Courier Democrat. (Langdon, N.D.) 1891-1920, 1907-04-04

Since my last communication we have
visited many of the historical and noted
points of great interest in this part of
the world. After leaving Jatfa we visit
ed the city of Haifa, which is LAID out
like most of the Syrian cities, with the
exception that the Germans are owners
of part of it and are living in quarter
of the city, colony of themselves. They
have fine homes and in business way
appear to have prospered, many indeed
having become quite wealthy. Near
here is the famous Mount Carmel, where
for considerable length of time there
has been established great Carmelite
convent. This is the place that our
German friends in Cavalier county have
named their post Office after. Near this
place we found the ancient ruins of
Cesarea. where at one time Saint Paul
was a prisoner for two years and it was
here that he was met by Jesus and was
first named Peter, when Christ said un-
to him. "Thou art Peter, and upon this
rock | build my church" Both Mount
Carmel and Cesarea are very interesting
places and are yearly visited by thou
sands of pilgrims. Another place where
we had very interesting visit was
Nazareth. You all know the history of
this place for it was here that Jesus
spent his early youth and taught in the
synagogue. The city at the present day
has population of about 10000 people
and surrounding it there is a fine farm
ing country, considerable cotton and
small grain being grown by the owners
of small tracts of land. All cities you
visit here are enclosed with stone walls
as we remember them being described
in bible history. Here in Nazareth we
find the work shop of Joseph, and the
synagogue in which Christ taught is
still standing and used by the Greek
church as place of public worship.
We also found here Protestant girls
orphanage, beautifully situated and
overlooking the Valley of Nazareth.
Another of the interesting places to be
visited is Mary's we'll, where each day
hundreds of women come daily to fill
their earthen water jugs and carry them
away on their heads. 1t is the only
spring here and it is certain that from
this spring the child Jesus and his
mother were at one time among the
number who went to draw water Here
as everywhere else we have visited in
the Holy Land the country has the
picturesque attractiveness that carries
one back to the time when the scenes OF
bible history were being enacted and ap
parently has been unchanged by the
ages that have rolled by. In plain view
is Mount Tabor, one of the most con
spicuous of the mountains in Galilee
Were to give you detailed account o
the many very interesting points We
have visited it would perhaps take ul
too much of your space. ! will simply
mention that we visited Tiberius anc
the Sea of Galilee. III on which we tool
a short sail. Our next important stoI
was at Beirut, a very nice city on The
sea. larger than most of those we have
so far visited and having population
of 100000. There is here noted
American college with over thousand
students in attendance and in quite /,
prosperous condition. In Beirut the in
habitants are stated as being christians
to the number of 10000. Many of tn,
homes you pass are beautiful and cost
ly, with hill side locations overlooking
the valley in which the business centr,
of Nazareth is located From Beirut W,
took train for the city of Damascus
great in both past and present day his
tory and not surpassed by any we hav'
visited for beauty, the country lying be
tween here and Beirut, a distance O
ninety miles, affords exceedingly fin,
scenery as viewed from the windows O
the train. We passed through thous
ands of acres of beautiful orange groves
vineyards and mulberry groves. In the
latter the silkworms are carefully caree
for by their owners. The valley as il
runs through the mountain is quite
thickly inhabited and looks to the
traveller like succession of cities ano
villages. Taxation here is very heavy
For every tree growing in the groves