Image provided by: University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries, Lincoln, NE
About The frontier. (O'Neill City, Holt County, Neb.) 1880-1965 | View Entire Issue (Sept. 16, 1920)
MILITARY ROLE IN BETHLEHEM *eace Has Not Yet Come to Birthplace of Christ. L0N6 DESERTED BY PILGRIMS Two Big War-Time Projects Have Opened New Windows and Door ways Into Palestine and Made the Little Town of Bethlehem More Ac cessible—The Only Jew Resident of the Place is a Doctor—Is a. Chris tian Town. Bethlehem Is still occupied enemy territory. The white, limestone town in Palestine, which is holy to half a Pillion Christians, is passing its fifth consecutive war year without pil grims. Formerly the slopes of Kharrubeh, under the fortress wall of the Church of the Holy Nativity, glittered nightly with camp fires of hundreds of Rus sians. But Turkey’s entry Into the war In 1914 put such a sudden end to the pilgrimages of the Russians that a few of them arc still stranded in Bethle hem. The Crescent and Star, with which Selim the Grim hewed his way Into Palestine In 1518, was hauled down from the Turkish serai in Beth lehem when the British army occupied It in 1918. Pending the dictation of peace to Turkey, Bethlehem Is admin istered by the British army, and no civilian Is permitted to enter It with out British military permission, Clnre Price writes In Land and Water (Lon don). Town More Accessible Now. Before the war, Palestine was a noi some, sealed up Turkish place, off the trade routes, difficult to get at and more difficult to get about In after on# got there. Two military secrets, how ever, were reveuled when the armis tice with Turkey was proclaimed, In 1918. One was the completion by the British army of the Palestine military railway. The other was the comple tion by the enemy of the stupendous Taurus tunnels In the Chemin de Fer Imperial Ottoman de Bagdad. Taken together, these two projects have opened new windows and doorways Into Palestine, so that the winds of the world may blow through and any body who has the railway fare may walk In and see for himself. The first civilians to reach Bethle hem after the Turkish peace Is signed will see a single line of old Turkish trench zigzagging like a white Kalr across the far side of the Rahlb val ley to the south. They will see plenty of British soldiers, whose prospect of demobilization Is remote, and little groups of British officers on leave, guided by the same dragomans who three years ago were guiding German officers on leave at Bethlehem. And If they have not visited Bethlehem before, It mny not occur to them how miraculously the place has been scrubbed and scoured and white washed. One Jew In Bethlehem. The ancient rock hewn cistern knhwn throughout the world as Da vid’s Well, and the small, domed Mos lem burying place known as Rachel's tomb, appeared in 1010 exactly ns they appeared when the last Of the tourists fingered the last of the Bae dekers before them in 1914. The Church of the Holy Nativity stands at the eastern end of the town as stark and whitish gray ns it stood before it witnessed the most Important event la Its 1,500 years of life—the powerful Impact of the west on the Ottoman empire. The sound of expiring em pires comes dim with distance into the gold and jeweled silence Inside the Church of the Holy Nativity. Bethlehem Is a Christian town. It Is the most Christian town in southern Palestine. In a country Inhabited by 512,000 Moslems, 0(1,000 Jews and 61, 000 Christians, Bethlehem’s population consists of 7,000 Christians and a remnant of Moslems, whose number does not exceed 500. Just now a third element has been added to its popula tion. I climbed back and forth through Its steep, narrow, slippery streets for an hour without seeing any of those meek, fur hatted figures one passes so continually in the Jaffa road at Jerusalem. Then I stopped a random British soldier. *‘I see no Jews here,” I said. “No, sir.” “Are there any Jews in Bethlehem7" “Yes, sir.” “How many!” “One, sir.” “How long has he been here?” “Three weeks, sir.” Only Jew it a Doctor. He is a doctor, with the six pointed star of Zionism on his khaki sleeve, who was brought to Bethlehem by the deputy military governor. Bethle hem and Nasaretli heretofore have not admitted Jews to their population. I stood one morning recently In an upstairs window of the old Turkish serai, which overlooks the quiet, color ful hubbub of the market place. It was Sunday morning and the market place was vivid with the broad warmth, the white glare and the poppy colors of Palestine. Little groups squatted on the pavements, with their skins of sour milk, their sheets of na tive bread and their panniers of lambs’ tails on the flagstones before them. Coats and fat tailed sheep, herded to gether by Bedouin shepherds, lay along the edges of the spacious scene. Far over to the left, in the shade cast by the lofty wall of the Church of Ota fJ'uiK NebVHy. la* vvf*iif ! their cuds, their legs folded up beReutl) : them like u Jackknife, their hells 1 breaking into a heavy tinkle as they gulped. Through (he squatting groups and the herds the unveiled women of Beth lehem moved about their morning’s marketing: their embroidered waists and their tall, peaked headdresses of white and green—the same headdresses that the returning crusaders brought bael; to their ladles of the middle ages —make the women of Bethlehem in stantly recognizable anywhere in Pal estine. Bedouin women, with tattooed fares, walked noiselessly about on naked feet, holditi" their handker chiefs to their moutns. Donkeys and milch goats pattered through the rrowd. A Bedouin sheik, with a walk ing stick, dug ills lingers thoughtfully into the haunches of a sheep and passed on with the llnp of slippers. All of them were speaking Arabic and trading in Egyptian piastres. In all the spacious, crowded market place the only sign of <t western civiliza tion was an originally field gray B< nz car. waiting down In front of the serai, with layers of white limestone dust that almost obscured the black Ger man eagle on its timneau door, and with a chauffeur in British khaki smoking a cigarette in the driver’s seat. The east ami the west are still as far apart as Bethlehem, Palestine and Bethlehem, i’a. Chain of Caves. Some 2tl feel below the floor level of the Church of the Holy Nativity is a chain of caves, whose walls are the living limestone and whose connection is made by winding subterranean pas sageways hewn out of the living rock and barely big enough to stoop through. These caves include the abode and tomb of St. Jerome, the chapel of St. Catherine, the chapel of the innocents slaughtered’by Herod, and Empress Helena's cave, now call ed the Chapel of Hie Nativity and re vered as Bethlehem's holy of holies. It is dimly lit with hanging lamps, whose smoke has blackened its low stone roof with the accumulated soot of centuries. Ils floor is incased with worn marble and Its walls are hung with unlit lamps, figures of saints and woven silk hangings of silver, blue and dark red—the gifts of penitent emperors. A glance reveals a statue standing dimly against the dark hang ings; opposite, a gilded railing front ing the lace covered manger; nearer, the altar on which the wise men laid tlielr frankincense and myrrh. Close nt hand, two figures kneel sihjntly bo fore the star, where millions of ltus sian pilgrims have knelt with drop ping tears. A second glance, after one’s eyes have adjusted themselves to the dim ness, reveals the statue standing dim ly against the dark hangings as a British soldier, standing where a Tur kish soldier formerly stood, and the gleam against the hangings beside hint is the gleam of a fixed bayonet. Of the two figures kneeling before the star, one is a British officer on leave, who at the moment is whispering to the dragoman beside hitn the amount of time exposure at which he proposes to set ills camera. Before ttie two of them burn the six lamps of the Orthodox, the five lamps of the Ar menians and the four lamps of the Romans, which have biVrned for cen turies above the star. In the dull light they shed, the star Itself appears exactly ns it appeared In 1847, when the proposal to add a second star, bearing the arms of France, brought about tho Crimean war. It is a silver star, let into the marble pavement and partially encircled .by the words: “1717 Hlc do Virgine Marla Jesus Christns nattis est. * * *” FOUGHT TO AVOID BATHS Italian Immigrants Battled Valiantly Against Deputies. To avoid taking the baths required under immigration laws, 2,000 Italians, brought to the United States on the White Star liner Canopic, engaged in u battle with United States deputies at Boston. No one was seriously hurt in the fight, and the immigrants final ly lined up and took the required bath. The Canopic failed to elenr properly at her port of sailing and was tied up at quarantine in Boston. The Italians became wildly excited when informed that batfcs must b« taken and United States Marshal Duane found it neces sary to press a half dozen deputies Into service. VICTORY MEDALS ARE READY Distribution of Nearly Four Million Begun Among U. S. Army Men. Distribution of the Victory medal for’ service in the United States army during the World war, from April 0, 1917, to November 11, 1918, has been begun, according to Secretary of War Baker. The first of the 4,000,000 medals was given to President Wilson, as com mander-in-ehlef of the army and navy. Applications for the medals are to be made to the nearest army post or a recruiting officer, the application stating to which of three classes of medal the applicant is entitled. Dancer Seeks $50,000 for Injured Knee Tumbling into an open elevator shaft in a hotel at Baltimore, Md., Miss Nyma Searbert, a dancer, of Hinton, W. V., skinned her knee so severely that, she said, it interfered with her dancing. She has therefore launched suit for $50,000 against the proprie tors. Italians to Lose War-Made Fortunes. War-made fortunes are to be con fiscated in Italy, according to the an nouncement of a confiscatory decree, prepared by Premier Qiolittl, at Home. SHIPPING board FLEET FLEECED Repair Men and Food Dealers in Agreement to “Pluck the Golden Goose.” $4 FOR POUNO OF BUTTER Investigator Reveals Wide System of Mulcting Among Men In the South American Trade—Is Quickly Stopped. Buenos Atres.i—The United States shipping board has been defrauded of many thousands of dollars through practices which amount to “systematic fleecing” of shipping board vessels In the River Plate trade, according to re ports to the board by Capt. G. L. Car den, special representative of the ship ping board emergency fleet in Buenos Aires. Captain Carden, accompanied by Captain of Engineers L. C. Farwell, arrived here a month ago to take chnrge and protect the board’s Inter ests. "When I arrived here,” he said to the Associated Press correspondent, “ship chandlers, repair men and others connected with the shipping industry seemed lo be in a general agreement to mulct the shipping hoard vessels to the limit. “In receiving my orders I was told that while the board appreciated the fact that expenses of all sorts were high in Buenos Aires and Montevideo, still it felt that there must be some thing wrong when their vessels paid such prices, for Instance, as $4 a pound for butter. “It seems that the practice was when a shipping board vessel appeared in the roads and signaled its desire to enter for those who had hopes of sell ing the vessels supplies to prepare for a plucking of the golden goose. Food Thrown Overboard. “Our arrival put a quick and effec tive stop_to all this. We now have all shipping board vess-els calling at this port report directly to us. We alone have the right to authorize purchases of supplies or expenditures for re pairs. All repairs at present must be made according to specifications and under bond. Every bill must have my dgnature before it will be paid, and the result of lids has been a saving of ns much as 50 per cent on many items, renditions formerly were so bad that I have even heard that In some cases food was thrown over board In order to create a shortage, so hat purchases could he made.” During the first four weeks of the supervision provided by the new ar •angement it was officially estimated hat a saving for the shipping hoard, which means' for the United States rovernmeat, of $50,000 for food alone tnd '*25.000 for repairs was made. As a r■■ alt of this campaign at least one arr ■ l ' expected when a certain ship arr'vos In 'New York. There are 2.5 lines under the ship ping hoard which have vessels calling nt ports in this jurisdiction. There are on an average 22 vessels on hand nt all times. The average cost for maintaining these is from $1.500 to $2. 000 each per day. Before the war an American vessel on the River I’late was a curiosity. $300,000 for Repairs. “Since the shipping board has no of fices of its own to take charge of Its vessels In ports .throughout the world,” continued Captain Carden. “It was usually necessary to intrust the care of its ships to established agen cies. Many of these steamship agents had already for years been representa tives of foreign and possibly compet ing lines. The result has been that in many cases American vessels have been held back, while other ships were given the preference, causing the ex penses of American ships to mount up through port charges and lost time. “In all River Plate ports losses from this source have been very great, ns well as those through overcharges for supplies, repairs and so forth. There Is one case on record where an Amer ican ship was held up for months for repairs and charges totaling $300,000 were piled up against her. But we are seeing to It now that shipping board vessels get into port and get away again without unnecessary de lay. The saving to the shipping board from this attention undoubtedly will be several hundred thousand dollars annually.” SHEPHERD HAILED AS ARTIST Paul Darde, Farmer’s Son, Awarded Paris Salon National Prize for Sculpture. Paris.—Pnul Adolphe Darde, award ed the envied Paris salon national prize for his “Faun” and “Eternal Suf fering." is being greeted by critics as a genius. Darde is not a trained artist in the academic way. He was a shepherd, the son of a small farmer, and fought in the World war. Today, though fa mous, he is only thirty-one years old. “1 have no preference," Darde says. “I love all that is beautiful In nrt as In life.” The “Faun” Is n massive, vigorous conception, sneering, cynical and sen sual. “Eternal Suffering" represents a woman's head, snal e-entwined, with a face upturned in anguish. Darde works direcily in marble ivlth Mt a wax or piaster motlsl. New Low Prices! Ladies' $15.00 Suits . $3.98 $1.25 Caps . 69c $1.00 Girls’ Silk Gloves . 39c $6.00 U. S. Rubber Boots.$3.98 25c White Linen Collars . 15c $3.00 Work Pants . $1.25 25c Cotton Flannel Gloves . 17c $5.00 Silks—per yard . $2.98 $3.00 Overalls . $2.29 Jugs and Crocks, per gallon. 15c 17 Bars Electric Spark Soap, white $1 Coffee—48c,-52c-56c. One pound of Coffee free with 5. $4.00 Oxfords . $1.98 Suits up to Sizes 36 Breast Measure, $22 to $25.00, sells at. $12.69 $1.25 Wool Hose at. 89c Boys’ $2.00 Flannel Shirts up to Size 14 at . 89c Men’s Heavy Sheep Lined Vests $4.98 Men’s $15.00 Mackinaw Coats, Large Sizes . $7.95 Men’s $3.50 Leather Gloves . $1.98 Men’s $5 and $6 Kid Dress Gloves at . $3.69 Men’s $3.50 Dress Gloves at. $1.98 Men’s $12.00 Sweaters $6.95 Men’s $15.00 Sweaters . $8-95 Men’s and Boys’ Wool and Silk Jerseys . $4.39 Men’s Wool and Cotton Jerseys . $2.89 Girls’ $12.00 Fall and Winter Coats ..’.$6.39 Boys’ Suits up to 16 Years . $8.95 Boys’ Overcoats up to 16 Years: $15.00 Coats at . $7.95 $10.00 Coats at . $5.95 Men’s Heavy Duck Coats.$3.98 Men’s Blue Denim Overall Jackets . $2.29 Men’s $5.00 Shoes. $3.69 Men's $2.00 Work Shirts 14%, 15, 15% at . $1.29 We have a Special Underwear Table, any piece . $1.00 Men’s $3.50 Caps . $1.98 Men’s $2.00 Caps. 98c Boys’ Caps . 69c 50c Cotton Batts . 29c $1.50 Dress Goods . 89c Unionalls—Heavy Weight $3.85 $3.50 Silks .. $1-98 .$3.00 Ladies’ Waists . $1.69 Men’s Rain Coats, $15 Coats . $8.95 $10.00 Rain Coats at . $5.98 $10.00 Blankets at . $5.98 50c Neck Ties at. 31c 75c Neck Ties at . 47c Men’s 25c Linen Collars. 15c 2 for. 25c Babies’ Fine Marino Wool Hose, cost $10.80 doz., per pair 49c Coffee—If you can use any coffee buy it at those prices. 30c Cans Tomatoes . 19c Men’s $5.00 Dress Hats . $3-69 Men’s $2.50 Dress Hats . $1.98 Boys’ $1.50 Dress Hats . 89c Ladies’ Last Years Styles in Coats and Suits: $15.00 Sellars . $5.98 $10.00 Sellars . $3.69 15c Cans Baking Powder. 10c $2.50 Cans Aluminum Polish .... 98c $1.25 Brooms . 69c Little Girls’ $3 to $5 Coats . $1.98 Sone one of our customers will re ceive a bag of pure cane sugar free of charge, the last Saturday of this month. On all yard goods we sell you five and give you one free. Men’s $2.50 Dress Shirts . $1.98 Men’s $1.50 Dress Shirts . 89c If there is any thing you can use get in early. The goods are priced to sell and if they are gone when you get here its your fault and not the store. [jJohn Brennan. :wiiiaMr Listen, Friends There isn’t a thing in our business that we value as much as the good will of our old friends. And we always remember that our new friends of today will be old ones tomorrow. This is the one place to come for real bat tery service. We sell the Still Better Wil lard Battery with Threaded Rubber In Insulation —• the kind selected by 136 manu facturers of cars and trucks. O’NEILL BATTERY STATION BUSINESS, NOT POLITICS Political forecasters are likely to be surprised when they get the returns on the National election from the farming states this year. Farm or ganizations are stronger now than ever before in the history of our country, and they are thinking along business, rather than political lines. People who have been in touch with this great farm movement are not surprised that thousands upon thous ands of farmers whe have hereto fore voted the Democratic ticket, will this year vote the Republican ticket.! They find in the Republican platform a straightforward program for the upbuilding of our agriculture. The Democratic platform gives as much space as the Republican to the dis cussion of agriculture, but a compari son of the two platforms reveals vital points of difference. The Democrats re-aflirm their pol icy of a tariff for revenue cnly. The Republicans pledge the farmer pro tection against competition of cheap farm products from other lands. The ’ Democrats were asked to pledge an end to price fixing on farm :irives, which have not helped the eonsumer a particle but have beaten town prices of farm products. They refused to make such pledges. The Republicans have taken a positive stand in this whole matter of price fixing. They denounce it as unjust to the farmer and not helpful to the lonsumer. Level headed farmers are noting the difference between the two parties in these matters which are so vital to their interests. A MEAN MAN. Boston Transcript: Alma has the meanest man. He put this year’s cover on last year’s fashion book and his wife decided she didn’t need any new gowns. MODERN LUCK. “There is luck in finding a horse shoe. said Miss Quotes. “Yes. it may save you a puncture the next time you drive that way.” The M. Schulz Factory Of Chicago Will ship a nice line of their very best Pianos and Players to O’Neill, September 20, 1920 And they will be on display in our store About October 1st. Bowen’s Racket Store O'Neill, Nebraska i. TO PURE BRED STOCK BREEDERS Holt County breeders of pure bred live stock of all kinds, and those contemplating engaging in the raising of pure bred stock, are called to meet at the office of John L. Quig, at O’Neill, Sat urday afternoon, September 25, for the purpose of organizing the Elkhorn Valley Pure Bred Livestock Breeders Association and to consider the erection of a sale pavilion. John L. Quig. PRIVATE MATTERS Why, Friend Farmer, do you place your valuable papers in some convenient drawers about the house? Some of these days you will need them badly. Soon you may forget where you put them and spend a lot of time and worry trying to find them. The O’Neill National Bank can provide you with a private box in its fire and burgular proof steel vault, so they can not be lost or destroyed. THE O’NEILL NATIONAL BANK O’Neill, Nebraska. Capital, Surplus and Undivided Profits,* 130,000