GERMANISING JERUSALEM.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXIX, Issue 10671, 21 January 1911, Page 3 (Supplement)

GERMANISING JERUSALEM.

(By Frank G. Carpenter.)

The Germans are gobbling,the Holy Land. I use the word -"gobble ' advisedly. It means "to swallow m large pieces, to swallow hastily, to seize upon with greed and to appropriate gaspingly." That is what the Century die- i tionary says; and that is what the Germans are doing. They have established colonies in the richest parts of the country and are shipping in emigrants. They owu the best binds about Jaffa, Haifa, and Mount Carmel, and they have vineyards on the shores of Galilee. 1 shall describe some of their colonies before I leave Palestine and shall show you. how they are working this land of the Lord for Germany's good. They associate faith with their work and are laying up treasures in heaven at the, same time as on earth. Hight here in Jerusalem, under the very shadow of the Holy Sepulchre, a, great German church has been built. For the past eight or nine years the masons have been working on anotherchurch situated on Mount Zion beyond the tower of David; andacross the yallev of Kedron on the ridge known as the Mount of Olives a great limestone hospice is going up over which the German flag'floats. .', ThisHvill be a resting. place ftnvsucli Germans as are travelling through the Holy: Land and want to stay a week or so at Jerusalem. Itis being erected in honor of the Empress of Germany, and is known as the Empress Augusta sanitarium. ;The money with which the site was bought and some of that used for the building was a silver wedding present to the.Empress. It was known that she greatly loved Palestine and, her friends planned this memorial as a silver wedding gifts,- V" : #"' \', A '-' V ; The;hoSpice have a chapel con-; nected .withiiit, and; eminent Germans; will preach inhere.;; It is;; beautifully located, -being " situated 1 .on. Mount. Scopus, which is really a part of the Mount of Olives. It is several hundred feet above Jerusalem, and standing upon its roof on a bright day one can look across the hills of Judea .and see the silvery thread of the Jordan and the shining Dead Sea with the blue mountains of Moab beyond. The Kaiser is no respecter or persons, either living or 1 dead. The spot on which he is building his big church, on Mount Zion was purchased by.him.ol Sultan Abdul Hamid when he visited him in Constantinople. He went there, on Ms way to the Holy Land and while hobnobbing with the Sultan got him to sell him : this tract for £4BOO. The land, however, was not .large enough anct it adjoined the American cemetery. The Germans Bought this- at a cost .61 £3200 additional. ./Theyhad the bodies renjo^ecl^ahcU;when:;£:visited- f the place receriElyyl fouiid She graveyard .covered with'building materials": There .were lime barrels in some of the holes and the sites of many of the tombs were covered Mth bricks. In digging up .the cemetery ahousewas excavated, which some %ay wa§ used by the Virgin Mary at the '.iimtfof the crucifixion. The tomb, of David is also supposed to be' near and the spot is considered especially holy. The Kaiser "has given the" land to the Roman Catholics of his country, and the church is";to be under the order of the. Benedictines"; .'". '; , . ; "-J? - Th'te German church-inside \the city .is ownediJbj:- the Lutherans.' ; /There isua.. German colony outside Jerusalem on the way to Bethlehem the church of which is said.to stand on the site of the house of Simeon, who recognised the infant Jesus as the Messiah. A. little .further on is a leper hospital, also ruii .by the Germans. . ' The Emperor of Germany, ;when he made his trip through the Holy Laud, created as great an excitement as Theodore ;-Roosevelt when he cavorted through Europe. I have had; a. talk with the- man who had charge of the Imperial excursion. He tells me that Kaiser Wilhelm and the Empress started in at Beirut and. crossed the mountains of Lebanon to Baalbec and Damascus. They then returned to Beirut and took ship down the coast, past Tyre and Sidon, to the Bay of Acre. Here horses were waiting for them and they rode down around the shores of Mount Carmel, over the plains of Sharon to Jaffa, and thence up the hills of Judea to: Jerusalem. There were -about a thousand in the party, and it required 1250 mui.es 1 and horses to carry them and their baggage. The Emperor himself had - a staff of one hundred and twenty, wlio ate at'his own tables, and there V er e. in-addition one. hundred and : forty naval aud : military officers outside'; Trie-Empress had -her ladies-in-waiting with her and there were one hundred and seventy-five high Turks and officials supplied by \ the Sultan as a special escort. "The Emperor's tour was so arranged, that be had four camps; and he slept in a different campp,.-every inight and had a new one for each meal. -. .-Although the journey was made in October the weathen.'was hot arid the chief trouble was to supply the expediition .with water. Soine died-of thirst, and between Haifa and: Jaffa six horses dropped dead of sunstroke. "It-was so hot that the trip to the Dead Sea; and the Jordan was not attempted,"but the Emperor went to Bethlehem _arid' other places - near here, 7He remained seven days at Jerusalem, arid during-that-time consummated his purchases: of ; land;;

Much of this Goimaii movement is spiritual. It includes churches, hospitals and schools, man;\ of which aie now run with Gciinan funds. At the same time a great doal is commcicial and planned to give Germany the commeice and trade of the country. The immigration is hacked' by big syndicates, including financiers, military officers, manufacturer, princes and even the Kaiser himself.. Every town has its German merchant" and tho colonics arc so scattered that in caso the Tuikish Empiic ever breaks up it will not be difficult foi' Get many to claim the Holy Land as its. own. One of the chief faciei s of the movement jiist now is a German touiist agency which contesting*-for the travel whieh comes here every year from all parts of the world. This tourist agency has established its own hotels at Jaffa, Jerusalem and Haifa, and has its owii guides, dragomen, hoiscs and carriages. Its men thoioughly understand tho country, ,aud they have established such lelations with the Bedouin tribes thai they ,can take parties anywhere. They are repairing the roads and are making such arrangements that one can now go through many hitherto inaccessible parts of tho country by carriage. Indeed, the Germans have started a new roads movement in the Holy Land. The first attempt was made when the Kaiser wont from Jaffa to Jerusalem. The Sultan had the highway repaired, and when tho Gcimans travelled over it, it was watered for the first time in its history, being sprinkled from skin liags carried on tho shouklcis of women and 'girls, and filled at 'the spiings, wells and cisterns nearby. " An even greater invasion of the Holy Land than that of the Germans is that of the Russians. This occurs every year, and it goes on all the time. It is, however, a spiritual invasion .and there is nothing commercial about it, The Russians com© here by the fifty and sixt\ thousands a year. They .arc biought 111 by the shipload at Easter time and during the whole spring companies of pilgnms can be seen going about on foot from shrine to shrine ovei Palestine. )[an\ of the pilgrims land at Haifa, the most northerly port of the countiy. Imoiii theie the> make their way on loot o\ci the mountains of Galilee, slopping at Nazareth and then going on to Tiberius. They stop and pray at everv holy spot and. often kiss the ground' Where they think Jesus or the saints have ,trod. From the Sea of Galileo thev make their way back to Nazareth, and thence go across the plain of Esdraeloii and through Samaria to Jerusalem. 1 have seen thousands of them at Bethlehem and have met them tramping the weary road to the Dead Sea and the Jordan. These Russians' belong to the Greek Church, which owns most of the monasteries and convents of this country, and which has, all told, property amounting to millions, including some of the best rear estate in Jerusalem. Most of this property, however, belongs to Greek Catholics, -who are\not Russians, and the Russian Church seems to be an institution of its own kind. It has a great hospice outside the walls of Jerusalem and also a magnificent church on top of the Mount of Olives. It has similar institutions elsewhere, and is a live factory in the religious condition of the Holy Land. _

The Russians have here what is perhaps the largest hotel of the world. It can sleep 10,000 at a time and in addition has buildings for families. It is known as the Russian Hospice, and ~ t .it lies at the west -outside .Jerusalem e r proper.' It covers a space of ten acres or more and lias a high wall about it. ,■ Entering the gates of this hospico, one finds oneself surrounded bj Russians and Russian scenes. It is a of the land of the Czar dropped down in Judca and there is nothing Syrian in sight. The men dress in caps, long coats and trousers, tho last being tucked into high boots. They are lotiftbearded, long-haired and fair-faced. -The women are clad: in coarse gowns which end at six inches or more frojm the ankle. They wear, boots or str&,w shoes, and in the latter case; their legs are! wranped around, with; coarse cloths which tako the place of stockingjj. They have handkerchiefs tied about their heads' ; and ; their . ioatures at© usually as: hard and rough those of the men..•" ';7 *

: : But suppose we go into tho nomente r quarters of this mighty hotel Tho : building is cut', up into cave-hko vaults, which- run from side of it to the other. These vaults are lighted at th© ends, and standing in a central hall-it seems as though'-the windows were at least, 200 feet distant. Each vault is eight feet wide and fifteen feet high and it is filled from end to end with rough beds of pine boards Upon tile boards is straw matting, and a space six feet square forms the bed and honio of each woman. At the back of this" sho piles up her bread, tea and other belongings, which-she has biought wjth her from Russia. She sleeps stretched out on the boards on tho front in tho clothing she wears.in the, dajtime. ' The quarters devoted to the men arc of similar nature and those to the fairiilies differ only: in that the space f.or each -holding-is larger," ' ' l <ln .'Some parts of the mclosure we can see Janiiiles at their meals Tho meii, women -arid children sit on tho ground arouud a pot*~of soup Each has his own piece of bread and a spoou which ho uses to dip up the soup and carry it" to his mouth. They wash their owu clothes, using dishpans as tubs. The tubs are as big as a bicycle 1 wheel and four-inches deep The ing is done with cold water, which_ is v free in the hospice, but which outside would cost Id a gallon. These Russian pilgrims :ire verj ieligious. They are mostly pcoi, and have been saving a lifetime in ordet'* that they might make this tour to Holy Land. They undergo all sorts oF hardships and spend their time m fasting and prayer. They hive a chinch inside the hospice, and services are held ( there twice a day. I have attended the church? several times. It is always full of or kneeling They cross themselves again and again _as the service <goes on, and now and then _ get down and bow their heads to the" floor. There are similar services in the other Greek churches. I attended one on the Mount of Olives where the reading of'the; Scriptures and the singing were ; dpne.'by Russian nuns dressed m black with stove-pipe hats without bums crowning their heads. The hats end In a cape or veil which falls down the back The faces of the nuns were bare and spiritual looking. Their singing was exceedingly sweet, and the service impressive.. The pilgrims who listened now'arid! then knelt and kissed the bare floor. .-.-.?'■