OCR Text |
Show J . : ! Jerusalem at t be OforkTs fair I ' : J I V If ai1 American child had desired to spend I I Christmas in Jerusalem, the Holy City, it would I1 110t av5 locn necessary for him to cross the seas and travel afar in alien lands. He could have gone a to St. Louis, where, on a tract of land included in ; ihe World's Fair grounds, Jerusalem is being built. . ! ; True, it is not the actual Jerusalem of Bible times' i kut it is a reproduction, marvelously accurate, of j Jerusalem that stands today upon the site of j j r Palestine which for forty-eight centuries has been a holy ground revered alike by Jew, Christian and t Moslem. 1 ail3 remarkable thing are being prepared for r the World's Fair, but none that surpasses this iu I ? of the essential elements of human interest Here, and there throughout the grounds are repro-" , ductions of celebrraed buildings, such as has been f before at other expositions, though not in such J number and excellence of selection; but here for lK the first time m the world a city is being repro- i duced, and that city the one of all the world most r intensely interesting to the people of Christendom ( , Ab!S M llofc a Panorama' or cyclorama, it mav i , be proper to point out to 1hose who are in credu- r. lous; it is an actual city, which is being built out- T doors, of wood and staff; and it is no toy city but h of actual size so far as the area that is being re- v. . built goes. b h This reproduction of Jerusalem oeeunies OTer olery-n acres of land. It. includes practically all the ' fea ures of the Holy City which are of deeply in I-mate I-mate interest to the Bible student and to any y : son to whom the wonderful story of Jesus of iSaza-reth, iSaza-reth, or the narratives of the Old Testament, are of interest. When the World's Fair opens, nothing will be lacking in "The Xew Jerusalem," as this reproduction repro-duction is called, to show life in the modem city of the Great King as it really is with Moslem and Jew 'and Christian dwelling in separate quarters or mingling together in the curious and quaint marts of trade. Jerusalem, St. Louis, U. S. A., will be peopled by natives of Jerusalem, the Holy City. Arrangements Arrange-ments are being made whereby about one thousand inhabitants of Jerusalem will be broiyrht to St. Louis to take up their residence during the seven months of the exposition inside this eleven-aere walled city. Among these people will be Mohera-medans, Mohera-medans, Jews and Christians, each worshipping after aft-er his own fashion and living his own life here in ! the reproduced city, just as he lives and worships at home. . . Here the Mohammedan will find his sacred mosque, the Jew his synagogue, the Christian his church or chapel. Here each will walk about familiar fa-miliar streets, dwell in houses identical in pattern with those in which they dwell at home, and engage in the same trades or occupations that engage their time and talents in the Holy City. In short, seven months of next year this eleven acre tract, densely built over with houses, with Jerusalem Jeru-salem transplanted for the time in the Xew World, and as such cannot fail to attract the attention of millions of persons who are unable to visit the actual ac-tual city in Palestine. Any boy or girl who is reasonably familiar with modern Jerusalem, through pictures or books, would find much to suggest the Holy City in the reproduction repro-duction now building there, should a visit be paid to the site. First to attract the atteniou would be the outer wall of the city. The entire tract is being enclosed in a wall of the dimensions of the actual wall of Jerusalem. Wood and staff, instead of stone, are used in the construction, but so cleverly is the staff moulded and colored that it closely resembles the real stone ''round about'' Jerusalem. The architect archi-tect visited Jerusalem personally and studied with minute care the construction of the walls, towers and interior dwellings and other edifices which are to be reproduced at St. Louis, so that in all essential essen-tial respects the "Xew Jerusalem" will bp ideniVnl in appearance with the original. Travelers may now go from Jaffa to Jerusalem by railroad. Thousands of pilgrims, however, annually an-nually approach the Holy City by the ancient highway, high-way, on the backs of donkeys or camels or trudging trudg-ing along on foot. For the sake of comparison, Ave may let the Palace of Fine Arts stand for Jaffa, and the pilgrim of 1904 may start from this superb edifice, filled with ancient and modern works of art, and reach within two minutes the Jaffa gate in the' wall of Jerusalem, which is the main entrance and is located down the western slope of Art Hill. Entering at the Jaffa gate, the pilgrim finds himself him-self inside the walled city of Jerusalem. Before him stretches the Street of David, the widest thoroughfare thor-oughfare in the city. On the right a line of quaint houses, while farther far-ther along on that side appear two modern hotels, which are reproduced just as they stand in the Holv City. These hostelries. the Grand Xew hotel and the Central hotel, arc already built, and will accommodate accom-modate during the exposition the numerous persons j connected with the management of the "Xew Jerusalem' Jeru-salem' The Street of David runs on to the west , gatv crossing the Via Dolorosa, along which thoroughfare, thor-oughfare, according to tradition, Jesus bore his' 'cross on the way to the crucifixion on . Calvarv. tliere will be shown the Ecce Homo arch, upon which ; Pontius Pilate stood when he cried to the '"Behold the man!'' ,; : ; One of the points of interest on the right hand ;!le of the Street of David is the wheat market, with' - I"."" oor in which Jew and Gentile .strive! for com-' com-' :mercial master?-. It is vastly less magnificent than' ! the stock exchauge of Xew York, but as" a place of business activity in this sacred city it has its un-i un-i failing interest. Passing through Christian street to the south,; the World's Fair pilgrim or crusader may enter an open space in which stands the Church of ho-.Holy ho-.Holy Sepulchre, with the Holy Sepulchre itself reproduced re-produced in proper position at the east end. ' This Church of the Holy Sepulchre has been for centuries centu-ries the subject of controversy amongst scholars and ecclesiasts. Traditionally it is built upon the site of the crucifixion. The original Church of the Holy Sepulchre was erected upon the present site by the Emperor Constantine. The church was destroyed de-stroyed and rebuilt, repeatedly, in the centuries of fierce struggle for possession of the Holy City between be-tween Christian and Moslem. When ttho crusaders took Jerusalem they enlarged the extent of . the church considerably.- The present building was erected early in the. nineteenth centunv but cer tain features of the mediaeval architecture remain, and these are being reproduced in connection with the replica of this venerable church at St. Louis. The large court in i ront of the church, its pavement pave-ment worn by the feet of innumerable pilgrims, is to be reproduced accurately. ' Beneath the central dome of the church, which was rebuilt by the Greeks after having been destroyed by fire, is the sepulchre within a white marble edifice. This is divided into two small edifices, in the first of which is found-tho fitone where the angels were seated when they replied re-plied to the holy woman: "He is not here; He is risen.'' The second sanctuary encloses the sepulchre. sepul-chre. Lights from lamps of gold and silver are always al-ways burning in this chapel, and the air is redolent Avith burning perfume. ; At Oberammergau every ten years there takee place a production of the Passion Play which has attracted world wide attention. There the living Christ is impersonated by an actor. Here in St Louis will be shown in reproduced outward aspect' what many persons believe to be the sepulchre of the Savior. For long years devout men and women lutie maae pilgrimages to that spot from many parts of the world. J But there is now building within this World's 1-air tract a structure which is a more prominent Erchitectural feature in Jerusalem than the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. The Mosque of Omar is being be-ing reproduced in staff resting upon its mighty platform, with its wonderful dome towering hirfi above the city. The site of the Holy Sepulchre is disputed, but no one questions that the ground upon which stands the Mosque of Omar is theViden"fcal ?r boloi,UOU,s lemple au1 the temple of Herod the Great, from which Christ scourged the money changers. b This considerable tract of land in Jerusalem known to Christendom as the temple area and called he Haram es-Sherif by the Mohammedans! as ;been holy ground for nearly four thousand year" I J?hf aer temple has been builded upon it to' fall before successive invaders-Assyrian, Komau Mohammedan; within this area have worshiped tl e followers of the God of Abraham, the believers in Jesus of Nazareth and the zealous and frantic adherents ad-herents of Mohammed. Even a pagan temple, built by Hadrian, has occupied the site of Solomon's magnificent temple. At times, for generation the area has been but a tumble of ruin.?, yet it h" s not t y the fohowers of some great religious nronbet Around the wall razed and rebuilt W S to time, he great religions of the world have suLd and strugged for possession of the area- tSse walls haye been drenched with Wood, a, d the maimed bodies of the defender and aggressor hive p rewn the area Even the Saracenic fine que now anding has chanyed masters repeatedly, being taken by the Crusaders under Godfrey of Bouillon in the year 1W Then the cross took the place of he crescent, until the. expulsion of the Chr sHaus SS;" -e more the MosIemXi |