Jasper County Democrat, Volume 6, Number 22, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 September 1903 — MODERNIZING THE HOLY LAND. [ARTICLE]

MODERNIZING THE HOLY LAND.

Invasion of American Mechanical Invention* Into Syria. *A peaceful revolution Is now going on in the Holy Land,” writes an American correspondent. “Where plows of antique types were hauled by camels, oxen, and donkeys, the steam plow is seen. In harvest time, instead of the patient, antique methods, huge harvesting machine*, reapers and threshers are operated by steam. The standard gauge railway has already penetrated inland to Homs, the ‘Manchester of Syria,’ where, on its arrival, a mob demanded Its surrender. Victorias and landaus are running between Homs and Palmyra, where the ruins were once a sealed book. Automobile lines are preparing to cross the desert and succeed the mall lines of fleet dromedaries. When the American steam thresher arrived In Syria from Indiana the plant was promptly bought by Najib Sursock Bey, the progressive millionaire, owning great areas of Syria and Egypt, who vows to buying anything the Americans Invent. The success of the plant was complete. The straw bruiser attached to the separator has opened a new dawn of plenty for starving animals of the Holy Land. Syrian straw is hard and stiff, and hence It was supposed for ages to be valueless. The bruiser, a steel cylinder with twelve rows of corrugated teeth making 1,200 revolutions a minute, now makes the straw fit for the animals to eat. The Koran,” adds our correspondent, “will surely retreat before American machinery and methods Introduced simultaneously with American schools. This may be said to be the first death blow at Mahomedanism. The Arabs are accustomed to work, and court It. All the wars heretofore waged hav* never wielded the slightest Influence on the religious fanaticism of these people. Machinery and modern methods and enlightened education, however, bringing the Arabs new and cheerful labor, better pay, and rewards, will expose them constantly to the weaknesses of their creed and end In their complete metamorphosis from their forms of dress, foods, thoughts, and conduct.” —London Sphere.