The National tribune., 1882-08-05
AN EGYPTIAN PRISON.
The HideOus Scenes Encou;,tered by a Benevolent
Englishman at Cairo.

| The HideOus Scenes EncOuf,tered by n Benevolent
Englishman at Cairo.
| We were in a sort of ill-paved, ill-looking,
! ill-smelling square On each side of the
square was large door, now thrown open,
displaying an inner door of crosS-barred,
wooden grating, and behind. row upon row
of miserable, hopeless faces. Already the
old folks and children who had followed us
had begun to pilfer from the bread panniers,
and as soon as the prisoners caught sight OF
the food the horrid clanking of chains grated
on my ears, loud cries and hOwls came from
the gratings, and the faces at the apertures
multiplied threef0ld. I could see the poor
wretches struggling with one another for a
place in front, the weakest, of course, going
to the wall, the greediest and strongest
crushing forward. And such faces Most
of them were revolving enough in themselves,
and could well have spared the loathsome en-
vironment that made them worse. On some,
indeed, the scourge of the East, leprosy, had
left its mark some were merely i'll and hum
gry-looking; the better-favored seemed to
stay with their chains behind, for shame,
perhaps. All the foremost cried out for the
bread they saw, and scrambled and fought
like wild beasts for such of the round cakes
as escaped through the bars without being
torn piece-meal in their passage. One or
two of the officials volunteered to help us to
distribute our doles; and, of course, inviOl-
able Eastern custom demanded that little
of the sorry stuff should disappear by the
way into their own capacious pockets l
tried to get one of these fellows-Jusef as I
had heard some of the prisoners call him-tO
deal out the bread in something like order,
but order seemed impossible; official author
ity stopped short outside the bars of the
prison house, while inside l could see some
sturdy rutfians dealing blows to their fellows
with rude whips and sticks, and even with
their chains, driving them from the raised
step that led to the door, cursing loudly.
And while this din was in our ears, and we
were feeding the wretches inside the bars,
the unfortunates outside, who had followed
US closely to this very holy of holies, were
pilfering rs fast as hands, big or little, could
help them. Yes, big or little. One tiny
child, about five years old, stole three cakes
before my eyes, was culfed, hustled away and
returned in minute to steal fourth from
my left hand, while her mother was snatch
ing from my right. The cigarettes produced
almost equal excitement, and were hugged
by the happy possessors almost as eagerly as
the bread.
And now that my stock of provisions was
exhausted, thought had seen enough for
once, and proceeded to make my way out of
the vile den. AS l was moving off one of
the officials blandly asked for bachshish, in
reply to which l used all the few Arabic in
dignant expletives l knew, and failing that,
French, and when that, also, came too slowly
for my Indignation, l found relief in native
English.
l heard subsequently that the Khedive"
i. e., | suppose, the government-sends
daily supplies to the prisons TO the extent
OF three of those small round cakes for
each person i'll confinement, but they only
get one, and some who had tasted the sweets
of this same prisOn-hOuse assured me that
they often got none. Where do the rest 20
What man who knows Egypt knows not
this, toO?-MacmHlan'8 MGgG.ine