Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1882-09-01
POSSIBILITIES OF THE WAR.
The Camp OF the Egyptian aud Brit
ish Armies-The Bedouin as n sol
Pail Nal 1axs.t,

Pall Nall Gazest>
Face to face are the armies of the
Egyptians and the British, and an
actloE Is impending. The Egyptians,
should they be defeated. have Cairo
ana the Llbyan desert to fly to. The
brltlsn, with Ate1andria at their back
and an Alexandria, moreover, which
Is covered BY the guns of one of the
strongest fleets that ever went forth to
90 battle with an antagonist-have
tolerably secure place of retreat in the
event OF any disaster Detailing their
arms. The routine of the British sol
GERS lite N the time of warfare is SIM
llar TO that OF the American. In the
morning he must fall into ranks at bu,
gle call and answer to his name. Later
ne has to take his turn at guard or
picket duty. He may have to fall in
10 patrolllng party or take part in
reconnaissance; then when he has
nothing more to do, he may lounge
ABOUT among the tents, smoking his
clay pipe or chatting with comrade.
The scene differs strangely in the camp.
OF the Egyptians. There the majority
OF the soldiers are dressed in mongrel
European fashion, with tarboosh or fez
as the most conspicuous national char
acterlstc OF their uniform; but there is
minority whose picturesque costumes
are distinctly oriental. The Bedouin
with MS gaudily, colored kercheif wrap
Eed about his head, leaving ends that
hoat upon his shoulders, his long
white, mantle-like garments, and
his sandaled feet; the Soudanese, with
white turbans, flowing raiment and
baggy trousers; the Abyssinian adven-
turer, who dresses as he pleases, much
as his brother, the Nubian, does-all
form singular contrast with the
quietly uniformed soldiers Of the reg
ular' force. On the eve of battle these
soldiers show different scene in camp
| from that which their antagonists pres
ent. Sitting cross-legged in front of
| their tents, which are but pieces OF
thin canvass stretched on cross sticks,
and are SO low that their occupants
have to enter them by crawling, they
assemble in groups and pass around
the chlhouque or narghileh, the bub-
bling sound of which, as the smoke
passes through the water. is almost the
only sound that is heard except the
neishing or the stamping of the horses
that are picketed by the heels behind
the camps irregular lines.
An officer gallops along and warns
them to be ready. They rise hastily
to their feet, crawl into their tents for
their weapons and hustle up together
before they finally fall into line. But
they do it all with very little noise. Il
| Is possible to find not noisy, but a
hilarious group; but this is generally
| where chosen few of the black faced
and laughter-loving faithful froln the
Soudan have surrounded story teller,
whose variations of the deeds of genii
or the merry tricks among mortals or
lesser supernatural worthless alternately
excite their deep-voiced wonder or
| their spontaneous, childhke mirth. A
| British soldier, seeing an Arab or
Egyptian camp. and noting the recum-
| bent position and stoical manner of
the majority Of its occupants, might
imagine that such people as these had
no energy for fighting, but he wauld be
egregiousiy mistaken. A French tray
eler, who recently clio ely observed the
| Egyptian army and all its incongruous
! elements OF pure fellaheen-Copts,
Berbers, Nubians, Western Christians,
Turks, Abyssinians and Soudanese,
come to this conclusion: They are
admirably trained, drilled and discip-
lined under the supervision of gu ex-
ceeding!y able staff of American and
other foreign officers, and the result Is
that "a finer looking soldier than an
Egyptian soldier can be seen nowhere"
Such is a brief sketch of the troops
that are now waiting" Arabs men
are strongly posted III the vicinity
Of Ramleh; but his strongest position
is on the morrow neck of land which
stretches from the Aboukir Lake to the
northern verge of Lake Moreotis. With
a broad country behind him, railroad
and plenty of water in the Mahmou-
dieh Canal, Arab Bey ought to be able
to make stubborn resistance to any
British force attempting to move along
| the neck and and drive him from his
position. A CONSPICUOUS feature of that
neck of land is that it is filled with
marshy ground, which will seriously
interfere with the free movements both
of British cavalry and artillery. The
ground Arab has chosen is, on the
contrary, firm enough to permit of
very effective maneuvering.