Evening star., 1898-12-03
TO JERUSALEM BY RAIL
Road Runs Through Dusty and Very
Sterile Country.
Hard to Believe That 1t Was Ever a
Fertile Laud-First View Of
the City.
Correspondence London Mail.

Along the dreary coast where the crusad-
ers fixed their strongholds you do not look
for the beauty of a fertile land. But when
You leave the white pile mound of the Jaffa
houses behind and strike inland toward
Jerusalem you do begin to look out with
thrilled eXpectatio for the milk and the
honey, the kline placidy grazing in the
smooth pastures, the bees fitting among
the flowers, and all the other signs of the
abundant richness of the Land of Promise.
You look from the windows of the narrow
gauge crawling. rattling Jerusalem rail-
way train. and you see a land flowing with
sand and rocks.
Near to Jaffa you see here and there a
gray-green patch, which means olive trees,
or a brighter green patch, which means an
orange grove. But these, you md, are
signs not of the natural richness of the
country, but of the
Supernatural Piety and Industry.
of the German and other Christian col
onists. And the olive groves you notice
only seem beautiful by contrast with the
surrounding wilderness. Compared with
ones recollection of an English orchard
they are desoiation itself for the branches
are thin and weedy-lookfng and through
the foliage the stony ground shows its dis
NAL gray. The railway goes rattlng on
till the outskirts Of Jafa and the regions
of the pious Germans are left behind, and
then there is nothing but the blazing blue
sky overhead and the gray wilderness all
around, till brown, bare mountains shut in
the dreary landscape
Not a sign of life for miles. not a house
nor ploW nor patch of cultivated
ground; nothing but sand and stones and
lime dust Here and there comes a little
agricultural patch, which better even than
the desert proClaims the poverty and ma ked-
ness of the land, for the Syrian peasants
who cultivate it show by their rags and
their wretchedness how poor is the reward
of their patient toll Then the desolate
plain is left behind, and the railway be-
gins to climb among the still more desolate
mountains of Judea.
The orthodox endeavors to comfort his
belief by attributing all this appalling bar
renness to the Turk
These valleys" he says, "once stood so
thick with corn that they laughed and sang,
The hills that are now great bare rocks
were once densely wooded. But the par
alyzing Turk laid his hand on the land laid
impossible burdens on industry, put impOs-
Slbie taxes on olive trees, and see the re-
suit. The land went out OF cultivation the
forests were destroyed, the olive trees were
cut down for ireWoOd, with the natural
and inevitable result that the rainfall dwin-
died and dwindled till it almost disappear-
ed, so that The fruitful soil became sterile
was
Buried Under CrumbIing Rocks
1t has been going on thus for centuries.
It is the paralyZing hand of the Moslem."
That may be wholly or partly true but 1t
requires very strong faith to believe it.
1t is quite impossible, unless you want very
badly to believe otherwise, to reject the un-
compromising story of those bare rocks or
10 thlnk that anything ever grew here from
the beginning of geological time. Nor has
the landscape any of impressyeness the
grandeur of mighty masses or infinite dis
tances. Except for the beauty of the clear
light and the blue sky, there is nothing but
Il dFeary, depressing monotony of ugliness
AT last, as the train goes picking its way
among boulders. climbing all the time you
turn corner and come by the side of an
othef narrow. stony valley, which only diff
Itrs from hundred others in the respect
that dotted about 1t are little detached
houses OF European fashion standing
amidst patches of cultivation. You have
come TO another German colony the one on
the outskirts of Jerusalem There is q
road which has been made by the sirnnIa
plan OF clearing narrow track of some of
the loose stones and pling them in a ridge
on either side. There are even fields-Iittle
heIdS which are marked by high walls of
plIed stones, removed from the surface
But the very large stones, granite rocks
100 heaVy for removal, remain, standing
amid the clearings
Like Caledonian Rubbing stones.
And the small stones remain, too, for the
simple reason that they, and the powdered
N''7t hiiOllS WHICH lIlty lie, are the fruitful
soll-aIl that there is of it.
Then another sweep round a gray hillside
and a brown mass on the top of a brown
hill dominated by heayy-looLiue touar
comes INTO view, and you feel YOUR blood
lhrohblng, you do not quite know why
mat Is your first view of Jerusalem The
olher bare hill with the white building on
the top Is the Mount of Olives
1ou cannot help being disappointed The
soIt ~ Niem leEeals no shining points of
, soiu, no clothing Nerdure, no graceful, lux
urlant palms. The impression of peace and
rest, OF balm for troubled feelings of how
CAIN winch You have in some ABSURD wav
been expecting to come with the first
glimpse OF the Holy City are strangely an
sent. At distance JerusaIem looks Simply |
commonplace. 1t will be better PERHAPS at |
close view.
The train rumbles on into a dirty. mean
Httle station, where q fat Turkish station-
master IN UNIFORM, and crowd of shout
ing, wriggilng Arab porters in rags and |
art occupy the platform. You descend and |
cIiInD INTO Il rlckety broken carriage whose
pitllul decrepltude you feel almost asham-
ed TO impose upon. and look around for tha |
Jerusalem of your dreams. You find YOUR
SELF IN a deSolation of limestone dust Tho
city stands on h.. opposite to that upon |
"hlch the railway ends and the road from
me STATION winds down steep road into |
tLe sai1ey between, ana then drags up the |
Vpposlie slope. The only impression Won
nave Is dust. There Is nothing to be seen
or feIt or perceived but dust Clouds of
uust arise from beneath the rickety rum
bling carriage. The thin, stunted tres
holdlng on to the ledges of rock by the |
roadside are tte
white With Dust
The ragged, frowsy beggars who limo tho
ROAD SIT In dust and are covered with dust
AND through the dust YOU see dimly on the
right bare, rocky hill with at the ton a |
Hieh pattlemented wall terminating at a
point OF the mountain in a heavy. somber
stone fortress-the Tower of David At the
top OF the hill there is a gate in the wall
an arched tunnel with a right-angled bend |
In it like a gaspipe joint
inns Is the Jaffa gate. But fortunately
the rich man no longer need pass through
this needles eye, for by the SHE of the
gate a section of the wall which stretched
from the gate house to the tower has been
removed and decent roadway made. In
mere you drive, and find yourself in fairly
open little street, In which the chief. busi-
hesses OF Jerusalem are carried on
4 q m La hi