River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1882-07-27

anu CdIldlSs Uulil dIlSla DUui6NAIus
in Cairo, and squandered vast sums
upon his palaces, his harem, his gar
dens and opera houses. His palaces,
built by European architects- all added
to the burdens of the people. He made
| Cairo and Alexandria semi European
| cities, and to induce foreigners to
build there, he gave Europeans land tc
build upon. The population of Egypt
| proper is about 100000 and four
fifths of the people are fellaheen, who
are peasants of the lowest class,
scarcely remove above slavery-igno-
rant, superstitious, fanatical, degraded
| Under the system of forced labor which
is one of the ancient institutions oil
Egypt, when the khedive wants q
railroad built, or canal dug, or work
done on his lands, he sends out an or.
der for the requisite number of mer
to do it; and they work slave-like from
morning till night, without pay and
without food. They are obliged to be
| fed by their wives and children and
parents or starve. 1t is by this con.
| scripted labor that all the improvements
of modern Egypt were made. Every
| European idea that has seized upon q
| kbedive has taken so much unrequit-
ed toll out of the muscles and bones of
these unclothed and only half fed fella-
heen. Some of them have land; but
one-fifth of all the land of Egypt proper
belongs to khediye, and the tax upon
the rest of the land amounts to about
So an acre, with an additional tax on
every fruitbearing tree. The govern
ment, not content with taking por-
ton, stops all. When the tax-gatherer
enters q village he is received with
horror. If an unfortunate holder Of
anything happens to be unable to pay
the tax, he is beaten until he dies, un.
less his neighbors club together and
make up the deficiency. And the
biggest part of the tax goes to pay the
interest on the national debt of over
$4oO, 000,0 contracted very largely
for European improvements and lux
uries for the rulers.
Ishmael soon become unable to pay
even the interest on his colossal debt
Creditors became clamorous and ruin
stared him in the face. In this dilema
he readily entered into an agreement
with France and England, whose citi.
zens were the owners of the debt. Ar
arrangement was made for refunding
it, and in order to secure the bond
holders, two comptrollers of finance
one selected by France ano one by Eng
land, were appointed 10 regulate the
levy of taxes and see that the revenue
was properly applied. In other words,
Egypt being in debt, and having nc
means of keeping herself, was run by
| foreign office holders, representing the
creditors. The administration of the
government passed under control of
foreigners. Europeans were quar-
tered in the most of the public offices
| at large salaries, and their chief object
was to see that taxes sufficient to pay
the interest to the bondholders and
their own salaries were levied and col
lected. 1t is not strange that under
these circumstances the people grew
FESTIVE. The natural feeling of hostil-
ity to the foreigners was intensified by
| the Moslem hatred of the infieel.
On account of these financial
troubles, Ishmael abdicated on the 29th
of June, 1879, and was succeeded by
his son Tewfk, the present kLedive.
L
his father, but is an Legitimate son by
a slave. He became khedive en-
tirely through English and
French connivance, because they
thought him but half-witte d
and easily managed. AS might have
been expected, the financial condition
of Egypt has not improved under Tew-
fix, and the country is still overrun by
foreign office-holders, who take charge
of the public pocket book. The popu-
lar revolt against this state of affairs ia
led by Arab Pasha, the Egyptian min
lister OF war, who has suddenly sprung
into prominence, and seems to be a
much stronger man than the khediye.
A little more than year ago, Arab
was only colonel in the Egyptian
army, but he has been so aggressive,
and the khedive so correspondingly
weak, that he has greater power than
any other man in Egypt. He is the
leader of the rebellion which is stronger
than the. government. He has the
army at his back, and is SO determin-
ed, that nothing but foreign interven-
ton, will restrain him. He is the head
of the party which desires to wrest the
government from the hands of its cred
itors, and the khedive, who is sub
servient to England and other foreign
powers, is powerless before him. 1t
has been stated in recent dispatches
that the trouble was on occount of the
Suez canal, but this is wholly erroneous.
Arab Pasha has threatened to
obstruct this important waterway as a
retaliatory measure, but any trouble
with the Suez canal will be only an in
cident of the Egyptian complications
The Panic At Alexandria.
On the news reaching Alexandria a
scene of the widest panic took place.
Men and women rushed to the boarse,
the hotels, and other places where tel
egrams were posted, and fought for the
front places to read the news. Calm
and sedate merchants, who have with
stood the sudden and rainous fall OF
Egyptian stock without winking or
turning hair, rushed home and told
their wives to pack up themselves and
children and get on board steamers
bound for Europe. Every vessel in
the harbor was crowded, from the state
ly argosies of the Peninsular and ORR.
entail, and the. Messageries Maritimes,
to the hogshaped collier. The demon
panic reigned supreme. So great was
the scare that an English lady, Mrs.
Allen, who had recently been confined,
although in very weak and critical
state and quite unfit to be moved or al
armed, was carried on board steamer
and sent off with her infant. Ladies
wrote each other the most alarming
letters, calling meetings to consult for
the common safety, and yet these good
people if they had only calmly thought
out their position, could not have fail
ed to see the extreme unlikelihood OF
the much feared soldiers really embark
ing on career of rapine and pillage.
Alexandria has population of near
~ 100000, the adult male European
population numbering some sixty
thousand, all armed and accustomed to
use arms. No Egyptian troops could
have stood an hour before the Europe
ans and vet tho attitude of fhe