The Daily Alaska empire., 1944-12-23
CHRISTMAS EVE
 IN BETHLEHEM
Many American Soldiers Join Throngs of Pil-
 grims This Year '.
By WILLIAM McGAFFIN
 -l AP Features

BETHLEHEM, Dec. 23, 1944 A. D -Thousands of Twentieth Century pilgrims, many of them in khaki follow the path of the three wise men tonight to worship with re- joicing hearts on the hallowec ground five and a half miles south of Jerusalem where the Prince o1 Peace was born nearly 2,000 years ago. Their hearts are full of hope and they sing with exceeding joy as a blacked- d-out world observes it's sixth Christmas of the war For this year there is a promise in Allied victories that it will not be long the angels message can be reaffirm- ed. Peace on earth, good l0iH to- ncrd men <"
 Even the stars in the eternal heavens, once brilliant with won- drous tidings, seem to shine more brightly as the glad refrains of the old songs float up from the cheer ful mortals below, "Hdyk the her. ald angels sing" they carol as they crowd about the ancient stone Church of the Nativity which Con- stantine built on the site of the Holy Manager in the year 330.
 Greatest News Story
 For this is the anniversary of a miracle, the greatest news story the world ever has known. And it marks the nearing emergence of the world from it's greatest war. Silent night, holy night !" " <" The winter air is crisp and their breaths come white as they stand singing on this hill of Judea about the weatherbeaten gray stone church which is built in the shape of a cross.
 Let us enter the church. You must stoop low there for it is but a tiny door, the Eye of the Needle" they call it. It was made small, they say, to prevent rioting crowds from sweeping inside on their oamels and donkeys to continue their fights within The Holy Land, you are reminded, is a sacred place to more than one religion.
 The air is heavy with incense. As you look up you see that the church is roofed with wood. Along either side of the nave are heavy marble columns. Moving about in the lights and shadows are long bearded priests. The Greek Ortho- dox (which observes Christmas 12 days later), Armenian and Roman Catholic churches share this holy structure and the three adjoining convents.
 Let us go forward to the choir now and descend the stone steps to the grotto below which is hol- lowed out of solid rock. In a gray marble recess on the right hand side as we enter is a silver star sunk in the floor. This marks the actual place of the birth and is in addition symbolic of the star which guided the three wise men.
 A few feet away on the left. is another marble recess marking the place of tie manager where Jesus was laid. The grotto is hung with cil lamps and red tapestries and religious pictures. The original manager is now in Rome, you are. told. Rome x the war your thoughts sweep back. Then you resume your reverie over the Christmas story.
 And she brought forth her first bern son, and trapped him an stUaddling clothes, and laid him in c manager because there ,Uas no room for them in the inn
 There is no inn in modern Bethle- hem. In nearby Jerusalem, how ever, there are fine hotels, but it is almost impossible to get room in them. Two thousand years later and still no room in the inn There has been progress, though. for this time, if it were happening again, Joseph and Mary could go to a marvellous modern hospital, the Hadassah Rothchild University Hos pital, on Mount Scoups.
 There are various reminders of the American influence in this holy city, aside from the soldier tour ists-whose favorite purchases, ac- cording to the shopkeepers, are Bibles bound in mother of pearl, and rosaries. There is, for ex- ample, the white shell which the shopkeepers prize as the finest shell for the manufacture of souvenirs