The Wichita daily eagle., 1893-11-17
ENGINES IN THE HOLY LAND.
Damascus TO Witness a Revolution NOV
That Trains Are to Run There.

Damascus to Witness Revolution Now
| That Trains Are to Run There.
A network of railways will soon be
extended through Palestine. from
Egypt to Damascus, the trains passing
en- route the tomb of Rachel and the
tower of Ramleh, flying through Joppa
and along the coast to Jerusalem,
where there is neat little station.
/ Joppa you will rememb Der as an ancient
| seaport of Palestine, and was at one
| time the harbor of .Judea, when it was
| fortified by Simon. ,Iosephus speaks
| of it as the haunt of pirates, and on
this account it was destroyed IN the
Jewish war. 1t would now be an insig-
nifcant place were it not for its COM
manding sea front. which gives it ad-
vantage over any seaport east OF Alex
andria.
In the immediate vicinity stands the
pride Of Joppa-the new railroad depot
which was formally opened with inn
posing ceremonies by the governor OF
Jerusalem, Ibrahin Haiku Pasha. A
grand banquet followed the opening,
and the sultan's special envoy, who
had been sent in advance to see that
the terms of concession were strickly
observed, was leading guest. The
engineers OF the new road who made
the surveys and directed the building
operations are nearly all Europeans.
Not in many generations has Joppa
seen such a gala day as that upon
which the new railroad was officially
+r-.f yy-1c
interesting to observe how the various
| nationalities regarded the enterprise.
The Turkish officials, accustomed to
western ideas, regarded it as source
of prospective revenues
The townsmen, Syrians, Moslems
and others, went in mobs to the depot
to inspect the putting engine and its
tender, and remarked in amazement
and superstition how it could move
of its own accord, drawing the heavy
cars behind it. AS it moved away. with
shrill shrek of the whistle, the wom-
en- and children put their hands over
their ears and screamed, while the
Ara bs scampered away badly fright
ened
tance is bout thirty-siX miles by cars
and the trip requires about three and
one-half hours. Through a beautiful
open country the road enters the IA
nous plain of Sharon. In the dis
tance the little village of Beth
Dagon is barely visible. and is not
of sufficient Importance to war;
rant depot. The plain surround
ing Ramleh is still infested
by robbers, but the advent of the rail
road will tend to lessen these despera-
does. The next station of interest is
at Lydia, now called Ludd, where the
Apostle Peter and friends once lived.
1t is reached through dense orange
groves. The ruins of the old church
erected in honor of ST. George are
plainly discernible, as are also the ar
tistic heights of Adjalon and the dis
tant Judean mountains. A short dis
tance beyond a group of Bedouin horse
men stand awaiting the arrival of the
train, but their statuesque pose is in
terrupted by an ear-splitting whistle,
which so terrorizes them that they put
out in all directions, the riders cling
ing with difficulty to their saddles.
We pass solitary ruins; villages and
hamlets miserable in appearance,
like most of the places in Pales-
tine; past Samson's old fight
ing ground and battle-ields, now
nearly forgotten; then the hills Of
Judea loom up ahead, and then the en-
gine stops at the gate of Jerusalem.
The trains run from Joppa to Jerusa-
lem twice day, and in no place in the
world can there be more of history
crowded into three hours of travel.
There is now great railway system
in the course of construction which will
girdle the Holy Land from one end to
the other. A French company has Sc
cured concession for line from Bey-
rout to Damascus, and has already
road. An English syndicate is now
building railway from Halfa to Da
mascus. which will be about one hun
dred and forty miles long. starting
from Halfa, finding it's way
along the northern base of the
range of Carmel to the plane
of Esbarlon, through the valley east of
Nazareth. Leaving Mount Tabor, it
will cross the River Jordan on a trestle
and then the point known as Majemeh
where the little Jordan joins the
greater river. At this point the road
will border on the southern shore of
Galilee, and almost without curve
along the famous wheat region,
biblicallv known as the plains of Bas-
han: thence to the southern gate of
Damascus. This road will undoubted
ly prove of the greatest interest to
Syria in an agricultural and CONNER
cial way, finding a means for placing
upon the eastern market the rich prod.
ucts fn which that section abounds--
Chicago Tribune.
Medical Ouacks and Secret Remedies.
A new method of treatment. a new
drug, or a new dogma in medicine. is
like doctrine or a dogma or deduc