Richmond times-dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1914-current, 1918-08-04

found here and of them might have swallowed Jonah
The supendous antiquity of the legend gives evidence Of
the reality of the Bible story.
Perhaps the greatest interest is felt in the occupation
of the original Garden of Eden which completely in
the possession of the British This spot lies between the
Tsris and Euphrates Rivers far from Bagdad above
the site Of Babylon and below ancient Hit now called
Ava There be little doubt that this locality is the
one indicated in the Bible the Garden of Eden for in
the Book of Genesis it says:
" And river went out of Eden to water the garden;
and from thence 1t parted and became into four
heads
The Bible then goes to mention the four rivers,
one OF them being the Euphrates and the others having
ancient Biblical names-the Pson, Gihon and Hiddekel
Now there is spot where the Euphates branches into
four parts and strange say spite ages change
is still exceptionally fertile This clearly to be
the Garden
The original natives of this region are of the ancient
arab race humane and intelligent people of Semitic
stock who although Mohammedans revere the patrarchs
and sacred characters of the Bible almost much as do
the Hebrews and Christians To these people the Turks
descendants of race of Tartar barbarans, just
much invaders and opprcssors the Germans.
One OF the war correspondents gives an interesting
picture of life in the Garden Of Eden to-day:
My first day in Eden saw thousands of Arab work
men chanting happily they delved, digging great
false channel to take off the of the Euphrates
one OF the British officers observing that many of his
"orhmen persisted IN carrying dirt in basket instead
OF using the wheebarrows provided rebuked Arab for
doing so.
sahib' replied the Arab, my people have lived
here and carried dirt in baskets since the of Moses
Everywhere among them you hear such old names AZ
Moses Joseph and Alexander pronounced Musa 'Yusuf
ana Skandar Now when man dies, in Abraham's
time, ms tent is torn down and destroyed"
Some scholars are inclined to believe that the original
birthplace Of ancient civilization was in the lowands at
the mouth of the Tigris and Euphrates below Babylon
and the places that became the greatest
This owand was the Chaldca Of the Bible from which the
Kings of Babylon obtained their best astronomers asrolo
gers and agicians
Here was the original home of Abraham, the founder
of the lsraelitc nation He born the Bible tells u.s.
in Ur of the Chadecs This has been connected by archae
ologists with modern village called Mugheir In this
locality there second site of the Garden of Eden but
without the same strong evidence in its favor the other
mighty Babylon which is guarded by British force
This was the capital of the most powerful empire of
ancient world that rose to greatness when Greece
Rome were obscure when Egypt had not acquired
Importance Here the sraetes carried into captiv
y by the great conqueror Nebuchadnezzar in COS B. c.
fate which they ceased lament as described so
beautifully in Psalm CXXXVII.
By the rivers Of Babylon, there we sat down. yea we
wept' when we remembered Zion We hanged our harps