Show the recent uprising in arabia at tacks on the mecca railway indicate new unrest fresh hostility to christians on mt bit nebo land of Moab tying to get to the inwardness of nation al currents which rony may be seen only superficially in the cities I 1 have been over in arabia here on tho the spot where moses was wae given hla his glimpse of 0 the land of promise Prom leo I 1 encamped with a company of Bedou lne beneath whose black tents I 1 expected to find the traditional dit ional arabian hospitality it if received at all instead I 1 have met with scant cant courtesy and that this thia has not been open la Is due to the unsettled state of mind which doos does not know quite how to take the new siren coalt len of the abo young turk govern trient ment 1 I did not know at the moment the risk I 1 ran for the ferment which I 1 found was but the beginning of open armed antagonism to the government on an tho the part of of the arabs araba who attacked the hegaz railway despoiled a and a train robbing the pas pan fengers aen nen gera gers killing some aoma of the crew cut ung ting the telegraph wires and generally bidding defiance to the authorities A party of americans americana numbering nine going over the same earn route as aa myself and only two days later were despoiled of all their money and posses elona and saved their lives almost by IL ft miracle the arabs are out in strength and this seems to be more knore than a raid indications pointing to a concerted conce ted movement among the tribes against whom tho the government has since sent out an expedition of largo large proportions the tha arabs are still out ailt 11 and constantinople stantin ople seems to be aar afraid a id of a general rising of all the bedouins Bedou ins in arabia anti antl christian anti progress A key hey to the situation was given me on an mt nebo when a handsome black bearded sheikh asked naively yet in no pleasant spirit why dont all these christians go to america or somewhere else we dont want them here the roan man had not the remotest idea that tho the christians held this region before mohammed was born he spoke poke out of the common moslem ignorance and bigotry the immediate cause of hla his remarks was the fact that christians christiana are now being enlisted in the turkish army which used to be entirely islamic ho he was also dis by the fact that the government to B gathering conscripts from the arabs a hitherto unknown procedure with more reason than they them selves elves discern the conservative elements in turkeys population are laying the responsibility for all this recent awakening and progress upon the christians christiana they think that somehow the infidel dogs are back of this disturbance tur bance of the good old days of in action for constitutionally or rather theologically the moslem la Is a foe of progress ile he la is under the sway away of a fatalism which says the old ways are best yet under hla his rule the civilization of this land has not only stood still but it has decidedly retrograded there Is a deep element of truth in the charge of the faithful that the progressive gres sive young turks are not good moslems changes for the changeless desert tho the arab has never been able to reason in the abstract or in the large he thinks only in terms of the individual therefore he be has never created a civilization although he be has lived longer as aa a distinct people than any other on earth so he feels only vaguely the economic and social changes that are touching his land along with the rest real of the old world he knows that he h has had bad to dl discard icard of late his bla traditional spear and even his flintlock inu with the abo long barrel Is not equal to his bis present needs so BO that he ha must buy an expensive rifle which can bo be had only with difficulty and for which it la is not easy to secure cartridges likewise his tent must now be ba lighted with kerosene rather than with a tallow dip and his bis wife Is suggesting other radical household improvements prove ments all of which threaten the old order the noble cannot grasp the larger meaning of the railway that runs down through the desert debert from damascus to medina with mecca tor for its ultimate goal but ife he can see that it has deprived him of the profitable employment of transporting abid preying upon the pilgrim caravans the lack of a sale for camels for instance touches him I 1 met a string of more than one hundred and thirty camels going south the answer I 1 got when I 1 inquired the reason was the railroad has taken our business now mow tor for most of the year the aul mals mala eat butof out of our pockets so go we are taking them down to egypt to sell them the mecca railways meaning everybody has heard beard of the mecca railway the hegaz railway to Is the proper name but comparatively few know its real significance advocated it if not originally suggested by emperor X 4 Z 1 kilo x 1 gt q 4 11 ow z i 6 4 aa I 1 az building the hajac railroad william to hta his good friend abdul harold it to IB ostensibly a pious enter prise to facilitate the annual pilgrimage to mecca the birthplace of mohammed and the place of the sacred baaba or shrine toward which all moslems turn when they pray and to medina the prophets tomb it la Is aloo alao of immense strategic value valde it enables the government to convey troops quickly to the scene of frequent disturbances by the turbulent bedou ins without it the control of the hegaz region was merely nominal a government by entreaty and bribes to the lawless tribes and hegaz province so little known to the world and a mere desert waste Is the most important of the turkish possessions this anomaly Is explained by the statement that tho the two holy cities of islam mecca and medina are within the hegaz by virtue of the possession of these turkey holds bolds the caliphate and la Is regarded as the great moslem power actually great britain rules several times as aa many moslems as la is turkeys hold upon the followers of the prophet that enables this queerly assorted empire to hang together it if she loses the hegaz it will be shortly all up with her none the less there are many students of the situation I 1 myself among the number who look io fo see great britain in control of all of arabia before many years the high tide of pilgrims it has been the governments practice to distribute enormous sums of money annually among the bedouins Bedou ins as blackmail to insure some degree of immunity for the pilgrim caravans not until this year did constantinople feel strong enough to dispense with this disgraceful tribute this Is one reason for the present uprising of the arabs another Is that this Is the first time the th immemorial damascus caravans caravana have bare ceased altogether to go by camela the road la Is in complete working order andrews of its operation seems beema to have penetrated to the remotest corners of the moslem world in consequence there ha has a been an influx of pilgrims beyond all 11 precedent it has completely swamped the rall railways ways facilities Ill pilgrims grims from the remote interior of asia after traveling months have been obliged to wait duys days and weeks at damascus at the imminent risk of missing the ceremonies at mecca which occurring but once a year give the participant the right to the coveted title of haji the beat estimates festl mates obtainable place the number of pilgrims who kept balram this december at mecca at more than a quarter of a million these theae pilgrims who have always been regarded as aa a potent unifying factor in the Turkish empire are also a means of spreading tho the worlds rest even as they are the greatest single factor in tho the spread of cholera they carry to the remotest bounds ol of turkeys territory the dla disintegrating integrating nowa news of the changes that have come to pass so that an infidel christian la Is proclaimed as an the equal of a faithful follower follow erlof of the prophet they repeat the stories of the young turks religious laxity od of the serious consequences involved in the enrollment of christians in that army which b be clevers have regarded as the modern modem sword of the prop prophet bet the most cosmopolitan city on earth there are other grave consequences involved in this wonderful coming together of multitudes from many lands tor for be it remembered that the most moat cosmopolitan city on onearth earth Is not new york or london W oi pa ris but this pro ductless city of mecca in the sterile desert of arabia flo however wever negligible the pilgrims may be individually and the trainmen treat them with utmost contempt they are scattering seedy seeds of national unrest ottoman moslems hear how bow justice cannot be bought but Is freely given to high and low in the moslem ruled by great britain ant and the united states they exchange news of the worlds progress and politics and who can wonder if 11 some well informed pilgrim from india or egypt puts forth the prophecy that soon airships will be flying over the desert setting at naught the remoteness which has been the arabs immemorial memoria lm defense the average moslem Is appallingly ignorant generally unable to read or write and sure as they haye baye told me that tho the greatest city chiy in the world Is that wherein the caliph has basy his bis throne constantinople they verily believe that la is those in interior turkey that the other nations are inconsiderable sid erable at mecca they are learning otherwise to the real peril of lur turkeys lurkens keys power copyright 1911 by joseph 13 bowles Dow laa |