Very few writers and hardly any lecturers and speakers who have visited
Jerusalem have told the truth about it, or if some of them have, they
told only the pleasant part of it. In fact, it has usually been given a
treble coat of whitewash, entirely misleading to those who are to follow
them. When the writer holds Jerusalem to be the greatest of historical
cities with all the reverence due to it, and yet finds it in the hands of
the Turkish government--which does not know the meaning of truth nor of
honesty; which by its example prostitutes every decent feeling in the
minds of the people to its own base ends, and permits the barefaced
robbery and oppression, not only of the visitor but of its own
citizens--then I say the modern writer has a delicate task to perform in
describing it, for in relating the facts he might seem to be railing and
scoffing at religion and biblical history, whereas nothing is farther
from his mind or his intention. Everything is so interwoven that it is
hard to separate the serious and truthful from the ridiculous and
fraudulent. This deceit is not alone of to-day; it goes back to the
times when landmarks and historic evidences were obliterated by wars,
earthquakes and revolutions, and when all traces of locations during
these upheavals of centuries were lost and covered with _débris_
sometimes one hundred and fifty feet deep, the city of Jerusalem itself
not having a single inhabitant for over fifty years in one period of its
history. Then the "holy men" of those old days saw at once their
opportunity to make religion both popular and paying, as well as the
necessity for doing so, and they therefore invented a system of "pious
frauds" by selecting bogus sites on particular spots for this, that, and
the other incident which occurred in the great religious dramas in the
Holy Land. These selections gave the ignorant, to whom they wholly
appealed, some material, practical object on which to lay hold--something
to worship which they could see and feel; and this was where the profit
lay. Thus we find that there are crowded in the rooms of the Church of
the Holy Sepulchre over thirty "sacred sites." There is the exact spot
where the clay was found to make Adam; Adam's grave; the tears of the
Virgin petrified in the form of a cross. Then there is the Stone of
Unction; near by the Chapel of the Parted Raiment, where Christ's clothes
were gambled for; again, the spot where He was crowned with thorns; the
place where they scourged Him; that spot beyond is where they nailed Him
to the cross--and the hole for the cross has been carefully cut out, no
doubt by the best local stone-cutter not so many years ago. Then there
is the long story of the finding of the true cross--but why further speak
of these absurd fictions, intended to fool and work upon the poor Greek,
Armenian, Syrian, Latin, Copt, Abyssinian and Russian pilgrims--in fact,
all who are ignorant and credulous and will give _bakshish_ to these fat
and sleek bandits, who never did an honest day's work in their lives and
who couldn't be driven with a shotgun to do any kind of labor! At birth
they are dedicated to organized robbery and oppression and they have no
thought of disturbing this dedication--not if they know it! For fees,
they show the "Cradle," a heavy, marble bath tub that would take many men
to rock it with a crowbar. They exhibit the "Manger," also in marble
(!), that never had a straw in it, and if you seem credulous they will
tell you anything they think you will swallow. I pretended to believe
them, and in consequence got a load of lies that would have made Ananias
clap his hands with joy. And so on _ad infinitum_! By one "holy"
pretence and another they rob these poor victims of their money till it
is all gone, when they are allowed to go home as best they may. All
religions, including the Roman Catholic and the Protestant, should
combine to form a universal commission, which should be supplied with
funds raised by public subscription the world over for the purpose of
regulating Jerusalem. The objectionable buildings and "fake" objects
should be razed to the ground, and it should be the duty of this
commission to set forth and establish the authentic, historical sites and
locations as nearly as reasoning and induction can locate them, and it
should also be its province to see that proper treatment, protection and
accommodation are given the poor pilgrims who go there annually; the rich
and educated can take care of themselves.
The whole city is in a most disgusting state--unclean, vile and
unspeakable in almost every respect; it is the sink of Christendom and
its condition is a disgrace to humanity and to all sects of religion.
Jerusalem is a very old city: Abraham lived there and it was David's
capital. When Solomon was king it was one of the mighty and magnificent
cities of the world. Sixteen sieges have destroyed it, and the city of
to-day is really built on the ruins of its seven predecessors. How
utterly preposterous, then, is it for any one to attempt to identify the
sacred places! The present population is 60,000. It is a walled city
and has eleven gates. The Mosque of Omar is its principal feature; this
was completed by Solyman the Magnificent in 1561; parts of the
construction were done by the Crusaders. It has a noble dome and is a
masterpiece of architectural beauty; it is said to be one of the finest
buildings in Asia.
In the Church of the Holy Sepulchre the various sects have certain
portions allotted to them for worship; the lines between them are guarded
by armed soldiers, and if even an unintentional trespass is committed, a
bloody riot usually ensues. In one of these three men were killed and
many wounded a few days before we arrived, and the defeated sects were
planning reprisals when we were leaving. This is Christianity at high
pressure, and is characteristic of the whole place.
We saw Mount Zion, the Mount of Olives, the Damascus Gate, Calvary, the
Garden of Gethsemane, the Pool of Siloam, the Pool of Bethesda, and the
other celebrated places mentioned in the Bible. These were fairly
authentic, as they were not "spots," but wide places of considerable
dimensions, and not gathered under one roof.
[Illustration: THE WAILING PLACE, JERUSALEM. THE LESS SAID ABOUT THIS,
THE BETTER]
The condition of the "Wall of Wailing"--which, by the way, is an open,
paved court--is particularly offensive in a sanitary sense and no
self-respecting person should enter it. Some writers have spoken plainly
about these things. Here is a quotation from an eminent writer on the
East, Dr. D. E. Lorenz, who knows his subject thoroughly, and to whom I
am indebted for other data herewith:
"The moral degeneracy of the people as a whole is incredible. Profanity
and obscenity are said to be mingled in the speech of the common people
to an extent unknown among almost any other people on earth. Filthy
homes and utter uncleanliness of person are the general rule. Sanitation
is almost wholly disregarded, and it is a wonder that a plague does not
sweep away all the inhabitants. . . . Dishonesty is reduced to a fine
art. . . . The crowded streets with their Babel of confusion--the shouts
of the donkey boys, the loud cries of the camel drivers, and the calls of
those who would sell their wares to every passer-by, together with the
hurly-burly of people in strange garb and speaking in strange
tongues--all this tends to destroy . . . the religious glamour."
The "puller-in" and the "barker" of Baxter Street and the Bowery are mere
sucking doves compared with the vendors of Jerusalem: they will get in
front of you and pull you into their shops, and the only way you can
prevent an assault is to jump to the other side of the street or dive
into an alley. If you do not buy from them they will guy you and tell
you to your face that they wish Americans would stay at home unless they
will spend their money like the gentlemen they pretend to be. If at the
end you buy nothing, they will shout derisively, "Skidoo! twenty-three!
no good!" and other slang of a more or less complimentary nature. The
English rule them with a rod of iron; they thrash them with a cane or
whip which they carry for the purpose, and consequently the natives do
not bother Johnnie Bull but allow him to pass in silence. The Emperor
William was here a short time since, and they opened a new gate to let
him in and removed the small boulders from the road so that his Imperial
Majesty might not be jolted in driving about the country. William wants
to be friendly and get a big slice of the "melon" at the cutting. Lady
Burdett-Coutts, noticing the dangerous character of the water, offered to
equip a fine, free system for the city, taking the supply from the head
waters of the Jordan, but the sultan refused the offer unless he did the
building. This proposal Lady Coutts declined, well knowing that if she
accepted it there would be no works, but that the "Brother of the Sun"
would keep the money.
The "Corks" were invited to a reception in Jerusalem given by a native
lady in her own home, surrounded by every luxury and refinement as these
are known in Asia Minor. She received us very graciously, with a
distinguished, high-bred air, knowing just what to say and do at the
psychological moment. She treated Mrs. Galley-West with the same
impartiality that she showed toward some of the aristocratic members of
the Rittenhouse Square set of Philadelphia who honored us with their
presence. She was highly educated and an accomplished linguist, so
practically all the varieties of Volapuk were alike familiar to her, and
she could make Jean, Ivan, Hans, Franz or Johnny equally at home in her
presence; as, if she could not quite "hit it off" with him in one
language, she could quickly shift to another and talk to him in the kind
in which he could best express himself.
Music was rendered and refreshments served by natives in oriental style
and costume. Her husband was an American, an enthusiastic collector of
ceramics and Levantine _bric-à-brac_, and the owner of a celebrated
collection of scarabs--not bought at the Luxor factory, but separated
from the mummies with the golden lever one must use to acquire these
treasures; because it is the same, whether a collector has them dug from
the graves for gold or whether he buys them after some one else has dug
them. We know the practice here in another form (only ours is on a
silver basis), when we catch our speckled beauties in the mountain
streams with a silver hook and hang them high on a pole at supper time
for local fame and universal admiration. Anyhow, the "real thing" in
scarabs is not to be sneezed at when it is a fact that they have lain
beside a Pharaoh in his grave long before Noah thought of laying the keel
of his _Mauretania_. And don't forget that our first captain must have
had a live pair of them on his historic houseboat, in order that they
should be cavorting on the banks of the Nile to-day. But this indulgence
in "piffle" has led us away from the main entrance, and we must come back
to the floor of the _salon_ in which our reception was being conducted.
Large operations in excavation are now in progress in the East, and
sometimes they "strike it rich," as the boys used to say in Nevada. One
of these companies uncovered a terra-cotta lamp factory, in which were
found literally thousands of small, crude lamps, each with a _strupe_ to
hold the wick through which the oil passed. These were of two sizes, the
small ones being called "wise virgins," and the larger ones "foolish
virgins." There were at least a thousand of them on hand at the
beginning of the reception, and each guest was given one by our hostess.
When it came to my turn, my heart was in my mouth! She asked which I
would have, so I said,
"Oh, madam, give me a 'foolish virgin,' by all means!"
Her smiling face turned at once to stone. She handed me a lamp with a
freezing look, in this way trying to stem the tide of giggles that this
request provoked. It was no use; the character of the sacred function
was forever lost through my thoughtless way of asking for the lamp.
Slowly and alone, I "hiked" back to the hotel, feeling that as a
receptionee I had "put my foot in it," and must in future be regarded as
a social back number.