 877. 088 during the time of building.
The material in the rough is estimat ed
az having been worth Ell. Az. 442. 1853. or
81. 521 ,665, 936 in United States money.
There were at the last census only
rs. 1924 men in our penitentiaries, where's
as there might. and perhaps ought TO
have been, three times that number.
The competition among the manu-
facturers of shoes is SO lively that
nobody need have stone bruises on his
heels from going bare-fOOted.
A Maker Of Glass Eyes.
Visitors to the Worlds fair will re-
member the quaint little workman who
sat in one corner of great building
and made eyes from morning until
night, part of them for dolls. part of
them for human beings and occasional
ly one for horse or some other pet ami.
NAL. The workman, whose name was
Muller, had come over from Germany
to show how his people worked, and
when the fair was over he set up lit
tie shop in Chicago and tried for awhile
to make his industry flourish on Amer.
lean soil. But after time he found
that the wholesale dealers persisted in
sending across the water for their sup.
plies, and he grew SO homesick that he
finally returned to the fatherland, and
he is now doubtless working in some
one Of the quaint little Thuringian viii
lagos.
It will be remembered that he was
marvelously deft in his work.. First he
blew bulb from molten glass Then,
when itwas cold, he carefully broke off
one side so as to leave she'll, the edges
of which were blunted by melting. He
secured the proper size of eye by having
the person for whom it was made stand
before him as he worked. Having the
shell complete, he bent down over a
Bunsen burner, and just touching its
upper surface to- the flame he worked
the eye design on the glass with little
sticks Of varicolored glass. the points of
which were melted in the fame.
The work required a wonderfully
steady hand and a true eye IN order to
make the iris and the retina of the
proper color and shape. The workman
is So skilled that he can copy direct
from the person who stands before him.
Chicago Record.