Tuesday, February 19, 1929
Read a book on Palestine today, now that I have been there. The Public Health office sent for me today because I had failed to register with them, which involves a term of five days in the jug. However, I had no such luck and they wanted to check up on Mort and Frank. They are the same people who vaccinated me and are very friendly. They profess to like Americans much better than English or people from other nations, largely I suppose because they want their independence. Under the Turkish rule they had been taught that farming and working the soil was the lowest sort of work and evidently the English saw some advantage in not correcting that view. They were very surprised to hear that all Americans are not wealthy.
Many of the natives here have three ugly scars down the side of their cheek or cheeks or up by their temples. It used to be the practice when anyone was sick with the fever or something to call in the barber who would cut gashes to let some blood out. These scars are from that. They tell me, though, that in Sudan many have scars of certain kinds on their cheeks or forehead to show they are of a certain rank or family.
The French steamer Angers, the Jap steamer Kashima Maru, and a couple other smaller passenger cargo boats were in today as well as many cargo ships. The German cruiser Kreuzer Emden is in, too, and is a dandy-looking vessel with some nice-looking, fair-complexioned blond boys aboard.