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About Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 22, 1911)
i: 3. ij ( i 1 ,..Sea of Galilee and Synagogue Where Christ Preached In 1 ?r -is TTTjl I WaUl' . I' ' mm-m, . J . Tm' " " " (Copyrlnht. 1910, by Frank G. Carpenter.) IBKKIAS, Palcstlnp; (Special Corre spondence of The Hee. ) 1 am In a flBherman s skiff on the Sea of (Jalilee. NV ho just loft Tiberias, the ancient mm rlty f Tierod, nt'ar the southern end of the lake, and are on our way to Caper- iiHiim, where Chrl3t lived 'and preached that white spot which you can see on the shore at the north. It fiecms b trail go that one can carry the whole Sea of Gblllce In his eye. I have always considered It as Only little le.ss than an ocean, or, at least, as big hs the largest ot our great fresh water lakes. The truth Is It is on'.y a ptiddlo compared to Lake Michigan. It Is about hnlf as large as Lake Cayuga, at Ithaca, N. Y., and standing on any of the hills which rise precipi tously about It the whole body of water can plainly be seen. A Hird's-Kye View, The Sea ot Galilee Is only six miles at Its widest from east to west, and from where the Jordan flows in at the north to the place where it empties out at the south the distance Is a scant thirteen miles. The sea lies in the depression of the Jordan valley, the river forming a winding canal 200 miles long, which connects it with the Dead sea at the south. The descent to the Dead sea is over 600 feet, and the waters wind like a corkscrew all the way down to that salt sea of death. Lake Superior is a little more than 600 feet above the level of the ocean. The Sea ot Galilee is more than 680 feet below that level, and It lies in a nest In beautiful mountains which slope up from the water in picturesque shapes. Over there at the west the shore are bright green and are spotted with wild flowers. ' The grass makes a waving sheet of emerald velvet, and it seems to almost reach the fleecy white clouds of the blue sky above. Farther to the south are the Gallleean mountains, now gray in the morning sun, with masses of smoky clouds hanging -over them. They are full of water; and, as I look, lo! the rain comes. The sun is still shining; and it has painted a rainbow over that part of the lake covering the town of Magdala, which, as you remember, was Mary Magdalene's home. Looking through the rainbow you can catch sight of the Mount of the Beatitudes, upon which our Savior aat when He preached the sermon on the mount, and on the sloping little hill at the left is whore, It is said, He commanded the weary multitude to sit down on the grass and fed the 5.000. Now look at the east, to the lauds on the opposite side of the lake and the Jordan. They rise precipi tously from the water. The hills are so steep it would be almost impossible to climb them, and they are ragged and rough. That is the land of the Gadarenes, where our Lord cast out the devils into the swine, which ran violently down a steep place into the sea. All about us are the most familiar scenes of the Scriptures. Every bit of these shores has been hal lowed; and as we look the figures of the Old and New Testament spring into life. It is impossible to read the Bible In the Holy Land and not feel that Its peo ple were real men and women. The apostleB had the same feelings as ours; they lived in a world much the same; they breathed the same air; they enjoyed the same grass and flowers, and they loved and sor rowed aa we do today. The Ik-autie of Galilee. I doubt not our ixrd appreciated the beauties ot Galilee. Its scenery is as picturesque as that of any lake which lies in the Alps, and it changes in beauty every hour ot the day. I saw thu sun set last night. The clouds hung heavy over the hills to the east of the Jordan and the buu gilded the top of the Mount of the Beatitudes as it weut down in the west. A little be for that the6e waters were a glorious yellow, which faded away into a rich copper bronze. At the same time the heavens were burnished copper, cloud plied upon cloud, and the whole was mirrored in the glassy surface beneath. The Sea of Galilee has al ways been noted for its wonderful beauty. It was a pleasuro resort at the time of Herod Antipas, and the palaces of Tiberias and Capernaum were famous all over the enst. Let me give you still another view of the lake It is moonlight. The great round queen of the heavens, her golden face at its full, shines out ot a mass of dark blue, with black clouds behind it. The rays of the moon strike the sea obliquely, and they paint a wide path of silver running rrora the hills of Uadra across the waters iu Tiberias. I am looking at the scene from the window of my hotel over the minarets of a Mohammedan mosque. It reminds me of Lake Como and of some ot the Scottish lakes. Flailing In Galilee. As we ride up the lake I watch closely the fisher men handling our craft. We are iu a skiff about thirty feet long and four feet In width. It has a white leg-of-umtton sail which is filled by the wind from the fouth, and we are speeding over the water. The sea la now quiet, and our boat leaves a pathway of diamonds painted there by the s in. I reach dVer the aide ot the boat aud let my hand trail iu the water. I I fUherman-s skiff on the Sea of Ualilee. ide of the beat. They arc depending on the wind Mi -s, CV'V 4 ' rA C TjV'- JJ' I llitj It is cool. I dip up some in my palm and drink It. It has a slight taste of salt. Now the fishermen have laid their oars across the sides of the beat. They are depending on the wind to carry us onward. Some are asleep, and among them one at the prow who lies with bare legs out spread, his bronie face in the full glare of the sun. He is snoring. At the right is a man mending a net, end on the other side of the boat two are chatting. The scene might have been one of this same lake nine teen hundred-odd years ago, when Christ called men like these from their boats to be 'TiBhers of men." By and by the subject cf fishing comes up, and I ask the men If there are still many fish in the lake, thinking of the great draught which Simon Peter and the other apostles drew up when they cast their nets at the command of our Lord at the time He appeared to them here after His crucifixion. They tell me that the sea is still alive with good fish, and that quantities are carried to NaEareth and other Galilean towns every week. Some are sent to Damascus by railroad and some arc salted and shipped oft to Jerusalem. About a year ago a party took five tons of fish in one day. The catch was so great that fish sold in Tiberias for 1 cent apiece, and six pounds or more could be bought for a penny. There are fishing villages all along the lake, and the fishermen are B'ill to be een dragging their nets or mending them as they float near the shore. I am told that there are three ways of fishing. One 1b by hooks and two by nets. One kind of net is cast. It la used from the shores or by the man wading breast deep into the water. The net is a great ring or disk of thread weighted with lead. It takes the shape of a dome'as it sinks, falling upon the fish it Incloses. After this the fisherman dives down and ' draws the leads together and carries net and fish to the banks. Much fishing of this kind is done near the village of Magdala. Another net is a dragnet with floats at the top and leads at the .bottom. This is usually worked from boats which carry the nets so that they form a loon and scoop in the fish. Among the fish caught are excellent bass, some of which we have had at the hotel. An especially curious fish is that known as the chromlB slmonis, the male of which carries the eggs and young about in its mouth. The Lake in a Storm. The storms come up quickly on Galilee. I have seen several since I arrived in Tiberias and have ex perienced one or two on the sea. The day I landed was hot. The sirocco was blowing when I left the Mediterranean, and at Naiareth the travelers who had Just come from Tiberias warned us that it was terribly hot on the lake. We had strong winds all along the carriage road to Tiberias, and our first sight of the sea showed waves which were rolling to and fro, not unlike those of the ocean. The clouds hung low over Indians' Weird Firewater HE redman'B strange firewater has van T ished. The booze which came from the Land of the Cactus, the drug which formed a part of hla religion and car ried him off into delirious dreams, has been practically stamped out, says a re mm. port from Washington. No more will the feather-decked braves gather about the fires, chanting hymns to their gods, their brains aflame with the colors oT the rainbow, their nerves vibrating to a strange power. For Uncle Sam's hand has practically so curbed its use that it is no longer a menace to the red race. A few years ago many complaints reached the government officials in Washington that the Indians, especially the Kiowas and the Wlnnebagoes, were be ing debased by that strange intoxicant known as the mescal button. Its uso had been imported from Mex ico, where the root is grown. Thought it resembles somewhat a turnip, it is, in fact, a species of Mexican cactus, the top of which Is cut and then dried, forming a buttonlike substance. These buttons are either chewed or soaked In water and the liquid drunk to produce the intoxicating effect. In a short while after its Introduction to the Indians of North America it was adopted as part of their religious ceremonies and its use was one of the main rites in their sacred meetings. When the government agents discovered how gen eral the use of the mescal buttons had become, and their intoxicating nature, the plant was sent east for experimenting to learn its real value. Many prom inent scientists studied it carefully. Dr. Morgan and Dr. Prentiss, of the medical de partment of Columbia university, state in a joint paper on the subject that they took it themselves with a view of personally finding out its real effect. About four buttons were taken. In a short while there passed before the vision most magnificent pan oramas of every color and form. The pleasure was one of supreme delight and the most remarkable ex perience of a lifetime. By thinking of any scene it would api ear in glowliig tints, in wonderful blending OMAHA NUMA1 HW. JANUAKI 'SJ, - f -' 7,wu -.- 'wr-, I On Galilee. WAe-rc cJeiLS the waters and great, masses of black rested on the hills down which the swine ran. The boats were toss ing this way and that, and at times it seemed they might sink. It was during such a storm, in a similar boat, that the apostles came to our Lord, who was Bleeping, and begged Him to save them. He arose and rebuked the waters, and lo, it was calm. At the time of another storm He was not with them, having gone up into a mountain apart to pray. The ship was in the midBt of the sea, tossed by the waves, when the disciples saw Him walking on the water. They were troubled, and thought Him a sprit and cried out for fear. It was at that time that Jesus said: "Be of good cheer; it is I; be not afraid." And you remember how Peter tried to go to Him, and how, when he saw the wind boisterous, his heart failed him and he began to sink, Jeeus stretched forth His hand and caught him, saying: "Oh, thou of lit tle faith, wherefore dlds't thou doubt?" And when they were come into the ship the wind ceased." The Capernaum of Today. But our wind also has dropped. The boatmen are lowering the sails and we are gliding to the shores of Capernaum. They are now covered with rich mead ows, among which here and there are plowed fields and crops of fast-growing grain. From the boat we can see no Blgna that a city once stood on the spot. The only evidence of life is a low, gray, one-story monastery belonging to the Franciscans, who are ex cavating the ruins and digging temples and syna gogues out of the soil. They own several hundred acres, running east and west along the beach and ex or radiance, in a thousand flashing forms and hues. Yet strange to say if one brought to mind an un pleasant object then there came before the eye myriads of horrible crawling monsters and seas ot gruesome forms of human faces which would cause one to shudder. It also produced a marked wakeful ness in which it resembled cocaine, but has none of the letter's disagreeable after effects. Flickertails to On December 1, last, Prof. E. F. Ladd, food com missioner of North Dakota, put Into effect an order compelling produce handlers of the state to change their system of selling from the old measure to the pound weight plan. Thus one of the most sweeping orders promulgated by the pure food department of any btate will be put Into operation. It is in line with the policy that has been adopted by the state in saying that full weight shall be given, a step in which North Dakota Is a pioneer. One direct result of the order issued by Prof. Ladd will be an Increase in the price per bushel of practi cally all kinds of produce. Potatoes heretofore sold In a bushel measure must under the order weight right up to the sixty-pound mark to be considered a full bushel, and so it is with a number of other Veg etables. There will be no increase in the actual price of the produce, as the buyer will receive more per bushel than he did previously. As quoted, however, a slight advance la the price per bushel will doubtless result. Shrinkage is another thing that will have its effect on the prices of produce. Potatoes put in during the fall of the year, weighing sixty pounds, will be found to have decreased in weight by the time spring arrives by at least five pounds. This Is a factor the handler of such produce will have to take into consideration in determining upon his new scale of prices. Apples, too, will come under the new regulation. l'JII. ; iti'"-''-!! ) mi if ii "i- - - -- - -- - - n . ' . .. V; Tlf Jfojnan,v3- to Tjborijj J Jed (he live Thousand. tending for a mile perhaps up the hills. Some of their lands are under cultivation and there are or chards of lemons, oranges and almonds to the east of their buildings. We land at a wharf and enter a door in the walls which surround the excavations. I make myself ac quainted with Father Wandelin, an austere-looking priest, who speaks German. He takes me around and shows me the results of the work. He says they are digging up what is believed to be the actual syna gogue in which Jesus Christ taught, when He came here from Nazareth, as you must remember, Caper naum was His home, and it was from here that He took the most of His disciples. Here He cured Simon's wife's mother, who lay sick ot the fever, and here, saddened with the wickedness of the city, He said: "And thou. Capernaum, which art exalted unto Heaven, shall be brought down to hell; for if the mighty works which have been done in thee had been done in Sodom it would have remained unto this day." The prophecy, then uttered, has long since come to pass. The city of Capernaum is not. And it is only now that the excavation of these monks is show ing its ruins. The synagogue which is being dug up shows the splendor of the ancient city. I walked around Its boundaries; it was fifty-four feet long and aeventy two feet wide, facing the sea; its front was a mass of marble columns, and it was built in two Btorles, the upper of which was for the women. Many of the columns have been entirely dug out and the walls have been excavated to the height of my head. The Abolished The Indian office has this year been investigating the use of this plant, and now feels that by restricting its sale the drug is well in hand and its barm cannot spread. By law now the Indians are allowed each to buy a small quantity to be used as medicine, but it now no more can be bought for ceremonies and the wild delirious jags which once delighted the red men of the plains. Get Full Weight and will hereafter have to be sold by the pound, as will a great many other products. It will take some little time for the merchant to get accustomed to the now order of things, but Commissioner Ladd is firm In bis belief that the conditions resulting from the order will be entirely beneficial all around. North Dakota, about a year and a half ago, or dered that weights ot the contents of containers, such as crackers, etc., be stamped on the outside of the package. As a result of this order several large con cerns withdrew from the state, refusing to give the true weight of their goods, preferring rather to lose the territory entirely than so to do. Illustrious Example "My dear," announced Mr. Ad. Herewad, "I pro pose to donate you 4o, to be applied to the purchase of one of those new, topsy-turvy, wicker-basket hats." She looked up at him, very much alarmed at the sudden outbreak of generosity. "On condition you raise an equal amount of the lo-ccnts-a-week pin money regularly allowed you," finished Mr. Herewad magnanimously. Judge. u columns are three feet thick, smoothly finished and exquisitely carved. The marble work is that which was common in Rome shortly before the time of Christ, and much of it Is uninjured. So far only a small portion of the ground on, which the city has stood has been explored. Thora are a thousand acres or so left that in all probability contain valuable ruins, which, when exposed, may cast new light upon the days and time of the Savior. At present the work 13 managed by a close corpora tion. The Franclscian monks will not permit relics to be taken away and they forbid the use of cameras. Father Wendelln carries a long, blacksnake whip with him and I am told that he uses it if he is not obeyed. The other day a woman tourist brought in a camera under her coat and took a snapshot, notwithstanding his objections, whereupon he laid bold of her and threw her out of the place. , The City or Herod. I am stopping at Tiberras in a little German hotel, where I have a comfortable room at a cost of 1 2 a day. Tiberias is the largest settlement on the sea; it lies . on the western shore, at the southern end, within a mile or so of the Horns of Hattln, where it is raid Christ delivered the Sermon on the Mount., It is only a short ride by boat from where the Jordan flows out to the Dead sea, and from Semak, where the railroad now goes north on its way from Haifa to Damascus. The city was the capital of Galilee, and it was at the height of its prosperity when Christ was living at Capernaum; it was founded by Herod Antipas, the son of Herod, the baby killer, and was named after the Roman emperor Tiberius; it was constructed while Christ was living in Nazareth and was a new and thriving city durng His residence at Capernaum. It is doubtful that He ever visited It, for the Blblo does not mention His doing so. Tiberius had a palace and a race course in those days and after the destruction of Jerusalem it became the chief Beat of the Jewish nation; it is still one of the three holy cltleB of the Jews and it has many Israelites among its citizens. They go about in long coats and capB bound with fur, and are noted for their piety and for their knowledge of the Talmud. Many of the Jews are Spaniards who have come here to live on account of the holiness of the city. Tiberias in 1010. The Tiberias of 1910 is not attractive; it Is a mass of gray stone and brick buildings, with flat roofs painted white. The streets are narrow, dirty and filthy, and the Arabs have a saying that the king of the fleas lives here. The human population Is some thing like 8,000, of whom about two-thirds are Jews and the remainder Mohammedans and Christians. The Jews have ten synagogues, and there Is also a Mo hammedan mosque. The northern limits of the place are marked by the ruins of the Roman town and the remains of its walls and a gate are still standing. There are hot springs on the shores of the lake a half mile from the city, which are still used and which were famous in the times of tho Romans; they are la many respects similar to those of Carlsbad, the waters containing sulphur, chloride of magnesia and Iron; they are good for skin diseases, and if they were un der American management might be made to pay well. One of the most interesting and valuable Insti tutions in this city is the hospital belongng to the Scottish missionaries and managed by Dr. Torrence of Edinburgh. It has thousands of patients a year and is doing great work. C'unu of Galilee. I came here from Nazareth, riding over the moun tains of Galilee In a carriage. The road Is fairly good, although it Is up or down hill all the way. About six miles from Nazareth I stopped at the village of Cana, where our Ijrrd visited the wedding feast and turned the water into wine. I even Baw the stone Jars or tube which the people who own one of the churches there say were the original jars which were used at that time. They are kept Inside, tho church, and it took several fees to get to them; they are great limestone receptacles, looking much like mortars, and it is likely that they have Dten used for the crushing of wheat by means of a pestle. 1 took a photograph of one; standing beside It and, resting my camera oa a stool, my guide pressed the button. I also visited the spring at Cana; there is only one. and It must have been from there that the water which was turned Into wlm- was drawn. Four camels, six sheep and two cows were drinking at it as I stopped, and a half dozen girls with water bags were waiting for their family supply. It Is probable that Cana was much larger and more prosperous In the days of our Savior than now. FRANK U. CARPENTKR,