The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1892-12-03
JOPPA TO JERUSALEM.
AN AMERICAN ABOARD A RAIL
ROAD TRAIN IN Palestine.

which will not fuse. Here was a railway.
sure enough, with the stout T rails aud the
strap connections, the frogs and the side
tracks. the gasping engine and the waiting
cars. That was all modern enough, and
all natural enough to my western eyes.
But here was the waiting room Of ancient
construction, with its small, deep windows
and its low, thick walls; its utter with
drswal from the world, and its silence as
of the past which is buried under a
succession of centuries. It might have
been the very home of that Simon the tan
per who entertained Peter when the in
| tense evangelist came to prepare for his
| mission of peace. Upon this roof might
have been the couch on which that holy
man reclined when came down to him the
vision of a sheet containing food his creed
had always called uncean. Il might have
been through this very doorway the mes
sengers Of Cornelius entered when they
summoned Peter to a ministration which
was sequel to his vision, and which taught
the truBh his God was no respecter of per-
sors Just outside the door and down this
sloping street throngs of men once hurried
TO handle the RATS of cedar King Hiram
sent down from Lebanon for use in Solo
mons temple. And once again this shore
was thronged when, after many Years
again, under warrant from Cyrus, upon
she mighty forests of the north.
For this Is Joppa, ancient of the ancients
western terminus of the Palestine railway,
the town whence Jonah sailed when he fed
TO Tarshish in Spain, though the Lord had
ordered him In Nineveh. 1t was here in
one of these houses, perhaps, that Dorcas
was restored to life. In this old town all
the nations of the east and west have SET
their foot, yet never one of them has
changed it's character from those rude
lines which marked it a harbor
for Ph9nicia, a seaport for Jerusa-
lem, refuge for the robbers In Strabo,s
time and LETT it desolate when Persian,
Roman, Mameluke and Frank visited it
with successive desolation. This was Joppa,
older than history. just born In the noisy
world of progress.
ALL ABOARD FOR JERUSALEM.
Into the door came bursting a figure. gold
braid on his London coat; Martin blacking
on his English shoes and his voice like the
drone of a tempest in pain:
Lydia station, Ramrleh, FL Manson
rah, DER Aoan, Je-ru-sa-lem! Cars now
ready" with the final sentence crisp and
swift, ending in rising infection as If TO
spur the sluggard of the east
We pushed outside and found the I'M
rooted platform crowded with a group
quite out of touch with this innovation.
There were Arabs, mongrel Jews, a der
wish and an Indian; Paris Spectator aud
q London tourist; Boston woman and a
western king from mines as rich as Ophir
We clambered up the steps much In the
selfish fashion OF passengers in the west and
seized the choicest sittings, as if this land
had never given birth to that great golden
rule"
A brakeman hurried through the car.
opened box by the water cooler and
grabbed a battered oil can. He rammed it
through an open window to a waiting
mental on the ground, exclaiming:
There's his bloody doper. Tell him il he
puts it in my box ag'in rll heave it over the
bills Of Gath, the hammer-headed coupling
PIN"
The engine bell was ringing and the
swaying cars were crossing the limits of this
land Of Dan, given to Jacobs son by a
favored father, when the conductor came
through the door with the one word:
Tickets! !"
He punched and collected much in the
usual way as he tilted down the car
was looking off to the north, where Gilgal
hides In Samaritan swales-not the place
where Israel camped that first full night
after crossing Jordan. but that other sacred
spot from whence Elijah timed his gorgeous
flight TO heaven was looking over there
and bordering on 1.-THE strange mutations
which have marked this holy land, when
the conductor came to me. He had little
sheaf of tickets in his hand, and | thought
to win his favor by remarking on the roads
prosperity.
Quite load of passengers" quoth /, aud
smiled upon him.
"Naw." he growled; mot crowd enough
to flag hand car" And he passed along
HERE CAssIUs RANGED.
The brakeman bawIed out: Lydia sta
ton. " fanaatin0 in q softer tone Hare his
tory clusters like a mass of crystals.
Peter met the paralytic AGneas here and
cured him. Here he heard the summons of
Iabtha's couch of woe. Here Cassius
ranged and sold the city's population into
slavery. Here Antony set them
free and here successive invasions
proved its Importance till Hadrians
reign marked it a city for Romans to honor.
Here England's patron, great st. George,
was born, and here his bones lie tombed
beneath church not sacred from the touch
OF vandal hands.
Here the road bends south, and an empty
car at the rear of our train was shunted off,
Throw that switch, you suffering clam ~
yelled man near the engine. Throw it
and lock IL, or I'll chuck your greasy car
cass in the fire box" And he walked
back slowly, waving his right arm lightly
70 the engineer, then suddenly
lifting both hands and striking downward
stopped with a sudden bump, then promptly
started again. We were on our way to
Ajalon
Peanuts, bananas, fresh buttered pop
cornW called the trainboy. slamming the
door behind him. "Peanuts-a prize In
every package" And he glared at the ORR
entails who would not buy, cursing them,
while he doubled the price to occidentals
who recognized his domination.
And this is Ajalon, town Of the heather
which Dan could not conquer; fortified by
Hehoboam and baptized in blood when
Joshua overthrow the Caananites. Yet
TINS Is Ajalon which stood at the frontier Of
three great tribes and maintained its Phil
istlne independence to the last, like Switzer-
land in the midst of warring Europe
And where is EkrOngn l asked as the
conductor passed again.
Enron is only a flag station" he an
ewered. I'VE passed it back here six
miles,"
And is the town entirely obliteratedm
mo; tha's a boarding house for the sta
Iion men, and the biggest tool box on the
line. Mebby you seen it."
didn't l only thought of that older
Enron on the boundary line of Judah's ter
rltory; the place to which the cap
tured ark was carried last and which
was visited with such desolation as