Morning journal and courier., 1882-07-26
ls mich.
From the New York Herald. l


 When the Granle place and European quarter existed in 4lexandria and hostlllt1es had not burst forth, the well to-do foreign
 merchants of tne city-the brokers, bankers and exalted oficials-were content to do their business there during the summer days
 and then to hie item away in the evening to
 Ramleh, which IS just about four miles dls
 tant from the city walls. They regarded
 Ramleh as the lungs of Alexandria: In the
 latter, the sun beating down upon the streets, ! the dust and turmoil raised by constant 1 traffic, the singularly tortuous nature ot | many of the thoroughfares, and the extraor- l dinary capacity of the streets and houses for giving off after sundown che heat which they 1 had been steadily absorbing during the day, l residence was by no means desirable, ana | only those stayed in the city who had no means of getting out of it. Ramleh, on the l contrary, was always cool and pleasant 1 Built fantastically and irregularly upon the l seashore, in full and uninterrupted view of | the Mediterranean, it seemed like a | new sphere to the pent up Alexandrlan. AS
 Bath, Sea Beach, Brighton are to New York l CTS, so was Ramleh to the residents of Alex
 andria. It was easily reached either by rali l or road and lay not more than four miles
 beyond the city walls. The railway to Calro
 touched at it, and there the travellers from
 that famous city were called upon by some
 Greek, Maltese Albanian guard to give up
 their tickets before the train moved on to the
 Grand depot in Alexandria. AS a cool sea
 side summer resort for those who could afford to live within it's fashionable precincts !, Ramleh was filled with houses belonging to
 Europeans. As rule these dwellings, were 1 luxuriantly furnished, because they could be
 occupied only by people who were well to do. As battle has now touched pretty Ramleh
 there can be little doubt that every house :, has been sacked by the Egyptian soldiery. The loss of he actual dwellings may not
 be a severe catastrophe, because as 8 rule they were of slight and temporary character. The two most sub stantial buildings in the place were the khe- dives summer palace and the Hotel Beau Be- jour. Both of these were handsome struc- l lures and were equipped interiorly in first ? rate style. The late Khedive, Ismail Pasha, loved his Ramleh palace, which commanded on the right view of the famous Bay of l Aboukir where Lord Nelson destroyed the , 1 French fleet under Admiral Brueys, and on f the left panorama of Pharos and the mlnar- f ct ornamented city eff Alexandria, For his n sake the carriage road was kept in excellent }, l repair, and nearly all the way it was exposed
 to the refreshing influence of the Medl.
 | terranean breezes, so that It formed 5 a fashionable drive and promenade for the heat-worn Alexandrians. Some few years :. l ago. before the Alexandrians discovered its capabilities as an invigoratlng llttoral resort, Ramleh was an insignificant fishing village
 l The inhabitants earned precar1ous hVell y hood by sailing about the blue waters ID ls their lateen rigged fishing boats and after 's ward vending their commodities in the e markets of Alexandria but when the Khe @ dive set down 8 summer palace on the sands
 it changed as if by magic. Houses of every g imaginable style sprang up close to the shore Le hotels were built, fashionable promenades ,f adorned with pavilions for the accommoda 70 ton of bands of music were laid out and { ,e it's population numbered close upor
 ten thousand. The two railroad stations ,e that occupied the centre of the toWr n were continuously thronged by travel r. CTS and idle spectators, and the perpetua q shouting of boys with goolahs or chattics o d water. Arabs with trays of oranges myste t rious sweetmeats and masses of sticky date
 covered with flies always gave to Kamlet
 that excitement which it could not find II IS casinoes theatres, opera houses public J, gardens, because of these there was none lo The inhabitants had an idea that Ramlel Q, should be rural and exclusive, hence none O. uu u these questionable attractions existed within 7r It's lines. vivacious French writer, who re
 gently published his impressions of Ramleh IS lamented it's artificial characteristics. Tt B. him it was dull. The glare on the sea, thu s, monotony of the white sandy beach, the ar l. chitecture of the dwellings-al offended him D. He saw no beauty in the odd conglomeratlol le of Swiss chalets, square houses, like boxe ID with windows in them, and fantastic resi- Id dences to which he could not suit any com re parison. He thought Ramleh by day was al
 excellent place for person of easy mean 1e and an unlimited capacity for slumberins al lulled by the constant tapping of the waves #. but in the evening, when the place becam ). animated with the carriages and persons o IT, the Alexandrian gentry, and when 8 strong '. fresh breeze blew steadily off the Mediterra ac mean on to the land, he remembered tn t, sweltering heat he had suffered in Alexandri s. and Cairo, and acknowledged that Ramle must indeed be godsend to Alexandria il, With all it's confusion of architecture-a cor 3 fusion which admirably characteristic c
 the cosmopolitan crowd by which it was ir
 habited-Ramleh 8 pretty place, an
 certain high bluffs near it which con
 manded views of Alexandria and the SC
 were places of peculiarly delightful rt 's sort. Lagoons skirted it on the island side
 and extended as far as the Bay of Aboukir
 but these produced no malarial influences i @ consequence of the steady strength of th it's opposing breezes from the Mediterranean re At the time of it's evacuation by the Europea le populace it must have contained 8 lare he quantity of valuable property, which no IT, has fallen spells to the Egyptians. It's d ne rection from Alexandria is north by east, an r. it easily be attacked from the seq, d, which it is exposed in almost one continuor 's- line.