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THE HOLY LAND.A Chat With a llxloaary Who Wm la Jernialcm Flftj-Two Years Axo.v « 1From the Detroit Free Proas.A reporter lor* the Free Preea met the Rev. Wm, Thomson at the home of his daughter, Mrs. F. K. Walker, No. 848 Jefferton avenue. Mr. Thomson ij one of the oldest of American missionaries to the Holy Land now living, having gone to Jerusalem in 1884 for the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. The gentleman is of large and well proportioned figure, and considering his advanced age he is remarkably well preserved* physically as well as mentally.“Yes, lam pretty well acquainted with Jerusalem,11 said Mr. Thomson, '•and with the whole of Palestine, which, while it was once the center of civilization and progress, is now a very insignificant province of a very insignificant empire.“How large a city was Jerusalem when you first went there?”“1 went to that city first fifty-two years ago and then there was hardly a house outside of the city walls while the city gates were closed each evening and no person could get out or in until morning. 1 think it contained about 15,000 inhabitants.”“Of course the city has no growth except in age?”\es, it has a moderate growth. 1 presume the city now counts 30,000 inhabitants, and all the old restrictions about the city's walls and the closing of the city gates are removed.” “What is there to attract new settlers and who are they?”“They are mostly Jews and most of them who come are old people who seek the city of their fathers, to die and be buried there. Now there are a great many houses, and some of them fine modern dwellings, on the west side of the city outside of the old walls. The houses are pretty architectually, and they are in most instances well furnished. . When they die they are buried there, and the whole side of Mount Olivet is fairly paved with the graves of buried Jews.'“Paved?”“Yes. You know the Hebrews do not mark the graves of thjir dead with monuments and upright headstones as we do. They place a small slab or stone appropriately carved, flat-wise upon the graves. That’s why Isay the side of Mount Olivet is paved.”“Is the city itself at all modernized.”“Yes. considerably. Inside the walls or in the old city, not many changes have been made in the buildings, but the streets are kept cleaner, the native inhabitants are more cleanly and hospitable and show more enterprise. Why, just think of it, the streets of Jerusalem are lighted at night time by oil from the Pennsylvania oil wells. There are two or three hotels there kept by Germans, and as 1 tell you, outside the wall9 the new residences oi Hebrews who have located there make the landscape look quite modern and pleasing. Then there are Russian and Armenian convents there—not one building—but splendid systems of buildings well worth visiting.”“How about the roadways in that vicinity?”“They are poor enough now, but they are superb compared with the roads when I first went there. The country is very mountainous, and it is under the rule of the Turkish Government. That tells the whole story, for Turkey was born to retard all«rogress and kill all prosperity, ’hen I went there it was a dilliculfc matter to reach Jerusalem on mule or donkey-back, or even on foot. Now there is a sort of carriace road from JalTa to Jerusalem—about forty miles —over which a small vehicle, a kind of stago or omnibus, carries visitors.“How do all the tourists and pilgrims get to the Holy City?”“Most of the pilgrims come in the spring of the year, either on foot or on mules and donkeys. The European and American visitors generally get there by way of Jaffa and the carriage road I speak of. But that class is only a drop in the bucket. The crowd comes in the spring of the year, as I say, and they come chiefly from Russia and European Turkey. They come by the hundreds—”“How are they accommodated in the two or three small hotels?”“The pilgrims are accommodated in the convents and bring tents with them and camp out in the olive orchards roundabout. That’s why they come when they do, for at that season of the year it is simply delightful in the open air, day or night.”“Is there anything to make Jerusalem a very large city?”“Nothing, except as a point of most unique historical intere/t. It has no manufactures except the manfacture of relics from wood from the Mount of Olives and mother-of-pearl taken from the Red Sea. These are made quite extensively, and they are very readily sold at good prices to Russian pilgrims.”“There is no agriculture?”“Nothing to speak of, though there might be, aa the country is a limestone country. At Hebron there is a gloss manufactory where they make finger rings and other ormaments of class. There is some little traffic in wool and olives, but outside of these things the products of the country are very small. The harvest is the coming of the pilgrims each spring.”* “The lees for pointing out objects of interest to visitors must amount to considerable?”Not so very much, but enough to help the natives to live.”“I suppose they authenticate all the points of interest, relics, etc?”“Well, the geographical points like the Mount of Olives, Bethlehem, Bethany, Hebron, etc., are established as to authenticity, beyond question. There can be no doubt that the great Mosque of Omar is built on the site of Solomon’s Temple, nearNablnt. But when in one of tne convents at Bethlehem thev point to a star in the floor and say that our Savior was born on that spot—well, I think there is room for doubt and at the same time I con-clde that it isn’t necessary to worry my mind over it. They show you the sepulcher where Christ was buried. You are somewhat impressed with an idea that the location has been made to suit a structure of different style and more recent date than that on which the burial occurred. However, in the atmosphere of that locality one does not feel like studying as to the exactness of little details like that. The authenticity of the place as a whole is of itself raoet satisfying.”“Were you at other cities in that I country?”j Yes, indeed. By the way, to showthe difference between Jerusalem and the roads leading to it which are under the Government of Turkey, and Damascus and Beyrout, which cities are connected by highways built by the German Government. They are both very large and flourishing cities, with good fruit, grain and wool trade countries round-about. They have modern hotels in these cities as fine as you will find in that Eastern country, and a good deal of present century enterprise la apparent.”“Would the country suit the average American?” ;I think not. When it comes to that tbs Holy Land is not a place I would advise any person to adopt as a future abiding place.”C!htltl21tin81WnhhacldCiu0 h n tl *eid1eignitiiPbt;TiIeynctha
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Little Falls Transcript
Little Falls, Minnesota, US
Fri, Oct 08, 1886
Page 3
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GB 17 Jun 2021
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