Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1897-02-06
JERUSALEM.

A recent tourist writes: Jerusalem
is hardly disappointment because l
had my ideas rather low down. Many
of the streets in remote quarters are
abominably filthy, and I would not
advise any one to venture about in
them without q. clothes pin on his
nose. Dead cats, rats and dogs are
plentiful. I even ran across one or
two dead donkeys just, outside one of
the city gates. There are many sa-
cred (?) pools, which have stagnated
from disuse, and would be rooted out
by the health board of any we'll regu-
lated city. Walking is difficult, as
the narrow streets are paved with
ugly cobble-stones, which have become
very slippery and are exceedingly hard
on shoe leather. Night is made hide.
GUS by the bowling of hundreds of
hairless dogs, that seem to have moth
ing else to do. The braying of the
donkey is also something awful. A
single bray can be heard a quarter of
a mile, and there is no limit to the
possibilities Of well-trained chorus.
The Mount of Olives is the greatest
disappointment of all. In the first
place it is hardly mountain at all !;
and in the second place, it is painfully
conspicuous by reason of paucity of
olives. There are plenty of other
hills hereabouts that are much more
thickly wooded. In the third place
the top is dis6gured by large num-
ber of tawdry mosques, dirty huts and
manure piles. This may seem like a
savage arraignment but it is sincere.
I doubt not that in the days of Christ
the mountain was all covered with
olive trees, and altogether more at
tractive place than it is now. The
valley of Jehosophat, otherwise known
as the valley of the brook Kidron,
separates Olivet from Mt. Moriah and
Bezeth. As this valley is quite deep,
deep, Olivet is made to assume the
proportions of quite a hill when you
stand at the bottom of the ravine /;
but looking toward the mount from
a point in Jerusalem where the valley
is not seen Olivet shrinks into painful
insignifcance. The popular path by
which Olivet is ascended is believed to
be the same which David pursued
when he fled barefoot and weeping
from his son Absalom, accompanied by
band of faithful subjects, who heap
ed earth upon their heads in token of
grief at the disobedience of the usurp-
ing prince. Up this path 1 toiled in
order to familiarize myself with the
country round about, pausing anon to
look back to the city which has played
so important a role in the drama of
the nations. From near the summit
of the mount the view of Jerusalem
is really satisfactory-all that one
could wish. The extreme top is as
I have said, clustered up with unat-
tractive buildings, but one can hard
ly resist the temptation to reach the
summit in order to command at
once the view of the Jordan valley,
including the Dead Sea on the one
hand and view of Jerusalem and its
environs on the other.
In order to get more detailed view,
paid a sixpence and ascended the
minaret of a mosque, and there high
above the offensive sights, sounds and
smells of the place, viewed the re-
markable natural panorama to which
I have alluded. One could stand there
for hours picking out sacred sights.
The serpentine ribbon of green which
marks the course of the Jordan is dis
tinctly visible, the water cannot be
seen, and, indeed, is not visible till you