A trip through Bible lands and Europe; a journalistic record of a tour made in the summer of 1914, just before the world-wide war

Preface

THE pages of this book are a journalistic record of an auspicious tour taken just before the world-wide war of 19 14. The book does not attempt extended discussions of places or people. It does contain the author's impressions and conclusions growing out of a traveler's observations in the countries traversed. The writer believes that there are many readers of like taste with himself who will obtain pleasure from the facts and incidents mentioned. Our travel letters from abroad were read with such interest as to inspire the hope that a fuller book account at this epoch of history will prove a welcome addition to travel literature and Bible study.

Our party was small and our conductor experienced. His personal sympathy and presence throughout the trip insured the largest possibilities for the time occupied and places visited. The date of our journey was the most attractive in the world's history.

A condensed itinerary follows which may guide the reader in the selection of chapters as outlined also in table of contents :

The Atlantic Ocean, Azores, Strait of Gibraltar, Algiers (Africa), Sardina, Naples, Straits of Messina, Greece, Athens, Mediterranean Sea, Alexandria and Cairo, Goshen, Suez Canal and Port Said (Egypt) ; the Holy Land and Damascus, Baalbek and Beirut (Syria) ; Patmos, Vathy, Smyrna, the Dardenelles, Sea of Marmora, Constantinople, the Bosporus (Turkey) ; the Balkans including Sophia (Bulgaria), Belgrade (Servia), the Danube, Hungary and Dalmatian Alps ; Fiume and the Adriatic Sea ; Venice, Florence, Rome, Pisa, Genoa, Milan and lakes of Italy ; Switzerland and her lakes and mountains ; Germany and the Rhine ; Holland and the Hague ; Belgium, her cities, her grottos and her Waterloo ; France Paris ; the English Channel, London, her parks and museums.

The illustrations have the special merit of being nearly all original views taken by the author or under his direction, though not always under the most favorable circumstances.

The "Question Chapter" and "Our Journey in Rhyme" are supplemental but furnish a key to the main story of the book. By many they will be read with profit before the other chapters are perused.

G. F. O.

Contents

CHAPTER PAGE

I. Crossing the Atlantic i

II. Algiers, Naples and Messina .... 12

I. Crossing The Atlantic

\0K many years it was the dream and hope of the writer to make the trip to Bible Lands which he now attempts to record. The novelty of the first journey abroad has greater interest for him who makes the trip than for those who read about it ; nevertheless, as public address is of value largely because of the individuality of the speaker, so this story may have special value because of its personal viewpoint and conclusions. With some desire for recreation, my chief purpose has been to fieshen conceptions of the Bible story, renew memories of historic study, and absorb missionary and civic facts. The purpose of my journey was providentially favored by the arrangement secured. Ours was the Palestine Party conducted by Dr. Ray Allen, Rochester, New York.

We sailed out of Bush Dock, New York, on board the S. S. Martha V/ashington, March 21st under the miost fortunate conditions. Our Austro-American vessel with six hundred steerage and two hundred cabin passengers furnished an interesting study, if not companionship, for

I the fifty-two first-class passengers, half of whom were made up of our party of Bible Land tourists.

Going abroad is a little like dying, so far as separations are concerned. Friends and native shores recede and thoughts turn toward the distance. As we were leaving the wharf, a party of three, careless of the warning given, found themselves belated and shut off from shore as the gang plank had been pulled. They ran for the exit but were too late. They cried to the captain for help to get off the ship. Their useless pleadings, which vv^ere later respected by the captain in his own way, taught us a moral lesson. We watched the harbor boat that had to be summoned while our ship was delayed that the unfortunates might be transferred, a serious expense for careless postponement and disregard of "orders from above."

After scanning farewell letters and reminders from loved ones, and exploring his new residence, the traveler begins to adjust himself. Congenial companionship forbids loneliness. The social life of shipboard stimulates, while the soporific air makes eating a pleasure and sleeping a prolonged luxury. Though constrained by the limits of the vessel and hedged in by the dimensions of one's berth, there is freedom from care and opportunity for private and social life that belong alone to the sea. Seclusion and quiet furnish a special inspiration to one who loves to commune with nature and nature's God. A student of Bible truth headed for Bible lands finds- unwonted pleasure in the lessons furnished by such Scripture as the 23d and I2ist of the Psalms. Fear is banished as one reads of Peter's fright in the presence of the waves, but who sank not, because of his Master's voice and his Master's hand.

Meditation on some good advices given, helps pass the time and prevent the ills so many expect when first launched upon the deep. One of the best counsels, which was well tested in this tour and may be of suggestive value to others, runs as follows : "To have a good time at sea, be natural, shun remedies, forget care, trust God." This spirit enables one to prove the joy of faith and the strength of the promise, "I will both lay me down in peace, and sleep : for Thou, Lord, only makest me dwell in safety." The distant and muffled throbbing of the great engine reminds us of the ceaseless care of Him who never slumbers.

We left port on Saturday. Sunday brings the privilege of our first sermon on shipboard, which is heard with interest by a select audience. The average traveler is neither very religious nor studious ; possibly because pleasure and business figure foremost in the ordinary tourists thoughts. To keep a gracious and grateful spirit and seek opportunities of lifting others' burdens would make strangers less mindful of their own weal and more careful of others' woe. To leave the superior comforts of the first cabin and speak, through an interpreter, a Gospel message to the crowded steerage herd below starts a new appreciation of one's home atmosphere of liberty, soap and prayer.

A ship well furnished, to the passenger at sea, is a little world in itself, and a first trip passenger finds it a new world indeed. Our Austrian captain has been in charge of this ship four years. He speaks six languages, is courteous and respectful of the comforts of his passenger crowd ; as are also his four associate officers. The discipline of the seafaring crew makes him a man to be respected as well as trusted. His orders are law. The Austrian flag at masthead represents the Government. RebeUion is crime and arrests can be made for any violation of law.

Our Marconi operators receive wireless messages from the ever-active and sensitive machines, operated night and day. These keep us in touch with receding shores and with the whole world. If patronage will not justify the expense of several thousands per year, the wireless information is not printed but is only posted on occasional bulletins or treasured in the officers' records for their own guidance and pleasure. A daily news sheet, printed on the largest steamers, is a very common bond of union with the outside world while crossing the boundless, but not trackless, sea; for ship lines have their appointed paths in mid-ocean almost as well defined as railroads upon land.

Competing steamship lines are jealous of their honors and proud of their records. Happy for the traveling public of all continents that since the Titanic iceberg tragedy of recent years, a new standard of safety rather than speed is coming into favor. A wonder of modern days is found in a statement that a great North Atlantic passenger line, among many millions carried in seventy years, has never lost a soul by accident. Another advertises only one person lost in 800,000 passengers carried in the past twenty years. It is not surprising that ocean travel is becoming so in<:reasingly popular, for a well built ship cannot sink at sea, and steamship rivalry makes it possible to secure passage, cabin comforts and meals, medicine, library, gymnasium, music, fresh air, tonics and servants equal to the best hotels and at a cost less than

Pullman car-fares, as a strong inducement to make the trip across the seas.

What a debt we all owe to the primitive sailors and to Columbus, who, as a daredevil, kept his tubs above water and mastered his men so as to make them stay with him to the day of discovery ! The progress we have made in these centuries is impressed upon the thoughtful tourist as he gazes at the life-boats, notes the movements of the watchmen and studies the facilities for the comfort and health of passenger and crew.

The charts on shipboard are a source of constant interest and wonder to the watchful passenger. Those who wish may learn of the ocean, the winds, the magnetic variation of the compass, the ice and fog areas, the changes of climate, the location of the patrol boats ; though the average passenger leaves these valuable points of information to the captain. From our journal I take the memorandum of one day's log, which is bulletined daily, as a sample of the information given the tourist who cares to mark the facts : "March 23. Latitude 40 degrees, 10 minutes ; N. Longitude 35 degrees, 59 minutes ; W. Course S. 89. Distance 361.8 miles. Average speed 15.39 miles. Thermometer 56, Barometer 29.6 degrees. Wind N. N. W. 4. Sky cloudy. Sea N. E. quarter." In addition to this our party are favored with a daily lecture on nautical, geographical or historic matters of special interest to the company of tourists who gather about our conductor. His many trips across the sea and through all countries maks him a court of information and appeal sel- . dom found by travelers. To this, there is added his personal interest in the small company who are ready to do his bidding as well as take his suggestions.

Time passes rapidly and every twenty-four hours* travel marks a change in the ship clock and one is daily obliged to change his private timepiece, turning it forward or backward a half hour or more according to distance traveled east or west.

He who cares, may join us in a visit with the steward, guide and engineer to the engine room and the stokers' work-shop thirty feet below the water line. To explore the ship is to make a world tour in itself. We pass the steerage cabin, walk down the narrow stairway and upon grated floors far below the water's edge. We study the engine pistons upon which our progress depends. The electric motors, the ice plants, the pumps, the boilers, the stokers who work in turns day and night without ceasing, all tell of the forethought of captain and ship owners on behalf of the traveling public. How little thought is given by the public for these men who slave for the sake of the cargo and passengers aboard ! But the rest given at periods to the machinery as a necessity for its life as well as to the laborers, reminds us of the law of the divine Sabbath which was made for man.

I clip this from my journal to show a little of the life on shipboard across the Atlantic : "Sea long today, calm and beautiful sailing. The vessel rocks as it is lightened of its ballast of coal in firing. Crew painting the masts. How careless of peril, these "steeplejacks," but faithful sailors and governed by rule and habit! Wind calm as a summer morning. Clouds fleecy. What a home spirit pervades our party family ! Four days at sea makes us feel as if we had known each other for years. Very few meals missed by any. Luxurious feeding : six courses for breakfast, nine for luncheon, ten for dinner, with tea and crackers served on deck twice a day besides ! Too much luxury. For recreation, spent an hour today in deck golf ; later with deck quoits ; thirteen times around the deck for exercise. Devotions in cabin and the reading of the 103d of the Psalms brings a grateful atmosphere, and one of trust, to the heart who loves to commingle prayer and correspondence, conversation and good diet, nature study and curious inquiry, both for profit and diversion. The 'Captain of our salvation' is also a fine sea captain. His counsel and company make a sea trip a 'bon voyage' indeed. A new text opens today : Mark 8 137 — 'He hath done all things well.'"

We are traveling at the rate of three hundred sixtytour miles daily. Constant change of time produces a queer sensation upon one unused to it. Many water marks guide the officers of the ship, and by them, we may reckon at any time just where we are in relation to port and other vessels. These water marks are quite as dependable as the land marks on shore. The compass, the chart, the chronometer, the revolutions of the engine, the sun and stars, all help locate the ship at sea. Only in fogs is a ship likely to be "lost" ; and it is these that cause the greatest peril to seamen. The fog horn at sea is the most alarming and disconcerting sound that greets the tourist. Alarm signals occasion unrest; but in emergencies, the submarine warning bell system furnishes sure protection. This device by which the light ship calls danger ten to fifteen miles under water, where fog signals could not be heard more than a short distance, is a triumph of modern invention.

Let us take a trip with the captain to the bridge where the officers in four-hour relays, resort to guide the vessel and guard the safety of the passengers and cargo. Here is the new barometer with an automatic record running a full week till rewound, showing the pressure of the air and the conditions of the atmosphere for many miles about. The double compass, the telephone systems, remind us how far we have distanced the sailing vessel of the early centuries. We are shown an automatic fire life-saving apparatus. -If a man fall overboard the warning is given and the life-line is dropped at once, and the fire falls upon the ocean, where it burns from twenty-five to thirty minutes until the lifeboat can reach the spot where the man has fallen. How the outlook increases as we rise towards the clouds ! Five miles are visible from the passenger deck ; ten miles from the bridge's lookout, and fifteen miles from the masthead.

Let us thank the deck steward for a copy of a provision sheet which shows the quantity of everything needed for supplying of boat, passengers, officers and crew, for a single trip across the ocean from New York to Trieste, Austria. It will entertain us to note that the moderate size steamer must take in ballast, 1450 T. of coal; 800 T. of fresh water — double the amount of water necessary, to provide for emergencies. The amount of flour, cigars, wine, poultry, meat, etc., for eight hundred fifty people for a ten days' trip causes us to wonder. A whole city's supply stores are here condensed and prepared with forethought. Such provision for our bodies throws light upon the meaning of such promises as, "My God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus." Indeed, this is a Bible school as well as a school of science.

But we are near the Azores, a possession of Portugal, 8

Passing the Sphinx and P3 ramid Cheops.

Entrance to the Museum, Cairo.

two thousand miles from New York. This quarter million of people of peasant Portugese, seventy-five per cent, of whom cannot read, are a peaceful, isolated, industrious, clean and moral, though ignorant, class of strangers. These inhabitants of the Hawk Islands, including Fayal and Peco, are living on a strange volcanic formation, in a beautiful climate with an average temperature of sixty-five degrees. Its fertile fields on terraced mountain sides run down to the clififs over which are spread many little water-falls. It is eight hundred miles to Portugal and one thousand miles to Gibraltar. Our glasses are brought out and the mountains, gardens, farms, foaming water-falls and church spires form a charming landscape.

We are soon in the harbor of Horta ; but the rain begins to fall and the heavy rain and agitated sea prevent the landing of our party. The yellow quarantine flag, the Portugese, the Austrian and the U. S. Marine blue flag are all shown in the harbor. A large motor boat meets us ; also a row boat with officers to take mail and a few passengers who must land in spite of the weather. We get a fine view of the mountain streams, and the volcanic rocks with their waving mountain lines against the sky. Hedge fences around garden spots adorn the white and clean cottage homes which dot the hillsides and extend far up towards the mountain peaks. Peco (the peak) is opposite Fayal and rises seven thousand feet from the level of the sea and looses its head in the clouds that hood its skyward brow. Guia is a segment of a volcano sixty feet across. In the distance we can see the grape terraces, the grazing cows, the wind-mills upon the hill and the old ruins of forts. Now the sun shines out and a rainbow falls first prostrate upon the water, then in small segments of sky line, very distinct, and striking to the eye of even the most experienced travelers. It is a charming diversion to watch the spray of the waves dashing along the abrupt cliff of the island or rushing through tunnels of rock. We are leaving the islands, followed by a flock of sea-gulls, and soon pass into a calm beautiful night where the sun sets in glory, and the stars come out for the first time since we left our- New York port. Observations of stars and sun supplement the calculations by sextant and box, so that the seamen as well as passengers welcome the starlit sky as they are pleased with the shining of the sun.

He who travels the sea is careless indeed of the best sights if he fails to wait and watch the sun set in the clear sky and the sun rise in a clear dawn. In two minutes and forty seconds the sun sinks into the ocean like a great golden eagle when, it may be, the fringe of fleecy clouds crowns it all with changing halos. Our ship is wonderful as a minature world, but the sea and sky are God-made and surpass all else in panoramic grandeur. The Bible reveals both God and man. If faith removes mountains and plants them in the midst of the sea, who planted the Portugese Azores in the great Atlantic? Alas, for the faith that cannot even pull a sycamore tree out of root ! How much of this futile faith we see in the priest-ridden and self-indulgent religions that have, after centuries of Gospel light and Bible teaching, dwarfed the life of whole nations.

Another perfect day with ideal ocean, brings us near the great Mediterranean Sea, the most important body of water on earth. It is two-thirds as long as the Atlantic is wide. It is the birthplace of history. It has a ragged margin and is twenty-five hundred miles long and from six hundred feet deep near Gibraltar to fourteen thousand in the Ionian Sea. It is the center of history in all centuries. It is the area of Phoenician maritime life and Bible history from iioo B. C. to the present day.

Rising early we are again thrilled by the glory of the sun "with healing in his wings." Six ships appear in sight. We are nearing the strait of Gibraltar and the Great Sea. With our glass we behold for the first time the Spanish coast with villages. Tarifa comes in view. How barren the cliffs and hedged fields lining the mountains, though grass and growth appear ! Not so with the African coast, where Tangiers comes in sight and the range of territory occupied by the French and where Moorish watch towers crown the heights and remind us of the two great continents toward which we sail.

Look at Gibraltar yonder, rising with a rocky front, a monument and a symbol for all the ages. At a cost of two hundred fifty million dollars, the English Government has turned its abrupt peaks and bluffs into a fort and interminable barracks. What a shifting crown of fleecy cloud, like a bridal hood, now settles down upon it ! Again it lifts, revealing the coasts of Spain and Africa four to six miles distant on either side. Gibraltar towers fourteen hundred feet and has on its northeast side a roof of concrete to bring rain water to the barren fort which honeycombs the top of the rocky cliffs. Old Gibraltar stands like a defiant giant and is the wonder of the world. Did Hercules plant her foundations? A greater than he laid her base and raised her peaks ; monarch of all nations, a tribute everlasting to our Father and our God.

n.

ALGIERS, NAPLES AND MESSINA

ABOUT 3 P. M., Mar. 31, we are steaming into Algiers, Africa. A great stone wall forms a breakwater to protect the harbor. The crescent bay, distant hillsides with beautiful residences, and the water front crowded with great commercial houses form a most charming picture. After a visit from the quarantine officer, our party are taken into a launch and we are soon at the dock. Our friend, Dr. E. F. Freese, superintendent of the Methodist Episcopal missionary work in north Africa, has been notified and stands in waiting to welcome us. I become his guest for the afternoon and evening while Dr. Allen takes charge of the rest of the party for a visit about the city. Two mosques with Moslem worshipers, many loungers about the streets, an ancient cathedral, native and French shops, a Moorish fort, and the mongrel city crowd in the streets and alleys, remind us that we have entered a strange land.

Soon, in company with Dr. Freese, we are in a tramway winding up the hillside to visit the girls' hostel or mission house. -"We will get off" he said, "at the Inn of the Two Stubborn Ones" ; and when we land, there upon the face of the tavern is the explanation of the name. A haltered mule, one of the stubborn ones, is pulling against the other one, who is as determined and about as hard to overcome, from the artist's point of view, as the mule. It is a woman puUing against a beast. The sign is the first announcement in Oriental lands of the degradation of woman in the thought of the people. We will ascend to the school where they are preparing for a bazaar. The teachers meet us in a flower covered yard and welcome the missionary and his friend. A brief visit, the songs of the student girls, the sacred atmosphere of this Christian home where the girls from pagan and Mohammedan families are lifted into ideals of Christian life and learning, impress us at once with the value of Christian mission work in the midst of a degenerate Moslem religion. Alas ! for the sad and desperate home life which we meet in the Mohammedan countries everywhere ! A similar contrast we find in the boys' school a little further down the hillside. The flowers, the sunshine, and the ministry of Gospel service and sacrifice in these schools reveal the worth of a pure religion as compared with the fruit of superstition and sin.

As my friend takes me by the arm for a walk among the dens of vice, shows nie the forts, the gambling natives, the French aristrocracy, wrecks of the former greatness of the Moors, the drilling of the Zouaves, the native loafers and the babel of languages to be found in this commercial seaport, I seem to have entered a colossal picture show. Later, when he brings me in a carriage to his own Christian home where we talk of social and religious conditions and past friendships in our native land, I fancy what it will mean to the tourist who arrives in heaven to meet a welcome which will bridge earth and sky with holy memories.

My associates have had some strange and perplexing 13 experiences but have landed aboard our vessel before me. Piloted through the dark waters, I am safely landed by my guide, where we continue our journey out into the Mediterranean on our way to Naples. April ist is a day of beauty on a quiet sea. A cablegram has been sent by our conductor to our friends in America announcing our safe arrival. Our cabin worship and Bible reading increase our gratitude and lend us to covet more earnestly than hitherto, for information, inspiration and future help, the maximum of what we were ready to call "divine traveling grace."

April 2nd, in the bright sunshine and with calm sea, we have passed Sicily and are nearing Naples, where we arrive in the early afternoon. Before reaching this most beautiful bay of the world, we pass the Islands of Ichsia, a point of which is called in Acts 28:13, Puteoli. This is where Paul landed on his first journey to Rome. It is a small Italian port back from the point projecting into the sea. It is the first of the Bible towns of the many we shall tour. Perhaps I should except Tarshish in Spain which we have left many hundred miles behind us and towards which Jonah started from Joppa ; but which for well known reasons, he failed to reach.

Long before coming into the Bay of Naples, we sight Vesuvius, the great and famous volcano which overwhelmed Herculaneum and Pompeii in A. D. 79. Smoke hovers over its crater, which a later setting siin covers with an evening glory of fiery gold in mingled cloud and smoke. What a calm and lovely bay is Naples ! Here is the island of Capri on one side; and before us, sailboats dot the peaceful waters in all directions, while various vessels of other nations crowd her docks. The city rises against the hills and seems to be made of loftybusiness blocks, old castles, churches and cathedrals, and terraced residences of Oriental type arranged in crescent form above the bay.

There is no hurry now. Our ship makes slow passage towards the dock. It is met by Italian venders of fruit and flowers. On a long pole the boquets are pushed for sale up to the passengers on deck. Boy divers are about the ship calling for a shilling or lesser coin which, if thrown into the water, they invariably dive for and bring up either in their toes or fingers. Placing the money in his mouth and sitting upon his boat, the diver clamors for another coin and offers another plunge into the chilly water. At last we are permitted to walk the gangway and follow our conductor, who pushes the guides away and lands us among the carriage men who take us to the National Museum. Our time is short, but we visit the ''Hercules," "The Captive Bull," "Father Nile," and study the Pompeiian exhibits of paintings and mosaics exhumed and framed as relics of the buried city. In this museum are more objects of art, illustrations of Pompeiian social and home life, than are to found in Pompeii itself. One room is well guarded and from it, women are excluded. It is explored with poignant aversion, for it reveals the cause of the downfall of the Roman Empire in the early centuries of the Christian era.

A tiamway trip through the city shows its customs, its streets, its people. Naples is a conglomerate of ancient and modern life. Ox carts, mule teams, street-cars, carriages and autos, dog carts and goat herds, poverty and riches are mixed in a strange medley about the shops and stores. Here we see an ox, a mule and a horse, all three yoked to one cart. Women are seen hauling heavily loaded carts which should be drawn by horses. In the narrow streets and busy marts, business men, street venders and dray wagons crowd each other to the wall and exhibit the competition and contrast of life in modern Italy.

To lovers of nature, it is more agreeable to visit the Aquarium, the best if not the greatest in the world. Here is strange stuff, the making of nature's own hand. It is worth while to see some things that are grown only in this climate. The eels, the electric fish, the sea horses, the nautilus, the game crabs, the multiform varieties of fish that live only in southern waters, combine to make a nature study of lasting impression. We loiter through the park adorned with palms and along the boulevard of the bay where the flowers bloom and pedestrians wander. The cowled monk and gowned beggar compete with carriage men and all kinds of venders in plying their trade upon the tourists who are supposed to be the best patrons.

At 9 P. M. our boat is steaming out of the harbor. Enchanted by the lights along the shore of this bay of beauty, our party will be pardoned if they gather on deck and spend an hour in sacred and patriotic hymns. "See Naples and die" says one writer; but we expect to live and see it again, perchance. Certainly we shall not forget its charm and the riches of its artistic and ancient sights. We must say an early good-night to each other and rise at 5 A. M., that we may have a good view of StromboH, a smoking volcano near the head of Messina Straits. Yonder it rises three thousand feet above the sea, belching smoke again and again. At its base and next the sea is a quiet village, sure to be destroyed if ever this