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Show The Holy Cily OUR real estate men ought to establish a branch house in Jerusalem. It looks as though the next boom was to be there. We men-tioned men-tioned lately that Mr. Straus of New York had decided to establish modern water works in that city. Now the report comes that changes equivalent equiva-lent to a re-creation of the city are about to be made. The old walls are to come down and all tho massive towers, save the tower of David, which is to be converted into a museum; the streets are to be widened for the use of trolley cars and if half the contemplated improvements are made, the sacred city will be vastly more beautiful than when the sunbeams were reflected from the golden roof of tho great temple three thousand years ago. The city will bo lighted by electric lights and it will be as John saw the new Jerusalem "there will be no night there." Four electric railroads are to be built. They will start from the Jaffa gate; one will run outside the walls through the newer part of the city for the suburbs have more population than the clfy proper. The first will be two miles long to reach tho business section. The second, same length will connect the city with the Jewish colonies to the north. The third will encircle the city and embrace em-brace many of the historic sites such as Mount Calvary, the Tomb of the Kings, the Mount ot Olives and the Valley of Jehoshaphat. The fourth will run from the Jaffa gate to Bethlehem, about I six miles over perhaps the most sacred thorough fare in the world. The work of laying the rails will begin next month and by the terms of thb concession the roads may be extended in any direction twenty miles. The first water cart ever seen in the east has arrived from England, td sprinkle the streets. At Jaffa the French are to build a harbor. Motor boats for freight and passengers pas-sengers are running on the Jordan, the sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea. Evidently the thrill of western progress has reached the Holy Land. The wave of civilization and enlightenment which I started westward from Asia so long ago, is doub- 1 ling back. The nations that people the regions l which were then merely savage wildernesses are going back to re-create the lands of their forefathers, fore-fathers, and give them a splendor they never before be-fore had. The ancient residents will look on astounded, as-tounded, but with the rest the little red school I house will go there and in another generation the , clamors of the new order will hush every solemn note of the past and leave nothing of that past (save the sacred names and traditions and memories. |