Springfield globe-republic. (Springfield, Ohio) 1884-1887, 1885-03-03
KHARTOUM.
The Gateway of Central ifriCa--The
Metropolis of the slave Dealers.

The Gateway of Central Africa--The
Metropolis of the Slave Dealers.
Khartoum may be called the gate of
Central Africa. European civilization
enters at one side of the city and
African barbarism comes in at the
other. Beyond khartoum from the
north few tourists have ever made their
way. and beyond Khartoum from the
south few savages have ever ventured.
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, Brummagih knicknacEs
and beads to feed and clothe the
''savages pouting at the line. As the
sntrepot of the products of Central
Africa khartoum Is a place of some
commercial Importance. Among the
S6, 600 people who make up its popula-
ton there are many Greeks and ltal-
here find profitable investments in fur
nishing beads and other trumPery to
the savages of Kordofan, +! Obeid and
Darfour. The traders sell canned
fruits, meats and vegetables and make
the Bongolowee howl through the
streets after taking some OF their raki
as a refreshcr. Arabs in their bour-
naises, Turks with their traditional feZ,
Copts with their bashe, aad Birhareen
Arabs with their knOtted and combined
locks of hair, standing up like quilts 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 fcvers are gen.
Grated and the deadly miasma does its
work among the people.
The street that borders the river side
looks down upon the water from an
elevation 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 Benisooef or Roda in Il large
way. There are, of course, the char
acteristic mud houses, the tropical foli-
age, 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 dress
ed in white uniforms. There is a good
deal of complex scoundreliSm in the
city. 1t is result OF fifty Years of
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 Upper Nile, and it is said that $780,
600 slaves, worth about 500 a head,
yearly pass through the gateway city.
The Turk, with his Moslem 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 a sacred insti-
tuition, as the Koran is the inspired law
Of the majority. Even if the mountain
passes of Abyssinia were sealed up. the
seaports of the Cape OF Good Hope
blockaded and all the outlets of Central
Africa barricaded,yet it is believed that
the same silent caravans will be found
starting over the deserts, and the
same suspicious slave-dealerS sneaking
through Khartoum across the Red as1a
or the Persian Gulf. For 400 miles
south of Khartoum the White Nile is
covered with rich cotton fields, which
slope away from the banks of the river
from five to fifty miles into the interior.
The resources of the country are i'm
mense, and Khartoum is destined to
play an important part in the develop
ment of the resources of Central Africa
NeIy YOrL Wori4