Democratic Sentinel, Volume 21, Number 6, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 February 1897 — The Girls of Jerusalem. [ARTICLE]

The Girls of Jerusalem.

Of social life .the girls of Jerusalem know nothing—absolutely nothing, writes Edwin S. Wallace, United States Consul at Jerusalem, in the Ladies’ Home Journal. They occasionally meet, a few together, and appear to enjoy each other’s company a little. They talk about their household work —which is really everything they know —and Indulge in some light gossipy chat about friends, though their gossip is never of a harmful kind,. In conversation they show some little animation and spirit, but, being ignorant and illiterate, they have no idea of grammatical form of expression. Occasionally cards, dominoes and checkers are played, but the native girls have little Inclination for the pastime involving mental effort. Such things as dances, fetes and fairs are unknown to the girls of Jerusalem; occasionally they are taken on a family picnic to some olive orchard near their homes, where they pass part of the day. From these and ajl similar gatherings men are barred. There is absolutely no commingling of the sexes. For a girl to appear at any assemblage where there are men would be regarded as audacious and shocking. No Jerusalem girl would do such a thing; she would not dream of committing so fatal a breach in the unwritten, though well-defined, law governing the conduct of her sex. So strict is this law, or custom, of exclusion, that under no circurfistances would a girl attend the wedding of her brother to which were bidden guests outside the immediate families. 1 * ■ /. ■ As a fountain finds its expression in overflowing, as a river in rushing to, the infinite main, as trees bursting into.Jlfe and blossom in the springtide, so God feels it his joy to give liberally, and to give above all we can ask or think or desire, for Christ's sake.—Cummings. Dr. Seemann says that to:, touch the leaves or stem of the itch-jvood tree “is like letting the hand come in contact with a red-hot poker.” It grows In Fiji.