My Three Days In Gilead | Page 5

Bedouins"
Chapter IV.
"At Gerasa"
Chapter V.
"Up Into the Mountains"
Chapter VI.
"By the Watch-Tower"
Chapter VII.
"Down to the Jordan"
Chapter VIII.
"At the Bridge"

"Waiting at Damascus"

CHAPTER I.
Damascus! A city that numbers the years of its existence in
millenniums; that witnessed in the dawn of history the migration of
Abraham as he went out from Ur to a land not known to him, and to
whom she gave one of the best of her sons; that sent out the leper,
Naaman, to Palestine for healing and received him back whole; that
hailed with great preparations the coming of Elisha, who had
previously blinded her army at Dothan; that welcomed Saul of Tarsus
in his blindness, restored his sight, and sent him, transformed in his life,
to transform Asia Minor and classic Europe. Damascus! A city
surviving an age-long struggle with the encroaching desert--a struggle
that must go on through ages to come; but, as long as the Abana and
Pharpar continue to flow, the sands that would bury her forever in
oblivion will be changed into a soil of life-giving and life-sustaining
fertility sufficient to support her thousands of inhabitants. Damascus! A
city of the long ago, practically unchanged, where the Occidental may
look to-day with unfeigned interest upon architecture, costumes, and
customs similar to those that prevailed in the East while Greece and
Rome were yet young. Damascus! A city celebrated for a thousand
years for its bazaars, work-shops, and roses; a city so beautiful thirteen
hundred years ago that Mohammed, viewing it for the first time from a

distance, is said to have exclaimed: "Man can have but one paradise.
My paradise is heaven; I cannot enter yonder city!" a city to-day of
unsurpassed beauty, when viewed from the distance, with its white
domes and slender minarets rising above the shrubbery and trees of its
thirty thousand gardens. Here in this old city; in this historic city; in
this beautiful city; in Damascus, I greet you and extend to you an
invitation to join me in my proposed trip through Gilead.
My party as yet consists of but two persons. My dragoman, William
Barakat, of Jerusalem, in response to a telegram sent from
Constantinople, met me several days ago at Beyrout. He is a native
Syrian, talks good English, dresses like an American, (save that he
wears a red fez,) and is a Christian in faith. Before reaching this city he
has already rendered me excellent service. He is intelligent, having
attended the American College at Beyrout. I can trust him.
My arrangements with my guide are simple. He is to take me over my
desired route by best possible methods of travel; to furnish the best of
fare and lodging obtainable; to guarantee me a safe escort; and he is to
do all this within a specified time and for a stipulated price. I did not
then know how little I was asking as to fare and lodging, but when I
knew that he was fulfilling his part of the agreement I had little cause
for just complaint.
By early dawn, on October thirtieth, we had breakfasted and had bidden
good-by to all the servants about the hotel, (many of whom I did not
know to exist, but who, somehow, had learned of me, and had risen
thus early to witness my departure and to ask a fee for services that I
am quite sure some of them had had no part in rendering,) and had
ordered the driver to lose no time in reaching the station of the
Damascus-Hauran Railroad, about two miles distant. But,
notwithstanding the early hour, the streets were already crowded with
people, mules, donkeys, dogs, and other things. It was only with great
effort that we could make any headway, and at times it seemed that the
crowd, angered at our persistence, would stop us entirely in our
struggle to pass through. We did the best we could, but we missed the
train. Since there were ONLY THREE TRAINS A WEEK on that road,

it meant that I must go back to that same hotel and spend two more
days in Damascus at the rate of ten dollars a day, and then, again, on
leaving, must fee those same servants for service that I did not want,
and, generally speaking, did not get. But, though the disappointment
was great, it brought additional opportunity to study the wonders and
ways of the wonderful city wherein I was forced to remain.
A second time my dragoman prepares food for our journey; and again,
on the morning of November first, we hurry to the station. This time we
do not miss the train--we wait for it--and we wait a long time; but with
the waiting there is contentment, for, if