Barre evening telegram. (Barre, Vt.) 1898-19??, 1898-12-19
- BABYLON
AND CITIES OF THE
EAST GRAPHICAL
LY DESCRIBED.
Dr. Banks Gives an Interesting Ac.
count of his Researches in Arabia
at the Congregational Church
Sunday Evening.

Every person who helped to make ur
the audience at Congregational church
Sunday evening were favored with one
OF the very best addresses that has been
given in this city within the knowledge
OF the present generation at least The
speaker was DR.. Banks of Boston, who
is consul for Uncle Sam in the city of
Bagdad, and who for the past ten years
has been engaged in searching amongst
the ruins of the buried cities of the
Eastern country for evidence that the
Bible stories and characters are true.
| Or. Banks is one of six Americans in
addition to the missionaries who have
ever walked the streets of that city To
10 DR.. Banks justice one would be
obliged to publish the entire address,
but crowded space will not permit,
hence we can give only faint abstract
OF this exhaustive portrayal Of that far
away country. The speaker said in
part:
A nation very closely resembles a
| child and man. 1t grows to be power
| full, then decays and goes into second
childhood. Twice in her history has
Arabia risen from her second child
hood to wage mighty wars against
other countries. In 1872 Arabia met the
combined armies of several European
countries only to be defeated, when if
victory had come to her. France, Germ
any, England, and perhaps this Amer
lean country would today be under her
rule.
"There was time when Bagdad was
the light of Europe, and had populat-
ion ofthree million people. Its streets
were lined with golden palaces, but to-
day Bagdad is dirty, muddy and filthy
city of one hundred thousand people,
1t was once one of the richest spots on
the globe.
The story is told that at the marriage
of one of the royal family the guests
were given as much gold as they could
carry away, and pieces of paper were
distributed amongse the guests on which
houses horses and lands were written,
and given to the ones holding the paper.
There are three ways to reach Bagdad
from Constantinople. BY horse back
and then by boat down the Euphrates
river; by ten days ride on camel.
The speaker described the crossing of
the sandy desert saying that one might
20 to sleep at night, but in the morning
he might be covered with sand; the
third and best route to take is all the
way by boat going through the Suez
Canal. This takes one down the Red
Sea and through the Persian Gulf.
lie gave graphic description OF the
crowd TO DO found on one of the steam
ers there. Along this route may be
seen what the natives say is the tomb OF
Eve, who, they think, was 80 feet tall.
Here is the hottest place on the globe,
the mark having once been known to
reach l59 degrees in the shade in Aug
ust. To protect one from this heat big
screens are placed in the window and
water thrown on to them. They never
have any ice there, but they make jugs
out of clay, and water placed IN them is
often as cold rs ice water, this IS caused
by the rapid evaporation
TO keep cool in the hot season, they
have large fans placed in the cellar
where they spend the day going 10 the
roof at night. where they often take
supper us we'll as sleep. There is
spot in that country which they tell us
was the real Garden of Eden, and that
the same apple tree is today standing
whence came the forbidden fruit.
But investigation shows that the tree
was planted some 60 years ago by an
English sea captain. -,
no city is so free from Europeon HE
as Bagdad. The houses OF mud nave
no windows that open on the street side
The streets are covered over with date
leaves to protect the traders.
AT this point DR.. Banks had Mr.. Pape
and Miss Whitehead appear in the cos
tune of the ancient country, ana ne
showed a number of articles when ne
secured while there. He said that the
neople of that country always try to
beat the stranger following out that
passage of Scripture which says 81 was
a strang ger and We took me in
The religion of Mahomet is mixed up
| with many SuperSI'tlo'ie'
Heather as they believe III the sa'i'o
God as we do
.ue told how every little hamlet
claims to contain the tomb OF some
Biblical character, yet none OF theh
could possibly be 2ooo years DID,
The last part of the address was oe
voted to an interesting story OF the uh
ear,hing of buried cities such as baoylol
and Ninevah. How that in those grea
nalaces are to be found vast libraries
ritv records, colleges, and temples o
Justice. In closing Dr. Banks showe'
a tablet which he had himself dug iron
the buried Temple of Abraham. m
said that the obj ject in digging up 1nes' @
buried cities is to show more ana moi' NOR
that the Bible is true, and that instea'
Of Greece and Rome being the co4n.I!e
1~At -