The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-05-07

Cambridge, Mass. May 6.-In shady avenue of Cambridge there is a building the doors of which take the visitor in one step from the mat ter-of-fact American city of the goth century to the romantic hills and val leys of Palestine, and lead him into the far distant ages when Babylon and Assyria ruled the peoples of the earth with a heavy hand, and when began the most marvellous movement. racial, moral and ethical, the world has ever seen, which now expresses itself in Christianity. This building is the Semitic Muesum of Harvard Universi- ty, where Is done much of the work of the courses in the history of the people of Israel offered at both Har- yard and 1t affiliated college for wo- men, Radcliffe.
 Though the original sources of much of the early history of the people of Israel are in the Bible, and some of its most prominent figures are among the kings and prophets of the Cld Testament, it is with the religion Of the twelve tribes only so far as 1t af- fected their national life that this course deals. Men and women who are but names to most lay students of the Scriptures are made flesh and blood and human beings to the student or Bilical history. The laws and habits of their everyday life, their modes or dress and speech, the surroundings in which they lived, their great buildings and vast public works are reproduced and reconstructed as far as they may be. To this end there has been brought together as one of Harvard s museums, in the use of which the Radcliffe girls share. Semitic collec- ton which Is one of the most com- plete and valuable in the world.
 rtNfz Temple of Solomon represented in a wonderful model, by Dr. Conrad SchIck, the well-known German arch aeologist of Jerusalem, in which every detail has been wrought out. some times with imagination, no doubt, put always so as to embody whatever IS found in description in the Bible and elsewhere that are sufficient to afford a clear outline. Contrasted with this is another large model of the site where once the great Temple stood, the Harem- esh -Sherif as it looks today. And there is a third reconstruction of special interest representing the Tab ernacle.
 The Harem- -esh- -Sherif Is one of the most interesting spots on the face of the earth It seems always to have been sacred ground, and probably al ways will be. On this hill. supposedly David erected the altar spoken of in the 24th Chapter of 2 Samuel; here were the temple and palaces of Solomon, | second temple which the Jews erected | after the return from exile, and later l the temple of Herod. It is considered | not entirely impossible that remains l oP some of the buildings of Solomon | still actually exist in the southeastern l corner of the present enclosure 1a' l below the surface of the ground. A
 any rate, the long, low building Una l occupies this part of the quadransl'
 is called the Stables of solomon. Par
 of Herod's structure, too, as some De lieve, has been preserved and identi fled. - l On the site of the ancient sanctuar! the Roman Emperor Hadrian built large temple to Jupiter and smalle
 one to himself. Then, about the yea l 700 of the Christian era, was erected | the mosque called by the Moslem | "Dome of the Rock" but by the Chris l tians Mosque of Omar" It Is one O the most sacred of all places to tn faithful Mohammedan today. It IS tn belief of some scholars that the larg | rock below the dome of this mosqu | formerly was the site of the great alta
 of Solomons Temple.
 To the casual visitor to the Semitic Museum the clay tablets and ston' books would probably seem only curl ous looking Jumps of baked eartl
 scrawled over with fantastic charac ters. But from such books much O our knowledge of the very early peo | ples Is derived. To the Radcliffe gir
 who seeks an insight into the intimate human existence of the dim past the! l reveal all the important phases of th' l public, private and social life of th' time when they were made, giving de
 tails of lawsuits, dowries, loans, thu | daily ocupations of the people and th'
 vast undertakings of their kings. Tw' ! of the clay books in the collection. fo instance, which are originals. and no
 casts, are from Hammuraoi, whom many scholars think identical with tn
 Amraphel spoken of in Genesis IA | They tell of real estate transaction
 some 2,S00 years ago, when' 1t seems