The Brookhaven leader., 1890-12-18


this city "tbe Eye OF the East" and
that the poets OF Syria have styled it
''the luster on the neck OF doves" and
historians said: 'It is the golden clasp
which couples the two sides of the world
together"
Many travellers express disappoInt-
ment with Damascus, but the trouble Is
they have carried on their minds from
boyhood the book which dazzles so
many young people-the Arabian
Nights" and they come into Damascus
looking for Aladdin's lamp, and Alad-
din's ring, and the genii which ap-
peared by rubbing them. But as
have never read the Arabian Nigh Is, i
such stuff not being allowed around our
house in my boyhood. and nothing
lighter in the way OF reading than
'Baxter's Saints" Everlasting Rest"
and D'Aubigny's History of the Refor-
nation" Damascus appeared to me as
sacred and secular history have pre-
sented it, and so the city was not a dis
appointment but with few exceptions a
surprise.
Under my window tonight in the ho-
tel at Damascus | hear the perpetual
ripple and rush of the River Abana. All,
the secret is out! Now ! know why all
this fora and fruit and every thing is
so green, and the plain one great en-
erald. The River Abana: And not far
off the River Pharpar, which our horses
waded through to-day. Thank the
rivers, or rather the God who made the
rivers! Deserts TO the north, deserts to
the south, deserts to the east, deserts to
the west, but here a paradise. And as
the rivers Gihon and Pison, and Hid
dekel and Euphrates made the other
paradise. ALBANIA and Pharpar make this
Damascus a paradise. That is what
made General Naaman, of this city Of
Damascus, so mad when he was told
for the cure OF his leprosy to go and
wash in the River Jordan. The River
Jordan is much of the year muddy y
stream, and it is never so clear as this
River ALBANIA that l hear rumbling
under my window tonight nor as the
River Pharpar that we crossed to-day.
They are as clear as though they have
been sieved through some especial
sieve of the mountains. General Naa-
man had great and patriotic pride in
these two rivers of his own country,
and when Elisha, the prophet, told
him that if he wanted to get rid of his
leprosy no must go and wash in the
Jordan, he felt as we, who live on the
Hudson, would feel if told that we must
go and wash in the muddy Thames, or
fhn 4raV
parent Rhine were told that they must
go and wash in the muddy Tiber. So
General Naaman cried out with voice
as loud as ever he had used in COM
manding his troops, uttering those
memora BILE words which every minister
of the Gospel sooner or later takes for
his text: Are not ALBANIA and Pharpar,
rivers of Damascus, better than the
waters of Israel? May l not wash in
them and be cleanw Thank God we
live in land with plenty of rivers, and
that they bless all our Atlantic coast
and all our Pacific coast, and reticulate
all the continent between the coasts.
Only those who have travelled in the
deserts of Syria, or Egypt or have
in the Oriental cities heard the
tinkling of the bell of those who sell
water, can realize what it is to have this
Divine beverage in abundance. Water
rumbling over the rccks, turning the
mill-wheel, saturating the roots of the
corn, dripping from the buckets, filling
the pitchers of the household rolling
through the fonts or baptistries or holy
ordinance, filling the reservoirs of cities,
inviting the cattle to come down and
slake their thirst and the birds of
Heaven to dip their wing, ascending in
robe of mist and falling again in benedic-
tion of shower--water, living water,
God-given water!
The spirit of the horrible religion
which pervades the city of Damascus
along whose streets we walk and out of
whose bazaars we make purchases, and
in whose mosques we study the wood
carvings and bedizenments. was demon
strated as late as 1860, when, in this
city, it put to death six thousand Chris
tians in forty-eight hours, and put to
the torch three thousand Christian
homes, and those streets we walk to-
day were red with the carnage, and the
shrieks and groans of the dying and dis
honored men and women made this
7 lace a hell on earth. This went on
until Mohammedan, better than his
religion, Abd-el-Kader by name, a
great soldier who in one war
had, with twenty-five thousand troops,
beaten sixty thousand of the enemy,
now protested against this massacre,
and gathered the Christians.of Damascus
into castles and private houses and
filled his own home with the affrighted
sufferers. After awhile the mob came
to his door and demanded the Chris
tian dogs" whom he was sheltering.
And Abd-el-Kader mounted a horse and
drew his sword, and with few of his
old soldiers around him charged on the
mob and cried: "Wretchesl Is this
the way you honor the prophet? May
his curses be upon you! Shame on you!
Shame! You will yet live to repent.
You think you may do as you
please with the Christians, but
the day of retribution will
come. The Franks will yet turn
your mosques into churches. Not a
Christian will l give up. They are my
brothers. Stand back or will give my
men the order to fire." Then by the
might Of one great soul under God the
wave of assassination rolled back.
Hurrah for Abd-el-Kader! Although
now we Americans and foreigners pass
through the streets Of Damascus IN
hindered, there is in many parts of the