Was This Strange Manuscript Written by Moses?Very Remarkable

JTebrew AntiquitiesIlnearthed in

{Palestine.

BERLIN, Aug. 10.—For several years a German preacher from the townof "Walbroel has been at work, personally and through tiative agents, incollecting ancient manuscripts and coins from the excavations in Pales-tine. The preacher's name is Bruesselbach and he has Just published

a little monograph giving the results of his labors. The publication hasattracted wide attention among archaeologists and scientific men, for the rea-son that the discoveries which Bruesselbach claims to have made and whichseem to be authenticated by the facts are the moat important made in many

years. The finds possess other than scholarly interest, as they nearly all relateto Bible history.

The most important of the discoveries related by Bruesselbacn is that of amanuscript supposedly written by Moses himself. The margin bears the nameof Moses and the writing relates to the subjects treated in the early books ofthe Bible which have come down to us as the books of Moses, lr the explorer

can prove the accuracy of his belief in the august authorship of the manu-script which he has unearthed It will be studied with interest as one of theoldest and probably the most valuable specimen of early writingin existence.

Tne fragment is remarkably well preserved and appears to be made fromthe skin of some aquatic animal, probably the hippopotamus or Nile-horse.Itis a yellowish brown in color, crinkled and dry with age. The three drawings

on it are done in black ink, and, ac interpreted -by the discoverer, apparently

refer to the labors of the enslaved Israelites in Egypt.

The Bible story runs (Exodus i, 11-14): "They (the Egyptians) set over

them (the Israelites) taskmasters to afflict them with their burdens. And they

built for Pharaoh store cities, Plthom and Raamsas. And the Egyptians made

the children of Israel to serve with rigor. And they made their lives bitter

with hard bondage in mortar and in brick and in all manner of service In thefield."

The first picture on the recovered manuscript shows a Jewish maidenmilkinga cow, referring to the labors with flocks and herds. Above is a pack

saddle with its two girths, a reference to the work of transport. There Is alsoan Egyptian eagle drawn exactly as it is found on the Egyptian monuments.The second picture is that of two Israelites holding up a large winnowing

frame, in illustration of their labors in the state granaries established, by

Joseph. The Semitic type of the two men is characteristic and unmistakable.The third picture is that of the foot of a pyramid or the base of a fortificationwall, a specimen of the labor of brickmaking and building, in which the captives

were employed. Upon the column is perched a hawk, the hawk and eagle

being sister symbols of upper and lower Egypt.

While the pictures are interesting, the most important part of the papyrus

is the inscription across the top. Itis written in ancient script, hitherto un-known, but so primitive as to approach very closely to the hieroglyphic stage.

Itis translated by the discoverer: "Their yearning for freedom irom the op-

pressor is full; their long continued sins cry unto thee, O God."Whether or not the interpretation is accurate the sentiment Is a proper

one to emanate from him who succeeded in giving the Israelites their desiredfreedom.

The first five books of the Bible have always been known as "The Five.Books of Moses." According to the history of Josephus, the original manu-

script of these, in the handwriting of Moses, was preserved in the Temple at

Jerusalem. The fragment in the possession of Dr. Bruesselbach was unearthedfrom the ruins of the ancient city, 1 nown in the Bible as Lachlsh. Theexplorer explains the transition by saying that when the temple and city of

Jerusalem were destroyed by the Romans (70 A. D.) these and other treasureswere buried and later removed to the city of Lachish, where many scholars

had taken up their residence. The ruins of this city have only lately been

F J. Bliss, acting for the Palestine Exploration Fund of England,

rmmd it while digging in the Tel-el-Hesy, as the Arabs call it. He found thatt-iViHesv was indeed "a mound of i-.any cities," no less than eight existing

tWA eaxh one being built upon th< ruins of its predecessor. It was in aPortfonTf thTmound untouched by Dr. Bliss that Bruesselbach and his co-

'Mosaic manuscript the explorer calls special

attention to the forms of the letters used in the Inscription upon the papyrus.™f fw letter called Aleph, an ox, is really a drawing of the horns of thatJn,m J The second letter, Beth, means a house. ThS third, Gimel, standsf"r camel, and so on. throughout the alphabet, there is a remarkable cor-

Copies ofSolomon'sSeal ana the t/fostJinci Jrfebrew

Coma £ver J*ound.'

respondence between the names and the objects.This discovery Bruesselbaeh thinks may solve what has long been a puzzle

to scholars. In all school geographies the origin of the alphabet has been

ascribed to the Phoenicians. Many modern scholars have been inclined to

doubt this theory, for the reason that the letters were not sufficiently primitive.The inscription just discovered, which is presumably the first specimen extantof early Hebrew writing,seems to bridge the chasm hitherto existing betweenthe hieroglyphics and conventional letters of later times."

Dr. Bruesselbaeh says: The result of our investigation is that the manu-script, judging from all external and internal evidence, is genuinely MosaicIfthis be so the religious world is on the point of some startling discoveries,

for where one manuscript has been found there may be others and the nextone unearthed may contain some portion of the Bible in this ancient script,thus supporting the tradition of the Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch, orparts of it at least.

The Palestine Fund reports other interesting discoveries, among them acoin of earlier date than any heretofore known. The oldest Hebrew coin dis-covored before this time bore date of 143 B. C, and Bruesselbach's party dis-covered a large bronze coin of David's time. It shows the crown of David,

with a circlet of stars. The crown was said, according to story, to be ma^a

of gold of the value of a talent. The inscription about the coin reads: "David,

King of Jerusalem." On the reverse side is an eight-stringed harp with tnainscription: "Fear ye, repent ye, who are strong in faith."

Scholars and numismatists alike are exhibiting deep interest In this coin,

which was struck off almost three thousand years ago and passed currentamong the subjects of King David in Jerusalem.

Another more notable discovery reported by Dr. Bruesselbaeh is that otthe "Seal of Solomon." There is no story more clearly remembered by those

who have read the "Arabian Nights" than that of the mystic ring by which,

the genii were summoned to the service of its possessor. Arabic and Hebrew

literature is full of the legends of the wonders performed by the might or.Solomon's Seal, made through the wisdom of this wisest of monarchs.

The inscription is not so easy to read as those on the coins because of thepeculiar shape of the letters and the fact that they are interwoven with the

design on the seal. The name of Solomon has been deciphered. Ifthis is th©genuine seal of Solomon it also has on it "the ineffable name" of God Jehovah,but Bruesselbach has not been able to make this out to his own satisfactionamid the various lines traced upon its surface.

Another coin brought to light is evidently to be located about 175 B. C,in the time of the king-priest, Jason. The inscription is in a peculiar dialectof Syro-Aramaic belonging to that period and is written from left to right,contrary to the Hebrew custom in writing. The decipherment of the inscrip-

tion Is "K. Jehason G. Is. Coin of the City," which has been translated:"Jason, the high priest (Kohen Gedol) of Israel." On the reverse Is a palmbranch and a smoking altar, illustrating the priestly function of offeringsacrifices in the temple.

Strictly speaking, Jason is not a Biblical character, for he lived In thetime just following the close of the Biblical period, the accounts of whichare very scanty.

A seal ring, bearing the name of Simeon, the llaccabee, who ruled 143-135B. C, was among the other discoveries. The inscription is most distinct of all,being the most recent, and is therefore more easily read than the others. Theletters are arranged around a seven-pointcJ star and run: "Simeon, the HighPriest."

While Dr. Bruesselbach has made no attempt to exploit his discoveries heclaims that there is no doult of their authenticity. At the same time he saysthat there is likely to be controversy regarding the genuineness of some ofthem and he therefore proposes to place these and other manuscripts. coln3and ring, which he has dug up, before competent scholars to settle, Ifpossible,beyond a doubt, the question of their accuracy.

The fact that he has found a manuscript purporting 1 to come from thehands of Moses, bearing his name and that of Jorhua (his successor) on themargin, wri:ten in very primitive characters on the most primitive materialever found, would seem to be important in itself.

But there have been sk ''ul forgeries of such documents before now, and,until a numher of experts Lave passed u^on the

—tter judgment may have to

be suspended. This discovery Is, however, in line with other startling finds ofthe past few years.

The unearthing at Nippur of inscriptions which carry civilization back tofive or six thousand years B. C, showing that the art of printing was knownand practiced at that early day, settles one of the objections which has fre-quently been raised against the possibility of Moses having written any part

of the Bl le. the natural doubt as to the use of writingr*

that early date.The discoveries of Dr. Bruesselbach will certainly arouse widespread in-

terest and awaken renewed enthusiasm for the work of exploration in theHoly Land.

MOST ANCIENT HEBREW COIN EVER DISCOVERED.Di\ Bruesselbach'a party broucrht to light in cxcavatinfl com** nf th«

rarest coins in Hebrew history. Among them was a large bronze coinof King David's time. It shows the crown of David with a circlet ofstars. The inscription reads: "David, King of Jerusalem." On thereverse side is an eight-stringed harp with the inscription: "Fear ye,repent ye, who are strong in faith." This coin is supposed to havebeen in circulation 3000 years aero. The oldest Hebrew coin hereto-fore discovered bears date of 143 B. C. Another most notable discov-ery is that of "The Seal of Solomon." The name Solomon has beendeciphered, but the inscription is not easy to read. The evidence sofar goes to show that this is a valuable copy of the great original.

OTHER VALUABLE ANTIQUITIES FOUND IN THE EXCAVATION

Another coin brought to light is evidently to be located about 175B. C. in the time of the king priest, Jason. The inscription is in a

peculiar dialect of Syro-Aramaic belonging to that period, and is writ-ten from left to right, contrary to the Hebrew custom in writing.

The decipherment of the inscription is "K. Jehason G. Is. Coin of theCity," which has been translated: "Jason, the high priest (Kohen Ge-dol) of Israel." On the reserve is a palm branch and a smoking altar,

illustrating the priestly function of offering sacrifices in the temple.

A seal ring, bearing the name of Simeon, the Maccabee, who ruled

143-135 B. C, was among the other discoveries. The inscription is

most distinct of all, being the most recent, and is therefore more eas-ily read than the others. The letters are arranged around a seven-pointed star and run: "Simeon, the High Priest."

REMARKABLE MANUSCRIPT JUST UNEARTHED IN PALESTINE AND BEARING THE SIGNATURE Of MOSES.

The ancient manuscript and coins recently discovered by a German preacher in Palestine are consideredamong the most important ever brought to light. The most important of the discoveries is that of a man-uscript supposedly written by Moses himself. The margin bears the name of Moses and the writing relatesto the subjects treated in the early books of the Bible which have come down to us as the books of Moses.If the explorer can prove the accuracy of his belief in the augus^ authorship of the manuscript which he hasunearthed it will be studied with interest as one of the oldest and probably the most valuable specimen ofearly writing in existence. The fragment is remarkably well preserved and appears to be made from the skinof some aquatic animal, probably the hippipotamus or Nile horse. It is a yellowish brown in color, crin-kled and dry with age.

SOME QUEER v \LEGACIES.

Here are some amusing particulars

of legacies with strange conditions at-

tached, as given by the Brooklyn Citi-zen. Early last year a peculiar pro-

bate suit, involving some $500,000, was

imminent, the disinherited relations\u25a0wishing to upset an old gentleman's

will because he had left the sum namedto found and endow a church on thecondition that every Sunday before theservice the whole of the thirty-nine ar-

ticles were to be read by the clergy-

man outside the church door.A strange condition was attached to

the legacy the late Sir Edward Bates,

who died last year, left to his larrieddaughter. He stated that he had seenhis son-in-law's Scotch property, andhe considered itwould be a gross injury

to his daughter and her children, con-sidering "there are no neighbors withinmiles, and there Is no medical manwithin six or seven miles," if she livedthere any considerable time. So he ar-ranged that, if his daughter stayedmore than six months inany year, "andthose six months not in the winter," atthat spot, the income derived from thelegacy for the twelve succeeding

months should go to the residuary leg-

atee.. During this year a gentleman whodied at Mons left a legacy of $3000 tofive friends, the money to be spent ondinners served in different restaurants,'and at each meal a certain dish to beeaten, and a certain wine, of which he•was very fond, to be drunk. Further-more, his memory was to be toasted at.dessert, the five companions were todine in black clothes and gloves, andenter the room preceded by a flag andthe music of an accordion.

DANGERS WE MAY EXPECT FROM TRADE WITH ORIENTBY SENATOR TELLER, Of Colorado.

for many years Senator Teller has roade a study of Asiatic countries and the relation of the silver standard to commercial conditions there. Recently he has considered the possible development ofChina under the apportionment among the great nations which Is threatening- Instead of thlnKlng that we are to benefit by the opening of Chinese njarKets to the trad« of the world Mr. Teller balleves that It

would bave been better for us Ifwe had left China Inher Isolation.

THEopening up of China has

been a good thing for us up tothis time, but Ilook for a devel-opment there which may revolu-tionize the manufacturing in-

dustries of the world. What we shouldhave done recently, Ibelieve, was tosay to Russia, "Let China alone. Hermillions of people are content and theworld has nothing to gain by changing

their condition." What willhappen toChina now,Ithink, is that Russia willstep In and get control there and Rus-sianize the Chinese.

Look at the history of Russia andyou will see that she has Russianizedevery nation she has conquered. Shefought the Cossacks for fifty years-fought them fiercely

—but to-day the

Cossacks are Russians. She Russian-ized them in thirty years. The Govern-ment of China is not unlike the Gov-ernment of Russia. Although Russiais an autocracy, there is a democracyin her government, too. Russia is di-vided into provinces and every one ofher cities has home rule and freedomexcept in matters which affect the na-tional Government.

China Is much the same. She has a

central government, which is autocrat-ic, but each of her provinces is self-governing. IfRussia gets control ofChina, as Ibelieve she will,it may bethat she willRussianize the people andshow them how to develop their re-sources in a very few years. Ifshe doesnot it may be 100 or 200 years before,they become competitors of ours.

When the development of China be-gins we shall have to look to our tradein manufactured goods. Ibelieve thatthe trade of the Pacific is going to begreater than the. trade of the Atlantic.Humboldt predicted that, basing hisbelief on the enormous populationthere and its possible development.The millions of Asiatics are going totake agricultural products from vs

—i flour and other products

—which repre-

sent the greatest amount of toil. Thatof course is our most important export

Iinterest now.Of our great exports last year, 71 per

Icent were agricultural. But when it!comes to manufactured goods the Ohi-'nese are not only going to supp'y theirown needs but they are go\nu; to sendtheir products toi our Pacific Coastmarkets in competition with the prod-ucts of the mills of New En#and. IfJapan had not gone to the gold stand-ard her exports to-day would be a

menace to New England's trade on thePacific Coast.Ibelieve that in another decade Apia

.will be doing- most of the manufactur-ing fur th" world. Both the Chinefeand the Japanese are deft people. Theyare not inventive, but they are imita-tive, and the progress they have madein manufacturing is wonderful. Theycan live and thrive on wages that meanstarvation and death to an Americanor European laborer. Iwas talkingsome time ago with a missionary whohad just returned from a six years'stay in China. He told me that itwould not be possible for one who hadnot seen them to realize the progressthat the Chinese had made in manu-facturing.

For a little time longer their conser-vatism will keep out foreign machin-ery perhaps. But the war with Japanmade a great awakening in China. Thismissionary tells me that the presentChinese dynasty is doomed. The peo-ple see that ithas deceived them and itis tottering to its fall. With the inau-guration of a new rule changes willcome. The Chinese are a people of finebusiness ability. Not the river Chinesewhom we know, but the Chinese of theInterior. Thlß missionary, who had beento the interior, told me that they werea fine business race, having splendid

talents in that direction. In fact, he

says j/tiat the most successful businessenterprises in Japan have Chinese attheir head. He says that there is thedifference between the~Chinese and theJapanese that there is between theScotchman and the Parisian. The Par-isian is a dapper fellow, all courtesyand smiles; the Scotchman is a hard-headed, practical man. So the Chineseare the superiors of the Japanese asmen of affairs.

With the building of the Nicaraguacanal rates from the Atlantic to thePacific will be cheapened to our manu-facturers, and the Nicaragua canal isgoing to be built. But Idon't knowthat it will be an unmixed blessing. IfChina's manufactures are to be a com-petitor of all the manufacturing coun-tries of the world the canal will be anoutlet for her products to our Atlanticcoast and to European markets, as wellas a route for sending the products ofEuropean and New England States toAsia.

China has to-day in abundance every-thing that human needs could demand.The Chinese have iron, they have cop-per, they have more coal than anyother country In the world, except, per-haps, our own. They have 400,000square miles of coal fields of extraor-dinary richness. They have nevermined it much because they have no

(000000000000000000

need for it. But when manufacturingtakes a hold in China they will havethis coal supply close at hand and avast army of cheap laborers to do theirwork. Ifthe Chinese themselves willnot undertake to do manufacturing, thecapitalists of America and England andGermany will introduce it. How longwould it take you to raise $1,000,-000 fora manufacturing enterprise in Chinaamong the capitalists of New York Ifyou could demonstrate that they couldmake 20 or 30 per cent on their money?There is no feeling of patriotism whichwould keep the American capitalistfrom going into anything which prom-*ised a profit. Ifound in Mexico, whenIwas there some years ago, that |700,-000 of the $3,000,000 invested in a cottonmill had been put in by a resident ofNew York. Machine shops in Montereyand other places in Mexico have takenaway from Denver the trade in min-ingmachinery which we had with Mex-ico for so long a time.

Mexico is now manufacturing all herown cotton goods, and she is manufac-turing furniture and other things forhome consumption. Iwas in one of hercotton mills. Itis the most complete,if not the largest mill in Mexico. Allof the work is done right there, begin-ning with the manufacture of the pat-terns.

OCCUPATIONS"OF AMERICANS.

Interesting data about the occupa-tions of the American people is given inthe bulletin of the eleventh census re-cently made public. Itshows that thetotal number of people engaged in oc-cupations of all kinds in 1890 was 22,-735,961. Of the whole number of work-ing people the females form 17.22 per

cent: Divided by classes the *vorkingpeople of the country are as followg:Agriculture, fisheries and mining, 9,013,-336; professional, 944,333; domestic andpersonal service, 4,360,577; trade andtransportation, 3,326,122; manufactur-ing, and mechanical industries, 5,081,293.Considerably more than four-fifths ofthe illiterate male population of thecountry and over one-fourth of the il-literate female population are working.

Over 59 per cent of the workingmenare married, over 27 per cent single,over 3 per cent widowed and one-quar-ter of 1 per cent divorced. In manu-factures and mechanics the carpentersand joiners, numbering 611,482, make upthe greatest element, with dressmakersand milliners following with 499,690.There are a little over 1,000,000 book-keepers, clerks and salesmen, 690,658merchants and dealers, 5,281,557 farm-ers, planters and overseers, and 3.004,061agricultural laboreYs, 349,592 miners andonly a little over 60,000 fishermen andoystermen. Professors and teachers,aggregating 347,344, form the moatnumerous of the professional classes.Physicians and surgeons, 104,805, comenext; then lawyers, 89,630; clergymen,88,203; Government officials, 79,664;musicians, etc.. 62,155; engineers andsurveyors, 43,239; artists and art teachera, 22,496; journalists, 21,849, and «ctors, 9728.

18 THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, SUNDAY, AUGUST 14, 1898.