Mexico weekly ledger., 1881-12-15
ALEXANDRIA.
Fleas and Things Sunset Cox Experienced
In Egypt.

-" NBsR"
Congressman S. S. Cox writes as
follows;
The next morning Alexandria is in
sight. As we enter, the military
bands Of the war steamers play. and
/ distinguish the French as the live
liest. The world knows now what
these iron birds of prey are after in
this old and superb part of this eldest
of nations. The English are happy
with Suez, the French with Tunis,
and both very, very happy in Egypt
"except these bonds" The Egyp-
tians would be happy if either dear
charmer were away. This is the
meaning of the late revolution in pol
itics-the meaning of the Sultan's S
Intervention and of the ironclads in
the harbor.
Alexandria is worthy of its name
sake and history. 1t has had it's
schools of philosophy, its grand libra
ry, its columnal and royal glory, and
its grand confagration. Its Pompey's
Pillar remains, on high dusty ground,
where there is no water and much
dirt, and where black torsos of
sphinxes lie around amidst sleepy
Arabs and fiee-bitten dogs. The pill
lar is 100 feet high, single shaft.
1t snares with the famous Pharos
Lighthouse, of polished granite, the
attention of travellers as they ap.
proach the city. 1t is supposed to
have been built to honor Diocletian.
The palace of Psha is worthy of the
city, which has now 800, 900 in popu-
lation and an increasing commerce.
But Alexandria has it's drawbacks.
Fleas are one of them. We have had
much discomfort in Judea from sand
flies and mosquitoes; but for fleas,
Egypt bears the palm! What some
one has said Of the regions of Galilee,
as to its congregation of fleas, applies
to the cosmopolitan cities of Egypt.
The SNUG, steady, importunate flea
from London; the pert,jumping pulce
from France; the wary, watchful
pulce, with his poisoned stiletto; the
vengeful pulya Of CASTLE, with his
vengeful knife the German foh, with
his knife and fork insatiate, and the
swarms from all the Russias, and the
Asiatic hordes unnumbered-all these
were here, rejoicing in an interna-
tional feast, of which America was the
victim. From these annoyances what
. relief to ride and walk, out of sight
of the canal and the sand, amidst the
Hesperidean gardens of Alexandria.
Never since l have been travelling,
neither at Kew, nor Versailles, Peter
hoff nor the Hague, has there appear
ed such tropical luxuriance Of flowers,
fruit, and foliage as in one OF the
magnificent gardens we visited in
this city. All that grows under glass
with us, blooms and spreads, shoots,
effiorces, and tangles here in the air
of winter. Palms, such plumed Won
ders, and laden with golden-red dates
in luscious clusters, seem to be the
supreme object of the landscape.
After watching the drabeyahs upon
the grand canal, and the canal itself,
running it's Nile water lazily for the
irrigation of fields of corn and sugar,
and these incompatible gardens, we
begin to wish for more time, and to
think of Cairo and its dreamy beauty.
Pictures in our own library at home,
of the Libyan desert and the pyra-
mids, of Heliopolis and its lonely
obelisk, begin to rise in the fancy
like rose auroras, to which the rec
objection of the ''Hawadii" of George
William Curtis, of many years ago,
adds it's soft, balmy charm.