The Mellette County pioneer. [volume] (Wood, Mellette County, S.D.) 19??-1971, 1924-03-07

1870" ~ ~
ciety. Washington, d. c.
If Adam and Eve returned to III
spinning sphere they could step into
an American automobile and commute
between the Garden of Eden and
paradise on earth"
This is no mere figure Of speech, be-
cause Christians place Eden in the
EuphrateS valley near Babylon, while
Mohammedans consider Damascus
paradise Of the EARTH" and now pa
mascus and Bagdad, just over the way
from Babylon, have been linked by a
passenger transport using motor cars
Made in the United States"
The Station-caller for the new rub
ber-tired caravan is a likely candidate
for conductor on the Magic Carpet.
Before the sun peeps over Mt. Carmel
the head gasoline sheik pokes his head
in the door of the best hotel at Haifa,
Jerusalem's Mediterranean port, and
probably shouts in stentorian train
caller tones:
"All aboard for Bagdad! Stops made
at SidOn, Tyre, Beirut, Mt. Lebanon
Pass, Damascus, Ramadi, and points
east, leaving Haifa Saturday, 10 a. IN,
arrive at Bagdad noon Monday"
If it Is not the Magic Carpet, it GER
tainly is a lear approach to that long
sung mode Of transportation. Even
in 1914 Haifa was almost n month
from Bagdad by overland travel, and
three weeks of that month had to be
spent in tedious, rackirg camel-travel.
But the hotel entrance disclOses no
planes; only threa sleek American
motor cars purring like great eats, and
a view Of the blue, Mediterranean.
These three motor cars travelling
twice q week between Haifa, Damas-
Gus and BaGdad are the latest jolt TO
the changing and changed East. 1t
means that products of American me-
chanical genius have conquered what
is probably the Oldest trade route
known to man, the sandy waste be-
tween the Holy Land and the rich
valley of the twin rivers, Tigris and
Euphrates, where Babylon raised her
mighty towers.
Less than twenty years ago ances-
tors of these motor cars which owe
700 miles of desert in two days and
a half, were snapped up by New York
Sportsmen If they could chug around
a half-mile board track without stop
ping. What wonder that the shuttle
footed camels, masters Of this desert
trail for more than 5000 years, elevate
their noses in painful disgust when
Akron (Ohio) tires throw sand in their
eyes.
Motoring Through Historic Land.
London is brought within 10 days Of
Bagdad by the new transport whici
now carries mail as well as passengers.
Travellers can connect with the service
at Haifa by train from Alexandria or
ship directly to the port Of Beirut and
join the caravan there. The motor
cars, in addition to three expert chauf-
feurs, carry a motor mechanic and
also, on reaching the true desert, an
Arab skilled in politics as well as
travel. Leaving Haifa, on the Bay Of
Acre of Crusader fame. the cars de-
scend directly to the sand beach. This
affords one of the finest motor roads in
the world. So closely do the cars hug
the shore that waves often lap the
wheels.
Before reaching Tyre, Gibraltar of
the ancient world, and Sidon, its one
time New York, the swift cars must
turn inland to evade dunes. But q
perfect pike awaits them, for Allenby's
chicken-wire road stretches before the
motorists. When the English fought
the Turks in Palestine they found that
prosaic wire mesh would support a
iivver in the sand. and it Is this same
war road which the passenger trans
port uses.
Tyre, and Sidon, whose destruction
Ezekiel most aptly ~phophesied and
which Jesus declared were but little
better than wicked Sodom, look innO-
cent enough today. Like Los Angeles
and San Francisco, these two ports
carried on an ancient feud for suprem-
acy. Today Sidon is the largest. II
exports thousands Of cases of oranges
and tons of olives from the fruitful
Syrian plain. Ancient Sldonese ex.
tracted a beautiful purple dye from
Mediterranean shellfish bat the copy
light laws were loose In SOlomon's