Introduction
During the late nineteenth century travel was a time consuming activity. Travelers did not fly off and visit somewhere overseas for a two-week vacation. With the invention of steam engines to venture from New York to Europe could take from ten to fourteen days. Continuing on from Europe to any other destination, involved in depth planning and knowledge that helped insure there were no unplanned disruptions. Immigrants were able to take advantage of low fares to travel from Europe to the United States, but few had the economic means to travel oversees often as was the case with the Straitons. Those who traveled frequently often were meticulous when planning travels into new areas, while others were not so diligent. In the case of Marie and Emma Straiton it appears they did not have an in depth knowledge of the culture and people of the Holy Land before traveling. Their level of confidence, from previous travels in Europe gave them a level of confidence gained that proved unreliable, and potentially dangerous when they traveled to the Holy Land in 1880.
History of Text
Two Lady Tramps Abroad; A Compilation Of Letters, Descriptive Of Nearly A Years Travel In India, Asia Minor, Egypt, The Holy Land, Turkey, Greece, Italy, Austria, Switzerland, France, England, Ireland, And Scotland, a book by two American Ladies, Marie and Emma Straiton, was published privately by Evening Journal Press of Flushing New York in 1881. While the two ladies’ traveled during 1880 their letters describing their trip to such places were sent back home and were published in the “The Flushing Journal”. John Straiton, Marie’s husband, published the book in 1881 privately in response to various requests by family members and friends who wanted a complete story of the two ladies travels. No other editions of this book were printed and distribution was probably limited to family members and friends of the two women.
Biography
John Straiton had immigrated to the United States from Scotland in 1850 and married Marie. Marie and John Straiton had three children, Emma, Lou, and Wallace, and resided in Bayside, New York. Mr. Straiton started in the cigar business starting as an assistant to his uncle soon after arriving in the United States. Later, along with partner Mr. Storm, John Straiton started the White Owl Cigar Company that was to become the largest domestic cigar making company in the United States in 1860.[1] The Straiton family had relatives in Scotland and a visit there was included in the trip of 1880. More information on the family’s background was not available.
Itinerary
Mrs. Straiton and her daughter Emma left New York in January of 1880 and sailed to Scotland. Quickly taking a train to Liverpool, England they caught a steamer and sailed to Bombay India. Next they traveled to Cairo, Egypt. After leaving Egypt they traveled to Jaffa where they embarked on horseback to Jerusalem, and on to Beirut. From Beirut they sailed to Constantinople, and over to Athens, Greece. The next stop for these two ladies was Italy. After visiting many of the major cities they visited areas on the border between Italy and Switzerland. Next the two women stopped in Paris and then went on to Scotland. While in Scotland, they visited family and the places that the family had originated from. Finishing their trip with a visit to Ireland, the two women returned home in November 1880.
Historical Context
During the 1800’s, America was undergoing both economic growth and a religious revival. The economic growth, which followed the Civil War, created a class of citizens who now had the financial opportunity to travel more freely. People by the thousands were becoming re-interested in the Bible and the locations mentioned in it. Religious leaders, during their sermons, were putting a new emphasis on where Biblical events took place creating new pictures of the Holy land. Visual pictures painted by these religious leaders, when combined with descriptions from the Bible, caused Holy Land perceptions to take on a new and unique quality. These perceptions, that had been created, painted the Holy Land as a beautiful, perfect land where Christ had lived and spread his message. Such romantic visions created a desire within many members of religious congregations to go see the Holy Land in person. This new desire to see the Holy Land sites coupled with the financial freedom led large numbers of U.S. citizens to go and see the actual sites in the Holy Land.
In a book titled The Landscape of Belief, the author, John Davis, quotes a passage from Edward Robinson’s book Biblical Researches in Palestine, Mount Sinai, Arabia Petraea, (published in 1841), which describes the connection of New England residents with the Holy Land.
As in the case of most my countrymen, especially in New England, the scenes of the Bible had made a deep impression upon my mind from the earliest childhood: and afterwards in riper years this feeling had grown into a strong desire to visit in person the places so remarkable in the history of the human race. Indeed in no country of the world, perhaps, is such a feeling more widely diffused than in New England; in no country are the scriptures better known, or more highly prized. From his earliest years the child is there accustomed not only to read the Bible for himself; but he also reads or listens to it in the morning and evening devotions of the family, in the daily village-schools, in the Sunday-school and Bible-class, and the weekly ministrations of the sanctuary. Hence, as he grows up, the names of Sinai, Jerusalem, Bethlehem, the Promised Land, become associated with his earliest recollections and holiest feelings.[2]
Because people were reading the Bible on a daily basis and already held a feeling of understanding for the locations when they traveled, they wrote about their experiences connected to the sites and the Biblical importance of them. They concentrated on the overwhelming feelings they experienced when finally arriving in person at the Biblical location. The writings that were being published created a desire by even more people to go and experience the Holy Land in person.
These new desires created a problem for believers who had little money for a trip of that magnitude. Pilgrimages of two or three week were not possible in the 1800’s. According to the well-known travel agency of Thomas Cook, it would take no less than four months for a thirty-day tour of the Holy Land. This would include travel time from New York to the Holy Land and back.[3] One answer for letting such people experience the Holy Land was to re-create it in America. The idea grew in 1874 while a gentleman by the name of Dr. Wythe was visiting Lake Chautauqua, where there was a summer school for Sunday school teachers. Dr. Wythe decided to build an entire miniature of the Holy Land using the shore of the lake as the Mediterranean shoreline. By creating Palestine Park he allowed those who had neither the time nor the money to travel abroad the opportunity to feel like they had experienced the Holy Land. Visitors were allowed to walk in the paths that represented the same ones that Jesus’ had walked, and see the buildings where important events had taken place, like the stable where Jesus was born. At Palestine Park the children and the congregation of the Chautauqua Assembly Church played out reenactments of holy events from the Bible for the visitors.[4]
For those of the upper classes, such as politicians, only time kept those who wanted to go from going on a trip to the Holy Land. Lester I. Vogel mentions in his book To See a Promised Land that President Lincoln indicated that he would like to travel after leaving the White House. President Lincoln discussed possible destinations with his wife during a ride early the day he was shot, and mentioned going to the Holy Land.[5] While Lincoln never made it to the Holy Land, another president did. Between 1877 and 1879, after leaving office, President U.S. Grant and his family went on a world tour. During their two-year tour, the Holy Land was included as a stop on the itinerary.[6]
Merchants and business owners were another group that travel time created a problem for. Business demands did not always allow time for extended travel. This was the case in the family of John Straiton. The firm Straiton and Storm started was in the process of growing rapidly.[7] While he stayed behind to look after the business, Mr. Straiton allowed his wife Marie and daughter Emma to take an eleven month tour abroad to the Holy Land, India, and Europe in 1880.
Travel writings describing such trips to the Holy Land became extremely popular in the mid to late nineteenth century. The majority of travelers focused on the religious experience connected with visiting the Holy Land and did not always discuss current conditions in the country. Writings that concentrated on the Biblical aspect left readers with a one sided view of the land. Travelers, who wanted to see Biblical and tourist sights alike, but unaware of the vast cultural differences of the Palestine world, faced a rude awakening upon reaching the Holy Land.[8] By going to the Holy Land people hoped to gain a stronger sense of connection to the land where Jesus had lived. People who went to the Holy Land did so to make more real in their minds what was written and described by their religious leaders. Many of the travelers were left disappointed, as a vast difference existed between the imagined picture and reality.
Body
Maria and Emma experienced a similar disappointment. Their disappointment stemmed at least partly from their lack of preparation before the trip. Family business was going to be taking them to Scotland, and the Holy Land and India were included in the trip. They would visit friends in India then visit the Holy Land, traveling through Europe ending up in Scotland in time for the family gathering. In their letters home, later published in the book Two Lady Tramps Abroad, references are made that indicate this lack of preparation by Maria and her daughter Emma for the Holy Land leg of their trip. This lack of preparation caused the two women serious disappointment once they arrive in the Holy Land. There are three possible reasons why Marie and Emma seemed so ill prepared for the Holy Land. First, they may have lacked information. Second they may not have made use of available information. And third, these two women who had traveled to Europe in the past may have assumed that travel in the Holy Land would be no different then travel in Europe.
There is little family background available to study what planning had been done for previous trips made by the family to Europe, and without this background it is hard to know how this preparation compared to that made for their trip to the Holy Land. Only from the letters to home written by the two ladies can some level be gained of the level of their knowledge and confidence as they travel from the Holy Land into Europe for the last part of the trip. Even the difficulties caused by weather delays during the crossing to Europe from the United States appeared to be dealt with calmly. As the two ladies handled the mad dashes to make connections for the next part of the trip their only concern was the possibility of missing their connection and lose time waiting for the next ship to the Holy Land.
In regard to the first assumption, that there was inadequate information available, there were many published accounts by other travelers to the Holy Land available to the two women. Since travels to the Holy Land during the late 1800’s was primarily of a religious nature description emphasized the religious connections of the land and not the day-to-day discomforts. These books would have been available to the two ladies, but they would have given them a set of idealized expectations, not a reliable picture of conditions in the area.
Examining and comparing one particular area of the Holy Land can show this. Several journals published before their trip describes the landing at the Holy Land port of Jaffa.
Descriptions of Jaffa written by pilgrims to the Holy Land often contained references to the port’s biblical connections. Descriptions by the pilgrims often refered to events in the Bible such as Jonah sailing from the port before being swallowed by the whale, and to the cedars, which were landed there for the building of the first temple. During the nineteenth century most travelers’ make no mention of the actual landing, and of those who do, only a few mention in passing that there was danger. It would appear that the sheer excitement of those travelers arriving in the Holy Land for the first time overshadowed the degree of danger they faced at the time of landing, and this is why the actual landing was not described in much detail in many of the publications.
Mrs. Clorinda Minor was in the Holy Land from 1849 till 1850 as part of the Agricultural Manual Labour School. Her account is from the diary she kept during her time in the Holy Land and published when she returned to America. In her account of the landing at Jaffa, which offers a detailed description of the land, she only briefly mentions the landing itself and seems to downplay the danger. The fact that she is finally in Palestine seems to be of more importance then the danger she had gone through to get there.
The surf here is constantly high, and there is no protection for shipping. As our long boat approached, on the top of bounding waves, the boatmen jumped into the water to their waists, to hold them from dashing against a projecting shelf, upon which stood a crowd of half-covered Arabs. We were soon pulled up by our arms and stood at length on the soil of Palestine![9]
When in 1872 Mrs. Stephen G. Griswold described
landing at Jaffa she seems more concerned that she had gotten wet than with the
degree of danger she had survived.
Noting that it only needed skill to accomplish, Mrs. Griswold writes:
Our captain informs us that it is not safe for his steamer to lie nearer then about two miles from the shore; and steam is constantly kept up in readiness to run out to sea at any moment should a storm rise…. As we neared the shore in the small boat a white line of surf extended along the whole of the city, but skillful management guided our boat over the rocks on a wave and we landed free from harm, although well sprinkled by the spray.[10]
Such descriptions like that of Clorinda Minor and
Mrs. Griswold had been published before the Straitons had started their
trip. If they had read books like
these, the landing at Jaffa would have seemed to be uneventful. Marie and Emma
clearly did not have a clear understanding of what was involved in the landing
at Jaffa and the two women were terrified during the experience. Marie Straiton described it as being one of
the worst parts of the trip.
We had a rather rough time getting into the large boat from the steamer; it bobbed up and down like a baby jumper. Each one had to wait until the boat bobbed up, and then jump in and row ashore through the rocks, over which the sea was fairly boiling. Such a place to land! We were pulled and pushed up steep steps, where a false movement might have precipitated us into the sea…[11]
In 1867 Mark Twain traveled to the Holy Land for a San Francisco newspaper. Mr. Twain’s descriptions were publication in the Daily Alta California. Soon after Elisha Bliss suggested revising the reports into a book. The compilation was published as The Innocents Aboard: Pilgrims Progress in 1869.[12] The sale of the book The Innocents Aboard was done by subscription only and advertised by a series of lectures given by Mr. Twain on a tour of the Eastern part of the United States between November of 1868 and March 3. 1869. There was a lecture given by Mr. Twain in Newark N.J on December 9th 1868, only thirteen miles from New York City, and it is possible the Straitons had attended the lectures.[13] Whether the book was ordered after attending one of Mr. Twain’s lectures or at some later point, an order for the book was made. Emma was reading the book Pilgrims Progress while they were traveling and notes confusion regarding what Mark Twain wrote.
I have been reading Mark Twain’s Pilgrims Progress, which gives what I think is a strange picture of “Those Holy Fields,” but also a life fraught with fun and danger.[14]
Mark Twain does not go into detail regarding Jaffa but recommends the reader go to a library. If they would ask at the reference desk they would be pointed to numerous books that would give a full description of Jaffa. Twain arrived in Jaffa by land so he did not have a personal experience to relate but in describing the city he does note the following about the Jaffa port:
The timbers used in the construction of Solomon’s Temple were floated to Jaffa on rafts, and the narrow opening in the reef through which they passed to the shore is not an inch wider or a shade less dangerous to navigate than it was then. Such is the sleepy nature of the population Palestine’s only good seaport has now and always had. [15]
Since Emma was reading the book while traveling it is unlikely that the women were able to heed Mr. Twain’s advice and visit the library to learn about the land. This lack of research would explain why the women were unaware of problems connected with the proposed trip and seem disillusioned by various aspects of the trip.
Another possibility regarding Marie and Emma’s reaction to the Jaffa landing was that they were tourists, not dedicated pilgrims. Other travelers saw the dangerous landing more in the light of a challenge that once achieved did not seem so monumental. These dangers would have been overshadowed by the biblical connections being made by the traveler. While the Straitons also were interested in the Holy Land sites, they were also basically tourist and as such were unprepared for the danger they felt they were in at the Jaffa landing.
The Straitons clearly had not explored other avenues
available to them that would have provided information. A major source of information available then
came from the Thomas Cook Travel Agency.
By the 1880’s tourists traveling to the Holy Land and to Europe used
this up-and-coming travel company widely.
Thomas Cook was an English cabinet-maker who in an attempt to increase support for the temperance movement arranged in 1841 for 500 supporters to travel as a group to a quarterly meeting twelve miles away by train. Mr. Cook’s first trip on which he made a profit was in 1845 when he organized a trip to Liverpool. These humble beginnings quickly grew and by 1850 Mr. Cook was planning the feasibility of offering group trips to Europe, the United States and the Holy Land.
Thomas Cook began escorting tours to the Holy Land in 1869 and by 1873 had established well-mapped out excursions. Utilizing coupons for hotels and meals, rates became more uniform and easy for travelers to understand. Traveler cheques were another travel convenience that Thomas Cook introduced. These circular notes allowed travelers to turn over a paper note in exchange for local currency.
Thomas Cook advertised these excursions in Cooks Excursionist, a travel magazine issued twelve times a year. According to the archives at Cook Travel, the Cooks Excursionist magazine could be found in major hotels and transatlantic steamers; it could be purchased through subscription, or at Thomas Cook offices one of which was in New York City. The first issue of Cooks Excursionist was published in 1873 and in 1876 the magazine had a print run of 10,000 copies each month. Issues of the magazine cost ten cents and the yearly subscription rate was $1.00.[16]
While not going into great detail regarding the landing at Jaffa, Cooks Excursionist would have alerted Marie and Emma to the difficult landing and provided them with a wide range of information. Areas covered in the magazine included, timetables for travel, a description of various trip options, cost for lodging and meals, and methods of travel that would be used. This would have been useful to Marie as she was completely unaware of the necessity of traveling by horse in the Holy Land. In the November 1879 edition of Cooks Excursionist fifteen pages of information is devoted exclusively to trips to the Nile and Palestine regions. Complete sections are dedicated to giving the reader a complete understanding of how the Hotel Coupon and Circular Note of credit worked and the advantages of them. Advertising for the Palestine trips include mention that the port of Jaffa is “much-dreaded”. It also includes the following comments “we deal directly with the breeders for quality horses and mules for the trip;” “Our tent equipments are of the best possible description”, “along with maintaining current camp sites, new camping places are being arranged,” and “provisions that are advertised are as described”[17]
Some trips to the Holy Land arranged by Cook and described in Cooks Excursionist were developed specifically to accommodate students. Cook advertised that gentlemen students between the ages of sixteen to twenty-one could join a tour called “In the Track of the Israelites”. In this tour American students would travel along side a group of English students to visit biblical sites. Both groups would be led by a minister from their home country and accompanied by regular business conductors employed by Messrs. Thos. Cook & Sons. The two groups would only mix if it were considered to be of mutual advantage to both groups. The cost of the trip, which would last 3 ½ months, was $870.00 and included all accommodations. Personal decisions would be made at times when there would be multiple Biblical locations to see and time would not allow all of them to be seen. Along with the various stops scheduled, notes are included showing the Biblical connection. Also it is made clear that no travel would be done on Sundays.[18] Other private parties who wanted to design their own itinerary could be accommodated with rates quoted accordingly. These parties had to have a minimum of ten members and no more than twenty to obtain the lowest rates.[19]
The majority of those who wanted to travel to the Holy Land would sign up and join one of the pre-set tours that were advertised in Cooks Excursionist. Since finances played a large part in determining how much a tourist could spend in the Holy Land, Cook had developed tours of different lengths. Tours ranged from twenty days to thirty days in Palestine. In order to accommodate as many travelers as possible Cook had several different start dates for tours. For the twenty-day trip there were five different dates to start, while the thirty-day trip had six different start dates. For the spring tour season all tours began between January 3rd and February 20th. Travelers could also be accommodated when they were planning to travel to other areas first and join one of the tours at a stop along the way.[20]
There is no reference in the book as to how they had planned to travel in Egypt, but the first reference indicating a lack of understanding or in depth planning was revealed on board the steamer Olympia while the Straitons were crossing the Bay of Biscay. While the two ladies understood it to be expensive to travel in Egypt they were unaware of the danger of doing it alone. While discussing travel plans with other travelers, Marie and Emma first learned that it would be unsafe for two ladies to travel in Palestine alone with only their dragoman and Arab servants. It is not clear at what point they obtained their servants but Emma writes in a letter home:
I understand we “two lone females” are not to traverse the wilds of Palestine with only our guide – such a thing is unheard of - we would likely be killed.[21]
After considering the high cost of arranging travel for themselves, and the level of danger, the two ladies decided to join up with a tour group to the Holy Land. This decision was easy to make since they could join a tour organized by Thomas Cook traveling on the same steamer.[22] The fact that Cook allowed people to join a tour at any point gave Marie and Emma the opportunity to travel with other members of the tour group.
After joining the tour the ladies still appeared ill-prepared for the trip. According to Emma:
To-morrow we start our camp
life. Mamma has just discovered we have
to go on horseback, and her fear is dreadful.[23]
It is interesting to note that ten years earlier in 1872 when Mrs. Griswold traveled she brings her own saddle. Mrs. Griswold wrote:
The saddles are brought out, for each lady has provided her own, there being no comfortable lady’s saddle to be purchased or hired in Syria.[24]
Mrs. Griswold clearly knew what to expect unlike the Straiton women.
Once the fear of having to travel by horse had been overcome, the women begin to describe camp life as being comfortable. Marie describing the tents as she writes home about camp life.
The tents are very large and high, well fitted up with iron bedstands, tables, and all toilet requisites.[25]
When Mrs. Minor reached Jaffa in September of 1849 she described the city as a beehive of buildings with doomed roofs the color of clay. She pointed out that the only trees to be seen were palms and the city had beautiful gardens located behind it on the plains.[26] If Maria and Emma had read this description it would have been easy for them to picture Jaffa as a lush land. Mrs. Griswold who traveled the Holy Land in the early 1870’s it does not indicate the time of year that she landed in Jaffa, but describes the city as having narrow and unclean streets. The houses are described as being square with flat roofs and built out of stone. She finds it hard to believe that anyone would want to live there, as the climate was warm the soil sandy and things didn’t grow well.[27]
When Marie and Emma arrived in Jaffa in March 1880 they had nothing good to say about the city. Marie wrote the following home.
Jaffa is a miserable dirty,
foul-smelling city, built on a hill, with narrow, crooked streets, many of them
being dark and dingy. Judging from the
manner in which we have to climb ladders and wall and houses, I should not
wonder if I could crawl on the ceiling like a fly when I get home. Aside from the fatigue involved in seeing
Jaffa, there is nothing attractive in the city. It may be worth mentioning that Jaffa fleas are as large as ants,
so that a flea-bite here has some meaning.
Another indication that the two ladies were not aware of the conditions is apparent in this encounter with lepers. While in Jerusalem the ladies unexpectedly come to face with lepers and Marie was repulsed. When writing home Maria remarks about the lepers:
The lepers here are dreadful. I shrink from them, poor wretches! Handless and armless, and covered with sores. It is a hideous disease and makes you close your eyes.[28]
While many of the ladies experiences in the Holy Land were unpleasant, Marie and Emma were able to find both Biblical and educational connections to the sights they came across. Many of the sights are described as beautiful, and yet they are sad to see how they have fallen into ruin. There is numerous times where Emma comments that she and others in the group have picked flowers to save as a memento of being at one sight or another.
I have enjoyed Nazareth, for I knew our Savior had lived many years around there, and his beloved feet had many times trod the same path I did and that was sufficient for me, while I tried to drive all other thoughts away.
In the Wilderness of Judea ….. Never did I either, in all my life, see such
lovely flowers anywhere. One day we
collected from one spot thirty-six different varieties, and there are hundreds,
all the brightest and loveliest colors imaginable.
The Sea of Tiberias is lovely….How tender are the memories of our Savior associated with this spot. Here, he walked upon the sea, and spoke to it’s angry waves and they ceases. The Sea of Tiberias is 600 feet below the level of the Mediterranean.[29]
The Straitons had traveled Europe in the past trips and were expecting the cultures of the different areas to be similar. Customs and language, which were familiar in Europe for Marie and Emma, were not in the Holy Land. While women in Europe had more freedom women in the Holy Land had far less freedom. While men were willing to deal with ladies in Europe, men in the Holy Land were less willing to listen to them, making needed changes more difficult to accomplish.
Language was also a barrier the Straiton women faced in the Holy land. While European languages were studied in the United States and both women were likely familiar with them, neither lady seemed familiar with languages of the Holy Land. Even in the European areas the ladies traveled and were not familiar with the language, someone would be able to speak English. Being unaware and unfamiliar with The Holy Land culture and language made handling itinerary changes difficult and scary for the two women. By not becoming familiar with travel in the Holy Land and assuming that it was the same as other areas these two women were unaware of the danger they were putting themselves in. This is plainly seen when, for safety reasons, they felt they had to join Cook and his tour, allowing Mr. Cook to make all necessary adjustments to the trip for them.
Once the two women left the Holy Land, they traveled to Europe entering first in Italy and moving north into Switzerland and further up Europe, ending up in the areas of Scotland they had traveled to before. Confidence with the languages and from past travel in Europe made the experiences in Europe more pleasant. We can start to see the confidence level growing as descriptions became more positive, and the two women seem to feel more at ease in their travels and more in control of situations the further into Europe they went. When in Rome, Emma shows the level of comfort as she struck up a conversation with a gentleman regarding a portion of Christ’s cross, that she dearly wanted to see, and that Protestants were not allowed to view. A casual conversation developed in which names were exchanged. To Emma and her mother’s surprise the next day a package arrived containing a permit from the Pope himself giving her the needed permission to view the relic. [30]
As they arrived in countries they had visited before they were familiar with the channels to follow in order to make changes in their plans. For instance, they proceeded to alter their trip in order to attend the famous “Passion Play” in Ober Ammergrau. This is a play that traces the entire life of Jesus and is only performed every ten years. Marie mentions that there were only 5, 000 tickets available for the play and over 10,000 had applied for them. While the two women understood that to acquire tickets would be very difficult, they nonetheless telegraphed their banker in Innsbruck to have him try to procure two tickets. The women’s abilities are displayed when they arrive in Innsbuck and the promised tickets and hotel accommodations are not in place. Marie and Emma are now in a village in which the upcoming “Passion Play” has resulted in an overflow of visitors and there were no tickets are waiting for them. Marie writes home and relates how Emma was able to acquire tickets.
Emma went to the Burgomaster’s and told the same tale, showing the telegram. He showed her a pile of 500 despactes from all parts of the world, and hundreds of people were clammering outside, besides scores of couriers, who were nearly frantic. A gentleman came in and asked for two tickets at any price for two dukes, and was refused; but American ladies, and alone seemed to have a talismanic effect, and the Burgomaster gave Emma two reserved seat tickets, which later, proved to be the very best seats in the house.[31]
Whether Emma’s luck was due to being an American or not, it clearly showed the level of confidence she had in dealing with the situation, something the two women did not have while in the Holy Land. Once the two women reached Europe they were now in a familiar culture and could work with in it. Culture in the Holy Land was different then they were accustomed to. Maria and Emma were clearly unaware of the degree of difference and had not adequately prepared for it when planning their trip. Here we see a clear lack of research and the assumption that since they had been able to travel in other areas with confidence, the Holy land would be no different.
In the book Two Lady Tramps Abroad we see two women who appear to be over- confident in their abilities and fail to adequately research and prepare properly for their eleven-month trip. Marie and Emma had access to the materials that had been published by other travelers. This is shown as Emma relates her impressions of Mark Twains book during the trip, making connections between the book and what she was experiencing.
The overwhelming evidence that these two women did not take advantage of travel information that was available is very clear. Thomas Cook’s Excursionist was a regular publication and it is clear in it’s presentation of all the aspects of travel in the Holy Land that would need to be dealt with. The fact the two women had no understanding of the possible dangers they would face in the Holy Land and their need to join a tour group of Cook’s shows clearly the lack of preparation for the trip. Why this happened can only be accounted for in the fact they had traveled in the past to areas with similar cultures and they assumed it would be no different in the Holy Land and did not feel the need to do any thing different than they would have done for any other trip abroad.
Appendix
The City of Jaffa (Joppa, Tel-Aviv-Yafo)
On a cliff over looking the eastern shores of the Mediterranean Sea sits Jaffa one of the oldest ports in the world. Today the city is called Tel Aviv-Yafo and is located in the southern region of Israel. There has been continuous occupation of Tel Aviv-Yafo since the 18th Century B.C.E. Since it’s founding Tel Aviv-Yafo has been known by different names and has been controlled by many different rulers. Tradition has it that Noah’s son Japheth founded the city after the flood. It was named Jaffa in his honor.[32] Starting out as a Canaanite city, it was taken over in the 15th Century B.C.E. by the Egyptian Pharaoh Thutmose III. It served the Egyptians as a fortified provincial capital.
The city of Joppa is mentioned several times in the Bible. It served as the capital city for Biblical Kings David and Solomon. Solomon was responsible for the development of the port and was used to serve the capital of Jerusalem. It was in the Jaffa port that the famous Lebanese Cedar logs used to build the first original Temple to God in Jerusalem landed.[33] Also during Biblical times the Assyrian King Sennacherib, the Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzer, the Persians, the Greeks, and the Roman Emperor Vespasian in turn ruled it. It was the port out of which Jonah sailed for Tarshish when he was swallowed by the whale.[34]
It was while under the control of Rome for the first four centuries of the Common Era. During this time the name was changed to Joppa Flavia, after the Roman Emperor Flavius Vespasianus. During the 5th and 6th centuries very little is know about the city when it was under Byzantine rule. Joppa was controlled by the Muslims from the 7th century till the 11th century and used primarily as a port for the capital Ramle. Ramle is located in south east of Jaffa and just north of Jerusalem. During the 10th century the Abbasids ruled it and in the 11th century it fell under the control of the Fatimid kings.
In 1126 the crusaders captured it then lost it to Saladin, Sultan of Egypt, in 1187. In 1191 Richard I of England recaptured it and it was held till 1196. Due to a threat of another crusade the Egyptian Mamluks destroyed the harbor in 1345 rendering it useless to the possible invaders. The port was revitalized in the 18th century while it was under the control of the Ottoman Empire. It became an active port being used to land both commercial cargo and pilgrim to the Holy Land.[35] After the Egyptian Malmuks took control the port it started serving as entry port for both Jewish and Christian pilgrims going to the Holy Land. This was continued after the Ottomans took control in the 16th century.[36]
Between 1879 and
1888 the Ottomans initiated a program of growth in order to handle the
expanding population. The Jaffa port was never a safe port and ships had to be
anchored at least two miles out from shore.
Even with the upgrades, landing at Jaffa in the 1800’s was still a
harrowing experience for travelers.
Several travelers of the time note their experience of the
adventure.
In the book by Bertha Spafford Vester, Our Jerusalem, An American family in the Holy City 1881 – 1949 the author related her experience of the landing at Jaffa as simply being difficult. After giving a short physical description of the port the author gives a complete list of the ports Biblical connections. The landing itself is mentioned in passing as a way to transition to the difficultly of receiving mail, no emphasis as to the landing being dangerous.
Jaffa had been the principal port
of the Israelites, and the portion given by tribal division to Dan. At Jaffa Jonah had taken ship to escape
being sent to Nineveh. Hiram’s workmen brought there the floats of cedar for
Solomon’s temple.
There was no actual port in Jaffa then. Passengers were brought ashore in small boats, weather permitting, and not even mail could be dropped when the rocky coast was lashed by tempest.[37]
As Joppa grew the city expanded and the suburb Tel Aviv was established at the beginning of the 20th century. After WWI the British took control of the area with the help of the Arabs, promising to allow the area to become independent. British leaders also promised, with the Balfour Declaration, the area to the Jews as a homeland. Over the course of the next several decades disputes broke out between the Arabs and Jewish settlers in the area. Finally in 1948, the British, who could no longer deal with the situation, passed the problem to the United Nations.[38] In 1950 the suburb of Tel Aviv merged with Jaffa and the city became known by its current name Tel Aviv-Jaffa.
Since the disagreement over which group, Arabs or Jews, would have control, peace has not been attained in the area. Fighting between the two groups breaks out sporadically. There are ongoing attempts by leaders on both sides to try to reach an acceptable solution.
Annotated Bibliography
Ben-Ariwh, Yeshoshue and Moshe Davis eds. Jerusalem in the Mind of the Western World, 1880 – 1948 With Eyes Toward Zion – V. Connecticut: Prager Publishing, 1997
This is the fifth book of a series dealing with how people from other lands viewed the Holy Land. In this volume the editors Yeshoshue and Moshe Davis gathered articles, which address what motivated the large numbers of scholars and tourists to travel to the Holy Land. These articles trace the development of this motivation in the United States in the 19th Century that caused these travelers to commit to the time and cost to travel half way around the world to see a place they had only read about in the Bible.
Davis, John. The Landscape of Belief Encountering the Holy Land in Nineteenth-Century America Art and Culture. New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1996
This book takes and examines the connection of what travelers to the Holy Land expected to see and the reason for it. The author shows how different artists of the nineteenth-century presented the Holy Land in many different ways. Many of the works indicate that artistic license had been taken in presenting Holy Land locations. Due to the romanticized depictions by artists many travelers were disappointed in what they found.
Griswold, Mrs. Stephen G.. A Women’s Pilgrimage to the Holy Land; or Pleasant Days Abroad. Hartford, J.B. Burr and Hyde, 1872
A description of Mrs. Griswold’s adventures in the Holy Land. Journal entries, which were published after returning, home after the trip.
Shadur, Joseph. Young Travelers To Jerusalem: An Annotated Survey of American and English Juvenile Literature on the Holy Land 1785 – 1940. Israel: Joseph Shadur, 1999
Joseph Shadur looks at juvenile literature written between 1785 and 1940 in England and the United States. He traces the changes over time and the reasons why children books were written. Books were originally written to present historical, Biblical, and political background of the Holy Land, but over time the books became more entertaining.
Spafford Vester, Bertha. Our Jerusalem An American
Family in the Holy City. Jerusalem, The American Colony, Ariel Publishing
House, 1988, original copyright 1950
In this book Mrs. Spafford Vester recounts her life in the American Colony New Jerusalem. She paints a picture of living in the Holy Land and not just what visitors would have seen.
Minor, Clorinda. Meshullam!
Or, Tidings From Jerusalem: From the Journal of a Believer Recently Returned
From the Holy Land. Philadelphia, John C. Robb, Printers, 1851
Mrs. Minor relates her experiences in the Holy Land from 1849 till 1850. She joined Professor Meshullam’s efforts to help settle Jewish agriculture in the area. The entries from her diary give us the details from her daily life. A view by a person who has gone to the Holy Land not just to visit but also to work.
Vogel, Lester I. To See a Promised Land Americans an the Holy Land in the Nineteenth Century. Pennsylvania, The Pennsylvania State University Press, 1993
This book deals with the expectations of primarily protestant travelers when traveling to the Holy Land. It discusses how these expectations developed within the teachings of the American church teachings, which created a desire within church members to see for themselves the places that they studied in such detail. Once the traveler arrived in the Holy Land these travelers discover it was not as they had pictured. The realities that these travelers found were written down in journals and letters home. Realities as seen by travelers were spread as these journals were published in the late 19th Century.
A Presentation of Old Jaffa [http://artmag.com/galleries/jafphco/aisjaco.html] copyright 2000
A web site that presented a brief history of the founding of the city Jaffa in Palestine.
History of Jaffa [http://artmag.com/galleries/Israel/jafphco/aisjaco.html] copyright 2000
A web site that goes into detail of the history of the city Jaffa. Describing who controlled the city during different time periods.
Hypertext Vandal Tour Schedule http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/etcbin/browse-mixed-new?id=TwaInno&images=images/modeng&data=/texts/english/modeng/parsed&tag=public
A web site that showed the publicity tour schedule taken by Mark Twain in 1868 – 1869 to promote his book Innocents Abroad. Since the book was sold by subscription only, Mr. Twain undertook a speaking tour on his travels in the Holy Land, to promote sales of the book.
Innocents Abroad. http://etext.virginia.edu/railton/innocent/iahompag.html
A web site that has the book Innocents Abroad by Mark Twain printed.
Palestine History: The British Mandate [http:www.arab.net/Palestine/history/pe_britishmandate.html] copyright 1996
A detailed description of the course of events that created the controversy concerning the region of Palestine.