Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1916-12-23
CHRISTMAS IN CHRISTMAS LAND
IS SORRIEST FOR CENTURIES
By the Religious Rambler
Copyright, 1916, by William Il. Ellis

T<VEN in the trenches of Europe
r there will be Christmas trees and
- festivity this year, but in the
Land of the Christmas Story itself
there is only sorrow and bitterness. At
present, the thoughts of all the civil
lied world are turning joyfully to the
Little Town of Bethlehem but
Bethlehem, and all the land of which
1t is part, have no such word as joy
in their vocabulary to-day. And across
the very hills where first sounded the
angels message of Peace on earth"
there echoes tie tramp of armed
men.
Only by devious and difficult ways
is news got out of Turkey nowadays.
Enough is known to make clear that
1t is land of most unChristmasy hap
penings. Instead of good will, there
is general fear, distrust and enmity.
Syria, the country in which Jesus was
born and lived and died, is especially
the theater of unhappiness. The Turks
are prosecuting the Arabic-speaking
peoples, and Syria speaks Arabic.
Many leaders in Syrian communities
have been executed, on suspicion of
plots against the government. The
revolt of the Arabs against Constan-
tinople has heightened the suspicious
that formerly were held against the
people who speak the ancient and
beautiful language of the desert
Some persons recently out of Turkey
declare that the government means to
exterminate the Syrians, even as it is
exterminating the Armenians.
The Sorrows of Syria
Troops are garrisoned at Jerusalem.
and all the other principal centers of
the Holy Land, and the poor people
look upon these armies, in barracks
and ever and anon marching through
the land to fight at SueZN or in The
Hejaz or up in the Caucasus, as a
worse visitation than the plague of
locusts two years ago. The army is
devouring the land.
On Bethlehem's hills there are
neither sheep nor shepherds tLis
Christmas. The. sheep have gone to
feed the voracious military forces and
the shepherds have been conscripted
for military service.
Not only the sheep, but the horses
and donkeys-the animals that were
in the stable on Holy Night - have
been taken by the army for trans
port purposes. The land has been
stripped of draught animals as of food.
| The farmers family has no beast left
with which to plough, and no meat
upon which to feed
The Bitterness of Bethlehem
Bethlehem means the house of
bread in Hebrew, and for centuries
pious commentators have loved to
dwell upon the fancies wrapped up in
the name of the town where Jesus was
born. To-day. the place bellies it's
name. Bethlehem is a community Of
no bread. Not only hunger, but actual
starvation has visited it. OF business
there Is none, and the men, mostly
workers in mother of pearl, have been
carried off.
The same plight affiicts all of Syria.
There is no business. Oil and sugar
and medicines have gone beyond
everybody's reach. Flour is issued in
exchange for bread tickets, and these
can be bought only at highest price.
Money is worth little more than half
its face value, and all metal currency
has been withdrawn from circulation.
Famine in the Christmas Land
Literal famine is abroad in the
land. A hundred thousand persons
have died in Syria from actual star
vation or malnutrition. Women and
children seek for remnants and garb-
age at the gates of the wealthy even
as Lazarus waited for the crumbs from
the table of Dives. Old women and
little children totter and fall on the
streets from sheer starvation, and
sometimes lie there until death comes
as deliverance. Under the black
shadow of the Armenian activities
| there is looming up another shadow,
that of the starvation of Syrians.
Jews suffer acutely. and for several
reasons. Most of the colonists who
have returned to the Promised Land
are elderly. They have gone back to
Canaan to die-and their desire is be-
| ing fulfilled more quickly than any
body expected. These feeble immi-
grants are not as Injured to the hard
ship of their life as the native Syrians.
Moreover, they are mostly dependent
upon the mail for their income The
war has practically stopped the mails.
Several thousand Jews were taken
away from Syria last year by the AM
erican warshiP. and landed in Egypt.
but the condit IN of the greater num-
Der who remain. in Jerusalem and
elsewhere, is pitiable beyond words.
Nativity Church Stands
| Many Christian shrines in the Holy
Lands have fallen into Turkish hands,
because their custodians belonged TO
enemy nations, and were deported.