The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1899-01-24
BY RAIL TO JERUSALEM.
CFrom the London Mail)


saders 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 expectation for the milk
and the honey, the kline placidly grazing
in the smooth pastures, the bees hitting
among the flowers, and all the other signs
of the abundant richness of the Land of
Promise. You look for the from the win
dows of the narrow-gauge, crawling, rat
Ting Jerusalem railway train and you see
a land flowing with sand and rocks.
gray-green patch, which means olive trees,
or a brighter green patch, which means
signs not of the natural richness OF the
99y DIT OF the f1 tGe German and Other Chris
tan colonists. And the olive groves you
with the Surrounding wilderness. Com
pared with ones recollections of an Eng
the branches are thin and weedy-looking,
and through the foliage the stony ground
Taft1ng &c on till the outskirts Of Jaffa and
the egons5 Of b the pi195 nhn 6 bTt th
blazing blue sky overhead and the gray
m mtlG9faHSs shut in the dreary landscape
Not sign of life for miles, not house
PGund p nothn but psGd and stones a9d
lime dust. Here and there comes a little
ah the e Ra proems the Poverty
nakedness of the land, for the syrian peas
and their wretchedness, how poor is the
reward of their patient toll linen men the
way begins to climb among the still more
desolate mountains of Judea-
The orthodox endeavors to comfort his
belief by attributing all this appalling
barrenness to the Turk.
thick with corn that they laughed and
sang. The hills that are now great bare
the 1parsiyzing TURK iaid his hands on the
land, laid impossible burdens EMS, on INDUSTRY;
p1t th PPesn T6e lana nd VENT ort Of cu
tivation. the forests We're destroyed, the
with the natural and inevitable result that
the rainfall dwindled and dwindled III ,1s, It
soil became sterile or was buried under
crumbling rocks 1t has Pee been a g Ta T1z,0 on
hand of the MoSlem."
That may be wholly or partly true, but
it. 1t is quite impossible, unless you want
the uncompromising story of those bare
rocks, or to think that anything ever grew
time. if Nor has the landscape any Of the
impressiveness, the grandeur of mighty
the beauty of the clear light and the blue
sky. there is nothing but a dreary, de-
among boulders, climbing all the time, you
another narrow, stony valley, which only
differs from a hundred others in the re-
tached houses of European fashion stand
ing amidst patches of cultivation You
have come to another German colony, the
one on the outskirts of Jerusalem There
is a road which has been made by the
some of the loose stone and piling them
fieldsHi nf fieids which are marked by
high walls of piled stones, removed from
granite rocks too heavy for removal, re-
main standing amid the clearingS like CAL
Stones 4it9sH remain, too for the simple reason
that they, and the powdered dust among
that there is left of it.
Then another sweep round a gray hill
brown hin dominated by a heavy-looking
tower comes into view, and you feel your
That is your first view Of Jerusalem. The
other bare hill with the white building on
You cannot help being disappointed. The
distant view reveals no shining points. of
ana u rest Of balm for tronbied feelings, Of
firsf glimpse i'm Of the Holy city are strange
~ absent At a distance Jerusalem looks
simply commonplace 1t Will be better,
The train rumbles on into a dirty, mean
master in uniform and a crowd of shout:
dirt occupy the platform; You descend
Whose who i-i pififui decrepitude you feel almost
ashamed to impose upon, and look around
2 t yeursef IN des6iation Of limestone
dust. The city stands upon a hill oppo-
site to that upon which the railway ends,
and the road from the station winds down
a, steep road into the valley between, and
then drags up the opposite slope. The
only impression you have. is dust. There
but dust. Clouds of dust arise from be-
meath the rickety. rumbling carriage. The
thin, stunted trees holding on to the
lodges of rock by the roadside are white
with dust. The ragged. frowsy beggars
who line the road sit in dust and are COW
cred with dust. And through the dust
you see dimly on the right a bare. rocky
wall terminating at point of the noun
tain 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 right-angled bend in it like
a gaspipe joint.
This is the Jaffa gate. But fortunately
the rich man no longer need pass through
this needles eye, for by the side of the