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54 WINNETKA TALK December, 17, 1927 Nazareth to Damascus, a Trip of Great Interest REV. F. C. STIFLER SEES | FAMED CARPENTER SHOP Also Shown the Synagogue in Which Jesus Preached in Naz- areth--Gay Night on Galilee | This is the tenth article of the series being written by the Rev. Francis Carr Stifler telling of his recent journey to the Holy Land. It tells of a trip from Nazareth to Damascus. BY REV. FRANCIS CARR STIFLER HE Kaiser's spectacular visit] to the Holy Land in 1898 has | left its benefits. Not least among | these are the German hotelkeep- | ers who are still operating for | the benefit of tourist comfort. | How we did talk about hotels. | The guide would always say that | the hotel at our next stop would | be better than the last, and some-| times it was. This was decidedly true of the German hotels in the Galilean cities. The Hotel Galilee in Nazareth was run by Frau Hesselschwert. Every- thing was spotless and the service was most courteous. The cooking was almost like home. A steamer letter at New York told me that Frau Hessel- schwert made the best caramel cus- | tard in the world. She does and excels in other puddings also. There is no ice in Nazareth for there is no power there. But there is cold water aplenty. Mary's well is at once the city reservoir and the town news- paper. The women are coming and going from the well all day long. | They carry the water in graceful | earthen jars tilted on their heads. | They laugh and talk and even ges- | ticulate on the streets as they carry their jars from place to place. Cool Water in Clay Jar I had a small jar in my hotel room for drinking water. It stood in a saucer on the window sill. The weath- er was intensely hot. But the water in that jar retained the cool freshness of Mary's well by the seeping process through the porous clay. I had won- dered why the five-gallon gasoline can was not so popular in Nazareth. Now I knew! At Nazareth, of course, we were shown the carpenter shop, the Syna- gogue where Jesus preached his first sermon, the place of the Annunciation to Mary (there were two such places shown us) but they were all enclosed in churches and not very impressive. Our day in Nazareth was Sunday. We visited one of the churches of the Annunciation in mid-afternoon. The church was full. But that did not keep George from leading the eight of us right through the aisle and down the stairs under the altar where the priest was reading at that moment. There in a cave we were shown the supposed spot where the angel an- nounced to the virgin that she should have a son. View Wedding Procession Then out of this cave again we went before all the worshippers and down another aisle while the services went right on. But stranger yet was what we saw as we reached the rear of the nave, Here was a wedding procession coming in. The bride was with her mother and following her were her bridesmaids and her family. They made their way down the aisle to some The Pictuers: (Top to bottom)--Meussin standing in tower giving call to prayer at 3:30 o'clock in the afternoon at Tiberius, Galilee--In the court of the Great Mosque, Damascus--Window from which Paul was let down in basket to make escape, Damascus--Village of Magdala, Sea of Gaililee, where Mary Magdalene lived. empty pews in the left transcept. We stood and waited but as nothing hap- pened we went on. Then at the church yard gate half a block away we met the groom and all his friends-- the best dressed group of men I saw in all my travels. The wedding cere- There were soldiers everywhere. They | of Galilee. mony was to follow the mass. It was a morning of disturbances for that poor priest. I know I could not have endured it all in one of my services. We left Nazareth in the early morn- ing. In half an hour we were at Cana Of course we were shown { one of the original jars in which Jesus [a mud had turned water into wine. But we saw something that was far more elo quent to me, We were taken into a typical village home. It was made of mud and partly 'hewn out of the native stone. It was occupied by an old couple. There was just one room with floor. There were shelves across the corners where the grain was kept and the charcoal and a little spare clothing. There was no furni- ture. A low side entrance led to a small chicken yard and just outside this door was a little charcoal stove of mud and stone. There were scores like this in Cana. One wonders if it was against such odds as this that Jesus hurled his message. If so we | get a new estimate of the sublimity of | his faith, Wait for Call to Prayer In less than an hour from Cana we were high above the Sea of Galilee stretching out before us. It is 654 feet above the sea level. In five miles we descended two thousand feet. The only prosperous city on the Lake is Tiberius. Here was another excellent German hotel. But in what contrast did the city stand to Nazareth. Mo- hammedan completely. A minaret | arose just a block away from the | | | | | | | balcony of our hotel. We waited there for half an hour for the Meuzzin to come out and give his 3:30 call to prayer. He came at length and al- though we snapped our pictures of him we could scarcely hear him call be- cause a phonograph down on the beach was playing "I want to be happy" in regular American jazz time. From Tiberius we made side trips to the famous hot springs south of the city and to Magdala, Bethsaida, the Plain of Genesaret and to Capernaum. At this last spot a synagogue of the Roman period, that was destroyed by | earthquake many years ago, is being | restored. | on Galilee. It may have been the very synagogue built for the people by the Roman centurion of the Gospel story, a place where Jesus must have taught many times. At Bethsaida we took a moving picture of two women grind- ing corn. It almost seemed as though we had been transported back to Bible times. Glimpse Sea of Galilee At night we took a moonlight row The boatmen entertained us with fascinating bedouin music and then led us as we sang "Galilee, Bright Galilee." And of course they sold us strings of shells, And of course we waited till the ride was over and until we were just leaving the dock--for then the price was lowest. One has to learn to be a heartless bargainer in the Eastern lands. Very early in the morning we start- ed off across the mountains and the deserts for Damascus. For twenty- five miles we were getting glimpses of the Sea of Galilee as we climbed the steeps of Northern Palestine. Before us lay mighty Hermon with great snow fields on her summit. Now and then we passed a shepherd with his flock. One was piping a home made flute. We stirred up flocks of storks. The road was excellent. After two hours we came to the Jordan at the 3ridge of the Daughters of Jacob just below the waters of Merom, another little lake that breaks the Jordan's course. Here we passed the customs from Palestine to Syria. Immediately we felt the difference. Syria" has only lately been in great upheaval through the Druses rebellion. (Continued on Page 63) cig" AN