The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1897-06-04
ation they were placed In when the
metal for the Temple was being taken

sition they were placed In when tn.
metal for the Temple was being taker
out
| From out Of deep and weird pas
| sage, four hundred feet under the earth
we took one Of the oak water wheels and
carried Z to the surface, where thecop-
per was taken OF. The wheel was found
to be in perfect condition. Time had
evidently not wrought its ravages upon
this ancient device. Living hands once
more graspei the long levers, as they
were held when in daily operation forty
hundred years ago."
Strange Is the history Of these won
derful treasure caves In Their subtsr-
ranean depths. hundreds of feet from the
light Of day, toiled countless workers
when the world was in its very first
stages OF development. When the Saw
Jour walked the earth. these caves were
then two thousand years old.
To 60 back still further, these same
mines had witnessed the rise and fall Of
Egypt; had seen Jerusalem grow from
humble hamlet to be the richest city
in the world, and remained as a COM
memoration of her glory centuries be-
fore even the palace OF Nimrod was
built. Rome was not founded until
hundreds of years after they had been
a abandoned.
We look upon the days when Daniel.
the great prophet, addressed the multi
tude5 from the steps OF the Temple as
extremely remote, yet even this was SO
recent that Daniel was unable to find
the source from which Solomon procured
his metal, all traces OF the fabulous
treasure vaults having been lost hun
dreds OF years before, and apparently
forever.
Hidden from the world in the then IN
known land OF Spain. they were mute
Witnesses Of the advent Of civilization.
In the dim dawn of human history,
when the peopling of the world began,
they were there, and were co-existent
with the birth and death OF races so
remote that even history fails to record
them.
1t is strange how Solomon came to dis
cover these treasure caves. Neither
history nor the Bible makes any refer
ence to the manner in which ne found
them. They were far away from his
place Of birth. It is thought more than
likely that Hiram. King of Tyre, was the
real finder, and that he communicated
the discovery to Solomon, who at once
proceeded to extract the metal. What
is now southern Spain was then the
richest and most valued of the Phoe-
nic.an possessions. The land was a mine
Of wealth to them. and Hiram was well
acquainted with its great caves and
riches. So great was its wealthin gold,
silver, copper and precious metals that
even "the ships of the Phoenicians car
ried silver anchors
1t was at this time that Hiram Jour
neyed to Jerusalem, where he met Solo
mon and took part in the building of the
Temple. He became a goldsmith, as it
were, to Solomon, and 1t was he that fur
nishedthe Temple with such stores of
precious metals from the mines of Spain
that silver soon became so common that
it accounted as nothing in the Temple"
as we read in the First Book of Kings.
Ruins Of the Temple are still standing
near the eastern wall Of the present
Jerusalem. Excavations have been
made OF one OF the ruined walls and a
series Of piers have been uneartned
These originally supported the arches of