The Washington herald., 1914-02-15
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flowing trousers. for their seat fell in
folds nearly to the ground. On his fez
he wore a golden American eagle; in
his belt a glittering sword and a horri-
BILE looking pistol. while in his hand he
carried a long lash, which he fourished
TO make the people fall back and give
us free passage through the crowded
lane-Iike streets.
A New England Village.
II the truth must be told. / was most
interested in Jaffa by a tree-crowned
hill and its cluster of wooden cottages
set in pretty gardens just like a tiny
American village. Rising out Of the ORR
entral squalor, those prim little wooden
houses looked strange indeed in the stony
old town, and their story is equally
strange. Their boards were sawed on
the banks of the Penobscot down in
Maine more than half a century ago and
brought here and set up in 1856 by lit
tie colony of American pilgrims. who
| soon found themselves stranded in what
| they had confidently hoped would be
! their promised land Many quickly
| fell a prey to climatic diseases and in a
year only three families were left
A German religious colony succeeded
| them and became one of the pioneers of
| the many German colonies which are
prospecting in Palestine today. But the
| blooming and Ieafy hill and its little
wooden cottages are the monuments of
the real path breakers. those Inflated
American colonists who sowed for others
! to reap.
The Plain of sharon.
! In the glory of an April morning. when
the birds were singing their song Of
spring, I was jolted in wagon along
THE path OF Napoleon" out of Jaffa
and on to the Plain OF Sharon, that
sunny. smiling field of focks for my
people who have sought me-" The air
was laden with the fragrance Of oranges,
and I met a long procession of camels.
| in trains of six, each train with man
at one end and a boy at the other. while
over the back of every camel was swung
half a dozen boxes of the delicious JANA
oranges which the German colonies have
developed until they represent yearly
| export amounting in value to H.Ooooo.
Beside me In the rude carriage sat an
other and later American colonist, a
| Bowdoin graduate from the State oil
Maine, who is a member of the goodly
company which form the American COL
ony in Jerusalem. His speciality is bot
any, and he has botanized all over the
Holy Land, collecting and shipping to
/ Christendom the flowers of the Scrip
! lures.
| The Damascus Road.
We were on the highway that leads TO
Acre. to Nablous, to Nazareth. and 10
Damascus. and rough though it be, it is
| one of the three or four real carriage
roads in Palestine. The Good Roads
movement here dates only from the pill
grimage of the German Emperor in 1925.
when the Sultan ordered some road
building for the Kaiser's convenience.
| and the work has been continued Mt
| fully for the benefit OF tourists.
\ The natives naturally take no interest
| in the subject, for while Judah could
not overwhelm the men OF the valley
and the plain because they had chariots
of iron. no chariots have they today,
these men of the valley and plain. i
| did not see an Arab farmer with a
wheeled vehicle of any kind. The ass
and the camel and the immemorial trails
and paths suffice him. l was told there
are only two automobiles in all the coun-
! try. and they are owned by foreigners.
Mr.. Charles ]. Glidden, of Masachu-
sets, the father of the ''Glidden tour.
still holds, l believe, the record of TAX
| ing the only car up to Jerusalem and
down to Jericho.
Up over the Plain of Sharon The
Path of Napoleon runs, with the Med
] iterranean on one hand, while on the