The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1872-12-07


his head, the sultan being determined the
experiment should not be repeated. The
recent explorations Of English engineers,
besides mapping out the whole area be-
longing to the ancient Court Of the Gen
tiles-an area of one thousand by fifteen
hundred feet-have proved all that was
conjectured about the antiquity Of the
beyeled stones forming the outer wall.
They certainly 90 back to Solomon, and
remarkable stone-work for that early day,
though far inferior to the Egyptian mas
terpieces, where thousands Of artisans spent
their lives in decorating u single tomb
1t is not necessary to tell thrice-told
tale in describing III Kuds." Recent
investigations have opened the ancient
quarries running under the city which sup
piled Solomon and Herod with stone; the
actual shape of the old Jerusalem houses
has been verified; the foundation of the
bridge leading from Mount Moriah to
Mount Zion has been dug open; Solomon'sI
aqueducts have been traced, one Of which
still furnishes water to the Omar mosque
and the governors house. Miss Burdett
Coutts, learning the falsity of the common
story about the abundance Of water in the
Holy City, offered to introduce a supply at
her own cost; but, though the chief depen-
dencc of the city is now upon ancient,
moss-grown, filthy, odorous cisterns, fed
from roofs that have not been cleansed for
centuries, and sometimes tainted by the
sewers, the Turkish rulers have rejected
the noble charity, and decreed the death
of hundreds of children during the sickly
months, rather than have the jew quarter
enjoy as many privileges as the Moslem,
Outside the walls is Siloas fount, but its
distance would cut off the feeble from this
uniailing supply. Such dog-in-the-manger
policy is characteristic Of Turkey, and will
continue to be its emblem so long as its
dying candle finds no extinguisher.
The explanation of the compact condi-
ton of Jerusalem, shut in by battlemented
walls, is that exposure to Bedouin assault
which keeps all Palestine on perpetual
guard, suffers no man to plough his field
unarmed, and forbids entirely that strag-
Cling life which marks peaceful villages
in America. Except the eave-dwellers in
Sloan, who are too poor to be robbed and
too filthy to be visited, nobody sleeps out
side of the city; the gates are guarded all
day and locked at sundown The present
walls were erected by Selim, the conqueror
of Egypt, and, though no defence against
modern artillery, defy any Arab assault
A very sad sight is daily witnessed just
as you enter the Jaffa gate On either
side stands row of the most wretcbed
beggars in existence, who used to cry m,-
clean HcLedH! as warning for people
to keep their distance; who were in the
time of Moses, and now, believed to be
smitten of God who were then, as now
outcasts from society, and condemned, as
everybody believed, to drop piecemeal into
the grave. Just as in old time, these for
lorn creatures resort TO no means of cure
are not even cleanly, herd together in poor
huts, marry and are given in marriage, and
of course perpetuate the scrofulous disease
which fortunately burns itselfout in fifteen
years. A terrible curse, but by no means
ineradicable could they be made hopeful
and be kept washed; but this idea of its
being judgment from Heaven settles the
matter. 1t is their doom; they will make
no effort to throw it off
A still sadder sight is the Jews wailing-
place, where every Friday at noon a group
Of old men, women and children gather to
repeat the penitential psalms, mourn over
the lost estate of Israel, cry, o God, hoio
long? and beat their heads against those
dumb stones which it was foretold should
not remain one upon another. The little
people, l thought, were children, after all,
but the gray boards had something majes-
tic in their despair, and some of the wo-
men wept profusely. | did not need to
ask if they were sincere when knew that
every contract among them for the letting
of room stipulates, "or until the coming
of Messias when | remember, too, that
this expectation of national Redeemer
has preserved their national unity without
a country, without home without lead
er, without temple.
In Jerusalem, as in Rome and elsewhere,
the Jews are shut up in separate quarter,
and that the meanest, darkest, filthiest.
One twilight | came unexpectedly into
their settlement. 1t was mud lane, lined
with novels, through which funeral pro
cession was slowly moving, the body borne
ON mems shoulders in the dress of life, a
perfect tatterdemalion crew wailing as they
followed, Coming to the Land of Promise
to die, many of them are robbed on the
way, and all are preyed upon after they ar
rive; so that | apprehend, nothing is NOR,
real about them than their wretchedness
They have no consuls to interfere when
tax is exacted the second time in the sam,
year. If injured they must suffer in ST
lence; if plundered by Arabs, they cal
: have no hope of recovery. Only conver
sion would make them outwardly comfort
} able, and that they hate as perdition. Gen
erous help is constantly sent them from
abroad, but none too much, though tn
amusing story is told of Sir Moses Monte
fore having spent all his money in aims a
J Jerusalem, and being obliged to borrow a
suta...at g..