The Press., 1898-12-15
IN THE HGLY LAND.
CHRISTMAS DAY AS IT NOW IS iN
 BETHLEHEM.

1G
 The Modernity of Jeruaalem = The
 Scene of the Nativlty-TnconEruou
 visitors Tn the Sacred Grstto-
 Chrtstmas Night Rituals.
 "All aboard for Jerusalem, Ramleh Artouf as the tomb of Samson" The poet LAmartine, writing of the Holy Land in his Meditations' sixty odd years ago, tells of buying an arsenal of pistols, sabers and other weapons to arm his company against the Greek pirates who infested the archipelago sea and of divers other dangers which made the journey to Jerusalem full of danger and excitement
 Nowadays an uneventful sail on one of the Messagerie's steamers brings one to Alexandria. Another stop occurs at Port Said, just long enough to take 0 cocktail served solemnly by barkeeper in a white cravat, his establishment being in a six story building of iron framework, with nothing in the least oriental about 1t Then the next morning your boat is bob- ping up and down in sight of Jaffa- The deck swarms with priests and ecclesiastic- al travellers, representing all the countries and religions in the civilized world, and some that are not civilized, which puts the sailors in a bad humor. as they be- lieve that priests on board bring bad luck
 Close by the sea at a short distance from the city railway station stands, a little ono, it is true, but genuine.
 It is a strange experience indeed riding to Jerusalem behind a pulling and whis- tling locomotive
 After having passed through fra grant gardens the line opens into plain famous in Bible history as the garden of Pales- tine. This was the land of Canaan, the country of the Philistines spreading away under our eyes in the clear oriental atmos- phere, bounded in the distance by the vague blue lines of the mountains of Ju- dHa.
 The train rushes onward, and now the distant points of the mountains of Judea grow plainer. On the right in the dis tance a white point marks the tomb of Samson and a little further on second white point, to the left this time.s is said to show the place where he was born Finally one reaches Jerusalem, and = spite of dreams and spiritual exalE is impossible to deny that the nfxt
 is disappointing. One passes
 Holy City through streefs am. which RaeTnble nssss.ng EpA
 uDa Te thuroughfaree
 d nn1 sfhe at
 IN fBg fn the Isa2
 about sEem. Instead of Zion and dolgo|
 one sees only red roofs and long new lsl
 ings with monotonous lines of windows
 which look like hospitals and orphan asy. lulns.
 Passing outside the walls of Jerusalem
 one traverses the valley of Gehenna, sees Jobs we'll with its white cupola and then finds himself advancing up the slopes of Mount Zion, W hich stands to the left.
 Continuing along the road one passes a Jewish city which was commenced by Sir Moses Montefiore with the idea that it
 would be inhabited by poor people of the Hebrew faith, and of late years crowds of this persecuted race have been coming to the land of their ancestors and to this par ticular city from all parts of the world. Arrived at Bethlehem one naturally hastens to see the scenes of the Nativity, full of expectation and yet ready to be dis
 appointed. The Mount of Olives, Golgotha, the sacred sepulchre, all were in my eyes spoiled for the want of that exquisite sim plicity which had filled my childish vii
 sions Everywhere the ardor of the faith full has shown itself in upsetting and i'm proving things in deplorable manner. Passing through the narrow and crooked street which cuts Bethlehem into two parts one finally reaches the extremity of the burg and finds himself in an oblong square, which in its turn opens into an espianade paved with stone, here and there showing openings into cisterns which served for baptisms and for ablutions among former generations of Christians In those days it was the usage to wash be- fore entering the sanctuary.
 A curious scene is here on the very bor
 der of the place of the Nativity. On one side burial ground with white tombs, on tw O other sides rows of bare, high walls HEa n for nr a l,riSoD Hpro and thprG
 windows pierce the walls, but no doors One looks about him nystified, but finally discovers q black hole in and out of which people are passing almost on all tours, so low is it. This is the chief entry to the sanctuary of the Nativity Having passed through this hole, one finds himself in a large hall divided by four colon nadss and surmounted by a roof flanked by heavy
 beams. People stand about talking and
 smoking, children play, Turkish soldiers sew up their uniforms, women give suck to their infants, fakirs offer oranges beads | and candies for sale, while Greek and Franciscan monks hurry about as if on
 business of pressing importance. Former | ly, I am told, the Arabs used to stable their sheep here.
 But this is not the stable where Jesus was born, and one is some time in discov-
 ering it. On the left two Turkish soldiers | "LAA dE0 SerO1CHcu AdZhy OA a D0uCH l One is asleep, the other yawns. In front
 of them a circular stairway goes down to | a door. which seems to indicate 8 crypt. The door passed. one continues the descent by a narrow staircase until he comes to two other Turkish soldiers, this time
 standing up, with guns on the floor. and on the left, lighted by hanging lamps. is
 the following inscription: Hic de Virgine | Maria, Jesus Christus, Natus Est'' (here l Jesus Christ was born of the Virgin l Mary) We are in the stable.
 This discovery is much of a surprise, and one's first movement is for protesta- I tion, for the simple reason that nothing at all like stable is apparent. We are in a grotto To this objection the reply is | made that in olden times it was the GUS | tom in Palestine to use grottos for stables | At night the Christmas service in Beth.
 lehem begins at 10 o'clock with pontif.
 ical mass celebrated at the Franciscan | church near the basil;ca. The richest | vestments are worn for this office, these
 having been presented in the name of the
 French republic by Marechal MacMahon.
 This first ceremony is concluded about
 midnight. anG then long procession with
 candles in hapd moves toward the grotto
 of the Natiyfts First comes the cross
 bearer, followed by Franciscan monks and
 members of other religious bodies. The
 patriarch oomes lasG, and directly behind
 him, at the head of the laymen, walks the
 French consul with his attendants.
 Only those who precede the patriarch
 carry candles, but that dignitary bears in
 his hand with infinite precautioE heau
 tiful little child in wax. which with sweet
 smile seems almost on the point of crying
 out. The divine child rests in a manager on silken cushions rose colored and em