The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1885-04-20

feet. but less formidable than the noisy
pack OF Arab knaves who surround Us
Tine Bheik Is there. always wanted y
see q Bhelk. Here he ID, tail, spare, gray
bearded, his face reminding me 30 much
OF dear old friend OF my boyhood, one
of the Veterans Of the Vest Virginia Con:
ference, that I Qsk II his name Is not
Gideon.
Four men are deployed to each of uss,
one for each hand TO pull and two TO push,
and boost from behind. II was hard
work, but not to BIO compared 70 climbing
Vesuvlus. was sorry ] accepted help
from the Arabs and glada as well. DID
want to indulge an American procliyity
and Drag that l had done italone: But
judging from the pains and acheS in my
muscles and joints since, and forming an
estimate Of what might have been had l
declined their aid, 1 am glad accepted.
ON roroF cIIEors.
Two hundred and fifty steps, four hum
dred and seven feet surmountet anu We
are at the top. We listen to the cry for
"backshecsh" from the Arabs, eatoranges,
read names OF tourists .desecrating' the
ancient stones, look through our glass
over the sands towards Memphis and the
Sahara group Of pyramids, then across the
rich fertile fields lying between ne and
Cairo, again to turn our gaze out over the
ocean OF yellow sand which stretches, We
are told, three months journey into the
West, then down upon tue Spbynx which
reaches away forty centuries into the past.
What next? Well, we had read Mark
Twain and seen his picture OF an Arab in
flying Heaps bounding down Cheops and
up another pyramid In q jiay OF time, so
we paid a man who waits ready to risk his
bones for our amusement. We were dis.
gusted; the investment was dead ioEs.
He did go down one pyramid and up an
other in eleven minutes, but not as the
picture in Marks books portrays him. l
venture to say that could do it myself
with little practice-and time. Ibid try
it until | brought up with sprained ankle.
OF course we entered the pyramid,
scrambled down an inclined slippery pas
sage, four feet high, into its bowels; then
crawled up until we found ourselves in
rectangular chamber abont 25xl2 IA rough
guess, in which vas an empty sarcopha-
gus oncocontainlng the mummied Pharaoh
Cheops. Then We came out OF the dread
full pluee, humping my Uranium against
the roof Of tho passage as severely as
sprained my ankle on the outside. l
might remark that all the way down and
around the pyramid, into the chamber OF
the sarCophagus aud ont again, our ears
were continually suluted by the din OF
'backsheesh, "backshecsh." Welunched
alongside the sphynx, under "the shadow
OF 3 great rock iii weary land" IL
climbed up as near tho car as could, at
the risk of my neck, simply because some.
body else had done SO. After this feat we
found hole in the sand, one
hundred feet deep Tor lesa), rock.bound,
once tomb. An Arab climbed
down, but we moved on before his cry for
"backsheesh" assembled fromthedepths. |
won't attempt to describe the mammoth
slabs and blocks OF granite and alabaster
seen in tho walls aud chambers oil the
Sphinx temple-enough to say--they were
immense, we measured them with our
said, Oh, my! wonderful! how
did they ever get them here just as tour
Ists do. 1won't picture how we sat on a
stone fence, eating oranges and posting
Dur account book, while the driver and
iragoman mended a broken carriage; nor
how we found the bridge over the Nile
opened TO boats but closed to carriages,
us to cross in ferry to finish
Dur return journey on donkey's back; l
illsimply say we reached the hotel, tired,
dusty, hungry and immensely pleased.
1suppose fought to write Continued
IN tnr next, for should like to describe
our donkey rido to Heliopolis, our visit to
IN ostrich farm, and tho cypress tree under
which the Holy Family rested while in
Egypt (?) and other Interesting scenes
md events OF those twelve hours Of sun
,hine in Cairo. ]. SuMNEn STONE.