Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-08-07
DESERT RAILROAD
MAY Be REVIVED
Only Pilgrims Ride When Da-
mascus-Medina Hadj Line,
/ Wrecked in War, Runs.


Eight hundred miles Of railroad that
begins in a desert, runs through
desert and ends in desert carries no
freight. and whose only potential pas
sengers are pilgrims, may soon be run
ming again.
Mohammedans of all compilations.
Persians Egyptians. Turks, Syrians,
Moroccans, Algerisns, Iraqi, Javanese
and TunisianS have petitioned Ibn
Saud, King of Hejaz, to. reconstruct the
Damascus Medina Hadi Railroad, that
was DESTROYED during the World War.
"Glstening black Abdul Hamid,'
putting and blowing smoke, with its
whistle screaming to an empty desert,
pulled its first string of coaches, loaded
with robed sheiks from the desert and
fezzed, besworded, gilt-braided Turks
from Damascus into Medina in 1908,
says bulletin of the National Geo.
graphic Society from its headquarters
in Washington, D. c., but only after
three sheep had been sacrificed by high
priests in front of its camel catcher
Medina, the terminus, is only 200 miles
north Of holy Mecca.
Railroad for "Faithfuls."
ordered by the Sultan, paid for by
faithful MohammedanS throughout the
built by italian, Polish, Hungarian and
Turk engineers, using italian, Greek,
Turk and Montenegrin labor. the COM
pleted pilgrimage express ran regularly
Until Bedouins began planting bombs in
1917. Some of its rails were made in
America, some In France, some in Bel
GUM; the cars the pilgrims rode in
were manufactured in Belgium, while
Abdul Hamid' and the other engines
that whirled them through desolation
were German. Christians built 1t,
Christians equipped it, but they could
not ride on the railroad of the
faithful
THE pilgrim railroad banished one
OF the most remarkable professions in
the world, one witnessed by few Chris
tians, because the great Mecca caravan
whose weary telling legionS once num-
bered more than 10000 men and thou.
sands OF can1elS opened its tents only
TO Mohammedans.
Every true Mohammedan burns with
hope to make the Hadj; that is, the trip
to Mecca and Medina, hottest of Islam
HOLES. If the journey costs his life. as
well as his fortune, so much the better.
There Is greater glory in paradise for
those who die making the Hadj.
Many Of those who travel by land
gather at Damascus, in Syria To go
by sea, as thousands do in our softer
civilized days, earns the pilgrim less
merit than to make the strength-sap-
ping overland journey through sum
burned valleys between black rock walls,
balanced on an evil-tempered camel,
drinking the lukewarm water Of desert
wells and risking cholera.
Racketeering Among Bedouins.
"Once outside Damascus, the great
caravan used to halt until all companies
assembled and until the caravan leader
had blttered the palm of the desert
Bedouins. To pass safely through the
desert, free from attacks by the crafty
Bedouins, fat brides were paid every
year
Conveying q pilgrim army 1000
miles through an almost waterleSs desert
was no easy task. Everything was mi
nutely organized. The persian tents were
grouped together. Syrians kept to their
alities split the seemly confused mass
into manageable units. Camel boys
waited for orders to bring their grum-
bling beasts to the riders. The tent
corps was prepared to tear down the
camp and rush 1t ahead to the next
desert well the moment the caravan
marched. There was even 6 market
street that keen Syrian merchants from
Damascus set up the moment the host
halted, noisy, smelly market, where
pilgrims bought food and where Bed
ouins of the desert fiocked to buy cloth
and bright trinkets. At night the camp
twinkled in the plain as hundreds of
candles were lighted within paper Ian
terms that swung from poles before tent
doors.
The Camel Line Forms.
Before dawn a cannon shot echoed
over the camp. The signalI Men
cursed in many tongues as they STUN
bied over tent ropes in their haste to
be on. Squealing camels bent their
knees, protesting against the riders
climbing up. Dogs barked, stray Da-
mascus dogs that went with the caravan
annually to Mecca like dogs that ally
themselves to hunters walking through
forests. Tied nose to tail in long files.
the camels swung along to the tinkling
music OF pilgrimage sung by the bells
tied to the ugly beasts. The great
caravan was on the march-no Journey
for q weakling. Sometimes 1t travelled
as much as so miles by steady going
a hours out Of "a.
Some Of the camels carried huge
cl1rtAtned htters on their backs for
women Of wealthy pilgrims and for
dying pilgrims. When Pilgrim felt the
spirit leaving his body he willingly
spent the last Of his savings to die in
LUXURY, % he hired one. Of the camels
bearing the lurching compartment re-
served for dying men. Friends lifted
his sickening body in. When the
caravan stopped they would look in,
md him dead, roll out the body, bury
It in the sand that has received so
many bodies of men. and camels, and
prepare the litter for the next weary
traveller.
Travel Of vast pilgrim army in
picturesque array ended with the COM
ing OF the railroad. Then in 1914 came
the World War, and Turkey used the
pilgrim railroad as an iron whip to keep
Arabia loyal. Mountain ranges be-
tween the railroad and the Red Sea
protected it from attack by the allies