The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1931-09-17
Bethlehem, Jerusalem, Other
Places Where Christ
Lived Described
WILL BE HOME SOON
Visits Stable Believed to Have
Been Birthplace of
Christ
Port Said, August z, 1913


Well our longest stop is finished.
Palestine was much better than had
expected. 1 mailed your last letter
from Kantara where we ferried
across the canal, went through GUS
toms, etc., passport tickets intermld-
Iy or until about 11:30. Then the
train pulled out while it was still so
hot we thought we could hardly
breath. Such a trip!
We met a japanese lady who had
been to Toronto to the World w. G.
T. U. convention, then there were two
girls who talked like America Jews
but were travelling on British pass
ports, so there were five of US in a
compartment (second class) which
only six people could have occupied.
| slept on Vera's shoulder and then
she slept on mine and the desert
came streaming in the window. I've
never spent such night. We used
our coats toward morning, though
and we arrived in Jerusalem about
500. There was a guide there from
the Y. w. G. A. who took charge Of
us. There are two brothers, young
Arab men, who take charge of par
ties from the Y. w. We later had
the second brother who seems to run
the concern. We had expected to
simply rest that first day but there
was a gasoline strike imminent and
so they thought it safest for us to get
some of our long trips where we
needed the car out of the way before
it started.
So we went to Bethlehem. Oh,
yes, the Y. w. here was very fine,
the hostess, an English lady about 30
most competent person. We had a
double room, paid So day and rs
cents extra for a bath. Everything
stone floors, with great deep window
recesses, built of white lime stone.
Jerusalem itself was much nicer than
| had thought possible. The new city
has wide streets, very clean, light and
airy. Of course most of this has
been built since the war.
Liked Bethlehem
Bethlehem was very nice. Such a
hills. One house almost exactly on
top of another. The Church of Natl
witty there is very old, given over to
three faiths, Roman, Greeks, and
Armenian. Of course everything is
indoors but the stable where Christ
was supposed to have been born is
really an old stable hewn out of the
solid rock just as they always were,
but the manager is now of marble
with gorgeous lamps. AS we came
out of the church we saw or rather
heard the moslem call to worship
from a minaret nearby. l have
great deal of respect for the mos
lens after hearing our guide and
they surely are in evidence and much
better liked than the Jews who are
hated by both sides.
We bought few things in Bethle-
from the road, but it's so small, so
the real impressiveness hardly shows
up. We then went to the Mount of
Olives, but were not greatly impress
ed here, most of the trees are gone
and only a very crude church re-
mains. 1t contains the rack, on which
the Christ was supposed to have
prayed. But so many things are not
certain and our guide very carefully
said, supposed to be-"
We got good view of the city with
its walls, mosques and minarets. The
hills now are all dead but alive with
gorgeous colors in the natural rock
and earth, reds and browns, the city
of white stone and tall green-black
spires of occasional cypress trees.
Visits Dead Sea
In the afternoon we vent to Jer-
icho and the Dead Sea. This time the
younger brother acted as guide. They
have big green Hudson car and a
very careful driver. That trip down
"a drop of 1000 feet in an hour and
a half was hot and desolate. We
stopped at the Good Samaritan Inn
and bought watermelon from big
fat black papa dressed in a stripped
mother hubbard and a red fez. We
stopped at the fountain of Elisha
and let it get bit cool and then de-
voured it like true Americans. The
final road to Jericho was awful, so
rough and water washed. There
are groves of banana trees where
they can get water. Not much to see
in Jericho, then we went on to the
Dead Sea. We had brought our suits
all the way from Japan to go into the
Dead Sea and possibly Galilee but
forgot them on both occasions. We
went in the Dead Sea, though in rent