The Holy Land and Syria

by Frank G. Carpenter

The stone pot by which Mr. Carpenter is standing is claimed by the Greeks to be the one that contained the water that Christ turned into wine at the marriage feast at Cana of Galilee

There have been several American colonies in the Holy Land, but the only one that has made any impression or lasted for any long time is that known for some years as the Spaffordites. It was founded by Dr. and Mrs. Spafford, who belonged to a Presbyterian church in Chicago. They left the church and came to Jerusalem, saying that they intended to devote their wealth and their lives to working for Christ in the Holy Land. They persuaded fourteen adults and five children to come with them, and together they founded a colony which has lasted until now.

That was 1881. To-day the colony has members from all parts of the Union. There are a number from New England, some from the South, several from Kansas and Nebraska, and quite a delegation from Philadelphia and Chicago. I have talked with them about their beliefs. They say they are Christians and that they believe in the Bible interpreted as it is printed. They take the Golden Rule as their motto and try to live up to it. They say they have no hobbies, and that their Christianity is a practical faith.

This colony lives together as a community, its members holding all things in common. At first they threw their money into a common fund, and lived without working. Finding, however, that this fund was soon spent, they established a business of their own and are now self-supporting. They have their own house outside the walls, where they live very comfortably, eating at a common table with worship morning and evening. They frequently take Americans in as paying guests, charging less than the prevailing hotel rates for much better quarters. They also have a bakery from which they sell bread and cake; a shoe shop, and an art school, where girls are taught painting and drawing. They have factories where they make desks, boxes, and other beautiful things of olive wood; and a weaving establishment where cloths of wool and linen are made.

Some years ago they also established what is known as the American store. This is near the Jaffa Gate inside Jerusalem, and right on the way from that gate to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

This store is about the only one-price establishment in the Holy Land. In all other places three times what is expected is asked, and one has to dicker and bargain and beat down the merchants. In the American store one can buy photographs and slides of the Holy Land, brass work from Damascus, rugs from Persia and Turkey, and any sort of curio made in the country.

During my stay in Jerusalem I several times visited this colony, and was delighted with the peace, quiet, and brotherly love which seem to prevail. Its members are well bred and intelligent; and as far as I can see they practise what they preach. An interesting feature is their grace before meals. This is always sung at the table by both members and guests.

One of the most interesting Jewish colonies is at Zammarin on the southwest slope of Mount Carmel, where these notes are written. The place is about five hours’ ride from Haifa, and a day’s journey by carriage from Nablus. The town is owned by a Jewish colony which has a large tract of land given it by Baron Edward Rothschild of Paris. The land is high above the sea at the northern end of the plain of Sharon, so situated that it commands a view of that plain at the east and of the Mediterranean Sea at the west. The country about is covered with chunks of limestone of all shapes and sizes, and, besides, the bedrock crops out in ledges with small tracts of arable land here and there.

The Jews have taken this land, have cleared it of the loose rocks, and are making it bloom like a garden. They have some quite large fields on top of Mount Carmel, which is now covered with wheat waving in the wind. They are raising luxuriant crops of oats and beans and they have vineyards as thrifty as those of south France or the Rhine. Their olive orchards would be a credit to any part of Italy; and their English walnut trees bear like those of southern California. They are raising fine cattle, which they graze on the hills in the daytime and bring in at night. The milk is excellent, and the meat as tender and sweet as the corn-fed beef of Chicago. I am told that the land produces abundantly and that the colony does well.