VIEW OF JERUSALEM FROM THE EAST.
As they wound up one of the ascents the guide said they would see Jerusalem from the summit. Everybody was in haste for the view, and it happened that Frank and Fred were in advance when the crest of the hill was reached. Frank rose in his stirrups, waved his cap with a loud hurrah, and his example was followed by his cousin. As they reached the top of the hill they stopped, and in less than a minute their comrades were with them. All gazed in admiration at the Holy City. There it lay, bathed in the sun of Palestine, and crowning the rocky hills where it has stood for many centuries, the wonder of the civilized world and the goal which many a Christian pilgrim has struggled to reach. For several minutes not a word was spoken. The towers and walls, the hills of Israel, the domes and minarets, all were there, and recalled the pictures with which all students of Christianity are familiar.
When the silence was broken, one of the party repeated the lines of Tasso which describe the first view of Jerusalem by the Crusaders:
"Winged is each heart, and winged every heel;
They fly, yet notice scarce how fast they fly,
But by the time the dewless meads reveal
The golden sun ascended in the sky,
Lo! towered Jerusalem salutes the eye.
A thousand pointing fingers tell the tale—
'Jerusalem!' a thousand voices cry;
'All hail, Jerusalem!' Hill, down, and dale
Catch the glad sound, and shout 'Jerusalem, all hail!'"
It was a ride of less than an hour from the hill-top to the Jaffa gate of Jerusalem. They passed the building of the Russian convent and of the Greek monastery, but had no care for anything else than the Holy City, and to get inside its walls. The gate was open, the Turkish guard did not stop them, and in a few minutes they were at the door of the Mediterranean Hotel. They were weary with their ride, but the excitement of the occasion made the youths forget their fatigue. Frank proposed that they should set out at once for the Temple of Solomon, and he was warmly seconded by Fred. They yielded at once to the suggestion of Doctor Bronson that they had better wait till the whole party could go together, and see the city on a systematic plan.
We will not follow our friends in all their wanderings around Jerusalem, but refer our readers to the accounts which were written by the youths for the benefit of their friends at home. After describing the ride from Jaffa, the experience on the road, and their arrival at Jerusalem, they wrote as follows:
"Jerusalem disappoints us a little, as we had expected wider and cleaner streets than we find here. We were partly prepared for this, as we have been in the cities of Egypt, and spent a few hours at Jaffa, but it is our candid opinion that Jerusalem is worse than Cairo, Suez, or any other city we have visited. The streets are very narrow, the pavement is bad, and nobody seems to care whether they are clean or not. Some of the side streets and alleys would do honor to New York, and Doctor Bronson says they remind him of home more than anything else he has seen here.
