Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1908-05-20
MORE OF cITY OF JERUsALEH.
Gen. Rogers Visits Interesting Places
Named in Bible History.

lne WAITS. we pass Inrougn massive
wall, into a narrow arcade street
arched, with openings to let in the sun
light. The street is cosmopolitan, many
occupations dismal indeed. In the
molly throng on the narrow street, the
many occupations in the little dark,
cold. dreary shops saw busy people,
and an idle mass of degenerate sons of
Abraham. We wander aimlessly, in
dark ways, in little ray of sunshine,
in the lights of day; where the smell
is universal. the air impregnated with
decay, where people are happy, un-
happy, contented and diseontcd; where
the Jew walls, the Islam faith abounds,
the various Christian sects look at each
other askance.
We will turr in this street leading to
the Palace of Plate, and stop here on
the site OF that temple where Plate
presided, and all the people cried out,
''Persecute Him, !" as shown so vividly
in the painting "Christ before Plate,
exhibited in the u. S. few years ago.
The painter had evidently seen a Jeru-
salem audience, religious persecution,
a Christian scrap" We go down via
where the Christ walked bearing the
cross and leaving His foot prints in the
marble, as has been shown to me in
different churches. We go via Dolor-
oses and are at the church of the Holy
Sepulchre, said to have been first
built by Hellan, the mother of Con-
stantine, who identified the place by
finding the three crosses three hundred
years later. The one on which Christ
was crucified being turned over, F"
which settled the identity of the cross
and place. 1t was molly crowd that
passed down this street with shouts of
"crucify Him." He had only taught
higher ideal of lie; had healed the lep-
ers, raised the dead, and, as Josephus
writes, was a "doer of wonderful
things" Matthew says he wore robe
of scarlet; Luke makes it white; John
of another color; and Peter in Acts v
says they hung Him on a tree. We
enter the church of the Holy Sepul-
chre and stand under dome of large
proportions, emblasoned in gold and
mother of pearl mosaic. We see candles
burning, lamps giving light under dome
and all around. We stand by silver
star, marking the place where the
tree" stood. A dirty crowd is wait
ing an opportunity to kneel and kiss the
star. Around this place are lamps of
Greek, Armenian and Latjli churches,
while close by is stone or which Jesus
was anointed when being prepared foi
the sepulchre. More lamps, more
weeping for Jesus. But a step one
side is Q stone where Mary stood when
the body was annointei, more lamps,
and one more step beyond is the sepul-
chre of Joseph of Arimathaa, where
they placed the body and from which
the angles rolled the stone away when
Christ passed out Gnd assembled from
Mt. 0livett, as | wrote you twice be-
fore. IL il time for the professional.
We hear the chant of priests; we smell
incense; see the smoke of frankincense
and myrrh. The Greeks, in the costume
of their church, come slowly, steadily.
They bow before the cross, they chant
and swing the censor, and pass to their
cloister to continue the praise. Next
comes the Armenian and finally the
Latin. Then the smoke Of incense,
whatever il means and what properties
it has | am not advised of, fills the
space. Standing sentinel, from the
Turkish garrison, is a soldier with
musket to keep these Holy people wor-
shipping the Prince of Peace from per-
sonal combat over the right of way.
pass out of the Holy Sepulchre
and go to the Damascus gate, then turn
to the right and enter the quarries of
Solomon, which are under the city.
We take taper, follow the guide and
go into the quarries from which the
rock to wall and build Jerusalem, also
the Catacombs, was taken. 1t ex-
tends to the temple site, is subter-
ranean vault from which the rock was
quarried, cut and shaped for the build
ers. We see the marks of the chiseIs;
the places where the lamps were placed
to enable the workmen to chisel. We
wander down in the great cavern till
weary and turn back to the sunshine,
going thence to the tombs of the Kings.
We go down into a room forty feet
square, and as many deep, cut out of
solid lime rock, then through an open
passage to another room of equal size
where the obsequies were held and
sacrifices were made. A stone was
rolled away and we crawl through a
hole and are in sepulehreal chamber.
We pass through another small opening
by STOPPING, for he who humbles him
self shall be exalted; we pas down
more steps and are in another chamber
of the dead-dead whose bones had
been taken away centuries ago and
scattered to the winds.
We 90 out of the wonderful caverns,
cut in the rock, and, retracing our steps
to the hotel. pass a tented village of
Bedwin gypsies whose greasy, william
Gus children follow and beg for money.
A worse makeup of humanity, one
must not wish to meet the second time.
They live in tents of the desert type
and, was informed, are good workers
in Jerusalem olive wood. Jerusalem
every colony walled. The English,
Germans, Greeks and French each have
schools, chapels and hospices for their
countrymen. In the evening at the
hotel parlor we listened to an interest
ing lecture by an Oxford graduate who
had spent eighteen years with the Bed
wins.
How people, not insured, escape all
the vile diseases that the modern mic
robe produces is astonishing. The city
is deyided into Jewish, Mohammedan
and Christian quarters. They mingle
together in the day time but go TO
their own division at night. We go to
the church of the Holy Sepulchre, which
says was originally built by
Hellan and Constantine. 1t is immense,
and beautiful inside the dome. Here.
TOO, the same conditions exist that
mentioned at Bethlehem. A Turkish
soldier guards the place to keep the
priests and monks from fighting. We
are shown where the cross stood, where
Christ was placed for annointment,
where Mary and the other Mary stood
n a. -. n