Phillipsburg herald. [volume] (Phillipsburg, Kan.) 1882-1905, 1883-04-05
cleaning the Egyptian Canals.


Cleansing the8, 600 miles Of frest,-water
canals that at present exist in Eprvnt is /,
Re1t to the Intimidation of the Nile. the
annual event upon which hangs the sue
cess s. failure of the crops. From the
PharoaS5 10 the Khedi7e, canal 1re,lOi{Isy
has been the special and anxious care .of
the Government, and, for over five
thousand years. no Egyptian ruler has
yet been able to get this work done with
out reSorting to forced labor. a few
philanthropists have recently remon-
strated with Isnan Pasha and the present
Khediye for compelling the. reluctant
fe1lah to work; but whenever their pocI-
cts are touched Europeans have been
most jealous 10 urge and encourage the
most brutal application of EGYPTIAN
. forced labor. For instance, Ismail Pasha
had to pay SIS, 100000 in order to secure
/ Ne. de. Lesseps consent to abolish that
shameful clause in the Suez3 Canal CON
tract which forced twenty thousand fella-
rheen to be dragged every month in chains
from their own fields to toll at NJ. de,
Lesseps' canal, which has been. the alpha
and omega of all fhe plagdes that have
befallen Egypt for the last fifteen years.
The present Khedive has done away
with forced labor, except for the work Of
cleaning out the canals and strengthen
ing the embankments of the Nile, and
the larger canals when there is danger of
flood, and these exceptions are absO-
lute1y necessary to preserve the existence
of Egypt. The Nile begins to subside ia
October andabegins to rise in June. The
work OF cleaning out. the canals begins in
February, when the water is very low.
'boI, Il T
the Ismailia Canal, about. ten miles from
Cairo, where about thousand labor
ers were hard at work clean
ing the canal. What I saw was
a fair specimen of forced labor as
it exists to-day in Egypt. ikEoored near
the bank Of the canal, which is $50 feet
wide, q large steam dredging machine
was throwing up a continuous stream of
vile mud upon the tOw-path of the canal.
About athree. hundred fellaheen-both
men, and wonlen-Were 'squatting down
on their launches, scOopihg up the mud
thrown up by the dredging machines and
werethrowing it into round two handled,
flexible baskets. About seven hundred
young boys and girls were carrying these
baskets full of mud on their heads and
'duIaping" down their contents behind
the canal embankment, about two hun
bred yards distant. A Greek engineer
was uperintending the whole work, and
about twenty or thirty Qverseers-ex-
| perienced fellaheen, about forty years of
age--were walking about promiscuously,
seeing that nobody was lazy. These
oyereers wore brown wooden fezes and
long blue cotton shirts, and were, bare
footed. Each oyerseer had in his hand
shOrt stick, to the end of which was
nailed along fat leather strap that might
| have served IN better days as a trunk
strap. These fiat straps are merciful
| substitute for the. famous cOatrbasb-an
oileG strip of hippopotamus hide about
eigha feet long and twisted and stitfened
with fine brass wire. These fiat straps
would occasionally come down with a
loud "whack' upon the back of some
| luck less backslider, but as a rule there
was no undue cruelty. The laborers
| themselves were taken from the neigh.
boring villages by requisition upon the
respective shelks-el-beled to provide so
many hands, They sleep in their village
! and at0sJIhrise say their prayers. and eat
a large pot of beans, garlic and oil. They
! then commence scOoping mud imme-
/ diately afterward, and work away until
noOn.1 They then pray again and receive
from the Government a large, round,
fiat loaf of bread I have frequently
seen young boys of ten or twelve years
old working away in thesun quite naked.
Such is the system ef forced labor as at
present applied in Egypt, and to intro
.duce any modification into it would be a
very dangerous experiment, and it has
the merit of rewardipg fair days work
with a fair days wages. Cairo Cor
! London NeUs. ~ 90
! ------- = = 49,: .---'i