The Washington times., 1936-10-07
UN|MPRESSED
BY SIMPSONS
HOME TOWN
GAIA Still in Ruins
Since Strong M a n
Pulled Down Temple

UIISO COWIl SIIlp pic
Miss Dorothy Kilg1Ilen, Inter-
national NewS Service and NetO
York Evening Journal reporter,
is racing around the IDorld
against Leo Kier1n and H. r.
Ekir1S. riudl r1eUSpdpermen, in
an effort to be the first back
in NeU York after globe-gird-
ling trip of three weeks or less.
All are using only regular pas
Senger-cGrryi7lg transportation.
Miss KilgaIlen'S latest dispatch
tollolDS:
BY DOROTHY KILGALLEN
Copyright, 1886, by International News
Service and New York Evening JOurnaD
GAIA, Palestine, Oct. 7. GN.S)
The wheels of time have turned
with almost invisible SlowneSS here
for many centuries, but tipped
through GAIA, just another milk
station on the way around the
world, so fast today that it must
have made even Samson turn a
whisker.
I spent exactly an hour and a
half in the Holy Land, swinging
down from Alexandria onto the
Asiatic continent at $40 a. m.
Q:20 a. m. New York time) and
was off for Rutbah Wells at $50.
We made the trip from Africa
to GAIA in four hours 20 minutes
"a two-continent hop with an
amazing diversity of scenery.
Scars Over Nile
The rising sun lifted the mists
over the delta of the Nile, re-
puted to be the worlds most fer
tile soil, and for an hour we
scared over it's many wide mouths
where fellahs CHI! fellahs) in
loin-cloths labored in green
patches on the black soil.
Then from this rich deposit of
Mother Nile we sailed suddenly
over the bleakest desert imagin-
able, endless miles of fawn-colored
sand to the right and the dazzling
Mediterranean on the left, until
we sighted below us a narrow
greenish-blue ribbon-the Suez
Canal.
So we exodused out of Egypt to
the promised land, breakfast IN
GAIA. Over more desert, spotted |
with tiny villages. Leo Herman
and 1 worked on the crossword
puzzle in a London newspaper, but |
it was a tough one. Maybe we'll
get it finished, though, before we
get to San Francisco.
Wrecked by Sampson
GAIA is the spot where Samson
took hold of the two middle pill
lars upon which the house stood.
and he bowed himself with all his
might. and the house fell"
Well, GAIA hasn't got over 1t.
Or maybe those ruins can be at
tributed not to Samson but to
the three big battles fought here
during the World War, when it
was bombed and blasted and half
the population chased out.
Now it's hamlet Of deserted
white square houses, dingy ba-
zaars, and dirty, crooked streets,
surrounded by sand dunes.
It figures in history as long ago
as 1900 B. C. when Thotmes III
grabbed it. Alexander the Great
fought for it and won it. So did
Napoleon Bonaparte.
They can have it.
Sails Without Breakfast
Snatching at every possible min
ute to make up for the hours we
lost back in Italy the sleepless
British Imperial Anyways reused
me out of my Alexandria Hotel
room an hour before scheduled
time and Scooted me off for west
ern Asia at a. m.
AS I stepped off African soil
into the big plane, my New York
time watch said Broadway was
just getting Started-at 8 p. m.
They didn't even give me any
breakfast in their haste to make
up lost time, but promised the
stop at GAIA.
Lunch doomed in Rutbah Wells,
which is a water hole out in the
middle of the Syrian Desert, and
the pilot promised dinner at
Baghdad, where we'll spend an
other night.
Buys Rivals Dinner
Kieran and I are still tie for
second in the triple race around
the world, even though 1 scored a
big foreign exchange coup yester-
day and left him without a single
piastre.
bought up all the Egyptian
money at the hotel before he got
there, but 1 Staked him to a trip
around Alexandria.
Rather than see competition
stifled by letting Kieran Starve, I
bought him his dinner, too.
D'IlaIR18llsssg