Our
people replaced the wretched native trails with good roads, bordered by
hedges of thorny acacia which, in season, were covered with downy little
yellow blossoms that smelled sweeter than honey when the sun was on
them.
More important than all these, a communistic village government was
established, in which both sexes enjoyed equal rights, including that of
suffrage--strange as this may seem to persons who (when they think of
the matter at all) form vague conceptions of all the women-folk of
Palestine as shut up in harems.
A short experience with Turkish courts and Turkish justice taught our
people that they would have to establish a legal system of their own;
two collaborating judges were therefore appointed--one to interpret the
Mosaic law, another to temper it with modern jurisprudence. All Jewish
disputes were settled by this court. Its effectiveness may be judged by
the fact that the Arabs, weary of Turkish venality,--as open and
shameless as anywhere in the world,--began in increasing numbers to
bring their difficulties to our tribunal. Jews are law-abiding people,
and life in those Palestine colonies tended to bring out the fraternal
qualities of our race; but it is interesting to note that in over thirty
years not one Jewish criminal case was reported from forty-five
villages.
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