The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1890-03-05
AR UND THE WORLD.
Letter from Miss Flora Richard !,
SON to her Mother. from Rome.
ROME. ITALY, FEB, llth. Is!

ROME. ITALY, FEB. 1lth, 1899.
Dear Mother: Since my last writing I have
Hadji-I have been to Jerusalem. The landing
for Jerusalem is at Jaffa. very ancient city. and
we were obliged to disembark in the open sea
which. fortunately, was calm enough for us 70 do,
so passed within a few feet of where Andromeda
was chained to rock. according to mythology.
when Perseus rescued her. The road to Jerusa-
lem lies through hopelessly dreary country
stony, barren. desolate. Here and there we see
a few sheep and goats doing their best to get a
living. but it is as Mark Twain Gays. the chances
are against them" The only picturesque part
are the Arabs, with their long strings of camels
and donkeys. usually loaded with water. Bands
of Russian pilgrims seen every few miles,
trudglng along, men and women looking very
much alike. both wearing heavy boots, their great
ungainly figures with heavy packs of food on
their backs. They are fearfully degraded lot,
ignorant and vicious. I am almost sorry I saw
Jerusalem. can never think of it again as once
did. 1t is most horribly dirty, the streets are
narrow. steep and ill-paved. The sacred places
are regarded by all the educated as fictitious and
the ceremonies are certainly as dolatrous as any
where in Japan china. The only place in the
city which looks anywhere near respectable is
the Mohammedan quarter. The Mosque of Omar,
occupying the site of Solomon's Temple. is a
really beautiful building. Inside this building
is a great stone. as large as an ordinary sitting
room. said to be the one upon which Abraham
offered up Isaac. 1t is surrounded by a high
iron fence. This church also contains a part of
the hair and beard of Mohammet which now
would be nearly 1900 years old. The rest is in
Mecca. their holy city, the only place where an
European would take his life in his hand to enter
Alter Mohammedan makes a pilgrimage to
Mecca he has right to wear green turban ey-
eryWhere. all his life-a great privilege. We got
permission from the U, S. Consul, and then the
Gov. who, of course, is Turk, sent us a guard
with a sword and uniform, and he in turn had a
servant who carried his boots in his hand through
the church or mosque as they call it. In this
mosque they show the mark of Mohammet's feet.
and as our guide put the candle in the hole to see
the foot prints. we didn't think of Mohammet's
moustache and hair, and the chief said we burnt
it, and put US all out in disgrace. suppose they
will get some more hair from some obligng per-
son and it will be all right again. 1t only lately
when they saw so much money made by the
Catholics and Protestants that one could get into
their mosques-the charge 4 francs go cts) and
furnish guard. We were shown the cradle of
Christ-in fact they also have one here in Rome
his tomb. the three crosses. the holes from
which they were taken carefully preserved and
covered with marble; Adams grave. some of the
dirt from which Adam was made the print of
Jesus foot in the rock, .as he preached in the
temple when he was IL years old the Virgins
birthplace, where she was baptized: the mark of
Jesus shoulder on the Via Dolorosa, or the jour
ney to the place of execution. when he rested
against a stone house the rock of faggellation;
the footprints ofthe rooster that crowed as Peter
was denying Christ, the outlines of the Disciples
as they lay asleep on rock in the Garden of
Gethsemane; until your brain whirls and your
senses are dizzy they show you these things
When got nearly through I had just sense
enough left to tell him to show me home-to our
hotel. All this in the face of the destruction of
city. where stone was not left upon the other.
No Jew is allowed, to this day. to pass in front of
the Holy Sepulchre.
After leaving Jerusalem we went back to Jaffa
where once more we were fortunate in landing,
as one American lady passed Jaffa fifteen times
before she could land We sailed back to Port
Said. and right here must tell yon it is the head
of the Suez Canal. through which we had passed,
with electric lights which turned the sand the
color of the most beautiful snow. and all the |
buoys. and there were hundreds on both sides of
us, looked like white statues and old dredg-
ing ships looked like fairy castles too beautiful to
be of this world. shall never forget the beauty
of that scene. Outside of Jerusalem we sec moth |
ing but rocks and mountains of stone, no vegeta-
ton is apparent and water is rarity anywhere |
in the city. there is none except such rain water
as they save in cisterns. It lis carried into the
city on camels and donkeys. and is sold at so
much goat skin. At Port Said they get their
water from iron pipes laid from the Nile, 85
miles.
From Port Said. so named from Pasha (Gener-
I'D Said, who gave the grant to dig the Suez canal
We sailed to Naples. and on the way passed
through Scylla and Charybdis. and I saw the
lanes of Stamboli Ia Volcano) which were grand
It night, and at Naples my window looks out at
he smoke and fire of Vesuvius, the Volcano
which covered Pompei and Herculaneum. There
vas an eruption while was there. and our pal
zee 1--WE were in palace, for every house is called
palace. if its only garrett shook considerably
or five minutes. Pompeii is the most wonderful
nd sublime sight have seen. A city laid bare
fter 1900 years of burial for it was destroyed in
|. D. 70. Today you can see exactly how people
" ed, the rooms, houses and customs laid bare
here many fine paintings on the walls and
he floors of mosaics grand even now. Many
the paintings and statuary adorn the Kings
alace. through which we went. at Naples. He
ad two there and several here. think there !
re over 700 Churches here, all of tn EN- having ,
lie bones Of some Saint. If my head was turned {
J Jerusalem I shall go clean daft" here, for