Lynchburg Virginian. [volume] (Lynchburg [Va.]) 1829-185?, 1851-06-16
A Railroad through the African
Desert.

AN LhSllsh paper, ny the last arrival,
has the following article in relation to this
enterprise and lis results:
The Viccroy of Egypt hns sanctioned
the project OF a railroad from Alexander by
way OF Cairo, to the Isthmus Of Suez, and
the work will be commenced without de-
lay. With the most skilful European en-
gineers at his command, and able at any
time to summon one hundred thousand
Arabs and Copts TO the labor, the ener-
getic and enterprising Ibrahim Pasha will
not allow long time to clapse before the
whistle OF the locomotive will wake the
solitude of Petra and Mount Sinai,scare the
marauding Bcdouin out Of his wits. and
render the journey from Alexandria to the
Holy Land as easy and as rapid as the pas
sage from Buffalo to New York. The
traveller will start from the base Of Cleo
patra's Needle, reach Cairo in six hours,
refresh himsclat a mammoth depot in the
midst Of the "waste howling- Wilderness"
and stand upon the ancient shores of,hc
Red Sea in two days after leaving the Del
ia of the Nile.
A railroad through the scene Of Israel S
fight and Pharosh's keenpursuit-through
the regions where the silence of death has
reigned ever since, amid thundcrings ard
loud elemental strife, the law was given
from Mount Horeb-now for the first
time in thousands of years to be disturb
ed BY the clanking and roar Of mod
crn machinery. Here Jcb drove his nu-
merous fiocks to the great marts of
the South. Over this halowed ground
his contemporary Moses led the murmur-
ing and mutinous Hebrews to the Land Of
Promise. In this now drear solitude the
hand of cultivated architectural science
scooped magnificent palaces ont of the So
lid rock, and bid sumptuous mansions
and temples and mighty cities rise at its
mandate
This was the path Of the muliitudinous
hosts Of Amru, the successor Of Mahom-
ct, when he led his fanaiical and victorious
thousands from Syria to Cairo and Alex
andria, 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 Sinai frowns in stern grandeur, long
afterwards trembled beneath the tread Of
armed millions, whirliag like some horri-
bic tempest through the scene ofIsrael's
trial and punishment. He who, from the
position Of an humble subaltern, reached
the throne Of the Bourbons by a series Of
usurpaiions the most wonderful on record,
would rival the fame and miracles of the
Hebrew lawgiver He eyes the same
waters that closed over the cngulfed char
riots and horsemen of Pharoah, and cx-
hibits the temerity of attempting to pass
dry-shod through the stormy waters ofthe
Arabian sea.
But what was this desccraiion in com
parison with the painting and coughing of
Theron horse, within the view Of the spot
where the burning bush exhibited its mys-
terious sign to the trembling Moses, where
the tables ofthe law were broken into frag-
ments. and over which the pillar of cloud
BY day and Of fire by night, hovercd, and
guided the people Of Israel to the lovely
region of the Philistincs and Canaanites.
The tour of the Holy Land, which, in
the days ofthc Crusaders, was a pilgrim
age Of imminent peril, and accompanied by
privations and suffeiings little short OF
martyrdom, will soon be accomplished by
a party from New York or ST. Louis, with
in the limit Of a single season. The tomb
Of Aaron, the site Of Calvary, the Mount
of Olives, and shores OF the beautiful Sea
of Galiec, will soon be as accessible as the
Tower Of London or the Lake OF Como
arc now, and all the scenes Of Scripture
History become familiar TO the eye, and
common place in the mind Of alInort every
'ransatlarri- tourist