Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1898-06-04
Letter from Jerusalem.
Jerusalem, Syria, May 9TH, lS'

Jerusalem. Syria, May 9th, 1898.
To the Editor: f1t
The road from Nazareth led over the
plains of Yezreel, thence over the
mountains Of Samaria or Ephraim into
the country of Benjamin, where Jeru-
salem is located. The journey took
three days, and as the weather was
rather cool, the season being late, we
had a much plensanter ride than We
had expected. At Nazareth we aired
six horses to carry our party to Jerr-
salem (there being no wagon road but
when the morning came for starting
our man brought no other animals
than he showed us the evening before.
1t turned out that he did not have the
horses himself but that he was patch
ing up an outfit for us Of such as he
could get TO go cheap. This. OF course.
would make little or no difference TO us
SO long as we got good animals, but We
were dealing with Arabs, and they
make the best Of every bargain, honor
or no honor, hence we got poorer horses
and strange men who were not willing
to go unless they had 1t their own way.
This brought on regular Turkish OF
Oriental scrap. Men yelled and scream
ed and jumped around and refused to
take us on and the whole bargain was
declared at an end. This they thought
would bring up the prices, We were
| ready to go, and go we must, they
| thought But to their surprise one Of
us started up town to hunt up another
outfit. At once a brother of the former
| Mukary came up and introduced
himself and offered himself and soon We
Were fixed up and we had II our way.
| These Arabs are terrors to deal with.
| They have no scruples, no honor. Us
uany it is customary to make them give
| "a sum of money as security but we did
not take it. he plead honesty. besides
being recommended. but we found We
| needed 1t right enough.
Our first day out we crossed the east
end OF the plain OF Yezreel, near the
| city OF Yezreel, where King Ahab lived.
| This place is now reduced TO poor
village called Zerln. The plain of Yez-
rec! is a beautiful. rich valley, very
| fertile and a desirable place 10 look az,
| but at present II 10 not lit TO build on
as IT is not healthy. The villagers live
| off In the highlands. 1t may. however.
be fixed up later on with proper drain
age and trees and be made as fine a
place as one could wish for.
The second day took us out OF the
| possessions OF Issachar into the noun
| talns where we crossed a narrow strip
Of land allotted 10 Manasseh. then in
| to Ephraim's fertile mountains At
| once two OF our party who are real
| Egyptians felt themselves quite at
home. And well they might, for turn.
| ing whichever way you wished the hills
| from top TO bottom were tcrraced OFT
and showed that at one time they had
been highly cultivated and sustained n
large population. II was evident thar
much of the terrace work was very
ancient probably reaching back as far
as the days of tibet house OF Israel.
often the prophets of God told the
| children Of Israel that their land should
be cursed and laid waste for their sake
| IL they kept not His commandments.
| This was verify fulfilled, the sight was
| before our eyes. But we also remem-
bered that God has said through His
| prophet. Hosea, who plainly foretold
| them their fall. that "I will be as the
dew unto Israel: he shall grow as the
lily, and cast forth his root as Lcban-
on. His branches shall spread. and his
| beauty shall be as the olive tree. ana
his smell as Lebanon. They that dwell
under his shadow shall return: they
| shall revive as the corn, and grow as
the vine: The scent thereof shall be as
the wine Of Lebanon. Ephraim shall
say, What have ] TO do any more with
| idols? l, | am like n green fir tree.
from me is the fruit found" jeremiah
| also speaks OF the return OF Ephralm to