Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1874-01-17
LETTER FROM EG YI'T.

Hon. Jefferson Davis, President OF the
Confederate States"
LETTER FROM EGYTT.
The VIENNA ExPosITIoS-TRIEsrE - VEN
| ICE-PAssAGE TO ALExANDRIA-THE CITY
-CA1Ro-IrslA APPEARANCE, WONDERS, AND
| CURIosIrIEs-THE PYRAMIDs-THE GLE
| MATE-AE EXPEDITION TO MECCA.
CAIRO, EGYPT, Dec. Is, 1873.
To the Editor of the Journal:
arrived in Vienna weeR before the close
of the .Universal Exposition" and had very
favorable opportunity of visiting on several
successive days this last and undoubtedly best
display of international art, science and gen.
JUS vet given to the world The difficulties
that beset its early stages, had been overcome :;
the fear of cholera, that had kept so many
away, had ceased thousands Of strangers filled
the hotels and daily thronged the magnificent
grounds and buildings, that had been pre-
pared and erected at vast expense for the
..Expostion," But it is now a thing of the
past, and like every thing else in this hurry
ing world, having had its day, will soon be
forgotten. Though not, like the "French
Exposition" Of 1867, financially successful, it
was, as after an interval Of six years it ought
to have been, superior to that in extent and
condolences All the best inventions of man
tillage in sinless Eden were here collected,
and proved, that if the disobedience of our
first parents brought toll and trouble into the
world, it has also wonderfully quickened the
wits of their posterity to alleviate them.
Though the American Department was com
paratively small in amount, the award of
prizes shows the high value set upon it by the
official boards Our exhibitors received nine
Diplomas of Honor for eminent merit in sci
ence an its application to the welfare of
man, being the highest prize given sixty nine
medals of progress, such as new and valuable
| inventions-l71 medals for merit or excel
lence of the exhibits, one of them to the
cortland Packing Company" for preserved
meats, fsh and vegetables medals for Fine
Arts, to Bierstadt & Healey,-awarded only
to works of eminent merit in painting and
sculpture--5 medals for good taste, such as
Typography, colored Photographs and Bank
note engraving-23 medals for promoting the
success of the exhibition, and 40 diplomas
of merit or honorable mention.
Whoever may be in fault for the untortu-
nate opening, Chief Commissioner Garretson
Internationally deserve. the high CONNIE nda-
| tions he has received for the tact, prudence
and energy with which he retrieved affairs
and secured an honorable distinction to our
Department.
From Vienna crossed over to Trieste, 3G3
miles, by an excellent railroad with double
track. It's construction is fine specimen of
engineering skill. Itpasses over several sub
stantial stone bridges and viaducts, and
through twenty five tunnels, some of them of
great length, cut through the solid rock.
Trieste, now the most important seaport on
the Adriatic, is thriving city of 10000 pop
ulstion. 1t has an excellent harbor and many
dne public and private buildings. On ap-
preaching it our attention is drawn to the
beautiful white castle of Miramar, standing
conspicuously on point Of land extending
into the sea. 1t is now unoccupied and stran-
gers are permitted to visit its princely halls
and grounds, invested with melancholy inter-
est as the late home of Macmillan. Tempted
perhaps by an honorable ambition, he left it,
to suffer at last n tragical death in Mexico,
while his heart broken widow l believe still
fingers in some hospital for the insane.
A railroad from Trieste takes us in about
eight hours to the ever interesting and re-
markabls city of Venice, once Queen of the
Adriatic and of the highest naval and civic re-
nown. Though shorn of its ancient glories,
il is still an important city, with an industri-
Gus population of 1870, 900, and its treasures
of art and other attractions, OF which SO much
has been told and written, will long continue
to draw annually thousands of visitors to fill
its excellent hotels, buy its curiosities and
employ its gondoliers.
Wishing to fiGd a mild winter climate,
took passage at Venice on the Nth of Now, in
the English steamer "Ceylon" for Alexandria.
W e touched at AncOna for freight and at Brln-
dist which you will see in the heel of the boot
of Italy) for the overland mails and passenger
by rail from London From this point a di-
rect course is taken across the Mediterranean
SnI mttps in siOhf ~ tln Innian
lands and through the bay where the English
destroyed the Turkish fleet, in 1928, in the
great battle of Navarino We had a pleasant
passage of seven days from Venice to Alex
andra, where we were kept on board in quar-
antine, half mile from the dock, till Sunday
morning Nov %. Having an agreeable com
pany of passengers we bore our two days
detention quite cheerfuly. They CHANGED to
be festival days in Egypt and the ships of war
were decorated with hundreds of gay flags,
and together with the forts, discharged each
day four grand salvos OF heavy artillery.
The original city of Alexandria. as we all
know, was founded by Alexander the Great,
about 800 years b. c., and soon became the
great emporium of commerce, and the cen
tire Of art and learning. From the accounts
that have come down to us of its magnificent
| temples, palaces and streets; its library of
700, 900 volumes, its tower OF Pharos &c,
we may believe it to have been in its day the
finest city Of the world. The vast mounds of
| fragments and rubbish that surround the pres
| ent city show both the great extent of the
former, and the utter ruin and desoation that
war and baTbarism have wrought upon it..
Two of its ancient monuments are still stand
| ing, viz. Cleopstrss Needle, simple shaft
OF stone sixty feet high, with inscriptions on
its sides, and Pompey's Pillar. The latter
stands short distance from the city, alone,
on barren mound overlooking the bay. The
base 10 a block Of marble fifteen feet high