The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, December 18, 1898, Page 6

THE SAN F RANCISCO CALL, SUN DAY, DECEMBER 18, 1898, Writes for Chri , that little 1at place Totto on the night when Je: could not have tunate tim I noticed nd the h other what. ing aro ea not more than pe the Virgin had borne but these lack 1 how much the eply they reveren glad when the uld ha how de time can buried. ifi death. w the light.” anniver night to pass jostling cro to come to Bethle- Passed a Sunday Call. 4s pa at ¢ thr: and I forget the the chapel by a truly Him whom he glori Just In the Virgin’s Steps. The holy lehem und Paris in October, once stine, but it was Jerusalem and holy nspiration in the very the preacher stood! ject could he choose but t? How his voice heart as with extended “A stone's throw from A little further Through that city over taken prisoner after 4 the garden, and in_that (pointing to Bethlehem) He pleasure of visiting Beth- - proper condition 1 enjoyed It is from one town a short time after my first unpleasant exp 1 followed tne path which leads f Nazareth to that town to which Mary and Joseph had come at that critical time in their career. a walk of to the other that one is worth far more ue which must be en- walking in Yy footsteps of the Virgin. or Bethlehem, is T the Hebrew name of thrata. se words mean t of Bread' “the land” or unt also Eu- Ty, It was indeed to be a “House of Bread” in a great and sy birth of the Savior there. “House of Meat.” dates from the most 1o speak The « the b apter of Gene! amin, but a wi to d. Joshu. b in . Bethlehem, like Jer of Juda. t w , When his pa 1 come Iuthrath (which is the same 1 Rachel dying immed iritual sense after the i The Arabs give it another name resembling the first; for they call it Bait-Lahen or the own i 1 __remote antiqu! of it in the thirty-fifth 5 in_ connec ich rents thre vhen Palestine was conquered lem. conqu i n with took had ough by ed by the idolatrous Canaanites, the division of the districts it fell to the lot of the tribes ered The situztion of Bethlehem is indeed most beautiful. the mountains of Judea, h is other by ti Between the o Aty crescent stretch . Wady-el-Karoubeh, The he two about of descent Built on the crest of two ues to the south of Jerusalem. its that of a crescent, one end of rked by the Wells of David. Grottos of the Nativ- horns a fertile valley. the the of N Christ Was Born. Illustrations by J. J. Tissot. this valley is very steep and resembles a circus with lo allel walls, which down, oL s and Lt rming_ap- an abun- dant vines, fig, olive and ees abound. The v n the top of the ascent is bounded on the north by the hill of and on the west by the Mountains of the Desert, where St. John dwelt; on the east Beit-Sahour rises from the little hill where Ruth gleaned the ear: g of Boaz, while beyond can be seen th several stony h , called the Wild n Still further to the east the rocks Mount h along like a wall, the ba h is bathed bv the waters of the Dead Sea. On the south Mount Herodion forms a regu- lar cone, on the summit of which a few ind e the site of the castle of It was here that the tetrarch interred and later e Crusaders d defens works; hence its more nodern appellation of the Hill of the Franks. Where Christ Was Born. n in the fields The Grottos of the Nativ! are a serie of n caves, extending for a co > in the moun- tains, g chambers connected with each other. As a matter of fact shepherds watching t 2 the 1 m t dition as tl t situated in t! hplace of the lower: part of ched by two into flights of d, where it was possible to gi S cave something of the semblance of a m. k ‘were some s the legend, x However 0xX_a an ass. Location of the Temples. rende ed by the the Sav has been birth c erected on tt the very temple to Venus on G to Adonis above the ( her The e temples IS ) hundre: antial antine, rey in honor of Je: cthlehem naves, mns with Cor were probably of the Temple of the sou terial use Many have wondered how it was possible for the sheph s to be watch- ) the open - time when ist w born. The pl where the pherds were when the angels ap- peared to them is supposed to have been what is now called Beit-Sahour, a word signifying “The House of the - 2 e e AT = 2, T2z Shepherds.” It is surprising at first sight_that shepherds should be watch- ing their flocks in the open air at the time of the year set for the nativity, for the cold must have been intense. It was 10 doubt to the end of December that the account in Holy Writ re- fers, but the pastures were not vast grazing grounds where the sheep were gathered together in thousands from every direction, but mere local fields, where each shepherd tended his own little group of animals, and there is nothing in this to surprise any one fa- miliar with the customs of the East. After the December rains are over the begins to grow again and the flowers reappear. The severity of the winters vary very much, and some especially fine days occur, even in the very heart of the cold season, when the shepherds of Bethlehem would go down 1to_the plain with their flocks, as the Arabs do now in good season. The gospels tell us that when the Tre Wise MEN JOURHEYING T BeTHLEHEM. .- Copyrighted, 1894-1895, by J. J. Tissot. shepherds were surprised by the angels they were “ablding in the flelds, keep- ing watch over their flocks by night.” The night was alwa divided into three so-called watches. The shep- herds changed guards every three hours during the short night of the summer and every four hours during the longer nights of the winter. In the latter case the first watch ended at 10 and the second at 2. while the third lasted till daybreak. The shepherds on guard gathered round the campfire while waiting their turn to rest, and it must have been to those thus wait- ing that the angels appeared. They no doubt wakened their comrades to tell them the wonderful news, and after- ward all went together to Bethlehem, where they found and worshiped the Holy Child. The other personages mentioned in Scripture in connection with the birth of Jesus are the Magi. Magl or sooth- sayers are mentioned in the Book of Daniel as being in the service of King Nebuchadnezzar. They studied astron- omy and interpreted dreams. Those referred to in the gospels seem to have been not only wise men, but kings, or Sheiks of Chaldea and its neighbor- hood. They, too, engaged in the study of the heavenly bodies and per- haps also worshiped them, a fact which explains the immediate attention ac- corded to a sign appearing in the heav. ens at the moment of the birth of the Messiah. The color of their undergs ments, yellow, indicated their prof: sion. The Star of Bethlehem. What was the star referred to in the sacred record? There is abs_u]ulcly no positive evidence on this point. Some 1s Days in Bethlehem, amous Painter of Sacred Scenes, rhts He Saw in the Holy Land, and How ight in the Very Grotto in Which think it was a comet or some other similar body; others are of the opinion that it was a meteor, resembling more or less a shooting star, which trailed slowly along at a little distance from the ground so as actually to guide the steps of the Magi. The gospel seems to sanction the latter interpretation when it says: The star ‘*‘came and stood over where the young child was.” A star, properly so called, would not have indicated the spot with such pre- cision. Nevertheless, it Is clear that the significance of the sign was re- vealed in some way to the Magi. Had the travelers exchanged ideas previous to their arrival? It is very probable that they had. No doubt their caravans, though they started from different points, met beyond the Jor- dan on the side of the mountains of Moab, whence they entered the prom- ised land, still preceded by the star. The word “house” used by the evan- gelists to indicate the place where the Magi found the Messiah seems to point to the conclision that during the jour- ney of their visitors from the east Jos- eph and Mary had left the cave of the nativity for a more comfortable dwell- ing. It is impossible to convey the ideas aroused in the breast of the devout Christian t the sight of Bethlehem and its s tified spots any better or more clearly than in the pictures in which I have tried to express my inter- pretation of those stirring scenes as they must have taken place. 1f, by my pictures and books, I have been able to ng the Christ nearer to the minds and hearts of Christians of all lands, I am more than repaid for all my labor. J. J. TISSOT. 6 300 30 106 308 106 308 308 X0% 106 306 30¢ 308 30 300 30K 100308 308 30K 300 408 308 106 100 106 300 X CE 00 L S0E AR 0k Mu Visit to the Summer Home . of t he Queen of Spain By Mrs. Frank Leslie. Speclal to the Sunday Call INCE the recent ‘unpleasant- ness” with Spain her country and people have become a source of curiosity and interest to us—per- haps on the principle’ of General Da‘: mas, who says in the “Lady of Lyons, “It is estonishing how I like a man after having fought with him.” Such being the case, it may be of interest to the readers of The Call to hear something about the summer home of the Queen Regent and the “Little King,” as her son is called. The Queen is said to be a bit of a bigot, as suits her position upon the throne bequeathed by Philip V, but either by birth or training, she has reached an impassibllity of expression I have never seen equaled. A mask of marble could be no colder than her face. She has really no beauty; her teeth are large and projecting and inadequately cov- cred by her full lips, and her mass of ash blonde hair is not lighted up by a tinge of gold. Her pale blue eyes might have been pretty had the lashes been heavier and darker or if brightened by tenderness or any softening emotion. “Her figure, however, is tall, slender, graceful and aristocratic in the ex- treme, and her hands and feet are &mall and admirably shaped and bear testi- meny to her high birth. She has won thairespect of the Spanish people by her dignity, courage and good sense. The royal widow's every action is prudent and her manner grave and self-pos- sessed. Her anxfety to please the ple over whom she hopes that is to rule Is exemplified by the ous manner in which she immediatelv gave herself over to the study of the Spanish language after her husband’s death, and which she now speaks with the utmost flusucy even if the accent leaves something to be desired. There are women to whom sorrow p brings utter wreckage and others who simply congeal and become strong and hard as ice and Christina of Austria seems to me one of these. San Sebastian 1is almost on the frontier between France and Spain and the Queen Regent, after visiting there for a few seasons, finally adopted it as the Summer home of herself and court. San Sebastian has much to say for herself quite apart from the fact that the bay of La Concha, protected from the too vigorous rush of the Biscayan i tides by the island of Santa Clara, is one of the most charming and popular bathing places in the world. La Concha has alwars alluringly curved her softly rounded arms—the Bay of Biscay has always rushed to their embrace—and Santa Clara has al- ways stood between them. That through the Queen Regent the world flocked hither is a mere matter of detail. Doubtless the prosperity of San Sebas- tian for the past ten years is due to this influx of the world, but like a gay new costume on some venerable and dignified old lady one is rather sorry to see the improvement and regrets the stately indifference to fashion that city and dame alike must lose in trying to keep up with the world. ‘Why! it is said that not a decade be- fore Christina came to San Sebastian, and when it was proposed to get up a ball in honor of Queen Isabella, the idea was abandoned because no woman in the town owned a ball dress and it was deemed useless to go to the expense of a costume which could never again be used until another advent of royalty. All this is changed now, for more mag- nificent toilets I have never seen than in San Sebastian a few years ago. As a frontier town San Sebastian has been the scene of many stirring events, and has been snatched by the French and torn back bv the Spanish in half a dozen terrible conflicts, each one of which has left its stamp unon the anclent city. As early as the ninth century it w; conquered by the Romans, who cailed the place Izurum, Freed from the Roman yoke, it was known as Ponosliga, which is Basque for San Sebastian, and w Spain, having driven out the Moors, became consolidated into one kingdom, the Basque provinces of Guipuzcoa, = Alva and Vizcaya drew together refusing to merge their ancient privileges in the general government. and like the Swiss showed themselves so determined to sacrifice life, rather than liberty, that 8 soon took the form of the little seigniory became in imperio governed by having its own Legisla- its own law g=3 oo 1% ffand in the Temple Piazza, after the Bishop of London had 3 gicleared the nave of St. Paul's. % - o ¥Dials in search of dandelions to make salad. Lfunless they paid a little blackmail. Fystood to meet the case, uSum‘lay morning to shave the prisoners in the Fleet for THE IWINGDOMS oF THE W/ORLD 1N A Photographed from the Famous Painting of Tissot. wo THE [)EVIL, TAKING HIM UP INTO AN HIGH MOUNTAIN, SHOWE D UNTO HIM ALL ST.LUKE IV} 5 MOMENT OF TIME™ Copyrighted, 1304-1595, by J. J. Tissot. ture, tariff, tolls, police and arm claiming exemption from conscription, from imposts and from any interfer- ence on the part of Spain in the ad- ministration of justice. The origin of the Basque people is lost in antiquity. Noah is for them quite a modern and familiar cousin. I am not sure but that they, like the Scotchman, had a little private and par- ticular ark in the time of the deluge and declined to mix with Ham, Shem and Japheth. Their language, as old as themselves, bears no resem- blance to Latin, Ceitic or any other tongue. It consists of about 4000 words, some of them sixteen syllables In length, and it is so difficult that, as the tradition runs, the devil, wishing to se- tion halls, OULD you like to know how the people of London observed their Sunday 150 years =ago? The churches were open, of course, and there were two services in every one, and in some there were three. Also the responsible and respectable Lha. ‘:ncnlzen took his family to church, as a matter of course. And he was also critical as to the sermon, which was gen- erally doctrinal. He made his apprentices go to church as Lwell, and demanded the text when they came home as a } ¥proof of attendance. 3! Lwere larking all the morning, and when the congregation Licame out stopped the old women and got the text from s Othem. s Alas! he little knew that the boys However, I am not at this moment concerned with the church goers, but with those who went elsewhere. And these formed the majority. The fields round the town were filled with companies of men called Rural Societies, who rambled about all the morning and dined together at a Btavern. The High Constables went their rounds among the villages pretending to prevent the profanation of the day, but they were squared by the publicans. A good deal of commercial business was transacted on this day in the porch of St. Mary-le-Bow, on the Customqn House quays, Informers went about threatening publicans, barbers and greengrocers for carrying on trade on the Sunday morning A shilling was under- Barbers sent their apprentices on nothing, so that they might get practice. Poor French eople walked about Spittal Field, and the flelds of Seven Children were baptized after afternoon service, and a supper was given afterward to celebrate the occasion. At this supper the nurse, it was allowed, could blamelessly get drunk. The Ltbeadles of churches were bribed by beggars to let them sit yon the steps and ask charity of the congregation coming out. It was the best business of the week. The rails before % Xthe houses of gentlemen were crowded with beggars. & Ladies on their way to church, or on their return from gechurch, were followed by a footman carrying a long stick, fior by a boy at least. Lo slap He also carried the prayer books. ‘When the ladies got home after church they did not disd: their servants if dinper was delayed. The fields gbetween the Tottenham Court road and the Foundling ;{Hospual were the resort of the sporting fraternity, who i Liwhile the preacher expounded the yyure gardens were open all day long. fias nto bands " glooked out on the road for single passengers, B r(drunken passengers, whom it was easy and a Pevening an organ recital; Liperhap; here assembled to enjoy the innocent diversions of duck hunting and cat hunting, with prizefighting, quarterstafy, Lwrestling and other sports. The worshipers in Whitefield’s Tabernacle, which stood here, looking out upon the sports, must have been ‘edified by the language which fell upon their ears from without ord within. The pleas- People crowde them in the early morning for breakfast and stayedd atl‘; day. At two there was an ordinary; in the afternoon and there was tea in the alcoves, and in the evening there was supper. The company was ex- tremely mixed, but then these good people liked a mixed companyb The m‘otre itb\;‘as tx;:ixed the better they liked it; ecause it enabled them to realize th v of thefr own vlirtue. SRRy In the evening, when they reluctantly came awa e 3 much punch as they could hold, theyytarmed ther}!,me‘iv\‘rtel; for purposes of protection; while the footpads or haply, pleasure to rob. % And this was the way of a Sunday In June or July, 1760, duce the stanch Catholic people from their allegiange, set himself to learn their vernacular, and after devoting several years to the study gave up both the effort and the people. Basque are to this day fervent Catho- lics, and Satan has never had a foot- hold in their domain. ‘Whether this be the case or not, they are certainly a singularly noble, sim- ple-minded, honest, hospitable and generous to their friends and dauntlessly brave to their enemies. The Casino at San Sebastian, built by a native of the city, is one of the most magnificent in the world. immense establishment has conversa- reading salons, a superb ball and concert room, refreshment rooms of different grades, card, billiard and music rooms, ladies’ Hence the hydropathic establishment, besides all manner of baths. Pretty little mosques for the sale of flowers, of cigars or of lemonade are found at every turn, as well as hair dressers’ establishments, where languid gentlemen are shaved to glow music and the tinkle of perfumed fountains, all of which goes to prove that the Queen Regent chose well her summer Home. MRS. FRANK LESLIE. truthful people, The Every other Austri household and every third Italian family contributes one member to the national army. rooms, gorgeous Walter Besant Discusses Church Going One Hundred Years Ago. ID you ever hear the story of the conversion of the club critic? If you spoke of the Academy; he fainted if you talked of any popular novelist; the mere whisper of any living actor threw him into writhing agonies. | boudoirs, exquisitely decorated, dress- | ing rooms, a playroom for children, a| I He criticised everything; he shuddered | I | He would only acknowledge one living poet, a young | gentleman of forty, and of bilious aspect and venomous ! tongue, who had brought out two little volumes in white! and gold. except the club critic. He found fault every day everything on the table. The mutton was execrable; the Wwine was either corked or ‘‘gone off,”” or not what it pre-f tended to be; and so on. Now, his friends, who also thought pretty well of them- selves as critics, naturally resented the superiority of this member; they, you see, could pass the Royal Academy without a shudder, and they refused to read the one living | though this ultra-critical ! young man called the mutton bad names, he devoured it! Wwith apparent pleasure; and, while he cursed the claret, | poet. But they observed that, he drank it with seeming enjoyment. Also, that he read the popular novelist secretly and laughed; and he went to the theater, and not only laughed, but also cried. And one of them at last tried an experiment upon him. This person repaired secretly to a lady of miraculous powers and of great modesty. She said she had spent thirty years Wwith the miraculous Mahatmas of Thibet, and had learned how to work their miracles. those simple people she had livéd as a kind of a goddess. So this member of the club went to her and said, “Do the thing I ask and I will believe and become one of your disciples.” Then he sat down and whispered tremulously. And there was a chink as of coin. and said it should be done. Then she made a wax image and she called it after the | name of the critic, and she did not stick pins into it and put it before the fire, but she made mesmeric passes, and said she was going to ‘illustrate telepathy; and she whispered in the ears of the image. She was really a most wonderful woman, and her name was Sapphira Endor. Then she turned to that club man and she said: “Go. will dine at the club to-night. Dine with him.” The critic did dine at the club. That is, he sat down. He tasted the soup. Suddenly there fell upon his palate a sense—only a sense—of that soup in ifs perfect form: he sighed, he pushed the plate away. en the fish ap.’. peared he tasted it, but with loathing, because the gense of perfection, the memory of the heights of flaver that fish ought to possess, fell upon him, so he turned away dis- g\;sted. }’J‘.‘hekunhappl); ?aixt‘ co;flg eat nothing. So with the wine, e knew whal might have be nothing. b e e Need I go on? e had become the re: sham critic. He was cursed with the stan:;rgflott‘ct'hgoltut“s est—the canon of Perfection. s This misery lasted three da: could not read or even write a letter on vision of Perfection which pursued h “My dear fellow,” said his friend. seen this coming on. It has been your too fine a taste. The only way to be criticlsm, which would kill anyh 2 account of the im in everything. misfortune to have cured of excessive 0dy, is to cultivate blunt- Nobody had read him—it is a Philistine world—| with | And she confessed that among And the lady laughea! He| ¥s; he was half starved; he | “I have long since | ness of perception; then you will than your favorite poet with the mous tongue. And you will like than your present gods.” “For Heaven's sake let me the unhavopy critie, “and T wil like Tennyson much more billous eves and the veno- the Royal Academy better like anything.” “You may now, y;z;t!g?gk“m BreE 3 Let my friend never again reili;eeniaoe‘r%etc}t‘leog” This she kindly consented to do. tical faculty. | get rid of this horror,” said | i nd, Sapphira En-