Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-01-03

JANUARY 3, 1909.
expensive. but few OF the soldiers sent
to Mecca and Medinah or to suppress the
Wahabite rebellionS have ever returned.
Regiment after regiment, brigade after
brigade has been sacrificed to the climate
and to the cruelty of the rebelliouS Arab
sheikhs. Now. however, the railway to
Medinai oeing finished. garrsons of
troops can be sent there without peril
and in very short space of time COM
pared with the former means of trans
portation. 1t is intended to extend the
track to Mecca, Il distance OF sixty miles,
and il will probably be completed during
the next twelve months.
Religious Objections.
There has been a good deal OF discus
sion as to the other motive which actual
ed the sultan in building the railway, be-
cause no pilgrimage can be performed
with profit without some sacrifice. and
the millions of Mussulmans who have
crossed the desert to pray at the shrine
OF Mohammed nave gone straight to
paradise because OF the hunger and
thirst. the neat and disease. the danger
from the bandits and Bedouins who have
lain in wait for caravans of pilgrims and
have taken their lives as well as their
property. These sufferings have been
sufficient penance to atone for all the
sins and crimes that human weakness
could commit, and many OF the muilah
theoogians are very doubtful whether the
same atonement can be expected from a
journey 10 Mecca by rail. The pilgrim
age can now be made in ten days or two
weeks with comparatively little discom-
fort at cost of G5, and 1t involves no
sacrifice at all
But the public safety can now be assur-
ed There longer serious men
ace TO the health Of the communities
through which the pilgrims pass. Near
ly all of The great epidemics in the east
have come from these pilgrimages, which
have scattered disease and death as they
passed. During the last few years COM
peteDt physicians, graduates Of the
American College at Beirut and the
Robert College at Constantinople, have
been employed as sanitary inspectors. and
the danger from epidemics has been there
by reduced to a minimum, but the In
spectors were never sure that an infected
person had not escaped their vigilance.
and they have often been accused of
carlessness. Sometimes tens of thousands
of pilgrims have died like the locusts of
Egypt In the desert or upon the decks
of the Red Sea steamers, and their
bodies have been thrown overheard to
pollute the sea. Those horrible expert
eDces are now passed. and hereafter pious
Moslems may make the pilgrimage with
out peril either to themselves or TO others.
An Engineering Triumph.
The new railway is remarkable as an
engineering triumph. The right Of way
runs parallel with the Jordan and the
east coast Of the Red Sea, between two
volcanic ranges Of mountains, some of
which reach a height of ten thousand
feet. There are no rivers or lakes and
only now and then wady, or water
which carries off tho rain The
precipitation Is only a few inches in the
year. and the earth is so baked and hard
! ened that it Is as impervious to moisture
/ as slate roof Wells exist at rare inter
/ walls with groups of palm trees around
them, where the caravans for ages have
made their camps. These are fed by
subterranean springs, and the engineers
| have found salvation for A large area
of tho country by discovering an artesian
! basin. which will bG tapped at each
station along the road end, it is believed,
Will furnish an abundant supply of water.
! not only for the locomotives, but also for
! irrigation.
| Three explorers Charles Doughty, an
EnsIishman; Charles Hubar, a French
man. and Julius Euting, who have
trayersed both sides of the track for
| hundreds OF miles, are confident that there
| Is a sufficient water supply to irrigate
large areas. and by the introduction of
modern pumps the valley may be re-
deemed. Their researches have demon
strated that the route over which the
railway passes was the ancient line of
commerce, by which the products OF the
east were exchanged for those of the
west. the teas and fabrics of China the
spices and drugs of East Indies gold and
jewels from the Zambesi We're conveyed
on camel back along the trail that par
/ 3Ilels the track. The ancient trail divided
at point some distance north OF
Medinah. one line proceeding toward
GAZE. the home Of Samson, and Alex
andria. and the other continuing through
northward to Damascus and Byzantium
! For nine centuries commerce followed this
| trail. until the Emperor Trajan in his
campaign against Petra drove the cara
vans from the ancient route. and they
| adopted a new one through Mesopo-
! tamia.
Was Honestly aud Quickly Built
| The railway track reaches an altitude
| Of $500 feet above the Mediterranean
! in the mountains of Arabia and dips
! six hundred feet below the level of the
| sea in the desert. All the construction
material had to be imported, of course.
| The ties are of iron, SO that the Bedouins
will not steal them for fuel and most
of the rails were furnished by tho steel
! trust in New York. NJ. Gaudin, a French
engineer, was the superintendent of con-
struction and did the work with extra
ordinary energy and skill. He was not
expected to complete the road before the
middle OF the year 1910 but to the sur
prise of every one familiar with the habit
ual procrastination of the east he has com
pleted it nearly two years before his
time, and traffic was opened with i'm
pressive ceremonies last fall
An even more extraordinary circum-
stance, and it is said to he unprecented
In Turkey-the road was honestly built
without bribery or blackmaii or corrup-
ton in any form. The money came from
all the corners of the MoSlem world in the
form of voluntary contributions to pro-
mote religious work, and the Sheikh ul
Islam. the high priest of Mohammedan-
ism at Constantinople, was the chief pro-
moter. He issued an appeal to the faith
full throughout the world for funds to
construct a sacred railway for carrying
pilgrims to the shrine and tomb OF the
prophet, and streams of money came from
every land, every Moslem community in
Philippines. The funds We're spent with
a dollar was stolen or wasted which is a
miracle. No appropriation for the work
has ever appeared in the treasury budget,
although special stamp tax was levied
throughout the Ottoman empire for the
benefit of the enterprise and produced
about a million dollars annually for the
last five years. The work of construction
was done chiefly by soldiers Of the Turk
iSh army. under the direction OF French
and English engineers.