Embedded Files
South African Missionaries - 1930, Clarence is third from right on the middle row.
Image scanned by Ruth H. Barker.
I entered the Missionary Home which was on State Street north of the Beehive House in April 1929 and after nearly a week's strenuous training left by Western Pacific train for San Francisco.
With me were John F. Betts, fraternity brother of mine and two other elders bound for Australia. Betts was made mission secretary there soon after his arrival. We enjoyed a one-day stop at Honolulu during which we made an auto trip into the island interior and had lunch at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel. We took a swim from Moana Hotel on Waikiki. The highest building then was the tower at dockside. There were no high rise hotels. I was impressed at how many Oriental people lived in Honolulu.
Next stop was American Samoa, port of Pago Pago, with mountains nearby where more than 365 inches of rain fall each year. Jungle all around. Visited our mission home and chapel there. Very hot and humid climate. Saw native houses.
Next Suva, Fiji Islands. We were told that the thick-lipped, curly headed natives were Negroid—we had no mission there. Later President David O. McKay said, "Who says they are Negro?” And we have been baptizing them since. We walked into the interior, enjoyed bananas and coconut milk, saw native grass shacks.
After heavy storm which really shook up our 5,000 ton steamship, Matson Lines "Lurline," we landed at Sydney, sailing up a long inlet to that wonderful natural harbor. I was the only one of the four elders who did not get sea sick during that bad storm.
Sydney was a big city with Victorian style buildings. Big harbor bridges were then under construction, although these were not completed for many years. There was rather a small congregation at Enmore, mission headquarters, a section of Sydney. President Clarence H. Tingey, after I had found that I could not catch a ship for South Africa until June, assigned me to a suburb, Bankstown, where I labored with Elder Lowell Brown of Lehi for two months. Homes there had water pipes on the outside since there were no real freezes. Stores wrapped a loaf of bread at convenience of a customer in a sheet of newspaper. You bought milk in a pitcher you took with you to the store. Homes were without heating other than a fireplace sometimes and sometimes a tiny coal kitchen range, usually in an alcove. It was cold.
With Elder Brown I lived in a small apartment behind the Ranks town Branch chapel which had been built of lumber by members. There was good bus and electric train service. The railroad employees were government employees and therefore not polite nor overly helpful to the public.
In early June I boarded the "Themistocles," an Aberdeen-White Star British freighter, about twice as big as the “Lurline,” which burned coal rather than the oil used to power the “Lurline.”
The ship stopped at Melbourne and Adelaide, at each of which places I went inland to visit with the elders and see the small branch chapels. Then we headed across the great Australian Bight through some very rough seas to Perth.
I had many gospel conversations with Australian and British passengers, but made no converts. I read B. H. Roberts New Witnesses for God, and Joseph F. Smith’s Gospel Doctrine.
Crossing the Indian Ocean again we had some very rough weather, so rough that they had to put up guard rails on the tables to prevent the plates from sliding off. We evidently had some kind of radio beacon because the ship headed right into Durban harbor through pouring rain and heavy clouds. No sun had shone for several days.
After clearing customs I was greeted by a blue uniformed fellow who said he had come to arrest me. It was a put-up job, however, since he told me he was a Mormon, Henry J. Trestrail. Elder Bertram J. Cutforth from Moreland, Idaho also met me.
I was astonished at the thousands of natives dressed in castoff clothing and even gunny sacks. They heaved the coal and did the dock work. Ashore there were gaudily dressed native rickshaw boys, some with great horns on headdresses. The latter were for posing for photographs.
I stayed overnight and tracted the next morning, working with Elder Rex C. Ellsworth, from Safford, Arizona, who later owned the racehorse "Swaps" which won a big prize. Elder Evan P. Wright, then back in Utah, sent Rex a wire offering him a get rich quick scheme selling brassieres to the natives of South Africa.
Durban has a beautiful beach, natural harbor and beautiful green hills, called the Berea area, above the flatlands. It also had a big native market where you could buy bananas for less than 12 cents a dozen, and a large East Indian section. Mahatma Ghandi was born in Durban.
There were electric two-decker tramways. Once when I later labored in Durban, Elder A. Kay Berry and I rode the tram and inadvertently left our two tennis rackets in the car. They were held by the tram company until we picked them up. Youngsters in South Africa received very British education and were honest. No European would smoke a pipe, because the natives smoked pipes.
Left to Right: Clarence, Elder Thomas Y. Wilson, Pres. Don Mack Dalton, George Maus
I next went by the same ship around Cape of Good Hope to Capetown, mission headquarters. President Don Mack Dalton (he was a lawyer with a wife and two sons they adopted) had me labor at mission headquarters several
months. I was commissarion and news editor of Cumorah’s Southern Cross. I rewrote the news letters sent in by each district and wrote other copy for the monthly.
President Dalton was strong on selling Books of Mormon. One Elder, Wells L. Evans, from Bountiful, was a high power salesman for first contact, but not much good on follow-ups. He made lecture tours of the mission showing lantern slides and lecturing on Book of Mormon archaeology. He used S.O.A. after his named (student of archaeology). Once he sold Books of Mormon at 50 cents a piece to about 15 nuns following his lecture at a convent. They did not know the title of the book they were burying. I mailed the books to the convent from Mowbray. Elder Evans later married in South Africa dn did not win an honorable release.
I made a three week trip by bicycle without purse or script with Elder Kenneth Sutherland, a little Scotsman who had qualified as an engraver in Aberdeen, and come to Capetown, to Robertson.
Our first night about 20 miles outside Capetown, we spent with a man and his East Indian wife, who was very hospitable.
The next night was at Wellington, a beautiful town in a rich fruit growing area along the Berg River. It was not far from Paarl (Pearl) named from a huge granite hill around which the hane poot grapes grew in great profusion. We did not have a bit of luck finding anyone who would let us stay with them overnight until about 11:15 p.m. when a hospitable woman with a native servant invited us to sleep on cots on her front porch. We were delighted.
After some bad tire trouble which a bicycle repairman kindly helped us solve, we went up Bain’s Kloof (canyon) for a steep shortcut to the road to Robertson. It was tough pushing up that road in the heat. At a small hotel at the top we ran into a convention of Dutch Reformed Church ministers. They invited us to sit down and have some grapes and listened to us briefly. I told them that we had the restored Gospel including authority from God. They said they believed that if what they preached and taught made people live good lives that this was sufficient. Shortly before the Dutch Reformed Church at Stellenbosch had tried a Dr. DuPlessis, one of their teachers at their school for clergymen, for heresy. He was telling them that (too) much of the Bible was figurative, including Jonah and the big fish. This story had rated headlines in the newspapers.
We were fed supper and given a good bed by a Boer family at Brede River. They had us take a swim in the shallow river, which was very welcome.
Proceeding south through barren windy country we saw about a dozen wild ostriches. Late in the afternoon as we were pedaling along we saw twin farmer boys about 13 years old. They were very eager and invited us to their home. They had a big Boer-Dutch (Afrikaans) speaking mother who welcomed us, fed us and prepared cots for us. After eating we read from the Bible and then prayed. Then she started to pray (we were all kneeling) and she was soon shouting her prayers. They were Apostolic (I think we call them Jehovah’s Witnesses). It rained that night and in the morning the boys hitched up a donkey cart and hauled clay to bolster their adobe brick home. It had earth floors and thatched roof but it was kept clean as a pin. We rode into Robertson comfortably after leaving the Berend and Henry Visser (boys’) home in the morning.
Brother and Sister John Herbst and their four daughters welcomed us and fed us royally as well as providing a comfortable bed. The third eldest girl, Alma, was re-headed, curious, smart, and lovable. We called her Knoppie (Red Top). She would have had us talking Afrikaans with her if we had stayed more than a week with them. We tracted the town quite thoroughly, at first getting good response and being invited in about every home. We called on the Dutch Reformed Church predikaant (preacher), a Reverend Snyman. He was very polite and cordial to us and explained that we were there for only a few days. His people, he said, were friendly and hospitable as long as he told them to be, and he promised, he would say nothing bad about us.
Next Monday morning doors were slammed in our faces. We found Dutch Reformed Church clergy were walking down the streets ahead of us and warning the people to beware of us.
Brother Herbst was told that Reverend Snyman had preached a hell-raiser against us in his beautiful church Sunday. He had told them that we were trying to kidnap their daughters.
So we left Robertson for the homeward trip. We spent the first night at the Visser cottage where we were welcomed heartily. We were able to catch a lift on a pickup truck over steep Bain’s Kloof. We spent the next night in the home of the foster parents of Brothers Alvin and Walter Park at Stikland, and reached Mowbray that evening.
The Visser boys wrote to me regularly. They wanted an air rifle so I sent them a good pellet gun.
Soon after, President Dalton assigned me to open up the Durban District again. There were only about 14 missionaries in South Africa and less than 1,000 members.
I rode with him by railway to Port Elizabeth where we stayed a day or two. Here I met Elder Clare B. Christensen of American Fork, whose sister I later met and married. Here the wind only blew once a year - all the time!
We also stopped at East London. Natives would come out to sell fruit and to beg at each train stop. One day President Dalton was catching up on his journal and asked to borrow mine to help fill in. I replied, “If you can stand it I can!”
One night at Mowbray he had decided to give the ten minute talk on church history requested by the General Authorities. I recorded in my journal: “President Dalton gives one hour and 50 minute harangue on church history for ten minute talk scheduled.” Years later I noticed an addition written in the margin: “President Widtsoe (London, European Mission), says ‘Do not curb the spirit.’ I wish you would remember this, Elder Barker.”
I caught a British Union Castle ship (a beauty) from East London to Durban. I rented a room in the Berea district at a place on Cromwell Road that had huge avocado trees in the front yard. Elder A. Kay Berry joined me soon. I met a George Canning and was able to baptize him later. Durban was terribly hot in the summer, with no air conditioning. In those days each elder tracted separately, usually across the street from his companion, so we could get to more places. We had no prepared lesson system. We baptized a Knicklebein family.
I would rewrite the newsletters and mail them back to Mowbray for Cumorah’s Southern Cross.
From Durban I was assigned to labor in Kimberley, the diamond city, with Elder Herman J. Smith of Draper. That city is largely on property owned by DeBeers Mines Consolidated. Two mines were being operated in the town area, but the big Kimberley Mine was idle. They mined soft blue shale stone from volcanic pipes. This was hauled to the direct treatment plant where it was broken up and washed with water from the Vaal River. The heaviest of the mud was put into small mine cars with locked covers and hauled to the pulsater plant. Here the mixture is washed further and run over shaking slopped grease tables. The diamonds stick to the grease. Nearly all rough diamonds have the conventional diamond shape. They are cut in half and additional facets are added. An occasional diamond comes in the flat shape. The riches diamond “blue ground” had about one karat per ton of the shaley material dug out. Material discarded at the pulsater plant is largely small flinty or agate-like stone.
All the workers around diamond mines either were white bosses or native convicts or contracted labor. The blacks are kept locked up on the premises. Diamonds are cut on small turntables which revolve. The diamond itself is held in plastic against the turntable, with water and diamond dust applied to the revolving surface to serve as cutting agent. DeBeers Co. with additional mines near Pretoria, monopolizes the diamond market. With large reserves, they could flood the market at any time and break the prices. All ground in the Kimberley area is washed and treated by pulsater as it may be excavated. Illicit diamond burying is forbidden by law but is a common crime. Broken glass is scattered indiscriminately to discourage looking for diamonds. It is forbidden by law to possess an uncut diamond without a permit for digging.
Elder Smith and I were members of the DeBeers Mines Consolidated Tennis Club. Other members were largely skilled craftsmen who directed native laborers. We would play a set or two of tennis as soon as it was daylight and then jog back to our room, shower, and do the missionary work. We had a primus stove which burned kerosene (called paraffin there) under pressure, for cooking and a small portable kerosene burning heating stove for cold weather. We tracted Kimberley rather thoroughly. My only convert there was Bill Massey, mechanic who worked on our motorcycle. A British Matchless. Bill was attracted by our Word of Wisdom. He first met us by attending a meeting in the Town Hall addressed by President Dalton and by Elder Smith and me. We also baptized a Rousseau family. When we went to the Alexanders-fontein resort actually in their winter time to baptize them, the water was cold in the deserted swimming pool. Elder Smith, who was only about 5'6" tall, was to baptized Brother Rousseau who was a big rawboned Boer who had never learned to swim. When he had said the prayer, Elder Smith tried unsuccessfully to pull Brother Rousseau backward into the water. He even tried to trip him without success. I got down in and let Elder Smith duck me to show how easy it was and finally Brother Rousseau was baptized properly. Sister Rousseau was baptized by me without incident, and some children.
While a member of the tennis club I won the men’s singles handicap title and was a semifinalist in the men’s doubles handicap. In the former match which lasted about two hours in hot weather, I as a novice, was entitled to 30 points of each game and 40 points (of only 50) in each sixth game. The other finalist was a man by the name of Marsteller who was a blacksmith in the mines (he had soft hands since the Negroes performed the actual labor). Marsteller had match point against me three times but I was able to outsteady him. He was sending everything to my backhand and my backhand was pretty consistent.
Kimberley had no sewer system. Outhouses were located behind the homes and a squad picked up the big buckets and hauled the sewage to a treatment plant.
At first Elder Smith and I lived behind a small chapel the elders had converted from a disused commercial property next to a fish and chips shop. Our shower bath winter and summer was outside in the rear, hidden from spectators. You really had to get up a sweat to stand showering in the cold water in cool months.
Later President Dalton decided to forego rent of the hall, because the landlady raised the rent. We met in homes with not too many stalwarts attending. Sister Sarah M. Z. Grotique and her daughter were stalwarts. The older Sister Grotique did not have any teeth and was about 65, and on relief. She worked hard doing beautiful sewing, shirts and so on. She was a marvelous cook and very generous to us elders who also tried to look out for her. Her daughter was retarded some, but was a beautiful singer.
We used to patronize the town market buying watermelons and citrus fruit rather cheaply from farmers.
We also would drive to Bloemfontein occasionally and meet with the branch which had no elders working there. There were no paved roads outside downtown and it was a fairly rugged trip by motorcycle.
After serving in Kimberley about six months as district president, with Elder Kenneth Sutherland as my companion, I was released to go home in late December, 1931.
I stopped off in Johannesburg and made a short trip to Pretoria. I saw one of the big gold mines near Johannesburg. The natives who did all the labor, were pretty raw, dressed in castoffs and slept on boards and blankets, and ate with their hands and no utensils. We watched them eat their noon meal which consisted of a big dab of corn meal mush slapped into a wash pan or pot, with a big ladle full of soup with vegetables and a little meat.
The quartz rock which contained gold was hauled up, crushed and concentrated using a cyanide process to leach out the gold from the sand. Huge piles of sand from the mines, would be blown by the winds sometimes, making things gritty in Johannesburg which nonetheless was a city several times as large as Salt Lake City.
Natives lived in huts and compounds on the edges of the towns. It was illegal at that time to hire a native for a skilled position. They also could not ride with whites on railroads. Apparently it would take a generation or more to educate them up to civilized standards. Law compliance then was good. Boer-Dutch at the time were ruling South Africa and they believed in keeping the natives segregated.
Once a family in Kimberley was invited to attend the wedding of their native maid to be held in the small Catholic Church at the Location (colored area) outside town. The maid had a family of several children but had never had money enough to be married before. The children stood with her in the wedding line.
Another time Elder Smith and I were in Bloemfontein and saw a long procession of blacks walking behind a hearse. We followed along and went to the colored cemetery. A prominent native had died. The natives, some of them well dressed, sobbed and cried and sang conventional Christian hymns in their native language with good volume and tone.
It was January 21 when I was on my way by railway from Johannesburg to Nelspruit, a small town at entrance to the higher portion of Kruger National Park. Lower parts were closed during hot weather because of danger from malaria. A guide picked me up and drove in a Model A Ford touring car. We saw thousands of wildebeests (brindled gnu) a lumbering buffalo-like animal, thousands of quaggas (zebras) and large numbers of many types of beautiful deer, including kudu, kind of like a moose elk, spring bok, (an antelope), and finally a lioness with three cubs. She started coming toward us, so we drove fast enough to keep well ahead of her.
I caught the train at 4 a.m. from Nelspruit for Lorenco Marques, Portugese East Africa. The Portuguese were much more harsh toward the natives than were the English or the Dutch. Some beautiful hotels and other buildings there. Loaded aboard the ship were many tones of black mineral, apparently manganese, and many bags of corn meal, both brought by rail from the interior. Native labor sung and chanted with gusto loading the bags onto nets lifted into the ship’s hold.
It was a beautiful German East Africa Line ship, the “Ubena.” In the same third class cabin with me was a Church of England monk (celibate), Reverend Winters, who had been working with natives near Nelspruit. Also in my cabin were two old heavy men, one with Masonic charms headed for Port Said and the other from Durban headed for England. Weather warm and no baths because water too muddy, stewards informed us.
General Hertzog, head of South African government, announced that the country was leaving the gold standard, following the lead of Great Britain. Fortunately I had invested most of my available funds in gold one-pound coins obtained from a Brother Muir who worked in a bank in Johannesburg. This gold therefore commanded a premium. South Africa also announced an increase in its subsidies for exports: wool from 10 to 25 percent; mohair from 10 to 25 percent; fresh fruit from 15 to 20 percent and fresh and frozen meat from 10 to 20 percent.
We sailed from Lorenco Marques January 26th after lengthy loading of freight.
I was up at 6 a.m. next morning exercising and then bathing. Steward called us in turn when bath was ready by signed up schedule. Bath water was warm sea water. One morning he came in to call Rev. Winters to his bath, Winters was kneeling in his bed praying. The steward whacked him on the bottom, saying, “Bad! Bad!” German for “bath! Bath!” The rest of us in the cabin were chuckling. On the voyage up the east coast of Africa I would follow the same routine; early rising, exercise, bath, breakfast, reading scriptures, and whatever was available - playing deck tennis, quoits, table tennis, checkers, or going ashore where possible.
On January 28th, we pulled into the port of Beira, also under the Portuguese, in mouth of two rivers both navigable. Great bars of copper bound for Belgium were among the freight loaded using booms (ships’ derricks) and lighter boats. Other freight loaded: sisal, asbestos in big bags, and copra. Crocodiles are in the rivers, we were told.
On January 31st pulled to anchor off Mocambique, on a coral island about a mile and half off the north coast of Portuguese East Africa visited by Vasco De Gama in 1498. Walked into town, saw castle and prison which was extremely hot. Native section very closely built, thatched roofs, walls of bamboo fastened together with cross pieces and plastered over with stoney mixture.
Arrived at Port Amelia, February 1st, but not allowed to go ashore. Reached Daar-Es-Salaam February 3rd. This means “Haven of Peace” in Arabic. Formerly German East Africa, then British East Africa. Beautiful green palm trees. This is the center of native shipping industry. Arabian dhows sail under many flags from here carrying mangrove bark, copra and other tropical produce. The dhows stop at many lesser ports and creek mouths. Lots of Indians come aboard selling curios of ivory and ebony, also clothing, shawls, wraps and every rubber footwear.
Left Daar-Es-Salaam at 6 a.m. February 4th and arrived at Zanzibar, 48 miles away, at about 11 a.m. It is the most important trade center and the largest city in East Africa. The 640 square mile island and nearby Pemba (380 sq. miles) formed a British protectorate. Population for the whole island in 1921 was: Europeans 270, Swahilis (natives) 165,000, Arabs, 20,000, Indians 15,000, Commorians 3,000. Total 203,270. We saw the sultan’s palace and traversed a maze of cross streets. English church was quite nice, built of coral and cement. Indians and natives of all varieties, most wearing white or red fez. Some lovely dates in the market but they were covered with flies. Also huge bananas. Native boys come on launch near boat and dived for coins.
Talked with a young fellow going back to his father’s farm between Mt. Kenya and Mt. Kilimanjaro, 9,000 feet above sea level. No winter or summer but a log of rain in winter months. Big game hunters go through in summer he said. Licenses cost up to 100 pounds ($500) for aliens.
I also stopped briefly at Tanga, then went to Mombassa, arriving February 7. Went ashore with another fellow and saw Catholic and English cathedrals with native worshipers. Big oil storage center on north side of island. Saw camels turning a primitive mill for grinding seed for oil. This port had been occupied in past by Phoenicians, Romans, Arabs, Portuguese. Legal status of slaves not abolished until 1007. We could buy a pineapple, green coconut for its milk and naartjes (tangerines) for cheap prices. Crossed the equator somewhere in that neighborhood.
Arrived at Aden, a majestic sight Sunday February 14. It has great bleak mountainous precipitous barren crags and is part of a wildly distorted volcanic peninsula. It had a population of 56,00 with a fair number of impressive buildings. It was an important trade and coaling station annexed to Great Britain in 1839. Drinking water was distilled from sea water. Arab water cart was an interesting sight. The driver delivered the water in a brass jug. Arab traders and lots of Indians thronged the streets. Lots of goats around. Fish and bundles of green stuff for fodder were hawked about. We viewed at a distance a Parsee burial ground with attendant vultures. Millet in a nearby oasis is reported to grow 12 feet high.
Steamed up the Red Sea February 15th through 17th with haze and fog the rule. One beautiful sunset which disclosed high mountains to the north. With Rev. Winter won men’s doubles in table tennis, with Mrs. Noyes won mixed doubles in shuffleboard and was on the winning team of six in tug of war.
Arrived at Suez at south end of the Suez Canal February 18th at 6 p.m. The canal is wide enough for two ships to pass each other. There was a little signal station every several miles. On the Egyptian side are palms frequently and some farms. Palestine side at first is plain desert with a camel visible now and then. Ismailia is a good-sized city where major traffic crosses between the two countries.
Landing at Port Said was quite a chore. Arabs, which I will use to describe most Egyptians, are a tricky and grabby lot. I passed through customs and health check and caught the train for Cairo. The country is very green. Here and there was a canal which you could detect ahead because the forest of masts of small ships. We saw many primitive methods for raising water from canals such as the crank and screw method almost like a meat grinder, and by a pot on a derrick. I also saw plowing by primitive wooden blade and pulled sometimes by a camel and a cow attached together.
I arrived at Cairo in the afternoon of February 19th and taxied to small pension (hotel). Mohammed Solomon, dragoman (guide), took me to an Egyptian theater and we watched dancers. Many veiled women and lots of French women (many prostitutes) on the streets.
I left next morning at 8 a.m. for Memphis and the Sakkara Step Pyramid. Dragoman said there are 49 pyramids. Viewed a colossus statue of Ramses II lying out flat with head broken off. Then went on and found similar statue in alabaster marble under roof, head intact. I went in one artificial cavern where there were sarcophagi for 24 sacred bulls. Then drove north to Great Pyramid. The main entrance was walled up but a new entrance was wide enough to enter. On each side of the steep passageway were shelves flanking center groove. At intervals of several feet were rectangular holes where slaves could rest from their labors of pushing sarcophagi up. The King’s chamber was just half way up from all directions. The Queen’s was on-fourth and the daughter’s was three-fourths of the way up. Immense stones supported the roof. Interior stones irregular, only the outer stones were fitted. The two great pyramids were encased with marble (alabaster) which was purloined by Arabs for mosque building from all but the top quarter of the next to largest pyramid.
Napoleon wanted to move the Sphinx which is carved out of solid stone, but was unable, so he fired a cannon at it and knocked off the nose. The Sphinx has a body of a lion and a human face. I rode a camel part of the way around the pyramid. It was like going up an elevator since you mount a camel which is kneeling down. The hind end raises a notch first, then the front goes up a notch and the process continues until you seem high up in the air. Many caves and buried shrines in that area.
Egypt then had 14 million people with cultivated land of only 14,000 square miles. One square mile had to support 1,000 people. There was much poverty and many unemployed persons. Saw many mosques, bazaars, and great museums. Cairo is a huge city. Major museum had King Tut’s golden treasures. Wooden furniture restored. It was of beautiful designs. Mummies of Ramses II and so on had all been withdrawn from the public at that time since Egyptians figured bodies should be private.
I bought traveler’s check at Thomas Cook and Sons with my gold since it was unlawful to take gold out of Egypt.
February 25 I caught the train for Jerusalem at 6 p.m. I curled up in a blanket I had with me. The country got more and more mountainous after we crossed the Suez Canal. Went through a real sandstorm and then into beautiful orange growing country and through mountains to Jerusalem. Cook’s dragoman met me at the train the morning of February 26th and took me by roadway cut through big wall when Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany visited there in 1898.
That morning we visited the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, supposedly the site of both Golgotha and crucifixion and entombment, all according to Queen Helena, mother of Constantine, first Christian Emperor of Rome. This consists of several interconnected dark churches with many candles and bickering clergy of Roman and Greek Catholics, Armenian Catholics, and Copts (Egyptian Christians). This is all now inside city wall but was outside at the time of the Savior. Present churches are described as a barbarous reconstruction of medieval structures razed by fire in 1808. We proceeded along the Via Dolorosa, supposedly the road which Christ trod, but actually about 30 feet higher since one city has been built on ruins of the other successively here. Came to the site presumedly of all where Pilate delivered judgment.
In the afternoon motored to Bethlehem, 5 ½ miles south and a little east of Jerusalem. Great fortress-like buildings comprise the Church of the Nativity with three contiguous convents maintained by Latin, Greek Orthodox, and Armenian churches. The traditional site of the nativity is a cave beneath the choir of the church.
I visited Dome of the Rock on Mt. Moriah February 29th. Byzantine (Greek) architects built the present domed structure in about the seventh century for Arabs controlling the area. A sum equal to about the revenues of Egypt for several years was appropriated. The dome is very beautiful, startling in design and gorgeous in coloring. Stained glass windows in cement frames in beautiful arches with blue and white tile. The tiles were added by Suleiman the Magnificent in 1561. Passages from the Koran, white on a blue enamel background are prominent. Guide says some of the supposed 17th Century windows were put there after a 1927 earthquake. Very dim on the inside, but soon fine coloring of the interior begins to penetrate. Great rough rock is surrounded by a fine grille of French wrought iron. Rock is supposed to be where Melchizedek offered sacrifice, where Abraham was about to offer up Isaac, and where Mohammed was translated to heaven on back of his white steed. It is the spot where the ark of the covenant stood. Through a pointed door we descended 11 steps to the grotto where blood from sacrifices was supposed to come down. Solomon’s stables were below gratings. At Wailing Wall, remains of the original wall of Herod’s Temple, many Jews were praying and were crying.
March 1, I went up Mt. Of Olives across the valley to the east. On the way I stopped at the Garden of Gethsemane and saw really old olive trees where Christ supposedly prayed and sweat drops of blood. I then went to the summit of the Mount of Olives and climbed 214 steps to the top of a tower from which we could see the great vista through a rainstorm.
Also I went to Gordon’s Calvary and Golgotha as accepted by the Church of England. This is outside the present city wall. Later I climbed the city wall and walked around the city. King David Hotel and modern city are outside the city walls.
Also I drove over surfaced highway through Wilderness of Judea past ruins of Inn of the Good Samaritan to Jericho where I had lunch. Went south to the Dead Sea, where I took a swim.
Left Jerusalem by car early morning of March 5. Stopped at a place where Jesus supposedly conversed with the Samaritan woman at the well. Had lunch at Nazareth and descended from the hills through Cana to blue Lake Galilee which is 622 feet below sea level. Nearby Mt. Hermon with snow is 9,000 feet above sea level. Stayed overnight at a good hotel along the lake. Took a half hour’s boat ride on the lake which still yields lots of fish. It takes a little more than half an hour to dive from Nazareth to modern port of Haifa. Mt. Carmel is on point at end of great curve of Bay of Acre. Boarded the Italia a small Italian ship, traveling 3rd class distincta (special). Wisconsin couple who had traveled on the “Ubena” first class and had stayed at the Grand New Hotel with me in Jerusalem were aboard.
March 7 landed at Beirut, Lebanon. Mountainous in interior, some were snow capped.
Stopped at Island of Rhodes March 9. Rocky, Saw some Roman ruins. Beautiful scenery.
Sail into the Dardanelles straits and see some of the old stone forts still there, through the Sea of Marmora, which is so big you see no land and though the Bosporus to Istanbul. Saw Mosque of Sancta Sophia, erected originally by the Emperor Constantine, reconstructed by Theodosius and finally by Justinian in about 538 A.D. It has a gigantic dome with flying buttresses and a number of auxiliary domes, semi-domes and interior round arches. It is an impressive sight inside. I set my camera for time exposure and had the picture when a Mohammedan priest told me no pictures were allowed inside. I was so flustered that I later took a second exposure over the same film.
The modern Turks wear clothing similar to ours, use the same alphabet and letters we use and the women no longer wear veils as we had seen in Egypt and Palestine.
We saw lots of porpoises in the Sea of Marmora going out. They were very beautiful and playful. Arrived at Piraeus, Greece, morning of March 14 and caught a taxi five miles to Athens and the Acropolis. Beautiful hill and real architecture. Saw large groups of the "Ladies from Hell," elite Greek soldiers who wear kilts and shoes with pointed toes which curve upward. Sailed through Corinth Canal which is cut through stone isthmus near ancient city of Corinth. Ship has only a few feet clearance on each side from stone banks.
Ship next steamed into Adriatic Sea and north to Venice. Italian police and soldiers are picturesque. Some wear Napoleon-like hats, others with Robin Hood hats with feather and cloaks. We passed many sailing ships in Adriatic which on March 16th was fairly cool, misty and cloudy.
We see several leaning towers as we pulled into the dock at Venice. Went to nearby Pension Seguso and to the San Marco nearby. This is great cathedral erected supposedly over the bones of St. Mark, their patron saint who died in Alexandria, Egypt, but who had been promised by an angel that his bones would rest in Venice. The body was smuggled out of Alexandria under pork carcases and taken to Venice. The basilica seems all domes and gilt with a number of fine mosaics in beautiful colors and showing fine scenes in the arches below.
Next east is the Doge's Palace, a beautiful structure with many huge beautiful historic paintings inside. Above the central arch of the San Marco, by the way, are four bronze horses taken as booty by Venetians when they captured Byzantium (Istanbul). I was in Venice for Palm Sunday, a great religious day for Catholics. Huge crowds poured out of the cathedral, each person carrying a small sprig resembling palms. Saw many fine museums and art galleries. I liked particularly the paintings of Tintoretto. To get very far in Venice you catch a motor boat. Gondolas were slow and expensive. Venice is on 100 islands separated by almost 150 canals crossed by about 380 bridges. Adjoining the San Marco, by the way is a high bell tower with a winged lion atop.
Arrived in Florence, Italian Firenze, afternoon of March 21st. Beautiful old palaces and art galleries and black and white marble cathedral, with Piazza del Duomo in front. Michelangelo’s statue of David prominent in another square. Arrived in Roe evening of March 25.
Billions of dollars has been poured out here in the capital city of Catholicism on beautiful buildings, fountains, columns and art work. Much of it is owned directly by the church whose head resides in the tiny area of the Vatican. The basilica San Pietro with dome designed by Michelangelo is so impressive on outside but so barnlike on the inside that it leaves much to be desired. Huge round arched passages with beautiful side chapels and sculpture work. The Swiss guards with striped uniforms and halberds (spears) are prominent.
I wrangled an audience with the Pope by going to the American College (for clergy) and telling them that I was interested (I didn’t say how) in their church, and showing them my passport.
It took about an hour and a half to go into the inner palace and past many groups of soldiers in elaborate uniforms (more elaborate than any I have seen) to the hall where the Pope finally appeared. We were all around a huge ellipse down on one knee. All women dressed in black, with veil over heads. The Pope passed down the line extending his hand so the person could kiss his ring. He was a rotund, sallow, bespectacled man. I pressed his hand to my chin.
I also went to the Scala Santa (holy stairs) in the Lateran complex. This is the co-cathedral of Rome. There are 28 marble steps worn badly and covered with wood. These supposedly were brought from the house of Pontius Pilate in Jerusalem by St. Helena in 326. According to a notice the Pope grants a perpetual indulgence to souls in purgatory for one person crawling up the staircase on knees and saying a prayer on each and then in the chapel at the top. It was up these steps that Martin Luther is recorded as having decided to renounce Rome. He was then a Catholic monk.
Also saw Coliseum, which has been considerably rebuilt as indicated by old paintings in art galleries which I saw, a little of the catacombs, the Church of San Pietro in Vincoli with its striking statue by Michelangelo of the horned Moses, and the Capuchin Monastery where bones of dead monks are seen in basement clothed in their habits. They were dug out when the site of the monastery was moved.
I did see King Victor Emmanuel who was getting old, but never saw Mussolini, who was then in power. Trains were running more or less on time, but there were lots of poor people.
I went to San Pietro’s on Easter Sunday, amidst several hundred thousands of people. You had to stand up inside the basilica. The big pipe organ sounded like a little tinny toy. I detected no spirituality.
From Naples I visited crater of Mt. Vesuvius and nearby Pompeii. The first time I climbed the cindery cone approached by a hike from a nearby railroad station, the clouds were so heavy that I could not see down into the big crater. So I went again. The second time I could climb down into the floor of the crater which was of hardened lava. Near the center was a very small crater with yellow sulfur around it and steam pouring from it. About ten years later this volcano belched forth a destructive stream of lava and cinders.
The museum showing what was excavated from Pompeii was to me more interesting than the actual ruins. Bodies, implements, jewelry, and even small animals were taken out and now may be seen. I also went by small boat to the Isle of Capri which had vines in full bloom and gorgeous scenery. It was the summer resort of the Caesars. (The vines were Wistaria).
I had received a letter from home telling me that I should arrange to land in New York sufficiently late that Mother and Lucile could meet me after Lucile had completed her teaching school in early June.
Stopped at Pisa and saw the huge leaning tower and beautiful cathedral April 15th.
Stopped at Genoa and its elaborate Campo Santo cemetery April 16th. Nearly every grave had an elaborate sculpture on it. One a runner clearing the tape at finish.
Saw Milano and its wonderful cathedral with 140 pinnacles each topped by a statue, April 20th. Also visited Leonardo da Vinci’s Last Supper in Santa Maria Delle Grazie church. The famous painting is getting the worse for age and deterioration.
I left April 21 for Lugano in the Italian part of Switzerland. Went on to Lucern in lake country and Interlaken. From here I hiked into a mountainous valley where the snow would slide down occasionally from side mountains in Niagara-like beauty. Fertile mountainside fields were tended by farmers who would scatter liquid effluent caught from their cow barns. It sure made the hay grow fast.
On April 26, I caught the train for a $9, ride up to the Jungfraujoch (saddle) 22,340 feet high. The hotel there is the highest hotel and up the highest railroad in Europe. The Jungfrau peak is 13, 670 feet high. The train takes long spirals into the core of the mountain, returning to outer edge at one point in each turn where air and light pours in from outside. Trip up took four hours. Plenty of ice and glaciers with many skiers.
On to Geneva from where we could see Mt. Blanc. We saw the old League of Nations Palace and the monument to the Reformation with some good sculptures of prominent figures.
Reached Basle April 30th and stopped at mission headquarters. This is near the head of the Rhine River which flows through the city. The Swiss are much more refined to my thinking, and more hospitable. The Italians always had their hands out.
I enjoyed the museums and architecture of Munich. Reached Berlin May 5th. Berlin is a clean, beautiful city which had more neon lights than any city I had yet seen. It also had beautiful palaces and elaborate theaters. I liked the Pergamon Museum containing restorations of Greek and Roman architecture and the Vorderasiatisches Museum with palaces of enameled brick excavated in Babylon. Potsdam was a real center of beautiful architecture and paintings and landscapes.
Reached Frankfurt am Main May 11th and caught river boat for trip down the Rhine to Cologne. Enjoyed the great three-spired cathedral the Dom, of Gothic style. It supposedly has relics presented to the Savior by the Three Wise Men. Rhine Valley scenery and castles also beautiful.
Paris, which I reached May 15th was distinctive because of its meticulous planning. Nothing could be built in the city unless it conformed with the plan. All buildings on each block were similar and each block integrated with the next. The Notre Dame Cathedral and the Louvre Museum were outstanding. In the Louvre, the Winged Victory of Samothrace, the Venus de Milo, and daVInci’s Mona Lisa were most prominent.
Crossed the English Channel in smooth water May 25th. I enjoyed visiting the Houses of Parliament, Westminster Abbey, St. Paul’s Cathedral, Tower of London with the crown jewels and British Museum - also the wonderful theaters, Covent Garden, Buckingham Palace and changing of the guard.
Caught bus for Edinburgh, where Prince’s St., swanky shopping area, and Edinburgh Castle above, were inspiring.
After crossing the Atlantic in the U.S. Lines “President Roosevelt”, I was met by my Mother and Lucile. We took delivery on a Ford Model B, two-door and had a wonderful time driving to Boston, Washington, D.C., Chicago and Independence, Missouri on the way home. The Reorganized Church was building its huge auditorium which looked very crude and a thorough mess.
We drove through Rocky Mountain National Park and arrived in Salt Lake City, July 12, 1932 after going through muddy roads east of Vernal.
Edited by Ruth H. Barker, submitted 2010
Page updated
Google Sites
Report abuse