People's party paper. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1891-1898, 1897-07-09
A New Destruction of Jerusalem.

ueSGfOyed, not TINS time by Roman
legions, but by the march of progress.
The railroad that now enters the sacred
city has been the precursor of a new
development, and the description of
travellers who go there nowadays have
about them a modernness that is ap-
palling, especially when they tell of
the rival hackmen at the railway sta
ton. DR.. Henry A. Harper, author of
''The Bible and Modern Discoveries, "
writes in Sunday at Home of his new
experience in entering Jerusalem by
railway and describes the altered ap-
pearance given to it by the busy col
onists:
That we were arriving at a season
of drought was shown by seeing in
middle distance carriages driving along
the Bethlehem road enveloped in dust
Away on the left stretched the German
colony, The Temple co1onists. This
had such a strange out-of-place look
its neat houses with red roofs, the lines
of streets quite straight, the well-kept
0ChSf OIl1 SJ ~ Coo- OAOCoi 1uS u ILL
church, schoolhouse-so tidy, so well
kept, such an object-lesson to all
around, a lesson not learnt by either
Arab or Jew. 1t seems impossible for
an Eastern to be tidy; the Jewish
colony hard by is living example of
how not to be tidy. Yet-strange con-
tradiction-one almost resented the
clean look; long years of Eastern travel
and disorder, that, much as one loves
cleanliness at home, here it looked out
of place. It looked like a model viii
lage, with model people; and had too
All, well we shall have enough and to
spare of dirt and foulness ere long,
''Of all the widest drives ever took
that from the station to the hotel sur
passed them all. The carriage-made
when or where?-at least had strong
springs; the horses were three abreast
one was literally tied on to the other
two by strange straps, chains, bits of
screws but like all Arabs, full of go?
Go they did. With yells, lashes of the
whips, all the Jehus set off, each try
ing to get in front of his neighbor,
width of road or other traffic quite ig-
nored. Had one horse gone down
every other must have gone over him
or over the wall! One looked round in
establishment at not fnding-as yet
the pole of the following carriage in
the small of ones back. Then, the
dust! A sand storm in the desert was
the only thing 1 could think of; but
there, one was not going headlong.
Up the hill, down the hill, faint forms
of horses galloping; of trees white,
houses white, valley of Hinnom full of
white dust! By dint of hammering my
driver persuaded him to drive slowly,
threatening him in the strongest
Arabic all the time. Covered with dust,
our throats lined with strange geologi-
cal formations, few miles of such a
road and we should have become fos-
sils!-buried in dust
'Outside the walls, the medieval
character of Jerusalem is gone forever;
on the northwest side huge quarter
or suburb exists, modern city of
Greeks, Levantines, few rich Jews;
hotels, shops, huge convents-French
and Russian; built or building; the
English bishops palace as the ma
tives call it college say some, rivals
that OF other denominations. Where
buildings do not as yet exist the ground
is Uttered with masses of stone fresh
from the quarry, heaps of lime, heaps
of rubbish: while, thronging every
track or road, are herds of camels, car
rying stones, morter, or timber. These
animals seem to resent their loads.
They, the Old World carriers, made to
bear modern rubbish! Their naughty
heads and scornful eyes resented the
degradation.
"Again, hurrying past, were some
of the most ramshackle things on
wheels ever seen, carriages full of
Moslems or Jews, bringing produce
from the outlying villages. All the
charm of the olive groves on that side
is gone. The 'Golgotha,' 'Gordon's
tomb are equally the scene OF the
builders activity; great walls are be-
ing constructed to mark the division of
properties, or to make gardens for
houses which are being erected; close
by, putting factory All poetry of
the past is gone, Much, also, has been
done to disfgure the Mount of Olives
on it's summit is tall lookout tower,
built by Russia On the slope hide
Gus church, built by the late Russian
Emperor to the memory of his mother,
a building of considerable size, with
ugly towers like the Kremlin at Mos
COW, utterly out of keeping with the
landscape. Then, on the slope toward
the wilderness, stand huge converts
of various monks Even on the Beth
any road houses disfgure the view;
'Scopus' is being dotted with villas!
Everywhere there is the same fever
ish activity in building. If you cross
'Hinnom,' houses and walls are being
erected by the Franciscans down in
the valley, near 'Absalom's Tomb
high walls are being erected, marking
off land bought either by Greek monks
or Roman Catholics. Money for build
ing is evidently furnished without
stint, but by strangers, remem Der; not
by Arabs or by Jews. The chief build
ers are Russian or French. The
alliance will some day have
rude shock whenever the question of
the possession of Palestine becomes a
question of the day."
Referring to the work of the Pales-
tine Fund exploring party, DR.. Harper
tells us that it has demonstrated that all
existing maps of Jerusalem are wrong
as to the extent of the old city on its
southern side, The city extended