THE SUJsDAY OTtEGOXIAN, PORTLAND. JULY 4, 1920 Where a Noble Band of Ameri can Men and Women Have Been Holding for Nearly 40 Years a Lonely Outpost of American Civ ilization in a Strange, Far-Off Land, Overcoming Persecutions , Poverty and the Hardships of the World War, by Following the Golden Rule and Living a Life of 'Christian Charity. BT JAMES MORGAN, a FTKK the fall of Jerusalem an f airplane, flying across the desert ' to Egypt, brought to the outer world the first detailed news of the city in nearly two years. One of the first items in the report was that the American colony was safe and that it had been the means of aiding thou sands in the last demoralized months of Turkish rule. Many readers in this country must have wondered why there should be an American colony in Jerusalem, and what it could be doing there. It is a strange story. Which opens with a shipwreck in the Atlantic, 40 years ae-o. when an American woman, on her way to France, was rescued from floating wreckage, but her three daughters all her children were lost. "Saved alone," the mother cabled to her husband, Horatio G. Spafford of Chicago, who wrote a revival song under the title, a song which Sankey made familiar to the multitudes who attended the big Moody meetings. . Burned Their Bridge Behind Them. "It Is Well With My Soul" is an other hymn by Mr. Spafford, which, is better known today. A great host of churchgoers will ask for no better -introduction to this founder of the American colony in Jerusalem than these wll-remembered lines from his pen: When sorrows like sea billow s . roll, "When srorows like Bea billows roll. Whatever my lot. Thou hast, taught me to say : 'It u well, it is well Ith my soul." s Mr. and Mrs. Spafford were stirred by the conviction- that they were spared to each other for some higher purpose than they had been pursuing. He was a prosperous lawyer and they had both been active workers in a big Presbyterian church in Chicago; but they resolved to give themselves thenceforth wholly to the service of God and of their fellowmen. A few zealous spirits rallied about the standard of sacrifice, put every thing they had into a pool and sailed away to Jerusalem in the hope that there they could more surely overcome temptation and sin than in the midst of the great city by "the shore of Lake Michigan. Here were 14 American men and women, with five children, pulling up roots that were deep in the soil of our new world and transplanting themselves in the alien soil of Asia. They left forever home and kindred and native land everything to live and work and die far off beyond the seas among strangers in race and re ligion, in speech and dress. They burned their bridges behind them; cut themselves off from their base of sup plies, and. harder still, from the sym pathy of their familes and friends, to risk all on this plunge into Islam and the orient. They had no church or missionary society back of them. They did. not go to preach' the gospel, but only to live it as well as they could; to try to set an .example of Christian living and Christian charity at the scene of the crucifixion. The triumphs of this little band of Bilerims over persecutions, poverty, epidemics, the perils and hardships of the great war; their astonishing successes in overcoming obstacle, their eleventh-hour deliverances from disaster would be a tale more easily niri . . . if this were an age of miracles. Although the colonists arrived in Jerusalem without a word of Abic, they quickly learned enough of the language of the people to begin to teach their new neighbors the simple rudiments of modern, American educa tion and Mahometan arid Jew flocked to them until they have had at times as many as 1000 pupils. The only thing they promised at the outset not to teach was theology. So well did they overcome the natural suspicion of the Moslem church and earn its trust that these American .Christians have, had the unique experience of'holdlng school within the sacred waljs that rise above the ruined halls of lving Solomon in the holy inclosure of the harem esh sherif, or place of the tem ple, now the chief sanctuary' of Mo hametanism in the Holy Land. ',-- Arabic is now almost a mother tongue with the teachers In the col ony. The most prominent among them. Brother Jacob, is a man of wide and deep culture and of a noble hu manity as well. It is enough to say for these Chris tians and Americans that the grand mufti of Egypt, who holds a, place second to none in the Moslem world of Syria and Palestine, entrusted his son to the colony, the youth living with the colonists as well as going to school to them. One of the oldest and closest friends of the colony is the last mayor of Jerusalem under the sultan. To him fell the hard duty of lowering the crescent, which had waved 500 years above the gates of the holy city and of bearing the white flag of sur nder to the British forces. . Practicing the Golden Rale. This Faidy Effendi, who has in the past held the delicate post of .Turkish governor of Bethlehem, where he guarded the manger in the Church of the Nativity, who has been also, a adga and a member of the pariia- i - " til $ - Nv ' . SSSfe yyCX?' sjv Voung ladles of the American colony lu patriotic rxerelm with the colony band playing How the Fourth of Jnly la celebrated by the American colony. Young Americana nlelghlng la the atrceta of Jerusalem, wtrn anow irMdon falls. The Mala building of American colony glrU rrprcscntlnic the allied nations at the Armistice day celebration the American colony is ia the backs-round. last year. ment, at Constantinople, sent both his I nearly eaten out of house and home In a daughter and his son to the American 1 ty 300 uninvited, but not unwelcome helpl school. The son received from his American teachers much of the early instruction that prepared him to en ter the great English University of Cambridge. "I have always proclaimed," this high Moslem official has declared, "as the grand mufti himself has pro claimed in a speech In Paris, that if ever accept the Christian religion. I would unhesitatingly try to enter the American colony as an active member." Moslem and Jew and Christian have been brought together by the colony in a common fraternity. "Those Americans," said one of their gradu ates, the son "of a Jewish banker. lives the real life of love to the neighbor as taught in the Bible. I always pray that the rest of the world may learn to live such a life as they." The colony feeds hungering mouths as well as hungering minds. Its first rule is never to turn anyone from the door. Many years aero it was guests, who threw themselves on Its mercy. These were a strdnge people, who believed themselves to be of the Tribe of Gad, and. in accordance with their peculiar reading of an Old Testament prophecy, they suddenly appeared in Jerusalem after 25 centuries of wandering. The purse and the larder of the colony were then almost empty and the colonists hardly knew where the next meal would come from. Never theless, they mortgaged everything to keep the supposed Gadites from starving ind to help them to become self -supporting. When the money that the colonists had brought from America was gone they found themstlves facing, want in a land where it would seem im possible for an' American to make a living. But he bread they had been casting on the waters began to come back to them in wondrous ways and with strange timeliness. For example, the colony had taken blind man, and thU apparently I camera in Jerusalem, did a rushing otner treasures of the storied east ess charge on its charity uusiness with th brought in the first dollar that it I the world. Toda earned. He had been a peddler, and 1 and busiest photographic establish ment in all the near east. he was sure tho American pastries, which the women cooked, would sell "like' hot cakes" among the European lesidents. They did. and from send ing the blind man out with a basket ful of '"goodies," a wagon was soon required to deliver them. A second example of how the colon'y was helped in helping the helpless. is another interesting story. A globe-trotting Englishman, who wandered in from the desert, had nothing to give In return for months of hospitality except a battered and apparently useless photographic camera. . But a man, apparently equally useless, a crippled member, who had been a cabinetmaker when he was a young man in Vermont, made a new box for it. By and by the German kaiser came along on his combination pilgrimage and drum ming tour to the Holy Land, and the colony, 1 with the only commercial ue pictorial press of I They also gather and press for Sun iy It has the .largest day schools and other church organi- Caught In the World War. Readers of the National Geographic magazine have enjoyed many series of photographs of Palestine and Syria, which were the products of the colony. The interesting descrip tive articles accompanying the pic tures came from the pen of one of the colonists, John D. Whiting. Mr. Whiting Is the first American born in Jerusalem, his' New England par ents having been one of the little group of pioneers who followed Mr. and Mrs. Spafford, and he is now the highly respected American vice-consul in his native city. Under the spur of necessity the colonists first learned how to make things f6r themselves and next they gradually went into making or col lecting things for" sale religious articles fashioned out of mother of pearl, ancient glass, antique rugs and rations the wild flowers that are mentioned in the Scriptures, a New England botanist, who graduated from Bowdoin college, being most active in this department. ( When the colony had weathered the storms of more than SO years and seemed to have emerged into the sun light, it was caught In the hurricane of the world war, which brought years of cruel hardships but which also brought the colonists an op portunity for greater usefulness than ever before.' The story would fill a book, and some day a book should tell of this lonely little outpost of American men and women In the enemy's country, following the armies of their foe to minister to the sick and wounded in the desert, battling with a plague of locusts, braving the cholera and typhus and fighting hand to hand with hunger at their door. Enemy aliens and Christians though they were, these Americans were en trusted by the Turk with the manage- CLERICAL ADMIRAL PROVES TO HAVE WONDERFUL "HEAD" Youth Rises From Cadet to Highest Office in Portuguese Navy as Re sult of Freak Advice, Although a "Landlubber" on Board. A J. B..Thornhill. in New Tork Herald. YOUNG naval cadet entered the Portuguese navy, time when Portugal was a monarchy. He was given clerical work at the ad miralty. Without ever having board ed a ship he gradually climbed to lieutenant, to commander, to captain, to admiral. When the king and queen of Portugal took a trip to Tangier, so well was he thought of that he was charged with the duty of taking them there. The captain of the man-o'-war on which our office boy ad miral, had hoisted his flag asked for the order of departure. ' The admiral replied. "You know your business give the order." As they steamed out to sea the captain asked for the course. "You are ca pable of setting the course?" ques tioned the admiral. "Certainly." an swered the captain. "Well, then, set It." Later when they were taking the ship's position the admiral was handed a sextant, and he made a pre tence of observation, and then pre tended to , make calculations. The captain approached him, showing his calculations, giving the latitude and longitude. The admiral glanced at them and said: "Excellent they al most agree with mine." On the arrival at Tangier the captain, who was getting a little tired of the office-reared admiral, wanted orders for anchoring. The admiral tried his old tricks. "Your know your busi ness." But the captain asked the ad miral point-blank how many 'cables he should put out. Here was a quandary. The admiral scratched his head and, determining to be on the safe side, said, "All. The captain, cursing the admiral under his breath, turned to carry out the order. .. All that day the Portu guese sailors, to the jeers of the crews of the foreign battleships toiled at putting out anchors, until the Portuguese boat looked like the center of a spider's web. That night it blew a hurricane, such aa had his pension paid to him as an ex soldier. Into 115,080. francs. The po lice released him, after giving him a little advice about counting his wealth in public parks while slightly under the Influence df red wine. Billigot invested 80.000 francs in a life annuity the next morning, bought a suit, of clothes, ehoes. et cetera, and before departing for Saint Cloud race track called on the friendly police sergeant and gave him a tip on the races for that afternoon. The horse won. The newspaper L'Eclalr has of fered him 100 francs per day for his racing selections until the end of the season. - never before or after been known at Tangier. The English cruiser having steam up stood out to sea and safety. The French. German and Italian vessels could not ride to their anchors.' and were driven on the beach. The Port uguese war ship rested like a sea gull on the waves, unheeding the tempest. They gave the Portuguese . . . , . . Regular Officers and Men Number to bestow and made him commander-I ln-chief of the Portuguese navy, and every one said: "What a head! W'hat PHILIPPINE ARMY REDUCED WIRELESS AND AIRPLANE COMMUNICATION PLANNED Marconi Offers to Build Big Station in Roumania French Aviators Contend Aerial Service Between Cities Practical. B a head!" Poilu With 140 Francs Win 115,080. "Father of Luck" Found by Police Counting Uains in Public Park. PARIS, July 3. Ragged, hatless and practically shoeless, an .el derly man was sitting in a park on the south eide of the Seine'' a few nights since, muttering to himself, 50, 60. 70, the while stacking thin little slips of paper one upon the other. He attracted the attention of two gendarmes for he had apparently been drinking too much wine. He was taken to the station. The desk sergeant was bewildered when the ragged man explained that the little slips of paper he was count ing were good bills of the Bank of France and that the figures he was mumbling -represented their amount. He had 115.080 francs. "I won this money at the races," explained the denizen of the park. It-developed that the man was one Billigot, a former colonial soldier, at times street newspaper vendor, known to the citizens of Grenelle ward in Paris as "Father of Luck" or "Father Cherry" (the little fruit being known in the parlance of the Paris gambling circles as the emblem of luck). He , had run up 111) franca, the amount of Approximately 11,000. MANILA.. P. I. The return here of all of the 3000 American troops who went to Siberia during the year 1918 has brought the number of regular army officers and men in the Philip pine islands to approximately 11.000. In addition, the Philippine scouts, composed entirely of natives under the : jurisdiction of the United States war department, number close to 7500 men. The Philippine constabulary, or the police force of the islands, is com posed entirely of natives and is un der the supervision of the Philip pine government. Major General William A. -Graves, who was in command of the United StaTtes forces in' Siberia and who re turned bere recently. Is now at Ba gulo, - a mountain . resort, 180 miles north of Manila, where he expects io remain -while pfeparing a detailed re port to the war . department . of the operations of the American army at Vladivostok. After completing his report. Gen eral . Graves will take command of Fort McKinley. at the outskirts Manila,- . -. , of Eggs Hon Legal Tender. BERLIN. At Halensee, near Ber lin, a general store has been opened for a moneyless interchange of coun try products and town-made articles Country - farmers barter their dairy produce against boots, shoes, cotton yarn, candles and similar commodities. Th accepted unit, of value la eggs. UCHAREST. July 3. This city will become a huge communica tion center for south Europe. both for wireless and aviation, if pres ent French plans are carried out. The Marconi company has offered to build a huge wireless station In Rumania, which would handle busi ness from the east as well as local business to the west, but it appears likely that the Rumanians will either continue their own wireless ' service, in connection with the Elfel Tower and other stations in France, or else permit the French to establish such a station. Both British and French firms, backed up by their governments, are attempting to arrange a complete air plane service.' The French propose to connect Parts, Vienna, Budapest, Bucharest and Constantinople in .a general way, with branch services in cluding Serbia, Bulgaria and Greece. It Is hoped later to extend this serv ice into Russia. French army aviators began last summer to establish a tentative post service between Constantinople and Bucharest, connecting with the ex press train to Paris. This service is being now developed, but owing to its great cost it Is felt necessary to have each of the governments over whose territory the airplane service will be conducted to contribute a pro-rate share to maintain the service. Airplane Service Planned. It is estimated that the cost aver ages 100 for each hour the machine Is kept in the air. In view of the poor conditions of the railway systems in South Europe, business men have generally given their support to these plans. . Due to the mountains of central and southern Europe and waters of the Black sea. the Adriatic and the Medi terranean, practical aviation is con stantly severely tested. Flying Into Russia does not present the same difficulties. Since the armis tice huge German machines . carry ing passengers and contraband moneys and other articles of a specu lative nature have made frequent trips between Moscow and Berlin. Now and then these machines come down, but it is generally because of motor trouble. During the bolshevik regime In Hungary, frequent trips were made to Moscow, though the aviators had to cros3 the Carpathian mountains from Budapest. Paaaenser'a Viewpoint. From a passenger's point of view- such trips do not present any diffl culty, once the passenger has over come the preliminary apprehension of danger. This apprehension is much diminished by the new limousine type of machine, where the passenger sut lers neitner from cold nor wind nor motor noise. The establishment of these wireless and airplane communications are continuance of the French policy of keeping eastern and western Europe connected. It is due to the French that since the armistice express trains have been run between Paris and Warsaw. passing the intervening cities of Prague and Vienna, and also between Paris and Bucharest and finally between Paris and Constan tinople. These three, which are known as the Warsaw, Simplon and Orient expresses, were first under French army control and are now under com mercial control of the 'Internationa Sleeping Car company. British Charities Increase. . LONDON. The cost of British charities -has increased 1000 per cen in the last 20 years, despite th enormous expenditure on insurance unemployment, ola age pensions an various other form of public assist ance. J. R. Marriott, member of par liament, has told the Charity Organi zation society that he estimated th present charity total at 250.000,000 for the year as compared to 25,000. 000 20 years ago. "We are manu facturing pauperism at an appalling rate," said Mr. Marriott. ment of the governm?nt soup kitch ens, where they fed 3500 people daily for two years, and they were also placed in control of four military hos pitals. With few doctors to aid them and with a woeful lack of disinfect ants, of cotton for bandages, of soap and even of water, the devoted men and women of the colony dared tho deadly germs that infested the Turk ish army while they nursed thousands of sick and wounded, whose cause they hated but whose sufferings they pitied. The Germans coulo not share the simplest trust of their Turkish allies In this example of Christian charity. nd when General von Falkenhayn came he sternly commanded that the entire colony, regardless of age or sex, should be driven from home and deported. The Turkish officers loy ally stood by the colonists and finally succeeded in having the deportation limited to the six American men who were of military age. While those six were waiting to be sent away from their wives and chil dren to meet, perhaps, an Armenian fate Falkenhayn and his Germans themselves found it prudent to leave in haste, for the British were rapidly advancing. And the Turks let the Americans stay. When the Turks also abandoned the city. All Fouad Pasha. the sultan's commander, announced to the colonists: "Tonight we leave Jerusalem. We have decided not to take the six Americans a.vay with us, and we leave you all to care for our sick and wounded. Toj have not been serving us; you will not serve the enemy: you are serving God." When General Allenby and his Brit ish troops came, they were greeted by these soldiers of the cross from America, who had advanced upon Jerusalem so many years before and taken the city, though they marched without t.rms or banners. On the next Fourth of July a band of little war riors, with toy guns and paper hel mets, paraded along the road that runs from the Damascus gate bearing the colors of England and the Stars and Stripes. They were the children of the colony, celebrating both the independence or the United States and the delivery of the holy city. Naturally its experience and high standing in the community make the colony peculiarly useful to the new government, with its strange tasks, and ' various coloi ists have received important parts in city planning and in the f'ght against tuberculosis. Among the newspaper and maga zine Illustrations of the capture of Jerusalem, wh'ch were published in this country, was a picture of the reception which the colonists gava to the captor, with General Allenby standing by the side of a woman of gentle and handsome presence. This was Mrs. Spafford, widow of the founder, who still is spared to grace the colony. Most of the original members sleep now In the American cemetery on a slope of ML Scopus, but their chil dren and grandchildren keep alive the spirit of the pioreers. Within very recent years there have been ten weddings among the colonists and 23 births. With the recruits that have come from the United States Sweden and other countries, there are, in all. more than 100 persons in this little America close by the hoary walls of Jerusalem, where an American wel come to an American home with an American kitchen! gladdens the heart of an American visitor.