Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

378 berries, with cream and sugar ? W hat sport is more pleasant than to go in quest of them, and to strive who can get the nicest and the most to take to mamma, and sometimes the smallest children will pull a great many green strawberries. Then comes the luscious cherry, but they are hard to get by the little girls, who are not good climbers. A wistful look and few cherries is some times their lot, except when the kind, gallant boys climb the trees and throw them the beautiful red bunches. Thanks to “gentle Spring” for all her beauties and pleasures ! But we will soon have to bid her adieu. M. Written for Burke's Weekly. William Wallace. BY DR. TICKNOR. fIS life is past the sorties — His length is six-foot-two— And both his feet import, he's fNot a fly to shoe ! They dubbed him Big-Foot Wallace Down in Mexico, As Liliput would call his Brobdinag, you know. Straight as a rifle rammer. And lightly too he stands Though weighted with sledge-hammer In each of his great hands! Grave as his own gun-barrel, Yet gracious with the grim, And when we pick a quarrel We musn’t pick at him ! A plant of the “ red ripper,” Whose level eye-light means A charge of Chili pepper With a reserve of—“ Beans.” A loyal soul I I’ll pound it As ever ruled the ranche; And so the doodles found it And also the Comanche! And so the little Greasers! They say he used to catch A score of their Mestizoes To grease his bullet patch ! May they be bothered wholly— In body and in soul! For the mills are grinding slowly And Wallace takes the toll. His features so resemblo His sire’s, a cycle back, That curs and tyrants tremble To come upon his track ! Here’s Hope’s un-Butlered chalice; Here’s loyalty’s last wine! And here’s—To William Wallace The Second, by his—" Sign I” Torch Hill, Columbus, Ga., May 1. .#« Oar Modern Servants. A gentleman being asked by a clergy man why he did not attend evening prayer-meeting, said he could not leave the children. “ Why, have you no servants ?” “ Yes, we have two servants,” he re plied, “ who keep the house and board us. We are allowed a few privileges.” *.».* Love is the"most intelligible when it is unable to express itself in words. BURKE’S WEEKLY FOR BOYS AND GIRLS. Written for Burke’s Weekly. BIOGRAPHIES OF ANCIENT PERSONS FOR YOUNG FOLKS. BY PBOF. T. B. RUSSELL, A. M. SAC ON TAT HON. HCENICIA was the country of Sanconiathon. As the partic ulars in the life of this ancient character are not many, before proceed ing to their recital, it will not be inap propriate to present an account of his country and people. The land of Phoenicia was a part of the region, which, in classical times, was called Syria. If we examine a good map of ancient geography, we shall find between the 33d and 35th parallels of latitude, on the Eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea, this narrow region of country. On the East, it is shut in by the mountains of Libanus or Lebanon ; its whole Western boundary is washed by the waves of the great midland Sea. It extended from Mt. Carmel on the South, to the Island of Aradus on the North. It abounded in timber suitable for ship- building ; this circumstance, most probably, together with their facil ities for sea ports, contributed to make the Phoenicians a maritime people. The extent of their country was about one hundred and thirty miles long by fifteen or twenty broad. But the smallness of their territory did not prevent them from becoming great and. distinguished. They were the earliest navigators and merchants. They were the first who used rudders and sails, and steered their ships at night by the stars. There was a boldness, intrepidity, and com preheftsivness in the Phoenicians’ genius for commerce and navigation, that com mand our attention and inspire admir ation. Even in those early ages of the world preceding the settlement of the Israelites in Canaan, the Phoenicians had made extensive voyages and mar ine explorations. In Abraham’s time, they had sailed to the coast of Greece. Afterwards, they settled colonies in Cyprus, Rhodes, the North of Af rica and the South of Spain. They passed the strait of Hercules or Gibral ter, ar.d sailed to Britain and the Cas siterides, the latter supposed to be the Scilly Isles. From Spain they obtain ed gold and silver, from Britain tin. from the Baltic amber, and from the shores of the Black Sea copper and iron. They traded overland with various coun tries in the interior of Asia and Africa: and, it is believed, they voyaged to In dia by the lied Sea and the Indian Ocean. Their great cities were Sidon and Tyre, related to each other as mother and daughter, both queens of the sea. The former, it is thought, was founded by Zidon, the grandson of Ham, and the oldest son of Canaan. Tyre is sup posed to have been established in Josh ua’s time, by persons who fled from the Jewish war of invasion. Some of their colonics in Africa are presumed to have originated in this way. Mr. Coleman, in his Biblical Geography, states that many ages after the events of this inva sion, two pillars are said to have been found in a town in Numidia, with these words inscribed on them in Phoenician characters: “We are of those who fled from the arms of Joshua, the rob ber, the son of Nane.” The Phoenicians were noted for a splendid purple dye, which they obtain ed from the juice of a shell fish of their coasts; and this was a source to them of great wealth. This fish is known to the moderns, but they make no use of it, as they possess the material of a much cheaper and more beautiful color, in the cochineal insect. The Phoenicians are represented as possessing the honor of having been the inventors of making glass. They were celebrated for the manufacture of many useful and elegant fabrics; so that, things of this kind received Sidonian, from Sidon, their oldest city, and most remarkable for these improve ments. Tyre was distinguished for the perfection of work in metals and glass. There was in this city a magnificent Temple of Hercules, which was seen and described by the historian, Herodo tus. He was particularly struck in this temple with two columns, one of molten gold, the other of emerald, which in the night time shone with great splendor. Tytler tells us, that the French author Moris. Goguet suggests that this emerald column was hollow and made of glass, and lighted by lamps placed within. Phoenician mechanics built the tem ple of Solomon; the sailors and pilots of Phoenicia navigated his ships. The honor of inventing Arithmetic has been attributed to the Phoenicians ; and if they were not the inventors of Al phabetic writing, they have at least the credit of its early adoption, and certain ly of its introduction into Greece. The Carthaginians wmre Colonists from Phoenicia, and their Admiral Anno or Hanno, by order of their sen ate, performed a voyage of discovery along the west coast of Africa, and it is not improbable doubled the capo of Good Hope. He wrote an account of his voyage, called the Periplus of Han no. A valuable fragment of this has been preserved in a Greek] translation. His style is said to be that of plain and perspicuous narrative, without any tincture of exaggeration. As respects political and civil govern ment, that highest of human sciences, thePhcenicians have been highly celebra ted in the estimation and praises of learned men. They were also renown ed for their military prowess, and in domitable war-like courage. As regards religion, their reputation is at a low ebb. They were idolaters, in many respects, of the very worst type. At one period of their history, their re ligous condition may have been propiti ous ; we refer to the reign of the sover eigh Hiram, the friend of king Solomon. But, generally, both in the mother country and in her colonies, their super stitions and idolatries were most cruel and abominable. These were the peo ple who were guilty of perpetrating human sacrifices, and of burning their little children in the fires of the god Moloch. It may be inquired, why the Phoeni ciansjwere a people of such fine genius noted for their energy, inventive facul ties, enterprse and attainments in civili zed arts ? We suggest, it may have been partly at least from the fact, that they were a composite race, that originated from the commingled blood of the de scendants of Shem and Canaan. Hul, the son of Aram, Shem’s fifth son, settled in Phoenicia sometime before Canaan’s posterity ; but the latter final ly established themselves in that part of ancient Syria, and the two stocks be came united and blended. Not to mention others, the best deri vation probably of the name Phoenicia is that which brings it from the Greek word phoinix, a palm ; that is, Phoenicia by a sort of English translating deriva tive would be palmia or palm-land. The Palm tree was really, among the ancient Greeks, symbolic of this coun try. This then was the country, and these were the people of Sanconiathon. lie was the great, and so far as we know, the only historian of his country. lie is the oldest profane writer on record. He is thought to have flourished 1040 years B. C. ; though, some attempt to make him contemporary with Joshua. The former date, however, we ilunk should be preferred as his period. It will be seen from this, that Moses wrote several hundred years before him. Sanconiathon wrote, in the Phoeni cian language, a history of his country in nine books, in which he is said to have described, with great accuracy, the theology, manners, and antiquities of Phoenicia and of neighboring nations. It was compiled from annals found in cities and records kept in the temples. It was translated into Greek by Philo, during the reign of the Roman Emper or Adrian, between 117 and 138 A. D. But few fragments of this translation re main. Some have regarded them as spurious, while others esteem them as true and authentic. The birth place of Sanconiathon was Berytus, the modern Beirout or Be grout. Geographers tell us, “It is plentifully furnished with springs; and it is said to have derived its original name from the Phoenician deity Baal Beerith, 1 lord of wells.’ ” On the topics of grave and truthful history the imagination should never be indulged in constructing pleasing and plausible conjectures; but, in view of the great facts presented, indicative of