The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-06-05
PROGRESS IN JERUSALEM

From the Louisville courier-Journal. TvHE wand of progress has at last touched Jerusalem. The Expor- \ ters' Review sums up projected Improvements as follows:
 "Jerusalem will soon have it's own tram way service, 8 concession having been granted to a French firm, which will be- gin laying the lines during the coming summer. An English firm has been asked to submit tenders for lighting the city with electric light and German syndl- cate is to improve the water supply by the erection of large reservoirs at springs located about 12 and IS miles north of the city.
 .'The pavements and sewerage system have received attention from the govern ment. A few months ago a water cart was brought from England to supersede the men who sprinlSled the streets with water from skins. The municipality has also provided itself with modern fire fighting appliances. A telephone service has been established and the police are shortly to be equipped with bicycles. The latest signs of this work of moderniza- tion is the arrival of large American motor road roller
 Jerusalem has ben i'll paved, unlighted. insanitary and lawless. Its streets have not been regarded as safe after nightfall, and murders have occurred frequently inside it's walls as well as outside of them. Robbery has been common in Jerusalem and in the trucking country surrounding the city farmers maintain watch towers from which they guard their maturing crops with guns. Turkish sol- diers under arms in the Church of the Holy Sepuchre keep the peace between those who visit the building, and blood- shed which has occurred there has given cause for the presence of the soldiers. Moslem faantics with crooked knives and long smooth bores" haunt the precincts of the Temple of Omar, which is said to have a part of the Stables of King Solo, mon as it's foundation, and one of them recently shot an American woman who failed to observe the rigid rule that shoes must be removed before crossing the threshold of Mohammedan place of worship. The innumerable beggars of the streets of Jerusalem-the most importu- nate of their kind upon the face of the earth-cannot be trusted not to become brigands after dark. Religious rivalry and tangled questions of inter, and intra. church politics lead to frequent rioting and a short time ago dealers in contra
 band did a lively business smuggling arms into the Holy City for use in re- ligfous controversy that resulted in sev- eral. violent deaths in prominent streets and in broad daylight
 Jerusalem under Turkish rule has been an example of the survival of the condi- tions of the Middle Ages in spot annu~ ally visited by thousands of enlightened travellers from the ends of the earth as well as by many primitive pilgrims who make the journey on foot from countries as distant as Russia. The city's DIG turesaue disorder and lack of progress have constituted a material part or It's interest to the globe trotter in search or amusement, but have been matters Tor regret among Christians, who take thelr religion seriously and who believe that some better fate should be reserved for Jerusalem than to remain in the twen- tieth century filthy. lawless and sodden with disease bred of insanitary condi- tionss
 Light, clean streets, good roads in the surrounding country, and good water supply will do much for Jerusalem. which 1 is now a beautiful city only when it is seen lin the middle distance" from the
 brow of the Mount of Olives or some
 other point of vantage far enough away
 for details to be eliminated from the pie
 ture. To have the city proper mod
 ernized' in street plan or architecture
 would be regrettabe, but it is improb-
 able that a city so compactly built of
 stone will be greatly changed in those
 respects. The street car service is doubt
 less intended to connect the suburban set
 dement's with intra-mural joints. As
 Jerusalem is, like other cities of the
 near east, crowded into very small space, the terminals might we'll be at the various 1 gates, or not far inside of those which
 have been widened to admit vehicles. Even in the view of the most sentimental, electric lights will be a boon to tourists. AS matters now are Jerusalem is bathed
 ill Stygian darkness except on moonlight