Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-09-13
THE LIBRARY TABLE
BY the BooklOver

1ue EdLIOuS 1eBehoS ABOUT KING SOLO"
mon might form an addition 70 the
collected many of them in his life of
solomon" translated from the French
by Viola Gerard Garvin. NJ. Fleg says
] in hts preface that there are three
| Solomons: First, the son of David,
making use Of violence to remove his
brother, ,Adonijah, out of the way to
| the throne, and to rid himself OF Joab,
mel, his fathers mentor. Next we are
| presented with an Oriental sovereign,
| the friend Of commerce and Of pomp;
endowed with marked political INTEL
| ligence; worshiping the God of Israel,
| without abandoning the cult of idols,
building fortresses, palaces, temples
and allying himself through marriage
with the neighboring dynasties, He
| equipS q merchant fleet and mobiIizes
an army on the Egyptian scale and in
the Egyptian manner. All of which
| does not hinder him from losing his
empire over the land of Edom, nor from
| making the later division of his king
| dem certain, by the ponderous load Of
| taxes and forced labor that he imposes
| pom his subjects. He dies at last, after
i peaceful reign, leaving behind him
| the remembrance of a marvellous and
| wealthy prince. And before long he
becomes sage, poet and philosopher
| also, IN the memory of men q
| third Solomon existS-the Solomon of
| Legend. And upon him we have docu-
ments more various and more sug-
| gestive than upon any of the others
It is this Solomon of Legend which
reminds use of the heroes or the Ara
bian Nights" His exploits and the
marvels which befall him, as Mr.. FEC
relates them, will, except in a few cases
be looked for in vain in the Old Tesla
ment. One of the chief sources used is
CASTOR Maspero's Ancient History OF
the Peoples of the Orient" Solomon is
represented as being wise from birth
not as acquiring wisdom through ex-
perience. When he was only years
| old he decided case for King David
who sat in Judgment in his Hall of the
Cedarwood Pillars. A woman who had
been forced into exile had left her
treasure OF gold coins, buried in seven
| pitchers of honey, with q neighbor On
her return the neighbor had given back
the pitchers Of honey, but without the
| gold coins. Solomon ordered the honey
poured from the pitchers into other
pitchers, and then that the origina,
pitchers be broken in pieces. When q
gold piece was found sticking to a piece
of earthenware, he pronounced judy
ment on the neighbor as a thief. When
Solomon was years old two men came
to King David to ask judgment over 9
field in which treasure had been found
The first had purchased the field from
the second and wished to give him the
| treasure, saying that he had purchased
the land only; but the second said that
he had purchased the land from q
third man, now dead, without heirs
Solomon decided that the son of the
first man and the daughter of the sec
ond man should marry, and that the
treasure should be their marriage por-
ton. When Solomon was 10 years old
4 three brothers came for Judgment. As
their father lay dying he had said that
ono of them was his true son and that
the TRUE son should have all his prop
erty. Which should be the heir? Solo,
mon had the fathers corpse brought
and bound to a post, and then ordered
the three men to shoot arrows at 1t
The one who should shoot most truly
should be the heir. The first pierced
the dead mans hand, the second his
forehead, but the third threw his bow
and arrow to the ground and refused tC
deSecrate his fathers corpse. He was
declared the true son and heir. After
this the people, when they came to the
Hall of the Cedarwood Pillars for judy
Tnent, clamored for Solomon, and his
mother, Bathsheba, rejoiced greatly, for
she schemed that her son should sue
coed his father, David. There are many
other stories of the wisdom of Solomon
many also Of his ido1atrtes, his debauch-
cries, his wealth, his exile as beggar
the usirpatiOn of his throne by the
demon Asmodeus, and his final reStora-
ton to his kingdom.
y X **
4 sWra.. a.AAs.. - AE,,.s.u ~, xTy,..
4 throp Parkhurst, Is popular outline Of
musical theory. not for the musician
but for the music lover who wishes tc
understand as we'll as to enjoy lazily
The technique of music Is shown not Il
be too diff1cult for the cultured person
to understand with a little study. The
scale, harmony, polyp1ony, counter
point, fugue, canon and musical forms
are all discussed simply and clearly
with many illustrations.
Vaiues all depend on the point Of
view. What constitutes an education Is
subject to dispute. In colonial days
William and Mary College administered
education Of the highest quality at that
time to the most favored of colonial
youth. But the Indians who inhabited
the Tidewater region did not think too
highly of the white mans education
Franklin in his Remarks Concerning
the Savages of North America" tells
how in 1744 the Virginia Commissioned
offered to educate six Indian boys 81
courteously refused In the following let
| ter: Several of our young people were
| formerly brought up at the Colleges OF
the Northern Provinces. They were in
Structed in all your Sciences, but when
| they came back to us they were bad
Runners, ignorant of every means OF
living in the Woods, unable to bear
either Cold or Hunger, knew neither
how to build a Cabin, take a Deer or
| kill an Enemy, spoke our language i'm
| perfectly, were therefore neither fit for
| Hunters, Warriors or Counsellors; they
were totally good for nothing. We are,
| however, not the less obliged by your
kind Offer, tho we decline accepting it.;
| and to show our grateful Sense of it, If
the Gentlemen Of Virginia will send us
a Dozen of their Sons we will take
great care Of their Education, instruct
| them in all we know, and make Men
Of them" This is Franklin's story.
X X
The whole country was shaken to its
| roots last Winter by the Harvard scrub
| women scandal, when number of old
women (who, having mopped up Harvard
buildings for years, were ill-f1tted to do
anything else) were turned of and men
we're hired in their places, presumably
because under the law men could work
for several cents less than the 80 or SO
an hour which the scrubwomen earned.
Thus the university saved on each
scrubwomaI dismissed or cents an
hour. Pathetic as this story is, it is
! dwarfed by the one told about Lucy
Stone in the biography Lucy Stone:
Pioneer of Woman'S Rights" by Alice
TENDER 20. In l847 Lucy Stone was
graduated from Oberlin College (the