TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 12479, 16 April 1906, Page 6

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

The author of "In a ] Under Syrian Saddle , ' men- \ Syrian Stare, tions as one of the odd experiences of the East that the traveller may rest in the Gocd Samaritan Inn, and spend his twopence on picture post-cards to be stamped—strange anachronism —with postmark "Bon Samaritain." Thackeray's forecast of a day when the scream of the locomotive would awaken the echoes of the Holy Land was no donbt startling to tho public of his time. But now the railway hae for some years been running among the sacred places, and perhaps itis only the exceptional passenger who can record, "It seems a sort of sacrilege to view (ho Plain ,of Sharon from a railway carriage window, and when the engine whistles in tke Vale of Rephaim one starts like a guilty thing surprised." Disraeli mat!* his Jew say in Palmerston's time, "Mark mc, England will never be satisfied till the people of Jerusalem w< , ar calico turban*." This source of content is now quite open to the British nation, for calico lias become Syria's favourite wear. "Many shops in Damascus appear to sell nothing but Manchester cotton goods ot the loudest led-and-yellow colours, and it is said tho nativos arc but too prone to purchase thew; instead of their own far by the letterpress of 'The Holy Land." in by thclotterpros of "The Holy Land," in Blnuk's M'ries of colour volume-, which nolos also the anomaly of arriving at the hill of Dothan, with thoughts of wandering Winiaelites, of Joseph's pit, and of Elisha standing amongst the chariots and horsf-ci of the Syrian King, when you find on the historic ground '•a steam-mill under a shed, whetse putfining funnel is the most incongruous object imaginable in such a place." Carpenters' shops at Nasareth are furnished with planes and chbels ot the latest European pattern, and as you pass their open doors the i-cent of new-cut wood is accompanied by the whirr of the turn ing-lathe. The ends of the earth are already meeting in Palestine, and if the tyrannical rule of Turkey were relaxed or ended, it js questionable whether Syria would remain an oriental country for ten years. Yet candour acknowledges that the East at present coutrivee to make innovations look eastern still. A telegraph wire may stretch right across the enclosure of Jacob's Well, but this modem touch rrdoems itself by its departure from all etiff ways of European telegraphs; "tho posts sloping at every conceivable angle, and the wires sagging as only Asiatic wires can sag." Railway tracks arc often deep in grass. The Damaticus Post Office deals out letters and telegrams in a hall that looks like a very dirty stable-yard, with a very dirty fountain in the middle; and tombs railed off with bamboo and barbed wire, which might have been picked off a rub-bish-heap, assist the impression of Syria as "a place of wreckage, new and old."

An Interesting comOccult Syria, parison has been made between the mental effect produced by mirages and earthquakes. In the one case earth, and in the other Heaven, behaving so unusually, may arrest, and overawe the bewildered mortal with (something of the same sense of helplessness. The writer of "The Holy Land" describes an occasion on which an actual range of hillfl suddenly became a long eta-ing of camels on the sky-line, with an ieland, a lake, and c grove of palmtrees floating in the air above them. " The. sudden apparition recalled on the instant a day in the antipodes when he folt, though at a great distance, the tremble of the New Zealand earthquakes. Either experience is unearthly enough to explain many superstitions.' . Then trees in Syria are rare enough to achieve, where they do appear, an extraordinary reputation for good or ill. TRti6 may have used up all the treee near Jerusalem to me-ke crosses for Jews, but by Sir John Mandeville'e time the legend had expanded to the belief that at the Crucifixion all trees in the world withered and died. In their new growth, some returned to punish mankind. The green spots where treee and grass abound are orten deadly from malaria. Many Syrian plants are as treacherous as they are. fair. "One of our company, in gathering sprays of a peculiarly lovely creeper, somewhat resembling a w.hito passion flower, had his hand wounded with invisible, but virulent, needles, which caused it to swell, and gave great pain." Only the date palm, tho cedar, and tho olive, brought their compaesionato gifts, in shadow or fruit; and hence that occult fymbol from tho East, out fleur-de-lis pattern, often wrongly taken as the flower of lily or

iris. The central stem ie the sacred date palm, whue the side fines and the horizontal band stand for oxhorns tied to the stem to avert the evil eye. Magic explains eatiefactorily to the Syrian both bad fortune and good, and is as uecftil a eulistitutc lotscience «s it is for religion. " All great buildings must have been built by enchantment, so what is the use of speculating as to their architecture? Western civilisation is no doubt a remarkable affnir, but it never occurs to an unsophisticated Syrian that it is a matter for energetic emulation. The Frank has only been plucky enough to learn the proper spell." So .Syria remains a land of uncured discuses, of fantastic medicine, and many objectionable old-world features—though the Frank visitor, perhaps, almost prefers thits superstition element about his sacred spots, to the sophistication of the. drazoman, who points out, in up-to-date style, '"The praying-placrs of Abraham and Elijah, and other very fine, high-class people." The earthquake hoax perTlio Tokio petrated at Tokio towards Hoax. the end of February peems to have been very elaborate and successful—if the latter word should be applied toan affair of this kind. The. nerves of the Tdkio people eoem to have been 0:1 edge. "The professors" were very lugubrious about the visirt, of Prince Arthur of Connaught to Japan m the "year of the Kicking Hor.sc." in which disasters innumerable were to overtake the land, and they had prophesied for some time that Tokio would be sooner or late-r destroyed hy an earthquake or a tidal wave. Three prophecies were fallowed by several great fires and a couple of earthquakes, and cons**jn entry fhe minds of the inhabitant** —for the Japanese are still supei&titious—were ready to receive any rumour. On February 24th .-ome people, representing themselves to be the crural observatory, telephoned in all directions that bet-wren certain liouir Tokio would be demolished ly terribta earthquake*, and added the warning

"be ready. ,. Within a few minutes the •whole telephone system of the city was going, the newspaper offices were beseiged by enquirers, people warned their friends and relatives, and th? observatory wan invaded by an anxious throng asking exaotiy wTiat time they might expect tho crash) of doom. The terrible news was at once communicated to the Master of Ceremonies nt tiie concert given to Prince Arthur at the Ugeno Park, and the concert wrs quickly but quietly brought to a close. When the Speaker of the House of Commons announced the news, all fires in the building were extinguished, and members rushed outside in &uch haste that many cf t'iiem took wrong hate. The city was soon in a .state of panic. Merchants left their shops and went into the streets, some people packed up their valuables and prepared to fly, others ran from their dwellings and rode- about the streets on tram cars until the vehicles stopped. Professors ceased lecturing, employees wero ordered to leave tho factories, from the Finance Minister's reed-dc-ncp a3l the valuable furniture was carried out into the garden, many of the tea-house's refused gues.tr», and tihe geishas declined to dance. The- newspapers quickly issued special editions reaffiunrng tho people, but it was not until t")M« next day that they realised that tho whole scare was a hoax of a magnitude quite unprrcedon<ed in the history of practical jokes.