Dodge City times. [volume] (Dodge City, Kan.) 1876-1892, 1884-06-26
Scenes In Egypt.

Inc mucn-0reaQeO ordeal OF the kCQ
Sea, with the Arabian Sea as its pre-
face. and the railway journey across the
desert from Suez, have yielded to the
unique sights of Cairo. l need not say
that the Red Sea was tolerably warm.
When the thermometer dropped down to
s. degrees everybody was in the best of
spirits, and nobody complained when it
was only 50 degrees in the shade, of
course. When the people did begin to
complain. the officers pacified them by
calmly observing: ''Oh, this is de-
licious. Wait a couple OF months
longer, and maybe one or two persons
VIII die from excessive heat on the pas
sage. Bat even this trip was en- oy-
able compared with the eight hours of
agony on the railway trip between Suez
and Cairo. TO keep the carriage win
dows shut was to be nearly stiiled; to
keep them opened was to be deluged
with desert sand. 1t was not a genuine
sirocco that was prevailing, merely a
mild wind" said somebody familiar
with the ways of Egypt.
Most of the way one had to keep
ones eye shut while the train was in
motion, SO that they could not be glad
dened, in the midst of the universal
iesolation, by even glimpse of the
one feature of the landscape that was
pieasant-the ribbon of verdure along
the course OF the .'Sweet Water CANAL
The old bed of this canal. which may
have been constructed by the Pharaohs
has been wiiened and deepened and
somewhat extended, so that it irrigates
a large tract of country. 1t now runs
from the Nile at Cairo to Isrlailia, and
from there to Suez, parallel with the
ship canal. At Ismailia, on Lake
Timseh, are the "Pompe-a-feu'-steam-
pump works-which force supply of
this Nile water down to Port Said.
Forty-tive miles distant The water
looked very muddy from the car win
dows, but this is a country where peo-
pie have no right to be particular.
1smailia is literally an oas,s in the
desert. 1t contains some very decent
houses, a hotel, church, etc, where but
4 few years ago the hot sand drifted.
From Ismailia the train backed
a few miles and switched off on the
Cairo main line. Going from Suez to
Cairo by rail is like bounding three
sides of square in order to get to a
point separated only by the distance
along the remaining fourth side.
When the train stopped at depot it
usually stayed there for some time.
The Arab women all wore long wells
on their faces below the eyes. The
higher class wore white screens, and
the lower black ones. Men were hur-
riedly bidding each other good-by, and
as they did SO they exchanged kisses in
the most matter Of-fact way possible, first
on the one cheek and then on the other.
Everybody seemed to be smoking
cigarettes. Even the women pulled
away on them behind their long face
pieces. l noticed that the people
clasped hands but never ''shook
hands" After the bare contact each
person usually raised his hand to his
forehead or his breast, or both.
In Egypt, as in India and Utah,
water is king. The results achieved by
irrigation are nothing short of mirac-
ulous. The sand, which looks so utter
ly sterile, really contains considerable
admixture of calcareous loan, and
needs only the action of fresh water to
make it fertile. thus it is claimed be-
fore III, eastern outlets of the Nile
closed up the whole desert of Suez,
ninety miles broad, was like garden.
Now it is arid and ;nconceivably desc
late. Whatever is accomplished is ac-
complished through irrigation, since
IA MS are almost unknown.
From the car windows one could see
scores of different kinds of arrangements
for pouring the canal-water over the
fields, after we had emerged from the
desert. Usually they were worked by
an OK, which walked around in circle.
two men would sit over
sluiceway, with a bowl-shaped leather
vessel, to which ropes or straps were
attached. With a regular, rapid mo-
ton. this was dipped into the canals,
from which it scooped up two or three
gallons of water, and then swung up
over the sluice and emptied.
At Ismailia they have succeeded in
growing large, beautiful trees out on
the common sand, simply by having a
of fresh water run along the
roots.
About thirty miles out of Ismailia
was a beautiful little Enclosure, kept
charmingly green, and filled with plain
marble slabs and crosses. A graveled
walk, with uncertain young trees on
either side. led down to the depot, and
in a moment more were seen the words;
This now famous spot
where the battle took place is a little
from the railroad, but the
cemetery where the British slain were
buried is so close to the track that we
locked down upon it from the car win
dow. 1t is the only green spot in
the vicinity.-Cairo Cor. Philadelphia