The Quiver 12/1899
THE HEIRLOOM
From the Drawing by M. L. Gow, R.I.
A DAY IN DAMASCUS.
I t was only just over afortnight since weleft England—accordingto the calendar,that is to say; butthat way of reckoningtime seems to me asmisleading as thecommon method of£ s. d. in computingalms. Two days' wearyrailway travel to Marseillesafter crossing the Channel, two days ofsmooth sailing to the Straits of Messina, thentwo of tossing "in Adria," till we ran underthe lee of Crete; one spent in plunging alongits southern shores, followed by a bright, warmday which brought us to the coast of Egypt(only to learn that if we entered the longed-forhaven of Alexandria we should be subjectto five days' quarantine at our nextport); a tiresome day's run across this mostchoppy corner of the Mediterranean toJaffa, and a landing there through thesurf on a glorious morning, which madeup for everything, and plunged us straightinto the midst of Eastern life, with all itswarmth of colouring to eye and ear; threehours' run by rail to Jerusalem, and fivedays there and thereabouts, almost bewilderingus with a constant succession of sceneshalf-novel and half-familiar; another railwayjourney back to Jaffa, a pleasant run alongthe coast of Palestine to Beirut, and a dayspent there. All this lay between Englandand Beirut as we finished an early breakfaston a February morning, and drove to therailway station through the busy streets ofBeirut, full of picturesque life, and yetmuch more European than those of otherSyrian towns. Our driver stopped on theway, somewhat to our amusement, to lighthis cigarette from a friend's!
WALL FROM WHICH ST. PAUL ESCAPED, DAMASCUS.
(Photo: Bonfils.)
This railway line is a new one, due toFrench enterprise, and was opened inAugust, 1895. The Lebanon district owesmuch to the French. We were a party ofseventy, and had chartered a special train.The distance is only about ninety miles; itseemed almost impossible that the journeyshould take nine hours, as we were told;but there are more than a score of stations,[194]and at each one the train (even a special)stops for several minutes—by order of theGovernment, we heard. And, more thanthat, the line passes right over Libanusand Anti-Libanus, reaching a point some5,000 feet up, where the coast of Cypruscomes in sight over the blue waters of theMediterranean; while, as one journeys east,the snowy top of Hermon stands out againstthe sky away to the south. A system of cogsand several reversings of the engine carriedus high into the mountains in a very shorttime. Beirut was left far below, and wewere among the snows, glad of the rugs andthick overcoats which wisdom (not our own)had advised us to bring; glad, too, by mid-dayof the lunch we had brought with us.Even in the midst of the grandest scenerywe were vulg