Durango semi-weekly herald., 1902-07-10
HOME OF A PROPHET.
Mount Carmel. Writes William E. Cur
tbs. Is An Oriental Garden Spot.

HAIFA. Syria. July s-Mount Car
4el is one of the most beautiful OF
hills. Its slopes are always covered
with vcrdure. flowers and sweet herbs
nWrtured by the dew which was ia.
nous In scriptural times. The orgi-
nal name. Kernel means the gar
den" or vineyard of God" In Bible
times, as now, it was only prominent
landmark. visible up and down the
coast from Jaffa on the south, to Tyre
and Sidon northward. but produced
fat harvests of olives and grapes. and
n profusion of flowers, plants and
!. shrubs. The odorous thyme grows
in great masses. wild roses climb over
every rock and the earth is covered
with variety of ground orchids. No
other part of the country yields such
olives and grapes and nowhere else
are the sheep and cattle so well fed
In Bible times. as now, Carmel was
the abode oil 'hermiis and the asylum
of fugitives from Justice who dwelt
in caves and grottoes which are num-
erous on both slopes among the the
limestone ledges Amos SAYS:
Though they hide themselves in
the top of Carmel. will search and
take them out thence" 1t was
claimed for both Baal and Jehovah.
Both had altars near the crests where
the priests of rival religions, as told
in the viviG language of the book of
Kings. fought out an awful debate to
determine which was the sublimest
landscapes conceivable, a charming
vision of earth and sea and sky
Carmel is rather ridge than
mountain as it extends at about an
even height of LOO feet for distance
of eighteen miles being cut at inter
walls with abrupt ravines and deep
gorges the entire distance. 1t runs
at right angles from the coast and the
western end is bold promontory $50
feet in height, which projects into the
sea. At the other end is series of
rocky terraces leading down into the
famous plain of Esdraelon. where the
great miracle of Elijah took place
Carmel separates this famous plain
on the north from the equally cele-
brated plain of Sharon on the south.
and at the eastern end shrinks grad
ually into the wooded hills of Samaria
There are ten or twelve villages upon
its slopes, occupied by Moslems and
Druses, most of them shepherds. One
of these villages was the retreat of
Lawrence Olipbant. an eccentric En-
slishman. who wrote novels and en-
deavored to benefit his fellowman
without much success. He once start
ed a colony in California. but ii was
failure, owing to the npwillingness
of the beneficaries to work for their
board. or some similar reason, and.
attracted by the success of the
Temple Society. he came to Palestine
hoping to revive the languishing for
tunes of the Jews. Oliphant's ex-
perience is told in his story. entitled
THE Land of Gilead" He failed to
obtain a concession from the Turkish
government hoping against hope from
1882 to 1883, while he resided in the
German colony of Hafa and wrote
novels
He built "A villa on Mount Carmel
and bought a Druse village called Ell
dayyet-el-kerrnel He tried to learn
from this secret sect the articles of
their faith. but did not succeed. He
did them much good. however, by CIV
ing them schools and better houses
and farming implements, and they re-
member him as a benefactor, but he
finally abandoned his purpose after
his wife, Alice Lestrange, died on
Mount Carmel after a distressing i'll
ness. Her sufferipgs seem to have
turned his head, for he was never like
himself again. He went to England,
and there fell in with Mrs. Temple
ton, a sprtualist medium. and
daughter of Robert Dale owen of In
diana. She married him upon his
deathbed with a good deal of mys-
terry. inherited his property, came
here. sold out everything that was
marketable, returned to London, and
has not ueen seen or heard of in Haifa
since.
Almost every spot on Carmel is as
sociated with Bible history. Upon
the promontory toward the sea is the
DER ell Mar Elyas. an enormous Car
melite monastery. erected over the
cave in which the Prophet Elijah is
said to have made his home. There
is very little doubt about the histori-
cal accuracy of the traditions of Car
mel 1t is one of the few places in
Palestine where you can be confiden.
of seeing the real thing. There is no
humbug there and. although Elijah
may not have lived in that particular
cave, he certainly occupied for many
years a cave in the immediate neigh
borhood. The accounts of events that
ocured on Carmel are related with
such detail in the Bible and the topo
graphy is so explicitly described that
there can be no mistake. Any one
who has travelled in the Holy Land
can appreciate the satisfaction.
question, however. the assertion OF
Brother Felix. a consumptive Ameri-
can monk, who showed us around
that Elijah was the founder of the or
der of Carmelite Friars. Perhaps
Brother Felix was 'joshing" hereti-
cal. fellow countryman. He had n
keen sense of humor. but said it with
a sober face. Nobody knows defn-
itely who founded the Carmelites, eA-