The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1917-12-18

though it was in detail of military
information, has carried with it the
mention of some captured or belea.
guered place or point of military
vantage, the very mention of which
is like the opening of a window
through which far mental vistas are
reviewed that reach back to the very
dawn of history and religion and civ
ilization and art-and war.
Driving Out the Crescent.
Only short while ago the Turks
held a strong line extending from
GAIA to Beersheba, but the British
expedition, coming up by the old
Way of the Philistines with camelry
and cavalry and artillery and airplane
and sea craft, drove the Crescent out
! of GAIA and later out of Askalon.
And another expedition, coming
up by Way of Shur, took Beersheba
and pushed on within sight of He
bron, and still another coming up
| through the valleys of Mesopotamia,
through the land of Haroun Al Ras-
child, advanced to Tekrit, 40 miles
north of Bagdad, and all these expe-
ditions covered towards the CITY of
David, the city where the Gospel of
Peace was born and which has cost
more human blood in the last 1000
years than any spot on earth, the
prize of the empire dreams of Nebu-
chadnezzar, Antiochus, Alexander,
Pompey and of successive armies of
Egyptians, Babylonians, Romans,
Persians, Saracens, Crusaders and
Turks.
And now the armies of Christiani-
ty have entered its gates, and the
fate of Jerusalem once more hangs
upon the fortunes of war.
The student of Holy Writ can al
most compose an eulogy on the short
dispatches from the east. Each new
town taken opened the vista of years
and recalls passages in the script |
ures.
Centuries before Bethlehem's star
David fought over the very lands
where the British are fighting to-
day. 1t was on the plains of Esdrae-
Ion and upon the mountains of Gil
boa when night fell over the bat
tlefeld that Saul and his three sons
were slain. Abner fled to Gilead and
David returned to Hebron, where the
chief men of the Tribe of Judah
chose him as their king. Judah be-
came nation, and the foundations
of the house of David were laid in
the place where now the Turks and
the British, the crescent and the
cross, again confront each other in
the grapple of battle.
When David Unified the Tribes.
For seven years David reigned at
Hebron, by diplomatic pact with
the king of the Philistines, for Da-
Vld was a statesman, as we'll as a
warrior and a poet. And then the
day came when his dream of the uni
fication of Israel was contaminated,
when emissaries from all the tribes
came to him at Hebron and the unit
ed Kingdom of Israel was established,
with its capital at Jerusalem.
But those seven years at Hebron
were not years of poetry and DALI
ance. David had to fight his way to
Jerusalem, even as the Christian SOL
der in Palestine today has done. And
mo +nAr
class fighting man, and he smote
many king under the fifth rib and
laid low many thousands of his enc
mics before the ark of the covenant
rested in peace on lions top. Rare
was the quality of the courage and
devotion which he was able to inspire
in his men.
Captains Three.
The story of David's Three Cap
tains-a story of daring and adven-
ture told in 20 lines by his chroni-
cler that surpasses any exploit told
by Dumas of his Three Musketeers,
or Kipling OF his Soldiers Three
will be recalled by many khaki clad
soldier as he stoops to drink of the
waters of the Well of Sirah, at He
bron, and thinks Of the we'll at Beth
lehem, just beyond, whose waters
David loved better than any in Is
raeI:
"Now, three of the 80 captains
went down to the rock to David into
the cave Of Adullam; and the host of
the Philistines encamped in the valley
of Rephaim. And David was then in
the hold and the Philistine garrison
was then at Bethlehem. And David
longed and said, Oh that one would
give me drink of water of the wen
of Bethlehem, that is at the gaten
And the three brake through the
host of the Philistines and drew wa
ter out of the well of Bethlehem that
was at the gate and took it and
brought it to David, but David would
not drink of it, but poured it out to
the Lord, and said, My God forbid
it me that l should do this thing;
shall | drink the blood of these men
that have put their lives in jeopardy.
for with the jeopardy Of their lives