New Ulm review. (New Ulm, Brown County, Minn.) 1892-1961, 1899-04-26
SAND And STONES,
NO SIGN OF LIFE FOR MILES.
A Journey That Il In Many wax. n
Disappointment-Scenery Is COM
monplace Desolate Plains and
Mountains.

Mountains.
Z A land flowing with milk and" honey
that sought to be pleasant to the eve.
even though trife sticky OF course :
between Hatfa and Jaffa where the road :
follows the coast line. you naturally ex-E
fpeet sand; and where there are so many
erusading ruins on the way you are not
surprised to find the barren monotony of
the sand diversified by heaps of stones
eors OF that noble emotionalism which
refer the Hermit excited. heaps of brok-
en- stones lying In the sand are all that
remain as memorials of the pftiful trag-
edy OF their chivalrous enterprises. The
Saracen planted his flag over their i'm
pregnablet strongholds and contemptuous-
sIy pulled them stone from stone. The
barren sand reasserted Its dominion and .
swept over everything. and though It
Is not 80 many hundreds of years ago. a
heap of stones that might mark a name
less grave Is all that remains of the very
ruins of many building that was meant
to be eternal.
60 along the dreary coast; there, where
the crusaders fixed their strongholds, Won
DO not look for the beauty of a fertile
land But when you leave the white pile
mound OF the ,Jaffa houses behind and
begin to look out with thrilled expectation
Tor the milk and the honey, the kline
piacidly grazing in the smooth pastures,
all the other signs Of the abundant rich
ness OF the Land of Promise. You look
from the windows Of the narroW-gauge.
crawling. rafting Jerusalem railway
sand and rocks.
Near to Jaffa you see here and there a
or a brighter green patch, which means leans
an orange grove. But these YOU find are
signs not of the natural richness of the
end indu5fpx Of Of the the psty
Christian colonists And the olive groves
you notice only seem beautiful by con-
S5as1 with W.T. the surrounding wilderness
EnFllsh orchard they -are desolation IT.
self, for the branches are thin and Weedy-
and sh h59ush It's d hs fGage tho
railway goes rafting on till the outskirts
OF Jaffa and the regions of the pious
is nothing but the blazing blue SKY over
head and the gray wilderness all around,
till brown; bare mountains shut in the
Not sign Of life for miles, not a. house
nor ploW nor patch Of cultivated
ground; nothing but sand and stones and
Lime dnst Here and there comes little
than the desert procIaims the poverty and
nakedness OF the land. for the Syrian
Pc peasants Is who ,h cultivate It show by their
plain Is e{t behind do and If asa
railway begins to climb among the still
Ihe orthodox endeavors to comfort his
belief by attributing all this appalling
ya iH tha h he Saws once stood
80 thick with corn that they laughed and
sang. The hills that are now great bare
rocks were once densely wooded. But the
paralyzing Turk laid his hand on the
land, laid impossible burdens on industry,
put impossible taxes on, olive trees, and
see the result. The land went out of
the olive. trees were cut down for fire
wood, with the natural and inevitable re-
suit that the rainfall dwindled and
d owl, .s tn It, almost disappeared. so
was buried under crumbling rocks. It has
Deen going on thus for centuries. It Is
the paralyzing hand Of the Moslem."
" styo1 1E f 2ath to i beleve
1t. It's quite Impossible, unless you want
very badly to believe otherwise to reject
roeks op 20 nk ba 9ry o of these bare
grew here from the beginning Of geo
Logical time Nor has the landscape any
OF impressiyeness, the grandeur of mighty
masses or infinite distances. Except for
the the oea uty Of the clear light and the blue
pressing monotony Of ugliness.
way among. powders climbing ali the
time. you turn a corner and come by the
sid ae or another narrow, stony valley.
In the respect that dotted about it are
little detached houses Of European fash
lon standing amid patches of cultivation.
You have come to another German colo
ny. the one on the outskirts of Jerusalem.
There Is road which has been made by
the simple plan Of clearing a narrow
track OF some Of the loose stones and
There are even fieldsNllttle fields which
are marked by high walls of piled stones
removed from the surface. But the very
large stones. granite rocks too heavy for
ings like Ca;edonian rubbing stones. And
me small stones remain. too. for the
simple reason that they and the powdered
dust among which they lie are the fruit
full soil-all that there Is of it.
Ihen another sweep around gray hill
SIDE, and brown mass on the top Of a
brown hill. dominated by a heavy looking
| tower. comes into view. and you feel your
blood throbbins. you do not quite know
why. That Is your first view of Jerusa-
building on the top. is the Mount Of
You cannot help being disappointed. Tho
distant dist view reveals no shining points Of
luxuriant palms. The impression Of peace
! and rest, of balm for troubled feelings
Of h0ly calm OF which you have in some
the first glimpse Of the holy city. are
strangely absent At a distance Jerusa-
lem looks simply eommonplace 1t will
The train rumbles Oh into dirty. mean
little station. where a fat Turkish sta
t!on master In uniform and crowd Of
and dirt occupy the platform. You de-
scend and climb into rickety broken
carriage. whose pitiful decrepitude you
look around for the Jerusalem Of your
dreams. You find yourself in desolation
OF limestone dust. The city stands upon
a hill opposite to that upon which the
ton winds down a. steep road into the
| valley between and then drags up the
das Is boz
dust arise from beneath the rickety. rum
bling carriage The thin st unit, tt trees rs.
roadside are white with dust. The rag
ged. frowsy beggars who line the 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
top, high battlemented wall. terminal
Ing at the point Of the mountain heavy,
yid. At the top Of the hill there Is q
gate In the wall, an arched tunnel, with
q right-angled bend in it like a gas pipe
This is the Jaffa gate But. fortunately.
the rich men no longer need PASS through
this needles eye. for by the side ofthe gate
tho =sectlon OF me wall winch stretched
from the gate house to the tower has
| been removed and a decent roadway
made. In here you drive and find your
self in fairly open little street. in which
| the chief business Of Jerusalem Is carried
on. And In the street are donkeys. boys,
/ priests mostly Greek and Armenian,
slimy-looking rogues-Turkish soldiers
/ 6eggars, natives in bright costumes. shop
keepers touts. importunate with their
/ 'sYou CONS my shop, sare.p floating. chok.
i that lie Jerusalem as far as you have got