The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1902-07-20
BIRTHPLACE OF SAVIOR
DESCRIBED BY w. E. CURTIS
Marked by Strikngly Beautiful Environment. The
Grave of Rachel. Sacred Dust of Jacobs
Wife Covered by Mosque.
CIV. E. Curtis. Bethlehem, in Chicago
Record Herald.

Record Herald.
Tt delights the soul to find at last a
clean and we'll kept town in Palestine
and the more so because it is Bethle-
hem, place which appeals more
strongly and deeply to the religious and
poetic sentiment than any other on
the most beautiful idyls in human his
tory for was it not here Ruth CLEANED
the fields of Boaz, and not only won a
good husband. but became the mother
of long line of Kings, and was it not
here that Jacob laid the body of his be-
loved Rachel? Looking from the walls
of the convent you can see the home of
of Jesse, the slopes upon which David
herded his sheep the farm of BoaZ. the
caves in which David hid from Saul,
the fields in which the shepherds were
abiding keeping watch over their focks
by night when they saw the star of
Bethlehem, and the paths by which
they approached the stable in which the
young child lay. All this scarcely seems
real, but there it is, spread out before
you like an ordinary landscape, like the
views in any ordinary country, and
there are no fakes in the natural fea-
lures of Bethlehem. The landscape is
exactly the same this morning as it was
on that memorable day when Samuel
came up from Gilgal to choose a King
from among the chief men of Judea.
According to the legends, the star fell
into we'll. and you can see it there
now. The rest is so real, SO actual, so
tangible, that one is tempted to believe
the story, and I saw the star myself.
twinkling in the dark water.
1t is delightful four mile drive from
Jerusalem to Bethlehem over good
road, between picturesque and sunny
landscapes, and every foot of the way
is filled with historical associations. We
pass a great hospital which Sir Moses
Montefiore built for the benefit of the
poor of his race, and the Temple Col.
ony, where German Lutherans from
Wurtemburg and Buffalo have set up
model town as an example to the in
habitants of the Holy Land; the Hill of
Evil Council; one of several trees on
which Judas is said to have hanged
himself: the country houses of Caiaphas;
the house of Simeon; who wanted to de-
"thy salvation" the we'll at which
Joseph stopped to water his donkey when
he was on his way to Bethlehem; the
Convent of the Cross, which was found
ed by St. Helena; there is the earth
that nourished the roots that bore the
tree that yielded the timber that made
the cross upon which the Son of God was
crucified" Under the altar of the
chapel the monks will show you hole
in the ground where the stump of the
tree once stood, and pilgrims fall down
and worship it.
Strange bands, these pilgrims. parti-
cularly the Russians, but there are
many others. and they come from all the
corners of the earth in hunger and
thirst, through frost and heat, begging
food on the way and sleeping under the
stars at night. Their faith is mighty,
their zeal a burning flame and their
satisfaction intense. Only soul entire
ly free from the trammels of the world
can kneel and kiss a marble slab which
covers a hole from which tree Is said
to have been taken 1900 years ago.
A little farther on is a castle of the
Knights of Malta, which has been
standing here ever since the crusades.
1t overlooks "the fields of peas" SO
called from a legend that Christ once
asked a man in that field what he was
sowing. The man replied, Stones"
Whereupon the seed peas in his pouch
turned to stone as punishment for his
impertinence to the Saviour and ever
since that field has produced peas of
stone, which are still found on the spot
and sold to pilgrims
But soon we come to little mosque
built Of coarse white limestone, with
low dome of masonry, that stands by
the roadside in most unattractive sur
roundings. It is, however, one of the
most sacred places on earth in the
minds of several hundred millions of
people.
About 1000 years ago young sheikh
named Jacob came along this way. He
had served a deceitful father-in-law
seven years for one Of his daughters and
had been betrayed into marriage with
another, and then had served seven
years longer for the right one. His
wives and little ones, his manservants
and his maidservants, his oxen and his
asses his herds and fiocks followed him
as he moved slowly toward Hebron
where his father Isaac dwelt. When
then reached Bethlehem, Rachel, the
beloved wife, for whom he had served
fourteen years, died in the pangs of
motherhood and was buried upon green
slope by the roadside. There is some
thing remarkable, something inexplic-
able that a man of Jacobs wealth, under
the circumstances, should have buried
his beloved in such an exposed and
public place and entirely among stran-
gers, when Machpelah, the sepulcher of
his ancestors, was at Hebron, only
few miles away
Long after this, when he was about
to die in Egypt, Jacob told his son
Joseph the touching story of his moth
er's death, and burial, and this makes
it the more extraordinary that Joseph,
the lord of Egypt, a prince of the vast
wealth and power, did not transfer the
remains of his mother from this tomb on
the highway to the family sepulcher
where Sarah, the wife of Abraham, Re-
becca, the wife of Isaac, and Leah, the
unloved wife of Jacob, lay. But we