Smyrna times., 1889-08-28

The Ancient City OF Cairo Now winter
Resort for Europeans-The 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
reaching out toward Japan, China, COrea
and the lands of south Asia, has already
a strong grip on this birthplace of his
tory, and the Egypt of the past has days
that are numbered. Alexandria has long
since arisen from the ashes of the bonn
bardment Of seven years ago, and it is
now the size of Cleveland or Washing
ton. Its buildings are European rather
than Arabic, and it's streets have French
names. Cairo, the city of Arabian
nights, is fast becoming city of Partisan
nights, and the Mohammedan call to
prayer is mingled with the bacchanalian
songs of the cafe chantants Modern
science is pulling the mummies from the
pyramids. A telephone line runs almost
to the very ear of the Sphinx, and the
old lady is being pulled from the sand
by modern iron cars made in Europe
There is a 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
PharaOhs.
Cairo is becoming 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 in the bulrushes is now worth
a big price per square foot. When Wis
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 polling sharp sticks into patches of
bare flesh as big as q dollar, each of
which had been denuded of skin for the
purpose.
The hotels had Egyptian servants in
turbans and gowns, and you called your
boy to your room by clapping your hands
Now the Ishmaelitish hack driver has
taken the town, and though he wears q
fez cap his dress is European ana his
cheek is as hard as that of an American
cabby. The 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 the walls of Shepherds hotel,
where l am stopping, you are as 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 the 81 day which you
pay for your board does not include either
candles &c soap.
The whole of the soil of Egypt has been
brought down from the mountains of
Abyssinia by the Nile. It is nowhere
more than fifty feet deep and its average
depth is about thirty-iive feet. Under
this soil is found the sand The Nile
waters it as well as fertilizes it, for there
is no rain to speak Of in Egypt. The
country is fiat. Here at Cairo you can
see for miles in every direction. and
standing on the 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 a grove of tall
palm raise their fan like heads high up
in the clear blue atmosphere, and near
them you see 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 run
here and there through it, and along
these move caravans Of camels, of Egyp-
tians in gowns upon donkeys and of
droves Of donkeys laden with grass or
grain. There are cattle and sheep by the
thousand upon the field, and their fat
sides glisten under the tropical sun as
they MUNICH the sweetest and iuciest 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 half million people
of Egypt, fully six million are peasants
They are known as "fellahs." They are
the tillers of the soil and they are the
people who do the work, and make the
money which pays the immense yearly
debt of Egypt. These "fellahs' are the
ancient Egyptians. They have been op-
pressed throughout the ages until they
have no spirit left in them, and they are
happy if they can get 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 more than ten feet
high and often not more than eight feet
square. In an Egyptian village the
houses are built close together. There
are no pavements, gas lamps, nor mod
ern improvements of any kind. The
furniture Of each house consists Of a few
mats, sheepskin, a copper kettle and
some earthenware pots. The bed of the
family is a ledge of mud built in the
side Of the room. There are no VIM
dows, and the cooking is usually done
out Of doors in little earthen pot-like
stove.
The fuel is of dried COW, camel or buff
falo manure, and the food of the family
is mixture of sorghum seed, millet and
beans ground up into flour and baked
into a sort of big, round, fiat cake. A
large part of the food Of the fellaheen
consists of greens, and l watched one
eating a turnip. He began at the tip of
the root and ate the raw, indigestible
vegetable to the very end of the green,
leaving not visage Of it. l have seen
them eating clover, and am told that
they seldom have any meat. Out Of the
milk of the buffalo and COW they make
a sort of a curd like cheese, which is ex-
tensively used. They use no knives,
forks or spoons, and at supper they have,
in addition to their vegetables, sauce
of onions and butter, into which they dip
pieces of bread and eat it.-Frank Car