Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1885-02-12
THE FALLEN CITY.

Khartoum may be called the Gate Of
Central Africa. European civilization en-
tiers at one side of the city and African bar
barism comes in ct the other. Beyond
Khartoum from the north few tourists have
ever made their way, and beyond khar-
toum from the south few savages have ever
yentured. From the south the Nubian
sends his stores of ebony, ostrich feathers,
ivory, skins of animals and other products
of the equatorial lake district. while from
the north the trader carries grain, cotton
gum, Brummagm knickknacks and beads
to feed and clothe the "savages pouting at
the line" As the entrepot of tho products
of Central Africa, Khartoum is place OF
some commercial Importance. Among the
SO 900 people who make up it's population
there are many Greeks and Italians, while
two or three Americans here find profit
able investments in furnishing beads and
other trumpery to the savages from Kor.
dofan, Ell Obeid and Dafour. The traders
sell canned fruits, meats and vegetables
and make the Dongolowee howl through the
streets after taking some of their rakl as u
refresher. Arabs in their bournaises, Turks
with the traditional fez, Copts with their
bashe, and Birhareen Arabs with their
knotted and combined locks of hair, stand
ing up like quills of the porcupine, wander
through its irregular, narrow and badly
drained streets. 1t is no wonder that khar-
toum is unhealthy. When it rains, great
pools of stagnant water are formed, and
from these fevers are generated and the
deadly miasma does its work among the
people.
The street that borders the river side
looks down upon the water from au cleva
ton along which stately palm trees and
large gardens of citron and orange trees
stand. MANY neatly whitewashed buildings
stand along the river bank, and these are
relieved by the minarets and mosques which
give the place the air of city in Upper
Egypt, like Benisoocf or Roda ia large
way. There are, Of course, the character
istic mud houses, the tropical foliage, the
broad palms and the weeping domes, the
dedebahas hauled on the beach for repairs,
the bales of cotton heaped on the shore, the
sacks of gum, the tusks of ivory and the
stevedore population who brave crocodiles
for their paltry paras.
The palace of the Governor is an ugly
looking building facing the river, and the
helmeted and casqued negroes who form
the guard of honor are dressed in white
uniforms. There is good deal Of complex
scoundrelism in the city. 1t is the result Of
fifty years of the slave trade. This has
attracted the worst class Of the rogues who
live on the Levant. An army of men as
large as the army Of the United States is
engaged in capturing the negroes of the up
per Nile, and it is said that 10000 slaves,
worth about $50 head, yearly pass through
the tortuous thoroughfare of this gateway
city. The Turk, with his Mosem religion,
sees no great harm in the traffic, for he is
taught polygamy and the servitude of one
race to another. At Khartoum the harem
is regarded as Il sacred institution, as tbs:
Koran is the inspired law of The majority.
Even if tho mountain passes of Abyssinla
were sealed up, The seaports Of the Cape Of
Good Hope blockaded, and ali the outlets
of Central Africa harricade'i, yet il is be-
lieved that the same silent caravan swiil he
found starting over the deserts, ami the
same suspicious slave dealers sneakiDg
through Khartou:p across the Red Sea or
the Persian Gulf. For 400 milr- south of
Khar.oum the White Nile is covered with
rich cotton fields, which slope away from
the banks Of the river from live to fifty
miles into the interior. The resources of
the country are immense, and Khartoum is
destined to play an important part in the
development of the resources of Central
Africa