John Milton Binckley, June 1859 Travel Diary, Page 21

[John Milton Binckley, June 1859 Travel Diary, page 21. Many thanks to William Myers, Mary Davy, Sally Young and Sue Davis for their ongoing research collaboration; specifically to William for providing scans of the original document, and in turn many thanks to Peter Johnston Binckley and Patricia D'Arcy "Trish" Binckley (1951-2007), at the source. This is my rough transcription. Extra paragraph breaks inserted for easier reading.]

[continued] fopperies of the French come out. But let us go to other times. Suppose a street in Talmor in the Desert (Palmyra). The magnificent Solomon has come to behold a work of his subjects, and walks with a thousand mighty men of old in solemn procession down some vast avenue. His royal smile is on the noble work, and ten thousand harps proclaim the general joy and tune the public ear to granduer of that wonderful Prince, the builder of the Temple, the lover, the . . ., the sage and the warrior.

The majestic priesthood bearing the symbols of the One Great God, unabashed in the dread presence of the majestic Solomon, bid him worship his people, and lay all his splendors in the dust before the Mysterious Shrine.

Or let Grand Old Bagdad [Baghdad] open up before the vacant fancy. The illustrious Mohammedan sage and king, Haroun Alrachid [Harun al-Rashid], the Solomon of the Ishmaelites, is in his morning Justice seat and hears with fatherly interest the tale of the two meanest, and condemns not even the "dog Christian" without permitting him to approach the [to be continued.]

[John Milton Binckley (1831-1878).]