Maryland independent. [volume] (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1874-current, 1909-09-24
STRIFE AMONG THE CHURCHES IN PALESTINE
Dissatisfaction With the Greek Clergy Against
Whom Serious Charges Are Made Influence
Of Newspapers in the Lille OF Jerusalem To-day.
BY Rev. IRA W. HENDERSON.
In the Brooklyn Daily Eagle.

Church Of the Holy Sepulchre a Chris
tian, rather than a Mohammedan. A
thoughtful man might regard it even
as blessing that in the present state
Of religious unregenerateness thd
Holy Land is in the hands of the
Turk.
But there are other things than
church feuds and church edifices in
Palestine. Jerusalem has donkeyi
that run you down II you do not
hustle out Of their way, hardly any
that hasten out Of yours and others
that sleep unconcernedly ra~nr-ti;iE t;E5ei' m
sidewalk. iust-<odtside the Jana gate.
Il Ddnascus has a trolley system that
is a great convenience, If you know
how to use it. 1t is easy to learn
1t doesn't go to either railroad sta
tion, and you change cars and pay
another fare in the middle 1t apl
proaches annoyingly near the station
OF the Turkish Railroad to Haifa and
cheerfully neglects the French sta
tion, whence you leave for Beyrouth.
Beirut has one line in operation, the
tracks without wires for another and
the wires without tracks for a third.
Some day there will be a system, and
maybe some watered stock. (The
Moslems have learned to drink Chris
tian beverages. containing one-half of
one per cent. or more of alcohol. and
they are in way to acquire other
Occidental habits.) 1t is said that an
application is being considered to per-
nit the erection and operation of
trolley road from Jerusalem to Beth
lehem, and that another beseeching
permission to put up telephones in
Jerusalem may be granted A motor
stage line. in competition with the
railroad. which runs twice day each
way from Jaffa to Jerusalem, is
rumored. Its predecessors are the
motor from Damascus to Palmyra,
and the two cars that have been max
ing daily trips from Beirut to Sidon
and return. The success of two Eng
lishmen. who went recently from
Damascus to Bagdad in motor car,
has stimulated much favorable COM
ment anent the possibility of mail
route between those points. The auto
does in six days what it takes the
camel twenty-one to do.
The railway service Of the country
is better than one would suppose.
The road from Jaffa to Jerusalem is
narrow gauge and the poorest of the
lot, but its first class aceommoda-
tions are by no means uncomfortable
for a four-hour ride and the scenery
is magnificent The road from Haifa
to Damascus along the foot of Holy
Mt. Carmel, across the battle worn
plain of Esdraelon, through the val
ley of Jezreel of Bible story, along
, the Jordan, skirting the Galilean
Lake upon its southern shore. climb.
- ,;-;S1i e z. ~
/ able beautiful ss,sztss n Sli1sg' 'trmuk
River, racing across the fertile fields
of the Hauran to the oasis of the
Damascus, is provived with strictly
first class equipment in every depart
ment, and, though it is narrow gauge
and owned by the Turkish Govern
ment-as is the road from Jaffa to
El-Kuds-is a delight TO the traveller
and a welcome relief to the tourist
who has known only carriages and
horses and donkeys for many days
The French road from Damascus to
Beirut offers majestic ride and ac-
ceptable accommodations, though not
so new as those provided on the road
Just named. The line from Reyak,
on the main division from Damascus
to Beirut, to Baalbek is apparently
between narrow and broad gauge
Its accommodations are entirely salts
factory, while the landscapes to be
viewed maintain the extremely high
average that is characteristic of the
railroads of the Lebanon district in
particular and of the whole of Pales-
tine in general. 1t simply remains to
connect Haifa with the Holy City to
reconstruct in its entirety the prob
lem of tourist travel in the Holy
Land.
1t must not be thought, however.
that invention and reform are having
all bed of roses. The railroad
through Moab southwark to Mecca
is having constructive troubles with
the Bedouins. who persist in tearing
up a track that here, as well as every
where in Palestine, is laid in the
finest sort of easily obtained rock
ballast, and it is only week ago that
troops had to be sent from Jerusalem
to Nablus to preserve order and to
prevent further outrages by the con-
servatives in that town upon the rad
icals who compose the organization
OF the Young Turks.