MARK TWAIN Magdalene lies buried. Here John the Baptist labored. From these noble ruins many a church in Christendom and many a mosque has been supplied with its grandest, its costliest and most enduring columns. Syria Sept. 11. Left Beyrut for Jerusalem at 3 P.M. Our company is composed of 8 persons: Church, of Ohio W. R. Denny, Va. Jack Van Nostrand, N. J. Davis, Staten Island Dan Slote, N. Y. Moulton, Missouri Dr. Birch Sam Clemens, Cal. all mounted on horses. Abraham of Malta is chief drago- man, and Mohammed of Alexandria, Egypt, is first assist- ant. Camp equipage: 3 sleeping-tents; i kitchen tent, and i eating-tent all large, finely furnished and handsome. Our caravan numbers 24 mules and horses and 14 serving-men—28 men all told. Camped that night on high ground of the Lebanon foot- hills 10 or 12 miles from Beyrut. They were off on "the long trip" through Syria and the entire length of Palestine, in summer- time. Three or four weeks later those who sur- vived would join the ship at Joppa. In the Innocents we read, . . . terms five dollars a day apiece, in gold, and everything to be furnished by the dragoman. They said we would live as well as at a hotel. I had read something like that before, and did not 84