Gerasa! Beautiful, though in ruins. What glory must once have been thine! But where are the warriors who passed in triumph through thy gates? Where are the builders of thy temples?... Where are the people who thronged thy theaters and trod thy beautiful streets?... Gone! gone forever! Surely, how frail is man! How fleeting his glory!-from "Chapter IV: At Gerasa"Little is known today about Elmer U. Hoenshel. He tells us, in this brief, pleasant 1909 travelogue of the Holy Land, that he is a schoolteacher and an American. That he journeyed to the Middle East not to indulge in Biblical archaeology but merely to observe and experience. That he put down his lingering memories of his five-month trip in late 1900 and early 1901 for the benefit of his friends and family. Hoenshel's writing-enthusiastic, passionate, expressive; alive with images of "sacred associations" and the "strangely impressive Oriental sky"-is an all but anonymous letter from the past, a glimpse into times and places long gone.