My trip to the Orient

Front matter

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Class

Preface

Feom early manhood I have had a consuming desire to visit classic and Bible lands, but never till in my seventy-fifth year did the opportunity offer itself; and from the beginning of my journey I have had in mind the relation of what I saw and heard for the benefit of my friends and the reading public. While in many instances I have used the guide-books that were available, I have not leant upon them, except where it was necessary to get facts and figures. I have tried to see, and to think, and to write for myself. With Bible in hand, I have accepted nothing, whatever tradition might say, if not substantiated by it. I do not claim infallibility for my book, but I have adhered strictly to facts, where it was possible to secure these facts. I have sought for information from the best sources at hand, and from notes taken on the ground I have written while matters were fresh in my mind.

J. C. Simmons.

Chapter I. Page

Leaving Home — Mount Shasta — In Montana— Irrigating Sage-brush Land — Mount Rainier — Destruction of Timber — In New York — On the Sea 13

Chapter II

London — Bunhill Field Cemetery — St. Helen's Church — St. Paul's Cathedral — First Sunday in London — Sermons by

F. B. Myer and Canon H. S. Holland — Hungry Experience — British Museum — Rosetta and Moabite Stones — Writing on Clay — Objects from Assyria and Nineveh — Mummies — London Tower — Ecumenical Conference — Other Things in London — Westminster Abbey — Parliament House — St. John's Square Methodist Church 23

Chapter III

Leaving London — Paris — Rome — Names of the Party — Column of Marcus Aurelius — Pantheon — St. Peter's — Pope's Treasures — Pope's Carriages — Codex Vatican — Picture of the Judgment, by Michael Angelo — Making Saints — Ostian Way — St. Paul's Church — Column of Trajan — The Colosseum — Triumphal Arches — Ruins of Basilica and Temples — St. John's Church — Scala Sancta — Water-supply — Tasso 46

Chapter IV

Naples — Pompeii — Macaroni — Island of Capri — Blue Grotto —

Beggars — Patras — Milking Goats 64

Chapter V

Athens — Museum — Acropolis — Ruins of Temple of Bacchus — Temple of ,2Esculapius — Temple of Minerva — The Parthenon — Temple of Mysteries — Wine-press — Temple of the Winds — King George's Palace — Corinth — St. Paul 73

Contents.

Chapter VI. Page

Constantinople — Dogs — Policemen — Fire Department — Museum — Mosque of St. Sophia — Howling Dervishes — The Sultan — Smyrna — Grave of Polycarp — Beirut — Baalbek — Abana River — A Syrian Wedding 98

Chapter VII

Damascus — Plowing and Thrashing — Cesarea Philippi — Sea of Galilee — Beths aida — Capernaum — Tiberias — Mount of Beatitudes — Cana of Galilee — Mount Gilboa — Nazareth — Nain — Shunem — Carmel — Jezreel^— Naboth's Vineyard — Dothan .... 136

Chapter VIII

Samaria — Herod's Palace — Shechem — Samaritans — Gerizim and Ebal — Jacob's Well — Jerusalem — Mosque of Omar — Solomon's Stables — Mount of Olives — Wailing-place of the Jews

— Subterranean Quarries — The True Calvary and Sepulcher

— Bethany — Gethsemane 152

Chapter IX

Jericho — Fountain of Elisha — Dead Sea — Jordan — Solomon's Pools — Joppa — Cairo — The Citadel — The Nile — Pyramids — Sphinx — Memphis — Tombs of the Kings and Sacred Bulls — Mohammedan University — Heliopolis, or On — Alexandria — Pompey's Pillar — Naples — Museum — Image of Diana — Home 165

ILLUSTRATIONS.

PAGE

Our Paety at the Sphinx Frontispiece.

Southern Methodist Delegates to the Ecumunical Conference at

the Tomb of John Wesley 41

Theater and Temple of Dionysos, or Bacchus, at Athens 75

The Acropolis, Athens 79

Mars' Hill, Athens 83

Corinth 91

Exterior View of the Mosque of St. Sophia, Constantinople 101

Interior View of the Mosque of St. Sophia, Constantinople 105

Another Interior View of the Mosque of St. Sophia, Constantinople 109

Turkish Cemetery, Constantinople 113

Whirling Dervishes, Constantinople 117

The Sultan Going to Prayers on Friday 121

Tomb of Polycarp, Smyrna, Asia Minor 125

sollie and the author near shiloh 155

Chapter I

Leaving Home — Mount Shasta — In Montana — Irrigating Sage-brush Land — Mount Rainier — Destruction of Timber — In New York — On the Sea.

THE BEGINNING OF THE TRIP.

It seems like a long time since I was notified of my selection by the Bishops as a delegate to the Ecumenical Conference of Methodism in London. But the time to start at last has come, and I am off on my long journey.

On the evening of August 8, 1901, at seven o'clock, our train started. If the many expressed wishes for a pleasant journey and a safe return count for anything, you may look for me back in due time to tell you of the abiding love and protecting care of a loving Heavenly Father. These cordial and heartfelt expressions, coming from so many, make me love God and his people more and better than ever.

Friends met me at Sacramento, notwithstanding the lateness of the hour (eleven, p. m.), with more than a "God bless you," for they added to my lunch-basket, and to my purse as well. Such friends deserve to be held in everlasting remembrance.

As often as I have crossed the continent, I have never gone by the Northern Pacific, so I concluded to try that route. This necessitated a trip entirely through the state of Oregon and about one half of Washington to Tacoma.

The first morning found me above Redding. As we went up the Sacramento River, the stream dwindled, until one could wade it at almost any point. As we neared Mount Shasta, the growth and the scenery began to change. Tall pines, in their excurrent growth, shot their spire-shaped tops high up into the heavens, while feathery ferns decorated the moist earth at their feet. Old

My Trip to the Orient.

Shasta sent his melting snows, by underground passages, down until they reached the bluff above the river, when they leaped out in clear, gushing springs that would almost slake the thirst by looking at them.

When we reached Shasta Springs, a brakeman announced, "Four minutes at the spring." The hundreds of passengers rushed out, many with cups in hand, and such crowding and dipping and drinking one does n't often see. The water is ice-cold, and so heavily surcharged with carbonic-acid gas, that it flies, sparkling, into the face, and bites the tongue with the most pleasureable sensation. My ! but it was refreshing and delightful. I felt that it would have been far more satisfactory to have stayed at the spring four hours instead of four minutes. Then one could have prolonged the pleasure of drinking, instead of gulping down a whole pint, as some of us did, at a draft. For several minutes after returning to the car my stomach imitated the spring in sending up volumes of gas.

But old Shasta — the pride and glory of California — who can describe? He does not seem to lift his head over fourteen thousand feet, but in massive grandeur he stands sovereign of the vast range of the Sierra Nevadas, that stretch in towering splendor for a thousand miles, like an empire, at his feet. He needs no scepter, no crown, to proclaim him monarch, of the range. He was born a king, and there is none to dispute his claim to the royal line. On his broad bosom have beat the battle-storms of a thousand years and left no scar, neither have they shaken one pillar of his throne. So massive is his form, that the tempest's battle-shock on one side is not felt on the other. The very artillery of heaven, that works such havoc on lesser things, may hurl their heaviest shots, unfelt, on his bosom or his brow. Winter may pile the snows of a thousand storms on his head, and they will lie as lightly as a veil on the brow of a bride. Clouds, riding on the wings of wind, may stride his giant sides, but he will stand like a rock in the sea, and when the clouds clear away he looks as calm and placid as a sleeping giant.

One forms the grandest conception of the creative power of God when standing, like a speck, under the shadow of such a mountain. Mountains play an important part in both the Old and the New Testament history. They were God's favorite meetingplaces with men.

My Trip to the Orient.

IN MONTANA.

I formed a number of very pleasant acquaintances on the train. Some of them gave me a cordial invitation to visit them should I ever come to Portland. It is better to have friends than it is to have money. I called on some during the six hours I had to lay over in Portland. Beside the delights of association, they gave me a good dinner and replenished my basket with fruits and other things.

I was perfectly delighted with the cars and the service of the Northern Pacific railway. The tourist-car was almost like a Pullman, except the seats are covered with nice leather instead of plush. The beds were about as good, and everything was done up in style.

This route, striking east from Spokane, in Washington, sweeps through Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, and Minnesota to St. Paul. It passes over a vast area of desert land, — land that seems unfit for anything, much of it mountainous, rocky, and barren. But it is wonderful what water will do for the desert.

There are two counties in Washington, of which Pasco is the center, that, a few years ago, were covered with sage-brush. But enterprising men planned an irrigation system, and brought in water that had been running to waste for years, and now I am told that these two counties produce one fiftieth of the wheat grown in the United States.

While I write this, in eastern Montana we are passing hundreds of thousands of acres of such looking sage-brush land, and we are running down a river with water enough in it to supply the greater portion of it. Soon after turning east we passed in sight of Mount Rainier. It loomed up in solitary grandeur as one of the great ones of the earth. It was clothed in snow, seemingly, to its base. The lower strata of air was so filled with smoke as to obscure not only its base, but all the surrounding mountains; not one could be seen. And yet, there it stood in solitary grandeur, wrapped in its spotless robe of snow, as if chilled by its own isolation. The setting sun was at our back, flaming on its bleak side, making it glow as with a warmth it could not feel. It bathed it with light as with a garment. It softened its asperities, and gave to it additional charms. It was wonderful how long the

My Trip to the Orient.

sunlight hung upon its summit and dallied with its brow. Long after it had left the vale and mountains below to shadows and darkness, old Rainier stood out in the gloom like a vast pile of phosphorus, as if it would light the world when the sun had gone down. All the ten minutes we were at Tacoma we gazed upon its glowing form, and when our train bore us away, plunging into the night, this mighty mountain still stood, in ghostly grandeur, glowing against the evening sky. It is 14,526 feet high.

Sunday found us in Idaho, but as that state is very narrow where we cross it, it was not long until we were in Montana.

All day Sunday and all day Monday we spent in crossing this ^reat state. Our car was full, but it was not a great while until the majority of us knew each other, and we enjoyed ourselves all the more for it.

We had no service in the car, although there were a number of Epworth Leaguers on the train. I suggested it to one or two, and they thought it a good idea. But I would not press the matter, for fear they would think I was anxious to preach. It is true, there was another preacher on board, but he was a young man just out of college. By the way, he was at Yosemite last Sunday, and told me that he put in a full day sightseeing, — even climbed to the top of Yosemite Falls. How men do borrow from God to save time! No doubt but that we are tested by just such trials as this; and how easy it is for us to persuade ourselves that in communing with nature we are serving God, when God knows we are doing it alone to gratify our own carnal desires.

It is a mighty nice thing to be an every-day, consistent Christian. I have talked with two men on the train about their religious life, and both of them were stumbling over the inconsistent lives of professing Christians. I tried to show them that they were responsible for their own conduct, and not for the faults of others.

I put in some of the Sabbath in reading the entire Epistle to the Romans, and in meditating over its wonderful revelations and arguments. To my mind, it is the greatest of all of Paul's writings, if not the greatest single book in the Bible. He lays deep and broad his foundations, and then lays up every stone with care and precision, and when the whole is done, he hangs up, within its halls, the pictures of many of his friends, suffering Tirtius, his amanuensis, to put on the last embellishing touch.

My Trip to the Orient.

FARTHER EAST.

As we swept down the Yellowstone River, I saw a turtle sunning himself upon a rock. It has been many a long day since I saw one, but I knew him as soon as I laid eyes on him. It is hard to forget our boyhood friends.

I realize that I am in the land of cyclones, for I see the cycloneholes, or dugouts, as I pass. When they see a storm arising, like the squirrels they go for their holes. Who can blame them?

When we reached Missoula, Montana, I stepped out on the platform. I saw a clerical-looking gentleman whose face looked familiar, but when I spoke to him I saw my mistake. He asked my name. I told him " Simmons." £t What ! is this J. C. Simmons of the South Church, in California? " I told him I was. He said he never saw me before, but had seen my picture in the California Advocate, and had heard of me for years, and wanted to see me. He said his name was Rawlins. Their Conference was then in session in that place, Bishop Fowler presiding. He said the Bishop preached one of his grandest sermons that morning. He spoke of Bishop Duncan, and of our Conference that was soon to convene.

Our train ran for hours on the borders of a lake called Pend d'Oreille. It is a French name, and means " lobe of the ear." We ran up Clark's Fork till late in the day. This indicated that we were still on the west side of the Rocky Mountains, as the streams flow toward the Pacific. As we climb the Rockies, the flora changes. Little pines predominate. But it is wonderful how many of these pines have been killed by forest fires. Millions of them stand on the mountain sides, dead, and I could see no new shoots coming up to take their places.

When speaking of Shasta I did intend to tell of the sad destruction of all the timber round about the mountain. — mills, mills, everywhere, ripping and sawing into lumber every tree large enough. The stumps stand like gravestones in this cemetery of slain forests. Have the trees no friends? Will no hand arrest the ringing, swinging ax in its ruthless work? When too late, California will wake to her folly.

I met a gentleman between St. Paul and Chicago, who told me that they had stripped the forests of Minnesota and Wisconsin,

My Trip to the Orient.

that were thought to be inexhaustible, of nearly all the good timber. He gave a large order to a lumberman not long since, and when it was filled he complained of the inferior quality of the lumber, when, to his astonishment, he was told that the supply of good lumber was exhausted.

I saw carload after carload of logs on the way to the mills to be sawed into lumber, that were only a little larger than telegraph poles.

Tuesday night we had on board of our train United States Senator Carter of Montana, who is credited with having made the longest speech ever made in the United States, — thirteen hours and twenty minutes. It was no mere windy talk against time, but it was a giant effort against a money-stealing harbor appropriation bill for fifty million dollars. He looked up the whole thing, posting himself on the depth and capacity of all the harbors for which appropriations were sought, and when he charged down on the thieving cohorts, he walked the deck of his ship like Dewey at Manila, without an enemy in sight.

Is n't it a humiliating fact that there are men wearing the toga of the United States who ought to be wearing the stripes of the state prison, among other thieves?

Minneapolis and St. Paul are two great inland cities, only eleven miles apart. They both seem to be in a thriving condition.

We reached Chicago at seven, a. m., Wednesday, and left for New York at ten; so we saw nothing of this great city.

We had a little thunder-shower the evening before reaching Chicago. I could see the lightning playing in the cloud, although it was either too distant or the cars made too much noise for us to hear the thunder.

As we passed through portions of Indiana, we saw a great number of towers or derricks (I am not posted on oil nomenclature) for boring for oil. They were all new, so the oil fever must be of recent date in these parts. I counted more than a dozen in sight at one time from the car window, and once or twice I caught the scent of oil, — so somebody has struck it.

When we got over into Pennsylvania we had a fine rain. And now, as I write, we are rapidly nearing New York, the end of my journey by land. We shall see what we shall see when we get to sea.

My Trip to the Orient.

L9

ON THE SEA.

I have but little to say of New York, for I was there but a little over a day, and much of the time was taken up with business. I called at the Christian Advocate office. Dr. Buckley, to my regret, was not in, but his assistant, Brother Herben, met me with a cordiality that was most gratifying. He said he knew me by reputation, and was anxious to meet me. He furnished me with all the late Southern papers, and I had a feast looking through them.

In the afternoon I went to Central Park, and came back on an automobile. It was run by electricity, and I had a most delightful ride. There is a great number of automobiles in the city. I counted thirteen in the space of a few blocks. Some were very fine; others struck me as clumsy. I visited General Grant's tomb. It is a much plainer structure than I expected to see. It is, however, massive and beautiful. It is built square, with huge columns on all its sides; the whole is surmounted with a dome. The whole structure is 150 feet high, and perhaps 100 feet square. It is made of white granite, and is entered on one side. In the center is a circular opening, perhaps twelve or fifteen feet in diameter, and on the floor beneath rest two sarcophagi, — one containing the remains of General Grant, the other those of his wife. The location is a most picturesque one. It is on a hill overlooking the Hudson River.

In the evening I was greatly pleased at meeting a nephew from Tuscaloosa, Alabama.

On Saturday morning, at nine o'clock, I went on board the steamer Menominee, which was to be my home for ten or twelve days. It is an immense ship of ten thousand tons, and is, by long odds, the steadiest ship I was ever on. The captain said it was the steadiest ship on the Atlantic. It is true, we have had a remarkably calm time, but there has not been a single case of seasickness among the 83 passengers, and this is the third day. We had hardly cast off our lines, before a gentleman came up to me and said, " Did I not hear you give a speech of welcome to the Epworth League Convention in San Francisco?" He said he was on the platform, and thought I was the man. It was the Rev. C. M. Giffin, D. D., of Scranton, Pennsylvania, a delegate to the

My Trip to the Orient.

Ecumenical Conference. I was truly glad to have company. I soon found another delegate from Minnesota, and a lay delegate from Pennsylvania. This made it very pleasant for me.

The large body of our passengers are English, but, take them all in all, they are as pleasant a lot of passengers as one will see anywhere. Sunday morning we had Episcopal service, conducted b} 7 the captain. He came to me in the afternoon and apologized for not calling upon me. He said they were required to conduct the Episcopal service every Sabbath morning, but that if either of the ministers desired to preach in the evening, he would be very glad to have him do so. But none of us had on "our sealegs," and we were almost afraid to undertake it.' It rained all Sunda} 7 afternoon. In the evening the young people assembled in the parlor and spent several hours in singing. We found that we had several fine performers on the piano, and some excellent singers.

Monday dawned bright and beautiful. We found, by consulting the "log," that we were running over three hundred miles a day.

The young people have several games on board, — one called "shuffleboard," where little round boards six inches in diameter are shot across the deck by punching them with cues. They enjoy it, and I enjoy looking at them.

I am very fortunate in my location at the table. Dr. Giffin, Brother Shepherd, the lay delegate, a Scotch ex-member of Parliament, and another very intelligent, well-traveled Scotchman, and I sit next the captain of the ship.

We discuss matters while eating, and hardly ever leave the table for from a half an hour to an hour after we are through eating. We talk navigation, science, politics, religion, etc., often interspersing our talks with jokes and anecdotes. My California experiences always secure me a respectful and interested hearing.

INCIDENTS OF THE VOYAGE.

The monotony of ocean travel can be appreciated only by one shut up in a ship with not a speck of land, or bird, or fish, or ship visible for days. I was disappointed in the fact that we saw so few ships, and as to animal life, we saw a few porpoises, a few

My Trip to the Orient.

flying-fish, and now and then a stormy petrel, — that was all. But the passengers made it lively on board. We had several very fine musicians with us, and day and night the piano was going. We had quartets, solos, and choruses, and much of the singing and instrumental music was of a high order.

One night the captain had a nice cake baked, — placed in it a ring, a thimble, and a penny, — and we had, I suppose, a regular "cake-walk." As I never saw one before, I am not a judge of its regularity. It was very funny, and afforded much amusement.

On Sunday everything took on a Sunday air. All sports and games were avoided. At 10:30, the captain, as on the previous Sabbath, read the Episcopal service, and the most respectful and reverent attention was observed by all. In the evening I was selected to preach. Drs. Giffin and Stafford assisted in the preliminary service. The young people led in the service of song. One of the young men, who was a very fine musician, composed an anthem on the Lord's Prayer, especially for the occasion. It was sung with spirit, and I thought it very beautiful. I have the promise of a copy.

The ship was rolling as much as at any time during the voyage, and I maneuvered around considerably during the delivery of my sermon. All understood why I staggered around so, and gave me the most marked attention. I tried to drop some seed for my Master, and did not preach merely to entertain the company or pass away the time. I felt that I had a message, and I delivered it in the name of my Lord.

I told them that the evening before they had gotten up their entertainment just for enjoyment, but now we had met for a different purpose, — met to talk about our eternal interests. I think the service was not without profit. A number came to me afterward, not only to thank me for the sermon, but to tell me how much good it had done them.

Monday night the young people got up a "breach of promise" case, and organizing a court, they took up the whole evening in trying it. The jury was composed of both men and women, and the court and lawyers, in addressing, had to abandon the stereotyped form of "gentlemen of the jury," and had to say "ladies and gentlemen of the jury." The verdict was for the plaintiff, giving her the sum of "three cents, annually, for ninety-nine years, and one day over."

My Trip to the Orient.

The last evening on board was spent in auctioning off some sketches made on the voyage, — for we had two very fine artists on board, who expect to make their fortunes on the Continent by selling their pictures, — and in recitations, anecdotes, and song. I told them my celebrated Yosemite bear story, whose relation is so blood-curdling, and whose denouement is so gratifying. The money realized from the sale of the pictures is to go for the benefit of the widows and orphans of sailors. It amounted to "three pounds one and sixpence," — we use English money over here.

From the time we entered the channel to landing at the dock, we saw no more of the captain. Grave responsibilities rested on him, and he was upon the bridge day and night, even taking his meals there.

What a lesson we ministers of Jesus Christ could learn from this. We have a responsibility graver than his committed to our hands. The very lives, not for time, but for eternity, of our people are in our keeping, and there is danger of wreck, even at the entrance of the harbor. We reached our dock in a few hours over eleven days.

On landing at London, Dr. Giffin, who had visited it a number of times before, and was familiar with the city, was of great assistance to me. We came to the Hotel Russell, a very nice place, where we will remain until the opening of the Conference, when homes will be assigned us.

My Trip to the Orient.

Chapter II

London — Bunhill Field Cemetery — St. Helen's Church — St. Paul's Cathedral — First Sunday in London — Sermons by F. B. Myer and Canon H. S. Holland — Hungry Experience — British Museum — rosetta and m oa bite stones — writing on clay — objects from Assyria and Nineveh — Mummies — London Tower — Ecumenical Conference — Other Things in London — Westminster Abbey — Parliament House — St. John's Square Methodist Church.

LONDON.

One day has passed, — a day so crowded with new sights of the old, that I hardly know what to say or how to say it.

Our ship landed us on the banks of the Thames River, far below the city, and we took a train with cars with compartments, and doors along the side. The seats extended the full width of the car, one facing the other, so that, if the section were full, half the passengers would have to ride backwards.

As we entered the city we came to long rows of houses built just alike, made of brick, and covered either with tile or slate. Look which way you will, and you never see a straight street. As it is in the suburbs, so is it in the heart of the city, only more so. And wherever a bend in the street comes, there usually comes another name for it. Sometimes you come to a point where five or six streets come together. This is called a "circus." I had a letter of introduction to a firm in Ludgate Circus. Then many of these fractions of streets are called roads, as City Road. I suppose they have never been changed since they were accidentally formed and named by the Romans in the days of the Caesars. They were roads then running through the country, or through the village. A tree was pointed out to me, right in the heart of the city, that some old lord had incorporated in the deed that it is never to be removed so long as it lives. Were a house built where it stands, it would rent for over one thousand dollars a year, and yet, there it stands and grows, and from the looks of it, it will outlive many a generation yet. Were it in San Francisco