The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1877-03-17
THE HOLY LAND.

II is an nOur anu twenty minutes ride
due south over a stony road in an uneasy
saddle on horseback. You quit the Jatfa
gate full of enthusiasm. The morning
air is sweet and fresh; flowers bloom by
the wayside; lizards slide over the stone
walls that hem in great olive orchards
on either side. Sober Syrians greet you
with dignity as they pass on theil
way to the Holy City. An Arab
with a baboon in his arms halts in the
road as you approach him and pipes
Justify upon rude flute. The baboon
tumbles over and over in the dust, and
utters sharp cries, half in fear and half
in fun. You toss one of the clumsy
copper coins of the country, bear
ing the monogram of the Sultan, to
this vagabond crew, and 60 your way
rejoicing. Monasteries dot the hill tops,
each one of which has it's shrine, its
legend, its special grace in the eyes of
Greek, Latin, or Armenian. There is
the house of Simeon, mentioned in Luke
Xi. 25; there the well of the Magi, over
which the star stood; here is the mon
astery of Mar Elias, the site of which
is associated with the prophet Elijah.
Close at hand is well where the holy
family quenched their thirst, and here is
the field of peas. Christ asked the hus-
bandman what he was sowing. "Stones, y
replied the humorous fellow, and 10,
when the peas came to be gathered they
were as hard as bullets, and some of them
lie in the field to this day.
At a fork in the road, where the path
DIVORCES to Hebron and the Pools of
Sloan, stands small domed building
that closely resembles a shiek's tomb.
Here Mohammedan, Christian and Jew
meet to pay common reverence-if rever-
enCe it may be called which allows a
shrine to be scored with insignificant
names and left desolate on the bleak
hilltop. Three thousand five hundred
years ago caravan was stayed in the
midst OF the journey because Rachel, the
younger and fairer wife of Jacob, was
seized with birth pangs. And Rachel
died and was buried on the way to
Ephrath, which is Bethlehem; and Jacob
set pillar upon her grave; that is the
pillar of Rachels grave unto this day"
We are also on the way to Ephrath,
which is Bethlehem; let US hence! Over
hill, stony and bleak, we see from the
ridge of it valley, titled and terraced
to the very summit of its high steep
walls. There the olive and the vine
flourish; corn waves in the wind; fiocks
feed upon the sunny slopes, where the
youthful shepherds pipe like Pan upon
rustic reeds fashioned by their own fin
gers. Upon the edge of this valley hangs
q village, with massive walls and few
towers lifted up against the soft spring
sky. The one highway leads to massive
gateway and disappears in the narrow
streets of the town.
This is Bethlehem, "the fruitful, -
whose people had of yore their corn
fields, vineyards, flocks, and cheese of
their own NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.. under
whose walls Ruth lived and loved, and
made a poem of herself; the home of
David and Jacob, and Asahel and Abb
shall; the town that was fortified by Re-
hoboam and restored by Justinian, and
has again and again fought and bled and
died. as most of the towns on this side
the water have, and this it will probably
continue to do so long as it is thought
worth visiting by tickle and forgetful
world. Down in that valley where now
the shepherds pipe to their tlocks, those
other shepherds, did the same sort of
thing in the self-same costumes, and list.
ened to the chant of the iubilant stars
when the Blessed Babe lay in the manager
at the other end of the town Every
man sees apeculiar beauty in the women
of Bethlehem-every man save myself
but barring the bluer eyes and paler skin
l see no choice between the women here
and women all over Syria.
OF course your carpenter is a specially
in Bethlehem; he knows it, and poses
Just the least little bit in the world: not
that he cares over much for st. Joseph,
or the Blessed Virgin or the Babe in the
Manger-he has got used to the shrines
and dismissed them from his mind long
ago-but because we all look at him
with such eyes as we ride slowly through
the unkempt streets on our way to the
cradle in the rock, as much as to say
Did he look like this when he sat al
home in peace, and waited the coming
glory Of her child?' That is how yor
get into Bethlehem, between shops full
of palmers' shells and all the trinkets OF
travel, with shopmen plucking you by
the skirts and underselling their fellows
and with one man at least who promise.
to tattoo your arm in memory of Bethle
hem or Jerusalem, on the spot or at you
residence The great Church of St
Mary, divided into three among thu
Greeks, Latins and Armenians, stands il
ha alf Of hn :
like a fortress; little door admits vol
unwillingly-the place has been besiegeC
too often to think of wideningits thrcsh
old for the love of God. Didn't tht
Turks once mold its leaden roof int
bullets with which they drove the Chris
tians out of the town? Within all il
tinsel and tumult. You grope down
stairs into the crypt and find it close anC
hot and unnatural. Golden lamps, ala
baster Manager, silken and velvet hang