Haifa; or, Life in modern PalestineOliphant, Laurence
History
Haifa; or, Life in modern Palestine
Oliphant, Laurence
Palestine -- Description and travel
A retreat from the heats of summer is almost essential to the health of
the colonists. If they had the right of way claimed they could, with
ease, construct a wagon-road to the top of the hill overhanging the
colony, where, at an elevation of nine hundred feet, they would be in
full enjoyment of the sea breezes, while only half an hour distant from
their homes. The money necessary for the construction of such a
sanitarium was provided under singular circumstances a few weeks ago. I
was riding just outside the town, on the Nazareth road, when to my
surprise I met a foreign lady riding by herself, accompanied only by an
Arab, an unusual sight in this country. Following her was a covered
litter. On returning to the colony an hour later I found that the litter
contained the body of the husband of the lady I had met. He had died in
it on the road from Nazareth a couple of hours before I met the poor
widow, a perfect stranger and unable to speak a word of the language,
forming the solitary attendant of her husband's corpse. These painful
circumstances enlisted the warmest sympathy on the part of the
colonists, whose kindness and consideration so overwhelmed the lady, who
was herself a countrywoman, that before leaving she presented the colony
with a check for $7500. These simple people had no idea when they were
lavishing their kindness on the widow that she was a lady of large
fortune, and this was their unexpected reward. And it is with this money
they hope to build their sanitarium.
PROGRESS EVEN IN PALESTINE.
Haifa, June 7.—I was glad to avail myself of an opportunity to revisit
Jerusalem after an interval of six years, and by a journey through a
part of Judea to see the changes within that period. The attention which
has of recent years been directed towards Palestine has perhaps produced
more marked results in this province than in Galilee, and in some
respects its progress has been more rapid. This is partly owing to the
fact that for the past eight years it has been under the administration
of a more than usually enlightened pasha, who exercises his authority
independently of the Governor-General of Syria, and partly because its
holy places prove more attractive both to Jews and Gentiles than do
those of Galilee. Hence there has been a larger inflow of capital and of
immigration.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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