The Canton advocate. [volume] (Canton, D.T. [S.D.]) 1877-1897, 1878-04-16
GRANT IN JERUSALEM.

GRANT IN JERUSALEM.
How the Ex.President was Welcomed
---Relics of the CrucihxiOn.
J. Russell Young's Letter to the N. Y. HerAl.
= n The valley passes away. We
ride about mile through suburb, the
highway lined with people. The general
passes on, with barred head, for on both
sides the assembled multitude do him
honor. We see through the mist the
mass of domes and towers, and the heart
beats quickly, for we know they are the
domes and towers of Jerusalem. There
are ranks of soldiers drawn in line, the
soldiers presenting arms, The band play
ing, the colors falling. We passed
through narrow gate, the gate that
Tancrcd forced with his crusaders. We
pass under the walls of the tower of
David, and the flag that floats from the
pole on the consulate tells us that our
journey is at an end, and that we are
within the walls of Jerusalem.
We set out in the afternoon to walk
over the sacred places, and our first walk
was along the Via Dolorosa. Some of
us had stolen away in the morning be-
fore the ceremonies began, to walk over
the street consecrated to Christianity, as
the street over which Jesus Christ car
ried His Cross. am living within five
minutes walk of Calvary. l look at it
in the morning from the terrace near my
chamber door-a fair rounded dome,
high in the air, covering the spot upon
which our Savior suffered.
We pass from our hotel on Mount
Zion through a narrow, dingy street,
paved with Jagged cobble-stones. We
make our way with some difficulty. We
stumble and slide rather than walk. We
pass beggars who cry for aims, workmen
at various industries, merchants selling
their wares, camels and asses and beasts
OF burden. We turn into covered way,
and slide and stumble along, and we are
on the Via Dolorosa. The first place
pointed out is the Coptie Monastery.
Here Christ sank under the weight of
the cross. We are going down the hill
which He assembled. We come to the
ruins of the Hospice of the Knight of St.
John. Here is where Jesus addressed
the women who followed him.
We wind around the corner and fol-
low the narrow, slippery way. Here we
are at the house where Jesus fell for the
second time. A few steps further, and
we are at the house and tomb of Veronica,
who wiped the blood from His holy
brow and left His image OH her napkin kin
We descend a slippery path, and at the
corner is the house against which Christ
leaned, overcome by agony. You see a
dent in the stone. This dent was made
by the hand Of our Lord as he stretched
it out to support His burden. 1t is
smooth and dark with the kisses of mil
lions of believing lips.
The next house is that of Dives, the
rich man. At this corner Simon of
Cyrene took the cross and carried it a
part of the way for which good deed, his
name became immortal. In front of the
house of Dives is stone, and over it a
howell. The howell was the house of the
beggar, the stone is where he sat in quest
of aims, and under this archway where
we now stand and look at the rich mans
house, Jesus stood and pronounced the
parable which you will find in the six
teenth chapter of Luke.
Here the road makes another bend and
we pass broken column that must at
one time have been stately ornament
The column broke where Jesus sank
upon it, and the fssure is clear and deep
We 60 on until we come to church, a
bright new church, with an arch over.
hanging the street. This is the church
Of Ecce Homo.
1t was here or hereabouts that the road
to the cross began. There is barracks
on the site of Pilates judgment hall.
We 20 into the church, sweet faced sis
ter opening the way. Behind the altar
is an arch, and under this arch Plate
stood when he delivered over Jesus to
the Jews and washed his hands of inno-
cent blood.
Here, in an enclosure, was the whip
ping, the browning with thorns, the
decoration with the purple robes, and
here, also, Jesus took up the cross which
He carried to Calvary.
We can readily see as we retrace our
way up the Via Dolorosa that it must
have been a rough and weary road to
one rent and torn and bleeding and
crushed under the cruel burden of the
cross. Even to us-free as we arc-way-
farers, in full possession of our faculties,
it is tedious task to climb the hill of
Calvary.
We descended the hill and assembled it
again before we found ourselves in the
company of the general, and Mrs. Grant
was vouchsafed the dispensation of a
donkey, and we all followed after on
foot. When we finished the Via DO.
lorosa we kept on outside the gates and
over the valley Of Jehoshaphat. The
brook below is the brook Kedron, of
which it is written that Jesus, on the
night before his betrayal, event forth
with his disciples over the brook Kedron,
where there was a garden, to which he
entered, and his disciples" This is writ.
ten on the eighteenth chapter of John
and we cross the very brook hallowed by
His holy and sorrowful footsteps. We
ascend the hill short distance and
come to walled garden. A monk opens
the gate and we descend. The garden
blooms with flowers. The paths are
neatly swept. Around the walls are the
pictures by which the Catholic represents
the way to the cross. Over the flower
beds droop, cluster of olive trees
ancient and gnarled and bending 1t il
not difficult to believe, knowing what We
do know about trees in California, thai
these are twenty centuries old. The
general says he does not doubt it, ever
from the random evidence of his owr
eye. Under this tree Jesus Christ knel
and prayed aud made holy forever the
garden of Gethsemane. We looked at
l IL IL j I