The Dickinson press., 1889-08-31
OLD EGYPT MODERNlZI:D.
TELEPHONE TO THE SPHINX AND
HOTEL AT THE PYRAMIDS.


The Ancient City Of Cairo Now Winter
|. Resort for Europcans-Thc Inventions
Of Modern Science Introduced Cursed
by Oppressive Taxation.
Modern civilization is making rapid
strides in the land of Egypt, The young
giant of the west, whose itching palm is
reachingo out toward Japan, China, Corca
and the lands of south ASIA has already
strong grip on this birthplace of his
tory. and tho Egypt of the past has days
that are numbered. Alexandria has long
since arisen from the ashes of the bonn
bardmcnt of seven years ago, and it is
now the size of Cleveland OF Washing.
ton. Its buildings are European rather
than Arabic, and its streets have French
names. Cairo, the city of Arabian
nights, is fast becoming a city of Partisan
nights, and the NIohammcdan call 10
prayer is mingled with the bacchanalan
songs of the cafe chantants, Modern
science is pulling the mummics from the
pyramids. A telephone limo runs almost
to the very car of the Sphinx, and the
old lady is being pulled from tho sand
by modern iron cars made in Europe.
There is hotel at the base of the Pyra,
mid Of Cheops in which English men and
women drink brandy and soda, and the
spirit of the Nineteenth century, with
some of its virtues and all of its vices, is
breathing new life into the land of the
| Pharohs.
Cairo is becoming Il winter residence
| city, and it has hundreds of mansions
which would do credit to New York or
Paris Real estate has rapidly risen in
value, and the land upon which the baby
Moses lay i'll the bulrushcs is now worth
biz price per square foot. When vis-
tied Cairo about eight years ago the don
key Was the chief hackney cab of the
foreigner, and men, women and children
went sight seeing on long cared beasts,
with donkey boys in blue gowns follow
ing behind and punching up the animals
by pokns sharp sticks into patches of
bare flesh as big as u dollar, each of
which had been denuded of skin for the
| purpose.
Tho hotels had Egyptian servants in
turbans and gowns and you called your
boy toyour room by clapping your hands.
Now the lshmaclitish hack driver has
taken the town, and though he wears
tcz cap his dress is European AMI his
check is as hard as that of an American
cabby. Tho donkey boys, though they
are as bright as ever, have lost their mo.
nopoly, and their customers are confined
to foreign men and to the natives In
side tho walls of Shcpheard's hotel,
where l am stopping, YOU are rs far
from old Egypt as you would be in the
Grand hotel at Paris The servants are
French, speaking Swiss. in black swal-
low tail coats. The chambers have cleo
trio bells, and tho 81 day which yo,l
pay for your board does not include either
candles .g soap
The whole Of the soil Of Egypt has been
brought down from the mountains of
Abys.in;a by tho Nile 1t il, nowhere
more than fifty feet deep and its average
depth is about thirty-lvo feet. Under
this soil is found the sand. The Nile
waters it rs we'll as fcrtilizcs it, for there
is no rain TO speak Of in Egypt. The
country is flat Here at Cairo you can
see for miles in every direction, and
standing on tho great Pyramid the val
ley Of the Nile is spread out below you
in great patchwork Of different shades
OF green. There are no fences and few
trees Here and there Il grove of tail
palm raise their fan like heads high up
in the clear blue atmosphere, and near
them you sec a village of mud huts made
Of the same sun dried sticks that Pharaoh
ground out of the children of Israel This
great plain is cut UP by canals; roads rlln
hero and there through it, and along
these move caravans of camcl5, of Egvp-
tians in gowns upon donlicys and of
drovcs of donkcys laden with grass or
grain There are cattle and sheep by the
thousand upon the field, and their fat
sides glistcl. uudcr tho tropical sun as
they MUNICH the sweetest and jucicst Of
clover. The air just now is as pure as
that of Denver. All nature seems to
smile, and the only poor thing upon the
scene is man
Out of the six and a half million people
of Egypt, fully six million are peasant,
| They arc known as "icilails." 'lhcy are
the tillcrs of the soil and they arc the
people who do tho work, and make the
money which pays the immense yearly
debt Of Egypt. These "fcIlahs" are the
ancient Egyptians. They have been OPP
pressed throughout the ages until they
have no spirit left in them, and they are
happy if thes oan goo enough to keep
themselves alive, You see their mud
villages everywhere, and they slave from
morning until night in the fields, Their
houses are rarely moro than ten feet
high and often not more than eight feet
square. In an Egyptian village the
houses are built close together. There
crn Improvements Of any kind, The
furniture Of each house consists of a few
mats, a shecpskin, q copper kettle and
some carthenware pots. The bed of the
family is n ledge Of mud built in the
side Of the room. There are no Win
dows, and tho cooking is usually done
out of doors in Il little carthcn pot-like
stoYo.
The fuel is of dried COW, camel or buf-
falo manure, and the food Of the family
is a mixture of sorghum seed, millet and
beans ground up into flour and baked
into sort Of big, round, flat cake. a
large part of the food Of the fcllahccn
consists of greens, and ! watched ono
eating turnip. He began at the tip of
the root and alto the raw, indigcstible
vegetable TO inc Iery end ol the green,
leaving not visagc Of it. have seen
them eating clover, and an, tod that
they seldom have any meat. Out of the
milk of tho buffalo and COW they make
sort of a curd like cheese, which is ex
tcnsive!y used. They use no knives
forks or spoons, and at supp,r they have,
il addition TO their vegetable, :. aatla-
Of onions and butter, into which tlrs dip
pieces of bread and eat it.-tranli Car
penter's Cairo Letter in Tie New York
World