OCR Text |
Show OUR :\'ILE. RIVER STE.A~IER have had his dream and een the Yision of the sheet le t down from heaven containing all manner of beast. and fowls of which he was to kill and cat. But we mu ·t not be too enre in our judgment of Jaffa. 1Lcr wounds have been many and deep, and scarcely has he risen from one disa. ter before another wa upon her. From whom the Jew may have taken Jaffa we do not know, but we do know that Phoenicians looked upon that city with <1 covetous eye and took pos. cssion thereof; that the Romans saw the advantage the city would be to them and humiliated the Phoenicians; that lovers of the Star and Crescent, the .:Vf oslems, then went into that conntrv and drove out the Romans· that the Cru sa d~rs captured this Catcway o,f the Holy City from the l\Loslems: that X apoleon almost destroyed the city; and that finally it became:> :1 Turkish city. But a drive around this much battered place brings one in touch with . ome well kept homes and several very heauti ful orange groves. Our guide, Tufik E. jallouck, who was to serve us througl1 Palestine. joined us here, and he proved both an intelligent and efficient gentleman. That afternoon at two o'clock, found us seated on the Jaffa-Jerusalem Express ·which . tops at e\·ery station nnd nowhere exceeds fifteen mile per hour. llut this just satisfies the real tourist's mental and sentimental conclition; it meets perfectly the inclination of those that love to study localitic~ tktt arc rich in historical truths and meaning and . uggcst ivcness; it enables one to get off at stations and tread the plains of Sharon, to see where Da \'icl put an end to the boastings of Coliath, to look upon the city of Ramlch, where Kicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea lived, to pluck flowers by Page Forty-seven |