The journal. (Caldwell, Ohio) 1934-1961, 1953-02-05

4
row cobblestoned streets lined
with stalls where there was an
abundance of absolutely anything
you wanted to buy. Rows and
| rows of comic books from the
U. S. formed the background for
dark-skinned Arab men squat
ting on the ground smoking their
narghiles. Pharmacies filled with
American drugs and other nee
| essities were scattered among the
vegetable stalls. Small kerosene
stoves kept all kinds of delicious
looking goodies hot, for the pass
er-by to nibble. Cakes, candy,
meat on skewers, spicy I-know-
not-what made you hungry. The
streets themselves were a tumble
of heavily loaded donkeys, bare
footed children, Arab women
with their faces covered with
black chiffon scarves, and Arab
women without their faces COW
cred, and Arab women in mod
ern dress. Bare-footed men with
backs bent under load of boxes
10-feet long. 1t was a mystery
how 6 to 8 boxes, l to two feet
in length and a foot high could
stay in one long row, and it SEEM
ed almost impossible that one
small man could carry such a
load. Men in kafias (the white
or striped square of cloth held
on the head with a black band)
and men in red fezes, men in
shirt-tail dresses to their ankles
and men in baggy pants; men in
uniform and men in western
business suits: priests and nuns;
western visitors from all over
the world outside the iron cur
tain; these are the people you
meet in the bazarre. And no
matter what color the face or
what model the dress you are
greeted with Hello" and Good
afternoon" and Good by" but
they hope it is not really good-by
for this is a time of prosperity,
this holiday season.
In this atmosphere we visited
the holy places of the Old City
and Bethlehem. Because Jeru-
salem is the Eastern City we left
some of the places of interest in
the hope that we might visit them
at that time. We could not see
everything at this time and it
seemed best to spend more time
at Bethlehem. We did, however,
visited the Church of the Holy
Sepulchre, Mt. Calvary (Which is
now contained within the church)
the Wailing Wall, travelled the
route which Christ travelled car
rying the Cross called the Via
Dolorosa. Saw the Grotto of the
Crosses where Queen Helena,
mother of Constantine found the
three crosses. These are now in
Rome. We visited the Mosque of
Omar where we took off our
shoes to enter and watched Mos
lens at prayer.
On Christmas Eve the protest
ants hold a carol service in Beth
lehem, and the Catholics hold a
midnight mass. Thousands at
tended these services. We did
not. We could go to Bethlehem
but once because of lack of time
and we preferred to see it in the
daytime. Although it was un-
doubtedly a beautiful service,
we were of the opinion that with
so very many people it would
not seem to much a time of peace
which is what we think of at
Christmas. Consequently we re-
turned to our hotel and Ramalla,
and spent Christmas Eve talking
to the hotel keepers family and
hotel guest who happened to
be an Arab Legionnaire. Since
Ramalla is Christian city, the
family in the hotel had Christ
mas tree. It was most interesting
to hear the Arab side of the
Jewish-Arab difficulties.
Ramalla is a summer resort
town on top a mountain. 1t was
extremely cold. A salamander
Ga small earthenware bowl on
legs filled with glowing char
coaD was the only means of
heating the high-ceilinged room.
For warmth the four of us used
only two narrow beds. We passed
a fairly uncomfortable night. AS
result, we decided to see what
we could on Christmas Day and
return to Israel Christmas Night.
Christmas Day dawned bright
and sunny but cold. After break
fast our guide called for us in
taxi and at our request slowed
his pace a bit so we could ap-
preciate the countryside. The
Jordan farmers plow their steep
hillside plots just as the Arab