The Forest Republican. [volume] (Tionesta, Pa.) 1869-1952, 1884-06-18
THE CITY OF KHARTOUM.
A DEsoRTPTroN or THE METRoPo.
LIS OF THE souDAN.

/
ofgovernment of the Egyptian Soudan.
1t is situated on the peninsula formed by
the junction of the White Nile and the
Blue Nile, and has q population of about
/ 10000 in times of peace. Emphatically
is Khartoum city of the desert, for
waste OF sand encompasses it on all sides
as far as the eye can see. Though tho
desert is healthy enough, the town itself
has bad sanitary reputation; part of it
lies so low that after an inundation pools
of water stagnate without any attempt at
| drainage, until the seeds of fever and pcs
thence are sown far and wide.
Viewed from distance Khartoum an.
pears very picturesque, with its shining
river stately government buildings and
towering minaret, but a closer inspection
dispels all the romance about il and sa-
lutes the nose with a multitude of odors.
Narrow and dusty lanes wind around be-
tween high walls, which are occasionally
broken by door or gateway. The houses
are mostly bare huts, one story high,
with flat roofs, and they are built of dark
Nile mud or of sun-baked bricks. The
more substantial buildings are occupied
by the government or the European resi-
dents. The palace of the governor-gen
eral of the Soudan is pleasantly situated
on the banks of the Blue Nile, and is an
extensive edifice, faced with stone, and
backed by a large garden. Khartoum
has also many smaller gardens of date
palms, orange and citron trees, pome-
granates, grapevines and prickly-pears;
and round about the place NAV be seen
the two methods of irrigation that have
Nf II
the Nile: the shadoof, pole weighted
at one end with stones, and at the other
with bucketful of water, to be raised
by manual labor, and the sakiyeh, huge
wheel with water-pots on its circumfer-
ence, turned day and night by oxen, and
creaking and groaning so awfully as to
make sleep impossible to any one who
has not heard it all his life.
The inhabitants of Khartoum are
Arabs, Egyptians Turks, Copts, Syrians,
Greeks and Armenians beside a few
Italian, German and French traders, Eu-
ropean consuls, officers and missionaries.
The appearance of the street is as diver
sitied as in most oriental towns; brown
Arab girls show their bare arms and feet,
with silver anklets and blue skirts, while
balancing jars of water on their heads;
untamed Bedouins of the desert stalk
about in their dirty white drapery; the
soldiers of the Soudan set off their inky
skin with white uniform; gray.bearded
Turks play chess or backgammon all the
day long before their doors; hardened old
slave-dealers clothe their wickedness in
white turban and roses; half-nalIed peas
ants go to and from market with melons
on their heads; and fat negresses wallow
In the mud of the Nile, under pretence
of bathing, like hippopotami. Ram
bling bazaars in covered and uncovered
streets display for sale an odd mixture of
fish, flesh, fowl, vegetables, European
goods and oriental trifles, subtle scent
pervading the whole. The people of
Khartoum support winter temperature
of eighty degrees, and a summer tenn
perature of 100 degrees, and this hot eli
mate may furnish some excuse for their
almost phenomenal laziness. One trav-
eler says their chief occupation seems to
be to lie on their backs in the shade and
kill flies, and the children in the schools
have not even energy enough to brush
away the flies, which may be seen feast
ing around their eyes in two black rings.
The importance of Khartoum is due
entirely to its trade, for it is the COM
mercial center of the vast Soudan, or
! Country of the Blacks. All the native
products of the heart of Africa, ivory,
hides, senna, gum Arabic, ebony, ostrich
feathers, come here in caravans and are
exchanged for European goods or money.
From Khartoum they are transported by
boat and caravan to Cairo and Lower
Egypt, and though railroad has been
planned direct to Khartoum, it will con-
tinue to be dream of the future, until
Egyptian finances are in a more satisfac-
tory condition. The merchants of Khar
toum do not want for legitimate business,
but they have often shown a marked
preference for the traffic in slaves. They
send into the interior an expedition of
two or three hundred men, armed to the
teeth and carrying few hundred pounds
OF glass beads to bribe the natives with.
This expedition is received with open
arms by some black chief, who forthwith
aspires to conquer his neighbors with the
help OF his civilized friends. An attack
IS made upon the nearest village; an hour
before dawn the thatched roofs are fired
and while the men are shot down by
the light of their burning homes, the
women and children are taken captive
and marched off slaves. The cattle found
around the village are exchanged for the
friendly chiefs ivory, but disputes be-
tween the traders and their host usually
result in the killing of the latter and the
enslavement of his subjects. A settle
ment is then permanently established in
the black country, when once a year
caravan with ivory and slaves wends its
way to Khartoum. This iniquitous deal
ings in human flesh has long been hid
eous blot upon Khartoum and that it is
no longer carried on so openly as of old,
civilization owes to the persistent energy
OF Sir Samuel Baker and General Gordon.
The Soudan provinces were annexed to
Egypt more than half century ago.
Mehemet Ali founded Khartoum as a
means of civilizing Central Africa, but it
rapidly degenerated into a slave market,
I md 10 Il Ia II 4. II