Lincoln County times. (Jerome, Idaho) 1911-1919, 1911-10-19
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OBSERVATIONS
Palestine ami High Politics-A Deep
Discomfort Pervades the People and
Myrisds of Them Have Emigrated
10 the United States.
BY WILLIAM T. ELLIS,

Palestine is the one in which the
world is most interested. Over these
comparatively few square miles have
swept most OF the forces that have
made history. Here were given to
the race those influences which have
done most to change the history of the
past two thousand years. Ruins of
half a dozen civilizations strike the
eye of the traveller through the land.
Yet, Notwithstanding all, the life of
the Syrian peasant is not greatly diff
ferent from what it was in the time
of Abraham.
Wonder of Wonders, this old order
is now undoubtedly passing away.
This is the most interesting of all the
sights here for the discerning traveller.
1t is a revolution wrought by the
return to this land of forces which
had their inception here. After affect
ing most of the surface of the globe,
they have come back to do their work
in the place of their birth.
Palestine is more deeply travelled
by the prevailing unrest of the times
than any other nation l have yet Wis
tied. Pressed upon from many sides
| by the most modern influences, made
sensitive to human rights by centuries
of oppression, it is small wonder that
the Syrians were most enthusiastic in
| hailing the new regime, with it's prom
Use of Liberty, Justice. Fraternity
Equality" In those phrases is en-
bodied all that the people have covet-
ed in vain for generations. Now they
=
right away. Failing their immediate
realization, they turn their faces
toward America.
From One Land of Promise to Another.
One morning l witnessed the week
ly exodus of Bethlehemites at the Je-
rusalem station of the Jaffa railroad.
1t was a scene for a painters brush.
The young people who were leaving
for America were dressed in foreign
style; only the young men still wore
the fez of Turkish subjects. This they
would exchange for hats as soon as
they got on board ship. The stern
visaged old men, clad as their fathers
had been clad before them for gen.
erations, grimly tried to suppress all
signs of grief; they must abide the
old conditions to the end. The women
did not wall aloud. as is the usual orr
entail way, over the departure of sons
and daughters; for these fine-looking,
strong-featured women are almost
Anglo-Saxon in their appearance.
thanks to the strong strain of Crusa-
der blood in their veins. The flight
from Bethlehem to America has been
unusually large because of these ira
ditional qualities of aggressiveness
and independence. The loss to Syria
is great, for the Bethlehemites are ia
nous workmen, especially in the carv-
ing of mother of pearl.
The magnitude and importance of
the migration to America from Syria
can hardly be overestimated. More
than a quarter of a million are now
in the new Land OF Promise, to which
so many more have their faces turned
The government sent the CONSUMPTION
officers after $50 Christians in Jeru-
salem; it could find only 20, the 9TH
ers having fed, mostly to America.
The return of emigrants to America
and their letters home have a power
full influence in increasing the unrest
here. All over the Lebanon, which has
an autonomous Christian government,
and where property is therefore safe,
the returned emigrants have built fine
houses-and then, in a surprising
number of cases, have left them and
gone back to America, usually taking
a number of their neighbors along.
The town of Zahleh, in the Lebanon,
has 10000 of its people in the United
States, where they have created a new
village with the same name. More re-
markable still in the case of HANNA
ma, which now has 800 of it's native
born remaining here, while 1900 are
in America.
American Oil "the Light of ASIA"
In other ways America is contribute
ing directly to the awakening of this
old nation. Probably the most typical
single accessory of the life of Pales-
tine is the water jar, carried on the
heads of women. AS 1t was in the
days when Rebecca went to the well
with clay jar upon her head, so 1t
continues until now. But a change
is coming. The water jar, as an in.
obAedNiOh, 10 OC6 W CIdCh. OIdnQ-
ard Oil tins are taking it's place.
saw woman at Jacobs well at Sy.
, char carrying water on her head in
one of these square tin cans. The
water, by the way, was used in max.
ing mortar for the building of the new
Greek church over the well. At the
fountain of the Virgin, in Nazareth.
have watched the village women fill
their jars and carry them off on theii
| heads, just as Mary used to do at the
; same spring; but some, noticed, car
ried the square cans of the Standard
Oil company.
> These same cans furnish most OF
. the tin that is used in Asia. AS
have watched long caravans of camels
bearing cases of Standard Oil into tn,
interior l have recalled the hundred.
of little tin-smithing shops have seer
all over Asia, wherein the nativ,
, workmen were beating out these TIM
I | and fashioning them into a score O