The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-05-08

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 with grapes, figs, olives and mulberry
 trees, which have been cultivated by
 the same families for hundreds and per
 haps for thousands of years. Olive
 trees live to a great age; fig trees never
 die, and some of the grapevines to be
 seen along the roadside are as thick as | a mans body.
 | The Syrians cultivate grapes In a curious way. Tn the fall of the year.
 after the fruit has been gathered, the
 vines are pruned down to trunk about
 the height of a man, which is laid fiat
 upon the ground until springtime, when it is propped up, manured and irrigated. | New branches will shoot out cover the
 soil all around it and bear fruit. No sap
 is wasted in nourishing useless leaves and vines. Hence the vineyards have a peculiar look at this time of year, be- ing rows of trunks of different sizes, from six inches to a foot in diameter
 and from five to eight feet long, which lie upon the ground in lines, like
 sleeping army.
 All along the railway line, wherever there is a vacant place the farmers
 seem to be setting out mulberry trees, I WHICH are pldultu very CluSely NOSCth- ed and cultivated like house plants so
 that they will grow rapidly and bear luxuriant leaves, This Is in obedience to the rapid increase of the silk indus
 try, which I have been told, Is very
 great al Damascus. The ground Is very
 carefully prepared. It is plowed deep, narrowed fine, and then a series of trenches are dug for the trees about eighteen or twenty inches in depth,
 which are first filledw ith water be-
 fore the young shoots are placed in l them.
 The cultivation of poplars for lumber | is an extensive industry in Syria. A crop is planted regularly every year.
 By irrigation the trees grow rapidly,
 shooting up like stalks of sugar cane,
 and are kept trimmed so that all the strength of the sap shall go into the | trunk and none shall be wasted in branches. You see mile after mile of groves of thin waisted poplars planted as closely as possible. When they are | large enough they are cut close to the | ground, shipped to market and the roots | are grubbed out for fuel There is great demand for roof poles or rafters.
  like those in Mexico. are built of adobe sun dried clay, The walls are erected, poplar poles are laid across them, cov- cred with brush and then with mud, which contains so much clay that with the use of a little straw 1t becomes as hard as a brick The houses may be whitewashed or not, according to the wealth and taste of the owners. They cost very little either in money or labor i, and look as if heavy rain would wash them away but some of them have en- dured for centuries.
 The housetops are flat and inclosed | with low coping from the walls, which | Is important as a matter of domestic | economy, as well as personal comfort, i The streets of the towns are very nar- row gardens are rare and hence fiat | roof is a great convenience. A great | deal takes place up there. The family uses 1t for bedroom during the hot summer nights and for dining-room during the day, also as place for their devotions, like the Aztec Indians down in Mexico who climb to the house top every morning to worship the sun, and to look for the coming of Montezuma; You will remember that Peter went up [ onon the housetop to pray, and one Is continually reminded of that custom when he comes down in this country, f for when the muezzen appears in the balcony of the minaret to call the hour of prayer, thousands of the faithful climb to their housetops, turn their faces toward Mecca and go through the gymnastic performance which accom- TDt in
 Farmers spread their grain and vege- tables and flax upon the housetops to dry, just as the woman Rohab, you will remember at Jericho, hid the spies which Joshua sent out from the Jordan under the stalks of flax after she had brought them to the roof of her house. Tn ordinary houses of this country the inmates have no other place to dry their clothes or enjoy the air or do numberless other little things essential to their health and comfort During the summer evenings, when the days work Is done half the population are on the housetops
 There are no fences along the railway to Damascus, but good many hedges of cactus that add to the resemblance to Mexico, for 1t is the same variety that you see down there-the nopal that appears on the coat of~arms of thu Mexican Republic.
 Not far from the railway is re- markable natural phenomenon similar to the natural bridge of Virginia which has received a great deal of attention from geologists, but I cannot find any mention of it in the Bible. It Is called list -el-h hair (stone brdge), and is an almost perfect arch. the span being 160 feet and the curve as regular and clean as 1t might be if it had been built by an engineer. The height is 150 feet; the thickness of the rock above the arch 30 feet and the breadth on top, where the road passes over it. from 90 to 112 feet.--W. F. Curtis in Chicago Record Herald.
 PASSING OF THE INDIAN CHIEF.
 "The Indian chief of to-day Is robbed