THE OMAHA SUNDAY BEE: MARCH 12. 1011.
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(CopjTight. 1011, by Frank G. Carpenter.)
rHfc.fcLS. (bpoclal Correspondence of
Tlio B(e.) Come With mo fur a walk
through tlie remains of the fumed eity
of the Ephesians. We shall wander over
the site of the preat Temple of Diana,
tramp the ground where St. John was
living when he wrote hia gospel and stand in the
marble mark( t where St. Paul preached. There is a'-.so
a tradition that the mother of our Lord was buried
here and that here Ilea the dust of St. Timothy.
$
Kxt'ttvatPri by the Austrians.
The Epheaus of the past has been recently
brought to the light of the present by the excavations
of the Austrians. They are among the great historical
explorers of the day. 1 have told you what they are
doing In the Holy Land, and especially on the site of
old Jericho. They are also engaged in digging up the
ruing of other cities in A3ia, and here at Ephesus they
. have recently uncovered the sito of the' Temple of
Diana and have opened up a theater which had seats
for 30,000 persons. They have been excavating the
great marble dockB which led to the city, and have
done much to show us what this great commercial
center of 2,000 years ago must have been in the height
of its glory.
Hut first let me tell you something of the Ephesus
of the days of St. Paul. It lay here on the const or
Asia Minor, just opposite Greece, and In what was
almost the center of the then known world. It was
the chief Roman city of Asia. It had a population
of a million or more and was famous for its learning,
art and beautiful buildings. It was far above Smyrna,
which was founded before It, and in which it is said
the poet Homer was born.
Ephesua dates back to a thousand years before
Christ. Some say it was started by the Amazons, but
we know that it was largely built up by the Greeks,
wlio came from the Ionic Islands over the way. It
was a great city In the days of Croesus, who besieged
the town In 540 U C, and later was so famous that
Alexander the Great wanted to change its
his own.
stork sleepily sits on a marble rock in its midst and
a frog croaks out a welcome. A red cow is grazing
there on the edge of the wnter, and at my right a
hog is rooting the debris.
A Theater AVhich Seated 0,000.
Now let us take horses and ride on down the
valley to visit the theater. This haB been so uncovered
by the Austrians that we can sit on the marble benches
nnd look at the stage which once held the actors of
the chief playhouse of Asia. Think of a theater which
would seat 30,000! We have nothing like that in the
United States, and there is none that I know of in
any part of the world. The wigwams of our national
conventions, thrown up for the time, have accommo
dated that many, but this great open air structure
was built largely of marble and altogether of stone.
The entrance to the stage was by tunnels, and the
stage was upheld by marble columns. The seats were
built of common stone, covered with marble, and they
ran around the stage, or rather the pit, in the shape
of a half moon, rising high up the hills at the back.
I should say there were 200 feet of such seats. They
were in three stories and contained sixty-six rows.
I measured tho outline of the stage. It was about
eighteen Jeet wide and six or seven feet high. There
are long underground passages leading to jt, nnd it
had eight two-storied rooms which were probably
used as dressing rooms by the actors. I walked
through the pit, which"is now filled with marble col
umns and blocks of marble beautifully carved, and
then climbed up the seats from tier to tier, sitting
down now and then and trying to imagine the audi
ence and the acting as going on upon the marble stage
far below.
The Temple of Diana.
Among tho greatest wonders of Ephesus was its
Temple to Diana, its favorite goddess. People from
everywhere came here to worship her and her temple
was considered one of the seven wonders of the world.
It covered more than two acres, and Its mighty roof
was upheld by 127 marble columns, each aa high as
a Bix-story house. The worship of the goddess was
so famous that a business grew up iu making btutue3
of her and portable shrines which could be carried
away by tourists and pilgrims. Athletic games were
connected with the worship and the month of May
was sacred to her. The temple itself is referred to in
the scriptures, and in the Acts wo read of ' the great
goddess Diana, whom Asia and all tho world wor
shiped." Hut come, let us have a look at the site of that
temple today. We have taken a special ear at Smyrna
and havo been carried by a little French locomotive
over tho railroad to the station of Ayusoluk, which
is forty-eight miles away across country. We have
gone through a land of vineyards and olives, where
basgy trousero'.l peasants are pruning the vines jin-l '
wording the fields. They dig about the trees with
three-tlned hoes, and till their crops with donkeys
and bullocks. The plows are one-handled and about
the same as those used in ancient days. We po over
the plains which must have fed the Ephesians. wind
our way in and out through the hills and finally come
to a llttlo station where we get horses which carry
us out over the valley to Ephesus.
Now a Mud Puddle.
The site of the temple is surrounded by hil!s. It
lies In the valley not fr above the level of the Mt dl
teiranenn, which we can see shining in the sun not
more than five miles away. History says it was
swpmpy and that the gnat structure was erected upon
columns. This 6tatemeut is borne out by the present.
Tho excavation made in removing the ruins is now
filled with water. It is a' mud puddle or miniature
lake filled with broken pillars and capitals lying half
in and half out of the water. We bland on the banks
beside fluted columns of snow white marble, tuv.ti s-e
brokeu marble everywhere near. That man who pl. v ;
on tho southern rldse of the sand turns up marble
bits at every step of bis bullocks, and the girls behind
him, w ho are planting, uncover stones from the temple
at almost every stroke of their hoi-s.
As we look wo fcee no sign of tho activity which
1' retailed here 2,000 years ago. Lirds fly across tho
luku aud kiug lu tho trees which bend over it. a
In Ancient Kpliesus.
Leaving the theater, having tied my horse to a
bush, I strolled about through the wide streets of
marble, which have been partially uncovered, and
made photographs of bits of the ruins. There Is
enough marble here to build a structure equal to our
uamo for v national capitol at Washington, and this is mixed with
mosaic and the broken statues of the palaces of the
past. There are pieces of friezes, columns and capi
tals lying out in the open; there are torsos of statue3,
the heads and feet of which have been broken off and
carried away; and also exquisite carvings which
would be treasures to any museum. Here lies a piece
of marble drapery, the remains of a goddess; there
the broken-up limb of an athlete, and farther on an
exquisite bit from the front of tho temple.
Among the ruins are the remains of stores,
houses and markets. I climbed over marble blocks
along the street which led to the ship canal, and stood
among scattered columns in what was once the stock
exchange and wool market. In one place Is an arti
ficial terrace on which stood the great gymnasium,
and in another a market place 200 feet long, sur
rounded by a portico, back of which were halls In
which the marketmen stood. In the mosaic floors of
these halls thirteen different kinds of marbles were
used, and marbles of various colors were employed In
the structure.
Farming the lluins.
Today tho peasants are working all over these
ruins. Here they are planting grain, and there clean
ing the fields, a gang of a dozen girls working under
a turbancd man In full, baggy trousers. Here women
are digging, and farther on a man drives a camel har
nessed to a one-handled plow.
The only town near Ephesus Is Ayasalouk, which
has a few hundred inhabitants. It has, perhaps, a
dozen small stores, a railroad station and a hotel.
While at the station I saw a white, fat-tailed lamb
awaiting shipment. It was tied to the platform, and
a card fastened to one horn bore the name of the
commission merchant in Smyrna to whom it was con
signed. Running past the hotel are seven high columns
which once supported the aqueduct which supplied
Ephesus with water. Each of these has now a etork's
nest on its top, and tho great birds may be seen any
day standing there. Each stork supports Itself on one
leg. I am told that they come here only for the win
ter, and that they leave every spring for Holland, or,
perhaps, for some other faraway part of the world,
each transporting a baby.
In Kmjrra.
I spent a day in Smyrna before coming to Ephe
sus, and I shall return there to go on to Constanti
nople and Greece. Smyrna is the largest city in Asia
Minor, and it has about the same position here now
that Ephesus held. It Is the chief port of this part
of the Levant and does a big business In shipping
wool, wine, grapes, olives and fls. It has a foreign
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trade of abo-t 150,000,000 a year, and steamers from
all parts of the Mediterranean come to its docks.
The c'tj lies at one end of the great Gulf of
Smyrna, which is thirty-four miles long and Bur
rounded by silver-gray mountains, some of which are
a mile high. Its harbor Is excellent. The town be
gins on its shore, with tlie Elopes of Pagus In the rear.
It is largely composed of modern buildings, and among
its people there are more Greeks than Turks. They
are shrewd traders, and just now are alive to the
possibilities of doing business under the new Turkish
government, which promises to he far more liberal in
matters of trade than that of the past. '
Smyrna Is much interested in the railroad proj
ects for tho development of Turkey, and the Germans
are alive to the securing of mineral and other con
cessions. The various roads planned to reach Persia
will open up Asia Minor, and there will be consider
able demand for American goods. The same condi
tions prevail In Syria, and the I'nlted States should
wake up to the possibilities which may come with
the reorganization of this empire. A great part of
Turkey is practically undeveloped, and if an honest
government is to take the place of the corrupt rule
of the past the population will rapidly increase In
numbers and wealth, and there will be a demand for
foreign goods of all kinds. ,
American Opportunities In Kyi-la.
While travbling in Syria I saw many openings for
American goods. The farming there . is after tho
methods of centuries ago, and our plows, reapers and
other agricultural machines might be sold. I under
stand that the more progressive of the native land
lords are ready to buy. One mail, who owns more
than 1.000 acres of rich grain land on the high plateau
between the two ranges of the Lebanon mountains,
has offered to lease it to any American company who
will cultivate It for two or three years at "5 per cent
of the profits, and will bring in American machinery
for the purpose. The landlord also agrees to pay for
the machinery at the regular price upon the termina
tion of the contract.
Some of the Syrian farmers are now using Amer
ican threshers and reapers, and some are bringing in
American plows. The first thresher Imported was
upon the advice of Mr. G. Bie Ravndal, our consul gen
eral at Constantinople. Mr. Ravndal is a Dakota man,
who understands the farming conditions in the north
west. He tells me that the possibilities of grain rais
ing in this part of the world are remarkable, and that
dry farming might be practiced in many localities
which now go to waste. He thinks that old Mesopo
tamia can be redeemed by irrigation, and a new Egypt
created there. He says the new governmental condi
tions point to a revolution along many lines of in
dustry and commerce, and that American capital
should take advantage of the situation.
Ibaw Silk From Syria.
Syria and Asia Minor are now raising a great deal
of silk which is sent to France and shipped from there
to the United States. The American residents toll me
that there is no reason that we should not buy thla
raw sllkirect and thus save the Frenchman's profits
and the double transportation charges. I saw mul
berry orchards everywhere during my travels in Syria.
The plains about Beirut are covered with them, and
they are to be found on both sides of the Lebanon
mountains. The trees grow to the height of a man's
head and are then cut back. Their branches are cut
off every year and the green leaves from the new
sprouts form the food for millions of silk worms. In
coming from Damascus I saw women and children
picking the leaves to feed to tho worms, carrying them
to sheds erected for the purpose. Rearing the silk
worms Is largely In the hands of the women. ' "They
take care of the trees and sell the cocoons, this form
ing the chief source of their pin money.
Mormons Pioneers in Irrigation
M
JRMOX agriculturists ' are given credit for
being the pioneers in irrigation work.
Writing In the St. Louis Globe-Democrat,"
Caleb Yore says that irrigation had been
practiced in a feeble way for centuries,
possibly, by certain tribes of southwestern Indians,
and that some of the gardens and fields surrounding
the Spanish missions of the some region were watered
artifically. But the missions were abandoned and
falling into decay when the Anglo-Saxon appeared
upon the scene and the example of the Indians had
little or no Influence. It was the .Mormons who lei
the way, and they gave the first prat th ai illustration,
outside of Utah, of the wonderful possibilities of Irri
gation, in the land where irrigation has since reached
the highest stage of perfection ani achieved its most
remarkable victories Southern California.
In the days of the missions, and until the coming
of the Americans, Southern California was a pastoral
rather than an agricultural country. There were some
great haciendas, but they were devoted to cattle and
sheep raising.
"The land was a desert 'of sagebrush and cactus,
in which a few scattered mission gardens made charm
ing oases," says William E. Smythc, the historian of
arid America. "Along moist river bottoms there were
sometimes fich'.s aud pardens, though not of the high
est type. On the uplunfls light crops of wheat and
barley were occasionally harvested if spring rains
happened to be fairly generous. But it was, appar
ently, a country. which offered nothing to the stranger
save climate and scenery." Even the mission gardens
to which Mr. Smythe refers had been abandoned ten
years before the country was ceej to the L'nited
States. "To this barren place," he says again, "came
irrigation and the Anglo-Saxon, bringing a new era
in their train."
And in the vanguard of the invasion came the
Mormons, less than four years after the Mormons
had left Florence, Neb., for the settlement of Salt
Lake City Brlgham Young conceived the idea of estab
lishing a colony near the shores of the Pacific which
could serve as a resting place for the converts coining
to I'tah by way of Panama or Cape Horn. From con
ception to fiction was a brief period and early iu 1S51
a strong party, led by two of the highest officials
of the church, set out from Salt Lake City bound for
a valley which Brlgham Young told them he had seen
in a vision, and which they would identify by a great
bare spot, shaped like an Indian arrowhead, upon the
side of a lofty mountain overlooking the valley.
Across nearly a thousand miles of desert they
journeyel to the southwest, breaking a trail through
an unknown aud most Inhospitable country, and it
was four weary and eventful months after their de
parture before they found their way through the
Cajon pass of the Sierra Madres saw before them
the beautiful valley of San Bernardino and the arrow
head which is its chief landmark. In this valley they
established their colony, the first organized colony
of Anglo-Saxou settlers in Southern California, and
put into Immediate operation the agricultural methods
which had already proven so successful In their Zion.
They founded the city of San Bernardino and around
it put under cultivation many acres of fertile land,
watering it from the adjacent mountain streams. This
was the beginning of modern irrigation In "California,
and from the. heights overlooking their settlement one
may see today its fullest fruition In the golden orange
groves which surround the rich and lovely cltita of
Riverside and Reilands.
The Mormon occupation of the valley was brought
Co an abrupt termination by the recall of the colonists
seven years later at the time of the so-called Mormon
war, but they were there long enough to show tbe
possibilities of Irrigation, and the lesson was not hst.
In fact, everywhere they went they proved the efficacy
of their agricultural methods; everywhere they went
they made the desert to bloom.
' Thus the followers of a proscribed sect uncon
sciously laid firm the foundations of western prosperity.
Money in Olives.
"He who plants an olive tree lays up riches for
his children's children." This saying is a current be
lief throughout the Levant. The olive crop Is the
money crop of a great part of Palestine, Syria and
Asia Minor. Many of the trees are hundreds of years
old, and some of them were planted before Columbus
discovered America. Mr. Ravndal tells of an orchard
near Tripoli, In Sryla. which the papers show was
established about 500 years ago, and he says the trees
are still bearing. All the way from Jerusalem to the
sea of Galilee I saw olive trees which looked old
enough to have been planted by Jacob, and some of
gigantic size which were hollow and had been filled
with stones to aid In their support.
Many of the German colonies of the Holy LAnd
have set out new orchards, and the Americans who live
at Haifa by careful cultivation have brought thtr
trees Into bearing fruit every year. I am told that
tho crop Is very profitable, and that under the new
government and reduced taxation many more trees
will be planted. The fruit is raised for the oil, of
which a ton of olives yields about seventy gallons,
worth $136. Aslntlc Turkey already leads the world
In Its production of olive oil. having about two or three
hundred thousand more barrels per annum than either
Spain or Italy.
,
Smyrna Figs.
Another important crop of the region about
Smyrna Is the fig, which grows better here than lu
almost any other part of the world. In some years
over 300,000 camel-loads are raised and they arc
shipped all over the world. The trees begin to bear
in their sixth year, and are at their best ten years after
planting. The figs ripen about the 1st of August, and
when fully matured fall to the ground. They are dried
In the sun. and then patked In bugs for the market.
A great many of these figs go to America, and
you will find them In all our grocery stores. Our part
of the crop Is carefully packed, there being soveial
American firms here who do nothing else. 1 he fl;s
are first sorted according to the tlihl .iisi of the skin
and size of tho fruit. The poorrst are thrown a.;iy or
used for distilling puiposeH. and the best are put un
for export in box"s and jars. Th- price hero l- from
2 to X crrits a pound, the very finest of the fifis blink
ing the latter.
A gretft deal of the packing is done in the citv of
Smyrna, the fruit being brought in from all parts of
the country. Some of it comes on the railways, on
cars especially built for the traffic, and some Is carried
on camels. It Is Important that the fruit be not
bruised, and that carried in the cars is laid upon
shelves, which are placed one above the other, so that
there Is no danger of tho figs being mashed.
FRANK G. CARPENTEIt.
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