Gold Hill daily news. [volume] (Gold Hill, N.T. [Nev.]) 1863-1882, 1868-01-29
MARK TWAIN IN THE HOLY
LAND.

LAND.
There is considerable dry humor in
some of Mark Twain's letters from the
Holy Land, which he has been writing
to tho Ala. We extract the following
short sketch from the last II published
in the Alto Of Saturday:
Magdala is not a beautiful place. 1t
is thoroughly Syrian, and that is to say
that it is thoroughly ugly, and cr"mped,
soualid, uncomfortable and hlthy-Just
the style of cities that have adorned
Palestine since Jacobs time, MS all wri.
tiers have labored hard to prove, and
have succeeded. The streets Of Mag
dala are anywhere from three to SIX
feet wide, and are reeking with I'M
cleanliness. The houses are from hive
to seven feet high, and all built upon
one arbitrary plau-the ungracctul form
Of u dry-goods box. :,
As we rode into Magdala not O soul
was visible. But the ring Of the
horses hoofs reused the stupid popula-
ton, and they all came trooping out
| old men and old women, boys and girls,
the blind, the crazy and the crippled,
all in ragged, soiled and scanty rail-
meut, and all abjcct beggars by nature,
instinct and education. How the YER
min-tortured vagabonds did swarm !
| How they showed their scars and sores,
and ~piteously pointed to their manned
and crooked limbs, and begged with
their pleading eyes for charity! We
had invoked o spirit We could not lay.
They hung to the horses tails, chung to
their names and tho stirups, closed in
on every side in scorn Of dangerous
hoofs-and out Of their infidcl throats
with one accord, burst IN agonizing
and most internal chorus: "Howajji,
bucksheesh! howajji, bucksheesh! buck.
sheesh! b~ucksheesh! b~ucksheosh!
never was in q storm like that before.
MARY M%AaDALESE's HOUSE.
As we paid the bucksheesh out to
sore-eyed children and brown, buxom
girls with repulsively tattered lips and
| chins, we filed through the town and
BY many an exquisite fresco by some I'M
sung Syrian Vernet, till we came to n
bramble-infested Enclosure and a Roman
looking ruin which vas the veritable
dwelling of St. Mary Magdalcne, the
friend and follower Of Jesus. The
guide believed it, and so did /. could
not we'll do otherwise, with the house
right there before my eyes as plain rs
day. The pilgrims took down portions
of the front wall for specimens, rs is
their honored custom, and then we
departed. There was nothing else in
Magdala to see-nothing else save
treasures of art. We had no cata-
logus. We journeyed on.
I'VE are camped in this place, now,
Just within the city walls Of Tiberias.
We went into the town before nightfall
and looked at its pcople-wc cared
nothing about its houses. Its people
arc best examined at n distance. They
are greasy Jews, Arabs and negroes.
Squalor and poverty are the pride Of
Tibcrias. The young m wear their
dover strung upon q strong wire thai
curves downward from the top Of the
head to the lower jaw-Turkish silver
coins that they have raked together OF
inherited. Most of these maidens were
not wealthy, but some few had been
very kindly dealt with by fortune.
saw heiresses there worth, in their own
right-worth, well, l suppose I nigh,
venture to say, as much as nine dollars
and q half. But such cases are rare
When you como across one Of these,
she naturally puts on airs. She won't
ask for bu~ckshecsh. She won't even
permit of undue familiarity. She
throws herself on her dignity and goes
on serenely prospecting with hor fine
tooth comb and quoting poetry just the
same rs if you werc not present at all,
Some people can't stand prosperity.
They say that the long-nosed, lanky,
dyspeptic looking body-snatchers, with
the indescribable hats on, and u long
curl dangling down in front of each ear,
are the old, regular, self-righteous
Pharisees we read Of in the Scriptures,
Verify, they look it. Judging merely
by their general gait, and without Other
evidence, one might easily suspect tina,
self-righteousness was their strongest
suit.
From various authorities I have cullcd
information concerning Tibcrias. II
was built by Herod Antipes, the muir.
derer of John the Baptist, and named
after the Emperor Liberals. 1t is be.
lieved that it stands upon the site Of
what must have been, ages ago, q city
of considerable architectural prcten-
sions, judging by the fine porphyry
pillars that are scattered through ii.
berias and down the lake shore south.
ward. These were fluted, once, and
yet, although the stone is about as bard
as iron, the fittings are almost worn
away. This modern town-Tiberias-
is only mentioned in the New Tesla.
ment; never in the Old.
The Sanhedrim met hero last, and for
three hundred years it was the metrop.
oils Of the Jews in Palestine. 1t is one
Of the four holy cities of the Israelites,
and is to them what Mecca is to the
Mohammedan and Jerusalem to the
Christian. It has been the abiding
place Of many learned and famous Jew.
ish rabbis. They lie buried here and
near them lie also 5000 Of their faith,
who travelled far to DO with them while
they lived and lie with them when they
died. The great Rabbi Ben Israel spen,
three years here in the early part of the
third century. He is dead, now.
vIrginia-Stormy Sccne In the State Con-
vention.
from the New York Herald Jan. l0.l
RICHMOND, Jan. 9.-Quite u stormy
scene took place in the Convention to.