Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1888-05-14

The Pasba's Two Shy Daughters--Sher-
bet and Sugar.
And now back came the turbaned peon,
inviting us to follow him to the house As
we approached the steps that led up to the
veranda we saw looking down upon us from
above tall, large framed man in complete
European costume, with the exception of the
fez that surmounted his gray head. There
was no need for me to ask who he was, for
his features bore a sufficiently close resem-
blance TO the countless portraits which made
all Europe familiar with that face only n
few years ago to enable me to recognize at
the first glance Arab Pasha himself
saluted him in French, which he speaks
fluently, like most Egyptian and Turkish
statesmen. But, somewhat to my surprise,
he answered me in English (probably wish
ing to show how quickly he had learned itl,
and in English our talk was thenccforth CON
Quoted. As he placed chair for Mrs. ker
he observed politely: ~ am very sorry to
have been so late in receiving you, but had
to say my prayers first" You We're quite
right answered |; 'pray, sit down" and we
all three seated ourselves in the front of the
veranda, at point which commanded n
full view of the garden.
During the conversation which followed
we Swere able to examine more closely tho
personal appearance of the man who had con-
centrated upon himself for brief space tho
attention of the whole world His complex
ion Especially where the cap had covered his
forehead) was surprisingly fair for an Egyp-
tian, tho color of the skin being not whit
darker than that of many an Englishman
after year or two in this burning climate.
His high stature and powerful frame i'm,
parted certain dignity to his appearance at
first sight which was marred on a closer in
spection by the nerveless limpness of all his
movements. The slight sternness given to
his eyes by the large, overhanging eyebrows
was utterly belied by the heavy plaeidity of
the lower face, broadening toward the jaw,
and framed in short thick, iron gray
beard To all outward appearance he might
have been an English trader a German
savant, a rich half caste anything, in short,
except what he really was. Neither in his
face, bearing, nor voice was there anything
to remind us that we were standing i'll the
presence of man who had once been the
hero of war, at whose bidding had been
lavished thousands of lives and millions of
treasure, and whose hand had clutched at
and well nigh seized the scepter of the
Pharaohs.
His appearance certainly gained nothing
by his adoption of that uncomely European
dress to which so many Orientals unaccOunt-
ably sacrificed their own picturesque and
graceful garb, always losing incidentally by
the exchange. The pasha's costume consisted
of loose morning coat of light gray, whito
vest and shirt, fawn colored trousers, white
stockings, and black leather shoes with
rosettes His cuffs were fastened with 'cats-
eye" sleeve buttons, and on his right hand he
wore IA large gold ring set with fine moon
stone. But although no fault could be found
with the clothes themselves, they We're mani
festly out of keeping with the man who wore
them. "rm very glad to see your garden
looking SO fresh and greon," said |, as we
seated ourselves, for it must be very hot
here lust now" "Plonty hot answered
Arab "but much rain, too This last week
we have rain every day-plenty rain" 80
had we in the Indian ocean, and very tired
of it we were. However, it keeps the trees
and shrubs fresh, if it does nothing else
Those are very pretty leaves that you've got
growing there along the front of the YER
anda" YES very nice" assented the
pasha. "Wait, pick you some" And in a
trce he had filed Mrs. Kers hands with
splendidly marked croton leaves one of
which had twisted itself so closely and
strongly into spiral coil that it was Ito easy
matter to straighten it out "Strange leaf
JlaU, Stlu AIabl, IOlHJlup Oo IL WIFI lllb
nearest approach to laugh of which an
Egyptian is capable. "He look just like
hair. See how he twist round"
Just at that moment we caught sight of
the dusky faces and sparkling eyes of two
tiny girls (probably the pasha's children by
Cingalese wives who were peeping at us
from behind the screen of mating that
masked the doorway leading from the yer.
anda into the house. Both seemed rather
shy of us just at first, but after little recon.
the elder of the two (for tho |
could not be persuaded to approach! |
came forward and made friends with MS
readily enough. l twined one of the crOton |
leaves around her black hair in kind of |
fllet, and the little woman seemed consider |
ably amused at her new decoration. "They |
rather frightened of stranger" observed the |
pasha with Il smile, land yet they see plenty |
of them" "Yes; suppose you have a good |
many visitors here" Eyes; whenever ship |
come in, great many people come to see me |
This morning plenty come; plenty lady |
come, too
Not single allusion did Arab make to |
tue events which have connected his name |
so inseparably with the history of Egypt |
and we naturally shrank from touching upon
q subject which must necessarily be sore
one to him. On other points he was moro
expressing freely enough his
iscontent with the climate of Colombo,
which had proved far too damp for his
health after the proverbial dryness of East
Africa and had already inflicted upon him
L chronic rheumatism, as was abundantly
,vident from his stiff and painful movements.
lie also told us that one of his sons-whom
We aftcrward met in the course of an after |
noon drive-was living not far from him,
put that the rest of his children were in Egypt. |
We all rose to take our leave, but our de-
oarture was delayed for few moments by
he sudden appearance of native servant
)earng a small silver tray, on which stood
our tall tumblers filed to the brim with
emon sherbet sweetened with Egyptian
ugar. The ladies contented themselves with
ipping the mixture, which did not seem
much to their taste; but the doctor and l
Trained our tumblers to the last drop, greatly
o the satisfaction of Arab himself, who APP
,eared pleased when l reminded him that the
ugar of Egypt has the name of being the
weetest in the world.-David Ker's Ceylon
4etter in New York Times