A VISIT TO THE JERUSALEM GAOL.

Press, Volume XLVIII, Issue 14406, 13 July 1912, Page 9

A VISIT TO THE JERUSALEM GAOL.

Bt Mrs Juman Grande (Miss , Constance Babnicoat).

(SPKCIALLT WEITTEN TOR "iHB PBESS.").

To obtain permission to visit the extraordinary relic of the Middle Ages, known as the Jerusalem gaol, is. not at all an easy matter, even-for a man, while" for a woman it is very .much more.; difficult still. Indeed, I■ believe I am the .only woman, who has entered it, at any rate since it has been used as- agaol.; .'■■.'"' '•■..'■ ■;' ■.... .•■' '"' ' ' "'■ -■ : - ;: For yithe building which does duty for the .gaol in Jerusalem dates back bo one-knows precisely how far, but certainly .for five or six hundred years, and so extremely solidly is lit built that there'is no reason whatever why it should not last for,: fully another five or six hundred- Except that guards are stationed outside it, and that the windows are. barred, the building has nothing to distinguish it from many others "in the same old part of Jerusa-lem-within-the-walls. It is close to the main entrance ; of the enclosure surrounding the Mosque of Omar, that is, it is just outside the area marking the site of Solomon's Temple. Aβ for the street in* which the Jerusalem gaol is situated, it is such as no one can have seen unless he haa been to Jerusalem. There aro no streets of the kind in Damascus, nor in Cairo, nor-in Constantinople. So narrow is the street that, although a donkey can pass along it, a camel nearly takes up the whole of the room, and, especially if it be heavily laden, compels passers-by to squeeze op against the walls. I do not remember having seen any vehicle in it, but certainly none larger than a coster-cart could get through. TSe pavement is of cobble-stones, very rough and uneven, for they appear never to have been lenewed or repaired for centuries; while as they are never cleaned or swept, they aro covered with filth, and slippery with long usage. In places the street is entirely arched over, although it ~ is not entirely covered, as are many old Jerusalem streets; but the very high and solidlybuilt stone walls, bright just now with yellow snapdragon and a flowering plant which. I believe to be King Solomon's "hyssop that springeth out of the wAI," keep out most of God's air and sunlight. Tha street is littered everywhere, Jerusalem-like, -with ■ orangepeel, egg-shells, and household and other refuse. "Pray for the filth of Jerusalom!" It'was'passing by this gaol, in this ancient and ill-smelling street, which made mc and my husband ("The Times" correspondent) wish to visit it. Getting tho permission to do so took up half a long afternoon. It was necessary first to go and see the Pro-curator-General of Jerusalem, to whom we had a good introduction. He was a man very superior to, and vory different from, the ordinary Turkish official: For on© thing, he looked as if he worked. He was quite fair, with light blue-grey eyes, a native of Lebanon, and a Moslem. To him no country in tli© world is like Lebanon. Ho had been educated in a French school at Beyrouth, and conversation with him was entirely in French. He has never been in England, although his father was anxious to send him thither to finish his education; but Abdul Hamid somehow contrived to hear of this intention, and absolutely forbade him to let his son go. I think we owed it to the ProcuratorGeneral that wo ever entered the Jerusalem gaol at all. Neither the Military Commandant, the then acting Governor of Jerusalem, nor the head of tho Gensdarmes would have allowed it, had they had their way: and they made all manner of excuses for not allowing us, and especially for not allowing mc, to go inside. I heard a long conversation taking place over the only telephono line in Jerusalem—that between the Procurator-General's office and the office of the Military Commandant. The Commandant was arguing that the Jerusalem gaol was a place not fit to be shown, especially io a lady; that it was the worst remaining relic of the old regime «nd altogether unpresentable. Tho Procurator-General urged, on the other hand, that even olthongh the

β-aol were not what it should be, it was, still much better that we should see it, for otherwise wo might think it far worse than it really was. Never cover up or hide things, he urged. In the end, his counseb prevailed over both the Military Commandant and the head of the Gensdarmes; and it was accordingly arranged that we should visit the gaol the next morning at ten o'clock. The Military Commandant, however, stipulated that the Procurator-General must accompany USj and also the head of the Gensdarmes.

Next morning, therefore, we went to the Jerusalem Government House, down a labyrinth of narrow, archedover, winding streets, absolutely picturesque and absolutely unwholesome. Wo went up some old stone stepe. and into a shabby room, not too -well kept, whero the Procurator-General and the head of the Gensdarmes were waiting for us. The latter, a young Turk, wearing a gorgeous uniform, was obviously nervous. Hardly had we sat down, when the customary tiny cups of very strong Turkish coffee were offered us, with cigarettes. The coffee-pot seems always boiling in these Turkish offices, for in every ono we entered, Ironi that of tho Procurator-Genoral to that of tho Military Governor himself, we wero always offered tiny cups of the same boiling hot,, strong, sweetish liquid, Presently the Governor of the gaol appeared—small and rather insignificant looking, wearing European J clothes with a red tarboosh, and carrying a string of beads in one hand, with which he'was continually fiddling, : according to the custom of many. Orientals. I believe ..that carrying beads and playing with them is soothing to the a country whero there is certainly noiijiireat pressure of business, where newspapers avo few, and amusements fewer:- -. After drinking our coffee, we set out 'for the gaol. ■ -Arrived thore, we found a regiment of soldiers posted outside, with rifles and bayonets, who bustled ri£ht and- left, and 1 brought chairs out. The Jerusalem prison can scarcely be said to have a gateor door, but is entered merely by a square hole cut in the very thick walls, ana strongly grilled over. Through this hole we had to crawl; then, there, was room enough to walk two or three steps, and than two more similar holes, strongly barred across, and quite close to each other, had also to be crawled through. So small are these apertures that I cannot imagine how big or stout persons can ever get through them, but tho typical Oriental is not stout. Before we passed through, the regiment of Turkish soldiers had to go through. Once through the grilles, we.were in a very large sort of interior courtyard, stone-flagged, nearly square, and quite open to the sky. It was surrounded by exceeding solidly-constructed buildings, in which the prisoners live, and adorned by four ancient, gnarled figtrees, very beautiful in their fresh green spring foliage. In the centre of the courtyard was an old stone wall.- . Here, in this yard, the. convicts, to the number of several hundred, on sentences varying from .two to fifteen years, were assembled. They wore no special ; dressy and iii their outward appearance there- was absolutely nothing "16 distinguish them from the people in the Jerusalem streets, except that they were, perhaps, rather cleaner and better dressed. Three years earlier, ■when the old regime was still in force, they would have had : their feet chained, but now are abolished. They wero, of course, all men—indeed,,there are so few women criminals in Jerusalem thai it is not worth while to have a special prison for. them. ..At present •there is only one'■, in. the..whole of Jerusalem and district; / . , am quite sure the prisoners were expecting us, and" that ever since three o'clock the afternoon before they had been cleaning up, washing, and.putting on their best clothes. Up on the very top of the very tallest fig-tree I noticed some washing hung out to dry, although there was a clothes-line stretched across tho yard. . When I asked why the lino was not used, 1 was told that it was in our honour that the washing was hung in this inaccessible place, which at onco showed that .the prisoners knew we were coming. The question which most people will at once ask about these prisoners is what do they do?. Nothing—nothing except cook and prepare their food, wash their clothes, and perhaps occasionally clean their cells «i little. They are supposed to be employed. According to Turkish Government regulations, in fact they must be employed, but, to givo thorn employment is" too difficult and troublesome, and coiieeqiiently they do . nothing—nnt a very serious punishment, it must be remembered, to Orientals, who can contentedly spend hours squatting on tlreir ! haunches smoking narghilehs or cigarettes, which, in tho Jerusalem gaol they ar c quite at liberty to do. It will already have been inferred that this gaol is wholly unlike any other. There is no discipline as we understand the word. The prisoners must b o allowed -to tn:'k freely to one another, because in tho circumstances they obviously could not bo prevented from doing so; and they were even allowed to talk to us! Pour, six, or eight of them sleep together in the i same cell, opening off tha same r .arc;o j flagged courtyard, in which they all j herd together, sitting under the figtrees in summer, as these afford: tha , only shade. * They are allowed to hr.ye money, na much r.s they can .got, and they send out and buy, through tho warders, meat, fruit, sweets, cijrnretten, or anything else they may fancy. Indeed, they have .to be allowed some money and some opportunities of purchasing food, ■ as all the Government provides for them is a little more than 21b of bread a day per prisoner, and I bolirr- 3 that, under the old regime, this bread was often a fiction. Now. howevc-rj the prisoners really do get it. Some of the poorer prisoners find employment and ttirna fenv- honest pcnn;os by doing washing for the richer prisoners; and a very few caps or decorate mirrors with bead work avd shells. Two of these cans were presented k> lIS, and I have them still, as curiosities, not as things of beauty, for ono is made of crude pink, crude blue, scarlet and yellow wools, while the other is purple and green, brickred and yellow! We went into some of the prisoners' cells, in the thick encircling walls, finding cooking going on and cotFoo brewing. The walls, apparently the natural rock, out of which the cells appeared to have been originally hewn, were black with smoke and grime; the bcddiT!2 trailed on tho filthy rock floor, and 1 think that on close examination the cells would probably have been found full of vermin. The stones at tho entrance were worn hollow with age, but they had evidently been recently scoured. The governor of the prison, who, with the ProcuratorGeneral, the head of the; Gensdarmes, and a trooo'of Turkish snJdiers, kept close at our heels, was careful to explain to us that really he himself lived in a house very much like these prisoners' cells, and though I do not believe that. 1 do think that, takifig into consideration what the prisoners were mostly accustomed to, the -cells would not scorn to them at all unrsomfortable or uncleanly. \ At the entrance to one coll a most macniifccnt personage received us, far more imposing in appearance than any of the big-w'i-'s accompanying .us. j did not realise at all at first that he was a prisoner, deprived of hjs liberty, for he welcomed us with seijrnenrial airs, as if he had been tho lord of a castle, and we some humble retainers come to pay our respects to him. He proved to" be a Sheikh, and a Sheikh is always a Sheikh, whether in prison or

out of it. He invited us to luncheon, speaking in Arabic, through an interpreter. If we would stay, he said, he would roast a lamb for us; and I would nave given much to have stayed and had luncheon with the Sheikh in the Jerusalem gaol. Moreover, roast lanaD, as he would hav 0 roasted it—with &rc> as the Children of Israel were told to roast the passover lamb —would have been delicious. But our presence in the prison of course entailed that ot several officials, and a whole troop ot patient Turkish soldiers; and, moreover, wo had invitvxi someone to luncheon. Otherwise we might have staved for the rare experience. Tho Sheikh informed us that since the advent of the present ProcuratorGeneral there had'been no trouble in rhe gaol, and no overcrowding. -Indeed, uiedian-al relic as it is. I shoula doubt the Jerusalem gaol's being particularly unhealthy. As soon as possible "a new gaol is to be built, the site having been already chosen: but as consent for everything clone in Jerusalem has to l>3 obtained from Constantinople, there is no saying when the building or the new prison will actually be begun. Plans and specifications arc sent to Constantinople, and passed froni_ one official to the other, and then simply piqeon-hol.?d indefinitely. Perhaps, when the new gaol is built, th*- old one. with its great interior courtyard and curious cells, may bo shown to the tourists of some future year as a highly interesting relic of the past.