The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1910-10-18
NEW LIGHT ON
HOLY PLACES
Ry FRANK G. CARPENTER.

It's Nork-One Hundred and Fifty
New Bible Sites DiSCovcreC-in the
Footsteps Of Samson and DelilaIl-
The Jerusalem Ral1rOa<1-Ine
Rocky Land That David O~ned-A
TreeleSs Country Where Wood Sells
by tile Pound-Rain in jerusalem
SoIomon's Pools Now Connected by
Iron Pipes With the Holy City.
copyrighted, 1910, by Frank G. Car
penter.)
JERUSALEM.
Take a seat with me this bright sun
day morning in the railroad car Wnlcn
is just about leaving the seaport OF
Jaffa to go to Jerusalem. Inc dlS-
lance by rail is fifty-four miles. and
we shall make it in less than Tour
hours. The road crosses the rlch
plains of Sharon, and then WINDS It's
way up the hills of Judea until II
leaves US at the Holy City, about
twenty-five hundred feet hlgher tnan
where we now are.
The cars are comfortable, but we
have had to fight with the tourists and
pilgrims for our seats near the Win
doWs. A German and a Greek on the
opposite side of the car are still quar-
reling for places, and their language
is not that of brotherly love, h
German has just called the Greek a
swine, and the Greek has retaliated by
Sd3 LIZ lIla lh1 M 80 II
inc persuasion. Now they are quiet.
and we can enjoy the scenery as we go
onward
On the Plains Of Sharon.
Leaving Jaffa, we ride for some
miles by nothing but orchards. There
are orange groves loaded with bios
SONS 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
rich plains upon which the Philistines
lived. The soil is brown and so fat
that you have only to tickle it with
the pillow and it laughs With the har-
vest.
Here is a 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 a native
is blowing with a bullock and donkey
harnessed together. The pillow is the
rude Old-fashioned one of the Scrip
lures. and the dark-skinned farmer
steadies it with one hand, while he
carries a goad in the other. Farther
on are camels dragging the p1ows.
In places we see flock Of fat sheep,
herd ed by boys, and now and hen
pass a village of White-Walled houses
with thick roofs of thatch on which
the grass grows. Nearly every nou1c
Has IL TOOL Oh sou ABOUT d 1901 Occp,
and as We near the hills the. towns
on their sides rise I'D in green ter
races.
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 1--we
in villages and go out to work in the
fields. The only fences are hedges OF
cactus, and the most Of the holdings
are not fenced at all.
Climbing the Judean Mountains.
The land remains fertile clear to the
mountains, a distance OF perhaps
twenty miles. In the foothills are
patches Of green, and higher on W
the fields cut here and there out o.
the rocks, which are built up to hold
in the earth. / have never seen 3
country more rocky. The rough lands
of the Blue Ridge are Nile farms com
pared to the hills through which W.
go on our way to Jerusalem. In many
places there is nothing but rocks
which are laid up in such ways as t.
make one think they were constructed
by man. The limestone strata are piled
stone upon stone, looking like might,
monuments rising on the hills. In som
places whole mountains are steps
forming pyramids of white limestone
"AIAA ~ "
grass n red poppies.
In the Footsteps of Samson.
The railway winds it's way IN an'
out mountains. 1t craWlS along tn
sides of the mountains with horsesho
curves here and there. The Who'll
journey is over historic ground. Nue.
Of it is in the footsteps Of Samson
We cross the plains where he Tough
with the Philistines. Staying a thou
sand Of them with the jawbone of a
ass. We see the place where he tie
the firebrands to the tails of thre
hundred foxes and let them loose t
burn up the harvest. A little farthe
on we enter the valley Of Sorek. wher
the wicked Delilah cut off the hair {
the strong man as he lay asleep in he
lap, and away up on the side of tn
hill we can see the town of Zoral
where Samson was born. At the ST.
ton of DER Aban, where Samuel raj.
ed his Ebenezer. a crowd of childre
come to the trains with