South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1920-03-29
FIRST SNOWFALL
OF DECADE SEEN
IN FAMOUS CITY
Damascus. Center of Moslem
World Inwardly Seething De-
spite Calm Appearances.

DAMASCUS. March 2S.-Snow lay
thick on the bare brown slopes OF
Jebel Kasyun when Emir FeisuI
looked from his bedroom window in
Salehiyieh Palace recently. Mu0,ed
half-frozen figures picked their way
over treaCherOus. iCe-Coated streets.
in the baZaars shivering merchants
huddled round their braZiers OF
glowing charcoal The beggar out
side the door of my hotel was too
benumbed 10 ask for his morning
aims
1t was the first snowstorm here in
10 years.
Gale from Barren Hills.
All the fascination Of Damascus
fed before the gale which swept
down from Mount Hermon and the
barren hills hemming us in on three
sides
There is no other city i'm the east
quite like IL. Constantinople Tunis.
Cairo. TripoH. none OF them has
quite the same atmosphere Of myS-
terry and romance as pervades this
great nerve center Of the Moslem
world
II is a city OF magnificent palaces
hidden behind high walls and mas
sive carved doors. In the cOvewd
bazaars you meet every type OF fol-
lower of the Prophet. Turks. Kurds.
Bedouins hadjis fresh from Mecca.
ulemas from the Soudan, DruSes
from Hauran. dervishes, negroes.
Circassians. mingle i'm the Hamidi-
vieh and i'm the street called
Straight II is city OF great wealth
and extreme poverty; OF intrigue and
gloomy. religious fervor; a hating
place for all the devout who pass
20 and fro on the great desert high
ways and linking Egypt. Nesopota-
mia, Persia and Turkey. "a city cur
iOusly mingling modernity with the
conservatism Of centuries
Women Wear Wells.
Transfers whirr through the new
quarter. an English telephone adOrns
the post office the railway station
would do credit 10 any European
capital of like size. Yet the women.
who are more jealousy guarded
than anywhere else in the near east,
wear impenetrable wells and live as
remote from the 10th century as in
the days of Mahomet.
There is no more dcvOut city i'm
( Islam. Merchants read the Koran
between bargains. Priests confront
you on every hand. The musical.
penetrating CRY of the muezzin
wakes me at down. and his calls TO
prayer resouud from the minarets at
intervals until nightfaI
"Allah is great: testify that
there is no God but Allah. and Ma
/ hOmct is the Prophet OF Allah;
come 10 prayer" The mosques are
crowded tho day long; worshiLers
haunt the chapels OF saiuts-the
tomb Of Bilal-el- Habeshi. "the Ably
ssinian." Manomets mueZzin, and
those OF other great mon Of Islam.
KhaIxl-Clad Are Present.
a new note IS perceptible in the
life OF Damascus. despite her tena-
cious hold on the past. Everywhere
one meets the khaki-clad soldiers Of
the HedjaZ army-the a my Of King
Hussein. father Of Emir Feisul and
Son OF the Prophet. The Caftan Of
a chief conceals an officers uni
form Of British pattern; beneath
his gold or silken girdle Is a Sam
/ Browne belt. The British army has
gone. but it's influence remains a
militant Syria IS rising up. and the
heart of II Is this remote Oriental
city Of Damascus.
Life in Damascus Is full of inter
est-and in curious ways. I do not
suppose there are more than a doZ-
en- Europeans here. including two
Consuls and two liaison officers
There is a British non-political rep
resentative, Lieut. Col. Easton. who
occupies a tiny house in the Salehi-
yieh quarter; a French liaison off