Morgan County Democrat. (McConnelsville, Ohio) 1886-1943, 1923-06-28
GOING TO JERUSALEM

The Following letter, full of inter
est and splendid information, was
written by Don Carlos James, on
board the steamship Macedonia, in
the Mediterranean sea:
We left Cairo on the evening train
and ran through a rather heavy rain
before reaching Kantara on the west
side of the Suez Canal, at the point
where the Sinai military railway
starts for Jerusalem. Here we had
long wait as, for some unknown
reason, the train on this particular
! day of the week does not go out at
! the same hour as on some other
days, but this was in our favO~ as it
gave an opportunity to observe the
country all the way up to our desti-
nation. Kantara East was great
depot of military supplies during
the war, and there are still scores
and scores of motor trucks and some
one said three or four hundred To-
comotives, besides other things in
Guiding timber and coal The camp
is being cleared and five trucks are
said to have sold for the sum of 100
pounds sterling. The west bank was
also occupied by the military and
has not yet been cleared entirely.
All this country east of the canal till
you get away up into Palestine is
desert, but it is not all absolutely
barren desert, as occasionally the
train runs by a grove of palms rising
out of the sand and there is little
coarse, scrubby growth, but nothing
in the way of sod One of the sta
tions we see early in the day is call
ed El Add, very good start toward
saying "a-b-c." At FL Arish the line
comes close to the rolling tide Of
the Mediterranean which is after
wards left to be seen no more on
this run.
We are travelling in reverse order
through the desert traversed by ia
cob when he took his family and
went down to Pharaoh's land where
his son Joseph was Premier in the
days of the Palestinian famine, and
as one goes the first time it is inter
esting to view and study the coun-
try 1t is said the Turks or Moham-
medans had a saying to the effect
that when the Nile flowed into Pal
estine, their rule would fail-per-
haps meant as a saying of imposSi-
bility, but during the war it was
found suitable to military strategy
10 construct a railway to Ludd
CLydda) to intersect the old Joppa-
Jerusalem line which has been in
operation perhaps IS years. Along
side the railway, pipe line was laid
away up towards Jerusalem and the
water of the Nile was caused to flow
into Palestine. 1t is a matter of
history that with the coming of the
railroad and Gen. Allenby's boys,
the Turks retreated to the Holy City,
and beyond Ever and anon, we see
the lines of barbed wire which were
set up in those days, and sometimes
we see dismantled wire At two
places there are cemeteries to re-
mind US that war can not be waged
without losing men. At one of our
stops, the mail is put out of the train
and tied upon a waiting camel. At
another. baggage and passengers
are taken away by Ford. Here
comes the Palestinian customs Off
Ger TO see what the passengers may
have of a dutiable nature We are
getting up to where little grain
can be raised, and we see it showing
a few inches above the sand or sandy
soil from which it springs in limited
areas. Over there is a rainbow
though we have had no rain. 1t is |
where God set it, ''in the cloud" At
Rafa station there are large railway
wards and a branch line runs off to
Beer Sheba, the old time southern
limit of the land. the antithesis of
Dan in the north. Rata also has a
wireless station. The ticket collec-
tor has, according to the legal enact
ment of the land. his title in three
languages, English, Arabic, and He
brew. One each of these is placed
upon his shoulders and the Hebrew
is pinned on his chest. Look out the
window yonder and see that fellow
blowing with a camel. You will see