New Britain herald., 1926-03-23
CRUSADER TOWNS
 N DAILY ITEMS
News Dispatches Dealing With
 Historical Places

Washington, b. C.. March @3 Rl-- pispa lcheslrom syria tell ot politi- cal prisoners being sent 10 Ruad, and mention other places which emerge into the day's news, after lying in inc back waters Of world history since the time ol the Crusades.
 In communication 10 the Ma 'ional Geographic society Maynard owen Williams tells of q recent trip ne made through this historic, but almost forgotten, region.
 "As mo comes up to Tortus from the south, having left the ruins Of Marathus behind and drawn sorl Of coast circle around the shore. ward side of Ruod, the most pro- minent features of the landscape is huge Crusader church bullilng large above the town, The interior. when ono has entered 1t, through q small breach in the age-hroWned wall color of crumbling newspaper falling away from some treasure it envel- o1cd, or of nut brown mummy wrapping, the interior is pleasing in it's grace, Time, however has worn | finger holes in the once rounded columns and it resembles the work shop of a carnival committee or q pageant board because artless bat dement's, jig-sawod from thin Mm- bcr fill one corner.
 Mosque is Deserted
 "rhe Crusader church stands alone between flat-rootcd houses and the fertile plain, edged with spiny cactus. On the right hand forward corner there is a small tower erected when there were plans of making q mos quo of this vast barn of . building. But Tartus is small and a mosque, b"llshed with humans competed to- gethor. A great Face, high under up- i turned domos, may need only the l complement of lowly, knocling fig ure to make it house of worship. 1 Tho mosque, lacking the Presence, needs a more companionable up- holstory of living being in il. So the church, no longer church, is saved from the desccration of non-Christ- ian worship and abandoned to the dosecration of dirt.
 In the walled town (thc roadway from the south enters hole hacked in phocnician masonry cocval with Solomon's temple porhaps) there is a Crusaders Hall. the outside of which runs along one side of the square. But search as ] would, no matter how many Moslem women or village boys guided me about. was not able to see the inside of this Ihall, now divided among many own CTS.
 "A little farther on, its mogalithic Foundations sloping to the disused moat. there is a former church now q mosque, with q really fine minarct proClaiminG its presence. Above the arched doorway q cross has given way 10 q sort of trcfoil which dis - euises the cffacemont, and the imam. handsome and commanding in pres cnce is so cordial friend that one cannot hegrudgc him the privilege of instructing the youths in narrow corridor of q room flanking the main hall.
 "Ihe student may, if he will trace the mcEalithic wall most Of the way around the town. But 10 what pur. pose? Does counting stones awaken the imagination? Or does one huge block, it's chcek bulging beyond the carefully cut edges trimmed to .
 perfect line along the seam, betral
 the workmanship as akin to that
 which Hiram did for his Jewish
 friends on Mount Zion?
 When Crusaders Sailed Home
 "Tartus was the last place on ths mainland to be held hy the Christ ians but it was from Ruad that tho last of the Crusaders. giving up hop
 of Christiantzing by the sword f; , land in which they had lived for two
 centuries, set sail for home. Whe1
 the twentieth century fighters arriv : ed 10 fight against the Turks ant Germans Ruad was occupied by th'
 French, and today it's central castle
 dominating the low lying island ant in turn dominated by a lighthouse
 is the prison of political prisoners. : "Ruad stirs the imagination be cause, Quarrying away it's tiny coas
 lino 10 construct a megalithic wal
 which dropped sheer to the surf, th' Nrvadians shut themselves into [ , place whore, lacking a fleet the,
 would starvc, but sallying forth iron lthore thnv dominated the mainlant