New-York tribune., 1906-07-08
THE UNCHANGING EAST.
Despite Its Railroad, Holy Land Is
Thousand Years Behind Time.
BY w. G. Fitzgerald.

never yet met visitor to the Holy Land
who was not struck by the fact that Palestine
Is over thousand years behind the times not
withstanding the queer little railroad from Jaffa
70 Jerusalem which enables prosaic pOrters to
yell out anonymously Jerusalem, Jerusalem
all out'
This sort of thing is little disturbing to the
pilgrim-especially the woman pilgrim, who on
the journey up from the port has been trying to
compose ser thoughts with becoming solemnity
II would be much more interesting if one
could ride up from Jaffa caravan of sway
ing camels, but that cannot now be done There
is at any rate bit of progress in the Holy
Land-a crowd of insistent hackmen who
tout for custom in front of the railroad station
building in the Holy City!
Truth to tell, many a cultured visitor to the
Holy Land is exceedingly glad to turn his back
on Jerusalem. At the Church of the Holy Sep
ulchre they amazed and disgusted to see
hundreds of dirty Armenian, Greek and Rus
sian peasants sleeping and eating in this fame
of hoary antiquity, which the flower of Chris
tian chivalry strOve to wrest from Islam more
than thousand years ago; and more wonderful
still, Moslem troops were ordered by the Turk
fish Mutesarrif of Jerusalem to keep order
among the excited Christian sects, lest they
shed one anothers blood in the square Easter
morn!
The dirt and confusion, the beggars, the holy
places shown with unblushing effrOntery in
three places at once, the uprOar and extOrtiOn-
these things cause the traveller TO call for horse
and pack mule and 'mukhari," or caravan man.
and go rattling out of the Damascus Gate
toward the great silent heart of Palestine, where
times frantic rush is unknown and men live
precisely as they did in the time of Moses.
All other nations advance. Palestine is fast
losing the few industries she picked up since
the Crusades The Levantines on the coast will
tell one great times are coming; that the peril
landing through the rocks in small boats at
Jaffa is to be done away with that the solitary
little railroad from that port to Jerusalem is to
be extended that the outrageous and battling
rates of exchange-the government has one
commerce has another, and the Christian post
offices third-will be made uniform and so on.
Uproar, confusion, extOrtion, deception!
Truly it is good to get outside the gates and in
sight of a BedOuin encampment of sombre
camel hair tents-the black TENTS of Kedar" of
"SOOmon's Song" And to be entertained by
shepherd sheikh-pa triarch, and hear by night
the old, old songs of love and war And to
watch the vast focks and herds, and see with
ones own eyes the daily life of the Pentateuch
which the Mosaist scribe has made so familiar
TO all.
The Arab population consists of the Hadari or
settled tribes, and the Bedawi or nomad shep-
herds, who live under the patriarchal govern
ment of Abraham The nomads regard the
settled tribes as their prey, and levy blackmail
accordingly. Between the two races there is
no comparison in point of physical and moral
character The Hadari Arabs are poor spirit
less creatures-lazy, dishonest in petty ways,
yet protesting great faith in the "kiIhem fren-
jeyeh" or word of a Frank" Yet in fact they
are suspicious of his every movement, and the