Rocky Ford enterprise., 1911-12-01

I,l|]&$5RSSES I,l|]S${3SSS s
over the Worlds Oldest Route-The
Ancient Highway Across Mesopo-
tamia viii Again Be Main Artery
Of Trade and Travel.
BY WILLIAM T. ELLIS.


Urfa, Mesopotamia.-To this city,
the ancient Odessa, I have come from
Aleppo. over the route taken by count
less armies of conquest-Turkish,
Arab, Crusader, Persian, Roman. Gre
clan. Egyptian, Assyrian. Babylonian.
Abraham came over the same route
to the Promised Land. Jonah went
this way, after trying to go in the 9TH
er direction. The heart-broken pro-
cession of Jewish captives came into
exile over this same stony road. Now,
In the same general direction are
pointed the German Bagdad railway
Q ID the American Chester railway
Ia itself was long regarded as "Ur
OF the Chaldees," from which Abra-
ham came. 1t has many traditional
associations with him. The Arabs say
that he was such good man that the
people of Urfa tried to make him stay
here and become their king. instead OF
going to Canaan. When he persisted
they finally took him up to the crest of
the hill, which is now crowned by the
ruins of a castle of unknown antiquity,
and threw him down. He was mirac-
ulously preserved, and landed on his
Oct. Where each foot struck there
gushed forth a beautiful fountain
and there are the lovely Pools OF
Abraham to this day. They are filled
with fish regarded by the Moslems as
sacred, and so tame that they fairly
crowd one another out of the water at
the approach of a person, whom they
expect to feed them. So thick are
the fish that yanked big fellow out
of the water by the crook of my cane
which proceeding I was advised not
to repeat, as the Moslems here are
very fanatical.
A few hours below here is Harran.
where Abraham dwelt for time
after leaving the city of Ur, down be-
low Babylon. Here he sent for wife
for his son, and Rebecca's well is a
favorite place of resort for pious Mos
lens. Its genuineness is quite prob
able, considering the unquestioned
antiquity of many wells in Asia.
An American Woman's Fame.
Looming larger than even Father
Abraham in modern Urfa is Miss Shat
tuck. missionary of the American
board, who spent about thirty years
OF Ner life here, until her death last
Ig. Miss Shattuck was an ex-
traJrdinary instance Of how an Ameri-
can, -'oman of force can carve out
unidtis career for herself In foreign
land. Her name is easily the best
known In the city, and all the varied
work of the American mission still
goes by It. She was the head of the
municipal school board, as we'll as the
manager of a series of Industrial
schools maintained by the mission,
and an elaborate system of home in
dustries by Armenian women who had
lost their husbands in the 1896 massa-
ere. She also ran an orphanage and
a blind school. and did direct mission
ary work besides.
For the past twenty years this Spar
tan Massachusetts woman did her
work with only one lung. Yet she
spared herself no rigors. She slept on
a native bed in her office, and lived
mostly on native food. When travel
ing she would share her fare with the
muleteers. She has been known to
drop all her work, in order to nurse
a native boy through the crisis of the
smallpox. Still, she had plenty of dig
nifty when occasion called for 1t.
missionary who was visiting her want
ed to go to Rebecca's Well, but the
governor refused, out of pure cussed-
ness, to send the escort of soldiers to
which foreigners are entitled when
travelling in dangerous parts of the
empire. Miss Shattuck, with flashing
L. I,.t
,rSrched straight into the mutasarifs
L$rence, when he was holding coun-
rlN In vigorous Turkish, she de-
mahded an explanation of the insult
to her guest. In true oriental fashion,
the governor blamed it all on the mill
tary official. cursing the latter, and
splitting in his face, in the presence of
the other counsellors.
Withal. Miss Shattuck was only
woman, and In Turkey. where women
have no standing. The recent massa-
ere of Armenians broke her heart, and
hastened her death. She cried over
It almost continuously, after the news
reached her.
Armenians and Revolution.
There are those in this part of the
world who bluntly say that the Armeni-
ans are not worth any such sacrifice
as Miss Shattuck and host of other
American missionaries have made for
them. Up here, on the edge of the an
cient kingdom of Armenia, the Ar
merriam is a perennial question. He is
nimble witted-far more SO than any
of his neighbors-progressi and
prosperous. He gets along better
than the Turk or the Kurd or the Jew.
But he is, as a rule, proud, ungrateful,
selfish and irritating. Instead of try