The southern press., 1851-06-14
S ID nj l. w E e * l. Y

| A RAILROAD THROUGH TIE AFRICAN DESERT
Our Geographic dispatches of Tuesday morn
ling, containing an outline Of the news by the
Arctic, advise that the viceroy Of Egypt has
sanctioned the project of railroad from Alex
andria by way of Cairo, to the Isthmus of Suez
and that the work will be commenced without
delay. With the most skillfnl European engi-
neers at his command, and able at any time to
summon one hundred thousand Arabs and
Copts to the labor. the energetic and enterprising
Ibrahim Pasha will not allow long time to
elapse before the whistle Of the locomotive will
awaken the solitudes of Petra and Mount Sinai,
scare the marauding Bedouin out of his wits,
and render the journey from Alexandria to the
Holy Land as easy and as rapid as the passage
from New York to Buffalo. The traveller will
start from the base of Cleopatra's Needle,
reach Cairo in six hours, refresh himself at the
mammoth depot in the midst of the waste
bowling wilderness" and stand upon the ancient
shores Of the Red sea in two days after leaving
the Delta of the Nile.
A railroad through the scene Of lsarael's flight
and Phatoh's keen persuit through regions
where the silence Of death has reigned ever
since, amid thunderings and loud elemental
strife, the law was given from Mount Siani--
now for the first time in thousands of years to
be disturbed by the clankirg and roar of modern
machinery Here Job drove his numerous
flocks to the great nlarts Of the South Over
this halowed ground his contemporary Moses
led the murmuring and mutinons Hebrews 10
the land of promise. In this now drear soil.
tude, the hand Of cultivated architectural science
scooped magnificent palaces out of the solid
rock, and bid sunptuous mansions and tenn les
and mighty cities rise at its mandate.
| This was the path of the mutitud lous hosts
Of Amru, the successor of Mahomot, when he
led his fanatcal and victorious thousands from
Syria to Cairo and Alexandria, poured his dense
dark masses upon Southern Europe, and aimed
to subject the Cross to the Crescent. These
vast and arid deserts, over which the bald and
rocky Siani frowns in stern grand lr, long af-
forwards trembled beneath the tread of armed
millions whiring like some horrible tempest
through the scene of Israel's trial and punish
ment. He, who from the position of an humble
subaltern reached the throne of Bourbons, by a
series Of usurpations the most wonderful on
record, would rival the fame and miracles of the
Hebrew lawgiyer. He eyes the same waters
that closed over the engulfed chariots and horse
men of Pharaoh, and exhibits the temerity of at
tempting to pass dry.shod through the stormy
waters OF the Arabian sea- But what was this
desecratiousin comparison with the painting and
coughing of the iron horse, within the view Of
the spot where the burning bush exhibited its
mysterious sign 10 the trembling Moses, where
the tables of the law were broken into frag-
ments. and over which the pillar of cloud by
day, and fire by night, lowered and guided the
people of Israel to the lovely regions of Pales-
tines and the Cananites.
The tour ofthe Holy Land, which in the days
of the Crusaders, was pilgrimage Of eminent
peril, and accompanied by privations and suffer.
ings little shor. Of martyrdom, will soon be ac-
complished bva party from New York or st.
Louis within the limit of single season, The
tomb of Aaron, the site of Calvary, the Mount
of Olives and the chores of the beautiful sea
of Galliee, will soon be as accessible as the
Tower of London or the Lake of Como are
now; and all the scenes of Scripture history be-
comes familiar to the eye, and common places
in the mind, Of almost every transatlantic tour
ist-iSL Louis Union l4ih uh.