Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1872-08-09
Luxury of the viceroy.

The Egyptians at Home, in August Galaxy.l
In the palaces of the Viceroy, or Khe-
dive as he is now called, are seen the
signs of Eastern luxury and the material
civilization of France; delicately carved
and gilded chairs, covered with finest
silk; soft, tapestried divans running
around the walls; beds of solid silver,
covered with glittering satin, costing as
much as $4,000 each; long Eastern
pipes with mouth pieces Of lightest-col-
ored amber, set with diamonds and pre-
cious stones, some of them valued at
$4,000 apiece; gold trays, plates and
gobets Of gold trimmed with gems--even
diamonds; silver basins to wash the
hands in before repast; low, round sill
yer tables, foot high, for dining; mag
nifcent cushions to recline on in smo-
king or eating; little coffee-cups of solid
clusters of diamonds, rubies or eme-
raids; hundreds of slaves in each estab-
lishment, eunuchs, waiting women in
flowing costumes; immense rooms deco
rated in white and gold, azure and sill
yer, rose and lily; floors of inlaid mar
BILE, porphyry and alabaster; constantly
playing fountains, whose trickling
sounds fall so agreeably on the ear in a
warm country; masses of gorgeously
framed mirrors. One sees in all this
the French upholsterer has been at work
trying his best to blend Paris and Cairo.
In the East, where everything in the
household is low and flowing. the assim-
ilation has been difficult, in spite of
which the French artist has achieved a
certain measure of success.
This is viceregal magnifceHce within.
Without, again, is seen the French su-
perstructure over the Oriental founda-
ton, by which this ruler is governed in
all his tastes. There is French thea
ter and company ofFrench comedians,
who play the style of comedy usually in
vogue at the Varieties on the Boulevard
Montmartre. In this theater are two
loges grill ess for his four wives, where
they keep the visor Of the box up and
look through its latticed mask, like
Gagged birds. The place is much fire.
luented by the higher officers of the
court, who are usually well up in the
French language. The ruler has forty
gray Percheron horses, sent to him from
France, where they were collected for
him by one of the strikers of the coup
d etat, well-known for his horse proclivi-
ties. On the Shubra, which is the
Tour du Lac on the Central Park of
Cairo, some of these horses may be seen
almost any afternoon, under the sad
die, or hitched to calsashes, broughams,
or other vehicles common to the
Bois de Boulogne, and occasionally
four of them to char-a-banc, with post
lions in crimson satin, fringed with
gold, preceded by French outrider.
There is race course, constructed after
the French pattern, in which the So
called reformers take lively interest.
If the Khedive gave the masses cayiare
in establishing the theater, he presented
them with pilaf in making home insti.
tuition of the circus. The spangled
tumbler, the bare-faced woman going
through balloon hoops on horseback,
the fierce savage whirling his war club
on the naked steed, the cunning juggler
keeping aloft his knives and oranges,
the grimacing man in white and red
playing tricks on the ringmsster-these
things are dear to the Egyptian heart,
and men and women, spell-bound, watch
the performance from the grand entry
to the riding of the tricky mule.