Bisbee daily review., 1908-04-08
DAMASCUS CITY IS OLDEST
 IN THE WORLD
Shriek of the Iron Horse Is Now
 Heard Within Its Walls Scenes of the Crusades- From Carmel to Damascus.
co. c.Aoung.)

Damascus, Syria, March 7,190S.
 At this writing we are in the oldest city in the world, Damascus, which will reserve for another and later ar ticle. The real purpose of this article is to tell, if possible, of our trip from Mount Carmel on the Mediterranean sea to Damascus, a distance or lSO miles and is now made in train. The point of landing near Mount Carmel is Caifa, or Kaifa as it is sometimes call ed, and is a town of about 12,O00 peo- pie. The town is just across the bay of Acer where tnet knights of St. John made their last stand in Palestine Spending a day and night in Caifa we had time to ascend Mount Carmel and view the place where Elijah made 1 the sacrifice in contest with the priests of idolatrons Baal mentioned in | first Kings 18th chapter; also the place where the followers of Baal met their tragic death and Jehovah wor- ship won the day of victory. Just a a little distance beyond is the valley of Sisera, who was treachously slain | Ibv Herber,s wife At the foot of Mt. !
 Carmel on the east I saw for the first time in my life the plain of Esdraelon, the famous battlefield of the Eastern world for 5000 years. Barak and Gid con won their victories here, and we crossed the river Kishon which Gid con crossed with his 300 braves and where Saul, the king of Israel was killed and buried, and afterwards, ex- humed for burial in the tomb of the kings near Jerusalem. Many times this stream has run with the blood of the slain as Shiloh or Gettesburg; for Inere it was that the Maccabes and Crusaders made history, and as late as about, 1900 Ptolmess the third of Egypt was defeated by Napoleon's great Egyptian army. I understand better than ever before why so many
 battles have been fought on this one lEsdraelon plain. It is a natural battle lfeld, if ever nature made one, and
 bounded on one side by the sea and the other by a steep mountain, there is no other way to pass a great army
 To come from Egypt with an army bS $ land would lead along this way today for it is the only pass through whica
 there is any approach. The further
 T went on my way to Damascus the more I vas convinced, but of course We did not keep on the ancient roac
 very far. This plain of Esdaelon i:
 now a wheat field and surely serves ! the world better than the former bloody usage to which many conquer Iors have turned it. I saw the farmer blowing his oxen with one hand t |. the only one handle of his woodeL blow, a long goad in his hand, ana
 often the patient oxen would shy a
 the train This last fact will be seer i clearer to the reader when I say rha
 this railroad has been completed onl!
 about two years and runs only tri
 weekly, and not very fast at best, tb,
 oxen have not become tanned to thu
 train. At pretty good speed we pro
 ceeded off this plain eastward an,
 down grade until we came to tn,
 breaks of the Jordon valley, and 4
 miles from Caifa on the Mediterran jean we are on the railroad bridge o the ancient Jofdon, historic with pro
 phet, priest and king, and We are S6l
 it. below sea level. In March and Apri
 all this county is green with life, anC
 here in this great steep valley is thu