The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-12-10

family name; I had never enquired, for 1t sufficed that he was from Nablous, the. Shechem of old, was Samaritan of whom there are now less than a hundred in all Palestine, and was a lineal descendant of Aaron, the high priest.
 Solomon was my first dragoman III the Holy Land and to him l was lr- 6ebted for many personal privileges as he seemed to command the respect of Jew, Mohammedan and Christian alike. met him in Jerusalem and never shall I forget my first night in the city of the cenoculum as under the soft beams of an Oriental moon we two strolled down the Via Dol orosa m
 My rooms yat the hotel commanded a view of the Tower of David, just across the street, but I did not stop to contemplate it then; I was too full of enthusiasm to see the Way of Sor- row, and as soon as I had removed the stains of travel from my person snd garments 1 started out with my Samaritan guide leading the way, his white turban shining in the moonlight and his long robe Haunting in the breeze.
 w. passed down the execrably paved David street and turned into Christian street, a thoroughfare steeped in gloom and shadow, for all of the bazars Were closed and finally after considerable meandering we entered the Via Dol crosa. Evidently assuming, and cor rectly so, that I was familiar with tue significance of the respective "stations' along the route, Solomon did not ar tempt to explain their import but con- tented himself with designating the various localities. "The house of Veron- ica," he said laconically as he pointed to a gloomy looking building on my right The home of the woman who wiped Our Savior's face with towel and received thereon the impress of the divine visage is now used as a shrine, and through the window strayed the feeble rays of light that is kept perpetually burning within its revered precincts. The next station" was also on my right; the accredited spot where simon the Cyrene had picked up the cross under the weight of which Christ Lad staggered. For reasons explained in a previous article I was not in- pressed with the sanctity of the indi- cated localities, for we were still south Cf the Via Dolorosa proper and fol- lowing a course not trodden by Jesus in his final march to Calvary; more- over, I know that the private houses of Jerusalem had more than once been razed to the ground since the cruci- fixion, and even if the sites were iden- tical, the buildings could not possibly be so, but when we quilted Damascus street and turned toward St. Stephens gate then was I thrilled as never be- fore.
 The moonlight now grew softer, sad der and more serene; the lunar beams appeared to assume a peculiar slant, T. ..l. and the breeze became most strangely tender than which no weary, worn out winds expire more soft. We Were row. upon the path along which 19 centuries agone fell the weary foot steps of lonely and scourged- man whose form trembled under the heft Of the cruel cross and whose brow ran blood from its crown of plaited thorns.
 The winds had now ceased to toy with Solomon's garments and his figure assumed the outlines of a spectral form, for we were beneath the shadow of the Ecce Homo arch which had once echoed witiia the lsound of Pilates voice and resounded with the jeers of the re- Wiling mob. My very elbow touche the spot from which had been re- moved the marble steps of the palace which snow occupy the Scala Santa in Rome and up which 1 have myself gone upon my knees; the same steps in the ascent of which Luther planted the seeds that blossomed into the reforrna- ton; the same steps toward which mil- lions of devout Catholics have moved in ecstatic pilgrimage to make the journey of genuflection. Our course ended at St. Stephens gate All was silence, for it was late and Jerusalem slept. The rounded dome of the Mosque of Omar, that marked the spot Of Sol omon's former glory, glistened under the white moon as a thing ethereal the tiny kedron, the brook that flows softly, meandered in lifting murmurings hundreds of feet below me and quivered beneath the lunar ray until it's thread of liquid argentine was lost in the shades of the Mount of Olives; the Golden Gate, the Gate Beautiful, shirn- mered in misty splendor and the arc of the Ecce Homo 1imned the vista with its tracery of outline as the trans fixed pinion of seraph arrested in it's flight.
 All was, silence; the. groans of the first martyr had long ceased to vex the lintals of St. Stephens gate; the rythm and measure of the songs of Solomon no longer awoke the resonance of the temple and the psalms of David mad died away from around the ark and altar; no hosannahs shook the pos terms of the Golden Gate, the Gate
 
 hallelujahs of the adoring throng; tie rustic of angelic wing had forsaken the Troubled waters of Bethesda; the ca dences of the appeal for the passing of the cup no longer moved the leaves of Gethsemene and the threnody, "Thou that killest the prophets and stonest them" had lost voice on the steeps of Mt. 'Olivet. Long, long ago had died away the clarion notes of brazen horn and trumpet the larum of tocsin- ard rumble of the chariots of iron; long, long ago had faded from street and tower, wall and rampant of the Daugh- ter of Zion the wild shout of the Sar- acen and the Crusaders paean of tr:- umph; all, all had been stilled in th,. citys baptism of fire and blood. it's fierce warfare twiXt cross and crescent and it's draping in habiliments of ashes and sorrow, sackcloth and shame Je- rusalem slept and as the tall Arabic clock tolled the hour of 6, which is the equivalent to our midnight Sol omon of Nablous conducted me back to my hotel
 that Jerusalem is revered as holy by the Christian, Mohammedan and Jew alike. The one has there its church of the Holy Sepulchre, the other it's Dome of the Rock, popularly known as the Mosque of Omar, and the last possesses it's precious memories of glory that is gone and the tenacious hope of a restoration to come
 #Tradition has it the Dome of the Rock was built by Omar, the second caliph and father-in-law of Mohammed, in the seventh century, and hundred legends, Jewish. Christian and Moslem, enshrine It's hallowed name. Here Melchizedeb pf- fered sacrifice, and here Abraham brought his son for immolation; here stood the ark of the covenant and here was writ