Dodge City times. [volume] (Dodge City, Kan.) 1876-1892, 1882-06-22
In Fee.

The first impression made upon the
traveller by the present aspect of the city
of Fee, which was At one time a focus
of Arabic luxury and learning. and
which comprised q population not less
than 800, 600 souls. is that Of colossal
city sunk into decrepitude, and slowly
crumbling into dust. There are tall
houses which seem formed of buildings
piled one upon the other. all falling to
pieces. however, cracked from roof TO
base, and propped up on every side,
with no opening save some loop-hole IN
the shape of a cross. Long. dismal
stretches of street. fanked by high, bare
walls, recalling the walls of fortress
streets running up hill and down. en-
numbered with stones and the ruins of
falling buildings, twisted and turning.
too, at every twenty or thirty PAGES
every now and then long covered
passage, dark as a cellar, where you
have TO feel your wav-blind alleys, re-
cesses, dens filled with bones, dead ami
mails and heaps of putrid matter-the
whole stepped in dim and melancholy
twilight. In some places the ground Is
so broken, the dust So thick, the smell
SO horrid. the flies SO numerous, that
YOU nave to stop to take breath. Here
and there you may hear the noise of a
mill, murmur of water. the click Of a
weaver's loom, chanting of nasal
voices, which YOU are told come from a
school of children: but YOU see nothing
and no one anywhere. BY and by,
however, as you approach the center OF
the city people become numerous; the
men stop To let you pass, and stare as
tonished; the women turn back or hide
themselves; the children scream and
run; the large boys growl and shake
their fists at a distance. mindful of the
soldiers and their sticks. Now you
come to one of the principal street,
about six feet wide. and full of people
who crowd about you. The soldier.
shout, and push, and strike in vain. and
at last make a sort of bulwark of theii
bodies by forming a circle around yor
and clasping hands, face outward.
There are thousand eyes upon you
YOU can scarcely breathe in the pres.
and heat, and plod slowly on. on. stop,
ping every moment to give passage te
"a Moor on horseback. or yelled lady
on camel. or an ass with 4 load o
bleeding sleeps heads. To the RICH
and left are thronged bazars; inn court
yards heaped with merchandise; door
of mosques, through which you catcl
glimpses of arcades in perspective ant
figures PROSTATE in prayer. All along
the streets leading moSqueward there
i, for the most part. nothing TO be seer
but silent forms in white hoods. moving
ike specters. Now and then in tn,
heart Of the city YOU come on fountains
richly ornamented with mosaics, ara
besque doors, arched courts, the few
/ faded vestigeS of a once sumptuou'
architecture The air is impregnateC
with an acute and mingled odor of aloes
/ spices and incense. You seem to III
walking in an immense drug shop
Presently YOU 90 into the bazaar and find
( that the shops, As in Tangiers. are mer'
5 dens opened in the wall: YOU cross
I jostled by the crowd, the cloth baZar
that of slippers, that of earthenware
that of metal ornaments. which, alto
gether. form a labyrinth of alleys ROOTED
with canes and branches of trees. Pass
/ ing through vegetable market throngeC
with women, who lift their arms ant
! scream curses al YOU, tine traveller come
( out again into the center of the city
] There he has the same experience rs be
fore. and finally gets out at a gate ant
takes turn outside the walls. -Bdpfis
Weekly.