The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1910-11-23
ARE QUARRELS IN PALESTINE
FANATICAL SECTS WHO CON-
TEND AMONG THEMSELVES.
Holy Place in Constant Turmoil.
MOslems Use Lash on Christians.
Blood POIlutes Sepulcher.

Moslems Use Lash on Christians.
Blood POIlutes Sepulcher.
1t is hard to believe that the Holy
Sepulcher, for which the knights of
old so gallantly fought, has now be-
come the object of fanatical quar-
rels. In fact every holy spot in
Palestine is claimed by Greeks, Lat
ms and Americans, and on days of
festival it is common to see blood
shed at the various sacred shrines
as a result of fanatical fights. Re-
Gently some disgruntled Greeks,
knowing that the Church of the Holy
Sepulcher would be filled at the
Easter celebrations. sent a large can
die, which was to be burned at the
shrine during the festivities The
priest to whom it was sent failed
to call for it, and the custom au-
thorities being little suspicious
cut the handle in two and examined
it. They found that it contained
several balls of dynamite. Had it
been burned in front of the Holy
Sepulcher thousands would have
been killed.
Christians Whipped.
Frank g. Carpenter commenting
upon conditions in Palestine says:
Indeed, the fights among the war
ring christians are such that the
Mohammedan soldiers have to use
whips to keep them in order. The
Turks are always on guard in the
Church of the Holy Sepulcher.
have seen them there at Easter time,
when they were whipping the quar-
reling Greeks, Armenians and Copts
in order to separate them. During
the fight knives were drawn and it
is not an uncommon thing for blood
to pollute the Holy Sepulcher on
festal days
Il went last week to Bethlehem
to visit the Church of the Nativity.
In the stable where Christ was born
a line has been drawn across the
center of the floor. On one side of
that line the Greek Catholics claim
their rights and the other side be-
longs to the Romans AS the two
eects were worshiping a Mohamme-
dan soldier, with a gun and whip in
his hand, stood at each end of the
line and kept order. Other Moslem
soldiers were guarding the services
in the church overhead"
At Easter time thousands belong
ing to fanatical sects go about in pro
cession singing hymns denouncing
those of other beliefs and opinions.
Not very long ago a number of fanat-
les set fire to very costly and bean
tiful collection of draperies that had
been placed in a holy grottO by tho
followers of another sect. The
place took fire and soon the whole
church was filled with flames and
smoke, barely escaping being de-
stroyed.
Greek Church Is Strong.
The Greek church is much larger
than we Americans dream. Regard
ing it's size and strength Mr. Carpen-
ter says:
we have so few Greek christians
III the United States tina. IL is hare
for us to appreciate what the Greek
church means. 1t is one of the
strong churches of the world. 1t has
altogether about 100, 100000 mem
bers, which is more than One-flfth
of all the christians on earth and
more than two-thirds as many as all
the Protestants. | have before me
the latest statistics of religious de-
nominations. There are in the world
230 100000 Roman Catholics, about
$50, 100000 PrOtestants, 1OO,976,-
900 Greek christians. 100000 who
belong to the Church Of Abyssinia
dad about 700 600 ArmenianS Tia
sum total of christians is less than
800, 100000 and less than one-third
Of the population of the world.
On the other hand, there are
100000 Chinese who worship
Confucius, 100,000,000 Hindoos.
l75.o9N, 900 Mohammedans and 147.-
coo 600 Buddhists. Those who be-
Eeve in the various other religions
are fewer
An Humble Patriarch.
Speaking of the Patriarch of Jeru-
salem, Mr.. Carpenter tells of the
feet-washing ceremony which he wit
messed:
'One of the queerest sights of the
world is to see his beatitude, as
the patriarch is called, going
through the ceremony of washing the
feet of the II apostles in front of
the Church of the Holy SeprIcher.
This he does every year. He ap-