The Washington critic., 1888-03-03
that purpose. He then introduced
orp grD.RooNs


orH BED.RooNs,
which led of the courtyard, and
which served to bring foroibly to re-
membrance "TIenry Tvs" Soliloquy
on Sleep.
l fancy that Shakespeare, Just before
writing the lines Upon uneasy pal
lets stretching thee, and hushed by
buzzing night-flies to thy slumber,"
must have seen some such sleeping
places as these, or he could never have
so accurately hit upon the words.
Here were the pallets sure enough
three in q room-veritable, unadul-
terated shakedowns, covered with
horse-cloths. Uneasy2 Well, / sim
cerely hope my chances for berth in
the better land are as safe as they
were uneasy. Not paltry cockroach
or two kept watch and ward over those
blessed pallets. Mo- but O whole army
did. When we entered, a general re-
view was in progress; the march past
had begun. The chances for buzz
zing NIGHTLY treat seemed particu-
larly favorable, Notwithstanding that
the pragmatical manager had caused
several snares, in the shape of paper,
coated with q sticky substance, to be
laid on the beds for the purpose of en-
trapping the unsuspecting creatures.
No tawdry furniture, nor indeed
furniture Of any description, gar
nished these apartments; they we're
just plain and unpretending. Their
floors, thank goodness, were wooden,
and the pallets were laid on them at
nice intervals. Their walls were
whitewashed, but were relieved some
what on their lower parts by blotches
of gore, whether human or insect the
reader can most likely guess. After
bidding us make ourselves perfectly
at home, the manager left us, and we,
after commenting upon the modest
and unassuming air that pervaded the
whole establishment, proceeded to
take wash out of the old basins.
THERE WAS ONE TOWEL,
but it looked as if it had performed
service as dishcloth, so we used our
pocket handkerchiefs instead. We
now resolved to rest ourselves for q
few hours at least, but Fate had willed
it differently, for many minutes had
not elapsed before we were besieged
by q throng of bowling Arabs,
and heaven knows what other
nationality, who We'd with each other
in their efforts to tear us apart. Some
wanted to shave us, others to black
our shoes, others to tattoo the heraldic
arms of Jerusalem on our bodies,
others to sell colored eyeglasses,
beads, crucifixes, crowns Of thorns,
ETC., and last, but by no means least,
diminutive men with withered and
shrunken up arms showed them in
our faces and yelled aloud for "back-
sheesh."
BREAKFAST.
The absolute impossibility of OBJ
tanning rest becoming more and more
apparent as time wore on, we re-
quested the little manager to furnish
our breakfast at once, intending, after
satisfying our appetites, to commence
sightseeing as the only means of es-
Gaping the present annoyance.
A sorer time was, however, yet in
store for us. Apart from the presence
of the peddlers and cripples, who still
hung to us and kept up an unceasing
clamor, the table at which we sat,
owing to the uneven surface of the
stone floor, which looked as if some
one had been practicing on it with a
pick-ax, jumped about like donkey
on gallop every time one leaned on
it. The spout of our coffee-pot
amused itself by becoming stopped up
whenever we wished to use it. Our
eggs were scarce half cooked, the beef
was tough, and the knives were as
blunt as so many pieces of hoop-iron.
Added to this, the heat Of the room
was excessive, and, altogether, / think
we might justly have asserted that we
were realizing in an intense degree the
difference between a Jerusalem and
an American hotel, not to mention
the testing of the axiom: "There's no
place like home"
Having worried through our break
fast we left the hotel and steered a
course calculated to reach the bazaar, a
place at which could be procured
many articles we stood in need of.
Our experiences in the thorough
fares of the Holy City before reaching
the bazaar and afterwards our impress
sions of Oriental enterprise in the
matter of buying and selling, as illus
trated in that Institution, will form
the subject of future communication