The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1910-10-16

by nothing but orchards. There are
orange groves loaded with blossoms
and fruit. There are orchards Of
olives, pomegranates and figs. and
many gardens surrounded by cactus
hedges twice as high as our heads
Leaving the orchards, we enter the
rice plains upon which the Philistines
lived. The soil is brown and SO fat
that you have only TO tickle it with
the plow and it laughs with the har-
vest.
Here is green field of wheat. The
stalks stand as thick as grass in the
ground, and rise and fall with the
winds from the sea. There native is
plowing win a bullock and donkey
harnessed together The pillow is the
rude old-fa shioned one of the Scrip
lures, and the dark-skinned farmer
steadies it with one hand. while he
carries q goad in the other. Farther
on are camels dragging the plows. In
places We see focks OF fat sheep,
herded by boys, and now and then
pass village of whitewashed houses,
with thick roofs Of thatch on which
the grass grows. Nearly every house
has roof of sod about foot deep,
and as we near the hills the towns
on their sides rise up in green terraces.
The landscape here is far different
from that OF the United States. There
are no houses nor barns standing alone
in the fields. There are no outbuild.
ings Of any description and no hay
stacks or strawstacks. The people
live in villages and go out to work in
the fields. The only fences are hedges
of cactus, sand the most of the hold
ingS are not fenced at all.
Climbing The Judean Mountains.
The land remains fertile clear to the
mountains. a distance of perhpas twenty
miles. In the foot hills are patches
of green ana higher on up fields cut
here and there out Of the rocks which
are built up to hold In the earth.
have never seen country more rocky.
The rough lands of the Blue Ridge
are Nile farms compared to the hills
through which we go on our way to
Jerusalem. In many places there Is
nothing but rocks, which are laid UP
in such ways as to make one think
they We're constructed by man. The
limestone strata are piled stone upon
stone, looking like mighty monuments
rising on the hills. In some places
whole mountains are steps forming
pyramids of white limestone sparsely
sprinkled with patches Of grass and
red poppies.
In the Footsteps of Samson.
The railway winds its way in and
out. 1t erawls along the sides OF the
mountains with horseshoe curves here
and there. The whole journey is over
historic ground. Much of 1t is in the
footsteps Of Samson. We cross tho
plains where he fought with the
Philistines, staying thousand of them
Ia nf n Va
the place where he tied the flrebrands
to the tails Of three hundred foxes and
let them loose to burn up the harvest
a little farther on we enter the valley
of Sorck, where the wicked Delilah cut
off the hair of the strong man as he
lay asleep In her lap. and away up on
The side OF the hill we can see the
town OF Iorah where Samson was
born. At the station OF DER Aban,
where Samuel raised his Ebenezer,
crowd OF children come to the trains
with bouquets OF wild flowers. The
boys whine for baksheesh. and we
wonder whether there may not be an
infant Samson amongst them.
1t was at zorah that Samson was
buried, and the guides here Will show
you his tomb. Farther along the road
we pass through a great gorge in tho
cliffs, on the north side of which, near
the top, Is cave. in which Samson
lived, And verify believe that II we
should offer our guides sufficient re-
ward they would find US his bones or
seme pieces Of brass from9the gates OF
the city of GAIA, which. you remember,
he carried away on his shoulders.
The Excavations at Gexcr.
In our ride up to Jerusalem VIC go by
the ancient city OF Gezer, II Is marked
by mound which has several build
ings upon 1T. including the dome OF a
Mohammedan mosque. The ground
about 1t has been dug over and over,
ana the ruins discovered have excited
me religious and scientific world.
me excavations which have been
made by the Palestine exploration fund
snow Gezer To be one Of the Oldest. IL
not the Oldest, city OF history. The