Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-02-01

Bostonian's friends. Our new friends
proved themselves to be men of considerable
attsinments, well acquainted with the
country through which we were travelling
and thoroughly well up in its Biblical asso-
Citations. Their entertaining conversation
added much to the interest of the trip. After
awhile one of them, who is a resident of
Manhattan, Kan, inquired of DR.. Tslmage
whether he would consent to baptize him by
immersion in the river Jordan. The desired
consent was given, and P. M. appointed as
the time for the ceremony, which was SOL
emnIy performed.
| OBSERVED BY IMMERSION.
DR.. Talmage then said: "In this historic
river, which parted three times to let Gods
people pass dryshod, and in which Naaman
| plunged seven times for healing from dire
disease, and from the banks of which Elijah
| Christ was baptized, and which for ages has
been the symbol of the division between
earth and heaven, now baptize thee"
Then, taking the candidate by the hand,
he led him into the water, quoting the
authority tor baptism as found in Matthew
xviii, verse 10. Reaching the sufficient
depth, he immersed the candidate, repeating
the usual formula: "In the name of the
Father and of the Son and of the Holy
Ghost" after which he pronounced the
benediCtion. At the close of the ceremony
DR.. Talmage said:
'As the ordinance was observed under
the direction of no particular denomination
Of Christianity, and no particular church
should be responsible for it, feel it my
duty to report what I did to the church uni
| versal."
Soon after the service we mounted our
horses and began the return trip, passing on
the way Gilgal, where Saul, the first king
of Israel, was crowned and paying visit of
inspection to the huts which are inhabited
| by the poverty-strlcken Arabs of modern
| Jericho.
A GRoTEsQUE BEDoUIN DANCE.
The 80 Bedouins who visited us here were
about equally divided as to sex. They kept
entirely separate during the strange per-
formance they gave. First the men ap-
peared. Standing in row, the light of the
! fickefing flames Illuminating their features
with an uncertain glimmer, they awaited a
signal from their leader, who was the shelk
of the village. to begin the dance. Receiv-
ing it they set to work as one man, singing,
screeching, yelling, Jumping and accompa-
nying these exercises with contortions and
gyrations of every conceivable and incon-
ceivable Sort brandishIng swords and an
but harmless. AS they knew but one tune,
and that tune set, as it seemed to me, to but
two places in the scale, its frequent repeti-
tion soon made the performance monoto-
nous So we called halt, and asked that
the women performers take their turn.
Our wish was obeyed, but did not
bring relief, for they went through
the same performance as that of the
men. At the end of their indescribable
antics however, one of them, half-un-
bosomed wild looking woman of about 45
years old, approaching DR.. Talmage with
fierce look, nearly startled him off his seat
by putting her lips close to his ear and
blowing into it with shocking unexpected
ness a shrill, blood-curdling thrill that
seemed to pierce the very center of his nerv-
GUS system. Then going over to each men,
Der of the party; she gave us one by one,
the full benefit of her lungs in like man
ner. Then our visitors quietly Withdrew
and we saw them no more.
THE WELL swEETENED BY ELISHA.
During our encampment at Jericho we
drank water from the we'll of which ira
dition says it was the one the waters of
which were miraculously sweetened by the
Prophet Elisha. On the morning of our de-
parture Tor Jerusalem we visited the well
AbSCAiY was pOuIAhS lO1bA dn 1ACA-
haustible supply of the purest water in all
Palestine. We lunched the second time at
the Good Samaritan's Inn, after which we
pushed on to Bethany, situated about two
miles from Jerusalem. The name means
The House Of Poverty" which aptly de-
scribes 1t as it is now. There are perhaps
40 mud houses in the village, lying sleepily
400 ieet below the summit OF the Mount of
Olives. The house said to stand on the site
of the one once lived in by Mary and Lazarus
was visited by US, as matter of course.
We spent Is minutes in the Garden of
Gethsemane, or what is now known by that
title. 1t is an enclosure laid out in flower
beds, with olive trees here and there. Seven
trees within railing are said to have been
the exact ones under which our Lord "sweat
as it were great drops OF blood, I" but as Titus
had all trees surrounding Jerusalem cut
down, the devout Franciscans who first made
the claim for the aged trees ] have men-
toned were probably mistaken.
LOUIS KLoPSCH.