The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1881-12-23
CHRISTMAS
THE STAR IN THE EASTl
" THE LIGHT THAT sHoNE WHEN CHRIST
WAS BORN WHAT BETHLEHEM Is
To-DAY-sCENEs OF THE sA-
vIoURs BIRTHPLACE


yIoUR's BIRTHPLACE
The distance fromJerusalem toBethlehem
| Is but half dozen miles. We proposed to
! go to and from it in a morning. Our vehicle
and female French driver were retained for
the purpose. Although the road was rough
and stony, and the streets narrow, we risk
ed the carriage and ignored the donkey on
the pledge of the guide. The sequel show
| ed that there was some risk, as many of the
streets were impossible for a carriage.
We leave the Jaffa gate and under the up-
per aqueduct and over the upper part of Gil
hon, and then drive nearly due south. The
bed of the Kidron, in the deep valley on our
left, puTsues its empty way TO the Dead Sea,
while on our right and to the west, along the
horizon. in broken and gray masses lie the
mountains Of Judah, shutting out the Medi-
! terranean. One lonely person we meet amid
the unaccustOmed path between the stone
walls before we reach the direct way to Beth
lehem. He wears a stove-pipe hat. It's
stra ageness and awkwardness in this land of
robe, fez, and turban creates smile. When
we reach the main road and leave the chill
of evil COUNSEL on our left, we find the way
filed with laden camels. Under the lash of
the guide these gave the way, and with con-
siderable malice both they and their drivers
tumble and tumble about awkwardly amid
the rubble OF the road. !The olives are thick,
perforated. and old, in the fields, within the
( stone walls.
"Where," !" we ask of the guide edo they
I get so much stone for the walls ?" They are
ten feet wide, and three high, and. like the
| Dutchman's wall CT the anecdote "when
they fan down they are higher than when
/ they stand ND -
'SWhv do you ask % says the guide, ''don' t
you see the fields are fall of stones 2"
"But no one could miss any stones out of
{ those feIde.'' We remarked.
ooh a few are left over" responded the
/ guide
How the hardy olive can find sustenance
! on such "stony ground" is a miracle.
! We are happy in a breezy day, which nit
I igates the fierceness of the sun. What a
/ crowd Of people now are upon the road 60
; ing to Bethlehem and Hebron and TO Beer
sheba, even to Rehebetb Nine out Of ten
Z of these are upon do3keys and camels and
( more than three-fOurths have their eyes sore
or shaded and these are Arabs whose suit
is sometimes gay in color, but generally of
]
of the dress of our penitentiaries, depend
ing in the face Of the wearer. They carry
/ the long Damascus gun and a plentiful
pouch, for the desert and danger Cactuses
( with their big stalks and leaves, furnish
/ some OF the hedges, and "tuIn" the animals
from the fields We meet some, who are
+ 5lue-eyed and good-eyed, in European dress.
These are the German colony, which here
/ thrives upon the old stony soil and makes it's
4 crops OF Crane and grain in their season, or
several crops in one season. Some herds of
I black and white cattle of Dutch breed are
/ seen picking up quiet rumination from the
brown heritage and the green leaves left on
/ the trees.
The land is not unlike the dress of the
( Arabs-brown and white. 1t is burut with
the sun of the now departing summer, and
white with the lime of many summers.
"Ah this is fue land p we say ironically
/ to the guide.
'GoUd land l guess it IS, responds ths
guide, who is from the state of Maine ',Or it
wouldn't hold up so many stones and rocks,
Good deal of heft about it,
/ But we notice that where water runs the
/ vineyards of the Germans appear, and the
walls have a trim look. Thrift. TeutOn I
/ thy name is thrift Old olive roots twisted
and as difficult to unravel as the pathological
roots Of our college days. appear on the backs
of mu,titudinous donkeys going up to the
city, while going from it, from the terraces,
on the heads Of blue-robed, tattooed Arab
females, are baskets Of mannre gathered in
Jerusalem. The plain of BaphIam IS spread
around US, two miles wide by three long.
Here David defeated the PhliistInes. and
many other associations cluster. Among
them the cave of Adulam has been verified
which another Samuel has described, and the
well of Bethlehem, (Which is by the gate, :"
for the water Of which David was athrst,
comes in for an explanation from our Bibli-
cal guide. These, however interesting, must
not draw us aside. We have passed the ira
ditiOnal tree where Judas hanged himself,
and the rural abode of Caaphas the High
/ Priest but these nebulP of tradition detrsct
/ not from the main oblecs-Bethlehem The
well of the maei, however, is one Of the in
( cidents of the main object. and pTettystory
/ is told of it, although it is not recorded in
the history of Matthew for did not the wise
men, after leaving the presence of Herod,
/ here stoop to draw water? Was it not here
/ that the reflection of the star which led them
was seen in the well? Then we pass the
/ Greek convent of Elijah, where other stories
are told, not now worth the repetition. But
from this point the cities of Bethlehem and
Jerusalem are visible-''twined in mutual
being" birth and death From this eminent
/ point, too, can be seen the sugar loaf noun
tain called the Tomb Of HerOd Itsis high
and round. 1t is the scene of massacre of
Franciscians but it sinks into nOthingness
as Herod did, compared with those he perse-
cuted, along with that dim vision, shining
hard and blush like steel twenty-five or
more miles away through avenues of black
and suubuIned mountains. That is the
I Dead Sea. This is our first glimpse of this
famous laboratory and sport of nature. Be-
/ low and around is something more attractive
/ to both eyes and memory. 1t is the field OF
Boaz and the scene of that sweet story of
/ love.
"Ruth and Luke I'' cried out the guide.
Ruth and Boaz, rather" l responded,
/ with pleasant thought, too, of Naomi, the
mother-in-Iaw, as we gaze with curious eyes
over the rolling bleak ald now dry fields
where the ever new, ever old, tale of female
devotion is located, Then Bethlehem ap-
pears more clearly. It's prominent object is
the Church of the Nativity within its semi
circle. On the right is The old Knight Tenn
plar's castle, now the house of the Austrian
consul. The landscape begins to show much
grape and olive. The square, solid houses