Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1852-11-06


scrptures there is much in the appearance and mode
life to attract attention and enlist the sympathy Of tn
stranger Dirt and disease go revolngy together here
gaunt famine stalks through the streets constant moal
suffering swells upon the dead air. and sin broods dark
the ruin it has wrought in that gloomy and atet
spot Wasted forms sit in the doorwaysj faces
with white scales and sghtess eyes turned upward
skeleton arms distorted and footed with the rayages
eprosy reoutsretched from the foul moving mass and
a low howl is heard the howl Of the stricken for aims
aims oh srasger for the love Of God aims to feed the
memorable destroyer Aims to proong this drsary and
hopeless misery! Look epon it, stranger you who walk
forth in all your pride and strength aad breathe the fresh
air of heaven you who have known what is be
stunned by your feow-man thing unclean and ac-
cursed you who dsem yourself unblest with all the bless
ngs that God has given you upon earth look upoa it
and learn that there misery upon oil that you have
conceived in your goomiest hours-a misery that CON
still be endured Learn that the Leper, with death
gnaVng at his vta and unceang fortunes in his blood
from the society Of his fellow forbidden to
touch in friendship affection the hand Of the untained
still struggles for life and deems each hour precious that
/ keeps him from the grave
The quarter of the Lepers sadand impressive place
by the laws Of the land which have existed from scrip
tural times they isolated from all actual contact with
their fellow men yet there to- be prohibition
by the roadside Near the gate of zion the way
Bethlehem, saw many OF them sitting the rocks,
their hdeous faces uncovered hrustng forth their scay
hands for aims. Their huts rudsly constructed of
earth and stones seldom with than apartment
and this filthy and loathsome that it seemed unfit to
be occuped by swine Here they live and propagate,
whole families together, without distinction Of SEX and
their dreadful malady perpetuated from generation to
generation and the groans Of the aged and the dying
mingled with the feeble wall Of the young that brought
forth branded for life of misery Strange and mourn
full thoughts arise, in the contemplation of the sad
dition and probable destiny Of these Inflated beings
Among many, there must be in whose breasts
the power Of true love is implanted love for
purest sense for offspring for all the endearments of do
nestle life which the untainted capable of feeling;
yet doomed exercise the affections without per-
peuating the curse; too in whom there hidden
powers Of mind, unknown to themselves; ambition
that eerrodes with unavaing ASPIRATIONS thirst for
ton that burns within INCREASINGLY yet can be
suaged all the ruling passions that are implanted in man
for great and noble purposes, never to give ono
moments pleasure unmixed with the perpetual gloom Of
that curse which dwells in their blood.
As plodded my way for the last time through hisden
of sickening sights, vision of human misery i'm
pressed upon my mind that time cannot eace passed
when the rays Of the cold and the light was
men, gaunt with famine and they barred their hideous
bodies, and howled like beasts; and held out
cir oathsome and accursed babes, and away the
rags that covered them, and pointing to the shapeess
mass, shrieked for aims. All disease and sin and
sorrow wherever went and passed on, unable to
relieve thousandth part of the misery of despair
and bowling followed me, and Lepers crawed back
into their novels rot in their filth and die when God
willed.
THE HOLY sEPULCHRE.
The resident population Of Jerusalem is about
teen thousand consisting chiefly of Turks Armenians
Arabs Greeks, Italians and Jews of all nations. 1t is
estimated that the average number of pilgrims who visit
tbs Holy City every year is about fifteen thousand On
particular the influx of strangers is of course
much greater Sometimes, when the accommodations of
the city are insufficient for many pilgrims, encamp
ments formed outside the walls and many find shell
ter in the Converts of Bethlehem and st. Saba The
uncertain tenure upon which holds its right
worship in Jerusalem the mingled severity and laxty of
the Turkish laws the anatical zeal with which oil the
sects inspired and the bgocd hatred that exists be-
tween them, give rise to perpetual hostility Of feeling
and often to sanguinary euds 1t is deplorable and
anchoy to how proaned the precepts of Him who
preached peace and good will towards all men in this very
spot; whose voice still fingers upon Zion and the Mount
of Olives; to witness in their worst form envy hatred
and malice pracsed in His name, and the outward
ship Of God where sin and wickedness reign triumphant
Perhaps upon the whole face of the globe there could
be found spot less holy than modern Jerusalem. All
the fierce bad passions that drive crime let
loose here in the struggle for Immortality all the better
traits Of human nature buried in fanacism all the
teachings Of wisdom and humanity violated in bru
tish battle for spiritual pre-eminence.
In the Holy Sepuchre the hatred between the sects is
fierce and undyng The Greek and Roman Catholics the
COpts Armenans, and Marontes have each share in it,
which they hold by suerance of the Turkish Govern
ment but this union Of propretorshp instead Of pro-
ducing corresponding unity Of feeling occasions bitter
and constant hostility The Greeks and Romans who
the largest sects and in sort rivals hate each
other with ferocity unparalleled in the annals of
gous intolerance The less influential sects hate the
others because of their power and repeated aggresson
the so-called Frank Catholics hate the Copt and Arme
mans, whom they regard interlopers without
each other for real imaginary cause and each
INDUCES in the segloricaon of believing itself to be
the only sect that find favor in the eyes Of the Creator
Such is the bitterness Of this sectional hostility that for
many years past has been impossible to keep the build
ing in state of repair The roof is dapidated and the
rain pours in through the windows yet so il remains
The Latns viii not permit the Greeks to undertake the
necessary repairs, lest the should give an inn
piled ascendency Of power the Greeks refuse give the
Lans permission for the the Copts and Ar
menans feeble to contend with the more powerful
any liberty which they do not already hold in despite Of